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It has been something over four years since I had the privilege of meeting and speaking with the Latter-day Saints under this roof, and partaking of the Sacrament. I do not know whether I shall be able to make you hear, as I am suffering from a cold on my lungs, and soreness of the throat; but possibly after speaking a little time, I may be able to talk so that you can hear me. It affords me great pleasure to meet with the Latter-day Saints, and to partake of the bread and water with them, in memory of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, thereby witnessing that we fellowship one another, that we remember the Lord, and that we are willing to take upon us His name and keep the commandments which He has given. I presume the storm today, and perhaps the funeral that was held this morning, have prevented quite a number from being present here. In so great a city of the Saints as this, there ought to be Latter-day Saints enough come together to fill this house, to partake of the sacrament, on the Sabbath day.
There is no more sacred ordinance in the Gospel, although it is before us each Sabbath day; and no doubt many of the Latter-day Saints may look upon it as common. But it should be looked upon as uncommon and very important; and if you had been deprived of the privilege of meeting with the Saints and of partaking of the sacrament as I and many others have been, you would perhaps prize the privilege.
The Lord has commanded that we should meet often, and that we should partake of the sacrament in memory of His body and blood which was shed for our sins; and we cannot be too careful in preparing ourselves for this ordinance. I was reminded by the prayer that was offered just now, of the importance of thinking of the sacrament that we were about to partake of. The very prayer that was offered by our brother at the opening of this meeting should be the sentiment of every heart in coming to this house.
The mind of every Latter-day Saint, on the Sabbath day, should be turned toward the House of the Lord and the privilege that the Lord hath given us to partake of the sacrament. It should be the labor of our lives during each week so to keep the commandments of the Lord that we may eat and drink on the Sabbath day worthily; that we may not eat and drink condemnation to our souls. It ought to be a witness among the Latter-day Saints when we eat and drink together, that we love one another, that we fellowship perfectly, that our hearts are free from every species of bitterness and ill-feeling, that we forgive one another, that we forgive all men as we would that God would forgive us. It should be a sure sign that could be relied upon by us, could be relied upon by men, that when the Saints of God eat and drink together they love one another, they remember God; and that they are not only willing to keep His commandments in the future, but it should be a testimony that they have kept His commandments in the past. For if we have not kept them in the past we are not worthy to eat and drink. The sentiment should be in the hearts of all Latter-day Saints that it is important for them upon the Sabbath day to meet together to worship the Lord, to manifest to one another, God and angels, that they remember the Savior, that they love Him, that they have honored Him in their lives and have not forgotten Him; and that they love one another; that they fellowship one another, and that they are true to one another. These are the sentiments that should be in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints; and if they are not there, then the Saints stand upon dangerous ground.
I know of nothing more alarming among the Latter-day Saints today than the fact that a great many of them do not properly prize their privileges of meeting together on the Sabbath day. What will our children think of their parents if they neglect these opportunities? What will children think of their parents who neglect their prayers? What will children think of their parents who are inclined to backbite, to deceive, to defraud, to be hypocritical in regard to any principle of the Gospel? If we would have the rising generation grow up in faith, it is impera-tively necessary that we should manifest our faith by our works.
If there is infidelity in the midst of the Latter-day Saints, and in the young, the older people are measurably responsible for that infidelity. If the children can discover from the very earliest moments that the older people among the Latter-day Saints are consistent and honest, and can discover in their lives that they love the principles they profess, and they live by them, it makes them happy, it makes them honorable, it makes them respectable, and they recognize that their parents, in their lives, are better than the infidel, better than people of other denominations; they find that their fathers and mothers have greater faith, greater influence with God; their prayers are answered, and they begin in early life to taste also of the good spirit of the Lord and appreciate its blessings, following measurably in the footsteps of their parents.
