Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate/Volume 3/Number 6/Persecution

PERSECUTION.
Persecution has been the lot of the righteous since the days of righteous Abel; no righteous people have escaped, or ever will; for the nearer that a person draws to the living God, the farther off the world thinks he gets. Hence says the Savior, "They that kill you, think they do God service; and they do this, because they know neither the Father nor me."

For this very cause the saints may expect nothing but persecution at the hand of any people; because no other people but them know the Father nor the Son, and for want of this knowledge, they are always ready to persecute, and not only persecute; but to persecute unto death; for "they that kill you think they do God service."

A persecuting spirit always arises from ignorance of the Father and the Son, and this ignorance leads men to seek the lives of the saints; and there is nothing wanting but power to fulfil [fulfill] their designs.

The Savior says, in speaking of his mission into the world, "Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth: I come not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."-Matthew 10: 32,35,36.

When the Savior says "I come to set a man at variance against his father," &c. the very expression, "set against" supposes that the persons were not at variance before, but on terms of peace and friendship; for he could not set a man at variance with his father, when he was so before.

We are necessarily called upon to view the persons thus set at variance, as being on terms of friendship; having so conducted themselves as to be entitled to each other's friendship and esteem, until they were put at variance by the teaching of the Savior; one or the other of them receiving the Savior in his true character, or any of his disciples whom he had authorized to teach, was sufficient cause to excite the bitterest feelings of the others, not only to object to their religion, but also to justify them in attacking their characters, and destroying them if possible; yea, more than this, their lives also.-No doubt it was in that day as in this; the very instant an individual or individuals received the gospel, though their characters were without blemish, yet their former associates had their recollections greatly brightened; they could call to remembrance a great many things which they had said, and a great many things which they had done, which were very exceptionable; they could look back for years and call to remembrance blemishes in their character, improprieties in their behavior, and they now recollect that, at that time it made a bad impression on their minds, though they had entirely forgotten it until their recollections had been enlivened. They could also now call to mind that the persons thus transgressing, had always been enthusiastic, versatile, and unsteady minded, and withal weak minded, with an indescribable multitude of evils that were very gross indeed. There is perhaps in the whole brood of persecutors not one single one who is honest enough to confess that they persecute a man purely on account of his religion; they will hatch up some cause to justify themselves in their wickedness, though they know that it is alone on account of the man's religion; but being unwilling to confess this, they will invent and circulate the basest lies that human nature is capa-ble of, for the purpose of blinding the eyes of the people, or rather of giving a handle to those base wretches who are capable of persecuting a man on account of his religion. For I will venture an assertion which will be found true in the day of God Almighty, if it should not before, that is, that there is not a man nor a woman under heaven who will persecute any people for their religion, that is not a base liar, be they priest or people.

It is most remarkable to see how some people's recollection can be improved when their supposed interest, ambition, or pride, dictates to them the necessity of persecuting some person or persons; their whole ingenuity is put into requisition to find out a justifiable cause for their railing and abuse; and they soon begin to recollect of most marvelous things: they can call to mind with the greatest ease of hearing things (which things by the by were never heard by themselves nor any body else,) which were of an alarming character, and called immediately for their exertion to prevent some great evil. They could also recollect of having seen things (it happened, however, that there were no such things to be seen,) which a sense of duty required them to expose. You would suppose, to hear them talk, that their recollection having been so greatly refreshed, it, by gathering up past things, and the great discoveries they were making at the present time, of things as they actually existed, had transformed them into a bundle of pure consciousness; for they were so conscientious, that they could not rest day nor night, until they discharged the duty they were bound to discharge, for the benefit of both God and man.

However, when the matter comes to be examined, and the great bustle a little allayed, it is found out that some people found, as they supposed, that it was their interest to persecute some body on account of their religion, and because they had no truth with which they could injure them, they found it very convenient to hatch up a good bundle of lies; and that is all there is of it.

In every age the Savior's words have been verified, that wherever his religion is embraced, it "sets the father against the son, and the son against the father, and a man's enemies will be they of his own household." The reason of this the Savior gives in a former quotation. "This they will do, because they know neither the Father nor me."

There is no truth plainer than this, that all false religionists, in the world, are unable to tell when a people are doing the will of God: there never was but one religion which had the power to give this understanding to men, and that is the religion of Jesus Christ; this alone is able to do this. All other religions have the direct different tendency; instead of making men acquainted with the will of God, they tend to bewilder the mind, and prevent men from understanding his will, or knowing what he requires of them.

In attending to the history of the former day saints, as written in the scriptures, there seems to be one thing written as with a sunbeam, that is, that in every age when any people began to listen to the voice of God, and give heed to his teachings, and were thereby in some good degree conformed to his image; all the religionists of that day would begin to proclaim against them with great energy, pronouncing it the works of the adversary, and the persons who were thus taught, as being in the very likeness of satan.

This strange tact was so clearly exemplified in the days of the Savior, that the most blind might see, that the nearer any person or persons approached to the likeness of the Deity, the nearer the false religionists thought that they resembled the prince of darkness, and if a person were to be transformed into the very likeness of the Deity, then the false religionists would say that they were the very image of the prince of devils himself.

The Savior of the world, of whom it was said, that he was the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person, was called by all other sects in religion in his day, the beelzebub, the very prince of devils. So little did they know of either the Father or the Son, that when the express image of the Father was before them, in the person of the Son, they supposed that it was the prince of devils himself.

Those sects and parties knew as much of God, as do the sects of this day. The Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Episcopalians, the Baptist, and the Campbellites, know as little of the Father and the Son, as did the Phar-isees and Saducees of the Savior's day, and the Savior has said, that, "If they have called the Master beelzebub, so will they call the servant also."

The saints of the last days may calculate on being scandalized by every evil epithet which malice and ignorance combined can invent, and the nearer they approach to the image of the Savior, the nearer these ignoramuses will think, they will approximate the likeness of satan, and if they should so purify their hearts, as to be in the express image of the person of the Savior, then they may confidently expect to be called beelzebub the prince of devils.

There have been some things truly amusing, if wickedness could be said to be amusing, among those who have persecuted the saints of the last days. Take, for instance, Matthew Clapp, the Campbellite beloved disciple. At one time, to have heard him talk, you would have supposed that his whole breast was a mass of recollection, so that he could recollect from the waistband of his breeches, to the crown of his head. At another, you would have thought his whole carcass to have been a monstrous pair of eyes, with which he could see out of his back, or the calves of his legs, as easily as he could look out of his face. At another, to hear him spout, and see him stride through the streets, you would necessarily have supposed, that he was nothing but an outlandish pair of ears, with which he could hear out of the ends of his fingers, or the end of his toes, or from between his shoulders or any part of his body as easily as his head.

It wanted only, however, for a person of the least discernment, to see him once, to discover that he was nothing more or less, than the veriest folly, wrapped up in a mantle of the most perfect pride, that there was any where on this side the gates of perdition.

The scandalous conduct of the persecutors of the saints of the last days, the base lies which they have made and circulated in order to stop the progress of the truth, are another comment upon the Savior's words, "If they call the Master beelzebub, so will they call the servant also." This is what the Master of the house has forewarned us of, and of which he has testified; therefore, we may expect to receive it at the hand of this persecuting, though very religious generation. And when it comes we have another testimony of the truth of the Savior's saying, and an additional proof that we are his disciples.

Let us then do as he did before us; let us endure with much long suffering, the contradiction of sinners against ourselves, until he who is our life shall appear, and then shall we appear with him in glory, and where he is, there shall we his servants be also. S. R.