A word, in conclusion, on the proper limits of religious controversy. In 1824 Robert Southey, Esquire, poet laureate of England at the time, wrote a book under the title "The Book of the Church." It was a defense of the Protestant position with reference to the holy Scriptures, and a comparison of the respective attitudes of Catholics and Protestants in relation to them. The book was replied to by Charles Butler, Esquire, a Roman Catholic; and in the preface of his book, which he dedicated to Charles Blundell, Esq., he says:
"I willingly admit that to produce against our creed or conduct all that research and fair argument can supply, is legitimate controversy; but surely to conceal our merits or to represent them very briefly and imperfectly, and to display our defects at length and with the highest coloring; to impute to our general body what in justice is only chargeable on individuals; or to estimate the writings or actions of our ancestors in the dark ages by the notions and manners of the present age, is a crying injustice."
That states a true principle, and registers a just complaint. It voices a protest that precisely fits our case. In the controversy waged against us our merits, both as to doctrine and as to practice, are either concealed or represented very briefly and imperfectly, while our defects are displayed at length and with the highest coloring; to the general body of the Church is imputed what, in justice, is only chargeable on individuals; and I may add to this enumeration that we are judged as to our settled convictions and established sentiments respecting our relation to our fellow citizens, not of our religious faith, and our attitude as citizens of the great republic, our country, by the ill-advised and sometimes harsh expressions of some leading men when in a state of irritation and disturbance; thus contravening the principle long since laid down by Edmund Burke and quite generally accepted that—
"It is not fair to judge of the temper or the disposition of any man or set of men when they are composed and at rest from their conduct and expressions in a state of disturbance and of irritation."
BY THEIR WORKS THEY SHALL BE JUDGED.
Now, of course, as I stated in the commencement of my remarks, the moral machinery of any system will be judged by the moral results of it. We recognize the fact that a beautiful and perfect life is unanswerable in support of a system that produces it; and yet while exalting this species of evidence in vindication of a system, human nature ought to be taken into account, for a perfect and beautiful life in any system is rather a rarity, even among the early Christians who were called saints it was so. They were not called saints because, good souls, they were such; that is, in the sense of being perfect; but they were called saints because they aspired to be such; because of their struggles after righteousness. A close inquiry into their lives, however, will demonstrate the fact that they were made of much the same stuff that enters into our composition—that they were men of like passions and weaknesses with ourselves, and fell far below the great ideals set up by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am not putting this forth as a plea of justification for any failures on our part. I am willing that this tree of Mormonism should be judged by its fruits absolutely, and let it stand or fall by that test. But, what I do object to is the course so often pursued by our critics. That course is as if one should go into an orchard of twenty or fifty acres of fruit-bearing trees, and should seek out and find here and there—as one may, even in the best of orchards—the wind-beaten, blasted, mildewed, dwarfed, or shrunken fruit, and carefully raking this together, represent that as the fruit of the orchard! Whereas the facts are that there are scores of tons of beautiful, ripe and perfect fruit that is a credit to the orchard and to the husbandman of it. Yet all that is passed by, and you are asked to judge the orchard by the blasted specimens that have been raked together.
So in this work called Mormonism. Let our critics take into account the rich harvest of righteous souls that this system has produced; and the present upright and honorable men and women of our system, and judge not the people by those who have failed to reach the high ideals that Mormonism holds up as the goal of moral and spiritual achievement, and who fail because they depart from our principles and the practices they enjoin.
My brethren and sisters, I believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. So far as it is possible for the soul of man to be conscious of the truth, I am conscious of the truth of this great latter-day system. I love it with all my heart. There is no heart-throb of mine, no matter how far short I may come in meeting the high requirements of the gospel—there is no heart throb of mine that does not pulsate with love for this work. I believe it true—nay, I know it to be of God. The fountain whence it springs is pure. The water flowing from that fountain, the streams, are also pure, in the name of God, Amen.