How satisfactory it will be for parents to discover their children thus following in their wake; to find their sons and daughters filled with faith. But if there is apathy in the parents, or in the older people in the midst of the Latter-day Saints, if there is a neglect of duty, then children become skeptical. They cannot believe that the older people are honest and conscientious, because they do not live according to their profession. If children discover their parents are neglectful today in regard to the work of the Lord, the purposes of the Almighty, the kingdom which the Lord has established--if children discover, I say, a lack of faith in their parents, or doubt, or misgiving, can we hope to see the children very firm in the faith? Why no. If a man would establish his own family, his own children, in the faith, he himself must be a consistent practicer of that faith.
Children have good sense; people generally have some good sense, some good judgment, and they have the faculty of weighing one another--taking measure and stock of one another. They come to this ability quite early in life; and if we have the Gospel as we profess, as we have borne testimony through all these years, it will be profitable to us to honor that Gospel, and to honor God by living according to the requirements of the Gospel. We have been taught from the beginning that it is important for every Latter-day Saint to have the testimony of Jesus, the spirit of prophecy, abiding in his heart. Every individual man, every individual woman, should have the spirit of the Lord abiding in his or her heart--should know for themselves what the Gospel really is. They should not depend upon the presence of Bishops, Elders, Presidents, or Apostles, but should themselves be able to stand by the support of the Lord. Whether these officers are present or not to labor with them, they ought to be able to stand together for a number of years.
During the experience the Church has had in the last few years many of the chief brethren have been out of the way; they have not been easily reached. Their voices have not been frequently heard amongst the people, and in their meetings to a degree, there has grown a kind of coldness, a spirit of lassitude among the Latter-day Saints. This ought not to be, and it betokens a weakness in the faith of the people where such is the case. They should be more enthusiastic and faithful to local ministers; the lesser Priesthood and all the servants of the Lord who have the privilege of being at home should be more industrious and faithful in the absence of their seniors, so that the Church shall not suffer. It ought not to suffer. The Lord has so ordained that in every Ward, in every Stake, and in every department of the kingdom at home and abroad, the Melchizedek Priesthood shall preside. There is not a branch of the Church, perhaps in the world today without a Priest, or a man bearing the Priesthood of Melchizedek standing at its head. There is not a family in the Church--if the families are organized as they should be--without an Elder, a man bearing the Melchizedek Priesthood standing at the head; a man who is entitled to approach the Lord and to receive revelations through the inspiration of the Almighty in regard to the duties which devolve upon him as the president of a family, a Ward, a Stake, or a quorum, or to receive the word of God in regard to his own or another's life, and to know whether he is in the path of duty and safety. The Lord has thus provided, and made us a nation of ministers--ministers of righteousness.
Suppose that during these four years that have last passed--because I was not able to meet with the Latter-day Saints in this Tabernacle and in other places, and was not allowed to partake of the sacrament--I had grown callous and careless, and neglected my prayers, duties, and obligations, and refused to speak when the opportunity offered; suppose that I had refused to write when the opportunity offered, to answer questions or to give instruction because I was not allowed to minister in public as I was wont to do in former times; suppose I had concluded that I would do nothing now for the next four years; that I would not give counsel, exhort, or teach the people when the opportunity offered in private or in public. If I had taken such a course I would have been condemned. The brothers and sisters who have taken to that sort of course during the last four years are "condemned already," and the fruit of their carelessness and of their indifference, will be made manifest in due time. Generally, when trouble comes upon the Latter-day Saints, either as a community or as individuals, they seek to come closer to the Lord, and that is what they ought to do. Perhaps they ought to live closer to Him when there are no troubles, but whether there are troubles and dangers or not, certainly they ought to approach the Lord. They ought to pray with greater fervency--they ought to fast and pray. They ought to testify and seek the counsel of the Almighty and not neglect the gift which God gave to them when they were baptized; but they should cultivate it, and it should grow stronger in them, so that out of every difficulty we may become stronger, just as men who go on a mission, return stronger in faith than when they started.
