Sermon of John Y. Barlow, 25 March 1945: Cease Faultfinding; Keep the Commandments of God No Matter What Others Do; There Will Come a Prepared People Out From Among This People; The Priesthood Will Try You; The United…
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25 March 1945
Sermon of John Y. Barlow, 25 March 1945: Cease Faultfinding; Keep the Commandments of God No Matter What Others Do; There Will Come a Prepared People Out From Among This People; The Priesthood Will Try You; The United…
A dated talk by John Y. Barlow from the compiled volume Sermons of John Y. Barlow. The wording has not been changed. Reported by Leona Jeffs.
Salt Lake City, Utah, Lincoln Street
My brethren and sisters, I am glad to be with you again. Looking over the congregation I can see many faces. And what are we doing? That is the question we have got to answer, and the question we have got to meet. It is very fine to come and hear the remarks made. The Spirit of God is here and we feel fine while here, but how many take home what they have heard? How many have heard? Has it gone in one ear and out the other without registering? I have a little here to read of what President Woodruff said: JD 16:272 Wilford Woodruff October 8, 1873 SLC A few words more to the Latter-day Saints. I want to say to the brethren and to the sisters, let us cease finding fault one with another; let us not say that this man or this woman does wrong, this family does wrong, this person or the other sets a bad example; let us realize that we ourselves are held responsible for what we do. It will do me no good if I apostatize because somebody?s family follows the fashions of Babylon, or because some man or woman or some set of men and women do wrong. Let us cease this kind of work, and all of us look to ourselves. It will do me no good if I apostatize because I think somebody else does not do right. We should lay aside this, there is too much of it in the Zion of God today, and has been a good while, finding fault with this, that and the other, instead of looking at home. Let us all look at home, and each one try to govern his own family and set his own house in order, and do that which is required of us, realizing that each one is held responsible before the Lord for his or her individual actions only. We all know those words are very true to us today. What I want to get to you is this?I don?t care what the other man does. If he fails to do this or that, all right, but I am not going to do it. We must get into a condition where we will keep the commandments of God no matter what. We have been talking for months and months on the United Order. We have been talking on Celestial Marriage, and some few of us have stepped out. Some few are doing something and the other. Now, the first thing, the door is going to be closed on us, and like the foolish virgin we will be on the outside; because, as I have told you time and time again, men will come up out of this group as out of the Church, who are going to push ahead and forward, and God is going to tell us what to do. He has already shown me one or two men in this group who will move up to the high circle. I am positive of it. He has already spoken and pointed them out. Just waiting. There is plenty of room at the top, brethren, but the man has got to qualify himself before he can get to the top. And it has been that way all through the history of the world, and it is that way today. I also hear some of them say something about some of the brethren here. Do you realize that when you go to talk about Brother Joseph, Brother Charles, or those, that they have been called of God as was Aaron? Do you realize that they are Prophets of God, that they have been called and set apart for that? Go home and read the 12th chapter of Numbers, and see what God said to them when Moses took an Ethiopian woman. See what happened when they tried to reproach him, and see what God did. Take other scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants and others. It isn?t the personality of a person. So be very careful, and let us be careful of what we say and what we do, and see if we can?t get over the fault of faultfinding. I am talking to myself as well as you. I am a great faultfinder around home. But nevertheless, if we don?t keep the Spirit of God we will fall. Some things coming up will try us, and if the Lord don?t see fit to turn Babylon on you, He will permit you to be tried in some other way. And then He may turn the Priesthood on you that may try the life out of you. And, brethren, still remember to keep your head up and watch the commandments of God, and keep His commandments no matter what they do. I would just like to give you that advice this afternoon. I know some people who have their whole hearts and souls in the work of God and don?t know what to do. Some are left to the devil when he says: ?You aren?t a good Latter-day Saint. You ought to do this and that.? Say, ?Get behind me, satan, I am following the laws of Jesus Christ.? Don?t try to do anything great, but live the laws of God every day, and pretty soon God will say, ?Son, daughter, I want you here and there.? It won?t be long before you are going to be called for a very important mission. The Indians have got to have some go there. The work back in Jackson County will have people called back there soon. Every blessing is predicated upon a law, and if we get a blessing it is by obedience. And if you think that you who had plural marriage have had all you can stand, it isn?t a touch of what you will have in the United Order. Let a man come up and say, ?We want a thousand dollars.? I would say, ?Go to thunder.? You will say, ?You have the right to lead us spiritually, but not temporally.? Can you live successfully in plural marriage without the United Order? You can?t do it, brethren and sisters. Do you realize the condition the people have got into today? When President Young was here, he said, ?The people are asleep.? The Lord said, ?If you live the commandments of God from this day on, your sins will be forgiven you.? Did they keep the commandments of God? No, and the result is their children today have failed, and strangers are coming from the east, west, south, and north, and sitting down in the Kingdom while those are being cast out. Will they continue? Yes, there will be some who will come and some who won?t. Not very long ago we held a meeting down to Brother Theral Dockstader?s home, and I said, ?There are men in this house who will apostatize and turn from the truth.? We have seen the results. There were some men that were there that night fighting the truth, and they have apostatized. They said, ?You are all right to perform plural marriage, but that is as far as you can go.? Think of it. A man can perform the highest law of the Gospel?is that consistent? I said, ?Are you trying to prove that you are living in adultery?? He said, ?No.? I said, ?If these men haven?t the right to do what they are doing, you are living in adultery.? The Lord is bringing these things together, and it isn?t going to be long before you will see a big change. Prepare yourselves. God bless you, amen.