An address delivered at Salt Lake Tabernacle, Sunday, March 19, 1911, following a discourse delivered by Elder Charles W. Penrose, of the Council of the Twelve. (Reported by F. W. Otterstrom.)

II.

My brethren and sisters, I greatly rejoice in these sublime principles expounded by our beloved brother and, now these many years, prominent elder in the Church, Charles W. Penrose. While listening to him on this occasion, I thought of the very many times I have had the opportunity of so listening to him and being instructed in these principles which concern the salvation of men. I remarked to Elder George Albert Smith, by whom I sat during the discourse, how much the youth of Israel, how much the present living membership of the Church of Latter-day Saints, and the many thousands that have passed away—how much we all owe to the faithful service of this witness for God! I felt that I wanted to acknowledge my own indebtedness to him for the service that he has rendered to the Church and to the world. I feel in my heart to thank God for his ministry, for the gifts of his mind. I thank the Lord that the Spirit of God has touched his understanding with inspiration to our edification for, lo, these many years. Those are my sentiments towards Brother Charles W. Penrose. The Lord bless him.

While contemplating the duty of speaking to this congregation, a duty that arises out of the appointment I received to be in attendance upon this conference, and while listening to the discourse just closed, I came to the conclusion that it is almost as important to tell the world what we do not believe as it is to tell them what we do believe. Really, there is great strength at times in a negative statement, a disclaiming of certain doctrines which we are slanderously reported to believe, but in which we do not believe. The force of this negative statement has been recognized by all the great councils of the Catholic church at least, from the first unto the last. Upon every formal announcement of dogma, by the councils of that church, there has been attached an anathematizing clause. For illustration, in the great council of Nicea, held early in the fourth century of the Christian era, after defining the doctrine concerning the nature of God and the relationship of the persons of the holy trinity, the Catholic church added this clause:

"But those who say that there was a time when he [the Son] was not, and that he was not before he was begotten, and that he was made of nothing, or affirm that he is of any other substance or essence, or that the Son of God is created and mutable or changeable, the Catholic church doth pronounce accursed."

CATHOLIC BELIEF.

And again, in the council of Trent, held in the sixteenth century, in defining the doctrine of justification, which was then in debate, and was one of the points of difference between the Protestants and the Catholic church, after defining the doctrine of justification, the Church said:

"If any one shall say that the sinner is justified by faith alone in the sense that nothing else is required, which may cooperate towards the attainment of the grace of justification, and that the sinner does not need to be prepared and disposed by the motion of his own will, let him be accursed."

And so the last council held by that church, known as the Vatican council, held in the closing months of 1869, and in the first months of 1870, defining the infallibility of the bishop of Rome, the pope of the Catholic world, the anathematizing clause stands as follows:

"But if any one, which may God avert, presume to contradict this our definition, let him be anathema."

FAITH IN THE GODHEAD.

I read these statements to show you that the negative statement is recognized as possessing great force; for these anathematizing clauses in the announcement of the councils are inserted to guard the Roman Catholic faith from error. I am of the opinion, let me repeat, that a negative statement by us, concerning some things that we do not believe, would have a certain force, and I am going to try to make an application of this principle just a little this afternoon, though in a somewhat informal way.

To begin with, take this doctrine so ably expounded by Elder Penrose in relation to our belief in God and in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost, the trinity of the Holy Scriptures and of our faith. We profess faith in that Godhead, and to that Godhead alone do we pay divine honors in holy worship; but it is extremely difficult to get the people of the world to believe that we are thus far Christians. We are accused, in some cases, of man-worship; we are sometimes accused of worshiping Joseph Smith. Because we proclaim his mission and the divinity of it, and say that through him there has been restored to the earth divine authority to speak and act in the name of this Godhead whom we worship—because we have emphasized his mission and have insisted upon its divinity—because we speak much about it and write much about it—the world has accused us of worshiping Joseph Smith; but that is not true. We worship this Godhead of the Christian scriptures alone; and if we may not say because of Christian charity, let him who accuses us of worshiping other God than this be anathema, let us at least say to those who assert that we worship other Godhead than the Godhead of Holy Scripture, that they misrepresent and slander their "Mormon" brethren.

So also in relation to our belief in the Savior of men. It has been explained here by Elder Penrose that we believe and accept Jesus of Nazareth as the Savior of men; that he was and is the Son of God, whom God gave to the world, that through faith in him, and obedience to his gospel, the world might be saved; and let those who say that we look to other source and have other expectations of salvation, than through him and his power, let them also know that they, at least, misrepresent the Latter-day Saints.

