THE FOOLISHNESS OF GOD
And the Wisdom of Men
"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. . . . Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (Cor. 1:18, 25.)
So spake Paul in olden days, and he knew whereof he spake. Rich in the learning of Jews and Greeks, ripe in scholarship and experience, he possessed breadth of foresight and depth of insight far exceeding the average capacity of men; and to these superior qualifications of mind must be added the transcendent spiritual endowments of the apostle, the prophet, the seer, the revelator.
His abnegation and humility are no less striking than the incontestable sincerity and genuineness of his avowals. Inspired philosopher as he was, he discriminated with keen perception and clear vision between knowledge and wisdom, and with masterly skill contrasted the fallible teachings of men with the unshakable averments of prophecy.
The Greeks of Paul's time prided themselves on their learning, philosophy, and science, much of which last was "falsely so called." By such the preaching of the cross, the teachings of the Gospel, the precepts of eternal life were accounted but vain babblings. Those pagan Greeks were mindtrained but spirit-dwarfed. And that type of misshapen monstrosity is not yet extinct.
The brutal protagonists of autocratic tyranny, whose barbarous kultur impels to crimes innumerable and atrocities indescribable, profess to regard the might of righteousness as but maudlin sentiment and puerile weakness. Boastful of material achievements and the temporary success of their diabolical system of selfishness and arrogance, they blaspheme the name and power of the living God, whose will it is that every soul be free.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the Divine will and purpose. That Gospel enjoins obedience to righteous law as the guaranty of individual liberty. It endures as the unchanging expression of eternal wisdom, though by carnally-minded sinners ridiculed as foolishness.
As early as 1833, in a revelation through the prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord declared that both strong drinks and hot drinks were injurious to the body. In that period the use of alcoholic beverages was common, and the consumption of hot drinks, particularly as tea and coffee, was well nigh universal. Promulgation of the Divine warning against these harmful customs was treated as a fad born of fanaticism. Inexorable fact has compelled acknowledgment of the Word of Wisdom (see D&C, Sec. 89) as the pronouncement of Nature's God. Prohibition of the use of intoxicants has become a question of supreme international importance. The efficiency of armies and navies is seen to be gravely conditioned thereby. Some of the world's most eminent surgeons aver that the habitual use of hot drinks is one of the most effective causes of gastric ulcer and cancer, which are classed among the deadliest of maladies.
The same revelation voices a direct inhibition against the use of tobacco by man, and this avowal, now branded as extreme and uncalled for, is destined yet to become the basis of secular enactment.
The immoderate use of flesh foods was specified by Divine utterance as harmful. The exigencies of war enforced restriction of meat eating, and the nation was bettered thereby.
Unchastity, the dominant vice of the ages, has been tolerated as an irrepressible feature of the social system, and this notwithstanding the warning fiat of Jehovah against marital infidelity and sexual sin in all its hideous phases. The imperative demand for efficiency in this crucial age of stress and struggle has literally forced a measured though lamentably inadequate acceptance of the Divine requirement, for the statistical data of incapacity due to so-called social diseases are so astounding and show a condition so frightful as to make plain that the very foundations of civilization are jeopardized.
Men have been prone to turn deaf ears to the voice of God, delivered through the prophets always in season to avert threatening calamities; and have rested in the lethal contentment of self-confident ability to deal in their own way with the problems of life. How surpassingly wiser would it be, as shown in the light of our dearly-bought experience, to acknowledge the wisdom of God's beneficence, and profit thereby. Prophecy is direct and sure, science laggard and tentative. One is the advance message from God, the other man's belated and ofttimes distorted version of the truth.
Mormonism proclaims the Gospel of Christ as the panacea for the ills of men and nations. Its proclamation to the world is the assurance of peace on earth and good will among men, through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. The veriest moiety of the wisdom of God transcends the accumulated knowledge of men in its entirety.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is calling aloud to every nation, kindred, tongue and people: Have faith in God. Deal justly with one another. Make amends for past wrongs before opportunity is forfeited. Strive to enter in at the gate to the Kingdom of God while yet you may, for verily the time is short, and the coming of the Lord is near. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, by which ye shall be guided in the paths of truth and inherit salvation at the great and terrible day of the Lord which is nigh, even at your doors.
