April 1911
81st Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (1911). Report of Discourses. Salt Lake City: The Deseret News.
EIGHTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
FIRST DAY.
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
Active interest in God's work enjoined
PRESIDENT ANTHON H. LUND.
Health and happiness result from keeping Word of Wisdom
AFTERNOON SESSION.
PRESIDENT FRANCIS M. LYMAN.
Judgment by principles of Sermon on the Mount
ELDER HEBER J. GRANT.
Teachings and example of Church leaders invariably for righteousness
ELDER HYRUM M. SMITH.
President Joseph F. Smith's life book opened, revealing a life of righteousness
SECOND DAY
ELDER CHARLES W. PENROSE
Sins of omission as well as of commission
ELDER CHARLES A. CALLIS.
(President of Southern States Mission.)
ELDER GEORGE F. RICHARDS.
Episcopal Bishop D. S. Tuttle's tribute to the "Mormons."
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
ELDER ORSON F. WHITNEY.
BISHOP CHARLES W. NIBLEY.
ELDER BRIGHAM H. ROBERTS.
(Of the First Council of Seventy.)
THIRD DAY.
ELDER DAVID O. M'KAY.
Meaning of God's word should not be modified
ELDER J. GOLDEN KIMBALL.
(Of the First Council of Seventy.)
ELDER RULON S. WELLS.
(Of First Council of Seventy.)
OVERFLOW MEETING.
ELDER JOHN L. HERRICK.
(President of Western States Mission.)
ELDER JOHN F. TOLTON
(President of Beaver Stake.)
ELDER CHARLES A. CALLIS.
(President of Southern States Mission.)
ELDER ALONZO A. HINCKLEY.
(President of Millard Stake.)
ELDER JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR.
Blessed are they who obey when they hear the truth
SECOND OVERFLOW MEETING.
ELDER CHARLES W. PENROSE.
Attacks upon the Church
ELDER MELVIN J. BALLARD.
(President of Northwestern States Mission.)
ELDER HUGH J. CANNON.
(President of Liberty Stake.)
ELDER MARK AUSTIN.
(President of Fremont Stake.)
ELDER NEPHI L. MORRIS.
(President of Salt Lake Stake.)
ELDER CHARLES W. PENROSE
Closing exhortation
OUTDOOR MEETING.
ELDER BEN E. RICH.
(President Eastern States Mission).
ELDER JUNIUS F. WELLS.
ELDER JOSEPH B. KEELER.
(President of Utah Stake.)
ELDER STEPHEN L. CHIPMAN
(President of Alpine Stake.)
ELDER BENJAMIN GODDARD
(Supt. of Bureau of Information.)
PRESIDENT SEYMOUR B. YOUNG.
(Of First Council of Seventy.)
CLOSING SESSION.
ELDER ANTHONY W. IVINS.
"By their fruits ye shall know them."
ELDER JOSEPH W. M'MURRIN.
(Of the First Council of Seventy.)
ELDER JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR.
The greatest event in the modern world
AUDITORS' REPORT.
STATEMENT BY THE FIRST PRESIDENCY.
AUTHORITIES SUSTAINED.
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
CLOSING REMARKS.
EIGHTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
FIRST DAY.
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
Active interest in God's work enjoined
PRESIDENT ANTHON H. LUND.
Health and happiness result from keeping Word of Wisdom
AFTERNOON SESSION.
PRESIDENT FRANCIS M. LYMAN.
Judgment by principles of Sermon on the Mount
ELDER HEBER J. GRANT.
Teachings and example of Church leaders invariably for righteousness
ELDER HYRUM M. SMITH.
President Joseph F. Smith's life book opened, revealing a life of righteousness
SECOND DAY
ELDER CHARLES W. PENROSE
Sins of omission as well as of commission
ELDER CHARLES A. CALLIS.
(President of Southern States Mission.)
ELDER GEORGE F. RICHARDS.
Episcopal Bishop D. S. Tuttle's tribute to the "Mormons."
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
ELDER ORSON F. WHITNEY.
BISHOP CHARLES W. NIBLEY.
ELDER BRIGHAM H. ROBERTS.
(Of the First Council of Seventy.)
THIRD DAY.
ELDER DAVID O. M'KAY.
Meaning of God's word should not be modified
ELDER J. GOLDEN KIMBALL.
(Of the First Council of Seventy.)
ELDER RULON S. WELLS.
(Of First Council of Seventy.)
OVERFLOW MEETING.
ELDER JOHN L. HERRICK.
(President of Western States Mission.)
ELDER JOHN F. TOLTON
(President of Beaver Stake.)
ELDER CHARLES A. CALLIS.
(President of Southern States Mission.)
ELDER ALONZO A. HINCKLEY.
(President of Millard Stake.)
ELDER JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR.
Blessed are they who obey when they hear the truth
SECOND OVERFLOW MEETING.
ELDER CHARLES W. PENROSE.
Attacks upon the Church
ELDER MELVIN J. BALLARD.
(President of Northwestern States Mission.)
ELDER HUGH J. CANNON.
(President of Liberty Stake.)
ELDER MARK AUSTIN.
(President of Fremont Stake.)
ELDER NEPHI L. MORRIS.
(President of Salt Lake Stake.)
ELDER CHARLES W. PENROSE
Closing exhortation
OUTDOOR MEETING.
ELDER BEN E. RICH.
(President Eastern States Mission).
ELDER JUNIUS F. WELLS.
ELDER JOSEPH B. KEELER.
(President of Utah Stake.)
ELDER STEPHEN L. CHIPMAN
(President of Alpine Stake.)
ELDER BENJAMIN GODDARD
(Supt. of Bureau of Information.)
PRESIDENT SEYMOUR B. YOUNG.
(Of First Council of Seventy.)
CLOSING SESSION.
ELDER ANTHONY W. IVINS.
"By their fruits ye shall know them."
ELDER JOSEPH W. M'MURRIN.
(Of the First Council of Seventy.)
ELDER JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR.
The greatest event in the modern world
AUDITORS' REPORT.
STATEMENT BY THE FIRST PRESIDENCY.
AUTHORITIES SUSTAINED.
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
CLOSING REMARKS.
EIGHTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.
FIRST DAY.
The Eighty-First Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convened in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at 10 a. m. on Thursday, April 6, 1911, President Joseph F. Smith presiding.
AUTHORITIES PRESENT.
There were present of the First Presidency, Joseph F. Smith and Anthon H. Lund; of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, Francis M. Lyman, Heber J. Grant, Hyrum M. Smith, George Albert Smith, Charles W. Penrose, George F. Richards, Orson F. Whitney, David O. McKay, Anthony W. Ivins and Joseph F. Smith, Jr.; Presiding Patriarch John Smith; of the First Council of Seventies, Seymour B. Young, Brigham H. Roberts, J. Golden Kimball, Rulon S. Wells, Joseph W. McMurrin and Charles H. Hart; of the Presiding Bishopric, Charles W. Nibley, Orrin P. Miller and David A. Smith. There were also a large number of Presidents of Stakes and Missions, with their Counselors, Bishops of Wards, Patriarchs, and numerous other prominent men and women representing various quorums and organizations of the Church.
President Joseph F. Smith called the assembly to order, and the conference services were commenced by the choir and congregation singing the hymn:
Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear.
But with joy wend your way;
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
Prayer was offered by Elder Lewis Anderson.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
Guide us, O Thou great Jehovah,
Lead us to the promised land.
We are weak, but Thou art able --
Hold us with Thy powerful hand.
Holy Spirit,
Feed us till the Savior comes.
GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.
FIRST DAY.
The Eighty-First Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convened in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at 10 a. m. on Thursday, April 6, 1911, President Joseph F. Smith presiding.
AUTHORITIES PRESENT.
There were present of the First Presidency, Joseph F. Smith and Anthon H. Lund; of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, Francis M. Lyman, Heber J. Grant, Hyrum M. Smith, George Albert Smith, Charles W. Penrose, George F. Richards, Orson F. Whitney, David O. McKay, Anthony W. Ivins and Joseph F. Smith, Jr.; Presiding Patriarch John Smith; of the First Council of Seventies, Seymour B. Young, Brigham H. Roberts, J. Golden Kimball, Rulon S. Wells, Joseph W. McMurrin and Charles H. Hart; of the Presiding Bishopric, Charles W. Nibley, Orrin P. Miller and David A. Smith. There were also a large number of Presidents of Stakes and Missions, with their Counselors, Bishops of Wards, Patriarchs, and numerous other prominent men and women representing various quorums and organizations of the Church.
President Joseph F. Smith called the assembly to order, and the conference services were commenced by the choir and congregation singing the hymn:
Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear.
But with joy wend your way;
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
Prayer was offered by Elder Lewis Anderson.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
Guide us, O Thou great Jehovah,
Lead us to the promised land.
We are weak, but Thou art able --
Hold us with Thy powerful hand.
Holy Spirit,
Feed us till the Savior comes.
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
OPENING ADDRESS.
Active interest in God's work enjoined. —Zion enjoying the favor of the Almighty.— Leading men and women in the Church commended.—Remarkable facts shown by Church statistics of births, deaths, etc.—Demoralizing amusements and vulgar exhibitions condemned.—Erroneous doctrines cannot deceive enlightened Saints. — Strong re-affirmation that plural marriages have ceased in the Church. Legislation by Congress in regard to marriage and divorce approved.
I do not feel at this moment that I shall occupy very much time. I am suffering, to some extent with a cold. Of course it is always a bad cold, however light it may be; we never have good ones.
I am extremely thankful to my Father in heaven, on my own behalf, for the many blessings that have come to me personally since our meeting at the last conference, in October. Then I was suffering extremely with sciatic troubles, and felt that I had my portion of suffering at that time. I am thankful to say that I feel almost new again, so far as that affliction is concerned. But we never can tell how long we may be free from the ailments incident to human life; and while we mention the favors of the Lord and His blessings upon us, and rejoice exceedingly in the health, vigor and strength that we possess, we do not do so boastingly but always in remembrance of the fact that we are subject to the favor and mercy of God, every hour and every moment of our lives. For I feel that it is the duty of all Latter-day Saints, especially, and of course of all mankind, to acknowledge the hand of God in all things. Sometimes afflictions are permitted to come upon us for the purpose of a trial, perhaps, or for some other reason, in the wisdom of Providence, for our good. I believe that everything with which we have to do in the natural and proper affairs of life, will be overruled, by the providence of God, to the good of those who love Him, who strive to keep His commandments, and who exercise wisdom and judgment according to the intelligence that they possess, in the care and protection of their own lives, the preservation of their health, and strength, and the maintenance of pure, moral character and manner of life.
I feel grateful for the beautiful morning which has dawned upon us at the opening of this eighty-first anniversary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I feel grateful, too, for the presence of so many of the Latter-day Saints as are assembled, which is an indication to me, at least, and should be I think to all, that we do take that interest which we should feel in these assemblies, or conferences of the Church. There is not one of us but what should feel a lively personal interest in the upbuilding of Zion, and in the welfare of all her people. No man or woman holding a membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should feel indifferent to the cause of Zion, but they should, one and all, feel a lively interest in the welfare of the work of the Lord, in which they are engaged. They should contribute whatever influence they can and whatever effort it is possible for them to contribute for the upbuilding of Zion and for the joy, peace, comfort, happiness, and well-being of all her inhabitants.
I think I can truthfully say that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints is in a prosperous condition in the world. I believe I can justly say that Zion is enjoying the favor and the blessing of Almighty God. I feel confident that those who are entrusted with the watchcare of the people in various organizations of the Church are faithful to their trusts and are diligently exercising- their influence and power for the good of the people over whom they are placed to preside. I can say this, so far as I have any personal knowledge, of every presidency of the stakes of Zion. I think I may, consistently and properly, say the same with reference to the bishops of the wards in Zion. These important officers of the Church, holding the keys of the priesthood, of authority and of presidency over the people in their various organizations are men of truth, men of soberness, men who are honest, faithful, prayerful, upright, and men who enjoy the Spirit of the Lord God, in their hearts and who are disposed to do right, and shun even the appearance of sin. I think I may say this in all sincerity and honesty before the Lord and before all the Latter-day Saints. If there are any who are negligent or unfaithful in the performance of their duties,—I mean of those who are occupying these prominent positions in the household of faith, it has not been brought to our attention, and we do not know of any, of whom it may not be said, they are good, faithful men, who are faithfully discharging their duty for the welfare of the people over whom they preside. This I believe may be said consistently with reference to all the regularly organized stakes and wards of Zion; and the same may be said truthfully, too, so far as we have any knowledge—and we think we are pretty well posted with reference to these things—in regard to our various missions. The men who have been appointed to preside over them are men of integrity, men of honor, men who are faithful in the discharge of their duties, men who have the love of God in their hearts and the love of the people in their souls, men who are willing to sacrifice their time, their associations, dear to them, and many precious ties, that they may devote their time and energy and the gifts of the Lord, which are bestowed upon them, for the salvation of the children of men who are sitting in darkness and know not the truth.
I need not give out any expression with reference to the presidency of the Church. They are before the people. Their lives are an open book to all the Church, and their integrity and labors are known to those who are associated with them in the business and in the spiritual affairs of the Church. They are accessible to all who call upon them, with business pertaining to the building up of the Church or who desire aid with reference to spiritual matters, or the discharge of other duties that devolve upon them, they all know us, and we leave it to them to say, or to judge whether the presidency are in good standing before God, and in the Church, or not. We haven't anything more to say about it. I will bear my testimony, however, with reference to the Twelve Apostles. They are faithful men, willing to do whatever is required at their hands to the utmost of their strength and ability. This may also be said of all the general authorities of the Church. In their hearts we believe them all to be true and faithful to their covenants, true and faithful to the people and to the Lord who has commissioned them to labor for the salvation of the souls of men and for the building up of Zion.
I have had prepared just a few little statements which will indicate to you, I think, better perhaps than I could tell you from memory, although they are familiar to me, the condition of the Church and of the labors and accomplishments thereof during the year that has only recently closed. I have an item here that there have been two new stakes organized in 1910, namely the Duchesne and the Carbon stakes of Zion. There have been organized fifteen new wards during the same period. There are now 62 organized stakes of Zion, and 696 wards, and 21 missions. All of these require the constant supervision and attention not only of the bishops and the presidents of stakes, and the high councils of these various organizations, but of the presidency of the Church, by whom communications are constantly received from all these presidents, or the most of them, and frequently many of them, and frequently from almost all these wards. The number of persons that have been baptized in the stakes of Zion and in the missions, during the year 1910, was 15,902.
The birth-rate of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the year 1910, was 38 per thousand, the highest birth-rate in the world, as far as available statistics show.
The death-rate of the Church, for the year 1910, was 9 per thousand, the lowest death-rate in the world, as far as we have been able to ascertain from published statistics.
There were 1,360 couples married in the temples in 1910, and there were 1,100 couples married, of Church members, by civil ceremony during the same year.
There was one divorce to each 5,000 Church members. The average divorce rate in the United States is one to each 1,100 souls. This shows that our divorce rate is only about one-fifth of the average rate in our nation
There were 2,028 missionaries laboring in the various missions on December 31st, 1910.
There was expended by the Church, in maintaining missions and for fares of returning missionaries, during the year 1910, the sum of $215,000.00. This amount does not include the very large sum, in the aggregate, furnished by the people to assist their sons and daughters, or husbands and fathers, while in the mission field.
Upwards of $300,000.00 was paid by the Church during 1910 for maintaining our Church schools; and over $200,000.00 was paid out in the Church to assist the poor, during the year 1910.
All expenses incurred on account of the general authorities of the Church, of operating expenses of the president's office, the historian's office, and the presiding bishop's office, were paid out of revenues derived from investments made b}' the trustee-in-trust, within past few years. This leaves the tithes of the Church to be used for the building of ward meeting houses and stake tabernacles, for maintenance of Church schools and temples, for missions abroad, and for the support of the poor.
On December 31st, 1910, it was reported that there were 444 high priests, 632 seventies, 2,200 elders who are not enrolled in any organized quorums of the priesthood.
We will not say anything about a long list of non-tithepayers, that we have recorded in the archives of the Church, of those holding membership in the Church. I do not care to make enumerations of this character, but I would like to say to the Latter-day Saints who are tithepayers, who honor this law, and who provide out of their means, voluntarily, the revenues necessary to carry on the work of the Church —in the maintenance of temples, in the missionary cause, in the conduct and maintenance of our schools, in assisting to build our meetinghouses and other adjuncts to our schools, such as gymnasiums, which have become, apparently, a very urgent necessity of late, and also places of amusement. For we must not only provide places of worship for the youth of Zion, as well as for their fathers and mothers, but we must also provide and find places for rational amusement for our children, in order that they may be kept under proper influences and away from the contaminating, degrading, and debasing practices too common in the world, with reference to and in connection with the amusements of the people. There is one thing that I desire to say—not that it will amount to anything, I suppose; but it will be a satisfaction to myself, at least, to speak what I feel to be the truth, and it is this: I regret most deeply the sentiments that are expressed by the people generally with reference to their choice of amusements. We have some interest in the old Salt Lake Theatre here, built by President Brigham Young, to afford a high class of amusement that would be intelligible and entertaining, interesting and instructive to those who desire such entertainment. It has been conducted along these lines for many years in as high class character of performances as it was possible, but when we get really high class performances in that theatre the benches are practically empty, while vaudeville theatres, where are exhibitions of nakedness, of obscenity, of vulgarity, and everything else that does not tend to elevate the thought and mind of man, will be packed from the pit to the dome. When you have performances of a high class, that are intellectual, people do not largely patronize them; but when you bring in a class of performance that appeals to the vulgar, the sensual and evil propensities of men, the seats are full. I do not speak of this as existing merely here in Utah; I speak of it as a common thing throughout all the length and breadth of the land. It shows a degradation of sentiment, a lowering of the standards of intellectuality, of purity of thought, of nobility of desire for proper association, of the people generally. I regret this; I am sorry for it; and I wish to say to the Latter-day Saints that I hope ttiey will distinguish themselves by avoiding the necessity of being classed with people who prefer the vulgar to the chaste, the obscene to the pure, the evil to the good, and the sensual to the intellectual. I hope that we will stand by our principles, abide by that which is good, elevating and ennobling in character, rather than fall in with the habits of the world, and patronize that which is beneath the dignity of pure-minded and intelligent people.
Again I wish to refer to those who voluntarily provide revenues for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for its legitimate purposes, as we have enumerated — for the maintenance of the poor, and of the temples, and of the schools, and missions, and of all other things necessary to the building up of Zion in the latter day. God bless you for your faithfulness to this law of the Lord, for it is a law of the Lord, and yet, like all the other laws of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is obeyed voluntarily by those who obey it, and those who do not obey it voluntarily choose to disobey it, and the consequences will rest with us all in accordance with our works and our faithfulness.
Today we are under the necessity of cutting down, within the limit to the various wards and stakes of Zion in building their meetinghouses. We cannot give them all the help they ask for because we haven't got it; but we have given and we are giving to the extent of the means within our control, to help build ward houses. As you have heard here of the many new wards that have been established, all of which have to build meetinghouses for the convenience of the people; and besides these there are hundreds of wards that have no suitable meetinghouses as yet. They are contemplating building them, and some of them are in the course of erection, and we are contributing what we can, as we have done heretofore, to help them complete their work. But the heft of the burden still rests upon the people of these wards and stakes, because we have not the means to help them as we would like. If these multitudes of non-payers of tithing would only honor the law of the Lord, and live up to their privileges, I believe we would soon have ample means to meet every necessity of the Church. If they would but do it! but will they or will they not? If they will not of course the consequences will rest with themselves. We are dealing with our faith and consciences, you are dealing, not with me, not with the presidency of the Church, but with the Lord. I am not dealing with men respecting my tithing, my dealings are with the Lord; that is, with reference to my own conduct in the Church as a tithepayer, and with reference to my observance of the other laws and rules of the Church, if I fail to observe the laws of the Church, I am responsible to my God, and will have to answer to Him, by and by, for my neglect of duty, and I may have to answer to the Church for my fellowship. If I do my duty, according to my understanding of the requirements that the Lord has made of me, then I ought to have a conscience void of offense; I ought to have satisfaction in my soul, in the consciousness that I have simply done my duty as I understood it, and I will risk the consequences. With me it is a matter between me and the Lord; so it is with every one of us.
I am sorry I have to announce that Brother John Henry Smith was taken suddenly with an attack of lung trouble, which has laid him up, and which was, for a few moments, considered very serious; but he is improving and is better this morning. That accounts for his absence from the stand.
Now, the Lord bless you, my brethren and sisters. We have spoken of the general and of the local authorities of the Church, that are provided for in the revelations of the Lord to us, which have been organized in accordance with the pattern the Lord has given for the organization of His Church. It is my duty also to refer to the auxiliary organizations that have been devised for the benefit of the youth of Zion as well as for the benefit of all concerned. I believe that the officers of our Mutual Improvement associations, both the young men and the young women, are doing their duty as faithfully as they know how. I believe that the officers and the board of directors of the Sunday School Union are doing their duty; and I can speak of them knowingly, for the reason that we meet with them, week by week, and they are punctual in attendance on their duties, always present, always willing to take upon them the parts or responsibilities that are assigned to them, to go and to come as they may be sent to minister to the youth of Zion, or assist with the Sunday School work throughout the stakes. I can say the same of our Primary Association. I believe that much good is resulting from the labors in that direction. I can say the same with reference to our Religion Class work; and I can say the same with reference to the first and most important auxiliary organization of the Church, that of the Relief Society. They have been doing the best they could; but now we have suggested a complete organization of that society, that is, the general authorities of that organization; and we trust that from this time forth, they will be able to begin with renewed energy, judgment and wisdom, the performance of the duties that devolve upon them, even those who are called to take the oversight of this great work in Zion, the Relief Society organization.
Now, if I have omitted to mention any organization that I should have mentioned, you may take it for granted that I believe, as far as I have any knowledge of them, that they are all doing their duty, according to the best understanding, and wisdom, and strength which they possess. So I will repeat, Zion is prospering. The Lord is blessing His people. I believe that most of the Latter-day Saints are increasing in their faith. I believe, too, that the most of the Latter-day Saints are wise enough, that they have sufficient intelligence and a sufficient portion of the Spirit of the living God in their hearts, to decide between truth and error, between right and wrong, and between light and darkness; and I will say I believe they have sense enough to abide by the simple, pure, truthful principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in preference to all the vagaries of philosophers, or of scientists, or of anybody else. There is no science, nor philosophy that can supersede God Almighty's truth. The Lord has said, "My word is truth," and indeed it is; and I believe that the Latter-day Saints know enough about the word of God to know it is His word when they see it and shun whatever is not; and that they will abide by the word of God, for it is truth. As the Savior said, "If ye will abide in my word, then are ye my disciples, indeed; ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." I believe that the Latter-day Saints, and especially the leading men in Israel, have sufficient knowledge and understanding of the principles of the gospel that they know the truth, and they are made free by its possession—free from sin, free from error, free from darkness, from the traditions of men, from vain philosophy, and from the untried, unproven theories of scientists, that need demonstration beyond the possibility of a doubt. We have had science and philosophy through all the ages, and they have undergone change after change. Scarcely a century has passed but they have introduced new theories of science and of philosophy that supersede the old traditions and the old faith and the old doctrines entertained by philosophers and scientists. These things may undergo continuous changes, but the word of God is always true, is always right. I want to say to you that the principles of the gospel are always true —the principle of faith in God, of repentance from sin, of baptism for the remission of sins by authority of God, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost; these principles are always true and are always absolutely necessary for the salvation of the children of men, no matter who they are or where they are. These principles are always true, and you cannot get away from them. No other name, under heaven, is given, but that of Jesus Christ, by which you can be saved or exalted in the Kingdom of God. No man can enter into the kingdom of heaven except he be born again of the water and of the Spirit. These principles are indispensable, for God has declared them. Not only has He declared them, not only has Christ declared them by His own voice, but His disciples from generation to generation, in the olden time, but in these latter days, they have taken up the same testimony and declared these things to the world. They are true today as they were true then, and we must obey these things.
Another thing, we must obey the rules of the Church with reference to marriage, at least we ought to do so. We do not all do it. You will see by what I have stated that during the last year eleven hundred marriages of our people have been contracted or solemnized in a manner not provided for in the law of the Church, I refer to civil marriages, so that we do not all do our duty yet with reference to that. And another thing, as we have announced in previous conferences — as it was announced by President Woodruff, as it was announced by President Snow, and as it was reannounced by me and my brethren, and confirmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, plural marriages have ceased in the Church. There isn't a man today in this Church, or anywhere else, outside of it who has authority to solemnize a plural marriage—not one! There is no man or woman in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who is authorized to contract a plural marriage. It is not permitted, and we have been endeavoring to the utmost of our ability to prevent men from being led by some designing person into an unfortunate condition that is forbidden by the conferences, and by the voice of the Church, a condition that has to some extent at least, brought reproach upon the people. I want to say that we have been doing all in our power to prevent it, or to stop it; and in order that we might do this, we have been seeking, to our utmost, to find the men who have been the agents and the cause of leading people into it. We find it very difficult to trace them up, but when we do find them, and can prove it upon them, we will deal with them as we have dealt with others that we have been able to find.
Now with reference to the threat that is made about us, from time to time, that in order to estop plural marriages among the Latter-day Saints, it is recommended to amend the Constitution of the United States, giving to the parental government the exclusive right to deal with polygamy and prevent it. So far as I am concerned, I am just as ready, this moment, as any other man in the world to consent to Congress taking the measures necessary to bring about the amendment to the Constitution, and pass laws to regulate plural marriage. We want them, while they are at it, to regulate marriage and divorce as well. We will turn it all over to them, and we are just as ready for it today as any people on God's earth, no matter where you go. Now, in reference to this, I want to make this distinction, for it is a distinction with a difference, and that is this; I don't mean to interfere with men who had their wives before the Manifesto was issued by President Woodruff, men who entered into this covenant when it was the law of the Church, or who took wives under the authority of the presiding officers of the Church. We do not mean to interfere with them. To them I would say: take care of your wives. If you do not, you are not genuine men at all. Take care of your families; take care of your children, educate them, feed them, clothe them, house them, and do everything in your power to make of them men and women who will be an honor lo our nation, to our state and to our Church. I mean future plural marriages must stop; that is what I have reference to, the marrying of more than one wife in the future in plural marriage. That is what we have undertaken to stop in conformity with the laws of the land; and we are doing our best. Now let the United States, authorize Congress to pass an amendment to the Constitution regulating marriage and divorce, throughout all the nation. I think it will be a great blessing to our country. When we read of the vast number of divorces, and of the heartaches, and the sorrows that are occasioned by them, and by vanity, profligacy, lust, and corruption, throughout the world, we feel as if it would be a Godsend to the people to have some strong hand take hold of the matter and regulate it, so that there will not be so much of this evil as exists today.
Now, the Lord bless you, my brethren and sisters. I love this work, I know it is right. I love the gospel with all my heart; and I propose to continue, while I live, in the discharge of my duty to the best of my ability. Whatever that duty may be, I propose to do it as well as I can, and leave the result in the hands of the Lord.
God bless the presidents of the stakes of Zion, and their counselors, and the high-councils in the stakes of Zion; the Lord bless all our bishops, who are fathers to the people, and their counselors, the common judges in Israel. The Lord bless them and give them wisdom, fatherly spirit, and kindness, that they may deal mercifully with the erring, and that they may seek earnestly and diligently to reclaim the erring from the error of their ways, and to keep those that are in the paths of righteousness and truth steadfast and firm in those righteous paths, as fathers would do with their own children.
May the Lord continue to bless the presidents of our missions throughout the land. Oh, how we feel to appreciate them, and how satisfying is the feeling that comes to us when we realize that we have men presiding over missions who are as true, according to the light and knowledge that they possess, as the Son of God Himself—true to their covenants, true to their people, true to their mission. They are faithful, bright, intelligent, and active in the performance of their duties. The Lord bless you, brethren, in the discharge of your duties. And those who labor in the temples, the Lord bless them. I do not intend to slight the officers and faculties of our Church schools, May the Lord bless them abundantly. I believe they are faithful and reliable men and are doing their duty to the very best of their ability. I do not think that there will be or can be any discount on the character of our Church schools, •under the direction of those who are at present in charge of them.
The Lord bless all Israel, and especially,—I need not ask especially for blessing upon those who do their duty, for I know that they will be blessed; but I do pray that the Lord will bless those who are lukewarm, who are indifferent, and uninterested in the work of the Lord, that they may awaken to their duty and learn to earn the reward of the faithful, that they may not be ignored when God shall choose His own and set the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on the left, and shall say to the latter "depart from me" (Matthew 25:31-41).
May the Lord bless us all, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The beautiful hymn, written by Apostle Parley P. Pratt, "The morning breaks, the shadows flee, was sung, as a duet, by two of his grandsons, Mathoni W. and Noel Pratt; music composed by Prof. Evan Stevens.
The following notice was read by President Joseph F. Smith:
For the convenience of conference visitors who have not proper accommodations while in attendance at conference, a bureau of entertainment has been opened at the office of Elias Morris & Sons company, corner of Richards and South Temple streets.
Those desiring accommodations should apply at that place, and any who have accommodations to offer the visitors, will please leave their names and addresses at the same place.
OPENING ADDRESS.
Active interest in God's work enjoined. —Zion enjoying the favor of the Almighty.— Leading men and women in the Church commended.—Remarkable facts shown by Church statistics of births, deaths, etc.—Demoralizing amusements and vulgar exhibitions condemned.—Erroneous doctrines cannot deceive enlightened Saints. — Strong re-affirmation that plural marriages have ceased in the Church. Legislation by Congress in regard to marriage and divorce approved.
I do not feel at this moment that I shall occupy very much time. I am suffering, to some extent with a cold. Of course it is always a bad cold, however light it may be; we never have good ones.
I am extremely thankful to my Father in heaven, on my own behalf, for the many blessings that have come to me personally since our meeting at the last conference, in October. Then I was suffering extremely with sciatic troubles, and felt that I had my portion of suffering at that time. I am thankful to say that I feel almost new again, so far as that affliction is concerned. But we never can tell how long we may be free from the ailments incident to human life; and while we mention the favors of the Lord and His blessings upon us, and rejoice exceedingly in the health, vigor and strength that we possess, we do not do so boastingly but always in remembrance of the fact that we are subject to the favor and mercy of God, every hour and every moment of our lives. For I feel that it is the duty of all Latter-day Saints, especially, and of course of all mankind, to acknowledge the hand of God in all things. Sometimes afflictions are permitted to come upon us for the purpose of a trial, perhaps, or for some other reason, in the wisdom of Providence, for our good. I believe that everything with which we have to do in the natural and proper affairs of life, will be overruled, by the providence of God, to the good of those who love Him, who strive to keep His commandments, and who exercise wisdom and judgment according to the intelligence that they possess, in the care and protection of their own lives, the preservation of their health, and strength, and the maintenance of pure, moral character and manner of life.
I feel grateful for the beautiful morning which has dawned upon us at the opening of this eighty-first anniversary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I feel grateful, too, for the presence of so many of the Latter-day Saints as are assembled, which is an indication to me, at least, and should be I think to all, that we do take that interest which we should feel in these assemblies, or conferences of the Church. There is not one of us but what should feel a lively personal interest in the upbuilding of Zion, and in the welfare of all her people. No man or woman holding a membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should feel indifferent to the cause of Zion, but they should, one and all, feel a lively interest in the welfare of the work of the Lord, in which they are engaged. They should contribute whatever influence they can and whatever effort it is possible for them to contribute for the upbuilding of Zion and for the joy, peace, comfort, happiness, and well-being of all her inhabitants.
I think I can truthfully say that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints is in a prosperous condition in the world. I believe I can justly say that Zion is enjoying the favor and the blessing of Almighty God. I feel confident that those who are entrusted with the watchcare of the people in various organizations of the Church are faithful to their trusts and are diligently exercising- their influence and power for the good of the people over whom they are placed to preside. I can say this, so far as I have any personal knowledge, of every presidency of the stakes of Zion. I think I may, consistently and properly, say the same with reference to the bishops of the wards in Zion. These important officers of the Church, holding the keys of the priesthood, of authority and of presidency over the people in their various organizations are men of truth, men of soberness, men who are honest, faithful, prayerful, upright, and men who enjoy the Spirit of the Lord God, in their hearts and who are disposed to do right, and shun even the appearance of sin. I think I may say this in all sincerity and honesty before the Lord and before all the Latter-day Saints. If there are any who are negligent or unfaithful in the performance of their duties,—I mean of those who are occupying these prominent positions in the household of faith, it has not been brought to our attention, and we do not know of any, of whom it may not be said, they are good, faithful men, who are faithfully discharging their duty for the welfare of the people over whom they preside. This I believe may be said consistently with reference to all the regularly organized stakes and wards of Zion; and the same may be said truthfully, too, so far as we have any knowledge—and we think we are pretty well posted with reference to these things—in regard to our various missions. The men who have been appointed to preside over them are men of integrity, men of honor, men who are faithful in the discharge of their duties, men who have the love of God in their hearts and the love of the people in their souls, men who are willing to sacrifice their time, their associations, dear to them, and many precious ties, that they may devote their time and energy and the gifts of the Lord, which are bestowed upon them, for the salvation of the children of men who are sitting in darkness and know not the truth.
I need not give out any expression with reference to the presidency of the Church. They are before the people. Their lives are an open book to all the Church, and their integrity and labors are known to those who are associated with them in the business and in the spiritual affairs of the Church. They are accessible to all who call upon them, with business pertaining to the building up of the Church or who desire aid with reference to spiritual matters, or the discharge of other duties that devolve upon them, they all know us, and we leave it to them to say, or to judge whether the presidency are in good standing before God, and in the Church, or not. We haven't anything more to say about it. I will bear my testimony, however, with reference to the Twelve Apostles. They are faithful men, willing to do whatever is required at their hands to the utmost of their strength and ability. This may also be said of all the general authorities of the Church. In their hearts we believe them all to be true and faithful to their covenants, true and faithful to the people and to the Lord who has commissioned them to labor for the salvation of the souls of men and for the building up of Zion.
I have had prepared just a few little statements which will indicate to you, I think, better perhaps than I could tell you from memory, although they are familiar to me, the condition of the Church and of the labors and accomplishments thereof during the year that has only recently closed. I have an item here that there have been two new stakes organized in 1910, namely the Duchesne and the Carbon stakes of Zion. There have been organized fifteen new wards during the same period. There are now 62 organized stakes of Zion, and 696 wards, and 21 missions. All of these require the constant supervision and attention not only of the bishops and the presidents of stakes, and the high councils of these various organizations, but of the presidency of the Church, by whom communications are constantly received from all these presidents, or the most of them, and frequently many of them, and frequently from almost all these wards. The number of persons that have been baptized in the stakes of Zion and in the missions, during the year 1910, was 15,902.
The birth-rate of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the year 1910, was 38 per thousand, the highest birth-rate in the world, as far as available statistics show.
The death-rate of the Church, for the year 1910, was 9 per thousand, the lowest death-rate in the world, as far as we have been able to ascertain from published statistics.
There were 1,360 couples married in the temples in 1910, and there were 1,100 couples married, of Church members, by civil ceremony during the same year.
There was one divorce to each 5,000 Church members. The average divorce rate in the United States is one to each 1,100 souls. This shows that our divorce rate is only about one-fifth of the average rate in our nation
There were 2,028 missionaries laboring in the various missions on December 31st, 1910.
There was expended by the Church, in maintaining missions and for fares of returning missionaries, during the year 1910, the sum of $215,000.00. This amount does not include the very large sum, in the aggregate, furnished by the people to assist their sons and daughters, or husbands and fathers, while in the mission field.
Upwards of $300,000.00 was paid by the Church during 1910 for maintaining our Church schools; and over $200,000.00 was paid out in the Church to assist the poor, during the year 1910.
All expenses incurred on account of the general authorities of the Church, of operating expenses of the president's office, the historian's office, and the presiding bishop's office, were paid out of revenues derived from investments made b}' the trustee-in-trust, within past few years. This leaves the tithes of the Church to be used for the building of ward meeting houses and stake tabernacles, for maintenance of Church schools and temples, for missions abroad, and for the support of the poor.
On December 31st, 1910, it was reported that there were 444 high priests, 632 seventies, 2,200 elders who are not enrolled in any organized quorums of the priesthood.
We will not say anything about a long list of non-tithepayers, that we have recorded in the archives of the Church, of those holding membership in the Church. I do not care to make enumerations of this character, but I would like to say to the Latter-day Saints who are tithepayers, who honor this law, and who provide out of their means, voluntarily, the revenues necessary to carry on the work of the Church —in the maintenance of temples, in the missionary cause, in the conduct and maintenance of our schools, in assisting to build our meetinghouses and other adjuncts to our schools, such as gymnasiums, which have become, apparently, a very urgent necessity of late, and also places of amusement. For we must not only provide places of worship for the youth of Zion, as well as for their fathers and mothers, but we must also provide and find places for rational amusement for our children, in order that they may be kept under proper influences and away from the contaminating, degrading, and debasing practices too common in the world, with reference to and in connection with the amusements of the people. There is one thing that I desire to say—not that it will amount to anything, I suppose; but it will be a satisfaction to myself, at least, to speak what I feel to be the truth, and it is this: I regret most deeply the sentiments that are expressed by the people generally with reference to their choice of amusements. We have some interest in the old Salt Lake Theatre here, built by President Brigham Young, to afford a high class of amusement that would be intelligible and entertaining, interesting and instructive to those who desire such entertainment. It has been conducted along these lines for many years in as high class character of performances as it was possible, but when we get really high class performances in that theatre the benches are practically empty, while vaudeville theatres, where are exhibitions of nakedness, of obscenity, of vulgarity, and everything else that does not tend to elevate the thought and mind of man, will be packed from the pit to the dome. When you have performances of a high class, that are intellectual, people do not largely patronize them; but when you bring in a class of performance that appeals to the vulgar, the sensual and evil propensities of men, the seats are full. I do not speak of this as existing merely here in Utah; I speak of it as a common thing throughout all the length and breadth of the land. It shows a degradation of sentiment, a lowering of the standards of intellectuality, of purity of thought, of nobility of desire for proper association, of the people generally. I regret this; I am sorry for it; and I wish to say to the Latter-day Saints that I hope ttiey will distinguish themselves by avoiding the necessity of being classed with people who prefer the vulgar to the chaste, the obscene to the pure, the evil to the good, and the sensual to the intellectual. I hope that we will stand by our principles, abide by that which is good, elevating and ennobling in character, rather than fall in with the habits of the world, and patronize that which is beneath the dignity of pure-minded and intelligent people.
Again I wish to refer to those who voluntarily provide revenues for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for its legitimate purposes, as we have enumerated — for the maintenance of the poor, and of the temples, and of the schools, and missions, and of all other things necessary to the building up of Zion in the latter day. God bless you for your faithfulness to this law of the Lord, for it is a law of the Lord, and yet, like all the other laws of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is obeyed voluntarily by those who obey it, and those who do not obey it voluntarily choose to disobey it, and the consequences will rest with us all in accordance with our works and our faithfulness.
Today we are under the necessity of cutting down, within the limit to the various wards and stakes of Zion in building their meetinghouses. We cannot give them all the help they ask for because we haven't got it; but we have given and we are giving to the extent of the means within our control, to help build ward houses. As you have heard here of the many new wards that have been established, all of which have to build meetinghouses for the convenience of the people; and besides these there are hundreds of wards that have no suitable meetinghouses as yet. They are contemplating building them, and some of them are in the course of erection, and we are contributing what we can, as we have done heretofore, to help them complete their work. But the heft of the burden still rests upon the people of these wards and stakes, because we have not the means to help them as we would like. If these multitudes of non-payers of tithing would only honor the law of the Lord, and live up to their privileges, I believe we would soon have ample means to meet every necessity of the Church. If they would but do it! but will they or will they not? If they will not of course the consequences will rest with themselves. We are dealing with our faith and consciences, you are dealing, not with me, not with the presidency of the Church, but with the Lord. I am not dealing with men respecting my tithing, my dealings are with the Lord; that is, with reference to my own conduct in the Church as a tithepayer, and with reference to my observance of the other laws and rules of the Church, if I fail to observe the laws of the Church, I am responsible to my God, and will have to answer to Him, by and by, for my neglect of duty, and I may have to answer to the Church for my fellowship. If I do my duty, according to my understanding of the requirements that the Lord has made of me, then I ought to have a conscience void of offense; I ought to have satisfaction in my soul, in the consciousness that I have simply done my duty as I understood it, and I will risk the consequences. With me it is a matter between me and the Lord; so it is with every one of us.
I am sorry I have to announce that Brother John Henry Smith was taken suddenly with an attack of lung trouble, which has laid him up, and which was, for a few moments, considered very serious; but he is improving and is better this morning. That accounts for his absence from the stand.
Now, the Lord bless you, my brethren and sisters. We have spoken of the general and of the local authorities of the Church, that are provided for in the revelations of the Lord to us, which have been organized in accordance with the pattern the Lord has given for the organization of His Church. It is my duty also to refer to the auxiliary organizations that have been devised for the benefit of the youth of Zion as well as for the benefit of all concerned. I believe that the officers of our Mutual Improvement associations, both the young men and the young women, are doing their duty as faithfully as they know how. I believe that the officers and the board of directors of the Sunday School Union are doing their duty; and I can speak of them knowingly, for the reason that we meet with them, week by week, and they are punctual in attendance on their duties, always present, always willing to take upon them the parts or responsibilities that are assigned to them, to go and to come as they may be sent to minister to the youth of Zion, or assist with the Sunday School work throughout the stakes. I can say the same of our Primary Association. I believe that much good is resulting from the labors in that direction. I can say the same with reference to our Religion Class work; and I can say the same with reference to the first and most important auxiliary organization of the Church, that of the Relief Society. They have been doing the best they could; but now we have suggested a complete organization of that society, that is, the general authorities of that organization; and we trust that from this time forth, they will be able to begin with renewed energy, judgment and wisdom, the performance of the duties that devolve upon them, even those who are called to take the oversight of this great work in Zion, the Relief Society organization.
Now, if I have omitted to mention any organization that I should have mentioned, you may take it for granted that I believe, as far as I have any knowledge of them, that they are all doing their duty, according to the best understanding, and wisdom, and strength which they possess. So I will repeat, Zion is prospering. The Lord is blessing His people. I believe that most of the Latter-day Saints are increasing in their faith. I believe, too, that the most of the Latter-day Saints are wise enough, that they have sufficient intelligence and a sufficient portion of the Spirit of the living God in their hearts, to decide between truth and error, between right and wrong, and between light and darkness; and I will say I believe they have sense enough to abide by the simple, pure, truthful principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in preference to all the vagaries of philosophers, or of scientists, or of anybody else. There is no science, nor philosophy that can supersede God Almighty's truth. The Lord has said, "My word is truth," and indeed it is; and I believe that the Latter-day Saints know enough about the word of God to know it is His word when they see it and shun whatever is not; and that they will abide by the word of God, for it is truth. As the Savior said, "If ye will abide in my word, then are ye my disciples, indeed; ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." I believe that the Latter-day Saints, and especially the leading men in Israel, have sufficient knowledge and understanding of the principles of the gospel that they know the truth, and they are made free by its possession—free from sin, free from error, free from darkness, from the traditions of men, from vain philosophy, and from the untried, unproven theories of scientists, that need demonstration beyond the possibility of a doubt. We have had science and philosophy through all the ages, and they have undergone change after change. Scarcely a century has passed but they have introduced new theories of science and of philosophy that supersede the old traditions and the old faith and the old doctrines entertained by philosophers and scientists. These things may undergo continuous changes, but the word of God is always true, is always right. I want to say to you that the principles of the gospel are always true —the principle of faith in God, of repentance from sin, of baptism for the remission of sins by authority of God, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost; these principles are always true and are always absolutely necessary for the salvation of the children of men, no matter who they are or where they are. These principles are always true, and you cannot get away from them. No other name, under heaven, is given, but that of Jesus Christ, by which you can be saved or exalted in the Kingdom of God. No man can enter into the kingdom of heaven except he be born again of the water and of the Spirit. These principles are indispensable, for God has declared them. Not only has He declared them, not only has Christ declared them by His own voice, but His disciples from generation to generation, in the olden time, but in these latter days, they have taken up the same testimony and declared these things to the world. They are true today as they were true then, and we must obey these things.
Another thing, we must obey the rules of the Church with reference to marriage, at least we ought to do so. We do not all do it. You will see by what I have stated that during the last year eleven hundred marriages of our people have been contracted or solemnized in a manner not provided for in the law of the Church, I refer to civil marriages, so that we do not all do our duty yet with reference to that. And another thing, as we have announced in previous conferences — as it was announced by President Woodruff, as it was announced by President Snow, and as it was reannounced by me and my brethren, and confirmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, plural marriages have ceased in the Church. There isn't a man today in this Church, or anywhere else, outside of it who has authority to solemnize a plural marriage—not one! There is no man or woman in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who is authorized to contract a plural marriage. It is not permitted, and we have been endeavoring to the utmost of our ability to prevent men from being led by some designing person into an unfortunate condition that is forbidden by the conferences, and by the voice of the Church, a condition that has to some extent at least, brought reproach upon the people. I want to say that we have been doing all in our power to prevent it, or to stop it; and in order that we might do this, we have been seeking, to our utmost, to find the men who have been the agents and the cause of leading people into it. We find it very difficult to trace them up, but when we do find them, and can prove it upon them, we will deal with them as we have dealt with others that we have been able to find.
Now with reference to the threat that is made about us, from time to time, that in order to estop plural marriages among the Latter-day Saints, it is recommended to amend the Constitution of the United States, giving to the parental government the exclusive right to deal with polygamy and prevent it. So far as I am concerned, I am just as ready, this moment, as any other man in the world to consent to Congress taking the measures necessary to bring about the amendment to the Constitution, and pass laws to regulate plural marriage. We want them, while they are at it, to regulate marriage and divorce as well. We will turn it all over to them, and we are just as ready for it today as any people on God's earth, no matter where you go. Now, in reference to this, I want to make this distinction, for it is a distinction with a difference, and that is this; I don't mean to interfere with men who had their wives before the Manifesto was issued by President Woodruff, men who entered into this covenant when it was the law of the Church, or who took wives under the authority of the presiding officers of the Church. We do not mean to interfere with them. To them I would say: take care of your wives. If you do not, you are not genuine men at all. Take care of your families; take care of your children, educate them, feed them, clothe them, house them, and do everything in your power to make of them men and women who will be an honor lo our nation, to our state and to our Church. I mean future plural marriages must stop; that is what I have reference to, the marrying of more than one wife in the future in plural marriage. That is what we have undertaken to stop in conformity with the laws of the land; and we are doing our best. Now let the United States, authorize Congress to pass an amendment to the Constitution regulating marriage and divorce, throughout all the nation. I think it will be a great blessing to our country. When we read of the vast number of divorces, and of the heartaches, and the sorrows that are occasioned by them, and by vanity, profligacy, lust, and corruption, throughout the world, we feel as if it would be a Godsend to the people to have some strong hand take hold of the matter and regulate it, so that there will not be so much of this evil as exists today.
Now, the Lord bless you, my brethren and sisters. I love this work, I know it is right. I love the gospel with all my heart; and I propose to continue, while I live, in the discharge of my duty to the best of my ability. Whatever that duty may be, I propose to do it as well as I can, and leave the result in the hands of the Lord.
God bless the presidents of the stakes of Zion, and their counselors, and the high-councils in the stakes of Zion; the Lord bless all our bishops, who are fathers to the people, and their counselors, the common judges in Israel. The Lord bless them and give them wisdom, fatherly spirit, and kindness, that they may deal mercifully with the erring, and that they may seek earnestly and diligently to reclaim the erring from the error of their ways, and to keep those that are in the paths of righteousness and truth steadfast and firm in those righteous paths, as fathers would do with their own children.
May the Lord continue to bless the presidents of our missions throughout the land. Oh, how we feel to appreciate them, and how satisfying is the feeling that comes to us when we realize that we have men presiding over missions who are as true, according to the light and knowledge that they possess, as the Son of God Himself—true to their covenants, true to their people, true to their mission. They are faithful, bright, intelligent, and active in the performance of their duties. The Lord bless you, brethren, in the discharge of your duties. And those who labor in the temples, the Lord bless them. I do not intend to slight the officers and faculties of our Church schools, May the Lord bless them abundantly. I believe they are faithful and reliable men and are doing their duty to the very best of their ability. I do not think that there will be or can be any discount on the character of our Church schools, •under the direction of those who are at present in charge of them.
The Lord bless all Israel, and especially,—I need not ask especially for blessing upon those who do their duty, for I know that they will be blessed; but I do pray that the Lord will bless those who are lukewarm, who are indifferent, and uninterested in the work of the Lord, that they may awaken to their duty and learn to earn the reward of the faithful, that they may not be ignored when God shall choose His own and set the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on the left, and shall say to the latter "depart from me" (Matthew 25:31-41).
May the Lord bless us all, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The beautiful hymn, written by Apostle Parley P. Pratt, "The morning breaks, the shadows flee, was sung, as a duet, by two of his grandsons, Mathoni W. and Noel Pratt; music composed by Prof. Evan Stevens.
The following notice was read by President Joseph F. Smith:
For the convenience of conference visitors who have not proper accommodations while in attendance at conference, a bureau of entertainment has been opened at the office of Elias Morris & Sons company, corner of Richards and South Temple streets.
Those desiring accommodations should apply at that place, and any who have accommodations to offer the visitors, will please leave their names and addresses at the same place.
PRESIDENT ANTHON H. LUND.
Health and happiness result from keeping Word of Wisdom.—The people urged to eliminate the saloon and tobacco evils. — Investigation of "Mormon" missionary work in England desired.—Marriage in Temple a safeguard against divorce.—Unselfish and successful work of auxiliary organization officers.
I have been very much interested in the remarks of our president, as I know you all have been. I know that what he has said to us is true, and his counsels are for our best good.
I was struck with the statistics that were read to us, and was pleased to learn that the death-rate among the Latter-day Saints is smaller than the death-rate in the world. Nine to a thousand is indeed a good showing. Now, I believe there is a cause for this. The Latter-day Saints, if they live their religion, have been promised long lives and health. The Lord has given us a revelation in regard to preserving our health. We have inquiries from several persons, asking us when the Word of Wisdom was made a commandment. I do not know that we can give such information, but the revelation speaks for itself; it tells us that the Word of Wisdom is the order and will of God—the will of God. Need we ask to have it made any stronger? Why did He give that Word of Wisdom unto us Latter-day Saints? Was it to deprive us of enjoyment in life? Did He want to curtail the pleasures of life? No, on the contrary, He wanted to give us advice how to live to preserve our health; and as He has given it unto us, calling it the Word of Wisdom, I hope the Latter-day Saints will be found among the wise virgins, not among the foolish ones. All that has been given to us by revelation has been for our blessing and for our good, and we should not feel to violate the Lord's will in regard to this matter, even if we should say to ourselves, It is not a commandment, but a word of wisdom. Let us make it the resolve of our hearts that we will follow the advice given therein, and then we will be blest, not alone physically but also spiritually. We will be enabled to do much more good, to labor more and harder than if we indulge in those things that sap the strength of our bodies and undermine our health, for that is the effect of violating the Word of Wisdom.
Our legislature has given us a law on the liquor question, and there is a time appointed when the people will be at liberty to express themselves on this question. It seems to me that all through the settlements of Zion, where we the Latter-day Saints are in the majority, the sentiment should be to do all in our power to eliminate the liquor traffic from our midst. Ever since the Word of Wisdom was given, there has been a feeling among us Latter-day Saints that it is our duty to obey this law, and in placing men in positions in the Church we have charged them that they must obey the Word of Wisdom. This is not a request that has been made so strong lately. Seventy years ago, and more, it was voted by the Church that no officer should hold office in the Church, who violated the Word of Wisdom. This was under the prophet Joseph, and if he felt to make it that strong, we ought not to try to make it lighter now, but urge our brethren who are called to lead the people, and to labor in the ministry, to observe this requirement, and not show the bad example of failing to heed the advice given by our heavenly Father. I hope that at the election the people will show that they stand for temperance. If we cannot get a whole loaf, let us be satisfied with a half, but let our efforts be to save our young people from the evils of the saloon. Let us try to provide for them places where they can go and have healthful entertainment, and not have them seek to get their recreation in low places, and I look upon the saloon as such a place; it should not be found in the settlements of the Latter-day Saints. I need not talk upon the evils that follow intemperance; they are so well known. When we travel where such things are found, how it grieves us to see men degrading themselves by overindulgence in liquor and other stimulants.
The tobacco habit should be avoided. The use of tobacco is very harmful and injurious to the system, and' we should do all in our power to have our young men grow up without indulging in this. I was pleased, the other day, to read of one settlement where it was said there was not a boy under twenty-one who used tobacco. I wish it could be said of all Israel, that all our boys abstain from that habit. Statistics from different institutions show that the boys who indulge in tobacco do not excel, and that those who really come to the fore, and excel in their studies, are those that are not indulging in the tobacco habit, or using stimulants.
I was pleased to hear the President’s words about our missionaries, and I believe his blessing upon them will be felt by them. I believe our Father in heaven will be with them in their labors, their unselfish labors out in the world. They devote their time to forward this work, sustaining themselves; and as they go forth they are often mocked and scorned, and meet the rebuffs of the people, but they have a message to give unto the world, that they know is of the utmost importance. There has been published both here in America and abroad, in England, Scandinavia, and Germany a mass of scurrilous articles, lying about and abusing the Latter-day Saints. Hans P. Freece, a Utah man traveling in England, for instance, is trying to stir up the English people against us. His talk has even come to the government, and the prime minister has been urged to institute investigations concerning the things that this Mr. Freece has been telling. What does he know of what is going on in England? He is accusing us of taking girls from there and bringing them here for immoral purposes, as if our elders were sent out to bring girls here. Our elders go to preach the gospel to all. Statistics show that the "Mormon" emigrants from England do not amount to more than a small fraction of one per cent, but that small fraction is enough to stir up the people there. We have asked for an investigation. We know that we are free from the things they accuse us of. You know, Latter-day Saints, that the gospel has not given you license to sin. You know that when you went into the waters of baptism, you made the covenant that you would keep the commandments of the Lord, and you know as long as you have lived up to that covenant the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit has been yours. You know that you have not been taught, by the elders, anything contrary to the commandments of God. Why is it that all this opposition is arrayed against us? Are we any worse this year than last year, or past years? I believe, as the president said, that the Latter-day Saints are growing in faith, in live faith, and that will lead to good works. Wherever you go, you will find, throughout the stakes of Zion, that the Saints are alive to their duties. We are thankful to them for showing their faith in the gospel in their duties, in their fast offerings and in the great amounts that they are paying towards erecting houses of worship, where they can go and learn more of the ways of the Lord. We feel to praise the Latter-day Saints for this. The Latter-day Saints are a God-fearing people, a duty-fulfilling people, a people who have joined together in covenants to serve the Lord and to work out the salvation of their souls, in fear and trembling before God. They are not a people sunken in vice and iniquity. Where such is found, the brethren who are in charge are seeking to eliminate such from the Church.
The divorce question was mentioned here. By statistics it is found that those who have been married in our temples and have been sealed at the altar of God, are not the ones that are being divorced, that there are far fewer divorces in that class than in the case of those who have been married outside of the temple. I am glad that I can state this, and I would exhort all the youth of Zion to prepare themselves to be worthy to have a recommend to go to the temple of the Lord, to be sealed, to begin their marriage right, that they may be under the covenant, and their posterity be born under the covenant and be heirs to the blessings thereof. I believe that marriages, entered into so solemnly as they are in the temple, will make a deeper impression upon the hearts and cause a stronger resolve to be made to live as husband and wife ought to live. Divorces should not be known amongst us. It is too solemn a thing to enter into the marriage relation and then have it dissolved. So we would say to the young people, begin marriage right, and then try to make marriage bring unto you happiness and blessings. Avoid everything that tends to make that bond galling and the relation unhappy. Much can be done by each one in this direction if both parties are determined to live in peace and harmony.
The reports given us of the auxiliary organizations are very pleasing to us, and they are true. The men who are laboring on the boards are putting their whole mind and soul to the work in which they are engaged; they are studying and trying to devise plans for the welfare and the uplift of our youth. I say, the Lord bless these men and women who are engaged in this work. They spend much of their time in the interest of these institutions, and they do it out of pure love for the young. I want all the Latter-day Saints to feel to honor these men and women, not alone those on the general boards, but also on the stake boards, and those who are laboring in the wards, who are giving their time to teach and instruct our young people in the ways of the Lord.
Now, may the Lord bless the Latter-day Saints; may He bless us during this conference, that the Spirit of the Lord may be poured out in a rich measure, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The choir sang the hymn:
Each cooing dove, and sighing bough.
That makes the eve so blest to me,
Has something far diviner now,
It bears me back to Galilee.
Benediction was pronounced by Elder John L. Herrick.
Conference adjourned until 2 p.m.
Health and happiness result from keeping Word of Wisdom.—The people urged to eliminate the saloon and tobacco evils. — Investigation of "Mormon" missionary work in England desired.—Marriage in Temple a safeguard against divorce.—Unselfish and successful work of auxiliary organization officers.
I have been very much interested in the remarks of our president, as I know you all have been. I know that what he has said to us is true, and his counsels are for our best good.
I was struck with the statistics that were read to us, and was pleased to learn that the death-rate among the Latter-day Saints is smaller than the death-rate in the world. Nine to a thousand is indeed a good showing. Now, I believe there is a cause for this. The Latter-day Saints, if they live their religion, have been promised long lives and health. The Lord has given us a revelation in regard to preserving our health. We have inquiries from several persons, asking us when the Word of Wisdom was made a commandment. I do not know that we can give such information, but the revelation speaks for itself; it tells us that the Word of Wisdom is the order and will of God—the will of God. Need we ask to have it made any stronger? Why did He give that Word of Wisdom unto us Latter-day Saints? Was it to deprive us of enjoyment in life? Did He want to curtail the pleasures of life? No, on the contrary, He wanted to give us advice how to live to preserve our health; and as He has given it unto us, calling it the Word of Wisdom, I hope the Latter-day Saints will be found among the wise virgins, not among the foolish ones. All that has been given to us by revelation has been for our blessing and for our good, and we should not feel to violate the Lord's will in regard to this matter, even if we should say to ourselves, It is not a commandment, but a word of wisdom. Let us make it the resolve of our hearts that we will follow the advice given therein, and then we will be blest, not alone physically but also spiritually. We will be enabled to do much more good, to labor more and harder than if we indulge in those things that sap the strength of our bodies and undermine our health, for that is the effect of violating the Word of Wisdom.
Our legislature has given us a law on the liquor question, and there is a time appointed when the people will be at liberty to express themselves on this question. It seems to me that all through the settlements of Zion, where we the Latter-day Saints are in the majority, the sentiment should be to do all in our power to eliminate the liquor traffic from our midst. Ever since the Word of Wisdom was given, there has been a feeling among us Latter-day Saints that it is our duty to obey this law, and in placing men in positions in the Church we have charged them that they must obey the Word of Wisdom. This is not a request that has been made so strong lately. Seventy years ago, and more, it was voted by the Church that no officer should hold office in the Church, who violated the Word of Wisdom. This was under the prophet Joseph, and if he felt to make it that strong, we ought not to try to make it lighter now, but urge our brethren who are called to lead the people, and to labor in the ministry, to observe this requirement, and not show the bad example of failing to heed the advice given by our heavenly Father. I hope that at the election the people will show that they stand for temperance. If we cannot get a whole loaf, let us be satisfied with a half, but let our efforts be to save our young people from the evils of the saloon. Let us try to provide for them places where they can go and have healthful entertainment, and not have them seek to get their recreation in low places, and I look upon the saloon as such a place; it should not be found in the settlements of the Latter-day Saints. I need not talk upon the evils that follow intemperance; they are so well known. When we travel where such things are found, how it grieves us to see men degrading themselves by overindulgence in liquor and other stimulants.
The tobacco habit should be avoided. The use of tobacco is very harmful and injurious to the system, and' we should do all in our power to have our young men grow up without indulging in this. I was pleased, the other day, to read of one settlement where it was said there was not a boy under twenty-one who used tobacco. I wish it could be said of all Israel, that all our boys abstain from that habit. Statistics from different institutions show that the boys who indulge in tobacco do not excel, and that those who really come to the fore, and excel in their studies, are those that are not indulging in the tobacco habit, or using stimulants.
I was pleased to hear the President’s words about our missionaries, and I believe his blessing upon them will be felt by them. I believe our Father in heaven will be with them in their labors, their unselfish labors out in the world. They devote their time to forward this work, sustaining themselves; and as they go forth they are often mocked and scorned, and meet the rebuffs of the people, but they have a message to give unto the world, that they know is of the utmost importance. There has been published both here in America and abroad, in England, Scandinavia, and Germany a mass of scurrilous articles, lying about and abusing the Latter-day Saints. Hans P. Freece, a Utah man traveling in England, for instance, is trying to stir up the English people against us. His talk has even come to the government, and the prime minister has been urged to institute investigations concerning the things that this Mr. Freece has been telling. What does he know of what is going on in England? He is accusing us of taking girls from there and bringing them here for immoral purposes, as if our elders were sent out to bring girls here. Our elders go to preach the gospel to all. Statistics show that the "Mormon" emigrants from England do not amount to more than a small fraction of one per cent, but that small fraction is enough to stir up the people there. We have asked for an investigation. We know that we are free from the things they accuse us of. You know, Latter-day Saints, that the gospel has not given you license to sin. You know that when you went into the waters of baptism, you made the covenant that you would keep the commandments of the Lord, and you know as long as you have lived up to that covenant the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit has been yours. You know that you have not been taught, by the elders, anything contrary to the commandments of God. Why is it that all this opposition is arrayed against us? Are we any worse this year than last year, or past years? I believe, as the president said, that the Latter-day Saints are growing in faith, in live faith, and that will lead to good works. Wherever you go, you will find, throughout the stakes of Zion, that the Saints are alive to their duties. We are thankful to them for showing their faith in the gospel in their duties, in their fast offerings and in the great amounts that they are paying towards erecting houses of worship, where they can go and learn more of the ways of the Lord. We feel to praise the Latter-day Saints for this. The Latter-day Saints are a God-fearing people, a duty-fulfilling people, a people who have joined together in covenants to serve the Lord and to work out the salvation of their souls, in fear and trembling before God. They are not a people sunken in vice and iniquity. Where such is found, the brethren who are in charge are seeking to eliminate such from the Church.
The divorce question was mentioned here. By statistics it is found that those who have been married in our temples and have been sealed at the altar of God, are not the ones that are being divorced, that there are far fewer divorces in that class than in the case of those who have been married outside of the temple. I am glad that I can state this, and I would exhort all the youth of Zion to prepare themselves to be worthy to have a recommend to go to the temple of the Lord, to be sealed, to begin their marriage right, that they may be under the covenant, and their posterity be born under the covenant and be heirs to the blessings thereof. I believe that marriages, entered into so solemnly as they are in the temple, will make a deeper impression upon the hearts and cause a stronger resolve to be made to live as husband and wife ought to live. Divorces should not be known amongst us. It is too solemn a thing to enter into the marriage relation and then have it dissolved. So we would say to the young people, begin marriage right, and then try to make marriage bring unto you happiness and blessings. Avoid everything that tends to make that bond galling and the relation unhappy. Much can be done by each one in this direction if both parties are determined to live in peace and harmony.
The reports given us of the auxiliary organizations are very pleasing to us, and they are true. The men who are laboring on the boards are putting their whole mind and soul to the work in which they are engaged; they are studying and trying to devise plans for the welfare and the uplift of our youth. I say, the Lord bless these men and women who are engaged in this work. They spend much of their time in the interest of these institutions, and they do it out of pure love for the young. I want all the Latter-day Saints to feel to honor these men and women, not alone those on the general boards, but also on the stake boards, and those who are laboring in the wards, who are giving their time to teach and instruct our young people in the ways of the Lord.
Now, may the Lord bless the Latter-day Saints; may He bless us during this conference, that the Spirit of the Lord may be poured out in a rich measure, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The choir sang the hymn:
Each cooing dove, and sighing bough.
That makes the eve so blest to me,
Has something far diviner now,
It bears me back to Galilee.
Benediction was pronounced by Elder John L. Herrick.
Conference adjourned until 2 p.m.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Conference was resumed at 2 p. m.
President Joseph F. Smith called the meeting to order.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
Our God, we raise to Thee
Thanks for Thy blessings free
We here enjoy;
In this far western land,
A true and chosen band,
Led hither by Thy hand,
We sing for joy.
Prayer was offered by Patriarch David McKay.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
O ye mountains high, where the clear blue sky
Arches over the vales of the free.
Where the pure breezes blow and the clear streamlets flow,
How I've longed to your bosom to flee.
Conference was resumed at 2 p. m.
President Joseph F. Smith called the meeting to order.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
Our God, we raise to Thee
Thanks for Thy blessings free
We here enjoy;
In this far western land,
A true and chosen band,
Led hither by Thy hand,
We sing for joy.
Prayer was offered by Patriarch David McKay.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
O ye mountains high, where the clear blue sky
Arches over the vales of the free.
Where the pure breezes blow and the clear streamlets flow,
How I've longed to your bosom to flee.
PRESIDENT FRANCIS M. LYMAN.
Judgment by principles of Sermon on the Mount.—The people familiar with Church leaders, and know their integrity.—Righteous people are not persecutors.—Prohibition needed to help the weak. Latter-day Saints advocate and practice righteousness.
It is delightful for the Latter-day Saints to meet together to worship the Lord and to consider the blessings He has bestowed upon us, to listen to a recital of some of the advancement that has been made in the Church, and some things in relation to our good record. We compare very favorably with our neighbors and with conditions that exist at the present time, in the world, hence there is no excuse for the agitation that is being provoked by some who feel that it is their duty to arraign the Latter-day Saints before the public opinion of the world.
I was reminded, this morning, in my early waking moments, it being the sixth day of April, the occasion for the general annual gathering of the Saints to transact the business of the Church, and to hear the word of the Lord, I was reminded of the conditions that exist around us, and I thought of the Sermon on the Mount. My mind was turned to it, and I feel that to read just a few verses from that memorable sermon by the Savior will give us an opportunity to consider and to examine ourselves and, possibly, draw the attention of our friends to an examination of their condition as well as ours. I believe you will discover that it is a very fitting text for a little talk, for us to look over the field and regard ourselves, and to remind our friends and neighbors of the opportunity, also, to consider our faith and our standing and fellowship with the Lord. We can profit much by this, and we may discover, possibly, some reformation that we need to make ourselves, in order to be fully in harmony with the doctrines of the Lord; but I believe that the comparison will be very favorable for the Latter-day Saints. I will just read a few verses, in the fifth chapter of Matthew, commencing with the third verse:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
"Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
"Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
Now, I believe, my brethren and sisters, that the Latter-day Saints have great reason to take courage and feel consoled when we look over the field and consider what is being said in regard to us, when we consider our own position, how carefully and exactly the Latter-day Saints are attending to their own duties, magnifying the priesthood we bear, devoting ourselves to preaching the gospel throughout the earth, preaching the doctrines of life and salvation, and ministering for the salvation of the children of men.
We work for those who live and also for the dead, thus following in the footsteps of our Lord and Master, for as soon as He had finished His mortal mission here on the earth, before He returned to His Father, before He arose with His body and went to heaven. His first mission and attention was given to those who had died, those who were indifferent and cared not for the truth when it was taught to them in the flesh. He went to the spirits in prison, to preach the gospel and labor for their salvation. He turned the key, opened the door, and established a mission among those who had rejected the gospel—not those, altogether, who had not beard it, but also those who had beard and had rejected it and concluded not to receive it. To such He went and preached the gospel. Now, you know, my brethren and sisters, what our works have been, especially these thousands of men who are present here this afternoon, who hold the priesthood. This congregation is made up, largely, of men bearing the priesthood, men who have been called into the ministry in the world, and they have been preachers of the gospel and defenders of the faith. You know your brethren who preside over you; you know those who have presided over this Church from its inception, eighty-one years ago; you know the history of all the prophets and the apostles of the Latter-day Saints; and when the world, or men in the world take up a mission to war upon the Latter-day Saints, and charge us with insincerity, with immorality, and with any kind of wickedness, you are my witnesses that these statements are untrue. You know, this congregation knows the truth concerning these things; and other people who are here, who are not Latter-day Saints but who live among us, they know also the integrity of our course, and our devotion to the work in which we are engaged for the salvation of the children of men. We are known; our doctrines are known; our principles are known.
I would like you who want to consider this matter, to look over the history of those who are making trouble for the Latter-day Saints, those who have made trouble for us in the past, and those who are thus engaged today. I would like you to weigh and measure them by this standard that the Savior has laid down, and find out whether those trouble-making men are persecuting people, whether they are persecutors or being persecuted. Are the Latter-day Saints persecutors, or are they being persecuted? Are they being betrayed? Are falsehoods being uttered in regard to the Latter-day Saints? Are we being imposed upon, or are we imposing upon the world? My brethren and sisters, are we not laboring for the salvation of the children of men, carrying the same mission of faith to the world that the Savior Himself brought? Are we not teaching the doctrine of repentance, and of baptism, by immersion, for the remission of sins? Are we not teaching, also, the gift of the Holy Ghost, through the laying on of hands, by men who are authorized of the Lord and commissioned of Him? Are we not thus laboring all the time in the world, carrying the gospel as far as we possibly can, and do we not expect to carry it to every creature; is not that the truth? Are they telling the truth about us when they are publishing, in their magazines, those articles that are being published against us? What kind of men are those who put forth those doctrines and make these efforts against the Latter-day Saints, what is their character and standing? Are they trying to improve the Latter-day Saints? Are they better than the Latter-day Saints in their lives, is their morality superior to ours? Or, are we the people who are being persecuted? Is this not an evidence and a mark that designates the Latter- day Saints as the followers of the Lord Jesus? The very fact that wicked men stand up and undertake to berate and impeach the character of the Latter-day Saints, is it not a positive testimony and evidence that we are the followers of the Lord Jesus?
You know your own people; you are acquainted with them in your own wards; you know them in your own stakes, the Latter-day Saints that are gathered together; and you know the class of men that are being sent out from among you into the world. You know how carefully they are trained, how carefully they are instructed at home and abroad. You know, also, that if any fall into sin, how quickly it is discovered, how soon they are detected, when that occurs, which sometimes does. Men are fallible and liable to fall, but as a rule the Latter-day Saints are stable. They are superior because of the spirit that is with the work of the Lord, the Holy Ghost that has dwelt with us, that we received at our baptism and confirmation, through our faith and repentance. The Latter-day Saints would not be gathered together without that measure of faith that the Lord has bestowed upon us, which He has been generous enough to bestow upon all people. He would be delighted, as a loving Father, for all his children to receive the same spirit that our elder brother received, the Holy Ghost that was conferred upon Him, and that descended upon Him, succeeding His baptism. Have we not been so laboring, and are we not thus engaged at the present time? All this army of men have labored either at home or abroad. That is the labor which has been required of the Latter-day Saints. We have been trained in morality, in purity, in sobriety, in temperance, in faith, in charity, and in all the gifts and graces of the gospel. That has been the mission and ministry of the Latter-day Saints. That was the mission of the Prophet Joseph, and of his brethren, all who have shared with him in the priesthood that has been restored from heaven.
You know the attitude of the Latter-day Saints toward these principles; and not only do we know, but our neighbors, among whom we live, and those who live in our neighborhood, they know perfectly well that the Latter-day Saints are a good people, an honest people, a conscientious people, and a moral people. We are not encouraging immorality, neither here nor abroad. We do not want immoral men. We have not preached for immorality, nor for immoral people. We have not advocated the coming' of wicked people; we have not desired that any one should come here for wickedness. That is a false accusation, and those who have taken that stand and position against the Latter-clay Saints, to try to make trouble for this people—this little handful of people, gathered together here — they are not inspired of the Lord; they are operating against the truth, and they have need of repentance themselves; they have need for reformation. They have been berating better people than they are themselves; that is what they have been doing, and that is what the wicked do. That is what they did in the days of the Savior; they persecuted Him to His death. They will not persecute us any more than they did Him. But they are persecutors; they are not peacemakers; they are not the righteous that are laboring for the salvation of the children of men. It is not their exceeding purity and righteousness that is prompting them, but it is the spirit of evil, the spirit of Satan, and not the Spirit of the Lord.
You will not find good people persecuting bad people. Now, you look for persecutors, look for people right at home that are trespassers and you will^ find that the righteous are not transgressors. The righteous are not seeking to do injury to the wicked, but it is the wicked that persecute, that speak evil, and that revile their neighbors. We simply endure what is put upon us and we have this assurance, my brethren and sisters, that this kingdom which the Lord has established is so sustained by the power of God that it will never be overthrown. You may be overthrown, if you do wrong; if we go into transgression and sin, we shall be disturbed and overthrown; but not so with this work. It is a mark of the Latter-day Saints that they are struggling for righteousness and truth, for justice and for mercy. They love peace and work for it; they are not a warlike people but a peaceable people, a spiritually minded people, a people who love justice, righteousness, and truth. I thought that this doctrine of the Lord upon the Mount was very fitting to our condition at the present time, advising us that if we were persecuted we need not be surprised. Why, the Saints were persecuted in the days of the Savior, and as long as He engaged in His ministrations among the people He was not exempt, although He was the Son of God. We need not worry, if persecutions come upon us. The wicked do not need to be persecuted; the wicked can be handled by the law, and can be dealt with and treated by the law; but if you want to disturb the righteous, the pure, and upright, it must be done by persecution, and not legally or lawfully.
There is no need of troubling about the Latter-day Saints on account of their alleged sins. If we are sinners, we stand in the presence of the law, as we stand in the presence of the Lord, and are answerable— ready to answer for everything that we are guilty of. The Lord will sustain His people. He will sustain us as individuals, men and women, members of His Church. Now, that is right and proper and pleasing in His sight. We ought to appreciate the fact, my brethren and sisters, that the troubles that are arrayed against us in the world only tend to refine us, purify us, and do us good, possibly putting us a little closer on guard in the future, that we may be better than we have been. We are not afraid to stand in the presence of the law, as we heard this morning from our president, in regard to conditions that exist among us in regard to marriage, in regard to divorce, and so forth. We can stand to be taken care of, certainly, as well as the people of the earth, for it is discovered that we are fully as good as they are, and, in some things, a little better than the people of the world. We have information, knowledge, truth, and revelation superior to what the people of the world have. The Lord has been generous to us. We have been fortunate enough to come upon the earth at the very time when the gospel has been sent, and are favored with taking part and portion therein. The Lord is pleased with His people, as a whole. There are, no doubt, individuals among us who have not pleased the Lord in all things. We have not always, all of us, done right, but as a people, as Latter-day Saints, the Lord is pleased with His people, for their righteousness, not for their sins; but we are struggling, all the time, to do better. We are struggling to make all the people better. We are endeavoring to gather the good and honest from the world, and to reclaim those who are wayward. I was impressed with the prayer of the president, not only for the leading brethren among the people, and the Latter-day Saints, but those who are wayward as well, those who need the favor and blessing of the Lord particularly, those who have not been so favored in their dispositions, those who have not felt inclined to repent, to reform and work righteousness as they should. The blessings of the Lord were asked upon them. That should always be so, as it is the sick that need the physician. Let the petitions and faith of the people go out for the advantage and benefit of those who need to be encouraged and strengthened.
