George Q. Cannon

“ An enlightened American will be held to stricter accountability than an ignorant Indian; and the man who has heard the sound of the everlasting Gospel and the testimony of the servants of God is held to stricter accountability than he who has never heard them. ”

“ Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ”

“ We believe that God, our heavenly Father, is a God of perfect justice, a God of mercy, a God filled with long-suffering and tender compassion towards all the works of his hands. We could not, with our views respecting the character of God, believe as our friends imagine with regard to the destiny of those who die outside of this Church, for that would be incompatible with and contrary to all that we understand concerning the character of our God—the God who is revealed in the Bible, and the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. ”

“ In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as I have already remarked, there are certain conditions with which the people are expected to comply; if they do they receive the blessings, if they do not they receive condemnation. Jesus and his Apostles taught that it was essential that mankind should believe in him as the Son of God—as the only name given under heaven by which men could be saved. All mankind were therefore required to believe and to have faith in him, and to approach the Father in his name. That was the first condition of the Gospel as taught by Jesus and his Apostles. ”

“ Many, doubtless, who listen to the Elders of this Church, when speaking upon the principles of life and salvation, have come to the conclusion, when they have not thoroughly understood the principles and the system as they are set forth, that we are an exceedingly exclusive and uncharitable people for believing that only a very few out of the large mass of human beings who have peopled the earth will be saved, while the great majority—those who are outside the pale of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—will go down to an endless hell. ”

“ Men wonder why we have suffered and been persecuted so much in the past. I think it was partly because of our hardness of heart. Not that the men who persecuted us were justified in so doing. They were tested and tried, the Lord left them their agency and they brought themselves under condemnation because of their conduct. But we never had anything descend upon us as a persecution or scourge that has not been intended for our good; and we are held to a stricter accountability than any other people because we have the Gospel taught unto us. ”

“ Who are they who are under condemnation, and who need fear at the prospect of the same? Men and women who, living in the day when the Gospel is preached in its fullness and purity, hear it and reject it. Against such the anger of God is enkindled, and they are in a far worse condition than those who die and never hear it. Says Jesus, "It would be better for a man to have a millstone tied to his neck, and for him to be thrown into the depths of the sea," than to do such and such things; and in another place he says, "It would be better for a man never to be born." ”

“ In our day we see countless numbers of elegant spires pointing to heaven, and legions of men preaching what they call the Gospel, but the wickedness of the people is unchecked. Anciently, when God sent his authorized servants to proclaim his Gospel to the people, salvation, on the one hand, followed obedience, or, on the other, condemnation followed rejection. ”

“ They think, then, of beloved relatives and friends who have died without a knowledge of the Gospel, and they would do a great deal for their salvation; in fact it would embitter all their lives to think that they could not be saved. Could we be happy, my brethren and sisters, in thinking that we had received a form of doctrine which would exalt us into the presence of God and the Lamb, there to bask for ever in happiness and bliss so great that the Apostle says, "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive?" ”

“ This was the case from the days of Noah to the days of John the Revelator, and it will be the case in every generation when the Gospel of the Son of God, in its purity and fullness, is proclaimed to the people, and when God has a Church and Priesthood upon the earth which he recognizes. He is the King of the earth, he is the Creator of all its inhabitants, and when he calls upon the people, and requires them to do anything, they must promptly comply, or suffer the terrible consequences of their disobedience. ”

“ God has looked in mercy upon them, and on account of their sincerity has witnessed unto them that he accepted the broken spirits and contrite hearts which they offered unto him. I cannot doubt this; but wherever the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached in its fullness, none can obtain the remission of sins only in the way that God has pointed out, and that is by baptism by one having the authority from God to administer that ordinance. ”

“ We must not be guilty of dishonesty or take advantage one of another; we must not bear false witness; we must not neglect our duties one to another or towards God, for we can not do these things with impunity, for God's anger will be kindled against us; and in proportion to the light which men have will they be judged, and God will reward them according to the deeds done in the body. ”

“ The thousands who live throughout these valleys testify that they have received the Holy Ghost; they testify that they received it in the lands where they embraced the Gospel; they say that this love which they have for one another, and the disposition they have to dwell together in peace and unity are the fruits of this Holy Spirit that they have received. ”

“ The reason, probably, that these ideas are entertained by many who have heard our Elders preach, is because they have drawn deductions from the preaching they have heard, imagining that our views of the sayings of the Scriptures corresponded with theirs, and that it necessarily followed that all who failed to render obedience to the ordinances of the Gospel, as we preach them, would go down to that endless hell in which so many of the sects believe. But any person entertaining such ideas does us, or rather the Gospel that we preach, great injustice. ”

“ You recollect what Peter said when the Holy Ghost descended upon Cornelius—this uncircumcised man—and his house, whom they had supposed were without the pale of the Gospel—"Who can forbid water, seeing that they have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" Peter cited this bestowal of the Holy Ghost upon Cornelius and his house, as a proof that the ordinance of baptism should be administered to them, and to all believing repentant Gentiles as well as to the house of Israel. ”

“ Mankind were required to obey a certain form of doctrine declared unto them, and when they did obey they received the blessings. But I have often thought when traveling abroad in the nations, how different it is in our day from what it was anciently. ”

“ It is a truth that has been enforced by all who have understood the Gospel, that those to whom the Gospel is revealed, must obey it, or condemnation follows. Condemnation did not fall upon the inhabitants of the antediluvian world until Noah had taught unto them the will of God. Noah, commanded of God, went forth as a preacher, of righteousness, declaring to the people the judgments that were about to come upon them ”