A sermon by President John Y. Barlow (1947)

President John Yeates Barlow

By President John Y. Barlow (1874-1949)

This is a posting of a sermon by President John Yeates Barlow, given in Widtsoe, Utah, during Sunday School at the Ranch of Elder Newel Steed on August 31, 1947. This sermon is taken from the Sermons of President Leroy S. Johnson Vol. 1 Page 7: Church of the Firstborn; Magnify Your Calling; Dissolution; Keys of Elijah; Gain Salvation Through Keeping Covenants; The Resurrection; Be Ye Perfect; God Helps Those Who Help Themselves.

 "Church History, what is it? What church are we talking about? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? You want to know for sure what church we belong to. Do you folks here belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? There was a church organized in New York -- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Later on, a Church of the Firstborn was organized in Kirtland, Ohio. President Young, President Kimball, and a great many of them belonged to that Church; and it has worked here on earth. It was organized after the pattern that was organized in the heavens before we came here. It wasn't a church to hold a corporation, to hold things of that kind, to hold property and things; but it was a Church of the Firstborn.

How many of us here today belong to the Church of the Firstborn? Do you ever stop to think of that? When we talk of history of the Church, we want to get down to the real essence of it and find out what it is. Every man that fulfills his calling, if he doesn't belong to that Church, will belong to it someday if he magnifies his calling as he should; the Priesthood will give him the honor of being a member of the Church of the Firstborn. It is just as necessary for a man that is an Elder to magnify his calling, or a deacon to magnify his calling, as it is for an Apostle. Paul likens the organization unto the body of a man to show what a perfect organization it should be. Any member that is not there leaves a schism in the body. If we take the Seventies out, we cut off an arm. We cannot take the lesser ones out, because the legs and feet are just as necessary as the head, because the head can't move without the feet. All things belonging to the Kingdom or the Church must be there.

I don't know how many of you had the TRUTH last month. How many of you carefully read it and saw the difference between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Church of the Firstborn? There is going to be a wide difference. That is why Joseph Fielding Smith said that there had been many people that belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that didn't belong to the Church of the Firstborn. Brothers and sisters, keep on and work until we get where we belong to the Church of the Firstborn. I hope that we will, someday, all of us, belong to that Church.

(Uncle John asked Brother Newel Steed:) Are you having the Sacrament here? I can't see any reason why a bunch of people like you who are trying to live the laws of God cannot have the Sacrament every Sunday. I say, have the Sacrament, and I am sure it will help you. Keep on as you are doing now. We are having a time down there in Short Creek right now. I don't know hardly how it will come out. Yes, I do know. Some will leave, some have already left, some will stay and go on; others will leave. We have got some right good men down there. We have all of the Brother Jessops that are solid, all of the Brother Johnsons that are solid. We have got the young men, and you can depend on nearly every one of them. There is hardly any of the young men but what you can depend on. Some of the older ones got on the rampage again yesterday.

My brothers and sisters, my hands are tied; they are tied right now. But if I could get out like I used to, I don't think we would have any trouble. If we can't raise crops, let us raise houses. If we can do that, we can build some good houses down there. President Young said, "I have built a number of houses and I never had five dollars in my life to start with; I have built houses worth five thousand dollars." I saw his houses in Kirtland, in Nauvoo, etc. He was driven out of them. We, as a people, cannot expect the blessings of God without going through the trials. We have got to go through the trials. Sacrifices bring forth the blessings. If we can't do these things. we can't get the blessings either.

We all understand and know that when the Edmunds Law came out, it was in opposition to the laws of God; so it made every man, woman, and child in the Church a defier of the law. Some defied the laws of the land and others defied the laws of God. If you defy the laws of the land, you will go to jail. But if you defy the laws of God..

