Orson Pratt

“ But if he stands forth as a servant of the Most High God, and declares that he knows God exists, because he has received a revelation to that effect, God has spoken to him, and his eyes have been opened to behold his person and his glory, and that he has heard his voice, then that man's testimony is greater than the testimony of those who depend merely upon what God has said in past ages, written in the Bible, and greater than that which arises from beholding the beauty, glory, simplicity and wisdom that characterize the works of Nature. ”

“ Here then is the testimony of twelve witnesses, four of whom saw an angel of God. Is not this sufficient to justify the children of men in having faith in the Book of Mormon? Faith is not a knowledge, but faith is the evidence of things not seen. Now, I may not have seen the plates, you may not have seen the plates, but we have the evidence or testimony of things not seen, by a great number of witnesses who did see them. ”

“ Such a prophecy uttered by an impostor, would be very unlikely to come to pass. Yet such a prophecy was uttered; such a prophecy has been fulfilled, and the nations of the earth, as well as the Latter-day Saints, are witnesses to its fulfillment. We have seen this people come forth year after year, crossing the ocean, first in sailing vessels, then in steamers, by hundreds and by thousands, until they are now almost a little nation here in the tops of the mountains. ”

“ No people would have had the fortitude, courage and enterprise to come fourteen hundred miles from civilization, so-called, to these mountain wastes and deserts, to cultivate the land and perform the work that has been wrought by this people, unless they had a knowledge from heaven, concerning the truth of this great work. God fulfilled his promise when he said to his servants—"In the name of Jesus you shall heal the sick, you shall open the eyes of the blind, you shall unstop the ears of the deaf." ”

“ He knows it very well for himself; and so we might continue throughout all the gifts mentioned in the Bible. If he beholds angels, and they descend before him in their glory, and he hears the sound of their voices, beholds the light of their countenances and the glory that radiates from their personages, he knows for himself, consequently this constitutes him a witness as well as those who proclaimed this Gospel before him. ”

“ If the Book of Mormon is really a divine revelation, containing the writings of ancient Prophets who dwelt on this American continent before and after Christ, it is important that every man and woman in the four quarters of the earth should understand this; for if it be the word of the Lord, we shall be judged out of the Book of Mormon as much as out of the eastern Bible. ”

“ Has the Holy Ghost given you a new revelation?" "Not at all." "When did God last speak to the human family?" Says the Christian minister, "He has said nothing for about eighteen hundred years; the last he said or spoke to the human family is recorded in the New Testament." Such a minister might preach all the days of his life, and so far as his evidence or testimony is concerned, it would not condemn a solitary individual. Such men are not witnesses for God. ”

“ What greater testimony concerning the ministering of angels has any person ever given to the human family, than the one I have named? We read about angels ministering in ancient times on various occasions, and for certain purposes—sometimes appearing in great glory, and sometimes withholding their glory. Hence it is written by one of the Apostles—"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for some, in so doing, have entertained angels unawares," showing that angels have sometimes withheld their glory, and appeared like common men, and that they have been entertained as such. ”

“ A question arises here, Is there any testimony in the Old or New Testament any more worthy of being received than that of these three modern witnesses? Do angels live at the present day as they did in ancient times? Every one will say that they still live. Are they the messengers of the Most High now as they were in ancient times? Yes. Says one, "We suppose they are subject to the command of God now as they were in ancient times Is there anything in the Bible that indicates that a period or day would come when the ministration of angels would no longer be necessary? ”

“ If an illiterate, uneducated man, who never understood any language but his mother tongue, is inspired at the very moment to rise and testify in an unknown tongue and to proclaim the wonderful works of God, he knows whether his tongue has been used by a supernatural power, or whether it is merely gibberish out of his own heart. ”

“ To one is given, says Paul to the Corinthians, the word of Wisdom by the Spirit, to another is given the word of Knowledge by the Spirit, to another is given the discerning of spirits by the same Spirit; to another is given the working of miracles, to another is given the gift of prophecy, to another is given the healing of the sick, speaking with tongues, the interpretation of tongues, &c. All these come by the selfsame Spirit, being given to every man, not to one or two, not merely to the witnesses, but to every man in the Church, according as the Spirit will. ”

“ If persons raised up in ancient times had a knowledge, by the ministration of angels, concerning the message which they communicated to the human family, and their testimony condemned the generation to whom they were sent, I ask, will not the same knowledge, communicated in the same manner, in our day, condemn this generation, inasmuch as the message is not received? ”

“ In reply, he says to his audience, "He exists because the Bible speaks of it, the works of Nature declare that there must be a Supreme Being, the wisdom that is manifested in the works of creation show forth his attributes—his goodness, his wisdom, and the adaptation of the various principles in nature to other principles, show that there must have been an all-wise Designer." ”

“ All these are principles and ordinances which God has revealed to the children of men, making known to certain individuals that these are divine, and commanding them to go and bear testimony thereof unto others. Now, when a man stands up before an audience and says, with all boldness and with all humility, that God exists, the question might arise—"How do you know that he exists?" ”

“ If a person has the vision of his mind opened to behold the future and to know that which will shortly come to pass, and he sees these things fulfilled, from time to time, he has every reason to believe that he has really received the Holy Ghost. ”

“ These very Elders and missionaries who have gone to the nations have kept their journals, and have recorded the miracles which God has wrought by their hands. These are living witnesses. Those who saw these miracles are still alive. ”

“ They were true witnesses, and on their evidence and testimony the world have been condemned, and will be judged in the great judgment day. For instance, the Lord our God has revealed a system or plan of salvation to the human family, requiring all men to repent of their sins, turn away from everything that is evil, reform their lives, and to believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, who died to atone for the sins of mankind; to believe in his Father as the great Supreme Being, the Creator of all things ”

“ They did not bear testimony that they had seen an angel, but they bore testimony to that which they did know, namely, the existence of the plates, that Joseph Smith, the translator, was the person who exhibited the plates to them, and that the characters or letters contained upon the plates had the appearance of ancient work and of curious workmanship, and they bear their testimony in the most positive manner to this thing, declaring in the closing sentence that they bear testimony of these things, and "we lie not, God bearing witness of it." ”

“ Such a testimony, as I have named, where a person can bear testimony to what his eyes have seen, and to what his ears have heard, concerning the Almighty, to what God has revealed to him, will condemn the world. Persons may pretend to be God's witnesses, and preach fifty, sixty, or four score years in the ears of the people ”