Now, the Latter-day Saints who have kept the commandments of God will come out of their trials and persecutions with greater faith when the clouds pass away than they had when the clouds gathered around them. In times of darkness and peril, and the threatenings of the powers of evil, we ought to live the closer together. There ought not to be division, schism, carelessness nor indifference on the part of the people; but every man and woman should be more energetic and faithful to the Lord than they have been in times of peace. Generally this is the case.
How about the Latter-day Saints, during the last four years? What progress have they made? What advancement individually, spiritually? Have they grown stronger? I believe they have. I believe that they have had many testimonies from the Lord to strengthen their faith; I believe that the brethren who have suffered persecution and have been incarcerated for the Gospel's sake, for the keeping of the commandments of the Lord, are stronger in the faith today than they were before. It is the natural consequence of persecution that the people are drawn together and become stronger in their faith than they are in times of peace; and this I believe to have been the case with the Saints.
We have heard of no serious apostasy. The greatest apostasies we have ever had have been when the people were in peace and when let alone; not in times of great trouble and serious difficulty. Trials seem to draw the people together, to make them seek after the Lord, and become better acquainted with Him and the workings of His Holy Spirit, than is the case in times of peace. I have heard a great many express themselves as though they thought the Latter-day Saints were in rather a perilous condition--that is, at home in the Wards and in the Stakes; that they were growing cold, neglecting their duties, etc. Now, there may be an appearance of this, and there may be some truth in it for a foundation; but let me testify to you that the Latter-day Saints are not going to apostatize, they are not going to desert the Kingdom; for the Lord has made no mistake, and He has chosen the very spirits that He wanted. He has sent them at the time He wanted them on the earth, and He sent the Gospel at the time He wanted it on the earth, for them to receive. He is with our brethren whom He has chosen, in their missionary labors; He has set His hand to establish His Kingdom and to accomplish His purposes; and He will make no failure. God's Kingdom--the work of the Lord--is established in the earth, and it will endure. Men may fail, but there will be plenty remain; plenty that will endure faithfully to the end, just as our brother did who was buried today. Brother Morris died in the prime of life; he died in the faith. So will we generally die.
The Lord has given this people a very remarkable schooling, and their trials have been effectual and brought out great good to the souls of men; and the people are established so that they will endure. The Lord has planted a little spark in each heart, and established an anchor in each individual soul among the Latter-day Saints, and they are not to be shaken nor to be turned away from that anchor, for it reaches within the soul. God will preserve His people. We need not be disturbed at all, for the work is the Lord's, and not of man. It does not belong to the Prophet Joseph. It was not his; he did not originate it. Not his thoughts or counsels, or revelations, but God's, formed the foundation for the establishment of this work. The Lord will take care of it and preserve it through all the vicissitudes and changes and difficulties that we have to meet in this life. The Lord will sustain His work and bring it off victorious, and you will be mortified and ashamed to turn away from it.
Everybody who grows careless and neglects a known duty, will be mortified and made ashamed and sorrowful when the Lord comes to make up His jewels. Do not act thus. Let me exhort and plead with you not to neglect your duties. Renew your energies; forget not your prayers and obligations to the Lord and to each other, and be united. Be true to God, to each other, and to the world; be honest in all your ways. Be upright, and seek to know the will of God concerning your individual selves, and the flocks over which you have the care, so that your duties shall not be neglected, and that the Lord shall be with you.
I sometimes look over the history of the Church at different periods, and particularly have I noticed it during the last six years. It is thought that the Latter-day Saints have been passing through a very serious ordeal. And so they have--rather a serious ordeal; but how many of them have been disturbed? Not one in twenty. Have their trials been very serious? Not one in twenty. There have been a very few deaths; how many I cannot say; possibly a few have occurred that would not have happened under other circumstances. The homes of the Latter-day Saints have not been very seriously disturbed. Their homes have not been burnt; they have not been mobbed and driven out into the frosts of winter; they have not been driven from their homes; but the Lord has established His people here. The families of the brethren who have been required to suffer have been generally at home, surrounded by their friends.