FREEDOM THROUGH OBEDIENCE
Release from Autocracy of Sin
"COME unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matt. 11:28-30.)
A blessed invitation indeed!
Seemingly faint at heart over the unbelief of the people, our Lord had sought strength in prayer. With the soulful eloquence characteristic of the anguish-laden communion which at recurrent periods He had with the Father, the Savior voiced His reverent gratitude that God had imparted a testimony of the truth to the humble and lowly whom He likened unto trusting babes, rather than unto men proud in their learning and arrogant in self-assumption.
Then turning to the common people, the multitude who had just witnessed His miracles and listened to His lofty yet simple precepts, He urged anew their acceptance of Him and His Gospel in one of the grandest outpourings of spiritual emotion recorded for man to read.
His summoning yet pleading call was addressed to priestridden and Rome-governed Jews. Many of them yearned for release from thraldom, but the national spirit had been so broken that most of them had become inured to vassalage and tolerant of bondage.
The priestly hierarchy was boastful of its status, and strove effectively to deceive the people into the belief that they were free while sweating under the burdens of unrighteous exaction.
What had Christ to offer in mitigation of their grievous state? Certainly not the emancipation for which false rabbinical precept had led them to look—the reestablishment of the throne of David as an earthly kingdom, destined to subjugate all other nations by force of arms and make supreme the scepter of rehabilitated Israel.
Christ's kingdom was not, is not, nor ever shall be a merely secular or political dominion. His throne and crown are not of earthly make.
The people of Israel had brought themselves into bondage. Their vanished glory and fallen status had been foretold as an alternative fate, which would fall upon them if they departed from the covenant and proved recreant to the God of their fathers. But more burdensome than Roman mastership was the literal serfdom of priestly misrule. Rome was tolerant and conciliatory, while those who for the time sat in Moses' seat gloried in the shackles they had riveted upon the people through a blasphemous misapplication of the Law.
To the overladen and weary Jews came the offer of rest and peace. The Lord pleadingly invited them from drudgery to pleasant service, from the well-nigh unbearable burdens of ecclesiastical exaction and traditional formalism to the liberty of true worship, from slavery to freedom.
But they would not.
The Gospel He offered was and is the embodiment of liberty, untainted by selfish license. True, it entailed obedience and submission; but even if such could be likened unto a yoke, what was its burden in comparison with the incubus under which they groaned?
The offer, the call, the invitation is in full force and effect today. Transgression of the law is primarily or indirectly the cause of all suffering. Obedience to righteous law is the price of liberty. In such obedience lies happiness.
By a government of the people, administered in equity, every man is under wholesome restriction in compliance with which he finds privilege and protection.
Irresponsibility is directly opposed to enduring freedom. But what are the restraints of democracy in contrast with enslavement under autocratic rule? How easy the yoke, how light the burden, and how glorious the blessings of righteous government!
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the expression of the eternal truth that shall make men free. It prescribes obedience, compliance, voluntary submission as the conditions of enfranchisement in the kingdom of God. In its conflict with sin the Gospel neither slays nor makes men prisoners. Its weapons are persuasion, invitation, and awakening summons. Its antagonists suffer self-inflicted punishment, bring upon themselves imprisonment within the bars of lost opportunity, and formulate their own sentence of eventual banishment as alien enemies of the truth.
Liberty through obedience was the theme of Benjamin, the ancient prophet and king who thus addressed his penitent people, respecting their acknowledgment of Christ as the Author of salvation:
"And under this head, ye are made free, and there is no other head whereby ye can be made free. There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God, that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives." (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 5:8.)
And unto the repentant and obedient of the present day the Lord has spoken through the prophet Joseph Smith:
"Abide ye in the liberty wherewith ye are made free; entangle not yourselves in sin, but let your hands be clean, until the Lord come." (D&C 88:86.)
