Show DISCOURSE BY BT 1 n sunday february 1898 at the morgan stake Wa conference renes held at morgan utah REPORTED BY ARTHUR WINTER since it falls to my lot to occupy a portion of the time this afternoon I 1 desire very much and bd very earnestly that I 1 may be led by the dictations of the spirit to speak of such things as be beneficial to us all and that shall edify usan the knowledge of god and his purposes and with such measure thereof that we may be ii 11 ade to leel feel that our coming together Is not lu in vain in the lord we are apt not to sense the favors and ules blessings sings that providence bestows bestons upon us if we could live in the way ot of wisdom and the way the lord aou would la like jibe us to live jive so as to cherish all the powers ot of life w within thin us and we the vitality that is natural to us we would grow anil and increase in intelligence a great deal faster than we do we would learn to treasure up anu and retain knowledge in our minus i much more than we du do and we would appreciate these and sense that they come from the loro lora while we have our fields lull full ot of everything that is good each year and our flocks and our herds increase aud anu abound we axe aie blessed with good health in these them mountain vales aud and with these pure healthful streams of water thal thai are flowing down if we could sense the value of these thene things we should be very lor for them suppose the lord were to let loose the crickets anu and the lo 10 wits us as he did a few years ao ago to eat up our crops a year or two then suppose we had bad a lack of snow for a season or two until we came to really find it difficult to produce our igou for instance if we got so low that cur but bands and vur fathers had bad to go off into to the world borla to hunt for work in order to get something to eat if we were made to feel the need of these things we should be more thankful thau than we are now fur for we would realize that they came from the lord I 1 remember how bow matters and things were in missouri Ml in 1838 when the saints were surrounded surround ou W with ith mobs the prophet and his brethren to the number of about abuwi thirty were gathered up aud and taken to liberty jail richmond jail and to other places and wort were kept in prison I 1 happened to arrive there about that time just a lew few days ater th ihn prophet and brethren had been taken away the saints were making their plans to get out of missouri as a they were required dired by the exterminate lug jug order ot of the governor I 1 re collett just how pleasant it was to sit bit down to a dish dieh ot of boiled corn bome ot the we had salt to put on it but quite a lew few meals we did not have any salt and we learned the dine aine rence between eamie boiled corn with bait anti and baving it without salt it Is to be hoped that we will not get to any closer times than that but then we the hand band of the lord in obtaining the means that were neo eary for out our daily support while the wicked were shooting down the pip and turning their cattle into the corn fields of the saints laying waste their hard bard earned su HU bo balance tance and they obliged to remove during the winter into illinois some of you remember this it la in in the prints that can be read by many ent but we are apt to forget these thing and when we get full wax ft fat and kick then is the time that we are not thinking of the lord or of our duties to him and are not fe elina thankful unless we are careful to bear these things lu in mind we need to sense gobe all these things the lord has been very munificent in bestowing upon israel the priests priest hood he has maue mane it possible pue sible that nearly all who come to the estate of manhood in his church may be made partakers par takers not only of the Aar orile priesthood but of the Melchize delt priesthood just think of all this mighty host of men all over zion I 1 think ot of all these men around me here today hardly one of whom but bears corae portion of the holy priesthood and most of them the priest hood also I 1 wonder it we are suitably y thankful for this and sense the value of it that every man almont who IF la the head of a famil who is st starting artini cut ut to become the head of a family h hem had bad given unto him the privilege t to live jive and become not only an elder in israel but through faithfulness to attain to positions of importance in the C church h u ach and nut not only so bu but t to become H patriarch and establish a household that will inherit tile the same blessin blessings gr I 1 let me remind you brethren and slaters sisters that the god of heaven sealed upon father abra ham and con confirmed firmed upon isa isaab and jacbo that their seed should become as numerous as the sands sand soja on the sea shore and tuat they should IV in herit bent the earth for an everl everlasting astin possession under title this same prow promise ifft every bead of a family has a right t to look forward with a just ambition n to become a patriarch a d u stand ut at the etke head bead of a 8 numerous race this 1 in given iven to all who will receive it and ex ercile it in righteousness before god glod suppose this had not been the cage and there were only a few the preal freals dency the twelve a 8 few seventies