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.
III.
THE THINGS OF GOD GREATER THAN MAN'S CONCEPTION OF THEM.
Discourse in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, Sunday, September 12, 1909. (Reported by F. W. Otterstrom.)