I thought the conversation of the president, this morning, was very encouraging for the Latter-day Saints, and he spoke the mind of the Lord, the will of the Lord; and so did President Lund, upon the subject of the Word of Wisdom, and also the subject of temperance. We find ourselves, just now, as he drew our attention to the fact, confronted with this question, and in a little while we are to determine, the Latter-day Saints and our neighbors and friends who live among us, are to determine what shall be done. I am persuaded that our friends, very many of them, I think I would be perfectly safe in saying that the majority of our friends and neighbors who live among us, who are not Latter-day Saints, are in favor of temperance, in favor of good order, in favor of law and of peace. I think we can say that concerning most of the people of our state. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule, but as a rule I believe that our neighbors, as well as the. Latter-day Saints will demonstrate, on the 27th day of June, this year, that the people of the State of Utah are in favor of sobriety, of temperance, and of prohibition. I hope so; I hope they will be ready for that. I have been personally under the law of prohibition so long that I want everybody else under it; I have found that it is good, very good indeed. I can commend it to all the people of our state, and I want to sound a note of advice for the people of Utah: Let us be a sober people, and let us help those who are weak. If we are strong ourselves, and feel that we can get along, that we do not need any law or anything to help us, let us help those who need to be helped; let us strengthen them. If we have been strengthened and converted, and are able to stand fairly well ourselves, let us help our neighbors about us, and let us be Latter-day Saints in very deed. We have made profession to do this. We should keep the commandments of the Lord and refrain from all evil; we should be temperate not only in regard to the use of liquor but in regard to the use of other things that are forbidden in the Word of Wisdom. Let us be Saints, and encourage our neighbors about us to follow our good example. Let them see; let our light so shine before all men, and in their presence, that they will discover our good works. We do not want them to discover in us any bad works, we do not want to engage in any bad works: it is not necessary; and the Lord will not excuse us, not near so readily as He will excuse those who have not been instructed, and who do not know as we know.
We have received of the Spirit of the Lord. Other men have received of other spirits. There is a world of spirits about us and among all peoples. Every denomination and every organization, political or otherwise, have their spirit, the spirit of their organization; and they partake of it, and it seems altogether right to them, I presume; but it takes the Spirit of the Lord, the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, in order for men and women to serve the Lord, to find out, and to know Him. We can't do it without faith, without Repentance, without baptism, without the inspiration of the Holy Ghost which we receive by the laying on of hands. These are the initiatory doctrines of the gospel of the Lord Jesus, and they are. imperatively necessary. I want to bear my testimony before my brethren and sisters, here today, that these doctrines and principles are indispensable for Latter-day Saints. Other people may not care for them and will not, possibly, until they have some other chance on the other side. They may reject these principles here; they may not see; they do not see; they can not receive the same spirit that we have received except on the same conditions, and that is through the principle of faith. Again, a mere profession of faith is not enough, but it must be a genuine, living faith that will produce repentance and works of righteousness. That is what is necessary.
The Lord has arranged for His people, and He will sustain His people, and the truth concerning this work and the true character of this people will be demonstrated before the world. The world will find out that the Latter-day Saints are a peculiar people; that although there are so many bad things said about us, they will find us a good people. That is what we are laboring for. We are preaching righteousness, advocating the doctrine of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no law against that. Isn't that good doctrine? We also teach repentance. Isn't repentance good doctrine, and is it not effective? You can't save a man without repentance, of course; and a man will not repent who has not faith; it is the principle of faith that will produce repentance. There is no repentance without faith in God, and there is no forgiveness of sins without the ordinance of baptism; it is important and necessary, and we can't avoid it. We can't relieve ourselves of the sins we have committed, except in the way I have explained. We may cease to sin, and sin no more, if we please, but in order to free ourselves from the sins that we have committed, and to enter into the kingdom of God, as the Son of God did. Himself, we must do it through baptism, genuine baptism, the baptism that the Lord has laid down and so instructed us. It must not be looked upon as unnecessary; it is important; we can't free ourselves from it at all; it is the law.
This is the work that the Latter-day Saints have been engaged in, and they have done a wonderful work in eighty years. It is a remarkable work, and our position is unique, and remarkable in the world, among the Christian denominations of the earth. I say it is very remarkable, and what a sensation is made throughout the world today by this good people. It is not for our sins, not because we are wicked. We have not clogged the courts with the necessity of taking care of us for our wickedness. We have not advocated immorality or impurity at all. It has never been countenanced by the Latter-day Saints, and is not today; and whatever of evil there is among our people, and in this state, is not chargeable to the Latter-day Saints; it is properly chargeable to men of corruption, wickedness, and the worst of immorality; that is what it is. It cannot be charged to us; we are not guilty of these things, they have not been established by us. We have not advocated them abroad, or brought them here and established them; not at all; and we are not engaged in any kind of wickedness. The Latter-day Saints are not doing it. That is my testimony for the Latter-day Saints who are gathered together in Zion, that we are laboring for purity and righteousness and for the salvation of the children of men and our sons and daughters. We rejoice exceedingly at their devotion and faithfulness to the Lord, and our hearts are broken, and sorrowful, and tender, when we find one straying from the path of truth and righteousness.
I pray the Lord to bless you, my brethren and sisters; and I commend to you the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, that I have read to you. Read them in your own Bibles at home, and see if they are not very fitting for the conditions under which the Latter-day Saints are living at the present time, and the experiences that we are having in connection with the world. May the Lord bless us during our conference, that we may rejoice exceedingly and take home the word of the Lord from His servants, and be better and stronger m the future, and realize that the Lord has established His kingdom and will sustain it and preserve it to the end, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
A duet, entitled "Make the home beautiful," was sung by Sisters Esther Davis and Erma Pendleton.
Judgment by principles of Sermon on the Mount.—The people familiar with Church leaders, and know their integrity.—Righteous people are not persecutors.—Prohibition needed to help the weak. Latter-day Saints advocate and practice righteousness.
It is delightful for the Latter-day Saints to meet together to worship the Lord and to consider the blessings He has bestowed upon us, to listen to a recital of some of the advancement that has been made in the Church, and some things in relation to our good record. We compare very favorably with our neighbors and with conditions that exist at the present time, in the world, hence there is no excuse for the agitation that is being provoked by some who feel that it is their duty to arraign the Latter-day Saints before the public opinion of the world.
I was reminded, this morning, in my early waking moments, it being the sixth day of April, the occasion for the general annual gathering of the Saints to transact the business of the Church, and to hear the word of the Lord, I was reminded of the conditions that exist around us, and I thought of the Sermon on the Mount. My mind was turned to it, and I feel that to read just a few verses from that memorable sermon by the Savior will give us an opportunity to consider and to examine ourselves and, possibly, draw the attention of our friends to an examination of their condition as well as ours. I believe you will discover that it is a very fitting text for a little talk, for us to look over the field and regard ourselves, and to remind our friends and neighbors of the opportunity, also, to consider our faith and our standing and fellowship with the Lord. We can profit much by this, and we may discover, possibly, some reformation that we need to make ourselves, in order to be fully in harmony with the doctrines of the Lord; but I believe that the comparison will be very favorable for the Latter-day Saints. I will just read a few verses, in the fifth chapter of Matthew, commencing with the third verse:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
"Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
"Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
Now, I believe, my brethren and sisters, that the Latter-day Saints have great reason to take courage and feel consoled when we look over the field and consider what is being said in regard to us, when we consider our own position, how carefully and exactly the Latter-day Saints are attending to their own duties, magnifying the priesthood we bear, devoting ourselves to preaching the gospel throughout the earth, preaching the doctrines of life and salvation, and ministering for the salvation of the children of men.
We work for those who live and also for the dead, thus following in the footsteps of our Lord and Master, for as soon as He had finished His mortal mission here on the earth, before He returned to His Father, before He arose with His body and went to heaven. His first mission and attention was given to those who had died, those who were indifferent and cared not for the truth when it was taught to them in the flesh. He went to the spirits in prison, to preach the gospel and labor for their salvation. He turned the key, opened the door, and established a mission among those who had rejected the gospel—not those, altogether, who had not beard it, but also those who had beard and had rejected it and concluded not to receive it. To such He went and preached the gospel. Now, you know, my brethren and sisters, what our works have been, especially these thousands of men who are present here this afternoon, who hold the priesthood. This congregation is made up, largely, of men bearing the priesthood, men who have been called into the ministry in the world, and they have been preachers of the gospel and defenders of the faith. You know your brethren who preside over you; you know those who have presided over this Church from its inception, eighty-one years ago; you know the history of all the prophets and the apostles of the Latter-day Saints; and when the world, or men in the world take up a mission to war upon the Latter-day Saints, and charge us with insincerity, with immorality, and with any kind of wickedness, you are my witnesses that these statements are untrue. You know, this congregation knows the truth concerning these things; and other people who are here, who are not Latter-day Saints but who live among us, they know also the integrity of our course, and our devotion to the work in which we are engaged for the salvation of the children of men. We are known; our doctrines are known; our principles are known.
I would like you who want to consider this matter, to look over the history of those who are making trouble for the Latter-day Saints, those who have made trouble for us in the past, and those who are thus engaged today. I would like you to weigh and measure them by this standard that the Savior has laid down, and find out whether those trouble-making men are persecuting people, whether they are persecutors or being persecuted. Are the Latter-day Saints persecutors, or are they being persecuted? Are they being betrayed? Are falsehoods being uttered in regard to the Latter-day Saints? Are we being imposed upon, or are we imposing upon the world? My brethren and sisters, are we not laboring for the salvation of the children of men, carrying the same mission of faith to the world that the Savior Himself brought? Are we not teaching the doctrine of repentance, and of baptism, by immersion, for the remission of sins? Are we not teaching, also, the gift of the Holy Ghost, through the laying on of hands, by men who are authorized of the Lord and commissioned of Him? Are we not thus laboring all the time in the world, carrying the gospel as far as we possibly can, and do we not expect to carry it to every creature; is not that the truth? Are they telling the truth about us when they are publishing, in their magazines, those articles that are being published against us? What kind of men are those who put forth those doctrines and make these efforts against the Latter-day Saints, what is their character and standing? Are they trying to improve the Latter-day Saints? Are they better than the Latter-day Saints in their lives, is their morality superior to ours? Or, are we the people who are being persecuted? Is this not an evidence and a mark that designates the Latter- day Saints as the followers of the Lord Jesus? The very fact that wicked men stand up and undertake to berate and impeach the character of the Latter-day Saints, is it not a positive testimony and evidence that we are the followers of the Lord Jesus?
You know your own people; you are acquainted with them in your own wards; you know them in your own stakes, the Latter-day Saints that are gathered together; and you know the class of men that are being sent out from among you into the world. You know how carefully they are trained, how carefully they are instructed at home and abroad. You know, also, that if any fall into sin, how quickly it is discovered, how soon they are detected, when that occurs, which sometimes does. Men are fallible and liable to fall, but as a rule the Latter-day Saints are stable. They are superior because of the spirit that is with the work of the Lord, the Holy Ghost that has dwelt with us, that we received at our baptism and confirmation, through our faith and repentance. The Latter-day Saints would not be gathered together without that measure of faith that the Lord has bestowed upon us, which He has been generous enough to bestow upon all people. He would be delighted, as a loving Father, for all his children to receive the same spirit that our elder brother received, the Holy Ghost that was conferred upon Him, and that descended upon Him, succeeding His baptism. Have we not been so laboring, and are we not thus engaged at the present time? All this army of men have labored either at home or abroad. That is the labor which has been required of the Latter-day Saints. We have been trained in morality, in purity, in sobriety, in temperance, in faith, in charity, and in all the gifts and graces of the gospel. That has been the mission and ministry of the Latter-day Saints. That was the mission of the Prophet Joseph, and of his brethren, all who have shared with him in the priesthood that has been restored from heaven.
You know the attitude of the Latter-day Saints toward these principles; and not only do we know, but our neighbors, among whom we live, and those who live in our neighborhood, they know perfectly well that the Latter-day Saints are a good people, an honest people, a conscientious people, and a moral people. We are not encouraging immorality, neither here nor abroad. We do not want immoral men. We have not preached for immorality, nor for immoral people. We have not advocated the coming' of wicked people; we have not desired that any one should come here for wickedness. That is a false accusation, and those who have taken that stand and position against the Latter-clay Saints, to try to make trouble for this people—this little handful of people, gathered together here — they are not inspired of the Lord; they are operating against the truth, and they have need of repentance themselves; they have need for reformation. They have been berating better people than they are themselves; that is what they have been doing, and that is what the wicked do. That is what they did in the days of the Savior; they persecuted Him to His death. They will not persecute us any more than they did Him. But they are persecutors; they are not peacemakers; they are not the righteous that are laboring for the salvation of the children of men. It is not their exceeding purity and righteousness that is prompting them, but it is the spirit of evil, the spirit of Satan, and not the Spirit of the Lord.
You will not find good people persecuting bad people. Now, you look for persecutors, look for people right at home that are trespassers and you will^ find that the righteous are not transgressors. The righteous are not seeking to do injury to the wicked, but it is the wicked that persecute, that speak evil, and that revile their neighbors. We simply endure what is put upon us and we have this assurance, my brethren and sisters, that this kingdom which the Lord has established is so sustained by the power of God that it will never be overthrown. You may be overthrown, if you do wrong; if we go into transgression and sin, we shall be disturbed and overthrown; but not so with this work. It is a mark of the Latter-day Saints that they are struggling for righteousness and truth, for justice and for mercy. They love peace and work for it; they are not a warlike people but a peaceable people, a spiritually minded people, a people who love justice, righteousness, and truth. I thought that this doctrine of the Lord upon the Mount was very fitting to our condition at the present time, advising us that if we were persecuted we need not be surprised. Why, the Saints were persecuted in the days of the Savior, and as long as He engaged in His ministrations among the people He was not exempt, although He was the Son of God. We need not worry, if persecutions come upon us. The wicked do not need to be persecuted; the wicked can be handled by the law, and can be dealt with and treated by the law; but if you want to disturb the righteous, the pure, and upright, it must be done by persecution, and not legally or lawfully.
There is no need of troubling about the Latter-day Saints on account of their alleged sins. If we are sinners, we stand in the presence of the law, as we stand in the presence of the Lord, and are answerable— ready to answer for everything that we are guilty of. The Lord will sustain His people. He will sustain us as individuals, men and women, members of His Church. Now, that is right and proper and pleasing in His sight. We ought to appreciate the fact, my brethren and sisters, that the troubles that are arrayed against us in the world only tend to refine us, purify us, and do us good, possibly putting us a little closer on guard in the future, that we may be better than we have been. We are not afraid to stand in the presence of the law, as we heard this morning from our president, in regard to conditions that exist among us in regard to marriage, in regard to divorce, and so forth. We can stand to be taken care of, certainly, as well as the people of the earth, for it is discovered that we are fully as good as they are, and, in some things, a little better than the people of the world. We have information, knowledge, truth, and revelation superior to what the people of the world have. The Lord has been generous to us. We have been fortunate enough to come upon the earth at the very time when the gospel has been sent, and are favored with taking part and portion therein. The Lord is pleased with His people, as a whole. There are, no doubt, individuals among us who have not pleased the Lord in all things. We have not always, all of us, done right, but as a people, as Latter-day Saints, the Lord is pleased with His people, for their righteousness, not for their sins; but we are struggling, all the time, to do better. We are struggling to make all the people better. We are endeavoring to gather the good and honest from the world, and to reclaim those who are wayward. I was impressed with the prayer of the president, not only for the leading brethren among the people, and the Latter-day Saints, but those who are wayward as well, those who need the favor and blessing of the Lord particularly, those who have not been so favored in their dispositions, those who have not felt inclined to repent, to reform and work righteousness as they should. The blessings of the Lord were asked upon them. That should always be so, as it is the sick that need the physician. Let the petitions and faith of the people go out for the advantage and benefit of those who need to be encouraged and strengthened.
I thought the conversation of the president, this morning, was very encouraging for the Latter-day Saints, and he spoke the mind of the Lord, the will of the Lord; and so did President Lund, upon the subject of the Word of Wisdom, and also the subject of temperance. We find ourselves, just now, as he drew our attention to the fact, confronted with this question, and in a little while we are to determine, the Latter-day Saints and our neighbors and friends who live among us, are to determine what shall be done. I am persuaded that our friends, very many of them, I think I would be perfectly safe in saying that the majority of our friends and neighbors who live among us, who are not Latter-day Saints, are in favor of temperance, in favor of good order, in favor of law and of peace. I think we can say that concerning most of the people of our state. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule, but as a rule I believe that our neighbors, as well as the. Latter-day Saints will demonstrate, on the 27th day of June, this year, that the people of the State of Utah are in favor of sobriety, of temperance, and of prohibition. I hope so; I hope they will be ready for that. I have been personally under the law of prohibition so long that I want everybody else under it; I have found that it is good, very good indeed. I can commend it to all the people of our state, and I want to sound a note of advice for the people of Utah: Let us be a sober people, and let us help those who are weak. If we are strong ourselves, and feel that we can get along, that we do not need any law or anything to help us, let us help those who need to be helped; let us strengthen them. If we have been strengthened and converted, and are able to stand fairly well ourselves, let us help our neighbors about us, and let us be Latter-day Saints in very deed. We have made profession to do this. We should keep the commandments of the Lord and refrain from all evil; we should be temperate not only in regard to the use of liquor but in regard to the use of other things that are forbidden in the Word of Wisdom. Let us be Saints, and encourage our neighbors about us to follow our good example. Let them see; let our light so shine before all men, and in their presence, that they will discover our good works. We do not want them to discover in us any bad works, we do not want to engage in any bad works: it is not necessary; and the Lord will not excuse us, not near so readily as He will excuse those who have not been instructed, and who do not know as we know.
We have received of the Spirit of the Lord. Other men have received of other spirits. There is a world of spirits about us and among all peoples. Every denomination and every organization, political or otherwise, have their spirit, the spirit of their organization; and they partake of it, and it seems altogether right to them, I presume; but it takes the Spirit of the Lord, the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, in order for men and women to serve the Lord, to find out, and to know Him. We can't do it without faith, without Repentance, without baptism, without the inspiration of the Holy Ghost which we receive by the laying on of hands. These are the initiatory doctrines of the gospel of the Lord Jesus, and they are. imperatively necessary. I want to bear my testimony before my brethren and sisters, here today, that these doctrines and principles are indispensable for Latter-day Saints. Other people may not care for them and will not, possibly, until they have some other chance on the other side. They may reject these principles here; they may not see; they do not see; they can not receive the same spirit that we have received except on the same conditions, and that is through the principle of faith. Again, a mere profession of faith is not enough, but it must be a genuine, living faith that will produce repentance and works of righteousness. That is what is necessary.
The Lord has arranged for His people, and He will sustain His people, and the truth concerning this work and the true character of this people will be demonstrated before the world. The world will find out that the Latter-day Saints are a peculiar people; that although there are so many bad things said about us, they will find us a good people. That is what we are laboring for. We are preaching righteousness, advocating the doctrine of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no law against that. Isn't that good doctrine? We also teach repentance. Isn't repentance good doctrine, and is it not effective? You can't save a man without repentance, of course; and a man will not repent who has not faith; it is the principle of faith that will produce repentance. There is no repentance without faith in God, and there is no forgiveness of sins without the ordinance of baptism; it is important and necessary, and we can't avoid it. We can't relieve ourselves of the sins we have committed, except in the way I have explained. We may cease to sin, and sin no more, if we please, but in order to free ourselves from the sins that we have committed, and to enter into the kingdom of God, as the Son of God did. Himself, we must do it through baptism, genuine baptism, the baptism that the Lord has laid down and so instructed us. It must not be looked upon as unnecessary; it is important; we can't free ourselves from it at all; it is the law.
This is the work that the Latter-day Saints have been engaged in, and they have done a wonderful work in eighty years. It is a remarkable work, and our position is unique, and remarkable in the world, among the Christian denominations of the earth. I say it is very remarkable, and what a sensation is made throughout the world today by this good people. It is not for our sins, not because we are wicked. We have not clogged the courts with the necessity of taking care of us for our wickedness. We have not advocated immorality or impurity at all. It has never been countenanced by the Latter-day Saints, and is not today; and whatever of evil there is among our people, and in this state, is not chargeable to the Latter-day Saints; it is properly chargeable to men of corruption, wickedness, and the worst of immorality; that is what it is. It cannot be charged to us; we are not guilty of these things, they have not been established by us. We have not advocated them abroad, or brought them here and established them; not at all; and we are not engaged in any kind of wickedness. The Latter-day Saints are not doing it. That is my testimony for the Latter-day Saints who are gathered together in Zion, that we are laboring for purity and righteousness and for the salvation of the children of men and our sons and daughters. We rejoice exceedingly at their devotion and faithfulness to the Lord, and our hearts are broken, and sorrowful, and tender, when we find one straying from the path of truth and righteousness.
I pray the Lord to bless you, my brethren and sisters; and I commend to you the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, that I have read to you. Read them in your own Bibles at home, and see if they are not very fitting for the conditions under which the Latter-day Saints are living at the present time, and the experiences that we are having in connection with the world. May the Lord bless us during our conference, that we may rejoice exceedingly and take home the word of the Lord from His servants, and be better and stronger m the future, and realize that the Lord has established His kingdom and will sustain it and preserve it to the end, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
A duet, entitled "Make the home beautiful," was sung by Sisters Esther Davis and Erma Pendleton.
ELDER HEBER J. GRANT.
Teachings and example of Church leaders invariably for righteousness. —The faithful noted for good works, but renegades become malignant persecutors.—Statistics proving high standard of Latter-day Saints.—The saloon bar: "A bar to heaven, a door to hell."—Plea for health promotion.
I am pleased to again have the opportunity of meeting with the Latter-day Saints in general conference, and I rejoice in seeing so large an attendance at the opening meetings. It is evidence, to me, of great interest on the part of the people, and of their desire to hear what may be said by those who shall be called upon to address the Saints during this conference. I have rejoiced in the remarks that have been made in our hearing, thus far, and I earnestly desire that the same good spirit, which has attended the brethren who have spoken, may be with me in the remarks that I shall make. I desire to say only those things which will be for the good of the Latter-day Saints; and I am convinced that the desire which I have is the same that has always inspired the servants of the Lord when standing before the people to proclaim the gospel unto them. From my early childhood, when I had the privilege of attending meetings in the old tabernacle and in the old bowery, as I look back and recall the counsel and advice given by those who spoke in our conferences, I realize that it was always good, and for the uplifting, for the advancement, and for the welfare of the people. I have never heard, in all my life, any of the servants of the Lord giving any vicious advice, advising anybody to do wrong, or to perform any act other than a good act. The constant burden of the teaching that I have listened to, all my life, from my earliest recollections, from the servants of the Lord, has been: Serve God and keep His commandments; live lives of virtue; be honest; be sober; be loyal; be patriotic; serve God, and serve your country; be good; be kind; be charitable; be longsuffering. I do rejoice exceedingly in knowing that each and every one of the leading officials of the Church of Christ, from my earliest recollection to the present day, have labored, and labored unceasingly, for the benefit and the uplifting of the people.
One of the great testimonies, to me, of the divinity of the work in which you and I are engaged is the fact that those who have turned away from the truth, without one single, solitary exception that I can recall, have done so because they have failed to keep the commandments of God. To me it is little less than marvelous that no faithful man or woman, within my recollection, has ever lost the faith of the gospel. Only those who have neglected to serve God, only those that have not kept the light of the Holy Spirit burning within their hearts, by obeying the commandments of the living God, they are the only ones who have lost the faith and turned away. This gospel of Jesus Christ has been proclaimed all over the world, and from the day the Church was organized, not one single, solitary missionary, who was diligent and true in serving God, has ever lost the faith; and no missionary has come home with increased light and knowledge to tell us that the gospel is wrong, or that he has discovered the truth in some foreign land. But they have come home with increased faith, with increased knowledge, with greater love for the work of God than they had when they went away. I rejoice in these things. I rejoice that in all the travelings of all the elders, wherever they go, in every land and clime, they are constantly gaining increased testimonies, and evidences, and knowledge regarding the divinity of the work in which we are engaged; and this is as it should be. I regret, however, that there should be any of the Latter-day Saints, that is, any of the product from the homes of the Latter-day Saints, who should go out into the world and become the enemies of this people. I regret that some of the sons and daughters of faithful men and women in the Church should turn away from the truth and should become the enemies of the people and be numbered among those who malign, and belie, and vilify the leaders of the Church and the people generally; but I am thankful that those who do this almost without an exception have made a record for wickedness, for corruption, for licentiousness. I thank God that by their fruits ye shall know them, and that the fruits of all those who have turned away from the gospel and are fighting against it today are unworthy. I confess freely and frankly that it would stagger me and the reasoning faculties with which God has endowed me, if I should discover that as men and women grew in good deeds, as they grew in virtue, as they grew in the love of their fellows, as they grew in ability to serve God, they lost the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ; but I have never discovered one such individual.
I remember purchasing a North American Review, some years ago, on the train or at the depot in San Francisco, and I found in that North American Review a very vicious attack upon the Latter-day Saints, by a grandson of the prophet Brigham Young. This man accused Brigham Young and the Mormon people of disloyalty to the Government of the United States. From my earliest recollection, at my mother's knee, I have been taught by her, and in public and in private, by all those with whom I have ever mingled, loyalty to this country! At the very time that this young man wrote his article attacking the "Mormon" people as being disloyal—this young man had been recreant to his faith—his own half-brother, a man loyal to his faith, true to God and the religion of his grandfather, was commanding the Utah batteries in the Philippines. "By their fruits ye shall know them;" and the fruits of the young Latter-day Saints have ever been the fruits of loyalty to our country. Today we are being attacked by a son of one of the late presidency of the Church, than whom no young man in all Israel has made a more unsavory record; no young man in all Israel has been more guilty of bringing sorrow and pain and humiliation to his parents; no young man has been more guilty of lying about the servants of God than this same man who today is publishing attacks upon the Latter-day Saints. "By their fruits ye shall know them." I rejoice that the wicked and the corrupt have no part with us. When I read such articles against us, I rejoice in knowing that they are false. The truth hurts, but falsehood never. "A lie lives only until it is found out;" but truth lives and survives; it will live forever, and it is bound to triumph. I rejoice in knowing that one of the most honest, one of the most Godfearing, one of the most humble, one of the most diligent of all the men whom I have ever known in the Church was the late Karl G. Maeser, ,and a vile, wicked: and corrupt article, written against the Latter-day Saints, was the cause of his 'investigating the truth has been said that nothing can be done against us but what shall be for us—nothing against the truth but what shall redound for the benefit of the truth. When Brother Maeser read this article—that the "Mormon" people were industrious, that they were frugal, that they took care of their poor, better than any other people, that they were honest and temperate, and yet that they were wicked and vile and corrupt —"why," he said, "the man who wrote this article is a liar." The article gave the address where missionary work was being carried on in Scandinavia, and he wrote at once and received information which eventually led to his investigating and embracing the Gospel. I maintain that no man can reflect upon what has been read to us here today, unless his head needs fixing, and not be able to see a refutation of the charges made against the Latter-day Saints. The great life insurance companies of America, the greatest in all the world, being mutual companies, having no anxiety to make money for the stockholders, as they have none, and they will not insure a man's life unless he is up to a certain standard of health—they would not have me until after I was over forty years of age; they thought I was going to die, and would not take my money— but with all their selection of risks who come up to their standard, they have ten and a fraction who die to the thousand. With the lame, the halt, the sick, and all kinds among the Latter-day Saints, we have nine and a fraction. What a wonderful refutation that our people are vile! Do a corrupt people live long? No, they do not. Are they healthy? No, they are not. And in the divorces—five times as many divorces in the United States, on an average, as among the Latter-day Saints; and the crying evil, today, in this country, is the breaking up of families, a lack of fidelity, men not being true to wives and children. Another great crying evil is the destroying of life, and the failure to have families. We lead them all, multiply them time and time again, by the number of children who are born among the Latter- day Saints. In all the vital statistics that go to make for good, we stand at the head. Years ago, when we were eighty-five per cent of the population of Utah, we had less than fifteen per cent of the criminals; and the remaining fifteen per cent of the population furnished the eighty-five per cent of the criminals. When it comes to insanity, we have, less of insanity. When it comes to sobriety, we have more of sobriety. When it comes to drunkenness, we have less of drunkenness. And so in all the vital statistics that go to make for good, we are not afraid to compare with the whole world. Let us remember that the fruits of the gospel of Jesus Christ speak for themselves in the lives of the Latter-day Saints; but let us, each and every one, make up our minds that we are going to improve our already splendid record.
I rejoice in the key note that has been sounded here that, under the law which has been enacted, we can and should do away with the saloon in every community where the Latter-day Saints are in the majority. I read a few verses today along this line. When I read a thing that strikes me, I write it down, or if it is in a newspaper, I cut it out. I read something about a saloon, and I will read it to you:
THE SALOON BAR.
"A bar to heaven, a door to hell --
Whoever named it, named it well!
A bar to manliness and wealth,
A door to want and broken health;
A bar to honor, pride and fame,
A door to sin and grief and shame;
A bar to hope, a bar to prayer,
A door to darkness and despair;
A bar to honored, useful life,
A door to brawling, senseless strife;
A bar to all that's true and brave,
A door to every drunkard's grave;
A bar to joy that home imparts,
A door to tears and aching hearts;
A bar to heaven, a door to hell --
Whoever named it, named it well!"
I recommend that you expel this door to hell from your communities. You have the ability to do it; and if you do not do it, it will be your own fault. If, in years to come, the tears and the dishonor and the shame that are depicted in this little piece of poetry, come into your own home by the lives of your own children, a part of the sin will fall upon your own heads. We find recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, that it shall be the duty of parents in Zion, or in any of her stakes that are organized, to teach their children faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they are to teach them to pray and to walk uprightly before the Lord, and that they are to repent and be baptized before they are eight years of age. If the parents do not do this, the sin shall be upon the heads of the parents. Now, teaching by precept, without example, is mighty poor teaching. The apostle James is one of my favorites; he says: How much does it profit a man to say to the man who is hungry. Be thou fed, without giving him any food? Nothing at all. How much does it profit us to teach our children to serve God and to keep His commandments. and yet to put temptation in the way of our children. We have the power, so we are told in the Doctrine and Covenants, wherein we are agents unto ourselves, and that we should bring to pass much righteousness of our own free will and accord.
Now, I would have liked, very much, during the last year or so, to have made a whole lot of speeches in favor of prohibition; but do you know that the disease of politics is of such a character that a man can't open his mouth, in the presence of some people, but what he is misunderstood, and they think he is preaching politics. Politics, as I have often said, are a great deal like the measles: The measles don't hurt very much, if you will take some saffron tea and keep them on the surface; but if they once set in they turn your hide yellow and you can't see straight. (Laughter). And politics have more or less of the same effect. Let us keep politics on the surface, so far as any reformation is concerned, anything for the benefit of the people, for the advancement of the people, to help them to better serve God. We should not let politics interfere with anything of this kind. Now, another thing, I maintain that we have been very careless about sustaining and upholding law for the benefit of the general health of the people. There is a lack of interest, on the part of the people, in observing sanitary regulations. Let us improve in this regard. I took quite a lively interest in this question recently, and by request spoke once at a tuberculosis exhibit. The result was that I was asked to speak again and again, which I did, and finally I was asked to contribute mv money and become a member of the association, which I did, because one good turn, they say, deserves another, (laughter) and you have to keep it up. I was astonished to find the lack of interest, a lack on the part of the people in being interested in a thing of this kind, something for the general benefit. I was astonished to find that we could spend any amount of money legally for schools, for roads, for bridges, for public improvements, but we could not spend a dollar from the county funds to aid educationally, for the benefit of the people's health. I read of one good lady up in Dakota who said, if one of her hogs was sick, or if anything was the matter with any of the fruits, or flowers, or vegetables and garden truck, if there were troublesome insects or anything of that nature, all she had to do was to send down to Washington, and the Agricultural Department would supply her with information how to cure the hog or protect the plants in her garden. But, if her husband, her son or her daughter was sick, and she should write to the Government, she could not get any information or help. Moral: Be a hog, and the Government will take care of you, if you get sick. (Laughter). I hope we may be able to develop a better public sentiment for the improvement of the health of the people. I hope the people will think enough of the health of their fellows to quit expectorating all over the sidewalks. There has been a law against this for years, and yet some of the people pay no attention to it.
Let us seek to better our condition— intellectually, physically, morally, and above all let us seek for the inspiration of Almighty God to guide us in all the walks of life, I ask it, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Teachings and example of Church leaders invariably for righteousness. —The faithful noted for good works, but renegades become malignant persecutors.—Statistics proving high standard of Latter-day Saints.—The saloon bar: "A bar to heaven, a door to hell."—Plea for health promotion.
I am pleased to again have the opportunity of meeting with the Latter-day Saints in general conference, and I rejoice in seeing so large an attendance at the opening meetings. It is evidence, to me, of great interest on the part of the people, and of their desire to hear what may be said by those who shall be called upon to address the Saints during this conference. I have rejoiced in the remarks that have been made in our hearing, thus far, and I earnestly desire that the same good spirit, which has attended the brethren who have spoken, may be with me in the remarks that I shall make. I desire to say only those things which will be for the good of the Latter-day Saints; and I am convinced that the desire which I have is the same that has always inspired the servants of the Lord when standing before the people to proclaim the gospel unto them. From my early childhood, when I had the privilege of attending meetings in the old tabernacle and in the old bowery, as I look back and recall the counsel and advice given by those who spoke in our conferences, I realize that it was always good, and for the uplifting, for the advancement, and for the welfare of the people. I have never heard, in all my life, any of the servants of the Lord giving any vicious advice, advising anybody to do wrong, or to perform any act other than a good act. The constant burden of the teaching that I have listened to, all my life, from my earliest recollections, from the servants of the Lord, has been: Serve God and keep His commandments; live lives of virtue; be honest; be sober; be loyal; be patriotic; serve God, and serve your country; be good; be kind; be charitable; be longsuffering. I do rejoice exceedingly in knowing that each and every one of the leading officials of the Church of Christ, from my earliest recollection to the present day, have labored, and labored unceasingly, for the benefit and the uplifting of the people.
One of the great testimonies, to me, of the divinity of the work in which you and I are engaged is the fact that those who have turned away from the truth, without one single, solitary exception that I can recall, have done so because they have failed to keep the commandments of God. To me it is little less than marvelous that no faithful man or woman, within my recollection, has ever lost the faith of the gospel. Only those who have neglected to serve God, only those that have not kept the light of the Holy Spirit burning within their hearts, by obeying the commandments of the living God, they are the only ones who have lost the faith and turned away. This gospel of Jesus Christ has been proclaimed all over the world, and from the day the Church was organized, not one single, solitary missionary, who was diligent and true in serving God, has ever lost the faith; and no missionary has come home with increased light and knowledge to tell us that the gospel is wrong, or that he has discovered the truth in some foreign land. But they have come home with increased faith, with increased knowledge, with greater love for the work of God than they had when they went away. I rejoice in these things. I rejoice that in all the travelings of all the elders, wherever they go, in every land and clime, they are constantly gaining increased testimonies, and evidences, and knowledge regarding the divinity of the work in which we are engaged; and this is as it should be. I regret, however, that there should be any of the Latter-day Saints, that is, any of the product from the homes of the Latter-day Saints, who should go out into the world and become the enemies of this people. I regret that some of the sons and daughters of faithful men and women in the Church should turn away from the truth and should become the enemies of the people and be numbered among those who malign, and belie, and vilify the leaders of the Church and the people generally; but I am thankful that those who do this almost without an exception have made a record for wickedness, for corruption, for licentiousness. I thank God that by their fruits ye shall know them, and that the fruits of all those who have turned away from the gospel and are fighting against it today are unworthy. I confess freely and frankly that it would stagger me and the reasoning faculties with which God has endowed me, if I should discover that as men and women grew in good deeds, as they grew in virtue, as they grew in the love of their fellows, as they grew in ability to serve God, they lost the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ; but I have never discovered one such individual.
I remember purchasing a North American Review, some years ago, on the train or at the depot in San Francisco, and I found in that North American Review a very vicious attack upon the Latter-day Saints, by a grandson of the prophet Brigham Young. This man accused Brigham Young and the Mormon people of disloyalty to the Government of the United States. From my earliest recollection, at my mother's knee, I have been taught by her, and in public and in private, by all those with whom I have ever mingled, loyalty to this country! At the very time that this young man wrote his article attacking the "Mormon" people as being disloyal—this young man had been recreant to his faith—his own half-brother, a man loyal to his faith, true to God and the religion of his grandfather, was commanding the Utah batteries in the Philippines. "By their fruits ye shall know them;" and the fruits of the young Latter-day Saints have ever been the fruits of loyalty to our country. Today we are being attacked by a son of one of the late presidency of the Church, than whom no young man in all Israel has made a more unsavory record; no young man in all Israel has been more guilty of bringing sorrow and pain and humiliation to his parents; no young man has been more guilty of lying about the servants of God than this same man who today is publishing attacks upon the Latter-day Saints. "By their fruits ye shall know them." I rejoice that the wicked and the corrupt have no part with us. When I read such articles against us, I rejoice in knowing that they are false. The truth hurts, but falsehood never. "A lie lives only until it is found out;" but truth lives and survives; it will live forever, and it is bound to triumph. I rejoice in knowing that one of the most honest, one of the most Godfearing, one of the most humble, one of the most diligent of all the men whom I have ever known in the Church was the late Karl G. Maeser, ,and a vile, wicked: and corrupt article, written against the Latter-day Saints, was the cause of his 'investigating the truth has been said that nothing can be done against us but what shall be for us—nothing against the truth but what shall redound for the benefit of the truth. When Brother Maeser read this article—that the "Mormon" people were industrious, that they were frugal, that they took care of their poor, better than any other people, that they were honest and temperate, and yet that they were wicked and vile and corrupt —"why," he said, "the man who wrote this article is a liar." The article gave the address where missionary work was being carried on in Scandinavia, and he wrote at once and received information which eventually led to his investigating and embracing the Gospel. I maintain that no man can reflect upon what has been read to us here today, unless his head needs fixing, and not be able to see a refutation of the charges made against the Latter-day Saints. The great life insurance companies of America, the greatest in all the world, being mutual companies, having no anxiety to make money for the stockholders, as they have none, and they will not insure a man's life unless he is up to a certain standard of health—they would not have me until after I was over forty years of age; they thought I was going to die, and would not take my money— but with all their selection of risks who come up to their standard, they have ten and a fraction who die to the thousand. With the lame, the halt, the sick, and all kinds among the Latter-day Saints, we have nine and a fraction. What a wonderful refutation that our people are vile! Do a corrupt people live long? No, they do not. Are they healthy? No, they are not. And in the divorces—five times as many divorces in the United States, on an average, as among the Latter-day Saints; and the crying evil, today, in this country, is the breaking up of families, a lack of fidelity, men not being true to wives and children. Another great crying evil is the destroying of life, and the failure to have families. We lead them all, multiply them time and time again, by the number of children who are born among the Latter- day Saints. In all the vital statistics that go to make for good, we stand at the head. Years ago, when we were eighty-five per cent of the population of Utah, we had less than fifteen per cent of the criminals; and the remaining fifteen per cent of the population furnished the eighty-five per cent of the criminals. When it comes to insanity, we have, less of insanity. When it comes to sobriety, we have more of sobriety. When it comes to drunkenness, we have less of drunkenness. And so in all the vital statistics that go to make for good, we are not afraid to compare with the whole world. Let us remember that the fruits of the gospel of Jesus Christ speak for themselves in the lives of the Latter-day Saints; but let us, each and every one, make up our minds that we are going to improve our already splendid record.
I rejoice in the key note that has been sounded here that, under the law which has been enacted, we can and should do away with the saloon in every community where the Latter-day Saints are in the majority. I read a few verses today along this line. When I read a thing that strikes me, I write it down, or if it is in a newspaper, I cut it out. I read something about a saloon, and I will read it to you:
THE SALOON BAR.
"A bar to heaven, a door to hell --
Whoever named it, named it well!
A bar to manliness and wealth,
A door to want and broken health;
A bar to honor, pride and fame,
A door to sin and grief and shame;
A bar to hope, a bar to prayer,
A door to darkness and despair;
A bar to honored, useful life,
A door to brawling, senseless strife;
A bar to all that's true and brave,
A door to every drunkard's grave;
A bar to joy that home imparts,
A door to tears and aching hearts;
A bar to heaven, a door to hell --
Whoever named it, named it well!"
I recommend that you expel this door to hell from your communities. You have the ability to do it; and if you do not do it, it will be your own fault. If, in years to come, the tears and the dishonor and the shame that are depicted in this little piece of poetry, come into your own home by the lives of your own children, a part of the sin will fall upon your own heads. We find recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, that it shall be the duty of parents in Zion, or in any of her stakes that are organized, to teach their children faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they are to teach them to pray and to walk uprightly before the Lord, and that they are to repent and be baptized before they are eight years of age. If the parents do not do this, the sin shall be upon the heads of the parents. Now, teaching by precept, without example, is mighty poor teaching. The apostle James is one of my favorites; he says: How much does it profit a man to say to the man who is hungry. Be thou fed, without giving him any food? Nothing at all. How much does it profit us to teach our children to serve God and to keep His commandments. and yet to put temptation in the way of our children. We have the power, so we are told in the Doctrine and Covenants, wherein we are agents unto ourselves, and that we should bring to pass much righteousness of our own free will and accord.
Now, I would have liked, very much, during the last year or so, to have made a whole lot of speeches in favor of prohibition; but do you know that the disease of politics is of such a character that a man can't open his mouth, in the presence of some people, but what he is misunderstood, and they think he is preaching politics. Politics, as I have often said, are a great deal like the measles: The measles don't hurt very much, if you will take some saffron tea and keep them on the surface; but if they once set in they turn your hide yellow and you can't see straight. (Laughter). And politics have more or less of the same effect. Let us keep politics on the surface, so far as any reformation is concerned, anything for the benefit of the people, for the advancement of the people, to help them to better serve God. We should not let politics interfere with anything of this kind. Now, another thing, I maintain that we have been very careless about sustaining and upholding law for the benefit of the general health of the people. There is a lack of interest, on the part of the people, in observing sanitary regulations. Let us improve in this regard. I took quite a lively interest in this question recently, and by request spoke once at a tuberculosis exhibit. The result was that I was asked to speak again and again, which I did, and finally I was asked to contribute mv money and become a member of the association, which I did, because one good turn, they say, deserves another, (laughter) and you have to keep it up. I was astonished to find the lack of interest, a lack on the part of the people in being interested in a thing of this kind, something for the general benefit. I was astonished to find that we could spend any amount of money legally for schools, for roads, for bridges, for public improvements, but we could not spend a dollar from the county funds to aid educationally, for the benefit of the people's health. I read of one good lady up in Dakota who said, if one of her hogs was sick, or if anything was the matter with any of the fruits, or flowers, or vegetables and garden truck, if there were troublesome insects or anything of that nature, all she had to do was to send down to Washington, and the Agricultural Department would supply her with information how to cure the hog or protect the plants in her garden. But, if her husband, her son or her daughter was sick, and she should write to the Government, she could not get any information or help. Moral: Be a hog, and the Government will take care of you, if you get sick. (Laughter). I hope we may be able to develop a better public sentiment for the improvement of the health of the people. I hope the people will think enough of the health of their fellows to quit expectorating all over the sidewalks. There has been a law against this for years, and yet some of the people pay no attention to it.
Let us seek to better our condition— intellectually, physically, morally, and above all let us seek for the inspiration of Almighty God to guide us in all the walks of life, I ask it, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
ELDER HYRUM M. SMITH.
President Joseph F. Smith's life book opened, revealing a life of righteousness.— Love of God, of country and mankind, sustained by precept and example.—Participation in Temple ordinances increases patriotism and all virtues.—Marriage contract for time and eternity.
Many of the things that have already been spoken have been passing through my mind, and if I shall repeat some of them I trust the congregation will charge it to the spirit that seems to pervade the conference. This morning, in the address of President Smith, in referring to the presidency, he refrained from saying much about themselves. He declared that their lives were as an open book to the people; that we were familiar with them and their lives; and hence he felt it not necessary to make any special remarks concerning themselves and their labors. However, I should like, for a few moments this afternoon, to read a few pages from the book of the life of the President of the Church, inasmuch as I am more or less familiar with the contents thereof. My experience in connection with him, of course, covers the period of my own life, during, which time I have read, very extensively, the things contained in this book. We find therein written that he always has been very conscientious in the care and protection that he bestowed upon his wives and his children, and religiously endeavored to instruct them in the ways of truth and righteousness. He has taught his children from their infancy to be truthful and honest, to be virtuous and chaste, to be kind and just, and merciful, to be temperate and sober, and obedient. He taught his sons to love their country, to love the United States government, to love America. They were told that it was a chosen and highly favored land, choice above all other lands. That it has been held in reserve by the Lord as a land that should be inhabited by a people who should love God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments. His sons and daughters were taught that the discovery of this country was the result of the inspiration of God upon Columbus, and that the men who established the government were also servants of God, raised up and prepared and inspired to establish in this goodly land a government which should offer to the oppressed and the downtrodden of all the world a haven of refuge, where they might enjoy freedom and liberty, and also have the privilege of taking advantage of the unparalleled resources and opportunities for prosperity, advancement, and education that this great republic held out to them.
Now, I may reveal, perhaps, something that has not been intended necessarily for the public. It is there recorded that he exemplified in a most wonderful degree, the principles of justice and impartiality among the members of his household—his wives and his children— so that it could not be discovered, that any one of them was held more dearly and more closely in his affections than any other. There was no favoritism, no injustice, no partiality shown; but on the other hand, as near as it is possible for man to execute judgment, and justice, and mercy, equitably, these things were so imparted to his family. He loved them all with a love akin to the love of God for His children. We have seen, upon more than one occasion, the president bowed and crushed in sorrow over the bier of one of his departed children. We have seen him weep as only a great and strong man can weep; yet in the private instruction imparted to his sons and daughters he has told them that he would rather carry every one of them to the grave, in their purity and their innocence, than have one of them ever deny God, or turn away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and depart from the Church, as it has been established through Joseph Smith, the prophet. He has taught and so impressed it upon his sons and daughters that they knew he spoke the truth—that notwithstanding his great love for his children, he would rather bury them, or die a thousand deaths himself than to see them fall from virtue and chastity, or into drunkenness and immorality. These things were taught at home to his children as they grew from infancy to youth, and from youth to manhood.
We have also known him as a man of God, as a servant of the Lord, ministering among the people, in public. We have heard him on numberless occasions, and we have never found that he taught a. different doctrine in public than that which he taught in private, but that the same principles of justice, mercy, righteousness, prayer, chastity, charity, and sobriety, loyalty and patriotism, were preached unto the Church. The pages that constitute the public part of that book, as was said this morning, are open before the people; you know them; you may read the contents and judge whether or not I speak the truth. Now, I have been through the temple; I have received the blessings of the house of the Lord; I have received, perhaps, all that may be imparted to members of the Church therein; and I have never been taught anything that is in the least contrary to the instructions which I have received in private and in public from the President of the Church and from the servants of God, the elders called to preach the gospel. I have never taken an oath, nor made a covenant that is inimical to our country or its government, nor have I ever been required or even asked to do so. Is it not impossible to even think of a man teaching that this is a land of Zion, a choice land of God, reserved for a government that shall extend liberty and freedom unto all men, preserving their rights unto them; and teaching that his children should be loyal, should sustain the government and uphold it, and never upbraid nor rail against dignitaries who are selected and chosen to hold responsible and governing positions, teaching his sons to lay down their lives, if need be, in defense of their country, and of their people, and of their government, just as they had been taught to lay down their lives, if need be, for virtue's or Christ's sake—I say it would be impossible to think of a man giving such instructions as these to his sons if he was himself disloyal and knew that at manhood and maturity they would be permitted to go into the house of God and there be required to take a covenant or oath that was treasonable to the government. Now, then, so far as that charge is concerned, let me again say what has often been said, and what every Latter-day Saint who has been in the house of God knows, that there is nothing there that requires any man to be disloyal in any degree to his country. But, if it is possible for a man, born an American citizen, of parents themselves American citizens, descended from an ancestry of loyal Americans who fought and bled in defense of the principles of liberty and freedom and right, to have his love for his country increased, then the obligations and covenants imparted to him in the house of God would accomplish it. No man who goes into the house of the Lord in worthiness but that will come out again more loyal and patriotic to both God and his country, than he was before, also more willing and determined to sustain and uphold this government, which God has established, and to perpetuate it and its benign influences.
Why, my brethren and sisters, you know these things as well as I know them; and so far as the president of the Church is concerned, let me say that it is given to few men to more thoroughly and honorably exemplify, in their lives, these noble precepts which he and his associates have been engaged In teaching, both in private and in public.
Now, we say this to Latter-day Saints, who know it to be the truth, in the hope that it may go beyond the Latter-day Saints and find its way among strangers, who do not understand the truth, and who are misinformed. It may be like casting pearls before swine; the swine may trample them beneath their feet; but the lustre of such jewels as these cannot be dimmed, they will be seen and discovered, gathered up and cherished by those who are seeking for the truth. They will be enlightened, and they will be impressed that the Latter-day Saints, as has been testified of them today, by President Lyman, Brother Grant, and others, are a good people. They are a good people, because they have been taught to be a good people, because all the precepts of the gospel are good, because every principle of the gospel of Christ is a good principle. Every doctrine of the gospel and every precept imparted, in this Church, tend to exalt, and uplift, and ennoble men and make them better, purer, and more righteous men and women, more devoted, and full of integrity, loyalty, and faithfulness both to God and to man. I know whereof I speak, concerning the President of the Church, because my life has been enwrapped with his to this moment; I do not know any one who can better, perhaps, bear testimony of these truths than I, though it may be rather personal. And such a man as he has been, all Latter-day Saint men should be, and many Latter-day Saint men are. This is the kind of fathers and mothers the gospel teaches men and women to be.
I rejoiced most wonderfully when those statistics were read concerning the fidelity, the unswerving loyalty and faithfulness on the part of wives to their husbands and husbands to their wives in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The gospel requires men to be true to their wives; as well as it requires women to be true to their husbands. The covenants we take in the house of God make an impression upon our hearts, as great as life itself, and more enduring than mortal life. Those joined in the holy bonds of matrimony, by the servants of God, clothed upon by the authority of the priesthood, are precious to each other. They must cherish and love and be true to one another as long as they live, because they are married for time and for all eternity. There can be no trivial thing allowed to come between man and wife who are united in accordance with the principles and doctrines and ordinances of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jealousy, human weaknesses, frailties, mistakes must be tolerated and borne with in love and patience. We are all subject more or less to these human frailties, and we expect that those given to each other in the holy bonds of matrimony will be tolerant, kind and long suffering. They know that they must not allow little things to so grow that they bring about a separation and divorce and a severing of those bonds so sacredly entered into. No, we are not like the world; trifles can't separate men and women whom God joins together. Trifles often come between those joined together by men and result in separation and sorrow, because there is no virtue, or little, it seems, in the ceremonies thus enacted and entered into by the authority of man alone. With us it is different; we are joined by the power and the authority of God, and we must endure. Thank God, men and women thus united, who are full of the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the love of the truth, are willing to do their duty and fulfill the measure of their creation, to become fathers and mothers in Israel, with the hope and knowledge that in thus obeying God they are laying the foundations for their kingdoms and exaltations, in the presence of the eternal Father.
I rejoice in the record we have thus made, and I pray that the Lord will give us strength and power to ever increase and make better our splendid record of fidelity and truthfulness, of sincerity and virtue, one to another, as husbands and wives, as fathers and mothers, as parents and children, and as a people before the Lord and before our fellow men in the nation. God help us to fulfill the mighty and glorious destiny that we have set forth to accomplish, under His direction and inspiration, and all honor, and glory, and power, and dominion be unto God the Father, and Jesus Christ, the Son, forever and ever. Amen.
The choir sang the hymn:
Let us all press on in the work of the Lord,
That when life is o'er we may gain a reward;
In the fight for right let us wield a sword,
The mighty sword of truth.
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Melvin J. Ballard.
Conference adjourned until 10 a. m. Friday, April 7th.
President Joseph F. Smith's life book opened, revealing a life of righteousness.— Love of God, of country and mankind, sustained by precept and example.—Participation in Temple ordinances increases patriotism and all virtues.—Marriage contract for time and eternity.
Many of the things that have already been spoken have been passing through my mind, and if I shall repeat some of them I trust the congregation will charge it to the spirit that seems to pervade the conference. This morning, in the address of President Smith, in referring to the presidency, he refrained from saying much about themselves. He declared that their lives were as an open book to the people; that we were familiar with them and their lives; and hence he felt it not necessary to make any special remarks concerning themselves and their labors. However, I should like, for a few moments this afternoon, to read a few pages from the book of the life of the President of the Church, inasmuch as I am more or less familiar with the contents thereof. My experience in connection with him, of course, covers the period of my own life, during, which time I have read, very extensively, the things contained in this book. We find therein written that he always has been very conscientious in the care and protection that he bestowed upon his wives and his children, and religiously endeavored to instruct them in the ways of truth and righteousness. He has taught his children from their infancy to be truthful and honest, to be virtuous and chaste, to be kind and just, and merciful, to be temperate and sober, and obedient. He taught his sons to love their country, to love the United States government, to love America. They were told that it was a chosen and highly favored land, choice above all other lands. That it has been held in reserve by the Lord as a land that should be inhabited by a people who should love God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments. His sons and daughters were taught that the discovery of this country was the result of the inspiration of God upon Columbus, and that the men who established the government were also servants of God, raised up and prepared and inspired to establish in this goodly land a government which should offer to the oppressed and the downtrodden of all the world a haven of refuge, where they might enjoy freedom and liberty, and also have the privilege of taking advantage of the unparalleled resources and opportunities for prosperity, advancement, and education that this great republic held out to them.
Now, I may reveal, perhaps, something that has not been intended necessarily for the public. It is there recorded that he exemplified in a most wonderful degree, the principles of justice and impartiality among the members of his household—his wives and his children— so that it could not be discovered, that any one of them was held more dearly and more closely in his affections than any other. There was no favoritism, no injustice, no partiality shown; but on the other hand, as near as it is possible for man to execute judgment, and justice, and mercy, equitably, these things were so imparted to his family. He loved them all with a love akin to the love of God for His children. We have seen, upon more than one occasion, the president bowed and crushed in sorrow over the bier of one of his departed children. We have seen him weep as only a great and strong man can weep; yet in the private instruction imparted to his sons and daughters he has told them that he would rather carry every one of them to the grave, in their purity and their innocence, than have one of them ever deny God, or turn away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and depart from the Church, as it has been established through Joseph Smith, the prophet. He has taught and so impressed it upon his sons and daughters that they knew he spoke the truth—that notwithstanding his great love for his children, he would rather bury them, or die a thousand deaths himself than to see them fall from virtue and chastity, or into drunkenness and immorality. These things were taught at home to his children as they grew from infancy to youth, and from youth to manhood.
We have also known him as a man of God, as a servant of the Lord, ministering among the people, in public. We have heard him on numberless occasions, and we have never found that he taught a. different doctrine in public than that which he taught in private, but that the same principles of justice, mercy, righteousness, prayer, chastity, charity, and sobriety, loyalty and patriotism, were preached unto the Church. The pages that constitute the public part of that book, as was said this morning, are open before the people; you know them; you may read the contents and judge whether or not I speak the truth. Now, I have been through the temple; I have received the blessings of the house of the Lord; I have received, perhaps, all that may be imparted to members of the Church therein; and I have never been taught anything that is in the least contrary to the instructions which I have received in private and in public from the President of the Church and from the servants of God, the elders called to preach the gospel. I have never taken an oath, nor made a covenant that is inimical to our country or its government, nor have I ever been required or even asked to do so. Is it not impossible to even think of a man teaching that this is a land of Zion, a choice land of God, reserved for a government that shall extend liberty and freedom unto all men, preserving their rights unto them; and teaching that his children should be loyal, should sustain the government and uphold it, and never upbraid nor rail against dignitaries who are selected and chosen to hold responsible and governing positions, teaching his sons to lay down their lives, if need be, in defense of their country, and of their people, and of their government, just as they had been taught to lay down their lives, if need be, for virtue's or Christ's sake—I say it would be impossible to think of a man giving such instructions as these to his sons if he was himself disloyal and knew that at manhood and maturity they would be permitted to go into the house of God and there be required to take a covenant or oath that was treasonable to the government. Now, then, so far as that charge is concerned, let me again say what has often been said, and what every Latter-day Saint who has been in the house of God knows, that there is nothing there that requires any man to be disloyal in any degree to his country. But, if it is possible for a man, born an American citizen, of parents themselves American citizens, descended from an ancestry of loyal Americans who fought and bled in defense of the principles of liberty and freedom and right, to have his love for his country increased, then the obligations and covenants imparted to him in the house of God would accomplish it. No man who goes into the house of the Lord in worthiness but that will come out again more loyal and patriotic to both God and his country, than he was before, also more willing and determined to sustain and uphold this government, which God has established, and to perpetuate it and its benign influences.
Why, my brethren and sisters, you know these things as well as I know them; and so far as the president of the Church is concerned, let me say that it is given to few men to more thoroughly and honorably exemplify, in their lives, these noble precepts which he and his associates have been engaged In teaching, both in private and in public.
Now, we say this to Latter-day Saints, who know it to be the truth, in the hope that it may go beyond the Latter-day Saints and find its way among strangers, who do not understand the truth, and who are misinformed. It may be like casting pearls before swine; the swine may trample them beneath their feet; but the lustre of such jewels as these cannot be dimmed, they will be seen and discovered, gathered up and cherished by those who are seeking for the truth. They will be enlightened, and they will be impressed that the Latter-day Saints, as has been testified of them today, by President Lyman, Brother Grant, and others, are a good people. They are a good people, because they have been taught to be a good people, because all the precepts of the gospel are good, because every principle of the gospel of Christ is a good principle. Every doctrine of the gospel and every precept imparted, in this Church, tend to exalt, and uplift, and ennoble men and make them better, purer, and more righteous men and women, more devoted, and full of integrity, loyalty, and faithfulness both to God and to man. I know whereof I speak, concerning the President of the Church, because my life has been enwrapped with his to this moment; I do not know any one who can better, perhaps, bear testimony of these truths than I, though it may be rather personal. And such a man as he has been, all Latter-day Saint men should be, and many Latter-day Saint men are. This is the kind of fathers and mothers the gospel teaches men and women to be.
I rejoiced most wonderfully when those statistics were read concerning the fidelity, the unswerving loyalty and faithfulness on the part of wives to their husbands and husbands to their wives in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The gospel requires men to be true to their wives; as well as it requires women to be true to their husbands. The covenants we take in the house of God make an impression upon our hearts, as great as life itself, and more enduring than mortal life. Those joined in the holy bonds of matrimony, by the servants of God, clothed upon by the authority of the priesthood, are precious to each other. They must cherish and love and be true to one another as long as they live, because they are married for time and for all eternity. There can be no trivial thing allowed to come between man and wife who are united in accordance with the principles and doctrines and ordinances of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jealousy, human weaknesses, frailties, mistakes must be tolerated and borne with in love and patience. We are all subject more or less to these human frailties, and we expect that those given to each other in the holy bonds of matrimony will be tolerant, kind and long suffering. They know that they must not allow little things to so grow that they bring about a separation and divorce and a severing of those bonds so sacredly entered into. No, we are not like the world; trifles can't separate men and women whom God joins together. Trifles often come between those joined together by men and result in separation and sorrow, because there is no virtue, or little, it seems, in the ceremonies thus enacted and entered into by the authority of man alone. With us it is different; we are joined by the power and the authority of God, and we must endure. Thank God, men and women thus united, who are full of the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the love of the truth, are willing to do their duty and fulfill the measure of their creation, to become fathers and mothers in Israel, with the hope and knowledge that in thus obeying God they are laying the foundations for their kingdoms and exaltations, in the presence of the eternal Father.
I rejoice in the record we have thus made, and I pray that the Lord will give us strength and power to ever increase and make better our splendid record of fidelity and truthfulness, of sincerity and virtue, one to another, as husbands and wives, as fathers and mothers, as parents and children, and as a people before the Lord and before our fellow men in the nation. God help us to fulfill the mighty and glorious destiny that we have set forth to accomplish, under His direction and inspiration, and all honor, and glory, and power, and dominion be unto God the Father, and Jesus Christ, the Son, forever and ever. Amen.
The choir sang the hymn:
Let us all press on in the work of the Lord,
That when life is o'er we may gain a reward;
In the fight for right let us wield a sword,
The mighty sword of truth.
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Melvin J. Ballard.
Conference adjourned until 10 a. m. Friday, April 7th.
SECOND DAY.
In the Tabernacle, Friday, April 7th, 10 a. m.
Conference was called to order by President Joseph F. Smith.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
Redeemer of Israel, our only delight,
On whom for a blessing we call,
Our shadow by day, and our pillar by night,
Our King, our Deliv'rer, our all!
Prayer was offered by Elder Ben E. Rich.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
In the Tabernacle, Friday, April 7th, 10 a. m.
Conference was called to order by President Joseph F. Smith.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
Redeemer of Israel, our only delight,
On whom for a blessing we call,
Our shadow by day, and our pillar by night,
Our King, our Deliv'rer, our all!
Prayer was offered by Elder Ben E. Rich.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
ELDER CHARLES W. PENROSE.
Sins of omission as well as of commission.— Two important points in President Smith's opening address.—Marriage and divorce.—Eternal wedlock. Christ's teachings as to marriage in the resurrection.—Also as to Divorce. —The sealing and loosing power.— A spirited testimony.
I am very thankful for the privilege of meeting with the Latter-day Saints in general conference, once more. A person has to go away from home, I think, in order to fully enjoy the blessings of home on returning; and I think we will find that to be part of our history; if we are privileged to return home to our Father in heaven, and renew the associations which are to be had in His presence, we will enjoy them more than ever in consequence of our absence for a while on the face of this earth. I think, also, that one enjoys the blessings of health very much more because of occasionally receiving a reverse. The Lord has been very merciful to me in this regard, as well as in many others, for which I feel deeply grateful. But this morning, and for two or three days past, I have been suffering from a severe cold, which I hope to overcome and then to appreciate still more, if possible, the blessings of good health. I trust that during the time I occupy this morning I shall be inspired by the Holy Spirit, which has rested down so generously upon our brethren who have addressed us already, and that I may be able to make myself heard, without difficulty, in this large congregation. This is a beautiful sight to look upon. To see so many of the sons and daughters of the living God, gathered in solemn convocation, to worship the Lord, to sing His praises, to call upon His holy name, to receive instructions from those who are appointed to be ministers of the Most High to the Saints and to all the world, is a great privilege which I hope all who are present appreciate and also the blessings of the beautiful weather we have.
I have closely followed the remarks that have been made to us while we have been in conference, and particularly the opening address by President Joseph F. Smith, in which he covered a large area of thought and of action, and presented to us in terse sentences, very pointedly, the conditions of the work of the Lord in the different parts of the earth. I found in them great cause for congratulation, to think that the work of the Lord is spreading and extending so widely, and that the faith of the Latter-day Saints is manifested in their good works. We expect that there will be some people, always, in the Church—until that which is perfect has come—who will not live up, fully, to the teachings of the Lord through His servants,- and to the covenants and obligations which they are under to serve Him in all things. So we hear something on both sides—the good works that are being performed and the things that are omitted; for there are sins of omission as well as sins of commission. When the time comes that we shall give an account for our deeds while we were in mortal flesh, we will find that we shall reap the consequences of our actions, and also the effects that follow from neglect and from omission or failure to live up to the requirements of the gospel. These things are brought to our attention when we assemble in conference, so that we may do better in the future than we have done in the past. There is always room for improvement. We hear that very frequently, and we realize it for a fact, in our experience, when we look upon the past. We should be prepared for the future; that is to say, we should be more diligent, if possible, than we have been, and not again neglect those things that we have left undone. Our minds are called to those things that we have left undone, by the teachings of our brethren, and I hope that when we go away from this great assembly to our respective places of abode, we shall feel determined in our hearts to live according to the principles of eternal life which have been taught to us while we have been together, and to serve the Lord in all things.
One subject touched upon by the president, in his remarks to us at the opening, was in relation to the marriage question. We learn from him that during the year 1910, in addition to the marriages performed in the temples of the Lord, in which that grand sealing ordinance is administered, by which men and women are united together in holy matrimony for time and all eternity, about eleven hundred unions had taken place outside of the temples, most of them, perhaps, performed by what is called a civil ceremony —according to the civil law. Now, while this is a matter to be regretted, to think that so many people who are members of the Church neglect their opportunities to receive the highest blessings, and will be content with that which comes from a marriage for time only. We do not repudiate these ceremonies when they are administered by a person authorized by the law of the land to perform marriages. They are recognized in the Church for what they are; they are civil contracts, when not solemnized by a man holding the priesthood of God; but they are legal contracts, and the people who enter into them are bound by them—in honor and according to law. We understand that, or should understand it, and our friends who are not of us ought to know, that we recognize the ordinances that are performed under the laws of the country, as binding according to what they are; that the civil marriage that is performed by men holding civil authority is simply till death parts the pair. When death comes, that is the end of the contract, as we understand it; and we understand it that way because the Lord has so revealed it.
In a revelation contained in section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants, we learn a little about the eternity of the marriage covenant. The Lord has revealed, that when a marriage is performed under the sealing ordinance which He has revealed, by persons who are appointed and ordained and authorized to seal on earth and it shall be sealed in heaven, that a union of that kind will extend beyond the grave; and that when death parts the individuals, the marriage is not dissolved, but continues and goes on, and if the parties are fit for it, worthy of it, it will be continued forever, and of the increase of their posterity there will be no end. There is something grand and glorious in this manifestation of light and intelligence from the Lord. When people have that real regard for each other which is true affection—I do not refer merely to that which is sometimes called love, and is merely passion—but when two souls, though perhaps not with "but a single thought," and two hearts which may not, perhaps incessantly "beat as one," are really united in spirit, loving each other, trusting each other, having confidence in each other, having that admiration for each other which comes from true respect and from a recognition of virtue and honor and everything that is good and great, and having the desire and disposition to pass by the weaknesses of mortal flesh, of human nature—those little failings that sometimes disturb the heart and the home,—I say when people are thus joined together in spirit, in addition to the sealing ordinance and ceremony which the Lord has instituted, there is something very hopeful, and encouraging and joyful in the thought that though death may part them, yet in the resurrection from the dead they shall come forth and enjoy the fulness of the blessings of the family relation. In the resurrection, the man will be a man, and the woman will be a woman, with all the faculties and powers with which the sexes are endowed, both of spirit and of body, the body being restored to the spirit, and the spirit to the body. These being living souls,—like Adam and Eve when united in the garden of Eden before death came into the world will go on, increasing in that affection, and love, and admiration, in power, and in dominion, and in the blessings of the family relation. This will continue forever, and there will be no more partings, because there will be no more death; sorrow and sighing will flee away, and happiness and joy will abound; and in the presence of God, the Father, and Christ, the Son, and holy beings of that order, they will associate in all things that are good, and great, and elevating,—and all eternity will be opened to them for exploration, and experience, and increase in that bliss that can only be had in an eternal state of existence. This is one of the glorious things revealed through the great prophet of the nineteenth century, of which the world was in ignorance, and on which the world, today, is in the dark. We should rejoice in the manifestations of the Lord in this as well as in a great many other respects.
Now, in relation to this subject, I have heard some people, not only in the world but even among- the Latter-day Saints, making a query as to the correctness of this doctrine because of a few words spoken by the Savior, when He was consulted by the Sadducees in regard to a woman who had a husband, and he died, and under the Mosaic code the deceased man's brother had to take that woman for his wife. She had a long experience in the marriage relation, for it appears that consecutively she had seven husbands. The Sadducees wanted to know what Jesus had to say in regard to this matter and, particularly, whose wife she would be in the resurrection. I think perhaps I had better read a few verses on this subject. You will find them in the 22nd chapter of Matthew, also in the 20th chapter of Luke. When you have time, read both together, because Luke uses a little different language from that which is employed by Matthew, but the ideas are the same. I shall commence at the 23rd verse:
"The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
"Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
"Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:
"Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
"And last of all the woman died also.
"Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
"Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
"For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven."
Now, generally, when this matter is touched upon by persons who do not view the subject in the same light that we do, they simply quote this one verse : "For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." In reading the scriptures, whether the Old Testament or the New Testament, in order to understand them properly we should not take one isolated text, but read it in conjunction with the context, then we get the meaning of the writer or speaker. The Sadducees came to Jesus, as the Pharisees also did occasionally, tempting Him and trying to get Him into a tangle in His sayings; but they did not succeed; to use a modern popular expression. He generally "came out on top." The Pharisees, on this occasion, were very much elated when they found the Sadducees had been turned down, and they came and congratulated Jesus on His replies. Now, he was speaking of the class of people to whom the Sadducees referred. Under the law of Moses marriage for eternity was not celebrated, except at the exceptional times when the Melchizedek priesthood was given to men on the earth, which we can read about in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 132. Therefore, the marriages under consideration were for time only, and those persons to whom Jesus Christ was referring, were, as we read in the 20th chapter of Luke, where the same subject is touched upon, "the children of this world," not the children of the kingdom.
"The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage."
Christ said further: "They are as the angels." What is the condition of the angels? According to the revelation that I have briefly referred to, they are those that are not worthy of that "far more and eternal, and exceeding weight of glory" that comes to those who obey the fulness of the gospel and receive the ordinances of the new and everlasting covenant, who are sealed for time and for all eternity on the earth, and their marriage is sealed in heaven. They, then, who are called "the angels," are "ministering spirits unto the heirs of salvation and exaltation." They are waiters upon those who are worthy of this "more exceeding weight of glory"—the exaltation that "continues the seeds forever and ever, wherein the Father is glorified;" so that those who only obtain the position of the angels are not in the condition of those who obtain the greater blessing and exaltation. They come forth in the resurrection, according to that revelation to us, "in their saved condition, separately and singly;" therefore, they are not numbered among the Gods, but among the angels, or those that minister unto and are messengers and servants of "the heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ." Now, you take these two chapters, that I refer to, together, and I think the matter will be made very clear to your minds. Jesus did not say, as some people imagine He did, that there is no marriage after the resurrection. You can't find it anywhere. I do not say, this morning, that marriages are solemnized in the resurrection state, but I do say that marriages can be performed on the earth by representatives of those who have passed away; and that these, being sealed by the holy spirit of promise, by him who is anointed, both for time and for all eternity, having the keys thereof, will stand good forever, and those for whom they are performed will receive the full benefits and blessings thereof. I say again that what I have read to you and what there is in other parts of the scripture, concerning this subject, do not convey the idea that there is no such thing as marrying and giving in marriage after the resurrection. All these affairs, of course, are in the hands of Him who knoweth all things. Thank God, there is one great Supreme Judge, and many things that may be done here on the earth, in the flesh, or left undone and neglected, can and will be supplied by the supreme judge of all, when necessity requires, and those who are worthy to enter into this great exaltation will find that a plan is prepared and that God, who is the Great Judge, will put all things right that may have been done wrong here on the earth. Many things may be performed here in ignorance, or with lack of experience, but the Lord will make it all up, in the future, to those who are worthy of obtaining this great exaltation.
Now, I regret that there should be so many persons, eleven hundred persons, connected with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who have not been able or have neglected to obtain the benefits of this sealing ordinance. These grand Temples that have been erected according to a divine pattern revealed from heaven, are for the benefit of this people. I am glad that we have four of them; I hope the time will come, and I have no doubt of it, when many more will be erected in different parts of this glorious land of Joseph, and even in other lands; when necessity requires they will be erected for the performance of ordinances for the living and for the dead, that the great work of the Millennium may go on, and the way be prepared for God to come and dwell among His people, and "wipe away all tears from their eyes." I would exhort my brethren and sisters who have influence among the people, particularly our brethren who are called to preside in the various wards and stakes of Zion, to instruct the Saints on these matters; instruct the fathers and mothers as well as the young people upon the blessings and benefits of obtaining a proper ordinance of marriage, which is not merely till death parts them, but which will extend beyond the grave. This is an ordinance that will enter into the world behind the veil; that will stand good and true before the Lord in the resurrection of the dead, when the man and the woman, separated by death, but who have been sealed by this sacred ordinance, shall come together again and stand at the head of their posterity; and all of their posterity who are worthy will enter into that grand patriarchal order of family government, and, as I have said, of the increase thereof there will be no end.
The Lord told Abraham about this matter when He showed him the stars by the gift and power of God, by which he could discern things something like God does Himself. Abraham beheld the multiplicity of worlds that the Father had created, as the Lord also showed Enoch. The Lord told Abraham that if he could count them, so he could count his seed; that his seed should be as numerous as the sands on the seashore, and as the stars of the heaven, for multitude. You cannot count them. The multiplicity of the posterity of those who enter into this grand order of family government, sealed on earth and sealed in heaven will go on forever, while the stars shine, while the throne of God endures; while the glory of God, which is intelligence, continues to scintillate and be manifested among the myriads and hosts that inhabit the eternal worlds. This opens up a subject too broad and wide for me to enter into fully this morning; but I draw the attention of my brethren and sisters to this grand and solemn ordinance that God has instituted— the everlasting covenant; and those who have the opportunity to enter into it, and do not are under condemnation. A stronger term is used in the revelation — "then are they damned." Why? Because the end of their increase comes at death; their power and dominion at the head of a family ends when the grave yawns to receive their mortal bodies. But those who obey these ordinances, in the spirit and power thereof, arise when the Lord shall call them; they will be "Christ's at His coming," and He will call their sleeping dust to life, and they will be joined together, not only the spirit and the body be reunited, but the happy parents will come together again, as "Adam and Eve will stand at the head of a multitude, quickened and raised from the dead." Teach this to the Saints, and if they will not receive it, then they will have to suffer the consequences.
Now, a few words in regard to a kindred subject, touched upon by President Smith; that is in regard to divorce; for the questions of marriage and the question of divorce, particularly in these latter days, have to be viewed together. The president expressed his feelings that he had no objection if the Congress of the United States desire to take up this matter, but that they should legislate upon the whole question of marriage, forbidding plural marriage, if they wish to do so, establishing what shall be a legal marriage, if they desire, and showing in what manner that civil marriage can be dissolved by competent divorce. Now, what I wish to draw attention to, particularly, is this: There is an idea prevalent in the Christian world, and it obtains to some extent among us, that the Savior of mankind declared there could not be a proper divorce, except for one great sin. On that matter we must read the context as well as the text, in order to understand what he had to say concerning it. This time it was the Pharisees that came to Jesus Christ and asked Him a question. He made a reply, but his reply is only partly quoted, generally. Here is what is quoted: "And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." That is taken in an isolated way and established as a rule—not that the Christian world carry it out, by any means; but they point to it, and the great preachers of the times, in the various Protestant churches as well as in the Catholic church, hold to it as a principle—that a man or woman cannot be divorced properly, except for that one offense. Now, did Jesus say that? No, He did not. Here is what He said, as I will read to you:
"The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him. Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
"And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
"And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
"Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
"They sav unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
"He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so."
Then He goes on with the words I have read to you, referring to the arbitrary rule which you can read in Deuteronomy twenty-fourth, in regard to putting away a wife. Moses said if a man married a wife, and he found some defilement in her, he could give her a writing and tell her to get out, give her a bill of divorcement and tell her to go away. That is what they were talking about, and Jesus Christ did not believe in that kind of thing; and, therefore. He said a man could not put away his wife except for one cause. That is not a question on the principle of divorce, when the decision is given by a civil or ecclesiastical tribunal. Jesus Christ did not say that a woman should be compelled to live with a man who is a brute, filled with all kinds of filthiness, who injures her and beats her; or, if he does not use a club beats her in spirit till she is sore and wounded and distressed, and it is a misery for her to live with such a being. He did not say it was wrong that she should get a divorce; He did not say that if she married a man who was vile, and drunken, and corrupt, a disgrace to humanity, that she should be compelled to live with him. Nothing of the kind. I might go on and describe conditions that exist in many married families, but I do not want to take up the time; I merely want to call your attention to this fact, that in these passages which are so frequently quoted, Jesus Christ did not lay down any rule by which divorces should be obtained either in an ecclesiastical court or a civil court; He was talking to the question that was propounded to him, which was, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife "for every cause," as under the law of Moses, giving her a bill of divorcement and telling her to go away; and He pronounced against that.
