Chapter XII: Section IV: Others not elected, although they may be called by

the ministry of the word, and may have some common operations of
the Spirit, [i. e., awakened aspirations for righteousness] yet
they never truly come unto Christ, and therefore cannot be saved,
much less can men not professing the Christian religion be saved in
any other way whatsoever, be they ever so diligent to frame their
lives according to the light of nature and the law of that religion
they do profess; and to assert and maintain that they may, is very
pernicious, and to be detested.

That is to say, however righteous or honorable men may be, and though they accept, as far as in them lies the power, the Christian faith, yet, if not among the elect, their doom is sealed, and that doom is everlasting damnation from the comfortable presence of God! I suggest that our friends consider their creed again, and pass a resolution that all such men as the supposed righteous man just now described are, of the elect, as well as infants dying in infancy.

Equally necessary is it that they should reform their creed with reference to the fate of the heathen. For, in the application of the principle laid down in the section of the creed last quoted is relegated to eternal damnation all "men not professing the Christian religion." In explaining the application of this section of the creed to such persons, in an authoritative work on Presbyterianism, ("Commentary of the Confession of Faith with Questions for Theological Students and Bible Classes," by the Rev. A. A. Hodge, D. D.,) it is said:

The heathen in mass, with no single definite and unquestionable
exception on record, are evidently strangers to God, and going down
to death in an unsaved condition. The presumed possibility of being
saved without a knowledge of Christ remains, after eighteen hundred
years, a possibility illustrated by no example.

When it is remembered that of the population of the earth at present, after two thousand years of Christianity, less than one-third of the population of the world is even nominally Christian, while more than two-thirds are outside of any form of Christianity whatsoever; and when it is further remembered that in past ages the proportion of Christians to the population of the world has been very much less than this; and when it is further remembered that, in Presbyterian ideas of the gospel, there are no means by which the gospel may be applied except in this present life, and those who fail to receive the gospel here are eternally lost, we are not much surprised at the infidel who draws the conclusion, when contemplating the doctrines of this abominable creed, that, if this creed be true, then God, when he created the human race, was but creating, in the main, fuel for the flames of hell out of human souls! Is it any wonder, if other creeds of divided Christendom contain similar doctrines, or other doctrines which as flagrantly violate every conception of the relative claims of mercy and justice, that God declared the creeds of men an abomination in his sight? I told you in the beginning of my remarks that I would not have time to examine even this one creed in detail, but could only point out one or two items that would tend to demonstrate the truth of the Lord's revelation to Joseph Smith respecting the abomination of the creeds of men; and, having done this, I must stop, as our time has expired. But I cannot close these remarks in any other than in a hopeful spirit. I say again, it is encouraging to see our Presbyterian friends amending their creed; and I sincerely trust that the light which has apparently begun to dawn upon their minds will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day; until they will not only change their creed respecting the fate of infants, but will go on adding line upon line and precept upon precept, here and there eliminating that which is so glaringly abominable, until at last they shall be so accustomed to the light of truth that they will be able to look upon the fullness thereof as it is revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ in these last days, through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

The Lord bless you, and also the Presbyterians, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

VII.

Relations of Church and State: Religious Liberty in America.