The Lord has spoken, saying to all men and nations: Come unto me in faith, doubting not; repent of your sins; be baptized for the remission thereof; and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost and He shall guide you in the truth that shall make you free.
HE WENT AND WASHED
And Came Seeing
THE ninth chapter of John contains an absorbingly graphic account of a man who had been born blind, yet who was made to see through the ministrations of the Lord Jesus Christ. As in every other miracle wrought by the Savior, the outward or visible procedure in this case was strikingly simple.
Jesus anointed the sightless eyes with clay, and said unto the man: "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam." The sequel is thus tersely recorded: "He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing."
The man had been a mendicant, a blind beggar, and as such was a familiar character in his neighborhood. Word of the miracle spread and a great stir arose among both the common folk and the learned Pharisees. The day of the healing was the Sabbath, and the hypercritical Pharisees laid stress on this point as proof that He who had given sight to the blind man was obviously a sinner, for He had healed on the Holy Day, whereon all manner of work was forbidden.
With the assurance characteristic of a sincere mind that knows whereof it speaks, and with incisive directness, the happy recipient of our Lord's bounty replied: "Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see."
Then the inquisitors questioned the man anew as to the precise means by which his eyes had been opened; but he refused to repeat what they had already treated with derision, and ironically inquired if they were about to join the disciples of the Healer. This served but to increase their anger. They boasted of being disciples of Moses, but as for Christ, whom they referred to as "this fellow," they furiously declared that they knew not whence He came.
They were enraged that an illiterate beggar should answer so boldly in their scholarly presence; but the man was more than a match for them all. His rejoinder was maddening because it flouted their vaunted wisdom, and, withal, was unanswerable.
"Why, herein is a marvellous thing," said he, "that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing."
Unable to cope in argument or demonstration with the erstwhile sightless beggar, those blinded Pharisees could at least exercise their official authority, however unjustly, by excommunicating him from the congregation of the synagog, and this they promptly and wickedly did.
The case in all its bearings is typical of current conditions, as indeed it has been of men in all ages. Physical blindness is a grievous affliction, and relief therefrom correspondingly gladsome. But it is of the body only, and though permitted to endure till death, it shall end.
For that deeper darkness—blindness of mind and heart—the grave is no curative. As between the sightless beggar and the sin-proud Pharisees, the latter were by far the blinder. He reverently rejoiced in the gift of sight, for he knew that he had been blind and that afterward he saw; they boasted of their vision, though living in darkness, and refused enlightement.
"Wo unto the blind that will not see; for they shall perish." (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 9:32.)
The requirements of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are the same today as in "the meridian of time" when the Master taught among men in Person. Likewise are there now many blind eyes, some of which are opened through the enlightenment of obedience, while others grow more and more darkened by the spreading cataract of false teaching, skepticism, and wilful sin.
Away with the benighting Pharisaism that sets the precepts of men above the revealed word of God! For spiritual blindness so induced, the Divine Healer offers sure relief. Oh, sightless man, anoint thine eyes with the balm of compliance with the laws and ordinances of the Gospel as enunciated by the Redeemer of men. Do but desire the light with repentant heart and with the deep full earnestness of a living faith, and then, in the waters of baptism be washed, and ye shall come, seeing.
Of deep import are these words of the Lord given unto an ancient Hebrew seer:
"And the mists of darkness are the temptations of the devil, which blindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men, and leadeth them away into broad roads, that they perish, and are lost." (Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 12:17.)
Man is not the author of the plan of salvation; and blind indeed are they who suppose that precepts, theories or systems originated or contrived by man can substitute or supersede the means divinely appointed for the redemption of mankind.
To the groping, sightless soul is offered the unction of faith and the ability to repent; and in the Siloam of baptism shall be received the enlightenment that guides the soul, once blind, now seeing, along the path leading to eternal life.
THE ROD OF IRON
A Dependable Support
UNTO Lehi, a prophet of Jerusalem, who by Divine command had gone with his family from the city into the wilderness, came the word of the Lord in vision.
