October 1893
Cannon, Abraham H. "Divine Inspiration." The Deseret Weekly, January 13, 1894: pg. 97-98.
Cannon, George Q. "Remarks." The Deseret Weekly, October 28, 1893: pg. 577-579.
Cannon, George Q. "Try the Spirits." The Deseret Weekly, March 24, 1894: pg. 413-415.
Grant, Heber J. "Our Talents--How to Use Them." The Deseret Weekly, December 2, 1893: pg. 737-738.
Lyman, Francis M. "The Importance of the Holy Spirit." The Deseret Weekly, January 6, 1894: pg. 65-66.
Merrill, Marriner W. "Cultivate the Soil." The Deseret Weekly, December 16, 1893: pg. 801-802.
Smith, John Henry. "Discourse." The Deseret Weekly, November 18, 1893: pg. 673-674.
Smith, Joseph F. "True Economy." The Deseret Weekly, December 23, 1893: pg. 1-4.
Thatcher, Moses. "The Bondage of Debt." The Deseret Weekly, January 20, 1894: pg. 129-130.
The Deseret Weekly. "Semi-Annual Conference." October 14, 1893: pg. 520-525.
Woodruff, Wilford. "The Power of Faith." The Deseret Weekly, February 3, 1894: pg. 193-194.
SEMI-ANNUAL CONFERENCE
President George Q. Cannon
Remarks
President Lorenzo Snow
Elder Franklin D. Richards
Afternoon Session
Elder Heber J. Grant
Our Talents—How to Use Them
Elder John Henry Smith
Discourse
Elder John W. Taylor
Elder Marriner W. Merrill
Cultivate the Soil
A Priesthood Meeting
President Joseph F. Smith
Bishop William B. Preston
President George Q. Cannon
Elder Heber J. Grant
Second Day—Oct. 7. Morning Session
Elder Francis M. Lyman
The Importance of the Holy Spirit
Elder George Teasdale
Elder Abraham H. Cannon
Divine Inspiration
Afternoon Session
Sustaining of the General Authorities
Elder Brigham Young
Elder Moses Thatcher
The Bondage of Debt
Third Day—Oct. 8th. Morning Session
President Joseph F. Smith
True Economy
President George Q. Cannon
President George Q. Cannon
President Joseph F. Smith
Afternoon Session
Elder John Morgan
Elder Seymour B. Young
Elder Rulon S. Wells
Elder Abraham H. Cannon
At the Tabernacle
President Wilford Woodruff
The Power of Faith
President George Q. Cannon
Try the Spirits
Cannon, George Q. "Remarks." The Deseret Weekly, October 28, 1893: pg. 577-579.
Cannon, George Q. "Try the Spirits." The Deseret Weekly, March 24, 1894: pg. 413-415.
Grant, Heber J. "Our Talents--How to Use Them." The Deseret Weekly, December 2, 1893: pg. 737-738.
Lyman, Francis M. "The Importance of the Holy Spirit." The Deseret Weekly, January 6, 1894: pg. 65-66.
Merrill, Marriner W. "Cultivate the Soil." The Deseret Weekly, December 16, 1893: pg. 801-802.
Smith, John Henry. "Discourse." The Deseret Weekly, November 18, 1893: pg. 673-674.
Smith, Joseph F. "True Economy." The Deseret Weekly, December 23, 1893: pg. 1-4.
Thatcher, Moses. "The Bondage of Debt." The Deseret Weekly, January 20, 1894: pg. 129-130.
The Deseret Weekly. "Semi-Annual Conference." October 14, 1893: pg. 520-525.
Woodruff, Wilford. "The Power of Faith." The Deseret Weekly, February 3, 1894: pg. 193-194.
SEMI-ANNUAL CONFERENCE
President George Q. Cannon
Remarks
President Lorenzo Snow
Elder Franklin D. Richards
Afternoon Session
Elder Heber J. Grant
Our Talents—How to Use Them
Elder John Henry Smith
Discourse
Elder John W. Taylor
Elder Marriner W. Merrill
Cultivate the Soil
A Priesthood Meeting
President Joseph F. Smith
Bishop William B. Preston
President George Q. Cannon
Elder Heber J. Grant
Second Day—Oct. 7. Morning Session
Elder Francis M. Lyman
The Importance of the Holy Spirit
Elder George Teasdale
Elder Abraham H. Cannon
Divine Inspiration
Afternoon Session
Sustaining of the General Authorities
Elder Brigham Young
Elder Moses Thatcher
The Bondage of Debt
Third Day—Oct. 8th. Morning Session
President Joseph F. Smith
True Economy
President George Q. Cannon
President George Q. Cannon
President Joseph F. Smith
Afternoon Session
Elder John Morgan
Elder Seymour B. Young
Elder Rulon S. Wells
Elder Abraham H. Cannon
At the Tabernacle
President Wilford Woodruff
The Power of Faith
President George Q. Cannon
Try the Spirits
SEMI-ANNUAL CONFERENCE
The Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convened in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City at 10 a. m. on Friday, Oct. 6, 1893.
The following were on the stand: Of the First Presidency—Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith; of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—Lorenzo Snow, Franklin D. Richards, Brigham Young, Francis M. Lyman, John Henry Smith, John W. Taylor, Marriner W. Merrill and Abraham H. Cannon; Patriarch John Smith; of the Presidency of the Seventies—Seymour B. Young, John Morgan, George Reynolds; of the Presiding Bishopric—William B. Preston and John R. Winder. There were also many Presidents of Stakes and other leading Elders from all parts of Utah and surrounding states and territories.
Conference was called to order by President George Q. Cannon.
The choir and congregation sang:
Come let us anew our journey pursue,
Roll round with the year,
And never stand still till the Master appear.
The opening prayer was offered by Elder Brigham Young.
Singing by the choir:
For the strength of the hills we bless Thee,
Our God, our Fathers’ God.
The Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convened in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City at 10 a. m. on Friday, Oct. 6, 1893.
The following were on the stand: Of the First Presidency—Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith; of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—Lorenzo Snow, Franklin D. Richards, Brigham Young, Francis M. Lyman, John Henry Smith, John W. Taylor, Marriner W. Merrill and Abraham H. Cannon; Patriarch John Smith; of the Presidency of the Seventies—Seymour B. Young, John Morgan, George Reynolds; of the Presiding Bishopric—William B. Preston and John R. Winder. There were also many Presidents of Stakes and other leading Elders from all parts of Utah and surrounding states and territories.
Conference was called to order by President George Q. Cannon.
The choir and congregation sang:
Come let us anew our journey pursue,
Roll round with the year,
And never stand still till the Master appear.
The opening prayer was offered by Elder Brigham Young.
Singing by the choir:
For the strength of the hills we bless Thee,
Our God, our Fathers’ God.
President George Q. Cannon
delivered the opening discourse. He treated instructively upon a variety of subjects. His opening remarks were devoted to the financial affairs of the Saints, and he made special reference to the establishment of the sugar factory. The favorable change of sentiment among the people of the world, especially those of our own nation, was spoken of. The remainder of the discourse was devoted to the question of missionary work in this country and abroad in all the nations of the earth. The speaker predicted many good things concerning Zion.
delivered the opening discourse. He treated instructively upon a variety of subjects. His opening remarks were devoted to the financial affairs of the Saints, and he made special reference to the establishment of the sugar factory. The favorable change of sentiment among the people of the world, especially those of our own nation, was spoken of. The remainder of the discourse was devoted to the question of missionary work in this country and abroad in all the nations of the earth. The speaker predicted many good things concerning Zion.
Remarks
made by President George Q. Cannon At the Opening of the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah, Friday Morning, October 6th, 1893.
Reported by Arthur Winter.
By request of President Woodruff, I arise to make the opening remarks to the Conference. This is our Sixty-fourth semi-annual Conference, and we meet together this morning under circumstances that, in some respects at least, are exceedingly favorable to us as a people. We have our trials and our difficulties to contend with and overcome; but we are in a state of probation, and it is not to be expected that we shall be free from the ills that trouble humanity and that are consequent upon an earthly existence; in fact, as Latter-day Saints, we have been assured, among other things, that we should have trials to contend with, and they would come in various forms, to test our faith, to prove us and to give us that experience which is so necessary for us in our future careers.
We have had, since we last met, considerable trouble in financial matters. You are all doubtless aware of this. You have no doubt felt it individually, as we have felt it as a Church. Probably at no time in our previous experience have we had to contend with pecuniary embarrassment as we have had of late. It is not necessary that we should dwell upon the causes that have produced these embarrassments; they are familiar to you all. You know the burdens that the Church has had to bear. But the people, in very many instances, have responded willingly to the calls that have been made upon them. We know of brethren who have run in debt in order to furnish means that they subscribed for the completion of the Temple, and the burden was borne, I may say, joyfully by the brethren and sisters. We resolved that with the help of God we would finish the Temple and dedicate it to the Most High on the sixth day of April, 1893. The Lord helped us to keep that resolve and He abundantly poured out His Holy Spirit upon us, in testimony of His acceptance of that glorious work. But the people have felt this burden—that is, they have felt the debts that they have been compelled to incur. The Church collectively, represented by the trustee-in-trust, has also felt this. Nevertheless we have been greatly blessed in having abundance of food in our valleys, and sufficient shelter, and comfortable houses in which to dwell. Contrasting our circumstances in these days with the past, we have abundant cause for thanksgiving and for glorifying our God.
It is very interesting to see the favorable condition of affairs abroad, so far as we are concerned. The wrath of man has been turned aside from the people of God. Who could have thought a few years ago, when we were surrounded, it might be said, by a feeling of intense enmity and hatred, and a spirit that seemed anxious for our destruction, that such a wonderful change would occur within so short a period in regard to public opinion? The recent visit of the choir to Chicago, with the First Presidency, has been most gratifying in its results. I believe it has done more good than the preaching of a large number of Elders could have done, and we were received with the utmost consideration and kindness. I cannot mention anything that is more illustrative of the changed feeling than to state that the House of Representatives has passed the bill returning to the Church its personal property. This shows the disposition that is being manifested to treat us with that consideration and fairness with which other citizens of the Republic are treated. Well, we can praise our God for His mercy and kindness to us, because this is in fulfillment of the promises which He has made. He has told us that when we should pass through the deep waters He would be with us, and He would sustain and deliver us; and we this day, in this conference, can praise and glorify His name with all our hearts for having fulfilled His promises to us. We are living evidences of the truth of that which He has told us.
Throughout our valleys we have reasonably good crops. In some places they may be a little short; but there has enough been raised to sustain us and all who are dependent upon us, including our flocks, and our herds. I do hope, as we all must, that throughout all these valleys no cry of distress shall ascend to God our eternal Father, not even from an animal; but that we will administer of that which the Lord has given to us to supply the wants of all the children of men who may be brought in contact with us and be destitute, and especially to those who belong to the household of faith. Our Teachers, our Bishops and our Relief Societies should take great pains to see that there is no want, and that there will be no want this winter, for fuel, for shelter, for food or for necessary clothing. We can in now way better show our gratitude to our Father in heaven for that which He has done for us than by administering to our fellow creatures; for if we do not love our brother whom we have seen, how can we love God, whom we have not seen? How can we better show our love for our great Creator than by taking care of His children, and thus return to them, in some measure, the kindness that He has shown to us?
We have, as you know, done all in our power to promote the manufacture of sugar in our Territory. The First Presidency and the Twelve have taken upon themselves individually, as well as in their organized capacity, very heavy burdens in order to carry this project out. We were impressed and impelled to do this by the manifestations of the Spirit of God through our President and to each one of us who received that testimony. We felt that this was right, that it was an enterprise that should be taken hold of; and though we have had many obstacles to contend with, the greatest of which has been the difficulty of raising money, nevertheless we have carried the load as best we could, and we have the gratification this season of feeling that the Lord has been very kind indeed to His people. He has blessed their fields. He has blessed the crops of beets. We are told that they are yielding very generously of saccharine matter, and that the prospect is we shall have good returns in sugar, and begin to be able to meet the obligations which rest upon us. We want to speak favorably of this enterprise. We want to urge it upon the Latter-day Saints. We want to say everything in its favor to sustain it and make it a success, to furnish employment to our people, and to give our farmers remuneration for their labor, helping them to produce a crop for which they will receive money, and also save the money at home that would otherwise go out of our Territory for the purchase of sugar. This is the true policy. It is the true way to build up Zion.
We must turn our attention to these matters and discard all foolish theories and all unwise conduct. There has been a great deal of it in this country about this sugar factory. it has been dragged down into politics—a thing that ought never to be done. We want to lift it out of that. We want to look at these matters as servants and Saints of God and when God tells us to do a thing, to do it. God has called us to build up Zion in the earth, and He will build it up in His own way, and not according to the theories of man. It is our duty, when He gives us a command, to go with our might and fulfill that command. If we do that, He will always stand by us, and sustain us, and carry us off triumphant over every obstacle.
I rejoice this morning in being able to make this statement concerning our sugar factory. The prospects for it are good, and we need the means that the sale of the sugar will produce. If we could manufacture enough to supply our entire Territory, it would be a grand thing for us, and for the entire country also. We hope that you will all take hold of this, buy the stock, and help carry the load, and not leave it on the shoulders of the few.
Our missions in foreign lands and in the United States are, generally speaking, in a good condition. There are 120 Elders in the Southern states alone, and they are laboring effectively. There are no mobbings to speak of, and the Elders are doing very well and escape violence. In the Northern states also there is a great deal of good being done, the missionaries being diligent and active.
There is this difficulty, however, in all our missions: It is hard for the Elders to sustain themselves. Some of them do so who have means, but the cry comes from our missions that unless help is rendered, experienced men will have to come home. Of course, this means the payment of their passage home, and also the payment of the passage of others fill their places who are not so well qualified through experience. Letters have been written by the presidents of missions to the Bishops and others, asking for help to be rendered, that they might be able to keep these men of experience in the field; but the response from home generally has been that they cannot do it. We should, if possible, avoid the release of men who are capable until they have filled their missions. You know, brethren and sisters, that there are many men whose best field is the missionary filed, whose greatest influence is in preaching the Gospel. Many of them are not good managers at home; they do not seem to have a gift for financial matters; but you give them a mission, and they are successful in preaching the Gospel, in warning the people, and in gathering out the honest in heart. Where there are such men in the field, they should be sustained there. Efforts should be made to keep them at that which they are best qualified to do, and not compel them to return and struggle at home.
The work is doing excellently in northern Sweden. We hear of a great many baptisms in that region. In Norway also the people are favorably disposed to the work of God and are willing to hear the Elders. In the Netherlands there are good openings, but there are no men scarcely to fill the openings, very few among us being able to speak the Dutch language.
The field in Germany is an extensive one; but the restrictions there interfere seriously with the spread of the Gospel, though these are in some places gradually becoming milder. In Hamburg the work is progressing. It is a remarkable fact, worthy of note, that during the prevalence of the cholers in that city, though the Latter-day Saints worked alongside of people who were stricken down with that dreadful disease, not one of their number fell a victim to its ravages. The blessing of the Lord appeared to rest upon the Saints, and through faith they escaped. My son David, who died a year ago in Germany while laboring in the ministry, opened up a region for the preaching of the Gospel where the Elders are laboring now with considerable prospect of success, many souls having been gathered into the fold. Throughout the Swiss and German mission the feeling is hopeful, and the brethren are encouraged.
France has scarcely been warned. It is true there have been missions in Paris; but there are parts of France which our Elders have never visited. Spain remains yet untouched; no Elders have entered Spain or Portugal, and there are souls there to be saved.
Our young men should pay some attention to the acquirement of languages. God has said that He will give unto us the gift of tongues for this purpose, and the gift of interpretation of tongues, and I know that these gifts can be obtained if they are sought for. Our youth should be learning every language that is spoken by human beings, so that we may have men among us that would be able to go to any of the countries of Europe—Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Italy, etc., and preach the Gospel of the Son of God. Here is Japan stretching out her hand for knowledge. We have not an Elder to go to Japan. So with the rest of Asia. Nearly the whole of the continent of Asia without Elders, and the people perishing for the want of that Word which God has given unto us! They are clamoring in their souls, doubtless, as you aged men and women clamored in your youth; praying to God for the truth. The condition of the world should appeal to us, and our young men should be trained to speak the various languages. He to the south of us in a whole continent of Spanish-speaking people. We need hundreds of Elders—thousands I might say—to visit these foreign lands and open the Gospel to the thousands and millions who are sitting in darkness and who have not that peace and heavenly joy that we rejoice in. When I think of it, I feel as though I would like to have the privilege of going out and carrying this Gospel of salvation to these people. The greatest joy of my life has been to preach the Gospel. I would like to go to new fields. I have wanted for years to go to Japan. Years ago, if circumstances had allowed, I would have volunteered to go. Attention should be paid to these things and our brethren should seek to qualify their sons for usefulness in building up Zion by giving them suitable advantages as fast as they can, and our daughters also should devote attention to these various languages.
We have three Elders in Turkey, two of them laboring in Asia Minor and one in Damascus; and they have opportunities there of preaching and baptizing. But how few there are to do this! The field is wide, the harvest is a great one, but how few the laborers are! So it is throughout the United States. So it is in England. I was in London a little while ago. I saw a most excellent opportunity there, it seemed to me, for the preaching of the Gospel in a way that it had never been preached in England—that is, among those who are termed the better class. There was an interest manifested in our affairs that spoke well for the disposition to listen to the Elders preach. But our meeting houses and surroundings, both in London and Liverpool, are not of such a character as to invite this class of people to visit them because they are not suited to their ideas for the preaching of the Gospel. I was only there for a very short time, but I felt while there that the field was an excellent one. I believe it is so in other places in Great Britain. The trouble is, many Elders go out who are unsuited for the labor. A good man, energetic and capable, will always do a good work; while others, with equal opportunities, are failures, not being adapted to it. I saw that while I was there. This is the case in all kinds of labor; it is so in the preaching of the Gospel. We hear a great deal about the failure of Elders in places. It is true that the people are hard in their hearts, and they are slow to listen to the truth. But there are ways of bringing it before them which, if employed, would result, in my opinion, in great success. I returned from California yesterday, where I went for a few days on business. It is a field with which I am very familiar; for I labored there for some years. I thought I could see some of the causes why there was not more success in California. It is a field, probably more than any other, which for palpable reasons, requires men of peculiar fitness and aptitude. I have no doubt the Elders there are doing the best they can, but they need experience.
But the Gospel is being preached. Zion is being advertised. The nations of the earth are hearing about Zion. Our own nation is learning considerably about her. The visit of the choir, to which I have alluded, has been productive of great results. I believe we will feel the effect of it in years to come. Everything, I may say, is encouraging. We are passing through a trial now, just as we have passed through other trials; but if we have been guilty of folly in monetary matters, let us repent before the Lord—repent of our extravagance, of our want of wisdom, of our disposition to speculate. Where we have indulged in these things, let us repent with all our hearts and implore the blessing and forgiveness of God upon us. I say to you there are good days coming. There are bright days in the future for Zion. We are advancing, and I have nothing but good to say, I have nothing but encouragement for the people of God. We may be pinched now; but we have been before. We have been pinched in far worse circumstances than we are now. Let us be thankful that affairs are in as good a condition as we find them, and let us try and improve. Let us bear with each other. Where men owe their brethren or their sisters, let them pay as fast as they can, and let the creditors be patient. We will all come out right. We will pay our debts, we will save our credit and our honor, as a people and as individuals. I promise you this, in the name of the Lord, if you will do right and put your trust in God, who has never yet failed us.
I have not alluded to the Pacific Islands. There the Elders are doing excellently. On the Sandwich Islands and in New Zealand and Australia the Elders are having souls given to them as a reward for their labors. The Society Islands have been visited by Brother James S. Brown and his son and other Elders. There were a great many baptized on those islands a long time ago. There was a mission sent from Nauvoo, led by Noah Rogers, Addison Pratt, Benjamin F. Grouard and Knowlton F. Haake. These Elders carried the Gospel there and thousands were baptized; but they have been left to themselves to a great extent, and others have gone in and endeavored to seduce them from the path. The prospects are, however, that our young Elders who are there, and who are acquiring the language, will do a good work. We hope to save a remnant of the Polynesian races from the various islands, to be numbered among the people of God in Zion.
I pray God that during this conference both speakers and hearers may be filled with the Spirit and power of God, and that the word of God which is adapted to us may be given to His servants to give unto us. I also pray God to bless in an especial manner President Woodruff, to fill him with life and health, and to make him strong. His visit to Chicago, I believe, restored him to the condition of health that he had at the Dedication. But he is suffering a little from cold now, and I pray that he with the rest of us may be blessed with life and health in the name of Jesus. Amen.
made by President George Q. Cannon At the Opening of the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah, Friday Morning, October 6th, 1893.
Reported by Arthur Winter.
By request of President Woodruff, I arise to make the opening remarks to the Conference. This is our Sixty-fourth semi-annual Conference, and we meet together this morning under circumstances that, in some respects at least, are exceedingly favorable to us as a people. We have our trials and our difficulties to contend with and overcome; but we are in a state of probation, and it is not to be expected that we shall be free from the ills that trouble humanity and that are consequent upon an earthly existence; in fact, as Latter-day Saints, we have been assured, among other things, that we should have trials to contend with, and they would come in various forms, to test our faith, to prove us and to give us that experience which is so necessary for us in our future careers.
We have had, since we last met, considerable trouble in financial matters. You are all doubtless aware of this. You have no doubt felt it individually, as we have felt it as a Church. Probably at no time in our previous experience have we had to contend with pecuniary embarrassment as we have had of late. It is not necessary that we should dwell upon the causes that have produced these embarrassments; they are familiar to you all. You know the burdens that the Church has had to bear. But the people, in very many instances, have responded willingly to the calls that have been made upon them. We know of brethren who have run in debt in order to furnish means that they subscribed for the completion of the Temple, and the burden was borne, I may say, joyfully by the brethren and sisters. We resolved that with the help of God we would finish the Temple and dedicate it to the Most High on the sixth day of April, 1893. The Lord helped us to keep that resolve and He abundantly poured out His Holy Spirit upon us, in testimony of His acceptance of that glorious work. But the people have felt this burden—that is, they have felt the debts that they have been compelled to incur. The Church collectively, represented by the trustee-in-trust, has also felt this. Nevertheless we have been greatly blessed in having abundance of food in our valleys, and sufficient shelter, and comfortable houses in which to dwell. Contrasting our circumstances in these days with the past, we have abundant cause for thanksgiving and for glorifying our God.
It is very interesting to see the favorable condition of affairs abroad, so far as we are concerned. The wrath of man has been turned aside from the people of God. Who could have thought a few years ago, when we were surrounded, it might be said, by a feeling of intense enmity and hatred, and a spirit that seemed anxious for our destruction, that such a wonderful change would occur within so short a period in regard to public opinion? The recent visit of the choir to Chicago, with the First Presidency, has been most gratifying in its results. I believe it has done more good than the preaching of a large number of Elders could have done, and we were received with the utmost consideration and kindness. I cannot mention anything that is more illustrative of the changed feeling than to state that the House of Representatives has passed the bill returning to the Church its personal property. This shows the disposition that is being manifested to treat us with that consideration and fairness with which other citizens of the Republic are treated. Well, we can praise our God for His mercy and kindness to us, because this is in fulfillment of the promises which He has made. He has told us that when we should pass through the deep waters He would be with us, and He would sustain and deliver us; and we this day, in this conference, can praise and glorify His name with all our hearts for having fulfilled His promises to us. We are living evidences of the truth of that which He has told us.
Throughout our valleys we have reasonably good crops. In some places they may be a little short; but there has enough been raised to sustain us and all who are dependent upon us, including our flocks, and our herds. I do hope, as we all must, that throughout all these valleys no cry of distress shall ascend to God our eternal Father, not even from an animal; but that we will administer of that which the Lord has given to us to supply the wants of all the children of men who may be brought in contact with us and be destitute, and especially to those who belong to the household of faith. Our Teachers, our Bishops and our Relief Societies should take great pains to see that there is no want, and that there will be no want this winter, for fuel, for shelter, for food or for necessary clothing. We can in now way better show our gratitude to our Father in heaven for that which He has done for us than by administering to our fellow creatures; for if we do not love our brother whom we have seen, how can we love God, whom we have not seen? How can we better show our love for our great Creator than by taking care of His children, and thus return to them, in some measure, the kindness that He has shown to us?
We have, as you know, done all in our power to promote the manufacture of sugar in our Territory. The First Presidency and the Twelve have taken upon themselves individually, as well as in their organized capacity, very heavy burdens in order to carry this project out. We were impressed and impelled to do this by the manifestations of the Spirit of God through our President and to each one of us who received that testimony. We felt that this was right, that it was an enterprise that should be taken hold of; and though we have had many obstacles to contend with, the greatest of which has been the difficulty of raising money, nevertheless we have carried the load as best we could, and we have the gratification this season of feeling that the Lord has been very kind indeed to His people. He has blessed their fields. He has blessed the crops of beets. We are told that they are yielding very generously of saccharine matter, and that the prospect is we shall have good returns in sugar, and begin to be able to meet the obligations which rest upon us. We want to speak favorably of this enterprise. We want to urge it upon the Latter-day Saints. We want to say everything in its favor to sustain it and make it a success, to furnish employment to our people, and to give our farmers remuneration for their labor, helping them to produce a crop for which they will receive money, and also save the money at home that would otherwise go out of our Territory for the purchase of sugar. This is the true policy. It is the true way to build up Zion.
We must turn our attention to these matters and discard all foolish theories and all unwise conduct. There has been a great deal of it in this country about this sugar factory. it has been dragged down into politics—a thing that ought never to be done. We want to lift it out of that. We want to look at these matters as servants and Saints of God and when God tells us to do a thing, to do it. God has called us to build up Zion in the earth, and He will build it up in His own way, and not according to the theories of man. It is our duty, when He gives us a command, to go with our might and fulfill that command. If we do that, He will always stand by us, and sustain us, and carry us off triumphant over every obstacle.
I rejoice this morning in being able to make this statement concerning our sugar factory. The prospects for it are good, and we need the means that the sale of the sugar will produce. If we could manufacture enough to supply our entire Territory, it would be a grand thing for us, and for the entire country also. We hope that you will all take hold of this, buy the stock, and help carry the load, and not leave it on the shoulders of the few.
Our missions in foreign lands and in the United States are, generally speaking, in a good condition. There are 120 Elders in the Southern states alone, and they are laboring effectively. There are no mobbings to speak of, and the Elders are doing very well and escape violence. In the Northern states also there is a great deal of good being done, the missionaries being diligent and active.
There is this difficulty, however, in all our missions: It is hard for the Elders to sustain themselves. Some of them do so who have means, but the cry comes from our missions that unless help is rendered, experienced men will have to come home. Of course, this means the payment of their passage home, and also the payment of the passage of others fill their places who are not so well qualified through experience. Letters have been written by the presidents of missions to the Bishops and others, asking for help to be rendered, that they might be able to keep these men of experience in the field; but the response from home generally has been that they cannot do it. We should, if possible, avoid the release of men who are capable until they have filled their missions. You know, brethren and sisters, that there are many men whose best field is the missionary filed, whose greatest influence is in preaching the Gospel. Many of them are not good managers at home; they do not seem to have a gift for financial matters; but you give them a mission, and they are successful in preaching the Gospel, in warning the people, and in gathering out the honest in heart. Where there are such men in the field, they should be sustained there. Efforts should be made to keep them at that which they are best qualified to do, and not compel them to return and struggle at home.
The work is doing excellently in northern Sweden. We hear of a great many baptisms in that region. In Norway also the people are favorably disposed to the work of God and are willing to hear the Elders. In the Netherlands there are good openings, but there are no men scarcely to fill the openings, very few among us being able to speak the Dutch language.
The field in Germany is an extensive one; but the restrictions there interfere seriously with the spread of the Gospel, though these are in some places gradually becoming milder. In Hamburg the work is progressing. It is a remarkable fact, worthy of note, that during the prevalence of the cholers in that city, though the Latter-day Saints worked alongside of people who were stricken down with that dreadful disease, not one of their number fell a victim to its ravages. The blessing of the Lord appeared to rest upon the Saints, and through faith they escaped. My son David, who died a year ago in Germany while laboring in the ministry, opened up a region for the preaching of the Gospel where the Elders are laboring now with considerable prospect of success, many souls having been gathered into the fold. Throughout the Swiss and German mission the feeling is hopeful, and the brethren are encouraged.
France has scarcely been warned. It is true there have been missions in Paris; but there are parts of France which our Elders have never visited. Spain remains yet untouched; no Elders have entered Spain or Portugal, and there are souls there to be saved.
Our young men should pay some attention to the acquirement of languages. God has said that He will give unto us the gift of tongues for this purpose, and the gift of interpretation of tongues, and I know that these gifts can be obtained if they are sought for. Our youth should be learning every language that is spoken by human beings, so that we may have men among us that would be able to go to any of the countries of Europe—Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Italy, etc., and preach the Gospel of the Son of God. Here is Japan stretching out her hand for knowledge. We have not an Elder to go to Japan. So with the rest of Asia. Nearly the whole of the continent of Asia without Elders, and the people perishing for the want of that Word which God has given unto us! They are clamoring in their souls, doubtless, as you aged men and women clamored in your youth; praying to God for the truth. The condition of the world should appeal to us, and our young men should be trained to speak the various languages. He to the south of us in a whole continent of Spanish-speaking people. We need hundreds of Elders—thousands I might say—to visit these foreign lands and open the Gospel to the thousands and millions who are sitting in darkness and who have not that peace and heavenly joy that we rejoice in. When I think of it, I feel as though I would like to have the privilege of going out and carrying this Gospel of salvation to these people. The greatest joy of my life has been to preach the Gospel. I would like to go to new fields. I have wanted for years to go to Japan. Years ago, if circumstances had allowed, I would have volunteered to go. Attention should be paid to these things and our brethren should seek to qualify their sons for usefulness in building up Zion by giving them suitable advantages as fast as they can, and our daughters also should devote attention to these various languages.
We have three Elders in Turkey, two of them laboring in Asia Minor and one in Damascus; and they have opportunities there of preaching and baptizing. But how few there are to do this! The field is wide, the harvest is a great one, but how few the laborers are! So it is throughout the United States. So it is in England. I was in London a little while ago. I saw a most excellent opportunity there, it seemed to me, for the preaching of the Gospel in a way that it had never been preached in England—that is, among those who are termed the better class. There was an interest manifested in our affairs that spoke well for the disposition to listen to the Elders preach. But our meeting houses and surroundings, both in London and Liverpool, are not of such a character as to invite this class of people to visit them because they are not suited to their ideas for the preaching of the Gospel. I was only there for a very short time, but I felt while there that the field was an excellent one. I believe it is so in other places in Great Britain. The trouble is, many Elders go out who are unsuited for the labor. A good man, energetic and capable, will always do a good work; while others, with equal opportunities, are failures, not being adapted to it. I saw that while I was there. This is the case in all kinds of labor; it is so in the preaching of the Gospel. We hear a great deal about the failure of Elders in places. It is true that the people are hard in their hearts, and they are slow to listen to the truth. But there are ways of bringing it before them which, if employed, would result, in my opinion, in great success. I returned from California yesterday, where I went for a few days on business. It is a field with which I am very familiar; for I labored there for some years. I thought I could see some of the causes why there was not more success in California. It is a field, probably more than any other, which for palpable reasons, requires men of peculiar fitness and aptitude. I have no doubt the Elders there are doing the best they can, but they need experience.
But the Gospel is being preached. Zion is being advertised. The nations of the earth are hearing about Zion. Our own nation is learning considerably about her. The visit of the choir, to which I have alluded, has been productive of great results. I believe we will feel the effect of it in years to come. Everything, I may say, is encouraging. We are passing through a trial now, just as we have passed through other trials; but if we have been guilty of folly in monetary matters, let us repent before the Lord—repent of our extravagance, of our want of wisdom, of our disposition to speculate. Where we have indulged in these things, let us repent with all our hearts and implore the blessing and forgiveness of God upon us. I say to you there are good days coming. There are bright days in the future for Zion. We are advancing, and I have nothing but good to say, I have nothing but encouragement for the people of God. We may be pinched now; but we have been before. We have been pinched in far worse circumstances than we are now. Let us be thankful that affairs are in as good a condition as we find them, and let us try and improve. Let us bear with each other. Where men owe their brethren or their sisters, let them pay as fast as they can, and let the creditors be patient. We will all come out right. We will pay our debts, we will save our credit and our honor, as a people and as individuals. I promise you this, in the name of the Lord, if you will do right and put your trust in God, who has never yet failed us.
I have not alluded to the Pacific Islands. There the Elders are doing excellently. On the Sandwich Islands and in New Zealand and Australia the Elders are having souls given to them as a reward for their labors. The Society Islands have been visited by Brother James S. Brown and his son and other Elders. There were a great many baptized on those islands a long time ago. There was a mission sent from Nauvoo, led by Noah Rogers, Addison Pratt, Benjamin F. Grouard and Knowlton F. Haake. These Elders carried the Gospel there and thousands were baptized; but they have been left to themselves to a great extent, and others have gone in and endeavored to seduce them from the path. The prospects are, however, that our young Elders who are there, and who are acquiring the language, will do a good work. We hope to save a remnant of the Polynesian races from the various islands, to be numbered among the people of God in Zion.
I pray God that during this conference both speakers and hearers may be filled with the Spirit and power of God, and that the word of God which is adapted to us may be given to His servants to give unto us. I also pray God to bless in an especial manner President Woodruff, to fill him with life and health, and to make him strong. His visit to Chicago, I believe, restored him to the condition of health that he had at the Dedication. But he is suffering a little from cold now, and I pray that he with the rest of us may be blessed with life and health in the name of Jesus. Amen.
President Lorenzo Snow
was the next speaker. The following is a brief summary of his remarks.
There never was a day since the organization of the Church that the Saints had more cause to rejoice than now. The Lord had been with us from the time the Church was founded. He accomplished all for us that we could have reasonably anticipated. Tribulation has been the experience of the people of God and He designed that it should be so. Before we came to this probationary life we, doubtless, foresaw that conditions here would be in many respects unpleasant. Trials and afflictions, if we might so call them, were necessary for our future exaltation. It had seemed at times as if we could scarcely endure them without murmuring, but God gave us strength to pass through them unscathed. It appeared to be needful that the Captain of our Salvation had to endure trials, and even He, great as He was, found some difficulty in enduring them. His immeasurable distress in the garden of Gethsemane illustrates this. He said clearly what He would have to undergo. His feelings were so excruciating that He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood, and an angel was sent to give him encouragement and strength.
A great change had come over the feelings of the people of the world in reference to us—especially with the people of our nation. This has been brought about by the Lord. The work that had been accomplished in the nations had been wonderful, by the preaching of the Gospel by the Elders. Besides, during the last few months a great work had been done for the redemption of the dead. Many thousands had been officiated for in the Temples. The great bulk of those who were in the spirit world for whom the work had been done would receive the truth. The conditions for the spirits of the dead receiving the testimony of Jesus in the spirit world were a thousand times more favorable than they were here in this life. Those who labored in this glorious work to redeem the dead were in a degree saviors of their dead kindred.
It was pleasant to have all worldly concerns go forward agreeably, yet the Kingdom of God was not meat nor drink, but righteousness. As a people we did some things that we became ashamed of. If we repented the Lord would forgive us. In most things we had acted like the wise man of the parable who built his house upon a rock. We had built upon the rock of revelation. This being the case, as Christ said to Peter on a certain occasion—as a church the gates of hell would not have power to prevail against us. Our prospect was grand and glorious. In the future life we would have our families—our wives and children. Even if they did not follow our counsels, if we shall be successful in gaining exaltation we would eventually have them, for they will be where we shall be. The Gospel was comprehensive and through that divine system all the sons and daughters of men would be saved to some degree, with the exception of comparatively a very few. The difficulties of our present life perplexes us now, but they ought not to disturb us to any extent, because of the greatness of our promised reward. We could afford, for the sake of what God had promised to the faithful, to sacrifice everything of a worldly character.
The speaker drew a contrast between the conditions of the time when President Woodruff and others went to Independence, Missouri, in 1844, and the situation now. Then the lives of the brethren were endangered by threatening mobs, while during the recent visit to Independence of President Woodruff and his counselors, they were received with great cordiality and treated with respect and consideration. The change was significant as relating to the anticipated future return of the Saints to the center location of Zion. The speaker concluded by praying God to bless all the people.
was the next speaker. The following is a brief summary of his remarks.
There never was a day since the organization of the Church that the Saints had more cause to rejoice than now. The Lord had been with us from the time the Church was founded. He accomplished all for us that we could have reasonably anticipated. Tribulation has been the experience of the people of God and He designed that it should be so. Before we came to this probationary life we, doubtless, foresaw that conditions here would be in many respects unpleasant. Trials and afflictions, if we might so call them, were necessary for our future exaltation. It had seemed at times as if we could scarcely endure them without murmuring, but God gave us strength to pass through them unscathed. It appeared to be needful that the Captain of our Salvation had to endure trials, and even He, great as He was, found some difficulty in enduring them. His immeasurable distress in the garden of Gethsemane illustrates this. He said clearly what He would have to undergo. His feelings were so excruciating that He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood, and an angel was sent to give him encouragement and strength.
A great change had come over the feelings of the people of the world in reference to us—especially with the people of our nation. This has been brought about by the Lord. The work that had been accomplished in the nations had been wonderful, by the preaching of the Gospel by the Elders. Besides, during the last few months a great work had been done for the redemption of the dead. Many thousands had been officiated for in the Temples. The great bulk of those who were in the spirit world for whom the work had been done would receive the truth. The conditions for the spirits of the dead receiving the testimony of Jesus in the spirit world were a thousand times more favorable than they were here in this life. Those who labored in this glorious work to redeem the dead were in a degree saviors of their dead kindred.
