At the appointed hour, Smith, realizing the tremendous importance of the occasion, arose with simple dignity, and stood before the mingling brotherhoods. He felt the weight that rested upon him. Every eye turned upon him, and every ear leaned to catch the slightest tones of his voice. He said: God has but one people on the earth. He has given to them but one Book, and therein exhorts and commands them to be one family. A union such as we plead for—a union of God’s people on that one Book—must then be practicable. Every Christian desires to stand complete in the whole will of God. The prayer of the Savior, and the whole tenor of his teaching, clearly show that it is God’s will that his children should be united. To the Christian, then, such a union must be desirable. But an amalgamation of sects is not such a union as Christ prayed for and God enjoins. To agree to be one upon any system of human invention would be contrary to his will, and could never be a blessing to the church or the world: therefore the only union practicable or desirable must be based on the Word of God as the only rule of faith and practice. There are certain abstruse and speculative matters—such as the mode of the divine existence and the ground and nature of the atonement—that have for centuries, been themes of discussion among Christians. These questions are as far from being settled now as they were in the beginning of the controversy. By a needless and intemperate discussion of them much feeling has been provoked, and divisions have been produced. For several years past I have tried to speak on such subjects only in the language of inspiration, for it can offend no one to say about those things just what the Lord himself has said. In this scriptural style of speech all Christians should be agreed. It can not be wrong; it can not do harm. If I come to the passage, “My Father is greater than I,” I will quote it, but will not stop to speculate upon the consubstantial nature of the Father and the Son. “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,” I will not stop to speculate upon the consubstantial nature of the Father and the Son. I will not linger to build a theory on such texts, and thus encourage a speculative and wrangling spirit among my brethren. I will present these subjects only in the words which the Lord has given me. I know he will not be displeased if we say just what he has said. Whatever opinions about these and similar subjects I may have reached in the course of my investigation, if I never distract the church of God with them or seek to impose them on my brethren, they will never do the world any harm.