Under the law of God a man and woman should be joined together for all eternity, she to be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, spirit answering to spirit, soul to soul, joined together with an eternal bond, to exist in life, in death, in the resurrection, and throughout the countless ages of eternity; this was the union at "the beginning;" that is the right kind of marriage, and the marriage that we Latter-day Saints should support and sustain and teach to our children, that they may enter into it prepared to gain the benefits thereof. But the power that can seal can unseal; the power that can bind can loose, according to the eternal principles of right, and that power has been in the Church of Jesus Christ whenever it has been established. These things can be regulated in the Church under proper rules and regulations according to justice, mercy, equity, and truth. But in the quotation I have read, Christ was talking about the old Mosaic practice of a man putting away his wife, simply by giving her a bill of divorcement, he being the judge and the executor of his own decree. Christ taught a better law, and, thank the Lord, it has been revealed anew in the days in which we live. We have it written in the book of the Lord, in the Doctrine and Covenants, which we can read at our leisure.
My brethren and sisters, I am thankful that I am connected with a Church in which the word of the Lord is declared, in which the counsels of God are made manifest, in which everlasting covenants can be entered into and sealed for time and for all eternity, which shall not be disrupted at death but shall be continued forever and ever, for the glory of God and the joy of His people. I bear my testimony to you, this morning, that I know this work is God's work. I know that He lives, that he is our Father, the Father of our spirits; that our spirits are, in form, like unto Him, and our bodies have been made to conform to the spirit, under the laws of generation that God has established, to which there was no beginning, and of which there shall be no end. We have not sprung from the lower orders of creation; we are the sons and the daughters of the living God. I bear testimony that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and is the Christ, the Son of the living God, in body and in spirit; that He is our Redeemer, and that by obedience to His laws and commandments we shall go on through all eternity increasing in light, and knowledge, and bliss, and power, and dominion. I pray God to bless this congregation. I bear testimony that we are led today by the living oracles. The man who stands at the head succeeds to all the keys and powers and authorities revealed from God, through men who lived on the earth in the past, who restored their keys to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Every key and power restored by that means is held in the Church and vested in the man who now stands at the head. I bear testimony to his integrity, and his honor, and his truth, and his devotion to that which is good, which I have learned through long experience and acquaintance. I hold him up in my faith, in my prayers, in my acts and works, and I am glad to know that the great bulk of the Latter-day Saints do the same. God bless him and preserve him, that he may stand at our head for many years. God bless this work, that it may go forth to victory in every land and clime. I know that the efforts which are now being made to retard its progress will hasten it onward, will open the way by which thousands will be brought to investigate and come to a knowledge of the truth. The work of God shall prevail; evil shall be overcome; darkness shall be dispersed;- and the rule and government and dominion of the Almighty shall be established from the rivers to the ends of the earth. God help us to be faithful and true in all things, to understand the truth as it is before Him, and walk in the light thereof, to do those things that we should do, and to leave undone those things that we ought not to do, to have no sins of omission any more than of commission; that we may gain the great exaltation in the presence of God our Father, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
The popular hymn, "School thy feelings, O my brother," written by Elder Charles W. Penrose, was sung by Elder Horace S. Ensign, to appropriate music recently composed by Prof. George Careless.
Sins of omission as well as of commission.— Two important points in President Smith's opening address.—Marriage and divorce.—Eternal wedlock. Christ's teachings as to marriage in the resurrection.—Also as to Divorce. —The sealing and loosing power.— A spirited testimony.
I am very thankful for the privilege of meeting with the Latter-day Saints in general conference, once more. A person has to go away from home, I think, in order to fully enjoy the blessings of home on returning; and I think we will find that to be part of our history; if we are privileged to return home to our Father in heaven, and renew the associations which are to be had in His presence, we will enjoy them more than ever in consequence of our absence for a while on the face of this earth. I think, also, that one enjoys the blessings of health very much more because of occasionally receiving a reverse. The Lord has been very merciful to me in this regard, as well as in many others, for which I feel deeply grateful. But this morning, and for two or three days past, I have been suffering from a severe cold, which I hope to overcome and then to appreciate still more, if possible, the blessings of good health. I trust that during the time I occupy this morning I shall be inspired by the Holy Spirit, which has rested down so generously upon our brethren who have addressed us already, and that I may be able to make myself heard, without difficulty, in this large congregation. This is a beautiful sight to look upon. To see so many of the sons and daughters of the living God, gathered in solemn convocation, to worship the Lord, to sing His praises, to call upon His holy name, to receive instructions from those who are appointed to be ministers of the Most High to the Saints and to all the world, is a great privilege which I hope all who are present appreciate and also the blessings of the beautiful weather we have.
I have closely followed the remarks that have been made to us while we have been in conference, and particularly the opening address by President Joseph F. Smith, in which he covered a large area of thought and of action, and presented to us in terse sentences, very pointedly, the conditions of the work of the Lord in the different parts of the earth. I found in them great cause for congratulation, to think that the work of the Lord is spreading and extending so widely, and that the faith of the Latter-day Saints is manifested in their good works. We expect that there will be some people, always, in the Church—until that which is perfect has come—who will not live up, fully, to the teachings of the Lord through His servants,- and to the covenants and obligations which they are under to serve Him in all things. So we hear something on both sides—the good works that are being performed and the things that are omitted; for there are sins of omission as well as sins of commission. When the time comes that we shall give an account for our deeds while we were in mortal flesh, we will find that we shall reap the consequences of our actions, and also the effects that follow from neglect and from omission or failure to live up to the requirements of the gospel. These things are brought to our attention when we assemble in conference, so that we may do better in the future than we have done in the past. There is always room for improvement. We hear that very frequently, and we realize it for a fact, in our experience, when we look upon the past. We should be prepared for the future; that is to say, we should be more diligent, if possible, than we have been, and not again neglect those things that we have left undone. Our minds are called to those things that we have left undone, by the teachings of our brethren, and I hope that when we go away from this great assembly to our respective places of abode, we shall feel determined in our hearts to live according to the principles of eternal life which have been taught to us while we have been together, and to serve the Lord in all things.
One subject touched upon by the president, in his remarks to us at the opening, was in relation to the marriage question. We learn from him that during the year 1910, in addition to the marriages performed in the temples of the Lord, in which that grand sealing ordinance is administered, by which men and women are united together in holy matrimony for time and all eternity, about eleven hundred unions had taken place outside of the temples, most of them, perhaps, performed by what is called a civil ceremony —according to the civil law. Now, while this is a matter to be regretted, to think that so many people who are members of the Church neglect their opportunities to receive the highest blessings, and will be content with that which comes from a marriage for time only. We do not repudiate these ceremonies when they are administered by a person authorized by the law of the land to perform marriages. They are recognized in the Church for what they are; they are civil contracts, when not solemnized by a man holding the priesthood of God; but they are legal contracts, and the people who enter into them are bound by them—in honor and according to law. We understand that, or should understand it, and our friends who are not of us ought to know, that we recognize the ordinances that are performed under the laws of the country, as binding according to what they are; that the civil marriage that is performed by men holding civil authority is simply till death parts the pair. When death comes, that is the end of the contract, as we understand it; and we understand it that way because the Lord has so revealed it.
In a revelation contained in section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants, we learn a little about the eternity of the marriage covenant. The Lord has revealed, that when a marriage is performed under the sealing ordinance which He has revealed, by persons who are appointed and ordained and authorized to seal on earth and it shall be sealed in heaven, that a union of that kind will extend beyond the grave; and that when death parts the individuals, the marriage is not dissolved, but continues and goes on, and if the parties are fit for it, worthy of it, it will be continued forever, and of the increase of their posterity there will be no end. There is something grand and glorious in this manifestation of light and intelligence from the Lord. When people have that real regard for each other which is true affection—I do not refer merely to that which is sometimes called love, and is merely passion—but when two souls, though perhaps not with "but a single thought," and two hearts which may not, perhaps incessantly "beat as one," are really united in spirit, loving each other, trusting each other, having confidence in each other, having that admiration for each other which comes from true respect and from a recognition of virtue and honor and everything that is good and great, and having the desire and disposition to pass by the weaknesses of mortal flesh, of human nature—those little failings that sometimes disturb the heart and the home,—I say when people are thus joined together in spirit, in addition to the sealing ordinance and ceremony which the Lord has instituted, there is something very hopeful, and encouraging and joyful in the thought that though death may part them, yet in the resurrection from the dead they shall come forth and enjoy the fulness of the blessings of the family relation. In the resurrection, the man will be a man, and the woman will be a woman, with all the faculties and powers with which the sexes are endowed, both of spirit and of body, the body being restored to the spirit, and the spirit to the body. These being living souls,—like Adam and Eve when united in the garden of Eden before death came into the world will go on, increasing in that affection, and love, and admiration, in power, and in dominion, and in the blessings of the family relation. This will continue forever, and there will be no more partings, because there will be no more death; sorrow and sighing will flee away, and happiness and joy will abound; and in the presence of God, the Father, and Christ, the Son, and holy beings of that order, they will associate in all things that are good, and great, and elevating,—and all eternity will be opened to them for exploration, and experience, and increase in that bliss that can only be had in an eternal state of existence. This is one of the glorious things revealed through the great prophet of the nineteenth century, of which the world was in ignorance, and on which the world, today, is in the dark. We should rejoice in the manifestations of the Lord in this as well as in a great many other respects.
Now, in relation to this subject, I have heard some people, not only in the world but even among- the Latter-day Saints, making a query as to the correctness of this doctrine because of a few words spoken by the Savior, when He was consulted by the Sadducees in regard to a woman who had a husband, and he died, and under the Mosaic code the deceased man's brother had to take that woman for his wife. She had a long experience in the marriage relation, for it appears that consecutively she had seven husbands. The Sadducees wanted to know what Jesus had to say in regard to this matter and, particularly, whose wife she would be in the resurrection. I think perhaps I had better read a few verses on this subject. You will find them in the 22nd chapter of Matthew, also in the 20th chapter of Luke. When you have time, read both together, because Luke uses a little different language from that which is employed by Matthew, but the ideas are the same. I shall commence at the 23rd verse:
"The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
"Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
"Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:
"Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
"And last of all the woman died also.
"Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
"Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
"For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven."
Now, generally, when this matter is touched upon by persons who do not view the subject in the same light that we do, they simply quote this one verse : "For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." In reading the scriptures, whether the Old Testament or the New Testament, in order to understand them properly we should not take one isolated text, but read it in conjunction with the context, then we get the meaning of the writer or speaker. The Sadducees came to Jesus, as the Pharisees also did occasionally, tempting Him and trying to get Him into a tangle in His sayings; but they did not succeed; to use a modern popular expression. He generally "came out on top." The Pharisees, on this occasion, were very much elated when they found the Sadducees had been turned down, and they came and congratulated Jesus on His replies. Now, he was speaking of the class of people to whom the Sadducees referred. Under the law of Moses marriage for eternity was not celebrated, except at the exceptional times when the Melchizedek priesthood was given to men on the earth, which we can read about in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 132. Therefore, the marriages under consideration were for time only, and those persons to whom Jesus Christ was referring, were, as we read in the 20th chapter of Luke, where the same subject is touched upon, "the children of this world," not the children of the kingdom.
"The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage."
Christ said further: "They are as the angels." What is the condition of the angels? According to the revelation that I have briefly referred to, they are those that are not worthy of that "far more and eternal, and exceeding weight of glory" that comes to those who obey the fulness of the gospel and receive the ordinances of the new and everlasting covenant, who are sealed for time and for all eternity on the earth, and their marriage is sealed in heaven. They, then, who are called "the angels," are "ministering spirits unto the heirs of salvation and exaltation." They are waiters upon those who are worthy of this "more exceeding weight of glory"—the exaltation that "continues the seeds forever and ever, wherein the Father is glorified;" so that those who only obtain the position of the angels are not in the condition of those who obtain the greater blessing and exaltation. They come forth in the resurrection, according to that revelation to us, "in their saved condition, separately and singly;" therefore, they are not numbered among the Gods, but among the angels, or those that minister unto and are messengers and servants of "the heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ." Now, you take these two chapters, that I refer to, together, and I think the matter will be made very clear to your minds. Jesus did not say, as some people imagine He did, that there is no marriage after the resurrection. You can't find it anywhere. I do not say, this morning, that marriages are solemnized in the resurrection state, but I do say that marriages can be performed on the earth by representatives of those who have passed away; and that these, being sealed by the holy spirit of promise, by him who is anointed, both for time and for all eternity, having the keys thereof, will stand good forever, and those for whom they are performed will receive the full benefits and blessings thereof. I say again that what I have read to you and what there is in other parts of the scripture, concerning this subject, do not convey the idea that there is no such thing as marrying and giving in marriage after the resurrection. All these affairs, of course, are in the hands of Him who knoweth all things. Thank God, there is one great Supreme Judge, and many things that may be done here on the earth, in the flesh, or left undone and neglected, can and will be supplied by the supreme judge of all, when necessity requires, and those who are worthy to enter into this great exaltation will find that a plan is prepared and that God, who is the Great Judge, will put all things right that may have been done wrong here on the earth. Many things may be performed here in ignorance, or with lack of experience, but the Lord will make it all up, in the future, to those who are worthy of obtaining this great exaltation.
Now, I regret that there should be so many persons, eleven hundred persons, connected with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who have not been able or have neglected to obtain the benefits of this sealing ordinance. These grand Temples that have been erected according to a divine pattern revealed from heaven, are for the benefit of this people. I am glad that we have four of them; I hope the time will come, and I have no doubt of it, when many more will be erected in different parts of this glorious land of Joseph, and even in other lands; when necessity requires they will be erected for the performance of ordinances for the living and for the dead, that the great work of the Millennium may go on, and the way be prepared for God to come and dwell among His people, and "wipe away all tears from their eyes." I would exhort my brethren and sisters who have influence among the people, particularly our brethren who are called to preside in the various wards and stakes of Zion, to instruct the Saints on these matters; instruct the fathers and mothers as well as the young people upon the blessings and benefits of obtaining a proper ordinance of marriage, which is not merely till death parts them, but which will extend beyond the grave. This is an ordinance that will enter into the world behind the veil; that will stand good and true before the Lord in the resurrection of the dead, when the man and the woman, separated by death, but who have been sealed by this sacred ordinance, shall come together again and stand at the head of their posterity; and all of their posterity who are worthy will enter into that grand patriarchal order of family government, and, as I have said, of the increase thereof there will be no end.
The Lord told Abraham about this matter when He showed him the stars by the gift and power of God, by which he could discern things something like God does Himself. Abraham beheld the multiplicity of worlds that the Father had created, as the Lord also showed Enoch. The Lord told Abraham that if he could count them, so he could count his seed; that his seed should be as numerous as the sands on the seashore, and as the stars of the heaven, for multitude. You cannot count them. The multiplicity of the posterity of those who enter into this grand order of family government, sealed on earth and sealed in heaven will go on forever, while the stars shine, while the throne of God endures; while the glory of God, which is intelligence, continues to scintillate and be manifested among the myriads and hosts that inhabit the eternal worlds. This opens up a subject too broad and wide for me to enter into fully this morning; but I draw the attention of my brethren and sisters to this grand and solemn ordinance that God has instituted— the everlasting covenant; and those who have the opportunity to enter into it, and do not are under condemnation. A stronger term is used in the revelation — "then are they damned." Why? Because the end of their increase comes at death; their power and dominion at the head of a family ends when the grave yawns to receive their mortal bodies. But those who obey these ordinances, in the spirit and power thereof, arise when the Lord shall call them; they will be "Christ's at His coming," and He will call their sleeping dust to life, and they will be joined together, not only the spirit and the body be reunited, but the happy parents will come together again, as "Adam and Eve will stand at the head of a multitude, quickened and raised from the dead." Teach this to the Saints, and if they will not receive it, then they will have to suffer the consequences.
Now, a few words in regard to a kindred subject, touched upon by President Smith; that is in regard to divorce; for the questions of marriage and the question of divorce, particularly in these latter days, have to be viewed together. The president expressed his feelings that he had no objection if the Congress of the United States desire to take up this matter, but that they should legislate upon the whole question of marriage, forbidding plural marriage, if they wish to do so, establishing what shall be a legal marriage, if they desire, and showing in what manner that civil marriage can be dissolved by competent divorce. Now, what I wish to draw attention to, particularly, is this: There is an idea prevalent in the Christian world, and it obtains to some extent among us, that the Savior of mankind declared there could not be a proper divorce, except for one great sin. On that matter we must read the context as well as the text, in order to understand what he had to say concerning it. This time it was the Pharisees that came to Jesus Christ and asked Him a question. He made a reply, but his reply is only partly quoted, generally. Here is what is quoted: "And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." That is taken in an isolated way and established as a rule—not that the Christian world carry it out, by any means; but they point to it, and the great preachers of the times, in the various Protestant churches as well as in the Catholic church, hold to it as a principle—that a man or woman cannot be divorced properly, except for that one offense. Now, did Jesus say that? No, He did not. Here is what He said, as I will read to you:
"The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him. Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
"And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
"And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
"Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
"They sav unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
"He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so."
Then He goes on with the words I have read to you, referring to the arbitrary rule which you can read in Deuteronomy twenty-fourth, in regard to putting away a wife. Moses said if a man married a wife, and he found some defilement in her, he could give her a writing and tell her to get out, give her a bill of divorcement and tell her to go away. That is what they were talking about, and Jesus Christ did not believe in that kind of thing; and, therefore. He said a man could not put away his wife except for one cause. That is not a question on the principle of divorce, when the decision is given by a civil or ecclesiastical tribunal. Jesus Christ did not say that a woman should be compelled to live with a man who is a brute, filled with all kinds of filthiness, who injures her and beats her; or, if he does not use a club beats her in spirit till she is sore and wounded and distressed, and it is a misery for her to live with such a being. He did not say it was wrong that she should get a divorce; He did not say that if she married a man who was vile, and drunken, and corrupt, a disgrace to humanity, that she should be compelled to live with him. Nothing of the kind. I might go on and describe conditions that exist in many married families, but I do not want to take up the time; I merely want to call your attention to this fact, that in these passages which are so frequently quoted, Jesus Christ did not lay down any rule by which divorces should be obtained either in an ecclesiastical court or a civil court; He was talking to the question that was propounded to him, which was, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife "for every cause," as under the law of Moses, giving her a bill of divorcement and telling her to go away; and He pronounced against that.
Under the law of God a man and woman should be joined together for all eternity, she to be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, spirit answering to spirit, soul to soul, joined together with an eternal bond, to exist in life, in death, in the resurrection, and throughout the countless ages of eternity; this was the union at "the beginning;" that is the right kind of marriage, and the marriage that we Latter-day Saints should support and sustain and teach to our children, that they may enter into it prepared to gain the benefits thereof. But the power that can seal can unseal; the power that can bind can loose, according to the eternal principles of right, and that power has been in the Church of Jesus Christ whenever it has been established. These things can be regulated in the Church under proper rules and regulations according to justice, mercy, equity, and truth. But in the quotation I have read, Christ was talking about the old Mosaic practice of a man putting away his wife, simply by giving her a bill of divorcement, he being the judge and the executor of his own decree. Christ taught a better law, and, thank the Lord, it has been revealed anew in the days in which we live. We have it written in the book of the Lord, in the Doctrine and Covenants, which we can read at our leisure.
My brethren and sisters, I am thankful that I am connected with a Church in which the word of the Lord is declared, in which the counsels of God are made manifest, in which everlasting covenants can be entered into and sealed for time and for all eternity, which shall not be disrupted at death but shall be continued forever and ever, for the glory of God and the joy of His people. I bear my testimony to you, this morning, that I know this work is God's work. I know that He lives, that he is our Father, the Father of our spirits; that our spirits are, in form, like unto Him, and our bodies have been made to conform to the spirit, under the laws of generation that God has established, to which there was no beginning, and of which there shall be no end. We have not sprung from the lower orders of creation; we are the sons and the daughters of the living God. I bear testimony that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and is the Christ, the Son of the living God, in body and in spirit; that He is our Redeemer, and that by obedience to His laws and commandments we shall go on through all eternity increasing in light, and knowledge, and bliss, and power, and dominion. I pray God to bless this congregation. I bear testimony that we are led today by the living oracles. The man who stands at the head succeeds to all the keys and powers and authorities revealed from God, through men who lived on the earth in the past, who restored their keys to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Every key and power restored by that means is held in the Church and vested in the man who now stands at the head. I bear testimony to his integrity, and his honor, and his truth, and his devotion to that which is good, which I have learned through long experience and acquaintance. I hold him up in my faith, in my prayers, in my acts and works, and I am glad to know that the great bulk of the Latter-day Saints do the same. God bless him and preserve him, that he may stand at our head for many years. God bless this work, that it may go forth to victory in every land and clime. I know that the efforts which are now being made to retard its progress will hasten it onward, will open the way by which thousands will be brought to investigate and come to a knowledge of the truth. The work of God shall prevail; evil shall be overcome; darkness shall be dispersed;- and the rule and government and dominion of the Almighty shall be established from the rivers to the ends of the earth. God help us to be faithful and true in all things, to understand the truth as it is before Him, and walk in the light thereof, to do those things that we should do, and to leave undone those things that we ought not to do, to have no sins of omission any more than of commission; that we may gain the great exaltation in the presence of God our Father, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
The popular hymn, "School thy feelings, O my brother," written by Elder Charles W. Penrose, was sung by Elder Horace S. Ensign, to appropriate music recently composed by Prof. George Careless.
ELDER CHARLES A. CALLIS.
(President of Southern States Mission.)
My brethren and sisters, if the Lord will condescend to favor me with His Holy Spirit, I shall endeavor to address you, for a few moments, in response to the instruction of our beloved president.
My soul has feasted upon the good things we have heard during this conference. The great thought that has been borne home to my soul is this, that not only do we desire the friendship of all good men and women, but it is the desire of our hearts to be friends to all mankind. Paul says that unto the ambassadors of Christ is committed the gospel, or the ministry of reconciliation. Men are reconciled to God and to principles of righteousness by obeying the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We do desire and work, with our hearts and with our hands, to this end, that all men may come to a knowledge of the principles of the gospel and to the truth of the glorious fact that Jesus is the Christ.
There is no better friend to humanity than the president of this Church. There are no better friends to all the people of the world than the authorities of this Church; from the general authorities to the stake authorities and to the ward authorities, all are the friends of mankind, and they are working day and night to bring to pass the salvation of the sons and daughters of God.
There is no way that men and women can be reconciled unto the Lord, except by obedience to the principles of the gospel, that teach men and women to have faith in God. In this age of unbelief and skepticism, we are pleading with the children of our Father to believe in the Lord, to have faith in Him. The friendsliips of the world shall perish and pass away, but the love of God will live forever. We are told in holy writ that the man who puts his trust in the arm of flesh shall be cursed. You remember reading of the noted Cardinal Wolsey who lived to please his king. He enjoyed the favors of that mighty monarch for a time; but the smile of the prince changed to a frown, and he dismissed Wolsey from his presence. Wolsey, when he went into exile, uttered these memorable and pathetic words: "Had I but served my God as faithfully as I have served my prince, he would not have deserted me in my old age."
We believe that men should repent of their sins and come unto God. Men and women should take upon themselves the yoke of Christ, for His yoke is easy, and His burden is light; but the burden of the transgressor, the man who dissipates, of him who elects to serve Satan is grievous to be borne, and he goes down a slave to sin and a victim to those passions and appetites for gratification of which he has sold his birthright. It is not good business to sell our birthright for a mess of pottage. Thank God that in this day He has ordained a means for us to obtain a forgiveness of our sins. Those who enter the Church by baptism, who take upon themselves the name of Christ by being baptized, come up out of the water, their faces glowing with happiness, and they testify that God has forgiven their sins, having been baptized by one holding authority. After baptism they receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of hands, and they walk in the fear of the Lord and, "In the comfort of the Holy Ghost." We are comforted by the Holy Ghost, because we are established in a knowledge of the truth, and we need not to be taught by, nor accept the vagaries of men. In this day and dispensation men have been raised up who can say, by the power of God, "Thus saith the Lord." We are told by the Psalmist that "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." So in this intelligence, walking In this comfort, what care we for what the world say about us? What need we care for the slanders that are uttered against our leaders? We know and God knows that these accusations are false. Some day the world will learn that they are false, and will give these traducers the treatment they deserve for the scorn and ridicule they have heaped upon us, they will surely receive the treatment that their untruthful utterances deserve.
I thank God that when we are in the line of our duty we are serving Him, and that we truly are friends to all mankind. I am proud of the body of noble men who lead this Church. They are men who, in the various professions would make brilliant, and successful careers, but they are wearing out their splendid lives and using their talents to serve the Church and people of God, and thus are serving the Lord Himself.
The liberty of the gospel gives us a larger conception of the liberty we enjoy under this great government. We stand alone among all the churches in teaching that the Constitution of the United States is a divinely inspired instrument, that God raised up those self-sacrificing and heroic revolutionary fathers to struggle for, and to achieve that measure of freedom to which the children of men were entitled. Again, in preaching what is contained in the Book of Mormon we are declaring and affirming that America is choice above all other lands, that it is a land given to the seed of Joseph, by our Father in heaven. Right here is evidenced the broadness and liberality of our belief, respecting the rights and privileges that may be enjoyed by the people dwelling on this hemisphere. Though this land was given to the seed of Joseph, though it was reserved by the Almighty especially for those to whom it was promised, yet the Book of Mormon tells us that the Gentiles, if they repent and believe in Jesus Christ the God of Israel, shall share in that inheritance, share this glorious land with the children of Joseph, and receive the blessings of this land, which is choice above all other lands on the face of the earth. This splendid promise in the Book of Mormon is in harmony with, and like unto a similar and equally splendid promise contained in the Bible, concerning the Gentiles on the eastern hemisphere. The Apostle Paul declared that all those who had faith should be called the seed of Abraham, that they should rejoice, and enjoy the blessings of Abraham. So upon this land, the Gentiles, if they repent and come unto the Lord, will be numbered among the remnant of Jacob, and they will share in the blessings and joys that await the descendants of Joseph, the patriarch of old.
I rejoice in the completeness of this gospel, it is the same gospel that was taught by Jesus and the apostles, many centuries ago. Can a people who believe in the Book of Mormon be disloyal? Can a people be disloyal who sincerely teach and preach from this book that no kings shall be raised up unto the Gentiles on this land? No, it is impossible, impossible; we are loyal, and true. We believe in the glorious destiny of this great republic; we believe that its principles shall extend to the uttermost parts of the earth, that the shackles of bondage, and serfdom of all kinds, shall be stricken from the limbs and consciences of mankind, until the children of men everywhere shall stand forth in the enjoyment of that full measure of political and religious freedom which God the Father designed that they should have. This we are proclaiming to the world.
We say to all people: Believe in God, believe in Jesus Christ, the God of the whole earth, and you shall share these blessings. Is this wrong doctrine? For which of these good works does the world stone us? Is it disloyal to preach faith in Jesus Christ? Is it narrow to say to all the world, to all mankind, If you will repent of your sins and come unto the Lord, He will accept you as His children and you will enjoy the salvation that God has in store for all His sons and daughters? I rejoice in this mighty republic. If we believe in Jesus, if we follow His commandments, this nation, God has declared, shall be fortified against all other nations. If the people will but serve Him, no nation shall conquer this; no nation, no two nations, or any number of nations, can ever prevail against this mighty republic if we ground our faith and works in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and honor Him as the Redeemer of the world. Standing on this faith' we can say:
Then conquer we must,
When our cause it is just,
And this be our motto:
"In God is our trust."
And the Star Spangled Banner
In triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave.
Amen.
The choir and congregation standing, sang, with enthusiasm, two verses of the American patriotic hymn, "The Star Spangled Banner."
(President of Southern States Mission.)
My brethren and sisters, if the Lord will condescend to favor me with His Holy Spirit, I shall endeavor to address you, for a few moments, in response to the instruction of our beloved president.
My soul has feasted upon the good things we have heard during this conference. The great thought that has been borne home to my soul is this, that not only do we desire the friendship of all good men and women, but it is the desire of our hearts to be friends to all mankind. Paul says that unto the ambassadors of Christ is committed the gospel, or the ministry of reconciliation. Men are reconciled to God and to principles of righteousness by obeying the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We do desire and work, with our hearts and with our hands, to this end, that all men may come to a knowledge of the principles of the gospel and to the truth of the glorious fact that Jesus is the Christ.
There is no better friend to humanity than the president of this Church. There are no better friends to all the people of the world than the authorities of this Church; from the general authorities to the stake authorities and to the ward authorities, all are the friends of mankind, and they are working day and night to bring to pass the salvation of the sons and daughters of God.
There is no way that men and women can be reconciled unto the Lord, except by obedience to the principles of the gospel, that teach men and women to have faith in God. In this age of unbelief and skepticism, we are pleading with the children of our Father to believe in the Lord, to have faith in Him. The friendsliips of the world shall perish and pass away, but the love of God will live forever. We are told in holy writ that the man who puts his trust in the arm of flesh shall be cursed. You remember reading of the noted Cardinal Wolsey who lived to please his king. He enjoyed the favors of that mighty monarch for a time; but the smile of the prince changed to a frown, and he dismissed Wolsey from his presence. Wolsey, when he went into exile, uttered these memorable and pathetic words: "Had I but served my God as faithfully as I have served my prince, he would not have deserted me in my old age."
We believe that men should repent of their sins and come unto God. Men and women should take upon themselves the yoke of Christ, for His yoke is easy, and His burden is light; but the burden of the transgressor, the man who dissipates, of him who elects to serve Satan is grievous to be borne, and he goes down a slave to sin and a victim to those passions and appetites for gratification of which he has sold his birthright. It is not good business to sell our birthright for a mess of pottage. Thank God that in this day He has ordained a means for us to obtain a forgiveness of our sins. Those who enter the Church by baptism, who take upon themselves the name of Christ by being baptized, come up out of the water, their faces glowing with happiness, and they testify that God has forgiven their sins, having been baptized by one holding authority. After baptism they receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of hands, and they walk in the fear of the Lord and, "In the comfort of the Holy Ghost." We are comforted by the Holy Ghost, because we are established in a knowledge of the truth, and we need not to be taught by, nor accept the vagaries of men. In this day and dispensation men have been raised up who can say, by the power of God, "Thus saith the Lord." We are told by the Psalmist that "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." So in this intelligence, walking In this comfort, what care we for what the world say about us? What need we care for the slanders that are uttered against our leaders? We know and God knows that these accusations are false. Some day the world will learn that they are false, and will give these traducers the treatment they deserve for the scorn and ridicule they have heaped upon us, they will surely receive the treatment that their untruthful utterances deserve.
I thank God that when we are in the line of our duty we are serving Him, and that we truly are friends to all mankind. I am proud of the body of noble men who lead this Church. They are men who, in the various professions would make brilliant, and successful careers, but they are wearing out their splendid lives and using their talents to serve the Church and people of God, and thus are serving the Lord Himself.
The liberty of the gospel gives us a larger conception of the liberty we enjoy under this great government. We stand alone among all the churches in teaching that the Constitution of the United States is a divinely inspired instrument, that God raised up those self-sacrificing and heroic revolutionary fathers to struggle for, and to achieve that measure of freedom to which the children of men were entitled. Again, in preaching what is contained in the Book of Mormon we are declaring and affirming that America is choice above all other lands, that it is a land given to the seed of Joseph, by our Father in heaven. Right here is evidenced the broadness and liberality of our belief, respecting the rights and privileges that may be enjoyed by the people dwelling on this hemisphere. Though this land was given to the seed of Joseph, though it was reserved by the Almighty especially for those to whom it was promised, yet the Book of Mormon tells us that the Gentiles, if they repent and believe in Jesus Christ the God of Israel, shall share in that inheritance, share this glorious land with the children of Joseph, and receive the blessings of this land, which is choice above all other lands on the face of the earth. This splendid promise in the Book of Mormon is in harmony with, and like unto a similar and equally splendid promise contained in the Bible, concerning the Gentiles on the eastern hemisphere. The Apostle Paul declared that all those who had faith should be called the seed of Abraham, that they should rejoice, and enjoy the blessings of Abraham. So upon this land, the Gentiles, if they repent and come unto the Lord, will be numbered among the remnant of Jacob, and they will share in the blessings and joys that await the descendants of Joseph, the patriarch of old.
I rejoice in the completeness of this gospel, it is the same gospel that was taught by Jesus and the apostles, many centuries ago. Can a people who believe in the Book of Mormon be disloyal? Can a people be disloyal who sincerely teach and preach from this book that no kings shall be raised up unto the Gentiles on this land? No, it is impossible, impossible; we are loyal, and true. We believe in the glorious destiny of this great republic; we believe that its principles shall extend to the uttermost parts of the earth, that the shackles of bondage, and serfdom of all kinds, shall be stricken from the limbs and consciences of mankind, until the children of men everywhere shall stand forth in the enjoyment of that full measure of political and religious freedom which God the Father designed that they should have. This we are proclaiming to the world.
We say to all people: Believe in God, believe in Jesus Christ, the God of the whole earth, and you shall share these blessings. Is this wrong doctrine? For which of these good works does the world stone us? Is it disloyal to preach faith in Jesus Christ? Is it narrow to say to all the world, to all mankind, If you will repent of your sins and come unto the Lord, He will accept you as His children and you will enjoy the salvation that God has in store for all His sons and daughters? I rejoice in this mighty republic. If we believe in Jesus, if we follow His commandments, this nation, God has declared, shall be fortified against all other nations. If the people will but serve Him, no nation shall conquer this; no nation, no two nations, or any number of nations, can ever prevail against this mighty republic if we ground our faith and works in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and honor Him as the Redeemer of the world. Standing on this faith' we can say:
Then conquer we must,
When our cause it is just,
And this be our motto:
"In God is our trust."
And the Star Spangled Banner
In triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave.
Amen.
The choir and congregation standing, sang, with enthusiasm, two verses of the American patriotic hymn, "The Star Spangled Banner."
ELDER GEORGE F. RICHARDS.
Episcopal Bishop D. S. Tuttle's tribute to the "Mormons."—Personal testimony concerning integrity of Church authorities.—The Church should not be judged by actions of some wayward members.
We have heard, during this conference, many testimonies and some statistics in evidence of the faithfulness and the goodness of the Latter- day Saints. I have another witness and testimony to present to the Latter-day Saints, this morning, a clipping from this morning's paper. It is so refreshing to hear, from the lips of a minister of the gospel in the world, good words spoken of the Latter-day Saints, and especially out in the world where it could not be charged they were for the ears of this people. I felt to appreciate this testimony and to read it in your presence:
"Pays High Tribute to the Mormons They are Among Best People in America,
"Says Episcopal Bishop Tuttle.
"Special to the Herald Republican. New York, April 6, 1911.—Daniel Sylvester Tuttle, presiding bishop of the American Episcopal Church, preached today in Saint Clement's P. E. Church, before a large congregation. The church's mission work was his text. In 1867, immediately after the Civil War, he said, I was sent by the Episcopal Church as a missionary to the Mormons in the state of Utah. I can say, without exaggeration, that the Mormons are among the heartiest and best people in America, and are known in the West as kind-hearted and pleasing in manners. In Utah I had a class of boys and girls which was instrumental in giving me the idea of how essential the young folks are in building up the church of the future."
I desire to avail myself, my brethren and sisters, of this opportunity of bearing testimony to the truth of the things we have heard during the several sessions of this conference. I know that they are true; and that they have been prompted by the Spirit of the Lord, and by that Spirit I know that they are true; and I feel thankful that 'they have found a ready response in my soul. I would make the sentiments and truths expressed my sentiments on this occasion. I am sure there is conviction in the hearts of all those who heard the words of our beloved president, in the opening session of this conference, for his words had no uncertain sound or meaning. There is no equivocation nor ambiguity either in the words spoken or in the spirit which actuated them. I rejoice that God has given to the Latter-day Saints a measure of His Holy Spirit by which, when we hear these things, we can determine and know whether they are of God or whether they are of man.
I bear my testimony to the faithfulness and devotion of the authorities of the Church, and of the Latter- day Saints—during the past five years, I have been very intimately and closely associated with the First Presidency and the Twelve. Every week, when I have been within reach, I have attended, with them, solemn meetings of prayer and counsel for the welfare of the Church and of the Latter-day Saints, and I have been with these men in visiting the stakes of Zion. I have heard their testimonies, I know their lives, and I have been convinced, because of this more intimate association, which I have had with these general authorities of the Church, during the past five years, that my judgment and conclusions formerly reached concerning them, and their integrity, were correct, that they are indeed righteous men of God, I do know that they are. Concerning our president, who is guardian of the means, the tithings of the Church, as trustee-in-trust, I know that he does guard the tithings of this people with a jealous care, jealous for the Church and for the Latter-day Saints. I know that he is not extravagant or unwise in expending those means, and that he does not consent to their expenditure only when the recommendations therefor are indorsed by his brethren. I know him to be honest; I know him to be a pure man, a man who is perfectly trustworthy; and I know that his counselors, and the twelve, and all these general authorities are men of the same kind that their hearts and souls are wrapped up in this work, that they seek the welfare of the kingdom of God and of His people, and the salvation of the souls of men, before everything else; they sacrifice all personal interests for the cause of truth. This is my testimony concerning these men.
I rejoice in the testimony we have just heard, in the singing, and in the prayers. I am reminded, especially, of the most excellent prayer offered this morning, and particularly that part of the prayer wherein our Father In heaven was petitioned to allow nothing to come between the Latter-day Saints and the authorities of the Church, to destroy their confidence. I see in this congregation, and have seen in the various congregations of the Saints, during this conference, representatives from our colonies in Mexico, from our stakes in Canada and the stakes in Arizona, the most remote stakes in the Church, and various other stakes throughout the Church. I would that all the Latter-day Saints could have been here, and could have heard and felt what we who have been privileged to be in attendance at these meetings have heard and felt, for I feel that their confidence in the authorities of the Church would have been strengthened thereby. I feel that that is what is needed today, since enemies are assailing the leaders of the Church and would make the people of the world, including Latter-day Saints, believe that our leaders are insincere, that they are immoral, that they are everything but what the Saints believe and really know them to be. To hear the voices and feel the spirits of these men, I believe, is convincing to the Latter-day Saints, although it may not be to those of the world who are not in possession of the Holy Ghost, not having yielded obedience unto the principles and ordinances of the gospel that would entitle them to that most choice gift.
In considering the statistics, yesterday, I thought of the devotion of the Latter-day Saints in the payment of their tithings and offerings. With the proceeds, the tithings of the people, we heard what is being accomplished in the Church—not so much in detail what is being accomplished in the mission field, or in the Church schools in Zion, but what has been expended from the tithings of the people in the legitimate enterprises and avenues in which the tithings are directed. But the thought was this, in my mind—who provides and supplies these means? Why, these humble Latter-day Saints. Though there are some who are in very humble circumstances, I trust there are none really poor, or none who are suffering among us; there ought not to be; and we would charge the bishops of the wards that they see to it that there shall be none in want of the necessaries of life. Every man and woman, every individual who has contributed, who has paid a full tithing, has done his full quota in the great work of establishing and maintaining the Church schools, so far as the tithings of the people go in that direction. The same may be said with regard to the missionary work, and the maintaining of the poor, or for charitable purposes. The Lord will remember His people for their faithfulness, and will abundantly reward them with the things pertaining to this life and eternity. I admonish the Latter-day Saints to not tire but to continue on and on, and see to it that when we give our tithings that we give them ungrudgingly; that when we give our offerings our hearts go out therewith, that it may be counted unto us for righteousness, and that we may receive a blessing from the Lord.
Now, I feel to say that we are a good people, but we are not perfect Latter-day Saints; and, until we attain perfection, we should continue to labor and strive to, overcome our imperfections, our weaknesses, and work the works of righteousness. There are some enrolled in the Church who are in such a condition, I am sorry to say, that were they outside of the Church they could not be admitted. The Lord has designated some of the qualifications which men and women should possess in order to become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, and here are some of those qualifications.
"And again, by way of commandment to the church, concerning' the manner of baptism of those who humble themselves before God and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, have a determination to serve Him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into the church."
And I may say, and no others. There are some whose actions are such that we are convinced they do not possess the spirit of repentance, they have not broken hearts and contrite spirits before the Lord, and their conduct brings reproach on the Church. We sorrow ' at this condition, but what will you do? We are judged, as a people, largely, by the conduct of the adherents to this faith, and the doctrines of the gospel; so that no man claiming a standing in the Church is at liberty to disregard the commandments of the Lord, to be a drunkard, or to be immoral, or otherwise set a bad example. The lives of those who profess to be Saints should conform strictly to the precepts of the gospel, should be in complete harmony therewith. When people see those whose lives are not in harmony and not commendable, I would have them know, whether they be in the Church or out, that it is due to the weaknesses and fallibilities of mortal men and women, and no action or conduct of any individual, however high he may be in authority, can affect the infallibility of the Gospel, change the truth, or make the truth a falsehood, or render any ordinance of the gospel unnecessary. People ought not to reach wrong conclusions in judging the work of the Lord, and the people of the Lord, because of the unrighteous conduct of some individuals. It may be asked, why do you retain them as members of the Church? The only answer I have to make is this, our mission is to save and not to destroy; and while they are members of the Church, we will labor for their reformation with a hope of bringing them, sometime, to repentance, and faithfulness in serving the Lord. That is our mission.
I want to say to the Latter-day Saints, if you would sustain the president of this Church and his counselors, and all these general authorities, and those who preside over you in the stakes and wards, and in the various organizations of the Church, keep the commandments of the Lord and do your duties; that will sustain them best and give those officers the greatest joy and satisfaction, as it brings joy and satisfaction to the Lord to see His children serving him faithfully. As the Lord has said in a revelation. His heart rejoices when one is brought to repentance. Now, since there is no salvation in sin, and no forgiveness of sins except through repentance, therefore repentance is in order for us all. According to the word of the Lord, through John, "all are sinners;" of course, of different degrees of gravity, some in the commission of sin in wrong acts, and some through neglect of duty, as we have been told here already, "for he that knows to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
I desire to call attention to this truth, that while some of us have grown in the perfection of overcome traditions and faults which we had in the world, and have devoted ourselves, in a measure, to the building up of the kingdom, since none of us are perfect there is room for advancement and progress, and all should labor, regardless of how high we have ascended the ladder towards perfection; we should still continue to climb; there is room for improvement for all. There are different sins, and there are different degrees of sin of the same kind. For instance, the word of the Lord has come to us that we must observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Some men disregard this commandment to the extent that they go to their fields and work upon the Sabbath day; some attend horse races, or theatres, or pleasure resorts, etc., on the Sabbath day. Others have advanced so far towards perfection in righteousness that they cannot look upon such conduct with toleration; it is sin and wickedness in their sight, and yet some of them, perhaps, will justify themselves in going out for a carriage ride, or an automobile ride, or perhaps remain at home on the Sabbath day, although the commandment is that we shall meet together, partake of the sacrament and worship the Lord our God. Some justify themselves in sitting down in idleness throughout the Sabbath day. We have all an opportunity to measure ourselves and see what we are, and how we compare with the standard given us by our great exemplar, the prototype to mankind, Jesus our Lord, and the doctrines which He taught. I exhort the Latter-day Saints to faithfulness, to be hearers of the word and doers also, and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves.
Now, may the blessings of heaven rest upon you. I do feel the weight, the power and the blessing in the benediction pronounced by our beloved president, by virtue of his priesthood and authority, and in the name of Jesus Christ.' I rejoice with you in it, and hope and pray that God will fulfill it to all unto the very letter, and save us in the end in His kingdom, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Episcopal Bishop D. S. Tuttle's tribute to the "Mormons."—Personal testimony concerning integrity of Church authorities.—The Church should not be judged by actions of some wayward members.
We have heard, during this conference, many testimonies and some statistics in evidence of the faithfulness and the goodness of the Latter- day Saints. I have another witness and testimony to present to the Latter-day Saints, this morning, a clipping from this morning's paper. It is so refreshing to hear, from the lips of a minister of the gospel in the world, good words spoken of the Latter-day Saints, and especially out in the world where it could not be charged they were for the ears of this people. I felt to appreciate this testimony and to read it in your presence:
"Pays High Tribute to the Mormons They are Among Best People in America,
"Says Episcopal Bishop Tuttle.
"Special to the Herald Republican. New York, April 6, 1911.—Daniel Sylvester Tuttle, presiding bishop of the American Episcopal Church, preached today in Saint Clement's P. E. Church, before a large congregation. The church's mission work was his text. In 1867, immediately after the Civil War, he said, I was sent by the Episcopal Church as a missionary to the Mormons in the state of Utah. I can say, without exaggeration, that the Mormons are among the heartiest and best people in America, and are known in the West as kind-hearted and pleasing in manners. In Utah I had a class of boys and girls which was instrumental in giving me the idea of how essential the young folks are in building up the church of the future."
I desire to avail myself, my brethren and sisters, of this opportunity of bearing testimony to the truth of the things we have heard during the several sessions of this conference. I know that they are true; and that they have been prompted by the Spirit of the Lord, and by that Spirit I know that they are true; and I feel thankful that 'they have found a ready response in my soul. I would make the sentiments and truths expressed my sentiments on this occasion. I am sure there is conviction in the hearts of all those who heard the words of our beloved president, in the opening session of this conference, for his words had no uncertain sound or meaning. There is no equivocation nor ambiguity either in the words spoken or in the spirit which actuated them. I rejoice that God has given to the Latter-day Saints a measure of His Holy Spirit by which, when we hear these things, we can determine and know whether they are of God or whether they are of man.
I bear my testimony to the faithfulness and devotion of the authorities of the Church, and of the Latter- day Saints—during the past five years, I have been very intimately and closely associated with the First Presidency and the Twelve. Every week, when I have been within reach, I have attended, with them, solemn meetings of prayer and counsel for the welfare of the Church and of the Latter-day Saints, and I have been with these men in visiting the stakes of Zion. I have heard their testimonies, I know their lives, and I have been convinced, because of this more intimate association, which I have had with these general authorities of the Church, during the past five years, that my judgment and conclusions formerly reached concerning them, and their integrity, were correct, that they are indeed righteous men of God, I do know that they are. Concerning our president, who is guardian of the means, the tithings of the Church, as trustee-in-trust, I know that he does guard the tithings of this people with a jealous care, jealous for the Church and for the Latter-day Saints. I know that he is not extravagant or unwise in expending those means, and that he does not consent to their expenditure only when the recommendations therefor are indorsed by his brethren. I know him to be honest; I know him to be a pure man, a man who is perfectly trustworthy; and I know that his counselors, and the twelve, and all these general authorities are men of the same kind that their hearts and souls are wrapped up in this work, that they seek the welfare of the kingdom of God and of His people, and the salvation of the souls of men, before everything else; they sacrifice all personal interests for the cause of truth. This is my testimony concerning these men.
I rejoice in the testimony we have just heard, in the singing, and in the prayers. I am reminded, especially, of the most excellent prayer offered this morning, and particularly that part of the prayer wherein our Father In heaven was petitioned to allow nothing to come between the Latter-day Saints and the authorities of the Church, to destroy their confidence. I see in this congregation, and have seen in the various congregations of the Saints, during this conference, representatives from our colonies in Mexico, from our stakes in Canada and the stakes in Arizona, the most remote stakes in the Church, and various other stakes throughout the Church. I would that all the Latter-day Saints could have been here, and could have heard and felt what we who have been privileged to be in attendance at these meetings have heard and felt, for I feel that their confidence in the authorities of the Church would have been strengthened thereby. I feel that that is what is needed today, since enemies are assailing the leaders of the Church and would make the people of the world, including Latter-day Saints, believe that our leaders are insincere, that they are immoral, that they are everything but what the Saints believe and really know them to be. To hear the voices and feel the spirits of these men, I believe, is convincing to the Latter-day Saints, although it may not be to those of the world who are not in possession of the Holy Ghost, not having yielded obedience unto the principles and ordinances of the gospel that would entitle them to that most choice gift.
In considering the statistics, yesterday, I thought of the devotion of the Latter-day Saints in the payment of their tithings and offerings. With the proceeds, the tithings of the people, we heard what is being accomplished in the Church—not so much in detail what is being accomplished in the mission field, or in the Church schools in Zion, but what has been expended from the tithings of the people in the legitimate enterprises and avenues in which the tithings are directed. But the thought was this, in my mind—who provides and supplies these means? Why, these humble Latter-day Saints. Though there are some who are in very humble circumstances, I trust there are none really poor, or none who are suffering among us; there ought not to be; and we would charge the bishops of the wards that they see to it that there shall be none in want of the necessaries of life. Every man and woman, every individual who has contributed, who has paid a full tithing, has done his full quota in the great work of establishing and maintaining the Church schools, so far as the tithings of the people go in that direction. The same may be said with regard to the missionary work, and the maintaining of the poor, or for charitable purposes. The Lord will remember His people for their faithfulness, and will abundantly reward them with the things pertaining to this life and eternity. I admonish the Latter-day Saints to not tire but to continue on and on, and see to it that when we give our tithings that we give them ungrudgingly; that when we give our offerings our hearts go out therewith, that it may be counted unto us for righteousness, and that we may receive a blessing from the Lord.
Now, I feel to say that we are a good people, but we are not perfect Latter-day Saints; and, until we attain perfection, we should continue to labor and strive to, overcome our imperfections, our weaknesses, and work the works of righteousness. There are some enrolled in the Church who are in such a condition, I am sorry to say, that were they outside of the Church they could not be admitted. The Lord has designated some of the qualifications which men and women should possess in order to become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, and here are some of those qualifications.
"And again, by way of commandment to the church, concerning' the manner of baptism of those who humble themselves before God and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, have a determination to serve Him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into the church."
And I may say, and no others. There are some whose actions are such that we are convinced they do not possess the spirit of repentance, they have not broken hearts and contrite spirits before the Lord, and their conduct brings reproach on the Church. We sorrow ' at this condition, but what will you do? We are judged, as a people, largely, by the conduct of the adherents to this faith, and the doctrines of the gospel; so that no man claiming a standing in the Church is at liberty to disregard the commandments of the Lord, to be a drunkard, or to be immoral, or otherwise set a bad example. The lives of those who profess to be Saints should conform strictly to the precepts of the gospel, should be in complete harmony therewith. When people see those whose lives are not in harmony and not commendable, I would have them know, whether they be in the Church or out, that it is due to the weaknesses and fallibilities of mortal men and women, and no action or conduct of any individual, however high he may be in authority, can affect the infallibility of the Gospel, change the truth, or make the truth a falsehood, or render any ordinance of the gospel unnecessary. People ought not to reach wrong conclusions in judging the work of the Lord, and the people of the Lord, because of the unrighteous conduct of some individuals. It may be asked, why do you retain them as members of the Church? The only answer I have to make is this, our mission is to save and not to destroy; and while they are members of the Church, we will labor for their reformation with a hope of bringing them, sometime, to repentance, and faithfulness in serving the Lord. That is our mission.
I want to say to the Latter-day Saints, if you would sustain the president of this Church and his counselors, and all these general authorities, and those who preside over you in the stakes and wards, and in the various organizations of the Church, keep the commandments of the Lord and do your duties; that will sustain them best and give those officers the greatest joy and satisfaction, as it brings joy and satisfaction to the Lord to see His children serving him faithfully. As the Lord has said in a revelation. His heart rejoices when one is brought to repentance. Now, since there is no salvation in sin, and no forgiveness of sins except through repentance, therefore repentance is in order for us all. According to the word of the Lord, through John, "all are sinners;" of course, of different degrees of gravity, some in the commission of sin in wrong acts, and some through neglect of duty, as we have been told here already, "for he that knows to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
I desire to call attention to this truth, that while some of us have grown in the perfection of overcome traditions and faults which we had in the world, and have devoted ourselves, in a measure, to the building up of the kingdom, since none of us are perfect there is room for advancement and progress, and all should labor, regardless of how high we have ascended the ladder towards perfection; we should still continue to climb; there is room for improvement for all. There are different sins, and there are different degrees of sin of the same kind. For instance, the word of the Lord has come to us that we must observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Some men disregard this commandment to the extent that they go to their fields and work upon the Sabbath day; some attend horse races, or theatres, or pleasure resorts, etc., on the Sabbath day. Others have advanced so far towards perfection in righteousness that they cannot look upon such conduct with toleration; it is sin and wickedness in their sight, and yet some of them, perhaps, will justify themselves in going out for a carriage ride, or an automobile ride, or perhaps remain at home on the Sabbath day, although the commandment is that we shall meet together, partake of the sacrament and worship the Lord our God. Some justify themselves in sitting down in idleness throughout the Sabbath day. We have all an opportunity to measure ourselves and see what we are, and how we compare with the standard given us by our great exemplar, the prototype to mankind, Jesus our Lord, and the doctrines which He taught. I exhort the Latter-day Saints to faithfulness, to be hearers of the word and doers also, and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves.
Now, may the blessings of heaven rest upon you. I do feel the weight, the power and the blessing in the benediction pronounced by our beloved president, by virtue of his priesthood and authority, and in the name of Jesus Christ.' I rejoice with you in it, and hope and pray that God will fulfill it to all unto the very letter, and save us in the end in His kingdom, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
Out of deference to the love we bear, and always have borne, and always hope to, toward the sons and descendants of President Brigham Young, I will read this telegram which I hold in my hand: "President Joseph F. Smith, Salt Lake, City, Utah:
"Regarding it as a sacred duty and glorious privilege, I report at conference time with humble assurance of faith and prayers for you, the brethren, and Saints. As my hope to be present is unrealized, my prayers are more fervent for the way to open for October. With warm regards,
"Respectfully yours,
"John W. Young."
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
The Spirit of God like a fire is burning!
The Latter-day glory begins to come forth;
The visions and blessings of old are returning,
And angels are coming to visit the earth.
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Joseph E. Robinson.
Conference adjourned until 2 p. m.
Out of deference to the love we bear, and always have borne, and always hope to, toward the sons and descendants of President Brigham Young, I will read this telegram which I hold in my hand: "President Joseph F. Smith, Salt Lake, City, Utah:
"Regarding it as a sacred duty and glorious privilege, I report at conference time with humble assurance of faith and prayers for you, the brethren, and Saints. As my hope to be present is unrealized, my prayers are more fervent for the way to open for October. With warm regards,
"Respectfully yours,
"John W. Young."
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
The Spirit of God like a fire is burning!
The Latter-day glory begins to come forth;
The visions and blessings of old are returning,
And angels are coming to visit the earth.
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Joseph E. Robinson.
Conference adjourned until 2 p. m.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Conference was resumed at 2 p. m., in the Tabernacle.
President Joseph F. Smith called the congregation to order.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
O, say, what is Truth? 'Tis the fairest gem
That the riches of worlds can produce;
And priceless the value of Truth will be, when
The proud monarch's costliest diadem
Is counted but dross and refuse.
Prayer was offered by Elder David H. Cannon.
The choir sang the hymn:
Onward, Christian soldiers!
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before.
Conference was resumed at 2 p. m., in the Tabernacle.
President Joseph F. Smith called the congregation to order.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
O, say, what is Truth? 'Tis the fairest gem
That the riches of worlds can produce;
And priceless the value of Truth will be, when
The proud monarch's costliest diadem
Is counted but dross and refuse.
Prayer was offered by Elder David H. Cannon.
The choir sang the hymn:
Onward, Christian soldiers!
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before.
ELDER ORSON F. WHITNEY.
A suggestive question.—The marvelous work of God.—The believing and the skeptical.—Illustrative anecdotes. — The Iconoclast abroad.—"Mormonism" remains unshaken.—Science and Religion must agree.—All truth one.
It is a common custom, too common, I think, with some of the elders of Israel, when called upon to address a congregation, to proclaim at the outset that they have nothing upon their minds. I have often thought it a most superfluous statement; for, when true, the congregation finds it out very quickly, without any information in advance. I have also thought this in relation to it—What right have men of God to have nothing upon their minds? What right have those who have been commanded by the God of heaven to become learned, to seek knowledge out of the best books, to seek learning by study and also by faith, to store up in their minds continually the word of the Lord, in order that the Holy Spirit may have materials to select from, when the proper time comes for the framing of a discourse—what right have men, or a people, so instructed, to have nothing upon their minds? I leave the question here; it is sufficiently suggestive, without any further comment on my part.
I cannot say that I have nothing upon my mind. Unreceptive, indeed, would that mind be which had not received some good and lasting impression, some suggestion of further ideas and discourses, from what has been so well said during the meetings of this conference. I have plenty upon my mind; the difficulty is to get it off my mind, to choose from the many subjects that have been running through my thoughts, the theme most suitable for this occasion. In the hope that I may speak that which ought to be spoken by me, I humbly place myself in the hands of the Lord.
Seven hundred years before the birth of the Savior, a prophet of God, gazing down the vista of the future, proclaimed the coming forth of a marvelous work, even a marvelous work and a wonder, in the presence of which the wisdom of the wise should perish, and the understanding of the prudent be hid. It is the belief of the Latter-day Saints that the fulfillment of this prediction, in its most marvelous phases, began in the spring of the year 1820, when Joseph Smith, the founder of this Church, received his first visitation from on High. It was something more than an answer to the boy's question, addressed in prayer to Deity, as to which of all the existing churches he should join; it was the beginning of a work destined to bring about "the restitution of all things," to gather into one "all things in Christ," and consummate all preceding phases of the work of God pertaining to this planet.
A preparatory work, we may reasonably conclude, had been wrought before the setting up of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I refer to the discovery of America by Columbus, and to the founding, by the Patriot Fathers, of the Government of the United States. Do not deem it an arrogant assumption that these great events were preparatory to the marvels and wonders foretold by Isaiah for the last days. I am aware that sneering remarks are sometimes made when this statement is put forth. "The idea," says one, "that the 'Mormon' Church should have the audacity to assert that it had as a forerunner the founding of this nation, or the discovery of the western world!"
In answer to this, I have but to say that something more than the setting up of a church was contemplated by the ancient Prophet, when he made this wonderful prediction. It meant the opening of the last and greatest of the gospel dispensations; it meant the gathering of the whole house of Israel from their long dispersion; it meant the introduction of the millennial reign, the coming of Christ to sway the sceptre over this planet; it meant the resurrection, the thousand years of peace, and the eventual glorification of the earth, which is yet to be converted into a celestial sphere, that beings of a celestial order may inherit it. And if you will only give the acorn a chance to spring — the oak an opportunity to grow, there will come a time when even the United States will not be ashamed to acknowledge that it was indeed a forerunner of this wonderful work; and the same with all governments, institutions, and events, all persons and powers that have been used by the Almighty from the beginning to prepare the way before the glorious advent of the King of Kings.
What I desire, specially, to call attention to at this time, is the marvelous character of the work of God. The opening event of this dispensation was the personal appearing of the Father and the Son, and their proclamation of other wondrous events that were to follow. Surely it was marvelous, when God Himself broke the silence of the ages, spoke again to man, and announced the approach of the great consummation! So marvelous, indeed, that many minds cannot grasp it, and are tempted to doubt, to deny, or give it an explanation unworthy of its stupendous character and significance. They hold that Joseph Smith did not really see the Father and the Son, but imagined that he saw them; that it was a mere concept or idea, and not an actual visitation. Some go so far as to declare that an epileptic fit was responsible for the glorious manifestation.
I, for one, believe that Joseph Smith saw what he said he did; that it was an actual visitation, and not a mere concept, or flight of fancy. The theory that would account for his visions by ascribing them and their wonderful results to an epileptic fit, is too ridiculous for serious consideration. I believe that Joseph saw the Father and the Son —just how, I do not know; probably it was not with the natural eye —most likely with the inward or spiritual sight; but he saw them none the less, and they were there in person, speaking to him, while he beheld them. I accept his testimony concerning what the Methodist minister told him was "all of the devil," I accept it as all from God. There is nothing more pathetic in "Mormon" history, to my mind, than those simple words in which the Prophet reasserts his claim to having seen, actually seen, the Father and the Son. Men might traduce him, might threaten him, might take his life, as they eventually did; but his testimony would be, and was ever, the same : "I knew that I had seen a vision, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it; for I felt that if I did, I would offend God and come under condemnation."
Subsequently, as Joseph declares, an angel appeared to him, giving his name as Moroni, and revealing the existence of the plates from which was translated the Book of Mormon, a record of ancient America, "the land of Zion." I accept that literally. I believe the Prophet actually saw the Angel Moroni, that he conversed with him, and received from him the plates containing the Nephite record. Joseph also affirms that John the Baptist, as a messenger from heaven, laid his hands upon him—upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and ordained them to the Aaronic priesthood, giving them power to preach the gospel of repentance, and to baptize by immersion for the remission of sins; also promising them a greater priesthood, that would empower them to lay on hands and confer the Holy Ghost. That greater priesthood—the Melchizedek — was afterwards bestowed upon these two young men, by the Apostles Peter, James, and John, and under the authority thereby conferred, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized on the 6th of April, 1830."
It was indeed a wonderful work. The words of Isaiah were vindicated at the very beginning of their fulfillment; and in nothing more strikingly than in the realization of that part of his prophecy declaring that the wisdom of the wise should perish, and the understanding of the prudent be hid—bewildered, confounded, in the presence of God's marvelous work. More than ever is it "a rock of offense"—unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles, foolishness. But they will change their minds in relation to it. Give the acorn—the oak, time to grow. "Mormonism" is yet in its infancy, and "only children and fools," it is said, "criticise half finished work."
There are tens of thousands of people who declare solemnly that God has given to them a testimony that these things are true; but there are millions who have no such testimony, and have never had the opportunity, most of them, to receive it. And even those to whom the opportunity has come, who have had their attention drawn to this work, do not all see it alike. There are many good and honest people in all churches, in all countries, who do not see as we see; and I, for one, do not expect a Gentile to take a "Mormon" view of our subject. The spirit of this work is necessary to a proper understanding of it, and only those who have received of that spirit can possibly comprehend the marvels that it makes manifest. Nor is this any reflection upon natural intelligence; it is simply, the assertion of a divine principle, that the things of God are only to be discerned by the Spirit of God. In the absence of that Spirit, which is only bestowed upon those who have bowed in obedience to the gospel, the wisdom of the wise perishes. Unless men and women humble themselves, and come as little children, believing in God and repenting of their sins, and have hands laid upon them for the gift of the Holy Ghost, they cannot understand this work, no matter how intelligent they may be.
A man is not a bad man because he is not what we call spiritually minded, quick to believe in the marvelous, in spiritual mysteries and manifestations. The world is made up of two great classes of people— the spiritually-minded and the worldly-minded; and even among the former class some believe more readily than others. Some are naturally believing, others naturally skeptical, or so intensely practical that they demand demonstration before they will believe. We have a shining example in one of the original Twelve Apostles,—not a bad man—a good man, and one, moreover, who had the right to know, not merely believe, that his Lord had risen. That was the special prerogative of those Apostles; it had to be more than belief with them. They could not go before the world merely with a message that they believed Christ had risen from the dead; they had to know it; it was their privilege to know; but the rest of the world were required to believe their testimony. That, in my opinion, is the reason why the Savior came to Thomas after He had said, "I will not believe, unless I can feel of the prints of the nails in His hands," etc. The Savior, condescending to re-appear, said to him: "Reach hither thy hand, feel the prints of the nails, and be not faithless but believing." Thereupon Thomas, no longer doubting, fell at His feet, exclaiming, "O Lord, my God!" Jesus then imparted this lesson: "Thomas, thou has believed because thou hast seen; but blessed are they who have believed and have not seen." Because, after all, whatever God's special dispensations to individuals, this life was designed for the exercise of faith. For the sake of their own spiritual development, men are required to believe, without seeing, without hearing, without feeling, unless the Lord chooses to make them special witnesses, as He did the Apostles. Perfect knowledge swallows up faith, and removes the opportunity for its exercise; while through the exercise of faith, made manifest by good works, we obtain the spiritual development for which we entered upon this our second estate.
All good men and women do not quickly believe; and all are not bad who desire demonstration. Hypocritical and corrupt "sign-seekers" are another class entirely. If only those quick to believe were acceptable to God, it would shut out millions of sincere and honest souls, worthy of the kingdom of heaven. It would condemn some of my own ancestors. If it is natural for me to believe—if my first impulse, upon hearing the testimony of a man of God, is to accept it, I owe it more to my mother than to my father; and yet he was just as good a man as she was a woman, though he could not see spiritual things so quickly. It was the same with his parents; his father was a business man, a practical man; while his mother almost lived in another world, she was so spiritual; but Newel K. Whitney was just as good a man as Elizabeth Ann Whitney was a woman, every whit as faithful and true. In the case of my mother’s parents, the order was reversed. Heber C. Kimball was a giant of spirituality; he drank in the gospel as his mother's milk; while his wife, Vilate, was slower to comprehend and receive; yet there is no nobler name among the women of this people than Vilate Murray Kimball. She was not so ready to believe as was her husband, but once convinced, she was as firm as adamant, immovable. Therefore, I find no fault with those who are not spiritually minded, who cannot believe as readily as do others. It is largely a matter of temperament, and the work of the Lord has need of both kinds.
What I deplore, is a disposition prevalent throughout the world, to strip God of His divinity; to take from Jesus Christ everything pertaining to His Godhood; to do away with His miracles, His marvelous works, to question and even ridicule them; to deny that they ever were; to hold that Christ was merely a good man, a wise teacher; that His principles are only human precepts, and that there is no virtue in His atoning- blood; that he is not the Son of God more than any other man, and did not come with a mission more divine than any good and great teacher before or after Him. I think this is carrying the practical too far. It suggests an abnormal development of the practical, resulting, perhaps, from neglect of the spiritual. Still, we cannot overlook the fact that some are born that way. Some minds cannot grasp the marvelous, the miraculous, and are not willing to concede its possibility.
In the Eighteenth Ward, one Sunday evening, a Primary Conference was held, at which one of the sisters, gathering a class of little children around her, related to them how the Savior fed the multitude— fed five thousand people, with five loaves of bread and two fishes. Going home, a mother asked her little son what he had heard, and he repeated, as best he could, the teacher's instructions. The mother, anxious to impress the lesson upon the mind of her child, asked: "How, do you suppose, did the Savior feed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fishes?" The little boy thought a moment, and then said: "Well, I don't believe those in the middle got any." (Laughter). I wonder if Saint Thomas was not that kind of a child. It seems to me a very good portrayal of the disposition of "the doubting apostle."
I am reminded of another story, told by the famous temperance orator, John B. Gough, in a lecture delivered at the Salt Lake Theater many years ago. He was deprecating the practice of simplifying the Bible for the study of children. "Children," said he, "understand much better than we give them credit for. Let them read the Bible just as it is; they will understand it." To illustrate the point, he told of two little boys, Johnny and Billy, who were engaged in conversation. Johnny was seated on his mother's door-step, whittling a stick, and Billy had just caught a fly. He came with it to Johnny, and said: "What a funny thing a fly is. See what lots of legs he's got and every time I blow him he buzzes." Then he would blow on the fly, and hold it tip to his ear, to hear it buzz, grinning with delight at the sound. Finally he remarked, "I wonder how God made him." And the great orator paused long enough to observe, "Many a learned man has asked the same question, and could not answer it." But Johnny had an idea of how God made the fly. "Well, Billy," said he, as he whittled away. "God don't make flies like men make houses. When He wants flies, he says. Let there be flies; and then there is flies." (Laughter.)
Now, this boy, Johnny, would have understood how the Savior could feed the multitude in the wonderful manner described; he had read in the Bible how light was made, and could grasp the idea that the power of God is greater than the power of man. He would not have insisted upon bringing the miraculous down to the level of the commonplace, and denying the truth or existence of things, simply because they were outside the range of ordinary human experience. Johnny was a believer in miracles, which, after all, are only the results of natural law—higher law, perhaps, than the finite mind can fully comprehend. Man, when he wants light, must strike a match, or press a button, and turn on the gas or electricity; but God, when He wants light, says. Let there be light. Yet is it not the same light in both cases?
The two anecdotes I have related illustrate the two classes of people to whom I have referred—those who question or ignore "miraculous manifestations," and those who believe in them, and whose faith is equal to the acceptance of God's 'marvelous work and wonder," predicted as such by His prophets, and realized as such by tens of thousands of witnesses. What wonder that the prediction should have a fulfillment? And yet, even among the Latter-day Saints there are some who find it difficult to believe that God deals directly with man; that the heavens actually opened at the beginning of this dispensation; that the Father and the Son appeared in person to Joseph Smith the Prophet; and that angels ordained him and Oliver Cowdery to the Priesthood. But the great body of this people have accepted these things as true, have received a testimony that they are true. They do not attempt to strip Christ of His divinity; they do not doubt the miraculous phases of "Mormonism." It is clear to them that the prophecies concerning it would have been uttered in vain, would have been invalidated had there been nothing marvelous in connection with the Lord's great latter-day work. There is a disposition in these modern times to test the foundations of things; and it is not altogether of evil significance. The Lord has decreed that everything that can be shaken shall be shaken; and I think whatever can be, ought to be shaken. The gospel, going forth from Zion, is shaking the nations; the Lord is threshing them by the power of His Spirit. But the world will retaliate; they will come against us, and shake us if they can. Everything not built upon the rock will crumble and go down. Even the most sacred principles, and the most thoroughly established facts of history, are called in question by modern scientific and philosophical criticism. The iconoclast is abroad. Look to your idols; for everything that can be broken will be broken, and the debris removed to make way for a better and higher order of things. But truth will endure, and withstand successfully every assault made upon it.
I picked up a magazine the other day, a scientific periodical, issued about a year ago, in which was an article entitled, "The Ethnological Background of the Eucharist." The writer of it undertakes to prove that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, instituted by the Savior on the night of His betrayal, and given to His disciples as a solemn reminder of His sacrifice, is of human origin—was not originated by Christ at all, but introduced into the Church by the Apostle Paul, who discovered it through his wide knowledge of doctrines and ordinances that preceded the coming of Christ; such as those of the Gnostics, and the Mithraites, worshipers of the sun-god. The article goes on to show that there are indications that these ancient peoples practiced a ceremony similar to the Eucharist, and that even savage tribes and barbarians have sacrificial customs suggestive of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Hence this author jumps to the conclusion that it is of human origin, a natural growth, and not a supernatural revelation. In short, that the Eucharist is an example of ceremonial evolution.
How can the Christian Church meet such an argument? The early Christian Fathers tried to answer it by declaring that Satan had imitated the Sacrament instituted by Christ and placed it among the Pagan peoples around them. Unfortunately for this defense, however, the practice of such ceremonies among the Mithraites and the Gnostics was older than the introduction of Christianity. Christianity cannot answer, but "Mormonism" can. Standing upon a rock that is not to be shaken, we reassert the divinity of the Sacrament, without fear of successful contradiction. How will we answer modern criticism? Simply by proclaiming what God has revealed; that this religion, called "Mormonism" today, Christianism two thousand years ago, and known by some other nickname, doubtless, in earlier ages, is the Everlasting Gospel, not owing its origin to any man, nor to any time, but instituted in the heavens before the creation of this world, and revealed to men upon the earth at different times and in different places. "Mormonism" can say, with the Son of God : "Before Abraham was, I am." Adam had this Gospel—the Gospel of Christ — which was in the world before Christ's coming, and helped to prepare the way before His advent. One of the first things Adam did, after his fall from Eden, was to build an altar and offer a lamb thereon, to foreshadow the sacrifice of the Son of God. After the deluge, when Noah with his family came forth from the ark, one of the first things he did was to erect an altar and offer a similar sacrifice. He had the same Gospel that Adam, Enoch, and others had before him; and the sons of Noah Shem, Ham, and Japheth—who peopled Asia, Africa, and Europe, doubtless took with them, wherever they went, the traditions of the ancient faith, the faith of their fathers, and practiced their customs and observances. What wonder, then, that even among savage tribes, barbarous peoples, however ancient, there should be found remnants of this faith, fragments of this rock of ages; or that science should even discover remains of other revealings from God to man, of which the Bible—a mere skeleton of history — says nothing?
What is there in all this that should tempt a Latter-day Saint to throw away the revelations of God, and jump to the conclusion that these divine institutions are of human origin? Nothing, whatever. The foundation upon which we stand remains unshaken, unmoved by any discovery of science, or any onslaught of modern criticism.
One word more. It is an absurdity to speak, as some do, of religious truth and scientific truth, as if they were two different things. As if truth could be divided, any more than light, or eternal duration. Man, for his own convenience divides time into centuries, years, months, weeks, days, minutes and seconds, basing his calculations upon the movements of the earth and the heavenly bodies; but with God there is no past, no future; it is all present, no yesterday, no tomorrow, — only today. And light, whether it comes from the sun, or the moon, or the stars, is all one; the light of the sun being the same light that illumines our understandings. All light is one; all truth is one. Truth cannot contradict itself. If science and religion—true science and true religion—seem, in the least, to disagree, it is simply because man has not discovered enough, and God, perhaps, has not revealed enough, to bring us to the point of reconciliation; but that time will come. There is no need to disbelieve, or to reject truth already revealed, either through religion or through science, while awaiting the Lord's time for clearing up the mystery.
"Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And He will make it plain."
Amen.
A suggestive question.—The marvelous work of God.—The believing and the skeptical.—Illustrative anecdotes. — The Iconoclast abroad.—"Mormonism" remains unshaken.—Science and Religion must agree.—All truth one.
It is a common custom, too common, I think, with some of the elders of Israel, when called upon to address a congregation, to proclaim at the outset that they have nothing upon their minds. I have often thought it a most superfluous statement; for, when true, the congregation finds it out very quickly, without any information in advance. I have also thought this in relation to it—What right have men of God to have nothing upon their minds? What right have those who have been commanded by the God of heaven to become learned, to seek knowledge out of the best books, to seek learning by study and also by faith, to store up in their minds continually the word of the Lord, in order that the Holy Spirit may have materials to select from, when the proper time comes for the framing of a discourse—what right have men, or a people, so instructed, to have nothing upon their minds? I leave the question here; it is sufficiently suggestive, without any further comment on my part.
I cannot say that I have nothing upon my mind. Unreceptive, indeed, would that mind be which had not received some good and lasting impression, some suggestion of further ideas and discourses, from what has been so well said during the meetings of this conference. I have plenty upon my mind; the difficulty is to get it off my mind, to choose from the many subjects that have been running through my thoughts, the theme most suitable for this occasion. In the hope that I may speak that which ought to be spoken by me, I humbly place myself in the hands of the Lord.
Seven hundred years before the birth of the Savior, a prophet of God, gazing down the vista of the future, proclaimed the coming forth of a marvelous work, even a marvelous work and a wonder, in the presence of which the wisdom of the wise should perish, and the understanding of the prudent be hid. It is the belief of the Latter-day Saints that the fulfillment of this prediction, in its most marvelous phases, began in the spring of the year 1820, when Joseph Smith, the founder of this Church, received his first visitation from on High. It was something more than an answer to the boy's question, addressed in prayer to Deity, as to which of all the existing churches he should join; it was the beginning of a work destined to bring about "the restitution of all things," to gather into one "all things in Christ," and consummate all preceding phases of the work of God pertaining to this planet.
A preparatory work, we may reasonably conclude, had been wrought before the setting up of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I refer to the discovery of America by Columbus, and to the founding, by the Patriot Fathers, of the Government of the United States. Do not deem it an arrogant assumption that these great events were preparatory to the marvels and wonders foretold by Isaiah for the last days. I am aware that sneering remarks are sometimes made when this statement is put forth. "The idea," says one, "that the 'Mormon' Church should have the audacity to assert that it had as a forerunner the founding of this nation, or the discovery of the western world!"
