Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1894-02-10

Piled to such an extent among mcnl
How Is 1t that there are hundreds uf
societies, all protesting to have Jesus
Tor their guide. aud all believing That
they are going TO obtain salvation
through the doctrines that they teacii
For the scriptures say that there Is one
Lord, one faith and one baptism. There
can only be one answer to this question.
II there had continued among men the
doctrine d one Lord. one faith, aud one
baptism, how different would be the
condition Of the religious world today
ifIn what u Is Now there are hun.
uflig Of faiths, some protesting one
thing. and some another. For long
ages there was but one religion among
men protesting to have our Master as
iJ u .Id. aud 10 CROPPED IN darkness and
introduced many things that were grew
GUS aDl siliul aud contrary to the
written word OF God. The result Of
these things was the rising up Of great
men lisc Martin Luther. contcuding Tor
what they believed 10 be right We
are told Of Martin Luther that when he
commenced bis opposition TO the Church
Of Rome Il was not with the expectation
Of tGtalli.iung new religious society,
but 10 the hope that he might reform
some Of the abuses that had crcpt into
the church. lie bore record to the PEG.
pie that doctrines were being advocated
contrary to the scriptures Of divine
truth, and he sought to correct these
/ things and bring the church into what
he considered to be the proper channel.
The result was ne was accommodated
and cast out OF the Church Of Rome.
| Then sprang up reform churches all
over the face Of the earth. But there Is
one peculiarly about all Of these
churches that spraug into existence
| the men whom they are named after
never intended 90 establish churches Of
their own. Thy sought to cleanse and
| purify the mother church, and for this
I they were exc communicated, and then
came into existence the religious bodies
that bear their names, without revelation
or commandment from God, aud conse.
| qucntly without authority. We believe
That they were honest and good men,
aud that they were inspired TO accom-
/ plish the work that they set their hands
to do. The time had come when the
| God Of heaven, IN iulhlmcnt OF the
/ promises that had been made,was about
/ TO accomplish a wonderful work among
/ the children of men, TO establish HIS
| kingdom upon the eartii, and to usher
In the dspensation Of the iulneSs OF
/ times, and u was necessary that the
! priestly control that then existed over
the minds Of men should be broken, and
that religious freedom should be intro
duced, so that men everywhere should
have the privilege Of worshipping God
according to the dict,p,es OF their own
! conscience. To bring about this con-
dition, we believe that the rciomers
were inspired OF God, and we enjoy to.
day the result VI their labors. Men
offered their lives that they might wor-
ship as they saw IT. Martin Luther,
when his life was hanging In the balance,
declared before those vino accused him
that the stand he had taken he could
not recede from, and he prayed for God
to help him. lie was willing to lay down
his life, II need be, as many before and
many since have done. We believe tina
all these things were wrought out by