Discourse 1891-11-01
ber 1st, .
-[REPORTED BY ARTHUR WINTER.]-
I would like to talk a little to the
Latter-day Saints who have assembled
here this afternoon, if I can get the
faith of the Saints and the Spirit of the
Lord to assist me.
This morning, before coming to
meeting, I studied with a good deal of
interest some paintings at Brother
Moses Thatcher's—"Christ before
Pilate," and "Christ on Calvary." I
thought to myself, in looking at them,
that the Savior, as Brother Joseph F.
Smith bad said, certainly descended
below all things. He came down
here to earth, was born of woman, in
a dispensation appointed of the Father,
and tabernacled in the flesh. See him
travel from the manger to the cross,
onward through blood to the throne of
grace appointed unto Him, in poverty
and in affliction, never handling any
money that we have any account of.
Think for a few moments the short
time that He labored in the flesh
after His appointment by the Father—
three years and a half. Look at the
suffering that He went through, the
labor He performed—the organization
of the Church of God, the appointing
of Twelve Apostles, of seventy Apos-
tles, and a few disciples, who followed
Him during that period. Then reflect
that not only He himself was con-
demned and crucified, shedding His
blood for the redemption of the world,
but every one of His Apostles was put
to death for the word of God and testi-
mony of Jesus Christ, excepting John
the Revelator. They could not kill
him, the Lord having appointed him
to live; otherwise, he would have been
slain with the rest. While looking at
the Savior nailed to the cross—a Jew,
through the loins of Abraham and
David, condemned by the Jews as well
as the Gentiles, I thought of our own
condition in these mountains. We have
passed through sixty years as a people,
and why have you got the Presidency
with you today? Why have you
Apostles living in your midst, walking
your streets in freedom, after sixty
years? Why do you have upwards of
two hundred thousand Latter-day
Saints gathered together in these val-
leys of the mountains, in the midst of
a generation of sixty millions of peo-
ple? These are questions which should
be answered in the minds of the Lat-
ter-day Saints. There is a meaning,
brethren and sisters, to all these things.
We live in a different dispensation,
and under a different order of things,
in one sense, to what the Savior and
the Apostles did. That was a day of
sacrifice. Those holy men who bore
the Apostleship in that day were ready
to lay down their lives with the Savior,
and their lives were short compared
with the history of the Church of God
in our day. They were all slain, with
one exception, and God took them to
Himself. He also took the Priesthood
from the earth, and it remained in the
hands of God the Father and His Son
Jesus Christ until 1829. Long centuries
passed away. Millions of human
beings were born, dwelt on the earth,
died, and went into the spirit world, and
not one soul of them, so far as we
have any knowledge, had power to go
forth among mankind and administer
in the ordinances of the Gospel of life
and salvation. There were, doubtless,
millions of good men, who acted up to
the best light that they had. There
were such men as John Wesley, Martin
Luther, Wickliffe, Zwingli, Melanc-
thon, and thousand of others, who
came forth in their day and preached
the Gospel according to the light which
they possessed. But they did not have
the power to administer in one ordi-
nance which had any force after death.
They did not hold the holy Priesthood.
Now, in our day and generation, we
have arrived at a point in the history
of the world when this Priesthood is
restored. The Lord raised up Joseph
Smith. He came forth in the proper
time. He organized a Church. Who
was Joseph Smith? Was he a lawyer?
Was he a doctor of divinity? Was he
what is called a great man, a learned
man? No, he was but a youth; the
world would say an illiterate, ignorant
youth. He was an unlearned youth
in the things of the world. But he was
a pure man. He came forth through
the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. He was prophesied of by
the ancient patriarchs and proph-
ets. The Book of Mormon gives his
name. Joseph Smith was moved upon
by the Holy Ghost, and he was admin-
istered unto, in answer to his prayers,
by the Father and the Son; and the
Father said to him, "This is my be-
loved Son, hear ye Him." [Joseph Smith—History 1:17] He list-
ened strictly to the words of Jesus
Christ, and continued to do so until
he, like the Savior, was put to death,
though he was not crucified, because it
was not the custom of the day. I may
say that it seemed strange to me at that
time why the Prophet and his brother
Hyrum were permitted to be taken out
of our midst. But Joseph Smith, by
commandment of God and by the
power and revelations of heaven, was
ordained and laid the foundation of
this great dispensation and fulness of
times. He was brought into the world
and ordained to organize this Church
of Christ for the last time upon this
earth, to prepare it for the coming of
the Son of Man. After his death, on