In answer to this, I have but to say that something more than the setting up of a church was contemplated by the ancient Prophet, when he made this wonderful prediction. It meant the opening of the last and greatest of the gospel dispensations; it meant the gathering of the whole house of Israel from their long dispersion; it meant the introduction of the millennial reign, the coming of Christ to sway the sceptre over this planet; it meant the resurrection, the thousand years of peace, and the eventual glorification of the earth, which is yet to be converted into a celestial sphere, that beings of a celestial order may inherit it. And if you will only give the acorn a chance to spring — the oak an opportunity to grow, there will come a time when even the United States will not be ashamed to acknowledge that it was indeed a forerunner of this wonderful work; and the same with all governments, institutions, and events, all persons and powers that have been used by the Almighty from the beginning to prepare the way before the glorious advent of the King of Kings.
What I desire, specially, to call attention to at this time, is the marvelous character of the work of God. The opening event of this dispensation was the personal appearing of the Father and the Son, and their proclamation of other wondrous events that were to follow. Surely it was marvelous, when God Himself broke the silence of the ages, spoke again to man, and announced the approach of the great consummation! So marvelous, indeed, that many minds cannot grasp it, and are tempted to doubt, to deny, or give it an explanation unworthy of its stupendous character and significance. They hold that Joseph Smith did not really see the Father and the Son, but imagined that he saw them; that it was a mere concept or idea, and not an actual visitation. Some go so far as to declare that an epileptic fit was responsible for the glorious manifestation.
I, for one, believe that Joseph Smith saw what he said he did; that it was an actual visitation, and not a mere concept, or flight of fancy. The theory that would account for his visions by ascribing them and their wonderful results to an epileptic fit, is too ridiculous for serious consideration. I believe that Joseph saw the Father and the Son —just how, I do not know; probably it was not with the natural eye —most likely with the inward or spiritual sight; but he saw them none the less, and they were there in person, speaking to him, while he beheld them. I accept his testimony concerning what the Methodist minister told him was "all of the devil," I accept it as all from God. There is nothing more pathetic in "Mormon" history, to my mind, than those simple words in which the Prophet reasserts his claim to having seen, actually seen, the Father and the Son. Men might traduce him, might threaten him, might take his life, as they eventually did; but his testimony would be, and was ever, the same : "I knew that I had seen a vision, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it; for I felt that if I did, I would offend God and come under condemnation."
Subsequently, as Joseph declares, an angel appeared to him, giving his name as Moroni, and revealing the existence of the plates from which was translated the Book of Mormon, a record of ancient America, "the land of Zion." I accept that literally. I believe the Prophet actually saw the Angel Moroni, that he conversed with him, and received from him the plates containing the Nephite record. Joseph also affirms that John the Baptist, as a messenger from heaven, laid his hands upon him—upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and ordained them to the Aaronic priesthood, giving them power to preach the gospel of repentance, and to baptize by immersion for the remission of sins; also promising them a greater priesthood, that would empower them to lay on hands and confer the Holy Ghost. That greater priesthood—the Melchizedek — was afterwards bestowed upon these two young men, by the Apostles Peter, James, and John, and under the authority thereby conferred, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized on the 6th of April, 1830."
It was indeed a wonderful work. The words of Isaiah were vindicated at the very beginning of their fulfillment; and in nothing more strikingly than in the realization of that part of his prophecy declaring that the wisdom of the wise should perish, and the understanding of the prudent be hid—bewildered, confounded, in the presence of God's marvelous work. More than ever is it "a rock of offense"—unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles, foolishness. But they will change their minds in relation to it. Give the acorn—the oak, time to grow. "Mormonism" is yet in its infancy, and "only children and fools," it is said, "criticise half finished work."
There are tens of thousands of people who declare solemnly that God has given to them a testimony that these things are true; but there are millions who have no such testimony, and have never had the opportunity, most of them, to receive it. And even those to whom the opportunity has come, who have had their attention drawn to this work, do not all see it alike. There are many good and honest people in all churches, in all countries, who do not see as we see; and I, for one, do not expect a Gentile to take a "Mormon" view of our subject. The spirit of this work is necessary to a proper understanding of it, and only those who have received of that spirit can possibly comprehend the marvels that it makes manifest. Nor is this any reflection upon natural intelligence; it is simply, the assertion of a divine principle, that the things of God are only to be discerned by the Spirit of God. In the absence of that Spirit, which is only bestowed upon those who have bowed in obedience to the gospel, the wisdom of the wise perishes. Unless men and women humble themselves, and come as little children, believing in God and repenting of their sins, and have hands laid upon them for the gift of the Holy Ghost, they cannot understand this work, no matter how intelligent they may be.
A man is not a bad man because he is not what we call spiritually minded, quick to believe in the marvelous, in spiritual mysteries and manifestations. The world is made up of two great classes of people— the spiritually-minded and the worldly-minded; and even among the former class some believe more readily than others. Some are naturally believing, others naturally skeptical, or so intensely practical that they demand demonstration before they will believe. We have a shining example in one of the original Twelve Apostles,—not a bad man—a good man, and one, moreover, who had the right to know, not merely believe, that his Lord had risen. That was the special prerogative of those Apostles; it had to be more than belief with them. They could not go before the world merely with a message that they believed Christ had risen from the dead; they had to know it; it was their privilege to know; but the rest of the world were required to believe their testimony. That, in my opinion, is the reason why the Savior came to Thomas after He had said, "I will not believe, unless I can feel of the prints of the nails in His hands," etc. The Savior, condescending to re-appear, said to him: "Reach hither thy hand, feel the prints of the nails, and be not faithless but believing." Thereupon Thomas, no longer doubting, fell at His feet, exclaiming, "O Lord, my God!" Jesus then imparted this lesson: "Thomas, thou has believed because thou hast seen; but blessed are they who have believed and have not seen." Because, after all, whatever God's special dispensations to individuals, this life was designed for the exercise of faith. For the sake of their own spiritual development, men are required to believe, without seeing, without hearing, without feeling, unless the Lord chooses to make them special witnesses, as He did the Apostles. Perfect knowledge swallows up faith, and removes the opportunity for its exercise; while through the exercise of faith, made manifest by good works, we obtain the spiritual development for which we entered upon this our second estate.
All good men and women do not quickly believe; and all are not bad who desire demonstration. Hypocritical and corrupt "sign-seekers" are another class entirely. If only those quick to believe were acceptable to God, it would shut out millions of sincere and honest souls, worthy of the kingdom of heaven. It would condemn some of my own ancestors. If it is natural for me to believe—if my first impulse, upon hearing the testimony of a man of God, is to accept it, I owe it more to my mother than to my father; and yet he was just as good a man as she was a woman, though he could not see spiritual things so quickly. It was the same with his parents; his father was a business man, a practical man; while his mother almost lived in another world, she was so spiritual; but Newel K. Whitney was just as good a man as Elizabeth Ann Whitney was a woman, every whit as faithful and true. In the case of my mother’s parents, the order was reversed. Heber C. Kimball was a giant of spirituality; he drank in the gospel as his mother's milk; while his wife, Vilate, was slower to comprehend and receive; yet there is no nobler name among the women of this people than Vilate Murray Kimball. She was not so ready to believe as was her husband, but once convinced, she was as firm as adamant, immovable. Therefore, I find no fault with those who are not spiritually minded, who cannot believe as readily as do others. It is largely a matter of temperament, and the work of the Lord has need of both kinds.
What I deplore, is a disposition prevalent throughout the world, to strip God of His divinity; to take from Jesus Christ everything pertaining to His Godhood; to do away with His miracles, His marvelous works, to question and even ridicule them; to deny that they ever were; to hold that Christ was merely a good man, a wise teacher; that His principles are only human precepts, and that there is no virtue in His atoning- blood; that he is not the Son of God more than any other man, and did not come with a mission more divine than any good and great teacher before or after Him. I think this is carrying the practical too far. It suggests an abnormal development of the practical, resulting, perhaps, from neglect of the spiritual. Still, we cannot overlook the fact that some are born that way. Some minds cannot grasp the marvelous, the miraculous, and are not willing to concede its possibility.
In the Eighteenth Ward, one Sunday evening, a Primary Conference was held, at which one of the sisters, gathering a class of little children around her, related to them how the Savior fed the multitude— fed five thousand people, with five loaves of bread and two fishes. Going home, a mother asked her little son what he had heard, and he repeated, as best he could, the teacher's instructions. The mother, anxious to impress the lesson upon the mind of her child, asked: "How, do you suppose, did the Savior feed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fishes?" The little boy thought a moment, and then said: "Well, I don't believe those in the middle got any." (Laughter). I wonder if Saint Thomas was not that kind of a child. It seems to me a very good portrayal of the disposition of "the doubting apostle."
I am reminded of another story, told by the famous temperance orator, John B. Gough, in a lecture delivered at the Salt Lake Theater many years ago. He was deprecating the practice of simplifying the Bible for the study of children. "Children," said he, "understand much better than we give them credit for. Let them read the Bible just as it is; they will understand it." To illustrate the point, he told of two little boys, Johnny and Billy, who were engaged in conversation. Johnny was seated on his mother's door-step, whittling a stick, and Billy had just caught a fly. He came with it to Johnny, and said: "What a funny thing a fly is. See what lots of legs he's got and every time I blow him he buzzes." Then he would blow on the fly, and hold it tip to his ear, to hear it buzz, grinning with delight at the sound. Finally he remarked, "I wonder how God made him." And the great orator paused long enough to observe, "Many a learned man has asked the same question, and could not answer it." But Johnny had an idea of how God made the fly. "Well, Billy," said he, as he whittled away. "God don't make flies like men make houses. When He wants flies, he says. Let there be flies; and then there is flies." (Laughter.)
Now, this boy, Johnny, would have understood how the Savior could feed the multitude in the wonderful manner described; he had read in the Bible how light was made, and could grasp the idea that the power of God is greater than the power of man. He would not have insisted upon bringing the miraculous down to the level of the commonplace, and denying the truth or existence of things, simply because they were outside the range of ordinary human experience. Johnny was a believer in miracles, which, after all, are only the results of natural law—higher law, perhaps, than the finite mind can fully comprehend. Man, when he wants light, must strike a match, or press a button, and turn on the gas or electricity; but God, when He wants light, says. Let there be light. Yet is it not the same light in both cases?
The two anecdotes I have related illustrate the two classes of people to whom I have referred—those who question or ignore "miraculous manifestations," and those who believe in them, and whose faith is equal to the acceptance of God's 'marvelous work and wonder," predicted as such by His prophets, and realized as such by tens of thousands of witnesses. What wonder that the prediction should have a fulfillment? And yet, even among the Latter-day Saints there are some who find it difficult to believe that God deals directly with man; that the heavens actually opened at the beginning of this dispensation; that the Father and the Son appeared in person to Joseph Smith the Prophet; and that angels ordained him and Oliver Cowdery to the Priesthood. But the great body of this people have accepted these things as true, have received a testimony that they are true. They do not attempt to strip Christ of His divinity; they do not doubt the miraculous phases of "Mormonism." It is clear to them that the prophecies concerning it would have been uttered in vain, would have been invalidated had there been nothing marvelous in connection with the Lord's great latter-day work. There is a disposition in these modern times to test the foundations of things; and it is not altogether of evil significance. The Lord has decreed that everything that can be shaken shall be shaken; and I think whatever can be, ought to be shaken. The gospel, going forth from Zion, is shaking the nations; the Lord is threshing them by the power of His Spirit. But the world will retaliate; they will come against us, and shake us if they can. Everything not built upon the rock will crumble and go down. Even the most sacred principles, and the most thoroughly established facts of history, are called in question by modern scientific and philosophical criticism. The iconoclast is abroad. Look to your idols; for everything that can be broken will be broken, and the debris removed to make way for a better and higher order of things. But truth will endure, and withstand successfully every assault made upon it.
I picked up a magazine the other day, a scientific periodical, issued about a year ago, in which was an article entitled, "The Ethnological Background of the Eucharist." The writer of it undertakes to prove that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, instituted by the Savior on the night of His betrayal, and given to His disciples as a solemn reminder of His sacrifice, is of human origin—was not originated by Christ at all, but introduced into the Church by the Apostle Paul, who discovered it through his wide knowledge of doctrines and ordinances that preceded the coming of Christ; such as those of the Gnostics, and the Mithraites, worshipers of the sun-god. The article goes on to show that there are indications that these ancient peoples practiced a ceremony similar to the Eucharist, and that even savage tribes and barbarians have sacrificial customs suggestive of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Hence this author jumps to the conclusion that it is of human origin, a natural growth, and not a supernatural revelation. In short, that the Eucharist is an example of ceremonial evolution.
How can the Christian Church meet such an argument? The early Christian Fathers tried to answer it by declaring that Satan had imitated the Sacrament instituted by Christ and placed it among the Pagan peoples around them. Unfortunately for this defense, however, the practice of such ceremonies among the Mithraites and the Gnostics was older than the introduction of Christianity. Christianity cannot answer, but "Mormonism" can. Standing upon a rock that is not to be shaken, we reassert the divinity of the Sacrament, without fear of successful contradiction. How will we answer modern criticism? Simply by proclaiming what God has revealed; that this religion, called "Mormonism" today, Christianism two thousand years ago, and known by some other nickname, doubtless, in earlier ages, is the Everlasting Gospel, not owing its origin to any man, nor to any time, but instituted in the heavens before the creation of this world, and revealed to men upon the earth at different times and in different places. "Mormonism" can say, with the Son of God : "Before Abraham was, I am." Adam had this Gospel—the Gospel of Christ — which was in the world before Christ's coming, and helped to prepare the way before His advent. One of the first things Adam did, after his fall from Eden, was to build an altar and offer a lamb thereon, to foreshadow the sacrifice of the Son of God. After the deluge, when Noah with his family came forth from the ark, one of the first things he did was to erect an altar and offer a similar sacrifice. He had the same Gospel that Adam, Enoch, and others had before him; and the sons of Noah Shem, Ham, and Japheth—who peopled Asia, Africa, and Europe, doubtless took with them, wherever they went, the traditions of the ancient faith, the faith of their fathers, and practiced their customs and observances. What wonder, then, that even among savage tribes, barbarous peoples, however ancient, there should be found remnants of this faith, fragments of this rock of ages; or that science should even discover remains of other revealings from God to man, of which the Bible—a mere skeleton of history — says nothing?
What is there in all this that should tempt a Latter-day Saint to throw away the revelations of God, and jump to the conclusion that these divine institutions are of human origin? Nothing, whatever. The foundation upon which we stand remains unshaken, unmoved by any discovery of science, or any onslaught of modern criticism.
One word more. It is an absurdity to speak, as some do, of religious truth and scientific truth, as if they were two different things. As if truth could be divided, any more than light, or eternal duration. Man, for his own convenience divides time into centuries, years, months, weeks, days, minutes and seconds, basing his calculations upon the movements of the earth and the heavenly bodies; but with God there is no past, no future; it is all present, no yesterday, no tomorrow, — only today. And light, whether it comes from the sun, or the moon, or the stars, is all one; the light of the sun being the same light that illumines our understandings. All light is one; all truth is one. Truth cannot contradict itself. If science and religion—true science and true religion—seem, in the least, to disagree, it is simply because man has not discovered enough, and God, perhaps, has not revealed enough, to bring us to the point of reconciliation; but that time will come. There is no need to disbelieve, or to reject truth already revealed, either through religion or through science, while awaiting the Lord's time for clearing up the mystery.
"Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And He will make it plain."
Amen.
BISHOP CHARLES W. NIBLEY.
I confess to being just a little frightened in standing before such an audience as this, and following the speakers who have addressed us.
We are living in the most wonderful age that the world has ever seen. The first ten years of the twentieth century have been more eventful than almost any number of years in the past history of the world. The world has developed and grown rapidly. In the matter of population the increase has been great. In the way of material development the world has never seen anything like it before. Great undertakings have been projected, like the Panama Canal, which are being pushed to completion. The wireless telegraph and the flying machine are products of this new century—the latter made possible only through the wonderful development of the gasoline engine which is a rapidly developing power in doing the work of today. In every department of human affairs there is hurry and bustle as if there was not time enough to get the work done.
The principle of liberty which the Lord caused to be established in this land, many years ago, is rapidly spreading and growing in all lands. In these first ten years of the twentieth century we have witnessed political upheavals in many countries, which testify to us how this leaven of liberty is working. In Russia the people have secured something of representative government, which has been wrung from the Czar and his advisers and a parliament, or douma, has been established; something hitherto unknown in the great Russian empire. Even among the heathen in China, this same principle is at work, and representatives of that people are to meet in convention in 1913 and begin to assist in the governing of their own land. And so in Persia, and so in Turkey and to a greater or less extent in all parts of the world. In these recent years we see this spirit of liberty moving in the hearts of the people, overthrowing thrones and casting down the mighty ones of the earth. The people of the world are awakening from the sleep of centuries, and also from the degradation of centuries, and are coming gradually but surely into the light. In a material way, too, the people are improving, but whether the morals of the people are improving is an open question. Men of wealth and of large heart have given most liberally of their means for the establishment of schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, also for the promotion of science, and for the promotion of peace on earth. These benefactions are so enormous that they almost go beyond imagination. All of this is good and makes for the blessing and uplifting of humanity.
In the conquering of diseases too, in medical science and surgery, there has been more development along those lines in the past ten years than in almost any other period of the world's history. The Yellow Fever, which always had been a scourge of the tropics, has been conquered in that time. Typhoid Fever may be said to have been practically conquered also. Consumption, the great white plague as it is called, if not entirely conquered is at least, to a very great extent, being subdued by the people learning just one practical common sense lesson, sleeping either in the open air or in rooms where there is abundance of fresh air. It has been discovered, too, in the ten years that I speak of, that the ordinary house fly is the most destructive and, perhaps, the most death dealing insect that exists in the world today, and that many diseases which have hitherto carried off millions of people can be practically controlled if we keep flies and filth out of our homes. This little fly, one writer says, carries more of death and destruction than all the reptiles, snakes, tigers, lions and all wild beasts in all the world put together. So we see men are growing in intelligence. The world, in respect to many of these matters, has grown and is becoming better. We know more about sanitary measures and how to live and how to take care of our bodies than we did formerly. Science is proving that that which has been revealed to the Latter-day Saints from the beginning, which we call the Word of Wisdom, is the truth, and is revelation from Almighty God; which scientific confirmation, though a little late, is, nevertheless, appreciated by us.
While all these good things which I have mentioned have come to the world, and many more could be mentioned that are good, there is one thing so very needful for the happiness and well being of mankind that the world, instead of progressing in, has actually fallen behind and retrograded. That is, in the spiritual or religious side of life. Man is a being who must believe. Belief, says a distinguished writer, is great and life giving. So long as he is sincere in his beliefs, and in his worship, such belief and worship will, to a very great extent, shape and control his life. But when he is trying to believe something which has grown to be unbelievable, his worship then becomes an insincerity and hollow mockery. So we see throughout the land that the churches, instead of being reasonably well filled, are practically empty. Men and women do not take interest in religious matters. They are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, and have a form of godliness which, in the main, is an insincerity and is attended to for form's sake only. The knowledge of God does not yet cover the earth as the waters cover the mighty deep, not by a long way. Indeed what little conception of God the world has hitherto had is being very rapidly overthrown during these recent years.
Now, here is the mission of "Mormonism." Here is the great need of this Church; that faith shall not be abolished from the earth, from the hearts of the children of men. I thought, while sitting here today, when I heard some of these brethren of the apostles preaching, if ever there was a time, in the history of the world, when there was need for special witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ that time is today. Never so much as today. If ever, there was a time when there was need for the testimony of these men that are sent out, these seventies, these elders, testifying for Jesus, standing for Jesus; the miraculous Jesus, the Jesus who was begotten by His Father, the Lord God Almighty, and born of the virgin Mary—the Jesus of miraculous birth and miraculous life; who went about performing miracles and doing good, doing no evil whatever; the Jesus Christ who was crucified upon the cross, and who rose again. If ever there was a time that it was needful to stand for that testimony against the surges and billows of unbelief, that threaten the belief of the entire world, the time is now, right now. So this is our mission, my brethren and sisters; and you are sustaining it who are contributing of your means to send your sons and daughters to bear this testimony, that God has spoken in this last time; that the same Jesus shall be testified of as having, in a miraculous way, revealed Himself to the Prophet Joseph Smith. To testify of the miraculous coming forth of the Book of Mormon. To testify of the miracle of "Mormonism" in every way. "Mormonism" is very truly practical as well as spiritual, what with its colonization schemes, its building of roads, bridges, and canals, and carrying blessing with it to the people everywhere, in every way, yet with all the good in the practical or material side of "Mormonism" we need to testify of the miraculous "Mormonism" as well. The wonderful visions and manifestations made to the Prophet, the founder of "Mormonism," under the Lord Jesus Christ; the work which that Prophet did, all demand our testimony.
So you, my brethren and sisters, who are sustaining' this work by contributing tithes and offerings, and by sending your sons and daughters out as missionaries, thus testify of the truth of this miracle of "Mormonism." The organization of this most wonderful piece of spiritual machinery, called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is a miracle in itself. We must instill this faith in the hearts of our children, and try to get it established in the hearts of the children of men everywhere. This is very important. To accomplish this work our children should be educated. We believe in education; but some of us send our children away from home to be educated, and many of them come back seemingly determined to claim relationship with the apes rather than with the angels. They lose their faith by failing to call on" the Lord in faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. We must teach faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ. Faith in the Prophet Joseph Smith; faith in the Book of Mormon, faith in the miraculous birth, life and resurrection of the risen Redeemer.
On next Sunday week all Christendom will be celebrating Easter Sunday. The theme of their sermons will be "He is not here. He is risen," and yet many disbelieve that He did really rise from the grave, that He is a living personality today, and that He will come again. How many of those who will hear in the churches throughout the land about this risen Redeemer believe that He is risen indeed? Perhaps not one in a thousand. So "Mormonism" is here with a mission and the Lord has provided men and women who are stalwart and true to carry on this work. His servants are determined men of God. Men of faith who believe that God has spoken; who are assured in their very souls that this is His special work; that He has established it, and they believe and accept it without reservation or equivocation. I bear witness of it. Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, whom to know is life eternal. I bear witness of His mission, of His life and of His resurrection. If we Latter-day Saints do not stand for this faith, shall the Son of Man, when He cometh, find faith on the earth? I tell you, mighty little, indeed, unless the Latter-day Saints, and their sons and daughters after them, carry out the mission whereunto we are called.
I know that these men who are called to preside over the Church of Christ are men of God. I bear witness of that also, for I know them. It has been my high privilege to know, better than most men, better than almost any, of the life and labors of President Joseph F. Smith, and I know what manner of man he is. I testify to you that he is a man of God, choice and most precious, as I believe, above every man whom I know or have ever known; honest, sincere, devoted, patient, forgiving, loving and most precious. This is the kind of man that God has called to lead His Church, in this the beginning of the twentieth century. At the beginning of this century Lorenzo Snow was President of the Church; and, by the way. Pope Leo, the thirteenth was sitting in the papal chair at Rome as president of that Church. It is scarcely worth while, except to refer to associations of individuals or societies, to mention any other churches.
I bear testimony to you, also, concerning the integrity of these men, the twelve apostles, special witnesses of Jesus Christ, that miraculous Jesus, that same Jesus, the risen Lord. They are men of God, every one of them, and on Easter Sunday and indeed on every Sunday and every other day, they believe with all their souls, — with all the earnestness that men and women command, and they try to make other people believe that Jesus has indeed risen, that He is the Redeemer of the world; and they try to instill that faith into the hearts of the children of men. I bear witness that these seventies are of the same high class of men, men of faith, men of God, who have that same testimony in their hearts, ready to stand before all the world and testify that God, our Eternal Father, has revealed that Jesus is the Christ, that He has risen, that He lives and that He will come and reign upon the earth.
Now, my brethren and sisters, this then is the great mission of "Mormonism" and herein is the great need of "Mormonism" in the world. It has its practical and temporal affairs, all of them good, as we heard from our president at the opening of the conference; but with all that, with all its good work in practical matters, the greatest and highest need of all is this testimony of Jesus Christ, which must stand, and which we must not allow to perish from the earth. Amen.
I confess to being just a little frightened in standing before such an audience as this, and following the speakers who have addressed us.
We are living in the most wonderful age that the world has ever seen. The first ten years of the twentieth century have been more eventful than almost any number of years in the past history of the world. The world has developed and grown rapidly. In the matter of population the increase has been great. In the way of material development the world has never seen anything like it before. Great undertakings have been projected, like the Panama Canal, which are being pushed to completion. The wireless telegraph and the flying machine are products of this new century—the latter made possible only through the wonderful development of the gasoline engine which is a rapidly developing power in doing the work of today. In every department of human affairs there is hurry and bustle as if there was not time enough to get the work done.
The principle of liberty which the Lord caused to be established in this land, many years ago, is rapidly spreading and growing in all lands. In these first ten years of the twentieth century we have witnessed political upheavals in many countries, which testify to us how this leaven of liberty is working. In Russia the people have secured something of representative government, which has been wrung from the Czar and his advisers and a parliament, or douma, has been established; something hitherto unknown in the great Russian empire. Even among the heathen in China, this same principle is at work, and representatives of that people are to meet in convention in 1913 and begin to assist in the governing of their own land. And so in Persia, and so in Turkey and to a greater or less extent in all parts of the world. In these recent years we see this spirit of liberty moving in the hearts of the people, overthrowing thrones and casting down the mighty ones of the earth. The people of the world are awakening from the sleep of centuries, and also from the degradation of centuries, and are coming gradually but surely into the light. In a material way, too, the people are improving, but whether the morals of the people are improving is an open question. Men of wealth and of large heart have given most liberally of their means for the establishment of schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, also for the promotion of science, and for the promotion of peace on earth. These benefactions are so enormous that they almost go beyond imagination. All of this is good and makes for the blessing and uplifting of humanity.
In the conquering of diseases too, in medical science and surgery, there has been more development along those lines in the past ten years than in almost any other period of the world's history. The Yellow Fever, which always had been a scourge of the tropics, has been conquered in that time. Typhoid Fever may be said to have been practically conquered also. Consumption, the great white plague as it is called, if not entirely conquered is at least, to a very great extent, being subdued by the people learning just one practical common sense lesson, sleeping either in the open air or in rooms where there is abundance of fresh air. It has been discovered, too, in the ten years that I speak of, that the ordinary house fly is the most destructive and, perhaps, the most death dealing insect that exists in the world today, and that many diseases which have hitherto carried off millions of people can be practically controlled if we keep flies and filth out of our homes. This little fly, one writer says, carries more of death and destruction than all the reptiles, snakes, tigers, lions and all wild beasts in all the world put together. So we see men are growing in intelligence. The world, in respect to many of these matters, has grown and is becoming better. We know more about sanitary measures and how to live and how to take care of our bodies than we did formerly. Science is proving that that which has been revealed to the Latter-day Saints from the beginning, which we call the Word of Wisdom, is the truth, and is revelation from Almighty God; which scientific confirmation, though a little late, is, nevertheless, appreciated by us.
While all these good things which I have mentioned have come to the world, and many more could be mentioned that are good, there is one thing so very needful for the happiness and well being of mankind that the world, instead of progressing in, has actually fallen behind and retrograded. That is, in the spiritual or religious side of life. Man is a being who must believe. Belief, says a distinguished writer, is great and life giving. So long as he is sincere in his beliefs, and in his worship, such belief and worship will, to a very great extent, shape and control his life. But when he is trying to believe something which has grown to be unbelievable, his worship then becomes an insincerity and hollow mockery. So we see throughout the land that the churches, instead of being reasonably well filled, are practically empty. Men and women do not take interest in religious matters. They are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, and have a form of godliness which, in the main, is an insincerity and is attended to for form's sake only. The knowledge of God does not yet cover the earth as the waters cover the mighty deep, not by a long way. Indeed what little conception of God the world has hitherto had is being very rapidly overthrown during these recent years.
Now, here is the mission of "Mormonism." Here is the great need of this Church; that faith shall not be abolished from the earth, from the hearts of the children of men. I thought, while sitting here today, when I heard some of these brethren of the apostles preaching, if ever there was a time, in the history of the world, when there was need for special witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ that time is today. Never so much as today. If ever, there was a time when there was need for the testimony of these men that are sent out, these seventies, these elders, testifying for Jesus, standing for Jesus; the miraculous Jesus, the Jesus who was begotten by His Father, the Lord God Almighty, and born of the virgin Mary—the Jesus of miraculous birth and miraculous life; who went about performing miracles and doing good, doing no evil whatever; the Jesus Christ who was crucified upon the cross, and who rose again. If ever there was a time that it was needful to stand for that testimony against the surges and billows of unbelief, that threaten the belief of the entire world, the time is now, right now. So this is our mission, my brethren and sisters; and you are sustaining it who are contributing of your means to send your sons and daughters to bear this testimony, that God has spoken in this last time; that the same Jesus shall be testified of as having, in a miraculous way, revealed Himself to the Prophet Joseph Smith. To testify of the miraculous coming forth of the Book of Mormon. To testify of the miracle of "Mormonism" in every way. "Mormonism" is very truly practical as well as spiritual, what with its colonization schemes, its building of roads, bridges, and canals, and carrying blessing with it to the people everywhere, in every way, yet with all the good in the practical or material side of "Mormonism" we need to testify of the miraculous "Mormonism" as well. The wonderful visions and manifestations made to the Prophet, the founder of "Mormonism," under the Lord Jesus Christ; the work which that Prophet did, all demand our testimony.
So you, my brethren and sisters, who are sustaining' this work by contributing tithes and offerings, and by sending your sons and daughters out as missionaries, thus testify of the truth of this miracle of "Mormonism." The organization of this most wonderful piece of spiritual machinery, called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is a miracle in itself. We must instill this faith in the hearts of our children, and try to get it established in the hearts of the children of men everywhere. This is very important. To accomplish this work our children should be educated. We believe in education; but some of us send our children away from home to be educated, and many of them come back seemingly determined to claim relationship with the apes rather than with the angels. They lose their faith by failing to call on" the Lord in faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. We must teach faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ. Faith in the Prophet Joseph Smith; faith in the Book of Mormon, faith in the miraculous birth, life and resurrection of the risen Redeemer.
On next Sunday week all Christendom will be celebrating Easter Sunday. The theme of their sermons will be "He is not here. He is risen," and yet many disbelieve that He did really rise from the grave, that He is a living personality today, and that He will come again. How many of those who will hear in the churches throughout the land about this risen Redeemer believe that He is risen indeed? Perhaps not one in a thousand. So "Mormonism" is here with a mission and the Lord has provided men and women who are stalwart and true to carry on this work. His servants are determined men of God. Men of faith who believe that God has spoken; who are assured in their very souls that this is His special work; that He has established it, and they believe and accept it without reservation or equivocation. I bear witness of it. Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, whom to know is life eternal. I bear witness of His mission, of His life and of His resurrection. If we Latter-day Saints do not stand for this faith, shall the Son of Man, when He cometh, find faith on the earth? I tell you, mighty little, indeed, unless the Latter-day Saints, and their sons and daughters after them, carry out the mission whereunto we are called.
I know that these men who are called to preside over the Church of Christ are men of God. I bear witness of that also, for I know them. It has been my high privilege to know, better than most men, better than almost any, of the life and labors of President Joseph F. Smith, and I know what manner of man he is. I testify to you that he is a man of God, choice and most precious, as I believe, above every man whom I know or have ever known; honest, sincere, devoted, patient, forgiving, loving and most precious. This is the kind of man that God has called to lead His Church, in this the beginning of the twentieth century. At the beginning of this century Lorenzo Snow was President of the Church; and, by the way. Pope Leo, the thirteenth was sitting in the papal chair at Rome as president of that Church. It is scarcely worth while, except to refer to associations of individuals or societies, to mention any other churches.
I bear testimony to you, also, concerning the integrity of these men, the twelve apostles, special witnesses of Jesus Christ, that miraculous Jesus, that same Jesus, the risen Lord. They are men of God, every one of them, and on Easter Sunday and indeed on every Sunday and every other day, they believe with all their souls, — with all the earnestness that men and women command, and they try to make other people believe that Jesus has indeed risen, that He is the Redeemer of the world; and they try to instill that faith into the hearts of the children of men. I bear witness that these seventies are of the same high class of men, men of faith, men of God, who have that same testimony in their hearts, ready to stand before all the world and testify that God, our Eternal Father, has revealed that Jesus is the Christ, that He has risen, that He lives and that He will come and reign upon the earth.
Now, my brethren and sisters, this then is the great mission of "Mormonism" and herein is the great need of "Mormonism" in the world. It has its practical and temporal affairs, all of them good, as we heard from our president at the opening of the conference; but with all that, with all its good work in practical matters, the greatest and highest need of all is this testimony of Jesus Christ, which must stand, and which we must not allow to perish from the earth. Amen.
ELDER BRIGHAM H. ROBERTS.
(Of the First Council of Seventy.)
It has become something of a truism with the Latter-day Saints, that every conference is the best one. The last conference is always the best. I feel in my own heart that this is the best conference I ever attended. My spirit, in listening to the brethren, has been lighter and my heart better satisfied when contemplating the truths to which our attention has been called. I do not know how well I shall succeed in concentrating my thought and giving expression to some reflections that have passed through my mind; and certainly I never felt more dependent upon the Lord and the inspiration of His spirit than I do at this moment. There is one thing that has occurred to my mind, several times, by reason of that which has been spoken to us. It is an historical incident. It is recorded of the first Christian emperor of Rome, that when leading his armies against those who were contesting with him the mastery of the Roman empire, that at mid-day he saw in the heavens a luminous cross, and written upon a scroll were these words. "By this conquer." This vision of the day was supplemented by a dream of the night, in which the Christ appeared to Constantine and instructed him to place this insignia of the cross and these words, "By this conquer," upon his banners, and success should crown his arms. It is a question with historians, whether this circumstance really happened, or was only an invention of a man noted for his cunning, Constantine, and if we judge the circumstance by the character of the man, we could at least readily believe that it was an invention. But whether an invention or not, it is certainly a wonderful legend, and it will introduce an idea that came to my mind in respect to the matters of our conference, and in relation to the Latter-day Saints and the great work of God committed to their hands. If you view our people with reference to their numbers of course we are an insignificant people. If you regard them in relation to their influence in the financial world, we are almost a negligible quantity. If we think upon ourselves as we are regarded by the great religions of the world, we are almost contemptible. If you regard us from the viewpoint of learning and philosophy, we cut no great figure. And so, viewing the matter, I asked myself the question, and submit it to you, wherein, then, lies our strength? From what source shall we draw confidence needful to our strength in the great conflict with the world, that confronts us. When I asked myself that question I can, at least in mental vision, see in the heavens a scroll, and upon it, these words— "Principles — by these conquer." The principles, of course, are those of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therein lies our strength—not in numbers, not in wealth, certainly not in political influence, certainly not in renown for learning, but in the truth or principles we have received from God, we are strong; not so much, either, because of the little truth that has been revealed to us, the little knowledge to which we have attained, but more because of that great ocean of knowledge that we have access to, through one of the great principles we announce as a doctrine to the world, namely this : "We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important truths pertaining to the kingdom of God in these last days." Through the acceptance of that doctrine we have access to God's hidden treasures of knowledge; which, in comparison of that which men in this world have received, is as some mighty ocean to a lakelet. We have only a part of that truth; but we have in the foregoing article of our faith the principle through which more of that truth can be learned. Now, do not misunderstand me; I do not for an instant belittle the truth we have already received, because of this great ocean of truth that exists, at present, outside of our consciousness. In this new dispensation of the gospel, we indeed have received great truths, and precious withal. God has revealed himself unto His Witness of the new dispensation, Joseph Smith, in a most effective, splendid manner. We know something of the character, and even something of the form and features of that mighty Intelligence that stands in the councils of the gods, and out of whose wisdom and power creation and guidance comes as to the affairs of this universe. God has made known unto us, indeed, that Jesus Christ is the express image of the Father, and that as the Christ was, in form and feature, in intellectual and moral quality, in the attributes of soul, so indeed also is the Father. To know this and to know it well, to have it take possession of the consciousness, so that when God is spoken of, the image of the Christ, holding—as He announced to His disciples that He did hold—all power in heaven and in earth; to have such a consciousness of God, so that when His name or title is spoken this vision of God, revealed through the person and nature of the Christ arise, is a very great truth indeed.
The efficacy and power of the atonement of the Christ has been revealed to us. The Church of the Christ with all its order of officers, and with the channels of communication that it opens with God, has been established, which is great gain. To know the means through which we can appropriate the atonement by the Son of God for man—that indeed is great and precious knowledge. These truths, spoken this morning, by Elder Penrose, in relation to the eternity of the relationships of men and women in and after the resurrection of the dead; the renewed assurances of the resurrection from the dead — all these truths that God has made known to His Church, through the principle of revelation, that we accept as true; and as the medium through which God imparts truth unto His Church and unto the world—these, indeed, are great truths and should be held—and we do so hold them—in reverence in very deed. So that in my passing remark and imperfect way of putting the thing, as to the little we know in comparison of what there is yet to learn, it was not my intention, for a moment, to discredit these splendid truths that we have received, merely because I called attention to the fact that outside of these things are many, very many things, yet for us to learn and for God to reveal. The truths of the gospel, and God's method of teaching those truths to the world are such that they appeal to the humblest people. We may say, as one of the world's great poets once said: "Religion * * * is surely a simple business, as it equally concerns the ignorant and the learned, the poor and the rich." One of the most beautiful things in the New Testament is the declaration of the Son of God, in reference to the class of people to whom the gospel was preached in His day. You will remember that His forerunner, John the Baptist, was thrown into prison, and while passing through that gloomy period of his life, he sent messengers to the Christ, saying, "Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?" Jesus sent the disciples of John back to him with this message, "Say that the sick are healed, that the blind see, that the lame walk, and unto the poor is the gospel preached.'' So far in our experience, it has been with us as it was in the former dispensation of the gospel, namely, that it has been the common people who have heard our message gladly. But while that is true, it still remains true, also, that this faith of ours, this system of truth so well adapted to comfort the heart of the common people, the lowly, the simple- minded, the humble people who readily believe, while it is within their reach, and their souls can be filled with it, bringing joy and comfort to them—yet this Mormonism, so long despised as a religion that can only thrive where ignorance is most pronounced; whose officers are reputed in the world to be anxious to keep their people in ignorance, that they may rule them to their advantage, and as with a rod of iron—this religion that has such a reputation in the world is nevertheless essentially a religion for intellectual men. It is a religion the philosophy of which, it seems to me, must appeal to the highest intelligences of the earth, when they shall come to know it. I should be disappointed in it if this was not true; for while religion must appeal to and satisfy the emotional nature, it must also appeal to and satisfy the intellect. I find that satisfaction in the religion of Jesus Christ as made known in the new dispensation of that religion which we have received—the dispensation of the fulness of times.
Of course, the subject that opens up before one by indulging in these reflections, is altogether too large for treatment in a few moments; one thing only can I briefly refer to in this kind. It has been my pleasure and duty, during the past few months, to review and set in order for the study of our Seventies' quorums the doctrine of the atonement of Jesus Christ; and this late inquiry into that subject has had a wonderful effect upon my own thought and state of mind. I have for many years believed in the atonement of Jesus Christ and have accepted its symbols in baptism and in confirmation; and have repeatedly renewed my acceptance of that atonement by accepting the sacrament of the Lord's supper. It has been a matter of faith with me and of knowledge, by the testimony of the Spirit of God to my soul; but upon close inquiry, by deeper delving into the subject, my intellect also gives its full and complete assent to the soundness of the philosophy and the absolute necessity for the atonement of Jesus Christ. That this atonement, the method and manner of it is the only way by which there could be brought to pass an at-one-ment, a reuniting of soul of man with soul of God. I account it for myself a new conversion, an intellectual conversion, to the atonement of Jesus Christ; and I have been rejoicing in it of late, exceedingly. I am convinced that when men of intelligence- can be brought to the point of being sufficiently humble to read again the Book of Mormon, and to take into account the high purposes for which it was written, viz., to testify to the truth of the Jewish scriptures, but more especially to testify of the Christ, to bear witness of Him both to Jew and Gentile; testifying that Jesus is the Christ, and that there is no other means of salvation provided but through His atonement. When they will consider the message it has to bear upon these important questions, and will stop sneering at such human elements as may be in it, and will examine once more its teachings upon the great theme of salvation through the atonement of the Christ, they can indeed find wisdom and philosophy and truth in its doctrines. I proclaim to you, my brethren and sisters, that in the Book of Mormon, more than in any other book written in this world, and I do not except the New Testament—in the Book of Mormon more than in any other book, we have there the necessity of, and the truth of the atonement of the Christ taught to the children of men as nowhere else. I rejoice in these truths; may the Lord seal them upon our hearts and give us grace and strength to live in harmony with them, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
We thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet,
To guide us in these latter days;
We thank Thee for sending the Gospel
To lighten our minds with its rays.
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Samuel O. Bennion.
Conference adjourned until Sunday morning, April 9th.
(Of the First Council of Seventy.)
It has become something of a truism with the Latter-day Saints, that every conference is the best one. The last conference is always the best. I feel in my own heart that this is the best conference I ever attended. My spirit, in listening to the brethren, has been lighter and my heart better satisfied when contemplating the truths to which our attention has been called. I do not know how well I shall succeed in concentrating my thought and giving expression to some reflections that have passed through my mind; and certainly I never felt more dependent upon the Lord and the inspiration of His spirit than I do at this moment. There is one thing that has occurred to my mind, several times, by reason of that which has been spoken to us. It is an historical incident. It is recorded of the first Christian emperor of Rome, that when leading his armies against those who were contesting with him the mastery of the Roman empire, that at mid-day he saw in the heavens a luminous cross, and written upon a scroll were these words. "By this conquer." This vision of the day was supplemented by a dream of the night, in which the Christ appeared to Constantine and instructed him to place this insignia of the cross and these words, "By this conquer," upon his banners, and success should crown his arms. It is a question with historians, whether this circumstance really happened, or was only an invention of a man noted for his cunning, Constantine, and if we judge the circumstance by the character of the man, we could at least readily believe that it was an invention. But whether an invention or not, it is certainly a wonderful legend, and it will introduce an idea that came to my mind in respect to the matters of our conference, and in relation to the Latter-day Saints and the great work of God committed to their hands. If you view our people with reference to their numbers of course we are an insignificant people. If you regard them in relation to their influence in the financial world, we are almost a negligible quantity. If we think upon ourselves as we are regarded by the great religions of the world, we are almost contemptible. If you regard us from the viewpoint of learning and philosophy, we cut no great figure. And so, viewing the matter, I asked myself the question, and submit it to you, wherein, then, lies our strength? From what source shall we draw confidence needful to our strength in the great conflict with the world, that confronts us. When I asked myself that question I can, at least in mental vision, see in the heavens a scroll, and upon it, these words— "Principles — by these conquer." The principles, of course, are those of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therein lies our strength—not in numbers, not in wealth, certainly not in political influence, certainly not in renown for learning, but in the truth or principles we have received from God, we are strong; not so much, either, because of the little truth that has been revealed to us, the little knowledge to which we have attained, but more because of that great ocean of knowledge that we have access to, through one of the great principles we announce as a doctrine to the world, namely this : "We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important truths pertaining to the kingdom of God in these last days." Through the acceptance of that doctrine we have access to God's hidden treasures of knowledge; which, in comparison of that which men in this world have received, is as some mighty ocean to a lakelet. We have only a part of that truth; but we have in the foregoing article of our faith the principle through which more of that truth can be learned. Now, do not misunderstand me; I do not for an instant belittle the truth we have already received, because of this great ocean of truth that exists, at present, outside of our consciousness. In this new dispensation of the gospel, we indeed have received great truths, and precious withal. God has revealed himself unto His Witness of the new dispensation, Joseph Smith, in a most effective, splendid manner. We know something of the character, and even something of the form and features of that mighty Intelligence that stands in the councils of the gods, and out of whose wisdom and power creation and guidance comes as to the affairs of this universe. God has made known unto us, indeed, that Jesus Christ is the express image of the Father, and that as the Christ was, in form and feature, in intellectual and moral quality, in the attributes of soul, so indeed also is the Father. To know this and to know it well, to have it take possession of the consciousness, so that when God is spoken of, the image of the Christ, holding—as He announced to His disciples that He did hold—all power in heaven and in earth; to have such a consciousness of God, so that when His name or title is spoken this vision of God, revealed through the person and nature of the Christ arise, is a very great truth indeed.
The efficacy and power of the atonement of the Christ has been revealed to us. The Church of the Christ with all its order of officers, and with the channels of communication that it opens with God, has been established, which is great gain. To know the means through which we can appropriate the atonement by the Son of God for man—that indeed is great and precious knowledge. These truths, spoken this morning, by Elder Penrose, in relation to the eternity of the relationships of men and women in and after the resurrection of the dead; the renewed assurances of the resurrection from the dead — all these truths that God has made known to His Church, through the principle of revelation, that we accept as true; and as the medium through which God imparts truth unto His Church and unto the world—these, indeed, are great truths and should be held—and we do so hold them—in reverence in very deed. So that in my passing remark and imperfect way of putting the thing, as to the little we know in comparison of what there is yet to learn, it was not my intention, for a moment, to discredit these splendid truths that we have received, merely because I called attention to the fact that outside of these things are many, very many things, yet for us to learn and for God to reveal. The truths of the gospel, and God's method of teaching those truths to the world are such that they appeal to the humblest people. We may say, as one of the world's great poets once said: "Religion * * * is surely a simple business, as it equally concerns the ignorant and the learned, the poor and the rich." One of the most beautiful things in the New Testament is the declaration of the Son of God, in reference to the class of people to whom the gospel was preached in His day. You will remember that His forerunner, John the Baptist, was thrown into prison, and while passing through that gloomy period of his life, he sent messengers to the Christ, saying, "Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?" Jesus sent the disciples of John back to him with this message, "Say that the sick are healed, that the blind see, that the lame walk, and unto the poor is the gospel preached.'' So far in our experience, it has been with us as it was in the former dispensation of the gospel, namely, that it has been the common people who have heard our message gladly. But while that is true, it still remains true, also, that this faith of ours, this system of truth so well adapted to comfort the heart of the common people, the lowly, the simple- minded, the humble people who readily believe, while it is within their reach, and their souls can be filled with it, bringing joy and comfort to them—yet this Mormonism, so long despised as a religion that can only thrive where ignorance is most pronounced; whose officers are reputed in the world to be anxious to keep their people in ignorance, that they may rule them to their advantage, and as with a rod of iron—this religion that has such a reputation in the world is nevertheless essentially a religion for intellectual men. It is a religion the philosophy of which, it seems to me, must appeal to the highest intelligences of the earth, when they shall come to know it. I should be disappointed in it if this was not true; for while religion must appeal to and satisfy the emotional nature, it must also appeal to and satisfy the intellect. I find that satisfaction in the religion of Jesus Christ as made known in the new dispensation of that religion which we have received—the dispensation of the fulness of times.
Of course, the subject that opens up before one by indulging in these reflections, is altogether too large for treatment in a few moments; one thing only can I briefly refer to in this kind. It has been my pleasure and duty, during the past few months, to review and set in order for the study of our Seventies' quorums the doctrine of the atonement of Jesus Christ; and this late inquiry into that subject has had a wonderful effect upon my own thought and state of mind. I have for many years believed in the atonement of Jesus Christ and have accepted its symbols in baptism and in confirmation; and have repeatedly renewed my acceptance of that atonement by accepting the sacrament of the Lord's supper. It has been a matter of faith with me and of knowledge, by the testimony of the Spirit of God to my soul; but upon close inquiry, by deeper delving into the subject, my intellect also gives its full and complete assent to the soundness of the philosophy and the absolute necessity for the atonement of Jesus Christ. That this atonement, the method and manner of it is the only way by which there could be brought to pass an at-one-ment, a reuniting of soul of man with soul of God. I account it for myself a new conversion, an intellectual conversion, to the atonement of Jesus Christ; and I have been rejoicing in it of late, exceedingly. I am convinced that when men of intelligence- can be brought to the point of being sufficiently humble to read again the Book of Mormon, and to take into account the high purposes for which it was written, viz., to testify to the truth of the Jewish scriptures, but more especially to testify of the Christ, to bear witness of Him both to Jew and Gentile; testifying that Jesus is the Christ, and that there is no other means of salvation provided but through His atonement. When they will consider the message it has to bear upon these important questions, and will stop sneering at such human elements as may be in it, and will examine once more its teachings upon the great theme of salvation through the atonement of the Christ, they can indeed find wisdom and philosophy and truth in its doctrines. I proclaim to you, my brethren and sisters, that in the Book of Mormon, more than in any other book written in this world, and I do not except the New Testament—in the Book of Mormon more than in any other book, we have there the necessity of, and the truth of the atonement of the Christ taught to the children of men as nowhere else. I rejoice in these truths; may the Lord seal them upon our hearts and give us grace and strength to live in harmony with them, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn:
We thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet,
To guide us in these latter days;
We thank Thee for sending the Gospel
To lighten our minds with its rays.
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Samuel O. Bennion.
Conference adjourned until Sunday morning, April 9th.
THIRD DAY.
In the Tabernacle, Sunday, April 9th, 10 a. m.
Conference was called to order by President Joseph F. Smith, and he announced that overflow meetings will convene this morning, and afternoon, in the Assembly Hall, for the benefit of the many who can not be accommodated in the overcrowded Tabernacle.
The choir sang the hymn:
O awake! my slumb'ring minstrel,
Let my harp forget its spell;
Say, O say, in sweetest accents,
Zion prospers, all is well.
Prayer was offered by Elder Melvin J. Ballard.
The choir sang the hymn:
I know that my Redeemer lives;
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my ever-living head.
In the Tabernacle, Sunday, April 9th, 10 a. m.
Conference was called to order by President Joseph F. Smith, and he announced that overflow meetings will convene this morning, and afternoon, in the Assembly Hall, for the benefit of the many who can not be accommodated in the overcrowded Tabernacle.
The choir sang the hymn:
O awake! my slumb'ring minstrel,
Let my harp forget its spell;
Say, O say, in sweetest accents,
Zion prospers, all is well.
Prayer was offered by Elder Melvin J. Ballard.
The choir sang the hymn:
I know that my Redeemer lives;
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my ever-living head.
ELDER DAVID O. M'KAY.
Meaning of God's word should not be modified.—Science proves that alcohol, even in small quantity, is injurious. — Pathetic appeal of an Indian chief. Prohibition a good business proposition.— Evil effects of use of tobacco demonstrated.
You who have been called upon to occupy the position of instructing the congregations of Israel will know what responsibility rests upon him who has the duty of edifying and instructing the soul; and I would ask you, this morning, who realize this that you will offer the prayer for me that you have desired others to offer for you, for I assure you I sense the need of God's help and inspiration this morning.
On the 27th of February, 1833, the Prophet Joseph Smith received the revelation recorded in the 89th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. Seventy-eight years have passed since God gave that revelation to His Church, through His great latter-day prophet. I want to read a few paragraphs from that section:
"Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, in consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation.
"That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him.
"And, behold, this should be wine, yea, pure wine of the grape of the vine, of your own make."
It is recorded that the Lord said to His servants that in consequence of the adulteration in the wine produced from the grape of the vine, pure water is acceptable to Him, even in the administration of the Lord's supper.
The particular sentence that I wish to call attention to is this: "Inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink * * behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father." That is the word of God to the people of this generation. It stands with just as much force as the words of the Savior, "If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself." Latter-day Saints, you know this statement of the Savior's is true; we testify that if any man will do the will of God he will get the testimony, in his heart and in his life, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. We accept the words of the Savior, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Those eternal truths, so tersely expressed, we accept as true. We may not live up to them wholly, but as a people we accept them, because they are the word of God. Just so strong, just so eternal stands this truth expressed seventy-eight years ago, the 27th day of last February, "Strong drink is not good for man." Yet those seventy-eight years have passed, and during that time this doctrine has been preached every week, if not every day, in some congregation of Israel, and still we find in our midst a few who say, by their acts. It is good for man. I am glad when I study this passage, to find that the Lord did not say, "Strong drink to excess is not good;" nor "Drunkenness is not good." Suppose He had weakened that expression by modifying it and saying, "Strong drink in excess, or when taken in large quantities, is not good," how soon we should have justified ourselves that a little drink is good. But like other eternal truths it stands unqualified; strong drink is not good. I have met men, particularly during the agitation that is now manifested against the liquor evil, who have said: "I do not want to be deprived of the privilege of taking a little, if I want it. When I think it is going to do me good, I want to take it." Others, I rather think, would say that the Church is a little too strict in regard to the word of wisdom: "A little beer," they say, "does not hurt anyone; a little wine is not injurious." Well, it is sufficient for me to know that God has said, "Wine, strong drink, is not good for man;" and I wish that all Israel would accept that divine statement, and prove in their lives to the whole world that they accept this as a revelation from God. That is the best way to close your saloons in your towns. It is the most effective.
But we have many in our towns who do not accept that as the word of God; then I suggest that they accept the confirmations of science of the truth of that statement of the Lord's. Recent investigations by scientific men prove conclusively the truthfulness of this revelation, of this doctrine. I have in mind one series of investigations carried on by a man who started his investigations with the avowed purpose of defending the virtue of a little wine and beer, that is, taken in small quantities. Professor Kreplin of the Heidelberg University, of Germany, a few years ago, carried on a series of experiments among his students. Professor Kreplin, of all men, we are told, was one particularly qualified to make such an investigation, because he is accepted as authority throughout all the scientific world. Now, mind you, he accepted the truth that wine taken in large qualities was injurious, but he wanted to prove whether there was not a little virtue in these intoxicants when taken only in small quantities. So he took several students who were willing to make the experiment, and tested them on a series of problems in addition. For six days, a half hour each day, these students worked the best they could at their problems. Then a little alcohol was given them, about two and a half tablespoonfuls in the wine they drank. They continued their work until the thirteenth day, Professor Kreplin measuring accurately each day the result of their efforts. Every day during that time, up to the thirteenth day, after they began to take that alcohol, the students diminished in their ability to add. Then they were deprived of the drink, and they added until the nineteenth day, and each day they increased, until they regained their former power or ability which they manifested when they were in their normal state. Then alcohol was again given them in small quantities and again the diminished power was manifest; and so the test continued until it was proved conclusively that alcohol diminishes the intellectual power, even when taken in small quantities. They tried it in that same city with the typesetters. Four experts were taken, and alcohol administered in small quantities, and then taken from them, and the same work performed. Four of these experts were tested, and the same result, the same testimony is given to the work by the typesetters that is given by the test of the students, that alcohol, even small quantities is not good for man.
The Swedish government tried it among its soldiers. I think it was Lieutenant Boy who was given that responsibility, and he chose his sharpshooters; watched carefully the tests, and noted the rapidity of the shots when the men were not under the influence of alcohol. He counted the number of shots when in their normal state and compared the number when small quantities of alcohol had been administered, sometimes even twenty-four hours before the test; and in all cases but one the test proved that the soldier in his normal state excelled himself when he was under the influence of the liquor, that is, when he had liquor in him, even to the extent of three tablespoonfuls, though taken hours before the test, or immediately before, he could not come up to his record made when he was in his normal state. The government soldiers there proved the truth, by experiment, that alcohol, strong drink is not good. But here—The students thought they were adding more rapidly when they had the alcohol in them; the typesetters thought they were doing more rapid work when they had the alcohol in them; the soldiers thought they were shooting more rapidly when drinking; but in each case they were deceived. The professors and those conducting the experiments proved beyond a doubt that the men upon whom the test was applied undermined their ability when they had taken the drink, though but little had been given to them; and this was extended to quantities.
I am glad that our government, the greatest on earth, has also declared that strong drink is not good for man. It came about this way: One hundred years ago or more, this government made a celebrated treaty with the Indians, the treaty of the five nations. Soon after that treaty was made, the chief was invited to a banquet at Baltimore, and he was asked to give a speech, and to ask for what he wanted. "Little Turtle" was his name, and the interpretation of that speech is in the archives of the Congressional library at Washington. The representatives of our government, no doubt, expected him to say what material gifts his people would like from the government. This is what he said: :
"Brothers and friends,—It is this liquor that causes our young men to go without clothes, our women and children to go without anything to eat. Sorry am I to mention it to you, brothers, that the evil is increasing every day. Brothers, when our young men have been out hunting and return home loaded with skins and furs, on their way, if they come along where some of this whiskey is deposited, the white man who sells it tells them to take a little of it and drink. Some will then say, 'No, I do not want it.' They go to the next; it is there again offered. They refuse again, the second time; and finally the fourth or fifth time one accepts it ana takes a drink; and getting one he wants another, then a third and fourth until his senses have left him. After his reason comes back again, he gets up and finds where he is. He asks for his peltry. The answer is, 'You have drunk them.' 'Where is my gun?' 'It is gone.' 'Where is my blanket?' 'It is gone.' 'Where is my shirt?' 'You have sold it for whiskey.' Now, brothers, figure to yourselves what a condition this man must be in. He has a family at home, a wife, and children that stand in need of the profits of his hunting. This, brothers, I can assure you is a fact that often happens amongst us. As I have before observed, we have no means to prevent it. It is not an evil, brothers, of our own making. We have not placed it amongst ourselves." [Can you doubt that the blood of Israel was in that old chief's veins?] "It is an evil placed amongst us by the white people. We look up to them to remove it out of the country. Our repeated entreaties to those who brought this evil amongst us, we find, have not the desired effect. We tell them, brothers, to fetch us useful things; bring goods that will clothe our women and children, and not this evil liquor that destroys our reason, that destroys our health, that destroys our lives; but all we can say on this subject is of no service, nor gives relief to your red brethren. Our young men say we had better be at war with the white people. This liquor which they brought into our country is more to be feared than the gun and the tomahawk. There are more of us dead since the treaty of Greenville than we lost by the six years' war; and it is all owing to the introduction of this liquor amongst us. Brothers and friends, since the introduction amongst us of what you call spirituous liquors, and what we think may justly be called poison, our numbers have greatly diminished; it has destroyed a great number of your red brethren."
I will not say that this speech was the only thing that influenced our government to make the treaty with the Indians, but it was one thing that influenced them, and whatever else entered into it, this fact remains, that the government has declared that, so far as the Indians are concerned, strong drink is not good. Soon after that. Congress passed this law:
"The United States agrees to maintain strict laws in the territory of said nation, against the introduction, sale, barter, or giving away of liquors or intoxicants of any kind or quality." And when these nations were about to be admitted as a state, in the Union, the people were concerned deeply as to this Question, whether saloons would then be established in their midst. You will recall the fight that was on there, for two years, and you know that it was finally settled by the uniting of the Indian territory and the State of Oklahoma, and the whole was called Oklahoma; and in the constitution there today we find a repetition of this promise by the government, that for the next twenty- one years, at least, there is a total prohibition of the sale, barter, or giving away of intoxicating liquors in the new state of Oklahoma, and as long thereafter as the people maintain it, that is, until they, by vote, change that constitution. Our government, in its treaty with these Indians, affirms the truth, strong drink is not good.
You have confirmed it in your own experience. There is, perhaps, not one person in the sound of my voice who cannot now think of some dear relative, or some dear schoolmate or friend whose life testifies that strong drink is not good; and you know that at one time that young man said : "I will take only a little. I can stop it. I have not the appetite." But It soon got hold of him, and diminished his power from the beginning until he lost wife—(I have in mind one man now, as I repeat these words), until he lost wife, children, position, honor, life itself. You, perhaps, have stood by the grave of just such a loved one, and you felt and knew that he was filling a drunkard's grave.
Well, but we all accept that truth, you say, and the only question is upon the best means of ridding ourselves of the evil. On the twenty-seventh of June, this year, all Israel, at least in this state, shall have an opportunity to declare themselves in favor of or against God's truth that alcohol, strong drink in any of its forms is not good for man. They will tell you. We want to get rid of the saloons all right, but we can't do it. Prohibition, they will say, will, not prohibit. I say, prohibition will prohibit as well as any other law will prohibit the transgression of it. Two things we ought to keep in mind,—First, we want the sentiment of the people back of it; and second, we want officers elected in the communities who are in harmony with that public sentiment. Who make the public sentiment? You people; every man, by the expression of his thought, by his act, in his business circles, in his meetings, in his home everywhere; every one contributes to that public opinion. Do not think that other men control it; and conclude that just because another man says public opinion is not in favor of it, that you are justified in changing your idea on it. You contribute to that public opinion. If you think strong drink is not good, then give expression to that thought, and you contribute in making the public sentiment or opinion in your community in favor of the truth—Strong drink is not good for man. It is in your power to elect men who will enforce that law. I have in mind now the remark of one of our best chiefs of police who, when asked the question, "If this state go dry, can you with your force find out where they are selling liquor unlawfully?" "Yes," said he, "if the public sentiment is back of it, we can stop the illegal selling." The testimony of twenty-nine district judges of the thirty-eight in the state of Kansas is to the effect that prohibition prohibits; that this law can be enforced just as well as the law against horse-stealing or any other crime. Governor Stubbs of that state testifies to the same fact.
They will tell you that we will go dry if our neighboring town will go dry. For example: Fairview will vote dry, if Mount Pleasant will go dry. Ogden will go dry, if Salt Lake will go dry. That argument can be answered by showing that it is a poor business investment for any town to license saloons. They will say, also, that it will demoralize our business interests—we need the revenue. Oh, I wish that objection might be answered as a Japanese lawmaker answered a similar objection, when that government was passing a prohibitory law against the use of cigarettes. A man arose in the house of peers, M. Izawa, and said: "A few days ago some one sent us some printed matter. What was written thereon? It was written that should this bill become a law of the nation, there would be a loss of yen 200,000 to the national treasury. Nonsense! He is a traitor! He is willing to sacrifice the character of our youths simply for yen 200,000. What wickedness! Such person would most surely try to urge the use of opium by and by. As there are such traitors, this bill must by all means be carried unanimously, and thus the honor and wisdom of this House will be vindicated before the public."
The bill passed unanimously, and today, that prohibitory law is in force in the country of Japan. But that is not a sufficient answer to those who think of it in a business way. You know it is sometimes charged that it is a Utopian idea to seek for prohibition under present conditions; but it is also a practical idea, for the largest business concerns in the United States today have adopted it; the railroads controlling a business that excels all others unless it be the insurance companies, have adopted prohibitory measures among their employees. It was not so a few years ago. Now, they have not adopted it just for moral purposes; they found out it was to their financial interest, to introduce prohibitory laws. I could read of railroad after railroad that has passed prohibitory law in regard to its employees, and today the railroad men stand on a much higher elevation, and the million men engaged in that work, carrying in their power millions of people, occupy a higher position, socially, morally, and financially, because of the adoption of these measures. The insurance companies the same. Here is another thing : a Mr. Boyce, who has studied this question, for years, in the United States, gives out the statement, that crime, in the United States costs this government S6.20 for every man, woman, and child in the nation. He says further that the crimes due to alcohol cost out of that $6.20, $4.34. This average is obtained after careful study — the result of an investigation of years. What does it mean when applied? It means that in Ogden, where there are fifty saloons, approximately, each one giving to the city council a license, that is a contribution or tax of $1,200 a year, gives to the city council an income of $60,000 a year—quite an income; it keeps down your taxes; doesn't it? So men say "we do not want to do away with that revenue. We do not want to do away with it because we need that revenue to pave sidewalks, to build the sewer, to bring the water from the mountains into our homes." They did not stop to consider the cost of paving streets with the broken hearts of women, and the depraved souls of men. But $60,000, let us see,—if those figures of Mr. Boyce be correct, Ogden pays $4.34 for the 26,000 people in that town, making an expenditure of $112,000 to offset the $60,000! Salt Lake City has about 140 saloons, each one paying $1,500 annually, making an income to this city of $210,000, approximately. Ninety thousand inhabitants here. According to the average of crime in the United States, Salt Lake pays out $390,000 when it receives only $210,000. Cut down that expense of $4.34 to $2.17 and then where is the gain? Where is the gain?
A few years ago, a slave in the United States was worth $1,000. Is not your boy worth as much, from a business standpoint? And the state is only a business. Is not that boy worth a thousand dollars to the state and to this nation? Count the number of ruined boys at a thousand dollars; add that to the expense of crime and then see whether it is good business to keep the open saloon. I think it is not. We are standing in our own light. Governor Stubbs, after twenty years experience, that is, after Kansas has had twenty years experience, gives this testimony regarding the financial phase of it: "I assert," he says, "that the business of Kansas has made more progress since the banishment of the saloon and the adoption of prohibition." Wichita was the last town in Kansas to go dry. The great argument was that it would ruin business. This is the testimony: "Three years ago, open saloons were abolished in Wichita. Since then weekly clearances have increased from $1,400,000 to $3,200,000," and so on, showing improvement on all sides.
There is another evil that is second only to the saloon evil, namely, the evil of cigarette smoking; which is growing among the young. The Lord says, in the same revelation, "Tobacco is not for the body, and is not good for man." Let the quorums throughout the Church make a strenuous effort to free every man and boy who has contracted that habit, from the indulgence in it. Science proves, experiments prove in athletics, among soldiers, in the schools, the government, the railroads, the truthfulness of God's word in regard to tobacco. The waste in this government annually, from this source, is enormous. When we say it costs three million dollars, eight million dollars, or whatever the total is, I can't recall, it means nothing to us; but the superintendent of the sanitariums in England, Australia, and America, has placed this so that we can understand it:
"The amount spent in the United States alone, for tobacco, each year, would enable me to provide 30,000, families each year with all the necessities of life; in addition I could grant an allowance of $5,000 to each of 10,000 families; to each of 10,000 others I could give $10,000; to each of 1,000 other heads of families I could make a Christmas present of $50,000; to each of another 1,000 I could give $100,000; and besides to each of 500 of my best friends I could make an annual allowance of $1,000,000. After doing all this I would still have left each year $20,000,000 to bestow on charitable institutions, and at least $10,000,000 left to keep the wolf from the door. Four hundred years ago," he says, "the use of tobacco was unknown in civilized lands. Today it is used by men, women, and children, degeneracy has been the result. What the coming generations will be, if this curse continues to increase, as it has in the past, does not present a picture pleasant to contemplate."
Brethren and sisters, the Lord has said to us, these things are not good. We know that He has spoken, and that He has given this and other truths to the world. Oh, I plead that we may, as a people, stand true from now on, as we never have before, to this divine word, that we may set an example to the world, in temperance, and sobriety, and that our fair state and every city therein. Salt Lake and Ogden included, may declare on the 27th of June, against the vile, insidious, treacherous and damning influence of the open saloon. May we live up to the other principles of the- Gospel of Christ, and show to the world that God has spoken to us, that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, that his successors are inspired men and His prophets, that the president of this Church stands as His mouthpiece to the people, and that the Latter-day Saints—reviled and persecuted, however much they may be—stand today as the choicest and purest people in the world. This is my prayer, and I ask it, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The contralto solo, "Fear not ye, oh Israel," was rendered by Sister Florence Jeppersen.
Meaning of God's word should not be modified.—Science proves that alcohol, even in small quantity, is injurious. — Pathetic appeal of an Indian chief. Prohibition a good business proposition.— Evil effects of use of tobacco demonstrated.
You who have been called upon to occupy the position of instructing the congregations of Israel will know what responsibility rests upon him who has the duty of edifying and instructing the soul; and I would ask you, this morning, who realize this that you will offer the prayer for me that you have desired others to offer for you, for I assure you I sense the need of God's help and inspiration this morning.
On the 27th of February, 1833, the Prophet Joseph Smith received the revelation recorded in the 89th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. Seventy-eight years have passed since God gave that revelation to His Church, through His great latter-day prophet. I want to read a few paragraphs from that section:
"Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, in consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation.
"That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him.
"And, behold, this should be wine, yea, pure wine of the grape of the vine, of your own make."
It is recorded that the Lord said to His servants that in consequence of the adulteration in the wine produced from the grape of the vine, pure water is acceptable to Him, even in the administration of the Lord's supper.
The particular sentence that I wish to call attention to is this: "Inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink * * behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father." That is the word of God to the people of this generation. It stands with just as much force as the words of the Savior, "If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself." Latter-day Saints, you know this statement of the Savior's is true; we testify that if any man will do the will of God he will get the testimony, in his heart and in his life, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. We accept the words of the Savior, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Those eternal truths, so tersely expressed, we accept as true. We may not live up to them wholly, but as a people we accept them, because they are the word of God. Just so strong, just so eternal stands this truth expressed seventy-eight years ago, the 27th day of last February, "Strong drink is not good for man." Yet those seventy-eight years have passed, and during that time this doctrine has been preached every week, if not every day, in some congregation of Israel, and still we find in our midst a few who say, by their acts. It is good for man. I am glad when I study this passage, to find that the Lord did not say, "Strong drink to excess is not good;" nor "Drunkenness is not good." Suppose He had weakened that expression by modifying it and saying, "Strong drink in excess, or when taken in large quantities, is not good," how soon we should have justified ourselves that a little drink is good. But like other eternal truths it stands unqualified; strong drink is not good. I have met men, particularly during the agitation that is now manifested against the liquor evil, who have said: "I do not want to be deprived of the privilege of taking a little, if I want it. When I think it is going to do me good, I want to take it." Others, I rather think, would say that the Church is a little too strict in regard to the word of wisdom: "A little beer," they say, "does not hurt anyone; a little wine is not injurious." Well, it is sufficient for me to know that God has said, "Wine, strong drink, is not good for man;" and I wish that all Israel would accept that divine statement, and prove in their lives to the whole world that they accept this as a revelation from God. That is the best way to close your saloons in your towns. It is the most effective.
But we have many in our towns who do not accept that as the word of God; then I suggest that they accept the confirmations of science of the truth of that statement of the Lord's. Recent investigations by scientific men prove conclusively the truthfulness of this revelation, of this doctrine. I have in mind one series of investigations carried on by a man who started his investigations with the avowed purpose of defending the virtue of a little wine and beer, that is, taken in small quantities. Professor Kreplin of the Heidelberg University, of Germany, a few years ago, carried on a series of experiments among his students. Professor Kreplin, of all men, we are told, was one particularly qualified to make such an investigation, because he is accepted as authority throughout all the scientific world. Now, mind you, he accepted the truth that wine taken in large qualities was injurious, but he wanted to prove whether there was not a little virtue in these intoxicants when taken only in small quantities. So he took several students who were willing to make the experiment, and tested them on a series of problems in addition. For six days, a half hour each day, these students worked the best they could at their problems. Then a little alcohol was given them, about two and a half tablespoonfuls in the wine they drank. They continued their work until the thirteenth day, Professor Kreplin measuring accurately each day the result of their efforts. Every day during that time, up to the thirteenth day, after they began to take that alcohol, the students diminished in their ability to add. Then they were deprived of the drink, and they added until the nineteenth day, and each day they increased, until they regained their former power or ability which they manifested when they were in their normal state. Then alcohol was again given them in small quantities and again the diminished power was manifest; and so the test continued until it was proved conclusively that alcohol diminishes the intellectual power, even when taken in small quantities. They tried it in that same city with the typesetters. Four experts were taken, and alcohol administered in small quantities, and then taken from them, and the same work performed. Four of these experts were tested, and the same result, the same testimony is given to the work by the typesetters that is given by the test of the students, that alcohol, even small quantities is not good for man.
The Swedish government tried it among its soldiers. I think it was Lieutenant Boy who was given that responsibility, and he chose his sharpshooters; watched carefully the tests, and noted the rapidity of the shots when the men were not under the influence of alcohol. He counted the number of shots when in their normal state and compared the number when small quantities of alcohol had been administered, sometimes even twenty-four hours before the test; and in all cases but one the test proved that the soldier in his normal state excelled himself when he was under the influence of the liquor, that is, when he had liquor in him, even to the extent of three tablespoonfuls, though taken hours before the test, or immediately before, he could not come up to his record made when he was in his normal state. The government soldiers there proved the truth, by experiment, that alcohol, strong drink is not good. But here—The students thought they were adding more rapidly when they had the alcohol in them; the typesetters thought they were doing more rapid work when they had the alcohol in them; the soldiers thought they were shooting more rapidly when drinking; but in each case they were deceived. The professors and those conducting the experiments proved beyond a doubt that the men upon whom the test was applied undermined their ability when they had taken the drink, though but little had been given to them; and this was extended to quantities.
I am glad that our government, the greatest on earth, has also declared that strong drink is not good for man. It came about this way: One hundred years ago or more, this government made a celebrated treaty with the Indians, the treaty of the five nations. Soon after that treaty was made, the chief was invited to a banquet at Baltimore, and he was asked to give a speech, and to ask for what he wanted. "Little Turtle" was his name, and the interpretation of that speech is in the archives of the Congressional library at Washington. The representatives of our government, no doubt, expected him to say what material gifts his people would like from the government. This is what he said: :
"Brothers and friends,—It is this liquor that causes our young men to go without clothes, our women and children to go without anything to eat. Sorry am I to mention it to you, brothers, that the evil is increasing every day. Brothers, when our young men have been out hunting and return home loaded with skins and furs, on their way, if they come along where some of this whiskey is deposited, the white man who sells it tells them to take a little of it and drink. Some will then say, 'No, I do not want it.' They go to the next; it is there again offered. They refuse again, the second time; and finally the fourth or fifth time one accepts it ana takes a drink; and getting one he wants another, then a third and fourth until his senses have left him. After his reason comes back again, he gets up and finds where he is. He asks for his peltry. The answer is, 'You have drunk them.' 'Where is my gun?' 'It is gone.' 'Where is my blanket?' 'It is gone.' 'Where is my shirt?' 'You have sold it for whiskey.' Now, brothers, figure to yourselves what a condition this man must be in. He has a family at home, a wife, and children that stand in need of the profits of his hunting. This, brothers, I can assure you is a fact that often happens amongst us. As I have before observed, we have no means to prevent it. It is not an evil, brothers, of our own making. We have not placed it amongst ourselves." [Can you doubt that the blood of Israel was in that old chief's veins?] "It is an evil placed amongst us by the white people. We look up to them to remove it out of the country. Our repeated entreaties to those who brought this evil amongst us, we find, have not the desired effect. We tell them, brothers, to fetch us useful things; bring goods that will clothe our women and children, and not this evil liquor that destroys our reason, that destroys our health, that destroys our lives; but all we can say on this subject is of no service, nor gives relief to your red brethren. Our young men say we had better be at war with the white people. This liquor which they brought into our country is more to be feared than the gun and the tomahawk. There are more of us dead since the treaty of Greenville than we lost by the six years' war; and it is all owing to the introduction of this liquor amongst us. Brothers and friends, since the introduction amongst us of what you call spirituous liquors, and what we think may justly be called poison, our numbers have greatly diminished; it has destroyed a great number of your red brethren."
I will not say that this speech was the only thing that influenced our government to make the treaty with the Indians, but it was one thing that influenced them, and whatever else entered into it, this fact remains, that the government has declared that, so far as the Indians are concerned, strong drink is not good. Soon after that. Congress passed this law:
"The United States agrees to maintain strict laws in the territory of said nation, against the introduction, sale, barter, or giving away of liquors or intoxicants of any kind or quality." And when these nations were about to be admitted as a state, in the Union, the people were concerned deeply as to this Question, whether saloons would then be established in their midst. You will recall the fight that was on there, for two years, and you know that it was finally settled by the uniting of the Indian territory and the State of Oklahoma, and the whole was called Oklahoma; and in the constitution there today we find a repetition of this promise by the government, that for the next twenty- one years, at least, there is a total prohibition of the sale, barter, or giving away of intoxicating liquors in the new state of Oklahoma, and as long thereafter as the people maintain it, that is, until they, by vote, change that constitution. Our government, in its treaty with these Indians, affirms the truth, strong drink is not good.
You have confirmed it in your own experience. There is, perhaps, not one person in the sound of my voice who cannot now think of some dear relative, or some dear schoolmate or friend whose life testifies that strong drink is not good; and you know that at one time that young man said : "I will take only a little. I can stop it. I have not the appetite." But It soon got hold of him, and diminished his power from the beginning until he lost wife—(I have in mind one man now, as I repeat these words), until he lost wife, children, position, honor, life itself. You, perhaps, have stood by the grave of just such a loved one, and you felt and knew that he was filling a drunkard's grave.
