George Q. Cannon:
[Upper Room of the
Salt Lake Temple, April 20, 1893]
. . . Prest. Cannon spoke very feelingly—was too
full of utterance and had to wait to collect himself. Bore testimony to the
fact that God and his son Jesus do live. He has seen and conversed with Jesus
[as] a man with another. (Erastus Beaman Snow Journal, LDS Church Archives, Ms
f 134 # 1)
. . . Prest. Geo. Q.
Cannon: I have seen the Savior Jesus Christ and conversed with him face to face
and he has talked with me. (L. John Nuttall journal, April 20, 1893) (The
King Follett Discourse: Being a Reconstruction of the Text and Meaning of the
April 7, 1844 Sermon by Joseph Smith, Jr. First Prophet Seer, Revelator, and
Translator of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and The Sermon in
the Grove June 16, 1844 [The Frithurex Press, 2017], 151)
Editorial in the Millennial Star (May 1853)
You cannot know God
without present revelation. Did you ever think of this most solemn and essential
truth, before? You may have been accustomed to pray, all your life time, and as
yet you, even you, do not know God. You may have heard many thousand sermons,
with a sincere desire both to remember and practise them, and yet you do not
know God. But it has been decided in the court of heaven, that no man can know
the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth him. Now, has Jesus
Christ ever revealed God the Father to you, dear reader? Be honest with
yourself, and do not err in your answer to this most important question.
However much the Son ay have revealed the Father to Prophets, Patriarchs, and Apostles
of old, the question still remains in full force—has he revealed Him to you? A
revelation to another man is by no means a revelation to you. For instance, God
revealed himself to Samuel, and called him by name to be a Prophet. But the
call to Samuel is by no means a call to you to be a Prophet. God called Abraham
to kill Isaac, but that is no revelation to you to kill your son. God revealed
the baptism of repentance unto John the Baptist, before Christ’s death, but
that is not a revelation to you. He revealed authority to Paul to preach to the
Gentiles, but what was told to Paul is not told to you, nor is it required of
you. Again, you need the righteousness of God, to go where (led is, and be
happy-and how will you get it except it is revealed to your personally? You
cannot get it in any other way. Hence the Lord says, “The righteousness of God
is revealed from faith to faith.” Don’t say now, as some do, that revelation
was anciently given in order to establish the truth, and being once established
it is no longer necessary to be revealed to subsequent generations of people.
Don’t say this for your life, for revelation is just as necessary to establish
truth now as it was then. You need the ministry of angels now, just as much as people
did then. (Editorial, "The
Coming Crisis--How to Meet it," Millennial Star volume 15 no.
19 [7 May 1853]:289)
