The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-06-26

tell you Colonel IngersolI speaks
some truths, and they are battering
ram against the walls of false and
crumbling Christianity. Colonel Inger-
soil is doing work that will rebound
to the glory of God, and future ages
will recognize ii. I do not mean to
say that he is doing it iuten-
tionally. l do not mean to say
that he will not be punished
for his sins. But God will override his
work for good; and the wrath of man,
the blasphemy and irreverence of
Ingersoll will praise Him. Perhaps a
| little sarcasm little ridicule, little
satire, may do something Tor the spread
of truth. Before you build a new house,
| you must clear away the debris Of the
old one. believe that Colonel Inger-
| soil and many other men are only
clearing away the debris of the past
preparatory to the coming of struc-
ture of which they have never dreamed.
L am as willing to honor Colonel Inger-
soil, so far as he is honest ana sincere
in his views, as am TO honor any man
who is honest and sincere. | honor
our Christian brethren, although they
preach much that we do not believe.
L honor them if they are sincere, and l
am glad to say that some of their minis
tiers are coming back to more tenable
grounds, driven back, perhaps, by the
assaults of intidelity, or wooed back by
the magnetic power of truth. They are
gradually getting little more light to
answer the infidel with. Not that they
would give the credit to MormoDism,
the doctrines and influence of which
have for over fifty years been perme-
ating society. Men like Beecher, like
Theodore Parker. prea ;hed Mormorisn
for years. Theodore Parker broke out
one Sabbath with glorious invocation
to our Father and Mother in heaven
and Christendom shouted and praised
the great man whose mind had given
birth to the wonderful thought
that we had Mother as
well as Father in heaven.
Long before this, however, Sister Eliza
r. Snow wrote her hymn:
When leave this frail existence;
When l lay this mortal by;
Father, mother, may 1 meet you
Inyour royal courts on high.
Why did not the world shout then?
Was it because it was Mormon wrote
it? 1t took Theodore Parker to bring
it into prominence and make it respec-
table. The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher,
a man whom we esteem for his intelli-
gence and liberality, when next came to
the front and said that there was no
hell burning with fire and birthstone for
ever and ever, and Lever-ending pun
ishment for the wicked, and his holiness
and breadth of mind evoked the
worlds admiration. Why did it not ad-
mlre end praise when Joseph Smith
pronounced this doctrine fifty years be-
fore? 1t was because it was only "old
Joe Smith," the Mormon prophet. The
diamond in the dust is despised and
trampled on, but pick it up and put il
in crown and the world will fall down
and worship it, But here is a people |
who are not ashamed to pick |
truth from the dust, to acknowledge |
truth wherever found, in the re-
ligions of all men. Christianity? Yes, |
it has truth. The doctrines of Buddha |
Yes, they have truth. The arguments
of the infidel? Yes, some of them have
edged razors; unless men know how to
handle them. they are dangerous weap-
ons to WELD. From the standpoint of
Mormonism-Which is only nickname
for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as newly
restored in these latter days-it can be
seen more clearly than from any other
what measure Of truth men have, and
what measure of error. This Gospel
which the world calls Mormonism is
the original faith revealed anew,
and now being preached to
all the nations as witness
before the end shall come. We are will
ing 70 acknowledge that there are
truths i'll all religions, and by means of
those truths, they live and move and
have their being. Error cannot live
alone. 1t must have some truth to
bolster it up. But Mormonism is the
fulness of truth. They who have not
the fulness. but only retain it in a mea-
sure, knowing no better, and live up to
the light they have, are justified in the
sight of God and will stand guiltless be-
fore him. But when we once hear the
full gospel, we are responsible if we do
not accept it.
Ny Christian friends, who are here
present, notwithstanding that 1 differ
from you and you from US in our faith,
[ ask for the blessing of God upon you,
and also upon the Saints, that our faith
may be living faith, that we
may keep the lamp burning within our
souls and pursue the straight and
narrow path leading to eternal life,
realizing that what we are doing here
IS preparing US for the life to come. and
that all men will be judged according
10 the light they have and the deeds
lone in the body. ask the blessing of
God upon you in the name of Jesus
Christ. Amen.
An anthem was then sung by the