Well, but we all accept that truth, you say, and the only question is upon the best means of ridding ourselves of the evil. On the twenty-seventh of June, this year, all Israel, at least in this state, shall have an opportunity to declare themselves in favor of or against God's truth that alcohol, strong drink in any of its forms is not good for man. They will tell you. We want to get rid of the saloons all right, but we can't do it. Prohibition, they will say, will, not prohibit. I say, prohibition will prohibit as well as any other law will prohibit the transgression of it. Two things we ought to keep in mind,—First, we want the sentiment of the people back of it; and second, we want officers elected in the communities who are in harmony with that public sentiment. Who make the public sentiment? You people; every man, by the expression of his thought, by his act, in his business circles, in his meetings, in his home everywhere; every one contributes to that public opinion. Do not think that other men control it; and conclude that just because another man says public opinion is not in favor of it, that you are justified in changing your idea on it. You contribute to that public opinion. If you think strong drink is not good, then give expression to that thought, and you contribute in making the public sentiment or opinion in your community in favor of the truth—Strong drink is not good for man. It is in your power to elect men who will enforce that law. I have in mind now the remark of one of our best chiefs of police who, when asked the question, "If this state go dry, can you with your force find out where they are selling liquor unlawfully?" "Yes," said he, "if the public sentiment is back of it, we can stop the illegal selling." The testimony of twenty-nine district judges of the thirty-eight in the state of Kansas is to the effect that prohibition prohibits; that this law can be enforced just as well as the law against horse-stealing or any other crime. Governor Stubbs of that state testifies to the same fact.
They will tell you that we will go dry if our neighboring town will go dry. For example: Fairview will vote dry, if Mount Pleasant will go dry. Ogden will go dry, if Salt Lake will go dry. That argument can be answered by showing that it is a poor business investment for any town to license saloons. They will say, also, that it will demoralize our business interests—we need the revenue. Oh, I wish that objection might be answered as a Japanese lawmaker answered a similar objection, when that government was passing a prohibitory law against the use of cigarettes. A man arose in the house of peers, M. Izawa, and said: "A few days ago some one sent us some printed matter. What was written thereon? It was written that should this bill become a law of the nation, there would be a loss of yen 200,000 to the national treasury. Nonsense! He is a traitor! He is willing to sacrifice the character of our youths simply for yen 200,000. What wickedness! Such person would most surely try to urge the use of opium by and by. As there are such traitors, this bill must by all means be carried unanimously, and thus the honor and wisdom of this House will be vindicated before the public."
The bill passed unanimously, and today, that prohibitory law is in force in the country of Japan. But that is not a sufficient answer to those who think of it in a business way. You know it is sometimes charged that it is a Utopian idea to seek for prohibition under present conditions; but it is also a practical idea, for the largest business concerns in the United States today have adopted it; the railroads controlling a business that excels all others unless it be the insurance companies, have adopted prohibitory measures among their employees. It was not so a few years ago. Now, they have not adopted it just for moral purposes; they found out it was to their financial interest, to introduce prohibitory laws. I could read of railroad after railroad that has passed prohibitory law in regard to its employees, and today the railroad men stand on a much higher elevation, and the million men engaged in that work, carrying in their power millions of people, occupy a higher position, socially, morally, and financially, because of the adoption of these measures. The insurance companies the same. Here is another thing : a Mr. Boyce, who has studied this question, for years, in the United States, gives out the statement, that crime, in the United States costs this government S6.20 for every man, woman, and child in the nation. He says further that the crimes due to alcohol cost out of that $6.20, $4.34. This average is obtained after careful study — the result of an investigation of years. What does it mean when applied? It means that in Ogden, where there are fifty saloons, approximately, each one giving to the city council a license, that is a contribution or tax of $1,200 a year, gives to the city council an income of $60,000 a year—quite an income; it keeps down your taxes; doesn't it? So men say "we do not want to do away with that revenue. We do not want to do away with it because we need that revenue to pave sidewalks, to build the sewer, to bring the water from the mountains into our homes." They did not stop to consider the cost of paving streets with the broken hearts of women, and the depraved souls of men. But $60,000, let us see,—if those figures of Mr. Boyce be correct, Ogden pays $4.34 for the 26,000 people in that town, making an expenditure of $112,000 to offset the $60,000! Salt Lake City has about 140 saloons, each one paying $1,500 annually, making an income to this city of $210,000, approximately. Ninety thousand inhabitants here. According to the average of crime in the United States, Salt Lake pays out $390,000 when it receives only $210,000. Cut down that expense of $4.34 to $2.17 and then where is the gain? Where is the gain?
A few years ago, a slave in the United States was worth $1,000. Is not your boy worth as much, from a business standpoint? And the state is only a business. Is not that boy worth a thousand dollars to the state and to this nation? Count the number of ruined boys at a thousand dollars; add that to the expense of crime and then see whether it is good business to keep the open saloon. I think it is not. We are standing in our own light. Governor Stubbs, after twenty years experience, that is, after Kansas has had twenty years experience, gives this testimony regarding the financial phase of it: "I assert," he says, "that the business of Kansas has made more progress since the banishment of the saloon and the adoption of prohibition." Wichita was the last town in Kansas to go dry. The great argument was that it would ruin business. This is the testimony: "Three years ago, open saloons were abolished in Wichita. Since then weekly clearances have increased from $1,400,000 to $3,200,000," and so on, showing improvement on all sides.
There is another evil that is second only to the saloon evil, namely, the evil of cigarette smoking; which is growing among the young. The Lord says, in the same revelation, "Tobacco is not for the body, and is not good for man." Let the quorums throughout the Church make a strenuous effort to free every man and boy who has contracted that habit, from the indulgence in it. Science proves, experiments prove in athletics, among soldiers, in the schools, the government, the railroads, the truthfulness of God's word in regard to tobacco. The waste in this government annually, from this source, is enormous. When we say it costs three million dollars, eight million dollars, or whatever the total is, I can't recall, it means nothing to us; but the superintendent of the sanitariums in England, Australia, and America, has placed this so that we can understand it:
"The amount spent in the United States alone, for tobacco, each year, would enable me to provide 30,000, families each year with all the necessities of life; in addition I could grant an allowance of $5,000 to each of 10,000 families; to each of 10,000 others I could give $10,000; to each of 1,000 other heads of families I could make a Christmas present of $50,000; to each of another 1,000 I could give $100,000; and besides to each of 500 of my best friends I could make an annual allowance of $1,000,000. After doing all this I would still have left each year $20,000,000 to bestow on charitable institutions, and at least $10,000,000 left to keep the wolf from the door. Four hundred years ago," he says, "the use of tobacco was unknown in civilized lands. Today it is used by men, women, and children, degeneracy has been the result. What the coming generations will be, if this curse continues to increase, as it has in the past, does not present a picture pleasant to contemplate."
Brethren and sisters, the Lord has said to us, these things are not good. We know that He has spoken, and that He has given this and other truths to the world. Oh, I plead that we may, as a people, stand true from now on, as we never have before, to this divine word, that we may set an example to the world, in temperance, and sobriety, and that our fair state and every city therein. Salt Lake and Ogden included, may declare on the 27th of June, against the vile, insidious, treacherous and damning influence of the open saloon. May we live up to the other principles of the- Gospel of Christ, and show to the world that God has spoken to us, that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, that his successors are inspired men and His prophets, that the president of this Church stands as His mouthpiece to the people, and that the Latter-day Saints—reviled and persecuted, however much they may be—stand today as the choicest and purest people in the world. This is my prayer, and I ask it, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The contralto solo, "Fear not ye, oh Israel," was rendered by Sister Florence Jeppersen.
ELDER J. GOLDEN KIMBALL.
(Of the First Council of Seventy.)
In a revelation given in the year 1831, the Lord says:
"Behold, thus saith the Lord unto the elders of his Church, who are to return speedily to the land from whence they came. Behold, it pleaseth me, that you have come up hither;
"But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their mouths, but hide the talent which I have given them, because of the fear of man. Wo unto such, for mine anger is kindled against them.
"And it shall come to pass, if they are not more faithful unto me, it shall be taken away, even that which they have;
"For I, the Lord, rule in the heavens above, and among the armies of the earth; and in the day when I shall make up my jewels, all men shall know what it is that bespeaketh the power of God."
In connection with the revelation I will say this: The day of the Laodicean is past, "because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot," saith the voice that spake on the Isle of Patmos, I will spue thee out of my mouth. "There are whole men whose mere bodies are in shameful service, but these half men, these Laodiceans, are the servile souls; they are not worth the trouble and expense of damnation." (Laughter.)
I am very proud to say of myself, as I am going to speak about myself, a few minutes, although it is a little personal, I am proud to testify to the Latter-day Saints that I feel in my heart that every servant of the Lord who has spoken from this stand has felt perfectly free to say the things that they felt were proper to say, and which they were inspired of the Lord to say. I appreciate the difficulties; I comprehend that there are those, perhaps, in the Church and out of it, that cut, and cull, and criticize, and that is about all they do; they are disposed to close the mouths of the prophets. I have not had very much experience in prophesying, but will ask the Latter-day Saints: If you prophesy do you stop to think about it, and wonder how the people will receive it? I take the position that there is no man living that was inspired of God, and prophesied in the name of the Lord, who took time to think about it; inspiration does not come that way.
I remember something I said once; I tried to forget it, but it got in the Associated Press, and it went all over the land. It is the only time I ever did get any notoriety. (Laughter.) The grave question was, did he say it? I could not help but think of the young man who opened this meeting by prayer, of his own volition he got the signatures of eighteen men, intelligent men, business men, who signed a document to the effect that I did not say it. But the word had gone out that I did say it. Some of the brethren said, "Well, it sounded like him." Another good brother that wanted to help me out, said, "He did not say it, but he was not wise." That good brother killed me right there. (Laughter.) You let it go out only once, among the children of men, that you are not wise, and you might just as well go off and die. (Laughter.)
We know what has transpired in this conference. The president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints delivered his message, that a wayfaring man could read as he walked, or that a child could understand, and yet he was made an offender. Are we going to close our mouths? Are we going to be hushed to silence, and be timid about calling this people to repentance and teaching them the word of the Lord? Well, I guess not, I haven't enough at stake. "I do not know just where I am going, but I know mighty well I am on my way." (Laughter.)
I will deliver a word to this generation, and I have it written down —You reporters have got to give it right, because I am going to read it. I have thought it out, and I am fixed and fastened; I have got both feet on the ground.
It shall not be my intention to cut, and cull, and criticize, but I assume that the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants communicate to us a correct knowledge of God, and human duty and destiny, or that nothing whatever is known of them. I have a fervent faith that God reveals His mind and will to the servants of the Lord. I believe in revelation; I believe that God can communicate to me all things that pertain to me and to my labor; and I assert that in the degree in which these books have been received by the Latter-day- Saints, as a rule of faith and duty, have those thus receiving them found rest, peace, fearlessness of the future and hope of everlasting happiness.
I do not get down in print very often, but today I am going to get in print with my testimony of this work, after over twenty years' labor. I know that "this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." "All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." That is how we find it out. I am a son of a prophet, but I never got my knowledge and information from my father. I expect to get it from the same sources from which he received it; and if I live as close to God as he lived, I will have the same knowledge of God as he had, and know that Jesus is the Christ. I have faith in God. These are some of my reasons, and that is why I love God. I think God, the Father, and Jesus Christ, the Son, are greater than men, greater than any prophets who have ever lived on earth. The Doctrine and Covenants tells us that "God does not walk in crooked paths, neither does He turn to the right hand, or to the left, or vary from that which He has said; therefore His paths are straight, and His course is one eternal round." "He is the God of Truth, and cannot lie." "He is no respecter of persons." "He is the God of love, of knowledge, of power, of justice, of judgment, and of mercy."
Now, why should we not have faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ. You all have an equal chance; He is no respecter of persons; He is a God of truth. You never need be in doubt about those matters. I think some of us are mistaken; I think we have gone off wrong; I think that we expect salvation without doing very much to get it. It is all in vain for men to think that they merely need to have faith, and repent, and be baptized, and receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and then their salvation is made sure. There never was a greater mistake. "It is in vain for persons to fancy to themselves that they are heirs with those or can be heirs with those who have offered their all in sacrifice, and by this means obtained faith in God, and favor with Him, so as to obtain eternal life, unless they, in like manner, offer unto Him the same sacrifice, and through that offering obtain the knowledge that they are accepted of Him."
"For a man to lay down his all, his character and reputation, his honor, and applause, his good name among men, his houses, his lands, his brothers and sisters, his wife and children, and even his own life, counting all things but filth and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, requires more than mere belief that he is doing the will of God." It calls for an actual knowledge, does it not. Latter-day Saints? A man who gets off on this is in a very sad condition. Some of us know how a man feels who hasn't that spirit — one who has become careless and indifferent. The Lord knows if there is any one I sympathize with it is a man who is not doing his duty and who is a member of this Church, because I know how he feels. I am going to tell you how he feels, because I know whereof I speak. I have been in that place, in the history of my life.
"A man who considers his religion a slavery has not begun to comprehend the real nature of religion. To such men, religion is a life of crosses and mortifications. They find their duty unpleasant and onerous. It is to them a law of restraint and constraint. They art constantly oppressed with what they denominate 'a sense of duty.' It torments them with a consciousness of their inefficiency and with a multiplied perplexing doubt of the genuineness of their religious experiences. They feel themselves enchained within the bounds of a religious system." That is the feeling of every man who is careless, and every man who is indifferent. Are they happy in that condition? I say no; only those are happy who are doing their duty. I think it is about time some of us got "off the train." It doesn't take much courage to get in the Church, but I want to tell you it takes a mighty brave man to get out of it. The question is, do we really love Christ? That is the whole question. I am made to feel more and more that the religion of the Latter-day Saints is to be tested in this generation. "Our fathers died for the faith, and so with our mothers, and we are living on the faith of our fathers and mothers, a great many of us." We have never made the sacrifice, and we are unwilling to prepare ourselves for it. I remember, only a short time ago, that we had recommended to us in a certain district seven or eight elders to be ordained seventies. They were interviewed properly by one of the brethren, and after they got through interviewing them, they asked me if I had anything to say, and I said, "Yes." I asked these seven men if they had ever been on a mission? "No, sir." "Have you ever been inquired after?" "No, sir." Some of them were pretty near as old as I am. "Have you any desire to go; if you have, raise your right hand." There was not a hand that went up. Have any of you brethren made the effort to prepare yourselves?" Not a hand went up. Now, those brethren were good men. I will tell you seventies how you can tell that you really are seventies. After you have been ordained a seventy, by proper authority, if the time never comes in your life that you desire to go on a mission, and that you make no effort to go, it shall be evidence to you that you are not a witness for God, that the spirit of your calling has not yet come to you. Now, I take it Tor granted it won’t come very often to some of us, but it ought to come in every man's life in this Church—that he has that hunger, that desire, and makes the effort to be a witness for God and preach the gospel.
Brethren, in conclusion: I am not satisfied with my labors. I want to make that confession before the Latter-day Saints. I feel that I have not done my full duty; in that regard, there is no man in the Church more unhappy than I am; but it is a result of my condition, my physical condition. But, I have filled my niche, and I have filled it the best I could. I want to say to the Latter-day Saints, the brethren of the authorities have extended to me every kindness that can be extended to mortal man. I want to express my appreciation of their kindness in relieving me of some responsibilities, and let me live a little bit longer. I have given you Latter-day Saints the best of my life, the best effort of my life.
Now, brethren, I plead for fraternity; I plead for love of each other. If we can't find friends among the Latter-day Saints, and those who will speak a good word for us, even when we are "unwise," without putting in those infernal expressions, "Yes, he is a good man, but if—" I wish to the Lord you would leave those things out.
The Lord bless you. Amen.
(Of the First Council of Seventy.)
In a revelation given in the year 1831, the Lord says:
"Behold, thus saith the Lord unto the elders of his Church, who are to return speedily to the land from whence they came. Behold, it pleaseth me, that you have come up hither;
"But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their mouths, but hide the talent which I have given them, because of the fear of man. Wo unto such, for mine anger is kindled against them.
"And it shall come to pass, if they are not more faithful unto me, it shall be taken away, even that which they have;
"For I, the Lord, rule in the heavens above, and among the armies of the earth; and in the day when I shall make up my jewels, all men shall know what it is that bespeaketh the power of God."
In connection with the revelation I will say this: The day of the Laodicean is past, "because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot," saith the voice that spake on the Isle of Patmos, I will spue thee out of my mouth. "There are whole men whose mere bodies are in shameful service, but these half men, these Laodiceans, are the servile souls; they are not worth the trouble and expense of damnation." (Laughter.)
I am very proud to say of myself, as I am going to speak about myself, a few minutes, although it is a little personal, I am proud to testify to the Latter-day Saints that I feel in my heart that every servant of the Lord who has spoken from this stand has felt perfectly free to say the things that they felt were proper to say, and which they were inspired of the Lord to say. I appreciate the difficulties; I comprehend that there are those, perhaps, in the Church and out of it, that cut, and cull, and criticize, and that is about all they do; they are disposed to close the mouths of the prophets. I have not had very much experience in prophesying, but will ask the Latter-day Saints: If you prophesy do you stop to think about it, and wonder how the people will receive it? I take the position that there is no man living that was inspired of God, and prophesied in the name of the Lord, who took time to think about it; inspiration does not come that way.
I remember something I said once; I tried to forget it, but it got in the Associated Press, and it went all over the land. It is the only time I ever did get any notoriety. (Laughter.) The grave question was, did he say it? I could not help but think of the young man who opened this meeting by prayer, of his own volition he got the signatures of eighteen men, intelligent men, business men, who signed a document to the effect that I did not say it. But the word had gone out that I did say it. Some of the brethren said, "Well, it sounded like him." Another good brother that wanted to help me out, said, "He did not say it, but he was not wise." That good brother killed me right there. (Laughter.) You let it go out only once, among the children of men, that you are not wise, and you might just as well go off and die. (Laughter.)
We know what has transpired in this conference. The president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints delivered his message, that a wayfaring man could read as he walked, or that a child could understand, and yet he was made an offender. Are we going to close our mouths? Are we going to be hushed to silence, and be timid about calling this people to repentance and teaching them the word of the Lord? Well, I guess not, I haven't enough at stake. "I do not know just where I am going, but I know mighty well I am on my way." (Laughter.)
I will deliver a word to this generation, and I have it written down —You reporters have got to give it right, because I am going to read it. I have thought it out, and I am fixed and fastened; I have got both feet on the ground.
It shall not be my intention to cut, and cull, and criticize, but I assume that the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants communicate to us a correct knowledge of God, and human duty and destiny, or that nothing whatever is known of them. I have a fervent faith that God reveals His mind and will to the servants of the Lord. I believe in revelation; I believe that God can communicate to me all things that pertain to me and to my labor; and I assert that in the degree in which these books have been received by the Latter-day- Saints, as a rule of faith and duty, have those thus receiving them found rest, peace, fearlessness of the future and hope of everlasting happiness.
I do not get down in print very often, but today I am going to get in print with my testimony of this work, after over twenty years' labor. I know that "this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." "All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." That is how we find it out. I am a son of a prophet, but I never got my knowledge and information from my father. I expect to get it from the same sources from which he received it; and if I live as close to God as he lived, I will have the same knowledge of God as he had, and know that Jesus is the Christ. I have faith in God. These are some of my reasons, and that is why I love God. I think God, the Father, and Jesus Christ, the Son, are greater than men, greater than any prophets who have ever lived on earth. The Doctrine and Covenants tells us that "God does not walk in crooked paths, neither does He turn to the right hand, or to the left, or vary from that which He has said; therefore His paths are straight, and His course is one eternal round." "He is the God of Truth, and cannot lie." "He is no respecter of persons." "He is the God of love, of knowledge, of power, of justice, of judgment, and of mercy."
Now, why should we not have faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ. You all have an equal chance; He is no respecter of persons; He is a God of truth. You never need be in doubt about those matters. I think some of us are mistaken; I think we have gone off wrong; I think that we expect salvation without doing very much to get it. It is all in vain for men to think that they merely need to have faith, and repent, and be baptized, and receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and then their salvation is made sure. There never was a greater mistake. "It is in vain for persons to fancy to themselves that they are heirs with those or can be heirs with those who have offered their all in sacrifice, and by this means obtained faith in God, and favor with Him, so as to obtain eternal life, unless they, in like manner, offer unto Him the same sacrifice, and through that offering obtain the knowledge that they are accepted of Him."
"For a man to lay down his all, his character and reputation, his honor, and applause, his good name among men, his houses, his lands, his brothers and sisters, his wife and children, and even his own life, counting all things but filth and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, requires more than mere belief that he is doing the will of God." It calls for an actual knowledge, does it not. Latter-day Saints? A man who gets off on this is in a very sad condition. Some of us know how a man feels who hasn't that spirit — one who has become careless and indifferent. The Lord knows if there is any one I sympathize with it is a man who is not doing his duty and who is a member of this Church, because I know how he feels. I am going to tell you how he feels, because I know whereof I speak. I have been in that place, in the history of my life.
"A man who considers his religion a slavery has not begun to comprehend the real nature of religion. To such men, religion is a life of crosses and mortifications. They find their duty unpleasant and onerous. It is to them a law of restraint and constraint. They art constantly oppressed with what they denominate 'a sense of duty.' It torments them with a consciousness of their inefficiency and with a multiplied perplexing doubt of the genuineness of their religious experiences. They feel themselves enchained within the bounds of a religious system." That is the feeling of every man who is careless, and every man who is indifferent. Are they happy in that condition? I say no; only those are happy who are doing their duty. I think it is about time some of us got "off the train." It doesn't take much courage to get in the Church, but I want to tell you it takes a mighty brave man to get out of it. The question is, do we really love Christ? That is the whole question. I am made to feel more and more that the religion of the Latter-day Saints is to be tested in this generation. "Our fathers died for the faith, and so with our mothers, and we are living on the faith of our fathers and mothers, a great many of us." We have never made the sacrifice, and we are unwilling to prepare ourselves for it. I remember, only a short time ago, that we had recommended to us in a certain district seven or eight elders to be ordained seventies. They were interviewed properly by one of the brethren, and after they got through interviewing them, they asked me if I had anything to say, and I said, "Yes." I asked these seven men if they had ever been on a mission? "No, sir." "Have you ever been inquired after?" "No, sir." Some of them were pretty near as old as I am. "Have you any desire to go; if you have, raise your right hand." There was not a hand that went up. Have any of you brethren made the effort to prepare yourselves?" Not a hand went up. Now, those brethren were good men. I will tell you seventies how you can tell that you really are seventies. After you have been ordained a seventy, by proper authority, if the time never comes in your life that you desire to go on a mission, and that you make no effort to go, it shall be evidence to you that you are not a witness for God, that the spirit of your calling has not yet come to you. Now, I take it Tor granted it won’t come very often to some of us, but it ought to come in every man's life in this Church—that he has that hunger, that desire, and makes the effort to be a witness for God and preach the gospel.
Brethren, in conclusion: I am not satisfied with my labors. I want to make that confession before the Latter-day Saints. I feel that I have not done my full duty; in that regard, there is no man in the Church more unhappy than I am; but it is a result of my condition, my physical condition. But, I have filled my niche, and I have filled it the best I could. I want to say to the Latter-day Saints, the brethren of the authorities have extended to me every kindness that can be extended to mortal man. I want to express my appreciation of their kindness in relieving me of some responsibilities, and let me live a little bit longer. I have given you Latter-day Saints the best of my life, the best effort of my life.
Now, brethren, I plead for fraternity; I plead for love of each other. If we can't find friends among the Latter-day Saints, and those who will speak a good word for us, even when we are "unwise," without putting in those infernal expressions, "Yes, he is a good man, but if—" I wish to the Lord you would leave those things out.
The Lord bless you. Amen.
ELDER RULON S. WELLS.
(Of First Council of Seventy.)
I desire to indorse, with all my soul, the remarks of my brethren who have preceded me. I rejoice exceedingly in the spirit of this meeting, for I recognize it as the Spirit of the Lord.
While Elder McKay was addressing this congregation, upon the subject of the Word of Wisdom and the great cause of temperance, I thought, too, how long has this word been preached to the Latter-day Saints, and how often have I heard people express themselves that they thought there was altogether too much stress laid upon the Word of Wisdom, and why do we not speak upon the weightier matters -of the law? It is the customary thing, when this subject is being treated upon to refer to it as the great law of health. Statistics are presented whereby it is conclusively shown that our physical organization, our mental faculties, our bodies, are impaired in their usefulness and in their powers by the violation of this law of temperance. It is my purpose, while indorsing it as the great law of health, to refer to it now from another standpoint. I believe that it is not only a law of health unto the people, but that it is the basis of our moral life. What shall we call the weightier matters of the law, if it be not virtue, honesty, sobriety, integrity? I believe that underlying this law of health we also find the basic principle of spirituality, of moral life. The man who yields to the bowl will yield to other temptations. The man who is able to say No to it can also say no to other temptations when they come to him. And is it not true that those who yield to the use of strong drink have little power of resistance to say No when the tempter comes in their way to lead them into the paths of evil in other forms? The mind and the body, the spirit and the body, are closely associated, the one depending upon the other; and a strong mind should have a strong body to sustain it. The development and the care we take of our bodies, the improving of our physical condition is felt upon our spirit as well. Whenever we cleanse and purify the body, by abstaining from those things that are impure, unhealthful, and unwholesome, we elevate the soul of man; for the body and the spirit constitute the soul of man, the relationship between the two is very close, you cannot impair the one without impairing the other. The man who is able to resist the temptation of those things which appeal to his appetite, his physical appetite, obtains power to overcome and resist evil in all of its forms. How can we, then, lay too much stress upon the Word of Wisdom, and upon that which pertains to our physical development, or that which pertains to the health of the body, for it is an important part of the soul of man. The Word of Wisdom has always appealed to me from this standpoint as well as from the other. I believe that every one who obeys it, and avoids those things that are harmful to the body, will obtain spiritual, as well as physical, power; his intellect will improve, and his desire for good will be increased.
It seems to me, although I understand it is merely accidental, that a more fitting time for this people to give expression to their views on the question of Temperance, could not have been chosen than the day selected, June 27. It was on this day, in 1844, when the martyr of this latter dispensation gave his life for the cause of right. He devoted his life, and finally gave it up, to establish truth in the earth. I hope that every Latter-day Saint will make it known what his or her sentiments are. What difference does it make, in one sense, whether or not the cause of temperance shall succeed—let it at least be understood that this people are in earnest, are sincere, and that they do believe in that principle. To my mind, every man that votes for the open saloon is voting against principle; and I do not believe that he can justify himself in that attitude. Can we become a party to the evil? Is the saloon a good thing? If it is let us tolerate it, let us encourage it, and build it up; but if we are convinced that it is an evil, let us do our utmost to abolish the evil. If we consent that it shall exist in our midst, if we, the people, authorize our representatives who shall sit in the councils of our government, to issue licenses permitting it to continue, and receive money for it, we become a party, and the taint of impure money is upon our souls. That is the way I feel in regard to the saloon. I do not believe that Latter-day Saints can Justify themselves in voting for an evil and becoming a partner with the evil doer.
Let me call your attention to paragraph four of section 89. (Word of Wisdom.)
"Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, in consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation, that inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink." etc.
I have often read this passage and wondered what was meant by it. What connection is there between the evils and designs existing in the hearts of conspiring men and the indulgence in strong drink prohibited by this revelation?
Let us see: All over this fair land we read of a conflict between the "wets" and the "drys." How vast sums of money are being raised to defeat the cause of Temperance. Irrespective of whether the saloon interests have a right to resist the efforts of the people to do away with their unholy traffic. I mention it here merely to show that they do resist—that they are organized — that they raise immense sums of money; and for what? To defeat temperance; that they may continue their business, of destroying manhood, undermining character, debauching both men and women, corrupting politics, and making criminals and all this without having to their credit one single redeeming feature, not one. What good can be traced back to the saloon? Has anyone been made better or nobler through its influence? Has it been a public benefactor? Has it been a friend to the home? A promoter of happiness or prosperity? No, but still they organize and raise money. No noise about it but quietly, secretly they get together, concoct their schemes. lay their plans, conspire and plot to defeat the right. There is money in this business and they must save it at all hazards. What care they as to the effect of their business as long as they make money? What care they for the morals of the community— for the virtue of the young? What care they for the misery, the poverty, the wretchedness which they scatter abroad. How many votes are bought with Rum? They can afford to spend great sums of money for their success. I will not undertake to suggest the extent of their machinations nor the various uses to which money can be and is applied for defeating the right, but leave it for you to consider.
My brethren and sisters, it is in consequence of these evils and designs among others existing in the minds of conspiring whiskey men, that the Lord through His Prophet hath warned us and doth now forewarn us against the evils of Intemperance.
May the Lord help us to do our duty, on June 27th, and every day intervening between now and then, in working up, at least among the Latter-day Saints, a sentiment that shall sustain the right,—I ask it, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
President Joseph F. Smith announced that a meeting will be held outdoors, this afternoon, adjacent to the Bureau of Information building, in addition to the Conference meetings in the Tabernacle and Assembly Hall.
The choir sang the anthem, "God is our Refuge and Strength."
Benediction was pronounced by Elder German E. Ellsworth.
Conference adjourned until 2 p. m.
(Of First Council of Seventy.)
I desire to indorse, with all my soul, the remarks of my brethren who have preceded me. I rejoice exceedingly in the spirit of this meeting, for I recognize it as the Spirit of the Lord.
While Elder McKay was addressing this congregation, upon the subject of the Word of Wisdom and the great cause of temperance, I thought, too, how long has this word been preached to the Latter-day Saints, and how often have I heard people express themselves that they thought there was altogether too much stress laid upon the Word of Wisdom, and why do we not speak upon the weightier matters -of the law? It is the customary thing, when this subject is being treated upon to refer to it as the great law of health. Statistics are presented whereby it is conclusively shown that our physical organization, our mental faculties, our bodies, are impaired in their usefulness and in their powers by the violation of this law of temperance. It is my purpose, while indorsing it as the great law of health, to refer to it now from another standpoint. I believe that it is not only a law of health unto the people, but that it is the basis of our moral life. What shall we call the weightier matters of the law, if it be not virtue, honesty, sobriety, integrity? I believe that underlying this law of health we also find the basic principle of spirituality, of moral life. The man who yields to the bowl will yield to other temptations. The man who is able to say No to it can also say no to other temptations when they come to him. And is it not true that those who yield to the use of strong drink have little power of resistance to say No when the tempter comes in their way to lead them into the paths of evil in other forms? The mind and the body, the spirit and the body, are closely associated, the one depending upon the other; and a strong mind should have a strong body to sustain it. The development and the care we take of our bodies, the improving of our physical condition is felt upon our spirit as well. Whenever we cleanse and purify the body, by abstaining from those things that are impure, unhealthful, and unwholesome, we elevate the soul of man; for the body and the spirit constitute the soul of man, the relationship between the two is very close, you cannot impair the one without impairing the other. The man who is able to resist the temptation of those things which appeal to his appetite, his physical appetite, obtains power to overcome and resist evil in all of its forms. How can we, then, lay too much stress upon the Word of Wisdom, and upon that which pertains to our physical development, or that which pertains to the health of the body, for it is an important part of the soul of man. The Word of Wisdom has always appealed to me from this standpoint as well as from the other. I believe that every one who obeys it, and avoids those things that are harmful to the body, will obtain spiritual, as well as physical, power; his intellect will improve, and his desire for good will be increased.
It seems to me, although I understand it is merely accidental, that a more fitting time for this people to give expression to their views on the question of Temperance, could not have been chosen than the day selected, June 27. It was on this day, in 1844, when the martyr of this latter dispensation gave his life for the cause of right. He devoted his life, and finally gave it up, to establish truth in the earth. I hope that every Latter-day Saint will make it known what his or her sentiments are. What difference does it make, in one sense, whether or not the cause of temperance shall succeed—let it at least be understood that this people are in earnest, are sincere, and that they do believe in that principle. To my mind, every man that votes for the open saloon is voting against principle; and I do not believe that he can justify himself in that attitude. Can we become a party to the evil? Is the saloon a good thing? If it is let us tolerate it, let us encourage it, and build it up; but if we are convinced that it is an evil, let us do our utmost to abolish the evil. If we consent that it shall exist in our midst, if we, the people, authorize our representatives who shall sit in the councils of our government, to issue licenses permitting it to continue, and receive money for it, we become a party, and the taint of impure money is upon our souls. That is the way I feel in regard to the saloon. I do not believe that Latter-day Saints can Justify themselves in voting for an evil and becoming a partner with the evil doer.
Let me call your attention to paragraph four of section 89. (Word of Wisdom.)
"Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, in consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation, that inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink." etc.
I have often read this passage and wondered what was meant by it. What connection is there between the evils and designs existing in the hearts of conspiring men and the indulgence in strong drink prohibited by this revelation?
Let us see: All over this fair land we read of a conflict between the "wets" and the "drys." How vast sums of money are being raised to defeat the cause of Temperance. Irrespective of whether the saloon interests have a right to resist the efforts of the people to do away with their unholy traffic. I mention it here merely to show that they do resist—that they are organized — that they raise immense sums of money; and for what? To defeat temperance; that they may continue their business, of destroying manhood, undermining character, debauching both men and women, corrupting politics, and making criminals and all this without having to their credit one single redeeming feature, not one. What good can be traced back to the saloon? Has anyone been made better or nobler through its influence? Has it been a public benefactor? Has it been a friend to the home? A promoter of happiness or prosperity? No, but still they organize and raise money. No noise about it but quietly, secretly they get together, concoct their schemes. lay their plans, conspire and plot to defeat the right. There is money in this business and they must save it at all hazards. What care they as to the effect of their business as long as they make money? What care they for the morals of the community— for the virtue of the young? What care they for the misery, the poverty, the wretchedness which they scatter abroad. How many votes are bought with Rum? They can afford to spend great sums of money for their success. I will not undertake to suggest the extent of their machinations nor the various uses to which money can be and is applied for defeating the right, but leave it for you to consider.
My brethren and sisters, it is in consequence of these evils and designs among others existing in the minds of conspiring whiskey men, that the Lord through His Prophet hath warned us and doth now forewarn us against the evils of Intemperance.
May the Lord help us to do our duty, on June 27th, and every day intervening between now and then, in working up, at least among the Latter-day Saints, a sentiment that shall sustain the right,—I ask it, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
President Joseph F. Smith announced that a meeting will be held outdoors, this afternoon, adjacent to the Bureau of Information building, in addition to the Conference meetings in the Tabernacle and Assembly Hall.
The choir sang the anthem, "God is our Refuge and Strength."
Benediction was pronounced by Elder German E. Ellsworth.
Conference adjourned until 2 p. m.
OVERFLOW MEETING.
An overflow session of the Conference was held in the Assembly Hall, adjoining the Tabernacle, at 10 a. m., Sunday, April 9th, 1911. The services were presided over by Elder Joseph F. Smith, Junior.
The Farmer's Ward choir, under direction of conductor Einor Christofferson, rendered the musical exercises.
The choir sang the hymn:
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 was offered by Elder George H. Brimhall.
The choir sang the hymn:
Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,
Unuttered or expressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.
An overflow session of the Conference was held in the Assembly Hall, adjoining the Tabernacle, at 10 a. m., Sunday, April 9th, 1911. The services were presided over by Elder Joseph F. Smith, Junior.
The Farmer's Ward choir, under direction of conductor Einor Christofferson, rendered the musical exercises.
The choir sang the hymn:
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 was offered by Elder George H. Brimhall.
The choir sang the hymn:
Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,
Unuttered or expressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.
ELDER JOHN L. HERRICK.
(President of Western States Mission.)
Speaking at the anniversary meeting of the organization of the Relief Societies, in Denver, about three weeks ago, I chanced to refer to the condition of the women in our Church, how we honored and respected them, as God expects us to honor them, and, at the conclusion of our meeting, some of the sisters, who have never had the opportunity of living in Zion, said to me that they were glad the subject was brought before them in that light, because they had not, up to that time, heard any particular reference to the women by the other elders whom they had met. I said to them that had it been their good fortune to live in Zion, or at least in some of the stakes of Zion, that they might hear frequent reference made to the women of our Church, and the important positions they occupy in our organizations, and associated with the affairs of men. But their remarks led me to think, is it possible that when our elders go abroad that they forget the mission of women in our Church? Is it possible that they forget the important work accomplished by their mothers, their wives or their sisters? Is it possible that they minimize in any way the wonderful part that woman plays in the great plan of life and salvation? It occurs to me now that there are many here who have been on missions, and many others who may go, to such I say, I hope that wherever you are, either at home or abroad, that you will always be found voicing the praises of the women of "Mormondom," and testifying in regard to the great sacrifices they have made in the interest of the work of God.
A short time ago, in one of the magazine articles that are appearing at this time, I read some of the statements attributed to a man who is considered to be a prominent writer, and he said, among other things, that the women in Utah are degraded, that they are nothing more nor less than slaves to the work of the home; that they are ignorant, and that, with the exception of bearing children to unscrupulous men, they know little of the real mission of woman. I thought how I would like to hear the voices of the women of this Church, if their voices could be heard abroad in this land, proclaiming to the world what their actual condition is, in refutation of those false assertions. I have spoken to some men who are well acquainted with writers of this country, and I asked them what the reputation of this man was, who had made such a slanderous statement about the women of Utah. "Why," said one of them to me, "that man's word cannot be taken on any subject. He does not state the truth. It does not matter what subject he writes, upon, he grossly exaggerates it." It is very surprising that one of the great magazines of this country has opened its pages to a writer of that kind, a man who came to Salt Lake City, last year, and sought from a cab driver, one of the many dispensers of fairy tales that can be found upon these streets, some of the information which he is now giving to the world.
I read some lines of poetry sometime ago, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, who shows the real condition, in America at least, today, and I should like to repeat them to you and possibly make comparison with our people:
"When God had formed the universe, He thought
Of all the marvels therein to be wrought,
And, to His aid fair Motherhood He brought,
"My lesser self, the feminine of me,
She will go forth throughout all time, quoth He,
"And make my world what I would have it be.
"For I am weary, having labored so,
And for a cycle of repose would go
Into that silence which but God may know.
"Therefore I leave the rounding of my plan
To Motherhood; and that which God began,
Let woman finish in perfecting man.
"She is the soil, the human mother earth;
She is the sun, who calls the seed to birth;
She is the gardener who knows its worth.
"In me all seed of any kind must spring;
Divine the growth such seed and soil will bring,
For all is me and I am everything.
"Thus having spoken to himself aloud.
His glorious face upon his breast he bowed,
And sought repose behind a wall of cloud.
"Come forth, O God, though great thy thought and good
In shaping woman for true motherhood --
Lord, speak again, she has not understood.
"The centuries pass, the cycles roll along,
The earth is peopled with a might throng,
Yet men are fighting and the world goes wrong.
“Lord, speak again, ere yet it be too late;
Unloved, unwanted souls come through earth's gate;
The unborn child is given a dower of hate.
"Thy world progresses in all ways save one, --
In motherhood, for which it was begun.
Lord, Lord behold how little has been done.
"Children are spawned, like fishes in the sand;
With ignorance and crime they fill the land.
Lord, speak again, till mothers understand.
It is not all of Motherhood to know
Creations' pleasure and deliverance's woe.
Who plants the seed should help the shoot to grow.
"And 'tis not alone for Motherhood to breed
The human race, but to know and heed
Its holiest purpose and its highest need,
"Lord, speak again, so woman shall be stirred
With the full meaning of that mighty word,
'True Motherhood;' she has not rightly heard."
There can be no question, referring to the first half of these lines, that this woman speaks the truth' as God would have it known to humanity. The greatest law that He has given to man and to woman is to multiply and replenish the earth. Motherhood is the greatest blessing that God confers on woman. Woman's lot is hardest in this life, I believe; and that is one reason that she, is better than the average man, —because of having to pass through so much tribulation. It is said that woman, every time she bears a child into this world, lays her life on the altar. It is indeed a wonderful sacrifice. And. then this thought, that
"Woman is the soil, the human mother earth;
She is the sun who calls the seed to birth;
She is the gardener who knows its worth."
Had these words been spoken by an inspired man, either in ancient or in modern time, they could not have been more truly said. The latter part of the poem brings this thought, that many women today do not know what that message is to them. If they do, they do not appreciate it, for they do not live in accordance with this greatest commandment of God, they are not bearing children, they are not raising them properly; but, on the other hand,
"Children are spawned like fishes in the sand,
With ignorance and crime they fill the land."
The imputation contained in this verse surely cannot be urged against the women of "Mormondom." The figures that were given out by President Smith in his remarks at the opening of this conference, on Thursday last, will give the lie to any such thought. When we consider the birth-rate among the members of this Church, and compare the figures with those of the rest of this great country of ours, or with other countries of the world, I say to you that any one who declares that women of our Church are not keeping this greatest commandment of God says something that is untrue.
The Savior said that "man is not without the woman, neither woman without the man in the Lord." My brethren and sisters, God expects us to care for and to love our wives and our children; He expects us to provide for them and love them all the days of our lives. I hope that all who are here today will see to it that no man or woman shall say in your presence, unrebuked, aught against the women of the Latter-day Saints. They have borne serious hardships and trials when their husbands and fathers have gone on missions, hardships even exceeding those borne by those who have left their homes and gone into the world to preach the gospel. They are entitled to our love, to our consideration, and to our blessing.
God bless us all in this work, and make us equal to every emergency that we may be called upon to pass through in life, is my humble desire in the name of Jesus. Amen.
(President of Western States Mission.)
Speaking at the anniversary meeting of the organization of the Relief Societies, in Denver, about three weeks ago, I chanced to refer to the condition of the women in our Church, how we honored and respected them, as God expects us to honor them, and, at the conclusion of our meeting, some of the sisters, who have never had the opportunity of living in Zion, said to me that they were glad the subject was brought before them in that light, because they had not, up to that time, heard any particular reference to the women by the other elders whom they had met. I said to them that had it been their good fortune to live in Zion, or at least in some of the stakes of Zion, that they might hear frequent reference made to the women of our Church, and the important positions they occupy in our organizations, and associated with the affairs of men. But their remarks led me to think, is it possible that when our elders go abroad that they forget the mission of women in our Church? Is it possible that they forget the important work accomplished by their mothers, their wives or their sisters? Is it possible that they minimize in any way the wonderful part that woman plays in the great plan of life and salvation? It occurs to me now that there are many here who have been on missions, and many others who may go, to such I say, I hope that wherever you are, either at home or abroad, that you will always be found voicing the praises of the women of "Mormondom," and testifying in regard to the great sacrifices they have made in the interest of the work of God.
A short time ago, in one of the magazine articles that are appearing at this time, I read some of the statements attributed to a man who is considered to be a prominent writer, and he said, among other things, that the women in Utah are degraded, that they are nothing more nor less than slaves to the work of the home; that they are ignorant, and that, with the exception of bearing children to unscrupulous men, they know little of the real mission of woman. I thought how I would like to hear the voices of the women of this Church, if their voices could be heard abroad in this land, proclaiming to the world what their actual condition is, in refutation of those false assertions. I have spoken to some men who are well acquainted with writers of this country, and I asked them what the reputation of this man was, who had made such a slanderous statement about the women of Utah. "Why," said one of them to me, "that man's word cannot be taken on any subject. He does not state the truth. It does not matter what subject he writes, upon, he grossly exaggerates it." It is very surprising that one of the great magazines of this country has opened its pages to a writer of that kind, a man who came to Salt Lake City, last year, and sought from a cab driver, one of the many dispensers of fairy tales that can be found upon these streets, some of the information which he is now giving to the world.
I read some lines of poetry sometime ago, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, who shows the real condition, in America at least, today, and I should like to repeat them to you and possibly make comparison with our people:
"When God had formed the universe, He thought
Of all the marvels therein to be wrought,
And, to His aid fair Motherhood He brought,
"My lesser self, the feminine of me,
She will go forth throughout all time, quoth He,
"And make my world what I would have it be.
"For I am weary, having labored so,
And for a cycle of repose would go
Into that silence which but God may know.
"Therefore I leave the rounding of my plan
To Motherhood; and that which God began,
Let woman finish in perfecting man.
"She is the soil, the human mother earth;
She is the sun, who calls the seed to birth;
She is the gardener who knows its worth.
"In me all seed of any kind must spring;
Divine the growth such seed and soil will bring,
For all is me and I am everything.
"Thus having spoken to himself aloud.
His glorious face upon his breast he bowed,
And sought repose behind a wall of cloud.
"Come forth, O God, though great thy thought and good
In shaping woman for true motherhood --
Lord, speak again, she has not understood.
"The centuries pass, the cycles roll along,
The earth is peopled with a might throng,
Yet men are fighting and the world goes wrong.
“Lord, speak again, ere yet it be too late;
Unloved, unwanted souls come through earth's gate;
The unborn child is given a dower of hate.
"Thy world progresses in all ways save one, --
In motherhood, for which it was begun.
Lord, Lord behold how little has been done.
"Children are spawned, like fishes in the sand;
With ignorance and crime they fill the land.
Lord, speak again, till mothers understand.
It is not all of Motherhood to know
Creations' pleasure and deliverance's woe.
Who plants the seed should help the shoot to grow.
"And 'tis not alone for Motherhood to breed
The human race, but to know and heed
Its holiest purpose and its highest need,
"Lord, speak again, so woman shall be stirred
With the full meaning of that mighty word,
'True Motherhood;' she has not rightly heard."
There can be no question, referring to the first half of these lines, that this woman speaks the truth' as God would have it known to humanity. The greatest law that He has given to man and to woman is to multiply and replenish the earth. Motherhood is the greatest blessing that God confers on woman. Woman's lot is hardest in this life, I believe; and that is one reason that she, is better than the average man, —because of having to pass through so much tribulation. It is said that woman, every time she bears a child into this world, lays her life on the altar. It is indeed a wonderful sacrifice. And. then this thought, that
"Woman is the soil, the human mother earth;
She is the sun who calls the seed to birth;
She is the gardener who knows its worth."
Had these words been spoken by an inspired man, either in ancient or in modern time, they could not have been more truly said. The latter part of the poem brings this thought, that many women today do not know what that message is to them. If they do, they do not appreciate it, for they do not live in accordance with this greatest commandment of God, they are not bearing children, they are not raising them properly; but, on the other hand,
"Children are spawned like fishes in the sand,
With ignorance and crime they fill the land."
The imputation contained in this verse surely cannot be urged against the women of "Mormondom." The figures that were given out by President Smith in his remarks at the opening of this conference, on Thursday last, will give the lie to any such thought. When we consider the birth-rate among the members of this Church, and compare the figures with those of the rest of this great country of ours, or with other countries of the world, I say to you that any one who declares that women of our Church are not keeping this greatest commandment of God says something that is untrue.
The Savior said that "man is not without the woman, neither woman without the man in the Lord." My brethren and sisters, God expects us to care for and to love our wives and our children; He expects us to provide for them and love them all the days of our lives. I hope that all who are here today will see to it that no man or woman shall say in your presence, unrebuked, aught against the women of the Latter-day Saints. They have borne serious hardships and trials when their husbands and fathers have gone on missions, hardships even exceeding those borne by those who have left their homes and gone into the world to preach the gospel. They are entitled to our love, to our consideration, and to our blessing.
God bless us all in this work, and make us equal to every emergency that we may be called upon to pass through in life, is my humble desire in the name of Jesus. Amen.
ELDER JOHN F. TOLTON.
(President of Beaver Stake.)
I have been very much impressed with the proceedings of our conference thus far. I have rejoiced under the inspiration and teachings of those who have addressed us. It seems to me that the principal theme of the teachings that have been given unto the people, during the conference, has been that upon each member of the Church there is a responsibility resting that he, or she, must bear evidence unto the world, in conduct in life, of the purity and sincerity of the teachings proclaimed by the Latter-day Saints. We stand as a light upon a hill before the world today. In other words, "Mormonism" is on trial; the acts of the Latter-day Saints are being watched by the world, and we are being judged by that which we engage in and do as a people. I rejoice in the spirit of this work, for I know it is the work of God. We who have embraced this Latter-day work have a great mission to perform in the world. That mission is to bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, to bear testimony of the truths of the gospel, as revealed in the day and age in which we live; not so much in word as in deed; not so much in endeavoring, by conversation, to convert those who are in our midst, as by our daily lives. We are required to let our light so shine that all men beholding our good works may realize that this is indeed the work of our Father. "Mormonism" stands today for truth, and righteousness. It stands for the liberty of men, from a religious and social point of view. We bear the message unto the world, that those who will accept "Mormonism" and live in the true spirit thereof, that it will bring joy into their lives. We truly testify that it brings happiness to our homes and families. It places mankind on a higher level, makes better citizens, better husbands and wives, and so we bear evidence of this to the world.
There is a spirit manifest in the world of mankind today to belittle the work of our Redeemer, to place as a standard for men the precepts of their fellow men, directing our attention from that course in life that the Gospel has prescribed for us to follow, holding out for veneration the ideas and thoughts of men, in contradistinction to the great eternal plan of salvation that God has revealed. One of the tenets of our faith, or principles of our belief as enunciated in the Articles of Faith, given unto the world by the Prophet Joseph Smith, is this : "We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important truths pertaining unto the kingdom of God." There may be some matters in connection with the great plan of life and salvation that have not been entirely made clear to the Latter-day Saints; but if we will act upon that which God has revealed for the salvation of His children, if we will follow the teachings of the gospel as taught by the Latter-day Saints, and manifest those teachings in our lives, there is no need for us to go into channels of science, so called, and endeavor to demonstrate by that means some of the great and eternal truths. We are not in the line of safety when we depart from the revealed word of God and seek to ascertain, by scientific principles, which have not yet been proven entirely true, a means of salvation for the human family.
God has revealed himself unto the children of men in this day and we have learned from the revelations of Jesus Christ unto the people in this age of the world, that we are in the express image of God, we are His children; that Jesus is the Savior of the world, that He came in the meridian of time and gave His life as an atoning sacrifice for the sin of our father Adam, thereby removing from the human family that fetter with which they were bound, and opened, through His atonement, a means of salvation whereby we might come forth from the tomb and enjoy a fulness of eternal life in His presence. This applies to all mankind, thus striking off the bands of death, bursting open the grave, and ushering in the resurrection. These are glorious results of the labors of our Lord and Redeemer. Why should we, knowing these things to be true, having a testimony and witness in our hearts that Jesus is the Christ, the Mediator between man and our Father in heaven, the Author of our salvation, and that His is the only name given under heaven by which man can be saved, as stated in the scriptures of divine truth, knowing these things, why should we seek elsewhere for the greatest of all divine blessings, or for a demonstration of these eternal principles?
Our young men go into the world to bear witness of the truth, to preach Christ and Him crucified. There is a spirit in opposition to the Latter-day Saints, but when the light of truth has come, when that enters into the hearts of men and women, they can then see and understand what the message of "Mormonism" is unto the world. It means life eternal. All mankind will be judged by the tenets of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We may in a manner deceive ourselves, in this life, by following after the teachings of men; they may appeal to us and to the desires of our hearts, but there is nothing that is reliable except the word of God, for the word of God is "sure and certain." It is an anchor to our souls, it elevates man from the lower planes of life, gives us higher ideals to live for, and places before us the responsibility attending our actions in this life. We are interested, in the first place, in our individual salvation. We are interested also in the salvation of the sons and daughters that God has given unto us in this life, and in the salvation of our relatives and friends. We are also interested in the extensive plan of salvation, in bringing to a knowledge of the truth those who are honest in the world, who have not yet received the message of "Mormonism."
I rejoice today, my brethren and sisters, in the opportunity of engaging in the work of the Lord. I bear testimony to you that this is the work of God. If the world, who do not believe in "Mormonism," oi the message that we have to bear, could witness the large attendance at this conference, and the interest that is manifested by the Latter-day Saints, it would be to them, it seems to me, a testimony that they could not ignore, for there is evident sincerity in our form of worship, in our devotion, in our acceptance of the revealed will and word of God, If we live up to that testimony, manifest its truth in our lives, show the fruits thereof, then we have accomplished, in a measure, that for which we came upon the earth. I have heard it advanced, by honorable men with whom I have spoken, that the great duty of our lives is to observe the Golden Rule, to "do to others as we would have them do unto us." But the Savior gave us, in His day, to understand that that was not sufficient, that there is something greater for us to live for than the mere observance of this golden rule. We are told that when a certain young man came unto Him and said, "Master, what must I do that I may have eternal life?" the Savior said unto him that he should keep the commandments, that he should love the Lord with all his might, mind and strength, and his neighbor as himself; that he was to honor his father and his mother, and commit none of the crimes that were forbidden in the Law of Moses, etc. But the young man said unto him: "Lord, all these things have I observed from my youth up; what else must I do in order that I may obtain eternal life?" Then the Savior said unto him, "Sell all thou hast and give unto the poor, and take up thy cross and follow me." The proclamation of Christ's gospel is our mission to the world, the mission of "Mormonism." We declare unto the world that we must love God, the eternal Father, honor our earthly parents, observe to do those things that are in harmony with the scripture, the revealed will of God, and, in addition, we are to practice charity, giving unto those who are in destitute circumstances, then take up our cross and follow God.
I bear testimony unto you that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been revealed in this day and age of the world, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the living God. In so far as we are following in the footsteps of the prophet, Joseph Smith, observing those things that the Lord revealed through him, we are the chosen people of God. Our mission is to convert the inhabitants of the world, and bring them to a knowledge of the truth. Our mission is to proclaim the truth unto all mankind, calling upon them to accept the testimony of the Latter-day Saints, and repent.
May the Lord bless us, inspire us with His 'Spirit, direct our footsteps in the paths of duty, that we may come nearer unto our Father in heaven, that our testimonies may be strengthened from day to day, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The ladies' chorus, "lift up thine eyes," was rendered by members of the choir.
(President of Beaver Stake.)
I have been very much impressed with the proceedings of our conference thus far. I have rejoiced under the inspiration and teachings of those who have addressed us. It seems to me that the principal theme of the teachings that have been given unto the people, during the conference, has been that upon each member of the Church there is a responsibility resting that he, or she, must bear evidence unto the world, in conduct in life, of the purity and sincerity of the teachings proclaimed by the Latter-day Saints. We stand as a light upon a hill before the world today. In other words, "Mormonism" is on trial; the acts of the Latter-day Saints are being watched by the world, and we are being judged by that which we engage in and do as a people. I rejoice in the spirit of this work, for I know it is the work of God. We who have embraced this Latter-day work have a great mission to perform in the world. That mission is to bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, to bear testimony of the truths of the gospel, as revealed in the day and age in which we live; not so much in word as in deed; not so much in endeavoring, by conversation, to convert those who are in our midst, as by our daily lives. We are required to let our light so shine that all men beholding our good works may realize that this is indeed the work of our Father. "Mormonism" stands today for truth, and righteousness. It stands for the liberty of men, from a religious and social point of view. We bear the message unto the world, that those who will accept "Mormonism" and live in the true spirit thereof, that it will bring joy into their lives. We truly testify that it brings happiness to our homes and families. It places mankind on a higher level, makes better citizens, better husbands and wives, and so we bear evidence of this to the world.
There is a spirit manifest in the world of mankind today to belittle the work of our Redeemer, to place as a standard for men the precepts of their fellow men, directing our attention from that course in life that the Gospel has prescribed for us to follow, holding out for veneration the ideas and thoughts of men, in contradistinction to the great eternal plan of salvation that God has revealed. One of the tenets of our faith, or principles of our belief as enunciated in the Articles of Faith, given unto the world by the Prophet Joseph Smith, is this : "We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important truths pertaining unto the kingdom of God." There may be some matters in connection with the great plan of life and salvation that have not been entirely made clear to the Latter-day Saints; but if we will act upon that which God has revealed for the salvation of His children, if we will follow the teachings of the gospel as taught by the Latter-day Saints, and manifest those teachings in our lives, there is no need for us to go into channels of science, so called, and endeavor to demonstrate by that means some of the great and eternal truths. We are not in the line of safety when we depart from the revealed word of God and seek to ascertain, by scientific principles, which have not yet been proven entirely true, a means of salvation for the human family.
God has revealed himself unto the children of men in this day and we have learned from the revelations of Jesus Christ unto the people in this age of the world, that we are in the express image of God, we are His children; that Jesus is the Savior of the world, that He came in the meridian of time and gave His life as an atoning sacrifice for the sin of our father Adam, thereby removing from the human family that fetter with which they were bound, and opened, through His atonement, a means of salvation whereby we might come forth from the tomb and enjoy a fulness of eternal life in His presence. This applies to all mankind, thus striking off the bands of death, bursting open the grave, and ushering in the resurrection. These are glorious results of the labors of our Lord and Redeemer. Why should we, knowing these things to be true, having a testimony and witness in our hearts that Jesus is the Christ, the Mediator between man and our Father in heaven, the Author of our salvation, and that His is the only name given under heaven by which man can be saved, as stated in the scriptures of divine truth, knowing these things, why should we seek elsewhere for the greatest of all divine blessings, or for a demonstration of these eternal principles?
Our young men go into the world to bear witness of the truth, to preach Christ and Him crucified. There is a spirit in opposition to the Latter-day Saints, but when the light of truth has come, when that enters into the hearts of men and women, they can then see and understand what the message of "Mormonism" is unto the world. It means life eternal. All mankind will be judged by the tenets of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We may in a manner deceive ourselves, in this life, by following after the teachings of men; they may appeal to us and to the desires of our hearts, but there is nothing that is reliable except the word of God, for the word of God is "sure and certain." It is an anchor to our souls, it elevates man from the lower planes of life, gives us higher ideals to live for, and places before us the responsibility attending our actions in this life. We are interested, in the first place, in our individual salvation. We are interested also in the salvation of the sons and daughters that God has given unto us in this life, and in the salvation of our relatives and friends. We are also interested in the extensive plan of salvation, in bringing to a knowledge of the truth those who are honest in the world, who have not yet received the message of "Mormonism."
I rejoice today, my brethren and sisters, in the opportunity of engaging in the work of the Lord. I bear testimony to you that this is the work of God. If the world, who do not believe in "Mormonism," oi the message that we have to bear, could witness the large attendance at this conference, and the interest that is manifested by the Latter-day Saints, it would be to them, it seems to me, a testimony that they could not ignore, for there is evident sincerity in our form of worship, in our devotion, in our acceptance of the revealed will and word of God, If we live up to that testimony, manifest its truth in our lives, show the fruits thereof, then we have accomplished, in a measure, that for which we came upon the earth. I have heard it advanced, by honorable men with whom I have spoken, that the great duty of our lives is to observe the Golden Rule, to "do to others as we would have them do unto us." But the Savior gave us, in His day, to understand that that was not sufficient, that there is something greater for us to live for than the mere observance of this golden rule. We are told that when a certain young man came unto Him and said, "Master, what must I do that I may have eternal life?" the Savior said unto him that he should keep the commandments, that he should love the Lord with all his might, mind and strength, and his neighbor as himself; that he was to honor his father and his mother, and commit none of the crimes that were forbidden in the Law of Moses, etc. But the young man said unto him: "Lord, all these things have I observed from my youth up; what else must I do in order that I may obtain eternal life?" Then the Savior said unto him, "Sell all thou hast and give unto the poor, and take up thy cross and follow me." The proclamation of Christ's gospel is our mission to the world, the mission of "Mormonism." We declare unto the world that we must love God, the eternal Father, honor our earthly parents, observe to do those things that are in harmony with the scripture, the revealed will of God, and, in addition, we are to practice charity, giving unto those who are in destitute circumstances, then take up our cross and follow God.
I bear testimony unto you that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been revealed in this day and age of the world, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the living God. In so far as we are following in the footsteps of the prophet, Joseph Smith, observing those things that the Lord revealed through him, we are the chosen people of God. Our mission is to convert the inhabitants of the world, and bring them to a knowledge of the truth. Our mission is to proclaim the truth unto all mankind, calling upon them to accept the testimony of the Latter-day Saints, and repent.
May the Lord bless us, inspire us with His 'Spirit, direct our footsteps in the paths of duty, that we may come nearer unto our Father in heaven, that our testimonies may be strengthened from day to day, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The ladies' chorus, "lift up thine eyes," was rendered by members of the choir.
ELDER CHARLES A. CALLIS.
(President of Southern States Mission.)
My brethren and sisters. I feel in my heart that we should be a very grateful people. One of the great poets said that the crime of ingratitude was among the basest of crimes, and I believe it. I am grateful unto God for the prophets and apostles that He has established in this Church. I am thankful unto Him that one of the apostles presides in this meeting. They are given us by the Lord "for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith."
The Apostle John said, that "if we walk in the light, as he [God] is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." What joy, what pleasure is there outside the pale of the fellowship of our brethren and sisters? To have fellowship one with another, to have a membership in the Church of the first born, is worth more than all the joys of the world, or the gold and the silver that are hidden in the depths of the earth. If a brother dislike a brother, if he has a feeling in his heart against one of his brethren, that feeling engenders prejudice in him against other brethren. It colors his opinions, and it is apt to warp his judgment with respect to all mankind. It is necessary that we walk in the light in order that we may have fellowship one with another, and we will not then depart from the path of virtue and rectitude, and make shipwreck of our faith.
The Apostle Paul said: "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might become rich." What have we gained by reason of the earthly poverty and sufferings endured by the Lord Jesus Christ? We have gained eternal life, or the means of obtaining eternal life, and God has said: "Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich." We can see this same principle exemplified in the lives of the Latter-day Saints who are sending their sons and daughters into the world to preach the Gospel. Many a mother in Israel, because of the strain upon her financial resources in keeping her son in the mission field, is wearing a last year's hat, dress and coat. As a servant of the Lord, I say unto you, that the sacrifice you are making is sacred unto the Lord. By your faith and self-denial you are placing within the reach of men and women the means of securing the riches of eternity.
We are walking in the path of humility, and God is making us a power for good in the world. After all, brethren and sisters, there is more strength in the humility that comes from trusting in the Lord Jesus than in the strength of worldly power. "When I am weak," said Paul, "then am I strong." So long as the Latter-day Saints put their trust in God; so long as they walk in the light, they will be clothed with a power that is invincible. They are guided and led by men who are blessed with inspiration and revelation from God: they have been led out of the darkness of the world into the sunshine of political and religious liberty. If we continue to pray to the Father and work hard to have our prayers fulfilled or answered, God will give us a goodly portion of His Holy Spirit. No man or woman need ever be afraid that the Almighty will suffer His chosen people to be led astray by any man or set of men. I care not for the theories men may frame as to our existence, or the beginning of our existence. I know that God has said, through His Holy Spirit, that we are His sons and daughters, and that is comforting to my soul. We stand upon a sure foundation, for our faith rests not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
It is true that many of our young men who go into the world to preach the Gospel, are not learned, that is, so far as worldly wisdom is concerned; but I believe, my brethren and sisters, that you and I, in a measure, at least, are responsible for this. God, in His wisdom, has caused Church schools to be established. He has placed at the head of these great institutions men of God, men of wisdom, men of character like President Brimhall, whose whole souls are in the work of the Lord. They yearn for the redemption and the advancement of our young men and young women. Are we giving them earnest support? Are we giving them, not only the support of our faith and prayers, but are we sending our children to these schools, in order that they may become qualified to go forth as ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ? I have noticed in the mission field that young men who have attended these Church schools, are ready and qualified to enter upon their missionary labors at once. They are learned, to a certain extent at least, in proportion to the time that they have been under the instruction of teachers in these institutions, in the principles of the Gospel. But, more than all that, they come to the mission field with the Spirit of God in their hearts. They have the spirit of the work, which, after all, is of infinitely more value than the letter of the law, for "the Spirit giveth life." And when these boys, if you please to call them boys, stand before congregations, they speak, not in the wisdom of men, but by the power of the Holy Ghost. The Book of Mormon declares that when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost his words are carried unto the hearts of the children of men. In many of the pulpits throughout Christendom today men are preaching more to win the praise of men than the approval of God, and their words, therefore, are as "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." But the servants of God, blessed with the Holy Ghost, the power that comes from above, and which enlightens the understanding of the people, preach under that influence, and their words go direct to the hearts of their hearers.
A long time ago there were certain men, alchemists, they were called, who sought to transmute the baser metals into gold, but they failed. By right use, we may convert our gold and silver into "treasures in heaven." Croesus, the rich king of antiquity, when he was dying, said: "What I have kept I have lost; what I gave away I have." His worldly possessions were slipping from his grasp but the money he had given for good and holy purposes was treasure laid up in heaven awaiting him "where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." We shall not be blessed for the amount of money, nor for the number of acres we have left behind us, but we shall be blessed and rewarded for that which we have given for the upbuilding of God's kingdom, and the advancement of righteousness in the earth. Is tithing a sacrifice? No, not in one sense of the word. It is the best investment we can make, for it is a treasure laid up in heaven. The tithing that we pay will make us rich, but the means that we leave behind us will not be to our advantage when we go to the spirit world to be judged according to the deeds done in the body.
Let us bring up our children in the fear of the Lord. Let us educate them properly; send them to institutions where they are taught the word of God, where the heart, as well as the intellect is educated. God sets great store on the heart. Solomon said: "Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."
I am reminded of a story told by the late Count Tolstoi, which I think will illustrate the point I wish to impress upon your minds, viz: that there is something else that should be sought besides worldly wealth; and that, after all, the pursuit of, and the acquisition of earthly riches do not bring lasting pleasure and joy. The Count relates the story of a man who was land hungry. You know lots of men, don't you, that are land hungry, they want to go into a strange country and get much land. This man was one of that class, his present possessions were insufficient for his desires. So he journeyed to a far-off country, where there was a large tract of land to be secured for a low figure. He came to a vast domain, and the owner of it said to him : "Leave your money here, and all the land you can encompass between now and sunset shall be yours, but if you fail to get back to this point by sunset, -you lose your money and the land, too." This was at sunrise, the man laid down his money and started out on a line due east. He walked at first, but the greediness of his soul quickened his pace into a run. He went in this direction as far as he dared to, for the sun was mounting high in the heavens. Then he ran in a northerly direction until the sun was in the meridian. Weak, and well nigh exhausted he laboriously and painfully ran toward the west, and the sun was rapidly nearing the western hills. Mustering all of his remaining strength for the final effort, bordering on the verge of absolute exhaustion, he managed by painful exertion and agony of mind and body to reach the starting point just as the sun sank out of sight. He had won the land, but in doing so, sacrificed his life, for he fell down, beside his money, dead. His servant dug a hole to bury his body, and the man was soon forgotten. Do we not find similar cases among people we know? They exhaust their lives, spiritually and physically, to amass wealth. They disregard the welfare of their children. Their sole object in life is gathering money. They neglect their Church duties. They feel that they cannot afford to pay their tithing; and when life's race is ended, when they are nearing the end of their earthly existence, behold, they are so exhausted that they pass away and miss their reward in the eternal mansions of our Father.
God grant, my brethren and sisters, that our souls may ever be attuned to the dictates of the Holy Spirit; that our lives may begin and end in the service of the Lord, in the spirit of sacrifice, that every one of us may always have a humble heart and a contrite spirit. God grant that we may never forget what hath been done for us by the Lord, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
(President of Southern States Mission.)
My brethren and sisters. I feel in my heart that we should be a very grateful people. One of the great poets said that the crime of ingratitude was among the basest of crimes, and I believe it. I am grateful unto God for the prophets and apostles that He has established in this Church. I am thankful unto Him that one of the apostles presides in this meeting. They are given us by the Lord "for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith."
The Apostle John said, that "if we walk in the light, as he [God] is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." What joy, what pleasure is there outside the pale of the fellowship of our brethren and sisters? To have fellowship one with another, to have a membership in the Church of the first born, is worth more than all the joys of the world, or the gold and the silver that are hidden in the depths of the earth. If a brother dislike a brother, if he has a feeling in his heart against one of his brethren, that feeling engenders prejudice in him against other brethren. It colors his opinions, and it is apt to warp his judgment with respect to all mankind. It is necessary that we walk in the light in order that we may have fellowship one with another, and we will not then depart from the path of virtue and rectitude, and make shipwreck of our faith.
The Apostle Paul said: "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might become rich." What have we gained by reason of the earthly poverty and sufferings endured by the Lord Jesus Christ? We have gained eternal life, or the means of obtaining eternal life, and God has said: "Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich." We can see this same principle exemplified in the lives of the Latter-day Saints who are sending their sons and daughters into the world to preach the Gospel. Many a mother in Israel, because of the strain upon her financial resources in keeping her son in the mission field, is wearing a last year's hat, dress and coat. As a servant of the Lord, I say unto you, that the sacrifice you are making is sacred unto the Lord. By your faith and self-denial you are placing within the reach of men and women the means of securing the riches of eternity.
We are walking in the path of humility, and God is making us a power for good in the world. After all, brethren and sisters, there is more strength in the humility that comes from trusting in the Lord Jesus than in the strength of worldly power. "When I am weak," said Paul, "then am I strong." So long as the Latter-day Saints put their trust in God; so long as they walk in the light, they will be clothed with a power that is invincible. They are guided and led by men who are blessed with inspiration and revelation from God: they have been led out of the darkness of the world into the sunshine of political and religious liberty. If we continue to pray to the Father and work hard to have our prayers fulfilled or answered, God will give us a goodly portion of His Holy Spirit. No man or woman need ever be afraid that the Almighty will suffer His chosen people to be led astray by any man or set of men. I care not for the theories men may frame as to our existence, or the beginning of our existence. I know that God has said, through His Holy Spirit, that we are His sons and daughters, and that is comforting to my soul. We stand upon a sure foundation, for our faith rests not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
It is true that many of our young men who go into the world to preach the Gospel, are not learned, that is, so far as worldly wisdom is concerned; but I believe, my brethren and sisters, that you and I, in a measure, at least, are responsible for this. God, in His wisdom, has caused Church schools to be established. He has placed at the head of these great institutions men of God, men of wisdom, men of character like President Brimhall, whose whole souls are in the work of the Lord. They yearn for the redemption and the advancement of our young men and young women. Are we giving them earnest support? Are we giving them, not only the support of our faith and prayers, but are we sending our children to these schools, in order that they may become qualified to go forth as ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ? I have noticed in the mission field that young men who have attended these Church schools, are ready and qualified to enter upon their missionary labors at once. They are learned, to a certain extent at least, in proportion to the time that they have been under the instruction of teachers in these institutions, in the principles of the Gospel. But, more than all that, they come to the mission field with the Spirit of God in their hearts. They have the spirit of the work, which, after all, is of infinitely more value than the letter of the law, for "the Spirit giveth life." And when these boys, if you please to call them boys, stand before congregations, they speak, not in the wisdom of men, but by the power of the Holy Ghost. The Book of Mormon declares that when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost his words are carried unto the hearts of the children of men. In many of the pulpits throughout Christendom today men are preaching more to win the praise of men than the approval of God, and their words, therefore, are as "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." But the servants of God, blessed with the Holy Ghost, the power that comes from above, and which enlightens the understanding of the people, preach under that influence, and their words go direct to the hearts of their hearers.
A long time ago there were certain men, alchemists, they were called, who sought to transmute the baser metals into gold, but they failed. By right use, we may convert our gold and silver into "treasures in heaven." Croesus, the rich king of antiquity, when he was dying, said: "What I have kept I have lost; what I gave away I have." His worldly possessions were slipping from his grasp but the money he had given for good and holy purposes was treasure laid up in heaven awaiting him "where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." We shall not be blessed for the amount of money, nor for the number of acres we have left behind us, but we shall be blessed and rewarded for that which we have given for the upbuilding of God's kingdom, and the advancement of righteousness in the earth. Is tithing a sacrifice? No, not in one sense of the word. It is the best investment we can make, for it is a treasure laid up in heaven. The tithing that we pay will make us rich, but the means that we leave behind us will not be to our advantage when we go to the spirit world to be judged according to the deeds done in the body.
Let us bring up our children in the fear of the Lord. Let us educate them properly; send them to institutions where they are taught the word of God, where the heart, as well as the intellect is educated. God sets great store on the heart. Solomon said: "Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."
I am reminded of a story told by the late Count Tolstoi, which I think will illustrate the point I wish to impress upon your minds, viz: that there is something else that should be sought besides worldly wealth; and that, after all, the pursuit of, and the acquisition of earthly riches do not bring lasting pleasure and joy. The Count relates the story of a man who was land hungry. You know lots of men, don't you, that are land hungry, they want to go into a strange country and get much land. This man was one of that class, his present possessions were insufficient for his desires. So he journeyed to a far-off country, where there was a large tract of land to be secured for a low figure. He came to a vast domain, and the owner of it said to him : "Leave your money here, and all the land you can encompass between now and sunset shall be yours, but if you fail to get back to this point by sunset, -you lose your money and the land, too." This was at sunrise, the man laid down his money and started out on a line due east. He walked at first, but the greediness of his soul quickened his pace into a run. He went in this direction as far as he dared to, for the sun was mounting high in the heavens. Then he ran in a northerly direction until the sun was in the meridian. Weak, and well nigh exhausted he laboriously and painfully ran toward the west, and the sun was rapidly nearing the western hills. Mustering all of his remaining strength for the final effort, bordering on the verge of absolute exhaustion, he managed by painful exertion and agony of mind and body to reach the starting point just as the sun sank out of sight. He had won the land, but in doing so, sacrificed his life, for he fell down, beside his money, dead. His servant dug a hole to bury his body, and the man was soon forgotten. Do we not find similar cases among people we know? They exhaust their lives, spiritually and physically, to amass wealth. They disregard the welfare of their children. Their sole object in life is gathering money. They neglect their Church duties. They feel that they cannot afford to pay their tithing; and when life's race is ended, when they are nearing the end of their earthly existence, behold, they are so exhausted that they pass away and miss their reward in the eternal mansions of our Father.
God grant, my brethren and sisters, that our souls may ever be attuned to the dictates of the Holy Spirit; that our lives may begin and end in the service of the Lord, in the spirit of sacrifice, that every one of us may always have a humble heart and a contrite spirit. God grant that we may never forget what hath been done for us by the Lord, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
ELDER ALONZO A. HINCKLEY.
(President of Millard Stake.)
My brethren and sisters, I hope to be led by the influence of the Spirit of the Lord, to be perfectly in tune with His Holy Spirit, that He shall manifest through me something, or some lesson, that He would wish taught.
It is my privilege to preside over a stake of Zion that, from point of territory, is perhaps one of the largest stakes of Zion, but, from the point of population, it is one of the smallest. Our stake boundaries are exactly the same as the boundaries of Millard County. At this time there is hardly a county that is receiving more attention, perhaps not a county receiving more advertising, from the point of available land and water, than is Millard County. All of the waters of the Sevier river have been filed upon, and title obtained and reservoirs prepared for the impounding of that water. We think that, within the next year or two, we will not have to report that Millard Stake is one of the small stakes of Zion in point of population. There is no county within the State of Utah that has as much available land, and as much water that is available to apply upon this land, as the County of Millard. Under the wise direction of those who have charge of these projects, we hope, and believe, that our county will be well populated, that the broad acres, which President Lyman is pleased to term desert, which lies between the eastern and western part of the stake, will be largely cultivated, and be inhabited by good, thrifty citizens.
I was thinking, while the brethren were talking here today, that we could preach a good gospel sermon by the lives of the Latter-day Saints of that stake. I believe that we have not, not to my knowledge, at least, in a population of five thousand souls, one case of immorality at this date. I believe that we are free from the bondage of debt. We are not given to speculation. We have no producing mines, and but few people that leave the farm; as a consequence, our people are of modest means. As a witness to their faithfulness in the payment of tithes, let me make this announcement, that while we have suffered from loss by dams being swept out of the Sevier river, and while we had the responsibility and expense of building an academy which cost about twenty-one thousand dollars, yet the tithes of Millard Stake have increased until the year 1910 is shown to be the best for the payment of tithes in the history of that stake. When we listened to the figures that were given by President Smith, regarding the birth rate among members of the Church, which we were pleased to hear was heavier than among the people of any other country upon the face of the earth, it was gratifying to us to know that Millard Stake really exceeded the splendid record that was made by the Church.
