EIGHTY-FIFTH II ANNUAL II CONFERENCE
OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER- DAY SAINTS
Held in the Tabernade and Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, Utah, April 4th, 5th and 6th, 1915, with a full report of the discourses
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Eighty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
FIRST DAY
The Eighty-fifth Annual Confer- ence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convened in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at 10 a. m., Sunday, April 4, 1915, Presi- dent Joseph F. Smith presiding.
AUTHORITIES PRESENT.
There were present of the Firit Presidency, Joseph F. Smith, An- thon H. Lund, and Charles W. Pen- rose ; of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, Francis M. Lyman, Heber J. Grant, Rudger Clawson, Reed Smoot, George Albert Smith, George F. Richards, Orson F. Whit- ney, David O. Ale Kay, Anthony \Y. Ivins, Joseph F. Smith, Jr., and James E. Talmage ; of the First Council of Seventy, Seymour B. Young, Brigham H. Roberts, J. Golden Kimball, Rulon S. Wells, Jo- seph W. McMurrin, Charles H. Hart, and Levi Edgar Young ; Pre- siding Patriarch Hyrum G. Smith; of the Presiding Bishopric, Charles W. Nibley, Orrin P. Miller, and David A. Smith; Assistant Histor- ians Andrew Jenson, and A. Wm. Lund. There were also a large num- ber of Presidents of Stakes with their Counselors, Presidents of Mis- sions, Bishops of Wards, Patriarchs, and numerous other prominent men and women representing various
HISTORIAN'S
quorums and organizations of the Church.
President Joseph F. Smith called the assembly to order, and an- nounced that, in consequence of the over-crowded condition in the Tab- ernacle, another meeting will now convene in the adjoining Assembly Hall, under direction of Elder Rudger Clawson.
The conference services were commenced by the choir singing 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.
The opening prayer was offered by Elder Joseph W. McMurrin.
The Choir sang the anthem, "The Palms."
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
OPENING ADDRESS.
Condition of peace and spiritual prog- ress in the Church. — Our message of peace and salvation to mankind. — Saints should learn the truth, and teach it to their children. — Church organization and authority essential. — Strife and war deplored, peace prayed for— Men urged to love and care for wives and children. — Pre- siding Bishopric's report of tithing expended, etc. — Comments on de- tails of the report.
OFFICE LIBRARY
The Church of Jesus Christ ot Latter-da? Saints
4a. w 5 o
2
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
I have no doubt that many of the good people gathered here this morning, not having heard, widl wonder what has become of the great Tabernacle organ. It may be proper for me to say to you that the organ is undergoing thorough re- pairs, and is in a condition that it can not be used at present. Per- haps it will not be prepared for use for several weeks to come. Since the last conference held in this tab- ernacle, the tabernacle itself has un- dergone somewhat extensive re- pairs. A new floor has been laid, the seats have all been renovated, repainted, revarnished, and the building put in very excellent con- dition. During the process of paint- ing and renovating the interior of the building, it was necessary to keep up a high degree of heat to dry the paint, etc., to have the build- ing ready for this conference. It was found that this prolonged heat- ing injuriously affected some parts of the organ, putting it really out of order for the present. I thought just a word of explanation with refer- ence to this matter might be ap- propriate at this time.
This is the opening session of the eighty-fifth annual general con- ference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I feel very thankful indeed that I have been permitted, with the rest of you, to be present at the opening of this conference, and I hope that we will enjoy a blessed time together, dur- ing the three days that many, if not all of us, will have the privilege of assembling here, morning and af- ternoon, to be instructed and to give instruction and to hear exhor- tation and, if necessary, be reproved as the Spirit of the Lord may direct those who shall address us from time to time. I am very happy, in-
deed, under' the impressions that weigh upon my mind with reference to the prosperity of the work of the Lord throughout these valleys of the mountains, and in the various missions of the Church throughout the world. Everything seems to point to the fact, which we hold in our faith and in our anticipation, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is still pursuing its course peacefully onward and up- ward, extending and increasing on the right hand and on the left, and all along the front. It is really un- necessary, perhaps, for me to re- peat, in some measure, at least, that which has been frequently said at the opening of conferences of the Church, that there never has been a time, at least within my remem- brance, when the Church was in a better condition spiritually and tem- porally, than it is today. I do not believe that there has ever been a time when the organizations of the various quorums of the Priesthood were more nearly perfect or more diligent than they are at present, or when the stakes of Zion were more properly guarded and their interests watched by those who are presid- ing over them than they are today. I believe that our general and aux- iliary organizations of the Church, also the standard organizations of the Priesthood, are performing their duty quite as well now, and I think somewhat better, than at any pre- vious period of the Church's his- tory. Why should it not be so ? We are not "ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth." On the contrary, we are ever learning and are ever drawing nearer to a proper comprehension of the truth, the duty and the re- sponsibility that devolve upon mem- bers of the Church who are called
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
3
to responsible positions in it. Not only does this apply to those mem- bers which are called to act in re- sponsible positions, but it applies to those who may be termed "lay mem- bers," if we may use such a term with reference to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints.
Who is there, under the circum- stances that exist around us, that is not growing? Who is there of us that is not learning something day by day? Who is there of us that is not gaining experience as we pass along, and are attending to the du- ties of membership in the Church, and to the duties of citizens of our state, and citizens of our great and glorious nation? It seems to me that it would be a very sad comment upon the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her people to suppose for a moment that we are at a standstill, that we have ceased to grow, ceased to improve and to ad- vance in the scale of intelligence, and in the faithful performance of duty in every condition in which we are placed as a people and as mem- bers of the Church of Christ.
I am most happy, my brethren and sisters, to say to you that which you all know, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is at peace with itself, and it is at peace with all the world. We have no spirit of war in our hearts. We have been taught and we have learned that it is a part of our duty, and a very important part, to aban- don the spirit of strife, contention, and warfare, either among ourselves or against any portion of the chil- dren of men. We send out our el- ders to the nations of the earth, not to make war upon the religious or- ganizations that exist, not to con- tend w'ith them and to create strife,
confusion and contention among the inhabitants of the world. The mes- sage that we have to bear to men is the message of life, peace, salvation, and redemption from sin.
Our elders are instructed here, and they are taught from their childhood up, that they are not to go out and make war upon the re- ligious organizations of the world when they are called to go out to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but to go and bear with them the message which has been given to us through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph, in this latter dispensation, whereby men may learn the truth, if they will. They are sent out to offer the olive branch of peace to the world, to of- fer the knowledge that God has spoken from the heavens once more to his children upon the earth ; that God has in his mercy restored again to the world the fulness of the Gospel of His Only Begotten Son, in the flesh, that God has revealed and restored to mankind the divine power and authority from Himself, whereby they are enabled and auth- orized to perform the ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ neces- sary for their salvation, and their performance of these ordinances must of necessity be acceptable un- to God who has given to them the authority to perform them in His name. Our elders are sent out to preach repentance of sin, to preach righteousness, to preach to the world the gospel of love, of fellow- ship and of friendship among man- kind, to teach men and women to do that which is right in the sight of God and in the presence of all men, to teach them the fact that God has organized His Church, a Church of which He, Himself, is the author and the founder — not Joseph Smith,
4
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
not President Brigham Young, not the Twelve Apostles, that have been chosen in this dispensation — to them does not belong the honor of estab- lishing the Church, God is its au- thor, God is its founder and we are sent out and we send out our elders to make this proclamation to the world, and leave it to their own judgment and discretion as to whether they will investigate it, learn the, truth for themselves, and accept it, or whether they will reject it. We do not make war upon them ; if they do not receive it, we do not contend with them if they fail to benefit themselves by receiving the message that we give to them for their own good, we only pity. Our sympathy goes out to those who will not receive the truth and who will not walk in the light when the light shines before them ; not hatred, not enmity, not the spirit of condemna- tion ; it is our duty to leave con- demnation in the hands of Almighty God. He is the only real, true, righteous, impartial judge, and we leave judgment in His hands. Tt is not our business to proclaim calami- ties, judgments, destruction and the wrath of God upon men, if they will not receive the truth. Let them read the word of God, as recorded in the Xew and the Old Testaments, and, if they will receive it let them read the word that has been restored through the gift and power of God to Joseph the Prophet, as contained in the Doctrine and Covenants and in the Book of Mormon. Let them read these things, and they will learn there, themselves, the promises that God has made to those who will not hearken when they hear the truth, but will close their ear^ and their eyes against the light. We need not repeat these things and try to im- pose upon the feelings and judg-
ments of men by threatening them or by warning them against the dan- gers and evils that may come upon the ungodly, the disobedient, the un- thankful, and those who will not yield to the truth. They will learn it soon enough, if we do not men- tion it to them at all.
It is not a part of our business to dwell upon these things ; our duty is to tell the truth, preach the truth, the peaceable things of the King- dom of God, the way of life and salvation, the way of repentance, the way of righteousness, the way of love and of dealing one with an- other, the golden rule to do unto others as we would that they should do unto us, as taught by the Son of God. The great object and duty that devolves upon the Latter-day Saints is to learn, each man and each women for himself and for herself, their individual duty as members of the Church. Just as soon as a man or woman learns his and her duty to God and to those who are members with them in the household of faith, peace is estab- lished, love and good will are as- sured, no back-bitting, no fault-find- ing, no bearing false witness against neighbors, no strife, no contention. For the moment that a Latter-day Saint learns his duty, he will learn that it is his business to make peace, to establish good will, to work right- eousness, to be filled with the spirit of kindness, love, charity, and for- giveness ; and, so far as he con- cerned, there can be no war, no strife, no contention, no quarreling, no disunion ; no factions can arise among the people who know their duty as Latter-day Saints.
Another great and important duty devolving upon this people is to teach their children, from their cra- dle until they become men and
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
5
women, every principle of the Gos- pel, and endeavor, as far as it lies in the power of the parents, to instil into their hearts a love for God, the truth, virtue, honesty, honor and in- tegrity to every thing that is good. That is important for all men and women who stand at the head of a family in the household of faith. Teach your children the love of God. Teach them to love the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Teach them to love their fellowmen, and especially to love their fellow mem- bers in the Church, that they may be true to their fellowship with the people of God. Teach them to honor the priesthood, to honor the authority that God has bestowed upon His Church for the proper .government of His Church. The house of God is a house of order, and not a house of confusion ; and it could not be thus, if there were not those who had authority to pre- side, to direct, to counsel, to lead in the affairs of the Church. No house would be a house of order if it were not properlv organized as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints is organized. Take away the organization of the Church, and its power would cease. Every part of its organization is necessary, and essential to its perfect existence. Disregard, ignore, or omit any part and you start imperfection in the Church ; and if we should continue in that way we would find ourselves like those of old, being led by error, superstition, ignorance, and by the cunning and craftiness of men. We would soon leave out here a little and there a little, here a line and there a precept, until we would be- come like the rest of the world, divided, disorganized, confused, and without knowledge, without revela- t*»n or inspiration, and without Di-
vine authority or power. Of course, it is very necessary that those who preside in the Church should learn thoroughly their duties. There is not a man holding any position of authority in the Church who can perform his duty as he should in any other spirit than in the spirit of fatherhood and brotherhood toward those over whom he presides. Those who have authority should not be rulers, nor dictators, they should not be arbitrary, they should gain the hearts, the confidence and the love of those over whom they preside, by kindness and love unfeigned, by gentleness of spirit, by persuasion, by an example that is above re- proach and above the reach of un- just criticism. In this way, in the kindness of their hearts, in their love for their people, they lead them in the path of righteousness, and teach them the way of salvation, by say- ing to them both by precept and example : Follow me, as I follow our head, the Redeemer of the world. This is the duty of those who preside. The duty of the high councils of the Church, when they are called to act upon questions in- volving the membership or standing of members of the Church, is to find out the truth, the facts, and then judge according to the truth and the facts that are brought to their un- derstanding, always tempered with mercy, love, and kindness, and with the spirit in their souls to save and not to destroy and cast out. Our mission is to save, not destroy ; our aim should be to build up, and not to tear down. Our calling is to convey the spirit of love, truth, peace and good will to mankind throughout the world ; that war may cease ; that strife may come to an end. and that peace may prevail. I thank God. my Heavenly Father,
6
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
as you do, every one of you present here today, and as do all the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that our land is at peace as much as it is. I am sor- ry that there should be any internal disruptions, division, or contention existing at all among the various organizations of the people of our land. I am sorry that there should be strife. If they had the true spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ they would not have strife ; they would cease to harbor feelings of conten- tion and strife ; if troubles came they would meet together and deliberate in the spirit of wisdom, meekness and humility, invoking the blessing and spirit of Almighty God upon their deliberations and counsels, and calmly decide together upon that which would be for the common good, and then go as one man to do that which is necessary to build up the nation and the country in which we dwell. I am glad that we have kept out of war so far, and I hope and pray that we may not be under the necessity of sending our sons to war, or experience as a nation the distress, the anguish and sorrow that come from a condition such as exists upon the old continent. Oh God, have mercy upon thy poor children in Europe, and throughout the world, who are brought under the awful conditions that exist there because of the ambition and pride of men who claim the right and power to dictate, even to life or death, the conduct of the people over whom they rule.
My brethren and sisters, God is with you ; the Lord is with this peo- ple ; and if we will be His children in very deed as He is in very deed our Father, I tell you that God will temper the elements for your good ; He will bless you with health ; He
will bless you with abundance : He will bless the earth and make it fruitful. Those who reap their har- vest by the toil and sweat of their brow, from mother earth, will have bounteous harvests if they will only serve God in their hearts and in their outward life. I feel just as sure of this as I do that I am stand- ing before you here.
I do not . feel that it would lie to my advantage, nor to yours, for me to continue my remarks very much longer. I have no need of course to refer to my personal feelings and condition ; but I have recently passed through my share of sorrow. Nev- ertheless the Lord has been so mer: ciful to me, He has blessed me in so many ways, and multiplied His favors and mercies upon me to such an extent that it would be shameful for me to complain, even under the most severe afflictions and adverse conditions and circumstances in life. T love truth wherever I see or find it. I love men and women who are virtuous and honorable. T would love a man, no matter who he is, if T knew that he was honest before God. He might differ with me in religious views, and in many other ways : but, is he honest with his fel- low man and with his God? If he is, I honor him, and I love him for his honesty.
When I think of our mothers, the mothers of our children, and realize that under the inspiration of the Gospel they live virtuous, pure, hon- orable lives, true to their husbands, true to their children, true to their convictions of the Gospel, oh, how my soul goes out in pure love for them ; how noble and how God- given, how choice, how desirable and how indispensable they arc to the accomplishment of God's pur- poses and the fulfilment of His de-
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
7
crees. My brethren, can you mis- treat yonr wives, the mothers of vonr children? Can you help treat- ing- them with love and kindness? Can )rou help trying to make their lives as comfortable and happy as possible, lightening their burdens to the utmost of your ability, making life pleasant for them and for their children in their homes? How can you help it ? How can any one help feeling an intense interest in the mother of his children, and also in his children? If we possess the Spirit of God. we can not do other- wise. It is only when men depart from the right spirit, when they digress from their duty, that they will neglect or dishonor any soul that is committed to their care. They are bound to honor their wives and children. Intelligent men, men of business, men of affairs, men who are involved constantly in the labors of life, and have to devote their en- ergies and thought to their labors .and duties, may not enjoy as many comforts with their families as they would like, but if they have the Spirit of the Lord with them in the performance of their temporal du- ties, they will never neglect the mothers of their children, nor their children. They will not fail to teach them the principles of life and set before them a proper example. Don't do anything yourselves that you would have to say to your boy, "Don't do it." Live so that you can sav, "My son, do as I do, follow me, emulate my example." That is the wav fathers should live, every one of us ; and it is a shame, a weak- ening, shameful thing for any mem- ber of the Church to pursue a course that he knows is not right and that he would rather his children should not follow. What a shameful thing it is for a man to place upon himself
an embargo, a handicap against do- ing his full duty to those that love him and whom he should love above his own life, by yielding to appe- tites that are wrong and to passions that are base, and doing things that he ought not to do, and that he would feign keep his children from doing. Do your duty, my brethren, and the Lord will do His for you.
We want Zion to grow and be- come strong in righteousness. We desire the people of Zion to develop in understanding and grow in knowledge and become strong in wisdom. We want you to cultivate the spirit of mercy, of charity and forgiveness. We want you to be generous to the poor ; we desire that you will guard the helpless, the aged, and provide for them. God has made provision in His Church, in the complete organization of it, so that every faithful soul in it may be looked after and nurtured and cared for in the hour of need. The trouble with us at present is that there are so many men who are holding membership in the Church, who neglect their duty in so many ways, that we have not the means to provide as amply as we would like for the necessities of the poor. When you look upon a tithing record, a book of large dimensions, contain- ing the names of members of the Church who do not pay their tith- ing, you do not need to wonder why the Church has not more means to provide for the poor. We are doing the best we can with the means we have. I am going to read you just a few little things that we are doing with the means you consecrate to the Lord for the upbuilding of Zion.
The general Church Auditing Committee has examined the re- ceipts and disbursements of the tithes of the stakes of Zion and mis-
8
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
sions, also the accounts of the Pre- not been indulged in very much ; siding Bishop's Office, and the ac- but there have been so many false counts in the office of the Trustee- charges made against me and in-Trust. Their report will be ren- against my brethren by ignorant and dered before the close of the confer- evilly disposed people, that I pro- ence, I suppose. pose to make a true statement which
The following report will show will, I believe, at least have a ten- how the tithing of the Church, for dency to convince you that we are the year 1914, has been disbursed, trying to do our duty the best we Now I am taking a liberty that has know how :
April 4, 1915.
