Show revelation BE AND priesthood discourse delivered at the general conference of the me church in the tabernacle salt sall lake city caturi saturday jay oct ac 1895 by FRANKLIN D RICHARDS BY ARTHUR WINTER J share in in common with my hearers the blessed instructions incident to another general conference my spirit iw i refreshed che cheered red strengthened and encouraged raged in the way of of life I 1 am filae that our neighbors from the states zd and territories round abi ab ut have taken it into their hearts to come and enjoy a pleasant time lime with songs and music and of hearing the performances incident to our first great eisteddfod I 1 would be pleased and I 1 know my coadjutors my grethren or ethren and sisters would be pleased it our viii visitors ors in coming to entertain us with their musical festival might be entertained by us in tu dunand nand we be able to do them some good by imparting to althem atheni knowledge ot of the principles in lymich chich we believe and in the practice of bich we have been led to gather together here to make this place so ho acceptable cep table as a point of attraction in the of trus this that was fifty years ago the great american desert the principles ot of our faith which lie at the foundation of our existence as a have been presented this morn og vry very and ardently that have taken hold of us W n our various nativities nativi ties when they were expounded to us oswe we had no noway way of f disputing them as honet honest men and women but to embrace them and make them through life the code of our salva ion I 1 think we have one among us to day who has labored and tray trav led so ciny years tu to preach the gospel that it sall those who had heard him testify and L the truth to them had received with the same honest earnest purpose ki as he be received it the knowledge of this gospel gouid now have spread to all ane enlightened nations ot of the carthand eart hand betl 0 men imen would have had an opportunity iby y this time to believe the same glorious that we believe it in chatman that man rm president wilford woodruff who has pent his life in preaching this gospel honce once heard president young say that k be believed beli eed that if all who had bad heard preach the gospel had received it ii Ls As he received it when he heard it and isad ad taken hold bold with the same interest and nd energy to keep the commandments god themselves and teach others to 1 do 0 so the gospel might then have cached to all the nations of the earth A tf they have been made partakers par takers of blessings les sings and its privileges but the my fact is s I 1 the he people ol of the earth are so bo bound d up p in the cradit traditions i ons ot of the fathers that they do not appreciate this matter i they have been taught by their religious teachers for whom they entertained the highest regard that the heavens were so effectually sealed up that we were to have no more revelation it has been awfully true that the heavens have been closed as concerning the cevela ot of gods will for some fourteen hundred years past while the famine for the word of the lord has prevailed and a woe it has been to all the inhabitants of the earth to be thus shut out from the revelations of god and the power of his ministering priesthood and made only to depend upon a written book called a bible tor for salvation the church of the living god has never been conducted on the earth by writings alone or by books parchments parch ments or records of any kind take the bible and all thi the holy books that have ever been written iten can they baptize you for the remission 01 01 sins have they got the power to administer mi aister the holy ghost to us can they institute a single ordinance they can tell us what others have done but they cannot confer the autho authority riLy ni r administer the orain ordinances ances of the gospel to tous us it has taken no less than the real living authority direct from heaven to confer this power by which we have carried the gospel to the ions wid and gathered the people so that at present we have people of about twenty five different fiffe rent languages located here in utah from as many or more dif different lerent nations inasmuch as this is the case it may be interesting to know how we have come by bv lurth r revelations and this priesthood right at the door ot of this dispensation and the principle of revelation lies a sturn stumbling bling block 16 the people because of the book ot of mormon A bible a bible a golden bible I 1 they cry I 1 want to tell you in regard to the popular story that has gone abroad in the world viz that this book of mormon was made up by one solomon ling who wrote a novel that our leaders have perserver pec per served and discovered the novel mr spaulding wrote and which they claim sydney sdney rigdon got ot hold of and published as the book ot of mormon that romance of mr gs we have obtained and had published in full and if anhof you want to examine it you can have it and read it for your yourself you can also read the book of mormon and see whether the one resembles the other and if you want to see the original manuscript of mr dings apply to the president of the oberlin institute in ohio and you can get as close an examination of it as anybody likes to make I 1 say this to clear away the underbrush from the anve investigations of the book of mormon the lord hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all he face of the earth and hath bath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of the habitation of the child reo ren of men that they should seek the haply they might feel after him and find hia though he be not far from every one of OB acts ay 27 what shall we think of the inhabitants of this half ol 01 the world the bible gives account of people that lived oh dh the other halt of the globe it gives an account of the creation ot of the world and then a very short account of the existence of the people who lived before the flood it also gives us some accoti tit concerning the times of abraham isaac and jacob the growth of israel until they became a people and the lords Lor dealings with them in their prosperity and blessing and whenever they turned turnia away from him of his afflicting and chast chastising isme hand it also gives an account of the coming ot of the lord jesus christ how angels were sent beforehand to let the people know that the savior was coming that juhn john the baptist Bart was going to prepare the way for him and so down through the gospel Gosp eland and epistles until its last great work by john the revelator recording the gran grandest aest vision that we have any account of in divine writ this bible is a book written by and of people ot of the other half of the globe this half was shut out and it has become a surjeet of speculation by a great many people who the original inhabitants of this nan it h were some say they are the th ten tribes of israel and some say one class and some another 41 the book of mormon is the r bible of the american continent it gives an account of the dealings of the lord loid with he people that lived on this half of the globe it informs us that when the language was confounded at babel there were a couple of men who knew god and who hald had H s favor that did not go into idolatry as the mass ma ss of 0 f people deop 1 e did of 4 but united and asked god that he would not confound their geso that they and their few friends and relatives might be able to understand each other the lord heard them and granted ahm th em that prayer and he told them if they would hearken to his words wor ditle he lead them to a land where they L could live and grow up and cultivate his everlasting love and blessing he led hem on to this land and the names of these two men were mahonri aal an I 1 jared they rhey came over to this country in those early days from the land of ahmar ha ia ar they were wise aise men great men had excellent