Ministering of Angels

In the presence of the divine

By President Joseph F. Smith

(Thousands felt the Divine inspiration that accompanied the delivery of this remarkable
sermon, uttered in the opening session of the annual conference, Thursday, April 6, 1916,
the eighty-sixth anniversary of the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints.)

I shall need the assistance of the Good Spirit, and of the good feeling and faith and
sympathy of my brethren and sisters this morning in an endeavor to speak to you for a
short time. I do not feel nor design to occupy very much of the time. I can not express my
gratitude, with the language in my possession, which I feel this morning in being
permitted, under the mercies of the Father of us all, to be present with you and behold the
sight that I see in the assembled multitudes gathered here in the opening session of this
conference, on the eighty-sixth anniversary of the organization of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Those Who Have Gone Before Rejoice With Us

I feel sure that the Prophet Joseph Smith and his associates, who, under the guidance and
inspiration of the Almighty, and by his power, began this latter-day work, would rejoice
and do rejoice, if they are permitted to look down upon the scene that I behold in this
tabernacle. And I believe they do have the privilege of looking down upon us, just as the
all-seeing eye of God beholds every part of his handiwork. For I believe that those who
have been chosen in this dispensation and in former dispensations, to lay the foundation
of God's work in the midst of the children of men, for their salvation and exaltation, will
not be deprived in the spirit world from looking down upon the results of their own labors,

efforts and mission assigned them by the wisdom and purpose of God to help to redeem
and to reclaim the children of the Father from their sins.

The Eyes of the Prophets Guard the Kingdom of God

So, I feel quite confident that the eyes of Joseph the Prophet, and of the martyrs of this
dispensation, and of Brigham and John and Wilford, and those faithful men who were
associated with them in their ministry upon the earth, are carefully guarding the interests
of the Kingdom of God in which they labored and for which they strove during their
mortal lives. I believe they are as deeply interested in our welfare today, if not with
greater capacity, with far more interest, behind the veil, than they were in the flesh. I
believe they know more; I believe their minds have expanded beyond their
comprehension in mortal life, and their interests are enlarged in the work of the Lord to
which they gave their lives and their best service. Although some may feel and think that
it is a little extreme to take this view, yet I believe that it is true; and I have a feeling in
my heart that I stand in the presence not only of the Father and of the Son, but in the
presence of those whom God commissioned, raised up, and inspired, to lay the
foundations of the work in which we are engaged. Accompanying that sense or feeling, I
am impressed with the thought that I would not this moment say or do one thing that
would be taken as unwise or imprudent, or that would give offense to any of my former
associates and co-laborers in the work of the Lord. I would not like to say one thing, nor
express a thought, that would grieve the heart of Joseph, or of Brigham, or of John, or of
Wilford, or Lorenzo, or any of their faithful associates in the ministry.

We Are in the Presence of Heavenly Beings

Sometimes the Lord expands our vision from this point of view and this side of the veil,
so that we feel and seem to realize that we can look beyond the thin veil which separates
us from that other sphere. If we can see, by the enlightening influence of the Spirit of
God and through the words that have been spoken by the holy prophets of God, beyond
the veil that separates us from the spirit world, surely those who have passed beyond, can
see more clearly through the veil back here to us than it is possible for us to see to them
from our sphere of action. I believe we move and have our being in the presence of
heavenly messengers and of heavenly beings. We are not separate from them. We begin
to realize, more and more fully, as we become acquainted with the principles of the
gospel, as they have been revealed anew in this dispensation, that we are closely related
to our kindred, to our ancestors, to our friends and associates and co-laborers who have
preceded us into the spirit world. We can not forget them; we do not cease to love them;
we always hold them in our hearts, in memory, and thus we are associated and united to
them by ties that we can not break, that we can not dissolve or free ourselves from. If this
is the case with us in our finite condition, surrounded by our mortal weaknesses, short-
sightedness, lack of inspiration and wisdom, from time to time, how much more certain it
is and reasonable and consistent to believe that those who have been faithful, who have
gone beyond and are still engaged in the work for the salvation of the souls of men, the
opening of the prison doors to them that are bound, and proclaiming liberty to the
captives, can see us better than we can see them; that they know us better than we know

them. They have advanced; we are advancing; we are growing as they have grown; we
are reaching the goal that they have attained unto; and therefore, I claim that we live in
their presence, they see us, they are solicitous for our welfare, they love us now more
than ever. For now they see the dangers that beset us; they can comprehend, better than
ever before, the weaknesses that are liable to mislead us into dark and forbidden paths.
They see the temptations and the evils that beset us in life and the proneness of mortal
beings to yield to temptation and to wrong doing; hence their solicitude for us, and their
love for us, and their desire for our well being, must be greater than that which we feel
for ourselves.