The following report will show how the tithing of the Church for the year 1914 has been disbursed :
For the erection and maintenance of stake tabernacles, ward meeting houses, amusement halls and other stake and
ward expenses $ 730,960.00
For the maintenance of Church schools 330,984.00
For the maintenance of our Temples 64,508.00
For the erection of mission houses and general mission activ- ities, and return fares of missionaries 227,()00.00
For the maintenance of Church buildings and Church institu- tions, including the Temple block and the Presiding
Bishop's office 99,293.00
For the completion and maintenance of the Latter-dav Saints
Hospital 136,727.00
For the erection of the Cardston Temple 52,647.00
For the erection of the new Church office building 128,663.00
Paid to the worthy poor out of the tithing funds 1 16.238.00
$1,887,920.00
This is the entire tithing of the Church in all the world for the year 1 c> 1 -4.
The expenses of the General Authorities and the maintenance of the office of the First Presidency are paid out of revenues derived from invest- ments, and not out of the tithes of the Church.
In addition to the amount paid out of the tithes to the poor. .$ 1 16.238.00 there has been collected and paid to the poor by the Re- lief Society 74.290.00
And there has been paid to the poor by the Bishops from
the fast offerings and other ward charity funds 76,000.00
Making a total paid to the poor for 1914 $ 266.528.00
There has been collected for the war sufferers, which is being
expended under the direction of President Hyrum M.
Smith, of the European Mission $ 33,000.00
Our records show that 73% of all the Latter-day Saint families resid- ing in all the stakes of Zion own their own homes.
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
9
The birth rate of the Church for the year 1914 is 39.5 to the thousand. The death rate for the year 1914 is 8.3 to the thousand. Marriage rate for the year 1914 is 17 to the thousand. During the year there were 14,717 children blessed. There are 1,316 Elders and 115 women laboring in the missions as missionaries.
Of the membership of the Church residing in the stakes of Zion, 319.000 were born in the United States.
There has been a net increase in the membership of the Church in the stakes of Zion from the year 1901 to 1914 of 129,493 souls.
There are now 739 wards and 33 independent branches. There are 68 stakes of Zion and 21 missions. During the year 1914, 21 new wards have been organized and 2 stakes of Zion.
There have been performed in the Temples during the past year, 166,909 baptisms for the living and dead, and 72,952 endowments for the living and dead. Altogether 326,264 ordinances have been performed in the four temples. This is a very considerable increase over any previous year.
Ward teaching has been given considerable attention by the stake and ward officers, with the results that in some of the stakes of Zion the work has been so well developed that 96(/( of all the families are visited by the ward teachers each month.
Now some people have reported that the tithes of the Church amount to millions every year, and Joseph F. Smith has the absolute control of all these millions, and never gives any account of them to the world, nor to anybody else. Now we are not giv- ing this to the world ; we are giving it to the Latter-day Saints. These amounts which I have read, I think it may be proper to state here, cover the entire tithing of the Church in all the world, for the year 1914. Now when you come to talk about the millions and millions of dollars of tithing paid by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is simmered down to $1,887,920, for the year 1914, and that was an av- erage year. I may be pardoned, per- haps, if I say here, for the benefit of any who do not know the facts, that the law of tithing is a voluntary law : that is, it imposes only a vol- untary duty upon the people. No person's standing as a member of
the Church, is jeopardized because he doesn't pay his tithing. There are a good many of us who don't observe all the laws, and it is a good thing that the Lord does not execute justice and judgment upon a great many of us because of it.
The expenses of the general au- thorities and the maintenance of the First Presidency are paid out of the revenues derived from investments, and not out of the tithes of the Church. These investments, as a rule, consist of contributions of stocks of various kinds to the Church on tithing, which have been held by the Church ; and the divi- dends that we derive from these stocks and investments are for the benefit of the people in every in- stance, for the Church has never made an investment that had not for its object the benefiting of the whole people, as far as possible, fostering industries, and the colonization of our country. It has been done for
10
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
aiding the settlers of our country, our state and our adjoining states, as far as possible, by assisting them with means, to help them lay the foundation of prosperity for them- selves.
It just occurs to me that we are talking to you on the Sabbath day, and some people, perhaps, may feel that it is somewhat out of place for us to talk about money and tempor- alities, about tithing, or the expendi- ture of means and the uses made of it, on the Sabbath day, but the Sab- bath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. God made or designated the Sabbath day for a day of rest, a clay of worship, a day for goodly deeds, and for humility and penitence, and the worship of the Almighty in spirit and in truth.
There has been collected for the war sufferers, which is being ex- pended under the direction of Presi- dent Hyrum M. Smith of the Euro- pean Mission, $33,000. This was done on one day, practically, a day set apart for general contributions for the benefit of the sufferers, in consequence of the war. T have a list of the names of all the stakes of Zion and the wards which con- tributed these means, and it was all contributed and handled and sent to the sufferers to lie distributed equally and impartially, — to Latter- day Saints, mind you, first. T want to tell you that, we will be honest with you ; we feel that it is the first duty of Latter-day Saints to take care of themselves, and of their poor; and then, if we can extend it to others, and as wide and as far as we can extend charity and assistance to others that are not members of the Church, we feel that it is our duty to do it. But first look after the members of our own household. The man who will not provide for
his own house, as one of old has said, is worse than an infidel. So we make no apologies for saying that we have collected these means for the suffering Latter-day Saints that are afflicted because of the war, in Germany, in Austria, in Italy, in Switzerland, Holland and in Eng- land and anywhere else where they are suffering in consequence of it. It cost the fund not one penny, not even a postage stamp for collection. May be you would like to know that : there were no paid agencies, no paid collectors. No one received a nickel from the funds contributed for the assistance of the afflicted and the suffering. It was done through the channels of the holy priesthood, through the organization of the Church, in the regular way, and it has cost nobody anything. The First Presidency received the other day the following cable mes- sage from the President of the Swiss and German Mission :
"Two thousand dollar relief fund thankfully received. Express gratitude to God's people. Conditions satisfactory. — VALENTINE, President Swiss and German Mission."
We have received also a number of returns from President Mvrum M. Smith, but in volume, and these returns have not been condensed, so that they can be presented here.
Now, we have a few more state- ments that I desire to read : Our records show that 73^ of all the Latter-day Saint families, residing in all the stakes of Zion. own their own homes. I am sorry that this figure is not as large as it has been in the past, but we have become more numerous than we were when 95% of the people of the Church owned their own little homes and owed nothing to anybody for them.
PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH.
11
Let me inject here, once more, my standing admonition to the Latter- day Saints : My brethren, see to it that yon do not put a mortgage upon the roof that covers the heads of your wives and your children. Don't do it. Don't plaster your farms with mortgages, because it is from your farms that you reap your food, and the means to provide your raiment and your other necessaries of life. Keep your possessions free from debt. Get out of debt as fast as you can, and keep out of debt, for that is the way in which the promise of God will be fulfilled to the people of His Church, that they will be- come the richest of all people in the world. But this will not happen while you mortgage your homes and your farms, or run into debt be- yond your ability to meet your obli- gations ; and thus, perhaps, your name and credit be dishonored be- cause you over-reached yourselves. "Never reach farther than you can gather," is a good motto.
From each of the newly organized wards we have received calls to as- sist to help build new meeting- houses ; and so the work goes on. I have read the figures of the hun- dreds of thousands that we are ap- propriating for the assistance in the erection of meetinghouses, taberna- cles, and amusement places for the vouth of Zion. to keep them under proper restraint and control.
The work in the temples has been the largest on record. There have been performed in the temples, dur- ing the past year, 166.909 baptisms for the living and dead, — an indica- tion that we are increasing the mem- bership of the Church very, very much faster in the spirit-world than we are on earth.
Now, my brethren and sisters, we do not want to weary you with sta-
tistics. Our duty is not to deal par- ticularly in statistics and in finan- cial matters. Our paramount duty is the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the inculcation of the principles of that Gospel in the hearts and souls of all our children. This is our duty. God bless you. I am glad to see you here. I surely welcome you with all my soul, and I feel in my soul that God will bless you for your presence here. Why are you here? Because you are members of the Church of Jesus Christ. You are here because this is the annual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. You are here because you are members of that Church and because you are members of the priesthood and of the auxiliary or- ganizations of the Church and are all interested in the well-being, ad- vancement, and development, spirit- ually, intellectually, physically and financially, and every other way, of the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. God bless you, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
A soprano solo, "Christ is Risen," was sung by Sister Esther Davis Stephens.
PRESIDENT ANTHON H. LUND.
Certainty of the resurrection — "Eas- ter" an improper name for day cele- brating the sacred event — The Pass- over, old and new — Witnesses of the risen Redeemer — Christ's mission to the spirit-world — Scripture evidences that though the body dies the spirit lives — Universality of the resurrec- tion— God's justice manifest in plan of salvation for the dead.
In presenting myself before you, and attempting to speak to you, I ask your faith and prayers in my
12
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
behalf. With you I have listened with much interest and pleasure to the remarks of our President. He has given us the keynote of love and good will to one another, and asked us to perform the duties that devolve upon us, and I believe that we all feel to respond to this exhortation.
The song that we have just lis- tened to, "He is Risen," was very appropriate, as this is Easter Sun- day, which we celebrate in memory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was a happy message that came to the world through this event, the resurrection, that Jesus had con- quered death and had come forth out of the grave.
The resurrection, the central fact of our faith, has been doubted by a great many, and yet He was seen by His apostles and some of His disciples, and by as many as five hundred at one time. To us there is no doubt about the resurrection. We feel grateful to believe and know that Christ did rise from the dead, that He laid down His life, of Him- self, and was able to take it again, and thereby give us the hope, the assurance, that resurrection will come to all of us.
Last Thursday night was cele- brated in memory of His instituting the Holy Sacrament ; Friday we commemorated His crucifixion, and today, the first day of the week, we celebrate His resurrection. He rose from the grave, the crowning act of redemption, and thus finished the great mission given Him by His Heavenly Father. It was at the Jewish Passover that this great event occurred. Here in America, and in England, we call it Easter: in German v they call it Ostem. Both the English and the Germans have named this sacred festival after a heathen goddess. How much better
it would have been to have kept the old name, or a derivation of it, as in other lands, for instance in Scan- dinavia, where it is called Paaske, instead of a name that has no found- ation upon holiness. Easter is one of the variable feasts. Among Chris- tian nations it has been thought best to celebrate it at a time when the feast would include Thursday. Fri- day and Sunday. In the early days the Christians, like the Jews, cele- brated it on a certain day of the month, but this has been changed to the present custom.
I consider that this day brings to us more joy than the commemora- tion of any other event that has hap- pened in the world. The Passover was instituted to remember that a number of the children of Israel were saved from death by obeying a certain command of God. namely, that of sprinkling the blood on the door posts ; then the angel of death passed over, and the first-born in the families of the Israelites was spared, while among the Egyptians, and those who did not obey this com- mand, the first-born was stricken with death. The Passover that we commemorate today is of much greater importance. While the old Passover commemorated the saving of a few. our Passover commemor- ates the victory over death, the bringing of life unto the w hole hu- man race. Every son or daughter of Adam is benefited by this great event, because the resurrection will come to all. Jesus voluntarily gave His life for us. and by doing so re- deemed us from the effects of the fall. How grateful and thankful we ought to be to Him.
Tn the morning of the day that He rose from the dead. He was seen bv some of the faithful women that believed in ITim. and by some of the
PRESIDENT ANTHON H. LUND.
13
apostles. On the same day He joined two disciples going to Em- maus, who were very much con- cerned about what had taken place. Then, ''beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them" the scriptures concerning Himself, proving that Christ should suffer and rise again. Afterwards, in telling about His speaking to them, they said that their hearts burned within them. They had not understood the great mission that He was to perform. That evening His apostles had gathered in a room with closed doors, and as they were talking He appeared in their midst. All but Thomas were present ; ten of them saw Him, felt of Him, and rejoiced that the Master was again with them. Next Sunday, Thomas, the doubter, seeing Jesus, was con- vinced that He had risen. After this Jesus met with the Apostles at Lake Gennesaret. They received in- structions from Him there, and Peter was called to be the shepherd over His flock.
While His body lay in the grave we are told that He went to the spirits in prison, and preached unto them. Luther in his little catechism said that Jesus went down to hell, and on the third day rose from the dead. Peter informs us of what He did during the time that He was in the spirit-world. The word "hell," as it occurs in the New Testament, has been translated from three dif- ferent words : Gehenna, Hades, and Tartarus. Whenever the word "Gehenna" is used it always means a place of torture, conveying the real meaning of the word "hell" to us. The other word is "Llades," which could have been translated better perhaps by the compound word "spirit- world." The Greeks under- stood the word to mean the realm of
Pluto, or the place for the shades of departed ones, and in the latter sense it is used in the scriptures. We read in the Bible that "death and hell" should give up their dead, and in the Book of Mormon we read a sim- ilar statement. Hell does not mean the place of torture to which the wicked will be assigned at the great judgment, though those who have been wicked, and transgressed the law here, are not apt to be very happy in the spirit-world.
Many people deny that the spirit lives, and can think and act between death and the resurrection. They who hold this opinion quote what the preacher says in the Book of Ecclesiastes, that "the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything ;" and in another verse in the same chapter he says, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do. do with all thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." And so they conclude that spirit and body sleep in the grave untij the day of resurrection. Not long ago I read a tract upon this subject in which the author rid- iculed the idea of the spirits going to the spirit-world, and he declared that there is no such thing as a hu- man spirit. Now, what did the preacher mean? Did he mean that the spirit and the body lay in the grave slumbering, and hence there is "no knowledge, no wisdom, in the grave" and that "the dead know- not anything?" No, I firmly believe that he alluded o'nly to the body : the body is laid in the grave and it does not know anything, for the part of man that knows, thinks and wills, has left. And that this was really his meaning I take from another of his sayings : "Then shall the dust re- turn to the earth as it was, and the
14
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
spirit shall return unto God that gave it." Now, this is said by the same man who wrote the above quo- tations, which are used so often against the doctrine of an interme- diate state between death and the resurrection. He declares that the spirit shall return to God who gave it ; consequently, he could not have included the spirit in his statement that "the dead know not anything;" he alluded to that part only that was laid in the grave.
Alma is very plain on the subject of an intermediate state. He tells us that the spirits of the righteous go to a place in the spirit-world called Paradise, a place of joy and happi- ness ; and that the wicked go to a place by themselves also, where thev are suffering in the knowledge of the judgment that is coming. Now, when Jesus' spirit left His body, it went to Hades, but I believe it went to Paradise first, for He said to the repentant thief upon the cross, "To- day shalt thou be with me in Para- dise." No doubt He went there, and first of all informed those who had served God and been righteous, and whose day of resurrection perhaps was near, of what he had been able to accomplish, that He had fulfilled His mission, had overcome death, and thereby brought the hope to all that they should be resurrected. After this, He went on the glorious mission to preach to the spirits in prison, those who at one time were disobedient, and had rejected the gospel preached by Noah. His mis- sion was to proclaim liberty to the captives, open the prison doors to them that were bound. He read from the scroll handed to Him in the synagogue at Nazareth — the first verses of the 61st chapter of Isaiah — and they describe His own mis-
sion, and allude to the work He was to perform. He brought joy to thousands who had so long been confined, and had suffered for their rejection of the gospel.
When He was resurrected, Mary discovered that He was the Master, and wanted to worship Him, but He told her not to touch Him for He had not yet been with the Father. We understand where He had been and the work He had done, for His. mission was not only to the few that heard Him on earth, but to all both living and dead ; He said Himself, "the hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall hear His voice." His mission was for all that should come upon the earth, and to all of them He brought re- lease from the bands of death, and He bestowed on all the precious blessing of the resurrection. But the resurrection will not be the same to all. for they who have done good will come forth unto the resurrec- tion of life, and they that have done evil will come forth unto the resur- rection of damnation. This we are told in the words of the Savior Himself.
Now, we rejoice here today in dwelling upon this great event. We feel that it was true, what the Prophet Joseph received by revela- tion and gave to us concerning the resurrection and salvation for the dead. This doctrine gives a satis- factory explanation of the justice of God. If it be true, what many in the world believe, that only the few that hear the doctrine of Christ and receive it should be saved, and that all the other myriads who come upon the earth should be condemned, be- cause they had not heard His name, then it looks very unjust. But when we remember what Peter says, that
BISHOP ORRIN P. MILLER.
15
the dead should hear the Gospel, that they might be judged accord- ing to men in the flesh, we begin to understand the justice of God. The Gospel will be preached to all ; every one shall hear of the Mission of Christ, and shall have a chance either to receive or reject, whether living upon the earth or whether they have departed. How broad is the platform of salvation ! The Lord is just to all, and no one coming be- fore His judgment seat shall be able to say that he has not been dealt with justly.
Now. brethren and sisters, I see the time allotted is past. I rejoice to be with you ; I rejoice in the Gospel as preached to us; I rejoice in the restoration of the Gospel and in knowing that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. May the Lord bless us all, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
President Smith stated that an- other overflow meeting will be held in the Assembly Hall, at 2 p. m., at which Elder Joseph F. Smith, Jr., will preside ; also an outdoor meet- ing", in front of the Bureau of Infor- mation, at the same hour, under di- rection of Elder George F. Rich- ards. He also announced that ar- rangements have been made, by the Presiding Bishopric, to furnish ac- commodations to Conference visitors who are not otherwise provided for.