families and were first crass class stock to begin to populate one half of 0 the earth they feared the lord elaey walked w in his ways god and they brought br with them the manners and customs of those early times and displayed their architectural works all over this land they built great cities they became numerous and powerful they kept records of their lives in those days and of their experience of gods providence over them how they were ledanc how they built and lived after they arrived here bere by and by they became very proud and haughty and became involved in in wars contentions and strafes fes similar to those we have had between the northern and southern stites und they weakened and finally destroyed each other the enmity among them was so deadly that it continued until men finished up by fighting two and two sword awona in hand this record gives us an account of that then there was in the days of israel a family of a man by the name of lehi who had several sons six hundred years before the christian era when jeremiah came proclaiming judgments against jerusalem because of their wick edless aaness the lord revealed unto this man lehi lebi and his family they being right had compassion upon them and that he did not require them to be led away aay captive into babylon so he told them that if they would gather out into the wilderness he adua lead them to a place ot of safety where they could live upon a choice land above all other lands this man lehi and his family hearkened to his cou counsel as did another man by the name of ishmael who had several daughters and these united together in in marriage and they spread abroad here on this american continent and became a numerous and powerful people they were people of U israel rael the descendants of jospeh they were descendants ot of both ot of josephs sons ephraim and manasseh and they have in this land fulfilled the prophecy which said that they should grow together and become a multitude ot of nations in the midst of the earth it was of this land that moses when he blessed joseph saying blessed of the lord be his land for the precious things of heaven heave n for the dew and for the deep that cou cheth beneath and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun and for the precious things put forth by the moon and for the chief things of the ancient mountains and lor for the precious things of the lasting hills bills and for the precious thin things gs of the earth and falness thereof and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush let the blessing come upon the head of joseph and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren his glory is like the firstling of his bis bullock and his horns are like the horns homs of unicorns with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth and aad they are the ten thousands of ephraim and they are the thousands of manasseh dent 33 1317 13 17 these people that came over from jerusalem brought with them plates on which were contained the law of moses and the prophecies of the early prophets and they lived here keeping the law of moses until the coming of the lord jesus christ when our savior had pert performed ormed his mission in the land of judea he came over to this land of america he told the people in jerusalem that he had other sheep that were not of that fold and that he must visit them also that they might hear his voice and he would bring them and they should become one people so he came over here and held several notable conferences with the people he taught them the same gos pel that he had taught in the land of jerusalem he appointed twelve disciples here and gave them instructions endowed them with the priesthood etc in the course of time when the people became wicked again after having had bad a long period of the greatest happiness of any people on earth a celebrated prophet by the name of mormon a righteous man distinguished distinguish td among his people lor or his bis virtues his bis intelligence telli gence and his cower of priesthood received instruct ns from the lord to I 1 write the history ot of his people in an abridged form before destruction should come upon them he did so and wrote it upon plates of pure gold and in the language called the reformed egyptian a language which no people knew very well and he being a prophet and having the urina and Thum mim hid it up with these plates so that in due time the plates should come forth and the means to interpret the record on them in a fe few words I 1 have given you items of this history covering a period of two or three thousand years this book of mormon is an abridgement abridge ment of the records of the Jared ites and also of the records of a people that came over who were of the descendants of joseph I 1 should mention also that eleven years after lehi left when the sons ot of zedekiah were captured and their eyes put out in the most barbarous manner one of their number named made his escape and was led by the lord and he came and landed on this korth north american continent so that he and his children joined with the descendants of joseph we have on this land in the natives the descendants of ephraim of manasseh and of judah combined this is what scientists with much sear searching speculation and study are endeavoring to find out this book ot of mormon is the bible of the american world made by these people it gives an account of their rise and progress their wealth and their poverty their prosperity and their adversity ver sity and finally their downfall and destruction how they came to be c cursed and how bow the savior came and preached to them the same gospel that he taught in judea this book contains a testimony of the same principles as the bible and is a practical fulfillment 0 of that which is spoken of cf by ezekiel the prophet in the chapter of his prophecy concerning the writing on sticks the word of the lord came again unto me saying moreover thou son of man take thee one stick and write upon it for judah and for the children of israel his bis companions then take another stick and write upon it for joseph the stick of ephraim and for all a the house of israel his companions and join them one to another into one stick and they shall become one in thine hand and when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee saying wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these say unto them thus saith the lord god behold I 1 will take lake the stick of joseph i w which aich is in the hand of ephraim and the tabes of israel his fellows and will put them with him even with the stick of judah and make them one stick and they shall be one in mine hand and the slicks whereon thou whitest shall be in thine hand before their eyes the word ot of the lord to ezekiel as here given makes not only the existence ot of the two sticks or records appear very clearly by being in thine hand and before their eyes but the expression in the me irth verse is particularly significant ant here here the lord says sas 1 I will take the stick of jo seab which is in the hand of ephraim and the tribes of israel his fel fellows loAs and will put them with him even with the stick of judah and make tham one stick and they shall become one in mine hand the word them being plural must signify two or more and putting them witti him even with the stick of 0 judah signifies that not less than three are spoken of which third as appears from the text must refer to all the house of israel his companions this is in beautiful harmony with the prophecy of nephi in chapter verses 12 14 second nephi delivered years before the coming of christ for behold I 1 shall speak unto the jews and they shall write it and I 1 shau shall also speak unto the Nep hites and they shau shall write it and I 1 shall also speak unto the olther broer tribes of the house bouse of israel which I 1 have led away and they shall write it and it shall come to pass that the jews shall have |