Joseph E. Taylor

“ Is there any man without this Spirit, without the inspiration of this agency among the Latter-day Saints; from the President of the Church down through all the ramifications of the Priesthood, that is prepared to teach the people the law of God of himself? No, and I am bold to declare it this afternoon; neither is there a minister upon the face of this broad land or in all Christendom that can go before his congregation and feed them with the bread of life, unless he possesses the gift of the Holy Ghost, and speaks by virtue of that gift. ”

“ There is a time yet for repentance; there is a time yet left for us to manifest our humility before God; there are opportunities for us to retrace our steps if we have traveled in the wrong direction. The time will come, as far as this earthly existence is concerned, when these opportunities and advantages will cease. Can you be baptized here in the flesh for the remission of your sins? Yes. Can you yourself attend to that ordinance when your tabernacle is laid away in the grave? ”

“ Have we grown in knowledge of the principles of life and salvation over and above that which we understood many years ago? What is our standing in the midst of the people and before God today? These are plain questions, but pertinent; and we should propound these questions to ourselves often and thus become our own catechisers. If we find we are lacking in any one particular we should take immediate steps to remedy any defect, any neglect, and should cease any wrong-doing of which we may have been guilty. We can afford to serve God, but we cannot afford to take a contrary course ”

“ The day will come, perchance, even in the spirit world, when that father and mother, sister and brother, who despised you, will be seeking after salvation and will want to have conferred upon them the powers of eternal life. And you will have placed yourself in the position to act for them though your body may be in the grave, for your spirit still lives and you can preach and even become a minister of salvation to those of your own house. ”

“ The man who has been pure in his spirit, pure in his heart, pure in his intentions and desires before God, when he lays that body down in the grave there will be found in the very elements with which his body will mingle, a power to cleanse and purify all weaknesses as pertaining to the flesh which cannot be regarded as sins before God. Yes, give mother earth time and she will so effectually purify the tabernacle that she will get it ready for the resurrection from the grave to be re-united with the spirit. ”

“ The veil never has been lifted from the day that God hid himself from Adam in the Garden of Eden; it never has been lifted in any age of the world only by the power of the Priesthood and the gift of faith, and then only for a short time. ”

“ Shall we affiliate with that which we once abandoned, drink with the drunken, shake hands with the evil-doer, fraternize with the sinner, defile ourselves before God, and forsake the holy covenants that we have made? ”

“ The very medium through which inspiration comes, the very medium through which knowledge comes that benefits the human family, no matter whether it be scientific, philosophical or otherwise, there is not a truth extant upon the earth to-day that has been utilized, or many truths combined together that have been utilized but have been the result of divine inspiration directly to the spirit of man, to the mind of man which is sometimes incorrectly called the soul of Man. ”

“ Can you enjoy this privilege when your body is laid away in the grave? No; and to prove that this ordinance, as well as others pertains to this life, this time, I need only say that when we undertake to extend the principles of salvation to those that are dead, somebody in the flesh must represent the person for whom the ordinances are intended who may have neglected or have had no opportunity to attend to these ordinances themselves while in the flesh. ”

“ We occupy the same place, we are on an equality in this respect; but when we proclaim the word of the Lord, when we undertake to make known the decrees of the Almighty, and the plan of salvation, and we do it by the power and demonstration of the Spirit, every man who rejects that proclamation will do so at his own risk, and will stand condemned before God, because he will not receive of that Spirit, not because he did not receive the reasoning of the man who spoke, but because he rejected the influence of the Spirit of God, by which he spoke. ”

“ Some have come to worship God with honesty of purpose, to partake of His holy sacrament with clean hands and pure hearts, and are worthy of partaking of these sacred emblems of the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. ”

“ As far as opinions go, are not my neighbors just as precious and of as much value to him as mine are to me? Any ideas that I may possess, no matter how rational, apparently logical, no matter how reasonable they may sound; are not the opinions of every other man just as much value to him as mine are to me? ”

“ Is it worth living for? Is it worth enduring a few threats for? Is it worth being quiet when you are menaced, and as passive as the Lord wants you to be? Yes. Is it worth making any sacrifice for? Is it worth leaving home, father, mother, sister, brother? ”

“ Our bodies will have been left in the grave with all their weaknesses, with all their imperfections. Our spirits will not go down into the grave. They live in the presence of God; they will be held responsible for that tabernacle, for its acts, for its development; they will be held responsible before God, before the heavens, for the faith they have exercised, or for the wrongs that they have allowed themselves to be guilty of in the flesh ”