"Rock of Ages," a soprano solo, was rendered by Sister Lily Shipp.
The choir sang the anthem, "Song of the Redeemed."
Benediction was pronounced by Elder Lewis Anderson.
Conference adjourned until 2 p. m.
OVERFLOW MEETING.
An overflow session of the Con- ference was held in the Assembly Hall, adjoining the Tabernacle, at 10 a. m. The services were presided over by Elder Rudger Clawson, and the Cottonwood Stake Choir, under direction of Manasseh Smith, fur- nished the music.
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.
The invocation was offered by Elder John R. Barnes. The choir sang the hymn :
As the dew, from heaven distilling, Gently on the grass descends,
And revives it, thus fulfilling What Thy providence intends.
BISHOP ORRIN P. MILLER.
(Of the Presiding Bishopric.)
It is a great surprise to me, my beloved brethren and sisters, to be called upon to address you for a few moments upon this occasion. My heart is full of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for this privilege, especially, of meeting with so many of the Latter-day Saints, and that we are assembled on such a beau- tiful Sabbath morning. The bosom of the earth having been refreshed by showers of rain, and then the sunshine, brings to our hearts thanksgiving and rejoicing, that we have such glorious conditions in coming together to worship the Lord.
When we think that this is Easter
16
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
Sunday, a very important day to us Latter-day Saints, with the views we have of the life of the Savior, it brings to us rejoicing and thanks- giving. Our hearts bound with hap- piness when we realize that we have been established in these valleys, in the fastnesses of the Rocky Moun- tains, according to the predictions of ancient as well as modern proph- ets. O what joy it brings to us when we see the tens of thousands of honest-hearted, devoted people as- sembling together this morning to worship the Lord, and to be taught of His ways, that we might walk in the path which He has marked out for us as His children. We could not help but repoice at this, and our hearts are made glad because we have confidence in those that are leading us as prophets, seers, and revelators, in this the dispensation of the fulness of times.
The great number of people that have gathered together upon this oc- casion have come from the various stakes of Zion, sixty-seven stakes now organized, and different states of the Union. I presume every stake in the Church is here represented ; I have noticed individuals from Can- ada on the north to Arizona and Old Mexico on the south, and T take it that all have come to headquar- ters, to the present center stake, that we may be taught of the wars and laws of the Lord, that we might be able to walk in His paths, and re- main true and faithful unto the end.
What joy and satisfaction these thoughts bring to us, when we look back over the history of our people. In looking over this congregation, we see pioneers who blazed the way across the desert and came inte these valleys many years ago, and helped to establish the ensign that was spoken of by one of the ancient
prophets, that should be established in the tops of the mountains, in the midst of the everlasting hills, and all nations should flow into it. We feel to rejoice that these prophecies are being fulfilled, and that we. the off- spring of those great pioneers, are enjoying these blessings, the fruits of their labor. When we reflect upon the conditions that confronted them when they came into the^e val- leys ; nothing but a barren waste, not a beautiful shrub or a tree, ex- cept the few that nature had pro- duced, the valley being desolate and barren, and the only human asso- ciate that they had, beside them- selves, was the Lamanite or native Indian ; and the howl of the coyote was heard on the plains and the prairies. When we look now at the condition of our people, luxury and ease evident in every valley in the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains, and we are enjoying the best and happiest and most prosperous times that have ever come to our people since the settlement of these valleys ; and when we reflect that many were buried upon the plains on the jour- ney from the Missouri "River — my grandfather was buried out on the lonely desert, rolled up in a blanket and put into a shallow grave — when T reflect upon these things. T feel grateful to God for the blessings that have come to us.
I feel like Neohi of old. full of gratitude and praise to my Heavenly Father, that T have been born of goodly parents, and that T have been taught in the ways of the Lord, that T might appreciate His bless- ings. And O how I rejoice that the hearts of my parents were touched when the humble elder came to them in their native country and preached unto them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as we understand and enjoy
BISHOP ORRIN P. MILLER.
17
it this day. We rejoice in these things because we understand and comprehend them. My parents re- ceived the Gospel in their native country, one of them across the ocean, in the land of the troubled nations of today, and their coming to this blessed country made it pos- sible for me to be present with you upon this occasion. Why should we not rejoice when we realize these things.
And now, my young brethren and sisters, you who have been born in these valleys, born "under the drop- pings of the sanctuary," heirs to the holy priesthood in the new and ever- lasting covenant which God has es- tablished in the earth, how we should rejoice in these things, and always be grateful and willing to bear our testimony to the great blessings which the Lord has given unto ns as His children. How we venerate the names and the mem- ories of our aged parents. We do not need to hire men to teach us, and to proclaim to us that the Gospel is true ; thousands of white-haired vet- erans could stand up in the congre- gations of the Saints today, should the President ask them, yea, ten thousand of them could rise up and proclaim in power and authority, but in a humble spirit, that they know Jesus is the Christ and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. We have been taught this truth, and have received a knowledge of it, we have received the Holy Ghost, and that testimony has come to us, hav- ing obeyed the law upon which these blessings are predicated. It is not guess-work with us ; we know it for a surety, we have been converted and convinced of these truths. We have been baptized in water, the same as the Savior was baptized by John, and we have come forth out of
the water, and had hands laid upon us for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost has come to us, and it has been as the prom- ises said, a constant companion and guide to us, a monitor of righteous- ness and truth, that shall remain with us forever, if we are faithful. These truths abide in our hearts ; we know they are true, no matter what the world may say about us Latter-clay Saints.
I desire to bear my testimony to the principles of the Gospel as they have been revealed to us. I have endeavored in my youth to accept every one of them, as the Prophet has revealed them ; and I bear my testimony to you that he has re- vealed no untruth, but everything that he has revealed has been the truth, and truth is mighty and will prevail. The Latter-day Saints can truly sing the beautiful hymn,
"High on the mountain top truth's ban- ner is unfurled,
Ye nations, now look up, it waves to all the world."
May the Lord bless us is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
ELDER CHARLES H. HART.
( Of First Council of Seventy.)
I rejoice with you, my brethren and sisters and friends, in the glory and beauty of this beautiful Easter morn, and for the hope and the as- surance which it brings unto us. It has been nearly eighty-five years now since the inauguration of these conferences, such as we are partici- pating in today. And during that time the people of the Church have become firmly established in the faith. They have stronger assur- ances and more evidences of the
18
GENERAL CONFERENCE
divinity of the work than ever be- fore.
Men have examined, from the standpoint of reason and philosophy, in later years as never before per- haps in the history of the world, the great problems of life, particularly the immortality of the spirit. And it is interesting for us to know that their deductions are in confirmation of the teachings of the Church. I rejoice with you that our Heavenly Father sent His only begotten Son in the flesh to dwell upon the earth, and to give us an example of the perfect life, and also that He per- mitted that He should die for the sins of the world, and that He might be resurrected, as a concrete ex- ample of the great doctrine of the immortality of the spirit and the resurrection of the body.
In the examination of this ques- tion of the immortality of the spirit, from the standpoint of reason and science and philosophy, men have considered the analogies we find in nature to those of the resurrection, and I think that the argument has not been stated more beautifully than by the present Secretary of this great Republic of ours. His words are familiar to many of you. They may seem trite even to some of you who are very familiar with them, but I think it would not be inappro- priate upon this Easter morn, to read this brief and concise argu- ment, by way of analogy with things we find in nature. He says :
"If the Father deign to touch with divine power the cold and pulseless heart of the buried acorn, and to make it burst forth from its prison walls with new life, will He refuse the word of hope to the sons of men when the frost of winter comes? If matter, mute and inanimate, when touched by the forces of nature to a multitude of forms can never die, will the spirit of
man surfer annihilation when it has paid a brief visit, like a royal guest, to this tenement of clay? No, I am as sure that there is another life as I am that I live this day. In Cairo I secured a few grains of wheat that had slumbered for more than three thous- and years in an Egyptian tomb. As I looked upon them this thought came into my mind: If one of these grains had been planted on the banks of the Nile the year after it grew, and if all its lineal descendants had been planted and replanted from that time till now, its progeny now would be sufficiently numerous to feed the teeming millions of the world. There is in a grain of wheat an invisible something that has power to discard the body which we see, and from earth and air fashion a new body so much like that one that we cannot tell the one from the other. And if this invisible germ of life in the grain of wheat can thus pass un- numbered through three thousand res- urrections, I shall not doubt that my soul has power to clothe itself with a body suited to its new existence, when this earthly form has crumbled into dust. If He stoops to give the rose- bush, whose withered blossoms float upon the autumn breeze, the sweet as- surance of another springtime, will He refuse the words of hope to the sons of men when the frosts of winter come? Will He leave neglected in the earth the soul of man made in the image of his Creator?
In a little while we shall see the worm weave about itself a shroud, and appear lifeless. But not so. In a short time the cerement will be broken, and instead of the ugly worm, a beautiful winged creature will burst from the prison house, and with beautiful wings will flit from flower to flower.
Some one has stated this argu- ment in the form of a question which really answers itself: "Shall man alone, for whom all else sur- vives, no resurrection know? Shall man alone, imperial man, be sown in barren ground, less privileged than the grain on which he feeds?" As I say, the question really con- veys its own answer.
ELDER CHARLES H. HART.
19
But philosophers have gone deeper than these mere analogies of nature, and they have examined the arguments made of old to test them and to see whether they hold good in the light of modern reason and science. The lines of the poet Addi- son, which immortalize the argu- ment of Plato, have been so exam- ined. Addison says :
"Plato, thou reasonest well; it must be so" — [That is, it must be that the spirit is immortal, and survives the death of the body.] Else whence this pleasing hope, This fond desire, this longing after im- mortality? Why shrinks the soul back upon itself, And startles at destruction? Or whence
This secret dread and inward horror of falling into naught?"
And he answers:
" 'Tis the divinity that stirs within us. 'Tis heaven itself that points out an
hereafter. And intimates eternity to man; Eternity, thou dreadful pleasing
thought."
As I say, the argument of the philosopher Plato embodied in these lines of the poet has been re-exam- ined, and has been found to be sound. Of course there would not be planted in the human soul for a vain purpose the strongest desire that exists. It would not be planted there only to be mocked.
One of the syllogysms upon the subject of the immortality of the spirit has for its terms the assump- tion of a reasonable universe, of a perfect Deity, and of the high value of human life. And. assuming these premises, then the conclusion fol- lows, with almost inevitable neces- sity, that man was not given life for a mere day. If we predicate the existence of a rational universe, peo-
pled with creatures whose life is of high value, presided over by an all- wise and perfect Father, then we can conclude that we are not mere creatures of a day, that we are not chance creatures, to live for a brief span and then pass into nothing- ness ; but we can rely upon the con- viction that came to the Prophet Job of old, when he exclaimed : "I know that my Redeemer liveth and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."
And why should there not be a resurrection of the body? Why should we not believe that the spirit is immortal? One of the greatest philosophers that America has pro- duced, John Fisk, in a work dedi- cated to his own children, makes the assertion that the assumption which some people indulge, that the spirit does not survive the death of the body is the most colossal instance of baseless assumption known to all the history of philosophy.
One Dickinson, a European chem- ist, speaking on this question at Harvard, giving one of the so-called Ingersoll lectures on immortality, says that it is mere dogmatism to say that the soul does not survive the death of the body, and that it is mere prejudice or inertia to declare that we cannot determine whether or not the soul does survive the death of the body. He and other philosophers use the word "soul" in the same sense as the word "spirit" is used by the Latter-day Saints.
A short time ago, in Great Brit- ain, there was assembled a notable gathering of scientists and philoso- phers, the first in the British king- dom, who came to hear one of their number, Sir Oliver Lodge, speak on this subject. After a very careful
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GENERAL CONFERENCE.
examination from a scientific and philosophical viewpoint of this sub- ject of the immortality of the spirit, Sir Oliver Lodge said, "Already the facts so examined have convinced me that memory and affection are not limited to that association with matter by which alone they can man- ifest themselves here and now, and that personality persists beyond the bodily death. The evidence to my mind goes to prove that discarnate intelligence under certain conditions may interact with us."
Investigations along that line by this philosopher and many of his as- sociates have firmly convinced them of this great underlying doctrine of Christianity, the immortality of the spirit, or as they express it, the im- mortality of the soul.
There have been many books written in recent times upon this subject. Professor Schuler of Har- vard has a book on the Individual, in which he treats upon the persist- ency and endurance of this thing we call the individual.
The poet Tennyson exclaims :
"O human will that shall endure When all that seems shall suffer shock."
Why should not the spirit and the body be immortal? They are com- posed of immortal elements. There is no doctrine better established in science than that of the conservation of energy ; that energy, coarse, or- dinary energy, cannot be annihi- lated. And what excuse would there be to suppose then that the form of energy, the highest known to the universe, the individual, should ever perish. Matter is also imperishable. There is no doctrine better established in science today than that matter cannot be annihi- lated. The particles of which our bodies are composed are immortal ;
they cannot be destroyed. The form may be changed, but the particles themselves can never be annihilated. And it is the promise of the Father, as exemplified in the life of the Lord and Master, that these im- mortal elements shall be inseparably connected with the spirit ; that mor- tality, that corruption shall be clothed upon with incorruption. One writer of comparatively recent times publishes a book, entitled, "The Scientific Demonstration of a Fu- ture Life," in which he undertakes to prove as a matter of science that the spirit survives the death of the body. It would not be profitable to take your time to go into the con- tents of this book by Mr. Hudson, a' psychologist of some standing. His argument is based upon the thought that there are some faculties of the human being that do not naturally function themselves in this life, and his argument is that there must needs be a future life for these same faculties to naturally function themselves.
We are accustomed to associate the manifestations of the spirit with the body in which it appears, and it is difficult for us to dissociate in our thoughts the combination that we have been thus accustomed to. United States District Judge Cross- cup, in an argument some years ago with Prof. Haeckel, (who is said to be the only materialist today who has delved deeply into psychological phenomena and not convinced him- self of the immortality of the spirit) Judge Crosscup says that if one's knowledge of the human voice were associated only with the telephone, if all one's information of the hu- man voice, or of singing, had come to him by way of the telephone, it would be a very natural thing for him to associate the human voice
ELDER REY L. PRATT.
21
with the telephone, and for him to erroneously conclude that if that instrument were destroyed that the human voice itself would cease. And he says — that it is no more rea- sonable to assume that the mani- festations of the spirit are thus in- separably connected with the human body, than to conclude in the cir- cumstances supposed that the hu- man voice is inseparably connected with the telephone.
Philosophers have gone into the question of the relation of the brain to thought, and have discussed the question whether thought is a func- tion of the brain and some have con- cluded that if thought can be in any sense considered a function of the brain it is not a function of the brain in the sense that steam is a function of the tea kettle, but rather it is a permissive function or trans- missive function such as these panes of glass perform in transmitting the. rays of light and heat into this room. If the medium is obscured, the function will be imperfectly per- formed, and yet the window glass is not the creator of the light. Be- yond the pane of glass is the great orb of day, and while this medium performs that function, either perfectly or imperfectly, according to its nature and condition of clean- liness, still the sun and not the glass is the source of light and heat. So the brain is a medium through which the spirit manifests itself.
But I rejoice with you, my brethren and sisters, that it is not necessary for us to go to the, reason- ing of science, or the deductions of philosophy for assurance upon this subject. It may be of interest, par- ticularly to the young who may not be as firmly founded in the truth as some of the older brethren and sisters are. But with the older por-
tion, they know that the Lord lives, that this is His Church, that we are His children, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He laid down His life in redemption of His children, and at the same time gave us the concrete assurance, that the body does not absolutely perish with its seeming death, that we can say of the apparently lifeless body, "not dead but sleeping," and be assured that the spirit of man endures, and shall endure for all the ages to come.
May the Lord bless us, and keep us in the faith, and in the guiding, sustaining and blessed assurances which the Gospel gives unto us, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
A double quartet of ladies, of Taylorsville ward choir, sang, "Easter Morn."
ELDER REY L. PRATT.
(President of Mexican Mission.)
I am happy, my brethren and sis- ters, to meet with you today in con- ference, and I sincerely trust that during the few moments I occupy I may have the Spirit of the Lord to direct my remarks ; and I ask you to give me your sympathy, your faith and prayers, that the Lord may aid me. I fully realize that to preach the gospel to a congregation, be they Latter-day Saints or people of the world, without the Spirit of God to direct, one is unable to preach the Gospel in a way that would be in- structive, and that would be accept- able to our Father in heaven.
Brethren and sisters, we are truly a remarkable people, and this great gathering today attests the remark- ableness of the Latter-day work, es- tablished through the instrumental-
22
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
ity of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The lives of the great body of re- ligious worshipers, known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, attest the fact that they are a peculiar people, that they are not of the world. This is exactly as it should be, for the Savior said to His disciples, when He labored with them, that if they were of the world the world would love its own, but because they were not of the world they were despised by the world.
Our peculiarity consists in differ- ent purposes, in a different outlook for the future, in different aspira- tions, in different habits in life. If we are living up to the professions that we make, our lives are cleaner and better than those of the world that surround us. The Savior said to His disciples, when He was with them, that if their righteousness did not exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the pharisees, in no man- ner should they inherit the kingdom of heaven. The same is true today ; with the great knowledge that we have of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and with the revelations we have re- ceived of the Lord as to how we ought to conduct our lives, if our righteousness is not greater than the righteousness of the people that have not received these things, I should say, in the words of the Savior, that in no wise can we in- herit the kingdom of our Father in heaven.