it few high priests permitted to attain V to this and the mass were as in other socie societies tita simply laymen heart bearing 09 no portion of the priesthood how different it w would bet bel it Is a goal of honor hono r of CC exaltation and blessing offered to every man who starts out in the name of kilo hia i god to become a man among men med to A raise a family and to build up the church of christ in the land how 11 lavishly the lord nas has besto bestowed weil these blessings blessi upon uel do we sense sens these things do we appreciate them do we take it to heart that the lord t 1 has undertaken to raise up as he a ages RIM N ago sail he would ft a nation of kings kingg and priests unto his holy name J A it is ia good for us that we have out our attention called to these things one once 0 IV in 4 a while fur for it we do not sense P or r ap an preci precia ate tf them we do not rejoice in A tham nor in the giver of them and antly the gifts are bestowed aa in this way many WA go carelessly carelee sly along in life and do not n a t A seek to work the works of righteousness righteous nesa day by day and lay up treasures treasur 4 Is in a 1 1 heaven as aa they should do this la in what we ought all the time to have before us it should be the first fint thing with Us in ID the morning and the last thing when we shut abut our eyes to slum her ber at night that we appreciate with grateful hearts bearta the blessings that god bestows bestons upon us then we can roll out two or three hundred thousand dollars to finish a temple and it becomes a matter of convenient effort for the t people of god to take bold of anti ana I 1 accomplish with delight this leads me to the consideration of temples how blessed we are three temples already among us and the people are laboring iu in them to benefit the hosts of the dead that have gone before yet there are a great many MADY saints who have not got their 7 eyes opened to see that there is really really any importance in their going goin to tie fie temple aud some have not fet felt to attach any importance to their taking hold and helping V to build it but gen orally there is to this labor a greater and a more universal good feeling of generosity among the saints than upon any other thing that thai donations are asked for that to is a testimony to us that the building of temples is a divine work that the temples are the gates of heaven and that men and women in them may get nearer to the lord than they can anywhere any where else on this earth this has always been so and it is io now the case more than ever before have we found it out is the qu question estioc we read a great deal about Bo lomona temple it a mason talks with you a few ew minutes an i i you have anything to iny say about masonry hu bb will tell you that his bis ideas and instructions have come clear down irom from SOlO Bo lomona temple anu ana bilat temple jet me tell you was built by a people that lived in it a lection ot of country a great deal lose lew thau than this territory of utah the land of palestine la is estimated to contain about square miles while utah territory contains more than six times HH many or about square miles think ot of ill that land was so highly cultivated cultivate d that it supported its millions of peo people ale and it had besides anat aj ail around on the hills and in the valleys multitudes of and herus 11 cattle hills J the upon a thousand people who inhabited that land were among thievery the very wealthiest on the face ot the earth for hundreds of years they lent and did not borrows borrow and they were the head of the nations on all that continent the lord blessed them with that glorious temple now we have several stakes here in zion that extend over as much territory us be was con talked in the whole land of israel which bad that temple but we could put two temples of that size that is leaving out the part that was intended intend eki for the congregations ot of the gentiles into this temple that is now being finished in salt bait lake solomona Solo moia temple tempie was not a large one but it was wae very precious because it was over overlaid laiti with gold its implements cups trumpets horns borns and all its articles or of service were made of gold anu of silver they hail had the precious metals iu in thoe days in immerse quantities the dome of the temple was covered with gold when the sun rose in the morn ing it reflected and threw off a great spot pot of light like another sun and its brilliancy shone extensively over overall all the country around now the lord has baa blessed blamed us as to build three of these good sized temples just fust for pastime while we have bare been constructing this one that president young laid out forty years year ago we have come nearly to the finishing of the fourth temple are the people of israel in these theme valleys of the mountains sensible of the importance of these theme temples and du do they appreciate the value of them it to is a question that we may do well to ask ourselves we go into them and receiver ordinances and endowments but do we realize that these ordinances were revealed to the prophet joseph after he had bad dedicated the kirtland temple and just before the finishing of the nauvoo temple after having been bid from the foundation of