Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow / One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

by Eliza R. Snow

CHAPTER XLV.

Discourse by Elder Lorenzo Snow, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, January 14, 1872.—Progression.—The Fatherhood of God.—The perfect man.—The gifts of the Spirit.—His testimony.

I take pleasure, this afternoon, in making a few remarks to the Latter-day Saints, as well as to any strangers who may be present. I never designed to be a preacher; it was only a sense of positive duty that induced me to occupy the position as a preacher of the Gospel. An understanding, given through the revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the principles that we, the Latter-day Saints, have espoused, has induced me to travel through the world, bearing testimony of those things which I do assuredly know pertaining to the Gospel of life and salvation revealed in this our day.

The relation that we sustain to the Lord our God, and the blessings and privileges to be acquired through the system of life which we have received, are worthy of our deepest consideration; and it is no less necessary that we understand the duties, the performance of which is requisite on our part, for the attainment of those blessings and privileges, and to keep ourselves in the path on which we may secure the highest advantages which the system of religion we have received is, in its nature, capable of giving.

The relationship which we sustain to God our Father, as well as to the world at large, if properly understood and appreciated, is calculated to waken us up to the performance of the duties required of us as Latter-day Saints. We ought to understand that we have espoused a system of religion that is calculated in its nature to increase within us wisdom and knowledge—that we have entered upon a path that is progressive—that will increase physical, spiritual and intellectual advantages and everything pertaining to our own happiness and the well-being of the world at large.

We believe that we are the offspring of our Father in heaven, and that we possess in our spiritual organizations the same capabilities, powers and faculties that our Father possesses, although in an infantile state, requiring to pass through a certain course or ordeal by which they will be developed and improved, according to the heed we give to the principles we have received. We believe that God is no respecter of persons, but that He confers blessings upon all His children, in proportion to the light they have, or in proportion as they proceed according to the light and knowledge they possess, in the different circumstances of life that may surround them.

We believe that the spirit which enlightens the human family proceeds from the presence of the Almighty; that it spreads throughout all space, that it is the light and life of all things, and that every honest heart possesses it in proportion to his virtue, integrity and his desire to know the truth and do good to his fellow men.

We see the providences of God in all things; we see them in raising up different communities and establishments in the world, for the general and universal benefit of mankind; we see the providences of God in raising up a Luther, a John Wesley; we see the providences of God in all the Christian organizations and communities; we trace the hand of the Almighty in framing the constitution of our land, and believe that the Lord raised up men purposely for the accomplishment of this object—raised them up and inspired them to frame the Constitution of the United States.

We trace the hand of God, His Spirit, His workings upon and among all classes of people, whether Christian or heathen; that His providences may be carried out, and that His designs, formed before the morning stars sang together, or the foundations of the earth were laid, may be fulfilled. He slackens not His hand, He does not relinquish His designs nor His purposes, but His work is one eternal round. We trace the hand of the Almighty, and we see His Spirit moving in all communities for their good—restraining and encouraging, establishing governments and nations, inspiring men to take a course that shall most advance His purposes, until the set time shall come when He shall work more fully and effectually for the accomplishment of His designs; and when sorrow, wickedness, bitter disappointment, vexation, distress and poverty shall cease and be no more known, and the salvation and happiness of His children be secured; when the earth shall be rolled back in pristine purity, into its primeval orbit, and the inhabitants thereof dwell upon it in perfect peace and righteousness.