We are living, brethren and sis- ters, in a day of the fulfillment of prophecy. I will read to you just a little from the 24th chapter of Matthew. Speaking of the Savior, it says :
"And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying: Tell us when these things shall be? And what shall be
the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them: Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in My name, saying I am the Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earth- quakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations, for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall bestray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved."
It is not my purpose to particu- larly call your attention to this part of the Savior's prophecies that we are w itnessing the fulfillment of, for many things have occurred, since the great war in Europe began, that signify the fact, that the great con- flict that is going on in the world, and the great earthquakes that have taken place during our short lives, the remarkable manifestations of those great calamities in the earth directly prove that they are the ful- fillment of the prophecies of the Lord. I shall, however, during the short time that I stand before you, call your attention to another part of the prophecies of the Lord, that pertain particularly to us as a peo- ple, and that concern us even more than the destruction that is going on in Europe : it is contained in verse 14 of the same chapter: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a wit- ness unto all nations, and then shall the end come."
ELDER REY L. PRATT.
23
This has been, in some measure, fulfilled. This gospel of the king- dom has been set up in these latter days, with all of the gifts and powers that ever pertained to it in any dis- pensation in which it has been upon the earth, and it has been preached in many of the nations of the earth. But still there is a great work lying before this people in carrying the gospel of salvation unto millions who have never intelligently under- stood the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They have believed in false doc- trines, and have followed after teachers who have taught for doc- trines the commandments of men. They have not come in contact with the sweet spirit that emanates from a missionary clothed with the power of the holy priesthood to preach the Gospel of faith in God, the Father, in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the atonement, (which was so beauti- fully illustrated in the remarks made this morning by Brother Hart,) and of faith unto repentance, and bap- tism for the remission of sin. Mil- lions of people have never had these things brought aright to their atten- tion as the Lord has destined that it should be. It is our mission as a people, to preach this gospel to the world ; and we should enthuse our brethren with the desire to carry this message to those millions that do not know the truth. There are thousands of men in this Church, as stated by Bishop Miller, that are in every way capable of delivering to the world the truth in regard to the religion that will save them ; there are men in this congregation that could do this work effectively and well. But, are our minds led out along this line? are we thinking of the great work that devolves upon us? are we shaping our affairs to that end? I refer particularly to
members of the Seventies' quorums, as they are expected to be minute men in the work of preaching the Gospel to the nations of the world. Are you preparing yourselves, and shaping your affairs so that when the call comes you can be ambassa- dors of life and salvation to people that know not the truth?
This gospel is given to the world for the salvation of all mankind, providing they will live according to its. principles. But, how can they belive in Christ of whom they have not heard, and how can they hear except authorized ministers be sent to teach them that Christ is the means of salvation to the world ? It devolves upon us who have received the truth to take it to the world. It is not to be taken to one nation only, it is to be taken to all the nations of the world, according to the word of the Savior that I have read here. It is a common thing for many peo- ple to become narrow-minded. It was a common affliction among the converted Jews, they believed that the Savior's mission was particular- ly to them, and they believed that outside of them there was no fav- ored people of the Lord. It took a revelation from the Lord, and a great manifestation to Peter to con- vince him that the Gospel was also to the Gentiles, and that it was not for him to call unclean that that the Lord had said was clean. My breth- ren and sisters, this work is not only to the people of the same nation and race as ourselves, it is our mission to carry this message of salvation to all the world. Let us take into con- sideration that all mankind are the children of our Father in heaven^ and all mankind will have, accord- ing to the unchangeable decrees of" our Father in heaven, the privileges, of coming into His kingdom,
24
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
through this gospel that we have re- ceived. Peter said that he knew of a certainty, after he had received that great manifestation, that God was no respecter of persons, but that, out of every nation, he that would obey Him, and work right- eousness, would be accepted of Him ; and that is just as true today as it ever was. True it is that there are some nations less favored of the Lord than others. If you will read the history of those people, and the hand dealings of the Lord with them, you will find that their present conditions are a result of their fail- ure to receive the Gospel when it has been proclaimed unto them, but, in every instance, you will also find that God's justice has been manifest unto the people. This is particularly true of the people with whom T am laboring, the Lamanites. They have been brought to the condition in which they are today because of dis- obedience in the past. Rut the Lord has said He would, in His own due time, give them another trial, an- other chance. If you will take the time to read it, you will discover that the word of the Lord should go to them, from the Gentile nations to bring them back to a knowledge of the Christ.
I do not desire, my brethren and sisters, to occupy much more of the time this morning ; but I wish to emphasize the fact that the Lord will fulfill His promises, and that in His own way, in His own time, and just as is shown very plainly in III Nephi, in the Book of Mormon, I wish to read a few words to show 'that the Lord will fulfill all of His promises to His children, but He will do it in His own way. It is well for us to accept the Lord's way. and make ourselves willing and ready to work in it.
And now, behold, I say unto you that when the Lord shall see fit in His wisdom that these sayings shall come unto the Gentiles, according to His word, then ye may know that the covenant which the Father hath made with the children of Israel, concern- ing their restoration to the lands of their inheritance, is already beginning to be fulfilled; and ye may know that the words of the Lord which have been spoken by the holy prophets shall all be fulfilled; and ve need not say that the Lord delays His coming unto the children of Israel; and ye need not imagine in your hearts that the words which have been spoken are vain, for behold, the Lord will re- member His covenant which He hath made unto His people of the house of Israel. And when ye shall see these things coming forth among you, then ye need not any longer spurn at the doings of the Lord, for the sword of His justice is in His right hand, and behold at that day, if ye shall spurn at His doings, He will cause that it shall soon overtake you. Wo unto him that spurneth at the doings of the Lord; yea, woe unto him that shall deny the Christ and His works; yea, woe unto him that shall deny the rev- elations of the Lord, and that shall say the Lord no longer worketh by revelation or by prophecy, or by gifts, or by tongues, or by healings, or by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, and woe unto him that shall say at that day, to get gain, that there can be no miracle wrought by Jesus Christ; for he that doeth this shall become like unto the son of perdition, for whom there was no mercy, according to the word of Christ. Yea. and ye need not any longer hiss, nor spurn, nor make game of the Jews, nor any of' the remnant of the House of Tsrael, for behold the Lord remembereth His covenant unto them, and He will do unto them according to that which He hrtth sworn. Therefore ye need not suppose that ye can turn the right hand of the Lord unto the left, that lie may not execute judgment unto the house of Tsrael." (Ill Nephi, 29 chapter.)
How many arc there of us who are entirely guiltless of the things that the Lord has told in this chap-
ELDER ANDREW JEN SON.
25
ter that we should not do? How many of us are entirely guiltless of looking down upon the Jews and upon certain branches of the House of Israel, and how many of us are there that do not believe implicitly in our hearts that the Lord is going to fulfill these mighty and, as they look to us, almost impossible prom- ises unto those people?
1 testify to you, my brethren and sisters, that this word is true, and this book brought forth by the in- strumentality of Joseph Smith, is a revelation of God unto the world. And I testify that I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know that, through the power which God gave him, He established this Church, and it shall not be taken away again, but it will go on to perfection, and those who do not go with it will be lost, be- cause the Church is not going to be left to any other people. I testify, furthermore, that I know that those who have governed the Church, and led us up to the pres- ent time, have been inspired of God. I testify that I have received man- ifestations, that Joseph F. Smith, who presides over this conference, and the Church, at the present time, is a man inspired of God, and he leads this Church by the inspiration and Spirit of the Almighty. When I have heard criticism, I have told the critics that their criticism will bring them condemnation if they do not repent. God will not permit His servant to guide this Church into error, it is going to be guided to success. Again I say, Joseph F. Smith is inspired of the Lord in what he does in the government of this Church. May the Lord help us to realize our duties in this Church, and perform them faith-
fully, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
"O Divine Redeemer," was sung by Sister Ada Russell.
ELDER ANDREW JENSON.
(Assistant Church Historian.)
The limited time at my command will only permit me to express a thought which has come to me while the brethren have been speaking to us. It may be based upon the say- ing of the Savior, when He, in His famous sermon on the mount, speaks as follows: "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."
The successful affairs of this life are as a rule made up of happy mediums. To illustrate : If a man spends his money in a very liberal and imprudent way, we call him a spendthrift. If he is too close with his means, we are tempted to call him a miser. We admire the happy medium when a man is neither a spnedthrift nor a miser. Again we sometimes find men who to all ap- pearances are too self-important, who assume a certain extreme dig- nity, which conveys the idea to others, that they consider themselves better than other people. As a con- trast to these we find people who, figuratively speaking, crawl in a hole, who are 'too modest, who dare not assert themselves in anything, and who dare not step to the front to show their real ability and the talent which God has given them. These are two extremes which most people do not admire. We like a man who does not exhibit either of
26
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
these extremes — who is not too modest, nor too much inclined to self-assertion. Most of the successes which the human race have achieved in any of the affairs of life have been based on a happy medium.
The Latter-day Saints are by most unprejudiced people referred to as a good and honest community. Sometimes, perhaps, we may over- draw the mark in regard to our own virtues and goodness. But true it is that we are not the people that our enemies claim that we are, when they endeavor to paint us black, and make us appear real wicked. Per- haps at times we go to the extreme in doting on and speaking of our purity and virtues, for even in that regard there is necessarily a happy medium and a certain way of get- ting at the truth.
I have given this matter quite se- rious attention while I, during the past years, and particularly during the last few months, have been bus- ily engaged in perusing the history of the Church, or recording the ac- tions of the Latter-day Saints in these valleys. I have patiently gath- ered together the events of each day in regular chronological succession from the very day the pioneers first arrived in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in July, 1847, to the close of the Nineteenth Century, and I find this truth proven beyond all doubt and beyond every attempt at successful contradiction, that there has from the beginning been a great difference in the general morals of the Latter-day Saints when they have been alone in these mountains and when they have been associated with other people not of their faith. In other words, the Latter-day Saints, ( when they have had an op- portunity to regulate their affairs according to their own religious and
moral convictions or practical creed), have been far better than at other times when they, in a sense, have been helpless in the hands of others, or associated with more worldly-minded and less God-fear- ing neighbors.
From the day of the arrival of the pioneers here in 1847 till the month of June, 1849, the "Mormons'" were alomst alone in these valleys. There was scarcely any one here who did not belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is very interesting indeed to read of the good morals and tenets of the people as they were reduced to practice at that time — a people who showed by their actions that they were indeed a God-fearing people, though suffering with poverty and want and beset with very many diffi- culties incident to western pioneer life. But they were a moral and virtuous people. Scarcely an oath or anything tending to vulgarity or blasphemy were heard in the streets of Great Salt Lake City in these early days. There was no drunken- ness or immoral practices to speak of. The vices that try good men's souls and which are so detrimental to the progress of a moral com- munity were almost unknown.
But in the year 1849, after the gold had been discovered in Cali- fornia, a certain class of travelers commenced to pass through the Great Salt Lake Valley. Some of these were very good people, who not only behaved themselves like gentlemen, but who also spoke truthfully of the Latter-day Saints, calling them an honest and a God- fearing people. Some of these trans- continental travelers who had lis- tened to slanderous reports circulat- ing in the East were indeed sur- prised to find that the "Mormons"
ELDER ANDREW J EN SON.
27
in the far-off valley of the Great Salt Lake consisted chiefly of men and women of most excellent char- acter and morals. Some of these travelers, however, were men of bad morals who endeavored to introduce vice of a serious nature among the Latter-day Saints. Thus, barring a few isolated cases, the year 1849 witnessed the first introduction into these valleys of real blasphemy, theft, robbery, and other things re- pugnant to the feelings of a true Christian.
In course of time, or after the lapse of a few years, the evils intro- duced into the midst of our people by these travelers (who were mostly bound for California and Oregon) subsided, and the "Mormons" were again left almost alone for a season. During that period we enjoyed com- paratively speaking immunity from nearly all the vices prevailing at that time in what we generally called the outside world, and the "Mormons" in. the Great Salt Lake Valley again made a record that reads well as matters of history at the present time.
These happy conditions, however, were overturned to a very great ex- tent in the year 1858, when the so- called Johnston Army entered the Great Salt Lake Valley. There were about six thousand American troops and upwards of eleven thousand camp-followers. Most of the latter were men of questionable character, and there were also a few women whose morals were calculated to disgrace any community who would encourage their nefarious practices ; and yet these same people claimed that they came to Utah to teach the "Mormons" better morals. The complaint had been made against us in the East that we were not moral, and that we were the opposite to a
,good people. Hence, these men and women, to whom I refer, were sent here, or came here of their own free will and choice, to introduce a higher and better civilization than the one which had existed before. Without going into details I will simply say in this connection that for the time being a most wonderful change took place in the moral status of certain localities in this intermountain region, particularly in Salt Lake City and Camp Floyd where most of the soldiers and camp-followers made their head- quarters. Quarreling, fighting, steal- ing, robbing and killing became common occurrences among the non-"Mormon" element in these valleys. One old settler said, "I have now lived in Provo ten years and I have heard more blasphemy and witnessed more vice in Salt Lake City in twenty-four hours than I have heard or witnessed all the time I have lived in the 'Mormon' town of Provo."
I do not desire to draw an ex- treme picture of these changing con- ditions. I desire simply to refer to facts and present the truth as I find it recorded in the annals of a people who have ever been known to keep good records. Nor do I take as my authority "Mormon" statements alone, but the statements of other honest men and women who were not afraid to tell the truth and- to speak of things as they found them.
The Latter-day Saints are by no means a perfect people, but what- ever may be said in regard to the "Mormons" on the one hand and the non-"Mormon" element on the other, the facts are these that at such times when the "Mormons" have been almost the sole inhabitants of these mountain valleys and have lived according to the religion of the
28
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
Latter-day Saints — the principles or creed known as "Moimonism," which we call the true Christian re- ligion— they have excelled in purity, honesty and sobriety. We have, in other words, fostered a practical Christian civilization whenever we have been let alone and given liberty to show our real characteristics.
Passing on in my observations I will merely state that after the epi- sodes of 1858 and the few following years most of the soldiers who had arrived in the Valley were ordered away to participate in the war be- tween the North and the South, and most of the camp-followers left the territory about the same time. After their departure we had another sea- son of peace, comparatively speak- ing, and Christian civilization, in which purity of life again played a most prominent part. This condi- tion continued until the year 1869, when the Union Pacific Railroad was finished, and with that event came the introduction into Utah of a civilization of which we have never been proud. Then it was that we got the perpetual saloon, the per- petual house of ill-fame and those other perpetual things of evil which we often shudder to think of, espe- cially when we realize what it means as temptations and inducements to out young people.
After a while conditions again changed a little for the better. Our people succeeding to a considerable extent to maintain law and order in a mixed community. But then came the remarkable year of 1890 when the "Mormons" lost permanent con- trol of Salt Lake City, Ogden and a few other towns. Since that time we have had to submit to the pres- ence of nearly all the vices, evils, and abominations which are cursing nearly every large city in the whole
so-called civilized world. We are endeavoring to keep our young peo- ple as well as ourselves away from evil doing, but in many instances we are not as successful as we would like to be.
From the various examples which I have quoted from history we can judge pretty well of "the fruits of the tree." We have had the priv- ilege of looking upon the different pictures of conditions in the differ- ent periods of our territorial and state history. We can compare notes with conditions when the in- habitants of Utah were almost pure- ly "Mormon" and when they have been mixed with other people.
While I do not desire to laud my people, the Latter-day Saints, to the sky as a perfect people, I neverthe- less glory in telling the truth. I have belonged to the Latter-day Saints since I was a little boy and I love my people. I cannot feel satis- fied to stand silently by always, when I witness the wrongdoing of those who oppose us and listen to the vituperation and false accusa- tions which come from the outside world or from people who do not know us, or. worst of all, from those enemies in our own midst who know that they are not telling the truth. Once in a while I feel like raising my voice against the false accusa- tions concocted against us and en- deavor to make such corrections as are within my power.
Without exaggeration and with- out stating anything bordering on the extreme the facts are, that when we as Latter-day Saints have had an opportunity to live by ourselves and to regulate our domestic and civil affairs according to our belief and preferences, we have ever built up model Christian communities. On the other hand, when we have been
ELDER SAMUEL O. BENNION .
29
more or less in the power and under the influence of people opposed to us, we have to a greater or less ex- tent become mixed up with worldly affairs; for with our best efforts to steer clear of the "evils and vices in- troduced amongst us, we have occa- sionally yielded through weakness to that which is forbidden in the Word of God.
In conclusion I assert that history bears out the fact that the fruit of the "Mormon" tree is good, far bet- ter than the fruit plucked from the so-called up-to-date Christian civili- zation which has been introduced amongst us from time to time. Whenever we have been mixed up with outside influences our high standard of morals has invariably been reduced.
God bless you, my brethren and sisters. May the Lord God, our Heavenly Father, enable us to be faithful and true to the command- ments which He has given us and to the teachings of the Savior of the world, whom we adore and in whom we believe. May we continue to be a practical Christian people, and while we are at the present time a mixed community, let us take a con- sistent stand and be determined to serve the God of our fathers, remain true to our covenants, and ever have our eyes and ambition directed to- ward the Kingdom of God. While others may do wrong, let us en- deavor to retain our characteristics of purity, honesty and uprightness. I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
ELDER SAMUEL O. BENNION.