Yet the trials have been quite severe upon some; but how much more serious they might or could have been. The Lord has not allowed the persecutions of the Saints to be so serious but that they have been able to endure them; and He will not in the future. But the people will be maintained and sustained in the valleys of these mountains and in the districts of country where they have been settled. The Kingdom of God is spreading abroad very rapidly, reaching outside the United States into other countries--it is spreading over the land of Zion, north and south, and the servants of the Lord go out before the people and bless the lands and prepare them for their habitation, that there may be room for the children of Zion; for they will need abun-dance of room. They are increasing rapidly.
In the last four years has the Church decreased in numbers? Not that I have heard of. I have not noticed particularly the reports of excommunications from the Church; I do not know that the withdrawals have been very plentiful. Very few men of note have fallen, among the Latter-day Saints--very few indeed--during the last five or six years. Very few prominent men--very few families--have drawn off from the Church and arrayed themselves on the side of the enemy at all. But generally the Latter-day Saints have endured faithfully.
Some may have thought because of the efforts of the government to confiscate the property, that they would not give any more of their tithings to be taken away. Some men may have shirked the law of tithing because of this effort being made by the government, and some may have felt it was a good excuse for them; but those who have taken this stand are weak in the faith. No man, solid and sound in the faith, has taken that stand; and there is no need for it.
All the government has required is what the Church was possessed of at the time of the passage of the law; nothing that has belonged to the Church since, or been received into or by the Church. They have no law for it, and make no pretense to it; but have only taken hold of that property of which the Church was possessed at the time the law was passed. "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof;" and the property that has been taken and that may be confiscated to the United States, is a little property that belonged to the Lord. Will it hurt the Church? Oh, no. Will it destroy the Church? Oh, no. If they had taken our houses and lands and private properties it would not have destroyed the Church; for the Church is not to be des-troyed. God has established it and will provide for it, and it will endure.
Do not be afraid that the Church and Kingdom of God are about to be destroyed or broken into pieces; for they will not be. The Lord overrules all these things. No nation goes up and no nation goes down but what the Lord has a hand in such matters. He has a hand over the earth and all that there is in it, and He will control for His honor and His glory, and for the accomplishment of His purposes in the earth. I thank God that our troubles have not been more serious. I thank God that there have not been very many lives lost, but that the people have been preserved; I thank the Lord that we are not subject to mob violence, as we were in early times; I thank the Lord that those days are past; and I trust they are past forever.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is increasing in numbers, increasing in faith, increasing in strength, spreading abroad, occupying a greater territory in every direction. The Lord is doing it and we cannot help it. Let anyone take the trouble to try to stop the progress of the Lord's work; let some great man amongst the Latter-day Saints try, and see whether the Church and Kingdom of God will be stopped or not. Let him apostatize and turn away from the truth, and see whether the Church will begin to halt in its progress. If you have not seen efforts enough of this kind in the past, try, some of you who are very powerful and feel that in the Church of God nearly all depends upon you. Make the effort if you can afford to. We have no need to trouble, no need to fear, only for ourselves. Let every man be energetic and faithful, and a good Latter-day Saint; let him be true to the Kingdom of God; true to his coven-ants; let him overcome all his weaknesses, folly and besetting sins; free himself from them, and make of the Lord his chosen, reliable Friend; lean upon Him and have His support, and then we are safe; and there is no safety without this.
We cannot depend on one another for support; but every man must depend for his support upon God our Eternal Father. Our lives should be consistent and pleasing in the sight of the Lord. We should be pure in sentiment, pure in our thoughts, upright and just in all our ways. We should listen to the counsels of the Holy Spirit, and be a united people. We should not break up into fragments, politically nor religiously. We cannot afford to do it.
