(REMARKS delivered by Bishop Orson F. Whitney, at the Box Elder Stake Conference, Sunday Afternoon, July 26, 1891.)
We murmur and complain because of the sorrows and miseries of this life, and our countenances are cast down. We lose our encouragement and feel to despond. We sometimes think that if we had the ruling of the universe and our will was being done, things would be different. Col. Ingersoll said, speaking of the trials, sorrows and miseries of the world: "If I were God and could not make a better world than this, I would not consider that I was worthy of being worshiped and adored." Doubtless this finds an echo in many men's hearts. Some people think all our sorrow and pain is of our own making, and God lends no hand in causing men to suffer. We know by Adam's transgression and Mother Eve's yielding to temptation, that sorrow was brought upon the world. We believe that the fall of Adam was foreordained and that he fell that man might be. Mother Eve rejoiced when she had yielded, for had there been no violation, there would have been no posterity.
Adam had the Gospel .... Noah had this Gospel and preached it to the world, but it was rejected. Abraham and Moses had this Gospel and strove hard to bring the people back into the presence of God by it.
We came as Jesus came; not to do our own will, but the will of our heavenly Father.
It is not to be supposed that the Lord is coming to each one of us every time we expect, and explain things. We need not all expect that we are going to see the Father and receive visits from angels. But God has His prophets and priesthood to whom He reveals His will.
We came to this earth to pass through all kinds of experiences and to become great and more like God. It is by denying self, being patient and seeking to do the work of God that we become great. The course of truth is ever upward: if we cling to it it will carry us up with it. If we cling to that whose course is downward, it will carry us down with it.