It was pleasant to have all worldly concerns go forward agreeably, yet the Kingdom of God was not meat nor drink, but righteousness. As a people we did some things that we became ashamed of. If we repented the Lord would forgive us. In most things we had acted like the wise man of the parable who built his house upon a rock. We had built upon the rock of revelation. This being the case, as Christ said to Peter on a certain occasion—as a church the gates of hell would not have power to prevail against us. Our prospect was grand and glorious. In the future life we would have our families—our wives and children. Even if they did not follow our counsels, if we shall be successful in gaining exaltation we would eventually have them, for they will be where we shall be. The Gospel was comprehensive and through that divine system all the sons and daughters of men would be saved to some degree, with the exception of comparatively a very few. The difficulties of our present life perplexes us now, but they ought not to disturb us to any extent, because of the greatness of our promised reward. We could afford, for the sake of what God had promised to the faithful, to sacrifice everything of a worldly character.
The speaker drew a contrast between the conditions of the time when President Woodruff and others went to Independence, Missouri, in 1844, and the situation now. Then the lives of the brethren were endangered by threatening mobs, while during the recent visit to Independence of President Woodruff and his counselors, they were received with great cordiality and treated with respect and consideration. The change was significant as relating to the anticipated future return of the Saints to the center location of Zion. The speaker concluded by praying God to bless all the people.
Elder Franklin D. Richards,
of the Council of the Twelve,
estified to the truth of the remarks of the previous speakers. He felt to rejoice in the progress and triumph of the truth and the manifestation of the power of God on our behalf. The repeated release of the Saints from temporal and spiritual embarrassments had been a characteristic of the work of God, and these unfavorable circumstances had been occasions of drawing together the hearts of the people. It was needful that we should experience adversity, that our glory might be increased by our triumph over trials. These things had the effect of enlarging our views and softening our hearts, and, in this respect they were blessings.
The blessings of God had been upon us in this land, to which we had been driven with a prospect of temporal destruction. Our homes, farms, and other possessions here exceeded in value those acquired by us elsewhere and the building of temples had been attended with greater success and ministrations therein with greater results than previously.
When Peter confessed Christ, the promise was made that the testimony of Jesus should be the foundation of the faith of the Saints for all time, and in spite of periods of doubt and darkness, the same promises were made to Peter applied to all who were successful in securing this testimony of Jesus and endured in the faith. The Lord told Peter that he should be proved, as Satan desired to get him. So were we tried, but by the sustaining power of the Lord through our faithfulness, we would triumph over every obstacle which stood in the way of our salvation.
While the body of the Savior was lying in the tomb, His Spirit went to the prison house to open the doors to the captives. The duty of continuing this work rests upon us in this day.
The Saints should maintain a reputation for honor and integrity, and God would assist their earnest labors in this direction, and their credit will remain secure. Extravagance and wastefulness must be avoided, that the means which had been wasted in the past, might be spent in bearing the Gospel to the nations of the earth and gathering Israel. We were apt to forget our great duty in this respect, and this was especially the case in times of great prosperity. If the present hard times would make us realize this duty more fully, they would prove a great blessing.
Zion had stooped to conquer all opposing influences, and through her humility and power with God all obstacles shall be overcome. We should profit by our experiences of trouble, and make them the means of our triumph.
When the Gospel first came to the people of the world, the word was that the hour of God’s judgments had come. We were losing sight of this truth and were building “castles in the air,” forgetting that we were expected to walk in paths untried before. Examples of fraternity in the world were becoming general, and these would pave the way for Zion to accomplish the unity of the people of the earth by the spirit of Zion. The point of sanctification must be reached by us, where we could say, with the Savior, “The Evil One cometh, but he hath nothing in me.”
The Lord was preparing a people of honor and integrity, to make them a depository of all the precious thing in the earth, and we must live so as to be wise in this stewardship. To do this, we must trust in God, for He alone could give us the required assistance. We must not make flesh our arm, for God would be glorified.
If we would hearken to the word of the Lord our triumph over evil would be sure.
The speaker expressed the hope that mutual confidence must be restored, and that the wayward and the erring might be brought to the knowledge of the power of God and the glory of Zion, for the work of this people would not be complete until every soul not doomed to everlasting condemnation had been redeemed from sin.
The choir sang the anthem: Let the Mountains shout for joy.
Benediction by Elder Moses Thatcher.
of the Council of the Twelve,
estified to the truth of the remarks of the previous speakers. He felt to rejoice in the progress and triumph of the truth and the manifestation of the power of God on our behalf. The repeated release of the Saints from temporal and spiritual embarrassments had been a characteristic of the work of God, and these unfavorable circumstances had been occasions of drawing together the hearts of the people. It was needful that we should experience adversity, that our glory might be increased by our triumph over trials. These things had the effect of enlarging our views and softening our hearts, and, in this respect they were blessings.
The blessings of God had been upon us in this land, to which we had been driven with a prospect of temporal destruction. Our homes, farms, and other possessions here exceeded in value those acquired by us elsewhere and the building of temples had been attended with greater success and ministrations therein with greater results than previously.
When Peter confessed Christ, the promise was made that the testimony of Jesus should be the foundation of the faith of the Saints for all time, and in spite of periods of doubt and darkness, the same promises were made to Peter applied to all who were successful in securing this testimony of Jesus and endured in the faith. The Lord told Peter that he should be proved, as Satan desired to get him. So were we tried, but by the sustaining power of the Lord through our faithfulness, we would triumph over every obstacle which stood in the way of our salvation.
While the body of the Savior was lying in the tomb, His Spirit went to the prison house to open the doors to the captives. The duty of continuing this work rests upon us in this day.
The Saints should maintain a reputation for honor and integrity, and God would assist their earnest labors in this direction, and their credit will remain secure. Extravagance and wastefulness must be avoided, that the means which had been wasted in the past, might be spent in bearing the Gospel to the nations of the earth and gathering Israel. We were apt to forget our great duty in this respect, and this was especially the case in times of great prosperity. If the present hard times would make us realize this duty more fully, they would prove a great blessing.
Zion had stooped to conquer all opposing influences, and through her humility and power with God all obstacles shall be overcome. We should profit by our experiences of trouble, and make them the means of our triumph.
When the Gospel first came to the people of the world, the word was that the hour of God’s judgments had come. We were losing sight of this truth and were building “castles in the air,” forgetting that we were expected to walk in paths untried before. Examples of fraternity in the world were becoming general, and these would pave the way for Zion to accomplish the unity of the people of the earth by the spirit of Zion. The point of sanctification must be reached by us, where we could say, with the Savior, “The Evil One cometh, but he hath nothing in me.”
The Lord was preparing a people of honor and integrity, to make them a depository of all the precious thing in the earth, and we must live so as to be wise in this stewardship. To do this, we must trust in God, for He alone could give us the required assistance. We must not make flesh our arm, for God would be glorified.
If we would hearken to the word of the Lord our triumph over evil would be sure.
The speaker expressed the hope that mutual confidence must be restored, and that the wayward and the erring might be brought to the knowledge of the power of God and the glory of Zion, for the work of this people would not be complete until every soul not doomed to everlasting condemnation had been redeemed from sin.
The choir sang the anthem: Let the Mountains shout for joy.
Benediction by Elder Moses Thatcher.
Afternoon Session.
The choir sang:
Come, dearest Lord, descend and dwell,
By faith and love, in every breast;
Then shall we know and taste and feel,
The joys that cannot be expressed.
Prayer by Elder John D. T. McAllister.
High on the mountain top,
A banner is unfurled,
Ye nations now look up
It waves to all the world,
was sung by the choir.
The choir sang:
Come, dearest Lord, descend and dwell,
By faith and love, in every breast;
Then shall we know and taste and feel,
The joys that cannot be expressed.
Prayer by Elder John D. T. McAllister.
High on the mountain top,
A banner is unfurled,
Ye nations now look up
It waves to all the world,
was sung by the choir.
Elder Heber J. Grant
addressed the congregation. He expressed the great pleasure it afforded him to meet with the Saints once more in General Conference, and said he had seldom attended a meeting where so much instruction had been given for the general good of the people of God as was the case this morning. The Latter-day Saints had great reason for thankfulness to Almighty God for the manifestations of His kindness and loving mercy towards His children. The prejudice, the bitterness, and the animosity that a few years ago existed in the hearts of the people of this country against the Latter-day Saints, because of the outpouring of the blessings of the Lord upon us had almost entirely disappeared. Today there was a disposition on the part of the men of this nation to do justice to the Latter-day Saints. We were becoming known for what we are. The Latter-day Saints were an honest, upright, devoted and true people, and the people of the United States, when they learned this, would concede to them their just due. It was because of prejudice and the falsehoods which had been circulated against them that they had been called upon to suffer so much. The American nation was not lacking in generosity, liberality and justice, and when they had done wrong were ready and willing to right it, as was illustrated by the passage of the bill in Congress yesterday restoring to the Latter-day Saints all their personal property which had been taken from them.
The speaker dwelt briefly upon what were termed the present “hard times,” many of the people pulled long faces and declared that we were in a great fix. But there was nothing in this great panic after all; the fact was the people had got scared at nothing, rushed to the banks on mere suspicion and drew out their money. Do not, he urged, let us lose confidence in ourselves or our brethren. We did not want to lose confidence in the institutions of Zion, and do not, he said, let us lock up our money where it will not do any good.
The very stringency through which we have been passing, while it had inspired us with the idea of being more careful, had also inspired us with the desire to use our means more liberally for the advancement of God’s kingdom. Unless we become more Godlike and faithful in keeping God’s commandments, we could not expect as a people to become wealthy; and that was what he desired to see among the Latter-day Saints.
The speaker read the revelation given to our martyred patriarch (Hyrum Smith) in May, 1829. Never in his life, he said, had he read a revelation which made a more profound impression upon him than this and the mind of every Latter-day Saint who perused it with a prayerful heart would be lit up and the same inspiration which must have come to our beloved patriarch would come to them, leading them on to all that was pure and good.
addressed the congregation. He expressed the great pleasure it afforded him to meet with the Saints once more in General Conference, and said he had seldom attended a meeting where so much instruction had been given for the general good of the people of God as was the case this morning. The Latter-day Saints had great reason for thankfulness to Almighty God for the manifestations of His kindness and loving mercy towards His children. The prejudice, the bitterness, and the animosity that a few years ago existed in the hearts of the people of this country against the Latter-day Saints, because of the outpouring of the blessings of the Lord upon us had almost entirely disappeared. Today there was a disposition on the part of the men of this nation to do justice to the Latter-day Saints. We were becoming known for what we are. The Latter-day Saints were an honest, upright, devoted and true people, and the people of the United States, when they learned this, would concede to them their just due. It was because of prejudice and the falsehoods which had been circulated against them that they had been called upon to suffer so much. The American nation was not lacking in generosity, liberality and justice, and when they had done wrong were ready and willing to right it, as was illustrated by the passage of the bill in Congress yesterday restoring to the Latter-day Saints all their personal property which had been taken from them.
The speaker dwelt briefly upon what were termed the present “hard times,” many of the people pulled long faces and declared that we were in a great fix. But there was nothing in this great panic after all; the fact was the people had got scared at nothing, rushed to the banks on mere suspicion and drew out their money. Do not, he urged, let us lose confidence in ourselves or our brethren. We did not want to lose confidence in the institutions of Zion, and do not, he said, let us lock up our money where it will not do any good.
The very stringency through which we have been passing, while it had inspired us with the idea of being more careful, had also inspired us with the desire to use our means more liberally for the advancement of God’s kingdom. Unless we become more Godlike and faithful in keeping God’s commandments, we could not expect as a people to become wealthy; and that was what he desired to see among the Latter-day Saints.
The speaker read the revelation given to our martyred patriarch (Hyrum Smith) in May, 1829. Never in his life, he said, had he read a revelation which made a more profound impression upon him than this and the mind of every Latter-day Saint who perused it with a prayerful heart would be lit up and the same inspiration which must have come to our beloved patriarch would come to them, leading them on to all that was pure and good.
Our Talents—How to Use Them
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Friday Afternoon, October 6, 1893, by Elder Heber J. Grant.
Reported by Arthur Winter.
I am very much pleased indeed to once more have the opportunity of meeting with the Latter-day Saints in a general conference, and I have rejoiced exceedingly in listening to the remarks that were made to those who assembled here this morning, and I regretted that so few of the Latter-day Saints were present. I remarked afterward that it seemed to me that I had never attended a meeting where so much valuable instruction had been given. It seemed as though all that was said by the speakers was full of good things for the Latter-day Saints. We many times listen to the Elders and they speak in a manner that is interesting, and we are pleased with what they say, and we hear many eloquent discourses; but it did seem to me that from first to last all that was said in our hearing this morning was of that character that all of us could receive great benefit and profit therefrom. I trust that the few who were here will remember what they heard, and that they will endeavor to communicate to others the inspiration that we all felt.
I feel that as a people we have indeed great cause to rejoice and give thanks unto the Lord for the manifestations of His goodness, kindness and mercy unto us. In a council meeting that we held a few days ago, at which a majority of the members of the quorum of the Apostles was present, Brother Thatcher remarked that in the midst of the financial trials through which the people were passing, it did seem to him that there never had been a time since the Latter-day Saints came to these valleys when the Lord had magnified the leaders of the people so much and so many courtesies had been extended unto them by the people of the world as in the past six months. The prejudice, the bitterness and the animosity that a few years ago existed in the hearts of the people of this country against the Latter-day Saints, have, because of the outpouring of the blessings of the Lord upon the people, almost entirely disappeared. While but a short time ago those of us who came to Conference were called upon to look at these stands here and see hardly a representative of the Apostles, and none of the First Presidency, today we are permitted to see all of the Presidency and ten of the Twelve Apostles; and of the two absent, one has just arrived in the city and will be here tomorrow, and the other is laboring as the president of the European mission, working for the onward advancement of God’s kingdom there. But those who were absent from us a few years ago were so because of the prejudice and bitterness that existed against the Saints. Today there is a disposition on the part of the people of this nation—at least, all whom I have come in contact with—to do justice to the Latter-day Saints. We are becoming known for what we are. The Latter-day Saints are an honest, upright and a devoted people; and when the people of the United States learn this they will concede to us our just dues. That which we have had to suffer has been because of prejudice and of falsehoods which have been circulated against us. The American people, as a people, are not lacking in generosity, in liberality, or in justice, and when they have done a wrong, because of false statements, they are ready and willing to right that wrong, as is illustrated by the passage yesterday of the bill in Congress restoring to the Latter-day Saints all their personal property. Who could have thought a few short years ago, when the prejudice that existed here was so intense, that such action would be taken? For wherever you went you would meet men who would say that if they had the making of the laws they would not only confiscate the Church property, but they would confiscate the property of all the members of the Church. That sentiment has almost entirely died out. As I sat on the stand this morning and listened to the remarks of President Cannon and the other brethren, referring to the honor that was done to our aged President and his counselors in their recent trip to Chicago, it was impossible for me to restrain the tears of gratitude that came to my eyes.
We may be called upon to pass through financial hardships; but what do they amount to if we are blessed of the Lord with the light and inspiration of His Holy Spirit, and if those who stand at the head of the Church are honored and respected and not looked upon by the world with contempt? The Latter-day Saints have been through hard times, and there are a great many of us who are pulling long faces and thinking we are in a terrible fix, and when we are in no fix at all. This whole financial panic is a great hoax from first to last, in one sense of the word. The people all over the country got scared. At what? At nothing. In the face of good crops of cotton, corn and wheat, and general prosperity in the whole country, we have had something over 570 banks fail; and I venture the assertion that out of that number there were only a very few that failed because they were in a bad financial condition. Why did they fail? Simply because the people got scared, drew their money out of the banks and in many cases hid it. In nine cases out of ten there was no earthly reason for their taking their money out of the banks. It is estimated that of the trade that is transacted ninety-five per cent of it is done on credit, and that there is only five per cent of actual money that changes hands in transacting the business of a country. We have had such a scare that the ninety-five per cent has been contracted about twenty per cent; in other words, about four times as much contraction as there was money in existence to do the business with. The result is that everybody has become frightened of everybody else, and, as I say, 750 banks have failed, and almost without exception they were absolutely sound and solvent. Many and many a bank has been called upon to close its doors that had five hundred thousand dollars capital and only one hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand dollars of deposits left when the bank closed, three or four dollars assets to one of liability. When people put their money in the bank they expect it to be loaned, and of course the banks loan it; and if a great majority of the people demand their money at the same time they are sure to close the bank. The Bank of England could not stand if the people all went there and asked for their money. The United States government could not pay all its obligations at once. Salt Lake City, if called upon to pay all her bonds, could not possibly do it. Utah Territory could not do it, or any other city, state or territory in the nation. It has simply been a senseless panic from first to last; and the whole of us have narrowed ourselves down because of this panic, and made matters that much worse.
I want to confess to you that I and many others have been wrong. Why? Because we have been so very anxious to make a dollar that we have run in debt, and now we cannot promptly pay our honest debts. I cannot; for the reason that $10,000 collateral securities which are good, would not raise a thousand dollars. For the first time in my life I have had people come to me and ask me to pay money that I owed them, and I have had to ask for an extension of time. If the Lord will only forgive me this once I will never be caught again. I have been a borrower of money since I was eighteen; but if I can only get paid off what I owe now, I shall be content, I believe, with the blessings of the Lord, whatever they may be, be it much or little. When I realize the fact that if I owed a bank a certain amount of money and they asked me to pay it and I could not, and I stop to reflect that my failure to pay that money in connection with the failure of others might be the cause, because the people had become frightened, of breaking that bank, I want to tell you that I would feel considerably humiliated. We hear many who owe banks complaining because the bankers have oppressed them and raised their rates of interest, and so on. I tell you, my friends, that if we have taken a chance and have borrowed the money, we have done it—for what? In the hope of making something, and we have no just reason to complain, when we are called upon to make sacrifices to meet our obligations. I am sure I do not.
I want to say to the Latter-day Saints that we do not want to lose confidence in ourselves; we do not want to lose confidence in our brethren; we do not want to lose confidence in the institutions in Zion; and we do not want to lock up our money where it will not do any good. If God has given us a talent we should put it to usury and make two talents out of it. This applies just as much to money as it does to mental talents. It is our duty, if we have any means, to let it go into circulation and benefit somebody.
Another thing that we want to learn as Latter-day Saints—and I have gone to work to learn it—is to follow the counsel that was given to us here today, and that is, to confine ourselves to the necessities of life, and not to indulge in extravagant habits. If we have a surplus, use it as God desires that we should use it—for the onward advancement of His Kingdom and the spread of the Gospel. We are ready and willing to spend ten, twenty, and in many cases thirty thousand dollars for a fine home that has no more rooms in it, no better ceilings, no more comforts, no more happiness, than a house that did not cost more than one-tenth of that; but if we were called upon to live in a house costing one-tenth and expend the balance to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth, it would break many of our hearts. I believe that the very stringency through which we have been passing has not only inspired us with the idea of being more careful, but also with a desire to use our means more liberally for the onward advancement of God’s Kingdom. Why? Because we have seen how little our means amounted to. We have found out how absolutely worthless, so to speak, is all our property. I went out here on the street with thirty thousand dollars’ worth of securities and tried to borrow ten thousand dollars, and I would have payed twenty per cent interest if I could have got it; but I could not get anything. So far as our property is concerned it is of no actual value to us, only as we are ready and willing to use it for the advancement of God’s Kingdom, it is our duty to provide for our families; but it is not our duty to live in extravagance. It is not our duty to labor to gain wealth for the adornment of our persons. Of course I like to see people have good things, and I hope to live to see the day when the Latter-day Saints will be wealthy. But I want to say to you that unless we become more humble, more Godlike, more faithful in keeping the commandments of God, I do not expect we shall become wealthy. Whenever we learn to be willing to use the means that God gives us for the onward advancement of His Kingdom, Latter-day Saints will not have any particular financial trouble; the Lord will bless them with an abundance. What we need to do is seek for the light and inspiration of His Spirit to guide us at all times, and He will add all other things to us that are necessary.
I happed to read a revelation on the train the other day, as I was coming home from New York—one that was given to our martyred Patriarch. I had read it before, but it never seemed to strike me with such force as it did then. I thought it was a revelation that every Latter-day Saint ought to read over a great many times, because I believe pleasure will come to all of us who read it. When I read it I thought that, the next time I was called upon to speak, if I had a few moments’ notice beforehand, I would glance over this revelation and read a few passages from it; but inasmuch as I was called on today without notice, I have not had time to look for the passages that I wanted to read. I will therefore take the time to read the entire revelation:
A great and marvelous work is about to come forth unto the children of men.
Behold, I am God; give heed unto my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow; therefore give heed unto my words.
Behold, the field is white already to harvest; therefore, whoso desireth to reap, let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.
Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the same is called of God.
Therefore, if you will ask of me you shall receive; if you will knock it shall be opened unto you.
Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep my commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion;
Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, even as you desire of me so it shall be unto you; and if you desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation.
Say nothing but repentance unto this generation; keep my commandments, and assist to bring forth my work, according to my commandments, and you shall be blessed.
Behold thou hast a gift, or thou shalt have a gift if thou wilt desire of me in faith, with an honest heart, believing in the power of Jesus Christ, or in my power with speaketh unto thee;
For, behold, it is I that speak; behold, I am the light which shineth in darkness, and by my power I give these words unto thee.
And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good; yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously, and this is my Spirit.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit; which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy.
And then shall ye know, or by this shall you know all things whatsoever you desire of me, which are pertaining unto things of righteousness, in faith believing in me that you shall receive.
Behold, I command you, that you need not suppose that you are called to preach until you are called;
Wait a little longer, until you shall have my word, my rock, my church, and my gospel, that you may know of a surety my doctrine;
And then behold, according to your desires, yea, even according to your faith shall it be done unto you.
Keep my commandments, hold your peace, appeal unto my Spirit;
Yea, cleave unto me with all your heart that you may assist in bringing in light those things of which have been spoken; yea, the translation of my work; be patient until you shall accomplish it.
Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind, and strength;
Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men;
But now hold your peace, study my word which hath gone forth among the children of men and also study my word which shall come forth among the children of men, or that which is not translating, yea, until you have obtained all which I shall grant unto the children of men in this generation, and then shall all things be added thereunto.
Behold thou art Hyrum, my son, seek the Kingdom of God and all things shall be added according to that which is just.
Build upon my rock, which is my Gospel.
Deny not the Spirit of revelation, nor the Spirit of prophecy, for woe unto him that denieth these things.
Therefore treasure up in your heart until the time which is in my wisdom that you shall go forth.
Behold, I speak unto all who have good desires, and have thrust in their sickle to reap.
Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I am the life and light of the world.
I am the same who came unto my own and my own received me not;
But verily, verily, I say unto you, that as many as receive me, to them will I give power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on my name. Amen.
Remember, all you Latter-day Saints, this saying: “Behold, I speak unto all who have good desires, and have thrust in their sickle to reap.” Remember that this revelation calls upon us to seek, not for riches, but for wisdom, “and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you.” I do not think I ever read in my life a revelation that made a more profound impression upon me than did this as I read it upon the train, and I believe that all Latter-day Saints who will read it, with a prayerful heart, seeking to God for the light of His Holy Spirit, will have their minds lit up, and the same inspiration that must have come to our beloved Patriarch at the time the revelation was given to him, will come to them. That we may all labor, with all the zeal, the energy, the talent, the power and the ability that we possess, for the onward advancement of God’s kingdom, and that we may be ready and willing, if need be, to do as our fellow servant, Hyrum Smith, did—lay down our lives for the cause of God,--is my prayer and desire, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Friday Afternoon, October 6, 1893, by Elder Heber J. Grant.
Reported by Arthur Winter.
I am very much pleased indeed to once more have the opportunity of meeting with the Latter-day Saints in a general conference, and I have rejoiced exceedingly in listening to the remarks that were made to those who assembled here this morning, and I regretted that so few of the Latter-day Saints were present. I remarked afterward that it seemed to me that I had never attended a meeting where so much valuable instruction had been given. It seemed as though all that was said by the speakers was full of good things for the Latter-day Saints. We many times listen to the Elders and they speak in a manner that is interesting, and we are pleased with what they say, and we hear many eloquent discourses; but it did seem to me that from first to last all that was said in our hearing this morning was of that character that all of us could receive great benefit and profit therefrom. I trust that the few who were here will remember what they heard, and that they will endeavor to communicate to others the inspiration that we all felt.
I feel that as a people we have indeed great cause to rejoice and give thanks unto the Lord for the manifestations of His goodness, kindness and mercy unto us. In a council meeting that we held a few days ago, at which a majority of the members of the quorum of the Apostles was present, Brother Thatcher remarked that in the midst of the financial trials through which the people were passing, it did seem to him that there never had been a time since the Latter-day Saints came to these valleys when the Lord had magnified the leaders of the people so much and so many courtesies had been extended unto them by the people of the world as in the past six months. The prejudice, the bitterness and the animosity that a few years ago existed in the hearts of the people of this country against the Latter-day Saints, have, because of the outpouring of the blessings of the Lord upon the people, almost entirely disappeared. While but a short time ago those of us who came to Conference were called upon to look at these stands here and see hardly a representative of the Apostles, and none of the First Presidency, today we are permitted to see all of the Presidency and ten of the Twelve Apostles; and of the two absent, one has just arrived in the city and will be here tomorrow, and the other is laboring as the president of the European mission, working for the onward advancement of God’s kingdom there. But those who were absent from us a few years ago were so because of the prejudice and bitterness that existed against the Saints. Today there is a disposition on the part of the people of this nation—at least, all whom I have come in contact with—to do justice to the Latter-day Saints. We are becoming known for what we are. The Latter-day Saints are an honest, upright and a devoted people; and when the people of the United States learn this they will concede to us our just dues. That which we have had to suffer has been because of prejudice and of falsehoods which have been circulated against us. The American people, as a people, are not lacking in generosity, in liberality, or in justice, and when they have done a wrong, because of false statements, they are ready and willing to right that wrong, as is illustrated by the passage yesterday of the bill in Congress restoring to the Latter-day Saints all their personal property. Who could have thought a few short years ago, when the prejudice that existed here was so intense, that such action would be taken? For wherever you went you would meet men who would say that if they had the making of the laws they would not only confiscate the Church property, but they would confiscate the property of all the members of the Church. That sentiment has almost entirely died out. As I sat on the stand this morning and listened to the remarks of President Cannon and the other brethren, referring to the honor that was done to our aged President and his counselors in their recent trip to Chicago, it was impossible for me to restrain the tears of gratitude that came to my eyes.
We may be called upon to pass through financial hardships; but what do they amount to if we are blessed of the Lord with the light and inspiration of His Holy Spirit, and if those who stand at the head of the Church are honored and respected and not looked upon by the world with contempt? The Latter-day Saints have been through hard times, and there are a great many of us who are pulling long faces and thinking we are in a terrible fix, and when we are in no fix at all. This whole financial panic is a great hoax from first to last, in one sense of the word. The people all over the country got scared. At what? At nothing. In the face of good crops of cotton, corn and wheat, and general prosperity in the whole country, we have had something over 570 banks fail; and I venture the assertion that out of that number there were only a very few that failed because they were in a bad financial condition. Why did they fail? Simply because the people got scared, drew their money out of the banks and in many cases hid it. In nine cases out of ten there was no earthly reason for their taking their money out of the banks. It is estimated that of the trade that is transacted ninety-five per cent of it is done on credit, and that there is only five per cent of actual money that changes hands in transacting the business of a country. We have had such a scare that the ninety-five per cent has been contracted about twenty per cent; in other words, about four times as much contraction as there was money in existence to do the business with. The result is that everybody has become frightened of everybody else, and, as I say, 750 banks have failed, and almost without exception they were absolutely sound and solvent. Many and many a bank has been called upon to close its doors that had five hundred thousand dollars capital and only one hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand dollars of deposits left when the bank closed, three or four dollars assets to one of liability. When people put their money in the bank they expect it to be loaned, and of course the banks loan it; and if a great majority of the people demand their money at the same time they are sure to close the bank. The Bank of England could not stand if the people all went there and asked for their money. The United States government could not pay all its obligations at once. Salt Lake City, if called upon to pay all her bonds, could not possibly do it. Utah Territory could not do it, or any other city, state or territory in the nation. It has simply been a senseless panic from first to last; and the whole of us have narrowed ourselves down because of this panic, and made matters that much worse.
I want to confess to you that I and many others have been wrong. Why? Because we have been so very anxious to make a dollar that we have run in debt, and now we cannot promptly pay our honest debts. I cannot; for the reason that $10,000 collateral securities which are good, would not raise a thousand dollars. For the first time in my life I have had people come to me and ask me to pay money that I owed them, and I have had to ask for an extension of time. If the Lord will only forgive me this once I will never be caught again. I have been a borrower of money since I was eighteen; but if I can only get paid off what I owe now, I shall be content, I believe, with the blessings of the Lord, whatever they may be, be it much or little. When I realize the fact that if I owed a bank a certain amount of money and they asked me to pay it and I could not, and I stop to reflect that my failure to pay that money in connection with the failure of others might be the cause, because the people had become frightened, of breaking that bank, I want to tell you that I would feel considerably humiliated. We hear many who owe banks complaining because the bankers have oppressed them and raised their rates of interest, and so on. I tell you, my friends, that if we have taken a chance and have borrowed the money, we have done it—for what? In the hope of making something, and we have no just reason to complain, when we are called upon to make sacrifices to meet our obligations. I am sure I do not.
I want to say to the Latter-day Saints that we do not want to lose confidence in ourselves; we do not want to lose confidence in our brethren; we do not want to lose confidence in the institutions in Zion; and we do not want to lock up our money where it will not do any good. If God has given us a talent we should put it to usury and make two talents out of it. This applies just as much to money as it does to mental talents. It is our duty, if we have any means, to let it go into circulation and benefit somebody.
Another thing that we want to learn as Latter-day Saints—and I have gone to work to learn it—is to follow the counsel that was given to us here today, and that is, to confine ourselves to the necessities of life, and not to indulge in extravagant habits. If we have a surplus, use it as God desires that we should use it—for the onward advancement of His Kingdom and the spread of the Gospel. We are ready and willing to spend ten, twenty, and in many cases thirty thousand dollars for a fine home that has no more rooms in it, no better ceilings, no more comforts, no more happiness, than a house that did not cost more than one-tenth of that; but if we were called upon to live in a house costing one-tenth and expend the balance to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth, it would break many of our hearts. I believe that the very stringency through which we have been passing has not only inspired us with the idea of being more careful, but also with a desire to use our means more liberally for the onward advancement of God’s Kingdom. Why? Because we have seen how little our means amounted to. We have found out how absolutely worthless, so to speak, is all our property. I went out here on the street with thirty thousand dollars’ worth of securities and tried to borrow ten thousand dollars, and I would have payed twenty per cent interest if I could have got it; but I could not get anything. So far as our property is concerned it is of no actual value to us, only as we are ready and willing to use it for the advancement of God’s Kingdom, it is our duty to provide for our families; but it is not our duty to live in extravagance. It is not our duty to labor to gain wealth for the adornment of our persons. Of course I like to see people have good things, and I hope to live to see the day when the Latter-day Saints will be wealthy. But I want to say to you that unless we become more humble, more Godlike, more faithful in keeping the commandments of God, I do not expect we shall become wealthy. Whenever we learn to be willing to use the means that God gives us for the onward advancement of His Kingdom, Latter-day Saints will not have any particular financial trouble; the Lord will bless them with an abundance. What we need to do is seek for the light and inspiration of His Spirit to guide us at all times, and He will add all other things to us that are necessary.
I happed to read a revelation on the train the other day, as I was coming home from New York—one that was given to our martyred Patriarch. I had read it before, but it never seemed to strike me with such force as it did then. I thought it was a revelation that every Latter-day Saint ought to read over a great many times, because I believe pleasure will come to all of us who read it. When I read it I thought that, the next time I was called upon to speak, if I had a few moments’ notice beforehand, I would glance over this revelation and read a few passages from it; but inasmuch as I was called on today without notice, I have not had time to look for the passages that I wanted to read. I will therefore take the time to read the entire revelation:
A great and marvelous work is about to come forth unto the children of men.
Behold, I am God; give heed unto my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow; therefore give heed unto my words.
Behold, the field is white already to harvest; therefore, whoso desireth to reap, let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.
Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the same is called of God.
Therefore, if you will ask of me you shall receive; if you will knock it shall be opened unto you.
Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep my commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion;
Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, even as you desire of me so it shall be unto you; and if you desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation.
Say nothing but repentance unto this generation; keep my commandments, and assist to bring forth my work, according to my commandments, and you shall be blessed.
Behold thou hast a gift, or thou shalt have a gift if thou wilt desire of me in faith, with an honest heart, believing in the power of Jesus Christ, or in my power with speaketh unto thee;
For, behold, it is I that speak; behold, I am the light which shineth in darkness, and by my power I give these words unto thee.
And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good; yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously, and this is my Spirit.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit; which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy.
And then shall ye know, or by this shall you know all things whatsoever you desire of me, which are pertaining unto things of righteousness, in faith believing in me that you shall receive.
Behold, I command you, that you need not suppose that you are called to preach until you are called;
Wait a little longer, until you shall have my word, my rock, my church, and my gospel, that you may know of a surety my doctrine;
And then behold, according to your desires, yea, even according to your faith shall it be done unto you.
Keep my commandments, hold your peace, appeal unto my Spirit;
Yea, cleave unto me with all your heart that you may assist in bringing in light those things of which have been spoken; yea, the translation of my work; be patient until you shall accomplish it.
Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind, and strength;
Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men;
But now hold your peace, study my word which hath gone forth among the children of men and also study my word which shall come forth among the children of men, or that which is not translating, yea, until you have obtained all which I shall grant unto the children of men in this generation, and then shall all things be added thereunto.
Behold thou art Hyrum, my son, seek the Kingdom of God and all things shall be added according to that which is just.
Build upon my rock, which is my Gospel.
Deny not the Spirit of revelation, nor the Spirit of prophecy, for woe unto him that denieth these things.
Therefore treasure up in your heart until the time which is in my wisdom that you shall go forth.
Behold, I speak unto all who have good desires, and have thrust in their sickle to reap.
Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I am the life and light of the world.
I am the same who came unto my own and my own received me not;
But verily, verily, I say unto you, that as many as receive me, to them will I give power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on my name. Amen.
Remember, all you Latter-day Saints, this saying: “Behold, I speak unto all who have good desires, and have thrust in their sickle to reap.” Remember that this revelation calls upon us to seek, not for riches, but for wisdom, “and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you.” I do not think I ever read in my life a revelation that made a more profound impression upon me than did this as I read it upon the train, and I believe that all Latter-day Saints who will read it, with a prayerful heart, seeking to God for the light of His Holy Spirit, will have their minds lit up, and the same inspiration that must have come to our beloved Patriarch at the time the revelation was given to him, will come to them. That we may all labor, with all the zeal, the energy, the talent, the power and the ability that we possess, for the onward advancement of God’s kingdom, and that we may be ready and willing, if need be, to do as our fellow servant, Hyrum Smith, did—lay down our lives for the cause of God,--is my prayer and desire, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Elder John Henry Smith
said the Latter-day Saints must be an industrious people. He, too, dwelt upon the subject of the recent financial depression and endorsed what had been by preceding speakers. The thinking, wise and prudent men among any people who failed to assist in the promotion of industries and so furnish employment for the masses were unworthy of the esteem and confidence of those who had chosen them to be their leaders. Speaking of the late Brigham Young, a man with a will of iron, of great judgment and ability, Elder Smith remarked that whatever he set his hand to do, under the guidance and providence of God, he never turned his face from until he had accomplished it. His exampled was now pointed to with admiration. The Latter-day Saints could not be a penurious or small-souled people, and the Lord would have us restrain selfishness, greed or any desire in the direction of improper ambition; while our names, if we remained true and faithful, would hereafter be found written in the Lamb’s book of life. Let us keep the faith and let our hearts not waver in the midst of the conditions that surround us. We could not always read that which might come upon us, but if we remained steadfast the Lord would not fail. The safety of the Latter-day Saints lay in the continuous, honest, sturdy, straightforward determination in the direction of light.
said the Latter-day Saints must be an industrious people. He, too, dwelt upon the subject of the recent financial depression and endorsed what had been by preceding speakers. The thinking, wise and prudent men among any people who failed to assist in the promotion of industries and so furnish employment for the masses were unworthy of the esteem and confidence of those who had chosen them to be their leaders. Speaking of the late Brigham Young, a man with a will of iron, of great judgment and ability, Elder Smith remarked that whatever he set his hand to do, under the guidance and providence of God, he never turned his face from until he had accomplished it. His exampled was now pointed to with admiration. The Latter-day Saints could not be a penurious or small-souled people, and the Lord would have us restrain selfishness, greed or any desire in the direction of improper ambition; while our names, if we remained true and faithful, would hereafter be found written in the Lamb’s book of life. Let us keep the faith and let our hearts not waver in the midst of the conditions that surround us. We could not always read that which might come upon us, but if we remained steadfast the Lord would not fail. The safety of the Latter-day Saints lay in the continuous, honest, sturdy, straightforward determination in the direction of light.
Discourse
Delivered by Elder John Henry Smith, At the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Friday afternoon, October 6, 1893.
Reported by Arthur Winter.
With Brother Heber J. Grant, I was very much impressed this morning with the services held in this Tabernacle. Every word, so far as I now remember, was to me the balm of spiritual life. The remarks that have been made this afternoon by Brother Grant in regard to the experiences through which we are going, in common with the rest of our brethren and sisters in this nation, I believe are timely also. The Latter-day Saints should be an exceedingly industrious people in every direction that tends to their upbuilding in their faith and its observances, and in the development of every resource that is calculated to provide for the needs and necessities of our commonwealth. I have during the past few months done more worrying over the fear that from the conditions that exist throughout the land and the spirit of doubt and uncertainty that have been engendered in the breasts of so many people, a spirit of contraction would take too full possession of the Latter-day Saints, and many of them who are able not only to make provision for themselves and families, but to give employment to some of their follow, would become so fearful of the conditions that surrounded them that a spirit would be engendered in them that would lead home to do that for which they would save regrets at some future time. I have discovered in my brief experience among men in noting the growth and development of what we regard as the recent boom, that by talking in any given direction men are worked up to a fever, and many of our brethren and sisters have sold their property back and forth to each other, carrying by a little spirited talk the value from a very low price to an exorbitant figure. I have discovered also that when we regard the times as very hard we meet and shake hands and express to each other the feeling that the times are exceedingly trying, and the one spoken to retorts by saying that he is also pressed for means, and we begin talking and talking in regard to this matter until we work ourselves, in common with people in other parts of our land, into a feeling of depression. Men become downhearted and depressed in spirit, and begin to withdraw in every way and to curtail themselves in the proper and legitimate exercise of those powers and that means which our Father has placed under their watchcare.