Efforts have been made by some of our people to hold to democratic principles--to join with the democratic party. But the democratic party would not have us. The republican party do not need us and do not want us; and the only chance in the world for us is to be one united party of the people. We may hold to principles which are good and true that the democrats hold to, and those which are good and true that the republicans hold to. Any doctrines and principles that are good and right in the republic, we should hold to, and foster; but we cannot take part in those which are not sound and true. Then let us stand by the party that has taken us safely through so far--the party of the people; let us be true to our own politics, hold together unitedly, and make the very best use of the very little franchise that has been recently reserved to us.
We live in a republic, where it is said the majority rules; but it is discovered now that the majority does not rule in any republic. It is not the rule of the majority, but it is the rule of the minority--the same as it is with all other earthly governments. The minority rule and not the majority. I know of no government on the earth where the majority rules, except among the Latter-day Saints. The majority rules among them. No man can hold a position, or stand in a responsible place among the Latter-day Saints except by common consent--by the voice of the majority; and when the majority are against him he must go.
But it is not so in the United States; it is not so in this Territory, so far as our political organizations go; it is not so in any government of the earth that I know anything about, except among the Latter-day Saints. You may take our organization, and there is not a man stands when the majority is against him. Let the majority decide against an Apostle and he must leave his place; he cannot stay unless the people sustain him. The people may reject something that God wants, but it takes the voice of the people to sustain an Apostle. I never saw one ordained, set apart and maintained in his position, without the support of the people--the majority. It is so in every Stake. Whenever the people of the majority say they do not want the President of that Stake they must then have a new President. Whenever the majority of the people of a Ward decide that they do not want the Bishop of that Ward, then there must be a new Bishop for it. Whatever is done, whatever office of authority and position is held in the Church of Christ, it must be by the voice of the people. This is truly republican.
Who rules in this Territory? Who makes choice of the officers? The majority? No. As a matter of fact, the voice of a very few in our precincts and cities and counties and Territory, and in the United States, determine who shall be the men to rule. If the voice of the majority had determined, so far as the voters of the United States were concerned, we would have had different men for Presidents at different times, and we should find that the majority of the popular vote would be in favor of Grover Cleveland, instead of General Harrison; but a majority of the States were in favor of General Harrison.
Now, I expect the time to come when the majority of the people will determine this important question, when the voice of all intelligent people may be heard, as when we come together here at our general Conferences, and at our local and quarterly Conferences, or in our Wards, when we vote for Bishops and other officers to preside over us, to be our servants and to labor for us; we let all come who have the right and the voice, and allow them to speak and vote for the man of their choice. The majority rule. I expect to see the time in governments also when that will be the case--when not only men but women will have the privilege of voting, and have their voices heard in the selection of men to preside over them, and to be their servants and rulers.
I expect the time to come when what is done upon this earth will be done as it is now done by the Latter-day Saints--by the common consent of all. The man who faithfully serves the people, has at his back the whole of that people. He has their faith, their prayers, their good wishes, and good will; and so it should be in every department of government. The man who serves the people, ought to have their united support, and then they have strength.
I ask again, what great number of important people among the Latter-day Saints have broken up their faith during the last five or six years? You take the same length of time in the early part of the history of the Church, or from the time when the Quorum of the Twelve were first chosen, from 1835 up to 1840; one-half of that Quorum turned away from the truth and were found arrayed with the enemies of the Prophet. A great portion of the people also turned away at the same time, and at different times; and so they have done all along up to the present. If such a spectacle had been presented to us during the last six years, would not the Latter-day Saints have been astonished? If half of the Quorum of the Twelve had fallen off, if half of the High Council had fallen off, would it not have startled the Stakes of Zion? If half of the High Council of any Stake, or half of the High Priests' Quorum had turned and fallen away from the truth, would not that Stake have been startled to witness anything of that kind?
