The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-08-01
SUNDAY SERVICES.

Ill CIl6 IdD6Tndcl6 Oh SUNDAY alVeI-
noon, was the one beginning:
Praise We the Lordl my heart shall join
In work so pleasant, so divine,
Now while the flesh is mine abode,
And when my seul sscends to God.
Prayer by Elder J. F. Wells. The
choir sang:
How sweet communion is on earth
With those who've realized the birth
OF wster-who the spirits' powers
Receive, genial quick'hing showers.
ELDER II. w. NAIsBITT addressed
the congregation. He said the saints
attended religious services for the
purpose of being fed spiritually and
mentally, and obtain that which
would better enable them to live
their religion. They worship God,
giving him praise and homage, ac-
knowIedging their dependence upon
him and their desire for his support
and blessings. In the world there
was diversity of ideas in regard to
worship. There was perhaps as
much ignorance to-day in regard to
Christian worship, as in any age.
Jesus had to reprimand the people
Of his time in regard to their
ignorance of public worship, not
Withstanding the many advantages
they enjoyed for obtaining correct
kRo Wedge from. on high. There
had been prophets who spoke Gods
will, but at the time of Christ much
of the prophetic spirit had been lost,
people and nations going astray and
losing knowledge Of God. This con-
dition of things was manifest in
Israel, and among the peoples sur
rounding them, leading to the eX-
preston, eye know not what you
worship" Prophetic history also
pointed out that in later times a
similar state of opinions would ex-
list, as spoken of in the 18th chapter
of revelations. When we glance at
the nineteenth century Christianity
we realize how correct is the picture
drawn by John. The knowledge of
the only living and true God should
be restored in order that men might
worship intelligently. In ancient
times the people had an intelligent
worship, for through visible mani
festations the people could not well
mistake the presence and influence
of the only true and living
God. The elder here spoke
of certain modern modes and ideas
of worship and religious ceremon-
les, and said that the saints had wor-
ship of a different character, the
people having acquired some knowl-
edge of God, and consequently their
ideas of Him were different from
those of others. They realize that
they are the children of God and
brothers and sisters of Jesus. They
worship not the person of God, but
the attributes that he possesses,
which made the earth, the hea-
vens, the seas and the fountains of
water. They believe He is being
of thought, action and movement,
an intelligent being, and that the
man who loves and seeks for intel
ligence is true worshipper of one
of the chief attributes of the AL
mighty, while the ignorant and
those who are content to remain
without knowledge cannot be wor-
shippers of the true and living God
In Gods government everything
was order, and the man OF
woman who was not orderly
could not, in this sense, be a wor-
shipper of the true God. The Al
mighty was also a being of cleanli-
ness; then what could be said of q
person who did not possess this at
tribute? Surely in that respect he
could not be worshipper of God
whereas the one who practiced
cleanliness worshipped one of the
attributes of God. The Almighty
was lover f beauty, and men and
women who were also lovers of
beauty and sought to beautify were
consciously or otherwise, worship
ping an attribute of God. The elder
also believed that God was opposed
to drunkenness, for so it was written
in the Scriptures. There were also
many other directions in which men
worshipped attributes of God. God
was gathering out from the world
by the power of the gospel, those
who were worshippers of him, those
who knew who and what they wor-
shipped, and the purposes for which
they had been placed upon the earth
They were tryic 6 to grow more and
more like him.
The choir sang an anthem and
Elder John Pack pronounced the
benedietiOn. q