I am not one of those that can find special fault with any of my brethren and sisters for their extravagant habits. I believe many of us have been unwise in these matters; that we have reached out with an eye of hope, probably to an extent in some of these directions that we should not have done. But I say that the thinking men, the wise and prudent men of any community that do not devise plans and schemes and seek to create industries and give employment to their people, are unworthy of the confidence and esteem of the people who have chosen them to be their leaders. We are not all endowed with the capacity to preach the Gospel. There are Elders among us whose lives devoted to the ministry have been enabled to bring into the Church hundreds and thousands of honest souls, who hung upon their words as they would hang upon the word of the Lord. There are others in our midst possessed of material minds, endowed richly in the capacity to organize, to plan and devise, to create and suggest, and to point out the way. It was the design of Providence in the placing of men at the head of His Church in this dispensation to have them possessed of all the characteristics necessary to the upbuilding and development of a people that should become the head and the front of His children upon this planet; taking the crude elements as it were, untaught, so to speak, as unlearned, as the world has been pleased to regard us, He has brought to the front among His people men possessed of these capabilities, giving them the revelation of His will, pointing out to them the importance of the growth and development of His work, directing their movements, and showing the course in which they should move in planting the standard of our Father upon these mountain peaks and scattering His children within her vales. The Prophet Joseph, with his spiritual tendencies, is a sample. He, Joseph, gave the perfect plan of a spiritual life. The Lord also gave to this people that wise and prudent statesman whom the world will come to regard as among the brightest minds that have ever lived, in the development of the material resources of a people—Brigham Young. His will of iron, his judgment and ability were such that what he set his hand to do, under the guidance of Providence, he never turned his face from the accomplishment of that purpose. Today the world, in studying the results of his labors to mankind, points to him as an example worthy to be followed in this respect. He used his skill and ability in seeking to make the people whom the Lord had called him to be a steward of a sturdy, capable and thorough people, possessing the force and power to develop the resources of the land that had been given them, bringing everything material in its proper use, and at the same time schooling and educating His people in the refining influences that come from the possession of everything that tends to endow men and qualify women to indeed be pleasant and joyful and acceptable to the Lord whom they would serve.
Now, my brethren and sisters, in the consideration of the conditions that surround us at this time, it is true that, with others of my brethren, I may have been unwise in seeking to gather together means to aid in the creation of industries and in the upbuilding of the temporal interests and wellbeing of the people of Utah, or the Saints throughout this mountain region; but Father in Heaven knows my heart, and I believe I know the hearts my of brethren; for I have been intimate with them in those councils looking to the accomplishment of their desires and wishes in these matters, and I know that President Woodruff in his soul has yearned to open every door possible, that the Saints might have that which was requisite to their comfort, provide for their children and their homes, and to give them that which was for their own good and for their advancement. I know that this is true in regard to the members of my quorum. Whether I possess that feeling or not, I know they possessed it; and not one of them today holds one dollar in property or means that would not as speedily and as readily be put upon the altar for the development of this work as they speak to you proclaiming to you the truth this day and declaring that Jesus is the Christ, and that the Gospel we have embraced came from our Father, designed to redeem and save us by our obedience to the principles which He has given for our salvation.
Therefore in the midst of the development of this work we cannot be a penurious people, we cannot be a small-souled people. It is not designed by our Father that our homes should not possess the comforts and that which tends to beautify them. It was not His design that we should be clad in the plainest of raiment. But it was His design that in the possession of wealth we should utilize it for the good of ourselves and for the well being of everyone of His children whom we can assist in seeking to make their lives a success in the temporal, in the physical, in the religious and spiritual sense, bringing out every power and making them in every respect as near as possible approximate to that condition of uprightness, of honor, of truth and of worth that they would indeed be acceptable to their Father in heaven. I know that our Father in heaven does not delight in penuriousness. I know of all the generous fathers in this world. He is the most generous to all His children. He showers the rains upon the just and the unjust. We see the earth clad in its beauty; we discover its bounties; we understand that He planted in our breasts a love of that which is beautiful, and a love of that which is clean, a love of that which tends to adorn, and He desires that we shall cultivate this legitimately, restraining selfishness, avoiding greed, controlling improper ambition, but giving us reverence, respect, love, humility, and a legitimate pride, making us stand up in His fear, bow to His wish, and blessing His children, leading them to develop the powers within them, that they may stand; because He planted those powers within us; He gave them to us; He created us in His likeness and in His image, and endowed us with the ability to do.
While some of us possess one gift and some another, they that possess the gift to accumulate and to utilize means will be held to a strict account for the selfishness they display unjustly and improperly in dealing with their fellows; and they who possess these gifts will be held to an account for their use; and thus in His justice and mercy every one of us will receive all that belongs to us, be blessed of Him, and endowed with the power to accomplish our mission, and our names, if we are faithful, will be found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We need have no dubiety in regard to this matter. We have not been deceived. The Prophet was not deceived. He did bow in the presence of God the Father and His Son. He did hear the voice of the heavenly messenger declaring the truth. He did ordain and set apart those chosen of the Almighty to carry this word to you in the homes where the Elders found you; and the mission that he gave to you in calling you forth and placing responsibility upon you rests there until the ends of the earth are warned and the cry has been heard in every land and clime, calling upon men to repent and turn in the way of life and obey the principles of truth, walking in the pathway thereof.
My brethren and sisters, let us keep the faith. Let our hearts not waver in the midst of the conditions that surround us. It is true we cannot always read that which may occur to us. Had we planned and devised in our way, had we had our own ideas in regard to the progress of this work and the accomplishment of our Father’s purpose we would have swamped it years ago; it would have gone to pieces and His children would have been scattered broadcast among the people of the world. But by His own unerring counsels He has made a suggestion, and His Prophets and Apostles have taken up the counsel and pointed out the way; and while in our hearts at times we have felt to condemn them for that they were doing, the Lord has vindicated them and proven that He was their guide and counselor; and He will continue to be until the great work that He has established is accomplished, and the people of the east and the west have heard the cry, and from the north and the south and upon the islands of the sea a voice will be heard calling upon the sons of men to bow in the presence of their Maker and receive His word, and obey the requirements which He, as their Guide and their Governor, has placed upon them.
I have pleasure, my brethren and sister, in being with you. I rejoice in the Gospel of peace. God has taken me in the midst of my weaknesses and failing and given me a knowledge that this is the truth, and I have the greatest pleasure in bearing that witness to you today. The safety of the Saints is in the continued, honest, sturdy, straightforward, sustained pull in the direction of right, and not in their excitements, not in their fears, not in their doubts. We have proclaimed to the world that our Father’s judgments would come upon them. Our hearts may fail us as these storms we have predicted break upon our heads; our hearts may shrink in the midst of these conditions; but no matter; our Father’s words were that such should be the case. We are not responsible for His words; but we are responsible for that which has been imposed upon us of warning our fellow men to flee from the wrath to come and the judgments that will be poured out upon the nations. May we accomplish this, and may the blessing of our God rest upon this people and upon the honorable and good of our nation who are willing to do their just part by us, willing that we should have our rights, in common with our fellows. May heaven’s blessing ever attend them. May their hearts be ever sturdy in the pathway of right, and may the right prevail, until justice shall characterize the sons of men, as I believe our Father designs it will in His own due time. Amen.
Delivered by Elder John Henry Smith, At the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Friday afternoon, October 6, 1893.
Reported by Arthur Winter.
With Brother Heber J. Grant, I was very much impressed this morning with the services held in this Tabernacle. Every word, so far as I now remember, was to me the balm of spiritual life. The remarks that have been made this afternoon by Brother Grant in regard to the experiences through which we are going, in common with the rest of our brethren and sisters in this nation, I believe are timely also. The Latter-day Saints should be an exceedingly industrious people in every direction that tends to their upbuilding in their faith and its observances, and in the development of every resource that is calculated to provide for the needs and necessities of our commonwealth. I have during the past few months done more worrying over the fear that from the conditions that exist throughout the land and the spirit of doubt and uncertainty that have been engendered in the breasts of so many people, a spirit of contraction would take too full possession of the Latter-day Saints, and many of them who are able not only to make provision for themselves and families, but to give employment to some of their follow, would become so fearful of the conditions that surrounded them that a spirit would be engendered in them that would lead home to do that for which they would save regrets at some future time. I have discovered in my brief experience among men in noting the growth and development of what we regard as the recent boom, that by talking in any given direction men are worked up to a fever, and many of our brethren and sisters have sold their property back and forth to each other, carrying by a little spirited talk the value from a very low price to an exorbitant figure. I have discovered also that when we regard the times as very hard we meet and shake hands and express to each other the feeling that the times are exceedingly trying, and the one spoken to retorts by saying that he is also pressed for means, and we begin talking and talking in regard to this matter until we work ourselves, in common with people in other parts of our land, into a feeling of depression. Men become downhearted and depressed in spirit, and begin to withdraw in every way and to curtail themselves in the proper and legitimate exercise of those powers and that means which our Father has placed under their watchcare.
I am not one of those that can find special fault with any of my brethren and sisters for their extravagant habits. I believe many of us have been unwise in these matters; that we have reached out with an eye of hope, probably to an extent in some of these directions that we should not have done. But I say that the thinking men, the wise and prudent men of any community that do not devise plans and schemes and seek to create industries and give employment to their people, are unworthy of the confidence and esteem of the people who have chosen them to be their leaders. We are not all endowed with the capacity to preach the Gospel. There are Elders among us whose lives devoted to the ministry have been enabled to bring into the Church hundreds and thousands of honest souls, who hung upon their words as they would hang upon the word of the Lord. There are others in our midst possessed of material minds, endowed richly in the capacity to organize, to plan and devise, to create and suggest, and to point out the way. It was the design of Providence in the placing of men at the head of His Church in this dispensation to have them possessed of all the characteristics necessary to the upbuilding and development of a people that should become the head and the front of His children upon this planet; taking the crude elements as it were, untaught, so to speak, as unlearned, as the world has been pleased to regard us, He has brought to the front among His people men possessed of these capabilities, giving them the revelation of His will, pointing out to them the importance of the growth and development of His work, directing their movements, and showing the course in which they should move in planting the standard of our Father upon these mountain peaks and scattering His children within her vales. The Prophet Joseph, with his spiritual tendencies, is a sample. He, Joseph, gave the perfect plan of a spiritual life. The Lord also gave to this people that wise and prudent statesman whom the world will come to regard as among the brightest minds that have ever lived, in the development of the material resources of a people—Brigham Young. His will of iron, his judgment and ability were such that what he set his hand to do, under the guidance of Providence, he never turned his face from the accomplishment of that purpose. Today the world, in studying the results of his labors to mankind, points to him as an example worthy to be followed in this respect. He used his skill and ability in seeking to make the people whom the Lord had called him to be a steward of a sturdy, capable and thorough people, possessing the force and power to develop the resources of the land that had been given them, bringing everything material in its proper use, and at the same time schooling and educating His people in the refining influences that come from the possession of everything that tends to endow men and qualify women to indeed be pleasant and joyful and acceptable to the Lord whom they would serve.
Now, my brethren and sisters, in the consideration of the conditions that surround us at this time, it is true that, with others of my brethren, I may have been unwise in seeking to gather together means to aid in the creation of industries and in the upbuilding of the temporal interests and wellbeing of the people of Utah, or the Saints throughout this mountain region; but Father in Heaven knows my heart, and I believe I know the hearts my of brethren; for I have been intimate with them in those councils looking to the accomplishment of their desires and wishes in these matters, and I know that President Woodruff in his soul has yearned to open every door possible, that the Saints might have that which was requisite to their comfort, provide for their children and their homes, and to give them that which was for their own good and for their advancement. I know that this is true in regard to the members of my quorum. Whether I possess that feeling or not, I know they possessed it; and not one of them today holds one dollar in property or means that would not as speedily and as readily be put upon the altar for the development of this work as they speak to you proclaiming to you the truth this day and declaring that Jesus is the Christ, and that the Gospel we have embraced came from our Father, designed to redeem and save us by our obedience to the principles which He has given for our salvation.
Therefore in the midst of the development of this work we cannot be a penurious people, we cannot be a small-souled people. It is not designed by our Father that our homes should not possess the comforts and that which tends to beautify them. It was not His design that we should be clad in the plainest of raiment. But it was His design that in the possession of wealth we should utilize it for the good of ourselves and for the well being of everyone of His children whom we can assist in seeking to make their lives a success in the temporal, in the physical, in the religious and spiritual sense, bringing out every power and making them in every respect as near as possible approximate to that condition of uprightness, of honor, of truth and of worth that they would indeed be acceptable to their Father in heaven. I know that our Father in heaven does not delight in penuriousness. I know of all the generous fathers in this world. He is the most generous to all His children. He showers the rains upon the just and the unjust. We see the earth clad in its beauty; we discover its bounties; we understand that He planted in our breasts a love of that which is beautiful, and a love of that which is clean, a love of that which tends to adorn, and He desires that we shall cultivate this legitimately, restraining selfishness, avoiding greed, controlling improper ambition, but giving us reverence, respect, love, humility, and a legitimate pride, making us stand up in His fear, bow to His wish, and blessing His children, leading them to develop the powers within them, that they may stand; because He planted those powers within us; He gave them to us; He created us in His likeness and in His image, and endowed us with the ability to do.
While some of us possess one gift and some another, they that possess the gift to accumulate and to utilize means will be held to a strict account for the selfishness they display unjustly and improperly in dealing with their fellows; and they who possess these gifts will be held to an account for their use; and thus in His justice and mercy every one of us will receive all that belongs to us, be blessed of Him, and endowed with the power to accomplish our mission, and our names, if we are faithful, will be found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We need have no dubiety in regard to this matter. We have not been deceived. The Prophet was not deceived. He did bow in the presence of God the Father and His Son. He did hear the voice of the heavenly messenger declaring the truth. He did ordain and set apart those chosen of the Almighty to carry this word to you in the homes where the Elders found you; and the mission that he gave to you in calling you forth and placing responsibility upon you rests there until the ends of the earth are warned and the cry has been heard in every land and clime, calling upon men to repent and turn in the way of life and obey the principles of truth, walking in the pathway thereof.
My brethren and sisters, let us keep the faith. Let our hearts not waver in the midst of the conditions that surround us. It is true we cannot always read that which may occur to us. Had we planned and devised in our way, had we had our own ideas in regard to the progress of this work and the accomplishment of our Father’s purpose we would have swamped it years ago; it would have gone to pieces and His children would have been scattered broadcast among the people of the world. But by His own unerring counsels He has made a suggestion, and His Prophets and Apostles have taken up the counsel and pointed out the way; and while in our hearts at times we have felt to condemn them for that they were doing, the Lord has vindicated them and proven that He was their guide and counselor; and He will continue to be until the great work that He has established is accomplished, and the people of the east and the west have heard the cry, and from the north and the south and upon the islands of the sea a voice will be heard calling upon the sons of men to bow in the presence of their Maker and receive His word, and obey the requirements which He, as their Guide and their Governor, has placed upon them.
I have pleasure, my brethren and sister, in being with you. I rejoice in the Gospel of peace. God has taken me in the midst of my weaknesses and failing and given me a knowledge that this is the truth, and I have the greatest pleasure in bearing that witness to you today. The safety of the Saints is in the continued, honest, sturdy, straightforward, sustained pull in the direction of right, and not in their excitements, not in their fears, not in their doubts. We have proclaimed to the world that our Father’s judgments would come upon them. Our hearts may fail us as these storms we have predicted break upon our heads; our hearts may shrink in the midst of these conditions; but no matter; our Father’s words were that such should be the case. We are not responsible for His words; but we are responsible for that which has been imposed upon us of warning our fellow men to flee from the wrath to come and the judgments that will be poured out upon the nations. May we accomplish this, and may the blessing of our God rest upon this people and upon the honorable and good of our nation who are willing to do their just part by us, willing that we should have our rights, in common with our fellows. May heaven’s blessing ever attend them. May their hearts be ever sturdy in the pathway of right, and may the right prevail, until justice shall characterize the sons of men, as I believe our Father designs it will in His own due time. Amen.
Elder John W. Taylor
also took up the subject of “hard times,” a cry, he remarked, which was at the present time heard on every hand. He counseled the people to repose confidence in the banks of this city, and those who had money to deposit it therein as the surest places of safety. It was the duty of those who had it in their power to provide employment for the working man, and to enable him to obtain food for his family during the approaching winter. Instead of narrowing up we should broaden out in this regard. Elder Taylor spoke of the importance of unity among this people and paid a well-deserved compliment to Prof. Stephens and the Tabernacle Choir for their recent triumph at Chicago. Adverting to the changed feeling towards the Latter-day Saints among the people, the speaker said that instead of the former cry of “destroy them,” there would soon be heard the words, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
also took up the subject of “hard times,” a cry, he remarked, which was at the present time heard on every hand. He counseled the people to repose confidence in the banks of this city, and those who had money to deposit it therein as the surest places of safety. It was the duty of those who had it in their power to provide employment for the working man, and to enable him to obtain food for his family during the approaching winter. Instead of narrowing up we should broaden out in this regard. Elder Taylor spoke of the importance of unity among this people and paid a well-deserved compliment to Prof. Stephens and the Tabernacle Choir for their recent triumph at Chicago. Adverting to the changed feeling towards the Latter-day Saints among the people, the speaker said that instead of the former cry of “destroy them,” there would soon be heard the words, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
Elder Marriner W. Merrill
said this great latter-day work would not be taken away and given to another people, but would yet prevail against all its foes. He touched upon the financial condition of today and comparing it with that of thirty-five years ago expressed the opinion that we were not now so badly off after all. He believed that a good deal of this so-called stringency was simply a feeling of fear on the part of many among us. Work should be furnished as far as possible for the unemployed, and the Bishops of wards and their counselors would do well to meet together say once a week and see if some means towards this end could be devised. To those seeking employment his advice was “work for what you can get.” He believed there was plenty of work for everybody, here and elsewhere; but it was not good policy for a man to sit down and say, “If I cannot get the amount and kind of pay I want I will not work at all.” There was room for improvement in our farms, orchards, and fields, north and south, east and west; and the reason why it was said there is no employment was because we had not looked for it in the right directions. The speaker deprecated the practice of borrowing and running into debt, and encouraged the people to support our home industries.
said this great latter-day work would not be taken away and given to another people, but would yet prevail against all its foes. He touched upon the financial condition of today and comparing it with that of thirty-five years ago expressed the opinion that we were not now so badly off after all. He believed that a good deal of this so-called stringency was simply a feeling of fear on the part of many among us. Work should be furnished as far as possible for the unemployed, and the Bishops of wards and their counselors would do well to meet together say once a week and see if some means towards this end could be devised. To those seeking employment his advice was “work for what you can get.” He believed there was plenty of work for everybody, here and elsewhere; but it was not good policy for a man to sit down and say, “If I cannot get the amount and kind of pay I want I will not work at all.” There was room for improvement in our farms, orchards, and fields, north and south, east and west; and the reason why it was said there is no employment was because we had not looked for it in the right directions. The speaker deprecated the practice of borrowing and running into debt, and encouraged the people to support our home industries.
Cultivate the Soil.
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Friday Afternoon, October 6, 1893, by Elder Marriner W. Merrill.
Reported by Arthur Winter.
I am pleased to have this opportunity in common with my brethren, to bear to you my testimony of this work. To me it is a source of gratification and pleasure to be able understandingly to announce to this congregation that I know this is the work of the Lord; and although I may fail and come short, yet this work will not fail it will not be taken away and given to another people, but there will be a sufficient number retained in this Church to carry on the work, to preach the Gospel, to gather Israel, and to build up Zion.
I have listened with interest to all that has been said today, and I have been deeply impressed in hearing the different speakers dwell upon the various subjects that have been presented. The financial condition of the people seems to occupy to some extent the minds of most of those who have spoken. I have contrasted our situation today with what it was thirty-five years ago, and I find that we are not so badly off after all. I believe a great deal as Brother Taylor has expressed, that much of this stringency is simply in our own feelings. It is because fear has come upon us; that is, upon some of us, because I can find in my travels a great many people going along in the even tenor of their way, and they have no particular concern about anything or anybody. They are trying to live honest, upright lives, pay their obligations and be good people. They do not owe anybody anything. I heard it remarked once, in quite a large congregation, that everybody was in debt. This is far from being the case, in my view. I believe that there are a great many people that are not in debt. I believe there are many people that have means to spare—means to assist others that have not means. While our crops are not as abundant as they have been in former years in all parts of the country where our people live, yet there is an abundance of food to supply the wants of the people. I think it a very excellent idea for people to seek to find ways and means whereby they may employ the unemployed. This is a matter for the consideration of all the Bishops of the Church. I have thought it a good idea for the Bishops of the various wards and their counselors to meet together occasionally and talk over matters relating to their wards. I speak thus relating to their wards. I speak thus because I have had some experience in these things, and I know it is an excellent thing to do. They might meet, say, once a week and talk over the situation of their people, and see if there could be ways and means devised whereby the people may be employed. There are very few people, in my opinion, that want others to support them for nothing, or that want to be maintained on charity. I believe that a great many of our people that are helped by the offerings of the wards would rather work for what they get. It is good policy for everybody to work for what they get, if they are able. Of course, there are some people who are invalids, or aged, that need our sympathy; but there are a great many people who are not now employed that are willing to work, if somebody will employ them.
There is another consideration associated with this matter that I will here speak of, and that is in relation to people traveling in a certain groove. They have had perhaps two or three dollars a day for their labor, and they get it firmly fixed in their minds that they cannot work unless they get that amount per day. I do not believe this is a good policy. My counsel has always been for people to work for what they could get. If they could not get a dollar a day, work for fifty cents. It is better to do that than not to do anything. And I am not saying to you anything that I have not done myself. I have seen the time when I was glad to work for fifty cents a day. When I came to this city in 1853 the country was undeveloped, and there was scarcely any employment for anybody. I was alone, a boy, without kindred, without friends—only so far as Latter-day Saints are friends to each other—and I tell you I was glad to work for fifty cents a day. And from that day till this I have never seen the time in all my history and experience that I did not have plenty to do. I have hunted for work, and if there was not anybody to give me work, I would make work for myself. I would make shoes for the children, or something of that kind. I do not believe it is good policy for people to sit down and say, “If I can’t get what I want; if I can’t get cash for my labor, or a certain amount per day, I will not work at all.” I believe there is plenty of work for everybody right here in this city. You can travel today from one end of this city to the other and see scores and scores of acres of rich ground, that will bring forth food for man and beast, being uncultivated. And you can see scores of old trees that ought to be taken down and used for firewood, and new ones planted in their stead. Then we say there is no employment. And this is the case throughout the whole country. The country is not half developed yet. It will sustain five or ten times the present population. When we have nothing to do, we should look around our neighbor’s places and see if we cannot induce him to make some improvements, whereby the city and the country may be beautified and Zion be adorned. We have done very well in the past; but there is room for improvement everywhere; there is room for improvement in the farms and in the orchards, north and south, east and west. To say that we cannot find employment shows that we have not looked for it in the right direction.
There is also plenty of means whereby the people may be sustained. I endorse the remarks of the brethren in relation to people becoming scared and drawing their means from the banks. It is all foolishness and all wrong. I have never been one that has believed in borrowing anything in my life, and I have never encouraged people to borrow and to give notes, with mortgages, etc. in my view, it is all wrong. Of course, I may not be right, as I am not a financial man; but I believe that we, as a people, should be lenders, and not borrowers. A great many of our people are lenders now, and I would that they were all lenders. But now, it is said we owe each other. What is the best thing to do? The very best thing to do is to pay just as soon as we can, and then profit by the experience we are not passing through. Let no man in Israel say that his paper will be outlawed in a few years, and then he won’t pay it. That is dishonest in any man. Pay every man what you owe him, no matter whether that man be Jew or Gentile, saint or sinner, just as soon as possible; and do not sit down and say, “Our brother will be lenient with us, and will not sue us, and he can wait.” Make an effort; rustle around and try and meet your obligations, and keep your word good, that people may have confidence in you. There are people that can be trusted implicitly; and there are others—Latter-day Saints, too—that people are chary about trusting. This should not be. Our word should be just as good as our note. But we should not be in a position to have to give notes, if it is possible to avoid it. It is true, there are industries and enterprises to be established for the benefit of the people in which it seems to be necessary to borrow, as, for instance, the sugar factory. I do not believe that there was one man connected with the inauguration of that industry that went into it with a view of making himself rich. It was done to benefit the people and the country. I know this to be the case; and if we, as a people, had risen up in our strength and with one common consent had said, “Yes, we will sustain this home industry and give our means to support it,” and had taken up the stock of this institution, we would in a little while be glad of it. This things will be a success by and by. We need not look for new industries like that to strike right into affluence at once and be able to pay dividends the first, second or third year. But we look for it to benefit the people. I believe it is benefiting the people in the neighborhood where the factory is located. There are other industries that may be inaugurated that will also benefit the people. This has been the counsel all the day long. In cases of this kind perhaps it is wise to lend our credit to get money, that the enterprise may be established. But as a rule, in private affairs, I do not believe it is a good thing to borrow. I think we ought to live within our means; and if we earn fifty cents a day, try and live on forty-five cents a day, so as to have something laid up for a “rainy day.”
This subject is one that could be talked about a great deal. The Latter-day Saints understand these things pretty well, because President Young and President Kimball used to talk about them. I recollect hearing President Kimball in the fall of 1853. He was talking about cultivating a city lot down here in the nineteenth ward, I think. He said he had realized $1,100 in cash off one city lot that year. Now, there could be thousands of tons of food for man and beast produced right here in this city, where today there is nothing grown. If you do not believe what I say, get into a carriage and ride over this city, and you will find it to be the case. God bless you. Amen.
The choir sang the anthem: Jesus, I my cross have taken.
Benediction by Elder Seymour B. Young.
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Friday Afternoon, October 6, 1893, by Elder Marriner W. Merrill.
Reported by Arthur Winter.
I am pleased to have this opportunity in common with my brethren, to bear to you my testimony of this work. To me it is a source of gratification and pleasure to be able understandingly to announce to this congregation that I know this is the work of the Lord; and although I may fail and come short, yet this work will not fail it will not be taken away and given to another people, but there will be a sufficient number retained in this Church to carry on the work, to preach the Gospel, to gather Israel, and to build up Zion.
I have listened with interest to all that has been said today, and I have been deeply impressed in hearing the different speakers dwell upon the various subjects that have been presented. The financial condition of the people seems to occupy to some extent the minds of most of those who have spoken. I have contrasted our situation today with what it was thirty-five years ago, and I find that we are not so badly off after all. I believe a great deal as Brother Taylor has expressed, that much of this stringency is simply in our own feelings. It is because fear has come upon us; that is, upon some of us, because I can find in my travels a great many people going along in the even tenor of their way, and they have no particular concern about anything or anybody. They are trying to live honest, upright lives, pay their obligations and be good people. They do not owe anybody anything. I heard it remarked once, in quite a large congregation, that everybody was in debt. This is far from being the case, in my view. I believe that there are a great many people that are not in debt. I believe there are many people that have means to spare—means to assist others that have not means. While our crops are not as abundant as they have been in former years in all parts of the country where our people live, yet there is an abundance of food to supply the wants of the people. I think it a very excellent idea for people to seek to find ways and means whereby they may employ the unemployed. This is a matter for the consideration of all the Bishops of the Church. I have thought it a good idea for the Bishops of the various wards and their counselors to meet together occasionally and talk over matters relating to their wards. I speak thus relating to their wards. I speak thus because I have had some experience in these things, and I know it is an excellent thing to do. They might meet, say, once a week and talk over the situation of their people, and see if there could be ways and means devised whereby the people may be employed. There are very few people, in my opinion, that want others to support them for nothing, or that want to be maintained on charity. I believe that a great many of our people that are helped by the offerings of the wards would rather work for what they get. It is good policy for everybody to work for what they get, if they are able. Of course, there are some people who are invalids, or aged, that need our sympathy; but there are a great many people who are not now employed that are willing to work, if somebody will employ them.
There is another consideration associated with this matter that I will here speak of, and that is in relation to people traveling in a certain groove. They have had perhaps two or three dollars a day for their labor, and they get it firmly fixed in their minds that they cannot work unless they get that amount per day. I do not believe this is a good policy. My counsel has always been for people to work for what they could get. If they could not get a dollar a day, work for fifty cents. It is better to do that than not to do anything. And I am not saying to you anything that I have not done myself. I have seen the time when I was glad to work for fifty cents a day. When I came to this city in 1853 the country was undeveloped, and there was scarcely any employment for anybody. I was alone, a boy, without kindred, without friends—only so far as Latter-day Saints are friends to each other—and I tell you I was glad to work for fifty cents a day. And from that day till this I have never seen the time in all my history and experience that I did not have plenty to do. I have hunted for work, and if there was not anybody to give me work, I would make work for myself. I would make shoes for the children, or something of that kind. I do not believe it is good policy for people to sit down and say, “If I can’t get what I want; if I can’t get cash for my labor, or a certain amount per day, I will not work at all.” I believe there is plenty of work for everybody right here in this city. You can travel today from one end of this city to the other and see scores and scores of acres of rich ground, that will bring forth food for man and beast, being uncultivated. And you can see scores of old trees that ought to be taken down and used for firewood, and new ones planted in their stead. Then we say there is no employment. And this is the case throughout the whole country. The country is not half developed yet. It will sustain five or ten times the present population. When we have nothing to do, we should look around our neighbor’s places and see if we cannot induce him to make some improvements, whereby the city and the country may be beautified and Zion be adorned. We have done very well in the past; but there is room for improvement everywhere; there is room for improvement in the farms and in the orchards, north and south, east and west. To say that we cannot find employment shows that we have not looked for it in the right direction.
There is also plenty of means whereby the people may be sustained. I endorse the remarks of the brethren in relation to people becoming scared and drawing their means from the banks. It is all foolishness and all wrong. I have never been one that has believed in borrowing anything in my life, and I have never encouraged people to borrow and to give notes, with mortgages, etc. in my view, it is all wrong. Of course, I may not be right, as I am not a financial man; but I believe that we, as a people, should be lenders, and not borrowers. A great many of our people are lenders now, and I would that they were all lenders. But now, it is said we owe each other. What is the best thing to do? The very best thing to do is to pay just as soon as we can, and then profit by the experience we are not passing through. Let no man in Israel say that his paper will be outlawed in a few years, and then he won’t pay it. That is dishonest in any man. Pay every man what you owe him, no matter whether that man be Jew or Gentile, saint or sinner, just as soon as possible; and do not sit down and say, “Our brother will be lenient with us, and will not sue us, and he can wait.” Make an effort; rustle around and try and meet your obligations, and keep your word good, that people may have confidence in you. There are people that can be trusted implicitly; and there are others—Latter-day Saints, too—that people are chary about trusting. This should not be. Our word should be just as good as our note. But we should not be in a position to have to give notes, if it is possible to avoid it. It is true, there are industries and enterprises to be established for the benefit of the people in which it seems to be necessary to borrow, as, for instance, the sugar factory. I do not believe that there was one man connected with the inauguration of that industry that went into it with a view of making himself rich. It was done to benefit the people and the country. I know this to be the case; and if we, as a people, had risen up in our strength and with one common consent had said, “Yes, we will sustain this home industry and give our means to support it,” and had taken up the stock of this institution, we would in a little while be glad of it. This things will be a success by and by. We need not look for new industries like that to strike right into affluence at once and be able to pay dividends the first, second or third year. But we look for it to benefit the people. I believe it is benefiting the people in the neighborhood where the factory is located. There are other industries that may be inaugurated that will also benefit the people. This has been the counsel all the day long. In cases of this kind perhaps it is wise to lend our credit to get money, that the enterprise may be established. But as a rule, in private affairs, I do not believe it is a good thing to borrow. I think we ought to live within our means; and if we earn fifty cents a day, try and live on forty-five cents a day, so as to have something laid up for a “rainy day.”
This subject is one that could be talked about a great deal. The Latter-day Saints understand these things pretty well, because President Young and President Kimball used to talk about them. I recollect hearing President Kimball in the fall of 1853. He was talking about cultivating a city lot down here in the nineteenth ward, I think. He said he had realized $1,100 in cash off one city lot that year. Now, there could be thousands of tons of food for man and beast produced right here in this city, where today there is nothing grown. If you do not believe what I say, get into a carriage and ride over this city, and you will find it to be the case. God bless you. Amen.
The choir sang the anthem: Jesus, I my cross have taken.
Benediction by Elder Seymour B. Young.
A Priesthood Meeting.
was held in the Tabernacle on Friday, Oct. 6th, beginning at 7 p. m. The speakers were President Joseph F. Smith, Bishop William B. Preston, President George Q. Cannon and Elder Heber J. Grant. The subject treated upon were the present financial situation and the most advisable course to take under the circumstances; the support of the poor, by the establishment of productive industries in each of the wards of the Church; the cultivation of a loving, charitable and forgiving spirit and disposition toward all men and the advisability of appointing home missionaries to spend their time in building up the Saints in the wards of the several Stakes of the Church.
was held in the Tabernacle on Friday, Oct. 6th, beginning at 7 p. m. The speakers were President Joseph F. Smith, Bishop William B. Preston, President George Q. Cannon and Elder Heber J. Grant. The subject treated upon were the present financial situation and the most advisable course to take under the circumstances; the support of the poor, by the establishment of productive industries in each of the wards of the Church; the cultivation of a loving, charitable and forgiving spirit and disposition toward all men and the advisability of appointing home missionaries to spend their time in building up the Saints in the wards of the several Stakes of the Church.
Second Day—Oct. 7. Morning Session.
Singing by the choir and congregation:
How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word.
Prayer by Elder George Teasdale.
The choir sang:
Behold, the mountain of the Lord
In latter days shall rise,
On mountain tops above the hills
And draw the wond’ring eyes.
Singing by the choir and congregation:
How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word.
Prayer by Elder George Teasdale.
The choir sang:
Behold, the mountain of the Lord
In latter days shall rise,
On mountain tops above the hills
And draw the wond’ring eyes.
Elder Francis M. Lyman
addressed the congregation, expressing the great pleasure which it afforded him to meet with the Saints again in general conference. The Gospel was a gospel of peace, truth and righteousness and it was not possible for men to properly teach it unless they enjoyed the Spirit of the Lord. No man could be a successful Latter-day Saint unless he possessed that Spirit and no man could enjoy that Spirit unless he kept the Commandments of the Lord and preserved himself in all purity; for the Spirit of the Lord would not dwell in unholy tabernacles. As a man decided in his own heart so would he do; for everything that we did was in consequence of the judgment of our hearts. The reason we were sinners still was because we did not always do the will of the Lord. When a man was out of the way of receiving counsel from his file leader and had to depend on himself, there was always dwelling in his heart, or if faithful he was entitled to, the inspiration of the Lord to guide him correctly. If we had not the Spirit we were not in the line of our duty as Latter-day Saints. If we listened to the promptings of the Spirit we would never give a wrong judgment, whatever our calling or position in the Church of Christ. All the mistakes that we made as individuals were due to our acting independently, unenlightened by the Spirit of the Lord. It would be profitable for us to devote our time and talents towards the accomplishment of the purposes of the Lord in the establishment of His Church upon the earth. If we had not set before us the Church and kingdom of God and the principles of truth and salvation—if these things were not foremost in our hearts, then all Israel had need of reformation in this regard. The Priesthood of God could be controlled only on the principles of righteousness. The hearts of the Latter-day Saints should be set upon the principles of salvation, which were far ahead of gold and silver and the riches of this world, bringing peace, contentment, happiness and salvation both in time and eternity; but we were apparently unable, owing to the conditions by which we were surrounded, to shake ourselves loose from our fallen state, so attached were we to the things which perish.
A man should always speak well and defend his brother, and magnify rather than seek to detract from his virtues. The same remark applied to an enemy; for even the wicked possessed some hidden merit. Do not, he said, let the Latter-day Saints set their hearts too much upon their property, and suffer themselves to become alienated from or embittered against each other because of business transactions. He himself would not entertain ill feeling against a brother for all he possessed.
The speaker exhorted his hearers to be faithful and humble before the Lord. Let them not neglect any duty which devolved upon them. If, for instance, they neglected their prayers, the worship of the Lord, or broke the Sabbath day, they stood, indeed, on dangerous ground.
He prayed that God would bless all Israel, help them to be true to their covenants, and pour out His blessings upon them abundantly during this Conference.
addressed the congregation, expressing the great pleasure which it afforded him to meet with the Saints again in general conference. The Gospel was a gospel of peace, truth and righteousness and it was not possible for men to properly teach it unless they enjoyed the Spirit of the Lord. No man could be a successful Latter-day Saint unless he possessed that Spirit and no man could enjoy that Spirit unless he kept the Commandments of the Lord and preserved himself in all purity; for the Spirit of the Lord would not dwell in unholy tabernacles. As a man decided in his own heart so would he do; for everything that we did was in consequence of the judgment of our hearts. The reason we were sinners still was because we did not always do the will of the Lord. When a man was out of the way of receiving counsel from his file leader and had to depend on himself, there was always dwelling in his heart, or if faithful he was entitled to, the inspiration of the Lord to guide him correctly. If we had not the Spirit we were not in the line of our duty as Latter-day Saints. If we listened to the promptings of the Spirit we would never give a wrong judgment, whatever our calling or position in the Church of Christ. All the mistakes that we made as individuals were due to our acting independently, unenlightened by the Spirit of the Lord. It would be profitable for us to devote our time and talents towards the accomplishment of the purposes of the Lord in the establishment of His Church upon the earth. If we had not set before us the Church and kingdom of God and the principles of truth and salvation—if these things were not foremost in our hearts, then all Israel had need of reformation in this regard. The Priesthood of God could be controlled only on the principles of righteousness. The hearts of the Latter-day Saints should be set upon the principles of salvation, which were far ahead of gold and silver and the riches of this world, bringing peace, contentment, happiness and salvation both in time and eternity; but we were apparently unable, owing to the conditions by which we were surrounded, to shake ourselves loose from our fallen state, so attached were we to the things which perish.
