Remarks

by Elder Francis M. Lyman ¶

It is important, my brethren and sisters, that the Elders who stand before a conference like this should receive the support of the faith and prayers of the Latter-day Saints, because it is a very great undertaking to represent the Lord and to speak in His name and by His authority, and the brethren feel their weakness in doing it. They do not stand here as men who are learned, men who are qualified to teach after the manner of the world; but they stand before the people to speak as they shall have utterance from the Lord. They have been remarkably blessed today, and their testimonies and exhortations have been edifying to those who have listened. They have spoken to us the truth, and the Lord has been with them, and I feel to testify to the truth of their remarks, as well as to the truth of the doctrines that we have received from the Lord through the Prophet Joseph Smith, to record that he translated by the gift and power of God (the Book of Mormon) and to the principles that have been laid down for the salvation of the human family. The Lord is on the side of the Latter-day Saints, and He will sustain them and preserve them. Our confidence today is not greater, though we are so much more numerous and widespread, than it was in the beginning of the work. The confidence and faith of the Prophet Joseph and his brethren in the commencement—when the Priesthood of Melchisedec was conferred, when the various quorums of the Priesthood were organized, when the Bishopric was established, when the Apostleship was conferred, and when the Twelve Apostles were chosen—was just as great as it is to-day. It is not because of numbers, but it is because of the testimony of Jesus. We know that the Lord has revealed to us the Gospel. He has made plain to us its truth, its power, its value. He has labored with His servants. He preserved them when they were few. When He had but one—Joseph Smith—He preserved him; and it was no more difficult to preserve the Prophet alone than it is today to preserve two hundred and fifty thousand Latter-day Saints. The work is not secure because of the great number of its devotees. It is secure because it is God’s work, not the work of man. It is the founder of the work who cares for it. He sustains His servants and His people. It has not been the wisdom of man, or the judgment, skill and understanding of man that has converted you. The Lord has done it. The Lord has given you faith. The Lord has given you baptism, by which you have received the remission of your sins. The good that you have done, the Lord has enabled you to do. The missions that you have performed and that which you have accomplished in these valleys, you have done by the aid of the Lord. The Lord has given fertility to the soil. The Lord has provided the earth. He has given to us the seasons, and the fruitfulness of the earth; and he has given to us the barrenness as well, and the drouth; and all the good things that we have around us the Lord has provided. ¶

The Lord has made His servants one. The testimony of Brother Moses Thatcher is true. The Lord is with President Woodruff. The Lord is with his Counselors. The Lord is with the Apostles. He will sustain and preserve them, if they keep His commandments. If they transgress the laws of God, they will fall, one and all; but if they are faithful and devoted to God, they will be honored, loved and respected, as they are today. Israel loves the servants of the Lord. The Latter-day Saints know the voice of the true Shepherd. They hear the Apostles, they hear the Elders, and they are my witnesses that the Lord is with these Apostles; that He sustains them, that He speaks through them, and that He gives them judgment, and counsel, and wisdom, and faith, and He preserves them from sin. The Lord is doing this. He has made them one. Unlike the disciples of olden times, they are not seeking occasion against one another. But they magnify, and love, and respect, and are lifting one another up, and trying to come nearer to our Father who dwells in heaven. That is what these Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ are doing. They are not divided. They are one. And God is pleased with them and with their labors. ¶

Now, this is the good word that we speak for ourselves; and the Lord speaketh through us, for it is true. Sustain the servants of the Lord. Sustain the organization of the Church. Honor the Priesthood that you have received, and that labors among you; and thus honor God. For no man can honor our Father who disregards the Priesthood that he bears. ¶