As a people we live in peace and harmony. Only a small percentage of the population of Millard County are not Latter-day Saints, and among the small percentage there is no enmity toward us that I know of. Those that are not of our faith are good citizens, and there are no poor in Millard Stake. The Latter-day Saints, I believe, are recognized by all as neighbors that are honest, true, just, virtuous and benevolent, and that they believe in doing good unto all men. One of the greatest testimonies that I have, that appeals to me, is the fact that we never have a Latter-day Saint who is true and faithful in the discharge of his duty but who is contented and satisfied, and lives in the enjoyment of peace, under the direction and influence of the Spirit of the Lord that gives joy and satisfaction.
I thank the Lord that the rewards for faithfulness in the Church are not all postponed until after the resurrection. I thank the Lord that while we live in hope and faith, and in a knowledge of the glory and blessings that await us in the future, yet the Lord rewards us every day of our lives by the whispering of peace unto our souls, giving us a knowledge of divine approval when our lives are in harmony with the requirements of the gospel. I appreciate this. The Lord teaches us through the gospel that we should lend a helping hand unto the erring, reach out and reclaim them, and save them, if possible. In the beautiful lesson taught in the parable of the prodigal son, we learn that when he had gone off and had wasted his goods, until the day of repentance came, he then thought of that which he had left behind and longed to return unto his father. We can appreciate the spirit of that father when he received the repentant son back, placed his splendid mantle upon him, killed the fatted calf for him, and placed a ring upon his finger. I also appreciate the lesson that is taught in the case of the other son, who had remained at home and who had been faithful, but was somewhat jealous of the attention that had been given to the wayward son, the father said unto the faithful one, "All that I have is thine.'' So, we learn that it is never too late to repent. We can repent and we will be rewarded for true repentance for returning unto the Lord. But if we never do that which necessitates repentance and returning, all that the Lord has will be given to those who are thus faithful from beginning to end. I thank the Lord that I have a testimony of the divinity of this work, and I rejoice in the knowledge that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I rejoice also in the knowledge that Brigham Young, and the other presidents of the Church who have died and gone, were prophets. In my faith, I sustain also Joseph F. Smith, the present living head of the Church, as a prophet, seer and revelator. When I lift up my hand to sustain the authorities of the Church, the apostles and the presiding patriarch, as prophets, seers and revelators, I mean, before the Lord and before my brethren, that I sustain them in very deed as such; and when they speak, under the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord, I accept it as the voice of the Lord unto me and unto His people. I thank the Lord for all that he has done for us, and pray that His Spirit shall abide with us and lead us in the path of duty. We should teach the gospel by our daily walk in life, for that is the most magnificent sermon that it is possible for us to preach. My words would be of but little value to the Latter-day Saints if I should teach them that the Word of Wisdom is the mind and will of the Lord, 'if my daily walk in life did not conform to my precepts. I think that the mother's word and influence are seriously affected if she, through any weakness, real or imaginary, feels justified in partaking of tea or coffee, while she admits before her family that such indulgence is contrary to the mind and will of the Lord. It breeds a spirit of disrespect for the revelations of the Lord when we treat any of His requirements or commandments with indifference, or as of little consequence. The Lord desires that we shall prove ourselves the best people upon the face of the earth, having received the truth, that we shall exemplify the truth in our lives.
I have this hope, and I speak now of Millard Stake of Zion, that if those who shall come among us and make their homes with its, shall go upon the irrigation ditches or upon our construction work, that they shall discover that the young men of Millard Stake of Zion, who do such work, do not indulge in profanity, and that they keep the Word of Wisdom. I trust they shall discover that the voice of prayer is heard among those who work daily upon those public works; that a blessing is said upon the food before it is partaken of. If they go among the families of the people, I hope they shall discover that the father, the mother, the son and the daughter prays. If they purchase from us our farm products, I trust they shall discover that we give two thousand pounds for a ton; and that we are not dissipated in any way, but that we teach and practice the gospel of Jesus Christ in our daily walk in life. We brand as infamous the lies and misrepresentations that are made against our people. Those who are honest that come into the midst of our people shall see and understand that we have been accused falsely; they shall discover, that our lives bear witness to our faith in the Lord and the saving power of the gospel; that they may do so is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
(President of Millard Stake.)
My brethren and sisters, I hope to be led by the influence of the Spirit of the Lord, to be perfectly in tune with His Holy Spirit, that He shall manifest through me something, or some lesson, that He would wish taught.
It is my privilege to preside over a stake of Zion that, from point of territory, is perhaps one of the largest stakes of Zion, but, from the point of population, it is one of the smallest. Our stake boundaries are exactly the same as the boundaries of Millard County. At this time there is hardly a county that is receiving more attention, perhaps not a county receiving more advertising, from the point of available land and water, than is Millard County. All of the waters of the Sevier river have been filed upon, and title obtained and reservoirs prepared for the impounding of that water. We think that, within the next year or two, we will not have to report that Millard Stake is one of the small stakes of Zion in point of population. There is no county within the State of Utah that has as much available land, and as much water that is available to apply upon this land, as the County of Millard. Under the wise direction of those who have charge of these projects, we hope, and believe, that our county will be well populated, that the broad acres, which President Lyman is pleased to term desert, which lies between the eastern and western part of the stake, will be largely cultivated, and be inhabited by good, thrifty citizens.
I was thinking, while the brethren were talking here today, that we could preach a good gospel sermon by the lives of the Latter-day Saints of that stake. I believe that we have not, not to my knowledge, at least, in a population of five thousand souls, one case of immorality at this date. I believe that we are free from the bondage of debt. We are not given to speculation. We have no producing mines, and but few people that leave the farm; as a consequence, our people are of modest means. As a witness to their faithfulness in the payment of tithes, let me make this announcement, that while we have suffered from loss by dams being swept out of the Sevier river, and while we had the responsibility and expense of building an academy which cost about twenty-one thousand dollars, yet the tithes of Millard Stake have increased until the year 1910 is shown to be the best for the payment of tithes in the history of that stake. When we listened to the figures that were given by President Smith, regarding the birth rate among members of the Church, which we were pleased to hear was heavier than among the people of any other country upon the face of the earth, it was gratifying to us to know that Millard Stake really exceeded the splendid record that was made by the Church.
As a people we live in peace and harmony. Only a small percentage of the population of Millard County are not Latter-day Saints, and among the small percentage there is no enmity toward us that I know of. Those that are not of our faith are good citizens, and there are no poor in Millard Stake. The Latter-day Saints, I believe, are recognized by all as neighbors that are honest, true, just, virtuous and benevolent, and that they believe in doing good unto all men. One of the greatest testimonies that I have, that appeals to me, is the fact that we never have a Latter-day Saint who is true and faithful in the discharge of his duty but who is contented and satisfied, and lives in the enjoyment of peace, under the direction and influence of the Spirit of the Lord that gives joy and satisfaction.
I thank the Lord that the rewards for faithfulness in the Church are not all postponed until after the resurrection. I thank the Lord that while we live in hope and faith, and in a knowledge of the glory and blessings that await us in the future, yet the Lord rewards us every day of our lives by the whispering of peace unto our souls, giving us a knowledge of divine approval when our lives are in harmony with the requirements of the gospel. I appreciate this. The Lord teaches us through the gospel that we should lend a helping hand unto the erring, reach out and reclaim them, and save them, if possible. In the beautiful lesson taught in the parable of the prodigal son, we learn that when he had gone off and had wasted his goods, until the day of repentance came, he then thought of that which he had left behind and longed to return unto his father. We can appreciate the spirit of that father when he received the repentant son back, placed his splendid mantle upon him, killed the fatted calf for him, and placed a ring upon his finger. I also appreciate the lesson that is taught in the case of the other son, who had remained at home and who had been faithful, but was somewhat jealous of the attention that had been given to the wayward son, the father said unto the faithful one, "All that I have is thine.'' So, we learn that it is never too late to repent. We can repent and we will be rewarded for true repentance for returning unto the Lord. But if we never do that which necessitates repentance and returning, all that the Lord has will be given to those who are thus faithful from beginning to end. I thank the Lord that I have a testimony of the divinity of this work, and I rejoice in the knowledge that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I rejoice also in the knowledge that Brigham Young, and the other presidents of the Church who have died and gone, were prophets. In my faith, I sustain also Joseph F. Smith, the present living head of the Church, as a prophet, seer and revelator. When I lift up my hand to sustain the authorities of the Church, the apostles and the presiding patriarch, as prophets, seers and revelators, I mean, before the Lord and before my brethren, that I sustain them in very deed as such; and when they speak, under the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord, I accept it as the voice of the Lord unto me and unto His people. I thank the Lord for all that he has done for us, and pray that His Spirit shall abide with us and lead us in the path of duty. We should teach the gospel by our daily walk in life, for that is the most magnificent sermon that it is possible for us to preach. My words would be of but little value to the Latter-day Saints if I should teach them that the Word of Wisdom is the mind and will of the Lord, 'if my daily walk in life did not conform to my precepts. I think that the mother's word and influence are seriously affected if she, through any weakness, real or imaginary, feels justified in partaking of tea or coffee, while she admits before her family that such indulgence is contrary to the mind and will of the Lord. It breeds a spirit of disrespect for the revelations of the Lord when we treat any of His requirements or commandments with indifference, or as of little consequence. The Lord desires that we shall prove ourselves the best people upon the face of the earth, having received the truth, that we shall exemplify the truth in our lives.
I have this hope, and I speak now of Millard Stake of Zion, that if those who shall come among us and make their homes with its, shall go upon the irrigation ditches or upon our construction work, that they shall discover that the young men of Millard Stake of Zion, who do such work, do not indulge in profanity, and that they keep the Word of Wisdom. I trust they shall discover that the voice of prayer is heard among those who work daily upon those public works; that a blessing is said upon the food before it is partaken of. If they go among the families of the people, I hope they shall discover that the father, the mother, the son and the daughter prays. If they purchase from us our farm products, I trust they shall discover that we give two thousand pounds for a ton; and that we are not dissipated in any way, but that we teach and practice the gospel of Jesus Christ in our daily walk in life. We brand as infamous the lies and misrepresentations that are made against our people. Those who are honest that come into the midst of our people shall see and understand that we have been accused falsely; they shall discover, that our lives bear witness to our faith in the Lord and the saving power of the gospel; that they may do so is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
ELDER JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR.
Blessed are they who obey when they hear the truth.—Admonition to reverence the Sabbath day.
I was asked the question, yesterday, why the Latter-day Saints meet in general conference twice a year. There are many reasons that might be given why the Saints so assemble. The most important one, perhaps, is that the Lord has commanded it. We meet together to hear inspiring words and to be built up in the faith. We meet to be instructed in our duty as members oi the Church that we may more humbly and perfectly walk in the way of the Lord, keeping His commandments that faith might increase among the Saints, and our hearts be inclined towards our heavenly Father. For the same reason we meet from time to time in stake conference in the various stakes, and in ward conference in the several wards throughout the Church, that we might be taught the commandments of the Lord.
We have heard many things during this conference that will be for our profit, providing we reflect upon them and remember them, putting into practice such things as have been presented to us for our consideration. What does it profit us in assembling together to hear the words of the Lord as they may be given unto us from His servants, if we go back to our homes and forget all that we have heard? What will it profit us when we are admonished to keep the commandments of the Lord if we go home and forget those commandments, and return, if we have been in the habit of walking in the ways of men, back into those ways? The Lord will judge us according to our works; He will judge us according to our knowledge and our opportunities. We are His people, with whom He has made covenant. He has gathered us out from the nations of the earth through the preaching of the gospel of salvation that we may learn of His ways and walk in His paths and rejoice in His truth.
It is eighty-one years since the Church was established; and during all that time the people have been admonished and instructed in the way they should walk. The parents have been taught almost daily the things that have been presented to us this morning—that they should teach their children the principles of the gospel, that they might not depart from them when they grow up and reach the age of accountability. We have received the truth and we know the truth. If we live not in accordance with the truth, then we will be held responsible. We know that it is required of us to pay our tithing. Blessed is the man who keeps this commandment. We know that the Lord has commanded us that we should observe the Word of Wisdom. Blessed is the man and blessed is the woman who keeps this commandment, for the Lord will nor forget them. We know that we have been commanded from the beginning that we should pray; that we should gather around us in our homes our children and teach them the spirit of prayer; that they might offer up their thanksgivings to their heavenly Father for His mercies and blessings unto them. We have been taught to observe the Sabbath day from the beginning, and to keep it holy. And many other commandments, which we hear reiterated from the stand and which we read in the Scriptures, God has given unto us, that we might grow nearer unto him and be built up in the faith and strengthened. No commandment, at any time, has He given us, that was not for our comfort and blessing. They are not given merely to please the Lord, but to make us better men and women, and worthy of salvation and exaltation in His kingdom. We know our duty; we know what is required of us, and that the Lord will not hold him guiltless who, understanding these things, will go contrary to that which he has been commanded.
The time has nearly expired, but I want to say just one word or two in relation to the Sabbath day. We have heard of many other things this morning, the word of wisdom, of prayer, of tithing, and other principles. I want to say a few words in regard to the observance of the Sabbath day and keeping it holy. This commandment was given in the beginning, and God commanded the Saints and all peoples of the earth that they should observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy—one day in seven. Upon that day we should rest from our labors, we should go unto the house of the Lord and offer up our sacraments upon His holy day. For this is a day appointed unto us on which we should rest from our labors and pay our devotions unto the Most High. On this day we should offer unto Him our thanks and honor Him in prayer, in fasting, in singing, and in edifying and instructing each other. There was a time when the people throughout the world observed this commandment better than they do today. I can remember the time in this city, not many years ago, when it was considered a sin for a baseball game to be played on the Sunday. It was an unknown thing for a theatre to be open on the Sabbath day; but today things have changed, and such things are common among us. This very afternoon and evening in this city and in other parts of the great nation, theatres will be open and crowded to the doors. I fear, so far as the community in this city is concerned, that all who attend those places will not be from among those who have no membership in the Church. Some who call themselves Latter-day Saints will be there, as will also those of other faiths who profess a belief in the Redeemer of the world. Yet the Lord has commanded that we should observe this law. During the greater part of the past week and extending into this week, out near the lake, there is what is called an aviation meet. Men with machines of marvelous construction are flying in the air. They will do so today. I trust no Latter-day Saint will be there on the Sabbath day, disregarding the divine law. I have heard that two of the men who have been flying out there, who are representing the Wright brothers of Ohio, have refused to take part in the program on the Sabbath day. I hope this is true; it comes to me merely as a rumor. I understand that these men, Orville and Wilbur Wright, will not take part nor permit those who represent them to take part in any such exercise on the Sabbath day, thus setting an example to others; setting an example of righteousness to the Latter-day Saints and to all the world, and showing that they are not afraid, even in the face of opposition and ridicule, perhaps, to keep this commandment which God has given them.
I hope the time will come— I don't know that it will before the millennium—but I hope it will come in this State, when we can have men in our legislature who will have enough regard for the law of God to give unto the people a legitimate law for the proper observance of the Sabbath day. We have not been able to accomplish it yet; and, I am sorry to say, some of the members of the Church sitting as legislators have been numbered among those who have not seen fit to give unto the people a law that would be suited to the proper observance of the Sabbath day. They have lacked in courage, I say it with shame, for it is a disgrace to them and a reproach unto the people.
Now, brethren and sisters, when we go from this conference to our homes, let us go filled with the Spirit of the Lord, with the determination to live our religion, to keep His commandments faithfully that His Spirit might be with us. The time will come, just as sure as we live, that there will be a separation between the righteous and the unrighteous. Those who will not keep the law of the Lord will deny the faith, for He will withdraw His Spirit from them if they do not repent, after laboring with them and doing all that is possible to keep them in the line of duty. He will withdraw His spirit from them and they will be left unto themselves. They must take one side or the other, for this separation must surely come. Let us see to it that we are numbered with the children of the Lord. Like one of the prophets of old, let us say: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And may He bless us. Amen.
The choir sang the anthem, "Hosannah."
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Reuben G. Miller.
Adjourned until 2 p. m.
Blessed are they who obey when they hear the truth.—Admonition to reverence the Sabbath day.
I was asked the question, yesterday, why the Latter-day Saints meet in general conference twice a year. There are many reasons that might be given why the Saints so assemble. The most important one, perhaps, is that the Lord has commanded it. We meet together to hear inspiring words and to be built up in the faith. We meet to be instructed in our duty as members oi the Church that we may more humbly and perfectly walk in the way of the Lord, keeping His commandments that faith might increase among the Saints, and our hearts be inclined towards our heavenly Father. For the same reason we meet from time to time in stake conference in the various stakes, and in ward conference in the several wards throughout the Church, that we might be taught the commandments of the Lord.
We have heard many things during this conference that will be for our profit, providing we reflect upon them and remember them, putting into practice such things as have been presented to us for our consideration. What does it profit us in assembling together to hear the words of the Lord as they may be given unto us from His servants, if we go back to our homes and forget all that we have heard? What will it profit us when we are admonished to keep the commandments of the Lord if we go home and forget those commandments, and return, if we have been in the habit of walking in the ways of men, back into those ways? The Lord will judge us according to our works; He will judge us according to our knowledge and our opportunities. We are His people, with whom He has made covenant. He has gathered us out from the nations of the earth through the preaching of the gospel of salvation that we may learn of His ways and walk in His paths and rejoice in His truth.
It is eighty-one years since the Church was established; and during all that time the people have been admonished and instructed in the way they should walk. The parents have been taught almost daily the things that have been presented to us this morning—that they should teach their children the principles of the gospel, that they might not depart from them when they grow up and reach the age of accountability. We have received the truth and we know the truth. If we live not in accordance with the truth, then we will be held responsible. We know that it is required of us to pay our tithing. Blessed is the man who keeps this commandment. We know that the Lord has commanded us that we should observe the Word of Wisdom. Blessed is the man and blessed is the woman who keeps this commandment, for the Lord will nor forget them. We know that we have been commanded from the beginning that we should pray; that we should gather around us in our homes our children and teach them the spirit of prayer; that they might offer up their thanksgivings to their heavenly Father for His mercies and blessings unto them. We have been taught to observe the Sabbath day from the beginning, and to keep it holy. And many other commandments, which we hear reiterated from the stand and which we read in the Scriptures, God has given unto us, that we might grow nearer unto him and be built up in the faith and strengthened. No commandment, at any time, has He given us, that was not for our comfort and blessing. They are not given merely to please the Lord, but to make us better men and women, and worthy of salvation and exaltation in His kingdom. We know our duty; we know what is required of us, and that the Lord will not hold him guiltless who, understanding these things, will go contrary to that which he has been commanded.
The time has nearly expired, but I want to say just one word or two in relation to the Sabbath day. We have heard of many other things this morning, the word of wisdom, of prayer, of tithing, and other principles. I want to say a few words in regard to the observance of the Sabbath day and keeping it holy. This commandment was given in the beginning, and God commanded the Saints and all peoples of the earth that they should observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy—one day in seven. Upon that day we should rest from our labors, we should go unto the house of the Lord and offer up our sacraments upon His holy day. For this is a day appointed unto us on which we should rest from our labors and pay our devotions unto the Most High. On this day we should offer unto Him our thanks and honor Him in prayer, in fasting, in singing, and in edifying and instructing each other. There was a time when the people throughout the world observed this commandment better than they do today. I can remember the time in this city, not many years ago, when it was considered a sin for a baseball game to be played on the Sunday. It was an unknown thing for a theatre to be open on the Sabbath day; but today things have changed, and such things are common among us. This very afternoon and evening in this city and in other parts of the great nation, theatres will be open and crowded to the doors. I fear, so far as the community in this city is concerned, that all who attend those places will not be from among those who have no membership in the Church. Some who call themselves Latter-day Saints will be there, as will also those of other faiths who profess a belief in the Redeemer of the world. Yet the Lord has commanded that we should observe this law. During the greater part of the past week and extending into this week, out near the lake, there is what is called an aviation meet. Men with machines of marvelous construction are flying in the air. They will do so today. I trust no Latter-day Saint will be there on the Sabbath day, disregarding the divine law. I have heard that two of the men who have been flying out there, who are representing the Wright brothers of Ohio, have refused to take part in the program on the Sabbath day. I hope this is true; it comes to me merely as a rumor. I understand that these men, Orville and Wilbur Wright, will not take part nor permit those who represent them to take part in any such exercise on the Sabbath day, thus setting an example to others; setting an example of righteousness to the Latter-day Saints and to all the world, and showing that they are not afraid, even in the face of opposition and ridicule, perhaps, to keep this commandment which God has given them.
I hope the time will come— I don't know that it will before the millennium—but I hope it will come in this State, when we can have men in our legislature who will have enough regard for the law of God to give unto the people a legitimate law for the proper observance of the Sabbath day. We have not been able to accomplish it yet; and, I am sorry to say, some of the members of the Church sitting as legislators have been numbered among those who have not seen fit to give unto the people a law that would be suited to the proper observance of the Sabbath day. They have lacked in courage, I say it with shame, for it is a disgrace to them and a reproach unto the people.
Now, brethren and sisters, when we go from this conference to our homes, let us go filled with the Spirit of the Lord, with the determination to live our religion, to keep His commandments faithfully that His Spirit might be with us. The time will come, just as sure as we live, that there will be a separation between the righteous and the unrighteous. Those who will not keep the law of the Lord will deny the faith, for He will withdraw His Spirit from them if they do not repent, after laboring with them and doing all that is possible to keep them in the line of duty. He will withdraw His spirit from them and they will be left unto themselves. They must take one side or the other, for this separation must surely come. Let us see to it that we are numbered with the children of the Lord. Like one of the prophets of old, let us say: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And may He bless us. Amen.
The choir sang the anthem, "Hosannah."
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Reuben G. Miller.
Adjourned until 2 p. m.
SECOND OVERFLOW MEETING.
Another meeting of the Conference was held in the Assembly Hall, at 2 p. m., at which Elder Charles W. Penrose presided.
The Farmers' Ward choir was again in attendance.
The choir sang the hymn:
Come, thou glorious day of promise,
Come and spread thy cheerful ray,
When the scattered sheep of Israel
Shall no longer go astray.
Prayer was offered by Elder Ferdinand F. Hintze.
The choir sang the hymn:
Zion stands with hills surrounded --
Zion, kept by power divine;
All her foes shall be confounded.
Though the world in arms combine.
Another meeting of the Conference was held in the Assembly Hall, at 2 p. m., at which Elder Charles W. Penrose presided.
The Farmers' Ward choir was again in attendance.
The choir sang the hymn:
Come, thou glorious day of promise,
Come and spread thy cheerful ray,
When the scattered sheep of Israel
Shall no longer go astray.
Prayer was offered by Elder Ferdinand F. Hintze.
The choir sang the hymn:
Zion stands with hills surrounded --
Zion, kept by power divine;
All her foes shall be confounded.
Though the world in arms combine.
ELDER CHARLES W. PENROSE.
Preliminary remarks.—Attacks upon the Church.—Necessity of sustaining its authorities.
Brethren and sisters, I congratulate you on having a suitable place in which to assemble, seeing that the tabernacle is full to overflowing.
I hope you will enjoy the meeting that is convened in this place. It does not matter much where it is so long as we have the right spirit. We shall enjoy our services and the remarks that will be made by our brethren who have been selected to address us. If you will give us your attention, and keep as quiet as possible so that the voices of the brethren may be heard distinctly in every part of the building, I am sure that we will receive good instructions suitable in our present condition and circumstances.
We have some selections, too, to be rendered by the Farmers ward choir, which has become somewhat famous for its good music. And I pray that the blessing of the Lord will be upon us, and that we shall have a time of rejoicing and instruction.
It will be necessary, first, before we introduce the speakers, to present the general authorities of the Church, that you may have the privilege of lifting up your hand just as though you were in the big tabernacle. For if there ever was a time in the history of the Church when the Latter-day Saints ought to have the opportunity of showing their faith and confidence in and devotion to the men who are called to guide us, it is at the present time, when floods of vituperation and calumny are poured forth, and when there is a special endeavor to blacken their character before this nation and before the world. This is one of those things that occur almost periodically, and when the floodgates of the regions below seem to be open to pour forth venom against the servants of the living God; and as is usually the case, and has been from the beginning, their chief attacks are directed against the man who stands at the head, the Prophet, Seer and Revelator called to preside over the Church.
Elder Charles W. Penrose presented the names of the General Authorities of the Church, and they were severally sustained in the positions named, by unanimous vote of the congregation.
Preliminary remarks.—Attacks upon the Church.—Necessity of sustaining its authorities.
Brethren and sisters, I congratulate you on having a suitable place in which to assemble, seeing that the tabernacle is full to overflowing.
I hope you will enjoy the meeting that is convened in this place. It does not matter much where it is so long as we have the right spirit. We shall enjoy our services and the remarks that will be made by our brethren who have been selected to address us. If you will give us your attention, and keep as quiet as possible so that the voices of the brethren may be heard distinctly in every part of the building, I am sure that we will receive good instructions suitable in our present condition and circumstances.
We have some selections, too, to be rendered by the Farmers ward choir, which has become somewhat famous for its good music. And I pray that the blessing of the Lord will be upon us, and that we shall have a time of rejoicing and instruction.
It will be necessary, first, before we introduce the speakers, to present the general authorities of the Church, that you may have the privilege of lifting up your hand just as though you were in the big tabernacle. For if there ever was a time in the history of the Church when the Latter-day Saints ought to have the opportunity of showing their faith and confidence in and devotion to the men who are called to guide us, it is at the present time, when floods of vituperation and calumny are poured forth, and when there is a special endeavor to blacken their character before this nation and before the world. This is one of those things that occur almost periodically, and when the floodgates of the regions below seem to be open to pour forth venom against the servants of the living God; and as is usually the case, and has been from the beginning, their chief attacks are directed against the man who stands at the head, the Prophet, Seer and Revelator called to preside over the Church.
Elder Charles W. Penrose presented the names of the General Authorities of the Church, and they were severally sustained in the positions named, by unanimous vote of the congregation.
ELDER MELVIN J. BALLARD.
(President of Northwestern States Mission.)
It has been said that a few years ago a party of tourists returning from a trip on the continent of Europe met one evening in a hotel in the city of Paris, and among other things were discussing points of interest which they had seen on their trip. Each one of four among the party appeared to have visited a famous obelisk, and one of the number said that its color was white. This was disputed by a second visitor, who said that it was blue; and still a third person insisted that both of the previous speakers were mistaken, and that its color was green. Each was sure that he was right, when a fourth person spoke up and said that he too had visited the obelisk, and that each one of these gentlemen was right and that each was wrong, for, .said he, "it is white on one side, it is blue on another, and green on a third side. The trouble with you, gentlemen, is that you did not go all the way around it." As I read that story recently, I thought of the wonderful variation in testimony which has been borne recently with respect to "Mormonism." We have been listening the last few days to testimonies of those who are in sympathy with the work of the Lord, wherein they have told of their strong faith in His cause, the truthfulness of the principles of the Gospel, the righteousness of the lives of the men who are associated with this Church as the leaders of the organization.
There has preceded our conference a series of attacks upon the character of the work, and individual members of the organization, wherein, perhaps, some of the failures that we have made (for we are not perfect, the net gathers of all kinds of fishes, and there are some among us who make their failures and mistakes;, and perhaps this has furnished the foundation and the basis, in a number of instances at least, for the attacks that have been made, and these have been enlarged and exploited to serve the purpose of those who have it in their hearts to hurt and to injure. As I study human nature, I find that notwithstanding we try to look at the same thing alike, there is such a difference in our individual makeup and temperament, also in the environments which surround us, that we cannot always look at the same thing and describe it alike. The attacks which have been made upon the sacred scriptures have aimed at the fact that the Apostles Peter, James, and John have not borne testimony in the same identical manner with reference to the life of Christ. I call attention to the fact that these men all looked upon the Master from the same point of view, believing Him to be the Son of God; and when these men described such scenes as Christ before Pilate, though their descriptions are about the same, yet there are some slight variations in detail, but not sufficient to contradict their testimony of His mission and character. Some of those who related the life of our Savior, because of previous training in a certain direction were inclined to state that which appealed to them most strongly; one, because of his temperament and training in mathematics and tax collecting, was attracted by certain phases of the life of Christ; while John, the spiritually minded man, saw in that life the greatness and the spirituality of the Redeemer.
If that is true of men who try to tell the truth, and are in sympathy with the object of which they speak, then, we shall find in like manner more diversified opinions as we shall find men more widely separated in their view-point. As instance the testimony of a bitter apostate, who has had his mind darkened against the word of God and the leaders of the Church, whose own wicked life has colored his vision, and he pours forth all the venom of his distorted mind upon the people he once loved, though they have not changed since he loved them. No one else can see things just as he sees them. Then you have the example of the man who writes only for the monetary value of the story to him, who is paid to exploit his theme, and who gives it color without venom, but maliciously distorted, nevertheless. Then you have still other phases represented, until you reach the burning, strong testimony of men and women who know the whole truth, who have gone all the way round, who have seen it and know it in all its phases, whose minds are free from malice and hatred, who have borne testimony of the truth and seen the majesty of it, as it has been divinely made known to them. You have their testimony as to the uprightness of the lives and characters of our leaders and the nobility and value of the organization. So, my brethren and sisters, when you shall consider the possibility of human nature to err and get in the dark, and how it is influenced by its prejudices, you shall then perhaps more easily understand the great diversity of opinion expressed and sent broadcast about us.
But, whose opinion shall we receive? I was asked not so very long ago, by a very respectable man of the northwest, if it was possible that magazines of the character of those that have been attacking the Church could be mistaken, for they have a respectable standing in the community. I answered him that if these magazines are mistaken on their present attitude toward the Church, it is not the first time they, and other equally as respectable papers, have been on the wrong side of great questions. The world's judgment against the Latter-day Saints is no evidence that we are wrong by any manner of means. My researches into the history of the past reveal the fact that not only in religious matters, but in scientific matters, and in the matter of the coming forth of truth from various sources, there has been a disposition on the part of the world seriously to condemn and reject that which is true. I might call your attention to the fact that some three hundred years ago all the world believed that the earth on which we now live was flat, a. great expanse in the universe, and that the stars, the sun and the moon, each made their revolutions around the earth, and that it was the center of space and did not move in space. When Galileo, the great and inspired philosopher, first announced that the earth was only one spark or gem in God's great universe, that it moved .together with other worlds with which it was associated, that the sun was the center of the solar system, and that the conditions of night and day were produced by motions of the earth, he was haled before the highest tribunal of his day, and condemned for advancing a doctrine which was false and in contradiction of the scriptures; he was condemned to suffer a cruel death or recede from his position. In order to save himself for future struggles in maintaining the truth, and realizing a denial did not change the truth which he had discovered, he said that he would recant his statement; but, aside to his friends, he said, "The world moves just the same." In later years, when he again revived the doctrine and gave further evidences of its truthfulness, he was again haled before the high tribunal and condemned, and burned at the stake for having taught a doctrine which now everybody who is posted at all knows to be absolutely correct. So in numerous other things, we have discovered that the judgment of the world has been wrong.
I content myself by calling your attention to the one gift. of God to man. Great and good as are the gifts of scientific, psychological, and philosophical research, and the gift of wisdom manifest in discovering the electric telegraph, telephone, and all the glorious things which minister to the want and comfort of man, mounting far above them all, greater than all combined is the precious gift of God to man, His Son Jesus Christ. Did the world receive Him? No; condemned, executed between two thieves, buried in the oblivion which they hoped would cover him so that future generations would know nothing of him, nor the part they took in his execution, expecting to prove to the world that they had merely rid their nation and their people of a malefactor who was unworthy to live. Was the world right or wrong? They believed that they were doing right. The world erected monuments to the princes who exterminated Christians, in the hope that coming generations would pay reverence to those princes for having rid the world of the abomination know as Christianity. The world has returned, not to place its laurels upon the monuments erected, but to honor the names of those who suffered, and condemn those who erected the monuments, as having raised their hands against the most precious of all doctrines, and the most glorious of all individuals who have ever visited the world, the thing that the world needed most of all.
And so will the world be proven to be wrong in its present judgment of the "Mormon" people. As shown, it has not been the first time that it has been mistaken. The world will not be satisfied, perhaps, by our testimony so far as it is favorably expressed. There is one way, thank God, that we can answer all accusations and charges. The Master stated that way, and the manner by which our true character may be determined, the conclusive evidence is, "By their fruits ye shall know them." He thus announced the way by which we or any other people may prove our claim, or rather may prove ourselves worthy of what we claim to be. And so to this let us direct our attention just a few moments.
You have heard some statistics during this conference, vital statistics, and I refer to these again because they show some of the remarkable fruits of the system. We are told that, in 1910, there were thirty-eight births to every one thousand members in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an excess over the birth rate in the United States, by comparison of the latest statistics, of twenty-five per cent. That means that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shows a birth rate far in excess of that in the United States; and I presume I am not far from the truth when I say that the United States leads the world in this matter, consequently we have an excess in our birth rate over any nation, or country, or people. Is that desirable fruit, or undesirable? Why, the greatest statesmen in the present age are exercising their persuasive powers to the uttermost in endeavors to induce men and women in our country, and other civilized nations, to honor the first great law of God, "Multiply and replenish the earth." Thank the Lord, men and women in our Church keep the ranks replenished, and give at least our quota to make our nation endure in greatness. Thank God that the doctrine of race suicide which exists in the world has not become popular among us and is not breaking down the high ideals that have been held before our eyes by the men and women who lived according' to God's law. In the world, where do we find increase principally? Children are rare among the exceeding wealthy or those living in affluence, luxury and ease; neither do you find large families among those steeped in transgression and sin. Children are more numerous in that greater and better element of mankind called the middle class, the honest men and women who believe in honoring the great command that I have announced, which was given to man in the beginning of his habitation upon the earth.
We were told that the death rate in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is nine and a fraction per thousand, while the general death rate in the United States is seventeen per thousand. The death rate, Brother Grant tells us, among individuals received in life insurance associations seldom comes as low as ten per thousand. Are these fruits desirable or undesirable? Do the people of the world know how to live properly and perpetuate life? The great medical philosophical and psychological schools vainly strive to advise the people to live according to natural ways and means by which life may be perpetuated. God gave to this Church the great key of health, about which so much has been said in this conference; and, thank the Lord, a great majority of the Latter-day Saints obey the Word of Wisdom, and thereby a foundation is laid in themselves and their children for strength of body and of mind. By reason of obedience in these things, they receive the blessings of health and strength, and long life.
We were told that the divorce rate in the Church is so low that it is only about one-fifth the general divorce rate in the United States. Are these fruits desirable? Most assuredly they are. There is a great cry for ways and means by which there may be a curtailment of this evil of divorce, loosing the bonds of matrimony. Does the record speak well for the Latter-day Saints? Surely it does. The great cause of the divorce evil in the United States today is the unfaithfulness and infidelity of men and women to each other and to their families. How have Latter-day Saints been trained? You know, when we were boys we were told to hold virtue so sacred that ,we would rather lose our lives than to ruin or despoil the virtue of any woman, that personal purity was more sacred to us than our lives. We do not have a double standard of morality. Thank God, we have listened to the advice of our fathers, and accepted the teachings of the gospel, and have produced, notwithstanding some mistakes and failures in other respects, a generation of young men and women whose equal in these things cannot be found anywhere in the world. Are these fruits desirable? O, my brethren and sisters, I desire with all my heart that the young men and women of this Church shall show forth by their lives even stronger testimonies than these, and that they shall be a sufficient answer to all our accusers—not our words, but what we are. The world has many new systems of philosophy, new religions, and new theories of solving problems of life, such theories are very plentiful, but they have not yet succeeded in producing a race of men and women superior to the children of the Latter- day Saints. And so, my brethren and sisters, while we are growing in numbers, I trust we shall be noted also for our growth in virtue and every good and desirable thing.
By the way, it is complained just now that the reason why we ought to have immediate attention is that we are increasing so fast. We haven't any disposition to wrangle about that question, we acknowledge that we are growing. I noticed in statistics published by the Literary Digest, about six weeks ago, a statement concerning the leading churches of the United States, showing their rank twenty years ago, their place today, and the increase in population in the twenty years. The Roman Catholic church was ranked as number one, twenty years ago, and is the same today, and shows an increase of ninety-five per cent in that period. So they go in their list until we reach church number fifteen, which the table shows has made the greatest growth in the United States in the last twenty years, and the statistics are not ours, that is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now, among the fifteen churches on the list here enumerated, until we reach this "Mormon" Church, there is not an increase in position of any one of them of more than two points. Whereas, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was rated as church twenty-one, twenty years ago, and as church number fifteen this year, an increase of six points, a showing two hundred per cent better than the others. Then in point of membership, none of the fifteen have a greater increase than ninety-eight per cent except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whose increase is two hundred and fifty per cent ! In this connection I will say that, four weeks ago, in the city of Portland, I heard an address given by the secretary of home missions of the Methodist church, who said that unless there was a change in their methods of proselyting they would soon be decreasing. Said he, $40,000 expended in the city of Boston netted but twenty-one converts; $50,000 expended in the city of Chicago had netted but forty-four converts; and he made the further remarkable statement that last year the great Methodist church, which stands as the second largest church in the United States, with a membership of 3,180,000 souls, showed an increase of but 40,000 last year. Compare that with the Church we represent, with a membership of about 5(X),000 souls, showing an increase of 16,000, and contrast it, in view also of another fact, that of the 40,000 souls introduced into the Methodist church last year only five per cent were men and women over twenty-one years of age, ninety-five per cent were children. Its power to appeal to the matured judgment of men and women of this country must surely be waning, when it can claim only five per cent of its converts from the ranks of matured minds. Not so with the Latter-day Saints. Our increase has been very satisfactory, and has come largely from the mature, thinking men and women of the country. I know it is so in the Northwestern States mission, and I am sure that it is so elsewhere. Now, is this growth and increase desirable? I maintain that it is, and ought to continue, for the world's good. The best men and women are crying out in their souls for that which we have, though they know it not, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has that which the world needs, and which the world must have to save itself.
We need not be alarmed at the assaults which have been made. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints shall not falter, nor waver, nor shall it be harmed by the present attack. I bear you witness, as I mingle among people outside of Utah, and know what the sentiment is, that thinking minds of the present day have been stirred up by the recent articles to a spirit of enquiry such as they have never manifested before. We have opportunities for gospel conversations such as we have not had before. Recently we had an opportunity to answer the enquiries of the president of one of the greatest colleges in the west. He recognized that these stories did not contain the truth, and he wanted to know what the truth is. I can say that the commonwealth here, our glorious Utah, where so many of us were born, is being injured more seriously than is the "Mormon" Church. The Church thrives in spite of persecution, but the citizens of the State of Utah suffer from the indignities and vilifications that are being published. Thirty thousand home seekers came into the northwest during last spring. It has been my privilege to meet thousands of them on the trains, and I have taken the opportunity of making a canvass among them, and to ask them "why don't you go to Utah?" I have exploited some of Utah's resources and her opportunities, and the answer has been, in many instances, that they were prejudiced against Utah because of the recent agitation that has been going the rounds of the press. So, Utah is suffering more than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. God bless Utah, the vales we love, the place of our birth and our homes.
The Church shall stand, and thrive, and increase In its numbers, and shall never diminish. We are only just beginning; we are but forming the nucleus of a great and mighty organization that shall grow as fast as it can absorb new members, and it shall increase in its absorbing, and shall yet be numbered by millions of the children of this generation. This is my testimony, and faith, and I may say, I speak it with knowledge. We missionaries go not to the world with a spirit of resentment, but in the spirit of love we approach their homes, and if they turn us away, we still feel that we have brought to them the most precious of all gifts, and that we have honored that household to which we have come with our message, offering the most precious boon that could be bestowed upon them, none greater has ever been offered to this world in all the years of its history. In all our labors we try to show that we love the whole world; in the spirit of kindness we work among them, not with a spirit of retaliation, but of forbearance, — showing by our lives and the examples which we set that we are what we claim to be: members of God's Church; not perfect men, but seeking according to the knowledge that we possess, and the Spirit of the Lord within us, to perfect our lives in harmony with the laws of God's truth, and inspire them to do likewise, which may God grant us the opportunity to do, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
A sacred song, entitled "Face to face," was sung by Mrs. F. M. Bishop.
(President of Northwestern States Mission.)
It has been said that a few years ago a party of tourists returning from a trip on the continent of Europe met one evening in a hotel in the city of Paris, and among other things were discussing points of interest which they had seen on their trip. Each one of four among the party appeared to have visited a famous obelisk, and one of the number said that its color was white. This was disputed by a second visitor, who said that it was blue; and still a third person insisted that both of the previous speakers were mistaken, and that its color was green. Each was sure that he was right, when a fourth person spoke up and said that he too had visited the obelisk, and that each one of these gentlemen was right and that each was wrong, for, .said he, "it is white on one side, it is blue on another, and green on a third side. The trouble with you, gentlemen, is that you did not go all the way around it." As I read that story recently, I thought of the wonderful variation in testimony which has been borne recently with respect to "Mormonism." We have been listening the last few days to testimonies of those who are in sympathy with the work of the Lord, wherein they have told of their strong faith in His cause, the truthfulness of the principles of the Gospel, the righteousness of the lives of the men who are associated with this Church as the leaders of the organization.
There has preceded our conference a series of attacks upon the character of the work, and individual members of the organization, wherein, perhaps, some of the failures that we have made (for we are not perfect, the net gathers of all kinds of fishes, and there are some among us who make their failures and mistakes;, and perhaps this has furnished the foundation and the basis, in a number of instances at least, for the attacks that have been made, and these have been enlarged and exploited to serve the purpose of those who have it in their hearts to hurt and to injure. As I study human nature, I find that notwithstanding we try to look at the same thing alike, there is such a difference in our individual makeup and temperament, also in the environments which surround us, that we cannot always look at the same thing and describe it alike. The attacks which have been made upon the sacred scriptures have aimed at the fact that the Apostles Peter, James, and John have not borne testimony in the same identical manner with reference to the life of Christ. I call attention to the fact that these men all looked upon the Master from the same point of view, believing Him to be the Son of God; and when these men described such scenes as Christ before Pilate, though their descriptions are about the same, yet there are some slight variations in detail, but not sufficient to contradict their testimony of His mission and character. Some of those who related the life of our Savior, because of previous training in a certain direction were inclined to state that which appealed to them most strongly; one, because of his temperament and training in mathematics and tax collecting, was attracted by certain phases of the life of Christ; while John, the spiritually minded man, saw in that life the greatness and the spirituality of the Redeemer.
If that is true of men who try to tell the truth, and are in sympathy with the object of which they speak, then, we shall find in like manner more diversified opinions as we shall find men more widely separated in their view-point. As instance the testimony of a bitter apostate, who has had his mind darkened against the word of God and the leaders of the Church, whose own wicked life has colored his vision, and he pours forth all the venom of his distorted mind upon the people he once loved, though they have not changed since he loved them. No one else can see things just as he sees them. Then you have the example of the man who writes only for the monetary value of the story to him, who is paid to exploit his theme, and who gives it color without venom, but maliciously distorted, nevertheless. Then you have still other phases represented, until you reach the burning, strong testimony of men and women who know the whole truth, who have gone all the way round, who have seen it and know it in all its phases, whose minds are free from malice and hatred, who have borne testimony of the truth and seen the majesty of it, as it has been divinely made known to them. You have their testimony as to the uprightness of the lives and characters of our leaders and the nobility and value of the organization. So, my brethren and sisters, when you shall consider the possibility of human nature to err and get in the dark, and how it is influenced by its prejudices, you shall then perhaps more easily understand the great diversity of opinion expressed and sent broadcast about us.
But, whose opinion shall we receive? I was asked not so very long ago, by a very respectable man of the northwest, if it was possible that magazines of the character of those that have been attacking the Church could be mistaken, for they have a respectable standing in the community. I answered him that if these magazines are mistaken on their present attitude toward the Church, it is not the first time they, and other equally as respectable papers, have been on the wrong side of great questions. The world's judgment against the Latter-day Saints is no evidence that we are wrong by any manner of means. My researches into the history of the past reveal the fact that not only in religious matters, but in scientific matters, and in the matter of the coming forth of truth from various sources, there has been a disposition on the part of the world seriously to condemn and reject that which is true. I might call your attention to the fact that some three hundred years ago all the world believed that the earth on which we now live was flat, a. great expanse in the universe, and that the stars, the sun and the moon, each made their revolutions around the earth, and that it was the center of space and did not move in space. When Galileo, the great and inspired philosopher, first announced that the earth was only one spark or gem in God's great universe, that it moved .together with other worlds with which it was associated, that the sun was the center of the solar system, and that the conditions of night and day were produced by motions of the earth, he was haled before the highest tribunal of his day, and condemned for advancing a doctrine which was false and in contradiction of the scriptures; he was condemned to suffer a cruel death or recede from his position. In order to save himself for future struggles in maintaining the truth, and realizing a denial did not change the truth which he had discovered, he said that he would recant his statement; but, aside to his friends, he said, "The world moves just the same." In later years, when he again revived the doctrine and gave further evidences of its truthfulness, he was again haled before the high tribunal and condemned, and burned at the stake for having taught a doctrine which now everybody who is posted at all knows to be absolutely correct. So in numerous other things, we have discovered that the judgment of the world has been wrong.
I content myself by calling your attention to the one gift. of God to man. Great and good as are the gifts of scientific, psychological, and philosophical research, and the gift of wisdom manifest in discovering the electric telegraph, telephone, and all the glorious things which minister to the want and comfort of man, mounting far above them all, greater than all combined is the precious gift of God to man, His Son Jesus Christ. Did the world receive Him? No; condemned, executed between two thieves, buried in the oblivion which they hoped would cover him so that future generations would know nothing of him, nor the part they took in his execution, expecting to prove to the world that they had merely rid their nation and their people of a malefactor who was unworthy to live. Was the world right or wrong? They believed that they were doing right. The world erected monuments to the princes who exterminated Christians, in the hope that coming generations would pay reverence to those princes for having rid the world of the abomination know as Christianity. The world has returned, not to place its laurels upon the monuments erected, but to honor the names of those who suffered, and condemn those who erected the monuments, as having raised their hands against the most precious of all doctrines, and the most glorious of all individuals who have ever visited the world, the thing that the world needed most of all.
And so will the world be proven to be wrong in its present judgment of the "Mormon" people. As shown, it has not been the first time that it has been mistaken. The world will not be satisfied, perhaps, by our testimony so far as it is favorably expressed. There is one way, thank God, that we can answer all accusations and charges. The Master stated that way, and the manner by which our true character may be determined, the conclusive evidence is, "By their fruits ye shall know them." He thus announced the way by which we or any other people may prove our claim, or rather may prove ourselves worthy of what we claim to be. And so to this let us direct our attention just a few moments.
You have heard some statistics during this conference, vital statistics, and I refer to these again because they show some of the remarkable fruits of the system. We are told that, in 1910, there were thirty-eight births to every one thousand members in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an excess over the birth rate in the United States, by comparison of the latest statistics, of twenty-five per cent. That means that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shows a birth rate far in excess of that in the United States; and I presume I am not far from the truth when I say that the United States leads the world in this matter, consequently we have an excess in our birth rate over any nation, or country, or people. Is that desirable fruit, or undesirable? Why, the greatest statesmen in the present age are exercising their persuasive powers to the uttermost in endeavors to induce men and women in our country, and other civilized nations, to honor the first great law of God, "Multiply and replenish the earth." Thank the Lord, men and women in our Church keep the ranks replenished, and give at least our quota to make our nation endure in greatness. Thank God that the doctrine of race suicide which exists in the world has not become popular among us and is not breaking down the high ideals that have been held before our eyes by the men and women who lived according' to God's law. In the world, where do we find increase principally? Children are rare among the exceeding wealthy or those living in affluence, luxury and ease; neither do you find large families among those steeped in transgression and sin. Children are more numerous in that greater and better element of mankind called the middle class, the honest men and women who believe in honoring the great command that I have announced, which was given to man in the beginning of his habitation upon the earth.
We were told that the death rate in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is nine and a fraction per thousand, while the general death rate in the United States is seventeen per thousand. The death rate, Brother Grant tells us, among individuals received in life insurance associations seldom comes as low as ten per thousand. Are these fruits desirable or undesirable? Do the people of the world know how to live properly and perpetuate life? The great medical philosophical and psychological schools vainly strive to advise the people to live according to natural ways and means by which life may be perpetuated. God gave to this Church the great key of health, about which so much has been said in this conference; and, thank the Lord, a great majority of the Latter-day Saints obey the Word of Wisdom, and thereby a foundation is laid in themselves and their children for strength of body and of mind. By reason of obedience in these things, they receive the blessings of health and strength, and long life.
We were told that the divorce rate in the Church is so low that it is only about one-fifth the general divorce rate in the United States. Are these fruits desirable? Most assuredly they are. There is a great cry for ways and means by which there may be a curtailment of this evil of divorce, loosing the bonds of matrimony. Does the record speak well for the Latter-day Saints? Surely it does. The great cause of the divorce evil in the United States today is the unfaithfulness and infidelity of men and women to each other and to their families. How have Latter-day Saints been trained? You know, when we were boys we were told to hold virtue so sacred that ,we would rather lose our lives than to ruin or despoil the virtue of any woman, that personal purity was more sacred to us than our lives. We do not have a double standard of morality. Thank God, we have listened to the advice of our fathers, and accepted the teachings of the gospel, and have produced, notwithstanding some mistakes and failures in other respects, a generation of young men and women whose equal in these things cannot be found anywhere in the world. Are these fruits desirable? O, my brethren and sisters, I desire with all my heart that the young men and women of this Church shall show forth by their lives even stronger testimonies than these, and that they shall be a sufficient answer to all our accusers—not our words, but what we are. The world has many new systems of philosophy, new religions, and new theories of solving problems of life, such theories are very plentiful, but they have not yet succeeded in producing a race of men and women superior to the children of the Latter- day Saints. And so, my brethren and sisters, while we are growing in numbers, I trust we shall be noted also for our growth in virtue and every good and desirable thing.
By the way, it is complained just now that the reason why we ought to have immediate attention is that we are increasing so fast. We haven't any disposition to wrangle about that question, we acknowledge that we are growing. I noticed in statistics published by the Literary Digest, about six weeks ago, a statement concerning the leading churches of the United States, showing their rank twenty years ago, their place today, and the increase in population in the twenty years. The Roman Catholic church was ranked as number one, twenty years ago, and is the same today, and shows an increase of ninety-five per cent in that period. So they go in their list until we reach church number fifteen, which the table shows has made the greatest growth in the United States in the last twenty years, and the statistics are not ours, that is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now, among the fifteen churches on the list here enumerated, until we reach this "Mormon" Church, there is not an increase in position of any one of them of more than two points. Whereas, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was rated as church twenty-one, twenty years ago, and as church number fifteen this year, an increase of six points, a showing two hundred per cent better than the others. Then in point of membership, none of the fifteen have a greater increase than ninety-eight per cent except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whose increase is two hundred and fifty per cent ! In this connection I will say that, four weeks ago, in the city of Portland, I heard an address given by the secretary of home missions of the Methodist church, who said that unless there was a change in their methods of proselyting they would soon be decreasing. Said he, $40,000 expended in the city of Boston netted but twenty-one converts; $50,000 expended in the city of Chicago had netted but forty-four converts; and he made the further remarkable statement that last year the great Methodist church, which stands as the second largest church in the United States, with a membership of 3,180,000 souls, showed an increase of but 40,000 last year. Compare that with the Church we represent, with a membership of about 5(X),000 souls, showing an increase of 16,000, and contrast it, in view also of another fact, that of the 40,000 souls introduced into the Methodist church last year only five per cent were men and women over twenty-one years of age, ninety-five per cent were children. Its power to appeal to the matured judgment of men and women of this country must surely be waning, when it can claim only five per cent of its converts from the ranks of matured minds. Not so with the Latter-day Saints. Our increase has been very satisfactory, and has come largely from the mature, thinking men and women of the country. I know it is so in the Northwestern States mission, and I am sure that it is so elsewhere. Now, is this growth and increase desirable? I maintain that it is, and ought to continue, for the world's good. The best men and women are crying out in their souls for that which we have, though they know it not, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has that which the world needs, and which the world must have to save itself.
We need not be alarmed at the assaults which have been made. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints shall not falter, nor waver, nor shall it be harmed by the present attack. I bear you witness, as I mingle among people outside of Utah, and know what the sentiment is, that thinking minds of the present day have been stirred up by the recent articles to a spirit of enquiry such as they have never manifested before. We have opportunities for gospel conversations such as we have not had before. Recently we had an opportunity to answer the enquiries of the president of one of the greatest colleges in the west. He recognized that these stories did not contain the truth, and he wanted to know what the truth is. I can say that the commonwealth here, our glorious Utah, where so many of us were born, is being injured more seriously than is the "Mormon" Church. The Church thrives in spite of persecution, but the citizens of the State of Utah suffer from the indignities and vilifications that are being published. Thirty thousand home seekers came into the northwest during last spring. It has been my privilege to meet thousands of them on the trains, and I have taken the opportunity of making a canvass among them, and to ask them "why don't you go to Utah?" I have exploited some of Utah's resources and her opportunities, and the answer has been, in many instances, that they were prejudiced against Utah because of the recent agitation that has been going the rounds of the press. So, Utah is suffering more than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. God bless Utah, the vales we love, the place of our birth and our homes.
The Church shall stand, and thrive, and increase In its numbers, and shall never diminish. We are only just beginning; we are but forming the nucleus of a great and mighty organization that shall grow as fast as it can absorb new members, and it shall increase in its absorbing, and shall yet be numbered by millions of the children of this generation. This is my testimony, and faith, and I may say, I speak it with knowledge. We missionaries go not to the world with a spirit of resentment, but in the spirit of love we approach their homes, and if they turn us away, we still feel that we have brought to them the most precious of all gifts, and that we have honored that household to which we have come with our message, offering the most precious boon that could be bestowed upon them, none greater has ever been offered to this world in all the years of its history. In all our labors we try to show that we love the whole world; in the spirit of kindness we work among them, not with a spirit of retaliation, but of forbearance, — showing by our lives and the examples which we set that we are what we claim to be: members of God's Church; not perfect men, but seeking according to the knowledge that we possess, and the Spirit of the Lord within us, to perfect our lives in harmony with the laws of God's truth, and inspire them to do likewise, which may God grant us the opportunity to do, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
A sacred song, entitled "Face to face," was sung by Mrs. F. M. Bishop.
ELDER HUGH J. CANNON.
(President of Liberty Stake.)
My brethren and sisters, those who have attended the sessions of this conference can testify that the Lord has been with us. He has manifested himself to us again this afternoon, and I am sure He will continue to do so during the remaining part of this meeting.
Several thousand faithful Latter-day Saints have come together, with prayerful hearts and with a desire to be fed with the word of life, to be built up in their faith and strengthened in their desire to serve the Lord; where this is the case it is absolutely certain that they will not go away hungry. Of course, the thought does come to an individual who may be called upon to speak, that because of some delinquency on his part he may not have as much of the Spirit of the Lord as he would like, and consequently no man, at least no thoughtful man, ever attempts to address a congregation of the Latter-day Saints without a feeling of fear in his heart. I can think of nothing more appalling or terrifying to me than to attempt to address this people without the assistance of the Spirit of the Lord. It would be impossible for me, through any power which I have or any ability which may be mine, to instruct those who understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ quite as well, or in many cases very much better than I do.
I believe the Lord designs that we should exercise our faith for those who are called upon to address us. because by its exercise it becomes stronger, and if there ever was a time in all the history of the Church when Latter-day Saints needed to have their faith strengthened it is at the present time. Surrounded as we are by the temptations and allurements of the world and with all the responsibilities of life which rest upon us; it is of absolute importance that we grow in faith and in the knowledge of the Lord, and in the knowledge of His plan concerning us, because unless we do we simply cannot succeed. While the Church will of course go on to fulfill its grand destiny, those who do not cultivate faith, and do not have this principle in their hearts, will fall by the wayside and will not be able to keep pace with the Church itself. There are many examples in the scriptures of how faith comes to those who ask for it and who endeavor to earn it by pursuing an upright life. Christ said, "Whatsoever thing ye shall ask of the Father in my name, believing, ye shall receive." My prayer constantly to the Lord is to give me faith, to give me a knowledge of His plan and purposes, to help me to understand the part which I should perform in the carrying out of that plan.
We have heard a good deal during this conference about the things that are being said of us. We could not endure those things, nor stand to be ridiculed and assailed, unless we understand the future to some extent, and have an assurance that the Lord will overrule all things for the good of His people. You all remember the occasion when one of the rulers of the synagogue Came to Jesus and asked Him to come to his house because his daughter was dying. With His usual sympathy the Savior consented, and when they were on the way they met a messenger from the house of this man who said to the ruler, "Trouble not the Master, because your daughter is dead." The man no doubt was overwhelmed with grief. But what did the Savior say to him? I think in all the scriptures we cannot find a more beautiful saying, no sentence more full of meaning than the four simple words of the Savior, "Fear not, only believe." And that is the statement of the Lord to us in this day. We can take it to ourselves. "Fear not, only believe." And if we have this assurance in our hearts it matters not what the world may say, we can stand aside and watch the Lord work this thing out. I do not mean that we should stand aside in idleness, for we must do our part. But we need not worry regarding what they say, because the Lord will take care of those who assail His work. That is my testimony. I know this is His work, and that those who make war upon it will be held responsible for what they do, even though the results of their efforts may be overruled for good.
As has been testified by Brother Ballard, people enquire concerning our doctrines because of the assaults which are made upon us, but even if the Lord does overturn these attacks to our good, it will not relieve those who make the attacks from responsibility. The Lord is with us. He is with this work, and He wants us to "believe and fear not." I presume there are few. if any here who have ever listened to the audible voice of the Almighty. We are not permitted to behold His person, but we do see Him in all His marvelous creations, see Him, if we have faith, as distinctly and with as much assurance as though He stood before our natural eyes; and as though we were able to see His person, to behold His face and to touch His hand. To those who understand the Gospel, and the whispering of the Spirit of the Lord, He is visible in all these things, and we are able through the influence which He gives us, through our prayers, to hear His voice, though it may not be audible to our natural ears. I bear testimony to you, my brethren and sisters, that God does live, that He rules, and that He will overturn all things for the good of this people.
Before I conclude, I want to say one thing in regard to what has been said by several of the speakers in this conference, and which was dwelt upon so splendidly by Brother McKay this morning. My heart rejoiced in listening to his remarks. I thank the Lord for what has been said regarding this question, the Word of Wisdom, and the evil of the saloons in our midst. For my part I have always been opposed to them with all my soul, and with all my strength, and my desire is to maintain that same position in the future. I realize that speaking on this subject will not accomplish the work. If we succeed we must do something more than speaking, we must be up and doing, we must get into this battle, and fight and fight, and organize and work, and if we do not do that, I feel very certain we will not succeed.
May the Lord bless us and help us to accomplish all that He designs us to do in this life, and finally save us in His presence, I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.
(President of Liberty Stake.)
My brethren and sisters, those who have attended the sessions of this conference can testify that the Lord has been with us. He has manifested himself to us again this afternoon, and I am sure He will continue to do so during the remaining part of this meeting.
Several thousand faithful Latter-day Saints have come together, with prayerful hearts and with a desire to be fed with the word of life, to be built up in their faith and strengthened in their desire to serve the Lord; where this is the case it is absolutely certain that they will not go away hungry. Of course, the thought does come to an individual who may be called upon to speak, that because of some delinquency on his part he may not have as much of the Spirit of the Lord as he would like, and consequently no man, at least no thoughtful man, ever attempts to address a congregation of the Latter-day Saints without a feeling of fear in his heart. I can think of nothing more appalling or terrifying to me than to attempt to address this people without the assistance of the Spirit of the Lord. It would be impossible for me, through any power which I have or any ability which may be mine, to instruct those who understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ quite as well, or in many cases very much better than I do.
I believe the Lord designs that we should exercise our faith for those who are called upon to address us. because by its exercise it becomes stronger, and if there ever was a time in all the history of the Church when Latter-day Saints needed to have their faith strengthened it is at the present time. Surrounded as we are by the temptations and allurements of the world and with all the responsibilities of life which rest upon us; it is of absolute importance that we grow in faith and in the knowledge of the Lord, and in the knowledge of His plan concerning us, because unless we do we simply cannot succeed. While the Church will of course go on to fulfill its grand destiny, those who do not cultivate faith, and do not have this principle in their hearts, will fall by the wayside and will not be able to keep pace with the Church itself. There are many examples in the scriptures of how faith comes to those who ask for it and who endeavor to earn it by pursuing an upright life. Christ said, "Whatsoever thing ye shall ask of the Father in my name, believing, ye shall receive." My prayer constantly to the Lord is to give me faith, to give me a knowledge of His plan and purposes, to help me to understand the part which I should perform in the carrying out of that plan.
We have heard a good deal during this conference about the things that are being said of us. We could not endure those things, nor stand to be ridiculed and assailed, unless we understand the future to some extent, and have an assurance that the Lord will overrule all things for the good of His people. You all remember the occasion when one of the rulers of the synagogue Came to Jesus and asked Him to come to his house because his daughter was dying. With His usual sympathy the Savior consented, and when they were on the way they met a messenger from the house of this man who said to the ruler, "Trouble not the Master, because your daughter is dead." The man no doubt was overwhelmed with grief. But what did the Savior say to him? I think in all the scriptures we cannot find a more beautiful saying, no sentence more full of meaning than the four simple words of the Savior, "Fear not, only believe." And that is the statement of the Lord to us in this day. We can take it to ourselves. "Fear not, only believe." And if we have this assurance in our hearts it matters not what the world may say, we can stand aside and watch the Lord work this thing out. I do not mean that we should stand aside in idleness, for we must do our part. But we need not worry regarding what they say, because the Lord will take care of those who assail His work. That is my testimony. I know this is His work, and that those who make war upon it will be held responsible for what they do, even though the results of their efforts may be overruled for good.
As has been testified by Brother Ballard, people enquire concerning our doctrines because of the assaults which are made upon us, but even if the Lord does overturn these attacks to our good, it will not relieve those who make the attacks from responsibility. The Lord is with us. He is with this work, and He wants us to "believe and fear not." I presume there are few. if any here who have ever listened to the audible voice of the Almighty. We are not permitted to behold His person, but we do see Him in all His marvelous creations, see Him, if we have faith, as distinctly and with as much assurance as though He stood before our natural eyes; and as though we were able to see His person, to behold His face and to touch His hand. To those who understand the Gospel, and the whispering of the Spirit of the Lord, He is visible in all these things, and we are able through the influence which He gives us, through our prayers, to hear His voice, though it may not be audible to our natural ears. I bear testimony to you, my brethren and sisters, that God does live, that He rules, and that He will overturn all things for the good of this people.
Before I conclude, I want to say one thing in regard to what has been said by several of the speakers in this conference, and which was dwelt upon so splendidly by Brother McKay this morning. My heart rejoiced in listening to his remarks. I thank the Lord for what has been said regarding this question, the Word of Wisdom, and the evil of the saloons in our midst. For my part I have always been opposed to them with all my soul, and with all my strength, and my desire is to maintain that same position in the future. I realize that speaking on this subject will not accomplish the work. If we succeed we must do something more than speaking, we must be up and doing, we must get into this battle, and fight and fight, and organize and work, and if we do not do that, I feel very certain we will not succeed.
May the Lord bless us and help us to accomplish all that He designs us to do in this life, and finally save us in His presence, I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.
ELDER MARK AUSTIN.
(President of Fremont Stake.)
I feel certain the Latter-day Saints will be a great, grand and a good people, when I realize the fact that we have so much valuable instruction imparted to us from time to time by the servants of the Lord. One of the strongest evidences to me of the divinity of this great work, among many others, is the fact that the Lord has entrusted it not only to those who are skilled in education and in learning, but also to the unlearned. He has sent them out into the world to meet the mighty ones, and all classes that are to be found. We have been told in this conference that not one of those thus sent out has been converted to the teachings which are found in the world; it may be that a few, a very few, have made, possibly, a partial failure of the work, because, no doubt, of their own weakness. The great majority of them have been strong and powerful, and have been able to deliver the gospel message that has found lodgment in the hearts of those that have desired the opportunity of becoming acquainted with that divine plan which would save the souls of men. These have been gathered into the fold, and they have taken up the work of God, regardless of what it cost them, and have rejoiced in this, the greatest thing in life. We can fully understand that, if we understand "Mormonism," so called.
I have rejoiced during this conference in listening to the mighty testimonies that have been borne by the servants of God under the influence of His Spirit; and I have very much rejoiced during this session in listening to the testimony of Elder Ballard and others of our brethren who have spoken, who have labored for the salvation of the souls of the children of men. What a mighty work; what a splendid good thing. If the world could understand the purpose we have in delivering this message, what a blessing it would bring to them. But it seems that these things are hard to understand. It takes a good deal to make the sacrifice, as the world understands it, because of the conditions under which they are living. They find it requires a great sacrifice to become members of this Church and defend it, and we cannot stand unless we do defend it. I am thoroughly convinced that we must be active. Inactivity is death. Therefore it is necessary that we actively live for and defend the truth, this will bring joy to our souls, and we will increase in the knowledge of this great Latter-day work.
I pray that the Lord will bless us and help us to understand the part that we should take and to do it, and never be ashamed of His work, nor of His servants, whom He has called to minister among the children of men. I respect them for the sacrifices they make when they labor as they do unceasingly, that they may be faithful in their calling to the children of men. I pray that God will bless us and bless His work that it may cover the earth as the waters do the mighty deep : I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.
A male quartette, "Savior, comfort me," was rendered by members of the choir.
(President of Fremont Stake.)
I feel certain the Latter-day Saints will be a great, grand and a good people, when I realize the fact that we have so much valuable instruction imparted to us from time to time by the servants of the Lord. One of the strongest evidences to me of the divinity of this great work, among many others, is the fact that the Lord has entrusted it not only to those who are skilled in education and in learning, but also to the unlearned. He has sent them out into the world to meet the mighty ones, and all classes that are to be found. We have been told in this conference that not one of those thus sent out has been converted to the teachings which are found in the world; it may be that a few, a very few, have made, possibly, a partial failure of the work, because, no doubt, of their own weakness. The great majority of them have been strong and powerful, and have been able to deliver the gospel message that has found lodgment in the hearts of those that have desired the opportunity of becoming acquainted with that divine plan which would save the souls of men. These have been gathered into the fold, and they have taken up the work of God, regardless of what it cost them, and have rejoiced in this, the greatest thing in life. We can fully understand that, if we understand "Mormonism," so called.
I have rejoiced during this conference in listening to the mighty testimonies that have been borne by the servants of God under the influence of His Spirit; and I have very much rejoiced during this session in listening to the testimony of Elder Ballard and others of our brethren who have spoken, who have labored for the salvation of the souls of the children of men. What a mighty work; what a splendid good thing. If the world could understand the purpose we have in delivering this message, what a blessing it would bring to them. But it seems that these things are hard to understand. It takes a good deal to make the sacrifice, as the world understands it, because of the conditions under which they are living. They find it requires a great sacrifice to become members of this Church and defend it, and we cannot stand unless we do defend it. I am thoroughly convinced that we must be active. Inactivity is death. Therefore it is necessary that we actively live for and defend the truth, this will bring joy to our souls, and we will increase in the knowledge of this great Latter-day work.
I pray that the Lord will bless us and help us to understand the part that we should take and to do it, and never be ashamed of His work, nor of His servants, whom He has called to minister among the children of men. I respect them for the sacrifices they make when they labor as they do unceasingly, that they may be faithful in their calling to the children of men. I pray that God will bless us and bless His work that it may cover the earth as the waters do the mighty deep : I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.
A male quartette, "Savior, comfort me," was rendered by members of the choir.
ELDER NEPHI L. MORRIS.
(President of Salt Lake Stake.)
We are approaching the close of one of the last sessions of a very enjoyable and profitable conference of the Church. I have had the pleasure of attending some of the sessions, and have read the proceedings of the others. I am very thankful that in my own heart I have feelings of harmony and approval of all that has been taught and done, with which I am acquainted.
I rejoice in the prosperity of the work of the Lord. I thank and praise Him that I have been given a lot among this people, and that I am called to labor in His service. I enjoyed the remarks which were made this morning in the general assembly in the tabernacle, as well as those made this afternoon by the mission presidents. One of the greatest assets to our cause is our missionary system. We could not suffer greater loss than the discontinuance of that system of proselyting which has been characteristic of the work of the Lord in this dispensation. The renewal of spiritual force and enthusiasm, which comes to all our communities and organizations from these elders who return from the nations of the earth, where they have been bearing glad tidings of great joy, rekindle in us at home the spirit of missionary work. How infallible is the key given us by President Kimball, this morning, with respect to the spirit of the Seventy. Said he, Have you ever felt a desire to go upon a mission? if you have, you have enjoyed the spirit of a Seventy. If you have never had that desire, you have not received of the Lord the spirit of your calling, even though you have been ordained a Seventy. My own experience confirms that statement, for I know it to be true. A desire to convey to the world the message that the Lord has committed to us is an evidence that we have received the Spirit of the Lord. If I have any advice to give to the Latter-day Saints, it is this, to continue to prepare the young men for missions in the world, and to help them to shape their affairs so that they may go upon missions when they are called, without delay, without begging for time, without any disposition to procrastinate or postpone the day of their departure, for there is no greater blessing that comes to the youth of Israel than this opportunity to preach the gospel to the nations of the earth.
We have many demands upon us for missionaries. We have many young men who are not adequately prepared for this service. I have sometimes felt that those who hold positions of presidency should give them a few months, or a year, if necessary, to prepare themselves for a call. Let them know that the eye of the presiding officers is upon them, expecting them to be able to respond at some future date. We have many young men whose hearts are turned in other directions, for the lack of proper teaching in their homes, and I hope the Latter-day Saints shall not overlook the great importance of preserving and maintaining in the home the spirit of the gospel by proper religious devotion and proper Christian examples. The home is the stronghold of the Church, as it is of the state, as it is of society; and if the home be not pure, maintained upon principles of virtue, faith and industry, the state, and society and the Church will correspondingly suffer. The mother and the father at home should try to preserve among us these principles for which we stand as a people.
I believe all that President Ballard has said of a complimentary character with respect to the Latter- day Saints. I can readily see how he has become well supplied with these facts and figures, in speaking in defense of our people to the world! I don't know that I should be so much inclined to speak of these things to the Latter-day Saints themselves, for I fear some of us may be somewhat too much inclined to rest contented upon what we think we are and overlook the evils that are among us, and the sin —to use a common, plain term — of which some are guilty. I do not wish to be pessimistic. I would rather speak of the good things than the bad; but I do not believe that we as a people are living exactly as we should. I do not believe that we are living up to the Word of Wisdom as faithfully as we should. Too many of the elders of Zion are not strictly observing that principle. Yet, in spite of this shortcoming, the average standard of morality among our people, I believe to be higher than that of the world or of any other people.
Another thing of which I am convinced is one that brings a great deal of sorrow to my soul, and that is that the standard of morality is lower among some of our young people today than it has been. It would be a miracle if it were otherwise, because of the prevalence of evils in our midst, due to city life which has grown remarkably in the last few decades, and the destructive influences which are aggressively at work in all cities, increasing as cities increase in population, for the destruction of virtue in boys and girls. You, perhaps, in the country, little dream of the insidious efforts made by the powers of evil in this particular direction. The powers of evil are so great that it seems that some must fall, but there is altogether too much liberty given to our young people in going to places of amusement without restriction and without chaperones. I repeat, too much liberty is given to our young people. And the use of liquor, in public and in private places, the use of cigarettes and other kindred vices are on the increase, and have brought about the results which I speak of, so lamentable in their nature, lowering the standard of virtue. I could give you facts which would be appalling if you knew them, disclosed in the Juvenile Court and in the public schools that prove conclusively, I believe, what I state here. I speak of these things in order that we as men and women who are called to look after the interests of the youth of Zion shall not be derelict in the discharge of our duties. The teachers visiting on the blocks, the Bishops, High Councilors and Stake Presidencies should be roused to look after the welfare of the Church through its members, so that if any guilt exists among the Saints of God, they can lend a helping hand for its eradication; and they need the co-operation of the fathers and mothers in their homes in order to work effectually for the salvation of the young.
With President Cannon, I thank the Lord for the splendid discourse that Apostle McKay delivered- this morning. I thank and praise the Lord for the inspiration of His Spirit which was characteristic of that address. The Latter-day Saints have made high professions, as we are inclined to do always, with respect to temperance. But I doubt if we are making the headway we should in this regard. Two of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon were excommunicated from the Church. One of the charges preferred against them was that they failed to observe the Word of Wisdom. If they did that fifty and sixty years ago, I imagine we have not made the progress we should, for I have heard of no man being cut off from the Church for not keeping the Word of Wisdom in modern times unless it became a most flagrant case.
We as a people are approaching a great opportunity in our history. Our standards are higher than the standards of the world. We largely predominate in this State, and through an act of the legislature we are given an opportunity this year to express ourselves by the ballot as to whether we will tolerate the saloon. For this reason, I think the remarks made by Elder McKay very fitting and proper, and I am satisfied they will bear fruit. Perhaps fifty per cent of the crime is traceable, directly or indirectly, to the use of liquor. We have been altogether too much afraid of what has been called the "business interest" upon this question. It is not a question of how much money is involved, to me. It is a question of what is right. I understand mv duty and my calling to be to work for the right; and on the liquor question I expect to work until success shall eventually come, for truth shall triumph as sure as God lives. The right side of this question is plain to every Latter-day Saint and to every rightly inclined individual. No one can speak in defense of the saloon if he regards the welfare of mankind, for it does no good, and it does incalculable harm. There can be no doubt of this. Every year that this nation lives, there is a sacrifice of its citizenship to the extent of 100,000 men upon the altar of intemperance—100,000 men's lives lost every year by reason of over indulgence in intoxicating liquors. Talk about conservation! The Department of Agriculture spends mil- Hons annually to teach men how to produce and preserve the right kind of stock, such as hogs, horses, and sheep. It spends millions in the conservation of our streams and our forests, very wisely too. But scarcely anything has been done with respect to the conservation of the greatest resource of all, man himself. And the greatest enemy which he has is intemperance. While perhaps the nation is not prepared to take hold of this question by federal law, it is only the principles which we are now pursuing which will eventually lead to the enactment of a measure which will effect the destruction of this evil. Until we do this, we shall not have succeeded in our mission as a nation. The world has seen nation after nation sink into oblivion from all their glory and achievement, despoiled and destroyed by intemperance, and immorality so closely allied that you cannot possibly separate them.
I urge the Latter-day Saints, wherever they live, to observe the law of God first, and let each one make himself one who does not need the enactment of a prohibitory law respecting liquor, or the adoption of a local option law to turn his city or his county dry. Make of yourself a temperate man, not only temperate, I will say—a total abstainer. That is the higher standard. And then help your weaker brother who may not be so able to overcome the evil. It reminds me of Carlyle's philosophy, "Let him who would reform the world make himself an honest man, and he will be sure there is one rascal less in the world." It is a good thing to start with number one. I have heard of advocates of prohibition who, when they feared their county was going dry, would lay in a large store of liquor. Such men do not help the cause. Such hypocritical examples are injurious to the case. Now we have an opportunity, next June, of deciding what we shall do with respect to this important question; and I believe the position of the Latter-day Saints may be vindicated upon this question. It is strange how every age has its opportunity to decide between good and evil. This may not be, in the minds of some, the great question which I believe it to be; but I do not recall a more serious question coming before any nation than that which we have to combat today. You remember the opportunity came to ancient Israel to decide whether they should receive Him who was sent to them. They pushed Him aside with open palms, and said they would not have Him. Said that He admitted Himself to be king of the Jews. And when Pilate, sitting in the seat of justice asked and plead with the Jews, "Whom will you have released unto you?" According to the law, one prisoner might be released unto them annually. "Whom will you have released unto you, Barabbas or Jesus?" The Jews, stiff-necked and hard of heart, said, you remember: "Release unto us Barabbas. As for this man, crucify him, crucify him. Let his blood be upon us and upon our children after us. Release unto us Barabbas." It is not a question of as great moment, perhaps; but it is a similar question, and we as a people have to decide this day whom we shall have in this year of grace, the year 1911, whether we shall have the Christ or Barabbas; and God give us the wisdom and the courage, "God give to us the Christ whom we desire above all else in the world."
