But let us not forget that there is a vital difference between toleration and acceptance. To assume that because I have respect for my neighbor's belief I must believe and act as he does would be to surrender my own rights. To regard all religious systems, all sects and churches, as essentially of equal worth and worthiness, is to make of religious profession a matter of mere convenience and conventionality.
I verily believe, with the full force of my soul's conviction, that there is and can be but one Church of Jesus Christ upon the earth, possessing the blessings and powers of the Holy Priesthood, with the authority to administer the ordinances requisite to salvation. Nevertheless, I can and do admit freely and without reservation the right of any man to believe that I am wrong; and I hold that neither of us is justified in assailing the other except by means of persuasion, demonstration, and testimony.
To preach the doctrines of men as the precepts of Christ, to supplant the eternal principles of the Gospel by the dogmas of human conception, is to commit grievous sin and incur fearful culpability. Christ and His apostles gave solemn and repeated warning against the heresies of false teachers. Thus wrote Paul to the Galatians:
"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." (Gal. 1:8-9).
Some have thought to find in this and cognate Scriptures an excuse for intolerance, and even for persecution. But is it otherwise than consistent with justice and reason to hold that any man who preaches his own doctrines or those of other men under the name of the Gospel of Jesus Christ stands convicted of blasphemy, and deserving of the curse of God? The Apostle cited above left no doubt as to the genuineness of the Gospel he so vigorously defended, as witness the following:
"But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ."
Each of us may accept or reject the message of eternal life, the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and by all reason and consistency each shall garner the fruitage of his choice.
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THE LAW OF THE LAND