The man stood by a tree, the fruit of which he found to be sweet, and "desirable to make one happy"; for, as he ate of it his soul was filled with peace and joy unspeakable. Near the tree, separating it from a spacious plain wherein great concourses of people had gathered, flowed a turbulent river of muddy, filthy water. The head of the stream was visible in the distance, and from this to the tree, alongside the river's treacherous bank, ran a narrow path, paralleling which was a rod of iron, firmly secured, and so placed that one could hold to it while treading the pathway.
Numerous people were observed moving toward the head of the stream, striving to lay hold on the iron rod, but dense mists of darkness arose, and enshrouded them, so that many became bewildered, and, abandoning their purpose of reaching the tree, were lost in the murky depths of the river. Of the more faithful and determined, he saw and testified:
"And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree." (Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 8:24; read chaps. 8 and 15).
An explication of the vision was given through inspiration. The tree shown to the prophet was the tree of life, and its fruit the salvation of the soul. Of the rod of iron it is written: "That it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction." (1 Nephi 15:24).
The river of foul waters typified the great gulf separating "the wicked from the tree of life, and also from the saints of God", and the state of loss and condemnation, which shall be the inevitable fate of the wilfully and unregenerate wicked.
The present is an age of whirl and swirl, in which many reach out confusedly and despairingly for support, buffeted by the waves of theologic dogma, swept hither and thither by the creeds and precepts of men, blown about by the winds of conflicting doctrines, bewildered by the mists of darkness, which are "the temptations of the devil, which blindeth the eyes and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men." (12:17).
The rod of iron is the Word of God unto man, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Faith in God, and in His Son Jesus Christ as the Redeemer and Savior of men, and contrite repentance of sin mark the beginning of the narrow path. We must hold fast to the rod, for the mists of darkness are dense and confusing; and it is easy to let go, to slip and slide and fall.
But with firm hand on the rod, stedfast feet on the path, we are led into the clear and purifying waters of baptism, without whose invigorating ablution we are unable to progress. Cleansed and strengthened we press on, even though the mists thicken; and by the enlightening baptism of the Spirit, which is administered by the authorized laying on of hands, we reach the tree, entitled to live thereafter gladdened and made strong by its sweet and nourishing bounty.
The rod of iron is still in place, fast, secure, a dependable support for every soul who strives with full purpose of heart to reach the tree of life. Clinging thereto we make sure progress, though the filthy waters beat hard by the narrow path. Let go, and we slip, then slide, and if we fail through strenuous effort and the aid of an outstretched helping hand to regain our grasp, we are swept away, carried by the torrent of confusion and uncertainty, perhaps into the engulfing Charybdis of fatalism or the dread Scylla of atheistical despair.
Mark you, that rod is unbendable, unbreakable, immovable. The pathway endures, is never in need of repairs by addition, new construction, or reinforcement. These are no product of man's skill. It is sadly true, however, that men have essayed to make roads, the while proclaiming that their broad highways lead to the tree of life. But never has one such thoroughfare been constructed to the promised destination; nor can it be. For a time these manmade roads are alluring in their macadamized smoothness, but they crumble and are worn into pitfalls, unsightly and dangerous.
"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." (Matt. 7:13, 14).
LIAR AND MURDERER
From the Beginning
THE Scriptures are equally definite in affirming the existence of both individual Gods and devils.
Of the former we recognize three, the Holy Trinity, comprising God the Eternal Father, God the Son who is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Ghost, these three individual Personages constituting the presiding council having supreme power and authority throughout the universe, and collectively known as the Godhead.
The devils are many, and their chieftain is Satan, who though unembodied is as truly an individual being as is any one of us. He is the personage who in the primeval world bore the exalted title of Lucifer, a son of the morning, and who with his rebellious horde was cast out, prior to the peopling of the earth. (See Rev. 12:7-9; also D&C 29:36-38, and 76:25-27; and Isa. 14:12-15).
On the best authority, that of the Lord Jesus Christ, we learn something of the character of this fallen son of the morning, the antagonist of righteousness, and the enemy of God and man. In denouncing the false beliefs and evil practises of certain unregenerate Jews, Christ spoke in these definite and forceful terms:
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not." (John 8:44-45).
