Discourse 1884-04-05 [D-119]

PRESIDENT WILFORD WOODRUFF

Said this was the fifty-fourth anniversary of the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He considered the human voice a poor medium to convey the impressions upon the soul of man. It was a matter of impossibility in the few moments he had to stand before the people to ezpress his reflections upon the things of God and the duties of the Saints. There was a vast amount of subjects of great interest to us as a people. He endorsed the sentiments advanced on the subject of home industries. He wished to say a few words on the conflict between truth and error, light and darkness. We were in the midst of it and so were the servants of God from the beginning. It would be so down to the end of time. This warfare commenced in heaven One third of the host of heaven rebelled against God and His Christ while the two-thirds kept their first estate. This made a tremendous number of fallen spirits who were cast down to the earth, without bodies, constituting those evil ones who tempted those who had bodies to do evil. Whenever there were men on earth who labored to establish righteousness and introduce a celestial law, these spirits worked against them and influenced the majority of mankind to reject the servants of God. It cost the servants of God their lives. It cost Joseph Smith his life. This warfare would continue. These evil spirits would war against the Saints, against God, against Christ, against His work until the time came when Satan and his hosts should be bound for a thousand years. But we had the promises of the Lord for our encouragement that this work should stand. God had decreed that He would establish His work in the dispensation of the fulness of times never to be cast down. There was no higher calling on the face of the earth than to become a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. The day had dawned when the God of heaven had stretched out His hand to restore Judah and Israel, and set up His dominion. Our business was to labor for this cause. It had come here to stay. Though the Prophet and Patriarch were martyred, and this people had been driven, the progress of this work had not been and could not be stayed. The God of heaven required us to warn this generation, who were approaching a very important day and time. A class of beings would follow the Elders in their testimonies to the world, beings who would command the thunders and the tempests and the destroying elements as witnesses to the truth of our testimony and the truths we proclaim would rise in judgment against the wicked in the great day of the Lord.