Defense of the Faith and the Saints. B. H. Roberts

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СКАЧАТЬ us, it must not embitter our minds, or make us feel hateful toward our fellowmen, or lead us to regard the whole world as our enemies. We must keep the sweetness of our own disposition. The language of the Savior wherein he says, "Marvel not if the world hate you: it hated me before it hated you, if you were of the world, the world would love its own," etc., I contended then and believe now that the truth of that declaration will be more plainly seen if we read it in this way: "Marvel not if the worldly hate you." If the ungodly, if those who make and love a lie—if such classes as these hate you, marvel not; for they were the classes that hated the Christ and the light and truth that he brought into the world, because their deeds were evil, and his light and truth were a reproof to their evil ways. And as we say concerning the "Kingdom of Evil," so we say with reference to those who hate the truth and make war upon the righteous, they are not of any one cult, or confined to any one sect or division of the religious world, but, unhappily, are found here and there among all classes of people, among all Christian sects, among all religions and sects of philosophy. We ought to rightly divide, not only the word of truth, but the wicked and the ungodly from those who in common with us are seeking to know God and to keep his commandments. And there are millions who are hungering and thirsting for that knowledge; and we from time to time shall find them and lead them into God's temple of truth, where they shall be satisfied at the feast that the Lord is preparing for all those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

      The purpose of the Lord in instituting his Church in the earth is very beautifully set forth in one of the revelations in the D&C, as follows:

      "If this generation harden not their hearts, I will establish my Church among them. Now I do not say this to destroy my Church, but I say this to build up my Church. Therefore, whosoever belongeth to my Church need not fear for such shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. But it is they who do not fear me, neither keep my commandments, but build up churches unto themselves to get gain, yea, all those that do wickedly and build up the kingdom of devil; yea, verily, verily, I say unto you, that it is they that I will disturb, and cause to tremble and shake to the center."

      From this it very clearly appears that the purpose of God in the introduction of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times was not to destroy any truth that existed in the world, but to add to that truth, to increase it, and to draw together all truth and develop it into a beautiful system which men may rest contented, knowing God and their relationship to him, knowing of the future and their relation to that future.

      We should present our message to the world in spirit of peace, charity and longsuffering; and avoid contention; for as our Book of Mormon tells us, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of God. I would the world could understand the unselfishness of our motives in presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ to them; if they could only know that our only desire was that they should come to a knowledge of the great principles of truth that are so comforting to us; that we desire their repentance and acceptance of the fullness of the truth, only that they might find favor with God, and share in our hopes of that eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began—if our fellowmen could be made to understand that this is our only purpose, it seems to me that many of the barriers that now separate us from our fellowmen would be broken down, and we would be able to reach the hearts of the people. I believe that as time passes and we become wiser in the methods of work we adopt, we will do that more and more, causing not only hundreds of thousands but millions of our Father's children to partake of those great blessings that the Gospel has brought to us. To make known these truths and cause the children of men to participate in the blessings that we ourselves enjoy, we yearly send hundreds of our Elders to the various nations of the earth. They sacrifice the pleasant associations of home, the society of wives and children, parents and friends; they sacrifice professional advantages and business opportunities; and sometimes sacrifice health and even life itself to proclaim to the world the truth which God has made known to us—enduring the world's reproach and contumely, because the world does not understand them nor their message; and there is still need, of the prayer on our part, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." For the benefit of those who have passed away from the earth without a knowledge of the great truths and saving power of the gospel of Christ, we rear costly temples, whose spires pierce the skies of our beloved Utah; and within them at great sacrifice of time and means, the saints of God assemble to apply the principles and ordinances of the everlasting gospel to those who have passed away without the privilege of accepting them while upon the earth. A more completely unselfish work than this does not exist among men. On every hand the work of God bears the stamp of unselfishness upon it. Our Book of Mormon says: "The laborers in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money, they shall perish." So through all the communications of God to his people shines the glorious principle of absolute unselfishness. Not only is it to be found in the words of our books, but a like testimony is written in the works of the Latter-day Saints—in their actions. Everywhere unselfishness abounds in the Church of Christ, both in theory and practice. Now, if we can only get the people of the world to understand this fact of unselfishness—this very genius of Mormonism—if they could be made to know that Mormonism is here to do good, to raise mankind from the low levels on which men are content to walk to the higher planes where God would have them walk, that they might have sweet fellowship with God, much of our difficulty in preaching the gospel would disappear. May the Lord hasten the day when the world shall know the Saints and the work of God better.

      [1 The assertion, "those professors were all corrupt," must not be taken as referring to the whole body of Christians; but rather as referring to the teachers of their creeds—the "professors;" that term not being used in the sense of "confessors" of the creeds, who merely accept their doctrine from the teachings of the "professors." This interpretation is justified from the immediate context of the passage: "They (the professors) draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; they (the "professors") teach for doctrine the commandments of men." This context clearly proves that the charge of "corruption" is limited at least to the teachers, to the "professors," not to the whole body of Christians. Moreover, I am convinced myself that the declaration is still further limited to the "professors" who founded and by that act taught to the world the creeds that are an abomination in the sight of God—a fact not at all difficult of belief, or proof, upon an analysis of the creeds themselves. And those who originally could form such conceptions of God and man and the purposes of human existence, as the creeds teach, were certainly men of warped understandings, men of perverted or corrupted minds. But as to the whole body of Christians, we know that there were at the time of the opening of this new dispensation of the Gospel, and now, many who were not only not corrupt, except for the ordinary weaknesses or "corruption" of our human nature—but virtuous, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, seeking after God, and hindered from finding him only by the abominable creeds formulated by the "professors" of the passage here considered.]

      [2 History of the Church, vol. II, p. 431.]

      [3 Doc. & Cov. Sec. 18, 19–21.]

      III.

       SOME RECENT LITERATURE ON MORMONISM.

       Table of Contents

FOREWORD.

       Table of Contents

      The following brief discussion of Mr. I. Woodbridge Riley's work, is an address delivered at the Seventy-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church, held in Salt Lake City, Oct. 5, 1903. Mr. Riley's book of 446 pages is a well written thesis on the "Founder of Mormonism," and was published in 1902. It is a psychological study of Joseph Smith the Prophet. The purpose of the work is set forth in the author's preface, as follows:

      "The aim of this work is to examine Joseph Smith's character СКАЧАТЬ