Love of Wealth

I desire to express my gratitude for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. What has been said is in harmony with my views. I bear testimony to the truth. May the Spirit of God continue to be imparted to us. These Conference gatherings are refreshing to the spirit and a delight to the soul. The people have not come together in vain. They will not go away empty. Many thoughts have passed through my mind. Some are of a conflicting nature. I have wondered what would be a proper course for our leaders under the present circumstances surrounding us. If we will follow our file leaders as they follow Christ, our path will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. We must not expect the people to listen to us unless we listen to those who lead us. I am reminded that after his tribulation, Joseph, who was sold into Egypt obtained wealth and power. While Abraham was comparatively poor and a humble servant of God and obeyed Him in all things, the Lord afterwards made him wealthy. There is no harm in wealth, but there is in the love of it. When the heart is hardened and conscience seared, the danger is great. I have thought, of course, of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and John Taylor. They did not devote all their time to temporalities, but part of it to spiritualties and a part to temporal things. It is only when we depart from equity and justice that the Holy Spirit leaves us. The danger is not in the possession of wealth, but in oppressing our fellow-beings. Z. C. M. I. was not organized by President Young to enable him to accumulate wealth, but for the substantial benefit of the people. So with other enterprises in which he engaged. When I have thought of the financial enterprises in which our leading brethren are engaged and the heavy burdens thus placed upon them, I have concluded that we who have been called to be ministers of salvation should not so extensively engage in financial matters. The leading authorities are employed from fifteen to eighteen hours a day, and in giving counsel in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred instances it is on temporal matters rather than those that are spiritual. I did not come to these mountains to accumulate wealth, and, for one, I would rejoice to be relieved, from this time on, from temporalities and engage in future exclusively in preaching the Gospel of salvation. The spirit of speculation is abroad among us and the people make the excuse for their course that their leaders are engaged in the same direction. I am willing to be guided in these matters by those who preside, and trust that I shall endure. ¶