A man should always speak well and defend his brother, and magnify rather than seek to detract from his virtues. The same remark applied to an enemy; for even the wicked possessed some hidden merit. Do not, he said, let the Latter-day Saints set their hearts too much upon their property, and suffer themselves to become alienated from or embittered against each other because of business transactions. He himself would not entertain ill feeling against a brother for all he possessed.
The speaker exhorted his hearers to be faithful and humble before the Lord. Let them not neglect any duty which devolved upon them. If, for instance, they neglected their prayers, the worship of the Lord, or broke the Sabbath day, they stood, indeed, on dangerous ground.
He prayed that God would bless all Israel, help them to be true to their covenants, and pour out His blessings upon them abundantly during this Conference.
The Importance of the Holy Spirit.
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference, of the Church in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Saturday Morning, October 7th, 1893, by Elder Francis M. Lyman.
[Reported by Arthur Winter.]
I am very pleased, my brethren and sisters, for the privilege of attending this Conference, and, like all the brethren, I feel that I need the assistance of the Spirit of the Lord or my speaking will not be profitable. We are not given to preparing discourses, but rely upon the Lord to give us those things to say that will be suited to the requirements of the Saints. It is a very delicate position for a man to be placed in to stand between the Lord and the people; but having taken upon us the name of Jesus and entered into covenant with Him to perform the duties required of us as bearers of the Priesthood, we are willing to labor and to give the glory to the Lord. The Gospel is the Gospel of Jesus; it is the Gospel of truth and righteousness, and it is not possible for us to properly preach it without the assistance of the Lord. Nor is it possible for us to live it without the presence of the Holy Ghost. No man can be a successful Latter-day Saint without the Spirit of the Lord. No man can hope to enjoy the Spirit of the Lord unless he keep the commandments of the Lord and preserve himself in all purity and righteousness; for the Spirit of the Lord will not dwell in unholy tabernacles. Hence we are first required to have faith in God. If we have faith in Him, we will then repent of our sins. If we repent of our sins, we will be baptizes for the remission of them; and then our sins are forgiven us and remembered no more against us, so long as we continue faithful; for all the promises made to us in the Gospel are on condition of our faithfulness. Therefore, every Latter-day Saint is competent to sit in judgment upon himself, and to know whether he is in the favor of the Lord or under condemnation. The Lord has ordered that every man should judge for himself, in his own heart, in regard to all the duties of life. As a man thinketh, so he is. As a man decides in his own heart, so he does. If we judge correctly and under the light and inspiration of the Lord, we will always do right. So far as we today are doing wrong, it is because we have judged wrongfully, whether it is in regard to what would be considered important matters or concerning the minor matters of life; for we never do anything without thinking and deciding, and exercising our will and judgment. The Savior did nothing but what was in accordance with the will of God. Hence He was righteous and without sin. The reason that we are sinners still is because we do not always do the will of the Lord.
It is not sufficient for the Latter-day Saints to have good professions and to have really entered into the Church of Christ; but it is necessary that they should continue faithful every day, in all matters doing the will of God. The Lord has revealed to us His will, so that no one need be at a loss to know what to do and how to do it, for if there is not enough already revealed, or should we not be where we can refer to the revealed will at all times, we are entitled to the presence and inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord to inform us what to do. If we have not that Spirit, we are not in the line of our duty as Latter-day Saints; we are not serving the Lord and keeping His commandments as perfectly as we can do. We can do these things if we will, and the Lord is an ever present help. Our teachers, our bishops, our presidents of quorums and of Stakes, and the Presidency of the Church, may not always be where we can appeal to them; but our Heavenly Father is always near, we can always appeal to Him, and be sure of getting an answer; because by repenting of our sins and being baptized we have entered into a nearness to Him and have made ourselves entitled to the Spirit of the Lord. If we listen to the promptings of the Spirit of the Lord, we will never give a wrong judgment. Bishops will not give wrong judgments, High Councilors will not, Presidents of Stakes will not, if they are prompted and directed by the Spirit of the Lord. All the mistakes that we make are when we act independently and upon our natural judgment, unenlightened by the Spirit of the Lord. These can be avoided by living so that the inspiration of the Lord may be with us every day. If the Spirit of the Lord dwells richly in our hearts as it should do, we never forget our prayers, and we never forget to worship the Lord on the Sabbath day. We always remember that day to keep it holy. If the Latter-day Saints do not remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, it is because the inspiration of the Lord is not in their hearts as it should be. All Latter-day Saints who neglect to meet to worship the Lord and to partake of the sacrament are not imbued with the spirit of faith. All Latter-day Saints who are not obedient to the requirements of the Gospel are not enjoying the Spirit of the Lord to that degree that they ought to enjoy it. Where there is a lack of harmony, where there is contention and quarreling, it is because the Spirit of the Lord has not had proper sway in the hearts of the parties concerned.
This is the Church of Christ, and our Father has established it. There are perhaps two hundred thousand Latter-day Saints in the world who know this just as well as they know light from darkness. There is no question about it in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints. They have done the will of the Lord and have obtained knowledge that this is the Lord’s work. This being the case, it will be profitable to us as Latter-day Saints to devote our whole time and talents to the accomplishment of the purposes of the Lord and to the establishment of His Church upon the earth. It will be profitable to all Latter-day Saints to make this Church first in their hearts and affections. Why? Because the Lord has told us to seek first the kingdom of God. We have sought the kingdom and have found it and now that should have our attention before farming, before merchandising, and before literary pursuits and the like. The welfare of the Church of Christ in the earth and the spreading abroad of the Gospel should be our primary object. But is this the case with us? If it is not, then we have need for reformation. If the Church of Christ and the principles of righteousness are not foremost in our hearts, then I say all Israel, so far as they lack have need of reformation. If we have set our hearts upon property, whether it be little or much (for I presume a man could worship a little property as well as a great deal), then we are idolaters. He has commanded us not to bow down to worship anything on earth. Every man should feel that the welfare of the Church of Christ and the advancement of the principles of truth among men for their salvation are ahead of his home, of his merchandising, and of his flocks and herds. Let all these be swept away, but let our hearts be set upon the principles of eternal truth.
Should I allow my property to cause alienation to come in between me and my brethren? Suppose a man should ever rob me, and he might be a professed Latter-day Saint. Would he be a brother if he was a robber? I would not care how often he had been baptized, nor what blessings had been placed upon him, if he was a liar, a deceiver and a swindler, he would not be a Latter-day Saint; for I say that a robber and a dishonest man has forfeited his blessings and his right to the Priesthood of God; for the Priesthood of God and its authority can only be controlled upon the principles of righteousness. But suppose a man professing to be a brother should really rob me and leave me without a thing in the world, what should I do? Why, I ought still to serve the Lord and to enjoy the Spirit of the Lord. I ought to have the spirit of charity burning in my bosom. I ought to be able to say that I had not lost the object of my worship in being robbed of my property; for I did not get wisdom, judgment, light and intelligence from my property. It was comfortable to live upon and to make me measurably independent; but my heart was not set upon it. A man never ought to have so much, or so little, nor have it in such a shape or kind, that his heart should or could be set upon it. The hearts of the Latter-day Saints should be upon the principles of salvation. They are far ahead of gold and silver, or of riches of this world. They bring peace and contentment, happiness and salvation, in time and eternity. But the fallen condition that we are in today has its effect upon us. We are so attached to the wealth of the world that we do not so easily discern the riches of eternal life; and when men who are infidels actually deny God and say there is no such person, and ask us if we have seen or talked with Him, we become immeasurably bewildered. Our fallen condition asserts itself because we have set our hearts upon the things of this world, and it is difficult for us, as has been stated by President Smith, to love our enemies. Oh, that we could love our friends! The Lord has said that the very first commandment is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.” How can we learn to love our enemies if we have not first learned to love the Lord our God? I accept the doctrine that this is the very first and greatest commandment. When we have kept that, we will love our enemies, and we will keep the second greatest commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
These are the labors that we have to perform, and they are difficult unless we enjoy the Spirit of the Lord. It cannot be done with the measure of the Spirit that we obtained in the very beginning. For this reason: it takes years of experience, of trial and of effort before a man can submit himself entirely to the Spirit of God. When he has done that, he can love the Lord with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. Would there be any Bishops’ trials, or High Council trials, or would teachers have to labor among us, if we loved our brethren as we love ourselves? No. What man ever had to submit himself to the judgment of his Bishop to make him do right to himself, to love himself, and to feed and clothe himself? You never heard of such a case. Does a man ever have any contention with himself? No. We are always looking out for and defending ourselves. So ought we to defend and speak well of our brother. Just as we love to have our own virtues magnified, so ought we to magnify the virtues of a brother. And so ought we to magnify the virtues of an enemy. Our enemies have virtues. The virtues are not entirely monopolized by the righteous. Our enemies are not altogether wicked. They have some merit and some virtues in them. We ought to discover their virtues, and magnify them, instead of magnifying their sins. We like our own virtues magnified. Every man want to be thought very good. That is natural. But let that same love of approval and of praise be extended to our brother. But do not set your heart upon property. Do not allow yourselves to be alienated from each other and embittered against each other because of property transactions. I would not have an ill feeling against a brother for all that I own on this earth—and I am not very wealthy. Possibly I have not enough to justify me in feeling bad and having a bitter spirit toward a brother. I say that it would be more serious for me to entertain bitterness in my heart toward a brother than to lose every dollar that I have in the world and to be left naked. A man cannot hope to love the Lord and have hatred in his heart toward his brother. We cannot despise or hate a brother and yet hope to enjoy the Spirit of the Lord. It is too sensitive and too easily offended. It is grieved at everything that is wrong. I say, therefore, it takes years for us to learn to subdue ourselves entirely to the Spirit of the Lord. The key to our success, our advancement and our perpetuity in the kingdom of God is the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit. We want to live for that, and to labor for it. And our labors are just as important in temporal matters as in spiritual matters. It is not enough for a man to pray; he must be good and honest to his neighbor. It is just as important to the Lord that I should deal honorably with my neighbor as it is that I should bow the knee before Him and pray. It is just as necessary that I should do right to my brother as it is that I should come here and partake of the sacrament. It is just as necessary that I should deal justly and righteously with my brother and with my neighbor as it is that I should go into the Temple of the Lord to receive blessings there for my salvation. The blessings that we may have given to us in the Temple, or that may be given to us at our baptism and confirmation, are only ours upon the condition that we love the Lord our God with all our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves; yea, that we love our enemies; for we must come to it. President Smith felt that he was improving in some of these things. I presume we all feel that we are improving. The longer we live and the more years of experience we have in these things, the more advancement we make. If we did not, we would be poor scholars indeed.
Then I exhort you, my brethren and sisters, to be faithful, to be humble. Do not neglect any duty that devolves upon you. Whenever you neglect your prayers, you are on dangerous ground. Whenever you neglect to worship the Lord and break the Sabbath day, you are on dangerous ground. Whenever you neglect to deal righteously and honestly by any person in the world, you are on dangerous ground and in danger of falling into the grasp of Satan. You cannot afford to do it. Satan has great power in the world, and he is more anxious about this little body of people gathered in these mountains than any nation on this earth. Why? Because these people have the Priesthood of God; they have the ordinances of the Gospel; they have the power of God for salvation to the world. Hence he is agitated, and he agitates others and stirs them up with prejudice and evil thoughts against the Latter-day Saints. We have the Church of Christ here, and it will remain. You and I may get shaky; we may fall away; but this Church will endure; for it is established and planted here by our Father who is in heaven. It does not depend upon any one man, or any number of men. The Lord has chosen spirits that have come at this time; and they have been sent here for the very work that has to be accomplished. Let us, my brethren and sisters, develop the fact in our lives that we are among those that the Lord has selected to come here and perform His work.
I pray that God may bless you, and that we may be abundantly blessed during this Conference. I pray that the Spirit of the Lord may rest upon President Woodruff abundantly; that the prayers offered for him may be answered, that he may stand up and speak by the power of God to us in this Conference when he feels so to do, and that he may have strength and power to do it. God bless all Israel and help us to be true and faithful to our covenants, that we may obtain salvation, exaltation and eternal life in the presence of God, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference, of the Church in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Saturday Morning, October 7th, 1893, by Elder Francis M. Lyman.
[Reported by Arthur Winter.]
I am very pleased, my brethren and sisters, for the privilege of attending this Conference, and, like all the brethren, I feel that I need the assistance of the Spirit of the Lord or my speaking will not be profitable. We are not given to preparing discourses, but rely upon the Lord to give us those things to say that will be suited to the requirements of the Saints. It is a very delicate position for a man to be placed in to stand between the Lord and the people; but having taken upon us the name of Jesus and entered into covenant with Him to perform the duties required of us as bearers of the Priesthood, we are willing to labor and to give the glory to the Lord. The Gospel is the Gospel of Jesus; it is the Gospel of truth and righteousness, and it is not possible for us to properly preach it without the assistance of the Lord. Nor is it possible for us to live it without the presence of the Holy Ghost. No man can be a successful Latter-day Saint without the Spirit of the Lord. No man can hope to enjoy the Spirit of the Lord unless he keep the commandments of the Lord and preserve himself in all purity and righteousness; for the Spirit of the Lord will not dwell in unholy tabernacles. Hence we are first required to have faith in God. If we have faith in Him, we will then repent of our sins. If we repent of our sins, we will be baptizes for the remission of them; and then our sins are forgiven us and remembered no more against us, so long as we continue faithful; for all the promises made to us in the Gospel are on condition of our faithfulness. Therefore, every Latter-day Saint is competent to sit in judgment upon himself, and to know whether he is in the favor of the Lord or under condemnation. The Lord has ordered that every man should judge for himself, in his own heart, in regard to all the duties of life. As a man thinketh, so he is. As a man decides in his own heart, so he does. If we judge correctly and under the light and inspiration of the Lord, we will always do right. So far as we today are doing wrong, it is because we have judged wrongfully, whether it is in regard to what would be considered important matters or concerning the minor matters of life; for we never do anything without thinking and deciding, and exercising our will and judgment. The Savior did nothing but what was in accordance with the will of God. Hence He was righteous and without sin. The reason that we are sinners still is because we do not always do the will of the Lord.
It is not sufficient for the Latter-day Saints to have good professions and to have really entered into the Church of Christ; but it is necessary that they should continue faithful every day, in all matters doing the will of God. The Lord has revealed to us His will, so that no one need be at a loss to know what to do and how to do it, for if there is not enough already revealed, or should we not be where we can refer to the revealed will at all times, we are entitled to the presence and inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord to inform us what to do. If we have not that Spirit, we are not in the line of our duty as Latter-day Saints; we are not serving the Lord and keeping His commandments as perfectly as we can do. We can do these things if we will, and the Lord is an ever present help. Our teachers, our bishops, our presidents of quorums and of Stakes, and the Presidency of the Church, may not always be where we can appeal to them; but our Heavenly Father is always near, we can always appeal to Him, and be sure of getting an answer; because by repenting of our sins and being baptized we have entered into a nearness to Him and have made ourselves entitled to the Spirit of the Lord. If we listen to the promptings of the Spirit of the Lord, we will never give a wrong judgment. Bishops will not give wrong judgments, High Councilors will not, Presidents of Stakes will not, if they are prompted and directed by the Spirit of the Lord. All the mistakes that we make are when we act independently and upon our natural judgment, unenlightened by the Spirit of the Lord. These can be avoided by living so that the inspiration of the Lord may be with us every day. If the Spirit of the Lord dwells richly in our hearts as it should do, we never forget our prayers, and we never forget to worship the Lord on the Sabbath day. We always remember that day to keep it holy. If the Latter-day Saints do not remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, it is because the inspiration of the Lord is not in their hearts as it should be. All Latter-day Saints who neglect to meet to worship the Lord and to partake of the sacrament are not imbued with the spirit of faith. All Latter-day Saints who are not obedient to the requirements of the Gospel are not enjoying the Spirit of the Lord to that degree that they ought to enjoy it. Where there is a lack of harmony, where there is contention and quarreling, it is because the Spirit of the Lord has not had proper sway in the hearts of the parties concerned.
This is the Church of Christ, and our Father has established it. There are perhaps two hundred thousand Latter-day Saints in the world who know this just as well as they know light from darkness. There is no question about it in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints. They have done the will of the Lord and have obtained knowledge that this is the Lord’s work. This being the case, it will be profitable to us as Latter-day Saints to devote our whole time and talents to the accomplishment of the purposes of the Lord and to the establishment of His Church upon the earth. It will be profitable to all Latter-day Saints to make this Church first in their hearts and affections. Why? Because the Lord has told us to seek first the kingdom of God. We have sought the kingdom and have found it and now that should have our attention before farming, before merchandising, and before literary pursuits and the like. The welfare of the Church of Christ in the earth and the spreading abroad of the Gospel should be our primary object. But is this the case with us? If it is not, then we have need for reformation. If the Church of Christ and the principles of righteousness are not foremost in our hearts, then I say all Israel, so far as they lack have need of reformation. If we have set our hearts upon property, whether it be little or much (for I presume a man could worship a little property as well as a great deal), then we are idolaters. He has commanded us not to bow down to worship anything on earth. Every man should feel that the welfare of the Church of Christ and the advancement of the principles of truth among men for their salvation are ahead of his home, of his merchandising, and of his flocks and herds. Let all these be swept away, but let our hearts be set upon the principles of eternal truth.
Should I allow my property to cause alienation to come in between me and my brethren? Suppose a man should ever rob me, and he might be a professed Latter-day Saint. Would he be a brother if he was a robber? I would not care how often he had been baptized, nor what blessings had been placed upon him, if he was a liar, a deceiver and a swindler, he would not be a Latter-day Saint; for I say that a robber and a dishonest man has forfeited his blessings and his right to the Priesthood of God; for the Priesthood of God and its authority can only be controlled upon the principles of righteousness. But suppose a man professing to be a brother should really rob me and leave me without a thing in the world, what should I do? Why, I ought still to serve the Lord and to enjoy the Spirit of the Lord. I ought to have the spirit of charity burning in my bosom. I ought to be able to say that I had not lost the object of my worship in being robbed of my property; for I did not get wisdom, judgment, light and intelligence from my property. It was comfortable to live upon and to make me measurably independent; but my heart was not set upon it. A man never ought to have so much, or so little, nor have it in such a shape or kind, that his heart should or could be set upon it. The hearts of the Latter-day Saints should be upon the principles of salvation. They are far ahead of gold and silver, or of riches of this world. They bring peace and contentment, happiness and salvation, in time and eternity. But the fallen condition that we are in today has its effect upon us. We are so attached to the wealth of the world that we do not so easily discern the riches of eternal life; and when men who are infidels actually deny God and say there is no such person, and ask us if we have seen or talked with Him, we become immeasurably bewildered. Our fallen condition asserts itself because we have set our hearts upon the things of this world, and it is difficult for us, as has been stated by President Smith, to love our enemies. Oh, that we could love our friends! The Lord has said that the very first commandment is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.” How can we learn to love our enemies if we have not first learned to love the Lord our God? I accept the doctrine that this is the very first and greatest commandment. When we have kept that, we will love our enemies, and we will keep the second greatest commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
These are the labors that we have to perform, and they are difficult unless we enjoy the Spirit of the Lord. It cannot be done with the measure of the Spirit that we obtained in the very beginning. For this reason: it takes years of experience, of trial and of effort before a man can submit himself entirely to the Spirit of God. When he has done that, he can love the Lord with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. Would there be any Bishops’ trials, or High Council trials, or would teachers have to labor among us, if we loved our brethren as we love ourselves? No. What man ever had to submit himself to the judgment of his Bishop to make him do right to himself, to love himself, and to feed and clothe himself? You never heard of such a case. Does a man ever have any contention with himself? No. We are always looking out for and defending ourselves. So ought we to defend and speak well of our brother. Just as we love to have our own virtues magnified, so ought we to magnify the virtues of a brother. And so ought we to magnify the virtues of an enemy. Our enemies have virtues. The virtues are not entirely monopolized by the righteous. Our enemies are not altogether wicked. They have some merit and some virtues in them. We ought to discover their virtues, and magnify them, instead of magnifying their sins. We like our own virtues magnified. Every man want to be thought very good. That is natural. But let that same love of approval and of praise be extended to our brother. But do not set your heart upon property. Do not allow yourselves to be alienated from each other and embittered against each other because of property transactions. I would not have an ill feeling against a brother for all that I own on this earth—and I am not very wealthy. Possibly I have not enough to justify me in feeling bad and having a bitter spirit toward a brother. I say that it would be more serious for me to entertain bitterness in my heart toward a brother than to lose every dollar that I have in the world and to be left naked. A man cannot hope to love the Lord and have hatred in his heart toward his brother. We cannot despise or hate a brother and yet hope to enjoy the Spirit of the Lord. It is too sensitive and too easily offended. It is grieved at everything that is wrong. I say, therefore, it takes years for us to learn to subdue ourselves entirely to the Spirit of the Lord. The key to our success, our advancement and our perpetuity in the kingdom of God is the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit. We want to live for that, and to labor for it. And our labors are just as important in temporal matters as in spiritual matters. It is not enough for a man to pray; he must be good and honest to his neighbor. It is just as important to the Lord that I should deal honorably with my neighbor as it is that I should bow the knee before Him and pray. It is just as necessary that I should do right to my brother as it is that I should come here and partake of the sacrament. It is just as necessary that I should deal justly and righteously with my brother and with my neighbor as it is that I should go into the Temple of the Lord to receive blessings there for my salvation. The blessings that we may have given to us in the Temple, or that may be given to us at our baptism and confirmation, are only ours upon the condition that we love the Lord our God with all our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves; yea, that we love our enemies; for we must come to it. President Smith felt that he was improving in some of these things. I presume we all feel that we are improving. The longer we live and the more years of experience we have in these things, the more advancement we make. If we did not, we would be poor scholars indeed.
Then I exhort you, my brethren and sisters, to be faithful, to be humble. Do not neglect any duty that devolves upon you. Whenever you neglect your prayers, you are on dangerous ground. Whenever you neglect to worship the Lord and break the Sabbath day, you are on dangerous ground. Whenever you neglect to deal righteously and honestly by any person in the world, you are on dangerous ground and in danger of falling into the grasp of Satan. You cannot afford to do it. Satan has great power in the world, and he is more anxious about this little body of people gathered in these mountains than any nation on this earth. Why? Because these people have the Priesthood of God; they have the ordinances of the Gospel; they have the power of God for salvation to the world. Hence he is agitated, and he agitates others and stirs them up with prejudice and evil thoughts against the Latter-day Saints. We have the Church of Christ here, and it will remain. You and I may get shaky; we may fall away; but this Church will endure; for it is established and planted here by our Father who is in heaven. It does not depend upon any one man, or any number of men. The Lord has chosen spirits that have come at this time; and they have been sent here for the very work that has to be accomplished. Let us, my brethren and sisters, develop the fact in our lives that we are among those that the Lord has selected to come here and perform His work.
I pray that God may bless you, and that we may be abundantly blessed during this Conference. I pray that the Spirit of the Lord may rest upon President Woodruff abundantly; that the prayers offered for him may be answered, that he may stand up and speak by the power of God to us in this Conference when he feels so to do, and that he may have strength and power to do it. God bless all Israel and help us to be true and faithful to our covenants, that we may obtain salvation, exaltation and eternal life in the presence of God, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Elder George Teasdale
was the succeeding speaker. He said he had been absent for a good many years, travelling and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, endeavoring to establish new settlements, and therefore had not enjoyed the advantages of hearing the word of God from His inspired servants as had the Saints here, Conference after Conference and Sabbath after Sabbath. But his faith and love for the Gospel of the Son of God were just the same, and as far as he had heard the expressions of his brethren he was in perfect harmony with them. It cost him everything he had to join this Church. His associations, his family relationships and all his future prospects had to be given up when he accepted of this doctrine. But his soul was filled with thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father when his mind was illuminated so that he could understand these things. The speaker could bear his testimony after an experience of over forty years in the ministry, and officiating in the ordinances of the House of the Lord, that this organization called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the Church of the Living God. Who was the Lord our God? He was the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and all that is therein. He was also the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and the whole human family should acknowledge this if the members thereof wanted to be kind to themselves. God was a God of revelation and of miracles, and the Latter-day Saints knew that this great latter-day work was true, because it had been revealed by Him from the heavens.
The speaker invited any strangers who might be present to investigate thoroughly the principles of this the true Gospel, and asked what was the use of men administering in the name of the Lord unless they had the authority from on high to do so. The Elders were sent forth from this Church by divine authority to call the nations to repentance, and he would that the people of the world would throw off their bondage, traditions and superstition and hold communication with the heavens as they all had the most perfect right to do. The people of the world were victims of a false education; they needed to be educated to have full faith in the living God, in the God of revelation and of miracles; to humble themselves and become the meek of the earth if they ever expected to see his face.
Elder Teasdale spoke very briefly upon missionary work in Mexico, where he said they were progressing little by little, the mission being in a better position now than ever before. He prophesied that our Heavenly Father would establish His Church and Kingdom upon the earth in spite of all opposition, and that everything He had predicted by the mouth of His servants the Prophets was going to be fulfilled. In Mexico there were some five settlements, with about 2000 inhabitants. They had Sabbath and day schools and children’s Primary associations there, and everything else in proper order in regard to Mutual Improvement and Ladies’ Relief societies, presided over by excellent and earnest persons. A good fruit cannery had been started there, also a tannery and a grist mill. The people had, however, passed through a great deal of hardship. The dry weather had been a matter of some perplexity, and sometimes they had had but little to eat; still they had not starved to death. The men and women associated together in those settlements felt that that was their particular field of labor, that the Lord desired them to be there; and that was the reason why they remained.
was the succeeding speaker. He said he had been absent for a good many years, travelling and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, endeavoring to establish new settlements, and therefore had not enjoyed the advantages of hearing the word of God from His inspired servants as had the Saints here, Conference after Conference and Sabbath after Sabbath. But his faith and love for the Gospel of the Son of God were just the same, and as far as he had heard the expressions of his brethren he was in perfect harmony with them. It cost him everything he had to join this Church. His associations, his family relationships and all his future prospects had to be given up when he accepted of this doctrine. But his soul was filled with thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father when his mind was illuminated so that he could understand these things. The speaker could bear his testimony after an experience of over forty years in the ministry, and officiating in the ordinances of the House of the Lord, that this organization called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the Church of the Living God. Who was the Lord our God? He was the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and all that is therein. He was also the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and the whole human family should acknowledge this if the members thereof wanted to be kind to themselves. God was a God of revelation and of miracles, and the Latter-day Saints knew that this great latter-day work was true, because it had been revealed by Him from the heavens.
The speaker invited any strangers who might be present to investigate thoroughly the principles of this the true Gospel, and asked what was the use of men administering in the name of the Lord unless they had the authority from on high to do so. The Elders were sent forth from this Church by divine authority to call the nations to repentance, and he would that the people of the world would throw off their bondage, traditions and superstition and hold communication with the heavens as they all had the most perfect right to do. The people of the world were victims of a false education; they needed to be educated to have full faith in the living God, in the God of revelation and of miracles; to humble themselves and become the meek of the earth if they ever expected to see his face.
Elder Teasdale spoke very briefly upon missionary work in Mexico, where he said they were progressing little by little, the mission being in a better position now than ever before. He prophesied that our Heavenly Father would establish His Church and Kingdom upon the earth in spite of all opposition, and that everything He had predicted by the mouth of His servants the Prophets was going to be fulfilled. In Mexico there were some five settlements, with about 2000 inhabitants. They had Sabbath and day schools and children’s Primary associations there, and everything else in proper order in regard to Mutual Improvement and Ladies’ Relief societies, presided over by excellent and earnest persons. A good fruit cannery had been started there, also a tannery and a grist mill. The people had, however, passed through a great deal of hardship. The dry weather had been a matter of some perplexity, and sometimes they had had but little to eat; still they had not starved to death. The men and women associated together in those settlements felt that that was their particular field of labor, that the Lord desired them to be there; and that was the reason why they remained.
Elder Abraham H. Cannon
said that God had commenced a marvelous work and a wonder, and had declared that He would carry it forward in His own way. He did not depend upon the counsels of men for His wisdom, or leave His work in their hands for accomplishment; but He himself directed in all things which pertained to the upbuilding of His Church. He had acted according to the plan which He had designed and had not submitted His purposes for the criticism of mankind.
The speaker believed that in the future, no less than in the past, God would do this. He designed that we should be different men in educational as well as in religious matters from the rest of the world, in financial as well as in social affairs; that in our education we should occupy a higher plane than that which was common in the world. He desired that we should not depend upon the discoveries or inventions of men for our knowledge, but that we should seek and receive from Him that inspiration and revelation which should cause us to see at a glance that which it sometimes took years of study and research on the part of uninspired men to acquire. Men had rejected the true Gospel because of the source from whence it came.
Brigham Young, in founding this Territory, sought the inspiration of the Lord and worked continuously under the influence of the Holy Ghost, and we saw the results of his magnificent labor and of the grand instructions which he was inspired to give. He told the people to pursue a course which was contrary to the judgment of men.
The speaker branched out on the present stringent condition of financial affairs, and said the Saints could not do better than observe strictly every command given them by the servants of God, however much this might conflict with our own ideas of finance, on social or other matters. He did not share in the gloomy forebodings of many persons in relation to the present condition of things, and believed that a brighter future was yet in store, when the clouds which now hung over our heads had passed away.
said that God had commenced a marvelous work and a wonder, and had declared that He would carry it forward in His own way. He did not depend upon the counsels of men for His wisdom, or leave His work in their hands for accomplishment; but He himself directed in all things which pertained to the upbuilding of His Church. He had acted according to the plan which He had designed and had not submitted His purposes for the criticism of mankind.
The speaker believed that in the future, no less than in the past, God would do this. He designed that we should be different men in educational as well as in religious matters from the rest of the world, in financial as well as in social affairs; that in our education we should occupy a higher plane than that which was common in the world. He desired that we should not depend upon the discoveries or inventions of men for our knowledge, but that we should seek and receive from Him that inspiration and revelation which should cause us to see at a glance that which it sometimes took years of study and research on the part of uninspired men to acquire. Men had rejected the true Gospel because of the source from whence it came.
Brigham Young, in founding this Territory, sought the inspiration of the Lord and worked continuously under the influence of the Holy Ghost, and we saw the results of his magnificent labor and of the grand instructions which he was inspired to give. He told the people to pursue a course which was contrary to the judgment of men.
The speaker branched out on the present stringent condition of financial affairs, and said the Saints could not do better than observe strictly every command given them by the servants of God, however much this might conflict with our own ideas of finance, on social or other matters. He did not share in the gloomy forebodings of many persons in relation to the present condition of things, and believed that a brighter future was yet in store, when the clouds which now hung over our heads had passed away.
Divine Inspiration
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference, of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Saturday Morning, October 7th, 1893, by
Elder Abraham H. Cannon
[Reported by Arthur Winter.]
I hope and pray, my brethren and sisters, that while I occupy this position for a few moments I may have an interest in your prayers and faith, that what I say may be that which the Lord desires to have said.
The Gospel which we have received, as all must know who have listened to the remarks of the brethren during this Conference, teaches us different principles and different ways of doing things than are generally known to the people of the world. God has commenced a marvelous work and a wonder, and He has said that He will carry it forward in His own way. He does not depend upon the counsels of men for His wisdom. He does not leave His work in the hands of men for its accomplishment. But He directs in all things which pertain to the upbuilding of His Church. He has said through one of His prophets. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We have seen this exemplified in all the course of the Latter-day Saints, from the organization of the Church until the present day. It was not according to the ideas and ways of men that God established His Church and revealed the Gospel which we have received. He did it in His own way; and in the carrying forward of that work He has acted according to the plan which He designed, and has not submitted His purposes for the criticism of men. I believe that in the future, no less than in the past, God will do this. He designs that we shall be different to men in educational matters as well as in religious matters in financial as well as in social affairs. He designs that in our education we shall occupy a higher plan to that which is common in the world; that we shall not depend alone upon the discoveries and inventions of mankind for our knowledge, but that we shall seek to receive from Him that inspiration and revelation which shall make us grasp in a moment that which it sometimes takes years of study and research on the part of uninspired men to acquire.
God has shown us, so far as we have gone in His work, that He is perfectly capable of pointing out to us truths which the human family, even after fifty years’ announcement by the Elders of this Church, have not yet understood. Take, for instance, the Book of Mormon—a revelation giving knowledge to this people concerning the inhabitants of this land; telling of their forefathers, of the cause of the dark skins which they have, and of their destiny; describing the country which we inhabit and the travels of the people who built these great cities in the south, the ruins of which we find almost everywhere in the southern part of this continent. This truth the people of the world are only beginning now to verify through their explorations and their study; and every discovery which they make, every truth which they accept, is only a further evidence of the divine source from which this sacred record came. God has revealed this truth to the children of men; but they have rejected it, because of the source whence it came, and because of the bearers of this great historical record to the people of the earth.
God will open the heavens to His servants, if they will seek Him in faith. I believe it is the duty of the teachers of the youth of Israel, not alone to teach from the text books which are provided for the school, but to have their minds continually open to the impressions of the Holy Spirit, that when they speak to their pupils they may speak by the Spirit of God. I do not feel that a man or a woman who occupies the position of teacher among the youth of Israel is filling the position in its completeness who does not teach by the spirit and inspiration of Almighty God. The Bible itself is even now a book of science and revelation to the world, notwithstanding all the advancement we have made thus far in science and in art. It speaks there of the rotundity of the earth—a truth which was rejected in ancient times. In that book which was written so many centuries ago, we read of God having given to the air its weight; but not until Torricelli announced to the world that the air had weight would the people accept it. We read in this sacred book that the promise to Abraham was that his seed should be as the stars of heaven, innumerable; and yet in early days people ridiculed the expression, because it was announced to the world that there were only some one thousand stars in the heavens above us, and if his seed was to be limited to this small number it was no very great promise. But through the discoveries of the telescope it is revealed to us that the heavens are beset with the workmanship of our God, and the truth which Joseph Smith announced in one of the revelations, that there is no space in which there is no world, is verified by the discoveries which have been made through the inventions of modern times.
Now it is said that in one system along, which we can see by means of the telescope, there are at least eighteen millions of worlds like this upon which we stand! And of systems there is no end.
God spoke by His Spirit through the holy men of old, and thus revealed truths which it will take the people of the world many years yet to discover by their slow processes of study and research. He intends to speak to this people and reveal to them scientific truths, as He has religious—truths which the world will not readily accept; and it will take years for them to be brought to the knowledge of that which God will reveal instantly to His servants who will seek knowledge from this source.
I believe that in every affair of life it is our privilege to have the guidance of the Spirit of God. Brigham Young, in founding this Territory, sought the inspiration of the Lord and worked continually under the influence of the Holy Ghost. We see the results of his magnificent labor and his grand instructions which He was inspired to give. He told the people to pursue a course which was contrary to the judgment of men. You older people will remember how it was in the early settlement of this valley. When the gold excitement was raised in California he counseled the Saints not to leave these valleys, forbidding as they were, to which God had led them, and he promised that those who would remain should receive a richer reward than those who sought their fortunes in the golden west. The results proved the truth of his prediction; for those who remained not only prospered in their temporal affairs, but their spiritual strength increased. Many of those who left this land and went west lost their faith, or wavered in the truth, the people who remained here, pinched by hardship, tried by adversity, were stronger in their faith and in the Lord, and they today are numbered among the rich and wealthy among the people of God. He told the Saints again that they should not engage in mining. He told them that the basis of their prosperity was the cultivation of the soil and the manufacture of those things necessary for their sustenance. The principle revealed in the Doctrine and Covenants was made expressive in the midst of the people of God, and they were advised to have the beauty of their apparel the workmanship of their own hands. The results of the counsel which God gave through His servants in those times. For while the mines have been opened, and I am thankful to the Lord for the wealth they have yielded for the benefit of the people, we find today that the prosperous people of this Territory are those who have devoted themselves to the cultivation of the soil and who have sought to produce, according to the ability which God has given them, that which they needed for the sustenance of themselves and their families.
A few weeks ago I supposed in my ignorance that nearly all the Latter-day Saints were in a species of bondage, through their indebtedness. I thought that almost every farm in the Territory was mortgaged, and almost every home possessed by the Latter-day Saints was obligated to some person or firm, because of the indebtedness of the owner. But within a few days I have had this illusion dispelled, and I am happy to say that the condition of the Latter-day Saints is not by any means as bad as I supposed it was. The census bulletin of the government of the United States which was recently issued concerning this Territory, shows how wise and far-seeing was the prophet of God in counseling the people to take the course which he suggested, because it shows that of farm population of this Territory there are out of every one hundred families eighty-six that own unencumbered the land upon which they dwell and the houses that they occupy; five out of every hundred occupy encumbered possessions; while only nine out of every hundred families who are living upon farms are tenants. You go from the farms into the villages and towns of the people, compare their condition with that of the farming population, and you will find that out of every hundred families who have their homes int he country, without owning the farms, there are fifty-six families only that own their homes, while five own homes encumbered, and thirty-nine rent the places they occupy. Then you come into Ogden and Salt Lake City—the only cities mentioned in this census—and we find there the happy condition of the farming people reversed. In this city and Ogden, out of every hundred families occupying homes there are only thirty-two who own unencumbered the homes in which they dwell; nine out of every hundred have mortgages upon their residences; while the remaining fifty-nine hire the places in which they live. Now you see how it is. People in the country have not the temptations to extravagance which are presented daily to those who live in the cities.
They have not encumbered themselves and they are comparatively free. They can go to bed at night knowing that the roof that covers them is their own. The labor that they expend upon their home is for their own benefit. On the morrow they cannot be thrust out into the world without home or possession. It is theirs. People should be happy who have their homes in this condition, and they should seek to pursue such a course that they will not lose possession of their lands; but bring them up to the highest possible state of cultivation, make them places of beauty, and use the energies and talents which God has given them for the benefit of themselves and those who are dependent upon them.