A liar and a murderer from the beginning! He it was who beguiled the mother of the race, and that by the most dangerous of all falsehoods, the half-truth, in the use of which he is a past master.
He it was who taught the awful secret of murder to the fratricide, Cain, baiting the hook of infamous temptation with the lie, that, by slaying his brother, Cain would come into possession of Abel's flocks, and have much gain beside. (See Pearl of Great Price, pp. 22 and 23).
He it was who deceived Israel, by inducing them to revolt against the theo-democracy under which they had prospered, and to clamor for a king. Under kingly rule the nation was brought into vassalage and obscurity.
Primordially he and his angels were "cast out into the earth", and here they have since been, going up and down in the world, seeking whom they may deceive.
He is the author of sophistry and degrading skepticism, and of the whole foul mass of the philosophy and science "falsely so called", by which mankind are led to doubt the word of God, to becloud the Scriptures with vain imaginings and private interpretations, and to narcotize the mind with the poison of human invention as a substitute for revealed truth.
He is an adept at compounding mixtures of truth and falsehood, with just enough of the one to inspire a dangerous confidence, and of the other a toxic portion.
Beware of his prescriptions, his tonics and medicaments. Remember that water may be crystal clear, and yet hold in solution the deadliest of poisons.
He it is who has deceived peoples, tribes, and races, into servile submission to self-constituted rulers, and made of the masses slaves of autocrats, rather than to assert and maintain their rights as free men, whatever the effort and sacrifice be.
He it is who seeks to lead men captive at his will, to destroy their power of agency and choice, to dupe them into bartering their birthright of freedom for the nauseating pottage of present expediency.
He it is who has cajoled men into the unscriptural conception that there are ways, many and variable, by which salvation is attainable, other than the one and only way provided by the Savior of souls.
He is the arch-deceiver, the master sophist, the prime dissembler, the prince of hypocrites.
Concerning the devil's plan of subverting the rights of man, and of those who support it, Moroni, the last of the Nephite prophets, wrote:
"Whoso buildeth it up, seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents; yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men, that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning." (Book of Mormon, Ether 8:25).
Though great be Satan's power, deliverance therefrom is provided through compliance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, at whose advent, now near at hand, the promised millennium of peace shall be inaugurated, a blessed feature of which is that the devil shall be rendered impotent to further subjugate the souls of men, and "that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled." (Rev. 20:3).
ON THE DEVIL'S GROUND
Prisoners to Satan
IN the decisive issues of war there are victors and vanquished; the casualties comprise killed, wounded, and prisoners. Generally, capture by the enemy is the form of individual calamity most dreaded by the gallant soldier who knows he is fighting for the right, and particularly so if the foe be ruthless or treacherous.
In the battle of life as a whole, analogous conditions and categories obtain. The slain may have fallen in honor; for the disabled there is hope of recovery; but the fate of the captured is one of apprehension or dread certainty, ofttimes of horror.
When one is taken prisoner as the result of venturesome curiosity, reckless exposure, or disobedience to orders, he must bear the blame as well as the suffering consequent on capture. Many are prisoners because thoughtlessly, wilfully, or defiantly, they have trespassed upon the devil's ground, without warrant of duty or justifiable excuse. The soldier's part is to keep within the lines until ordered forward in attack to dislodge the foe.
Hosts of capable souls have heedlessly put themselves into the enemy's power by yielding to the treacherous invitation to fraternize with sin. Such a one is made welcome in the camp of the foe, and, at first a visitor, he sooner or later awakens to the fact that he is a prisoner, and withal a deserter from the ranks of patriotism and honor.
The young man, rich in hope and promise, sets out to see the world for himself—just to see, that's all, he says—and is overpowered in the grog-shop trench or the wanton's den—a prisoner in the power of a merciless and exulting foe.
Solemn as the sound of doom, piercing as the blast of angel's trump, is the Lord's affirmation: "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." (John 8:34.)
