Show DISCOURSE VoN vered by elder franklin D R kich ch ards ardo at the tabernacle salt lake cuy during the general conference sunday morning april 3rd ard 1892 my beloved hearers bearers I 1 am most moat aoe deeply ply sensible of the folly of man undertaking ander taking to instruct and to edify foods people except he be filled with L the e words of life and faith and is I 1 in a d aired by the holy ghost sent down from heaven there has been pre 1 seated sainted to us a general review of the of the work of god fn an the g th at the present time by which we Z reminded deJ of very many reasons i we awe have for gratitude to our heavenly ahre father for his manifold mercies cIes unto ag as I 1 think a realizing sense of his goodness and our own is ivory necessary for us to entertain in order that we may possess that meek new of spirit and that brokenness of heart by which the spirit shall be ible able to dwell freely and abundantly 1 giffith us there is a principle which to is the very tue aft and growth and existence of gods pop ti eople ae which to is entertained by his emiles everywhere and against which the whole world rises up in decided opposition I 1 tion that IP if the principle of nt and continued revelation without I 1 out this no saint can grow and Jo crease in the knowledge of god without phout this the great latter day work bibat h has as attained its present proportion would 0 au ul d never have reached such a position it is in the life and vitality of gods god A people ae to have the ministrations of the ja moly ghost which takes of the things of god d and shows them unto mankind without out them men have been left to ablon on a great many f forms of religion alving g as the scriptures said they bould id have the form of godliness the power thereof As the esy may look nice and lovely even in bemb it is impotent and goes back to mother bother earth except the spirit vital in it rives gives it A life and animation fills ft with its hoan and desires 1 when we go 90 forth to the human jamily we are confronted with this opt eltion at once it is said to us that tere biere is to be no more revelation and they try to make us tie believe that there be no more why it is contrary to the spirit that all the prophets have entertained when imen an rose up in ancient israel and he be pu to prophesy some of the holy folks went to moses and said so and so lp is prophesy rop cesyl g what was his bis answer says y he would to god that au the lord lords lordis Is people were prophets M that has been the sense of every true enlightened prophet of god upon the earth it is according promise which peter set forth at pentecost as had been declared by the prophet joel that in the last days he would pour out his spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy your young men shall see visions ana your youir old men shall dream dreams 11 1 1 let me remind you my brethren and sisters that we live in the dawning of that day and it to is not only our privilege but a duty we owe to ourselves to gods people and to the honest in heart throughout the world who have not heard beard the gospel that we should nourish and cultivate this spirit of revelation within us constantly st it is the work of the holy spirit to quicken our spirits if weare we are washed from our sins and live holy before god and in the working of that spirit which is unto the sanctifying sanctify ing ot ol our bodies and our spirits we become filled with that light which Is to grow and ought to grow brighter and bi righter brighter until the perfect day As an we live lire in a period of time when troubles judgments and sorrows unspeakable are to be poured out upon the ungodly and the righteous righted us can only escape by their faith and by standing io in holy places without being moved it becomes ev everyone that professes the name of jesus that they should cultivate this spirit within them continually ye receive the spirit says the lord to ui in the latter days by the prayer of faith so then we ought with constant prayer diligence and devotion to kindle continually the fire on the altar of our hearts by the faithful keeping of his commandments and living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of god so that this may continue to warm and erA enlighten lighten our minds that we may become baptized by the holy spirit and by the fire of the lord 0 but they tell us when we talk of these things that the scriptures say we must not have any more revelation by their ignorance and misti uder standings they wrest the scriptures Scripture snot not knowing the gospel nor the power of god they say it is given in the last chapter of revelations if any man shall ball add unto these things god shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy god shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in tois this book ay 9 very true so it is and so it will be the prophet moses left it o on oa n record in deuteronomy that there should be nothing added to that law which was given unto them it to is written twice in deuteronomy yo ye shall not add unto the word which I 1 command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it suppose meant there should be no more revelation what are you going to do with these great cies of isaiah of jeremiah of ezekiel of daniel and all the holy prophets that came after it if that was a perpetual injunction against further revelation how could the savior come in contravention of this law that he had given to moses and declare his whole system of salvation to us which was from before the foundation of the world originated in the eternities to bring life and immortality to light ana lead us if we will be led by it unto the eternity that shall come after the angel shall declare that time shall be no DO longer he had reference only to that book they had no business to add to that law jaw the prophets never believed the church of god never realized that there was any restraint upon the spirit of revelation but they held m we hold that without it there was no life no god and this saying of the apostle in revelations means adding to that book of revelations the people for a long time had many different books or rather manu scripts till they were gathered up and put together paul did not understand that all these old scriptures were wrong he said to timothy prom from a child thou hast bast known the holy scriptures which are awe able to make thee wise unto salvation 9 1 these theme scriptures were necessary down to his time just so with the savior his inspiration and volume of eternal truth was necessary and it is I 1 just as necessary now that the people of god should be filled fi aled with the light of revelation and without it they can make ny advance me ment tin in divine life the prophet joseph when dedicating the first temple of this dispensa tion in nauvoo march 1836 presented the twelve apostles that had been appointed and consecrated to their work and they were upheld as prophets rop hots seers beers and revelation revelators reve laton that T Is e the estimate which the prophet joseph placed upon the holy office of the apostleship Apostles bip and that to IB the idea and sense that this thia people entertain concerning that office and calling for twice every year they lift up their hands to sustain the twelve apostles as such I 1 testify to you my brethren that the apostles improve in this principle and increase in it and they are prophets seers and revelation revelators reve laton unto god le people if they will receive them it should bejus be just tso so with these men who are high priests in israel the presidents of stakes and their counselors the bishops of wards and their counselors should so live before god as to be prophete seers and revelation revelators reve laton to their people every man having the iut authority bority of the priesthood aud and we are a whole army of priesthood