(President of Central States Mission.)
I realize, my brethren and sisters, what it means, in some measure at least, to occupy this position, ad-
dressing an audience of Latter-day Saints, many of whom have been reared in the Church, and filled missions abroad ; I realize the responsibility that attends the speaker and the audience together, that the Spirit of the Lord may di- rect the words of the one who ad- dresses them.
I feel very weak in attempting to speak to you this morning, but I have been interested in the remarks that have been made by the speakers at this session of the conference ; and though we remain only a few moments longer in this meeting, I trust we may find it possible to com- mune with each other so that we will all be edified and blessed.
I have been interested in the mis- sionary work for a good long while, and have learned what it means to enjoy the Spirit of the Lord. In speaking to the public, either to the Latter-day Saints or those who are not termed Saints, I have found that all men are more or less interested in religion, if you can get men to gath- er their thoughts for a short time, and concentrate them upon the many gifts and blessings that the Lord has given His children on this earth. I have never met a man in my experience but what wanted to be saved, but desired that, sometime in the future, he might dwell with our Father in heaven. I am re- minded always of the words of the Savior when He appeared unto Mary and told her to go and tell her brethren. He told her to touch Him not, for, said He, "I am not yet ascended to my Father ; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father ; and to my God, and your God." All men and women in the earth are children of the same God, and are entitled to His blessings ac-
30
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
cording to their works ; and as a result of their works they will be rewarded at some future time. Here where we have grown up, the ma- jority of the people who belong to the Church have, I suppose, been born under the covenant, and have been familiar with the Gospel of Jesus Christ from childhood. They have become acquainted with it through early instruction, beginning in the Primary, then in the Mutual Improvement Association, Sunday School, etc., and many have gone on missions into the world ; it seems almost that they were born Latter- day Saints.
I believe that a man's condition here is largely the result of his pre- existence, a subject which has been commented upon a little this morn- ing. A person's future will depend largely upon his life here. Today's condition is largely the result of yesterday's actions, and tomorrow will be largely affected by today. If men and women are inclined toward the Lord today, they are pretty apt to be that way tomorrow, and so on. I have learned that it is very profit- able for any man to be a possessor of a testimony of the Gospel ; to know that Jesus is the Christ, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God : such testimony is a gift of God. T have learned also that re- pentance is a gift of God, and that men cannot truly repent unless the Lord gives them the spirit of re- pentance. He gives all men the gift of repentance who draw near unto Him, and desire to forsake evil and choose the good. The same gospel that was given to man in the days of Adam, and in the days of all the holy prophets, is here upon the earth in this dispensation of the fulness of times.
I am inclined to believe that the
work of the Lord is nearing an end here, and that His work will not continue many more years. Accord- ing to the time of the Lord, we are in the last days, and this gospel must be preached diligently. For this purpose, more men and women are sent into the world today than at any other period, and still the cry is for more missionaries. There has never been a time in the history of our missions when there was more need of numerous missionaries than at the present time. Last summer there were four cities in the Central States Mission under the ministra- tion of only one elder and two lady missionaries, all that we could leave with them. They traveled from one city to another every week, encour- aging the people who were investi- gating the gospel. There are some men in this congregation who could go into the mission field, if they made up their mind to do it, and it would be a splendid experience for them, and a blessing to those to whom they ministered. I want to tell you that no man ever acquired a thorough knowledge of anything except by experience. He never truly acquires a knowledge of the advantages of money only as he has to toil in earning it. Property that comes to a man through inheritance is seldom properly appreciated by him ; in a majority of cases they lose it in a short time. Experience in the mission field, at home and abroad, is the best kind of training, the thing that fastens the gospel in the minds of the missionaries till they are able to hold fast and walk by the light of it. Preaching the .'gospel wherever permitted and practically living it, is a sure method of attaining success.
The Lord has said, in the 58th section of the Doctrine and Cove-
ELDER SAMUEL O. BEN N ION.
31
nants, that "men should be anxious- ly engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteous- ness ; for the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto them- selves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward." And so, my brethren and sisters, the power is in you and me, given by our Eternal Father, to every one of His sons and daugh- ters, that they may be prepared to work in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, at home and abroad. We can plan for a future experience in the mission field, a short or a long one, according to our desires. My brethren and sisters, it has been my desire to impress upon this body of men and women that missionaries are needed, men of experience. I want to say to you that I have never seen anyone come into the mission field yet but what there is a place for him. and there have been people somewhere who would listen to him. But we need older men than former- ly. The time has arrived, I firmly believe, when men who have already had an experience in the mission field are most needed. Experience keeps men alive, fresh and able ; de- cay results if we get into ruts, drift into easy paths, or become inactive. I believe that the Lord desires that the Priesthood in this Church should, every one of them,* be at work, at home or abroad ; and I be- lieve that all who are able to act as missionaries will be called. Joseph Smith said that every man who was called into the ministry in the world was ordained unto that calling be- fore the world was. If that be the case, they undoubtedly understood the gospel of Jesus Christ in the pre-existent state. My brethren and
sisters, in order to obtain the bless- ings that have been pronounced upon the elders of Israel, those who are called will have to use the free agency that God gave unto them and exercise the power of their Priesthood in fulfilling the. require- ment that has been made of them. The Lord has said that "many are called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen? Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world." Men en- gage in business, and lose sight of the greater blessings and privileges, and the purpose for which they came into the earth.
My brethren and sisters, time will not permit me to speak longer. I enjoy knowing that I am a Latter- day Saint. I value my membership in this Church as the greatest pos- session that has ever come to me. I rejoice in the knowledge that the Lord lives, and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, that this is the Church of Jesus Christ, and that this people called Latter-day Saints are His people. I know that those who go down into the waters of baptism will be accepted of Him. I know that Joseph Smith received the reve- lations of the Lord which he said he did, and that he received a visitation of the Father and the Son, and mes- sengers from the heavenly world.
I humbly pray that the blessings of the Lord will continue with us each day while we live upon the earth, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
A male quartet rendered a selec- tion.
The Choir sang, "The Palms."
Bishop Peter C. Rasmussen pro- nounced the benediction.
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GENERAL CONFERENCE.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
In the Tabernacle. Conference was resumed at 2 p. m.
President Joseph F. Smith called the meeting to order.
The Choir sang the anthem, "Let the Mountains Shout for Joy."
Prayer was offered by Elder Milton H. Welling.
The Choir sang the anthem, "I waited for the Lord."
PREST. CHARLES W. PENROSE.
The living word of God — The Easter Anniversary — Christ's literal resur- rection— Evidences of the fact — The universal resurrection — Christ's par- entage— The Father, a Being of Tabernacle — The Holy Ghost a "Personage of Spirit" — The Spirit of God a boundless essence — Adam as the head of our race — We wor- ship only the eternal Father.
I should have been well repaid for coming to this conference if I had only had the pleasure, that I now enjoy, of looking upon this vast congregation composed chiefly of Latter-day Saints, members of the Church of Jesus Christ, which He has established in the last days and for the last time, but I appreciate the privilege afforded me of ad- dressing my brethren and sisters, and earnestly desire that the good spirit which was present with us during our morning exercises will be with us this afternoon, and that I may be inspired by the same spirit which was present with us at the opening session.
This morning I felt that we were receiving the word of God. We have some books which we recog- nize as containing the word of God : The Bible, composed of the Old and
New Testaments, and the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, which we recognize as the written standards of doctrine in the Church. These contain revelations given in the past; some of them in the very distant past. But it is a great consolation to me and must be to all Israel that we have the liv- ing word of God today, and that that which is spoken under the influence of the Holy Ghost is just as much the word of God, just as important and just as binding upon the people of God, as that which was given in former times. "Holy men of old spake and wrote as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost," so Peter declared, and we can say that holy men in these latter times have spoken and do speak under the in- fluence of the same Spirit, and it is no less the word of God when it is spoken by that divine influence than that which was spoken under it hundreds of years ago.
I do not think there was any prophet of God in any age of the world who brought forth more truth and more important truths than were revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith. And since his day, as necessity has required, we have had the word of God through His living successors, and I am very grateful today for the privilege and blessing to live at a time when God speaks by the power of the Holy Ghost through His inspired ser- vants, and when He bears witness to the souls of those who will re- ceive His word the truth of that which is uttered. From my own feelings this mor'h'ing I believe that the general sentiment throughout Cne vast congregation assembled in this tabernacle, was, that we had the living word of God and it entered
PRESIDENT CHARLES W. PENROSE.
S3
our souls and we felt that we wanted to do that which the Lord requires of us ; that we were willing to re- ceive the instructions imparted by the man who holds the keys today, just as much as Joseph the prophet held them in his time, and as they were held by Peter in his time, or by any of the prophets of God who lived from the beginning. I am grateful for this and for the testi- mony of Jesus which is in my heart, that I know that my Redeemer lives and that through Him and by Him, if I will observe His laws and keep His commandments and be led by His Spirit, T shall have the privilege of rejoicing with Him in immortal glory in the presence of the Father.
Today is celebrated throughout Christendom as the anniversary of the day on which Jesus who had been put to death on the cross, rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples, as was related by Presi- dent Lund this morning. I hope you all heard his brief discourse. If you didn't hear every word of it I hope you will read it when it is printed and published. I take pleas- ure in bearing testimony to the truth of that which He uttered, and which was spoken by the apostles whom Jesus Himself, in person, sent out into all the world after His appear- ance to them. I do not know whether this is actually the proper anniver- sary of that day, that Sunday morning, "the first day of the week," when Christ arose from the dead and made his personal appear- ance to Mary in the Garden, and afterwards to others of His follow- ers, to demonstrate to them the fact that He was living though He had been dead. It is not so much the time, the day, as the fact which is important.
Is it a fact that Jesus of Nazareth,
who was taken by wicked hands and nailed upon the cross, and crucified, and was slain and was buried, really rose from the dead? To us Latter- day Saints the matter seems so clear and plain that we wonder that any- body should dispute this, particu- larly among any of the so-called Christian sects. It is a marvel to us that men professing to be Christian- preachers will try to make their fol- lowers believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not a literal fact, but that His Spirit merely rose from the body and the body went to dust like the bodies of all people as is generally supposed. Yet we read in some of their creeds that Jesus "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, buried and on the third day after, He rose from the dead." But if the notions that are now being taught to the people concerning Him are true, then He was raised on the day that He was crucified, not on the third day ; that His spirit left His body after it had hung for some hours upon the cross, for there He said: "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." So we read in the New Testament, "And He bowed His head and gave up the ghost." So that the Spirit of Jesus, the Christ, ascended from the body while His body hung upon the cross, and they took down the defunct body and buried it in the tomb pre- pared by Joseph or' Arimathea. It was on the third day after that that He rose from the dead, accord- ing to the account which we have in the New Testament and which is generally received in word by the various sects of Christendom.
Now is it a fact, is there evidence and proof that the man Jesus, who was crucified on the cross, actually rose from the dead and that in His
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body He appeared to His disciples? We believe that with all our hearts. We have had additional testimony and evidence to that which we read about in the New Testament, but I will read to you a few verses from the testimony of Paul on the sub- ject, which I think are important in the way of evidence of the actual fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is in that remarkable dis- course contained in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. That is. that which is called the First Epistle, for I find in the fifth chapter of that epistle he speaks of the former epistle that he wrote, on a certain very important subject, so that what is called "The First Epistle to the Corinthians" is merely the first that we have. I will commence at the first verse. I recommend the read- ing of this whole chapter to every- body interested in this very import- ant subject. A great manv verses from it are read usually at funerals, particularly by the Episcopal Church, and by some of the other churches. There are so manv beau- tiful utterances in this chapter that they ought to be familiar to all peo- ple who profess to be Christians. Paul commences this chapter in' this way :
"Moreover, brethren. T declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ve have received, and wherein ve stand;
"P>v which also ve are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you. unless ve have believed in vain.
"For T delivered unto vou first of all that which T also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures: and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures; and that he was seen of Cephas," [that is another name for Peterl. "then of the twelve:
"After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
"After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
"And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
"For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God."
Then we have the Avritten testi- mony of the men who are called the evangelists, the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark. Luke and John. Luke was a very fine writer. Tt is supposed that he wrote the Acts of the apostles. T believe that is generally conceded. P>ut we have in each of these writings called the Gospel of Matthew, and the Gospel of Mark, and of Luke and of John, distinct evidence given bv persons who saw the Savior after His res- urrection, and particularly that which is given by Luke, which T recommend you to read. Read the last chanter of "the Gospel accord- ing to Saint Luke" for in that we are told very definitely, that Jesus appeared to His apostles when thev were gathered in an upner room for fear of the Tews, and "thev were terrified and affrighted and sup- nosed thev had seen a spirit." Rut Tesus said unto them : "Why are ve troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?" Pehold My hands and Mv feet, that it is T. My- self, handle Me and see. for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ve see Me have." And while thev believed not vet for joy. and wondered, He said to them. Have ve here any meat? and thev gave Him a. piece of a broiled fish, and of an honev- ro«A \nd He took it. and did eat before them."
PRESIDENT CHARLES W. PENROSE.
35
Why did He do that, do you sup- pose ? W as it not to prove to them the fact that He was there in His body, the same body although changed in many particulars that hung on the cross, for there were the marks of the nails that were driven through His hands, and the mark of the Roman spear in His side, which He afterwards showed to Thomas and to others. What was the object that He had in view? Why to show them that He was not a mere spirit separated from the body, but that He was there in the body and that He was raised from the dead. Not only did these four men that I speak of give this testi- mony, but we have the writings of Peter, and of James, and here of Paul. And Paul wrote of some- thing which was well understood, evidently, among the disciples, the members of the Church then, that five hundred of the brethren at once saw Him, and knew that He lived and that He was in the body, that He was a tangible being with flesh and bones — not merely "flesh and bone" as so many of our brethren quote it — but flesh and bones, the same appearance of flesh and of bones that He had while He was in mortality. Paul explains in this same chapter, that when the body is placed in the grave it is placed there somewhat like we sow grain, He says, "it may chance of wheat or some other grain ; but that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die." He showed that Jesus' body was placed in the grave and that He came forth again. As to the deceased body he says : "It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incor- ruption. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." Further, he declares the
fact that "Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection from the dead." The great song of that time was, as we heard this morning "Christ is Risen!" Hallelujah! Praise to God for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, for it was the Father that raised up Christ from the dead! And in writing to the Romans, Paul de- clares : "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." (Rom. 8:11). Paul also, in writing to the Phil- ippians, declares that, "We look for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ" to come from heaven, "who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." (Phil. 3:21). Now then as to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the fact seems to be just as well authenticated as the fact of His death and of His burial. Not only do we have these testimonies in the New Testament, but we have the testimony in the Book of Mormon which the Prophet Joseph translated by the gift and power of God, giv- ing a great deal of the history of the dealings of God with the ancient people on this continent; and- there we read of the appearance of Jesus, the Christ, to the Nephites, and He showed them His hands and His feet and invited them to test and prove that He was there in the body, not merely a spirit extricated from the body, a disembodied spirit, but the man Jesus, the Lord Christ raised from the dead, appearing in His resurrected body.
Again, we have the testimony in our own day of the Prophet Joseph,
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GENERAL CONFERENCE.
when a boy, in that first glorious manifestation of God to man in the 19th century. Joseph prayed to God in regard to the various religions existing in the world; he prayed that he might have knowledge and light concerning which was the true religion ; and we have that beau- tiful, simple, striking and touching account which you have all read, no doubt, when the Father and the Son both appeared to him and the Father, pointing to the Son, said: 'This is my beloved son, hear him." It was Jesus the Christ raised from the dead that appeared to the prophet and that spake to him and taught him in regard to the fallacy of the teachings of men and their departure from the faith, and prom- ised that the truth should be re- stored in its fullness. I need not dwell further on that particular case.
But, again, we read in the 76th section of the Doctrine and Cove- nants that on a certain day men- tioned there, Joseph Smith and Sid- ney Rigdon, being engaged in the work of revision or translation of the scriptures, came to a passage in the writings of John, and it was given to them in a way. a little dif- ferent to what it is in the New Testament. Jesus, who declared Himself, when among His disciples, when in mortality, as "the resur- rection and the life," saying that He had life in Himself, as the Father had life in Himself, and that He had power to lay clown His life and to take it up again. He added:
"Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth — they that have done good, in the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil in the resurrec-
tion of damnation. (Jno. 5 :28, 29).
It was given to the Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon in this wise: "They that have done good, in the resurrection of the just ; and they that have done evil, in the resurrec- tion of the unjust," — quite similar in meaning only a little different in the wording. But they marveled at this, and they prayed, and they de- clare that the eyes of their under- standing were opened, and thev saw the Lord seated upon His throne and Jesus the Christ on His right hand ; they saw Him in the heavenly vision and conversed with Him and they said :
"Now, after the many testimonies that have been given of Him this is our testimony last of all, that we give of Him. that He lives, for we saw Him on the right hand of God, and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the only begotten Son of God; that by Him, and through Him and of Him the worlds are and were created, and the inhab- itants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God." There is a great truth in that, which you might think about when you have a little leisure time, and see how wide and extensive a field it opens to view, and how it carries you into the deal- ings of God and His relationship to the beings who inhabit the various worlds that He has created ; and therein we have a definite revelation that the worlds are inhabited, which has been a matter in great dispute for many years and is so still.
