| Show DISCOURSE be delivered livered at syracuse davis county on cn sunday august 22 1897 by r GEORGE Q CANNON BY ARTHUR WINTER pleased this morning to I 1 am very have bave the opportunity of meeting with abe latter day saints in this wardani war dand lander such ouch favorable circumstances I 1 was thinking while I 1 sat here this morning how bow much president wood ruff would enjoy meeting with yoland war much you would enjoy his presence probably it would be interest 9 tas fix to you to know that president woodruffs health Is improving and gokh not very strong still heis he Is able office every day and at 0 o bome to the tend to business he has surprised us an by the manner in which he has re from this severe illness which me lie has had bad it would not have sur I 1 suppose it if he had sunk many t ader this sickness it seemed at 1 times as though he was wag going to us but his recuperative power wonderful lir and I 1 attribute it to the of the sains which bitant prayers omd AW offered I 1 have n no 0 doubt every day habitation where the r from every santo dwell it is a very delightful the latter day to realize that by such r sop are bound trader ties which though tender are strong h lave I 1 have traveled a good deal of late is one thing with which I 1 I 1 and there the difference impressed hive been there exists between the latter day and those from among wom r JS have been gathered outside of yr sa va church and our community I 1 find the people as a ma V little interest 1 rule taking very 21 there does t in each others welfare that love and affection Is wt not seem eem to be and kindly interest taken by the peo in altheir af ite la fill each other either health which is ex stirs sars or to in their tot ted among us the predominant to be for everyone to appears allah aaste LS care of himself to look out for ida own interests and those of his tamila 7 this is in striking contrast with the spirit that has been brought tato into operation by the gospel of the gresus desus christ we do not as a verple take that interest in each other that we should do because we have coal ome from the world and brought with jw its traditions its habit sits methods and aad a good deal of its feeling we aws aw va not yet outlived these nor shaki ow ea them off the gospel has not freed v VW entirely from these influences though it has to a very great extent 00 0 o much so go that there is a striking contrast in this respect between us and other denominations the power of pel I 1 has been felt to in this diree kab and od will be felt more and more sua BO 0 doubt it given us great joy that there are others who feel 1 that there are others who t to in us ua that there arle are pray for us that there are others if we are sick who will administer to us and whose feelings are drawn out towards us I 1 do not suppose there is any one in this congregation that ever prays for himself and family without praying for others without praying for his brethren and sisters without praying for president woodruff and the first presidency and the twelve and for all the officers in the church without praying for the sick and afflicted the distressed the poor the widow the fatherless and for those who mourn that they may be comforted I 1 do not suppose that these desires escape the attention of the members of this congregation when they pray what a delightful feeling this is how it comforts President Woodruff tornow to know that throughout the entire world wherever latter day saints dwell he has an interest in their prayers and that the blessing of the lord Is sought for in his behalf it comforts us all to know that the saints take this interest in us they may not know the afflictions or the trouble that we have to contend with but they pray for all of their brethren and sisters without regard to name or eWhen they hear of affliction their hearts go out in sympathy to those who axe are afflicted brethren and sisters this I 1 may say is 1 a comparatively new feeling in the world not but what there is love still remaining among the children of men all are not destitute of love but it is to a very great extent limited and confined to very few persons now where has this love that I 1 refer to come from has it come from our gathering together and being in our present state Is it the mere gathering together of the latter day saints in this land that has brought this love certainly not however much that may have contributed to the existence of this love it has not been c entirely due to that you brethren and sisters who embraced this gospel in other lands where did you first feel this love and how did it come to you you doubtless can recall the time when a new love took possession of your heart when feelings you never had known before were aroused in your hearts and you felt that you had been born again your hearts were changed and you became new men and new women when did this occur all of you who received the gospel in other lands can turn your minds back to the day you heard the gospel declared by a servant ol of god for the first time and how new sensations took possession of you it seemed as though a veil of darkness had been taken from your minds so that you could perceive things in a new light the bible with which you had been so familiar from your youth up appeared in a new