ERRONEOUS REPORTS.

Another matter, in connection with this, might be dwelt upon at greater length, and that is an accusation to the effect that we believe in what is called "blood atonement." So, indeed, we do; and so also do the Christian world. Is it not the belief of the Christian world that they will be saved through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Most assuredly; and so, too, do we believe in the atonement of the Christ—aye, and in the manner of the atonement of the Christ—that the very form of it was necessary to the salvation of men. We believe that there is no other means that could be devised to make adequate satisfaction to justice and preserve in its integrity the moral law of the universe. Just what was done in the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, his death, and the manner of his death, the shedding of his blood was necessary to the salvation of the world, for in the gospel, as in the law, "without the shedding of blood is no remission of sins." (Heb. ix:21). Yet it would appear that there are some things for which not even this atonement can bring forgiveness. For example, it is said by the Master himself, that "every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. If men speak a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven them, but if they speak a word against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven them, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." (Matt. xii:31-32); and that notwithstanding the atonement of the Christ. Again it is written, "The murderer hath not eternal life abiding in him." (I John iii:15). Again it is written, "He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." (Gen. ix:6). Blood for blood was the doctrine of that Scripture. Now we believe in that doctrine; that is, we believe that those who so far transgress that they imbrue their hands in the blood of their fellow men, that their lives are necessary to the complete atonement; and that their execution should be such that it admits of the shedding of their blood. And it is because of this belief that the laws of Utah permit such method of execution for capital offenses as sheds the blood of the murderer. But the reputation has gone out, the slander has passed from lip to lip, it has been printed from one book into another, until the report has gone out into all the world, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the "Mormon" Church, arrogates to itself the right to take human life for apostasy from the Church, and for certain other sins. That is a slander; it is not true. We do not believe the doctrine; we do not claim for the Church that it has the right of capital punishment, or the right of executing vengeance. We do not teach nor claim that the Church has the right to assassinate men for apostasy, even though they be murderers. However much we might believe them worthy of death, the Church claims no right to execute them. The doctrine of the Church in relation to that matter is found here in the Doctrine and Covenants. It is in a revelation given before the Church was a year old, and is found in section 42 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

REVELATION QUOTED.

"And now, behold, I speak unto the Church, Thou shalt not kill, and he that kills shall not have forgiveness in this world, nor in the world to come;

"And again, I say, thou shalt not kill, but he that killeth shall die."

Yes, but how? By whose hand? Read it in a subsequent verse, in the same revelation:

"And it shall come to pass that if any persons among you shall kill, they shall be delivered up and dealt with according to the laws of the land; for remember that he hath no forgiveness, and it shall be proven according to the laws of the land."

And of course those who administer the laws of the land must become the executors of that law; the Church claims no right of executing such a law. That is our belief in relation to this subject. "Yes, but," some one will be ready to say, "is it not matter of record that some very emphatic and even vehement declarations have been made in relation to this matter by very prominent men in the Mormon Church, in years that are gone?" Yes, some very extravagant utterances, some very ill-advised expressions were used; but those exaggerated, those embittered and over-zealous words on the part of very well-meaning men, doubtless, did not announce in those instances the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The question will be asked, How are you going to account for these expressions which you declare are unwarranted by the law of the Church? How are you going to justify them? Well, I am not going to justify them at all, but I can account for them.

It cannot be that the world is so ignorant in this enlightened age as not to know that churches cannot be held responsible for every utterance that is made in their name and from their pulpits. Listen to this passage from the writings of the learned Edersheim, in his History of the Life and Times of the Christ; he says:

"No one would measure the belief of Christians by certain statements in the Fathers; nor judge the moral principles of Roman Catholics, by prurient quotations from the casuists; nor yet estimate Lutherans by the utterances and deeds of the early successors of Luther; nor Calvinists by the burning of Servitus. In all such cases the general standpoint of the times has to be first taken into account."

So it is in our history, not every word that has been spoken, even by men high in authority in the Church, has always been the exact and perfect word of God.

BELIEF IN REVELATION.

