| 106 ***Notice is hereby given, that Elder Curtis Hodges, jr. is requested by his family to return immediately to them, for they stand in great need of his assistance. Truman Wait.
Times and Seasons.
City of Nauvoo,
Wednesday, February 15, 1843.
Righteousness.
"He that doeth righteousness, is righteous." is the solemn declaration of an ancient servant of God, and if we examine the sacred oracles of divine truth, we shall find that although it is "not for works of righteousness which we have done; but by grace are we saved, through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God," yet every man of God has performed works of righteousness; he has been moral, virtuous, upright and consistent in his deportment, and that he was saved by works, as well as by faith.
It is true, that our Saviour [Savior] reprobates the self-righteousness of the Jews, he condemns their practices, and disapproves of their conduct, and some men laboring under a mistake, think it was for their good works that they stood reproved by the Savior of the world; a greater error than which, could not be entertained by the human family. Our Savior reproved the Pharisees, not for their virtue, but for their hypocracy [hypocrisy], deceit, and abomination. They fasted, they prayed, they gave alms, they paid tythes [tithes] of all they possessed, all of which of themselves, abstractly, were good, and they were not condemned for these deeds, but for turning the temple of God into a den of thieves, for oppressing the widow, the orphan and the destitute, for rejecting the testimony of God, and persecuting his servants; and for neglecting judgment, mercy and the love of God.-Hence they were called "whited walls and painted sepulchres [sepulchers,"] they made long prayers; but it was "for a pretence [pretense]." They also disfigured, or made long faces, and appeared outwardly fair to men; but like whited walls and painted sepulchers, they were fair on the outside, while "within they were nothing but rottenness and dead men's bones. It was then for their corruptions, their abominations and their hypocray [hypocrisy] that they stood condemned, and not for their good works, or their righteousness.
Some have supposed that Paul did away with the necessity of good works, by telling us that It is 'not through works of righteousness that we have done, but by grace that we are saved, through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.' We shall find however, that this reasoning is very fallacious. Paul understood himself perfectly. He might indeed be an "Hebrew of Hebrews;" and after the strictest manner of his sect, lived a Pharisee; but if his Pharisaism taught him to be a persecutor and murderer of the saints, and a shedder of innocent blood, his proceedings were not very righteous, he stood culpable before the Most High, and he needed to be cleansed in the atoning blood of Christ; to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of his sins, before he could receive the approbation of heaven. The young Pharisee might say 'all these things have I observed from my youth up, what lack I yet?' A new dispensation was then ushered in, the gospel of eternal trnth [truth] was unfolded; the kingdom of heaven was being preached, and all men rushed unto it; and it was necessary that he should sell what he had and give to the poor; follow our Savior; obey the gospel; be governed by his teachings, and obey his precepts.
There were many in those days who thought that if they fulfilled the moral law, that they were pursuing the right course, doing the will of God, and would be saved. Paul tells them something else; that in the fulness [fullness] of time God sent forth his Son into the world to redeem those that were under the law; hence if redemption was needed, they were not in a salvable state without redemption, and he thus speaks emphatically of the necessity of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as being the great foundation of a sinner's hope; for if Christ was not the Messiah, then indeed was their faith vain, as was also the preaching of the apostles and elders.-This was the doctrine that was taught by our Savior, and by all the apostles. 'He that believeth and is baptised [baptized] shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.' So that it was no matter how often a man prayed, how much alms he gave, how often he fasted, or how punctual he was in paying his tithes, if he believed not he would be damned. James contends very strenuously for works, especially in the following extract from the second chapter:
"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, an have not works?-Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be thou warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works is dead, being alone; yea, a
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