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
In addition to this doctrine of baptism you will find (though I shall
not take time to point it out at length on this occasion) in the
Fifth Gospel instructions given by the Savior on the subject of the
Sacrament and the purposes for which it was given, which afterwards
were crystalized in the prayer of consecration of the emblems, and
because they are so crystalized, and therefore briefer, I shall read
that instruction to you as it is found in the prayer. The prophet is
explaining how the Sacrament was administered after the people received
this institution from Jesus:
"And they did kneel down with the church, and pray to the Father in
the name of Christ, saying:
"O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee, in the name of thy Son
Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of
all those who partake of it, that they may eat in the remembrance
of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal
Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy
Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he
hath given them, that they may always have his spirit to be with
them. Amen."
If the four gospels had contained the instructions of Jesus Christ on
this subject as found in the Fifth Gospel, and finally crystalized
those instructions into this beautiful and appropriate prayer of
consecration, the Christian world would have escaped one of its
bitterest religious controversies, and the Roman Catholic church today
would not ask men to be so untrue to their intellectual consciousness
as to believe that the wafer which they place upon the tongue of the
communicant is the actual body and the actual blood of Jesus Christ.
On the other hand, the Protestant world would not be divided and
subdivided, upon this question, but they would have instruction which
would enable them to properly hold the great atonement of Jesus Christ
in true and objective remembrance in the Sacrament.
I undertake to say now that there cannot be produced from the
literature of the world, sacred or profane, a prayer that is the equal
of this prayer of consecration, excepting only the Lord's prayer. With
that exception, this prayer, for completeness, for a succession of
solemn thoughts, fitly spoken, and crystalized into a form from which
you can take nothing and to which you can add nothing without marring
it, stands alone; and it adds something to our Christian knowledge. It
is an important item of Christian instruction and doctrine, and one
that the world much needs; you will find its scattered rays in the
Fifth Gospel, in the form I have quoted it, it is given by Moroni.
Now, I must pass on hurriedly. There is a singular passage of scripture
in John, the 10th chapter and 16th verse, which rather puzzles
expounders of the scripture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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