The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-11-11

Well may the Saints in latter days
His wOndrous love proclaim!
Prayer by Elder Lorenzo D. Young.
Singing by the choir of the hymn:
Twas on that dark, that solemn night.
When powers of earth and hell arose
Against the Son, Ell God delight
And friends betrayed him to his foes.
PRESIDENT GEORGE Q. CANNON read
from the third chapter OF the first Peter,
beginning at the 4th verse, and also the
fist eight verses of the 4th chapter, af-
ter which he said the words, though
written by Saint Peter hundreds Of
years ago, were exhOrtatiOns as appro-
pirate to the Latter-day Saints as they
were to those of former days. The cir
cumstances which surrounded the an
clients surrounded the present day fol-
lowers of Jesus, with the difference, per-
haps, that the Saints now were not
scattered as were those in the time of
the life of the Savior; but the same
powers for good and evil were extant
and experienced by those who had
taken upon themselves the name OF
Christ. The speakers mind reverted to
a conversation which he had had few
days previously with a minister of the
Dutch Reformed church. When he
told the divine that God had revealed
himself in these last days, restored the
ordinances of life and salvation, the
gospel in its original power and purity,
and had organized the church as in
nd Of hQ ha1 csfa tod
to him what God had said of all the
churches in ChristendOm, he asked:
why has God left the wOrld-the
Christian world-for so long a time
without this power and authority
claimed by your church? And what
has become of those Christians who
died without knowing anything of it?"
These were pertinent questions, and
were often put by outsiders when told
that God had restored the gospel in its
original purity. Their ances may
have been moral in their lives and
exemplary in their conduct, and they
*: as it possible my ancestors have
not gone to heaven2 Not saved in the
presence of God? Why, better people
1 have never known. Railways believed
they had gone to heaven; and now
am told that unless l receive the Cos
pei and be baptized 1 will be damned;
they never heard its sound" This re-
minded President Cannon of story of
a certain king of old Frank. One of
his bishops took him to some water to
sprinkle him-to baptize hinl-when the
sovereign asked his official, What
have become of my ancestOrs?" The
bishop replied, They've gone to hell. "
Then III go to he'll with them" he
returned, and refused the rite of bap-
tism. There are many WI o believed as
this monarch did. Referring again to his
conversation with the minister before
mentioned, President Cannon said he
spoke to him to this effect: You are q
Christian minister; you preach what
you believe to be the gospel of salvation.
What has become of those who never
heard it? The heathenS what has be-
come of them?" "Ah," was his reply,
but they were not Christians" do
you think God makes any distinction?
Is a Christians soul more valuable
than the soul of heathen?" His only
reply was: But they were not Chris
tians." The difficulty remained and
would ever remain to those who do not
believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ !;
but the Saints, who believed that the
gospel extends through all eternity
operating from eternity to eternity !;
that the plan of salvation devised by
God, the Eternal Father, was intended
to save all the human family, unless.
during this probation, they committed
what is termed the objectionable sin,
realized that there was hope for those
who had died without hearing the Cos
pei preached. He here read a revela-
ton in the Pearl of Great Price, which
he considered an important one, show
ing that the inhabitants of the earth in
the days of Enoch would grow worse
and worse, more abandoned than ever,
until they were punished by visitation
from heaven; they would be consigned
to place of punishment, heaven would
weep thereat, and Enoch was told that
they should remain prison until the
days of Jesus, in torment. The millions
of spirits who had committed sin until
they could be borne no longer, were
swept off by the flood, destroyed, all ex-
cept Noah and the seven souls who re-
ceiVed his testimony. The antideluYian
world were all swept of the earth and
doomed to prison; they were cast into
outer darkness, where there would be
weeping and wailing and crashing of
teeth, and where they would remain I'M
til Christ came and redeemed them.
When Jesus lived he on one occasion
entered a synagogue, where there was
handed him a book containing the pro-
phecy of Isaiah; he took it and read:
"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me;
because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek;
He hath sent me to bind up
the broken hearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captive, and the
opening of the prison to them that are
bound; to proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord, and the day of vengeance
of our God; to comfort all that mourn
in Zion, TO give unto them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the
garment of praisefor the spirit of heavi-
ness; that they might be called trees of
the planting of the Lord,
that he might be glorified." This was
the exact mission of Jesus, assigned
him by his Father in heaven. When he
left the earth, after the establishment of
his work of salvation on it. and after
men to the priesthood, and
much more, he went and preached
unto the spirits i'll prison." No one else
was authorized to do this. 1t did not
take him long to begin his work, for he
was crucified on Friday and TeSurrected
on Sunday: he descended into hell, and,