1. Insults to Paul and to Christ.—See Acts xxiii, 1-5. "Scarcely had the apostle uttered the first sentence of his defense, when, with disgraceful illegality, Ananias ordered the officers of the court to smite him on the mouth. Stung by an insult so flagrant, an outrage so undeserved, the naturally choleric temperament of Paul flamed into that sudden sense of anger which ought to be controlled, but which can hardly be wanting in a truly noble character. No character can be perfect which does not cherish in itself a deeply-seated, though perfectly generous and forbearing, indignation against intolerable wrong. Smarting from the blow, 'God shall smite thee,' he exclaimed, 'thou whitewashed wall! What! Dost thou sit there judging me according to the Law, and in violation of law biddest me to be smitten?' The language has been censured as unbecoming in its violence, and has been unfavorably compared with the meekness of Christ before the tribunal of his enemies. [See John xviii, 19-23.] 'Where,' asks St. Jerome, 'is that patience of the Savior, who—as a lamb led to the slaughter opens not his mouth—so gently asks the smiter, "If I have spoken evil, bear witness to the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?" We are not detracting from the apostle, but declaring the glory of God, who, suffering in the flesh, reigns above the wrong and frailty of the flesh.' Yet we need not remind the reader that not once or twice only did Christ give the rein to righteous anger, and blight hypocrisy and insolence with a flash of holy wrath. The bystanders seemed to have been startled by the boldness of St. Paul's rebuke, for they said to him, 'Dost thou revile the high priest of God?' The apostle's anger had expended itself in that one outburst, and he instantly apologized with exquisite urbanity and self-control. 'I did not know,' he said, 'brethren, that he is the high priest'; adding that, had he known this, he would not have addressed to him the opprobrious name of 'whited wall,' because he reverenced and acted upon the rule of scripture, 'Thou shalt not speak ill of a ruler of thy people.'"—Farrar, The Life and Work of St. Paul, pp. 539-540.

2. Peter's Teaching's Regarding Submission to Law.—A special "duty of Christians in those days was due respect in all things lawful, to the civil government.... Occasions there are—and none knew this better than an apostle who had himself set an example of splendid disobedience to unwarranted commands [Acts iii, 19, 31; v, 28-32; 40-42]—when 'we must obey God rather than men.' But those occasions are exceptional to the common rule of life. Normally, and as a whole, human law is on the side of divine order, and, by whomsoever administered, has a just claim to obedience and respect. It was a lesson so deeply needed by the Christians of the day that it is taught as emphatically by St. John [John xix, 11], and by St. Peter, as by St. Paul himself. It was more than ever needed at a time when dangerous revolts were gathering to a head in Judea; when the hearts of Jews throughout the world were burning with a fierce flame of hatred against the abominations of a tyrannous idolatry; when Christians were being charged with 'turning the world upside-down' [Acts xvii, 6]; when some poor Christian slave, led to martyrdom or put to the torture, might easily relieve the tension of his soul by bursting into apocalyptic denunciations of sudden doom against the crimes of the mystic Babylon; when the heathen, in their impatient contempt, might wilfully interpret a prophecy of the final conflagration as though it were a revolutionary and incendiary threat; and when Christians at Rome were, on this very account, already suffering the agonies of the Neronian persecution. Submission, therefore, was at this time a primary duty of all who wished to win over the heathen, and to save the Church from being overwhelmed in some outburst of indignation which would be justified even to reasonable and tolerant pagans as a political necessity.... 'Submit, therefore,' the apostle says, 'to every human ordinance, for the Lord's sake, whether to the emperor as supreme [the name "king" was freely used of the emperor in the provinces], or to governors, as missioned by him for punishment of malefactors and praise to well-doers; for this is the will of God, that by your well-doing ye should gag the stolid ignorance of foolish persons; as free, yet not using your freedom for a cloak of baseness, but as slaves of God. 'Honor all men' as a principle; and as your habitual practice, 'love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King.'" [See I Peter ii, 13-17.]—Farrar, Early Days of Christianity, pp. 89-90.

3. The Law of God, and the Law of Man.—The teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints respecting the duty of its members in obeying the laws of the land wherein they live, is more comprehensive and definite than is that of many other Christian sects. In January, 1899, an association of the free Evangelical churches of England officially published "a common statement of faith in the form of a new catechism." Touching the relation between church and state, the following formal questions and prescribed answers occur:—

"36. Q.—What is a free church? A.—A church which acknowledges none but Jesus Christ as Head, and, therefore, exercises its right to interpret and administer His laws without restraint or control by the state.

"37. Q.—What is the duty of the church to the state? A.—To observe all the laws of the state unless contrary to the teachings of Christ," etc.

According to the report of the committee in charge of the work of publication, the catechism "represents, directly or indirectly, the beliefs of not less, and probably many more, than sixty millions of avowed Christians in all parts of the world."

4. Discontinuance of Plural Marriage.—The official act terminating the practice of plural marriage among the Latter-day Saints was the adoption by the Church, in conference assembled, of a manifesto proclaimed by the President of the Church. The language of the document illustrates the law-abiding character of the people and the Church, as is shown by the following clause:—"Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I [President Wilford Woodruff] hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws, and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise." In the course of a sermon immediately following the proclaiming of the manifesto, President Woodruff said regarding the action taken:—"I have done my duty, and the nation of which we form a part must be responsible for that which has been done in relation to that principle" (i.e., plural marriage).

