Saturday, February 15, 2020

Brigham Young on the Nature and Efficacy of Ordinances


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)