D.& C. 131

1. In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees;

2. And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]:

3. And if he does not, he cannot obtain it.

4. He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase.

When we get as high as we can get, ceasing to go up, we have got to go down. We can't stand still. Those who deny the laws of God start to go back. If that is an end of their kingdom, they are through advancing. Where do they go? We are told by President Young that they go into oblivion, to dissolution. We go back to our native element from whence we were taken.

You can't destroy anything. You can change it, but you can't destroy it. It all goes back into native element. You take your forests here. The trees will grow on to a certain time when they quit growing, and you will find them starting to go back. Pretty quick they decay; then you see nothing. It has all gone back into native element. That is the way we will be. We may come forth again in trillions of years. It may be that long before that dust is awakened again. The intelligence we had is still there, but that part which was created and made, such as our spiritual bodies and temporal bodies, must go back into native element. The intelligences will go back where they started from. Whether we lose what we have learned or not is just a question. What light and knowledge we learn in this life, we will always have. Then that makes us wonder if this is the first time we have tried it, if some spirits are more intelligent than others. Abraham was shown the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these, there were many of the noble and great ones, he said. Where did they get it? You take all through life, there are some intelligences greater than others. Why? It is very evident. If we went right now and there were a bunch of Indians out here, we might just as well shut up. The intelligence isn't there. When they are taught and brought around, they may understand us. Whenever the Lord speaks to a people, He has to come down to their level to get them to understand anything. If we talk to Indians, we have to go down to their level.

Now, we heard today about Elijah. I believe that is in Church History. When the Kirtland Temple was dedicated, who came? Elias came and gave his dispensation. Who is Elias? I will tell you. Elias is Noah. Noah came down and gave his dispensation. Then Moses came and gave them the dispensation of the gathering. This people here can thank the Lord that Moses came, because it is through Moses that we have the power and authority to go forth and preach the Gospel to the nations of the earth and bring them here. Then, a little further on, a great and glorious vision burst upon him-- Elijah came and gave them the sealing blessing; gave them the power to seal men on earth.

Now for Elijah. What do we understand by Elijah? If you have the power and authority of Elijah, there isn't a thing in the Melchizedek Priesthood that can't be done. All the keys are included in the power and authority of Elijah. Read on page 338 in the sayings of Joseph Smith and see. Now what did he say? Joseph, in speaking, said:

TPJS Page 338

"Let us suppose a case. Suppose the great God who dwells in heaven should reveal himself to Father Cutler here, by the opening heavens, and tell him, I offer up a decree that whatsoever you seal on earth with your decree, I will seal it in heaven; you have the power then; can it be taken off? No. Then what you seal on earth, by the keys of Elijah, is sealed in heaven;"

That is the way we are carried on to our exaltation. Every one of us that gains our exaltation gains it through covenants. And if we break those covenants, we go down. If we live those we are exalted.

We spoke of Elijah. He came and gave Joseph Smith that authority of the sealing power. After Elijah had come and given that authority -- he was the last Prophet that lived that held all the keys and after he had come here and delivered those keys to us, then we were able to go ahead and perform these things.

I just thought, sitting here today, I am quite proud -- maybe I hadn't ought to say this but I am proud of the way you people have been carrying on. I can't see one better reason why a people would come out from the heart's core of the Church than to live all the laws of God. You came out, every one of you. It was hard work. I know how churchbound I was. I didn't understand or know then, but after seeing these things, He says it very plain in the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants that the time would come when they would change the ordinances and break the everlasting covenants. He said we would come from among them. How are we going to stay out? How many of you today know where the Priesthood is? Some people get down upon their knees and find out, and they know where the Priesthood is, and you can't fool them. Others will say, "I don't know about this and that," and almost invariably, you will see them go backwards. We want to get a thorough understanding of these things. Someday you will read about some that have come out from among the people. You will read of such things again before you get through, and we are keeping a history of it. I hope we are keeping minutes here of everything that goes on. Sooner or later, they will be called in.