These are some of the evidences and testimonies concerning the Savior — that He rose from the dead, that He was resurrected, and that the resurrection was the raising of the body that was crucified on the cross, quickened by the power of God, by the vital spirit which quick-
PRESIDENT CHARLES W. PENROSE.
37
eneth all things that are quickened. The Apostle Paul goes on to reason that if Christ was not risen, then we will not rise from the dead ; but that if He has been raised from the dead then we also shall be raised ; and he goes on to show how uni- versal that resurrection shall be — ■ some to come forth in the resurrec- tion of the just, and some in the resurrection of the unjust, and that there are to be different grades of glory among those that are resur- rected. If you want to learn a little more about that, in greater plain- ness, read the 88th section of the Doctrine and Covenants and you will find there something that may be called philosophical as well as theological. Those that obey celes- tial laws will so improve and purify and sanctify their bodies that those bodies will be fit to come forth in ''the first resurrection" to celestial glory, and that they will then be "bodies celestial ;" while those who would not receive the laws of God which are celestial, that is, receiving every word that comes from the mouth of God, but will obey a ter- restial law, will be quickened by a portion of the terrestial glorv and receive of the same in a fulness ; and, as we learn also in The Vision, they will not be bodies celestial but "bodies terrestial," a different class, but raised from the dead and quick- ened by the power of that vital spirit which quickeneth all things. And they who do not receive the terres- tial laws but only the telestial, will come forth in the resurrection, raised with a telestial body and be Quickened by the telestial glory. In the revelation that I referred to, in the 88th section, we learn that they will improve, as all things will have to, for progress is the law of the universe, and all beings, all intelli-
gences will have an opportunity of progressing along certain lines. Those who are of a celestial body shall come forth and have a body like unto the glorious body of the Son of God, and will dwell in His presence and be with Him in glory in the presence of the Father, while those who only obey the terrestial or the telestial laws, after they are re- deemed will come forth in the way that is described, "but where God and Christ dwell" — so it is said of the telestial — "they never can come worlds without end." That may answer some queries that are made in some of our theological classes. Now this all depends upon the res- urrection of Jesus the Christ. I say Jesus the Christ because that is what He was. Some few of our brethren get a notion in their heads that the Christ is not a person but a power ; but Jesus is called the Christ, over and over again both in former and in latter day revelation ; also He was the Logos, the Word of God. Not merely a word spoken but He is called the Word because the word of God came through Him and was embodied in Him. In the 93rd sec- tion of the Doctrine and Covenants you will read His own words about it, that He was the Word just as John declared; that He came forth from God, that He was in the be- ginning with God and was the first- born.
Here is another point in the his- tory of that great and extraordinary Being. I say extraordinary, for He is different in many respects from all the sons of men : In the first place He is called the first-born in the spirit world ; He is called the first-born here in the Epistle to the Hebrews and in Colossians, and in the opening chapter of John's dis- course or "Gospel" He is called the
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GENERAL CONFERENCE.
only begotten son of God, "for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that through Him man might not perish but have everlasting life." Now here are two statements about Him, that He was the first-born ; He makes that state- ment to us in the revelation concern- ing Himself; "I also was in the be- ginning with the Father, and am the first-born." Some people have a notion that the first-born was that being who afterward was called Satan, Lucifer, who rebelled. That is a mistake ; Christ Himself puts that at rest by stating distinctly : "I also was in the beginning with the Father and am the first-born. Man also was in the beginning with God. That which is spirit," that portion of man that is spirit "was in the be- ginning with God ;" but Jesus, as He was called on earth, was the first-born and He dwelt in the pres- ence of the Father. What was He — the Father? No; He could not be His own father nor His own son, and Jesus was the Son of The Father, the Son of the Highest, and He was the first-born, and we were born afterwards in the spirit ; so that Christ was the first-born in the spirit. How was He brought forth — as an individual, conscious, thinking, intelligent spirit with agency? Why, He was begotten of the Father, and therefore the at- tributes of the Father came to Him by generation, and so to us, meas- urably, every one of us : but on the earth He was "the only begotten Son of God," born of the Virgin Mary. Let me read a verse from the description given to us by Luke on this matter. It is well enough to read all that was said concerning Jesus the Christ, because He was the greatest of all beings who ever dwelt upon the face of the earth. In
the first chapter of the Gospel ac- cording to St. Luke we are told of a prophecy made through the father of John the Baptist concerning Him and we also read there that He should be called "the Son of the Highest," and that John should be a prophet to go before Him and pre- pare the way. Now here in this chapter we have an account of the appearance of an angel to Mary who was one of the ministering spirits and ladies in the temple. The angel appeared to her and hailed her in this way :
"And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.
"And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus." [The mean- ing of the word Jesus being Savior.}
"He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of His father, David:
"And He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.
"And the angel said unto her: The Holj' Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over- shadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
Do you need any plainer explana- tion of this matter? This is con- sidered to be one of the great mys- teries, in the religious world. If you understood it just exactly as it is, it would not be so great a mystery. Believe what is written there by Luke, for that is the truth. Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of Mary and Lie was the Son of God, con- ceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, as all things are, but not be- gotten. Some of our good friends who desire to dispute with us, say that the "Mormons" don't believe in true doctrine, for they do not believe
PRESIDENT CHARLES W. PENROSE.
39
that Jesus was begotten by the Holy Ghost. Well, the scripture does not say that He was ; it does not say any where that He was "begotten of the Holy Ghost." The Holy Ghost rested upon Mary, but the power of the Most High overshadowed her, and that which was born of her was the Son of God. He was the only be- gotten Son of God — not of the Holy Ghost — as well as the Son of Mary. He "was the first-born in the spirit, and as a Son of God the only begot- ten in the flesh. Therefore, as I said. He is an exceptional Being.
If you want to read more about Him in this respect, take the first and second chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the first chap- ter of Colossians, that I haven't time to read here this afternoon, for I don't want to take up too much time ; but it is very interesting to read there how that He was the greatest, that He was the first, and so that He might "bring many sons unto glory," He was made in all points like they are, only He was without sin. He had a body fash- ioned like theirs ; it was born of the virgin ; it was a material body. He suffered all the pains and pangs of men and women and children ; He suffered that He might bear their sins and that He finally might die, laving down His life voluntarily — because He had life in Himself, and was raised up by the glorv of the Father, so that He had His body restored to Him, and in that He became in all respects exactly like the Father.
You take the 130th section of the Doctrine and Covenants and vou will read there that God the Father is a being of tabernacle, that He is a snirit but that He has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's ; and the Son also ; but the Holy
Ghost is a pers'onage of spirit, not of tabernacle. I want to touch just a little on that point and clear up some ideas that our brethren have in regard to it, which lead them sometimes into disputes; they do not seem to understand that the Holy Ghost, the personage spoken of there, is "a personage of spirit," and, yet, that the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost — for the words are used interchangeably, if not synonym- ously— can be "poured out" and can be given to a number of people at the same time at different places and can permeate all things. Now, when Jesus was talking with His disciples, before His death and resurrection — as you read in the 14th and 16th chapters of the Gospel according to St. John ; (I will not turn to it; you turn to it and read it). It is good to read the Bible sometimes, breth- ren, even if it is "an old book;" if it is old it is not antiquated in that sense. It is true today as it was when it was written. We can un- derstand it if we get the same spirit in us by which it was written. There Jesus says to them : "It is expedient that I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter will not come ; but if I go away I will send Him unto you from the Father. When the spirit of truth is come, He shall guide you into all truth," and so on. Here is an individual, a personage, evident- ly, that He was speaking about, "a personage of spirit" as told in the revelation that I quoted from; but the Spirit of the Lord, sometimes called the Holy Spirit, sometimes called the Holy Ghost— because the words are used, as I have said, in- terchangeably— is an essence that permeates all things.
Take the section <;hat I have- quoted to you. the 88th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, and!
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
you will read that there is a spirit which is called "the light of Christ." That is not Christ Himself in per- son, but it is the light of Christ; "as also He is in the sun and is the light of the sun and the power by which it was made ; and in the moon also, and the light of the moon ; and in the stars, and the light of the stars ; and in the earth also on which ye stand ; and the light which now enlighteneth your eyes is through Him that enlighteneth your under- standing, and is the same spirit which enlighteneth the mind and the soul and spirit of man ; the light which is in all things, which is through all things, which is round about all things and which is the law by which all things are governed." In other revelations of God to us, particularly in the 29th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, you will read there that God says, "I created all things by the power of my Spirit, firstly, spiritual, and aft- erwards temporal." All things that have life in the world, in the great universe of God, throughout bound- less space, all things that have life are quickened by that spirit, and that is under the direction of the Father and the Son and the per- sonage called the Holy Ghost, and it proceeds from the presence of God throughout the immensity of space. So we are told by the Lord Himself. There are three that bear record in heaven, John declares in the first epistle that he wrote after he wrote his "gospel," as it is called, "There are three that bear record in "heaven — the Father and the Word and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one ; and there are three that bear witness on the earth, the spirit and the wa*er and the blood, and these three agree in one" (I John) ; and as these three are differ-
ent and separate and distinct, so are the other three — the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost — three in- dividuals, not one person, not one substance, but different individuals. They three are the great, matchless, powerful, mighty rulers and gov- ernors of the universe, and all things are under their direction, and they three are one, just as Christ prayed that His disciples might all be one.
There need not be any confusion in our minds regarding these im- portant things. It is important that we should know something about the Being whom we worship — the Father, for it is the Father whom we worship. We do not pray to the Son nor to the Holy Ghost ; we pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son, under the in- fluence and guidance of the Holy Ghost. When we do that we are in accord with the Lord, and we are doing that which we are commanded to do. If we want to come unto the Father, we have to come unto Him by the Son. "No man cometh to the Father but by Me." Jesus said. He is the Mediator. He was so ap- pointed ; He is the greatest : He is the mightiest of all the sons of God. He was the first-born. How many ages, millions of ages ago it was, when He was the first-born we do not know, but that He had a mighty and long experience is evident by what He declared, that "the Father loveth the Son and showeth Him all things that He. Himself, doeth." That is why He was "in the begin- ning," in the creation. The Father told Him to go down and do certain things. He knew how to do them because He had seen the Father do them. He is the great eternal Christ, the Word of the living God, the Son of the Father, the first-born of all the children of God that after-
PRESIDENT CHARLES W. PENROSE.
41
wards tabernacled here on the earth. He was not Adam ; Adam was not He ; He gave commandments to Adam in the Garden. Adam wor- shiped the Father, and we worship the Father ; we do not worship Adam. Adam is the head of the race, so far as the temporal body is concerned. He is placed at the head, as you will read in the Doctrine and Covenants in section 107. When Adam gathered with his posterity, before his departure, in the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and there bestowed upon them his last bless- ing: "the Lord appeared unto them and they rose up and blessed Adam, and called him Michael, the Prince, the Archangel." That is who Adam was before he came to the earth in his temporal and mortal body:
"And the Lord administered comfort unto Adam, and said unto him, I have set thee to be at the head — a multitude of nations shall come of thee and thou art a prince over them forever."
But we are not to worship Adam ; we worship the same being whom Adam worshiped. Adam worshiped the Father in the name of the Son, as you will see if you will take the Pearl of Great Price and read the writings of Moses about him and about Enoch. Now, my brethren and sisters, we adore Jesus of Naz- areth ; we adore Him as the Mes- siah ; we adore Him as the Christ ; we adore Him as the only begotten Son of God in the flesh, literally, actually. We can understand that. We adore Him as the first-born of all the creation of God — that per- tains to this earth at any rate. But He is the revelation of the Father. Sometimes He is called both the Father and the Son. It does not mean that He is actually His own father or His own son. He repre-
sents the Father; "in Him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead, bodily ;" He looks just exactly like the Father, as the Prophet Joseph saw, in the vision. He is the express image of the Father. God is man- ifest in the flesh in Jesus of Nazar- eth, and we adore Him and venerate Him, and He is our Savior ; but we worship and pray to and obey the great Eternal Father of the spirits of all men. He is our Father and is our God and is Christ's Father and Christ's God just as well.
Jesus Christ died for us. Death came into the world through the transgression of man. We have the revelation of God for that. We need not speculate on what there was be- fore Adam was on the earth ; it does not matter. Death came through the fall of Adam and it is called "the fall," in the revelations of God. Life came through Jesus Christ. "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." Christ is risen! Hallelujah ! Glory to God in the Highest ! The Redeemer, the Savior of the world, was raised from the dead, and in Him there is life. In the beginning He was with God and He had life in Him, and that life is the light of man and the light of the world, and it is His light that shines from the sun, and from the moon, and from the stars, and is in all things and, under the word of God, the direction of the Holy One, with- out even touching a button the light will shine forth, and those who obey the laws given to obtain them, can receive the blessings and be enlight- ened by the power of that Holy Spirit as directed either by the Father or the Son, or by that per- sonage that is called the Holy Ghost, who came in power on the Day of Pentecost, and came in power on the day when the Kirtland Temple was
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GENERAL CONFERENCE.
dedicated. His power and His presence were there made manifest in the same way as on the Day of Pentecost. And He is in this Church, and is under the direction of Christ. The Comforter is here ; our hearts are comforted by the power of His presence in the midst of His people. The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are the Deity ; they are one, and we are un- der their direction and they have re- stored the gospel, as we heard this morning. Praise be unto them, for this grand gift. Let us rejoice that we live in a day when the Gospel in its fulness and purity is restored, and we are participants in its bless- ings !
Every one of us can receive some special gift from the Divine Spirit : for there are many gifts of the Spirit, but it is the same Spirit, only one Spirit permeating all things ; and the Spirit that gives the gift of prophecy, or the gift of healing, or the gift of tongues, or the gift of interpretation, or the gift of visions, and so on, is one Spirit, but these are different manifestations of that Spirit. The highest manifestations are with the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, for they have the very fulness thereof and can impart it. In its lower manifestations it is here in natural things, in light, in heat, in electricity, in the various manifestations of that divine power which permeates all things and by which God created and governs all things. We can receive blessings from on high and blessings from be- neath. Thanks be to the Lord for the revelations of the Gospel ! Thanks be to God for the gift of His only begotten Son who died that we might live ! And if we will keep His commandments and walk in His light and do those things that
He commands, He will bring us forth from the tomb and we will come forth with those that are His at His coming. He was the first- fruit ; afterwards shall be those who are Christ's at His coming. He knows them and He will call them forth; and then, as Job said, "Thou shalt call and I will answer ; for Thou shalt have a desire to the work of Thine hands." Glory be to God for the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life ! He will appear to us in "the sweet bye and bye," and we will appear with Him in glory, if we will walk in His ways and keep His command- ments and be imbued with His holy, righteous, directing, enlightening spirit. May the Lord help us so to do, for Christ's sake. Amen.
A male quartet, consisting of James Moncar, Hyrum J. Christian- sen, August Glissmeyer and Albert E, Braby sang the hymn, "O, give me back my Prophet Dear," to Prof. Evan Stephens' music.
PREST. FRANCIS M. LYMAN.
Duties of Seventies clearly denned — To preach the Gospel abroad, and at home — To be preferably selected for that purpose — The lesser to assist the higher in home missionary labor — Duty of all to work diligently in priesthood callings— Great revival expected in Seventies' work.
How delighted we have all been today in listening to the instructions and testimonies of the First Presi- dency, and the doctrines that have been unfolded to our minds — very important and very precious — in re- gard to our Savior, on this day somewhere near the anniversary of His resurrection, near enough as we all consider it, all Christian people. I feel very grateful that it falls to
PRESIDENT FRANCIS M. LYMAN.
43
my lot to follow my brethren for a few minutes upon subjects that are very close to our hearts, and that belong to us who are the representa- tives of our Savior, bearing divine authority from Him. I appreciate it all the more because there is so important a body of our brethren right here in front of me, and I don't know how long it will be be- fore I will have another opportunity of speaking to such a body of men — the leading brethren from all the stakes of Zion and many of the mis- sions, and from many of the wards of the Church.
As you have listened so profound- ly to the brethren who have already spoken, I wouldn't have you forget anything that they have said, for I shall not be able to say anything to compare, possibly, with what they have said ; but I do desire of you that you will ask the Lord to help His servant the few minutes that he shall speak, and then I would like you to pay particular attention, and keep awake, and hear every word I say and treasure them up and profit by them. I want to read a few words from our Savior which are found in the 107 Section of the Doc- trine and Covenants, commencing with the 33d verse ; the Lord says :
The Twelve are a traveling presid- ing High Council, to officiate in the name of the Lord, under the direction of the Presidency of the Church, agree- able to the institution of heaven; to build up the Church, and regulate all the affairs of the same in all nations; first unto the Gentiles and secondly unto the Jews.
The seventy are to act in the name of the Lord, under the direction of the Twelve or the traveling High Council, in building up the Church and regulat- ing all the affairs of the same in all nations — first unto the Gentiles and then to the Jews;
The Twelve being sent out, holding the keys, to open the door by the
proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ — and first unto the Gentiles and then unto the Jews. * * * *
It is the duty of the traveling High Council to call upon the seventy, when they need assistance, to fill the several calls for preaching and administering the gospel, instead of any others.
