George Q. Cannon

“ If we are expecting to reach a glory and an exaltation such as we think about and talk about and pray for, it seems to me that there should be something to, be done on our part commensurate with the expectations and hopes and desires that we entertain, and I do not know myself any better test, that can be brought to bear upon human beings than this test to which allusion has been made this. ”

“ I can see that a man that goes out as a missionary, as Elders have done in the past, often acquires great influence with the power of God resting upon him, and through the confidence that power has inspired in the midst of the Saints, I can understand that men have taken advantage of that influence, and have abused the trust of the people, and have done wrong, and have lessened their influence with God, and with man, and have caused the Spirit of God by that action to be withdrawn from them. ”

“ I do not think that any other denomination of people, either religious or secular, have such doctrines as we have heard this morning taught to them respecting their duties and their obligations to God. ”

“ Now, my brethren and sisters, I feel that it is a matter, as I have said, of vital importance that we should have this that I have spoken of—faith and confidence in the Priesthood of the Son of God, and we cannot build up Zion without we have it, and we cannot build up Zion without we are willing to do all we have been taught by the inspiration of God—I know that as well as I do that I live. ”

“ With my feelings to-day I never can consent for any man to go in and receive a fullness of the blessings of the everlasting Gospel in that building or those buildings, unless I know him to be a man who is willing to yield implicit obedience to the Priesthood of the Son of God. ”

“ God forbid that I or any other man in this Church should do anything of the kind! On the contrary, let us be obedient to the voice of God, and to the will of God. If God, through him, says unto us we must consecrate our property, we must hold everything we have subject to the will of God, if He through him dictates any course of policy, I say it is my duty as a servant of God to submit: it is my duty to carry out faithfully, according to the will of God, that which He counsels, and that which He dictates. ”

“ There is not a man in this room who has a proper conception of the Gospel, and of the rewards attached to obedience to it, who does not at least hope that he will attain unto celestial glory, (which means the Godhead, to be an heir of God, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ) ; that he will enter upon a career of exaltation that shall not terminate throughout the endless ages of eternity, and that will place him in the company of Him concerning whom it is said "of the increase of His kingdom there shall be no end." ”

“ They would like to destroy confidence in your hearts in the Priesthood of the Son of God. If they could weaken your confidence; if they could undermine your faith; if they could by any power or means in their possession wean you from the Church, and sow the seeds of distrust and suspicion in your minds concerning the Priesthood, or those who bear it, they would attain the object that they have in view. The man who holds the keys is always the object of assault. His life is the life that is most sought after. He is the man they would strike down, if they had the power. ”

“ If God has confidence in him, shall not I, who am God's servant and God's child, have similar confidence? I believe in God. I believe God manages all the affairs of this Church. I know if I do my duty He will save me, He will exalt me, and I know if you will do your duty, He will do the same for you. And if men whom He chooses are fallible, that is His business. He requires on our part obedience to His will, as it is made manifest through the man whom He has chosen. ”

“ I have not got confidence in their management as business men. I do not know but I have better business qualities myself than they have, and I can manage my own affairs to better advantage than they can. ”

“ In this manner God has brought forward to the front the man whom He chose to be President of the Church. It is His privilege to chose whom He pleases. The man whom He wants preserved is preserved. When the Prophets of God were slain, Brother Taylor's life, by the wonderful providence of God, was preserved, and he has lived among us until this day. He now stands in his place as the President of the Church, holding the keys and the authority as such to manage all the affairs of the Church according to God's mind and will. ”

“ Every man who attends strictly to the duties assigned to him, and pertaining to his Priesthood, and confines himself to them, is sustained and upheld of the Lord. The Elders who have destroyed confidence by the methods I have alluded to, transcended their authority. That constituted the difference between their action and the action of the man whom God places to preside over His Church. ”

“ It is a strange thing; it is a strange feature in the human character; it is exhibited everywhere; it is not confined to Latter-day Saints alone; that mankind are very willing to trust men with spiritual things, and to have confidence in them concerning spiritual things, and have little or no confidence in them when it affects their temporal interests. ”

“ It may be said that it will test the Latter-day Saints as they never have been tested—this vital doctrine of obedience to the Priesthood of the Son of God. There is no point today against which so many assaults are directed by the wicked. They make it the main object of their attacks. ”

“ I believe God will move upon His servant in His own due time to make the necessary regulations to effect this. There are men who have been faithful all their lives, who have done everything that it is possible for men to do, and there are others who have been indifferent, and who have had their own way, and carried out their own mind, yet all come along and get the same blessings without any distinction whatever. ”

“ And those who read those things continually, begin to believe by degrees, that there is foundation for them, that there is something wrong, that this man or the other man is not to be trusted, and that they are doing wrong in yielding obedience to the counsels of the Priesthood, and in submitting to its control. ”

“ There are, it is true, people who indulge in very wild vagaries about property, such as communists and others, but they have no system of religion, they do not believe in God, they do not believe in the principles that He teaches and which we accept. ”

“ This want of confidence arises in some instances from selfishness or a lack of faith, and in others from witnessing the unwise conduct of Elders in the management of means. There have been Elders who have gone out in the world for the purpose of bringing souls to the truth who have abused their privileges among the people, and have borrowed money and never repaid it. Such occurrences inspire distrust. And such men have transcended the limits of their authority in taking this course. ”

“ There are men—and there may be some in this congregation—who have been quite willing to submit to the ordinance of baptism and rely upon it as a means of salvation, as a means of remitting their sins, and have also been willing to submit to have hands laid upon them by the same individual, for the reception of the Holy Ghost, who would not listen to his counsel concerning their property. ”

“ When he sealed a man up to eternal life, he bestowed upon him the blessings pertaining to eternity, and to the Godhead, or when he delegated others to do it in his stead, God in the eternal world recorded the act; the blessings that were sealed upon that man or that woman, they were sealed to be binding in this life, and in that life which is to come ”

“ I believe that His providence is over all of us, and He can kill or remove as He pleases, or He can preserve in life as seemeth good to Him. And he has done so. When the Prophet Joseph was slain, God, by His overruling Providence, brought the man to the front who was His choice to succeed His servant. ”

“ But I look upon my brethren who preside over this Church, and I see that they are mortal men, and I see that they do many things that mortal men do, and I have not quite confidence enough in them to dispose of my property as they may dictate. ”

“ And yet the same men who entertain these thoughts, and the same women, will go into this Temple when it is completed, and will ask at the hands of the servants of God blessings that are far beyond all price when measured by earthly substance, by gold or silver, or that which men consider valuable. ”

“ No man, however, has done that in this Church without losing that power which God gave unto him, and there are men who have apostatized from this Church who brought on that apostasy because of such conduct as I allude to. ”