What is going to become of us? Do you mean to tell me that my parents are all wrong? No, I don't mean to tell you anything about it. A Methodist said, "Do you mean to say that my father is wrong? Why, he is a good man; my parents are good people." Yes, they sure are, and so were Cain's. His Father was, at least. Here is the thing. There is a law on which every blessing is predicated, and when we get the blessing, it is by obedience to that law. How can God give us that blessing without obedience to the law? If we didn't have to obey, God wouldn't be God. We will admit there are hundreds of good men, thousands of them in the Church. Our parents and grandparents and relations, we feel for them. They think we have all apostatized and gone. When my folks joined the Church in England, people just thought they had gone to the bad. They came out here. I have met hundreds of people in the world that have said, "I don't know what we will do, some of our children believe in Mormonism."

President Young said, "I invite you to take excursions. I will take excursions, but I am not going to take all my wives. I remember one fellow came and told me that I had twenty wives.

I said, 'That is fine, but I don't know them. I wish you would name them."" President Young said when the brethren talked about him in Texas, "You go back and tell the Texas people that when I get on the other side, I expect to have thousands of wives." Maybe he will if he has kingdoms enough. But today I don't know about taking these thousands of wives. Probably your hair would go grayer than mine is now; you can't tell. Thank, the Lord I am what President Young said, anyway. He said that if you have your hair left on your head, you can consider that you have some blessed good wives. I haven't lost my hair. I think some of the brethren are getting quite a ways back, though.

Well, let me tell you brethren, this thing is true. It isn't to be monkeyed with either. When the adversary saw that we started to live the two laws, then he started to work. He didn't care if we just lived one law. Why? Though you keep all the laws and offend in one, then you are guilty of the whole. If you have something you have got to be punished for, you can't get into the Celestial Kingdom. I have heard women say, "When I get on the other side, I don't want to have to live with that man," etc. If ever you have a man that is worthy of the Celestial Kingdom of God, you will be mighty glad to have him, for when we get on the other side, we are told, if you will read Parley P. Pratt and others, they won't be old and crabby and crippled up, but they will be in their full bloom of life. They will be young and fresh. That is what the resurrection is going to do. We are going to have this body renewed. We want to thank the Lord that we have got a good, healthy body; and thank the Lord that we have good honorable parents, that the disease that is in the world today isn't in our bodies. This is all church history.

We can go ahead and study the Church History and see what happens here and there, but what we want to know is what is going to happen to us. Like I told Brother Darter when he was telling me about the white Indian prophet, I said, "How close does that get you to the Celestial Kingdom of God?" If we are living a law that will put us in the Celestial Kingdom of God, that is what we are after. Be perfect in our sphere. We can be as perfect in our sphere as God is in His sphere. He says, "Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect."

Brothers and sisters, I love to see people united. I love the people that are united, and would to God that I could get out and talk to you more than I do. But everything I say down there is taken right up to the probation officer. There isn't anything that they don't hear about. Last time I went up there, he said, "I understand that Esther had a baby." I said, "What of that?" He said, "You broke your parole." I said, "How did I break my parole? Didn't you hear the Board of Pardons say, 'Go down and take care of your wives and children."? Would you call it taking care of them by just giving them something to eat? Then how have I broke my parole?" I never denied it or confirmed it. I know this law is true and these other laws are true. If we live them, we will get the blessing; and if we don't, we won't get the blessing. God will bless us when we bless ourselves. God helps those who help themselves. If we want help from God, we do it ourselves. We grow in knowledge, faith, and understanding only as we apply for it. Very few there will be that will be virtuous, honest, and straightforward in all things; but those few will hold the Priesthood and will be the few that will be saved. Godliness must be acquired; it won't be forced on us. You must get it yourselves.

I hope you just keep on the way you are going. I will say again that you can start in anytime, and I would like you to do it all the time. As long as the people are doing right like they are doing here, they deserve the Sacrament, and it will help you. God bless you, amen."

Thanks to Michael Ness for his research on this sermon.

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