B. H. Roberts on Accelerating Change

My brethren and sisters, I rejoice in the largeness of this work of God—this dispensation of the fulness of times. I love it, in part, because of its greatness—in its very bigness there is inspiration. I love to contemplate the puposes of God in their far-reaching possibilities. I rejoice to feel that today the children of men are moving up to a higher and truer conception of the things of God. We talk about, and we sometimes even dare to hope for, the coming of the millennium! I wonder what our sensations will be if some morning we wake up to a realization that the millennium is already on its way, and has been on its way for some time? When I think of the mighty progress that has been made in these modern days, and especially since God opened the heavens and revealed himself unto his servant Joseph Smith; when I take that circumstance as a starting point and contrast conditions as they are today with conditions as they were when that first revelation was given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, it seems to me that the prediction that old things shall pass away and all things shall become new is on the way to a very rapid fulfillment. At that time—early in the third decade of the nineteenth century—not a single foot of railroad existed anywhere in the world; today, all civilized nations are a network of railroads and railroad systems. We have moved all the way from the ox-cart and stage-coach to the mighty express train that thunders with lightning speed throughout the land. Distance is discounted—well nigh annihilated, in comparison with former times. In ocean navigation we have come from the rude vessel that could only be driven by the wind, to the mighty ocean greyhounds that speed across the oceans like express trains; and the oceans, once a dreaded mystery, are now but the convenient highways between the continents, the highways of commerce! Man, within the period we are considering, has not only mastered transportation upon the earth and upon the ocean; but we have recent demonstrations that man has mastered also the element of air; and may navigate the air with as great speed and ease as the land or the water. Within the period named—1820–1909—we have come all the way from the tallow dip to the electric light. In communication we have come from the pony express to the telegraph, and to the wireless telegraph, and the telephone; so that now we are in instant communication with all portions of the earth. No event of any moment may happen tonight that will not be spread upon the pages of tomorrow morning’s press, which will await us upon our breakfast tables! Then in the way of advancements that give promise of peace—so mighty have become the engines of destruction; so revolutionary the promises of this recent mastery of the air, that it would seem that war must be an impossibility in the near future; and it becomes imperative that men devise—statesmen must devise, philanthropists must devise, patriots must devise—some means by which the international questions that arise may be settled without allowing nations to go to the dreadful arbitrament of war for a settlement. The time when swords shall be beaten into plow-shares, and spears into pruning hooks seems not far distant, even the time when nations shall learn war no more—the vision of the prophets! These are the conditions in the midst of which we live: A time when property is more secure than it ever was before in the world; a time when personal liberty is more secure than ever it was before in the world; a time when the comforts of life among the masses of mankind well nigh equal conditions that only kings could enjoy in ages that are past! When I see all these blessings, and realize that year by year they are increasing with accelerated speed—when I see the sentiment of universal brotherhood enlarging—when I see great and mighty intellects pushing far out upon the frontier of Christian thought, grasping the truths of God and weaving them into systems of practical philosophy, tending to make ready the inhabitants of the earth for that fulness of truth that God, through his prophets, has decreed should be poured out upon the nations of the earth in the last days,—when I see these evidences of man’s progress within the last three-quarters of a century, since God spoke from heaven to Joseph Smith, I can not help but believe that there is some connection between the re-opening of the heavens to restore the gospel, and this wider diffusion of knowledge by which the comfort and enlightenment of men as to material things has been brought to pass—the golden age that prophets dreamed of, that prophets sang about—the golden age—the millennium—has at last dawned upon the earth! And right here, in the midst of it, God has established his Church. He has given to it the knowledge of the means of salvation. He has given to the Church divine authority to administer in the ordinances of the gospel, and the coming forth of this work is the herald of the modern world’s awakening! For when the Book of Mormon came forth, by that token Israel might know, and the world might know, that God had set his hand to fulfil and accomplish the things that he had decreed concerning the gathering of Israel, and concerning all the inhabitants of the earth—their happiness and peace and glory and security. (II Nephi 30, and III Nephi 21.) This is our part of the work; to make proclamation of these things; to exemplify the law of God and the excellence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; to proclaim to the children of men that God is not a God afar off—One who transcends the world; but God imminent in the world, and that men may connect their lives with the life of God; and feel the inspiration of his life vibrating in their lives, uplifting, purifying, exalting—until man, the individual, and communities of men, nations—may walk with God in this great age now dawning on the world! And yet, great as our conceptions may be of the things of God—divine things—be assured that the divine things themselves are infinitely greater than our conceptions of them can be—then how great indeed they must be! The prophet spoke truly when he said of God: “His thoughts are not as your thoughts; his ways are not as your ways; for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his thoughts above your thoughts, and his ways above your ways.” But while we are under the necessity of conceding the truth of that, may we not share in and enjoy in some measure a knowledge of divine things and therein rejoice, as I feel we do this day by this brief glimpse of some of the things of God?