I say that herein we can see how God has inspired His servants to teach the people; and though at times they have not understood the wisdom concealed in the counsel that has been given, yet in following strictly that counsel they have found blessing and profit. Take, for instance, the principle of tithing. If you announced that to the world and asked them to observe it, would they not consider it one of the most burdensome taxes that could inflicted upon them? Yet every Latter-day Saint is my witness that those who follow strictly this law of tithing among the people of God do not find it a burden, but rather find it a temporal as well as a spiritual blessing; for their property has been abundantly blessed, so that they have not missed the tithing which they have given to the work of the Lord. Take, again, the missionaries which we send into the world. If a man in the world was called to leave his business for two years or more to preach the Gospel, he would think it was ruinous to all his temporal affairs. But here are Elders who go out and spend year after year, and the very man who have spent the most time in the missionary field, and who stand at the head of the Church today, are the men who are the most prosperous and the most free from debt. And so the Lord will show forth the wisdom of the course which He presents to the people through the results which follow the efforts of the Latter-day Saints. We can do no better than to observe strictly every command that is given us by the servants of the Lord, however much they may conflict with our present ideas and God will bless us in pursuing this course. We have before us the promises of great blessings. Only yesterday we had announced from this stand a prophecy in which all of us can take comfort—that we should come out of our present troubles with more credit and in a better financial condition than we have ever yet seen. I know men around me—and I have shared int he feeling myself—who have considered with horror the thought that our names were to be dishonored, our credit ruined, because, perhaps through our lack of wisdom or from some other cause, we have involved ourselves in debts which it seemed we would be unable to pay. We have thought this the greatest trial of our lives, because we are in the midst of it. We thought at one time the greatest trial was that which sent our brethren to prison, exiled our families, and scattered them here and there on the face of the earth without any human prospect of their ever again being gathered together, or of our being permitted to see on these stands the men whom we honored as the leaders of God’s people on the earth. Yet out of that dark cloud the Lord has brought the glorious light of His Spirit, and today we are enjoying greater freedom and greater blessings that any we have had for many years. So I believe He will yet bring us out of our present troubles with no loss of honor. I testify that the prophecy which was uttered yesterday is the word of the Lord; for every man who will serve God and hold in his heart the influence of His Spirit will come out of these troubles and these seeming disasters brighter and clearer and better for the experience through which he has been called to pass. It is just as possible for God to do this, with all the darkness which appears before us, as it was for God through his servant to tell the widow who went out to gather sticks that she might bake a cake with which to feed herself and son once more before they died, and who out of that gave to the prophet, that her barrel of meal should not waste nor the cruse of oil fail until the earth brought forth again in its abundance. So it will be in this case. The famine for money which has spread over us and the lack of things which seem necessary for our prosperity, God will supply in one of the many ways which it is possible for Him to adopt to bring about salvation, temporally and eternally, to His children upon the earth. Amen.
When the soul is sad and dreary,
Seek relief in prayer,
was sung by the choir.
Benediction by Patriarch John Smith.
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference, of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Saturday Morning, October 7th, 1893, by
Elder Abraham H. Cannon
[Reported by Arthur Winter.]
I hope and pray, my brethren and sisters, that while I occupy this position for a few moments I may have an interest in your prayers and faith, that what I say may be that which the Lord desires to have said.
The Gospel which we have received, as all must know who have listened to the remarks of the brethren during this Conference, teaches us different principles and different ways of doing things than are generally known to the people of the world. God has commenced a marvelous work and a wonder, and He has said that He will carry it forward in His own way. He does not depend upon the counsels of men for His wisdom. He does not leave His work in the hands of men for its accomplishment. But He directs in all things which pertain to the upbuilding of His Church. He has said through one of His prophets. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We have seen this exemplified in all the course of the Latter-day Saints, from the organization of the Church until the present day. It was not according to the ideas and ways of men that God established His Church and revealed the Gospel which we have received. He did it in His own way; and in the carrying forward of that work He has acted according to the plan which He designed, and has not submitted His purposes for the criticism of men. I believe that in the future, no less than in the past, God will do this. He designs that we shall be different to men in educational matters as well as in religious matters in financial as well as in social affairs. He designs that in our education we shall occupy a higher plan to that which is common in the world; that we shall not depend alone upon the discoveries and inventions of mankind for our knowledge, but that we shall seek to receive from Him that inspiration and revelation which shall make us grasp in a moment that which it sometimes takes years of study and research on the part of uninspired men to acquire.
God has shown us, so far as we have gone in His work, that He is perfectly capable of pointing out to us truths which the human family, even after fifty years’ announcement by the Elders of this Church, have not yet understood. Take, for instance, the Book of Mormon—a revelation giving knowledge to this people concerning the inhabitants of this land; telling of their forefathers, of the cause of the dark skins which they have, and of their destiny; describing the country which we inhabit and the travels of the people who built these great cities in the south, the ruins of which we find almost everywhere in the southern part of this continent. This truth the people of the world are only beginning now to verify through their explorations and their study; and every discovery which they make, every truth which they accept, is only a further evidence of the divine source from which this sacred record came. God has revealed this truth to the children of men; but they have rejected it, because of the source whence it came, and because of the bearers of this great historical record to the people of the earth.
God will open the heavens to His servants, if they will seek Him in faith. I believe it is the duty of the teachers of the youth of Israel, not alone to teach from the text books which are provided for the school, but to have their minds continually open to the impressions of the Holy Spirit, that when they speak to their pupils they may speak by the Spirit of God. I do not feel that a man or a woman who occupies the position of teacher among the youth of Israel is filling the position in its completeness who does not teach by the spirit and inspiration of Almighty God. The Bible itself is even now a book of science and revelation to the world, notwithstanding all the advancement we have made thus far in science and in art. It speaks there of the rotundity of the earth—a truth which was rejected in ancient times. In that book which was written so many centuries ago, we read of God having given to the air its weight; but not until Torricelli announced to the world that the air had weight would the people accept it. We read in this sacred book that the promise to Abraham was that his seed should be as the stars of heaven, innumerable; and yet in early days people ridiculed the expression, because it was announced to the world that there were only some one thousand stars in the heavens above us, and if his seed was to be limited to this small number it was no very great promise. But through the discoveries of the telescope it is revealed to us that the heavens are beset with the workmanship of our God, and the truth which Joseph Smith announced in one of the revelations, that there is no space in which there is no world, is verified by the discoveries which have been made through the inventions of modern times.
Now it is said that in one system along, which we can see by means of the telescope, there are at least eighteen millions of worlds like this upon which we stand! And of systems there is no end.
God spoke by His Spirit through the holy men of old, and thus revealed truths which it will take the people of the world many years yet to discover by their slow processes of study and research. He intends to speak to this people and reveal to them scientific truths, as He has religious—truths which the world will not readily accept; and it will take years for them to be brought to the knowledge of that which God will reveal instantly to His servants who will seek knowledge from this source.
I believe that in every affair of life it is our privilege to have the guidance of the Spirit of God. Brigham Young, in founding this Territory, sought the inspiration of the Lord and worked continually under the influence of the Holy Ghost. We see the results of his magnificent labor and his grand instructions which He was inspired to give. He told the people to pursue a course which was contrary to the judgment of men. You older people will remember how it was in the early settlement of this valley. When the gold excitement was raised in California he counseled the Saints not to leave these valleys, forbidding as they were, to which God had led them, and he promised that those who would remain should receive a richer reward than those who sought their fortunes in the golden west. The results proved the truth of his prediction; for those who remained not only prospered in their temporal affairs, but their spiritual strength increased. Many of those who left this land and went west lost their faith, or wavered in the truth, the people who remained here, pinched by hardship, tried by adversity, were stronger in their faith and in the Lord, and they today are numbered among the rich and wealthy among the people of God. He told the Saints again that they should not engage in mining. He told them that the basis of their prosperity was the cultivation of the soil and the manufacture of those things necessary for their sustenance. The principle revealed in the Doctrine and Covenants was made expressive in the midst of the people of God, and they were advised to have the beauty of their apparel the workmanship of their own hands. The results of the counsel which God gave through His servants in those times. For while the mines have been opened, and I am thankful to the Lord for the wealth they have yielded for the benefit of the people, we find today that the prosperous people of this Territory are those who have devoted themselves to the cultivation of the soil and who have sought to produce, according to the ability which God has given them, that which they needed for the sustenance of themselves and their families.
A few weeks ago I supposed in my ignorance that nearly all the Latter-day Saints were in a species of bondage, through their indebtedness. I thought that almost every farm in the Territory was mortgaged, and almost every home possessed by the Latter-day Saints was obligated to some person or firm, because of the indebtedness of the owner. But within a few days I have had this illusion dispelled, and I am happy to say that the condition of the Latter-day Saints is not by any means as bad as I supposed it was. The census bulletin of the government of the United States which was recently issued concerning this Territory, shows how wise and far-seeing was the prophet of God in counseling the people to take the course which he suggested, because it shows that of farm population of this Territory there are out of every one hundred families eighty-six that own unencumbered the land upon which they dwell and the houses that they occupy; five out of every hundred occupy encumbered possessions; while only nine out of every hundred families who are living upon farms are tenants. You go from the farms into the villages and towns of the people, compare their condition with that of the farming population, and you will find that out of every hundred families who have their homes int he country, without owning the farms, there are fifty-six families only that own their homes, while five own homes encumbered, and thirty-nine rent the places they occupy. Then you come into Ogden and Salt Lake City—the only cities mentioned in this census—and we find there the happy condition of the farming people reversed. In this city and Ogden, out of every hundred families occupying homes there are only thirty-two who own unencumbered the homes in which they dwell; nine out of every hundred have mortgages upon their residences; while the remaining fifty-nine hire the places in which they live. Now you see how it is. People in the country have not the temptations to extravagance which are presented daily to those who live in the cities.
They have not encumbered themselves and they are comparatively free. They can go to bed at night knowing that the roof that covers them is their own. The labor that they expend upon their home is for their own benefit. On the morrow they cannot be thrust out into the world without home or possession. It is theirs. People should be happy who have their homes in this condition, and they should seek to pursue such a course that they will not lose possession of their lands; but bring them up to the highest possible state of cultivation, make them places of beauty, and use the energies and talents which God has given them for the benefit of themselves and those who are dependent upon them.
I say that herein we can see how God has inspired His servants to teach the people; and though at times they have not understood the wisdom concealed in the counsel that has been given, yet in following strictly that counsel they have found blessing and profit. Take, for instance, the principle of tithing. If you announced that to the world and asked them to observe it, would they not consider it one of the most burdensome taxes that could inflicted upon them? Yet every Latter-day Saint is my witness that those who follow strictly this law of tithing among the people of God do not find it a burden, but rather find it a temporal as well as a spiritual blessing; for their property has been abundantly blessed, so that they have not missed the tithing which they have given to the work of the Lord. Take, again, the missionaries which we send into the world. If a man in the world was called to leave his business for two years or more to preach the Gospel, he would think it was ruinous to all his temporal affairs. But here are Elders who go out and spend year after year, and the very man who have spent the most time in the missionary field, and who stand at the head of the Church today, are the men who are the most prosperous and the most free from debt. And so the Lord will show forth the wisdom of the course which He presents to the people through the results which follow the efforts of the Latter-day Saints. We can do no better than to observe strictly every command that is given us by the servants of the Lord, however much they may conflict with our present ideas and God will bless us in pursuing this course. We have before us the promises of great blessings. Only yesterday we had announced from this stand a prophecy in which all of us can take comfort—that we should come out of our present troubles with more credit and in a better financial condition than we have ever yet seen. I know men around me—and I have shared int he feeling myself—who have considered with horror the thought that our names were to be dishonored, our credit ruined, because, perhaps through our lack of wisdom or from some other cause, we have involved ourselves in debts which it seemed we would be unable to pay. We have thought this the greatest trial of our lives, because we are in the midst of it. We thought at one time the greatest trial was that which sent our brethren to prison, exiled our families, and scattered them here and there on the face of the earth without any human prospect of their ever again being gathered together, or of our being permitted to see on these stands the men whom we honored as the leaders of God’s people on the earth. Yet out of that dark cloud the Lord has brought the glorious light of His Spirit, and today we are enjoying greater freedom and greater blessings that any we have had for many years. So I believe He will yet bring us out of our present troubles with no loss of honor. I testify that the prophecy which was uttered yesterday is the word of the Lord; for every man who will serve God and hold in his heart the influence of His Spirit will come out of these troubles and these seeming disasters brighter and clearer and better for the experience through which he has been called to pass. It is just as possible for God to do this, with all the darkness which appears before us, as it was for God through his servant to tell the widow who went out to gather sticks that she might bake a cake with which to feed herself and son once more before they died, and who out of that gave to the prophet, that her barrel of meal should not waste nor the cruse of oil fail until the earth brought forth again in its abundance. So it will be in this case. The famine for money which has spread over us and the lack of things which seem necessary for our prosperity, God will supply in one of the many ways which it is possible for Him to adopt to bring about salvation, temporally and eternally, to His children upon the earth. Amen.
When the soul is sad and dreary,
Seek relief in prayer,
was sung by the choir.
Benediction by Patriarch John Smith.
Afternoon Session.
Singing by the choir:
Hark! Listen to the trumpeters!
They sound for volunteers;
On Zion’s bright and flowery mount,
Behold the officers.
Prayer by Elder Angus M. Cannon.
Singing:
Captain of Israel’s host and guide
Of all who seek the land above,
Beneath the shadow we abide--
The cloud of Thy protecting love.
A number of reports were read by
Singing by the choir:
Hark! Listen to the trumpeters!
They sound for volunteers;
On Zion’s bright and flowery mount,
Behold the officers.
Prayer by Elder Angus M. Cannon.
Singing:
Captain of Israel’s host and guide
Of all who seek the land above,
Beneath the shadow we abide--
The cloud of Thy protecting love.
A number of reports were read by
President Geo. Q. Cannon:
Report of Karl G. Maeser, superintendent of the
CHURCH SCHOOLS,
Addressed to President Wilford Woodruff, president of the General Board. It contained, among other information, the following: Students—male 3035, females 2459; total 5484. Grades—Primary department 932, preparatory 1218, intermediate 1965, commercial 101, academic 376, normal 952; total 5484.
There had been laboring in the Church schools during this year 128 regular and 26 special teachers; total, 154. Besides these 26 specialists the regular teachers were reported as 4 holding academic diplomas, 47 certificates and 77 licenses.
PRIMARY ASSOCIATIONS.
The annual report of the associations, for the year ending Aug. 31, 1893, showed: Number 412, members 29,282, average attendance 12,565, regular meetings held 8708, officers 483, conferences 157, fairs 25, entertainments 218.
THE AUTHORITIES
of the Church were presented by President George Q. Cannon for the votes of the assembly, as follows:
Wilford Woodruff, as Prophet, Seer and Revelator and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in all the world.
George Q. Cannon as First Counselor in the First Presidency.
Joseph F. Smith as Second Counselor in the First Presidency.
Lorenzo Snow as President of the Twelve Apostles.
As members of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles—Lorenzo Snow, Franklin D. Richards, Brigham Young, Moses Thatcher, Francis M. Lyman, John Henry Smith, George Teasdale, Heber J. Grant, John W. Taylor, Marriner W. Merrill, Anthon H. Lund and Abraham H. Cannon
The Counselors in the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles as Prophets, Seers and Revelators.
Patriarch to the Church—John Smith.
First Seven Presidents of the Seventies—Seymour B. Young, C. D. Fjeldstead, John Morgan, B. H. Roberts, George Reynolds, Jonathan G. Kimball and Rulon S. Wells.
William B. Preston as Presiding Bishop, with Robert T. Burton as his First and John R. Winder as his Second Counselor.
Franklin D. Richards as Church Historian and General Church Recorder, and John Jaques as his assistant.
As the Church Board of Education; Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, George Q. Cannon, Karl G. Maeser, Willard Young, George W. Thatcher, Anthon H. Lund, James Sharp and Joseph F. Smith.
As Trustee in Trust to the body of religious worshipers known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—Wilford Woodruff.
John Nicholson as Clerk of the General Conference.
All the voting was unanimous.
Report of Karl G. Maeser, superintendent of the
CHURCH SCHOOLS,
Addressed to President Wilford Woodruff, president of the General Board. It contained, among other information, the following: Students—male 3035, females 2459; total 5484. Grades—Primary department 932, preparatory 1218, intermediate 1965, commercial 101, academic 376, normal 952; total 5484.
There had been laboring in the Church schools during this year 128 regular and 26 special teachers; total, 154. Besides these 26 specialists the regular teachers were reported as 4 holding academic diplomas, 47 certificates and 77 licenses.
PRIMARY ASSOCIATIONS.
The annual report of the associations, for the year ending Aug. 31, 1893, showed: Number 412, members 29,282, average attendance 12,565, regular meetings held 8708, officers 483, conferences 157, fairs 25, entertainments 218.
THE AUTHORITIES
of the Church were presented by President George Q. Cannon for the votes of the assembly, as follows:
Wilford Woodruff, as Prophet, Seer and Revelator and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in all the world.
George Q. Cannon as First Counselor in the First Presidency.
Joseph F. Smith as Second Counselor in the First Presidency.
Lorenzo Snow as President of the Twelve Apostles.
As members of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles—Lorenzo Snow, Franklin D. Richards, Brigham Young, Moses Thatcher, Francis M. Lyman, John Henry Smith, George Teasdale, Heber J. Grant, John W. Taylor, Marriner W. Merrill, Anthon H. Lund and Abraham H. Cannon
The Counselors in the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles as Prophets, Seers and Revelators.
Patriarch to the Church—John Smith.
First Seven Presidents of the Seventies—Seymour B. Young, C. D. Fjeldstead, John Morgan, B. H. Roberts, George Reynolds, Jonathan G. Kimball and Rulon S. Wells.
William B. Preston as Presiding Bishop, with Robert T. Burton as his First and John R. Winder as his Second Counselor.
Franklin D. Richards as Church Historian and General Church Recorder, and John Jaques as his assistant.
As the Church Board of Education; Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, George Q. Cannon, Karl G. Maeser, Willard Young, George W. Thatcher, Anthon H. Lund, James Sharp and Joseph F. Smith.
As Trustee in Trust to the body of religious worshipers known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—Wilford Woodruff.
John Nicholson as Clerk of the General Conference.
All the voting was unanimous.
Elder Brigham Young
addressed the Conference. He spoke upon the evidences of the growth of the Saints in godliness, in knowledge, in depth of sympathy and breadth of views. This development was in harmony with the Gospel of Christ, which was broad as eternity. Fighting our enemies was no part of the labor of the people of God. The chief contention of each individual Saint was with himself, in overcoming his own weaknesses. A portion of the discourse was devoted to describing the virtues of the late President Young and the veterans who had sustained him in accomplishing what he did under the inspiration of the Almighty. The men now at our head were worthy of all confidence, and their counsels should be reverently regarded and acted upon. The speaker urged his hearers to be diligent in the detailed performance of every day duties. Nothing in that line was too small to be well and faithfully performed. This applied to matters that were called temporal as well as to spiritual concerns. He also gave some practical views in relation to the cultivation of the soil. He continued at some length, giving instructions that, if carried out could not fail to result in material benefit to the people.
addressed the Conference. He spoke upon the evidences of the growth of the Saints in godliness, in knowledge, in depth of sympathy and breadth of views. This development was in harmony with the Gospel of Christ, which was broad as eternity. Fighting our enemies was no part of the labor of the people of God. The chief contention of each individual Saint was with himself, in overcoming his own weaknesses. A portion of the discourse was devoted to describing the virtues of the late President Young and the veterans who had sustained him in accomplishing what he did under the inspiration of the Almighty. The men now at our head were worthy of all confidence, and their counsels should be reverently regarded and acted upon. The speaker urged his hearers to be diligent in the detailed performance of every day duties. Nothing in that line was too small to be well and faithfully performed. This applied to matters that were called temporal as well as to spiritual concerns. He also gave some practical views in relation to the cultivation of the soil. He continued at some length, giving instructions that, if carried out could not fail to result in material benefit to the people.
Elder Moses Thatcher
first touched on the subject of sacrifice, and instanced some of the sacrifices which had been made by this people. He next dwelt upon the changed feeling which had taken place towards them during the last few years, making mention of the cordial greetings which the First Presidency and the Tabernacle choir received on the recent visit to Chicago. The financial outlook came in for review, the speaker expressing the opinion that in the matter one extreme would follow another. He advised the people to pay their debts, both principal and interest, as soon as they could and so extricate themselves from a weighty burden. The speaker inveighed against the accumulation of wealth to the exclusion of higher things, advocated the promotion of home industries, and said he was thankful that, throughout the recent trying times, not one of Salt Lake’s institutions had been pressed to the wall. He predicted brighter times in the near future and said let us not do anything in our distress that will alienate our friends from us.
first touched on the subject of sacrifice, and instanced some of the sacrifices which had been made by this people. He next dwelt upon the changed feeling which had taken place towards them during the last few years, making mention of the cordial greetings which the First Presidency and the Tabernacle choir received on the recent visit to Chicago. The financial outlook came in for review, the speaker expressing the opinion that in the matter one extreme would follow another. He advised the people to pay their debts, both principal and interest, as soon as they could and so extricate themselves from a weighty burden. The speaker inveighed against the accumulation of wealth to the exclusion of higher things, advocated the promotion of home industries, and said he was thankful that, throughout the recent trying times, not one of Salt Lake’s institutions had been pressed to the wall. He predicted brighter times in the near future and said let us not do anything in our distress that will alienate our friends from us.
The Bondage of Debt.
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference, of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Saturday Afternoon, October 7th, 1893, by Elder Moses Thatcher.
[Reported by Arthur Winter.]
The words to which I have listened during this Conference appear to me to be opportune and suited to the needs of the people. I have nothing specially resting upon my mind upon which to speak during the brief time I may occupy; but I have noticed that as the pendulum swings to the right so it must swing back again to the left, if the clock continues to do its duty; or if it swings to the left it must swing back again to the right; and thus extremes follow each other. It is written that “sacrifice brings forth blessings.” Three years ago the Latter-day Saints laid a great sacrifice upon the altar of their consciences, for when the Manifesto was then read in this building many men and women with aching hearts voted for it. However much the world may have thought us mistaken, there had been ties formed that were sacred to the heart of many a father and mother. Upon the brow of their children at no time had appeared the blush of shame. But the pendulum had gone far in the direction of oppression. It was useless to argue with prejudice dark as midnight. It was useless to supplicate at the feet of cruelty, for the public mind was wrought up to such an extent that it demanded a sacrifice unparalleled in the history of the world. That sacrifice was given. And all around us we see today the blessings that have followed. Yet had it been left to this people to have decided the time and place wherein and when such an announcement should be made, we possibly would have been until today in doubt. Some said it was too late; others said it came too soon. But we, having a man of God standing at our head able to communicate with Jehovah, he noted the time and fixed the place, and the results are before us. Before Grant stated that “the American people are a generous people.” And so I state. They are a broad-minded people. They have build upon the broad foundations of human liberty. But they like others when prejudiced are blind. Give prejudice play among this people, and we have not wisdom; for they go not hand in hand. Witness the recent trip of the First Presidency, allusion to which has been made. A perfect ovation! Where they had been hated and despised before, honor was done and every courtesy extended to them. Is not this one of the blessings that have followed that great sacrifice? Listen to the sweet singing of our choir and note the homage done them. See the impression made upon the hearts of thousands of people by the revelation contained in that beautiful hymn, “O, my Father.” Why, when a certain train left Utah and passed through the before intolerant State of Missouri, it was difficult to state for whom the cries of the people were loudest, Grover Cleveland or Utah. Who brought about this change, and caused men of the world to grasp the hand of our venerable President, and from the inmost depths of their hearts desire God’s blessing upon him? That which was despised has been exalted, and the Joseph that was cast into the dungeon wrongfully accused by Potiphar’s harlot wife, who took from his shoulder the garment of innocence and laid it at the feet of her husband with accusations—I say Joseph the innocent who was thrust into the jail, while guarding the honor of Potiphar’s house, has been called out of the dungeon, and if he does not wear the golden chain of honor today, he will wear it in the future, and he will wear the signet ring, too, and will yet ride in one of the first chariots of the land, honored, glorified, and the magnanimous savior of his brethren and father’s house, with his hand against anarchy and misrule in every land and clime. God will raise up this people. He having permitted them to be trodden down, He now will exalt them. I rejoice in the words of encouragement offered yesterday by President George Q. Cannon. I, too, bear testimony that the clouds will break away.
But as we have learned by the experience of our trials in the past, in reference to the Manifesto, in reference to the political division of the people, so let us learn, my brethren and sisters, wisdom by what is occurring around us day by day. Money has been scarce. A man being worth a thousand dollars and owing a hundred dollars, if he was pushed might have to sacrifice all he had to meet that obligation. One extreme will follow another; and unfortunate is he who, through untoward circumstances, has had to create obligations at high rates of interest; for when the panic has passed by, those who have money in abundance in the East will not find it so easy to place it again among the people. Those who have had their fingers burned; industries that were paying more in interest than they could produce, will withdraw themselves from the productive fields and the result will be, if I can read the future, that one extreme in this also will follow another. Money today in New York at call is bringing but one to two per cent per annum, however scarce and high it may be here. They are not offering it to the people on time loans, because they are waiting for the action of Congress. Whatever action Congress may take, those who hold the money will desire again to throw it out among the people and when that desire comes strongly upon them they will throw it out upon securities that they would not today look at at all. I have had but one advice to give to people, and that is, pay your debts as soon as you can, both principal and interest. Pay every farthing; give the pound of flesh if it is required. But remember that the power of money is not a natural power. It has force only in legal enactment. Unlike the tree that produces the fruit, unlike the germ in the grain of wheat, it is dead except it is given power by legislation.
We speak of the interest on money. Really there is no such thing as interest on money. It is the rent of the land or of the house that you occupy, if the money is invested in land or in the house. The farmer borrows today, we will say a thousand dollars. He does not put it in the safety vault and lock it up. He does not put it in his stocking and bury it. If he does, at the expiration of the year, if thieves have not broken through and stolen, it is just the thousand dollars that he borrowed; it has not increased a single farthing. But if he takes that thousand dollars and puts it in land which with his labor produces a thousand bushels of wheat, what is the result? Two hundred bushels of that wheat, at prices ruling today, are needed to meet, not the principal, but the interest. One fifth part of his labor meets the interest, so called, of money, but really meets the rent upon his land; for money produces nothing. You may lock up a hundred million of dollars for a thousand years, and when you bring it out it will be no more, no less. The manufacturer borrows a hundred thousand dollars at ten per cent interest per annum. For what purpose does he borrow it? If in the manufacture of his goods last year he found no market that was remunerative, he borrows the money to pay his obligations, in order that he may hold his goods until he finds a better and advanced market; and if he finds not that better and advanced market; and if he finds not that better and advanced market, he borrows again—or goes into bankruptcy. It is, then, his goods that produce the income or the rent on the money.
Careful reading of history discloses this fact beyond any question: that as money receives its power through legislation, so from the beginning of time that legislation has been in the interest of those that accumulate, rather than in the interest of those who produce the wealth of the world. At the close of the war we owed nearly four billions of dollars, bringing ten per cent per annum. What did it mean to pay interest on it annually? At the price of wheat this year it would require eight hundred millions of bushels of wheat annually to meet the interest alone. You farmers in Utah who have borrowed money on your real estate, have you ever thought that your farm, being valued at twenty thousand dollars when interest is six per cent shrinks to the value of ten thousand dollars the very moment interest reaches twelve per cent? Did you ever think of it in that light? Take the interest today on the debt of Great Britain and destroy that amount in property, and then compel her to pay one hundred and twenty millions per annum, and it would paralyze the whole nation. Take our condition in Utah. All the products of Cache county put together—one of the fairest counties in the Territory—are not sufficient to pay its interest on the annual indebtedness of this Territory alone. Now, if the tithings of the people there have represented on-tenth of the contributions of the whole church, then we have reached a point in financiering where one-tenth of the labor of the people is being expended on interest account alone. Is it wise or prudent? No, it is not. It is not in the line marked out by President Brigham Young. It is not in the line taught by President John Taylor. It is not in the line of the wisdom of President Wilford Woodruff. Bondage is debt; and whoever heard of the rich of any nation meeting together to plan for the good of the whole people? The poor inveigh against the extravagance of the rich and the luxury in which they live; and yet, my brethren and sisters, the very thing against which they inveigh is their only valve of safety. It is a boon to the poor that some of the rich expend their money like water thrown on the ground. It is a boon also that the rich must die as well as the poor; for children rocked in the cradle of luxury—and I may say, too, in the cradle of immorality—will throw to the winds the wealth accumulated by their parents. A few rich men in any community, outside of the influences of the Gospel, by combining under special laws, living the habits of industry and practicing usury, can soon reap the wealth accumulated by the labor toiling masses. That is the history of the world. In Belgium they have salutary laws, however, that we may copy after later on in our nation. If a man dies possessed of fifty thousand dollars of property, five per cent, I think, of that property must go to state institutions of learning. If he dies possessed of a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of property he is taxed ten per cent, and so on up until reaching a certain point, which, as I remember, is half a million dollars; and anything above that goes to the state for the education of the people of the state and for charitable institutions. Whatever we may say in praise of civilization, a nation cannot be Christian that does not have a system of income taxation, thereby placing the burdens of taxation according to their ability to bear it equally upon the poor and the rich; justice, equity and statesmanship put it upon the income of the rich man, because the poor man, when the nation is in danger, is the foremost man to bear the flag of his country in front of the battle; he not only offers his sacred honor, but his life. Why then should legislation be in favor of the few as against the many?
The kingdom of God will rectify all the evils that we speak of. But the world has not been willing to give it place. Let the genius of the Gospel of the Son of God have play in the midst of the nations of the earth, and there will be none of these inequalities that we now complain of. Brighter times are before us. Utah in passing through what she is now passing through will turn her attention to the wealth around her—to the silk in the leaves and the honey in the flowers whose fragrance we breathe; to the wealth that we dig out of the soil, to the gold and silver in our mountains, to the sugar in our ground, to home industry—and we will become a great people; and as we advocate and practice this, we will stand up erect as God made us, not only independent within ourselves, but able to feed the alien that may come to us. They will come, and will bring their gold and silver by the millions; and will lay it, too, at the feet of the servants of God, asking for wisdom to invest it. Up to date none of the institutions of Utah have been pressed to the wall; not a bank, not a single Mormon institution of note. Their credit is still maintained, and the honor of the church is the pride of its people. That is something for which we ought to feel grateful.
I feel that I have spoken as long as I should. But my heart is not depressed. All things do not seem dark to me. Much light is beyond the clouds that hover over us today; and God will give them not only a silver but a golden lining. Abundance will come upon Zion; for He hath decreed that He will glorify her and He will make the feet of those who bring glad tidings very beautiful upon the mountains. God bless President Woodruff, and speedily take from his heart and mind the load resting upon him by reason of the financial distress upon the whole people; that he may be free from these things; permitted during his remaining days and by his remaining strength to pour blessings upon the people. And may the Spirit of the Lord make strong all the quorums of the Church, uniting them like a threefold cord that cannot be broken; and in the midst of our trials and tribulations let us see to it that we wound not the hearts of our friends. Let us do nothing in the hour of distress that will alienate our friends from us. And, whatever else we do, let us not forget the worthy poor in the midst of the people; and if we have no labor for them, let us at least divide our crust with them. Let the rich who have abundance dispose of their surplus and give liberally to the worthy poor. And above all things, let no thought enter into the heart of any Latter-day Saint that we shall ever reach a point when it will be honorable not to pay our honest debts, not only to the Gentile, but also to the Jew, and to Latter-day Saints. I believe that the Senate will pass the bill that the House of Representatives passed, and that, too, promptly. I believe also that President Cleveland will sign the bill, restoring to the Church its property, now so much needed. May God grant that this people may continue to advance and prosper until they shall see as they are seen and know as they are known. Amen.
The choir sang an anthem, “The God of Israel.”
Benediction by Elder John Morgan.
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference, of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Saturday Afternoon, October 7th, 1893, by Elder Moses Thatcher.
[Reported by Arthur Winter.]
The words to which I have listened during this Conference appear to me to be opportune and suited to the needs of the people. I have nothing specially resting upon my mind upon which to speak during the brief time I may occupy; but I have noticed that as the pendulum swings to the right so it must swing back again to the left, if the clock continues to do its duty; or if it swings to the left it must swing back again to the right; and thus extremes follow each other. It is written that “sacrifice brings forth blessings.” Three years ago the Latter-day Saints laid a great sacrifice upon the altar of their consciences, for when the Manifesto was then read in this building many men and women with aching hearts voted for it. However much the world may have thought us mistaken, there had been ties formed that were sacred to the heart of many a father and mother. Upon the brow of their children at no time had appeared the blush of shame. But the pendulum had gone far in the direction of oppression. It was useless to argue with prejudice dark as midnight. It was useless to supplicate at the feet of cruelty, for the public mind was wrought up to such an extent that it demanded a sacrifice unparalleled in the history of the world. That sacrifice was given. And all around us we see today the blessings that have followed. Yet had it been left to this people to have decided the time and place wherein and when such an announcement should be made, we possibly would have been until today in doubt. Some said it was too late; others said it came too soon. But we, having a man of God standing at our head able to communicate with Jehovah, he noted the time and fixed the place, and the results are before us. Before Grant stated that “the American people are a generous people.” And so I state. They are a broad-minded people. They have build upon the broad foundations of human liberty. But they like others when prejudiced are blind. Give prejudice play among this people, and we have not wisdom; for they go not hand in hand. Witness the recent trip of the First Presidency, allusion to which has been made. A perfect ovation! Where they had been hated and despised before, honor was done and every courtesy extended to them. Is not this one of the blessings that have followed that great sacrifice? Listen to the sweet singing of our choir and note the homage done them. See the impression made upon the hearts of thousands of people by the revelation contained in that beautiful hymn, “O, my Father.” Why, when a certain train left Utah and passed through the before intolerant State of Missouri, it was difficult to state for whom the cries of the people were loudest, Grover Cleveland or Utah. Who brought about this change, and caused men of the world to grasp the hand of our venerable President, and from the inmost depths of their hearts desire God’s blessing upon him? That which was despised has been exalted, and the Joseph that was cast into the dungeon wrongfully accused by Potiphar’s harlot wife, who took from his shoulder the garment of innocence and laid it at the feet of her husband with accusations—I say Joseph the innocent who was thrust into the jail, while guarding the honor of Potiphar’s house, has been called out of the dungeon, and if he does not wear the golden chain of honor today, he will wear it in the future, and he will wear the signet ring, too, and will yet ride in one of the first chariots of the land, honored, glorified, and the magnanimous savior of his brethren and father’s house, with his hand against anarchy and misrule in every land and clime. God will raise up this people. He having permitted them to be trodden down, He now will exalt them. I rejoice in the words of encouragement offered yesterday by President George Q. Cannon. I, too, bear testimony that the clouds will break away.
But as we have learned by the experience of our trials in the past, in reference to the Manifesto, in reference to the political division of the people, so let us learn, my brethren and sisters, wisdom by what is occurring around us day by day. Money has been scarce. A man being worth a thousand dollars and owing a hundred dollars, if he was pushed might have to sacrifice all he had to meet that obligation. One extreme will follow another; and unfortunate is he who, through untoward circumstances, has had to create obligations at high rates of interest; for when the panic has passed by, those who have money in abundance in the East will not find it so easy to place it again among the people. Those who have had their fingers burned; industries that were paying more in interest than they could produce, will withdraw themselves from the productive fields and the result will be, if I can read the future, that one extreme in this also will follow another. Money today in New York at call is bringing but one to two per cent per annum, however scarce and high it may be here. They are not offering it to the people on time loans, because they are waiting for the action of Congress. Whatever action Congress may take, those who hold the money will desire again to throw it out among the people and when that desire comes strongly upon them they will throw it out upon securities that they would not today look at at all. I have had but one advice to give to people, and that is, pay your debts as soon as you can, both principal and interest. Pay every farthing; give the pound of flesh if it is required. But remember that the power of money is not a natural power. It has force only in legal enactment. Unlike the tree that produces the fruit, unlike the germ in the grain of wheat, it is dead except it is given power by legislation.
We speak of the interest on money. Really there is no such thing as interest on money. It is the rent of the land or of the house that you occupy, if the money is invested in land or in the house. The farmer borrows today, we will say a thousand dollars. He does not put it in the safety vault and lock it up. He does not put it in his stocking and bury it. If he does, at the expiration of the year, if thieves have not broken through and stolen, it is just the thousand dollars that he borrowed; it has not increased a single farthing. But if he takes that thousand dollars and puts it in land which with his labor produces a thousand bushels of wheat, what is the result? Two hundred bushels of that wheat, at prices ruling today, are needed to meet, not the principal, but the interest. One fifth part of his labor meets the interest, so called, of money, but really meets the rent upon his land; for money produces nothing. You may lock up a hundred million of dollars for a thousand years, and when you bring it out it will be no more, no less. The manufacturer borrows a hundred thousand dollars at ten per cent interest per annum. For what purpose does he borrow it? If in the manufacture of his goods last year he found no market that was remunerative, he borrows the money to pay his obligations, in order that he may hold his goods until he finds a better and advanced market; and if he finds not that better and advanced market; and if he finds not that better and advanced market, he borrows again—or goes into bankruptcy. It is, then, his goods that produce the income or the rent on the money.