5. A Striking Instance of Submission to Secular Authority.—"Governments are instituted of God, sometimes by His direct interposition, sometimes by His permission. When the Jews had been brought into subjection by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Lord commanded through the prophet Jeremiah (xxvii, 4-8) that the people render obedience to their conqueror, whom He called His servant; for verily the Lord had used the pagan king to chastise the recreant and unfaithful children of the covenant. The obedience so enjoined included the payment of taxes and extended to complete submission." See "Jesus the Christ," p. 564, Note 2.

[LECTURE XXIV.]

PRACTICAL RELIGION.

Article 13.—We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul,—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

1. Religion of Daily Life.—In this article of their faith, the Latter-day Saints declare their acceptance of a practical religion; a religion that shall consist, not alone of professions in spiritual matters, and belief as to the conditions of the hereafter, of the doctrine of original sin and the actuality of a future heaven and hell, but also, and more particularly, of present and every-day duties, in which respect for self, love for fellow-men, and devotion to God are the guiding principles. Religion without morality, professions of godliness without charity, church-membership without an adequate responsibility as to individual conduct in daily life, are but as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals—noise without music, the words without the spirit of prayer. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."[1252] Honesty of purpose, integrity of soul, individual purity, absolute freedom of conscience, willingness to do good to all men even enemies, pure benevolence,—these are some of the fruits by which the religion of Christ may be known, far exceeding in importance and value the promulgation of dogmas, and the enunciation of theories. Yet a knowledge of things more than temporal, doctrines of spiritual matters, founded on revelation and not resting on the sands of man's frail hypotheses, are likewise characteristic of the true Church.

2. The Comprehensiveness of Our Faith must appeal to every earnest investigator of the principles taught by the Church, and still more to the unprejudiced observer of the results as manifested in the course of life characteristic of the Latter-day Saints. Within the pale of the Church there is a place for all truth,—for everything that is praiseworthy, virtuous, lovely, or of good report. The liberality with which the Church regards other religious denominations; the earnestness of its teaching that God is no respecter of persons, but that He will judge all men according to their deeds; the breadth and depth of its precepts concerning the state of immortality, and the gradations of eternal glory awaiting the honest in heart of all nations, kindred, and churches, civilized and heathen, enlightened and benighted, have been set forth in preceding lectures. We have seen further, that the belief of this people carries them forward, even beyond the bounds of all knowledge thus far revealed, and teaches them to look with unwavering confidence for other revelation, truths yet to be added, glories grander than have yet been made known, eternities of powers, dominions, and progress, beyond the mind of man to conceive or the soul to contain. We believe in a God who is Himself progressive, whose majesty is intelligence; whose perfection consists in eternal advancement; the perpetual work of whose creation stands "finished, yet renewed forever;"[1253]—a Being who has attained His exalted state by a path which now His children are permitted to follow; whose glory it is their heritage to share. In spite of the opposition of all the sects, in the face of direct charges of blasphemy, the Church proclaims the eternal truth, "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." With such a future, well may man open his heart to the stream of revelation, past, present, and to come; and truthfully should we be able to say of every enlightened child of God, that he "Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."[1254] As incidental to the declaration of belief embodied in this article of faith, many topics relating to the organization, precepts, and practice of the Church suggest themselves. Of these the following may claim our present attention.

3. Benevolence.—Benevolence is founded on love for fellow-men; it embraces, though it far exceeds charity, in the ordinary sense in which the latter word is used. By the Divine Teacher it was placed as second only to love for God. On one occasion, certain Pharisees came to Christ, tempting Him with questions on doctrine, in the hope that they could entangle Him, and so make Him an offender against the Jewish law. Their spokesman was a lawyer; note his question and the Savior's answer:—"Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."[1255] The two commandments, here spoken of as first and second, are so closely related as to be virtually one, and that one:—"Thou shalt love." He who abideth one of the two will abide both. For without love for our fellows, it is impossible to please God. Hence wrote John,—the Apostle of Love,—"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.... If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also."[1256]

4. But perhaps the grandest and most sublime of the apostolic utterances concerning the love that saves, is found in the epistle of Paul to the Saints at Corinth.[1257] In our current English translation of the Bible, the virtue which the apostle declares superior to all the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, and which is to continue after all the rest have passed away, is designated as charity; but the original word meant love; and surely Paul had in mind something grander than mere alms-giving, as is evident from his expression:—"And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, ... and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."[1258] Though a man speak with the tongue of angels; though he possess the power of prophecy—the greatest of the ordinary gifts; though he be versed in knowledge and understand all mysteries; though his faith enable him to move mountains; and though he give his all, including even his life,—yet without love is he nothing. Charity, or alms-giving, even though it be performed with the sincerest of motives, devoid of all desire for praise or hope of return, is but a feeble manifestation of the love that is to make one's neighbor as dear to him as himself; the love that suffers long; that envies not others; that vaunts not itself; that knows no pride; that subdues selfishness; that rejoices in the truth. When "that which is perfect" is come, the gifts which have been bestowed in part only will be superseded. "Perfection will then swallow up imperfection; the healing power will then be done away, for no sickness will be there; tongues and interpretations will then cease, for one pure language alone will be spoken; the casting out of devils and power against deadly poisons will not then be needed, for in heaven circumstances will render them unnecessary. But charity, which is the pure love of God, never faileth; it will sit enthroned in the midst of the glorified throng, clothed in all the glory and splendor of its native heaven."[1259] If man would win eternal life, he cannot afford to neglect the duty of love to his fellow, for "Love is the fulfilling of the law."[1260]