“ I gave it to you that after it shall have passed away, it may be resurrected from the grave, and if you subdue its passions, its unholy desires, if you sanctify that tabernacle before Me, then I am bound to bring that tabernacle from the grave and to bring it to the enjoyment of the fullness of My glory, which was the destiny of the spirit when it was first created." And, by the way, let me here say that there are a great many Latter-day Saints, good men and some few good women, who seem to be possessed of a sceptical turn of mind, they want everything reasoned out ”

“ It is a gift of God; but it needs cherishing; it needs cultivation; it needs nourishing, and it will grow within you and me, if we will cherish it to the extent that it is our privilege, until it will become so mighty within us, that we never can be moved not even by death staring us in the face. ”

“ Yes, when death itself shall stare us in the face and seem to be inevitable, for to that extent will the Lord try and prove some of His people, to see if they will keep His commandments. Even then God expects us to remain firm and unshaken. ”

“ I can say to this congregation—I want to be understood clearly upon this point—wherever it exists in truthfulness, intuition—proper, correct and legitimate intuition is the safest rule and guide for the people, and Latter-day Saints should seek to become possessed of the spirit of intuition that comes by virtue of the possession of the Holy Ghost. ”

“ We are threatened, we are menaced; we feel it strongly, very sensitively, very keenly; and we shall remember well in the days, in the years and in the times that are to come the instruments that have made these threatenings, and that have dared to raise their arms and their voice and their influence against us, while in the pursuit of the principles of eternal life. ”

“ If it is we are not living our religion; if it is we are not keeping our covenants; if it is we have not cherished the influence of the Spirit of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or it would produce other results.
It is true we number a very few people; numerically speaking our strength is weak. ”

“ Your parents can approach you through your natural senses; they address themselves to the tabernacle. But when we come to the constitution of the spirit that dwells within the tabernacle, and then come to understand that that spirit emanated from God the Father, to whom will God the Father speak? ”

“ And this world will know, and the enemies of God's people will know by and by of the strength and the power and the might of Him who has revealed Himself to His servant Joseph; who has conferred his authority, his priesthood upon men, authorizing them to act in his name. ”

“ And they live like the brute although they have an existence like you and I. It is true they move upon the same earth, are surrounded by the same circumstances, but their minds have never reached out after God, and they are stultified, they are stunted in their growth, in the development of their mind; they know nothing and care to know less of the object of their creation and existence. ”

“ To preach the Gospel, to proclaim the simple truths of eternal life, to explain to the understanding of the smallest mind what God expects and desires of the people in this last dispensation of the fullness of times. What Elders have been successful? ”

“ We have gone too far; we have become possessed of too much understanding; we have professed too much to be able to afford to go back again and partake of any of the evils that we left in Babylon, years and years ago. ”

“ God will talk with His own creation, and if that spirit in man will place itself in a position to listen to the voice of God, what will he say to that spirit, "Control that tabernacle, I gave it to you for a greater exaltation ”

“ I may use another term, which may be strictly correct, we pretend more than any other people upon the face of the earth. We have a right to do this, but when our pretensions are made known, when our professions become the property of others, to the extent that these pretensions are understood, we should be consistent therewith. ”

“ It is a matter of surprise to people not of our faith when they are made acquainted with the fact that Elders of this Church are called promiscuously, as it were accidentally, to address the congregations that are assembled from time to time in this and other places in the midst of this people; that they appear before the congregation without any text, without any sermon, without giving any thought whatever to preparing the subject or subjects upon which they may speak. ”

“ We send our Elders abroad, thousands of them; we have sent them for many years that are past, and until the Lord says to his servants stop, we shall continue to send them even to the most distant parts of the earth. ”

“ They have come also for the purpose of enjoying the companionship of the people they love—a people who feel as they feel, who believe as they believe, who are inspired as they have been inspired, and are today inspired ”

“ They also come to listen to words of instruction, and many of them have a yearning desire, perhaps, to receive comfort to their souls, information, perchance, upon some particular point of doctrine connected with their holy religion. And then again, there are those in this congregation who have come here simply out of curiosity, having no particular interest in anything pertaining to the worship of this people, or the sacrament of which they are partaking ”

“ Then after a while we shall become acquainted with the higher laws, with principles altogether different to those taught to us in the flesh and which also pertain to eternal lives. And then again, when we come to be resurrected from the grave we shall find other conditions in advance of those ”