light you understood its contents as you never had understood them before then you gave heed to tha th testimony of the servants of god and their exhortations to repent of your sins to be baptized for the re mission of them and receive the holy Gh when you did this you felt that you had indexed become new creatures your hearts were i touched your feelings were arouse dand you became new men and women in christ jesus jesua you were literally born again by the baptism of the water and of the holy ghost A love then entered into your heart for everything that proceeded from god such as you had never known you loved your brethren and sisters when you met with the saints you had no desire to separate from them you wanted to be in their society to dwell with them and this was not confined to one it extended to all who received the testimony of at the elders A great change was effected in your feelings in your thoughts and in your desires you had no desire to remain where you were everything that was theft theja around you all your old associations and surroundings with which you had bad been familiar from your childhood appeared distasteful to you they no longer had attractions for you and your hearts went out to a distant land to a strange people of which you had heard or thought about but very little before was not this the time when this thia love of which I 1 have spoken was begotten in your hearts I 1 think if you were to have the opportunity today ot of testifying you would say yes that was the time it was when I 1 heard the gospel and obeyed it it was when I 1 was baptized by a servant of god and I 1 received the spirit of god through the laying on of hands it was then that my heart was changed and I 1 felt that I 1 was born again bortt born or of god and that a new love had been aroused in my heart which changed my whole being and all my desires this was the change that watt waft wrought in the hearts of the people who received the gospel through the preaching of the elders and taft change has not been confined to one nation or to one people but it has been as universal as the preaching of the gospel where the elders have gone they have carried this power with them you who had joined the Church in other lands know that this was the cast case no matter where you were born or what language you spoke whether you were baptized in the sea or to in a river or in a place where there was waa only water enough to immerse you this effect followed in every instance why was this was the power in men themselves did they possess it by inherent right or did they derive it from some other source you will all say for many of you have had the same experience in operating upon others as others had in laboring with you ou that this power and this influence was not inherent in the men but it had been bestowed upon them where did it come from it came from god it to Is a wonderful story to tell tel darful in its condescension wo ful fill in the glorious effects that adf followed it wonderful kor for this genera tion to hear wonderful tor for us to live in an age such as this and to be so favored as we have been that god the eternal father the creator of heaven and earth the fountain of all existence and of all power has con descended in our day to come down from heaven from his glorious abode accompanied by his son jesus to restore to the earth this love and these gifts to give to men this wonderful power and these extraordinary gifts Is it not wonderful to think of ought we not cfall people to be the most humble obedient and loving people that live or ever did live upon the earth it seems to me that we should be think of living at a time when this event so far reaching in importance to heaven and earth has taken place the father himself accompanied by his son jesus christ condescending to come from heaven to usher in this dispensation and to prepare the way for the restoration of that authority by which he himself acts and governs all things and this has actually occurred our father and our savior did not confer this authority by their own hands upon joseph smith but god sent his servants who held authority to do this he honored the authority that he himself had bestowed he had bestowed that authority upon peter james and john and he sent them they were preceded by john the baptist who held the authority of he priesthood the lord honored that man because he had received the authority and held the keyland keys key sand and he sent hem to restore the authority to baptize ide he then sent the three apostles whom I 1 have named to confer the gelchis edek priesthood with the authority to lay on hands and to perform all the duties connected with that priesthood my brethren and sisters this to is the origin of this authority autho ity by which this wonderful change that has taken place in our hearts has been accomplished shed it is the authority by which you were baptize dby which you were confirmed members of the church by which the gift of the holy ghost wa was s conferred upon you it was that priesthood that came from heaven it to Is not our gathering together that has brought this about the gathering of the people to these mountains is the fruit of the love that god has begotten in our hearts which has inspired us with a desire to be with our brethren and our