That thought brings me to another subject; our belief in continuous revelation, and an inspired priesthood in the Church. We have heard, by our brother who preceded me, that we believe in the revelations of God. One of our articles of faith puts it in this form: "We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe that he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God." We believe that the Church of Christ is within the hearing of God, that is, not only that he hears the prayers of his Saints, but also that he answers those prayers. We feel that this Church of Christ—this Church of ours—is in touch with the Infinite and in tune with the Infinite, that the intelligence and power of God are among its resources; that where human wisdom comes short, God may be reached through the channels appointed and God's intelligence, and wisdom, and power brought into the service of the Church of Christ. It is possible for his prophet to divest himself of personal desires and interests; to put away from himself preconceived thought and notion, and seek to know the mind and will of God; by going into the holy of holies, thus prepared, it is possible, if God will, for him to return with the law of God unto his people, unto his Church, thus making the wisdom and strength of God the wisdom and strength of his Church. We believe that; but there is for the Church but one man in the Church at a time who has the right to thus come with the law of God unto his people. Though every individual, in his individual capacity, and for guidance in the position he occupies in the Church—it is possible for each person to have access, through the inspirations of the Spirit of God, to the same source of knowledge and strength and power. We believe in an inspired priesthood for the Church; we believe in inspired teachers; but that does not require us to believe that every word that is spoken from the pulpit is the very word of God. Perhaps some of you will think that there is a passage in one of our revelations somewhat against this conception of things, as for instance here in section 68 of the Doctrine and Covenants, is a revelation that was given to Elder Orson Hyde and the Church. It is written here that Elder Hyde was called upon to go from land to land as a teacher of the gospel—

"And behold, and lo, this is an ensample unto all those who were ordained unto this priesthood, whose mission is appointed unto them to go forth;

"And this is the ensample unto them, that they shall speak as they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost.

"And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost, shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation."

INSPIRED UTTERANCES.

But mark you this, the fact that shall give unto their utterances the value of Scripture, making their words as the word of God, and the power of God unto salvation—the condition precedent to this is that they "speak as moved upon by the Holy Ghost." "Whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture," etc. But it is not given to mortal man always to walk upon that plane where the sunlight of God's inspiration is playing upon him. Men may, by care and devotion and spiritual strength, rise sometimes to that high plane; may stand at times as on mountain tops, uncovered, in the presence of God, their spirit united with his Spirit, until the mind of God shall flow through them to bless those who hearken to their words: and there is no need that one shall rise up and say, "This man was inspired of God," for all the people who receive of his ministrations know that by the effect of his spirit upon their spirits. But, sometimes, the servants of God stand on planes infinitely lower than the one here described. Sometimes they speak merely from their human knowledge, influenced by passions; influenced by the interests of men, and by anger, and vexation, and all those things that surge in upon the minds of even servants of God. When they so speak, then that is not Scripture, that is not the word of God, nor the power of God unto salvation; but when they speak as moved upon by the Holy Ghost, their voice then becomes the voice of God. So that men, even some of high station in the Church, sometimes speak from merely human wisdom; or from prejudice or passion; and when they do so, that is not likely to be the word of God. I do not think the world should require such perfection of us as to insist that our religious teachers always deliver the inerrant word of God! In any event it must be allowed by us that many unwise things were said in times past, even by prominent elders of the Church; things that were not in harmony with the doctrines of the Church; and that did not possess the value of Scripture, or anything like it; and it was not revelation. Moreover, no revelation even becomes the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until it is accepted by that Church by formal action; it must be accepted by official vote of the Church before it becomes the law of the Church.

REVEALED WORD.

There is one thing which always gives me great and abounding joy, and that is this: Here in the Doctrine and Covenants we have a volume of revelation that has been given to the Church as the word of God, and accepted as such by the Church. We accept four great books as the authoritative Scriptures of the Church, wherein the doctrines of the Church are couched, viz. the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the collection of writings called the Pearl of Great Price, containing the Book of Moses, the Book of Abraham, and some of the writings of the Prophet Joseph. I have been engaged for some years in advocacy of our faith, and in defending it, and in these Scriptures that have been given under the inspiration of God, and accepted by the Church of Christ as containing the doctrine of the Church, I find no doctrine, that may not be successfully defended before any body of men in the world, I care not how learned or intelligent they may be—nay, the more learned and intelligent the easier is the defense. The books I have named constitute our Scripture, not the haphazard sayings of men from the pulpit; and as in the future we receive line upon line, and precept upon precept—as the volume of written revelation shall grow, it will possess the same characteristics of truth that our present volumes of Scripture possess.