A Glorious Vision

I thank God for the feeling that I possess and enjoy, and for the realization that I have,
that I stand not only in the presence of Almighty God, my Maker and Father, but in the
presence of his Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Savior of the world; and I stand in the
presence of Peter and James (and perhaps the eyes of John are also upon us and we know
it not); and that I stand also in the presence of Joseph and Hyrum and Brigham and John,
and Wilford, and Lorenzo, and those who have been valiant in the testimony of Jesus
Christ and faithful to their mission in the world, who have gone before. When I go, I want
to have the privilege of meeting them with the consciousness that I have followed their
example, that I have carried out the mission in which they were engaged as they would
have it carried out; that I have been as faithful in the discharge of duty, committed to me
and required at my hand, as they were faithful in their time; and that when I meet them, I
shall meet them as I met them here, in love, in harmony, in unison and in perfect
confidence that I have done my duty as they have done theirs. I hope you will forgive me
for my emotion. You would have peculiar emotions, would you not? if you felt that you
stood in the presence of your Father, in the very presence of Almighty God, in the very
presence of the Son of God and of holy angels? You would feel rather emotional, rather
sensitive. I feel it to the very depths of my soul this moment. So I hope you will forgive
me, if I exhibit some of my real feelings, I am only a child, I am only learning, and I hope
I shall not be ever learning and never come to a knowledge of the truth. I sincerely hope
that as I learn, little by little, line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and
there a little, day by day, and month by month, and year by year, that there will come a
time when I shall have learned, indeed, the truth and shall know it as God knows it and be
saved and exalted in his presence.

To Know God and Jesus Christ Is Life Eternal

Now, my mission, my duty, from the days of my childhood, has been to proclaim the
gospel of Jesus Christ as the power of God unto salvation unto all who will receive and
obey it. It is my duty to proclaim to my brethren, to the household of faith, as well as to
the world, when opportunity presents, that I believe in the living God, the Father of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who begot his Son, his Only Begotten in the flesh, and that
Son grew from his birth unto his manhood, and developed into the very image and
likeness of his Father, insomuch that he declared on one occasion that "he that hath seen
me, hath seen the Father."

I do not believe in the doctrines held by some that God is only a spirit, and that he is of
such a nature that he fills the immensity of space, and is everywhere present in person or
without person-for I can not conceive it possible that God could be a person if he filled
the immensity of space and was everywhere present at the same time. It is a physical, a
theological inconsistency and unreasonable to imagine that even God the Eternal Father
would be in two places, as an individual, at the same moment. It is impossible. But his
power extends throughout the immensity of space. His power extends to all his creations,
and his knowledge comprehends them all. He governs them all, and he knows all. It is a
scriptural truth, that this is life eternal to know the only true and living God and Jesus
Christ whom he hast sent. I believe that the Latter-day Saints, through the teachings of
the scriptures and through the revelations that have come to them by the voice of the
Prophet Joseph Smith, are able to learn the true and living God and know him and also
his Son whom he has sent into the world, whom to know is life eternal. Not simply the
knowledge of it; but, having that knowledge, we are inclined and determined to observe
his precepts, obey his laws, be submissive to his requirements, in every particular, and
accept every ordinance of the house of God and of the gospel of Jesus Christ that has
been devised by the will of the Father for the qualification of his children in the earth to
return unto his presence. And he that knoweth God and Jesus Christ, whom to know is
life eternal, will verify that knowledge by ample, continuous, and faithful obedience to
every requirement that God makes of his children, and therein consists the salvation and
the gift of eternal life. The devil knows the Father much better than we. Lucifer, the son
of the morning, knows Jesus Christ, the Son of God, much better than we, but in him it is
not and will not redound to eternal life; for, knowing, he yet rebels; knowing, he yet is
disobedient; he will not receive the truth; he will not abide in the truth; hence, he is
Perdition, and there is no salvation for him. The same doctrine applies to me and to you
and to all the sons and daughters of God who have judgment and knowledge, are able to
reason between cause and effect, determine the right from the wrong, the good from the
evil, and who are capable of seeing the light and distinguishing it from the darkness.