We were startled when one of the Quorum of the Twelve had to be cut off from the Church. It startled the people generally, to think that an Apostle could fall because of his sin; and there has, perhaps, been a Bishop or two much in the same line. But has any one of these--taking the Apostle and those others who have fallen because of their sins during the last five or six years--turned away from his faith in the Gospel? They have fallen because of their transgression; but have they not held to the faith? Think of them now; count them on your fingers, and find where the men are who have turned bitter against the work of God, although they have fallen through their transgression. The Gospel had been so planted in their hearts, before their sin and transgression, that they could not and do not grow away from it. Although caught in their transgressions and cast out of the Church, from that time to this moment they have plead for mercy, and desired to return to the fold, knowing this was the Kingdom of God. These are the facts in the case.
Then have we any occasion to be troubled? No. Even though some may have fallen and many more should turn away from the truth and deny the Lord who bought them with His own precious blood, it ought not to shake us. Because the Lord has arranged to establish each individual man, and He has done it; and I testify to you that God has established His people individually and made them secure. He has done it through all these years; for we have had experience of this in that the Gospel has found its way with us into Europe, and Great Britain, and different parts of the United States, and among the islands of the sea. We have had experience there in the gathering in of the Saints; we have come here and we have partaken of the spirit of the Gospel, a little here and a little there; and all the experience and vicissitudes through which the Church has passed, have tended to establish the people, although they have been engrossed in every kind of business, merchandising, trading, farming, and the like. Yet they have prayed and labored, and the Lord has taken hold of them and made them secure, and planted their feet so that they shall not be destroyed, and made them fast in the land. And they will remain. They are not to be broken or divided, or scattered abroad; but are to remain as the Church and Kingdom of God upon the earth.
Then, Latter-day Saints who are here today, let us take courage, and let us encourage all others we possibly can, meet them where we may, either at home or abroad, in liberty or in prison; wherever we are, let every man be a laborer for the salvation of men; and if a man enjoys the spirit of his calling to the Priesthood which God has conferred upon him, put him where you may--if there are intelligences he will work wonders with them. He will be laboring and studying for their salvation, feeling after their hearts, and working for their good; for it is the office of the Priesthood and the calling of God's chosen servants, to be the saviors of men and to be laboring for them, be they where you please. I pray that the Lord may sustain you and this Church, and that we may be devoted and faithful to one another--true to the obligations we have taken upon ourselves in the House of the Lord; that we may not shrink nor be cowardly; but that we may value the obligations that are upon us, and be true to the Lord, even to the laying down of our lives.
Not many of us will have to do this--only a few. We shall all have to die, but not by violence; we shall all die in due time, and it is not a very serious ordeal. When death comes in and relieves us of our sorrows, troubles, sighings and tears in this life, it comes in gratefully many times; perhaps more times than we can appreciate. But we ought to acknowledge the hand of the Lord in death as we do in the birth.
I have been brought to understand and to feel in my very heart, that it is a much more serious thing to be born than it is to die; for at our birth we come into a world that is full of sorrow and trouble and trial and tribulation and difficulties of every variety and kind. But when we have been faithful through this life, and death comes to us, we ought to be grateful to God--we ought to be thankful that our labor is finished and we have kept the faith, for we rest in peace and are relieved of all sorrows and trials for the future.
God bless you, my brethren and sisters, that we may be constant day by day, faithful to the last, and that we may be saved and exalted in the Celestial Kingdom. Amen.
The response from the congregation was scarcely audible, and Apostle Lyman turned again to the stand and said:
"I wonder that you Latter-day Saints do not say `Amen,' with more vehemence, after the way in which I have worked and labored for you. I wonder that you Latter-day Saints have not power and energy enough after I have been speaking for God for you today, to do this. Brethren and sisters, you ought to be all willing to say `Amen,' if you believe the doctrines and the testimonies which have been taught you. We should surely be able to teach one another to say at the close of the speaker's remarks, `Amen.'
If you believe the doctrines I have taught you today, and the counsels which have been given you, I say, let every man and woman here say `Amen.'"
The congregation responded with a loud "Amen." Apostle Lyman--Now, that is pretty good; don't forget it.
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