Who can find so much as excuse to think of himself as a freeman when he knows he is a slave—to base passion, to dishonorable desire, to hypocrisy and crime?
The prisoner's fate is as commonly the result of negative sin—of neglect, indolence, failure to do—as it is the consequence of ill-directed activity and positive transgression. Refusal to comply with the prescribed laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to permit or invite capture by the arch-enemy of souls.
Obedience is the test of allegiance, and he whom we obey, the leader we elect to follow, is the master who directs our destiny, whether in the liberty of righteousness or the serfdom of sin.
"Know ye not," wrote Paul of old to the proud Romans, "that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Rom 6:16.)
The certainty of capture by the enemy through passive irresolution or aggressive violation of Divine law, together with the actuality of the captive state was set forth by a Hebrew prophet on the Western Hemisphere centuries before the birth of Christ, as follows:
"For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger and perish.
"For behold, at that day [this latter, modern, present day] shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.
"And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say, All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well; and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.
"And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them, I am no devil, for there is none; and thus he whispereth in their ears until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance.
"Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith, must stand before the throne of God, and be judged according to their works, from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment." (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 28:19-23.)
It is evident from the foregoing and from the following, that captivity to the devil shall extend into the eternities as the state of those who have failed to establish their status as citizens in the Kingdom of freedom:
"For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance, even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked." (Alma 34:35.)
WHAT DOTH IT PROFIT A MAN?
Worldly Gain—Eternal Loss
"FOR what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37).
These are questions put by the Teacher of teachers. They are related; we may consider them as one. Simple, like unto all the Master's teachings—for high precept and profound philosophy are embodied in the interrogatory—the question is searching, peremptory, challenging. Who that hears or reads can brush it aside? Compelling in its incisive brevity, it is of haunting directness. Once considered, even cursorily, it will not down; once admitted to the inner consciousness, it will not out. The baubles of earth are set over against the priceless jewels of heaven; the fleeting things of mortality are put in contrast with the enduring verities of eternity.
Granted that this is a material world, and that experience in material affairs is a pervading and indispensable element in the curriculum of life's school, it is no less truly a fact that earth-life is neither the beginning nor the end of individual existence and progression.
Material belongings, relative wealth or poverty, physical environment—the things on which we are prone to set our hearts and anchor our aspirations, the things for which we sweat and strive, ofttimes at the sacrifice of happiness and to the forfeiture of real success—these after all are but externals, the worth of which in the reckoning to come shall be counted in terms of the use we have made of them.
Is the plow more than the field to be furrowed, or the sickle than the ripened grain? Can gold stay the hunger pangs better than the nourishing food that the money may buy?
The context with which occurs the crucial interrogation quoted above points the question sharply: "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's; the same shall save it."
The cross to be taken up may be heavy, perhaps to be dragged because too burdensome to be borne. We are apt to assume that self-denial is the sole material of our cross; but this is true only as we regard self-denial in its broadest sense, comprising both positive and negative aspects. One man's cross may consist mostly in refraining from doings to which he is inclined, another's in doing what he would fain escape. One's besetting sin is evil indulgence; his neighbor's a lazy inattention to the activities required by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, coupled perchance with puritanical rigor in other observances.
But the great question, striking home to every thoughtful soul, is that of the Master—"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26).
It is possible then for a man to lose his own soul. To deny is to reject the Lord's own doctrine. The safeguard against such incalculable loss is specifically indicated—to follow the Savior; and this can mean only keeping His commandments, whatever the temporary suffering or worldly sacrifice may be.
The occasion of Christ's question with its accompanying brief but forceful discourse was this: He had reiterated to the disciples, with greater directness than ever before, the facts of His approaching death and the ignominy that would be forced upon Him. Peter, impetuous and impulsive as ever, exclaimed "Be it far from thee Lord: this shall not be unto thee." In that remark, though well-intended and bold, lay the suggestion that Jesus should avert the impending tragedy to Himself, and save His own life. The Lord's reply to Peter was a rebuke of the severest kind.