The Gospel Our Schoolmaster

Then this is the gospel of Jesus Christ, to know the only true and living God and his Son
whom he has sent into the world, which knowledge comes through obedience to all his
commandments, faith, repentance of sin, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins,
the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands by divine authority, and not by the
will of man. This, then, is the gospel of Jesus Christ which is the power of God unto
salvation: obedience to the truth, submission to the order that God has established in his
house, for the house of God is a house of order and not a house of confusion. God has set
in his Church apostles and prophets and evangelists, and pastors and teachers, whose duty
it is to administer to the people, to teach, instruct, expound, exhort, admonish and lead in
the path of righteousness. The people who are associated in this organization must
hearken to the voice of him who has divine authority to guide and direct and counsel in
the midst of Israel. All these are necessary in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and many other
things, too many for me to mention here, are necessary, including the ordinances of the
house of God, revealed in greater plainness in this dispensation than perhaps in any

former dispensation since the world was formed. All these ordinances are essential in
their place and in their time, and none of us are big enough, or good enough, or possess
sufficient independence in ourselves to ignore these things that God has revealed and
required of us. No man is so big, so great, or knows so much, that he is independent of
God. We are here on his earth, we breathe his air, we behold his sunlight. We eat his food,
and we wear his clothing. He has provided all the elements by which we are clothed and
fed, and live and move and have our being, in the world.

The Priesthood Restored

We are not independent of God, not for one moment. Not only do we believe in the
Father and in the Son, and in their words, counsel and divine authority, which they
brought and gave to men in the flesh, hut we believe, also, in the divinity of the mission
of Joseph the Prophet. We accept him as the one authorized, empowered, clothed with
wisdom and knowledge in our day and time, to lay the foundations of the Church of Jesus
Christ, and to restore the fullness of the gospel of salvation to the world; to revive and
renew in the hearts of the children of men the doctrines of Christ, the ordinances of his
gospel which he taught, which he administered, and which he authorized his disciples to
administer to all that would repent and believe in the name of the Father and of the Son.

We believe that God has restored the divine priesthood, which holds the keys of
ministration of the ordinances of life, to the children of men. Without that divine
priesthood no man could receive or would receive a remission of sins by being buried in
the water. It has to be by divine authority, and without that divine authority our works
would not be acceptable to the Lord, for he will not accept at the hands of the children of
men that which he has not authorized them to do, which he has not qualified them to do,
and called and appointed them to do; but when God calls men, and ordains, and appoints,
and gives them authority to administer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Ghost, what they do can not fail to be sanctioned and approved by the Author and
giver of the authority. When we receive the priesthood of God, and we do according to
his word, then is he bound, but otherwise there is no promise.

The Twelve Are Eye and Ear Witnesses of Christ

Now I can't tell you all that I would like to. Time will not permit, and there are others to
speak. All these, your brethren, who are called to the apostleship, and to minister in the
midst of the house of Israel, are endowed, or ought to be endowed, richly with the spirit
of their calling. For instance, these twelve disciples of Christ are supposed to be eye and
ear witnesses of the divine mission of Jesus Christ. It is not permissible for them to say, I
believe, simply; I have accepted it, simply because I believe it. Read the revelation. The
Lord informs us they must know, they must get the knowledge for themselves, it must be
with them as if they had seen with their eyes and heard with their ears, and they know the
truth. That is their mission, to testify of Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen from the
dead and clothed now with almighty power at the right hand of God, the Savior of the
world. That is their mission, and their duty; and that is the doctrine and the truth, that is
their duty to preach to the world, and see that it is preached to the world. Where they can

not go themselves, they are to have the help of others called to their assistance. The
seventies first, also the elders and the high priests. Those who hold the Melchizedek
priesthood, not otherwise appointed, are under their direction to preach the gospel to the
world and to declare the truth-that Jesus is the Christ, and that Joseph is a prophet of God
and was authorized and qualified to lay the foundation of the Kingdom of God and when
I say Kingdom of God I mean what I say. Christ is the King-not man. No man is king of
the Kingdom of God; God is the King of it, and we acknowledge him and him only as
Sovereign of his Kingdom.

Qualifications Requisite for Latter-day Saints

Now we all need patience, forbearance, forgiveness, humility, charity, love unfeigned,
devotion to the truth, abhorrence of sin, wickedness, and rebellion and disobedience to
the requirements of the gospel. These are the qualifications requisite to Latter-day Saints,
and to becoming Latter-day Saints, members in good standing in the Church of Jesus
Christ, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. No member in good standing in the
Church will be drunken, riotous, profane, or will take advantage of his brother or his
neighbor, or will violate the principles of virtue, honor, and righteousness. Members of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in good standing will never be chargeable
with such offenses as these, because they will avoid these evils and they will live above
them. Then we have a mission in the world, each man, each woman, each child, who has
grown to understanding or to the years of accountability-all ought to be examples to the
world, ought not only to be qualified to preach the truth, to bear testimony of the truth,
but they ought to live so that the very life they live, the very words they speak, their every
action in life, will be sermons to the unwary and to the ignorant, teaching them goodness,
purity, uprightness, faith in God and love for the human family.

God bless you and all the household of faith, and help us to be true and faithful to the end,
realizing that the battle is not to the strong, nor the race to the swift, but to him that
endures to the end. Amen.