Scrap Book of Mormon Literature, Volume 2 (of 2). Religious Tracts

by Unknown

Another object of the existence in the Church of inspired apostles and prophets, etc., was "the work of the ministry." They being appointed of God, and not of men, for that purpose, to assume that because they do not exist in the churches is sufficient evidence that they are not required is equal to an assumption that "the work of the ministry" is unnecessary. The untenable claim that men endowed with divine authority and prophetic gifts were only necessary in the rise of the primitive Church flies before the scriptural statement that they were to remain "till we all come to a unity of the faith." An unprejudiced, dispassionate Christian reasoner will at once freely admit that the present distracted, divided, embittered, controversial condition of Christendom presents anything else than a united state, which inspired men were commissioned, by heavenly teachings, to bring about. The desirableness of that unity is most clearly defined, in the reason that, "we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men." That is plainly the present condition of religious affairs, the people being wafted about by every whimsical, sensational breeze of doctrine. It is made a matter of lucrative trade by mercenary individuals, to play upon the wayward, flitting religious sentiments of the misguided masses. We say to the people, be not deceived by those who "make merchandise of the souls of men," by teaching the repudiation of inspired apostles and prophets. Those holy men can alone relieve the earnest worshipper from being engulfed in the turbulent sea of doubt and place his feet upon the steadfast rock of certainty.

There can be no question as to the present existence of prophets, through whom the will of God could be taught, being desirable. Then, the Almighty being just and unchangeable, why should it be considered unlikely that He should give good gifts to men now as well as anciently? If the people now are as deserving as the ancients were, why should the present generation be denied the enjoyment of equal privileges in relation to being divinely taught? Surely there can be no reason.

Among the innumerable unfounded false popular impressions regarding the Latter-day Saints is one to the effect that they do not believe in the teachings of the Old and New Testaments. Some of the more ignorant people go so far in misconception of their true character as to be imbued with the utterly preposterous idea that they do not even believe in the Savior at all. The very name of the organization—the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—a title we claim to have been given by revelation from God, should be enough to explode the latter fallacious view. And in regard to the belief of the Saints in the teachings and doctrines of the Bible, the organism of the ecclesiastical body should be evidence enough on that point. All the officers and councils named in the New Testament are included in it; hence there are apostles, high priests, seventies, elders, bishops, priests, teachers and deacons, the duties and functions of those several offices of the genuine priesthood being clearly understood and defined. It is required that every officer should understand the character of his position and the relationship he sustains in it towards all other authorities, producing the most desirable unity and beautiful harmony.

This symmetrical perfection, this shapely figure, the result of the most exquisite niceness of organization and completely detailed definition of the functions of each portion of the body-religious is, in our view, a very decided evidence of the divinity of the mission of the great prophet of the nineteenth century. It accords with the frequently recurring scriptural figure by which the true Church of Christ is compared, in its perfection of parts and harmonious blending of divisions, to the human body. The preservation of this completeness is an absolute necessity. How can the human bodily structure be deemed perfect when it is decapitated, when denuded of its extremities, or when the trunk is lacerated or divided into pieces? No detached part can, in its separate capacity, be denominated a body, neither can the organism be called perfect when deprived of even the most inferior of its members. How then, on the same ground, can a church, as compared to a body, be called the Church of Christ if it repudiate or is devoid of apostles, prophets, high priests, seventies and other vital parts that, according to New Testament teachings, comprise necessarily the most important portions of that harmonious organization inaugurated among men by the Savior of the world and His ancient apostles?

How anxious the Apostle Paul was to impress upon the minds of the people the positiveness of the necessity for the preservation of the organization of the Church in its entirety. Hear what he says on the subject, 1 Cor. xii. 14-21: "For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you."

To show that Paul had special reference, in his advocacy of the preservation of the body in the perfection of its parts, to the officers and gifts of the Church, it will profit the reader to peruse the 27th and 28th verses of the same chapter: "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues."

After this pattern has the Church, revealed anew in this age, been set up through the instrumentality of the young man Joseph Smith who, like his Divine Master, was slain on account of the testimony he bore to a perverse generation; and our reader may well pause and ask himself the vital question, where else in all the world can I find a church similar to that of ancient times?

But we hasten to explain other and equally potent evidences that establish the divinity of Joseph Smith's mission and the validity of his claim to being a prophet. We will first consider the character of his teachings and administrations and their effects upon those who accept them. He announced that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand; that the Lord was about to commence His marvelous latter-day work, by preparing for the coming of the Savior. He and his associate apostles and prophets taught the same Gospel that Christ and the ancient apostles preached: Faith in God the Eternal Father, in His Son Jesus Christ, repentance of sins, baptism, by immersion, for the remission of sins, and the laying on of the hands of those holding divine authority for the bestowal of the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

The elders of the Church constantly preached these doctrines and they are explained so clearly in many pamphlets and more extensive published works, that it is not our purpose to enter upon an elaborate dissertation regarding them in this writing. In fact so plainly are these the doctrines taught by Christ and His apostles, in the same order as they are given in the preceding paragraph, that a labored explanation in support of them should be unnecessary to convince any consistent, intelligent, professing Christian that they are strictly biblical, and, without exception, absolutely essential.

What we wish more particularly to refer to now is the promise given to the obedient believers of the bestowal upon them of the Holy Ghost. No impostor could make such an offer without subjecting himself to the certainty of discovery. Here was a distinct assertion that a clearly defined effect would be produced by a plainly stated cause, the former being the reception of the Holy Ghost, produced by obedience to the doctrines and ordinances before enumerated. Here was an offer exactly similar to that made to the people in ancient times. Christ and the ancient apostles promised that the obedient should know of the doctrine, and miraculous signs should follow the believer. They "laid their hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost." How easy it is to test this matter.