Careful reading of history discloses this fact beyond any question: that as money receives its power through legislation, so from the beginning of time that legislation has been in the interest of those that accumulate, rather than in the interest of those who produce the wealth of the world. At the close of the war we owed nearly four billions of dollars, bringing ten per cent per annum. What did it mean to pay interest on it annually? At the price of wheat this year it would require eight hundred millions of bushels of wheat annually to meet the interest alone. You farmers in Utah who have borrowed money on your real estate, have you ever thought that your farm, being valued at twenty thousand dollars when interest is six per cent shrinks to the value of ten thousand dollars the very moment interest reaches twelve per cent? Did you ever think of it in that light? Take the interest today on the debt of Great Britain and destroy that amount in property, and then compel her to pay one hundred and twenty millions per annum, and it would paralyze the whole nation. Take our condition in Utah. All the products of Cache county put together—one of the fairest counties in the Territory—are not sufficient to pay its interest on the annual indebtedness of this Territory alone. Now, if the tithings of the people there have represented on-tenth of the contributions of the whole church, then we have reached a point in financiering where one-tenth of the labor of the people is being expended on interest account alone. Is it wise or prudent? No, it is not. It is not in the line marked out by President Brigham Young. It is not in the line taught by President John Taylor. It is not in the line of the wisdom of President Wilford Woodruff. Bondage is debt; and whoever heard of the rich of any nation meeting together to plan for the good of the whole people? The poor inveigh against the extravagance of the rich and the luxury in which they live; and yet, my brethren and sisters, the very thing against which they inveigh is their only valve of safety. It is a boon to the poor that some of the rich expend their money like water thrown on the ground. It is a boon also that the rich must die as well as the poor; for children rocked in the cradle of luxury—and I may say, too, in the cradle of immorality—will throw to the winds the wealth accumulated by their parents. A few rich men in any community, outside of the influences of the Gospel, by combining under special laws, living the habits of industry and practicing usury, can soon reap the wealth accumulated by the labor toiling masses. That is the history of the world. In Belgium they have salutary laws, however, that we may copy after later on in our nation. If a man dies possessed of fifty thousand dollars of property, five per cent, I think, of that property must go to state institutions of learning. If he dies possessed of a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of property he is taxed ten per cent, and so on up until reaching a certain point, which, as I remember, is half a million dollars; and anything above that goes to the state for the education of the people of the state and for charitable institutions. Whatever we may say in praise of civilization, a nation cannot be Christian that does not have a system of income taxation, thereby placing the burdens of taxation according to their ability to bear it equally upon the poor and the rich; justice, equity and statesmanship put it upon the income of the rich man, because the poor man, when the nation is in danger, is the foremost man to bear the flag of his country in front of the battle; he not only offers his sacred honor, but his life. Why then should legislation be in favor of the few as against the many?
The kingdom of God will rectify all the evils that we speak of. But the world has not been willing to give it place. Let the genius of the Gospel of the Son of God have play in the midst of the nations of the earth, and there will be none of these inequalities that we now complain of. Brighter times are before us. Utah in passing through what she is now passing through will turn her attention to the wealth around her—to the silk in the leaves and the honey in the flowers whose fragrance we breathe; to the wealth that we dig out of the soil, to the gold and silver in our mountains, to the sugar in our ground, to home industry—and we will become a great people; and as we advocate and practice this, we will stand up erect as God made us, not only independent within ourselves, but able to feed the alien that may come to us. They will come, and will bring their gold and silver by the millions; and will lay it, too, at the feet of the servants of God, asking for wisdom to invest it. Up to date none of the institutions of Utah have been pressed to the wall; not a bank, not a single Mormon institution of note. Their credit is still maintained, and the honor of the church is the pride of its people. That is something for which we ought to feel grateful.
I feel that I have spoken as long as I should. But my heart is not depressed. All things do not seem dark to me. Much light is beyond the clouds that hover over us today; and God will give them not only a silver but a golden lining. Abundance will come upon Zion; for He hath decreed that He will glorify her and He will make the feet of those who bring glad tidings very beautiful upon the mountains. God bless President Woodruff, and speedily take from his heart and mind the load resting upon him by reason of the financial distress upon the whole people; that he may be free from these things; permitted during his remaining days and by his remaining strength to pour blessings upon the people. And may the Spirit of the Lord make strong all the quorums of the Church, uniting them like a threefold cord that cannot be broken; and in the midst of our trials and tribulations let us see to it that we wound not the hearts of our friends. Let us do nothing in the hour of distress that will alienate our friends from us. And, whatever else we do, let us not forget the worthy poor in the midst of the people; and if we have no labor for them, let us at least divide our crust with them. Let the rich who have abundance dispose of their surplus and give liberally to the worthy poor. And above all things, let no thought enter into the heart of any Latter-day Saint that we shall ever reach a point when it will be honorable not to pay our honest debts, not only to the Gentile, but also to the Jew, and to Latter-day Saints. I believe that the Senate will pass the bill that the House of Representatives passed, and that, too, promptly. I believe also that President Cleveland will sign the bill, restoring to the Church its property, now so much needed. May God grant that this people may continue to advance and prosper until they shall see as they are seen and know as they are known. Amen.
The choir sang an anthem, “The God of Israel.”
Benediction by Elder John Morgan.
Third Day—Oct. 8th. Morning Session.
Singing:
Our God we raise to Thee
Thanks for Thy blessings free
We here enjoy.
Prayer by Elder B. H. Roberts.
Singing:
Softly beams the sacred dawning
Of the great Millennial morn,
And to Saints gives welcome warning
That the day is hastening on.
Singing:
Our God we raise to Thee
Thanks for Thy blessings free
We here enjoy.
Prayer by Elder B. H. Roberts.
Singing:
Softly beams the sacred dawning
Of the great Millennial morn,
And to Saints gives welcome warning
That the day is hastening on.
President Joseph F. Smith
delivered an instructive discourse. The introductory portion of it was devoted to a consideration of temporal affairs and the principles which govern them. The speaker showed clearly the course that ought to be pursued by the Saints as individuals as a community in order that they might become pre-eminently prosperous, dwelling specially on the duty of all to be productive and to expend less than was produced. He spoke of the sugar works and the beneficent character of the object of their establishment and the prospect of their being a future success. The need of cultivating industrial habits among all the people, young and aged, rich and poor, was forcibly argued.
In conclusion the speaker explained that humility and unshaken integrity to God constituted the basis of eternal exaltation in His presence.
delivered an instructive discourse. The introductory portion of it was devoted to a consideration of temporal affairs and the principles which govern them. The speaker showed clearly the course that ought to be pursued by the Saints as individuals as a community in order that they might become pre-eminently prosperous, dwelling specially on the duty of all to be productive and to expend less than was produced. He spoke of the sugar works and the beneficent character of the object of their establishment and the prospect of their being a future success. The need of cultivating industrial habits among all the people, young and aged, rich and poor, was forcibly argued.
In conclusion the speaker explained that humility and unshaken integrity to God constituted the basis of eternal exaltation in His presence.
True Economy.
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 8, 1893, by President Joseph F. Smith.
[Reported by Arthur Winter.]
It is with a feeling of great dependence and weakness that I arise before the congregation this morning to speak. I took a severe cold a couple of weeks ago and have not recovered from it yet; therefore, unless I am blessed of the Lord I shall possibly not be able to make myself heard, or to occupy much time.
I have felt blessed in listening to the instructions which have been given by the brethren who have spoken during this Conference, and I can bear my testimony to the counsels which they have given and the instructions which have proceeded from them by the inspiration of the Almighty. I hope that the same good Spirit which has attended our meetings so far will continue throughout today, that all who hear may rejoice in the manifestations of the mercy, kindness and love of our Heavenly Father toward His children. We have been greatly blessed of our Father in our spiritual labors as well as in our temporal affairs. We have heard a little during Conference about the hard times that are being felt throughout the land; but if all the truth were told, I believe it would be found that the people of Utah have felt the effects of the hard times about as little as, if not less than any other portion of our country, or of the world.
Not long ago one of the brethren, who lived out in the country, came to the President’s office and said to President Woodruff, in substance: “I have made up my mind to go back to the old country and visit my relatives. It is a long time since I was there, and I have come to the conclusion that I will go back once more and look at them and see what I can do before I get too old.” The President remarked, “Well, if you can afford to do this in these hard times, I don’t see that there can be any objection to it.” “Why,” he said, “President Woodruff, I live out in the country and I don’t know anything about hard times.” He then went on to say that the people out in the country did not feel the hard times like those in the city. They lived from the products of their farms; they had their little flocks and herds; they reaped what they had sown, and gathered what they had strewn, and they were about as comfortable now as they had ever been. It did not appear to him, he said, so long as the Lord blessed the soil and the flocks and the herds, that hard times would come very near to them. These were about the sentiments expressed by this good brother. He said he had plenty of means to go and visit his relatives. Then, said President Woodruff, go and be blessed. He has been, and I think he has returned. This expresses, I believe, pretty nearly the condition of a great many of the Latter-day Saints throughout Utah and elsewhere. We heard yesterday some statistics, given by Brother Abraham H. Cannon, concerning the people in the country who had been prudent and taken care of that which the Lord had given to them. He said that eighty-six per cent of the people living in the country were possessing their homes and their farms unencumbered, while only a portion of the remaining fourteen per cent had their places so much encumbered that they were in danger. This speaks very well for the condition of the Latter-day Saints outside of the more populous centers. I would that we could say the same, in every particular, with regard to the Latter-day Saints who live nearer the business centers of the Territory. Yet I do not think that the statistics show the precise condition of the Latter-day Saints in this regard. In Salt Lake City and county, or in Weber and other counties, where it is shown that a larger percentage of the people are living in mortgaged homes and in rented houses, we must bear in mind that within the last few years a large number of strangers have come amongst us to live, and I think likely a large percentage of this class of people are living in rented houses, and a large percentage also of those who have speculated in lands have been under the necessity of mortgaging them in order to pay their obligations. I think if the real facts were known it would be found that there is no class of people, in the business centers, that are so well provided for, or so free from debt, as are the Latter-day Saints. If this is not so, it is very plain to me that they have not very carefully observed the good and wise counsels which have been given to them from time to time by their Presidents and Bishops; for the counsel to our people from the beginning has been to live within their means, to be economical, and as far as possible self-sustaining. If we have not followed this counsel and are suffering from the consequences of disobedience to it, I trust that we will now profit by the lesson, and in the future seek more faithfully to carry out this wise counsel than we have done in the past.
We heard from Brother Merrill his opinion with regard to going into debt. He believes it to be an unwise thing for individuals to run in debt, having to pay large sums of interest, which must come out of their labor, or the product of their soil, or from their flocks or herds, or from their business; for the money which they receive is not that which in itself produces the interest which they have to pay, but it is from the proceeds of their business or toil that they must get the means with which to pay interest on the borrowed money; unless, perchance, they can borrow money at a low rate of interest and then loan it to a less fortunate brother for a higher percentage. Then he has to earn it somewhere. It has to be produced form some source. Money itself will not produce its increase; it will always remain the same. It does not sprout and grow; it does not produce seed or fruit; but remains the same. If they cannot convert it into some other property that will be productive, it is a dangerous thing for them to borrow and obligate themselves to pay interest. In my younger days I followed the example of President Woodruff. I have heard him say that in former years he had never borrowed a dollar—he had studiously avoided singing notes, and had never run in debt; but of late years he has had to sign a great many pieces of paper. He commenced a few years ago, when the Government of the United States seized our property, and it became necessary for us to pay over money in lieu of real estate and other property which had been disposed of, the proceeds of which had been used in the regular business of the Church. Either we had to borrow money to pay for that or the courts would commence proceedings to disturb the titles of property that had been sold and passed into the hands of so-called “innocent parties.” We had to raise several hundred thousand dollars at that time, and then it was that President Woodruff began to sign notes. And from that day to this we have had to keep borrowing more or less, in order that we might meet our obligations, pay interest, help to complete the Temple, and do what other things were needful. The Presidency of the Church have had to do this. Of course, the Church has been behind them, because it is the Church that gives to them the influence they have. We do not ignore this; we cannot ignore it. The influence they may have among the people is due to your faith in them and to the position they occupy in the Church. Therefore, they receive what of credit, influence and honor they may have from God and from this people.
We started the sugar works here a few years ago. Why? Because when we came to reflect about it we saw that we had reached a point in our history where there was not a single enterprise of a public character that was calculated to give employment to our people. The railroads had gone into the hands of outsiders, as we term them, and instead of their pursuing a wise policy, they abandoned the course that had been pursued by their predecessors, and dis-discharged the Mormon people from their service, brought strangers from the east and west, and gave them employment. I will relate here a remark that I heard Superintendent John Sharp make about one year after the change in the policy of the railroads. He said to me and to others that within a year there had been more railroad wrecks and more destruction of railroad property on the Utah Central than there had been before from the time the last rail was laid in this city on that line from Ogden. Why? Because of the recklessness on the part of those who had been employed; while those who had been faithful to the interests of the road had been discharged. If you will take the pains to look up the question in the newspapers of that period, you will see that this statement of Superintendent Sharp will be verified by the accounts of wrecks and destruction of property in them. The government of the city has also been turned over. Every man that was suspected of having the least color of Mormonism about him was discharged from the service of the city, and strangers were imported and given work. There was not a thing being done of a public character calculated to give employment to the Latter-day Saints in any direction; and we began to feel that there was a responsibility resting upon us which required something to be done, in a small way at least, in the direction of giving employment to our people. So we started the sugar works, although few people had confidence in the success of the undertaking. Some of our best men lacked confidence in it. Men of means were very chary about it, and did not feel to take any very active part in attempting to start it. There appeared to be a feeling of mistrust on the part of the people generally. It seemed as though all the people lacked confidence in the enterprise, fearing it would be a failure, and if they put their money in it, it would be lost. On the back of all this, “hard times” came on; scarcity of money began, and it became a very difficult matter indeed to continue the enterprise to success. Therefore, some of the leading brethren felt obligated to raise means in some way to carry it on and save that which had already been expended upon it. The result was, we had to borrow very large sums of money, for which, until the present, we have had to pay interest. What for? For any benefit to us? No. Who for? For the Territory and for the inhabitants of these valleys; for every dollar that is saved here helps to build up the country and benefit the people. Now there is a prospect of this enterprise becoming a success. They are manufacturing over fifty thousand pounds of sugar daily out of beets that are produced in these valleys by the Latter-day Saints, giving not only employment to farmers, but to the children or widows and to many of the poor among the people. The farmer today who successfully raises the sugar beet is getting from $60 to $90 an acre from his farm that heretofore only yielded from $10 to $25 an acre. This is a benefit to the people and to the country. Yet we have had to bear this burden, and we will have to do it, I presume, unless the people will rally to our help for a year or two, until these works are able to carry themselves, pay the principal and interest, and by and by to appreciate as a blessing, as well as a necessity. When this proves to be a success and a blessing to the Latter-day Saints, the people of Cache Valley probably may begin to consider the propriety of doing something of the kind, and perhaps also those of Weber and this county, until we can supply all the sugar that the people of the Territory can consume, and perchance have a little surplus to ship abroad.
We were told yesterday by one of the speakers that just so long as we consume more than we produce, as individuals or as a people, just so long we would continue to grow poorer, until by and by we would come to the bottom. This is true. We must produce as well as consume. It follows upon natural principle, and it is as plain as anything can be, if you do not earn as much as you consume, there will be a time—and it will depend upon just how much more you consume than you produce as to how long that time will be put off—when you will possess nothing in the world, will be in debt to your neighbors, and dependent upon charity. But the moment you begin to produce a little more than you consume, that moment you are able to lay up something and begin to get rich. This country has been named Deseret—the honey bee; and we all well understand the character of this little insect. It usually gathers more than it consumes, and lays aside a little. So should it be with the bees of the hive of Deseret. If we only earn fifty cents a day, we should try our utmost to live upon forty-five, and lay five cents away for “the rainy day.” That is true economy, and was the counsel of President Brigham Young from my early recollection till the day he passed away. It has also been the counsel of his successory, and of all the leading members of this Church. Save something, and when you have a surplus, use that portion of it that is needful for building up the Kingdom of God, for the spread of the truth, for the gathering of the poor, for the building of temples, and for the accomplishment of the purposes of the Almighty. In this way the promises that the Almighty has made to us will be fulfilled; for it is His promise to make us the “richest of all people,” provided we will seek first those riches which it is the will of the Father to give unto us, and only in this way is it possible for this promise to be fulfilled. While we spend more than we gain we never can become the “richest of all people,” neither in spiritual nor in temporal things, but we will be the “tail, not the head;” we will be the poor of the earth, not the rich; we will be the borrower and not the lender, and they who control wealth will be our masters and we their servants. Now, let every man, woman and child among the people try to be producers in some way.
I am going to tell something about my own family. You will pardon me perhaps for bringing family affairs before this vast congregation, but it may illustrate the condition of some of the rest of you, and it may be a lesson to some us—a lesson perhaps that does not need to be taught to many; but I am fearful that there are far too many of us that need to be taught it. I said to some of my folks some time ago, when money seemed to be plentiful int he country and goods were cheap, and it was so easy to run to Z. C. M. I. to buy everything that was needed, that there was scarcely anything that we ate or wore that we did not have to buy. How is this? I asked. “I can remember,” I said, “when you used to knit my stockings and stockings for the children and yourselves; but now every stocking has to be bought and the money paid for it. And these stockings are not made in Utah. Our people are not employed in the manufacture of them. We are building up somebody else away over in the east, and we are wearing their shoddy, giving them employment, and letting our own people go without. I do not like this. I will get some yarn from some of our factories here, if you will go to knitting again.” Well they have gone to knitting stockings, and I hope the little ones will be taught to knit their own. When I was a little boy, in Nauvoo, my mother used to have some difficulty in keeping track of me. I used to like to go off and play with the boys. So my mother conceived the idea that it would be a very nice thing to set me to knitting; and she set me a pattern of a suspender and showed me how to do it, and I knitted myself a pair of suspenders. I then learned how to knit, and being a little handy at it perhaps, although I always drew the thread pretty tight (the suspenders did not stretch much after I knit them), she started me on stockings. So I learned how to knit stockings. The Bishop the other day was complaining about our boys playing from morning till night. They climb trees, play marbles, tear their clothes and wear out the knees of their pants, destroying everything and saving nothing. They ought to be taught how to work, to be economical, and to save something, that when they get old they will not depart from the right way. It is bad policy to let children run around all the time with nothing to do but play, from morning till night. Let the boys be taught habits of industry, and teach the girls how to make their own dresses and keep house, and thus learn to do what is needful for themselves, without having to hire somebody to do it for them. I believe in this policy. It is true economy. It is necessary to do this in order that our children may not grow up in idleness and in unbelief of the Gospel, for an idle brain, it is said, is the devil’s workshop; and if there is any better workshop for his satanic majesty than the idle brain of a little boy, I would like to know what it is. Neither boys nor girls ought to be left idle, but should be taught to do something useful as well as ornamental. What if their parents are wealthy and can well afford to feed and clothe them without labor? If you have millions of wealth, so much that you do not know what to do with it, you could not do a more foolish thing than to rear your sons and daughters in idleness; for as sure as you do this, they will grow up to squander the wealth you leave them, and curse you, perhaps, because you did not leave them more. Teach them how to work, and to be industrious, though you may be rolling in wealth, and they will grow up to respect you, and your name will go down from generation to generation, through your posterity, in honorable remembrance. The secret by which Joseph the Prophet governed the Saints, as he once said, was that he taught them correct principles and they governed themselves. It is only the sick that need a physician; it is only the criminal that needs the penalties of the law. Honest and honorable men need no officers of the law, no policemen, no justices of the peace, no courts, no lawyers. They live above crime, beyond the reach of the law. The law is not made for them, except to protect them from the criminally disposed. If every man was taught to do right, and did right, there would be no use for courts and for laws such as we have today. It is only because people will not do right that these things are needful, and that we have expensive forms of government and expensive officers to administer and execute the law. Latter-day Saints ought not to be so. They ought to know how to do right, and then do it; and they ought not to have to be prompted or urged to do it, either by the chastisement of God or by the counsels of His servants. Well, says one, if we all do right, then what? Will we all prosper? Yes, we will all prosper. In temporal things? Yes, in temporal things, and in spiritual things. But we may not be without our trials even then. For it is said in the scriptures “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” There are several examples of this in the scriptures. One of them was the eleventh son of Jacob—Joseph. He was a rather remarkable little boy, and his father loved him, and was a little partial towards him, perhaps because he was the firstborn of his beloved Rachel, and Rachel was dead. Jacob erred perhaps a little in the partiality that he showed to Joseph on this account. He may have made a mistake there like some other parents do when they make a favorite of one of their sons. This is a mistake, no matter who the mother of the boy is. Whenever a father begins to discriminate in favor of one son as against another, it begets jealousy in the hearts of the brothers, and possibly hatred toward their fathers. It is a dangerous thing to do. Because Jacob erred somewhat in this matter, the Lord gave to Israel a law on the subject. (Deuter. 21: 15-17.) The Lord endeavored to correct the evil that grew out of what Jacob did in his favoritism, by giving a law on this subject to govern the people thereafter. But Joseph was not only favored of Jacob; he seemed to be favored of the Lord also. He might have been a little better than the rest. We cannot help being a bit favorable towards those that are better than others. Of course, merit should be rewarded everywhere, but we should be just. The Lord favored him, for He had a work for him to do. Like some others that have been reserved to come forth in other dispensations to do a special work, Joseph, no doubt, was reserved to come in his generation to accomplish the mission that he had to perform. But though he was chosen for this work and especially favored of the Lord, he might have felt for a long time as though the Lord had turned His back upon him and did not love him. For the Lord suffered his brethren to persecute him. They became jealous of him and sought to destroy him; but one of his brothers repented of the cruel thought of killing him and persuaded the others to sell him to strangers, that they might not be guilty of his blood. So they sold him, and he was carried to Egypt, and there the Lord fulfilled His purposes concerning him. At first Joseph had great hardships to go through. He was wrongfully and wickedly accused by Potiphar’s wife, because of which he was thrust into prison. If he had been like some of us, he would have said, “If the Lord is going to treat me this way, there is not much reward for virtue.” That is the way some of us feel when we are pinched a little with poverty, or sickness, or other misfortune. We begin to murmur against the Lord, and feel that He has forsaken us and is not as good to us as we merit. And we withdraw our affection from the Lord. Joseph might have done this, because he had many occasions of trial. He might have felt in his heart that the Lord was not just, not merciful, and not mindful of His servants; for he seemed to have had some reason for feeling that way. But the Lord saw the end from the beginning. Joseph did not; but he had faith in God, and put his trust in Him; and by and by the Lord brought out what He intended, and made Joseph the savior of his father’s house as well as of all Egypt.
“God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps on the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill.
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.”
This is the way in which the Lord often deals with the children of men, and it is not for us to judge Him. We should not complain or murmur when we have afflictions and trials to pass through, or when He chastises us. We should think all the more that we are the loved of God, and that He is feeling after us for our good; to humble us perchance, and to keep us in the right way.
Job was another example. Job was a righteous man, perfect in all his ways. There were none like him in all the earth. Satan observed this, and he appeared before the Lord, and the Lord said, “Whence comest thou?” Satan replied, “From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” And the Lord said unto Satan, “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil.” Ah! says Satan, but “hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.” The Lord said, “Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand.” So a short time after this a messenger came unto Job, and said:
“The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:
And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
With all this, Job was not shaken in his integrity. He “sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” And Satan appeared again before the Lord and said unto him again:
“Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
And Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
But put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his feet unto his crown.
And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.”
Then his friends came to comfort him, and they began to upbraid him because of something he had done, which had brought upon him the destruction that had befallen him. But Job knew that his heart was right, that he had not sinned, and that he had not denied God in his heart. Therefore, he bore the upbraiding of his friends with all patience; and when his wife came to him and upbraided him for his patience and for his humiliation, and called upon him to curse God and die, he said unto her,
“Thou speaketh as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”
This shows the integrity of Job. Here is an example for you and for me. He did not curse the Sabeans for carrying off his cattle, nor the fires of heaven for consuming his flocks, nor the winds of heaven for destroying his habitation and children. He did not swear and blaspheme and deny the Lord because of this. But he said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither.” And further he said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”
As I understand, here is exemplified the principle that should underlie all the faith, the hope, the charity, the love, the labor, the desire of all mankind—that they will serve God, no matter what may befall them. Though they suffer imprisonment, though they suffer persecution, though they suffer poverty, though God should try them to the very core, and put them to the utmost test to prove their integrity, they should say like Job, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Thus magnify God, love Him with all thy heart, might, mind and strength; then love our neighbor as ourselves; that when trials come we may endure them and not complain, but wait until God shall develop His purposes. Then we will see that there is no love like that of God for His suffering children; there is no mercy so broad, no purpose so grand, and great and noble as the purpose of God concerning His children. If we will do this, we will learn this eventually and we will bless God with all our hearts; which may God grant, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 8, 1893, by President Joseph F. Smith.
[Reported by Arthur Winter.]
It is with a feeling of great dependence and weakness that I arise before the congregation this morning to speak. I took a severe cold a couple of weeks ago and have not recovered from it yet; therefore, unless I am blessed of the Lord I shall possibly not be able to make myself heard, or to occupy much time.
I have felt blessed in listening to the instructions which have been given by the brethren who have spoken during this Conference, and I can bear my testimony to the counsels which they have given and the instructions which have proceeded from them by the inspiration of the Almighty. I hope that the same good Spirit which has attended our meetings so far will continue throughout today, that all who hear may rejoice in the manifestations of the mercy, kindness and love of our Heavenly Father toward His children. We have been greatly blessed of our Father in our spiritual labors as well as in our temporal affairs. We have heard a little during Conference about the hard times that are being felt throughout the land; but if all the truth were told, I believe it would be found that the people of Utah have felt the effects of the hard times about as little as, if not less than any other portion of our country, or of the world.
Not long ago one of the brethren, who lived out in the country, came to the President’s office and said to President Woodruff, in substance: “I have made up my mind to go back to the old country and visit my relatives. It is a long time since I was there, and I have come to the conclusion that I will go back once more and look at them and see what I can do before I get too old.” The President remarked, “Well, if you can afford to do this in these hard times, I don’t see that there can be any objection to it.” “Why,” he said, “President Woodruff, I live out in the country and I don’t know anything about hard times.” He then went on to say that the people out in the country did not feel the hard times like those in the city. They lived from the products of their farms; they had their little flocks and herds; they reaped what they had sown, and gathered what they had strewn, and they were about as comfortable now as they had ever been. It did not appear to him, he said, so long as the Lord blessed the soil and the flocks and the herds, that hard times would come very near to them. These were about the sentiments expressed by this good brother. He said he had plenty of means to go and visit his relatives. Then, said President Woodruff, go and be blessed. He has been, and I think he has returned. This expresses, I believe, pretty nearly the condition of a great many of the Latter-day Saints throughout Utah and elsewhere. We heard yesterday some statistics, given by Brother Abraham H. Cannon, concerning the people in the country who had been prudent and taken care of that which the Lord had given to them. He said that eighty-six per cent of the people living in the country were possessing their homes and their farms unencumbered, while only a portion of the remaining fourteen per cent had their places so much encumbered that they were in danger. This speaks very well for the condition of the Latter-day Saints outside of the more populous centers. I would that we could say the same, in every particular, with regard to the Latter-day Saints who live nearer the business centers of the Territory. Yet I do not think that the statistics show the precise condition of the Latter-day Saints in this regard. In Salt Lake City and county, or in Weber and other counties, where it is shown that a larger percentage of the people are living in mortgaged homes and in rented houses, we must bear in mind that within the last few years a large number of strangers have come amongst us to live, and I think likely a large percentage of this class of people are living in rented houses, and a large percentage also of those who have speculated in lands have been under the necessity of mortgaging them in order to pay their obligations. I think if the real facts were known it would be found that there is no class of people, in the business centers, that are so well provided for, or so free from debt, as are the Latter-day Saints. If this is not so, it is very plain to me that they have not very carefully observed the good and wise counsels which have been given to them from time to time by their Presidents and Bishops; for the counsel to our people from the beginning has been to live within their means, to be economical, and as far as possible self-sustaining. If we have not followed this counsel and are suffering from the consequences of disobedience to it, I trust that we will now profit by the lesson, and in the future seek more faithfully to carry out this wise counsel than we have done in the past.
We heard from Brother Merrill his opinion with regard to going into debt. He believes it to be an unwise thing for individuals to run in debt, having to pay large sums of interest, which must come out of their labor, or the product of their soil, or from their flocks or herds, or from their business; for the money which they receive is not that which in itself produces the interest which they have to pay, but it is from the proceeds of their business or toil that they must get the means with which to pay interest on the borrowed money; unless, perchance, they can borrow money at a low rate of interest and then loan it to a less fortunate brother for a higher percentage. Then he has to earn it somewhere. It has to be produced form some source. Money itself will not produce its increase; it will always remain the same. It does not sprout and grow; it does not produce seed or fruit; but remains the same. If they cannot convert it into some other property that will be productive, it is a dangerous thing for them to borrow and obligate themselves to pay interest. In my younger days I followed the example of President Woodruff. I have heard him say that in former years he had never borrowed a dollar—he had studiously avoided singing notes, and had never run in debt; but of late years he has had to sign a great many pieces of paper. He commenced a few years ago, when the Government of the United States seized our property, and it became necessary for us to pay over money in lieu of real estate and other property which had been disposed of, the proceeds of which had been used in the regular business of the Church. Either we had to borrow money to pay for that or the courts would commence proceedings to disturb the titles of property that had been sold and passed into the hands of so-called “innocent parties.” We had to raise several hundred thousand dollars at that time, and then it was that President Woodruff began to sign notes. And from that day to this we have had to keep borrowing more or less, in order that we might meet our obligations, pay interest, help to complete the Temple, and do what other things were needful. The Presidency of the Church have had to do this. Of course, the Church has been behind them, because it is the Church that gives to them the influence they have. We do not ignore this; we cannot ignore it. The influence they may have among the people is due to your faith in them and to the position they occupy in the Church. Therefore, they receive what of credit, influence and honor they may have from God and from this people.
We started the sugar works here a few years ago. Why? Because when we came to reflect about it we saw that we had reached a point in our history where there was not a single enterprise of a public character that was calculated to give employment to our people. The railroads had gone into the hands of outsiders, as we term them, and instead of their pursuing a wise policy, they abandoned the course that had been pursued by their predecessors, and dis-discharged the Mormon people from their service, brought strangers from the east and west, and gave them employment. I will relate here a remark that I heard Superintendent John Sharp make about one year after the change in the policy of the railroads. He said to me and to others that within a year there had been more railroad wrecks and more destruction of railroad property on the Utah Central than there had been before from the time the last rail was laid in this city on that line from Ogden. Why? Because of the recklessness on the part of those who had been employed; while those who had been faithful to the interests of the road had been discharged. If you will take the pains to look up the question in the newspapers of that period, you will see that this statement of Superintendent Sharp will be verified by the accounts of wrecks and destruction of property in them. The government of the city has also been turned over. Every man that was suspected of having the least color of Mormonism about him was discharged from the service of the city, and strangers were imported and given work. There was not a thing being done of a public character calculated to give employment to the Latter-day Saints in any direction; and we began to feel that there was a responsibility resting upon us which required something to be done, in a small way at least, in the direction of giving employment to our people. So we started the sugar works, although few people had confidence in the success of the undertaking. Some of our best men lacked confidence in it. Men of means were very chary about it, and did not feel to take any very active part in attempting to start it. There appeared to be a feeling of mistrust on the part of the people generally. It seemed as though all the people lacked confidence in the enterprise, fearing it would be a failure, and if they put their money in it, it would be lost. On the back of all this, “hard times” came on; scarcity of money began, and it became a very difficult matter indeed to continue the enterprise to success. Therefore, some of the leading brethren felt obligated to raise means in some way to carry it on and save that which had already been expended upon it. The result was, we had to borrow very large sums of money, for which, until the present, we have had to pay interest. What for? For any benefit to us? No. Who for? For the Territory and for the inhabitants of these valleys; for every dollar that is saved here helps to build up the country and benefit the people. Now there is a prospect of this enterprise becoming a success. They are manufacturing over fifty thousand pounds of sugar daily out of beets that are produced in these valleys by the Latter-day Saints, giving not only employment to farmers, but to the children or widows and to many of the poor among the people. The farmer today who successfully raises the sugar beet is getting from $60 to $90 an acre from his farm that heretofore only yielded from $10 to $25 an acre. This is a benefit to the people and to the country. Yet we have had to bear this burden, and we will have to do it, I presume, unless the people will rally to our help for a year or two, until these works are able to carry themselves, pay the principal and interest, and by and by to appreciate as a blessing, as well as a necessity. When this proves to be a success and a blessing to the Latter-day Saints, the people of Cache Valley probably may begin to consider the propriety of doing something of the kind, and perhaps also those of Weber and this county, until we can supply all the sugar that the people of the Territory can consume, and perchance have a little surplus to ship abroad.
We were told yesterday by one of the speakers that just so long as we consume more than we produce, as individuals or as a people, just so long we would continue to grow poorer, until by and by we would come to the bottom. This is true. We must produce as well as consume. It follows upon natural principle, and it is as plain as anything can be, if you do not earn as much as you consume, there will be a time—and it will depend upon just how much more you consume than you produce as to how long that time will be put off—when you will possess nothing in the world, will be in debt to your neighbors, and dependent upon charity. But the moment you begin to produce a little more than you consume, that moment you are able to lay up something and begin to get rich. This country has been named Deseret—the honey bee; and we all well understand the character of this little insect. It usually gathers more than it consumes, and lays aside a little. So should it be with the bees of the hive of Deseret. If we only earn fifty cents a day, we should try our utmost to live upon forty-five, and lay five cents away for “the rainy day.” That is true economy, and was the counsel of President Brigham Young from my early recollection till the day he passed away. It has also been the counsel of his successory, and of all the leading members of this Church. Save something, and when you have a surplus, use that portion of it that is needful for building up the Kingdom of God, for the spread of the truth, for the gathering of the poor, for the building of temples, and for the accomplishment of the purposes of the Almighty. In this way the promises that the Almighty has made to us will be fulfilled; for it is His promise to make us the “richest of all people,” provided we will seek first those riches which it is the will of the Father to give unto us, and only in this way is it possible for this promise to be fulfilled. While we spend more than we gain we never can become the “richest of all people,” neither in spiritual nor in temporal things, but we will be the “tail, not the head;” we will be the poor of the earth, not the rich; we will be the borrower and not the lender, and they who control wealth will be our masters and we their servants. Now, let every man, woman and child among the people try to be producers in some way.
I am going to tell something about my own family. You will pardon me perhaps for bringing family affairs before this vast congregation, but it may illustrate the condition of some of the rest of you, and it may be a lesson to some us—a lesson perhaps that does not need to be taught to many; but I am fearful that there are far too many of us that need to be taught it. I said to some of my folks some time ago, when money seemed to be plentiful int he country and goods were cheap, and it was so easy to run to Z. C. M. I. to buy everything that was needed, that there was scarcely anything that we ate or wore that we did not have to buy. How is this? I asked. “I can remember,” I said, “when you used to knit my stockings and stockings for the children and yourselves; but now every stocking has to be bought and the money paid for it. And these stockings are not made in Utah. Our people are not employed in the manufacture of them. We are building up somebody else away over in the east, and we are wearing their shoddy, giving them employment, and letting our own people go without. I do not like this. I will get some yarn from some of our factories here, if you will go to knitting again.” Well they have gone to knitting stockings, and I hope the little ones will be taught to knit their own. When I was a little boy, in Nauvoo, my mother used to have some difficulty in keeping track of me. I used to like to go off and play with the boys. So my mother conceived the idea that it would be a very nice thing to set me to knitting; and she set me a pattern of a suspender and showed me how to do it, and I knitted myself a pair of suspenders. I then learned how to knit, and being a little handy at it perhaps, although I always drew the thread pretty tight (the suspenders did not stretch much after I knit them), she started me on stockings. So I learned how to knit stockings. The Bishop the other day was complaining about our boys playing from morning till night. They climb trees, play marbles, tear their clothes and wear out the knees of their pants, destroying everything and saving nothing. They ought to be taught how to work, to be economical, and to save something, that when they get old they will not depart from the right way. It is bad policy to let children run around all the time with nothing to do but play, from morning till night. Let the boys be taught habits of industry, and teach the girls how to make their own dresses and keep house, and thus learn to do what is needful for themselves, without having to hire somebody to do it for them. I believe in this policy. It is true economy. It is necessary to do this in order that our children may not grow up in idleness and in unbelief of the Gospel, for an idle brain, it is said, is the devil’s workshop; and if there is any better workshop for his satanic majesty than the idle brain of a little boy, I would like to know what it is. Neither boys nor girls ought to be left idle, but should be taught to do something useful as well as ornamental. What if their parents are wealthy and can well afford to feed and clothe them without labor? If you have millions of wealth, so much that you do not know what to do with it, you could not do a more foolish thing than to rear your sons and daughters in idleness; for as sure as you do this, they will grow up to squander the wealth you leave them, and curse you, perhaps, because you did not leave them more. Teach them how to work, and to be industrious, though you may be rolling in wealth, and they will grow up to respect you, and your name will go down from generation to generation, through your posterity, in honorable remembrance. The secret by which Joseph the Prophet governed the Saints, as he once said, was that he taught them correct principles and they governed themselves. It is only the sick that need a physician; it is only the criminal that needs the penalties of the law. Honest and honorable men need no officers of the law, no policemen, no justices of the peace, no courts, no lawyers. They live above crime, beyond the reach of the law. The law is not made for them, except to protect them from the criminally disposed. If every man was taught to do right, and did right, there would be no use for courts and for laws such as we have today. It is only because people will not do right that these things are needful, and that we have expensive forms of government and expensive officers to administer and execute the law. Latter-day Saints ought not to be so. They ought to know how to do right, and then do it; and they ought not to have to be prompted or urged to do it, either by the chastisement of God or by the counsels of His servants. Well, says one, if we all do right, then what? Will we all prosper? Yes, we will all prosper. In temporal things? Yes, in temporal things, and in spiritual things. But we may not be without our trials even then. For it is said in the scriptures “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” There are several examples of this in the scriptures. One of them was the eleventh son of Jacob—Joseph. He was a rather remarkable little boy, and his father loved him, and was a little partial towards him, perhaps because he was the firstborn of his beloved Rachel, and Rachel was dead. Jacob erred perhaps a little in the partiality that he showed to Joseph on this account. He may have made a mistake there like some other parents do when they make a favorite of one of their sons. This is a mistake, no matter who the mother of the boy is. Whenever a father begins to discriminate in favor of one son as against another, it begets jealousy in the hearts of the brothers, and possibly hatred toward their fathers. It is a dangerous thing to do. Because Jacob erred somewhat in this matter, the Lord gave to Israel a law on the subject. (Deuter. 21: 15-17.) The Lord endeavored to correct the evil that grew out of what Jacob did in his favoritism, by giving a law on this subject to govern the people thereafter. But Joseph was not only favored of Jacob; he seemed to be favored of the Lord also. He might have been a little better than the rest. We cannot help being a bit favorable towards those that are better than others. Of course, merit should be rewarded everywhere, but we should be just. The Lord favored him, for He had a work for him to do. Like some others that have been reserved to come forth in other dispensations to do a special work, Joseph, no doubt, was reserved to come in his generation to accomplish the mission that he had to perform. But though he was chosen for this work and especially favored of the Lord, he might have felt for a long time as though the Lord had turned His back upon him and did not love him. For the Lord suffered his brethren to persecute him. They became jealous of him and sought to destroy him; but one of his brothers repented of the cruel thought of killing him and persuaded the others to sell him to strangers, that they might not be guilty of his blood. So they sold him, and he was carried to Egypt, and there the Lord fulfilled His purposes concerning him. At first Joseph had great hardships to go through. He was wrongfully and wickedly accused by Potiphar’s wife, because of which he was thrust into prison. If he had been like some of us, he would have said, “If the Lord is going to treat me this way, there is not much reward for virtue.” That is the way some of us feel when we are pinched a little with poverty, or sickness, or other misfortune. We begin to murmur against the Lord, and feel that He has forsaken us and is not as good to us as we merit. And we withdraw our affection from the Lord. Joseph might have done this, because he had many occasions of trial. He might have felt in his heart that the Lord was not just, not merciful, and not mindful of His servants; for he seemed to have had some reason for feeling that way. But the Lord saw the end from the beginning. Joseph did not; but he had faith in God, and put his trust in Him; and by and by the Lord brought out what He intended, and made Joseph the savior of his father’s house as well as of all Egypt.