Then followed the avowal that one who saves his life at the cost of righteous duty shall lose it, and the comforting assurance that he who is ready to sacrifice his life in the Master's service shall find it. If this be true with life as the stake, how more so shall it be with wealth, station, worldly power, or pet but false theory and doctrine, as the thing to be gained or lost?
Consider the words of Jacob the Nephite:
"O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves—wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. . .. Behold, the way for man is narrow but it lieth in a straight course before him; and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and He employeth no servant there; and there is none other way, save it be by the gate, for He cannot be deceived; for the Lord God is His name. And whoso knocketh, to him will He open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches; yea, they are they, whom He despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them." (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 9).
THE GARDEN OF GOD
And the Weeds of Human Culture
"BUT He answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." (Matt. 15:13.)
This significant and comprehensive avowal by the Lord Jesus Christ while in the flesh was spoken by way of rejoinder to a report from certain disciples that the Pharisees were offended at His doctrine. Some of the learned scribes and punctilious Pharisees had voiced the criticism that our Lord's disciples were in transgression because they ignored the tradition respecting the ceremonial washing of hands. The Master's rebuke was incisive and severe. He demanded of the casuistical complainers: "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" And He cited the glaring instance of the then current violation of the Divine command respecting the honor due to parents from their children, as occasioned by the hierarchic vagary of the Corban practise, by which undutiful children were enabled to escape their filial obligations. Then, calling to the multitude He loudly proclaimed, in denunciation of the unlawful exaction of arbitrary rule: "Hear and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man."
Who that heard could fail to note the clear differentiation between man-made rules and Divine law, between human tradition and the commandments of God?
Then followed the sweeping declaration cited above. What were the plants of Pharisaical tradition but noxious tares, doomed to be rooted up and burned?
Only the wheat of Divine planting shall be gathered into the garner of the Lord. But, as so impressively taught in parable, the wholesome grain and the poisonous tares are allowed to grow together for a season, lest perchance the premature extirpation of the weeds imperil the wheat.
Nations and kingdoms rise and fall, sometimes by God's immediate direction and through the instrumentality of men foreordained to the occasion, sometimes by Divine permission or allowance incident to the exercise of individual or national agency.
I cannot believe that God ever planted the noisome fungus of tyranny or kingly despotism. Nevertheless it has been permitted to flourish rankly in the soil of ignorance and false tradition; and its spores have been surreptitiously scattered even in the fields of fair freedom's flowers.
With God as with man there is a time of seeding and a time of harvest. Only now has the world been even measurably prepared for government based on the consent of the people, for the kind of government that shall yet be established in other lands as it has been already developed in America. Fifty, twenty, aye, even ten years ago, to have attempted forcibly to uproot the weeds of autocracy would have endangered the precious wheat of real democracy. There is a dominant element of timeliness in all the works of God. Verily He doeth all things well, and in propitious season.
Have you never read that in the last days all things shall be in commotion? We live in the predicted time of shaking, when every unstable structure shall totter, and only such as are established upon an eternal foundation shall stand. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews so understood, as witness his admonitory precept:
"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh." The reference is to Christ. "For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain." (Heb. 12:25-27.)
The things of God are not to be shaken even by the boom of man's heaviest artillery; they shall abide in spite of bomb and shell. But the works of human craft shall be shattered. Not only so as to material structures, but likewise man's sophistries, erroneous theories, conjectures, philosophy, and such science as is falsely so called.
Institutions of human origin may persist long years, but shall surely come to an end. In and after the resurrection they shall have neither place nor name. Institutions established by the authority of heaven alone can endure.