There is one other item I would like to speak upon, viz., that article of our faith which declares that "We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men." Now, of course, that article covers the whole moral law of the gospel as pertaining to personal conduct, and as pertaining to conduct in relationship to others. It introduces a theme altogether too large for exposition here; and I shall confine my remarks just to the two first things—which, really are but one thing, namely, that we believe in being "honest, true." If you were to judge of the character of the Latter-day Saints by what is being said of them in the current magazines and the daily press, one would really think that they possessed no quality of honesty or of truthfulness; but that in both civic and religious life their whole course of conduct was based upon chicanery, and fraud, and untruth. Yet, here is our article of faith, that we believe in being honest, in being true. That means that we believe in speaking the truth and acting the truth; it goes both to belief and to action; to mental attitude and actual practice:

GOD'S WORD IS TRUTH.

Let me call attention to another fact—and Brother Penrose mentioned it, also—namely, that we believe in certain attributes that God possesses. Among these attributes, as well as eternity, and omnipotence, and omnipresence, and omniscience, and holiness, and wisdom, and knowledge, and power, and love, and justice, and mercy—there is also the attribute of truth; and this attribute of truth is absolute in God. The scriptures say, with verity, that he is "a God of truth, without iniquity; just and right is he." "Mercy and truth," said another prophet, "go before thy face." Another one has said, "God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent." Along this line we ourselves have a very grand saying, given to the Prophet Joseph before the organization of the Church, but it will endure through all time, and in all ages, and in all experiences, namely:

"God doth not walk in crooked paths; neither doth he turn to the right hand, nor to the left; neither doth he vary from that which he has said; therefore, his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round." (Doc.& Cov., sec. 3:2).

Because of this attribute of truth in God, he must be thought of as imparting to the institutions which he founds his own nature; they must be in harmony with his attributes. Consequently, when he establishes his Church, it will be a church of truth; it will stand for the truth like its founder; it will speak the truth without variation, without turning to the right hand, or turning to the left hand. God must be true—an untruthful God? The very thought, but that I am refuting it, would be blasphemy. It would wreck the moral universe for God to speak untruth. It is unthinkable; it cannot be entertained. That also which God founds, an institution such as his Church, must also, I repeat, stand for the truth. But those, I say, who judge our reputation from what is said of us in the current magazines—a person forming his judgment upon those slanders, would believe there was no truth in us, nor in the Church. But we, nevertheless, believe in truth; we believe in being honest, true, virtuous; and let those who charge us with believing otherwise than this; or who say that we trust in falsehood; and believe in practicing it, wherein they do not speak ignorantly—"let them be anathema!" And those among us—those of our faith—and I fear that there may be one in ten thousand, I do not know, but I have found some who will advance the idea that even the kingdom of God has to resort to deception and untruth, at times, in order to meet some emergency or other—to all such without qualification, I say anathema! Be ye accursed! They do the Church to which they belong a great injustice. The Church cannot stand on untruth. The truth, the whole of it, and constantly the truth, must be the creed of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or else it proves itself not the product of the God of truth, for he is true. To doubt it would be disloyalty, to think of it, otherwise than to refute it, would be blasphemy.

TESTIMONY BORNE.

There is much more that might be dealt with negatively, and anathematized, perhaps, but this satisfies me upon this occasion, and the time for closing this meeting has arrived. I join here, this afternoon, with my brother, Elder Penrose, in bearing witness to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ; to the existence of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. With him, I bear witness to you of the virtue and power and saving grace in the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ; and bear witness to you that there is no other name given among men whereby we may be saved, only the name of Jesus of Nazareth. With him, I bear witness to you, out of my experience, that men may have communion with God, that his Spirit does give inspiration to the spirit of man, and through that means there may be both union and communion now between men and God, through obedience to the gospel. I know and I bear witness, with Elder Penrose, that this is the Church of Jesus Christ, founded in these latter-days; that there was virtue and power, and divinity in the mission of Joseph Smith, the instrument in God's hands of bringing in this new dispensation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I testify that those who believe the gospel and obey it; that those who with real, earnest effort—even though stumblingly—seek to obey it, to them will be extended the divine grace and power of God, and helpfulness; that out of the abundance of his mercy and grace will God help those who are weak, if only they keep their faces constantly directed towards him, and back of all their mistakes and failures they maintain an earnest determination to overcome the things of this world and the weaknesses of human nature. God will remember that they are but men in the making, and he will be merciful and ultimately will give them the victory, if only they will strive and pray and not faint. That I know, for God has taught me that in my own experiences, and I bear witness of it to you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.