We live in important times. Anything very remarkable? Yes. The Saints are increasing rapidly. They are spreading abroad. They are increasing in faith, in union, and in a knowledge of the principles of eternal life. And the Lord has not wrought with us as a whole alone; He has wrought with us individually, as His servants, as His handmaidens. He has labored with us in our families. He has labored with us in our Wards, in our Stakes, in our quorums, in our associations. He has planted in the breasts of the Latter-day Saints individually, a knowledge of the truth. He has given to us His Spirit, and communication has been opened between us and the Lord. The Prophet Joseph has conversed with President Woodruff. Others have done the same. We have all talked with these brethren, and with other brethren. The revelations of the Lord have been with us. We have known the mind and will of the Lord, and the counsels of the Almighty are dwelling in the midst of the people. And we are expecting something in the near future. We expect the Saints to triumph over sin. We expect them to become more righteous, and sin and corruption to be less among them in the future than it has been in the past, and very much less than it is among other people. If this be not the case, then are we disappointed. During 1891 we ought, individually, to seek to come just as near to the Lord as we possibly can, by extra fidelity, humility, obedience, and keeping the laws of the Lord. We should remember our prayers more faithfully than we have ever done before. A great many in Zion pray once a day. I learn, as I travel throughout the Church, that some of the brethren think once a day is enough to pray in their families. I want to advise you, if you would be prepared for what is to come in 1891, to pray twice a day, and remember the Lord at noon. We find in the Book of Mormon that the servant of the Lord urged the people in that day to pray morning, noon and night—three times a day. I say, let the Latter-day Saints offer their prayers in due season, and never neglect them. Remember the Lord, and His commandments in regard to your tithings. Pay them in their kind, and pay them fully. For a man who lacketh in his prayers, and in his tithing, and in his good conduct in his family, will not be prepared for that which is coming in 1891. It may not be anything that the world may be able to take notice of, or even all the Latter-day Saints; but what wonderful things have happened that the world knew nothing about at the time. I thought, when Elder Roberts was speaking this morning that he was going to refer not only to the organization of the Church in 1830, as a matter that did not disturb the neighborhood for a little while, nor the county, nor the State, but also to another important event that took place before then. What disturbance was made in the world when the Father and the Son came and visited the Prophet Joseph, and the Father said to him: “This is my beloved Son; hear Him?” How numerous were those who heard of that? No other person saw the light, or the Father and the Son; no other person could bear that testimony, until Joseph had spoken of it. ¶

Now, to be prepared for the coming of the Savior in glory and in power, we find that a marvelous work is yet to be done. What is it? Why, the Gospel is to be preached. We are but a handful of people. We have only a few hundreds of Elders in the missionary field all the time—less than five hundred, probably. How long will it take five hundred men to preach the Gospel to the whole world, as a witness, before the end shall come? We are laboring and doing what we can, and the Lord will prompt His servants when more shall be done, and we will gain strength and power, until we are prepared to accomplish what the Lord designs should be accomplished. But it is important for us as Latter-day Saints to know individually that we stand in the favor of the Lord, and to know that our prayers are heard by the Lord and answered upon our heads. We ought to become so well acquainted with the Spirit of the Lord that we could not be deceived. We should understand it, and it should dwell with us. When we hear the words of counsel that come from those who have the right to give counsel to the Church, every Latter-day Saint ought to know it in a moment, and ought to recognize the voice and counsel of the Lord through His servants. ¶

