Dear brethren and sisters, it is with feelings not a little peculiar that I arise to address you on this occasion. By this effort I have solely for my object your edification in the wide field of truth, which has been opened by the "key of knowledge" to our mind's eye, and we are bade to enter and regale ourselves among the undying beauties that flourish spontaneously in this heavenly soil. We wish to be made wiser by a knowledge of true principles; and better by adopting them in all the practical walks of life.
Had I copied the style of address adopted by the fashionable world, I might have said, "Ladies and gentlemen," placing the fair in the van, but as this would only be to reverse the order of our being through life's thorny way, ordained and established by heaven's law, I have felt, and still feel, to observe the spirit of that law and that order, not only in my manner of address, but in all the varied duties, responsibilities, and pleasures of life. The hypocritical respect lavished upon females by the etiquette of the world in pushing them forward, and in exciting their vanity by making them most conspicuous in all the novels and romances which, like so much trash, have flooded society and cursed the land, is only to make them a more easy prey to the unbridled sensuality and the ungodly lusts of their benighted authors. Flattery is food for the silly and shallow brained, but a wise heart and pure hand will never administer it.
The order of heaven places man in the front rank; hence he is first to be addressed. Woman follows under the protection of his counsels, and the superior strength of his arm. Her desire should be unto her husband, and he should rule over her. I will here venture the assertion, that no man can be exalted to a celestial glory in the kingdom of God whose wife rules over him; and as the man is not without the woman, nor the woman without the man in the Lord, it follows as a matter of course, that the woman who rules over her husband, thereby deprives herself of a celestial glory.
[Here the speaker was interrupted by the question from the congregation, "What, then, will become of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria?" The speaker replied, General and eternal principles are too stubborn to yield to individual accommodation. They must see to their own affairs.]
But to my subject: The day in which we live is an important one—important to the world at large, and to us as a people. As time is measured off to us by the day, by the week, and by the year, our quantum will soon be run off, and we be summoned to render an account of the use and improvement we have made of it. Let the question now arise in every breast, Am I acting well my part while I occupy the stage of life? Remember that your daily prayer to God is, "Thy kingdom come, and Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven." Remember, also, that we are the favoured and chosen people to whom that kingdom is come, and it will continue with us, provided our energies, coupled with the wisdom and power of God, be directed to that object—an object for which all Christendom is praying to be accomplished; and one, too, against which their skill, learning, and power will be arrayed. Even the devils in hell will burst forth from their fiery cells to unite with the fallen sons of earth, to oppose the kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdom of our God. The kings and rulers of the earth will not willingly cast their crowns and sceptres at the feet of the Priesthood, and worship the God of Hosts. His almighty power, in judgments, alone will humble them into this submission. "He shall send forth judgment unto victory." Let strict integrity and purity of heart and life be our bulwarks, and the faith of Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, be our shield and fortress of strength now, and in the day of temptation and trial. To incite you to diligence and perseverance, let me tell you that our foes are not only strong, but wily; and yet to encourage you—to inspire you with faith and hope, allow me to say that God is stronger and more wily than they. The Almighty never did, neither will He ever display His power in behalf of His people until they are brought into tried and straightened places; and what if some of us should lay down our lives for Christ's sake? We all have to die at some time; and if we are but in the faithful discharge of our duty, it should matter not to us when or by what means we go. Our enemies may say, for righteousness sake we kill thee not, but for thine own wickedness and perverseness.