May God's peace be upon the Latter- day Saints, and His choice blessings upon the servants of the Lord, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
(President of Salt Lake Stake.)
We are approaching the close of one of the last sessions of a very enjoyable and profitable conference of the Church. I have had the pleasure of attending some of the sessions, and have read the proceedings of the others. I am very thankful that in my own heart I have feelings of harmony and approval of all that has been taught and done, with which I am acquainted.
I rejoice in the prosperity of the work of the Lord. I thank and praise Him that I have been given a lot among this people, and that I am called to labor in His service. I enjoyed the remarks which were made this morning in the general assembly in the tabernacle, as well as those made this afternoon by the mission presidents. One of the greatest assets to our cause is our missionary system. We could not suffer greater loss than the discontinuance of that system of proselyting which has been characteristic of the work of the Lord in this dispensation. The renewal of spiritual force and enthusiasm, which comes to all our communities and organizations from these elders who return from the nations of the earth, where they have been bearing glad tidings of great joy, rekindle in us at home the spirit of missionary work. How infallible is the key given us by President Kimball, this morning, with respect to the spirit of the Seventy. Said he, Have you ever felt a desire to go upon a mission? if you have, you have enjoyed the spirit of a Seventy. If you have never had that desire, you have not received of the Lord the spirit of your calling, even though you have been ordained a Seventy. My own experience confirms that statement, for I know it to be true. A desire to convey to the world the message that the Lord has committed to us is an evidence that we have received the Spirit of the Lord. If I have any advice to give to the Latter-day Saints, it is this, to continue to prepare the young men for missions in the world, and to help them to shape their affairs so that they may go upon missions when they are called, without delay, without begging for time, without any disposition to procrastinate or postpone the day of their departure, for there is no greater blessing that comes to the youth of Israel than this opportunity to preach the gospel to the nations of the earth.
We have many demands upon us for missionaries. We have many young men who are not adequately prepared for this service. I have sometimes felt that those who hold positions of presidency should give them a few months, or a year, if necessary, to prepare themselves for a call. Let them know that the eye of the presiding officers is upon them, expecting them to be able to respond at some future date. We have many young men whose hearts are turned in other directions, for the lack of proper teaching in their homes, and I hope the Latter-day Saints shall not overlook the great importance of preserving and maintaining in the home the spirit of the gospel by proper religious devotion and proper Christian examples. The home is the stronghold of the Church, as it is of the state, as it is of society; and if the home be not pure, maintained upon principles of virtue, faith and industry, the state, and society and the Church will correspondingly suffer. The mother and the father at home should try to preserve among us these principles for which we stand as a people.
I believe all that President Ballard has said of a complimentary character with respect to the Latter- day Saints. I can readily see how he has become well supplied with these facts and figures, in speaking in defense of our people to the world! I don't know that I should be so much inclined to speak of these things to the Latter-day Saints themselves, for I fear some of us may be somewhat too much inclined to rest contented upon what we think we are and overlook the evils that are among us, and the sin —to use a common, plain term — of which some are guilty. I do not wish to be pessimistic. I would rather speak of the good things than the bad; but I do not believe that we as a people are living exactly as we should. I do not believe that we are living up to the Word of Wisdom as faithfully as we should. Too many of the elders of Zion are not strictly observing that principle. Yet, in spite of this shortcoming, the average standard of morality among our people, I believe to be higher than that of the world or of any other people.
Another thing of which I am convinced is one that brings a great deal of sorrow to my soul, and that is that the standard of morality is lower among some of our young people today than it has been. It would be a miracle if it were otherwise, because of the prevalence of evils in our midst, due to city life which has grown remarkably in the last few decades, and the destructive influences which are aggressively at work in all cities, increasing as cities increase in population, for the destruction of virtue in boys and girls. You, perhaps, in the country, little dream of the insidious efforts made by the powers of evil in this particular direction. The powers of evil are so great that it seems that some must fall, but there is altogether too much liberty given to our young people in going to places of amusement without restriction and without chaperones. I repeat, too much liberty is given to our young people. And the use of liquor, in public and in private places, the use of cigarettes and other kindred vices are on the increase, and have brought about the results which I speak of, so lamentable in their nature, lowering the standard of virtue. I could give you facts which would be appalling if you knew them, disclosed in the Juvenile Court and in the public schools that prove conclusively, I believe, what I state here. I speak of these things in order that we as men and women who are called to look after the interests of the youth of Zion shall not be derelict in the discharge of our duties. The teachers visiting on the blocks, the Bishops, High Councilors and Stake Presidencies should be roused to look after the welfare of the Church through its members, so that if any guilt exists among the Saints of God, they can lend a helping hand for its eradication; and they need the co-operation of the fathers and mothers in their homes in order to work effectually for the salvation of the young.
With President Cannon, I thank the Lord for the splendid discourse that Apostle McKay delivered- this morning. I thank and praise the Lord for the inspiration of His Spirit which was characteristic of that address. The Latter-day Saints have made high professions, as we are inclined to do always, with respect to temperance. But I doubt if we are making the headway we should in this regard. Two of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon were excommunicated from the Church. One of the charges preferred against them was that they failed to observe the Word of Wisdom. If they did that fifty and sixty years ago, I imagine we have not made the progress we should, for I have heard of no man being cut off from the Church for not keeping the Word of Wisdom in modern times unless it became a most flagrant case.
We as a people are approaching a great opportunity in our history. Our standards are higher than the standards of the world. We largely predominate in this State, and through an act of the legislature we are given an opportunity this year to express ourselves by the ballot as to whether we will tolerate the saloon. For this reason, I think the remarks made by Elder McKay very fitting and proper, and I am satisfied they will bear fruit. Perhaps fifty per cent of the crime is traceable, directly or indirectly, to the use of liquor. We have been altogether too much afraid of what has been called the "business interest" upon this question. It is not a question of how much money is involved, to me. It is a question of what is right. I understand mv duty and my calling to be to work for the right; and on the liquor question I expect to work until success shall eventually come, for truth shall triumph as sure as God lives. The right side of this question is plain to every Latter-day Saint and to every rightly inclined individual. No one can speak in defense of the saloon if he regards the welfare of mankind, for it does no good, and it does incalculable harm. There can be no doubt of this. Every year that this nation lives, there is a sacrifice of its citizenship to the extent of 100,000 men upon the altar of intemperance—100,000 men's lives lost every year by reason of over indulgence in intoxicating liquors. Talk about conservation! The Department of Agriculture spends mil- Hons annually to teach men how to produce and preserve the right kind of stock, such as hogs, horses, and sheep. It spends millions in the conservation of our streams and our forests, very wisely too. But scarcely anything has been done with respect to the conservation of the greatest resource of all, man himself. And the greatest enemy which he has is intemperance. While perhaps the nation is not prepared to take hold of this question by federal law, it is only the principles which we are now pursuing which will eventually lead to the enactment of a measure which will effect the destruction of this evil. Until we do this, we shall not have succeeded in our mission as a nation. The world has seen nation after nation sink into oblivion from all their glory and achievement, despoiled and destroyed by intemperance, and immorality so closely allied that you cannot possibly separate them.
I urge the Latter-day Saints, wherever they live, to observe the law of God first, and let each one make himself one who does not need the enactment of a prohibitory law respecting liquor, or the adoption of a local option law to turn his city or his county dry. Make of yourself a temperate man, not only temperate, I will say—a total abstainer. That is the higher standard. And then help your weaker brother who may not be so able to overcome the evil. It reminds me of Carlyle's philosophy, "Let him who would reform the world make himself an honest man, and he will be sure there is one rascal less in the world." It is a good thing to start with number one. I have heard of advocates of prohibition who, when they feared their county was going dry, would lay in a large store of liquor. Such men do not help the cause. Such hypocritical examples are injurious to the case. Now we have an opportunity, next June, of deciding what we shall do with respect to this important question; and I believe the position of the Latter-day Saints may be vindicated upon this question. It is strange how every age has its opportunity to decide between good and evil. This may not be, in the minds of some, the great question which I believe it to be; but I do not recall a more serious question coming before any nation than that which we have to combat today. You remember the opportunity came to ancient Israel to decide whether they should receive Him who was sent to them. They pushed Him aside with open palms, and said they would not have Him. Said that He admitted Himself to be king of the Jews. And when Pilate, sitting in the seat of justice asked and plead with the Jews, "Whom will you have released unto you?" According to the law, one prisoner might be released unto them annually. "Whom will you have released unto you, Barabbas or Jesus?" The Jews, stiff-necked and hard of heart, said, you remember: "Release unto us Barabbas. As for this man, crucify him, crucify him. Let his blood be upon us and upon our children after us. Release unto us Barabbas." It is not a question of as great moment, perhaps; but it is a similar question, and we as a people have to decide this day whom we shall have in this year of grace, the year 1911, whether we shall have the Christ or Barabbas; and God give us the wisdom and the courage, "God give to us the Christ whom we desire above all else in the world."
May God's peace be upon the Latter- day Saints, and His choice blessings upon the servants of the Lord, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
ELDER CHARLES W. PENROSE.
Closing exhortation.—Timely advice. Testimony of the Truth.
I thank the choir of the Farmers ward for their presence with us this afternoon, and their excellent musical services.
I am glad to meet with so many of my friends of the Latter-day Saints in conference, and I hope they will take with them to their homes the spirit that has pervaded the conference, and particularly I commend to them the advice given this morning, and again this afternoon, in regard to the 27th day of June, 1911, the anniversary of the death of our martyred Prophet. On that occasion the people of Utah will have the privilege of showing by their votes whether they are in favor of the traffic in alcoholic stimulants which cause so much misery, or whether they desire good regulations, peace and order in their respective communities, and I endorse what has been said concerning this subject. It is a matter of religion with us, not a mere political affair—one of party in any sense of the word; people of all parties and sects and persuasions, and religions can manifest on that day what their sentiments are with respect to this great question affecting all humanity.
Brethren and sisters, take with you to your respective fields of labor and to your homes, wherever you reside, the spirit of this conference. And when the time comes show by your acts and by your votes whether you are on the Lord's side or on the other. You cannot be on both sides at the same time.
I bear testimony to this congregation, as I have had the privilege of doing many times in years that are past, that God, the Maker of the universe, is our Father, the Father of our spirits; that Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified on Mount Calvary, is His Son, in the body as well as in the Spirit, and that He is our Savior. I bear testimony that Joseph Smith, who was slain for the word of God and the testimony which he bore, was a Prophet of the Most High, raised up to usher in the last and greatest of dispensations. I bear testimony that the covenants that we have made with God to serve Him and keep His commandments are recorded on high, and we shall have to meet them on the great day of accounts. If we fail to keep them we cannot obtain the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of peace. If we live according to the principles that God has revealed through that great Prophet, this Church will overcome the world, the flesh and the devil and establish the kingdom of the Most High which will prevail over all the earth, and they who are faithful unto the Lord will obtain the great reward. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers and exaltation in worlds without end shall be the portion of the true the faithful Saints of the living God.
May the Lord help us to be faithful in all things and to overcome all things that we may inherit all things in His glorious presence. Amen.
The choir sang the anthem, "Awake my soul."
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Joseph R. Morgan.
Closing exhortation.—Timely advice. Testimony of the Truth.
I thank the choir of the Farmers ward for their presence with us this afternoon, and their excellent musical services.
I am glad to meet with so many of my friends of the Latter-day Saints in conference, and I hope they will take with them to their homes the spirit that has pervaded the conference, and particularly I commend to them the advice given this morning, and again this afternoon, in regard to the 27th day of June, 1911, the anniversary of the death of our martyred Prophet. On that occasion the people of Utah will have the privilege of showing by their votes whether they are in favor of the traffic in alcoholic stimulants which cause so much misery, or whether they desire good regulations, peace and order in their respective communities, and I endorse what has been said concerning this subject. It is a matter of religion with us, not a mere political affair—one of party in any sense of the word; people of all parties and sects and persuasions, and religions can manifest on that day what their sentiments are with respect to this great question affecting all humanity.
Brethren and sisters, take with you to your respective fields of labor and to your homes, wherever you reside, the spirit of this conference. And when the time comes show by your acts and by your votes whether you are on the Lord's side or on the other. You cannot be on both sides at the same time.
I bear testimony to this congregation, as I have had the privilege of doing many times in years that are past, that God, the Maker of the universe, is our Father, the Father of our spirits; that Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified on Mount Calvary, is His Son, in the body as well as in the Spirit, and that He is our Savior. I bear testimony that Joseph Smith, who was slain for the word of God and the testimony which he bore, was a Prophet of the Most High, raised up to usher in the last and greatest of dispensations. I bear testimony that the covenants that we have made with God to serve Him and keep His commandments are recorded on high, and we shall have to meet them on the great day of accounts. If we fail to keep them we cannot obtain the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of peace. If we live according to the principles that God has revealed through that great Prophet, this Church will overcome the world, the flesh and the devil and establish the kingdom of the Most High which will prevail over all the earth, and they who are faithful unto the Lord will obtain the great reward. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers and exaltation in worlds without end shall be the portion of the true the faithful Saints of the living God.
May the Lord help us to be faithful in all things and to overcome all things that we may inherit all things in His glorious presence. Amen.
The choir sang the anthem, "Awake my soul."
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Joseph R. Morgan.
OUTDOOR MEETING.
Thousands of people gathered on the Temple grounds, unable to obtain admission to the Tabernacle or Assembly Hall, and an outdoor meeting was held for their benefit, at 2 p. m., near the Bureau of Information building. The services were presided over by Elder Seymour B. Young. Music was furnished by Prof. Wm. C. Clive's orchestra, and Prof. Andrew G. Bowman led the singing.
The congregation sang the hymn:
Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear.
But with joy wend your way;
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
Prayer was offered by Elder Benjamin Goddard.
The congregation sang the hymn:
We thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet,
To guide us in these latter days;
We thank Thee for sending the Gospel
To lighten our minds with its rays.
Thousands of people gathered on the Temple grounds, unable to obtain admission to the Tabernacle or Assembly Hall, and an outdoor meeting was held for their benefit, at 2 p. m., near the Bureau of Information building. The services were presided over by Elder Seymour B. Young. Music was furnished by Prof. Wm. C. Clive's orchestra, and Prof. Andrew G. Bowman led the singing.
The congregation sang the hymn:
Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear.
But with joy wend your way;
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
Prayer was offered by Elder Benjamin Goddard.
The congregation sang the hymn:
We thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet,
To guide us in these latter days;
We thank Thee for sending the Gospel
To lighten our minds with its rays.
ELDER BEN E. RICH.
(President Eastern States Mission)
I feel quite at home in speaking in the open air. There are very few States in the Union in which I have not spoken in the open air. As a missionary that has spent some sixteen or seventeen years in the missionary field, it has been my lot to bear witness to the cause which we represent, many times; and I think there is no place where an elder can speak where he enjoys more of the Spirit of God than when speaking in the open air. The cause that we represent should be very near and dear unto us, and if we thoroughly understand it, it seems to me as though nothing but going back into darkness will cause us to lose the faith.
An impression was made upon my mind while we were singing the opening hymn. My mind reverted back to the history of this Church, and a panorama of the trials and the tribulations seemed to pass before my gaze. I am reminded of the hardships passed through by the Prophet Joseph, and the weapons which were used against him in trying to destroy him during the early history of this Church. I recall the trials in Manchester, the trials in Kirtland, the tribulations in Missouri, the hardships passed through by the Saints in all those places, which finally terminated, so far as the mortal days of the Prophet Joseph Smith were concerned, in the tragedy at Carthage. I remember also the history of the trials of the Saints, our fathers and our mothers, in Nauvoo, and after that time, when they were driven from their homes there, and finally, with that unfaltering faith they had in the leader God gave to them to take the place of the Prophet Joseph, they set their faces toward the setting sun, to go into the unknown west. It was when they were ready for this journey that President Brigham Young called William Clayton to him, and said to him, "Brother Clayton, I want you to prepare a hymn that the Saints can sing while we are camped upon the prairies, and wherever God will lead us, something that will give them hope." And Brother Clayton went away, and, I think, in the course of a couple of hours, he had not only composed the hymn, but he had set it to music, and he sang it before that great leader, Brigham Young. Now, with this little piece of history, knowing how this hymn had its origin, so that you will appreciate it more, I am going to read the hymn that was sung at the opening of this meeting:
"Come, come ye saints, no toil nor labor fear,
But with joy wend your way;
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
'Tis better far for us to strive.
Our useless cares from us to drive.
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell --
All is well! all is well!
"Why should we mourn, or think our lot is hard?
'Tis not so; all is right!
Why should we think to earn a great reward,
If we now shun the fight.
Gird up your loins, fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we'll have this truth to tell
All is well! all is well!
"We'll find the place which God for us prepared.
Far away in the West,
Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
There the saints will be blessed.
We'll make the air with music ring,
Shout praises to our God and King;
Above the rest these words we'll tell
All is well! all is well!
"And should we die before our journey's through,
Happy day! all is well!
We then are free from toil and sorrow too;
With the just we shall dwell.
But if our lives are spared again
To see the saints their rest obtain,
O how we'll make this chorus swell --
All is well! all is well."
What do you think, my brethren and sisters, of the faith of that band of pioneers? This country was unknown to them. They believed that God had given to President Young a vision of the future home for the Latter-day Saints. They had faith in their leader, and they were willing to go into the unknown with him; and felt that if they died before their journey was through, all was well with them. We are the children, the grand-children, we are the offspring of men and women to whom this gospel was carried in various parts of the world; and what a debt of gratitude do we owe to their bravery, their faith, their integrity to the cause of God! God is no respecter of persons, and He is as near to us as He was to them. The faith that God planted within their hearts. He is willing to plant within our hearts, if our works are like unto the works of our fathers. There is a price set upon every blessing from God, but it is not measured in dollars and cents, it is within the reach of all alike; and the price consists in works, works of righteousness. There should be no one to whom the gospel has been brought, and whose condition has been bettered thereby, who should ever forget the faith, the integrity, the honesty, the bravery, of those who had such confidence in Brigham Young as to follow him into these valleys of the mountains.
It is sung that "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform," and perhaps if all had been peace with our fathers and our mothers, all of the purposes of God would not have been fulfilled so quickly, so minutely, as they have been fulfilled, notwithstanding the trials and tribulations that came upon our people. "It needs be that offenses come, but woe be unto them by whom they come." The offenses that did come hastened the fulfillment of the revelations of God Almighty.
There stood upon the earth a great and mighty Prophet of God seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, whose prophecies were translated into different languages over three hundred years before His birth, in the city of Alexandria. God gave to him a vision of the future, and a vision of that building yonder (the temple),showing him that the Mountain of the House of the Lord would be established in the tops of the mountains, and that people from almost every nation upon the earth would say, as they are now saying, "Come, and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob, where we can learn of His ways, and walk in His paths." That great miracle, if you are minded to call it a miracle, the fulfilling of that prophecy, was brought about largely by our people being forced to come up into the tops of the mountains.
When we speak of miracles, we call them miracles, but, when rightly understood, there is no such thing as miracles. We call those things miracles simply because we do not now understand the law by which they are brought about. It is true, upon the rough seas, the Savior of mankind stretched forth His hand and said to the angry waters, "Peace, be still," and the waters were calmed, and the ship was safe, but the one who uttered these words was the King of heaven and earth, to whom all power had been given, and when He commanded the intelligence of the winds : listen and obey! and the waters became calmed, it was more the principle of obedience that brought about the calmness of the sea. We plant the grape vine, we pour water upon the ground; it goes into mother earth; creeps up through the sap of the vine, it finds its way into the bud of the flower, and then into the berry, the grape; it is then crushed, and other elements work upon it, and we have the wine. But, when they filled the pots with water at the behest of Jesus of Nazareth, and He commanded, all the necessary elements went into the water, and turned the water into wine, the seeming miracle was done by Divine authority, by obedience to that Being to whom was given all power over the elements, and who could, if He had so desired, have summoned the armies of heaven to His defense. "The glory of God is intelligence." "No man can be saved in ignorance," and this faith that God has given to us is intended to exalt us in the presence of God, with intelligence, so that we can know, and control, even as our Elder Brother was able to control, while He was upon the earth. Faith will take immortal men into the presence of God; not only that, but will make them like unto God, exalt them as kings and priests in the celestial kingdom of our heavenly Father. The race is not given to the swift, but to him who endures to the end.
I see before me many elders who have labored under my direction, both in the Southern States and in the Eastern States, during the period of thirteen years that I have presided in these missionary fields, and I wonder if your enthusiasm is the same as it was when you were standing in the open air, preaching the gospel of life and salvation. Do not let it cool off. Do not be afraid. The work of God is true, and it is going to rule this universe some time. It has been decreed by the Almighty that sometime the earth and the fulness thereof "will be given to the Saints of the most high God, and they shall possess it forever and forever." I did not receive my testimony from men; I know it with every fibre of my being. When I go over on the other side, I want to meet my parents who were among the pioneers of 1847, and not be ashamed when I look them in the face. I want to keep the faith as they kept the faith. You keep it as your fathers and mothers kept it, and remember that God Almighty brought our fathers to this country, therefore we are indebted to Him for every blessing that we enjoy today.
May God bless you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
(President Eastern States Mission)
I feel quite at home in speaking in the open air. There are very few States in the Union in which I have not spoken in the open air. As a missionary that has spent some sixteen or seventeen years in the missionary field, it has been my lot to bear witness to the cause which we represent, many times; and I think there is no place where an elder can speak where he enjoys more of the Spirit of God than when speaking in the open air. The cause that we represent should be very near and dear unto us, and if we thoroughly understand it, it seems to me as though nothing but going back into darkness will cause us to lose the faith.
An impression was made upon my mind while we were singing the opening hymn. My mind reverted back to the history of this Church, and a panorama of the trials and the tribulations seemed to pass before my gaze. I am reminded of the hardships passed through by the Prophet Joseph, and the weapons which were used against him in trying to destroy him during the early history of this Church. I recall the trials in Manchester, the trials in Kirtland, the tribulations in Missouri, the hardships passed through by the Saints in all those places, which finally terminated, so far as the mortal days of the Prophet Joseph Smith were concerned, in the tragedy at Carthage. I remember also the history of the trials of the Saints, our fathers and our mothers, in Nauvoo, and after that time, when they were driven from their homes there, and finally, with that unfaltering faith they had in the leader God gave to them to take the place of the Prophet Joseph, they set their faces toward the setting sun, to go into the unknown west. It was when they were ready for this journey that President Brigham Young called William Clayton to him, and said to him, "Brother Clayton, I want you to prepare a hymn that the Saints can sing while we are camped upon the prairies, and wherever God will lead us, something that will give them hope." And Brother Clayton went away, and, I think, in the course of a couple of hours, he had not only composed the hymn, but he had set it to music, and he sang it before that great leader, Brigham Young. Now, with this little piece of history, knowing how this hymn had its origin, so that you will appreciate it more, I am going to read the hymn that was sung at the opening of this meeting:
"Come, come ye saints, no toil nor labor fear,
But with joy wend your way;
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
'Tis better far for us to strive.
Our useless cares from us to drive.
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell --
All is well! all is well!
"Why should we mourn, or think our lot is hard?
'Tis not so; all is right!
Why should we think to earn a great reward,
If we now shun the fight.
Gird up your loins, fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we'll have this truth to tell
All is well! all is well!
"We'll find the place which God for us prepared.
Far away in the West,
Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
There the saints will be blessed.
We'll make the air with music ring,
Shout praises to our God and King;
Above the rest these words we'll tell
All is well! all is well!
"And should we die before our journey's through,
Happy day! all is well!
We then are free from toil and sorrow too;
With the just we shall dwell.
But if our lives are spared again
To see the saints their rest obtain,
O how we'll make this chorus swell --
All is well! all is well."
What do you think, my brethren and sisters, of the faith of that band of pioneers? This country was unknown to them. They believed that God had given to President Young a vision of the future home for the Latter-day Saints. They had faith in their leader, and they were willing to go into the unknown with him; and felt that if they died before their journey was through, all was well with them. We are the children, the grand-children, we are the offspring of men and women to whom this gospel was carried in various parts of the world; and what a debt of gratitude do we owe to their bravery, their faith, their integrity to the cause of God! God is no respecter of persons, and He is as near to us as He was to them. The faith that God planted within their hearts. He is willing to plant within our hearts, if our works are like unto the works of our fathers. There is a price set upon every blessing from God, but it is not measured in dollars and cents, it is within the reach of all alike; and the price consists in works, works of righteousness. There should be no one to whom the gospel has been brought, and whose condition has been bettered thereby, who should ever forget the faith, the integrity, the honesty, the bravery, of those who had such confidence in Brigham Young as to follow him into these valleys of the mountains.
It is sung that "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform," and perhaps if all had been peace with our fathers and our mothers, all of the purposes of God would not have been fulfilled so quickly, so minutely, as they have been fulfilled, notwithstanding the trials and tribulations that came upon our people. "It needs be that offenses come, but woe be unto them by whom they come." The offenses that did come hastened the fulfillment of the revelations of God Almighty.
There stood upon the earth a great and mighty Prophet of God seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, whose prophecies were translated into different languages over three hundred years before His birth, in the city of Alexandria. God gave to him a vision of the future, and a vision of that building yonder (the temple),showing him that the Mountain of the House of the Lord would be established in the tops of the mountains, and that people from almost every nation upon the earth would say, as they are now saying, "Come, and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob, where we can learn of His ways, and walk in His paths." That great miracle, if you are minded to call it a miracle, the fulfilling of that prophecy, was brought about largely by our people being forced to come up into the tops of the mountains.
When we speak of miracles, we call them miracles, but, when rightly understood, there is no such thing as miracles. We call those things miracles simply because we do not now understand the law by which they are brought about. It is true, upon the rough seas, the Savior of mankind stretched forth His hand and said to the angry waters, "Peace, be still," and the waters were calmed, and the ship was safe, but the one who uttered these words was the King of heaven and earth, to whom all power had been given, and when He commanded the intelligence of the winds : listen and obey! and the waters became calmed, it was more the principle of obedience that brought about the calmness of the sea. We plant the grape vine, we pour water upon the ground; it goes into mother earth; creeps up through the sap of the vine, it finds its way into the bud of the flower, and then into the berry, the grape; it is then crushed, and other elements work upon it, and we have the wine. But, when they filled the pots with water at the behest of Jesus of Nazareth, and He commanded, all the necessary elements went into the water, and turned the water into wine, the seeming miracle was done by Divine authority, by obedience to that Being to whom was given all power over the elements, and who could, if He had so desired, have summoned the armies of heaven to His defense. "The glory of God is intelligence." "No man can be saved in ignorance," and this faith that God has given to us is intended to exalt us in the presence of God, with intelligence, so that we can know, and control, even as our Elder Brother was able to control, while He was upon the earth. Faith will take immortal men into the presence of God; not only that, but will make them like unto God, exalt them as kings and priests in the celestial kingdom of our heavenly Father. The race is not given to the swift, but to him who endures to the end.
I see before me many elders who have labored under my direction, both in the Southern States and in the Eastern States, during the period of thirteen years that I have presided in these missionary fields, and I wonder if your enthusiasm is the same as it was when you were standing in the open air, preaching the gospel of life and salvation. Do not let it cool off. Do not be afraid. The work of God is true, and it is going to rule this universe some time. It has been decreed by the Almighty that sometime the earth and the fulness thereof "will be given to the Saints of the most high God, and they shall possess it forever and forever." I did not receive my testimony from men; I know it with every fibre of my being. When I go over on the other side, I want to meet my parents who were among the pioneers of 1847, and not be ashamed when I look them in the face. I want to keep the faith as they kept the faith. You keep it as your fathers and mothers kept it, and remember that God Almighty brought our fathers to this country, therefore we are indebted to Him for every blessing that we enjoy today.
May God bless you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
ELDER JUNIUS F. WELLS.
In looking about from this temporary stand over the heads of this large assembly, my soul rejoices in reflections that are started by listening to what we have heard of the coming of the pioneers, of the faith that led them to these valleys of the mountains, and that has converted us, and brought us here from the various parts of the earth to worship God, to participate in this conference, and to enjoy the spirit of it.
In my youth, in my childhood, I played upon this temple block. I recall it before any buildings that we now see were erected upon it, although the house of the Lord, the temple of our God, was commenced before the time that my memory goes back to. The great tabernacle —I recall well when it was being built, and the old tabernacle in the corner, that stood before it, and ten or fifteen rods northwest from here, the old bowery, which stood before it. In it was held the nearest thing to an open air meeting that I was acquainted with in my childhood. In the old bowery, I remember listening to the words of President Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, and other leaders of the Church. I have lived to see, since those days, which were in the beginning of things in this great city of Salt Lake, the wonderful development and progress that has taken place. I have lived to see the fulfillment of the prophecies of God concerning the growth of this people; to see the triumph of truth over error; to see the mercies and blessings and support of our Father in heaven, in preserving His people in possession of this land, and in control of its greater interests.
I rejoice when I look upon these buildings and contemplate the spirit and feeling that led President Young to erect the tabernacle, that there might be room in which the Saints could assemble to worship God at our conferences. When I think of this glorious house of the Lord, in which the ordinances of everlasting life can be performed for the living and the dead; when I look yonder and see one of the finest educational institutions that there is in the west, a creation of our faith and the labors of our hands; when I see, in fulfillment of one of the earliest revelations given in the dispensation of the fulness of times, this splendid hostlery that has been reared, a monument to the good taste, the hospitality, and the good will of our people toward mankind; because it was said we should have in Zion a house in which the stranger might be received and entertained within our gates, into which the noble, the great, and the learned of the world should come, and should receive of our hospitality. I am happy when I think of this great institution across the road, the largest and finest publishing and printing establishment in the west. Out from its presses go tens and hundreds of thousands of copies of sacred and glorious works, bearing testimony to mankind of the intelligence, the faith, and devotion of the people, whose lives were planted in these valleys of the mountains in the days when they were desert, and of their determination to be in the forefront of all things that make for the comfort, happiness, intelligence, education, development, and progress and uplift of mankind. I am glad that we have upon the site of the old school house, where I first went to school, the Vermont building, the Deseret Museum, now being prepared so that you can go there and see an accumulation of some of the most wonderful things that have ever been discovered in these mountains.
We have all about us the evidence of God's help, of His support, of His good will towards us. We have survived the onslaught of every influence and power that could be raised against us, as a people, to prevent the achievement that you see here manifested in these structures round about you. The very first thing that I remember in my life was standing by my mother's knee in an open air meeting at the head of Big Cottonwood Canyon, while my father read before the congregation assembled there, the announcement that an army, the army of the United States, was marching toward us to destroy the Mormon people. I remember, five years after that, scurrying caticorner across this block, from the old school in Union Square, where Brother Rich and Judge Smith, and some others, I see here, used to go, because the guns of an army were being trained upon our homes and the home of the President of the Church. I recall the efforts that have been made by legislation and by extra judicial procedure to hinder the progress of this work, to embarrass and hurt, and if possible, destroy, those who are engaged in it; and how futile all these efforts have been. Today, while we may not be the most numerous, and it is not our destiny ever to become so; we occupy a unique position before mankind. We are setting an example of the best that there is in the world, and right here in Salt Lake City, in spite of all opposition, in spite of the incoming of wealth from the outside, from wealth that our people have produced from within, we have thus far maintained the lead. We have, as I have stated, the best churches, the best hospital, the best school-houses and gymnasium, the best hotel, the best printing establishment, and the best of everything that makes for religion, for social progress and welfare, for education, and for the entertainment and happiness of the people.
Now, if God will continue to be as good to us as He has been in the past, we should be able to maintain this position with respect to our fellow men. It is my testimony, and my belief, that it is the destiny of the Latter-day Saints, to occupy that position in the lead, and that God has called us by His own voice to take the lead; to teach mankind the truth, to declare that He is, and that He loves His children, and is concerned with respect to them; and that He calls them from the length and breadth of the earth to come up to Zion, that they may learn of His ways and be taught the truth, the everlasting truth, that will save their, souls.
May He grant to us, every one of us, the opportunity of bearing the testimony that is within us of the divinity of the work that we are engaged in. I know, as Brother Rich has said he knows, in every fibre of my being, that the truth has been taught by the leaders of Israel: that the Prophet Joseph was called of God; that Brigham Young was a man of God, a prophet, a seer, a revelator, to this people; a mighty leader, made great and powerful and influential, by the blessing and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I know the men that have succeeded these in the leadership of this Church, have been men of God; and that there never breathed a truer, more faithful, devoted, sincere, honest, servant of Almighty God than Joseph F. Smith, the present president of this Church.
My brothers and sisters, my friends, the truth that has been given to us has made us free. We stand here, and before all men, delivered from the shackles of traditions that are false, made acquainted with the mind and will of the Almighty, concerning us; knowing that we may walk according to His will and live according to His design and purpose in placing us upon this earth; and that we may assist in bringing to pass the redemption of mankind and the establishment of truth and righteousness that is destined to prevail over the earth.
May God grant that our testimonies and our faith may ever increase within us, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
In looking about from this temporary stand over the heads of this large assembly, my soul rejoices in reflections that are started by listening to what we have heard of the coming of the pioneers, of the faith that led them to these valleys of the mountains, and that has converted us, and brought us here from the various parts of the earth to worship God, to participate in this conference, and to enjoy the spirit of it.
In my youth, in my childhood, I played upon this temple block. I recall it before any buildings that we now see were erected upon it, although the house of the Lord, the temple of our God, was commenced before the time that my memory goes back to. The great tabernacle —I recall well when it was being built, and the old tabernacle in the corner, that stood before it, and ten or fifteen rods northwest from here, the old bowery, which stood before it. In it was held the nearest thing to an open air meeting that I was acquainted with in my childhood. In the old bowery, I remember listening to the words of President Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, and other leaders of the Church. I have lived to see, since those days, which were in the beginning of things in this great city of Salt Lake, the wonderful development and progress that has taken place. I have lived to see the fulfillment of the prophecies of God concerning the growth of this people; to see the triumph of truth over error; to see the mercies and blessings and support of our Father in heaven, in preserving His people in possession of this land, and in control of its greater interests.
I rejoice when I look upon these buildings and contemplate the spirit and feeling that led President Young to erect the tabernacle, that there might be room in which the Saints could assemble to worship God at our conferences. When I think of this glorious house of the Lord, in which the ordinances of everlasting life can be performed for the living and the dead; when I look yonder and see one of the finest educational institutions that there is in the west, a creation of our faith and the labors of our hands; when I see, in fulfillment of one of the earliest revelations given in the dispensation of the fulness of times, this splendid hostlery that has been reared, a monument to the good taste, the hospitality, and the good will of our people toward mankind; because it was said we should have in Zion a house in which the stranger might be received and entertained within our gates, into which the noble, the great, and the learned of the world should come, and should receive of our hospitality. I am happy when I think of this great institution across the road, the largest and finest publishing and printing establishment in the west. Out from its presses go tens and hundreds of thousands of copies of sacred and glorious works, bearing testimony to mankind of the intelligence, the faith, and devotion of the people, whose lives were planted in these valleys of the mountains in the days when they were desert, and of their determination to be in the forefront of all things that make for the comfort, happiness, intelligence, education, development, and progress and uplift of mankind. I am glad that we have upon the site of the old school house, where I first went to school, the Vermont building, the Deseret Museum, now being prepared so that you can go there and see an accumulation of some of the most wonderful things that have ever been discovered in these mountains.
We have all about us the evidence of God's help, of His support, of His good will towards us. We have survived the onslaught of every influence and power that could be raised against us, as a people, to prevent the achievement that you see here manifested in these structures round about you. The very first thing that I remember in my life was standing by my mother's knee in an open air meeting at the head of Big Cottonwood Canyon, while my father read before the congregation assembled there, the announcement that an army, the army of the United States, was marching toward us to destroy the Mormon people. I remember, five years after that, scurrying caticorner across this block, from the old school in Union Square, where Brother Rich and Judge Smith, and some others, I see here, used to go, because the guns of an army were being trained upon our homes and the home of the President of the Church. I recall the efforts that have been made by legislation and by extra judicial procedure to hinder the progress of this work, to embarrass and hurt, and if possible, destroy, those who are engaged in it; and how futile all these efforts have been. Today, while we may not be the most numerous, and it is not our destiny ever to become so; we occupy a unique position before mankind. We are setting an example of the best that there is in the world, and right here in Salt Lake City, in spite of all opposition, in spite of the incoming of wealth from the outside, from wealth that our people have produced from within, we have thus far maintained the lead. We have, as I have stated, the best churches, the best hospital, the best school-houses and gymnasium, the best hotel, the best printing establishment, and the best of everything that makes for religion, for social progress and welfare, for education, and for the entertainment and happiness of the people.
Now, if God will continue to be as good to us as He has been in the past, we should be able to maintain this position with respect to our fellow men. It is my testimony, and my belief, that it is the destiny of the Latter-day Saints, to occupy that position in the lead, and that God has called us by His own voice to take the lead; to teach mankind the truth, to declare that He is, and that He loves His children, and is concerned with respect to them; and that He calls them from the length and breadth of the earth to come up to Zion, that they may learn of His ways and be taught the truth, the everlasting truth, that will save their, souls.
May He grant to us, every one of us, the opportunity of bearing the testimony that is within us of the divinity of the work that we are engaged in. I know, as Brother Rich has said he knows, in every fibre of my being, that the truth has been taught by the leaders of Israel: that the Prophet Joseph was called of God; that Brigham Young was a man of God, a prophet, a seer, a revelator, to this people; a mighty leader, made great and powerful and influential, by the blessing and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I know the men that have succeeded these in the leadership of this Church, have been men of God; and that there never breathed a truer, more faithful, devoted, sincere, honest, servant of Almighty God than Joseph F. Smith, the present president of this Church.
My brothers and sisters, my friends, the truth that has been given to us has made us free. We stand here, and before all men, delivered from the shackles of traditions that are false, made acquainted with the mind and will of the Almighty, concerning us; knowing that we may walk according to His will and live according to His design and purpose in placing us upon this earth; and that we may assist in bringing to pass the redemption of mankind and the establishment of truth and righteousness that is destined to prevail over the earth.
May God grant that our testimonies and our faith may ever increase within us, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
ELDER JOSEPH B. KEELER.
(President of Utah Stake.)
My brethren and sisters and friends, this is a new experience to me, but I trust that I shall have sufficient of the Spirit of the Lord that I may say a few things that will be of interest and comfort to those who are assembled here this afternoon.
I was reminded, when listening to the brethren speak, of a word that is set forth in the Doctrine and Covenants, in the first revelation, wherein the Lord is giving the reason for His Church to be organized in these, the latter times. Speaking of the commandments, these commandments that are in this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and why they were given to His servant, Joseph Smith, he says, among other things, "That every man might speak in the name of God, the Lord, even the Savior of the world; that faith might increase in the earth." That is one of the reasons for this great latter-day work, that faith may be increased in the earth, because, without faith it will be impossible for men and women to be saved in His kingdom. The brethren have referred to the many and mighty works that have been performed by the Latter-day Saints, and to the words of prophecy, wherein they look forward to the budding up of a great commonwealth in this western country. They have referred to material works, wherein these great structures that have been referred to have been reared. Now, why all of these things, is more than we can tell upon this occasion—why all of these things? They have been accomplished because of the faith that was generated in the hearts of men and women, our parents who came here, who started out, many of them, without knowing whither they were going or where their feet would find rest, and came here because they had implicit faith in God—the very thing that God desired that men should have—that faith should increase in the earth. Now, what we behold today, what we see 2nd understand of this great work, is a result of the faith of those who have lived before us, and those who are living now. How shall we, the posterity of these pioneers, how shall we, men and brethren, increase our faith, that we, likewise, may accomplish something in the earth toward our present, our temporal and our spiritual salvation. We will get this faith by living the gospel as it has been revealed to us in these latter times. We will generate faith sufficient that we will be enabled to accomplish that which God desires us to accomplish, we who are living in this day and generation.
The mind of man is peculiar, it is wonderful It is past finding out how it IS that it can be wrought upon by the Power from on high, that it can accomplish things that are wonderful in the sight of men. If men would live and women would live day by day, as best they know how, as they associate one with another, in their various walks, in their various businesses in life, if they, under the light of the Spirit of Truth, would seek to do, day by day, that which their hands find to do, and that which their hearts desire to do, they would generate this faith, they would build it up in their hearts, and they would become a mighty power.
Brother Wells referred to the fact that this people are few. There is an old prophet in the Book of Mormon, who looked down to our time, before the coming of the Savior, and noted that the Church was small, its members were few, but there was a mighty power with the few.
My brethren and sisters, we have one of the grandest opportunities that was ever presented to a people upon the face of the earth, to learn the things of God. The Lord has made Himself manifest to this people, and, although their numbers are few, they have the power, through God, within them, to accomplish everything that has been prom sed that the people of God should accomplish in these latter times. This Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is broad enough, high enough, deep enough to comprehend all things, and to save every man and every woman that has come upon the face of the earth; not only those that have lived when the oracles of God have been upon the earth, but those who have died and passed away. This gospel will be preached to all, to every creature, everyone will have an opportunity to accept or reject the principles of the gospel.
There stands before us a monument of God's goodness, that wonderful temple, in which the ordinances for the dead may be accomplished. There is only a little beginning in that work. The dead are being redeemed, children are being united to parents, husbands and wives are being united in eternal relationship, and the great links of kinship from Adam down to the present time are being welded. Those who have passed away at times when darkness has been upon the earth, and gross darkness found in the minds of the people, will have u chance to hear the everlasting gospel, the gladsome sound, and embrace the same; and the work will be done for them here upon the earth by their children whose hearts will be turned to them, and there will be great rejoicing in heaven and on earth.
Now, there have been committed to the Latter-day Saints these precious principles, principles of salvation, which are to make happy all of the children of men, and place them in z position to enjoy all that is possible for their souls to enjoy, and this all has come about by the goodness of our God. I bear testimony to you, my brethren and sisters and friends, that this is the work of Almighty God. I know it; no man has told me, I know it for myself, and not for another.
I bear testimony that inasmuch as we will be obedient to the principles of the gospel, as taught by the Latter-day Saints, we shall come to a knowledge of these things. We need not. depend upon any man for this knowledge, each will know it for himself, and know it better than anyone can tell him. I testify to you that the living oracles are upon the earth today, that President Joseph F. Smith is really and truly a prophet of God, and president of God's work here upon the earth. May this testimony be in the hearts of every one of you, my brethren and sisters and friends, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
(President of Utah Stake.)
My brethren and sisters and friends, this is a new experience to me, but I trust that I shall have sufficient of the Spirit of the Lord that I may say a few things that will be of interest and comfort to those who are assembled here this afternoon.
I was reminded, when listening to the brethren speak, of a word that is set forth in the Doctrine and Covenants, in the first revelation, wherein the Lord is giving the reason for His Church to be organized in these, the latter times. Speaking of the commandments, these commandments that are in this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and why they were given to His servant, Joseph Smith, he says, among other things, "That every man might speak in the name of God, the Lord, even the Savior of the world; that faith might increase in the earth." That is one of the reasons for this great latter-day work, that faith may be increased in the earth, because, without faith it will be impossible for men and women to be saved in His kingdom. The brethren have referred to the many and mighty works that have been performed by the Latter-day Saints, and to the words of prophecy, wherein they look forward to the budding up of a great commonwealth in this western country. They have referred to material works, wherein these great structures that have been referred to have been reared. Now, why all of these things, is more than we can tell upon this occasion—why all of these things? They have been accomplished because of the faith that was generated in the hearts of men and women, our parents who came here, who started out, many of them, without knowing whither they were going or where their feet would find rest, and came here because they had implicit faith in God—the very thing that God desired that men should have—that faith should increase in the earth. Now, what we behold today, what we see 2nd understand of this great work, is a result of the faith of those who have lived before us, and those who are living now. How shall we, the posterity of these pioneers, how shall we, men and brethren, increase our faith, that we, likewise, may accomplish something in the earth toward our present, our temporal and our spiritual salvation. We will get this faith by living the gospel as it has been revealed to us in these latter times. We will generate faith sufficient that we will be enabled to accomplish that which God desires us to accomplish, we who are living in this day and generation.
The mind of man is peculiar, it is wonderful It is past finding out how it IS that it can be wrought upon by the Power from on high, that it can accomplish things that are wonderful in the sight of men. If men would live and women would live day by day, as best they know how, as they associate one with another, in their various walks, in their various businesses in life, if they, under the light of the Spirit of Truth, would seek to do, day by day, that which their hands find to do, and that which their hearts desire to do, they would generate this faith, they would build it up in their hearts, and they would become a mighty power.
Brother Wells referred to the fact that this people are few. There is an old prophet in the Book of Mormon, who looked down to our time, before the coming of the Savior, and noted that the Church was small, its members were few, but there was a mighty power with the few.
My brethren and sisters, we have one of the grandest opportunities that was ever presented to a people upon the face of the earth, to learn the things of God. The Lord has made Himself manifest to this people, and, although their numbers are few, they have the power, through God, within them, to accomplish everything that has been prom sed that the people of God should accomplish in these latter times. This Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is broad enough, high enough, deep enough to comprehend all things, and to save every man and every woman that has come upon the face of the earth; not only those that have lived when the oracles of God have been upon the earth, but those who have died and passed away. This gospel will be preached to all, to every creature, everyone will have an opportunity to accept or reject the principles of the gospel.
There stands before us a monument of God's goodness, that wonderful temple, in which the ordinances for the dead may be accomplished. There is only a little beginning in that work. The dead are being redeemed, children are being united to parents, husbands and wives are being united in eternal relationship, and the great links of kinship from Adam down to the present time are being welded. Those who have passed away at times when darkness has been upon the earth, and gross darkness found in the minds of the people, will have u chance to hear the everlasting gospel, the gladsome sound, and embrace the same; and the work will be done for them here upon the earth by their children whose hearts will be turned to them, and there will be great rejoicing in heaven and on earth.
Now, there have been committed to the Latter-day Saints these precious principles, principles of salvation, which are to make happy all of the children of men, and place them in z position to enjoy all that is possible for their souls to enjoy, and this all has come about by the goodness of our God. I bear testimony to you, my brethren and sisters and friends, that this is the work of Almighty God. I know it; no man has told me, I know it for myself, and not for another.
I bear testimony that inasmuch as we will be obedient to the principles of the gospel, as taught by the Latter-day Saints, we shall come to a knowledge of these things. We need not. depend upon any man for this knowledge, each will know it for himself, and know it better than anyone can tell him. I testify to you that the living oracles are upon the earth today, that President Joseph F. Smith is really and truly a prophet of God, and president of God's work here upon the earth. May this testimony be in the hearts of every one of you, my brethren and sisters and friends, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
ELDER STEPHEN L. CHIPMAN.
(President of Alpine Stake.)
My beloved brethren and sisters, I trust that during the few moments that I occupy, I may be impressed to say something that will be beneficial and of profit to those who may listen, as well as to myself. I have had many reflections while the brethren have been speaking to us. I have thought of the power of God that has been made manifest upon many occasions, that has, been an evidence and a testimony to me of the divinity of this great latter-day work, in which we are engaged.
I have listened with a great deal of interest to the remarks of our brethren. I have been acquainted with these men for many years, and I know them to be men of God, men of great worth in the community, in the labor of love that we have espoused, in preaching the gospel, in building up Zion and instilling into the hearts of the young and rising generation the principles of the gospel. The power that attends these principles in the growth and development of our young people is what we need in our midst.
I was reflecting when President Rich spoke of the young men who had been on missions continuing at home in the same good missionary spirit that had predominated in their hearts and in 'their labors in the mission field. I have had the pleasure, and the privilege of preaching the gospel in some of the nations of the earth, and I can say that the spirit that is usually manifest among the elders, is a spirit of love, the spirit of charity, the spirit of forgiveness, the spirit of willingness to go and to come at the bidding of those who preside over them, in preaching and presenting the principles of the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth.
We discover that some of our young men, on their return in our midst, become somewhat lukewarm and careless pertaining to their duties and labors in the stakes of Zion. It has been my prerogative and privilege to preside over a stake of Zion now for ten years, laboring with the young people, preparing them to go abroad and preach the gospel, and to labor at home in the various organizations of the Church, schooling them in the principles of the gospel, so that they would be more useful in the sphere in which they operate. We occasionally discover among our young people, especially among the young men, a spirit of indifference and carelessness as they grow up in our midst. I think perhaps this is due to the fact that we, as fathers and mothers, do not follow up, as closely as we should, our young men and young girls in their amusements and in their work. We too freely allow them to go and come as they please, and they have acquired more or less a spirit of independence and freedom in having their own way.
This reminds me forcibly of a play put upon our stage at one time, where a young man, who had formed a habit of drinking and smoking, and possibly profaning and doing other things that sometimes young men subject themselves to, he, singing upon the stage, made the statement, "I have had my own way. Don't I look it?" He certainly did look it; and I think this is the great trouble with some young men, they have had their own way, and they look it.
Solomon said, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Some of our people, I think, mistake this reading. They think if they teach their children correct principles that they ought to grow up and be all right; but this is not always the case. Our children should be trained to make themselves useful from their infancy up, they should be doers of the word as well as hearers, and when they get old, they will not depart from it. It has been my experience and observation that among the young men who go upon missions and receive honorable releases, when they return home there are some who resume objectionable habits in which they had indulged before they went away. In most of such cases where they do fall away, it is because they had not formed proper habits in their earlier lives.
I was reading, a short time ago, a statement of one of the professors in a California university, where he said: "You permit young men to sow their wild oats, as you call it, and as a rule, they will continue to sow wild oats in their manhood." I believe there is regrettable truth connected with this.
I notice young men and young ladies who take active part in our Mutual Improvement Associations, our Sunday Schools, Primaries, and other organizations and quorums of the Church, if they work and labor diligently in these quorums, they grow and develop in the gospel. These are the young men and women who remain stable as a rule, in the Church. These are the young men who fill honorable missions and then come home and remain faithful, who are obedient under the direction of those who preside over them.
I pray that the Lord will bless you, increase your faith, and strengthen your testimonies concerning this work. I testify to you that I know, as I know that I am standing here, that this is really and truly the work of God. It has not been instituted by men, it has been instituted by God, and it will stand forever.
May God bless you, and may we hold on to the iron rod, which is the word of God, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
(President of Alpine Stake.)
My beloved brethren and sisters, I trust that during the few moments that I occupy, I may be impressed to say something that will be beneficial and of profit to those who may listen, as well as to myself. I have had many reflections while the brethren have been speaking to us. I have thought of the power of God that has been made manifest upon many occasions, that has, been an evidence and a testimony to me of the divinity of this great latter-day work, in which we are engaged.
I have listened with a great deal of interest to the remarks of our brethren. I have been acquainted with these men for many years, and I know them to be men of God, men of great worth in the community, in the labor of love that we have espoused, in preaching the gospel, in building up Zion and instilling into the hearts of the young and rising generation the principles of the gospel. The power that attends these principles in the growth and development of our young people is what we need in our midst.
I was reflecting when President Rich spoke of the young men who had been on missions continuing at home in the same good missionary spirit that had predominated in their hearts and in 'their labors in the mission field. I have had the pleasure, and the privilege of preaching the gospel in some of the nations of the earth, and I can say that the spirit that is usually manifest among the elders, is a spirit of love, the spirit of charity, the spirit of forgiveness, the spirit of willingness to go and to come at the bidding of those who preside over them, in preaching and presenting the principles of the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth.
We discover that some of our young men, on their return in our midst, become somewhat lukewarm and careless pertaining to their duties and labors in the stakes of Zion. It has been my prerogative and privilege to preside over a stake of Zion now for ten years, laboring with the young people, preparing them to go abroad and preach the gospel, and to labor at home in the various organizations of the Church, schooling them in the principles of the gospel, so that they would be more useful in the sphere in which they operate. We occasionally discover among our young people, especially among the young men, a spirit of indifference and carelessness as they grow up in our midst. I think perhaps this is due to the fact that we, as fathers and mothers, do not follow up, as closely as we should, our young men and young girls in their amusements and in their work. We too freely allow them to go and come as they please, and they have acquired more or less a spirit of independence and freedom in having their own way.
This reminds me forcibly of a play put upon our stage at one time, where a young man, who had formed a habit of drinking and smoking, and possibly profaning and doing other things that sometimes young men subject themselves to, he, singing upon the stage, made the statement, "I have had my own way. Don't I look it?" He certainly did look it; and I think this is the great trouble with some young men, they have had their own way, and they look it.
Solomon said, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Some of our people, I think, mistake this reading. They think if they teach their children correct principles that they ought to grow up and be all right; but this is not always the case. Our children should be trained to make themselves useful from their infancy up, they should be doers of the word as well as hearers, and when they get old, they will not depart from it. It has been my experience and observation that among the young men who go upon missions and receive honorable releases, when they return home there are some who resume objectionable habits in which they had indulged before they went away. In most of such cases where they do fall away, it is because they had not formed proper habits in their earlier lives.
I was reading, a short time ago, a statement of one of the professors in a California university, where he said: "You permit young men to sow their wild oats, as you call it, and as a rule, they will continue to sow wild oats in their manhood." I believe there is regrettable truth connected with this.
I notice young men and young ladies who take active part in our Mutual Improvement Associations, our Sunday Schools, Primaries, and other organizations and quorums of the Church, if they work and labor diligently in these quorums, they grow and develop in the gospel. These are the young men and women who remain stable as a rule, in the Church. These are the young men who fill honorable missions and then come home and remain faithful, who are obedient under the direction of those who preside over them.
I pray that the Lord will bless you, increase your faith, and strengthen your testimonies concerning this work. I testify to you that I know, as I know that I am standing here, that this is really and truly the work of God. It has not been instituted by men, it has been instituted by God, and it will stand forever.
May God bless you, and may we hold on to the iron rod, which is the word of God, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
ELDER BENJAMIN GODDARD.
(Supt. of Bureau of Information.)
I am glad to meet this large assembly here, and to join with you in the spirit of praise that goes out from every heart for that which God has accomplished for Israel. I realize that you have already expressed your feelings in the song of praise, "We thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet." I believe that you meant every word that you sang, that you are grateful unto God for every revelation that He has given, for having sent unto us a Prophet in the person of Joseph Smith, and that unto that Prophet He gave sacred revelations and has given unto us also light and wisdom, and made known unto us the will of God.
I rejoice that God and His Son, Jesus Christ, vouchsafed to appear unto the youthful Prophet, and established in his young heart the truth that a mighty, a marvelous, a wonderful work, was about to come forth among the children of men. I rejoice with you that God fulfilled His promise, that Moroni, the prophet, appeared, giving unto Joseph the Prophet sacred records pertaining unto the ancient people who lived upon this continent; that subsequently other messengers appeared, and made clear unto the Prophet's mind every principle pertaining to the restoration of the gospel in the latter days.
We thank God that He has blessed the efforts of our prophets, that He has blessed our elders, our "boys" who have gone forth in weakness unto the nations of the earth, and that He has made them mighty in gathering in scattered Israel. I rejoice in the opportunities given to spread the truth upon this sacred block, and to correct the many misrepresentations that are made concerning us. Some people delight in telling stories which mislead the visitors.
Two weeks ago, a gentleman accompanied a few tourist friends upon this block, and declared: Why, the "Mormons" believe that the statue Moroni, on the top of the temple, in a very short time will come down and minister unto the children of men—that the bronze image will come to life. Of course, it afforded us opportunity to declare the truth. We say that the statue represents Moroni, the angel of the last dispensation: and that Moroni lives. He lives now. He appeared, a resurrected being, unto the Prophet Joseph Smith, and declared unto him that the time had already come when the records of the people who lived upon this continent should be brought forth. We are pleased when we have such an opportunity of declaring more forcibly the truth, that this is the work of God, that the angel, Moroni, actually lives now, and has ministered in our day.
Other misrepresentations are made regarding our sacred temple, and we have opportunity of explaining the work associated with salvation of the dead; and that in accordance with that which God has revealed, our people go there and are baptized for their dead, that they might live : for we are seeking to save souls, not to destroy them. We bear testimony to all, to every nation, kindred, tongue and people that our work is for the salvation of souls, and for the redemption of the living and the dead. It is the plan of salvation. God has revealed it, and as He gives us strength, we will declare it. "This gospel of the kingdom must be preached as a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come."
May God help us to be true unto that which God has given, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Prof. Andrew G. Bowman sang the sacred hymn, "I need Thee every hour."
(Supt. of Bureau of Information.)
I am glad to meet this large assembly here, and to join with you in the spirit of praise that goes out from every heart for that which God has accomplished for Israel. I realize that you have already expressed your feelings in the song of praise, "We thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet." I believe that you meant every word that you sang, that you are grateful unto God for every revelation that He has given, for having sent unto us a Prophet in the person of Joseph Smith, and that unto that Prophet He gave sacred revelations and has given unto us also light and wisdom, and made known unto us the will of God.
I rejoice that God and His Son, Jesus Christ, vouchsafed to appear unto the youthful Prophet, and established in his young heart the truth that a mighty, a marvelous, a wonderful work, was about to come forth among the children of men. I rejoice with you that God fulfilled His promise, that Moroni, the prophet, appeared, giving unto Joseph the Prophet sacred records pertaining unto the ancient people who lived upon this continent; that subsequently other messengers appeared, and made clear unto the Prophet's mind every principle pertaining to the restoration of the gospel in the latter days.
We thank God that He has blessed the efforts of our prophets, that He has blessed our elders, our "boys" who have gone forth in weakness unto the nations of the earth, and that He has made them mighty in gathering in scattered Israel. I rejoice in the opportunities given to spread the truth upon this sacred block, and to correct the many misrepresentations that are made concerning us. Some people delight in telling stories which mislead the visitors.
Two weeks ago, a gentleman accompanied a few tourist friends upon this block, and declared: Why, the "Mormons" believe that the statue Moroni, on the top of the temple, in a very short time will come down and minister unto the children of men—that the bronze image will come to life. Of course, it afforded us opportunity to declare the truth. We say that the statue represents Moroni, the angel of the last dispensation: and that Moroni lives. He lives now. He appeared, a resurrected being, unto the Prophet Joseph Smith, and declared unto him that the time had already come when the records of the people who lived upon this continent should be brought forth. We are pleased when we have such an opportunity of declaring more forcibly the truth, that this is the work of God, that the angel, Moroni, actually lives now, and has ministered in our day.
Other misrepresentations are made regarding our sacred temple, and we have opportunity of explaining the work associated with salvation of the dead; and that in accordance with that which God has revealed, our people go there and are baptized for their dead, that they might live : for we are seeking to save souls, not to destroy them. We bear testimony to all, to every nation, kindred, tongue and people that our work is for the salvation of souls, and for the redemption of the living and the dead. It is the plan of salvation. God has revealed it, and as He gives us strength, we will declare it. "This gospel of the kingdom must be preached as a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come."
May God help us to be true unto that which God has given, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Prof. Andrew G. Bowman sang the sacred hymn, "I need Thee every hour."
PRESIDENT SEYMOUR B. YOUNG
(Of First Council of Seventy.)
What we have heard from the brethren today in regard to our faith, and the introduction of the gospel in these latter times, are testimonies that have come from the hearts of these elders who have been faithful during long years of experience in proclaiming these great principles pertaining to the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus.
I had designed, in arising before you, to make some remarks in relation to this building here, the Bureau of Information, which was found to be a necessity when vast numbers of tourists and visitors, from all the civilized nations of the earth, with their faces set toward Utah and the great west, began to come here by thousands and tens of thousands. At one of our general conferences in the year 1901, or just prior to that, one of the brethren said it would be a very good thing to establish a place where tourists and visitors could come and be informed concerning the history of the Latter-day Saints, and of their intentions for the future, and regarding the life of the people in their homes throughout this intermountain region. Accordingly, in 1902, the Church erected a small, frame building, near where this beautiful structure now stands, and when that was finished, the people began to flock to it, visitors from the United States, and from the old world.
Two years later it was found that a larger and a better building was needed, and so the frame one was removed and the present brick structure was erected. In the year last past, 1910, the eastern portion of the building was added, for the benefit of the numerous visitors to this temple block. Brother Benjamin Goddard, the director of this institution under the Presidency of the Church, with fifty or more helpers, male and female, are daily engaged in receiving the visitors. I am proud to say to you that since the opening of this building, the establishment of this bureau of information, we have, in the ten years, had visitors to the number of about 2,000,000 generally intelligent people, averaging about 200,000 each year, among whom are found the very best classes of people that the world contains today, and including some of the nobility of Europe.
When I use the word nobility, I speak of the ranks established among the crowned heads and noble families of Europe, as they are recognized there. But, I recognize this grand truth, my brethren and sisters, and friends, that there are no more noble people in the earth, nor ever will be any more noble people visit these grounds than I see before me today. I realize that, of the working men, manufacturers, and the many other classes of people who have come here as tourists and visitors, the farmers, tillers of the soil rank among the best on the earth. There are no more noble people than those who cultivate the soil God has given them, make it produce the necessaries of life, and provide comforts and blessings for themselves and their families. I refer not only to Latter-day Saints, but also to our friends that are gathered in the different states, neighbors to our people in these great western communities. I say again, they are among the noble people of the earth. We are trying to teach them the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we have learned it. We have learned that humility was necessary, and that faith in God was also a requisite. When we have attained humility and faith, we desire further to learn how to serve the Lord and keep His commandments. Hence, our elders teach that it is necessary to be so humble, so contrite in spirit, that we will desire, that we will not rest contented, until we have done as did our Savior, our Lord Jesus, when He came to John in the wilderness, and said : I seek baptism at your hands, John. He demanded, it is worded, and that demand was no doubt made in such gentle language that this prophet, (who was that prophet who had lifted his voice against Herod's sin and iniquity), this prophet from the wilderness, John, said to him : "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" We know, my brethren, sisters, and friends, this fact that, if it was necessary for our Lord, our Redeemer, to receive baptism from the hands of one who was called and ordained to minister in that service, it is absolutely necessary that we follow His great and glorious example. We must go into the waters of baptism, for the remission of our sins, that we may stand spotless and clean before our Maker; then receive the laying on of hands, by one called and appointed to that authority, for the reception of the Holy Ghost, which shall lead the minds of all who accept these glorious principles to greater light, greater knowledge, and greater wisdom than could be possessed without it.
My brethren and sisters, speaking of that great temple which is in our view, I remember very well the days of the dedicatorial service therein, and I remember one fact I learned there that brought to my mind great comfort and joy; I heard a prophet of the Lord testify that he had received a vision from the eternal world. In that great house President Woodruff stood up and testified: "About three years ago," said he, "I received in vision a visit from President Brigham Young. President Brigham Young came to me, and said, 'Brother Woodruff, take the keys of the temple, and unlock the doors and let the people in.' "
Brother Woodruff said, "At that time I was president of the apostles, President John Taylor was then living, and was President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and I marveled that Brigham Young had come to me and given me this commission; but today," said he, "President Taylor has passed away, and I have been called to occupy this responsible position, of president of the Church; and now I no longer marvel, for I have done as I was commanded, and I have taken the keys to this holy house, and I have opened the doors and I have bid the people enter."
Now, my brethren and sisters, as has been testified to you today, that building stands as a monument of the faithful labors of the Latter-day Saints. When Brigham Young came here, a pioneer, with his faithful little band of one hundred, and forty-three persons, he placed the point of his cane in the ground, nearly at the southeast corner, it is believed, of where the building now stands, and he said, "Here we will build the house of the Lord, a temple to our God." Forty years after its commencement it was finished; it was begun in 1853, and completed in 1893.
Now, my brethren and sisters, it was for no ulterior or wicked purpose or plan that that magnificent structure was erected. It was reared by the faithful labor and toil of the Latter-day Saints; and, especially in the first few years of its progress, the building was continued by the help of the people while in extreme poverty, with very little means to push it forward. Hence its development was slow. But, at its completion we were satisfied, because testimonies were borne in that sacred building, during the dedicatorial services, that God had indeed accepted it, even as He accepted those temples that had been builded before. This fact was verified by the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord resting upon those brethren who testified that God had indeed accepted the labors of the Latter-day Saints, and sanctioned the placing of His name upon that sacred building.
Now, my brethren and sisters, I thank you very much for your attention here this afternoon, and I thank our visitors also. I say to all those who have been here to view these temple grounds, and hear about the Latter-day Saints, you are welcomed, heartily welcomed by those who labor here in this bureau of information. I repeat, you are welcome here today, my brethren, sisters, and friends; we greet you as friends, and we are glad to see you always. May God bless you wherever you go, in all your walks of life. If there are any here who have not had faith in the gospel, as we have faith in it, I trust that your hearts may be softened to that degree by what you have heard, and what you may hear in the future, that you too will receive the spirit of repentance, and draw near unto God, and be enabled to work out your salvation and redemption; in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The congregation sang the hymn;
Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah!
Jesus anointed that "Prophet and Seer"--
Blessed to open the last dispensation;
Kings shall extol him and nations revere.
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Francis McDonald.
(Of First Council of Seventy.)
What we have heard from the brethren today in regard to our faith, and the introduction of the gospel in these latter times, are testimonies that have come from the hearts of these elders who have been faithful during long years of experience in proclaiming these great principles pertaining to the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus.
I had designed, in arising before you, to make some remarks in relation to this building here, the Bureau of Information, which was found to be a necessity when vast numbers of tourists and visitors, from all the civilized nations of the earth, with their faces set toward Utah and the great west, began to come here by thousands and tens of thousands. At one of our general conferences in the year 1901, or just prior to that, one of the brethren said it would be a very good thing to establish a place where tourists and visitors could come and be informed concerning the history of the Latter-day Saints, and of their intentions for the future, and regarding the life of the people in their homes throughout this intermountain region. Accordingly, in 1902, the Church erected a small, frame building, near where this beautiful structure now stands, and when that was finished, the people began to flock to it, visitors from the United States, and from the old world.
Two years later it was found that a larger and a better building was needed, and so the frame one was removed and the present brick structure was erected. In the year last past, 1910, the eastern portion of the building was added, for the benefit of the numerous visitors to this temple block. Brother Benjamin Goddard, the director of this institution under the Presidency of the Church, with fifty or more helpers, male and female, are daily engaged in receiving the visitors. I am proud to say to you that since the opening of this building, the establishment of this bureau of information, we have, in the ten years, had visitors to the number of about 2,000,000 generally intelligent people, averaging about 200,000 each year, among whom are found the very best classes of people that the world contains today, and including some of the nobility of Europe.
When I use the word nobility, I speak of the ranks established among the crowned heads and noble families of Europe, as they are recognized there. But, I recognize this grand truth, my brethren and sisters, and friends, that there are no more noble people in the earth, nor ever will be any more noble people visit these grounds than I see before me today. I realize that, of the working men, manufacturers, and the many other classes of people who have come here as tourists and visitors, the farmers, tillers of the soil rank among the best on the earth. There are no more noble people than those who cultivate the soil God has given them, make it produce the necessaries of life, and provide comforts and blessings for themselves and their families. I refer not only to Latter-day Saints, but also to our friends that are gathered in the different states, neighbors to our people in these great western communities. I say again, they are among the noble people of the earth. We are trying to teach them the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we have learned it. We have learned that humility was necessary, and that faith in God was also a requisite. When we have attained humility and faith, we desire further to learn how to serve the Lord and keep His commandments. Hence, our elders teach that it is necessary to be so humble, so contrite in spirit, that we will desire, that we will not rest contented, until we have done as did our Savior, our Lord Jesus, when He came to John in the wilderness, and said : I seek baptism at your hands, John. He demanded, it is worded, and that demand was no doubt made in such gentle language that this prophet, (who was that prophet who had lifted his voice against Herod's sin and iniquity), this prophet from the wilderness, John, said to him : "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" We know, my brethren, sisters, and friends, this fact that, if it was necessary for our Lord, our Redeemer, to receive baptism from the hands of one who was called and ordained to minister in that service, it is absolutely necessary that we follow His great and glorious example. We must go into the waters of baptism, for the remission of our sins, that we may stand spotless and clean before our Maker; then receive the laying on of hands, by one called and appointed to that authority, for the reception of the Holy Ghost, which shall lead the minds of all who accept these glorious principles to greater light, greater knowledge, and greater wisdom than could be possessed without it.
My brethren and sisters, speaking of that great temple which is in our view, I remember very well the days of the dedicatorial service therein, and I remember one fact I learned there that brought to my mind great comfort and joy; I heard a prophet of the Lord testify that he had received a vision from the eternal world. In that great house President Woodruff stood up and testified: "About three years ago," said he, "I received in vision a visit from President Brigham Young. President Brigham Young came to me, and said, 'Brother Woodruff, take the keys of the temple, and unlock the doors and let the people in.' "
Brother Woodruff said, "At that time I was president of the apostles, President John Taylor was then living, and was President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and I marveled that Brigham Young had come to me and given me this commission; but today," said he, "President Taylor has passed away, and I have been called to occupy this responsible position, of president of the Church; and now I no longer marvel, for I have done as I was commanded, and I have taken the keys to this holy house, and I have opened the doors and I have bid the people enter."
Now, my brethren and sisters, as has been testified to you today, that building stands as a monument of the faithful labors of the Latter-day Saints. When Brigham Young came here, a pioneer, with his faithful little band of one hundred, and forty-three persons, he placed the point of his cane in the ground, nearly at the southeast corner, it is believed, of where the building now stands, and he said, "Here we will build the house of the Lord, a temple to our God." Forty years after its commencement it was finished; it was begun in 1853, and completed in 1893.
Now, my brethren and sisters, it was for no ulterior or wicked purpose or plan that that magnificent structure was erected. It was reared by the faithful labor and toil of the Latter-day Saints; and, especially in the first few years of its progress, the building was continued by the help of the people while in extreme poverty, with very little means to push it forward. Hence its development was slow. But, at its completion we were satisfied, because testimonies were borne in that sacred building, during the dedicatorial services, that God had indeed accepted it, even as He accepted those temples that had been builded before. This fact was verified by the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord resting upon those brethren who testified that God had indeed accepted the labors of the Latter-day Saints, and sanctioned the placing of His name upon that sacred building.
Now, my brethren and sisters, I thank you very much for your attention here this afternoon, and I thank our visitors also. I say to all those who have been here to view these temple grounds, and hear about the Latter-day Saints, you are welcomed, heartily welcomed by those who labor here in this bureau of information. I repeat, you are welcome here today, my brethren, sisters, and friends; we greet you as friends, and we are glad to see you always. May God bless you wherever you go, in all your walks of life. If there are any here who have not had faith in the gospel, as we have faith in it, I trust that your hearts may be softened to that degree by what you have heard, and what you may hear in the future, that you too will receive the spirit of repentance, and draw near unto God, and be enabled to work out your salvation and redemption; in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The congregation sang the hymn;
Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah!
Jesus anointed that "Prophet and Seer"--
Blessed to open the last dispensation;
Kings shall extol him and nations revere.
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Francis McDonald.
CLOSING SESSION.
In the Tabernacle, at 2 p. m.
President Joseph F. Smith called the meeting to order, and stated that President John Henry Smith, who is rapidly recovering from recent serious illness, sends loving greeting to the Saints assembled in Conference.
The choir sang the anthem, "From afar, gracious Lord, Thou hast gathered Thy flock."
Prayer was offered by Elder C. F. Middleton.
The choir sang the anthem, "Awake, my soul;" Thomas Ashworth and Margaret Summerhays rendered the tenor and soprano duets.
In the Tabernacle, at 2 p. m.
President Joseph F. Smith called the meeting to order, and stated that President John Henry Smith, who is rapidly recovering from recent serious illness, sends loving greeting to the Saints assembled in Conference.
The choir sang the anthem, "From afar, gracious Lord, Thou hast gathered Thy flock."
Prayer was offered by Elder C. F. Middleton.
The choir sang the anthem, "Awake, my soul;" Thomas Ashworth and Margaret Summerhays rendered the tenor and soprano duets.
ELDER ANTHONY W. IVINS.
"By their fruits ye shall know them." —Law of investigation before judgment established at Runnimede. — The Church and its members invite righteous criticism.—Love of God and loyalty to country characteristic. — Degradation of "Mormon" women an outrageous calumny.
"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
"Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit: but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
"A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit."
I am a believer, my brethren and sisters, in the infallibility of the law suggested in these words of the Savior of the world. By it all things must stand or fall. However much I might desire to avoid it, I know that inevitably a time must come when I shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body. I know, too, that I shall be judged righteously, not by the testimony of wicked men, men unfamiliar with my life and works, but that I shall have a fair and impartial hearing and a righteous judgment. For. this principle, this doctrine was settled more than six hundred years ago, upon the field of Runnimede, and it has continued to prevail until men, today, stand united in the doctrine, that before conviction there must be evidence. Those stalwart men who stood there with arms in their hands before a tyrant king, declared that the assertion of wrongdoing was not sufficient to justify conviction, and that from that time forth men must be judged by their peers, dispassionately, fairly, honestly judged. Thank the Lord that doctrine has survived the centuries and has become so thoroughly established that I have confidence that eventually intelligent people will be brought to -reach conclusions by having applied it. It is not always easy in the beginning to distinguish right from wrong, truth from error; for vice, sometimes, comes clothed in the garb of virtue; and evil is, sometimes, presented in a manner so attractive that it appears to us to be good; but always we know that in the end the truth must be manifest.
I am reminded that last season I visited the field of a neighbor of mine. He was a good farmer, and had prepared the ground admirably. He had sent up here into the north for seed, and had sown it with what he supposed to be alfalfa. It came out of the ground beautifully, and he was congratulated by his neighbors that his sowing had been successful. I drove down past the field, and as I looked at it in the distance I felt, also, impressed that he had accomplished a splendid work. When we got nearer, I said to my son, "Stop a minute, I want to examine that field more critically." I went over and examined the leaves of the plants, and said, "It isn't alfalfa at all; when it comes to mature it will be a crop of sweet clover;" that plant with little value, almost a nuisance in some instances; and my conclusions proved to be correct. The seed itself had been so similar—perhaps an expert might have detected the difference, but the farmer himself had never suspected the imposition, and it required time until the crop had developed, that he might know that he had been imposed upon. Some years ago, while I lived in Mexico, I sent to a nurseryman in the State of Ohio for a collection of roses. They came, and I planted them. They were just little slips, all looking very much alike. In fact, I gave particular attention to some shoots which looked more vigorous than others, I cultivated them, and they grew. Finally, the second year, they produced blossoms and I was surprised to discover that they were wild roses, just the little roses that grow upon the creek bottoms, that could be found anywhere; but their companions, all around them, were producing the most beautiful flowers. The bud which had been grafted into the wild root or stem had been broken off—I do not suppose it was intentional upon the part of the nurseryman—and the wild buds had come out, and produced wild fruit. I said, there is no avoiding that fundamental truth, "As the fountain is, so will the water be;" as the seed is so will that be which it produces. You cannot gather figs from thistles. A good tree does not produce bad fruit; neither does a bad tree produce good fruit. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands upon this ground.
I think I voice the sentiment of every man and woman who have identified themselves with the Church, when I say they are willing to be judged by their works, by the fruit which has been produced; but they ask that they be judged righteously. They have never been averse to righteous criticism; they invite it; they seek it; but they do object and are opposed to judgment pronounced by those who are unacquainted with the truth, by those who, perhaps for personal reasons, are opposed to the truth and enemies to it, and so must all things stand. The great Catholic church, professing as it does, to be the legal successor of the Church of Christ, as He established it, must show by its fruits that the claim is just and true, or else the time must come when it will be repudiated. Protestantism must stand upon the same ground; for if Protestants produce the fruits of the gospel of Christ, if they show by their works that they are in reality reformers, who have improved upon conditions as they existed in the primitive Church, and that they are doing the will of the Father, as exemplified in the life and teachings of the Savior of the world, they may stand; but if it shall be shown, eventually, that they lack the power of God, that the fruits of the gospel of Jesus Christ have not been produced, they must be rejected.
