Sincerity Not Conclusive Evidence of Truth.
That there is an abundance of error in the "Christian" world as well as some truth, must be patent to everybody who has investigated the conditions of mankind in the present day, because these multifarious sects and denominations are discordant. They do not unite—except on special occasions when they meet together to denounce the "Mormons"; they can unite on that question sometimes. The spirit of division, strife and contention exists among people called Christians as well as among people called Pagans. That fact alone makes it evident that there is a great deal of error existing in what is called Christendom. That is because these various systems which have been established are the inventions of men. They may have been good men who started these different sects—I will not judge that matter; that is with the Eternal Judge—but these sects were the offspring of men. These men may have read the Scriptures, and have entertained certain ideas founded upon their reading; and they may have established these different systems in accordance with their sincere ideas of what was right. But sincerity of itself is not a conclusive evidence of truth. The heathen is just as sincere in his idol worship as the "Christian" is in his various modes of bowing down to Deity; and certainly the Latter-day Saints have manifested their sincerity before the whole world as well as before the heavens. The Elders of this Church who go out into the world to proclaim the Gospel as they understand it, manifest their sincerity. Yet our "Christian" friends will not recognize them as Christians, nor believe that they are right. They go out without purse or scrip, without fee or reward. They are not paid for their work. They make sacrifice of home and its comforts, and leave their loved ones behind, and go to face a frowning world, to meet persecution and obloquy, and sometimes imprisonment, stripes and death. What for? To proclaim that which they know in their hearts is true. They are sincere enough, but that does not prove that they are right. Our "Christian" friends will acknowledge that. On the other hand, the sincerity that may be exhibited in the various "Christian" sects by the people who compose the members, and by the preachers who teach them, is not of itself an evidence that they are right or that they have the truth. But the fact that they are divided and conflicting is proof enough that there is a great deal of error among them.
Now, that which comes from God is truth. If Jesus Christ has a church on the earth under His direction and inspiration, containing men whom He has appointed, who hold His authority, who are sent by His word, and who have the divine authority to administer in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that church will have the truth. It will not have error intermingled with it, because it will be directed by Christ, being His Church. Men may build up a church and call it the Church of Christ, but that does not make it so; it is the church of the men who organized it. If John Wesley—a good man, as I believe with all my heart, a mighty man, who did a great and good work in the earth—organized a religious society and called it the Church of Christ, that does not make it so, and it is nothing more than the church of John Wesley. If other good men assemble together and agree on points of doctrine and organize a religious society that society is theirs. It is not God's unless He ordered it, revealed it, and accepted it.