I feel to exhort all Israel—those gathered here and those not here—to be more faithful in the future. Cease backbiting, cease quarreling, cease your envyings and strife, and vanity, and folly, and intemperance, and every sin that doth so easily beset the people. Let all men, everywhere, repent. Let us all try to refrain from the follies of the past, and in the future of our lives let us be able to go before the Lord and say that we love one another. Oh! what a joyful time it will be when all Israel can say, We love one another. Can it be said in all the quorums as it can be said by the First Presidency and the Twelve and the First Seven Presidents of Seventies, that we love another, that we feel to bless, encourage and strengthen one another, and that unselfishly we bow before the Lord and ask upon our brethren the same blessings that we would that the Lord should bestow upon us? Do the sisters in Zion—that important part and body of the Church of Christ—feel that way toward each other? Are families living together in that close communion and fellowship, and dwelling together without jealousy, without heart-burnings, and without suspicion? If they are not, they have need to repent. The union, the love and the confidence of the brethren in these quorums that I have mentioned ought to permeate all parts of the Church. It ought to be with every President of a Stake, with every Bishop of a Ward, and with every quorum in the Church; and it ought to be in all the societies and associations that are organized in Zion. You know that the Lord has been with these leaders of Israel when they have traveled and labored in your midst. You know that His Spirit dwells with them today. The Apostles are not numerous. You do not see them very frequently; but when you do see them, and when you do hear them, you know that the Holy Ghost dwells in them. You know they are honest men. You know they are pure men. You know that they are men that refrain from corruption and sin, and that bridle their passions, and are laboring for the salvation of men. The tens of thousands in this Territory who are personally acquainted with these men are my witnesses in this respect. Now, this same faith and confidence ought to dwell in the hearts of the people. That which we find good with us we recommend to you. I say that the High Councils in Zion ought to dwell together in fidelity and faithfulness, and they ought to be as exemplary men in the Church as the Apostles can possibly be. The quorums of the Seventies, upon whose shoulders particularly rests the labor of preaching the Gospel to the world, ought to be honest and industrious, faithful and temperate, full of faith and power; they ought to be energetic, and labor as faithfully as the Apostles can do. If they are doing so, God is pleased with them; and if not, God is not pleased with them. The Apostles are no better than Seventies ought to be. And what I say in regard to Seventies, I say concerning High Priests and Elders. There is not a High Priest or an Elder in Zion but ought to be just as good as an Apostle or as the Presidency of the Church. They have not the same care and burden resting upon them; but God has placed the requirement upon them that they should be just as faithful as men can be. They must not be corrupt. They must not be wicked. They must not be lascivious. They must not be dishonest, nor untruthful. But they must square their lives according to the truths of the Gospel. In these quorums, men who stand representing God, or who are at the head of families, they should be the mouthpieces of the Lord to those quorums and to those families, and to every organization over which they preside. The Lord requires this, and anything less than this does not give complete satisfaction to Him. He requires of us nothing that is impossible. But He does require of us all that is possible in our lives and actions, for the support of His Church and for the accomplishment of His purposes in the earth. We should be as a light set upon a hill. No Latter-day Saint ought to be required to hide his head and to be ashamed of his course. He ought to live above suspicion. If the world look upon us, they should be compelled to say, though they may consider us fanatical and deceived, that we are conscientious, and that we live according to our profession. If every Latter-day Saint were to be judged by the world, they should be compelled to say that we have been honest, truthful, virtuous, temperate and sober. ¶

This is the work of the Lord. You are the servants of the Lord. You bear the Priesthood. The Lord has graciously given it to almost every man in the Church; and the Priesthood that you bear is just as sacred as that which we bear. Greater responsibility rests upon us because we have been called to these certain positions; but every man who has received one particle of the Priesthood, even that of a Deacon, is required of the Lord to keep His commandments perfectly and entirely, and he is not in full favor with the Lord until he does this as he is able. ¶

I pray that God may bless you, my brethren and sisters, and that the testimonies which have been borne by the Elders of Israel, and the instruction that we shall yet receive during this Conference, shall find place in our hearts and that every word shall bring forth its fruit in our lives; that God shall be pleased to honor us as His servants and His Saints, and that He will be pleased to own us as His people, and save us from the destruction that the wicked seek to bring upon us. His arm is not shortened. He has established His work in the earth to remain, and it will remain. We who are here today may pass away; but others will arise in our place; for intelligences and chosen spirits that have been preserved for this time and labor, are following us and treading right upon our heels. I pray that we may do our work well, that the Lord will be pleased with us, and maintain and sustain us in the future as He has done in the past. Amen. ¶