Discourse 1889-07-14 [D-171]

PRESIDENT WILFORD WOODRUFF.

I do not know that I can make this congregation hear me, but I would like to make a few remarks.

I will say that if this whole assembly could have their eyes opened to behold all the creations of God— the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, the fish of the sea, and the fourteen hundred millions of people that inhabit this world, with every spear of grass and every flower—it is said you could find no two things alike. This has been represented many times by men concerning the creations of God. This eternal variety on the earth is no greater than that among the spirits who have dwelt in the presence of God in the eternal worlds and who have taken and will take tabernacles on this earth. This variety has also been manifest in all the revelations that have been given to us concerning the children of men or the creations of God. So great has this variety been that it seems Lucifer, the son of the morning, a personage who was great in the presence of God, rebelled against God and drew away with him one-third of the whole host of heaven. They deserted the Lord and followed Lucifer. And I do not know how many were "astride the fence" and did not know which way to go; but I presume there were a good many of them. This variety has remained with the spirits in heaven and on the earth. The Lord revealed this principle to Father Abraham. He showed unto him the spirits that dwelt with Him and told Abraham that many of those spirits were more noble than others, and said unto him: "These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good." He also said to Abraham, "Thou art one of them, thou wast chosen before thou wast born." [##Abraham 3:23##] And the Lord blessed Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve tribes of Israel, who sprang from Jacob. They all received their patriarchal blessings, and every one of those blessings has been fulfilled to the very letter as fast as the time would permit. From that day until the present the Almighty has made use of the seed of Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob, in a great measure, to perform His work on the earth. Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God and the Savior of the world, was a literal descendant of Abraham, through the loins of Judah. [##Matthew 1:1-16##]

I will here say a few words in reference to the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah spoke and prophesied upon a very broad ground. In speaking of the judgments of God which were to come upon great Babylon and the raising up of Cyrus to destroy Babylon, in fulfillment of the promises which had been made, and also in speaking of the destruction of the wicked and their cities, he says: "But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end." [##Isaiah 45:17##] That was the promise of God to Israel. And all the judgments of God that have ever followed Israel from the days of Father Abraham to this hour have come upon them through transgression. The Jews caused Christ to be put to death, against the judgment of the Gentile judges who were in their midst. Moses told the Jews what would follow them. Jesus Christ did likewise. The Apostles also warned them of the evils that would come upon them if they turned away from the commandments of God. These things have been fulfilled to the very letter. For eighteen hundred years the Jews have been trampled under the feet of the Gentiles, and the yoke is upon them today. But the Rothschilds and other rich Jews are returning to rebuild Jerusalem, in fulfillment of the words of the ancient prophets.

Whenever and wherever God has raised up prophets or a people, no matter who they were, the evil spirits, who are very numerous, have always sought to kill them. You cannot point me to a prophet or an apostle who has ever lived on the face of the earth that was popular in his day. The people have always fought them. Jesus Christ certainly was a good man. He was the Savior of the world. He committed no sin; yet all Jerusalem and Judea and the surrounding country were opposed to Him and fought Him until they put Him to death.

I now say to the Latter-day Saints, you are of the house of Israel. Nearly all of you are of the tribe of Ephraim. You have been a mixed cake among the Gentiles. The Gospel of Christ found you, and you have received it. You have been gathered to these valleys of the mountains. The Lord chose Joseph Smith to establish this Church and kingdom. He brought forth the blessings of the Gospel. He received the holy Priesthood from the angels of God. That Priesthood has been given to you. Why? You are the descendants of Israel, and God has called you and placed upon you this work, to warn the generation in which you live, and if you do not do it, you will be under condemnation. But are we popular? No. Shall we ever be? No, not in the generation in which we live. The Lord has chosen these Apostles and Prophets and Elders of Israel and laid upon them the holy Priesthood, and we have been called to go forth with the fulness of the everlasting gospel and warn this generation. If we had not done it, we would have been under condemnation and the curse of God would have rested upon us.

Latter-day Saints, you have no time to be divided. You have no time to forsake the Lord. You have no time to depart from doing the works of righteousness. If you do, the afflictions of the Lord will rest upon you, as they rested upon Israel in former days. The revelations of God declare this. The Bible declares that in the last days the God of heaven would set His hand to gather His people and to establish His Church and Kingdom, that Mount Zion might be built up and His people stand in holy places while His judgments overtook the world.

We are here today. We profess to be Latter-day Saints, and we hold the Holy Priesthood. What Brother Geo. Q. Cannon has said to you is true; you have never seen a day, you never will see a day, in time or in eternity, when you can get beyond the need of the protection and care of God. You need it all the way through your lives. When our young men, or our old men, or our maidens, feel that they have arrived at a point that they are independent of the Lord, they will find that they are greatly mistaken. We are all here upon a mission. That mission is to build up Zion and to preach the gospel and warn the inhabitants of the earth of the judgments of which the heavens are full, and which are about to be poured out upon the earth. It is the lot of this congregation and of all people who now dwell on the face of the earth to live in the last day and generation before the coming of the Son of Man, [##Moses 7:65##] in the which will be fulfilled the promises of God concerning the winding up scene, the pouring out of the plagues, the opening of the seals and all those judgments which are to be poured out. These things will surely come to pass, in spite of all efforts of earth and hell. Therefore, I say, honor and serve God, and keep His commandments. We shall soon go to the other side of the veil, where other generations have gone before us— the rich and the poor, the saint and the sinner, the president, the emperor, the king, the judge, and all other men. We have been sent here upon a mission; and when you and I get through we will read our history; it will be before us, and it will be before the Great Judge, who will decree righteous judgment upon all flesh.

This is our condition today. I know this is the work of the Lord. I know the Lord has raised up a Prophet. I know He has given unto this Prophet and unto His servants, the Holy Priesthood, which is the power of God to administer in all the ordinances of life and salvation, both for the living and the dead. We are held responsible for the use we make of this Priesthood, and for the use we make of the blessings which God has given unto us. Therefore, brethren and sisters, let us look around ourselves. We have not yet got beyond the dictation and direction of the Lord. He is God, and there is none else. He created this world. He created it to be occupied by His children. But this eternal variety is here. Some men want to commit murder; some delight in doing all manner of wickedness and abomination; while others do not take pleasure in this and look upon it as wrong. This has been so from one generation to another. These evil spirits are with us, and they make war against the Church of Christ and against the Priesthood: and our help, our sustenance, our defense, our refuge, and our salvation is in the God of Israel. As Brother Cannon has said, it is our duty to make our wants known there. If we do not do our duty, if we stray from the commandments of God, we shall be chastised.

I pray God that those who have entered into covenant with the Lord and with one another will not forget their position; that they will not forget why they are here and where they came from, nor forget their duty to God and to one another. I pray God to bless us all, and to give us His spirit to guide and direct us through our mission and probation here in the flesh, that when we come into the presence of God and the Lamb and of those old patriarchs and prophets, and of our brethren and sisters who have lived in this generation and have passed away, we may be satisfied with our lives and with our work and labor here, which may God grant, for Christ's sake. Amen.