“God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps on the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill.
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.”
This is the way in which the Lord often deals with the children of men, and it is not for us to judge Him. We should not complain or murmur when we have afflictions and trials to pass through, or when He chastises us. We should think all the more that we are the loved of God, and that He is feeling after us for our good; to humble us perchance, and to keep us in the right way.
Job was another example. Job was a righteous man, perfect in all his ways. There were none like him in all the earth. Satan observed this, and he appeared before the Lord, and the Lord said, “Whence comest thou?” Satan replied, “From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” And the Lord said unto Satan, “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil.” Ah! says Satan, but “hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.” The Lord said, “Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand.” So a short time after this a messenger came unto Job, and said:
“The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:
And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
With all this, Job was not shaken in his integrity. He “sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” And Satan appeared again before the Lord and said unto him again:
“Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
And Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
But put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his feet unto his crown.
And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.”
Then his friends came to comfort him, and they began to upbraid him because of something he had done, which had brought upon him the destruction that had befallen him. But Job knew that his heart was right, that he had not sinned, and that he had not denied God in his heart. Therefore, he bore the upbraiding of his friends with all patience; and when his wife came to him and upbraided him for his patience and for his humiliation, and called upon him to curse God and die, he said unto her,
“Thou speaketh as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”
This shows the integrity of Job. Here is an example for you and for me. He did not curse the Sabeans for carrying off his cattle, nor the fires of heaven for consuming his flocks, nor the winds of heaven for destroying his habitation and children. He did not swear and blaspheme and deny the Lord because of this. But he said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither.” And further he said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”
As I understand, here is exemplified the principle that should underlie all the faith, the hope, the charity, the love, the labor, the desire of all mankind—that they will serve God, no matter what may befall them. Though they suffer imprisonment, though they suffer persecution, though they suffer poverty, though God should try them to the very core, and put them to the utmost test to prove their integrity, they should say like Job, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Thus magnify God, love Him with all thy heart, might, mind and strength; then love our neighbor as ourselves; that when trials come we may endure them and not complain, but wait until God shall develop His purposes. Then we will see that there is no love like that of God for His suffering children; there is no mercy so broad, no purpose so grand, and great and noble as the purpose of God concerning His children. If we will do this, we will learn this eventually and we will bless God with all our hearts; which may God grant, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
President George Q. Cannon
stated that, in response to a general desire, Brother Robert C. Easton had consented to sing the beautiful hymn composed by Sister Eliza R. Snow, beginning O, My Father.
This hymn was then exquisitely sung by Brother Easton to the great pleasure of the vast congregation.
stated that, in response to a general desire, Brother Robert C. Easton had consented to sing the beautiful hymn composed by Sister Eliza R. Snow, beginning O, My Father.
This hymn was then exquisitely sung by Brother Easton to the great pleasure of the vast congregation.
President George Q. Cannon
alluded to the enthusiasm with which the singing of this hymn had been received at Denver, Kansas City, Independence, St. Louis, Chicago and Omaha on the occasion of the recent trip taken by the Tabernacle choir. In some of these places, especially at Independence, persons among the congregation had been melted to tears by the sentiment and music of this beautiful song, which embodied the doctrine of the pre-existence and heavenly parentage of man. It doubtless stimulated thought on this subject the minds of those who heard it and would lead them to inquire into a theme so interesting. The appreciation of the singing of the choir on that journey was very marked and the speaker said that, in no small degree our choristers had been instrumental to preaching the Gospel.
alluded to the enthusiasm with which the singing of this hymn had been received at Denver, Kansas City, Independence, St. Louis, Chicago and Omaha on the occasion of the recent trip taken by the Tabernacle choir. In some of these places, especially at Independence, persons among the congregation had been melted to tears by the sentiment and music of this beautiful song, which embodied the doctrine of the pre-existence and heavenly parentage of man. It doubtless stimulated thought on this subject the minds of those who heard it and would lead them to inquire into a theme so interesting. The appreciation of the singing of the choir on that journey was very marked and the speaker said that, in no small degree our choristers had been instrumental to preaching the Gospel.
President Joseph F. Smith
I hope that the Saints will pardon beforehand the remarks that I am about to make. I must confess that although I have had the privilege of listening from Sabbath to Sabbath to the singing of our choir, I had to go abroad to find how the music is appreciated.
The audience before whom the choir sang while abroad, who seemed to appreciate their singing most like the congregations of this tabernacle, was the audience that greeted them in Chicago after the contest. And I think it was the universal expression of the choir themselves and everybody of our city who was there, that it was the coldest and most critical audience before whom the choir had sung at all, and apparently the least appreciative, but they were forced to applaud, nevertheless. Now then, if our choir were in Denver with sufficient notice to give a concert, and there was a hall there as large as this in which the people could assemble, judging from the appreciation that they expressed of the singing of the choir when they were there, that hall would be filled to overflowing to hear them. But when they give out notice that there will be a concert here, the people come, a few of them, and fill up the body of the hall, while a great portion of it is vacant.
Now, you don’t need to think that I am criticizing anybody; I am stating the fact as I have seen it myself. We get the beauty of the earth, the music of the earth, gratuitously, from Sunday to Sunday, and we get the word of the Lord, and with many of us it has become a common thing, which we have ceased to appreciate very much.
Let us appreciate good instructions and good music, even though we are treated to them from Sabbath to Sabbath. Amen.
The choir sang the anthem:
Our Father in heaven,
Before Thee we bend.
Benediction by Elder George Reynolds.
I hope that the Saints will pardon beforehand the remarks that I am about to make. I must confess that although I have had the privilege of listening from Sabbath to Sabbath to the singing of our choir, I had to go abroad to find how the music is appreciated.
The audience before whom the choir sang while abroad, who seemed to appreciate their singing most like the congregations of this tabernacle, was the audience that greeted them in Chicago after the contest. And I think it was the universal expression of the choir themselves and everybody of our city who was there, that it was the coldest and most critical audience before whom the choir had sung at all, and apparently the least appreciative, but they were forced to applaud, nevertheless. Now then, if our choir were in Denver with sufficient notice to give a concert, and there was a hall there as large as this in which the people could assemble, judging from the appreciation that they expressed of the singing of the choir when they were there, that hall would be filled to overflowing to hear them. But when they give out notice that there will be a concert here, the people come, a few of them, and fill up the body of the hall, while a great portion of it is vacant.
Now, you don’t need to think that I am criticizing anybody; I am stating the fact as I have seen it myself. We get the beauty of the earth, the music of the earth, gratuitously, from Sunday to Sunday, and we get the word of the Lord, and with many of us it has become a common thing, which we have ceased to appreciate very much.
Let us appreciate good instructions and good music, even though we are treated to them from Sabbath to Sabbath. Amen.
The choir sang the anthem:
Our Father in heaven,
Before Thee we bend.
Benediction by Elder George Reynolds.
Afternoon Session.
An overflow meeting was held in the Assembly Hall, commencing at 2 o’clock.
Elder Abraham H. Cannon presided.
The congregation sang: We thank thee, O God, for a Prophet.
Prayer by Elder Lewis W. Shurtliff.
Members of the Tabernacle choir who had come in and occupied seats in front of the organ sang: He died, the Great Redeemer died.
The Sacrament was administered by the Bishopric and other officers of the Fourteenth ward.
An overflow meeting was held in the Assembly Hall, commencing at 2 o’clock.
Elder Abraham H. Cannon presided.
The congregation sang: We thank thee, O God, for a Prophet.
Prayer by Elder Lewis W. Shurtliff.
Members of the Tabernacle choir who had come in and occupied seats in front of the organ sang: He died, the Great Redeemer died.
The Sacrament was administered by the Bishopric and other officers of the Fourteenth ward.
Elder John Morgan
was the first speaker. He referred to the glorious results of the teachings and words of wisdom which the Latter-day Saints had received in years gone by; a compliance with the same kind of advice and instructions would secure their future happiness and prosperity. The instructions of the late President Brigham Young and other leading men in Israel imparted years ago in relation to the Saints become a self-sustaining people were good today. While we were at the present time purchasing canned fruits and vegetables from abroad, our own productions of the same kind were permitted to perish for want of proper care and management. The same could be said of various kinds of manufactures goods. We had been also in the habit of selling hides at a nominal price to be shipped to Boston and other cities of the East, there to be tanned and manufactured into boots and shoes and shipped back to us. This was a ruinous policy to pursue. As Saints we should endeavor to act wisely in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. It was hoped that the Saints would learn from the things they were suffering at the present time, and by their action in the future prove that they meant to follow the admonitions of the Lord through His servants. If they did this Zion would prosper and flourish.
was the first speaker. He referred to the glorious results of the teachings and words of wisdom which the Latter-day Saints had received in years gone by; a compliance with the same kind of advice and instructions would secure their future happiness and prosperity. The instructions of the late President Brigham Young and other leading men in Israel imparted years ago in relation to the Saints become a self-sustaining people were good today. While we were at the present time purchasing canned fruits and vegetables from abroad, our own productions of the same kind were permitted to perish for want of proper care and management. The same could be said of various kinds of manufactures goods. We had been also in the habit of selling hides at a nominal price to be shipped to Boston and other cities of the East, there to be tanned and manufactured into boots and shoes and shipped back to us. This was a ruinous policy to pursue. As Saints we should endeavor to act wisely in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. It was hoped that the Saints would learn from the things they were suffering at the present time, and by their action in the future prove that they meant to follow the admonitions of the Lord through His servants. If they did this Zion would prosper and flourish.
Elder Seymour B. Young
read from the Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 68, par. 3 and 4; and remarked that the doctrines which had been taught during this Conference are in accordance with that revelation. Many years ago, when the Saints resided in Jackson county, Missouri, the Lord revealed certain grand and sacred principles which were calculated to make His people free and prosperous temporally, but mobs arose against the Saints in that land and drove them away from their homes. The speaker was highly pleased with the change in feelings and sentiments which apparently had taken place in that part of the country. In this we could see the mercy and hand-dealings of the Almighty, in answer to the prayers of His people, and in fulfilment of prophecy. After reading extracts from Church history concerning the Pentecost enjoyed in the Kirtland Temple, when the Savior said that He had forgiven the sinners their sins, the speaker referred to the recent dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, on which occasion the Lord through His servants also declared that He had accepted of His people and blotted out their transgressions. This was a cause of great rejoicing among the Saints, and should stimulate us to renewed efforts in serving the Lord, who is merciful and full of forgiveness toward His children.
read from the Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 68, par. 3 and 4; and remarked that the doctrines which had been taught during this Conference are in accordance with that revelation. Many years ago, when the Saints resided in Jackson county, Missouri, the Lord revealed certain grand and sacred principles which were calculated to make His people free and prosperous temporally, but mobs arose against the Saints in that land and drove them away from their homes. The speaker was highly pleased with the change in feelings and sentiments which apparently had taken place in that part of the country. In this we could see the mercy and hand-dealings of the Almighty, in answer to the prayers of His people, and in fulfilment of prophecy. After reading extracts from Church history concerning the Pentecost enjoyed in the Kirtland Temple, when the Savior said that He had forgiven the sinners their sins, the speaker referred to the recent dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, on which occasion the Lord through His servants also declared that He had accepted of His people and blotted out their transgressions. This was a cause of great rejoicing among the Saints, and should stimulate us to renewed efforts in serving the Lord, who is merciful and full of forgiveness toward His children.
Elder Rulon S. Wells
spoke of the opportunities which the business world afforded men for being dishonest, and questioned whether some of the Latter-day Saints had risen above temptations of this kind. If not, they should take heed from now on, and strive to be perfectly honest and fair in all their business transactions, and not take advantage of any opportunity that might present itself for them to be otherwise. The speaker also discourage back-biting and slandering among the Saints, which always resulted in great evil, and admonished to a life of purity and consistency.
spoke of the opportunities which the business world afforded men for being dishonest, and questioned whether some of the Latter-day Saints had risen above temptations of this kind. If not, they should take heed from now on, and strive to be perfectly honest and fair in all their business transactions, and not take advantage of any opportunity that might present itself for them to be otherwise. The speaker also discourage back-biting and slandering among the Saints, which always resulted in great evil, and admonished to a life of purity and consistency.
Elder Abraham H. Cannon
spoke in relation to the children of the Latter-day Saints, some of whom had gone astray, though their parents had always been faithful and true to God and their religion, and had done their utmost to train their families in the path of duty and righteousness. We were not to suppose that such wayward sons and daughters were lost forever. The speaker believed that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was broad enough to provide for the dual redemption of those; that in due course of time, in the case of the prodigal son, the parents of these erring ones should rejoice in the repentance and salvation of their offspring; but perhaps not until after they had suffered the penalties of their misdeeds. But no one should take license from this and excuse themselves in committing sin. The sons and daughters of Zion should understand that their exaltation in the Kingdom of God depended largely upon their virtue and purity; and if they wilfully and knowingly sinned against God, their parents or society, they would have to pay the penalty. The speaker regretted the change for the worse to this connection which had taken place in Salt Lake City and other places in our Territory of late years. At one time virtue, good morals and the best of order were leading characteristics of the inhabitants occupying these mountain valleys; wives and daughters were safe by day and by night; but now we were surrounded by wickedness and abominations of all kinds. The wicked had desired to defile Zion, if possible; they had laid their traps for corrupting the youth of Israel and all who were not sufficiently founded in the love of the truth and in the strength of the Holy Spirit. The speaker admonished the Saints to be on their guard against the abominations of the world and encouraged husbands, wives and children to love each other, to be true and faithful and act so that confidence and good will would be the crowning characteristics of the household. Parents should be careful in the example they set before their children, and pursue a course of consistency, which God could approve and which finally would become the means of saving their offspring, even if some should temporarily stray away.
The choir sang: Captain of Israel’s hose and Guide.
Benediction by Elder A. H. Raleigh.
spoke in relation to the children of the Latter-day Saints, some of whom had gone astray, though their parents had always been faithful and true to God and their religion, and had done their utmost to train their families in the path of duty and righteousness. We were not to suppose that such wayward sons and daughters were lost forever. The speaker believed that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was broad enough to provide for the dual redemption of those; that in due course of time, in the case of the prodigal son, the parents of these erring ones should rejoice in the repentance and salvation of their offspring; but perhaps not until after they had suffered the penalties of their misdeeds. But no one should take license from this and excuse themselves in committing sin. The sons and daughters of Zion should understand that their exaltation in the Kingdom of God depended largely upon their virtue and purity; and if they wilfully and knowingly sinned against God, their parents or society, they would have to pay the penalty. The speaker regretted the change for the worse to this connection which had taken place in Salt Lake City and other places in our Territory of late years. At one time virtue, good morals and the best of order were leading characteristics of the inhabitants occupying these mountain valleys; wives and daughters were safe by day and by night; but now we were surrounded by wickedness and abominations of all kinds. The wicked had desired to defile Zion, if possible; they had laid their traps for corrupting the youth of Israel and all who were not sufficiently founded in the love of the truth and in the strength of the Holy Spirit. The speaker admonished the Saints to be on their guard against the abominations of the world and encouraged husbands, wives and children to love each other, to be true and faithful and act so that confidence and good will would be the crowning characteristics of the household. Parents should be careful in the example they set before their children, and pursue a course of consistency, which God could approve and which finally would become the means of saving their offspring, even if some should temporarily stray away.
The choir sang: Captain of Israel’s hose and Guide.
Benediction by Elder A. H. Raleigh.
At the Tabernacle.
The choir sang the “Hosanna” anthem.
Prayer by Elder David H. Cannon.
Singing by the choir: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.
The sacrament was administered under the direction of the Bishopric of the Thirteenth ward.
The choir sang the “Hosanna” anthem.
Prayer by Elder David H. Cannon.
Singing by the choir: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.
The sacrament was administered under the direction of the Bishopric of the Thirteenth ward.
President Wilford Woodruff
made the opening remarks, stating that although suffering from a severe cold on the lungs, and therefore feeling indisposed, he yet desired to say a few words to the vast congregation in Conference assembled. He referred to the many great and interesting truths which had been laid before the Saints by the brethren during Conference, and then proceeded to enlarge upon the subject of faith, through which, he said, so many marvelous things had been accomplished. He looked upon faith as one of the most important principles that God had ever revealed to man. The arch-enemy had labored against the Church of Christ in every age of the world; the enemy had labored against the people, but they had, nevertheless, great cause for thankfulness for the many mercies which the Lord had vouchsafed unto them. President Woodruff touched upon the vast resources of this Territory, and made special reference to the establishment of the sugar factory, which project was deserving of their hearty support. The Church has shouldered this responsibility to a large extent, in order to make the undertaking a success. The speaker paid a tribute to Brigham Young for the great work which he accomplished while among the Saints on behalf of this Church, and acknowledged the faith and prayers of his brethren and sisters through which he knew, in the mercy of God, his life had been preserved to this hour.
made the opening remarks, stating that although suffering from a severe cold on the lungs, and therefore feeling indisposed, he yet desired to say a few words to the vast congregation in Conference assembled. He referred to the many great and interesting truths which had been laid before the Saints by the brethren during Conference, and then proceeded to enlarge upon the subject of faith, through which, he said, so many marvelous things had been accomplished. He looked upon faith as one of the most important principles that God had ever revealed to man. The arch-enemy had labored against the Church of Christ in every age of the world; the enemy had labored against the people, but they had, nevertheless, great cause for thankfulness for the many mercies which the Lord had vouchsafed unto them. President Woodruff touched upon the vast resources of this Territory, and made special reference to the establishment of the sugar factory, which project was deserving of their hearty support. The Church has shouldered this responsibility to a large extent, in order to make the undertaking a success. The speaker paid a tribute to Brigham Young for the great work which he accomplished while among the Saints on behalf of this Church, and acknowledged the faith and prayers of his brethren and sisters through which he knew, in the mercy of God, his life had been preserved to this hour.
The Power of Faith.
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference, of the Church, is in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, October 8th, 1893, by Prest. Wilford Woodruff.
[Reported by Arthur Winter.]
I have never attended a conference since I have been a member of this Church—now nearly sixty years—at which I have refused, when called upon by the proper authority and the Spirit of God, to speak and to bear my testimony according to the light that I had in me, and I disliked to pass over this conference without saying something. I have been in poor condition for public speaking, having had a severe cold upon my lungs during the past week, which has prevented me from doing almost any kind of business.
I have been deeply interested in the testimonies of the servants of God who have addressed us during this conference. They have laid before us many great truths. my mind rests upon the subject of faith. Faith is the first principle of the Gospel. What is faith? Paul, in writing to the Hebrews, undertakes to explain it. He says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen;” and to prove this he goes on to tell what different men accomplished through faith. (See xi chap. of Hebrews.) I look upon faith as one of the most important principles that God ever revealed to man. Here we have four temples in these mountains, and hundreds of people are laboring in them. Who for? Both for the living and the dead? Have they ever seen the resurrection of the dead? No, except by vision or revelation. But they have faith in it, and as an evidence of that faith they perform this work. They look forward to the resurrection and eternal judgment, to the celestial kingdom and the great blessings which God has revealed for the salvation and exaltation of the children of men. They do this by faith, and it is by this power that they have accomplished what they have during the last sixty years. By faith this tabernacle has been built these temples have been reared, and these people have been gathered from the nations of the earth. Thousands of Elders have been called, not from colleges, but from the various occupations of life, and sent forth into the world to preach the Gospel without money and without price. Now for many years they have gone forth and preached this Gospel. Men have listened to them, and some spirit or power has convinced them that the testimony which these Elders have borne was true. These humble men of God have gone forth and said: “The fullness of the everlasting Gospel has been revealed by the administration of angels; the Lord has raised up prophets and inspired men; He has organized the Church on the earth as it was in the days of Jesus Christ and the Apostles; we have brought you this Gospel; hearken to it, and we promise you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you will receive our testimony, repent of your sins, go down into the water and be baptized for the remission of your sins, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, that shall bear record and witness unto you that what we say is true.” What has been the result of this? Thousands have believed that testimony and proved that it was true. These Elders labored by faith; they traveled by faith; they worked by faith. It was faith that sustained them all the way through. They traveled without purse and scrip, and through their faith the God of heaven fed and clothed them, and opened the way before them. This has been the case now for sixty years. And many people believed the testimony of these simple men. They repented of their sins, were baptized for the remission of them, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; they received that Holy Ghost, and it bore testimony to them of the truths of the Gospel.
Brethren and sisters, it is by faith that you are here today, gathered from the nations of the earth. By that power you have been sustained, until you have accomplished these things that are now before you in your history. We ought to look at these things as they are. We ought to have faith, not only in what is past but in what is to come. It is by faith that we look forward to the resurrection of the dead. Our forefathers are in the spirit world. They died without the Gospel. They never saw the face of a prophet or an apostle. They laid down their bodies, and their spirits went into the spirit world. There they have listened to the Gospel of Christ. Jesus taught the Gospel in the spirit world while His body lay in the tomb. Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith and those Elders of Israel who have been martyred and who have died for the word of God and testimony of Jesus have gone to preach this Gospel there. Spirits in prison have received their testimony. The prison doors have been opened. These spirits will come forth in the morning of the resurrection, and they will receive these blessings and glories, the same as if they had heard and received the Gospel in the flesh. And these Latter-day Saints have built these temples and gone to work in them with just as much assurance of the truth of these things as though it had been sounded in their ears by the trump of the archangel of God. They have had this faith, and they will not be disappointed.
That is the condition the Latter-day Saints are in today. As to opposition, we may expect that, because the arch-enemy has labored against the work of God in all ages of the world. But we have reason to rejoice and to be thankful to our Heavenly Father that we are as well as we are today before Him. I want the Latter-day Saints to bear in mind that the ancient patriarchs and prophets poke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the truth. The Lord has said just what He meant, and meant what He said. The word of the Lord will never fall unfulfilled. If you want to know what is coming to pass, read the revelations of God in the Bible, in the Book of Mormon and in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. The revelations of the Lord through the Prophet Joseph Smith are glorious revelations. What the Lord promised in the commencement of this work has been fulfilled to the very letter up to the present. So it will continue. We should lay these things to heart.
There has been a good deal said with regard to our temporal affairs. That is all right. What the brethren have said concerning our temporal condition is of importance to us. I still am of the opinion that inasmuch as Zion is going to be built up on the earth, it is the mind and will of God that we should do something for ourselves. We ought to cultivate the earth. We ought not to wait for the world to come and plant and dig our potatoes, or plant and harvest our wheat, or to build railroads and carry them on. The Presidency of the Church have shouldered a very heavy load connected with this sugar factory. Why should we not make sugar? Utah sends a very great amount every year out of the Territory for sugar. This should not be. The soil is here and the talent is here to raise beets and to make sugar. Why should not the Latter-day Saints do this and keep their money at home? Is there any sin in this? Not at all; the more of these things we would do, the better, I think, the Lord would be pleased with us. I know there has been quite a feeling one way or another, because we have burdened ourselves with these labors. But it is our duty to try to get the Latter-day Saints to cultivate the earth and to produce what they eat and drink and what they wear. We have tried to do this. It is true, it cost a great deal to establish the sugar plant, and the Church had to shoulder a great measure of responsibility in connection with it, in order to carry it out. I do not think we have done wrong in that. When I go before my Father in heaven I am willing to bear my part of the responsibility, because if there is anything on earth that I was ever moved upon by the Spirit to do it was to unite in that enterprise with my brethren. I believe it is our duty to manufacture what we use, as far as we can, at home. We refer to these temporal things because they are and always will be connected with us.
I feel to rejoice myself that we are as well off as we are. There has never been a period when we have been any better off than we are today. I look back to the days when we came here. We found a barren desert. The man that led us here was Brigham Young. He was a prophet, seer and revelator. He was never destitute of revelation from the day that I first knew him until his body was laid in the tomb. He was a great man—a man of God. We see the result of his work here. He was our architect, so to speak. He fulfilled his mission in a great and wonderful manner, and when he laid his body down he went to mingle with his brethren and the Gods.
The Gospel of Christ is true. The Zion of God is true. We are here in fulfillment of the revelations and visions of the ancient patriarchs and prophets. Read Isaiah, Jeremiah and the other prophets, and see what they said. We came here by the revelations of God. Many of the brethren felt it hard to leaven our beautiful Nauvoo and to go to the mountains. Had we not done this, some of the revelations of God would have fallen unfulfilled. I say to the Latter-day Saints, have faith. Let us have faith in the promises and revelations of God. Do you comprehend what is manifest in the earth today? The seeds of destruction are everywhere. The judgments of God are beginning to go forth. But who acknowledges the hand of God in these things? I rejoice that the cloud of darkness is being lifted from the eyes of our countrymen in regard to the Latter-day Saints, and that they are manifesting kindness towards us. Speaking of our visit East, I confess it was marvelous in my eyes to see how different these things are today to what they have been in the past. They begin to see that the people in the mountains of Israel are white men, and that they have some talent. I thank God for these things. I thank Him for the kindness we have received at the hands of the friends of our nation. My prayer to God is that His blessings may rest upon our nation and upon the leaders thereof, and that the spirit of liberty, of law, of righteousness and of truth may rest upon all American citizens and everybody that dwells under this great government. It is one of the greatest governments God ever raised upon the earth. What has it been raised up for? That in the midst of it the Lord might establish His Zion and His work.
Brethren and sisters, let us be true and faithful to our duties and to our God. Let us look forward to the exaltation and the blessings that God has in store for those who keep His commandments. Every man will be judged according to the deeds done in the body. There are laws celestial, laws terrestrial, and laws telestial. We speak of the celestial glory and of the heavenly hosts. Who are the heavenly hosts? They are those who have tabernacled on this earth, been faithful to God, and passed behind the veil. And they are interested in the welfare of the inhabitants of the earth. They are interested in the salvation of the human family. They have labored for it in the flesh; they do so today in the spirit world. These are the people we look to by faith. We are here upon a mission. We are trying to fulfil that mission. I hope we may be true and faithful to it.
I am thankful before the Lord for the blessings that I have enjoyed in this conference and for the testimonies I have heard from these Apostles. They speak as men having authority, inspired by the Spirit of God, and they speak the truth. Many of our friends that have labored with us have passed away. We ourselves shall pass away in our time. I may say that if it had not been for the prayers of these thousands of Latter-day Saints, I today should have been mingling with my brethren in the spirit world. I know that I have been preserved by the prayers of my brethren and sisters, and I am still with you. I feel very weak, and hardly qualified to magnify my calling as an Apostle, as the leader of the people of Israel; in fact, no man is, only as moved upon by the power of God. What little time I may, stay here I hope my heart will not be set on the riches of this world, but on doing the will of God and uniting with my brethren in bearing off the great work and responsibility resting upon us. If we will do this, all will be right. When we get the other side of the veil, we shall know something. We now work by faith. We have the evidence of things not seen. The resurrection, the eternal judgment, the celestial kingdom, and the great blessings that God has given in the holy anointings and endowment in the temples, are all for the future, and they will be fulfilled, for they are eternal truths. We will never while in the flesh, with this veil over us, fully comprehend that which lies before us in the world to come. It will pay any man to serve God and to keep His commandments the few days he lives upon the earth. With regard to our position before we came here, I will say that we dwelt with the Father and with the Son, as expressed in the hymn, “O my Father,” that has been sung here. That hymn is a revelation, though it was given unto us by a woman—Sister Snow. There are a great many sisters have the spirit of revelation. There is no reason why they should not be inspired as well as men. We dwelt in the presence of God before we came here, and we have been sent here upon a mission, and I do not want to live any longer myself than I can magnify that calling. What benefit is it to any man to dwell here and to miss the object for which he was sent, even eternal life? Therefore, it does not pay any man to sin. When a man sins it is because he yields to the enemy, not because the devil has power over him irrespective of his agency. The devil is laboring for the destruction of the human family. But the Gospel is sent into the world to save them.
Brethren and sisters, God bless you. I am glad to meet with you and to have a little time to speak to you. I hope and trust we may be true and faithful to the end of our days, that we may be satisfied when we get through with our work; that our hearts may not be set upon anything that perisheth, but that we may do what we can to build up Zion and bring forth salvation to mankind as far as we have the opportunity while we dwell in the flesh. God bless us and guild us all in all our work, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Discourse Delivered at the Sixty-fourth Semi-Annual Conference, of the Church, is in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, October 8th, 1893, by Prest. Wilford Woodruff.
[Reported by Arthur Winter.]
I have never attended a conference since I have been a member of this Church—now nearly sixty years—at which I have refused, when called upon by the proper authority and the Spirit of God, to speak and to bear my testimony according to the light that I had in me, and I disliked to pass over this conference without saying something. I have been in poor condition for public speaking, having had a severe cold upon my lungs during the past week, which has prevented me from doing almost any kind of business.
I have been deeply interested in the testimonies of the servants of God who have addressed us during this conference. They have laid before us many great truths. my mind rests upon the subject of faith. Faith is the first principle of the Gospel. What is faith? Paul, in writing to the Hebrews, undertakes to explain it. He says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen;” and to prove this he goes on to tell what different men accomplished through faith. (See xi chap. of Hebrews.) I look upon faith as one of the most important principles that God ever revealed to man. Here we have four temples in these mountains, and hundreds of people are laboring in them. Who for? Both for the living and the dead? Have they ever seen the resurrection of the dead? No, except by vision or revelation. But they have faith in it, and as an evidence of that faith they perform this work. They look forward to the resurrection and eternal judgment, to the celestial kingdom and the great blessings which God has revealed for the salvation and exaltation of the children of men. They do this by faith, and it is by this power that they have accomplished what they have during the last sixty years. By faith this tabernacle has been built these temples have been reared, and these people have been gathered from the nations of the earth. Thousands of Elders have been called, not from colleges, but from the various occupations of life, and sent forth into the world to preach the Gospel without money and without price. Now for many years they have gone forth and preached this Gospel. Men have listened to them, and some spirit or power has convinced them that the testimony which these Elders have borne was true. These humble men of God have gone forth and said: “The fullness of the everlasting Gospel has been revealed by the administration of angels; the Lord has raised up prophets and inspired men; He has organized the Church on the earth as it was in the days of Jesus Christ and the Apostles; we have brought you this Gospel; hearken to it, and we promise you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you will receive our testimony, repent of your sins, go down into the water and be baptized for the remission of your sins, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, that shall bear record and witness unto you that what we say is true.” What has been the result of this? Thousands have believed that testimony and proved that it was true. These Elders labored by faith; they traveled by faith; they worked by faith. It was faith that sustained them all the way through. They traveled without purse and scrip, and through their faith the God of heaven fed and clothed them, and opened the way before them. This has been the case now for sixty years. And many people believed the testimony of these simple men. They repented of their sins, were baptized for the remission of them, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; they received that Holy Ghost, and it bore testimony to them of the truths of the Gospel.
Brethren and sisters, it is by faith that you are here today, gathered from the nations of the earth. By that power you have been sustained, until you have accomplished these things that are now before you in your history. We ought to look at these things as they are. We ought to have faith, not only in what is past but in what is to come. It is by faith that we look forward to the resurrection of the dead. Our forefathers are in the spirit world. They died without the Gospel. They never saw the face of a prophet or an apostle. They laid down their bodies, and their spirits went into the spirit world. There they have listened to the Gospel of Christ. Jesus taught the Gospel in the spirit world while His body lay in the tomb. Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith and those Elders of Israel who have been martyred and who have died for the word of God and testimony of Jesus have gone to preach this Gospel there. Spirits in prison have received their testimony. The prison doors have been opened. These spirits will come forth in the morning of the resurrection, and they will receive these blessings and glories, the same as if they had heard and received the Gospel in the flesh. And these Latter-day Saints have built these temples and gone to work in them with just as much assurance of the truth of these things as though it had been sounded in their ears by the trump of the archangel of God. They have had this faith, and they will not be disappointed.
That is the condition the Latter-day Saints are in today. As to opposition, we may expect that, because the arch-enemy has labored against the work of God in all ages of the world. But we have reason to rejoice and to be thankful to our Heavenly Father that we are as well as we are today before Him. I want the Latter-day Saints to bear in mind that the ancient patriarchs and prophets poke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the truth. The Lord has said just what He meant, and meant what He said. The word of the Lord will never fall unfulfilled. If you want to know what is coming to pass, read the revelations of God in the Bible, in the Book of Mormon and in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. The revelations of the Lord through the Prophet Joseph Smith are glorious revelations. What the Lord promised in the commencement of this work has been fulfilled to the very letter up to the present. So it will continue. We should lay these things to heart.
There has been a good deal said with regard to our temporal affairs. That is all right. What the brethren have said concerning our temporal condition is of importance to us. I still am of the opinion that inasmuch as Zion is going to be built up on the earth, it is the mind and will of God that we should do something for ourselves. We ought to cultivate the earth. We ought not to wait for the world to come and plant and dig our potatoes, or plant and harvest our wheat, or to build railroads and carry them on. The Presidency of the Church have shouldered a very heavy load connected with this sugar factory. Why should we not make sugar? Utah sends a very great amount every year out of the Territory for sugar. This should not be. The soil is here and the talent is here to raise beets and to make sugar. Why should not the Latter-day Saints do this and keep their money at home? Is there any sin in this? Not at all; the more of these things we would do, the better, I think, the Lord would be pleased with us. I know there has been quite a feeling one way or another, because we have burdened ourselves with these labors. But it is our duty to try to get the Latter-day Saints to cultivate the earth and to produce what they eat and drink and what they wear. We have tried to do this. It is true, it cost a great deal to establish the sugar plant, and the Church had to shoulder a great measure of responsibility in connection with it, in order to carry it out. I do not think we have done wrong in that. When I go before my Father in heaven I am willing to bear my part of the responsibility, because if there is anything on earth that I was ever moved upon by the Spirit to do it was to unite in that enterprise with my brethren. I believe it is our duty to manufacture what we use, as far as we can, at home. We refer to these temporal things because they are and always will be connected with us.
I feel to rejoice myself that we are as well off as we are. There has never been a period when we have been any better off than we are today. I look back to the days when we came here. We found a barren desert. The man that led us here was Brigham Young. He was a prophet, seer and revelator. He was never destitute of revelation from the day that I first knew him until his body was laid in the tomb. He was a great man—a man of God. We see the result of his work here. He was our architect, so to speak. He fulfilled his mission in a great and wonderful manner, and when he laid his body down he went to mingle with his brethren and the Gods.
The Gospel of Christ is true. The Zion of God is true. We are here in fulfillment of the revelations and visions of the ancient patriarchs and prophets. Read Isaiah, Jeremiah and the other prophets, and see what they said. We came here by the revelations of God. Many of the brethren felt it hard to leaven our beautiful Nauvoo and to go to the mountains. Had we not done this, some of the revelations of God would have fallen unfulfilled. I say to the Latter-day Saints, have faith. Let us have faith in the promises and revelations of God. Do you comprehend what is manifest in the earth today? The seeds of destruction are everywhere. The judgments of God are beginning to go forth. But who acknowledges the hand of God in these things? I rejoice that the cloud of darkness is being lifted from the eyes of our countrymen in regard to the Latter-day Saints, and that they are manifesting kindness towards us. Speaking of our visit East, I confess it was marvelous in my eyes to see how different these things are today to what they have been in the past. They begin to see that the people in the mountains of Israel are white men, and that they have some talent. I thank God for these things. I thank Him for the kindness we have received at the hands of the friends of our nation. My prayer to God is that His blessings may rest upon our nation and upon the leaders thereof, and that the spirit of liberty, of law, of righteousness and of truth may rest upon all American citizens and everybody that dwells under this great government. It is one of the greatest governments God ever raised upon the earth. What has it been raised up for? That in the midst of it the Lord might establish His Zion and His work.
Brethren and sisters, let us be true and faithful to our duties and to our God. Let us look forward to the exaltation and the blessings that God has in store for those who keep His commandments. Every man will be judged according to the deeds done in the body. There are laws celestial, laws terrestrial, and laws telestial. We speak of the celestial glory and of the heavenly hosts. Who are the heavenly hosts? They are those who have tabernacled on this earth, been faithful to God, and passed behind the veil. And they are interested in the welfare of the inhabitants of the earth. They are interested in the salvation of the human family. They have labored for it in the flesh; they do so today in the spirit world. These are the people we look to by faith. We are here upon a mission. We are trying to fulfil that mission. I hope we may be true and faithful to it.
