Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 1 of 2)Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 1 of 2)
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches
Concerning the criticisms that have been made of this speech--one
of which extended through seven columns of as vapid and flaccid an
aggregation of words, words, words as it has ever been my lot to wade
through--I only care to notice one, that is the alleged harshness
of some of my utterances. The conclusion is reached that some of my
words were unbecoming both my calling and the place in which they
were delivered. In answer I only wish to say that the propriety of
one's expressions is governed very largely by the task one has before
him. Even the Son of God, when he had occasion to denounce falsehood
and reprove deceivers, no longer used the gentle tones by which he
comforted the sorrowful or encouraged those bowed down in weakness;
but he used language suited to the task before him. To the scribes and
Pharisees, who were hounding himself and his friends to their death,
and as a preliminary to that purpose were seeking to embitter the minds
of the populace, he said:
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like
unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward,
but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within
ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites because ye build the tombs of the prophets,
and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had
been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers
with them in the blood of the Prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses
unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed
the Prophets. Fill ye up, then, the measure of your fathers. Ye
serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation
of hell?"
I think I have not gone beyond this worthy example in anything I have
said in this speech; and for the sacredness of the building in which
my remarks were made, I in no way feel that there was a desecration,
since when the task before one is to defend the innocent against
misrepresentation, and denounce calumniators, then "all place a temple,
and all seasons summer."
II.
Answer to Kearns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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