To administer in the ordinances of God requires an authority distinctively different from any that man can originate or arrogate to himself. Let Caesar regulate the things of Caesar, if you will, but let not Caesar essay to administer the things of God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is eternal, it shall never be destroyed nor shaken. The laws of God are immutable and compliance therewith, in mode as well as in spirit, is indispensable to salvation. Thus hath the Lord decreed:
"Behold! mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion. Will I accept of an offering, saith the Lord, that is not made in my name! Or, will I receive at your hands that which I have not appointed! And will I appoint unto you, saith the Lord, except it be by law, even as I and my Father ordained unto you, before the world was! I am the Lord thy God, and I give unto you this commandment, that no man shall come unto the Father but by me, or by my word, which is my law, saith the Lord. And everything that is in the world, whether it be ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities, or powers, or things of name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by me, or by my word, saith the Lord, shall be thrown down, and shall not remain after men are dead, neither in nor after the resurrection, saith the Lord your God. For whatsoever things remain are by me; and whatsoever things are not by me shall be shaken and destroyed." (D&C 132.)
THE LAST DISPENSATION
Today is the Sum of all the Yesterdays
THE student of history recognizes distinct epochs, periods and ages in the chronicles of events, and classifies his subject-matter accordingly. Single facts and isolated occurrences may be of immediate importance; but when studied in relation to one another they take on a vastly augmented significance.
This is equally true with respect to both secular and sacred history. In the latter field, which comprises the record of God's direct dealings with man and the unfolding of the Divine purpose as attested by prophecy and its fulfilment, the existence of progressive plan and orderly design is strikingly apparent.
Holy Writ affirms a succession of dispensations, each characterized by distinctive features of Divine authority and commission revealed to man. Illustrative of these dispensations are the Adamic, the Noachian, the Abrahamic, and the Mosaic. In due course came the Meridian dispensation, glorified by the personal ministry of our Lord, the Christ; and this was immediately succeeded by the Apostolic dispensation.
Both Christ and the Apostles foretold a great falling away, a general apostasy, a long era of spiritual darkness, which was to be succeeded by a new dispensation distinguished by the restoration of the Gospel and the establishment of the Church of Christ on earth for the last time. The Scriptures affirm that the new dispensation is to comprise all the authority, powers, and gifts of earlier dispensations, and is therefore distinctively a time of restitution, reorganization, and restoration. It is appropriately named the Last Dispensation, and the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times.
The comprehensiveness of this period of restoration was forcefully expressed by Paul: "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth." (Eph. 1:10.)
Peter, addressing the penitent Jews, who were pricked to the heart because of their guilty consciousness of having consented to the Lord's death, held out to them hope of forgiveness in a time then far future, the time of restitution of which the prophets had spoken. Ponder his profound admonition and assuring promise:
"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." (Acts 3:19-21.)
The Dispensation of the Fulness of Times has been inaugurated. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is again preached upon earth, and the Holy Priesthood is made operative by direct bestowal from the heavens, for the administration of the ordinances without which no man can enter the Kingdom of God.
In the year 1820, God the Eternal Father, and His Son Jesus Christ manifested Themselves as bodily Personages to Joseph Smith; and from the mouth of the resurrected and glorified Savior the youthful prophet received the glad tidings that the predicted time of restoration had arrived. Thus was ushered in the Last Dispensation. The darkness incident to the long night of apostasy was dispelled; the glory of the heavens once more illumined the world; the silence of centuries was broken; the voice of God was heard again by man.
Visitations of other heavenly personages followed. John the Baptist, who held the keys of the Lessor or Aaronic Priesthood, appeared as a resurrected being and conferred upon Joseph Smith authority to minister in the ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins. Peter, James and John ordained him to the Higher or Melchizedek Priesthood, including the Holy Apostleship; Moses brought to earth the commission of gathering scattered Israel; Elijah transmitted the appointment of vicarious service in behalf of the dead. (See Mal. 4:5, 6.)
The great consummation shall be realized in the return of Christ to earth, in power and glory, to rule and reign, as the holy prophets have foretold. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appeals to the world to heed the fast ripening signs of the Lord's coming, to repent and be baptized, by which means alone is salvation through Christ attainable. Heed ye the merciful warning of the Lord, our Savior:
"Wherefore, be faithful, praying always, having your lamps trimmed and burning, and oil with you, that you may be ready at the coming of the Bridegroom: For behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, that I come quickly. Even so. Amen." (D&C 33:17-18.)