I am thankful before the Lord for the blessings that I have enjoyed in this conference and for the testimonies I have heard from these Apostles. They speak as men having authority, inspired by the Spirit of God, and they speak the truth. Many of our friends that have labored with us have passed away. We ourselves shall pass away in our time. I may say that if it had not been for the prayers of these thousands of Latter-day Saints, I today should have been mingling with my brethren in the spirit world. I know that I have been preserved by the prayers of my brethren and sisters, and I am still with you. I feel very weak, and hardly qualified to magnify my calling as an Apostle, as the leader of the people of Israel; in fact, no man is, only as moved upon by the power of God. What little time I may, stay here I hope my heart will not be set on the riches of this world, but on doing the will of God and uniting with my brethren in bearing off the great work and responsibility resting upon us. If we will do this, all will be right. When we get the other side of the veil, we shall know something. We now work by faith. We have the evidence of things not seen. The resurrection, the eternal judgment, the celestial kingdom, and the great blessings that God has given in the holy anointings and endowment in the temples, are all for the future, and they will be fulfilled, for they are eternal truths. We will never while in the flesh, with this veil over us, fully comprehend that which lies before us in the world to come. It will pay any man to serve God and to keep His commandments the few days he lives upon the earth. With regard to our position before we came here, I will say that we dwelt with the Father and with the Son, as expressed in the hymn, “O my Father,” that has been sung here. That hymn is a revelation, though it was given unto us by a woman—Sister Snow. There are a great many sisters have the spirit of revelation. There is no reason why they should not be inspired as well as men. We dwelt in the presence of God before we came here, and we have been sent here upon a mission, and I do not want to live any longer myself than I can magnify that calling. What benefit is it to any man to dwell here and to miss the object for which he was sent, even eternal life? Therefore, it does not pay any man to sin. When a man sins it is because he yields to the enemy, not because the devil has power over him irrespective of his agency. The devil is laboring for the destruction of the human family. But the Gospel is sent into the world to save them.
Brethren and sisters, God bless you. I am glad to meet with you and to have a little time to speak to you. I hope and trust we may be true and faithful to the end of our days, that we may be satisfied when we get through with our work; that our hearts may not be set upon anything that perisheth, but that we may do what we can to build up Zion and bring forth salvation to mankind as far as we have the opportunity while we dwell in the flesh. God bless us and guild us all in all our work, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
President George Q. Cannon
read a portion of scripture from Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, wherein he said, was set forth with great plainness the reason why there should be Prophets and Apostles in the Church of Christ. The speaker dwelt at length upon the authority and power of the Priesthood, and also spoke on the subject of revelation. Adverting to so-called spiritualism and Christian science, he said that Satan was doing his utmost to bind the unwary down in chains of darkness and lead them to everlasting destruction. He desired therefore to life his voice on this occasion in warning to all Latter-day against the insidious advances of so-called Spiritualism and Christian Scientist, who professed to work miracles. Let the people beware of the cunning and sleight-of-hand of men. President Woodruff was a man of God’s selection, just as were Brigham Young, John Taylor, and others who had been associated with him, and He had preserved his life until now. God grant that this people might never step beyond the line of duty which the Lord through His chosen servants had marked out for them, and they would always remain steadfast in the truth.
The speaker made some closing remarks in opposition to the so-called doctrine of re-incarnation—the re-appearance in this life of certain men who had lived in other dispensations. He characterized the theory as false, and warned the Saints against entertaining it.
read a portion of scripture from Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, wherein he said, was set forth with great plainness the reason why there should be Prophets and Apostles in the Church of Christ. The speaker dwelt at length upon the authority and power of the Priesthood, and also spoke on the subject of revelation. Adverting to so-called spiritualism and Christian science, he said that Satan was doing his utmost to bind the unwary down in chains of darkness and lead them to everlasting destruction. He desired therefore to life his voice on this occasion in warning to all Latter-day against the insidious advances of so-called Spiritualism and Christian Scientist, who professed to work miracles. Let the people beware of the cunning and sleight-of-hand of men. President Woodruff was a man of God’s selection, just as were Brigham Young, John Taylor, and others who had been associated with him, and He had preserved his life until now. God grant that this people might never step beyond the line of duty which the Lord through His chosen servants had marked out for them, and they would always remain steadfast in the truth.
The speaker made some closing remarks in opposition to the so-called doctrine of re-incarnation—the re-appearance in this life of certain men who had lived in other dispensations. He characterized the theory as false, and warned the Saints against entertaining it.
Try the Spirits.
Discourse Delivered at the General Conference of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday, October 8th. 1893, by
President George Q. Cannon
[Reported by Arthur Winter.]
I will read a few words from Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians:
Wherefore he saith. When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
(Now that he ascended, what it is but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the working of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to receive;
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
In these words Paul sets forth with great plainness the reasons why there should be Apostles and Prophets in the Church of Christ. They were necessary, he says, to bring the Saints to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God. When this Church was organized it had in it Apostles; it had the Priesthood. It is a remarkable thing that the Prophet Joseph Smith, although gifted by the Lord with revelations and with power to translate the Book of Mormon, and though he had received the ministration of angels, and had even been permitted to behold the Father and the Son, yet he never presumed to officiate in any of the ordinances of the gospel until he was ordained. One might think, that, having had such high privileges and blessings bestowed upon him, he would have thought he had the authority to administer the simple ordinance of baptism. But he did not. He awaited the bestowal of the authority. And he received it—not from man, because there was not a man on the face of the earth that we know of that held the authority, but from a messenger of God, endowed with the power to bestow the authority. John the Baptist came and announced himself as the servant of God who held the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood, being a literal descendant of Aaron, by virtue of which authority he had baptized the Son of God int he waters of Jordan. This heavenly messenger came qualified in every way to bestow upon the men to whom he was sent the authority to baptize. Could there be any more suitable personage thought of than the one who had baptized the immaculate Son of God himself? Concerning him Jesus said, “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.” Yet John the Baptist never did any miracles. But what greater honor could a man have than to come in the flesh and baptize the Son of God? That holy being, I say, came and laid his hands upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and ordained them to the Aaronic Priesthood, by virtue of which they had authority to baptize. Then there was something else needed. John said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” Though John had the authority to baptize the Son of God, he did not have the authority to baptize with “the Holy Ghost and with fire.” He did not have the authority to confirm upon men and women the Holy Ghost, but he said that one should come after him with that power—referring to Jesus. Jesus ordained men, He himself having been ordained. We do not have the full account of what Jesus received; but we know that angels administered unto Him, and He did not presume to act in the ministry, though He was the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world, until He had been ordained to that authority. You remember what took place in the transfiguration on the mount. He was there ministered to by heavenly beings, and He and they doubtless ministered to Peter, James John. He ordained twelve Apostles, and sent them forth as witnesses with the same power and authority which He himself had received. In speaking to them on one occasion, He said, in answer to a question put by Peter: “Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Although they were the intimate companions of the Son of God, they did not go forth until He had ordained them to the authority which He himself had exercised. He selected these twelve out of the disciples that followed Him and gave unto them the Apostleship, by the authority of which they were able to do all that Paul said the Apostles should do—to regulate the affairs of the Church, to teach sound doctrine, to be, in fact, revelators, prophets and seers, when the occasion should demand it; to possess all the gifts that God gives to man in the flesh. They were ordained to this, and until they were they did not presume to go forth and minister in the authority among the children of men. But when they received this authority they went forth, accompanied by mighty power; and they cast out devils, healed the sick, and performed many wonderful works in the name of the Lord and through the authority which they had received from Him. While the Church was under their guidance the members thereof were not carried about by every wind of doctrine. They were not deceived by the sleight of men, nor their cunning craftiness. They knew that while they followed the guidance of these inspired and divinely-authorized men, there was no danger of division or strife; but they were led to the unity of the faith. Therefore, in the last days, God being about to restore His Church in its primitive purity and power to the earth, He deemed it necessary to bestow the Apostleship once more upon men. After the Aaronic Priesthood had been conferred, therefore, and John the Baptist had transmitted that power (which had been taken from the earth through the wickedness of men and the shedding of the blood of those who bore it) again to the earth, others came from the mansions of bliss and committed to men once more in the flesh the keys and the authority which they had held when they were in the flesh, and which keys and authority were necessary to complete the great work of God in the last days. The Lord, when he was upon the earth, said unto Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Peter, James and John were the three presiding High Priests over the Church of Christ, after the Savior’s departure; and these three Apostles descended from the mansions of glory and laid their hands upon the heads of these two young servants of God in this day and ordained them to the authority which they held, committing unto them all the keys and powers of Priesthood which they had received in their day, and which had not been transmitted by them to any others, because of the wickedness of the children of men. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were ordained to the Apostleship of the Son of God by Peter and his fellow Apostles, and thus was restored to the earth once more that great authority and glorious power which the Son of God had bestowed when in the flesh. I doubt not that the angelic hosts rejoiced and every heart that surrounded the throne of God was gladdened at the thought that once more on earth were men the eternal authority of the everlasting Priesthood, by means of which men should be led from the lowest depths of ignorance and sin back into the presence of the Great Eternal! No doubt peans of joy resounded throughout the vaulted heavens when that event took place; for it was an event pregnant with more importance to the children of men than any which had taken place since the days of the Savior. When that authority was restored in its fulness, then the Church was organized. Men and women were baptized and received the Holy Ghost, and officers were ordained in the Church. The organization was not completed all at once; but the authority to complete the organization was there, and as the Saints increased in numbers, so the organization of the Church increased in perfection, each officer being appointed and ordained as the necessity arose for that office to be filled.
Now, it was a new thing in the earth. It startled Christendom. Up to that time no one had pretended to say—at least very few—that there was not all necessary authority on the earth. The religious world looked to the Bible. They asserted that it contained the entire word of God. Nothing more was necessary. God had completed the canon of scripture. There would be no more revelation from Him. Everything had been given that was necessary for man’s salvation. And the inference was that God, having done this, had retired from any active participation in the affairs of the earth, and had left the whole business to men. Therefore, it was a startling declaration to have anyone say that God himself, accompanied by His Son jesus Christ, had revealed himself to man once more; and equally startling was the statement that angels had come, and that the authority of the Priesthood had been restored again to the earth. These were astounding declarations to the great bulk of the people. Of course, there were honest souls who rejoiced at this proclamation. They had been searching for the truth. Dissatisfied with the existing order of things, they were yearning for the restoration of that power, and were anxious to find men who held and exercised it. Therefore, their hearts were gladdened by the intelligence that God had spoken. It was almost too good to believe. But they investigated it. They prayed unto the Father about it. The result was, they received testimonies concerning it, and embraced the Gospel. But at that day—sixty-four years ago—there were very few men in Christendom who dared to say that God would speak from the heavens, or who believed that such a thing was possible. Revelation from God was a thing of the past. It belonged to ages anterior to this. The ministers of religion contented themselves by making these statements.
How was this new declaration received? Let me call your attention to this. During the first persecution against the Saints of God in Jackson County, one of the main charges made by the mob was that Joseph Smith was accepted by the “Mormons” as a prophet, and that they believe in revelation from God. It was about as strong an appeal as could be made to the prejudices of the age, to arouse intense hostility against the people. This shows how the people felt at that time. But I heard Joseph Smith predict that the day would come when there would be false spirits go forth among the children of men and that they would deceive them. I remember on one occasion his speaking about the false prophet that should call down fire from heaven, and he warned the people in the most impressive and solemn manner against being deceived by these works that should be wrought to deceive the children of men. It was only two years after his death that spirit rapping commenced in Rochester, New York. We had been driven out here in the wilderness, and we did not know much that was transpiring in the eastern world. But I happened, while on the Sandwich Islands in 1851, to get hold of a book that had been issued by spiritualists, and I was surprised at the manner in which they presented their claims to the public. Arguments that our Elders used they had taken and revamped, so to speak, and adapted them to their ideas. A more deceptive book in the interests of falsehood and false doctrine could not, in my opinion, have been published. And from that day until the present, belief in spiritual agencies and manifestations has spread and increased, until at the present time there is scarcely a person to be found who does not believe that there is something connected with man that he can use to bring him into close and intimate relation with the spirit world. Since that day there has been a wonderful stride taken in this direction. The world has been progressing—if that can be called progress—in a most remarkable manner. Theories that prevailed with the Gospel was revealed and the Priesthood of the Son of God was restored have been discarded, and today the popular magazines are filled with communications concerning these occult powers that are being brought to light. Talk to men about dreams and visions and spiritual manifestations, and they admit that such things are possible; but they cannot explain them.
This is one of the results that followed the revelation of the Gospel and the bestowal of the authority of the Holy Priesthood. The doctrines taught by the elders have had their effect. They have been received, to a greater or less extent, in the world, without the source from which they came being acknowledged. I hear that there are advocates of what is called Christian Science in our midst. I hear that they creep into our houses and lead silly women astray by telling them of wonderful things that can be done by means of Christian Science. A few days ago a father came to me and told me about two of his daughters, one of whom had been afflicted and had been told by some of these persons how she might be cured. Now, that is a comparatively new doctrine in the world. it was not heard of until the Church of Christ was organized. We taught this, and were persecuted for teaching it. Every kind of obloquy was thrust upon us, because we believed that there was a power, which God would give to those who obeyed His commandments, that would result in the healing of the sick, the casting out of devils, and other miraculous things. But a great change has come over men. Satan has been busy. Men say, as the Book of Mormon says they would in the last days, that there is no hell, and no devil. Satan is whispering this into the ears of the children of men; and today there are thousands of people who do not believe that there is any hell, or any personal devil. Nevertheless, there is a personal devil, just as sure as there is a personal God. He has not a tabernacle; but he is a living entity, and he is endeavoring to destroy the work of God by producing imitations of it and showing unto the inhabitants of the earth that they can obtain power without obeying the laws of God. Wherever spiritualism has a foothold faith in God decreases. Whenever you see a Latter-day Saint begin to dabble in spiritualism, you will find that he begins to doubt the atonement of the Savior and the redemption wrought out by the shedding of His blood, and the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. These are signs that accompany spiritualism. Satan is laboring with all his might to lead men and women to these conclusions, binding them in chains to darkness and leading them down to everlasting destruction. It is the same with Christian Science, whose doctrines are being insidiously spread throughout the country. They are publishing books and circulating them gratuitously and endeavoring to undermine the faith of the people in the ordinances of the Gospel and in the words of Jesus contained in the New Testament. They tell the sick not to believe they are sick, to exercise their will power, and to consider sickness as imaginary; and we are told they are doing mighty works in healing the people. I would not be surprised at that, because I know that Satan is almost capable of deceiving the very elect. I believe that Satan can make himself appear to those who cannot discern, as an angel of light; and if he has that power, he has power also to deceive men and women in the flesh by performing mighty works. Was not this done in the days of Moses? Was not Pharaoh’s heart hardened by the works of the magicians? He did not believe that Moses and Aaron were servants of God, but that they had a little more skill perhaps than his magicians had. So it is now. Satan is capable of deceiving the people.
I want in this conference, before we separate, to lift my voice in warning to the people of God against these insidious advances—against spiritualism, against Christian Science and against all such isms, however much they may profess to be of God. I hear that men who claim to be the Reorganized Church say that they have power to work miracles. Perhaps they have; but that is not evidence of the divinity of their cause, or that they are the authorized servants of God. This evidence is to be found, my brethren and sisters, in the blessings that God bestows upon His people. Read the words that I have read in your hearing. Remember them. The Apostleship has been placed in this Church to lead men to the unity of the faith. That is what Paul said in ancient days concerning the Apostleship. What have been its fruits today? What have been the fruits that have attended the restoration of the Apostleship in this Church? Has it not led all who have been guided by it to the unity of the faith? Latter-day Saints here assembled from almost every nation of Christendom, what do you say? Has not the Apostleship restored by the ministrations of holy angels to the earth, brought you from the ends of the earth to the unity of the faith in this land? Where will you find a people more united? Nowhere. That is one of its fruits. Another is, it is for the perfecting of the Saints. I leave it to the Latter-day Saints to say whether the teachings and the labors of the Apostles in your midst have not led to great perfection among you. You are our witnesses and God’s witnesses to this; for you know for yourselves whether these have been the results that have followed or not. If you have followed the teachings of the Apostles, you have not been carried about by every wind of doctrine; nor have you been deceived by the cunning craftiness of men. None of you have been misled in this way. But you have been guarded against this. God has placed Apostles int he Church for this express purpose. They are not self-chosen. God knows, and you know, that those who bear the Apostleship have not sought this authority. Do you think that we are presided over by a man who has sought this office of himself? We all know the man too well to suppose that Wilford Woodruff would ever, if he had lived to the age of Methusaleh, have put forward his hand to guide this work of our God. God has preserved his life and spared him to this people, clothed with the Apostleship of the Son of God to lead the people, just as He did John Taylor, just as He did Brigham Young, and the others who have been associated with them. I appeal to you, ye Latter-day Saints, in conference assembled, to know whether these are not truths that I am speaking; whether you have not had in your midst the evidences of the divine origin of this work and of the authority which presides over this Church. God has borne testimony to this by the fruits that have followed our ministrations. I include myself, although I consider myself unworthy to be in the ranks of these men. God has blessed the people in listening to the counsels of His servants. He has brought us to these mountains and built up a mighty people here. We have erected temples, and have gone into them and performed ordinances which God has revealed. Where else can you find these things upon the face of the earth? By whom are such doctrines taught? What would you do for your dead, if it were not for the light that God has revealed through the Apostleship concerning the plan of salvation for the dead? The whole world is groping in darkness regarding these matters. They cannot tell what shall be done with the heathen, or with those who have died in ignorance of the Gospel of Christ. Yet they teach that there is no other name given under heaven whereby man can be saved, excepting the name of Jesus. Already some ministers of Christendom are rejecting the doctrine that salvation is confined to those alive, thus following in the wake of the teachings of the servants of God. But how shall we know these things if the heavens are as brass over our heads, and if there is to be no communication from God to man? “Oh,” says one, “we might receive it, if it came from some other source than it does.” Now, it is a peculiar feature of the work of God in all ages that He chose men for this purpose. He did not send angels to minister unto all men; but He chose men to minister unto their fellow men. The prophets are men, and full of failings and frailties. Even the Son of God, perfect as He was, was not recognized among men as divine. Now, God has chosen men in this day. Although they may feel unworthy of such high honor, and that He could have chosen probably better instruments, nevertheless God has chosen them, and He will honor them in the eyes of the people, if they will be humble. He will make them His mouthpieces to declare unto the children of men His word and will. He will fill them with the Holy Ghost, and the people who listen to them will be led in the path of salvation, and be delivered from the many evils that are coming upon the inhabitants of the earth.
My brethren and sisters, these are solemn truths. I would like to arouse faith in your hearts. I say to you that the sick can be healed, and are healed, in this Church, and the prayer of faith is heard. The proper way for people to receive an answer to their prayers and to have the blessings attend that are desired, is to obey the ordinances of the Gospel. Do not go straying after false gods. Do not be looking after those who have no authority, but are false guides; for I tell you that they will lead those who follow them down to destruction. I do not care how holy they may profess to be; I do not care how many miracles they may profess to perform; I do not care though they may be the sons of the holiest men that ever trod upon the earth, if they do not keep within the lines which God has prescribed, I tell you that they will lead those who follow them to destruction. I bear testimony to this, and am responsible for it. It is not miracles that are the sole evidence of the truth of anything. We have been taught that from the beginning. But it is the spirit and power of God when it poured out upon the people, uniting their hearts, filling them with love, prompting them to confess their sins one to another, and to the Lord. These are the fruits that we see in these valleys among the people who keep the commandments of God. When you hear men begin to doubt, and say, “Well, I don’t know about this, or that,” it is an evidence that they are in the dark; for if they would live in the light God would bear testimony to them by the power of the Holy Ghost concerning these things. I therefore say to all who are here, if any of you have felt in your hearts that you would follow what I call false gods—false lights, false teachers; if any of you have felt to weaken in your attachment to the work of God and to entertain doubts concerning its validity—I ask you this afternoon to repent truly and sincerely of that, and turn to God with full purpose of heart and with a determination to serve Him all the rest of your days. If you ever had the love of God in your hearts, and that inexpressible joy that God gives unto those who keep His commandments, you know it is sweeter than the sweetest honeycomb. There is nothing on earth sweeter than the spirit of God when it is enjoyed by a humble Latter-day Saint. And God has placed this within our reach. He has opened a fountain to us at which we may drink until our souls are filled to overflowing. I say to you that Satan would tell you nineteen miracles to get you to accept one untruth and to take a wrong step. That is the kind of power he exercises. Do not be deceived, my brethren and sisters. Try the spirits, and see whether they are of God or not. Cling to the authority of the Priesthood, which God sent. His messengers to bestow upon man. If you do so, I will assure you, as a servant of God, you will be led back into the presence of God and the Lamb, there to dwell eternally and to receive that glorious reward which He has promised unto the faithful. God grant unto us that we may receive this, that we may never step a single inch from the path which He has marked out, nor do a thing that will grieve the Spirit of God, from this time henceforth and forever. Amen.
Conference adjourned to meet on April 6th, 1894.
The choir sang the anthem, Let all Israel sing.
Benediction by President Wilford Woodruff.
John Nicholson,
Clerk of Conference.
Discourse Delivered at the General Conference of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday, October 8th. 1893, by
President George Q. Cannon
[Reported by Arthur Winter.]
I will read a few words from Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians:
Wherefore he saith. When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
(Now that he ascended, what it is but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the working of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to receive;
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
In these words Paul sets forth with great plainness the reasons why there should be Apostles and Prophets in the Church of Christ. They were necessary, he says, to bring the Saints to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God. When this Church was organized it had in it Apostles; it had the Priesthood. It is a remarkable thing that the Prophet Joseph Smith, although gifted by the Lord with revelations and with power to translate the Book of Mormon, and though he had received the ministration of angels, and had even been permitted to behold the Father and the Son, yet he never presumed to officiate in any of the ordinances of the gospel until he was ordained. One might think, that, having had such high privileges and blessings bestowed upon him, he would have thought he had the authority to administer the simple ordinance of baptism. But he did not. He awaited the bestowal of the authority. And he received it—not from man, because there was not a man on the face of the earth that we know of that held the authority, but from a messenger of God, endowed with the power to bestow the authority. John the Baptist came and announced himself as the servant of God who held the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood, being a literal descendant of Aaron, by virtue of which authority he had baptized the Son of God int he waters of Jordan. This heavenly messenger came qualified in every way to bestow upon the men to whom he was sent the authority to baptize. Could there be any more suitable personage thought of than the one who had baptized the immaculate Son of God himself? Concerning him Jesus said, “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.” Yet John the Baptist never did any miracles. But what greater honor could a man have than to come in the flesh and baptize the Son of God? That holy being, I say, came and laid his hands upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and ordained them to the Aaronic Priesthood, by virtue of which they had authority to baptize. Then there was something else needed. John said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” Though John had the authority to baptize the Son of God, he did not have the authority to baptize with “the Holy Ghost and with fire.” He did not have the authority to confirm upon men and women the Holy Ghost, but he said that one should come after him with that power—referring to Jesus. Jesus ordained men, He himself having been ordained. We do not have the full account of what Jesus received; but we know that angels administered unto Him, and He did not presume to act in the ministry, though He was the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world, until He had been ordained to that authority. You remember what took place in the transfiguration on the mount. He was there ministered to by heavenly beings, and He and they doubtless ministered to Peter, James John. He ordained twelve Apostles, and sent them forth as witnesses with the same power and authority which He himself had received. In speaking to them on one occasion, He said, in answer to a question put by Peter: “Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Although they were the intimate companions of the Son of God, they did not go forth until He had ordained them to the authority which He himself had exercised. He selected these twelve out of the disciples that followed Him and gave unto them the Apostleship, by the authority of which they were able to do all that Paul said the Apostles should do—to regulate the affairs of the Church, to teach sound doctrine, to be, in fact, revelators, prophets and seers, when the occasion should demand it; to possess all the gifts that God gives to man in the flesh. They were ordained to this, and until they were they did not presume to go forth and minister in the authority among the children of men. But when they received this authority they went forth, accompanied by mighty power; and they cast out devils, healed the sick, and performed many wonderful works in the name of the Lord and through the authority which they had received from Him. While the Church was under their guidance the members thereof were not carried about by every wind of doctrine. They were not deceived by the sleight of men, nor their cunning craftiness. They knew that while they followed the guidance of these inspired and divinely-authorized men, there was no danger of division or strife; but they were led to the unity of the faith. Therefore, in the last days, God being about to restore His Church in its primitive purity and power to the earth, He deemed it necessary to bestow the Apostleship once more upon men. After the Aaronic Priesthood had been conferred, therefore, and John the Baptist had transmitted that power (which had been taken from the earth through the wickedness of men and the shedding of the blood of those who bore it) again to the earth, others came from the mansions of bliss and committed to men once more in the flesh the keys and the authority which they had held when they were in the flesh, and which keys and authority were necessary to complete the great work of God in the last days. The Lord, when he was upon the earth, said unto Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Peter, James and John were the three presiding High Priests over the Church of Christ, after the Savior’s departure; and these three Apostles descended from the mansions of glory and laid their hands upon the heads of these two young servants of God in this day and ordained them to the authority which they held, committing unto them all the keys and powers of Priesthood which they had received in their day, and which had not been transmitted by them to any others, because of the wickedness of the children of men. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were ordained to the Apostleship of the Son of God by Peter and his fellow Apostles, and thus was restored to the earth once more that great authority and glorious power which the Son of God had bestowed when in the flesh. I doubt not that the angelic hosts rejoiced and every heart that surrounded the throne of God was gladdened at the thought that once more on earth were men the eternal authority of the everlasting Priesthood, by means of which men should be led from the lowest depths of ignorance and sin back into the presence of the Great Eternal! No doubt peans of joy resounded throughout the vaulted heavens when that event took place; for it was an event pregnant with more importance to the children of men than any which had taken place since the days of the Savior. When that authority was restored in its fulness, then the Church was organized. Men and women were baptized and received the Holy Ghost, and officers were ordained in the Church. The organization was not completed all at once; but the authority to complete the organization was there, and as the Saints increased in numbers, so the organization of the Church increased in perfection, each officer being appointed and ordained as the necessity arose for that office to be filled.
Now, it was a new thing in the earth. It startled Christendom. Up to that time no one had pretended to say—at least very few—that there was not all necessary authority on the earth. The religious world looked to the Bible. They asserted that it contained the entire word of God. Nothing more was necessary. God had completed the canon of scripture. There would be no more revelation from Him. Everything had been given that was necessary for man’s salvation. And the inference was that God, having done this, had retired from any active participation in the affairs of the earth, and had left the whole business to men. Therefore, it was a startling declaration to have anyone say that God himself, accompanied by His Son jesus Christ, had revealed himself to man once more; and equally startling was the statement that angels had come, and that the authority of the Priesthood had been restored again to the earth. These were astounding declarations to the great bulk of the people. Of course, there were honest souls who rejoiced at this proclamation. They had been searching for the truth. Dissatisfied with the existing order of things, they were yearning for the restoration of that power, and were anxious to find men who held and exercised it. Therefore, their hearts were gladdened by the intelligence that God had spoken. It was almost too good to believe. But they investigated it. They prayed unto the Father about it. The result was, they received testimonies concerning it, and embraced the Gospel. But at that day—sixty-four years ago—there were very few men in Christendom who dared to say that God would speak from the heavens, or who believed that such a thing was possible. Revelation from God was a thing of the past. It belonged to ages anterior to this. The ministers of religion contented themselves by making these statements.
How was this new declaration received? Let me call your attention to this. During the first persecution against the Saints of God in Jackson County, one of the main charges made by the mob was that Joseph Smith was accepted by the “Mormons” as a prophet, and that they believe in revelation from God. It was about as strong an appeal as could be made to the prejudices of the age, to arouse intense hostility against the people. This shows how the people felt at that time. But I heard Joseph Smith predict that the day would come when there would be false spirits go forth among the children of men and that they would deceive them. I remember on one occasion his speaking about the false prophet that should call down fire from heaven, and he warned the people in the most impressive and solemn manner against being deceived by these works that should be wrought to deceive the children of men. It was only two years after his death that spirit rapping commenced in Rochester, New York. We had been driven out here in the wilderness, and we did not know much that was transpiring in the eastern world. But I happened, while on the Sandwich Islands in 1851, to get hold of a book that had been issued by spiritualists, and I was surprised at the manner in which they presented their claims to the public. Arguments that our Elders used they had taken and revamped, so to speak, and adapted them to their ideas. A more deceptive book in the interests of falsehood and false doctrine could not, in my opinion, have been published. And from that day until the present, belief in spiritual agencies and manifestations has spread and increased, until at the present time there is scarcely a person to be found who does not believe that there is something connected with man that he can use to bring him into close and intimate relation with the spirit world. Since that day there has been a wonderful stride taken in this direction. The world has been progressing—if that can be called progress—in a most remarkable manner. Theories that prevailed with the Gospel was revealed and the Priesthood of the Son of God was restored have been discarded, and today the popular magazines are filled with communications concerning these occult powers that are being brought to light. Talk to men about dreams and visions and spiritual manifestations, and they admit that such things are possible; but they cannot explain them.
This is one of the results that followed the revelation of the Gospel and the bestowal of the authority of the Holy Priesthood. The doctrines taught by the elders have had their effect. They have been received, to a greater or less extent, in the world, without the source from which they came being acknowledged. I hear that there are advocates of what is called Christian Science in our midst. I hear that they creep into our houses and lead silly women astray by telling them of wonderful things that can be done by means of Christian Science. A few days ago a father came to me and told me about two of his daughters, one of whom had been afflicted and had been told by some of these persons how she might be cured. Now, that is a comparatively new doctrine in the world. it was not heard of until the Church of Christ was organized. We taught this, and were persecuted for teaching it. Every kind of obloquy was thrust upon us, because we believed that there was a power, which God would give to those who obeyed His commandments, that would result in the healing of the sick, the casting out of devils, and other miraculous things. But a great change has come over men. Satan has been busy. Men say, as the Book of Mormon says they would in the last days, that there is no hell, and no devil. Satan is whispering this into the ears of the children of men; and today there are thousands of people who do not believe that there is any hell, or any personal devil. Nevertheless, there is a personal devil, just as sure as there is a personal God. He has not a tabernacle; but he is a living entity, and he is endeavoring to destroy the work of God by producing imitations of it and showing unto the inhabitants of the earth that they can obtain power without obeying the laws of God. Wherever spiritualism has a foothold faith in God decreases. Whenever you see a Latter-day Saint begin to dabble in spiritualism, you will find that he begins to doubt the atonement of the Savior and the redemption wrought out by the shedding of His blood, and the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. These are signs that accompany spiritualism. Satan is laboring with all his might to lead men and women to these conclusions, binding them in chains to darkness and leading them down to everlasting destruction. It is the same with Christian Science, whose doctrines are being insidiously spread throughout the country. They are publishing books and circulating them gratuitously and endeavoring to undermine the faith of the people in the ordinances of the Gospel and in the words of Jesus contained in the New Testament. They tell the sick not to believe they are sick, to exercise their will power, and to consider sickness as imaginary; and we are told they are doing mighty works in healing the people. I would not be surprised at that, because I know that Satan is almost capable of deceiving the very elect. I believe that Satan can make himself appear to those who cannot discern, as an angel of light; and if he has that power, he has power also to deceive men and women in the flesh by performing mighty works. Was not this done in the days of Moses? Was not Pharaoh’s heart hardened by the works of the magicians? He did not believe that Moses and Aaron were servants of God, but that they had a little more skill perhaps than his magicians had. So it is now. Satan is capable of deceiving the people.
I want in this conference, before we separate, to lift my voice in warning to the people of God against these insidious advances—against spiritualism, against Christian Science and against all such isms, however much they may profess to be of God. I hear that men who claim to be the Reorganized Church say that they have power to work miracles. Perhaps they have; but that is not evidence of the divinity of their cause, or that they are the authorized servants of God. This evidence is to be found, my brethren and sisters, in the blessings that God bestows upon His people. Read the words that I have read in your hearing. Remember them. The Apostleship has been placed in this Church to lead men to the unity of the faith. That is what Paul said in ancient days concerning the Apostleship. What have been its fruits today? What have been the fruits that have attended the restoration of the Apostleship in this Church? Has it not led all who have been guided by it to the unity of the faith? Latter-day Saints here assembled from almost every nation of Christendom, what do you say? Has not the Apostleship restored by the ministrations of holy angels to the earth, brought you from the ends of the earth to the unity of the faith in this land? Where will you find a people more united? Nowhere. That is one of its fruits. Another is, it is for the perfecting of the Saints. I leave it to the Latter-day Saints to say whether the teachings and the labors of the Apostles in your midst have not led to great perfection among you. You are our witnesses and God’s witnesses to this; for you know for yourselves whether these have been the results that have followed or not. If you have followed the teachings of the Apostles, you have not been carried about by every wind of doctrine; nor have you been deceived by the cunning craftiness of men. None of you have been misled in this way. But you have been guarded against this. God has placed Apostles int he Church for this express purpose. They are not self-chosen. God knows, and you know, that those who bear the Apostleship have not sought this authority. Do you think that we are presided over by a man who has sought this office of himself? We all know the man too well to suppose that Wilford Woodruff would ever, if he had lived to the age of Methusaleh, have put forward his hand to guide this work of our God. God has preserved his life and spared him to this people, clothed with the Apostleship of the Son of God to lead the people, just as He did John Taylor, just as He did Brigham Young, and the others who have been associated with them. I appeal to you, ye Latter-day Saints, in conference assembled, to know whether these are not truths that I am speaking; whether you have not had in your midst the evidences of the divine origin of this work and of the authority which presides over this Church. God has borne testimony to this by the fruits that have followed our ministrations. I include myself, although I consider myself unworthy to be in the ranks of these men. God has blessed the people in listening to the counsels of His servants. He has brought us to these mountains and built up a mighty people here. We have erected temples, and have gone into them and performed ordinances which God has revealed. Where else can you find these things upon the face of the earth? By whom are such doctrines taught? What would you do for your dead, if it were not for the light that God has revealed through the Apostleship concerning the plan of salvation for the dead? The whole world is groping in darkness regarding these matters. They cannot tell what shall be done with the heathen, or with those who have died in ignorance of the Gospel of Christ. Yet they teach that there is no other name given under heaven whereby man can be saved, excepting the name of Jesus. Already some ministers of Christendom are rejecting the doctrine that salvation is confined to those alive, thus following in the wake of the teachings of the servants of God. But how shall we know these things if the heavens are as brass over our heads, and if there is to be no communication from God to man? “Oh,” says one, “we might receive it, if it came from some other source than it does.” Now, it is a peculiar feature of the work of God in all ages that He chose men for this purpose. He did not send angels to minister unto all men; but He chose men to minister unto their fellow men. The prophets are men, and full of failings and frailties. Even the Son of God, perfect as He was, was not recognized among men as divine. Now, God has chosen men in this day. Although they may feel unworthy of such high honor, and that He could have chosen probably better instruments, nevertheless God has chosen them, and He will honor them in the eyes of the people, if they will be humble. He will make them His mouthpieces to declare unto the children of men His word and will. He will fill them with the Holy Ghost, and the people who listen to them will be led in the path of salvation, and be delivered from the many evils that are coming upon the inhabitants of the earth.
My brethren and sisters, these are solemn truths. I would like to arouse faith in your hearts. I say to you that the sick can be healed, and are healed, in this Church, and the prayer of faith is heard. The proper way for people to receive an answer to their prayers and to have the blessings attend that are desired, is to obey the ordinances of the Gospel. Do not go straying after false gods. Do not be looking after those who have no authority, but are false guides; for I tell you that they will lead those who follow them down to destruction. I do not care how holy they may profess to be; I do not care how many miracles they may profess to perform; I do not care though they may be the sons of the holiest men that ever trod upon the earth, if they do not keep within the lines which God has prescribed, I tell you that they will lead those who follow them to destruction. I bear testimony to this, and am responsible for it. It is not miracles that are the sole evidence of the truth of anything. We have been taught that from the beginning. But it is the spirit and power of God when it poured out upon the people, uniting their hearts, filling them with love, prompting them to confess their sins one to another, and to the Lord. These are the fruits that we see in these valleys among the people who keep the commandments of God. When you hear men begin to doubt, and say, “Well, I don’t know about this, or that,” it is an evidence that they are in the dark; for if they would live in the light God would bear testimony to them by the power of the Holy Ghost concerning these things. I therefore say to all who are here, if any of you have felt in your hearts that you would follow what I call false gods—false lights, false teachers; if any of you have felt to weaken in your attachment to the work of God and to entertain doubts concerning its validity—I ask you this afternoon to repent truly and sincerely of that, and turn to God with full purpose of heart and with a determination to serve Him all the rest of your days. If you ever had the love of God in your hearts, and that inexpressible joy that God gives unto those who keep His commandments, you know it is sweeter than the sweetest honeycomb. There is nothing on earth sweeter than the spirit of God when it is enjoyed by a humble Latter-day Saint. And God has placed this within our reach. He has opened a fountain to us at which we may drink until our souls are filled to overflowing. I say to you that Satan would tell you nineteen miracles to get you to accept one untruth and to take a wrong step. That is the kind of power he exercises. Do not be deceived, my brethren and sisters. Try the spirits, and see whether they are of God or not. Cling to the authority of the Priesthood, which God sent. His messengers to bestow upon man. If you do so, I will assure you, as a servant of God, you will be led back into the presence of God and the Lamb, there to dwell eternally and to receive that glorious reward which He has promised unto the faithful. God grant unto us that we may receive this, that we may never step a single inch from the path which He has marked out, nor do a thing that will grieve the Spirit of God, from this time henceforth and forever. Amen.
Conference adjourned to meet on April 6th, 1894.
The choir sang the anthem, Let all Israel sing.
Benediction by President Wilford Woodruff.
John Nicholson,
Clerk of Conference.