| 645 violence and the violent take it by force, men have been aware of the miserable inefficiency of their faith, yet no one has looked with longing, lingering desire towards God for a restoration of the faith once delivered to the saints, the great mass have been willing to hear and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. No never had the voice of man been heard for centuries proclaiming the apostolic faith, God saw fit, to send forth into his vineyard, a youth, with the bloom of boyhood upon his cheek, uninitiated in the mysteries of controversies, totally unacquainted with the erudition of the schools, one who loved truth and the approbation of his God, better than the praise of man. He was the son of an indigent man, depending entirely upon manual labor for his subsistence. Under these circumstances he went forth gifted with that wisdom which comes from God only, which all the machinations of his enemies were not able to gainsay or resist. All the eloquence of the most gifted pulpit orators were not able to gainsay or resist. All the eloquence of the most gifted pulpit orators; all the arguments of the most profound reasoners; the whole host of historians, logicians and polemics, have been unable to detect a single departure from the scriptures, in the religion which he promulgated. The wicked falsehoods of catch-penny tracts, pamphlets and newspaper effusions, which have been widely and industriously circulated; the foul calumnies of perfidious hypocrites who have been excommunicated from her bosom; the almost incredible labors and unparalelled [unparalleled] self-denial and truculent persecution to which her ministry has been subjected, all, ALL, have not been able to prevent the most rapid and astonishing progress of primitive christianity, that has been known since Jesus dwelt among men. Already she has a foothold in various parts of the United States, the Canadas, Nova,Scotia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and the islands of the sea, &c., and this church who was looked upon as contemptible, is now formidable in numbers, and Daniel predicted the little stone shall fill the whole earth. This gospel of the kingdom must first be preached among all nations, then shall the end come.
Who, I ask most solemnly, who, but the most sceptical [skeptical], cannot recognize the hand of God in all this?
In the prosecution of their holy work, the saints of God are obligated to contend with not only the almost invincible force of educational prejudices, pre-conceived and long established opinions, but also with the greatest and foulest flood of falsehood that was ever put in circulation by satan himself, mendaciorum loquacissimus and all his host. It is almost, if not quite, beyond the range of language to exaggerate here, my heart grows warm as I write upon this subject and I wonder that the red hot bolts of heaven's condign vengeance have not been visited upon them. I shudder for the people of this generation, who have aided in this nefarious work, by the suppression of truth or otherwise, when I call to mind that there is a day of terrible retribution at hand, when all men shall stand at the judgment seat of Christ, to be judged according to the deeds done in the body. Then will the hollow-hearted professor of religion know that there is a God of justice, then will the minister of religion, and the mercenary editor, (both grand engines in these deeds) forget their ill-gotten gain, they will forget utterly their meagre [meager] short lived triumphs over truth and its faithful advocates; and they, the asperity of whose invective against the Saints of the Last Days, nothing could abate, will be crowned with shame the numerous, mournful train, will be obliged, sadly indeed, to drink the very dregs, the bitter portion of the chalice which they have prepared for themselves. The fair escutcheon of our country has been polluted, the constitution has become virtually illegible, and many of the brave sons of Columbia, have been degraded to the condition of serfs. Oh! God of our fathers, speed, oh! speed the day, when the hand of injustice shall be removed from thy people, and the glorious era of universal and everlasting righteousness shall be ushered in. The blood of the martyrs of Jesus, yea, prophets, patriarchs and saints, has crimsoned this fair land, may it ever be a memorial before thee of their undying faithfulness in thy cause. It is very common for religionists to suppose that the Latter-day Saints cannot be good people, because they are so severely persecuted. "But Christ says, "if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you-the servant is no greater than his lord." And again-"They that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." The religion of Jesus never did and never will become so fashionable as to shield its adherents from persecution: it is only when it is mixed up with the fooleries of men, and diluted down to their taste, that it receives the adulation of the multitude. If the people of God were to be loved by the world in any age, ("I speak reverently, my heart trembles while I write,)
(page 645) |