The day was when it was popular to attack the doctrinal principles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. The articles of faith of the Church, contained upon this little card which I hold in my hand, a card printed in a foreign language, which I used in my youth as I preached the doctrines of the Church, have been before the world for eighty years. In the beginning it was not unusual that these doctrines were attacked; but you do not hear so much of that in these days; men have learned by experience that it is useless to attack those principles, if they profess faith at all, if they accept the Bible as their guide in religious life; they have long since discovered that those doctrines are invincible, and have ceased to assail them. They attack us now in another way, publishing to the world that while the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appear to be good, while they appear to be scriptural, while the things we proclaim to the world and teach publicly at home appear to be good, that there is underlying it all a sinister motive. They say the Church is not sincere, that it is not a Christian organization at all, but that it has behind it all some sinister motive by which it is hoped that men and women may be deluded and led into error until a great establishment may be builded up antagonistic to the spirit of Christianity, antagonistic to the institutions of our country, by which the government may be overthrown, or some other awful thing. I do not know just what it is that they apprehend, accomplished. Now, I want to ask in all candor, you Latter-day Saints who have been identified with the Church from the beginning, have you ever, any one of you, discovered in the published utterances of the representatives of the Church, or secret counsels anything which would suggest, in the faintest degree, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a treasonable organization, that it has in it anything which is antagonistic to the principles of civil government as they exist in this republic, or in any of the other governments of the world? I know what you will say; every one of you would rise up to say. No; there is nothing of that kind in it. Then I would like to ask the world to review the history of the Church, during the past eighty years, and let us see if we can find some single act of the Church itself, or any individual, which suggests treason; for treason and sedition, if it were true that they existed in the Church, would make it unworthy a place in this government or any other; because treason, or sedition, that which seeks to destroy, that which seeks by improper means to establish itself and overturn existing conditions, is unworthy in any state, unworthy any community, unworthy of any Church.
I do not expect, this afternoon, to go into detail in establishing the truth of what I say, but I want to make this appeal to the American people. I feel as though "Mormonism" is on trial today; it has been on trial, in fact, from the very beginning. Two thousand representatives of the Church are out in the world; they are preaching the doctrine of repentance; they are preaching the doctrine of good works; they are emphasizing the doctrine contained in this scripture, which I have read, that without works it is impossible to please God, and that men and communities and nations must, eventually, be judged by the deeds done in the body. They are admonishing men and women to lives of righteousness, and virtue, and truth, and goodness, and are lifting up their voices in opposition to the very appearance of evil. On the other hand, millions of people are reading today the declaration that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a treasonable organization; that it does not stand for truth; that it does not stand for righteousness; that it does not stand for morality; that it does not stand for the institutions of this country of ours. I simply want to ask the American people—and I have faith in their integrity and the justice of their conclusions—that before deciding this great question, you take the trouble to investigate, that you take the trouble to determine what have been the fruits of "Mormonism" during these past eighty years, and then be ye the judges as to whether the fruit is good or bad, and be slow to listen to men who have been cast from the Church because of their unrighteousness. Be slow to listen to men who, because of their own disappointment, would seek to make it appear that the Church is doing the very things which it has positively refused to do in their behalf. I ask you to suspend judgment until you shall have thoroughly investigated the truth. The Church has no fear of the ultimate result. We are not a people who blow trumpets before us as we go.
We believe that good citizenship consists in obeying the law, in defending the government in which we live. We do not hasten into war, because we do not believe in it; we believe it to be unnecessary; but, nevertheless, if it shall come, we believe it to be our duty to defend those principles of liberty and right and equality which were established by the Father; and as an earnest of our belief, circumstances considered, we have performed our full duty. We went into the war with Mexico, under conditions that no other people in the world have furnished an army. We did our part, small though it were, in the Civil War. We have done our part in the Spanish-American war. We stand ready, distasteful though the duty might be, to perform our part wherever necessity may require. It stands to the credit of this people, so far as I am aware, that not one of the members of the Church has ever been found in armed opposition to organized government. Some one, perhaps, says: "Why, were you not in armed resistance to the government of the United States?" No; we never were. It is very true that in 1857 an army came to Utah—and why? Because, as I said in the beginning, vice clothed in the garb of virtue had made it appear to the president of the United States that out here in the Salt Lake Valley a people were in rebellion; that they had destroyed the records of the courts; that they had expelled the representatives of the United States that they refused to recognize the properly appointed governor of the territory. So the president of the United States, believing these things, sent a new governor, with an escort to establish him in the place to which he had been appointed. What did the Latter-day Saints say? They said, "We want an impartial hearing; these things are not true ;" and they did take up arms that they might delay the coming of that army, and the dreadful results which might have followed its arrival, until the truth might be known. What was the result when it was known? When an impartial man came, he found the records intact; he found the people ready to welcome that new governor, and to install and protect him. There was not one scintilla of truth in the charges which had been made. The end had come, so far as that question was concerned, and deception was no longer possible; and it was proven, just as it always has been and always will be proven that the Church was true to the government, true to their professions of righteousness. Now, my brethren and sisters, I bear witness to you that just as this question to which I refer was shown to be an effort upon the part of those who were opposed to that which was right, to bring trouble to an innocent people, so has every other question which has arisen and which has appeared to place the Latter-day Saints in opposition to the government of this country, upon close examination proven to be wrong. It always must be so; it can be no other way.
They say that "Mormonism" goes out into the world and gathers up women; that it brings them here to degrade them; that it is a menace to the sanctity of the American home. Who says that? Any woman who has ever been converted to the truth, any woman who has repented and lived the life which ought to characterize a follower of Christ? No, not one. It may be that some man or woman has fallen away; it may be that some man or woman who has come from abroad and been gathered up here with the Church, has gone back to the world and again become addicted to sin; but if that is the case in a single instance, it is because they have gone away from the truths of the gospel and the covenant which they made, and have lost the faith. Now, do you suppose that it would be possible for the Church to dominate one or two hundred thousand women, and keep them here against their wills, to be degraded? It is a ridiculous argument upon the face of it; it is not true. If it were true, the Church would be unworthy, and the opposition shown today would be just; but it is not true. You who have come from abroad; you who have identified yourselves with this Church; you who have been brought out from the sweat-houses of the old world and established in your own homes, and have been made independent, you who have reared families in the fear of the Lord and have become patriotic, law-loving and law-abiding citizens of this republic, every one of you knows that I am speaking the truth. You know that, rather than degradation, there comes to every one through the gospel of our Lord Jesus, an uplifting that can not be found in any other philosophy in the world. We want the world to know that; we want them to understand it.
Another thought has come to my mind—one that I had not intended to mention. The world says, "You people marry more than one wife, and in this you degrade woman and drag her down." I only want to say that the doctrine of plural marriage, as it existed in the Church, in the beginning, is no more understood by the world than are others of the simple doctrines of the gospel which it teaches. The conception has been entirely wrong. We only ask that the world shall become acquainted with these women, that they may be witnesses in their own behalf. Why, the government, you know, thought, years ago, that our women were being degraded, and that they would liberate these enslaved women in Utah. They appropriated a large amount of money and came here and built a great home, and said, "Come, now, all of you women, you oppressed women, you degraded women; come up here; the government will give you protection; its strong arm is around you, and its hand over you." I believe there was one woman who availed herself of that opportunity; (President Smith: "And she was not a member of this Church") and some one says she was not a member of the Church. (Laughter.)
Now, my brethren and sisters, and my friends, I refer to these things because they are true, and we want you to know the truth; we want you to believe in us; we want you to believe that the virtue of the Latter-day Saints, as a people, stands today pre-eminently above the virtue of any other people. I will not say equal to it; I know that I speak the truth in the statement I have made. Yet, men would have you believe that somewhere in the Church, back of it all, there is a system by which men may gratify their carnal desires and by which women are debauched. A more abominable misrepresentation of truth could not be presented to the world. No man can stand in this Church who violates his virtue; I do not care who he is; and it is a fundamental law of the Church, that men cannot and must not consort with women, except they be their wives; neither young men, nor old men, nor middle aged men; and if they do that they are cast out from the Church. That is one thing that is the matter with some of them who are vilifying the Church. When they get out, their wicked work begins. The very first effort that was ever made to discredit the Prophet Joseph Smith, so far as I am aware, and to discredit the Book of Mormon, was by a man who had been cast out of the Church because of his wickedness, because of his adulterous practices. So it has been from the very beginning.
They say we have a great religiopolitical organization here which has in it a design to dominate the politics of this nation; and there is great danger that this little handful of people, in the very near future, may become so powerful in the United States that they will control its destinies, or a part of them, at least. Suppose a thing of that kind were possible—what would be the result? Would it be a menace to this nation, that there should be dominant here a community of men and women who believe in God the eternal Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ; who believe that this government was founded of God, by inspired men? Would it be a menace that there should be industrious. God-fearing, religious men and women in greater number in these United States? Would it be a menace to this government, let me ask, if there were a few more men in the Congress of the United States who stand above the contemptible things of this world, men of faith? Are you going to disfranchise a whole people because they believe in God and His destiny, and His power? Are you going to prevent a man from exercising the rights of American citizenship, because he is a religious man? We ask you to judge those men who have gone up from among the Latter-day Saints to the Congress of the United States in the past, those men who are there today. All we ask of you is to judge them righteously, to judge them by their fruits, to judge them by comparison with their co-laborers. Then we ask you, would it be a menace to this government or to this people if there were more such men there? I think you will conclude, with me, that it would not be a menace, but on the contrary, that it would redound to the credit, the honor, and the blessing of this people, could such conditions be established.
Now, my brethren and sisters, I must conclude. By their fruits ye shall know them. We stand ready to be judged by it, and we are not going to be driven away from the truth; we are not going to be driven away from our loyalty to this government; we are not going to be driven away from our great mission which requires us to preach repentance in all the world and establish righteousness; we are not going to be driven away from these duties by any man or set of men who shall seek by falsehood and misrepresentation to drive us away from the position that we occupy. I know, and you know that deep down in the heart of every Latter-day Saint, every boy and girl, every man and woman in the Church, there is that profound faith that no other flag on earth shall wave over this nation. You know that deep down in the heart of every Latter-day Saint there is a sentiment that justice and right must ever be maintained in this nation; and you know, just as well, that down in the heart of every Latter-day Saint is that determined faith that no sect nor creed, be it "Mormon," or Catholic, or Protestant, shall ever dominate this nation to the exclusion of any of the rights of citizenship which are guaranteed to people under just laws. You know it is there, and wicked men will never be able to drive the Latter- day Saints away from that position, however much they may try. We may have to pass through the narrows; we may suffer, for sometimes the truth does suffer. I am reminded that they said the same thing of the Savior of the world that they have said of us; they said that His doctrines were treasonable, that He was not Caesar's friend, that He pretended to be a king; and He answered, "Yes, I am a king, but my kingdom is not of this world." The kingdom of God which we preach is the kingdom' of righteousness, that should be in our hearts and in our lives, and that kingdom teaches us obedience to the laws of the land, the civil laws, and we shall sustain and uphold them; that we are going to do.
My brethren and sisters, be obedient. The Lord will take care of this work; it is His, and He will vindicate it. The time will come, and it is not very far distant either, when its calumniators will be known; and just like that wild rose, away down there in Mexico, they will be dug up and cast into the fire and burned, because they will have been proven worthless. But the good will remain; truth will prevail, and righteousness cover the entire earth. When that time comes we are not a bit afraid to meet the issue, because we know that we can make a good showing, and that our conscience, before God and man, will be found to be void of offense.
May the Lord bless you; may He bless His work; and may we always be able to properly defend it, at home and abroad, wherever we are, I pray, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sister Lizzie T. Edward and the choir sang the anthem, "The nations bow to Satan's thrall."
"By their fruits ye shall know them." —Law of investigation before judgment established at Runnimede. — The Church and its members invite righteous criticism.—Love of God and loyalty to country characteristic. — Degradation of "Mormon" women an outrageous calumny.
"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
"Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit: but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
"A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit."
I am a believer, my brethren and sisters, in the infallibility of the law suggested in these words of the Savior of the world. By it all things must stand or fall. However much I might desire to avoid it, I know that inevitably a time must come when I shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body. I know, too, that I shall be judged righteously, not by the testimony of wicked men, men unfamiliar with my life and works, but that I shall have a fair and impartial hearing and a righteous judgment. For. this principle, this doctrine was settled more than six hundred years ago, upon the field of Runnimede, and it has continued to prevail until men, today, stand united in the doctrine, that before conviction there must be evidence. Those stalwart men who stood there with arms in their hands before a tyrant king, declared that the assertion of wrongdoing was not sufficient to justify conviction, and that from that time forth men must be judged by their peers, dispassionately, fairly, honestly judged. Thank the Lord that doctrine has survived the centuries and has become so thoroughly established that I have confidence that eventually intelligent people will be brought to -reach conclusions by having applied it. It is not always easy in the beginning to distinguish right from wrong, truth from error; for vice, sometimes, comes clothed in the garb of virtue; and evil is, sometimes, presented in a manner so attractive that it appears to us to be good; but always we know that in the end the truth must be manifest.
I am reminded that last season I visited the field of a neighbor of mine. He was a good farmer, and had prepared the ground admirably. He had sent up here into the north for seed, and had sown it with what he supposed to be alfalfa. It came out of the ground beautifully, and he was congratulated by his neighbors that his sowing had been successful. I drove down past the field, and as I looked at it in the distance I felt, also, impressed that he had accomplished a splendid work. When we got nearer, I said to my son, "Stop a minute, I want to examine that field more critically." I went over and examined the leaves of the plants, and said, "It isn't alfalfa at all; when it comes to mature it will be a crop of sweet clover;" that plant with little value, almost a nuisance in some instances; and my conclusions proved to be correct. The seed itself had been so similar—perhaps an expert might have detected the difference, but the farmer himself had never suspected the imposition, and it required time until the crop had developed, that he might know that he had been imposed upon. Some years ago, while I lived in Mexico, I sent to a nurseryman in the State of Ohio for a collection of roses. They came, and I planted them. They were just little slips, all looking very much alike. In fact, I gave particular attention to some shoots which looked more vigorous than others, I cultivated them, and they grew. Finally, the second year, they produced blossoms and I was surprised to discover that they were wild roses, just the little roses that grow upon the creek bottoms, that could be found anywhere; but their companions, all around them, were producing the most beautiful flowers. The bud which had been grafted into the wild root or stem had been broken off—I do not suppose it was intentional upon the part of the nurseryman—and the wild buds had come out, and produced wild fruit. I said, there is no avoiding that fundamental truth, "As the fountain is, so will the water be;" as the seed is so will that be which it produces. You cannot gather figs from thistles. A good tree does not produce bad fruit; neither does a bad tree produce good fruit. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands upon this ground.
I think I voice the sentiment of every man and woman who have identified themselves with the Church, when I say they are willing to be judged by their works, by the fruit which has been produced; but they ask that they be judged righteously. They have never been averse to righteous criticism; they invite it; they seek it; but they do object and are opposed to judgment pronounced by those who are unacquainted with the truth, by those who, perhaps for personal reasons, are opposed to the truth and enemies to it, and so must all things stand. The great Catholic church, professing as it does, to be the legal successor of the Church of Christ, as He established it, must show by its fruits that the claim is just and true, or else the time must come when it will be repudiated. Protestantism must stand upon the same ground; for if Protestants produce the fruits of the gospel of Christ, if they show by their works that they are in reality reformers, who have improved upon conditions as they existed in the primitive Church, and that they are doing the will of the Father, as exemplified in the life and teachings of the Savior of the world, they may stand; but if it shall be shown, eventually, that they lack the power of God, that the fruits of the gospel of Jesus Christ have not been produced, they must be rejected.
The day was when it was popular to attack the doctrinal principles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. The articles of faith of the Church, contained upon this little card which I hold in my hand, a card printed in a foreign language, which I used in my youth as I preached the doctrines of the Church, have been before the world for eighty years. In the beginning it was not unusual that these doctrines were attacked; but you do not hear so much of that in these days; men have learned by experience that it is useless to attack those principles, if they profess faith at all, if they accept the Bible as their guide in religious life; they have long since discovered that those doctrines are invincible, and have ceased to assail them. They attack us now in another way, publishing to the world that while the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appear to be good, while they appear to be scriptural, while the things we proclaim to the world and teach publicly at home appear to be good, that there is underlying it all a sinister motive. They say the Church is not sincere, that it is not a Christian organization at all, but that it has behind it all some sinister motive by which it is hoped that men and women may be deluded and led into error until a great establishment may be builded up antagonistic to the spirit of Christianity, antagonistic to the institutions of our country, by which the government may be overthrown, or some other awful thing. I do not know just what it is that they apprehend, accomplished. Now, I want to ask in all candor, you Latter-day Saints who have been identified with the Church from the beginning, have you ever, any one of you, discovered in the published utterances of the representatives of the Church, or secret counsels anything which would suggest, in the faintest degree, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a treasonable organization, that it has in it anything which is antagonistic to the principles of civil government as they exist in this republic, or in any of the other governments of the world? I know what you will say; every one of you would rise up to say. No; there is nothing of that kind in it. Then I would like to ask the world to review the history of the Church, during the past eighty years, and let us see if we can find some single act of the Church itself, or any individual, which suggests treason; for treason and sedition, if it were true that they existed in the Church, would make it unworthy a place in this government or any other; because treason, or sedition, that which seeks to destroy, that which seeks by improper means to establish itself and overturn existing conditions, is unworthy in any state, unworthy any community, unworthy of any Church.
I do not expect, this afternoon, to go into detail in establishing the truth of what I say, but I want to make this appeal to the American people. I feel as though "Mormonism" is on trial today; it has been on trial, in fact, from the very beginning. Two thousand representatives of the Church are out in the world; they are preaching the doctrine of repentance; they are preaching the doctrine of good works; they are emphasizing the doctrine contained in this scripture, which I have read, that without works it is impossible to please God, and that men and communities and nations must, eventually, be judged by the deeds done in the body. They are admonishing men and women to lives of righteousness, and virtue, and truth, and goodness, and are lifting up their voices in opposition to the very appearance of evil. On the other hand, millions of people are reading today the declaration that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a treasonable organization; that it does not stand for truth; that it does not stand for righteousness; that it does not stand for morality; that it does not stand for the institutions of this country of ours. I simply want to ask the American people—and I have faith in their integrity and the justice of their conclusions—that before deciding this great question, you take the trouble to investigate, that you take the trouble to determine what have been the fruits of "Mormonism" during these past eighty years, and then be ye the judges as to whether the fruit is good or bad, and be slow to listen to men who have been cast from the Church because of their unrighteousness. Be slow to listen to men who, because of their own disappointment, would seek to make it appear that the Church is doing the very things which it has positively refused to do in their behalf. I ask you to suspend judgment until you shall have thoroughly investigated the truth. The Church has no fear of the ultimate result. We are not a people who blow trumpets before us as we go.
We believe that good citizenship consists in obeying the law, in defending the government in which we live. We do not hasten into war, because we do not believe in it; we believe it to be unnecessary; but, nevertheless, if it shall come, we believe it to be our duty to defend those principles of liberty and right and equality which were established by the Father; and as an earnest of our belief, circumstances considered, we have performed our full duty. We went into the war with Mexico, under conditions that no other people in the world have furnished an army. We did our part, small though it were, in the Civil War. We have done our part in the Spanish-American war. We stand ready, distasteful though the duty might be, to perform our part wherever necessity may require. It stands to the credit of this people, so far as I am aware, that not one of the members of the Church has ever been found in armed opposition to organized government. Some one, perhaps, says: "Why, were you not in armed resistance to the government of the United States?" No; we never were. It is very true that in 1857 an army came to Utah—and why? Because, as I said in the beginning, vice clothed in the garb of virtue had made it appear to the president of the United States that out here in the Salt Lake Valley a people were in rebellion; that they had destroyed the records of the courts; that they had expelled the representatives of the United States that they refused to recognize the properly appointed governor of the territory. So the president of the United States, believing these things, sent a new governor, with an escort to establish him in the place to which he had been appointed. What did the Latter-day Saints say? They said, "We want an impartial hearing; these things are not true ;" and they did take up arms that they might delay the coming of that army, and the dreadful results which might have followed its arrival, until the truth might be known. What was the result when it was known? When an impartial man came, he found the records intact; he found the people ready to welcome that new governor, and to install and protect him. There was not one scintilla of truth in the charges which had been made. The end had come, so far as that question was concerned, and deception was no longer possible; and it was proven, just as it always has been and always will be proven that the Church was true to the government, true to their professions of righteousness. Now, my brethren and sisters, I bear witness to you that just as this question to which I refer was shown to be an effort upon the part of those who were opposed to that which was right, to bring trouble to an innocent people, so has every other question which has arisen and which has appeared to place the Latter-day Saints in opposition to the government of this country, upon close examination proven to be wrong. It always must be so; it can be no other way.
They say that "Mormonism" goes out into the world and gathers up women; that it brings them here to degrade them; that it is a menace to the sanctity of the American home. Who says that? Any woman who has ever been converted to the truth, any woman who has repented and lived the life which ought to characterize a follower of Christ? No, not one. It may be that some man or woman has fallen away; it may be that some man or woman who has come from abroad and been gathered up here with the Church, has gone back to the world and again become addicted to sin; but if that is the case in a single instance, it is because they have gone away from the truths of the gospel and the covenant which they made, and have lost the faith. Now, do you suppose that it would be possible for the Church to dominate one or two hundred thousand women, and keep them here against their wills, to be degraded? It is a ridiculous argument upon the face of it; it is not true. If it were true, the Church would be unworthy, and the opposition shown today would be just; but it is not true. You who have come from abroad; you who have identified yourselves with this Church; you who have been brought out from the sweat-houses of the old world and established in your own homes, and have been made independent, you who have reared families in the fear of the Lord and have become patriotic, law-loving and law-abiding citizens of this republic, every one of you knows that I am speaking the truth. You know that, rather than degradation, there comes to every one through the gospel of our Lord Jesus, an uplifting that can not be found in any other philosophy in the world. We want the world to know that; we want them to understand it.
Another thought has come to my mind—one that I had not intended to mention. The world says, "You people marry more than one wife, and in this you degrade woman and drag her down." I only want to say that the doctrine of plural marriage, as it existed in the Church, in the beginning, is no more understood by the world than are others of the simple doctrines of the gospel which it teaches. The conception has been entirely wrong. We only ask that the world shall become acquainted with these women, that they may be witnesses in their own behalf. Why, the government, you know, thought, years ago, that our women were being degraded, and that they would liberate these enslaved women in Utah. They appropriated a large amount of money and came here and built a great home, and said, "Come, now, all of you women, you oppressed women, you degraded women; come up here; the government will give you protection; its strong arm is around you, and its hand over you." I believe there was one woman who availed herself of that opportunity; (President Smith: "And she was not a member of this Church") and some one says she was not a member of the Church. (Laughter.)
Now, my brethren and sisters, and my friends, I refer to these things because they are true, and we want you to know the truth; we want you to believe in us; we want you to believe that the virtue of the Latter-day Saints, as a people, stands today pre-eminently above the virtue of any other people. I will not say equal to it; I know that I speak the truth in the statement I have made. Yet, men would have you believe that somewhere in the Church, back of it all, there is a system by which men may gratify their carnal desires and by which women are debauched. A more abominable misrepresentation of truth could not be presented to the world. No man can stand in this Church who violates his virtue; I do not care who he is; and it is a fundamental law of the Church, that men cannot and must not consort with women, except they be their wives; neither young men, nor old men, nor middle aged men; and if they do that they are cast out from the Church. That is one thing that is the matter with some of them who are vilifying the Church. When they get out, their wicked work begins. The very first effort that was ever made to discredit the Prophet Joseph Smith, so far as I am aware, and to discredit the Book of Mormon, was by a man who had been cast out of the Church because of his wickedness, because of his adulterous practices. So it has been from the very beginning.
They say we have a great religiopolitical organization here which has in it a design to dominate the politics of this nation; and there is great danger that this little handful of people, in the very near future, may become so powerful in the United States that they will control its destinies, or a part of them, at least. Suppose a thing of that kind were possible—what would be the result? Would it be a menace to this nation, that there should be dominant here a community of men and women who believe in God the eternal Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ; who believe that this government was founded of God, by inspired men? Would it be a menace that there should be industrious. God-fearing, religious men and women in greater number in these United States? Would it be a menace to this government, let me ask, if there were a few more men in the Congress of the United States who stand above the contemptible things of this world, men of faith? Are you going to disfranchise a whole people because they believe in God and His destiny, and His power? Are you going to prevent a man from exercising the rights of American citizenship, because he is a religious man? We ask you to judge those men who have gone up from among the Latter-day Saints to the Congress of the United States in the past, those men who are there today. All we ask of you is to judge them righteously, to judge them by their fruits, to judge them by comparison with their co-laborers. Then we ask you, would it be a menace to this government or to this people if there were more such men there? I think you will conclude, with me, that it would not be a menace, but on the contrary, that it would redound to the credit, the honor, and the blessing of this people, could such conditions be established.
Now, my brethren and sisters, I must conclude. By their fruits ye shall know them. We stand ready to be judged by it, and we are not going to be driven away from the truth; we are not going to be driven away from our loyalty to this government; we are not going to be driven away from our great mission which requires us to preach repentance in all the world and establish righteousness; we are not going to be driven away from these duties by any man or set of men who shall seek by falsehood and misrepresentation to drive us away from the position that we occupy. I know, and you know that deep down in the heart of every Latter-day Saint, every boy and girl, every man and woman in the Church, there is that profound faith that no other flag on earth shall wave over this nation. You know that deep down in the heart of every Latter-day Saint there is a sentiment that justice and right must ever be maintained in this nation; and you know, just as well, that down in the heart of every Latter-day Saint is that determined faith that no sect nor creed, be it "Mormon," or Catholic, or Protestant, shall ever dominate this nation to the exclusion of any of the rights of citizenship which are guaranteed to people under just laws. You know it is there, and wicked men will never be able to drive the Latter- day Saints away from that position, however much they may try. We may have to pass through the narrows; we may suffer, for sometimes the truth does suffer. I am reminded that they said the same thing of the Savior of the world that they have said of us; they said that His doctrines were treasonable, that He was not Caesar's friend, that He pretended to be a king; and He answered, "Yes, I am a king, but my kingdom is not of this world." The kingdom of God which we preach is the kingdom' of righteousness, that should be in our hearts and in our lives, and that kingdom teaches us obedience to the laws of the land, the civil laws, and we shall sustain and uphold them; that we are going to do.
My brethren and sisters, be obedient. The Lord will take care of this work; it is His, and He will vindicate it. The time will come, and it is not very far distant either, when its calumniators will be known; and just like that wild rose, away down there in Mexico, they will be dug up and cast into the fire and burned, because they will have been proven worthless. But the good will remain; truth will prevail, and righteousness cover the entire earth. When that time comes we are not a bit afraid to meet the issue, because we know that we can make a good showing, and that our conscience, before God and man, will be found to be void of offense.
May the Lord bless you; may He bless His work; and may we always be able to properly defend it, at home and abroad, wherever we are, I pray, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sister Lizzie T. Edward and the choir sang the anthem, "The nations bow to Satan's thrall."
ELDER JOSEPH W. M'MURRIN.
(Of the First Council of Seventy.)
In standing up in the presence of this great congregation this afternoon, my brethren and sisters, I certainly feel, as others of the brethren have expressed themselves, a great need for the help of the Lord, and for the inspiration of His Holy Spirit. It is not my intention to occupy much of the time, as it is very valuable, and there are others of the brethren to address the people who are assembled together in this sacred building. I feel, however, that I desire to say a few words regarding the many misrepresentations that are made relative to the doings of the representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Reference has been made, in our meeting this afternoon, to the stories that are in circulation against the people of the Latter-day Saints, and in relation to the motives of the missionaries who are sent into the world to preach the gospel. It has fallen to my lot, my brethren and sisters, upon various occasions, to go abroad as a missionary. I recollect very distinctly, at the present moment, when I was called upon my first mission, about thirty years ago. In a meeting with other elders, who had received a similar call, instructions were given by the presiding authorities of the Church, as is the custom prior to missionaries going out to various fields of labor. I do not think I can forget the stress that was laid upon one feature of the work, by those brethren, in giving the instructions to the missionaries who were at that time going abroad in the world, and that was in relation to their deportment with the opposite sex, and also in relation to respect for authority in the home, more especially for the authority of the head of the home. We were instructed that we were not, under any circumstances, to baptize any woman, who was a married woman, without having obtained the consent of her husband; and we were also instructed that we were not to baptize children who were under age, unless we had obtained the consent of their parents or guardians. It was the instruction that we should teach women to hold sacred the obligations that they had taken upon themselves at the altar of marriage, that they were to have respect to the feelings and wishes of their husbands, and that we were not to be instrumental, in any way whatever, in breaking up homes. I have been abroad in the missionary field, since that period and have had the privilege of laboring as one of the presidency of one of the great missions of the Church; and in that position have received many elders who arrived in the country where I was laboring. As one of the presidency I joined with my associates in giving the elders instructions along the lines I have named; and I wish to bear witness that just such instructions have been imparted to the missionaries, according to my own knowledge, during the past thirty years at least. The instructions that I have received myself, and the instructions that I have imparted to other missionaries who have been going abroad or, who have been appointed to labor under my direction have always been in conformity with the words that I have spoken. Missionaries have always been careful, in the world, not to induce either men or women to forsake their homes, but more especially have they been particularly careful not to interfere with the gentler sex. No men in all the world are as free from improper conduct with women. I thought that I would like to bear this record and this testimony in the midst of this great congregation of people.
My brethren and sisters, I do not know whether we appreciate the blessings that have come to us as members of the Church of Christ, whether we have been able to recognize the wonderful power that is in this work. I once heard a very noted infidel bear a remarkable testimony in regard to the strength of "Mormonism," Mr. Charles H. Bradlaugh, the great English apostle of infidelity. On one occasion, while laboring in the British mission, I attended a lecture delivered by him. The subject was: "Is Christianity a persecuting religion ?" He told a very startling and remarkable story in relation to the evil that had been wrought among men in the name of religion. A young man who attended the lecture asked some questions of that noted infidel; he wanted to know how it was that the early Christians had survived the persecutions of the mighty empire of Rome? and why it was that their determination to destroy the Christians and break them up had failed?—if that failure was not an evidence of the superior power of God, and that there was some supernatural influence over those early Christians? otherwise, they would have been destroyed, as the weak power usually succumbs to the greater or stronger power. In answer to the questions that were propounded on that occasion, which I do not give in detail, the noted infidel said : "Young man, away off in the western part of America, there is a people who have had a like experience, who have been opposed by a mighty nation, and who have come in conflict with the religious prejudices of all the peoples of the earth, and in spite of that opposition, and that religious prejudice, and the bitter persecutions that have followed them they still survive; and their survival, and the success to which they have attained is more remarkable than the history of the early Christian church. Are you prepared to say that because of their remarkable story they have had the special favor of God resting upon them ?" My brethren and sisters, I felt to thank God for that testimony. When one of the great intellectual men of the age sought for a parallel for the community that was established by the Lord Jesus Christ in the meridian of time, afar off in this western land, in these mountains that we inhabit, he found that people. I could not help but feel that like causes produce like effects; and because of the call of God and the authority that has been bestowed upon men in this dispensation, like unto the former dispensation, we have met with this opposition.
Thank God for the truth, and power, and strength of "Mormonism." I bear my testimony that it is the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it is the power of God unto salvation, and that it will remain and accomplish that which has been spoken concerning it by the mouths of inspired men. God help us to remain with it, and be true to it forever, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
(Of the First Council of Seventy.)
In standing up in the presence of this great congregation this afternoon, my brethren and sisters, I certainly feel, as others of the brethren have expressed themselves, a great need for the help of the Lord, and for the inspiration of His Holy Spirit. It is not my intention to occupy much of the time, as it is very valuable, and there are others of the brethren to address the people who are assembled together in this sacred building. I feel, however, that I desire to say a few words regarding the many misrepresentations that are made relative to the doings of the representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Reference has been made, in our meeting this afternoon, to the stories that are in circulation against the people of the Latter-day Saints, and in relation to the motives of the missionaries who are sent into the world to preach the gospel. It has fallen to my lot, my brethren and sisters, upon various occasions, to go abroad as a missionary. I recollect very distinctly, at the present moment, when I was called upon my first mission, about thirty years ago. In a meeting with other elders, who had received a similar call, instructions were given by the presiding authorities of the Church, as is the custom prior to missionaries going out to various fields of labor. I do not think I can forget the stress that was laid upon one feature of the work, by those brethren, in giving the instructions to the missionaries who were at that time going abroad in the world, and that was in relation to their deportment with the opposite sex, and also in relation to respect for authority in the home, more especially for the authority of the head of the home. We were instructed that we were not, under any circumstances, to baptize any woman, who was a married woman, without having obtained the consent of her husband; and we were also instructed that we were not to baptize children who were under age, unless we had obtained the consent of their parents or guardians. It was the instruction that we should teach women to hold sacred the obligations that they had taken upon themselves at the altar of marriage, that they were to have respect to the feelings and wishes of their husbands, and that we were not to be instrumental, in any way whatever, in breaking up homes. I have been abroad in the missionary field, since that period and have had the privilege of laboring as one of the presidency of one of the great missions of the Church; and in that position have received many elders who arrived in the country where I was laboring. As one of the presidency I joined with my associates in giving the elders instructions along the lines I have named; and I wish to bear witness that just such instructions have been imparted to the missionaries, according to my own knowledge, during the past thirty years at least. The instructions that I have received myself, and the instructions that I have imparted to other missionaries who have been going abroad or, who have been appointed to labor under my direction have always been in conformity with the words that I have spoken. Missionaries have always been careful, in the world, not to induce either men or women to forsake their homes, but more especially have they been particularly careful not to interfere with the gentler sex. No men in all the world are as free from improper conduct with women. I thought that I would like to bear this record and this testimony in the midst of this great congregation of people.
My brethren and sisters, I do not know whether we appreciate the blessings that have come to us as members of the Church of Christ, whether we have been able to recognize the wonderful power that is in this work. I once heard a very noted infidel bear a remarkable testimony in regard to the strength of "Mormonism," Mr. Charles H. Bradlaugh, the great English apostle of infidelity. On one occasion, while laboring in the British mission, I attended a lecture delivered by him. The subject was: "Is Christianity a persecuting religion ?" He told a very startling and remarkable story in relation to the evil that had been wrought among men in the name of religion. A young man who attended the lecture asked some questions of that noted infidel; he wanted to know how it was that the early Christians had survived the persecutions of the mighty empire of Rome? and why it was that their determination to destroy the Christians and break them up had failed?—if that failure was not an evidence of the superior power of God, and that there was some supernatural influence over those early Christians? otherwise, they would have been destroyed, as the weak power usually succumbs to the greater or stronger power. In answer to the questions that were propounded on that occasion, which I do not give in detail, the noted infidel said : "Young man, away off in the western part of America, there is a people who have had a like experience, who have been opposed by a mighty nation, and who have come in conflict with the religious prejudices of all the peoples of the earth, and in spite of that opposition, and that religious prejudice, and the bitter persecutions that have followed them they still survive; and their survival, and the success to which they have attained is more remarkable than the history of the early Christian church. Are you prepared to say that because of their remarkable story they have had the special favor of God resting upon them ?" My brethren and sisters, I felt to thank God for that testimony. When one of the great intellectual men of the age sought for a parallel for the community that was established by the Lord Jesus Christ in the meridian of time, afar off in this western land, in these mountains that we inhabit, he found that people. I could not help but feel that like causes produce like effects; and because of the call of God and the authority that has been bestowed upon men in this dispensation, like unto the former dispensation, we have met with this opposition.
Thank God for the truth, and power, and strength of "Mormonism." I bear my testimony that it is the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it is the power of God unto salvation, and that it will remain and accomplish that which has been spoken concerning it by the mouths of inspired men. God help us to remain with it, and be true to it forever, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
ELDER JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR.
The greatest event in the modern world.—The gathering a fulfillment of predictions of ancient prophets. — Rejection of the Gospel of Peace will bring God's displeasure.
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Gush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hammath, and from the islands of the sea.
"And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."
Eighty-one years ago, in the little town of Fayette, Seneca county, New York, the Lord set up an ensign to the nations. It was in fulfillment of the prediction made by the prophet Isaiah, which I have read. That ensign was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was established for the last time, never again to be destroyed or given to other people. It was the greatest event the world has been since the day that the Redeemer of the world was lifted upon the cross, and meant more to mankind than anything else that has occurred since that day. No event should have been heralded among the people with greater effectiveness, and received with greater evidences of joy and satisfaction. The nations should have rejoiced and welcomed it with gladness of heart, for with it came the establishment of divine truth in the earth,—the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation unto all who believe. The world had been without this gospel for many hundreds of years; ever since the great apostasy and turning away from the truth which had been established by the primitive Church.
Following the raising of this ensign, the Lord sent forth His elders clothed with the priesthood and with power and authority, among the nations of the earth, bearing witness unto all peoples of the restoration of His Church, and calling upon the children of men to repent and receive the gospel; for now it was being preached in all the world as a witness before the end should come,—that is, the end of the reign of wickedness and the establishment of the millennial reign of peace. The elders went forth as they were commanded, and are still preaching the gospel and gathering out from the nations the seed of Israel unto whom the promise was made. Thus our fathers were gathered and brought into the true fold in fulfillment of the prophecies made in ancient times by men inspired of the Lord, that He would recover a remnant of His people from the four corners of the earth. Scattered Israel is being gathered into the fold. Some have rejected the testimony of the elders through ignorance and prejudice, not understanding the significance of the message delivered unto them. Others have rejected the truth willfully because of the evil in their hearts and their subjection to unrighteousness.
From time to time, some one, filled with hatred of the truth, in the blind desire to destroy the work of the Lord, appeals to the nations to cast out the elders of Israel who are carrying this message of salvation unto all who will believe, and warning others that they may be left without excuse. It would be a sorry day for any nation, where the gospel is being preached, should it conclude to drive the elders of the Church from its borders and deny them the right to preach the gospel among the people. The elders insure peace unto the nations, so long as they will hear the message of salvation and will protect and defend the truth. When the time comes that the nations will cast the elders out, and no longer receive their testimony, but "bow to Satan's thrall," as we heard in the anthem this afternoon, woe be unto them. We read in the word of the Lord that after the testimony of the elders will come wrath and indignation upon the people. For after their testimony will come the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause suffering and sorrow and men shall fall upon the ground for fear. There shall come also the testimony of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds. All things shall be in commotion and men's hearts shall fail them because of fear that shall come upon the people. These things shall follow the testimony of the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when the people of the world reject them and drive them from their borders. We go unto them with a message of peace, of truth, of eternal salvation, calling upon them to repent of their sins and enter into the true fold, where they may receive rest. When they will not do this, but to the contrary, will listen to the unrighteous and condemn the truth, then God will withdraw the Gospel from among them. In that day the time of the Gentiles will be fulfilled, and the gospel will be carried to the Jews. For this gospel must be preached to them as well as to the Gentile nations, and a remnant of the Jews will gather—as they are gathering since the dedication of their land for their return—in Palestine, and as a remnant of Ephraim and his fellows are now gathering to the land of Zion. The Jews, in due time will be established in their own land, and the Lord will come, according to His promise, unto His people in the hour of their distress, and will deliver them from their enemies. Then will they look upon Him and discover His wounds and shall say : "What ai e these wounds in Thine hands." And He- shall answer them : "Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." Then will they fall down and worship Him as their Redeemer —the Son of God. After that they will be cleansed of their sins and shall receive the gospel. And the nations that seek to destroy Jerusalem in that day will the Lord destroy, for he shall be King over all the earth and righteousness shall prevail among the people. Zion shall be established on this continent; Jerusalem will be re-established on the old continent, and wickedness Will depart from the earth; for when Christ comes and the righteous with Him, the wicked will be as stubble and will be consumed.
Therefore, I desire to bear my testimony unto all people and say unto those who raise their hands against this work, see that you do it not, for this is the work of God. He has established it, and when you reject it, you reject Him, and after the testimony of the elders will come the testimony of trouble and distress as the prophets have predicted.
May the Lord bless all the Latter-day Saints and all the honest and upright everywhere, and help us to be faithful and true, that we may keep His commandments and escape from the destruction that in due time will come upon the wicked, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The greatest event in the modern world.—The gathering a fulfillment of predictions of ancient prophets. — Rejection of the Gospel of Peace will bring God's displeasure.
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Gush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hammath, and from the islands of the sea.
"And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."
Eighty-one years ago, in the little town of Fayette, Seneca county, New York, the Lord set up an ensign to the nations. It was in fulfillment of the prediction made by the prophet Isaiah, which I have read. That ensign was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was established for the last time, never again to be destroyed or given to other people. It was the greatest event the world has been since the day that the Redeemer of the world was lifted upon the cross, and meant more to mankind than anything else that has occurred since that day. No event should have been heralded among the people with greater effectiveness, and received with greater evidences of joy and satisfaction. The nations should have rejoiced and welcomed it with gladness of heart, for with it came the establishment of divine truth in the earth,—the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation unto all who believe. The world had been without this gospel for many hundreds of years; ever since the great apostasy and turning away from the truth which had been established by the primitive Church.
Following the raising of this ensign, the Lord sent forth His elders clothed with the priesthood and with power and authority, among the nations of the earth, bearing witness unto all peoples of the restoration of His Church, and calling upon the children of men to repent and receive the gospel; for now it was being preached in all the world as a witness before the end should come,—that is, the end of the reign of wickedness and the establishment of the millennial reign of peace. The elders went forth as they were commanded, and are still preaching the gospel and gathering out from the nations the seed of Israel unto whom the promise was made. Thus our fathers were gathered and brought into the true fold in fulfillment of the prophecies made in ancient times by men inspired of the Lord, that He would recover a remnant of His people from the four corners of the earth. Scattered Israel is being gathered into the fold. Some have rejected the testimony of the elders through ignorance and prejudice, not understanding the significance of the message delivered unto them. Others have rejected the truth willfully because of the evil in their hearts and their subjection to unrighteousness.
From time to time, some one, filled with hatred of the truth, in the blind desire to destroy the work of the Lord, appeals to the nations to cast out the elders of Israel who are carrying this message of salvation unto all who will believe, and warning others that they may be left without excuse. It would be a sorry day for any nation, where the gospel is being preached, should it conclude to drive the elders of the Church from its borders and deny them the right to preach the gospel among the people. The elders insure peace unto the nations, so long as they will hear the message of salvation and will protect and defend the truth. When the time comes that the nations will cast the elders out, and no longer receive their testimony, but "bow to Satan's thrall," as we heard in the anthem this afternoon, woe be unto them. We read in the word of the Lord that after the testimony of the elders will come wrath and indignation upon the people. For after their testimony will come the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause suffering and sorrow and men shall fall upon the ground for fear. There shall come also the testimony of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds. All things shall be in commotion and men's hearts shall fail them because of fear that shall come upon the people. These things shall follow the testimony of the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when the people of the world reject them and drive them from their borders. We go unto them with a message of peace, of truth, of eternal salvation, calling upon them to repent of their sins and enter into the true fold, where they may receive rest. When they will not do this, but to the contrary, will listen to the unrighteous and condemn the truth, then God will withdraw the Gospel from among them. In that day the time of the Gentiles will be fulfilled, and the gospel will be carried to the Jews. For this gospel must be preached to them as well as to the Gentile nations, and a remnant of the Jews will gather—as they are gathering since the dedication of their land for their return—in Palestine, and as a remnant of Ephraim and his fellows are now gathering to the land of Zion. The Jews, in due time will be established in their own land, and the Lord will come, according to His promise, unto His people in the hour of their distress, and will deliver them from their enemies. Then will they look upon Him and discover His wounds and shall say : "What ai e these wounds in Thine hands." And He- shall answer them : "Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." Then will they fall down and worship Him as their Redeemer —the Son of God. After that they will be cleansed of their sins and shall receive the gospel. And the nations that seek to destroy Jerusalem in that day will the Lord destroy, for he shall be King over all the earth and righteousness shall prevail among the people. Zion shall be established on this continent; Jerusalem will be re-established on the old continent, and wickedness Will depart from the earth; for when Christ comes and the righteous with Him, the wicked will be as stubble and will be consumed.
Therefore, I desire to bear my testimony unto all people and say unto those who raise their hands against this work, see that you do it not, for this is the work of God. He has established it, and when you reject it, you reject Him, and after the testimony of the elders will come the testimony of trouble and distress as the prophets have predicted.
May the Lord bless all the Latter-day Saints and all the honest and upright everywhere, and help us to be faithful and true, that we may keep His commandments and escape from the destruction that in due time will come upon the wicked, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
AUDITORS' REPORT.
Elder Heber J. Grant read the report of the auditing committee of the Church, which was as follows:
Salt Lake City, Utah, April 5, 1911. President Joseph F. Smith and Counselors:
Dear Brethren—The undersigned committee appointed to audit the books and account.? of the Church, have completed their labors, and have to report that they have examined and audited the books of the various departments and offices to whom are entrusted the collection, care and distribution of the income of the Church, and, commencing with the accounts of the Trustee-in-Trust, which as you are aware, cover the bulk of the concentrated income and disbursement of the income of the Church, we are pleased to report were found in excellent shape from an accounting standpoint, and that all receipts and disbursements appear accurately entered on the books. We also found the books and accounts of the Presiding Bishop's office as heretofore, in an excellent and accurate condition. When you bear in mind that this office has to deal with some 62 stakes, 700 wards, and 21 missions, not to mention the great number of accounts of the various auxiliary organizations of the Church, you can well understand the great volume of business transacted in the Presiding Bishop's department; and it is a pleasure to say that this great complex and voluminous amount of business is economically, carefully and correctly entered in the books of this office, and that we found everything in a satisfactory condition. This office also collects and enters on proper books and records a large amount of statistical matter, not having to do with financial matters, but pertaining to Church activities, which we found very valuable and interesting, and we commend these to your consideration.
Very respectfully, submitted, your brethren,
W. W. RITER,
August W. Carlson,
John C. Cutler,
Heber Scowcroft.
General Auditing Committee of the Church.
On motion, the report of the Auditing Committee was accepted, and approved, by unanimous vote of the congregation.
Elder Heber J. Grant read the report of the auditing committee of the Church, which was as follows:
Salt Lake City, Utah, April 5, 1911. President Joseph F. Smith and Counselors:
Dear Brethren—The undersigned committee appointed to audit the books and account.? of the Church, have completed their labors, and have to report that they have examined and audited the books of the various departments and offices to whom are entrusted the collection, care and distribution of the income of the Church, and, commencing with the accounts of the Trustee-in-Trust, which as you are aware, cover the bulk of the concentrated income and disbursement of the income of the Church, we are pleased to report were found in excellent shape from an accounting standpoint, and that all receipts and disbursements appear accurately entered on the books. We also found the books and accounts of the Presiding Bishop's office as heretofore, in an excellent and accurate condition. When you bear in mind that this office has to deal with some 62 stakes, 700 wards, and 21 missions, not to mention the great number of accounts of the various auxiliary organizations of the Church, you can well understand the great volume of business transacted in the Presiding Bishop's department; and it is a pleasure to say that this great complex and voluminous amount of business is economically, carefully and correctly entered in the books of this office, and that we found everything in a satisfactory condition. This office also collects and enters on proper books and records a large amount of statistical matter, not having to do with financial matters, but pertaining to Church activities, which we found very valuable and interesting, and we commend these to your consideration.
Very respectfully, submitted, your brethren,
W. W. RITER,
August W. Carlson,
John C. Cutler,
Heber Scowcroft.
General Auditing Committee of the Church.
On motion, the report of the Auditing Committee was accepted, and approved, by unanimous vote of the congregation.
STATEMENT BY THE FIRST PRESIDENCY.
Elder Grant also read the following, self-explanatory statement by the First Presidency of the Church:
To the officers and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in general conference assembled:
Dear Brethren and Sisters:
Ever since its organization, April 6, 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been bitterly assailed, the chief darts of slander being aimed at its leaders. Its first president, Joseph Smith, was the target for the shafts of abuse even before that date, as he was attacked by professing" Christian ministers when he first announced, in 1820, that he had received a heavenly manifestation of vital importance. Misrepresentations followed him until the day of his martyrdom, in 1844, when he was cruelly and lawlessly slain at Carthage, Illinois. His successor, the great pioneer and colonizer and patriot, Brigham Young, came in for his full share of calumny and abuse, during all the years of his successful career as the founder of a splendid commonwealth in the midst of the Rocky Mountains. Each head of the Church, in his turn, has been libeled, lampooned, caricatured and vilified, and, until they closed their eyes in death, their names were associated with everything that is evil, although they were men of the highest type of honor, integrity and sincerity.
It is not strange, therefore, that the present incumbent of the office they held so worthily, should be subject to similar treatment. And vet, in view of the fact that the various falsehoods uttered against the Church and its presiding officers have been repeatedly refuted and exploded, it is somewhat surprising that the old, stale and shattered fabrications are raked up and used anew in the opening years of the enlightened twentieth century. But they have been for some time newly exploited through respectable magazines (mostly from pens that cannot be regarded as worthy of such recognition), with the same purpose as that which animated anti-"Mormon" writers and speakers from the beginning.
It is a question whether silence should be maintained, as a sign of that contempt that is felt for those attacks and their authors by the objects of their spleen, but there are so many requests for replies, or at least explanations, for the benefit of inquiring minds, that perhaps it is proper that something should be officially stated for the good of the reading public.
The investigation by the committee on privileges and elections of the United States senate on the right of the senator from Utah, Reed Smoot, to the seat to which he was duly elected, that was prolonged for nearly four years, disposed of most of the old stories now revamped and patched up for current use. But several large volumes have to be waded through to obtain that definite information, while the mingled nonsense and venom poured forth from month to month is in present view and in popular form. Yet, after all, there is so much of frothy verbiage and proofless assertion that it' is difficult to grasp anything definite enough, in the adroitly framed sentences, to hold up to view and expose its fallacy. However, there are some charges that are more or less direct, which it may be well enough to briefly answer. The Church is accused of violating certain pledges to the national government. It is also asserted that the president of the Church receives several millions of dollars annually by enforced levies upon the members, this revenue being in his absolute control, unaccounted for and at his personal service. It is further alleged that he, with a few other ecclesiasts, dictates the political affairs of the state, sending senators and representatives to Congress, and ruling the community with an iron hand, to the subversion of individual liberty and the destruction of American citizenship. In support of these charges there is nothing presented except vituperation and the repetition of fictitious narratives, really grotesque in their palpable absurdity. We hereby denounce them as utterly false and without foundation.
First, as to pledges or compacts by the Church to the United States government: This charge, on its face, is ridiculous no matter how often or forcibly it is repeated. The compacts or agreements between Utah and the government on which statehood was achieved, were not made, and indeed could not be made, by the Church or its authorities. They were required by the enabling act framed by Congress and were fully compiled with by the state in its constitution, and this was officially announced in the president's proclamation. The only pledge made by the authorities of the Church that could be construed as a compact, was that contained in a petition for amnesty for certain persons who were in legal jeopardy, or imprisonment, upon charges growing out of the anti-polygamy laws of Congress. This was framed in December, 1891, and signed by the then presidency and apostles of the Church, and the promise made was in these words:
"As shepherds of a patient and suffering people we ask amnesty for them, and pledge our faith and honor for their future."
This may be coupled with the so-called manifesto of President Wilford Woodruff, adopted by the Church in conference assembled, Oct. 6, 1890, in which he announced his intention to live according to the laws of the United States, and declared: "My advice to the Latter-day Saints is that they contract no marriage contrary to the laws of the land." Since that time the Church has not performed any plural marriages or authorized any violation of the law thus forbidden. But there were some persons who construed the language of that manifesto to signify plural marriages within the boundaries of the United States, that being "the land" wherein the laws spoken of extended. They therefore went or removed to Mexico and thus acted on that which they believed to be right without violating the manifesto. They looked on plural marriage within the United States as malum prohibitum and not malum in se.
When this condition was discovered a further declaration was made by President Lorenzo Snow, who succeeded President Woodruff, in which he announced that the manifesto extended to every place, and that "the Church has positively abandoned the practice of polygamy or the solemnization of plural marriages in this and every other state, and that no member or officer thereof has any authority whatever to perform a plural marriage or enter into such a relation." This was published in the Deseret News at Salt Lake City, Jan. 8, 1900.
Rumors of surreptitious unions contrary to these official announcements being circulated, the present president of the Church, on April 6, 1904, reiterated the universality of the inhibition, and proclaimed that any person entering into or performing a plural marriage would be liable to be dealt with according to the rules of the Church and excommunicated therefrom.
Such violation of these positive declarations as have been reported, wherever proven by sufficient evidence, have been dealt with by Church tribunals, and the offenders have been disciplined or excommunicated. This course will be maintained, with due regard to the rights of individuals and the laws of the Church, common rumor or gossip without evidence being insufficient in a trial either civil or ecclesiastical. We protest against the charge that the Church or its leading officers encourage the resumption of plural marriages, and hereby declare the same to be absolutely false.
As to the insinuation that the Church has broken a compact not to dominate again in political matters, we challenge the production of any such pledge. There is no such agreement to be found. The authorities of the Church never assumed to dictate to members politically. The Church never attempted to dominate the State, and has not done so since the Constitution was framed. There are political aspirants who have attempted to dominate the Church, and who, failing in their endeavors, have become so rancorous in their disappointment that they waste time, money and reputation in fighting the Church and those officers thereof who have refused to employ the influence thus desired. In Utah every citizen is perfectly free to vote as he or she elects by an absolutely secret ballot. Primaries, conventions and the political machinery used by the several political parties are in vogue, and senators are chosen by the legislature, and representatives by popular vote as elsewhere. One striking fact for the consideration of fair minds is. that with all the stories of Church dictation not a solitary instance can be cited in which any Church member has been disciplined for voting for or against any candidate or proposition. Advocates of each party take the platform and freely ventilate their views and feelings as to their opponents, and if there is anything really objectionable, it is the excess of that liberty in the indulging in personalities and other extremes of partisanship which are greatly to be regretted and ought to be condemned. But the Church does not interfere with or attempt to curtail the freedom of its members. The principal accusers of the Church as dominating in politics are persons who have sought for that influence in their own behalf and are enraged because they could not obtain it. There are politicians who exercise their personal influence to effect their own ends, and yet deny to a Church-man the right to express an opinion even when asked for it. We claim for Church officers as well as Church members all the rights and privileges of American citizens, no less and no more; and do not claim, or exercise, power to compel, or coerce, or infringe upon the liberties of any person, and all assertions to the contrary are infamously untrue.
Charges of disloyalty, treason, and kindred absurdities that appear from time to time, to disturb the public mind, are sufficiently answered by the responses which have been made invariably when our country has called for aid in times of war or seasons of peace. There is no instance referred to by our detractors of anything we have done or attempted, to give color to their monstrous untruths. But history affords striking incidents of the furnishing of men on the plains to protect the mails from Indian depredations, of service during the Civil War, and of devoted warriors in the Spanish war, and in the Philippines, who were scions of leading "Mormon" families.
The subject of Church revenues may be touched upon perhaps with profit. The Latter-day Saints believe in tithing. It is a principle of their faith. It is an ancient observance reaching back to patriarchal times, as related in the Bible. It was established in the Church in the year 1838. The manner of its payment and disbursement is revealed by Divine authority and has appeared .in the Church books ever since that date. It is complied with religiously by the Church authorities themselves. It is not the property of the president. He does not claim it or collect it. Tithing is received and receipted for by the local bishops in the respective wards, who are under the supervision of the local presidents of stakes. The whole income is accounted for to the presiding bishopric of the Church and is under their direction. Their office contains complete records of all the tithings paid during each year. Each tithepayer will find in that office his record. The entire receipts and disbursements are there accounted for in the most complete detail. An auditing committee composed of men well known in the community for their independence of character and business integrity, not of the leading authorities of the Church, chosen by the general conference, thoroughly inspect and report annually upon them. The funds thus received are not the property of the president of the Church or his associates, nor of the Presiding Bishopric, nor of the local bishops. They belong to the Church and are used for Church purposes, including the building and maintenance of temples, meetinghouses, schools, colleges, universities and other structures, the aid of the poor and afflicted, the extension of missions abroad and the help of new colonies at home, and sundry other objects, and but a small amount is used for the support of persons devoting their whole time to the service of the Church, and that not out of the tithing, but from the proceeds of investments made with profit. This includes the presidency and other Church leaders. All the monstrous tales told of the wealth at the command of the heads of the Church are distorted emanations from disordered brains, or willful untruths manufactured in order to deceive the public.
It is impossible to take up all the misrepresentations given to the world by anti-"Mormon" preachers and writers. They have one merit. They stir up interest in what is called the "Mormon" question. People are led thus to investigate and many of them find out the truth, and unite with the people who are so greatly maligned. Our doctrines are open to the world. They are not secret or clothed in mystery. We proclaim the pure gospel of Christ as revealed from heaven in these last days through the great prophet of the nineteenth century, Joseph Smith. We invite all mankind to look into our teachings and promise all who obey them a witness of their truth by the power of the Holy Ghost which makes men free indeed.
We love our country, and pray for the perpetuity of its government, we support its institutions, we venerate the Constitution. We are proud of our state, and no one on the face of God's footstool need fear the growth and spread of "Mormonism," for it is the truth revealed anew from heaven, and it promotes freedom, peace, industry, temperance, faith, hope and charity, and stands for human rights, the salvation of mankind, and the glory of the most high God.
Joseph F. Smith,
Anthon H. Lund,
John Henry Smith,
First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
On motion, the document submitted by the First Presidency was received, and the statements therein contained were heartily endorsed, by unanimous vote of the congregation.
Elder Grant also read the following, self-explanatory statement by the First Presidency of the Church:
To the officers and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in general conference assembled:
Dear Brethren and Sisters:
Ever since its organization, April 6, 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been bitterly assailed, the chief darts of slander being aimed at its leaders. Its first president, Joseph Smith, was the target for the shafts of abuse even before that date, as he was attacked by professing" Christian ministers when he first announced, in 1820, that he had received a heavenly manifestation of vital importance. Misrepresentations followed him until the day of his martyrdom, in 1844, when he was cruelly and lawlessly slain at Carthage, Illinois. His successor, the great pioneer and colonizer and patriot, Brigham Young, came in for his full share of calumny and abuse, during all the years of his successful career as the founder of a splendid commonwealth in the midst of the Rocky Mountains. Each head of the Church, in his turn, has been libeled, lampooned, caricatured and vilified, and, until they closed their eyes in death, their names were associated with everything that is evil, although they were men of the highest type of honor, integrity and sincerity.
It is not strange, therefore, that the present incumbent of the office they held so worthily, should be subject to similar treatment. And vet, in view of the fact that the various falsehoods uttered against the Church and its presiding officers have been repeatedly refuted and exploded, it is somewhat surprising that the old, stale and shattered fabrications are raked up and used anew in the opening years of the enlightened twentieth century. But they have been for some time newly exploited through respectable magazines (mostly from pens that cannot be regarded as worthy of such recognition), with the same purpose as that which animated anti-"Mormon" writers and speakers from the beginning.
It is a question whether silence should be maintained, as a sign of that contempt that is felt for those attacks and their authors by the objects of their spleen, but there are so many requests for replies, or at least explanations, for the benefit of inquiring minds, that perhaps it is proper that something should be officially stated for the good of the reading public.
The investigation by the committee on privileges and elections of the United States senate on the right of the senator from Utah, Reed Smoot, to the seat to which he was duly elected, that was prolonged for nearly four years, disposed of most of the old stories now revamped and patched up for current use. But several large volumes have to be waded through to obtain that definite information, while the mingled nonsense and venom poured forth from month to month is in present view and in popular form. Yet, after all, there is so much of frothy verbiage and proofless assertion that it' is difficult to grasp anything definite enough, in the adroitly framed sentences, to hold up to view and expose its fallacy. However, there are some charges that are more or less direct, which it may be well enough to briefly answer. The Church is accused of violating certain pledges to the national government. It is also asserted that the president of the Church receives several millions of dollars annually by enforced levies upon the members, this revenue being in his absolute control, unaccounted for and at his personal service. It is further alleged that he, with a few other ecclesiasts, dictates the political affairs of the state, sending senators and representatives to Congress, and ruling the community with an iron hand, to the subversion of individual liberty and the destruction of American citizenship. In support of these charges there is nothing presented except vituperation and the repetition of fictitious narratives, really grotesque in their palpable absurdity. We hereby denounce them as utterly false and without foundation.
First, as to pledges or compacts by the Church to the United States government: This charge, on its face, is ridiculous no matter how often or forcibly it is repeated. The compacts or agreements between Utah and the government on which statehood was achieved, were not made, and indeed could not be made, by the Church or its authorities. They were required by the enabling act framed by Congress and were fully compiled with by the state in its constitution, and this was officially announced in the president's proclamation. The only pledge made by the authorities of the Church that could be construed as a compact, was that contained in a petition for amnesty for certain persons who were in legal jeopardy, or imprisonment, upon charges growing out of the anti-polygamy laws of Congress. This was framed in December, 1891, and signed by the then presidency and apostles of the Church, and the promise made was in these words:
"As shepherds of a patient and suffering people we ask amnesty for them, and pledge our faith and honor for their future."
This may be coupled with the so-called manifesto of President Wilford Woodruff, adopted by the Church in conference assembled, Oct. 6, 1890, in which he announced his intention to live according to the laws of the United States, and declared: "My advice to the Latter-day Saints is that they contract no marriage contrary to the laws of the land." Since that time the Church has not performed any plural marriages or authorized any violation of the law thus forbidden. But there were some persons who construed the language of that manifesto to signify plural marriages within the boundaries of the United States, that being "the land" wherein the laws spoken of extended. They therefore went or removed to Mexico and thus acted on that which they believed to be right without violating the manifesto. They looked on plural marriage within the United States as malum prohibitum and not malum in se.
When this condition was discovered a further declaration was made by President Lorenzo Snow, who succeeded President Woodruff, in which he announced that the manifesto extended to every place, and that "the Church has positively abandoned the practice of polygamy or the solemnization of plural marriages in this and every other state, and that no member or officer thereof has any authority whatever to perform a plural marriage or enter into such a relation." This was published in the Deseret News at Salt Lake City, Jan. 8, 1900.
Rumors of surreptitious unions contrary to these official announcements being circulated, the present president of the Church, on April 6, 1904, reiterated the universality of the inhibition, and proclaimed that any person entering into or performing a plural marriage would be liable to be dealt with according to the rules of the Church and excommunicated therefrom.
Such violation of these positive declarations as have been reported, wherever proven by sufficient evidence, have been dealt with by Church tribunals, and the offenders have been disciplined or excommunicated. This course will be maintained, with due regard to the rights of individuals and the laws of the Church, common rumor or gossip without evidence being insufficient in a trial either civil or ecclesiastical. We protest against the charge that the Church or its leading officers encourage the resumption of plural marriages, and hereby declare the same to be absolutely false.
As to the insinuation that the Church has broken a compact not to dominate again in political matters, we challenge the production of any such pledge. There is no such agreement to be found. The authorities of the Church never assumed to dictate to members politically. The Church never attempted to dominate the State, and has not done so since the Constitution was framed. There are political aspirants who have attempted to dominate the Church, and who, failing in their endeavors, have become so rancorous in their disappointment that they waste time, money and reputation in fighting the Church and those officers thereof who have refused to employ the influence thus desired. In Utah every citizen is perfectly free to vote as he or she elects by an absolutely secret ballot. Primaries, conventions and the political machinery used by the several political parties are in vogue, and senators are chosen by the legislature, and representatives by popular vote as elsewhere. One striking fact for the consideration of fair minds is. that with all the stories of Church dictation not a solitary instance can be cited in which any Church member has been disciplined for voting for or against any candidate or proposition. Advocates of each party take the platform and freely ventilate their views and feelings as to their opponents, and if there is anything really objectionable, it is the excess of that liberty in the indulging in personalities and other extremes of partisanship which are greatly to be regretted and ought to be condemned. But the Church does not interfere with or attempt to curtail the freedom of its members. The principal accusers of the Church as dominating in politics are persons who have sought for that influence in their own behalf and are enraged because they could not obtain it. There are politicians who exercise their personal influence to effect their own ends, and yet deny to a Church-man the right to express an opinion even when asked for it. We claim for Church officers as well as Church members all the rights and privileges of American citizens, no less and no more; and do not claim, or exercise, power to compel, or coerce, or infringe upon the liberties of any person, and all assertions to the contrary are infamously untrue.
Charges of disloyalty, treason, and kindred absurdities that appear from time to time, to disturb the public mind, are sufficiently answered by the responses which have been made invariably when our country has called for aid in times of war or seasons of peace. There is no instance referred to by our detractors of anything we have done or attempted, to give color to their monstrous untruths. But history affords striking incidents of the furnishing of men on the plains to protect the mails from Indian depredations, of service during the Civil War, and of devoted warriors in the Spanish war, and in the Philippines, who were scions of leading "Mormon" families.
The subject of Church revenues may be touched upon perhaps with profit. The Latter-day Saints believe in tithing. It is a principle of their faith. It is an ancient observance reaching back to patriarchal times, as related in the Bible. It was established in the Church in the year 1838. The manner of its payment and disbursement is revealed by Divine authority and has appeared .in the Church books ever since that date. It is complied with religiously by the Church authorities themselves. It is not the property of the president. He does not claim it or collect it. Tithing is received and receipted for by the local bishops in the respective wards, who are under the supervision of the local presidents of stakes. The whole income is accounted for to the presiding bishopric of the Church and is under their direction. Their office contains complete records of all the tithings paid during each year. Each tithepayer will find in that office his record. The entire receipts and disbursements are there accounted for in the most complete detail. An auditing committee composed of men well known in the community for their independence of character and business integrity, not of the leading authorities of the Church, chosen by the general conference, thoroughly inspect and report annually upon them. The funds thus received are not the property of the president of the Church or his associates, nor of the Presiding Bishopric, nor of the local bishops. They belong to the Church and are used for Church purposes, including the building and maintenance of temples, meetinghouses, schools, colleges, universities and other structures, the aid of the poor and afflicted, the extension of missions abroad and the help of new colonies at home, and sundry other objects, and but a small amount is used for the support of persons devoting their whole time to the service of the Church, and that not out of the tithing, but from the proceeds of investments made with profit. This includes the presidency and other Church leaders. All the monstrous tales told of the wealth at the command of the heads of the Church are distorted emanations from disordered brains, or willful untruths manufactured in order to deceive the public.
It is impossible to take up all the misrepresentations given to the world by anti-"Mormon" preachers and writers. They have one merit. They stir up interest in what is called the "Mormon" question. People are led thus to investigate and many of them find out the truth, and unite with the people who are so greatly maligned. Our doctrines are open to the world. They are not secret or clothed in mystery. We proclaim the pure gospel of Christ as revealed from heaven in these last days through the great prophet of the nineteenth century, Joseph Smith. We invite all mankind to look into our teachings and promise all who obey them a witness of their truth by the power of the Holy Ghost which makes men free indeed.
We love our country, and pray for the perpetuity of its government, we support its institutions, we venerate the Constitution. We are proud of our state, and no one on the face of God's footstool need fear the growth and spread of "Mormonism," for it is the truth revealed anew from heaven, and it promotes freedom, peace, industry, temperance, faith, hope and charity, and stands for human rights, the salvation of mankind, and the glory of the most high God.
Joseph F. Smith,
Anthon H. Lund,
John Henry Smith,
First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
On motion, the document submitted by the First Presidency was received, and the statements therein contained were heartily endorsed, by unanimous vote of the congregation.
AUTHORITIES SUSTAINED.
Elder Hyrum M. Smith presented the General Authorities of the Church, to be voted upon by the assembly, as follows:
Joseph F. Smith, as Prophet, Seer and Revelator and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Anthon H. Lund, as First Counselor in the First Presidency.
John Henry Smith, as Second Counselor in the First Presidency.
Francis M. Lyman, as President of the Twelve Apostles.
As members of the Council of Twelve Apostles: Francis M. Lyman, Heber J. Grant, Rudger Clawson, Reed Smoot, Hyrum M. Smith, George Albert Smith, Charles W. Penrose, George F. Richards, Orson F. Whitney, David O. McKay, Anthony W. Ivins and Joseph F. Smith, Jr.
John Smith, as Presiding Patriarch of the Church.
The Counselors in the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles and the Presiding Patriarch, as Prophets, Seers and Revelators.
First Seven Presidents of Seventies; Seymour B. Young, Brigham H. Roberts, Jonathan G. Kimball, Rulon S. Wells, Joseph W. McMurrin, Charles H. Hart and Levi Edgar Young.
Charles W. Nibley, as Presiding Bishop, with Orrin P. Miller and David A. Smith as his first and second Counselors.
Joseph F. Smith, as Trustee-in- Trust for the body of religious worshipers known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Anthon H. Lund, as Church Historian and General Church Recorder.
Andrew Jenson, Brigham H. Roberts, and Joseph F. Smith. Jr., Assistant Historians.
As members of the General Church Board of Education: Joseph F. Smith, Willard Young, Anthon H. Lund, George H. Brimhall, Rudger Clawson, Charles W. Penrose, Horace H. Cummings, Orson F. Whitney, and Francis M. Lyman. Arthur Winter, Secretary and Treasurer to the General Church Board of Education.
Horace H. Cummings, General Superintendent of Church Schools.
Board of Examiners for Church Schools: Horace H. Cummings, Chairman; George H. Brimhall, James H. Linford and Willard Young.
Auditing Committee: William W. Riter, August W. Carlson, Henry H. Rolapp, John C. Cutler, and Heber Scowcroft.
Tabernacle Choir: Evan Stephens, Conductor; Horace S. Ensign, Assistant Conductor; John J. McClellan, Organist; Edward P. Kimball and Tracy Y. Cannon, Assistant Organists; George C. Smith, Secretary and Treasurer; Noel S. Pratt, Librarian; and all the Members.
Duncan M. McAllister, as Clerk of the Conference.
Each and all of those named were duly sustained in the positions designated, by unanimous vote of the Conference.
President Joseph F. Smith, after announcing the commencement of organ recitals in the Tabernacle, said, "These will be free as usual. I do not think any church in the world gives to the world and to the members of the church more free literature, more free art, or more free gospel than does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
Following which President Smith said: "It is also proposed that Brother A. William Lund be sustained as an assistant historian." Carried.
Elder Hyrum M. Smith presented the General Authorities of the Church, to be voted upon by the assembly, as follows:
Joseph F. Smith, as Prophet, Seer and Revelator and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Anthon H. Lund, as First Counselor in the First Presidency.
John Henry Smith, as Second Counselor in the First Presidency.
Francis M. Lyman, as President of the Twelve Apostles.
As members of the Council of Twelve Apostles: Francis M. Lyman, Heber J. Grant, Rudger Clawson, Reed Smoot, Hyrum M. Smith, George Albert Smith, Charles W. Penrose, George F. Richards, Orson F. Whitney, David O. McKay, Anthony W. Ivins and Joseph F. Smith, Jr.
John Smith, as Presiding Patriarch of the Church.
The Counselors in the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles and the Presiding Patriarch, as Prophets, Seers and Revelators.
First Seven Presidents of Seventies; Seymour B. Young, Brigham H. Roberts, Jonathan G. Kimball, Rulon S. Wells, Joseph W. McMurrin, Charles H. Hart and Levi Edgar Young.
Charles W. Nibley, as Presiding Bishop, with Orrin P. Miller and David A. Smith as his first and second Counselors.
Joseph F. Smith, as Trustee-in- Trust for the body of religious worshipers known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Anthon H. Lund, as Church Historian and General Church Recorder.
Andrew Jenson, Brigham H. Roberts, and Joseph F. Smith. Jr., Assistant Historians.
As members of the General Church Board of Education: Joseph F. Smith, Willard Young, Anthon H. Lund, George H. Brimhall, Rudger Clawson, Charles W. Penrose, Horace H. Cummings, Orson F. Whitney, and Francis M. Lyman. Arthur Winter, Secretary and Treasurer to the General Church Board of Education.
Horace H. Cummings, General Superintendent of Church Schools.
Board of Examiners for Church Schools: Horace H. Cummings, Chairman; George H. Brimhall, James H. Linford and Willard Young.
Auditing Committee: William W. Riter, August W. Carlson, Henry H. Rolapp, John C. Cutler, and Heber Scowcroft.
Tabernacle Choir: Evan Stephens, Conductor; Horace S. Ensign, Assistant Conductor; John J. McClellan, Organist; Edward P. Kimball and Tracy Y. Cannon, Assistant Organists; George C. Smith, Secretary and Treasurer; Noel S. Pratt, Librarian; and all the Members.
Duncan M. McAllister, as Clerk of the Conference.
Each and all of those named were duly sustained in the positions designated, by unanimous vote of the Conference.
President Joseph F. Smith, after announcing the commencement of organ recitals in the Tabernacle, said, "These will be free as usual. I do not think any church in the world gives to the world and to the members of the church more free literature, more free art, or more free gospel than does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
Following which President Smith said: "It is also proposed that Brother A. William Lund be sustained as an assistant historian." Carried.
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
CLOSING REMARKS.
I regret that we haven't a little more time, but we will try to make the best we can of the little remaining.
I have a resolution, forwarded to me by the Ogden tabernacle choir, which I desire to read, because I think it shows a very excellent spirit:
"At the regular rehearsal of the Ogden tabernacle choir, Thursday evening, last, the following motion was made and carried unanimously: 'That we extend to the director and members of the Salt Lake tabernacle choir the sincere hope that they may be truly successful in holding up high ideals while on their trip to New York. They will represent the entire state of Utah, and as such representatives we desire to uphold and sustain them in every way possible. Bon voyage to the Salt Lake tabernacle choir.' "
The choir sang the anthem, "There's a sound from the vale."
Benediction was pronounced by Patriarch John Smith.
Conference adjourned for six months.
Prof. Evan Stephens conducted the singing of the choir and congregation at all the conference meetings in the Tabernacle, and Prof. John J. McClellan played the accompaniments, interludes, etc., on the great organ, assisted by Edward P. Kimball and Tracy Y. Cannon.
The stenographic reports of the discourses were taken by Elders Franklin W. Otterstrom, Frederick E. Barker, and Fred G. Barker.
Duncan M. McAllister,
Clerk of Conference.
CLOSING REMARKS.
I regret that we haven't a little more time, but we will try to make the best we can of the little remaining.
I have a resolution, forwarded to me by the Ogden tabernacle choir, which I desire to read, because I think it shows a very excellent spirit:
"At the regular rehearsal of the Ogden tabernacle choir, Thursday evening, last, the following motion was made and carried unanimously: 'That we extend to the director and members of the Salt Lake tabernacle choir the sincere hope that they may be truly successful in holding up high ideals while on their trip to New York. They will represent the entire state of Utah, and as such representatives we desire to uphold and sustain them in every way possible. Bon voyage to the Salt Lake tabernacle choir.' "
The choir sang the anthem, "There's a sound from the vale."
Benediction was pronounced by Patriarch John Smith.
Conference adjourned for six months.
Prof. Evan Stephens conducted the singing of the choir and congregation at all the conference meetings in the Tabernacle, and Prof. John J. McClellan played the accompaniments, interludes, etc., on the great organ, assisted by Edward P. Kimball and Tracy Y. Cannon.
The stenographic reports of the discourses were taken by Elders Franklin W. Otterstrom, Frederick E. Barker, and Fred G. Barker.
Duncan M. McAllister,
Clerk of Conference.