| Show sunday services religious services were held in the tabernacle salt lake city july ad 1892 commencing at 2 p pm m president angus M cannon presiding the choir sang the hymn beginning heart shall join praise ye the lord my divine so ao in so pleasant prayer was offered by elder J 0 woods the choir sang bang the hymn behold the gi great eat redeemer 11 die A broken law lar to satisfy t fy the priesthood of the nineteenth nineteen tb ward administered in the ordinance of the Sacra sacrament went BISHOP OBBON loftson F WHITNEY it ij was a require the speaker wan waa ment he said A made ade of the latter day saints b by the be god od whom they served that the they should meet together often sacrament and and par partake e of the the things be instructed regarding trusted that of salvat salvation ioD he all present could cou id partake worthily of the broken emblems of the of our loro body and shed blood moreover that these who were called to speak to ito that congregation upon of instruction would have the spirit all 1111 present might be u upon n 1 thew them that eri edified led and blessed in meeting together of the sacrament when we partook heavens that the unto we bore witness we were willing to take upon us the christ the son of god name of 01 jesus always to remember willing that we were him and keep his that we might always have his spirit to be with us to have no hatred we were required in our hearts no ill feeling we against our sisters sister we were required brethren or our and humble to have pure hearts spirit 0 thereby we were in earnest in remembering him humble bumble before all and who was pure men and worthy to bear his name the truth as it came from god was generally if net always distasteful to the natural man it was contrary to the natural spirit of man because it required him to make sacrifices of hie opinions ioup his bis notions his bis assigns assions as anu and instine lee one as abadji hv rebelled pre I 1 predilections vely avely against 8 at ct t t things lugs the natural man loved to te it graffy r self to give way to his natural f inclinations no li nations to pursue those things thing s which ch afforded him pleasure and required j the indulgence of these him to deny was liable to be hated by him and opposed when jesus sat upon the mount ol of olives teaching the multitude it was mid aid they were lb astonished at his doctrine he taught them things to which c h their ears were strangers as israel had been schooled and disciplined for fifteen hundred years under what is 18 known as an the lesser law and under udder the dominion of the lesser priesthood moses in his time had bad striven earnestly to sanctify his hl people by means of the higher law the gospel and by the power of the priesthood lie he fain would have brought them to that cond condition kion where they could have gazed as he gazed the face of their maker talked with him film as ae friend with friend as he convened with him upon the mount but it seemed that they were unwilling unprepared at that time to receive the higher truth the higher law and the powers of the higher priesthood so 80 these were taken from them and they were left with the priesthood Priest bood and the law of carnal commandments for fifteen centuries then they had bad been schooled under such a law which permitted retaliation rt revenge the exacting of an eye for an eleand a tooth for a tooth the application of the strict principle of justice which made every man answer to man for the wrong that he be committed so that when jesus came restoring the higher law the gospel ot of nercy mercy I 1 and enjoined upon men that they should forgive their enemies and not seek set k to avenge their wrongs they were ast astonish onist ed at what he said and no wonder when we consider after the lapse of nearly two thousand years during which the world had basked as it claimed in the falness of the light of the gospel of jesus christ how hard it is for the humblest and best of christians to magnify this higher law Is w to learn to return good for evil he had heard men cast discredit upon this teaching of the savior he had known latter day saints to argue to strive to convince themselves and others that the lord did not mean what he said when he made this requirement qui rement of his people he did not think however that this was a safe position to assume it was more becoming in us to take the fault upon ourselves to acknowledge that it was gods law nevertheless though we might not always be ready willjo or able to keep it we should corwe as we hoped to be forgiven and this he took it was the love that the lord meant to be broad enough in our hearts to make allowance for the weaknesses of others and not sit in carph judgment upon them judge not be not judged P it often happened ned that we only saw the outward haip gestations Pe stations we saw that a man bumbled scum 9 it bled fell and comit comic ted a mistake but we we did not kaow how he struggled ore ere he fell we did not know the weaknesses that men inherit the burdens which they bore and yet we brought them to judgment before the tribunal of our minds and hearts and made them responsible perhaps for things inDe from frim m anc ancestor estore we had only to measure the distance between the per feet law of god and our inability to keep it to sw see the chasm that we were expected to bridge the journey we we were required i red to make before we had accomplished that which god called for at our hands the speaker was thank thankful fui to say aay he was wag not one of those who believed that god did not mean what he said who would cast discredit on a law which required him to do unto others as he would they should do unto him though he be did not dot claim the power to keep such a law at all times aimee he thought it might be stated as a truth that most if not all the wickedness and wrong doing and sinfulness of man was the result of ignorance he made all due allowance for what was termed wilful wickedness and that impelled some MOD men for forward w ard idov 0 very jaws of damnation who wheat they ey knew where they were going to some extent at least east but if we analyzed this as ae far as we were capable could we not recognize that those feelings of wilful nees and desperation which prompted some gome men to do wrong were the results of dense ignorance chichas chas shakespeare earp is the only darkness that is there is ia no 0 darkness but ignorance says the immortal bard the latter day saints did not believe that we sprang into existence in an instant suddenly but that we existed before we came upon this earth and that we were reaping here to a great extent the results of our deeds ina previous life this principle was recognized in the days of jesus who was asked by