George Q. Cannon

“ I care not how famous a man in this Church may be—he may be an apostle, he may be a high priest, a bishop, or hold any other important office or position; but unless that man conquers himself and carries on the work within himself of self-improvement, and brings himself and all there is within him in subjection to the mind and will of God, I tell you his fame is as empty as the sound of a trumpet when it passes away. ”

“ He can extinguish life; he can create life; he can perpetuate life. There is no power that human beings can conceive of which he does not possess. The light that now shines comes from him. The revelation we may get, imperfect at times because of our fallen condition and because of our failure to comprehend the nature of it, comes from God. The Latter-day Saints glorify him for it. If there is anything good or great or noble, if there is anything to be admired it comes from God, not man. Man is but the medium, but the instrument, is but the conduit through which it flows. ”

“ If we admit, as we must do, that he is this being which I have attempted so feebly to describe; if we admit that he is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the creator of all, the father of all, the sustainer of all; if we believe this, why cannot we believe that if he bestowed his blessings upon other generations and other people, he will do so to us, also that he will hear our prayers, that he will grant unto us the desires of our hearts? ”

“ The Latter-day Saints call it the spirit of revelation; the spirit of revelation resting down upon the children of men. Some men possess it to a greater extent than others. Some have the gift in one direction and they are capable of receiving communication from God in a direction that others are not, their minds are better prepared to receive revelation upon a given subject, than are the minds of others. Some will receive great moral truths, and these men differ in their organisms; but the light they receive all comes from our heavenly Father; it is he who gives the inspiration. ”

“ Now, in what respect do the Latter-day Saints differ from the rest of mankind in relation to these matters? In this: We acknowledge God as supreme, the fountain of all knowledge, the fountain of all power, the fountain of all intelligence, the fountain of everything that is good. Who are men? The creatures of his workmanship, if you please, his descendants, his own children begotten by him, descended by lineal descent from the God we worship. The same being whom we worship is our God, is our Creator, is our Father. ”

“ But after all, the great labor, the most honorable labor that any person can perform, is to do that which I have attempted to describe to you—to improve ourselves; to be Latter-day Saints in deed and in truth, to live our holy religion. When we arise in the morning, to examine ourselves, to see if there is anything that is in opposition to the mind and will of God within ourselves ”

“ If my heart were such that I could not think good thoughts nor entertain good feelings; if I were possessed of anger and could not contain myself, then it were better for me to sew up my mouth and stop my utterance. It is no merit in a man or woman because he or she thinks an evil thought or indulges in an angry spirit to give utterance to it; and they are not hypocrites because they do not do it either. It is not hypocrisy to quench the evil thoughts that arise in our minds. Our hearts are evil in consequence of the fall. ”

“ Every aspiration, every noble thought, every pure desire, everything that is good and holy and pure, elevating, ennobling and godlike comes from our Father, the God of the universe, the Father of all the children of men. ”

“ But the great truth has been impressed upon us; the great truth that runs through all the writings of every man of God concerning whom we have any account from the beginning down to the last revelation that has been given, that God is no respecter of persons, that he is to-day as he was yesterday and as he ever was, and that he will continue to be the same being as long as time endures or eternity continues. ”

“ It is my duty and your duty to think pure thoughts, to have holy desires, to be charitable, to be kind, to be long suffering, to be full of love, and not any of those evil influences. Why, the devil would have no power on the earth if it were not for some people who allow him to use their tabernacles. ”

“ Our fame may go forth for great works and mighty things that we have done; but unless we ourselves bring forth the fruits of righteousness in our lives; unless we conquer our evil passions, our evil habits, our evil inclinations, our evil desires, and bring them under complete subjection to the Spirit of God our labor is comparatively profitless, for that is the object of preaching the Gospel to us. ”

“ No, not even to them alone for there is no human being that is born of woman, there is no son or daughter of Adam that has ever lived upon the face of the earth who has not the right and who has not obtained at some time or other in his or her life, revelations from God, but who may not have understood what those revelations were. The Latter-day Saints are not so cramped in their feelings as to imagine that they are the only and peculiar people above all others who have, in this sense received revelation. ”

“ We have come together to-day according to our custom to be instructed in those duties that devolve upon us and also in the principles of our holy religion. These meetings are to me exceedingly precious; they are seasons of great rejoicing. And having the opportunity as we have to-day of assembling in peace and quietness without any to molest or make afraid, we should feel thankful, to that God who has brought us here; who has preserved and protected us since we came. ”

“ Inventions, no matter how grand they may be, are not attributed to the Father of them all, the Creator and Fountain of all knowledge. But man, whom he has chosen to be his instrument, he has blessed with knowledge concerning all these things, as the result of his earnest, study and his untiring efforts to obtain knowledge. The Being who does this is very seldom thought about by man.
Latter-day Saints, is this the course for us to take? Shall we glorify the creature at the expense of the Creator? ”

“ Why, every evil thought, every wrong speech that comes in their hearts, either to think or to utter, they entertain and express, and then take credit to themselves for not being hypocrites. Is not this great folly? Men and women think evil thoughts, they give place to angry feelings; and they think it a meritorious act, and pride themselves upon their conduct because they give them utterance instead of quenching them! ”