I desire to draw your attention, my brethren, to the fact disclosed in these words of the Lord — that the Twelve are traveling elders, and that the seventies also are traveling elders and are expected to join in the ministry of the Lord to preach the Gospel throughout the earth ; and T would like to draw your at- tention to the fact that the Twelve are now and have always been so engaged since they were chosen in this generation ; they have been min- ute men and traveling elders. Though composing the traveling presiding High Council of the Church, they are always in the field, always traveling and laboring. You have seen them and you do see them from week to week, from month to month, and from year to year. They come in your neighborhood and they assist you in regulating and setting in order the affairs of the Church in your stakes and wards, and they give careful attention to the prepar- ation of the elders that are called into the ministry abroad.
Now it is disclosed here that in- stead of other men it is required of us to first call upon the seventies to assist us in the preaching of the Gospel ; and we have set a proper example by taking hold of the first seven presidents, the first council of seventy, and you will notice that they always travel with us. Have you noticed that they go from stake to stake as we do, that they labor with us, and assist us, and are in council with us, and that they give
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GENERAL CONFERENCE.
attention to the calling of seventies, the organization of quorums, and so forth, and preparing the brethren for their ministry abroad? Now we have latterly been giving a little more definite thought to the minis- try in the world, a little more definite than we have done in the past, and we have found this to be the case, that other brethren of necessity — I want to say of necessity — have been called into the field, and they have answered the call. The High Priests and the elders have generally gone into the field, and are today accom- plishing the work of preaching the Gospel more generally than ought to be required of them, for the rea- son that the seventies have not been called. The reason that they have not been called is because they are men occupied in all business affairs, their hands are full of business of all kinds, and they have been ex- cused. We have excused them more, possibly, than we ought to have done, I rather think ; but at any rate, we have come to the conclusion it is time now that the thousands of sev- enties that we have in the Church should have the right of way, to give them opportunity so that every seventy shall go into the field at least once and preach the Gospel. If he is very suitable and able, and con- ditions and necessary circumstances such that it is reasonably possible for him, he can go twice, and then possibly a third time. I remember going myself when I was a seventy, and I have been a seventy always since. I went abroad also when I was a high priest, and have gone since I was in the Council of the Twelve, and have been a minute man in preaching the Gospel at home all the time, when T have been at home. It is quite proper that the seventies while they are at
home should be employed, and they are being faithfully and well em- ployed at home by the bishops, and the presidents of their stakes in Zion. It is all right that they should be employed there, but we do want to come to the time when the seven- ties will be preaching the Gospel quite generally in the world, every man having one opportunity, or two or three as the case may be.
It took me forty years to perform my three missions abroad, and the balance of my life has been in mis- ions at home, before I was in the Council and since. I have been in the field all the time, like Presi- dent Joseph F. Smith, and many others of the brethren. We have been in the field and there has never been a moment but what we were minute men and ready for the fray. I state this matter now, because I want to draw the at- tention of the bishops to it. 1 see the bishops are gathered here, the high councilors, and presidents of stakes and so forth, and patriarchs in front ; and I would like every bishop and every president to bear in mind and take home with them the spirit of the remarks that I am about to make here to you. We want you to consider the seventies; we want you to look after them ; we want you to breathe the spirit of their .ministry into them and con- sider them when application is made for missionaries from your stakes and wards. Consider first the seven- ties : and as far as they are able and can help each other, able to take care of themselves, and with what assist- ance they can get at home, we want them to come into the field. The presidents of the missions have been asking for them, that is, asking for men of experience, men of age that have been proven and tried, that
f RESIDENT FRANCIS M. LYMAN.
45
have been in the field abroad or have been workers at home.
We want to put able men into the field, now that the spirit is in the earth and liberty is being extended, and especially religious liberty throughout the earth; we expect it to be much extended after the war is over and peace is declared. The Twelve have been out; they have been in the world; they have been in all the countries of the earth pretty near, and have blessed the countries and blessed the people and prepared the way for the preaching of the Gospel. We have had this in our hearts and souls for many years, and are laboring for it, and we want the way prepared ; we want the sev- enties that are here in the sound of my voice and those other brethren that are here, bishops and presidents of stakes, to talk upon this subject. We want them to get ready and pre- pared for the ministry. We want them to do what they are able to do, and we don't want them discour- aged ; for there are many of them, although they have business of all kinds, and have families and are building their homes, and accom- plishing wonders at home ; but most of them will find the way to go into the field and teach the Gospel, and they can afford to make some sac- rifices. WTe must make some sacri- fices and overcome some difficulties in order to accomplish what the Lord requires of us abroad as well as at home, and at home as well as abroad. Under the direction of the Presiding Seventy, as we have been talking to them latterly and consid- ering this matter, we desire this call and this consideration to go to every stake and ward, and to every council of the seventies, to councils that are complete or not complete. We want the seventies to come to the rescue
and help us in preaching the Gospel, and we expect to call upon them in- stead of any others. But remember that the seventies may not be able to monopolize the whole field, hence there will be room for elders and high priests, and for other experi- enced men outside of the seventy, and we want them considered also. While we have been, for a number of years, asking that one experi- enced and trained man should be furnished for every two of the younger men that are sent out, we ask now that there be two well train- ed and experienced men sent out for each young and inexperienced man that is sent. We want able and ex- perienced men that have been abroad, or have been laboring most faithfully at home.
I want to say to the brethren, the high priests at home, that we do not want them overlooked ; we want them considered ; men that have been bishops or high-counselors, and have held responsible positions and had great experience. We want them to have opportunity to go abroad as well as the seventies ; also, we want the balance of the room that is to spare abroad occu- pied by able elders. We_ prefer that you should keep the young men — such as deacons and teachers and priests — at home and give them thorough training in the lesser priesthood ; and remember that the deacons have a ministry as well as the teachers, and the deacons' min- istry is that of assisting the teachers when occasion requires ; and I have always interpreted it that the occa- sion always requires it. We want these young men given opportunity, and we want them employed. We want the teachers employed ; we want them to accompany the breth- ren that are called, the seventies and
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GENERAL CONFERENCE.
high priests, and elders that are operating as teachers at home. We want the teachers of the lesser priesthood, and the deacons, to have opportunity to visit with them, that they may be trained and have ex- perience here at home before they are sent abroad. You would be as- tonished to see the companies of young men that are sent to us, inex- perienced young men, only recently ordained elders in order to go on missions. When they give their genealogies we find they are teach- ers, sometimes deacons and some- times priests, that are just ordained elders in order that they may go abroad to preach the Gospel, — un- trained, inexperienced. They should work at home and train themselves, and be prepared so that as the sev- enties are depleted and pass into the high priests quorum, at the age of fifty or sixty years, and there is room there, we want the able, well trained and experienced elders to fill their places, so that we may have seventies enough to take care of the ministry abroad, as a rule, the ex- ceptions being where we need to use the elders and high priests.
There is opportunity for all abroad; and if there is anything lacking, and they want opportunity, we have it at home, for the field at home will never be overstocked with men. The high priests and elders at home, and the seventies who are generally at home, and will be gen- erally at home, because they are not expected all to be in the field ; a thousand or fifteen hundred or two thousand on missions at a time will leave about eight thousand of them always at home, and we want them to work at home as well as they have been doing. Don't use them any less at home, but give them oppor- tunities to preach the Gospel at
home as well as abroad. The able and successful bishops, presidents of stakes, presidents of seventies and of elders, and of high priests will furnish employment ; they will ar- range affairs and labors at home so that there is employment for every man who bears the priesthood. Every man who bears the priesthood is entitled to the right and privilege of magnifying that priesthood, at home or abroad, and we exhort you my brethren who have charge of these matters and are appointed and ordained for that purpose, we want you to see to it that employment is furnished every man that you lay your hands upon and ordain to the lesser priesthood or to the Melchize- dek priesthood. Furnish them em- ployment at home, and don't be sat- isfied with having ten or twenty sev- enties doing something, preaching the Gospel at home to the strangers, to those that are not of our faith, but let the whole army of seventies at home get into the field, and the armies of high priests and elders be in the field, every man magnifying his calling at home as well as abroad. Let that be done. We want that to be done and we will not be quite satisfied until the brethren can report that every member of our quorums of the priesthood is doing something, accomplishing some- thing, and you will be astonished at the converts that can be made at home.
There are many reported now from various directions, but many more will be in a little while, and you will be astonished — if you go home from this conference and take this spirit among the seventies, — you will be astonished at the num- ber of seventies that will be ready at the call and recommendation of the presidents of stakes and bishops
PRESIDENT FRANCIS M. LYMAN.
47
of wards, under approval of the pre- siding seventy. They are acquainted with them as they are with the other elders, and they know how to rec- ommend them, and to consider them and weigh them. You will be as- tonished to see how the spirit will take hold of the seventies, and they will be prepared and ready for their work abroad. I want you to bear in mind that the body of the Twelve are giving careful attention to these matters. Every man that goes abroad comes immediately under the hands of the Twelve and the first council of seventies. We bless every man and set them apart, and our sisters also who go into the field ; quite a number of them are being sent. We are looking after this mat- ter, and we want everybody bearing the priesthood, every member of the priesthood, we want them to have opportunity to magnify their priest- hood.
Take labor upon yourselves, brethren, and provide labor for your neighbors until every man is cared for, every high priest that is now careless and unemployed. It is re- ported that there are many of the priesthood unemployed, not fully occupied, not doing any good work — nothing is laid out for them. It is not every man that knows how to employ himself, but every man should know how to employ himself especially when he has had experi- ence, been abroad in the field, or laboring at home in important posi- tions. These brethren should know how to set themselves to work and do many things that they are not told to do that they discover ought to be done, for the inspiration of the priesthood should dwell in the heart of every man who receives it ; his eyes should be opened, his ears should be opened, his heart should
be touched, ready and prepared to do some work for somebody ; and when you labor for your brother you always get the chief reward yourself. You may help him some, you may do him good, a world of good, but there is always greater good comes to you who do the labor — everyone — and we want that fashion followed. We don't want to give our entire attention now to the seventies, in getting them in their field, but we want the high priests taken care of, and we want the elders taken care of ; for the elders are two or three times as numerous as are the seventies, two or three times as numerous as are the high priests. The high priests compare about with the seventies, but the elders are much more numerous, and it will put you to your wits' end to find something for them to do. If they are idle they are mischievous and liable to get into trouble and difficulty, and they should be taken care of. If they labor, if they work day by day and magnify their call- ing they will grow stronger and stronger unto their perfect day.
Now I feel delighted with this privilege of speaking to this body of men, and I want you to remem- ber what I have said, in connection with what we have heard here — the testimonies that have been given us by the Presidency today. Bear in mind this mission, and the sugges- tions and instructions in regard to the magnifying of the priesthood here at home, and magnifying it also abroad. Brother Hyrum M. Smith has sent quite a requisition for some able elders that can come and labor with him, whose conditions and cir- cumstances at home will allow them to stay until they have finished their missions, and that call will be a small one comparatively. We want
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GENERAL CONFERENCE.
at least one seventy from every quo- rum ; we want five seventies from every quorum that is able to send them ; or seven, that will only be one man out of ten, something- like that, to go abroad, and the others remain- ing at home and helping each other when it is necessary. But you will be astonished, when you inquire after the seventies and look right after them, to find the great number of them that are able to take care of themselves and their families, and go and preach the gospel for three years and then come home and stay six or ten years and then go again when they are wanted.
May the Lord bless you my breth- ren. Think of these matters, give attention to them, and yon will find the presiding seventy around look- ing after you and feeling after the members of their quorums, and thev will be calling upon you and want you to consider them. Thev have felt just a little bit overlooked. T believe the seventies have b°en over- looked too much, and we have de- pended upon elders, and young men and inexnerienced men to go out and preach the Gospel in the world, and we want all the brethren to have opportunity to magnify their calling as they are required. You notice whenever we call men to preside over stakes, or over wards, or over quorums, or to go on missions, that they are expected to go at once into the field, and so it should be with every man who receives the priest- hood. TTe receives a commission from the Lord, and he should take hold of it and magnify it to the best of his ability, and the Lord will open the way for the good that is possible for him to accomplish.
God bless you, my brethren and sisters, I pray. Let the spirit of this conference go home with you, and
vou will be astonished what will be accomplished within the next six months, between now and October ; and the presiding" seventies will be able to tell us quite a story of what is being done in this movement for the seventies. May the Lord bless vou I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
President Smith read several notices, and said :
"Now, I don't want any of you to put your hands in your pockets, for fear somebody will see you do it. but I am requested to warn the congregation to look after their valuables if they have any with them, as we are favored— or un- fortunate— to have a large number of light-fingered "gentlemen" in the city, who are on their wax- to the San Francisco Fair, and are look- ing out for a chance. Take care of your money, and don't show them where it is."
"A Lullaby" was rendered by a chorus of ladies, conducted by ^i>ter Lizzie Thomas Edward.
The anthem. "Grant us Peace," was sung by the choir, Mrs. Sarah L. Wood and James Moncar ren- dering the duet.
Bishop David A. Smith pro- nounced the benediction.
Conference adjourned until Mon- day, April 5th, at 10 a. m.
SECOND OVERFLOW MEETING.
Another meeting of the Confer- ence was held in the Assembly Hall, at 2 p. m., at which Elder Joseph F. Smith, Jr., presided ; and the Cot- tonwood stake choir was again in attendance.
ELDER WALTER P. MONSON.
49
The service was commenced by the Choir singing-, the hymn :
"An angel from on high,
The long, long silence broke."
Prayer was offered by Bishop Joseph A. Buttle.
The Choir sang the anthem, "Daughter of Zion."
ELDER WALTER P. MONSON.
(President of Eastern States Mission.)
Words fail to express the grati- tude which I have in meeting with you, this beautiful Easter Sunday, and in experiencing the sweet in- fluence which has characterized this conference thus far. I have often heard, while in the world, the beau- tiful 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 long to your bosom to flee."
Never has that hymn been sung, in my hearing, while I have been away from the body of the Church, but what I have had a longing, a yearning for this land which is so dear to me. I have often thought of St. Bernard who, when he visited Switzerland, looked over the beau- tiful lakes, and saw the magnificent picture that was presented to him, how he covered his eyes lest the glorious scenes should detract from his love for duty, and from the love which he bore to his Maker. When I come into the vales of these moun- tains, and see the snow-capped peaks, that are familiar to me, there seems to be a necessity for me to cover my eyes also, lest the appeal should be so strong that it would
detract from my desire to do my duty. I love these glorious moun- tains, and more than the mountains, I love the people who dwell here. More than the people who dwell here, even father and mother, houses and lands, and wife and children, I love that cause which I have been sent out into the world to represent.
Eighty-five years ago this Church was organized with only six mem- bers, in the State of New York, the state where, perhaps, the greatest opposition is now prevailing against this work, and against this people. When we look over our weekly re- ports, in the mission field, we see there are only few baptisms, if any. The elders are plodding along, as it were, gleaning from among the crowded cities of the world, and from country districts, those who have a greater love for God than they have for their self-ambitions. It seems that the progress is not of the proportions that our elders would like to see it ; arid oftentimes an elder will express himself, that he cannot see any good resulting from his labors. But when we stop to consider the report that was read this morning by our beloved Presi- dent, Joseph F. Smith, and see how the Saints have been gathered from the various parts of the earth, how diligent they have been, not merely seeking this world's treasures, but how willingly they have laid' on the altar of sacrifice much of the means they have acquired to come and enter the House of the Lord, where they have done a magnificent and stupendous work for those who have gone beyond, those that were less fortunate than we. It causes my heart to leap with joy to know that my parents had the courage and fortitude to leave their possessions, and everything that was near and
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GENERAL CONFERENCE.
clear unto them, and come into these valleys of the mountains, where such love for truth can bear fruit in the hearts of their children.
I love the people of the Lord. I love to see the progress that this work is making. Perhaps that can- not be seen or counted numerically only. I believe that the Almighty has anticipated this very condition, for we read in the 13th chapter of Matthew a statement made by the Master, that the kingdom of God was likened unto leaven which was hid in three measures of meal, and which leavened the whole lump. In order to measure the success attend- ant upon the work of the mission- aries in the world, one must under- stand what the teachings of sectar- ian ministers were about eighty-five years ago, in the year 1830, and then compare the teachings of the same sects and organizations of today. If you will turn back the pages of ecclesiastical history, you will find great speakers whose sermons are a matter of record, who taught that awful doctrine of hell fire, that un- less a person would be willing to kneel before the penitent bench, he would go into an ever-burning and never-ending hell. About twenty- five years ago this doctrine began to be disowned by the churches of the world, and thus it seems that one particle of the Gospel leaven has entered into the souls of the children of men, and they have cast off that damnable doctrine. Also, there was the doctrine taught that infants, whose parents refused to have them christened, or baptized, would go to a never-ending hell, there, perhaps, to serve as kindling for the devil. But these things have now been dis- carded. I doubt whether there was ever a person who has lived upon the earth, and who had been called
upon to lay away a little one from its mother's arms, and buried it in the grave that ever thought that that child went to hell. It is people out- side of that relationship who have thought that such a little one was going to a never-ending hell. The love of Christ has more fully entered into the hearts of the children of men. All are growing nearer to it, and even though the people seek to destroy the work of the Lord, yet these things which God has or- dained, these works which He has performed, albeit by the slowest growth, will stand and endure. Some one has said, ''God can make an oak tree in a hundred years, and can make a mush-room in one night." We must reach out to the one hun- dred year mark before the wonder- ful growth is fully recognized, as shown by the testimonial that you give in your attendance upon this conference, and the love and devo- tion you show to the cause.