his disciples concern concerning ng a certain man who blin dand whom he healed lord did this man sin or his parents that he was born blind thy y asked showing dg that he had been tt ft aching them that it was waa possible for man to sio sin before tie he came upon the earth and that here he might be made to answer for it by being born lame or blind ar or wanting in some other respect but in this instance it beeme it was wan not so and we were not to infer that such always was the case because jesus said that it was neither the man nor his parents who had sinne but he was born blind that the son of god might have the opportunity of showing forth his power in the restoration of the manx mans light eight the scriptures were however replete with doctrine touching the pro pre exist ence of the spirit that this is not the first life man has lived the latter day saints believed that we had before lived in the spirit and looked upon the face of god and that it was because we were faithful in keeping that estate that we were per bitted with all men who have in the flesh or ever would to come here and take up mortal bodies having been given the privilege of passing through a probation si a school that should develop ue and make us stronger brighter and better but there was a third of the spirits which were not faithful enough to be permitted to take bodies upon the earth and they following after satan who rebelled against god were cast out from heaven and were permitted for a wise purpose to wander up and down the earth as seducing spirits tempting the children of men to igo go astray and neglect the things which god required at their hands bands misery loves company and fallen spirits fain faim drag after them the souls of the coil dren of god who were on the highway leading to salvation in that pre existent ex latent life we walgn by night eight we saw aw god face to face and the speaker presumed we knew many things that were hidden from us now but 9 a third fell away abdy unable to endure the test of walking by sight eight while all the children of men who dwelt herein the flesh stood the test and earned the privilege of ot coming hereto here to be schooled and disciplined for a wise purpose a knowledge of the past was shut out we no DO longer saw god face to face and were called upon to undergo a higher test to be or lieve things which we do not see things which we do not hear which were not to be apprehended by means of our grower grosser senses lenses our spiritual vision was called into play that vision which pierced the clouds which shut us in which vatch went beyond the bounds of time and an d passed over the horizon of temporal things it was a greater test to walk by faith than to walk by B eight he thought it followed that the action of all men who stoned now and were faithful before who fought against god here while they fought for him there was more or less the result of their ignorance their lack of knowledge having forgotten temporarily airily what they once knew thus being left free to exercise their agency I 1 iu u the flesh it was because he believed that it was mens ignorance that caused them now to fight against the work of god which they would not liot dare to do it if they knew what they were doing that tte ile thought we could afford to have charity lor for them when upon the cross jesus said raid father forgive them for they know not bot what they do he had bad heard it contended that jesus did not in this mean to include the jews those who conspired to put him ELim to death but the roman soldiers abl diers who simply obeyed orders in crucifying him but he thought it would rob him of half the credit for those noble words if it was claimed that he did not mean his murderers and all who consented to his death surely they did not know what they were doing did not know they were killing the son of god no it was their ignorance ce and jesus recognized it when he uttered those dying words on the cross another reason why we could afford to be charitable was that we were here to be buffeted and to buffer to endure pain and death to be robbed taken a at vantage of and persecuted why because this earth was wag a school and these were among gods methods of educating his children therein the almighty enumerated to the prophet joseph as he be lay stretched in chains on the dungeon floor of liberty jail all the trials to which men might be subject that men might persecute him friends betray him fierce winds become his bia enemy the heavens gather blackness the billowing surge conspire against him and the very mouth of bell gape go pe wide open for him but know thou my sony son said he that all these things would gi give ve thee ex peri ence and be for thy good the son of man hath descended bel below ow them all art thou greater than 1101 ht 9 we passed through thise these sad bad experiences in order to become educated and made better men and women and we could afford to be patient to feel resigned and make allow allowance anc 0 for those who caused us as to suffer who trampled upon us and wronged us acknowledging gods hand in it working for our salvation development and perfection this truth was apparent to us in the spirit world when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of god shouted hooted for joy they as saw the end from the beginning and rejoiced in the very prospect of mortal pains and woes boes that another world was being made that the foundations of the j earth arth were laid or if you please that another school house was being built in which they were to receive their education but let it not be thought because jesus taught men to be merciful and full of charity that he meant to do away with the principle of eternal justice justice goeth on and clai meth its ita own there never was and never would be left tn in buds economy such a thing as an unbalanced scale and the measure that we mete unto others should he measured unto us ua again it we wronged each other we were simply heaping upon our own backs burdens that we must bear bea until we expiate our faults what folly then to sin against each other to wrong our neighbor when we must answer for it and pay the principal with added interest let us take these things to heart seeking to practice the higher law and way may the day come speedily in the midst of the saints when it will not be as it was in the midst of ancient israel a matter of astonishment that god should require us to love all men and forgive and have charity for them keeping our hearts free from ill feeling that we might partake of the sacrament worthily and manifest our love for our creator by loving the souls that he has created the choir sang the achem praise ye the father the benediction was pronounced by elder joseph C J sharp |
