In a sermon
dated 23 October 1853, Brigham Young discussed the nature and efficacy of
ordinances, in particular, the Eucharist and baptism:
If you ask another class of men what benefit
they derive from partaking of the Sacrament, from eating and drinking the
emblems of the body and blood of Christ, they reply, "It is merely a token
of our fellowship with each other." Is there any life, any power, any real
and substantial benefit to be obtained by adhering to, and obeying faithfully,
this ordinance? What do the Latter-day Saints think about it? Do they
understand the true nature of this ordinance? Perhaps they do, and again
perhaps they do not.
It is an easy matter for me to understand the
information the Lord has imparted to me, and then communicate the same to you.
Will the bread administered in this ordinance add life to you? Will the wine
add life to you? Yes; if you are hungry and faint, it will sustain the natural
strength of the body. But suppose you have just eaten and drunk till you are
full, so as not to require another particle of food to sustain the natural
body; you have eaten all your nature requires; do you then receive any benefit
from. the bread and wine as mere articles of food? As far as the emblems are
concerned, you receive strength naturally, when the body requires it, precisely
as you would by eating bread, and drinking wine, at any other time, or on any
other occasion.
In what consists the benefit we derive from
this ordinance? It is in obeying the commands of the Lord. When we obey the
commandments of our heavenly Father, if we have a correct understanding of the
ordinances of the house of God, we receive all the promises attached to the
obedience rendered to His commandments. Jesus said—Verily, verily I say unto you,
except ye eat the flesh of the Son of God, and drink his blood, ye have no life
in you. Again, "He that eateth me," "shall live by me."
Again, "Whose eateth my flesh, and drinketh, my blood, hath eternal
life." "For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed."
Can you understand these sayings of the
Saviour? These sayings are but isolated portions of the vast amount of
instructions given by him to his followers in his day. Had a thousandth part of
his teachings to them been handed down to us, and all his doings been
faithfully recorded and transmitted to us, we should not have known what to do
with such a vast amount of information. The Apostle says, "And there are
also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every
one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that
should be written."
Allow me to explain this text. The Apostle
could not possibly mean what the language of the quotation implies —that the
whole earth would have been covered with books to a certain depth; no, but he
meant, by that saying, there would have been more written than the world of
mankind would receive, or credit. The people then were as they are in this
day—they are continually reaching after something that is not revealed, when
there is more written already than they can comprehend. Instead of saying the
world could not contain the books, we will say there would have been more
written than the people would carry out in their lives.
I will now tell you what the Saviour meant by
those wonderful expressions touching his body and blood. It is simply
this—"If you do not keep the commandments of God, you will have no life of
the Son of God in you." Jesus, as they were eating, took the bread, and
blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take,
eat; this is my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them;
saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is
shed for many for the remission of sins." What were they required to drink
it for? What are we partaking of these emblems for? In token of our fellowship
with him, and in token that we desire to be one with each other, that we may
all be one with the Father. His administering these symbols to his ancient
disciples, and which he commanded should be done until he came, was for the
express purpose that they should witness unto the Father that they did believe
in him. But on the other hand, if they did not obey this commandment, they
should not be blessed with his spirit.
It is the same in this, as it is in the
ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins. Has water, in itself, any
virtue to wash away sin? Certainly not; but the Lord says, "If the sinner
will repent of his sins, and go down into the waters of baptism, and there be
buried in the likeness of being put into the earth and buried, and again be
delivered from the water, in the likeness of being born—if in the sincerity of
his heart he will do this, his sins shall be washed away. Will the water of
itself wash them away? No; but keeping the commandments of God will cleanse
away the stain of sin.
When we eat of this bread, and drink of this
water, do we eat the literal flesh of the Son of God? Were I a priest of the
Roman Catholic church, and had been trained from my youth in that faith, I
might believe fully, with my whole heart, that my prayers would transform the
bread of the eucharist into the literal flesh, and the wine into the literal
blood, of the Son of God. But notwithstanding my faith on that matter, the
bread and wine would be just the same in their component parts, and would
administer to the mortal systems of men, or of beasts, the same amount and kind
of nutriment that the same quantity of unblessed bread and wine would. If bread
and wine are blessed, dedicated, and sanctified, through the sincerity and
faith of the people of God, then the Spirit of the Lord, through the promise,
rests upon the individuals who thus keep His commandments, and are diligent in
obeying the ordinances of the house of God. So I understand all the ordinances
of the house of the Lord. You know we used to get down upon our knees and pray
for the remission of sins; and we would pray until we got peace of mind, and
then we thought our sins were forgiven. I have no fault to find with this, it
is all right. Many in this way have been made to rejoice in the hope of eternal
life, to rejoice in the gift of the Spirit of the Lord, and in the light of His
countenance. Many received heavenly visions, revelations, the ministering of
holy angels, and the manifestations of the power of God, until they were
satisfied; and all this before the ordinances of the house of God were preached
to the people. They obtained those blessings through their faith, and the
sincerity of their hearts. It was this that called down heavenly blessings upon
them. It was their fervency of spirit, and not their obedience to the celestial
law, through which they received such blessings; and it was all right. What is
required of us when the law comes? We must obey it, as old Paul did. He was a
servant of God in all good conscience, when he took care of the clothes of
those who stoned Stephen to death; but
when the law came, sin revived in his, and he said, "I died." That
is, his former notions of serving God, his former incorrect traditions, all
appeared to him in their true light, and that upon which he had trusted for
salvation as baseless as a dream, when the law of the Lord came by Jesus
Christ; and in it he found the promises and the gifts and the blessings of the
holy Gospel, through obedience to the ordinances. That is the only legal way to
obtain salvation, and an exaltation in the presence of God.
In this light do I view all the ordinances of
the house of God. I do not know of one commandment that may be preferred before
another; or of one ordinance of the house of God, from the beginning to the end
of all the Lord has revealed to the children of men, that is not of equal
validity, power, and authority with the rest. So we partake of bread and wine,
obeying the commandments of the Lord; and by so doing we receive the blessing.
(JOD 2:3-5)