Orson Pratt

“ If it be true that God has not revealed anything since the days of John the Revelator, then no person has had a knowledge given him as to the truth of the Bible. But how is it with the Book of Mormon? Four men have seen an angel. Now compare or contrast this evidence concerning the two books. These four men were men of your own times, men whom you could cross-question, witnesses whom you had the privilege of interrogating in relation to their testimony. But we are told that the Bible bears record of its own divinity, and that the Saints who lived in ancient days did see angels. ”

“ The constitution is good, that is not to blame, that gives us the privilege of religious liberty; but those who have lived under this free government have seen proper to thus persecute and murder the Saints, and their blood has been shed, and it now cries from the ground for vengeance on the nation. ”

“ If there had been one little corner of the earth where the gospel was preached and its ordinances administered by divine authority, there would have been no necessity for its restoration by an angel, all we would have had to do would have been to hunt up that little corner of the earth, where some tongue or people had the gospel and the church organized among them ”

“ But here will arise a question in the minds of some who have not investigated this subject; they will admit that, if our testimony is true, the message which we proclaim is one of the most important that has been committed to man for seventeen hundred years past. This all will admit; for this message does not concern one nation alone, but all nations, for, as John stated, it is to be declared to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. Why? Because none of them had the gospel at the time it was revealed, that is the reason. ”

“ The Church has been organized, by divine revelation, angels have appeared, the apostolic authority has been restored by the ministration of angels, and the kingdom of God has been set up in fulfillment of the promise made to the ancient Prophet Daniel—a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, never again be rooted out of the earth and never be committed to another people, but it shall continue forever while all human governments, of whatever name they shall be, will be rooted out of the earth by the divine judgments that will take place as the kingdom of God rolls forth among the nations. ”

“ This will be their declaration throughout the four quarters of the globe, wherever Christian churches, so called, are organized. Go to the great Mother Church, the oldest in existence among those professing Christianity, and make the enquiry of her members, and they will make the same declaration—"No message later than that given in the New Testament. God has said nothing by new revelation to guide our church. The holy Scriptures and the traditions handed down from the fathers are our rules of faith and practice." ”

“ In the first place, they have to believe before they can do the will of the Father; but belief and knowledge are two very different things. By faith, without a knowledge, many repent and obey the ordinances of the Gospel, and then they receive a testimony to themselves, some in one way, some in another; some by having visions given to them, some by the ministrations of holy messengers, some by the healing of the sick, some by the revelations and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. ”

“ We profess, Latter-day Saints, to be living in a dispensation called the dispensation of the fulness of times, a dispensation commenced and committed to men in our age by the administration of angels, by the revelations of the Holy Ghost, by bringing forth the word of God to the people, by restoring authority to the children of men to administer the ordinances of the Gospel, and by committing to them a message which is required to be published among the inhabitants of the earth. ”

“ We are abundantly able, through the assistance of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and the grace of God shed forth in our hearts to maintain with all boldness and confidence the great, heavenly and glorious principles which God our heavenly Father has revealed to us in these latter times. ”

“ And, finally, take up every principle, predicted by the ancient Prophets, pertaining to the great preparatory work for the coming of the Lord from the heavens and see if it differs in the least iota from the belief of the Latter-day Saints. When we come to combine all these evidences we are not ashamed of our faith, we are not ashamed of our doctrine, we are not ashamed of the dispensation which has been committed to us. ”

“ We find that, since the organization of this free government, and our great charter of liberties and constitution, since the time of the enunciation of these choice republican principles upon this continent by this great and powerful nation, that the blood of no sects or parties has, as it were, stained our ground because of the belief of the people. ”

“ It is a very easy matter for an impostor to make a promise of this kind, but supposing it should not be fulfilled, supposing that the Holy Ghost did not come upon the people, in the course of one or two years the believers, so called, in Mormonism would all apostatize, they would very naturally say—"the promise was made that we should receive the Holy Ghost through the ordinance of the laying on of hands, and yet we have not received it." ”

“ Here then, the believers had no particular necessity for asking the apostles to perform miracles, for they themselves were blessed with certain miraculous signs, and the Lord confirmed these signs upon them, so that they were not obliged to seek foreign testimony, or for miracles wrought by somebody else, for every person, male or female, who believed and obeyed that gospel, obtained for himself, the signs promised. ”

“ I have not time to refer to them to-day particularly, but those who have heard these things for forty years past are well versed in relation to the predictions of the Bible, concerning the coming forth of such a work as the Book of Mormon. Now let any learned man prove that this work has not come forth in fulfillment of these prophecies, show some discrepancy, show wherein it can not possibly be the fulfilling of these prophecies. Can they do this? If they can they perhaps may have a little justification for rejecting the work ”

“ Sometimes they get killed in mobs about anti-slavery, or something of that kind; but when it comes to religion it has generally been a little persecution with the tongue, and that has been about all. But here was a prediction before the rise of the Church that the blood of the Saints should cry from the ground against their persecutors. ”

“ They declare that it is their business to interpret the old and to bring forth what the ancient fathers have said, and the church must be guided by these interpretations, and by the decrees of its uninspired authorities. ”