the wonlu when the revelation of these things came it caused a commotion in the earth and stirred up the wicked to try and destroy him the spirit intimated to him that he might not dot live to see that temple completed he took the two twelve ve settle aside and conferred upon them these ordinances some soine of which you have been permitted to receive iu the temple and they in turn administered the same ordinances to joseph and hyrum who had first bestowed them upon them thus you see a few obtained this measure of falness that we had not had bad before there were ordinances of the church that were not dot administered since the days of that temple until the first temple here in 1877 at st george many of the ordinances had bad to be suspended but sume some few could be attended to iu in the endowment house here are arenow now three temples in which we have the privilege to go and labor and the something that has not been known on this continent sauce shortly alter after the days of our savior A shore time alter jae he was waa here on this land the church apostatized and moroni hid up the book of mormon records in tue tae bill cumorah and the whole land went into desolation int int the degradation of the Lama now the lord has haa restored rea these theae things how precious preciou sl one after another he has hae revealed those things which he says in the book of Doc doctrine trino and Cove covenants hove have been kept hid bid from before the foundation of the world D we sense then that we are living in the enjoyment of blessings that the former nations never had that israel did not have in the days of the lord jesus that the ancient patti patriarchs arche did not have they had bad promises made to them und and certain blessings bles singa given to them the lord came and revealed himself personally to some of them once in a while he came and ordain eu sonie some righteous men himself but the pouring out ot of the falness of these bleci gs go upon the human family hau hats been withheld until our oay when il elemn that he has poured enem down without upon us it is good to sense these things there is something about these matters of serious moment if we will but seek deek to find it out and know what whai it is what was the very first thing that the lord required tue children ot of israel to do alter after he had bad rescued them from the banus bands of pharaoh you remember how the lord had to wrestle with pharaoh he sent upon him plague after plague but each time his bin heart grew harder and harder till the first born of every house boom and of the cattle were dying dying by the providence of god he then concluded he had better let the israelites go and they started out there were six hundred thousand people over twenty years of age beside children and many cattle rather bather a bigger camp than that which started out of but as soon as aa the lord got them fairly over the red bed sm sea where the egyptians could not follow he had them camp around mount sinai then he took moses up into the mountain and gave him the law and told him to go to work and build a temple right there in the wildern wilderness so a portable temple they called it a tempie temple when they got up into the land of canaan they camped with it awhile at jericho at shiloh at kilgal and othir other places the lord considered it necessary forler ael to have among them this temple or tabernacle that there might be a sacredness there and that they could know that the lord was waa with them let us ua luok look at this a little what was the nature of that tabernacle that little ark of the covenant that was hid up in the most holy place contained the rod of aaron the two tables of stone containing the ten commandments command mand ments and the pot of manna nop no manor man or woman was permitted to go g in there on pain of death except the high priest who had bad to go once a at sr to expiate tor for the sins sine of the people it was where the power of the lord was shown the priests had to be consecrated and set apart with holy sacrifice and anointing for these things and it had to be done according to the order of god so that he might make himself manifest to that people and he be known as their leader and they be known as mis his people and weir their god was such a god that there there was none like him in all the earth if they were journeying and the nations said that they could not come among them but must go around Aaron invested with his garments eto etc as the high priest went in the there 9 dr nd joked the lord shall we go up to battle against tb these ese pe people op le a and nd fight our way through or shall we nota DOI and the voice there between the cheru bims on that holy place told them whether they should or should not and they did accordingly the lord was with them and his angel attended them constantly it was a sacred things thing and they had to deal with it sacredly the camp of Israel aside from the tribe of levi Liev iwas was not allowed to camp near it the priests had to camp nearest to 0 o it and the levites next to them only the tribe of lievi levi were permitted to handle and convey this tabernacle through all their wilderness wil wilder deress ess journey thus everything was kept sacred to trio itie lord while they did this the lard ard was their |