sisters and to be within the sound of the voices of the servants of god I 1 have heard hundreds say oh I 1 do so want to see the prophet of god I 1 want to go to zion and be with the saints of goday god my heart yearns continually for this privilege I 1 have had this said to me thousands of times in various lands and this has been brought about by being born again by the love of god descending upon us and filling our hearts transforming US now where we have retained this feeling it is as strong within us today yes and stronger than it ever was it is not a feeling that is confined to the first week or month or year but it increases as the years SO 90 by and there to is only one thing that will cause its decrease and that to la the commission of sin and the forgetting of the covenants that have been made with god I 1 call your attention therefore to the power which has produced all these delightful results to which I 1 have so briefly alluded what is that power it is the priesthood of the son of god it Is the power by which all things were created and are held in their place shall I 1 startle you alen I 1 say that our father himself controls amis the universe and occupies his ICUM halted station because of the priest hood whether it Is startling or not it is nevertheless true our eternal father is the creator of all things through the power of the everlasting priesthood that priesthood which has been bestowed upon and exercised by the servants of god in our day that is the power which has produced the fruits to which I 1 have alluded now I 1 believe that many of us have forgotten all this I 1 am sorry to say that I 1 discover among the latter day saints a fear of that priesthood a dread of its exercise a shrinking from contact with it for fear that some undue influence will be brought to bear upon us through it today the greatest sorrow of my heart the feeling aled soui exil am atu am eq arises from the fact that the latter day saints in many instances are turning their backs on the priesthood of the son of god and are disposed to treat it with contempt I 1 do not care for myself personally I 1 believe I 1 can truthfully say that I 1 have had little of the feeling to seek the applause of the multitude or to seek the favor of men I 1 have not sought office I 1 have not sought for place in the priesthood or in any other capacity when I 1 was a little boy the only desire I 1 had was that I 1 might be worthy to be an elder beyond that I 1 have never sought place or power on the contrary I 1 have shrunk from it and I 1 have besought god to deliver me from it if I 1 could be saved without it the lord revealed to me what I 1 would have to pass through and I 1 besought him not to put me in this place if I 1 could get my salvation without it in alluding to this therefore I 1 do not do it on any personal account I 1 do not want any honor from men if I 1 can have the honor of god but I 1 do want the priesthood that god has bestowed and which I 1 bear in common with my brethren honored I 1 want to see this people who have received so many blessings in tact fact whose whole condition happy as it is is entirely due to the priesthood of the son of god I 1 want to see them honor this priesthood with all their hear hearts tsI I 1 want to see them honor god who has restored it to see them receive its counsels and to be guided by it under all circumstances cum stances to not imagine that they can live without it and that they can gain celestial glory without it thinking that they have received so much and now are independent and can get along without the aid of the priesthood I 1 tell you if you indulge in that feeling you will lose the blessings that god has promised unto you and he will withdraw those which he has bestowed upon you you will go into the dark you wil lose all power and all these glorious gifts that he has given unto you you young men of whom there are so many in this congregation let me say to you and I 1 think I 1 can speak now as one having had some experience peri ence if you want to be happy if you want to be blessed if you want to be prospered in the earth listen to the counsels of gods servants and obey those counsels make it the object of your life to obey god in hi all things I 1 say to you if you will do this the blessings of god and the power of god will rest down upon you as you have never imagined it could I 1 tell you this because I 1 know it through my experience I 1 know the lord will hear this and that this will be the case with you I 1 it seems that we are going through gli trials the faith the integrity and the steadfastness of the latter day saints are being tried and tested the lord is going to test us in every direction he will have a tried people he has agid this everything that can be shaken will be shaken we will have to show our integrity in the midst of trials and temptations we will have to learn to be obedient in all I 1 the he lord wants to have a people ot oc this kind he has led us to this land has given us a goodly heritage and there is nothing in the world to pra prfto vent astrom us from being a very great A and mighty people before the lord except our own misconduct but if we allair ourselves to be diverted from thi sand d follow false teachers false guides and listen to the blandishments blandish ments |