over a hundred quorums of seventies existing among us who Is at the head of a family should be a prophet prop phet bet seer and revelator to his hie household prophet Ero ou sebold these brethren that are sitting by me have been in obscurity these provi dences of god that tha have been directing us for years back have been calculated to place righteous men where they would have to find their way to their god by the prayer of faith by the light at the spirit and by the power of the holy priesthood it to is necessary that these things should be so understood tood and that we should grow up into christ our living head As a child has to be weaned from its mothers breast so elders elden should get knowledge and understanding of their duties to their families their duties to the church their duties to the human family so that they may stand in the light of truth and take the same food and broad bread of life from the table of the lord as the child when it leaves its mothers mother Is breast an I 1 has to sit at the table beside her and masticate its own food it is interesting to uon contemplate te thip and sometimes alarmingly so when we see brethren ethrea br so far forget themselves in any of the pursuits of life as to indulge in anything like strife fe or contention or animosity it looks as if we had come to times when these things were very threatening among clods people and as brother cannon hau ham nicely put it they are principles of danger among us men have no right to got get so animated and overanxious over anxious about any thing striving or er contending for any matter as that they can push down another brother to climb up on his bis downfall none of us have hav any right to speak evi evil I 1 of each other I 1 ia a order to got get a good name ourselves we have no right to impair the cha character of our brethren or their honest convictions in order that we may got get the over them it is an abomination in the sight eight of god for any man to do it and vastly more that saints sainte should do it who have with their lips professed their belief that it to is their duty not to speak evil of each other nor of the lords we ought to be careful of these things I 1 would exhort you my brethren in this that while you indulge in these things which look to animosity towards your brethren who may differ from you on any question you are taking that course that shall put out the light which should shine upon your under standing whereas if any man would defer to his hie brother in honor pre ferr ing one another the love of god would abound their souls would be strengthened and every man would go on in the growth of the principles of righteousness and this course we must pursue if we go forward if we do not we cannot come to a standstill therefore we shall retrograde I 1 would say may to all brethren who are anywise addicted to these things set a watch at the door of your lips and another at the doors of your hearts and sanctify the lord in all your ways and not feel that the kingdom of god to is going to be uret or overthrown by your doing jr or not doing the work to is the lord lordt t and if we will be true to him anti and to the principles of his gospel which we have taken epou us to do he will bear us off triumphant he knows how bow to make the wrath of men to praise hatm he krown how to build us up in our holy faith if we will preserve ourselves by our own faithfulness from the powers of sin and satan then the spirit of revelation is what we want continually the world are astounded at the idea of revelation when they are getting full of it them selves and add they don dont donit it know it ever since the time this work commenced or thereabouts great inventions a have been coming forth concerning the use of steam it was about this time that mr watts board beard the tea kettle hiss and the top of the kettle rattle by the power of steam and learned to use it and apply it others have used it in their inventions since just so it was with other wen men Bei benjamin beejamin jamin franklin running up a kite putting a key on it that he might bring down the electric fluid with safety and dono do no harm barm men have ever since been find ing out how to harness the lightning and make it convey intelligence transport light and numerous comforts to the human family all over the earth and through the depths of the the various nations are becoming much more like one great family famil yand nud we hear bear from everywhere each twenty four hours revelation is among them they ought to acknowledge it and give god the praise some borne of them do we all should their knowledge to is knowledge of science but the knowledge that god gives to his people by the holy spirit and the po power of the priesthood is the knowledge that to is concerning him his ways and will and what we ought to do to please him I 1 to bless and exalt ourselves to love and glorify him in all our operations nor have we got all the revelations we are to have the 0 lord has left precious promises on the pages of holy writ that he will give us more of it although the human family are wrought up to their present condition of opposition against revelation I 1 want to remind them if there is anybody within the sound of my voice that thinks we have all the revelations we are to have they are greatly mistaken if you will read the chapter 0 of i ezekiel you will find there the lord through the prophet and told him to take some sticks that is curious we would think nowadays it would seem a great deal more curious if the 1 lord had said to the prophet take a book for they hey ild did not know anything about books they had the law rolled up on sticks and he told him to take two sticks and write upon one for judah and for the children of israel his companion and on the other for joseph the stick of Ephra linand imana for all the house of israel his hia com pan ions PY and when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee saying wilt thou not us what thou meanest by ahse th be say bay unto thena them thus saith the lord god behold I 1 will take the stick etick of joseph which lain the hand band of ephraim and the tribes of israel his fel fellows lowi and will put them with hyi even with the stick of judah and make them one stick and they shall be one oile in mine hand band we have the bible and the book ot of mormon and we have the promise that we shau shall have another record that will come from the house bouee of israel the lord told us that chat when we began to spread this gospel to the Lama and the house of israel we might know that the work of the lord had bad commenced among all the branches of the house of israel well it hm ha but we don dont pt know much about it but there are the ten tribes in the north and messengers to them too the lord told the brethren once ancee concerning the revelator Bev elator john if I 1 will that he be tarry I 1 come what to is that to thet the last that we hear bear of johns persecutors is that they put him into a caldron of boiling oil but he came out unhurt as miraculous as aa when the hebrew children went into the fiery furnace and that john is ministering to the house of ii israel rael in distant portions of the earth or wherever they are and a record is going to come from them to us the same as the book of mormon and the bible have come to usand they three shall become one that means they shall contain the same doctrines the same principles the same gospel of mat salvation and these theme three shall come together and be one in the hands of gods elders eldera in these last day and we or our children will live to see this come to pass so bo that the human family and the latter day saints need not con tract their minds nor limit their faith to think we have got all the word of god we are to have it would be al good thing for us if we would read and study more what we have got we would then be better |