“ We may climb the highest mountains or descend into the deepest valleys or we may go to the uttermost parts of the earth, but where ever we may go he is there, his power is there, his vision is there to hear and to comprehend the desires and the wishes of our hearts. ”

“ God is to be worshipped; God is to be adored; God is to be glorified, and he will be. And when we are saved, when we are delivered from death, hell and the grave, we will glorify God, not man. Man will receive no glory; it will be the eternal Father, through Jesus Christ, who will receive it all.
This is the position occupied by the Latter-day Saints. We believe in revelation. ”

“ And I know many, many Latter-day Saints who are in this condition, who do live so that there is nothing of any importance that can occur for which they are not prepared, and the mind and will of God is made known to them, and they walk according to it, and seek earnestly and humbly to have it revealed to them; and in taking any important step they seek to know the will of God concerning it. Are they perfect? Far from it. They are mortal, full of weaknesses, and nobody is better aware of the character of earthly weaknesses than the man or woman who thus lives. ”

“ Is there any reason why this should not be the case? No reason except that which may be found in ourselves. There is no reason outside of this. God is willing, he has made promises, and he has fulfilled his promises so far as we have placed ourselves in circumstances to receive them. When we have complied with the conditions he has never from the beginning up to the present time failed in his part, he is incapable of failing. If there be failure it is due to us, the fault is our own, we are the guilty ones. ”

“ It is our duty though to contend for more faith, for greater power, for clearer revelations, for better understanding concerning his great truths as he communicates them to us. That is our duty; that is the object of our lives as Latter-day Saints—to live so near unto him that nothing can happen to us but that we will be prepared for it beforehand. ”

“ And so man has progressed from one degree of knowledge to another, from the rude canoe of the Indian, with which he navigates the stream, to those mighty steam ships whose keels plough every sea and circumnavigate the globe. ”

“ As I have said once before in this Tabernacle, we may be heralded through the earth as famous; but unless we conquer ourselves it is in vain that our names are known and that our deeds resound through the earth. ”

“ The natural man is at enmity with Christ and with God; and unless he seeks to conquer his nature by bringing it into subjection to the mind of God, he is not a son, or she is not a daughter of God. This is the labor that devolves upon us. ”

“ They believe themselves to be the people of God and the only people who have obeyed the commandments of God; but they do not think that, of all the children of God, they are the only recipients of his blessings.
God has revealed himself at various times and in various ways to many people. The heathen have had communication from him. All the light that exists; all the truths that are taught and all the correct principles and knowledge that have been communicated and existed among the children of men, have come from God ”

“ But we have to make a degree of progress much greater than we have in these things. We have got to seek after God with an earnestness, a fervor and devotion that we at the present time cannot comprehend: It is our duty as Latter day Saints to seek for knowledge. ”

“ If he could hear their cries, if he could answer their prayers and if he could grant to them the desires of their hearts; if he could open the heavens to them and reveal his mind and will unto them when they called upon him in faith, believing that he would do so, is there any reason why we should not have that same faith and exercise it and obtain those same blessings and receive them at his hands? ”

“ But no sooner did men come and the adversary obtain power over them, than all the evils we now witness throughout this land and in this city, which grieves us so, began to manifest themselves. And the more there are who will yield to the influences of the evil one, the more there are who will be guided by him, and the worse the conditions become. ”

“ There is nothing so important to me as an individual, as my own salvation. This is the most important thing to me that can be—that I myself shall be saved; that I myself shall so live as to be counted worthy by the Almighty to receive an exaltation in his kingdom. ”

“ If it be a dream or some remarkable manifestation that partakes of the supernatural, instead of giving God the glory and praising God for having made the communication, some other principle is glorified or some other thing is talked about, the remarkable character of it is dwelt upon without the person thinking that God has anything to do with it. ”

“ You may think it a grand thing for men to go on missions. I remember the time, and probably the feeling still exists—I hope it does—when it was deemed a great honor for a man to go upon a mission, especially a foreign mission. It is right that we should value these labors. It is a great thing to preside as a bishop or president of a stake, or to act in the calling of an apostle. ”

“ Because they are willing to yield themselves to the devil, I speak it plainly, it is the truth. If such people who practice these and kindred evils would not lend themselves to the devil he would have no power here. ”

“ The remarkable discoveries that are being made in the world of science; in fact, all the remarkable discoveries that have been made from time to time are produced by the operations of an unseen influence upon the mind of the children of men. For instance, it has frequently happened in astronomy and other branches of science that when an important discovery has been made two or three men about the same time widely separated from each other have received the communication ”

“ And at night before we retire to rest, to bow ourselves before our Father and God in secret, and pour out our souls in prayer before him, supplicating him to show unto us wherein we have done wrong during the day, wherein we have come short in thought, word and deed ”

“ I am in hopes that after awhile we will begin to realize as we never have yet, that there are practical duties resting on us Latter-day Saints; that there is something more than being members of the Church required of us. How is it with a great many? ”

“ And in this way alone can we acceptably serve the Lord our God, whose name we bear and whose people we profess to be. There is no reason why this people called Latter-day Saints should not have all the powers and all the gifts and all the graces that ever characterized the Church of God upon the earth at any time; there is no reason, I say, why they should not have all these if they themselves are true to the principles which have been revealed, and seek to carry them out. ”