In looking through one of the large book stores in New York City, I discovered a work entitled "A Century's Change in religion." This has come from the press at as late a date as Nov., 1914. It is written by one George Harris, a very learned divine. There are many things contained therein that we cannot accept, I may say, as gospel truth ; yet there are many things which he points out that have come about by the evolution of thought, and the culling process of truth. The author shows how many of the er- rors which our fathers inherited have been dead and buried for a number of years. I desire to read an extract from his Introductory :
"I select this period also because a large part of it is within the recollec- tion of many now living. Indeed, those discoveries and influences which
ELDER WALTER P. MO N SON
51
have, or are supposed to have, brought these changes have come upon us within the last fifty years. I do not mean that religious beliefs and prac- tices were stationary for eighteen hundred years, or during the first half of the 19th century, but that the changes of the last fifty years are more marked than those, we may almost say, of all the time preceding."
Is it not a remarkable statement for a minister to make, that the last fifty years has seen greater religious advancement than all preceding time since Jesus came and ushered in His reign. I wonder if we realize the effect of the efforts of our humble elders in crystalizing these truths in the hearts of the children of men. Now I will read to you an extract concerning a doctrine that has been entirely ignored, or ridiculed, by most of the ministers of the Chris- tian world. It was a startling reve- lation to me to know that people in the world have so far ran into the realm of truth that they are growing into the desire to do work for their dead :
"About thirty years ago a curious controversy arose, as to the decisive- ness of this life. It led to the trial of five' professors in the Theological Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, who, it was alleged, taught that those who had not heard of Christ in this life, the heathen, the generations be- fore Christ, might, after death, have knowledge of Him and repent and be saved. A foreign missionary society refused for several years to appoint as missonaries young men who thought it possible that those who did not have the Gospel in this life might, after death, have opportunity to believe on Christ, or who went no further than saying that they did not know the fate of the heathen.
"The accused professors argued from the universality of the Gospel. Christ died for all men, and since none can be saved except they believe on Christ, it would seem that all men will have the opportunity of knowing
Christ; that if there are any, and there are certainly many, who do not know Him in this life, they will know Him in the intermediate state, before the day of judgment. It was thought that scripture lends itself to such a hope, for an apostle says that Christ, 'having been put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit, went and preached unto the spirits in prison which aforetime were disobedient in the time of Noah;' and again says, 'For unto this end was the Gospel preached even to the dead;' and the most ancient creed of the Church says, that Christ crucified, dead and buried, de- scended into Hades, the abode of de- parted spirit.
"The accusers said that scripture is emphatic on the decisiveness of this life, since it affirms that men shall be judged acording to the deeds done in the body; that now is the day of salvation; and said that the passages in Peter are obscure. They also de- clared that the 'nerve of missions' would be cut, if it were supposed that the heathen would have opportunity of salvation after death; that is, that the motive of missions is the fact that the heathen are going down to perdi- tion. Other charges were brought, as that the professors taught that there are imperfections in the Bible; but the gravamen of the accusation was that these teachers believed and taught that there may be a second probation, and that such an opinion is very dangerous, that men will postpone re- pentance to a more convenient season.
"The Board of Visitors of the Seminary, before whom the professors were tried, removed one of them from office, acquitting four, although the evidence was the same for all; the case was carried to the Supreme Court of Massachusetts; the decision of the Visitors against the removed professor was declared invalid, on the ground that the other Board of the Seminary, the Trustees, were not made a part in the trial. It is not yet twenty-five years since the verdict was given, yet it is rather difficult not to realze what it was all about. It shows, however, how real the unseen world was, how intimately related the realms of light and darkness were to this world in the thought of men."
Now I wonder where they got
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that from ! Surely the spirit of Elijah has spread out over the world, and it is "turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest the earth be smitten with a curse." I will read a little further :
"We do not profess so intimate knowledge of the unseen world, nor affirm positively that this life deter- mines the life to come. We do not speculate about it, we refuse to be- leve that all who have not consciously accepted Christ, those cut off in youth, those who grew up in vicious sur- roundings, those who never heard of Christ, are doomed to eternal woe. The mercy of the Lord is from ever- lasting to everlasting. And now a very orthodox writer says, in a book published by the American Tract Society which is most evangelical, and no one protests:
" 'We repeat with all sacred empha- sis the words, ' 'the Gospel was preached even to the dead." We note the instance that is given, the spirits in prison, which aforetime were diso- bedient in the time of Noah, that is, the spirits of those who perished in the flood. We must not dogmatize, we need not vainly guess; but we may reverently affirm that the Son of man is capable of reaching and in- fluencing the souls of men on yon side of the veil, as well as on this; and that in a degree and by means infinitely beyond anything that science or faith can either dream or discover.' "
The same writer says :
" 'The horrible invention of a pur- gatory, from which man's enlightened conscience revolts, and which the Word of God makes absolutely incred- ible, has produced a violent reaction in modern minds, whereby even the idea of Hades — the scriptural idea of an intermediate state, where departed spirits await the resurrection of their bodies — is rudely blotted out, and so one of the grandest and one of the most fruitful periods of man's educa- tion for eternity is an utter blank in the minds of most of us. But we re- fuse to be robbed of what the Holy Ghost saith; whether by the abuses
of Roman excess or by the violence of Protestant reaction. We hold to the teaching of Holy Scripture — what- ever may be the peril to a narrow sectarian type of orthodoxy. There is no purgatory, but there is an inter- mediate state. And the only glimpse we get into that world unseen (Hades), reveals to us the Spirit of Jesus proclaiming His Gospel unto the dead. Here let our authoritative teaching regarding the matter begin and end, flooding all the world of Hades with the light of the Savior's presence and the music of his blessed voice.' '
"I think all will agree that everlast- ing punishment is seldom, if ever, mentioned in the pulpit now that the word 'hell' seldom crosses the lips of any preacher. While it is believed that a man may be morally ruined, the conception is rather of character de- based, degenerated beyond hope of re- covery, than of acute physical suf- fering. The fire that is not quenched, the worm that dieth not, are, it is thought, figures of corrosion and de- cay. The lake that burnetii with fire and brimstone for ever and ever is symbolic of lost souls consumed with remorse. There is nothing more dreadful than a ruined soul, a hard- ened heart. Character is fixed by purpose, and it may be that after a time it cannot be changed. Judgment is upon character; heaven is good character, Christ-like character; hell is bad character, selfish, grasping, un- sympathetic character."
Some "Mormon" elder must have explained these blessed principles to those who were moved upon to write such glorious truths. When we see the leaven raising the entire lump, our hearts are made to rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. His work is not marked out by that which can be seen by human eyes, but it is eternal in character, and of univer- sal dominion, and will endure throughout the ages to come.
I rejoice in having this oppor- tunity of bearing my testimony, my brethren and sisters, for I feel that I know that God lives. There is no
ELDER JOHN W. HART.
fiber of my being that does not re- spond in joyous love to God, for the light and truth that He has given unto me, for I feel that the most sacred obligation that I have is to see to it that the sentiment never enters my heart, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The Lord has said of His Saints-. "Ye are the salt of the earth." No good house- wife ever makes a meal of salt, she uses just enough to make the meal palatable. Your sons and daughters out in the mission field, are a Sprinkling of salt in the fleshpots of the world. O, it causes my heart to rejoice to contemplate these things. An article from a very scholarly writer, says that the word "salt" and the word "Savior" came from the same root word. You now can see the beauty in the pass- age with such an explanation, "Ye are the salt of the earth" — ye are the saviors of the earth. How many of us have had it stated in our patriarchal blessings : "And you shall come forth and stand as a savior on Mount Zion, crowned with immortality and eternal life !"
May God bless us with His Holy Spirit, that the greater degree of the religion of love, which is sure to follow the darkness of the exist- ing horrible war, may find a rest- ing place first in the hearts of God's people throughout the world, as enunciated by our beloved prophet, seer and revelator this morning. May God add His blessing to us all, I ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
ELDER JOHN W. HART.
(President of Rigby Stake.)
My brethren and sisters, I am here this afternoon because I was requested to be here. I always pre- fer to sit in the audience rather than
to occupy a place upon the stand. I am entirely relying upon the Spirit of the Lord to assist me in this posi- tion this afternoon. I know that if I say anything that will be of in- terest to us, or be beneficial, that it will be through His help, because in and of myself I am inadequate to successfully occupy such a respon- sible position as has been allotted to me here.
There is a passage of scripture that very often comes to my mind. It is a passage that I think of a great deal, as it seems to me of great importance to all mankind: "This is eternal life to know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." In other words, if we attain to the greatest blessing that is in store for mankind, that of eternal life, it is absolutely necessary that we gain for ourselves a knowl- edge of the Father and of the Son, a knowledge of their attributes, of their characteristics and of our re- lationship to them, as mortals here upon the earth. I want to say, my brethren and sisters, that the key of this knowledge has been restored to the earth in this dispensation. It has come through the restoration of the Gospel to the Prophet Joseph Smith. We are fully aware that, at the time when this great revelation was given unto this young man, actual knowledge of the Son of God and our Heavenly Father was not in existence in the world. There was no religious denomination teaching the truth concerning those holy Beings. Mankind were being taught that God, our Heavenly Father, was a Being or a something that was not tangible, that He had neither body, parts nor passions, that He was some mythical being that we could not and ought not to be able to be- hold, or comprehend. I am justified
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in saying that, at the present time, by virtue of this key of knowledge coming to earth in this dispensation, and through the proclamation there- of by our humble elders, who have been sent to the world to preach the Gospel, the doctrine of a bodiless and passionless God, and a throne- less heaven, is not so prevalent, and the truth is taking the place thereof.
One of the great testimonies that has come under my observation, is the change that is taking hold of men's minds concerning religious principles and doctrines. Great men have come forward and advocated a principle that borders on the truth that has been restored to the Latter- day Saints. They have not got it from any of their creeds, because it is not taught in any of them ; but they perceived a glimmer of light, and they have put forth their views along these lines, and it appears that they are approaching a true and cor- rect theory and idea concerning God, our Eternal Father, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.
These wonderful conference gath- erings, are also a testimony to me, and I do not know where you could go in all the world and see anything equal to this that is before us today, these wonderful gatherings of peo- ple from all parts of the earth, we might say. ' They have come up here according to appointment, to be in- structed in the ways of the Lord. They have left their labors, their business and their worldly affairs behind them. They spend their own money, and give their time and means to come here and hear in- structions from the Lord, that they may carry them back to the people with whom they associate in these United States, and abroad also. We do not gain converts through hold- ing religious revivals, or on account
of being able to send men into the world who have acquired ability to preach the Gospel; but we send, largely, young boys and girls who are inexperienced, and they humble themselves before the Lord, and carry this message to the world. It is through their humility, their cleanliness of life, their honesty of purpose, that mankind are attracted to them, and listen to the truth they proclaim. There is no organization in the world that conducts its prose- lyting along lines like these. They would be afraid to send their young men and young women into the world as we do. I venture to say that if they sent such missionaries among the Latter-day Saints, we would be the cause of their return- ing home with their religious views largely expanded, at least.
This work is growing. We can hardly comprehend its magnitude. In the state of Idaho, where I live, there are from seventy to seventy- five thousand Latter-day Saints, and we are increasing. The influence of the Church is being felt ; it is ex- tending, results are beginning to be known and noticed, and we are glad to say that we see and realize good coming therefrom. We are doing all in our power to maintain the good influence of this great work that has been entrusted into our care in the state of Idaho. We are pro- gressing. I can state to you in truth- fulness that Idaho, the state of my adoption, has today upon its statutes the most drastic, honest, clean-cut, effective temperance legislation of any state in this nation. I want to warn those who do not live within the confines of that state that, after the fourth of next May, if you visit us it will be unlawful for you to cross the line into Idaho "with any- thing in the way of intoxicants in
ELDER MELVIN J. BALLARD.
55
your possession. I am thankful for this. I feel that we have now, to this extent at least, been enabled to throw safeguards around our young people, that they will not have these temptations to intemperance placed before them, and we will be enabled to devote our attention to other lines of improvement. We have ample opportunity for advancement along other lines, but this is a good start. I believe, my brethren and sisters, that one of the evils we should rem- edy in the communities of the Lat- ter-day Saints, as well as elsewhere, is the vicious forms of dancing. The methods and styles that are being adopted in that line, in a great many instances, are abominable. We who hold responsible positions, and have received the priesthood of the Mas- ter, should exert our influence and efforts to eradicate this evil. We ought to be as energetic in driving all evil things from our midst as the Savior of mankind was in driving the money changers out of the tem- ple.
I hope and pray that we will be enabled to fulfill our obligations in these responsible conditions, and handle the problems confronting us honestly and conscientiously, that good may result from our efforts ; and mav the Lord bless us to this end. May He give us strength to do our duty. May He bless us with wisdom and understanding, that we will be enabled to see and compre- hend our duties and thwart the en- emv of the souls of our people. May His testimony be with us, that we mav grow in faith, that we may prosper and advance spiritually. Mav we gain for ourselves a knowl- edge of the Father and of the Son. and thereby secure the great bless- ing of eternal life, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The Choir sang the anthem, "Gos- pel Restoration ;" the solo part was rendered by Sister Nellie Bennion.
ELDER MELVIN J. BALLARD.
(President of Northwestern States Mission.)
In the world, where we mission- aries are laboring, it becomes neces- sary to combat a false and erroneous impression that generally prevails among the religious denominations of today, that by mere lip service men can please God, and that by simply giving their hand to the min- ister who, at the revival, has touch- ed their hearts, they have then ob- tained religion and have passed to salvation ; or, by simply saying that they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ they then shall be saved ; or who are content to lull themselves into a sense of supposed security by re- peating the words of the scripture, that "the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin." The disposition and feeling is, to get this matter of religion over and through with in as little time as possible. And then the religious person thinks he is saved. I remember while doing missionary work in the city of St. Louis, several years ago, reading at the entrance of a tent where gospel meetings were held, where a man was preach- ing healing by faith, as well as ex- pounding his views of the doctrines of the gospel — a sign which ran: "Come and be healed and saved in 15 minutes."
There are many in the world who believe they can be saved in 15 min- utes. They remember the night they- were saved. They recall distinctly- the hour. Thev have had no experi- ences beyond that time. Sometimes I have attended these religious re- vivals, when the minister has asked
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those who were present who were saved to stand up, and I have never yet thought I was able to stand up. I remember on one occasion, as was usual, of a good sister coming to those who were sitting; she said to me, "Why, brother, are you not saved?" "No." said I, "I am not yet. I have been struggling for sal- vation, trying to obtain it, and to teach others how to get it, for many years. I do not know what I will do tomorrow, however ; I may lose it all then. I understand that 'the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.' "
I have thought, as we have rather criticized the narrow view that some take of this matter of salvation, if we Latter-day Saints are not more or less affected by the same feelings, that we, once having received the gospel, having been baptized, count ourselves in fair condition for sal- vation. I discover occasionally, in the mission field, those who are drifting, claiming they are members of the church. They can remember that one time they were baptized, though sometimes they do not have the record of it ; but, just as long as they have been baptized, they feel that they are in a saved condition. I want to say to you. my brethren and sisters, not perhaps that you need it quite so much as some of us out in the mission field, and yet 1 cannot hell) feeling that, even at home, we need to be told that we must do more than repent of our' sins and be baptized. And what do we mean by repenting of our sins? We mean that we have forsaken the sins we have been guilty of. that we do not sin again, that when we have thus repented, if we have wronged or injured a man or wom- an, if we have it within our power
to repair that injury, that we go to them and repair that wrong before our baptism will be approved of and fully acceptable before the Lord. As we have told those who repent in the world : "Have you wronged a man or woman, from which wrong the man or woman is now suffering? If so, and it is in your power to go to that man or woman and make the wrong right, you should do it. I believe that is the thing God desires of those who accept baptism at His hands.
I had an experience in a northern city, a few weeks ago, where two physicians offered themselves for baptism, a man and a woman — not related, though living in the same town and following the same pro- fession. I concluded, after investi- gation, that they were not ready for baptism ; so I asked them to defer their baptism. T felt impressed, as John did, when he said : "Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth fruit meet for repentance." That was my spirit and feeling toward them. And yet our hearts go out and we put forth our earnest efforts to bring men into the Church, those who are ready and prepared. In this case, however, T decided to seek the mind and will of God. Through prayer and con- templation it was revealed to me that thev were in sin and transgres- sion. And T wrote and told them what their sins were, and told them that it would be bringing condemna- tion upon their own souls to offer themselves to receive the holy and sacred ordinance of baptism when yet in their sins, in their transgres- sion and iniquity. The woman is repenting, but the man is filled with ragr. But everv word that T wrote them was confirmed by voluntary testimony from those informed
ELDER MELVIN J. BALLARD.
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about these people, that they were guilty of wrong doing, and were seeking to come into this Church to cover up their crimes and shield them from exposure, while they still continued in their sins.
We are not seeking for men to be baptized into the Church unless they have truly and sincerely repented ; and when they have thus repented and gone into the waters of baptism, and have covenanted with God to serve Him and keep His command- ments, I know that their sins are forgiven them. I have seen those who have sinned and done wrong, in their ignorance, repent before God, and receive the ordinance of bap- tism, and have their whole heart changed, and their countenance also become like that of a child. It has been a matter of astonishment to their neighbors and relatives, who would say : "What has happened to Brother So-and-So? How changed he is ! What transformation has come over his whole life !" So I know there is virtue and effect and power in the ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins. But we must know, as Latter-day Saints,