Remarks

I sincerely trust that the wish expressed by President Woodruff concerning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon those who speak to the people may be fully realized throughout this entire Conference. In standing before you I desire to receive and impart such instruction as the Lord may desire to make me the instrument of bringing forth. I rejoice in the testimony of the Gospel which the Lord has given me; and though I feel my own imperfections and weaknesses every day that I live, yet I hope, through the faith and the power which God shall give me, to bring myself in time under complete subjection to the mind and will of God. ¶

I am greatly pleased in traveling among the people to find how richly God is blessing them, especially in spiritual matters. The remark is sometimes made that there is less faith among the people than formerly, that we see fewer manifestations of the power of God, and that the saints are drifting gradually away from the old love which inspired their hearts and brought them into such close communion with the Lord our God. There are doubtless many cases of this kind—too many, considering the day in which we live and the momentous events which lie before the people; but I am pleased to note and to bear my testimony this day that the vast majority of the Latter-day Saints are striving to live their religion, and that they are in possession of the Holy Spirit of God; that they enjoy also the gifts of the Gospel. These gifts do not always come into such prominence as was the case in the early days of the Church, when almost every instance of the manifestation of the power of God was recorded; but I believe they are none the less numerous. I believe that the sick are healed by the power of God. I believe and know that the dead have been raised to life. I know that the gifts of tongues and interpretation of tongues are experienced by the people. I now that the gift of prophecy is heard frequently among the people, and sometimes from those from whose mouths prophecy is least expected. I know that in the conferences of the people there is the power of God manifested to a remarkable degree. The reason that some fail to experience the power which God has poured out upon the people is because they prefer to look upon the dark side of the picture, and do not see the glorious Gospel which God has bestowed upon us, His children. But while I testify to these things being in existence among the people, I realize that there is still much room for improvement. I realize that never before has there been so great an effort made by the adversary of our souls to lead away the Church of God, to deceive the people, and to lead them into darkness, as in the present day. On almost every hand, we hear, “Lo! here is Christ;” and even among the Latter-day Saints there have men arisen who testify that Christ has come, that He is living among the people, and they point out some personage whom they profess to recognize as the Savior of the world again come to visit the earth. These, my brethren and sisters, are the deceptions of Satan; and if you will live near unto the Lord, you may instantly discern the evil spirits which are abroad among the children of men; you may detect them when they come to you with their false doctrines and lying statements. If you live faithful unto the covenants which you have made, you will know by the testimony of the Spirit within you that when Christ comes you will know Him. There will be no need for any man to say to you that Christ has come again to earth; but by the knowledge which God shall impart unto you, by the sight of your own eyes and the hearing of your own ears, you shall be able to testify that the Savior has again come to earth, clothed with power and immortality, and bringing with Him the holy men and angels who exist with Him in the eternal worlds; and if you are faithful, you shall be caught up to receive from Him the blessings which your acts upon earth have merited. ¶

I realize that there is indifference to some extent among the Latter-day Saints. I have thought sometimes that they have felt it was not necessary for them to seek an individual testimony of the truth of this work. They have satisfied themselves with the knowledge which their parents possessed of the divinity of the Gospel and the prophetic power which God conferred upon Joseph Smith. They are willing to listen to the counsels of the authorities of the Church and accept the theories which are advanced concerning our religion; but they do not seem disposed, for some reason, to seek for a practical and an undying testimony of the truth of this Gospel, without which no man or woman is sure of eternal life. They doubtless attend meetings because in this day it is fashionable to attend church; it is fashionable to study theology and to read the scriptures; not seeking therein the inspiration which the scriptures contain, but reading them because it is considered an excellent literary work. In this spirit many of the young people read it. They read the works of the Church because of the historical information therein to be obtained. But they do not dig down to the root of things, to gain for themselves a testimony of the truth. The result is, we find a great many young men who go forth to the nations of the earth as missionaries without the testimony of the Gospel in their hearts. Time and time again have young men told me, when they have been set apart for their missionary labors, that they firmly believed that this was the work of God, and they could go forth to the people telling them of what they believed, but as for the knowledge of which they have heard their seniors testify, this had not come to them. They have acknowledged their neglect in not seeking in as earnestly as they should. They have gone on missions, and these same young men, I believe, without a single exception, laboring with earnestness and zeal in the fields to which they have been appointed, have not been left long without the testimony of the truth; and when they have returned there is not one of them whose words I have listened to but has testified that he knew for himself that the Gospel was true, that God had spoken from the heavens, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. It is well that they receive it even under these circumstances; but better far would it be if they could receive the testimony of the truth in their childhood, that it might grow with their stature and increase with their intelligence that it might become within them a living fire, which no amount of opposition or sophistry could quench. And this testimony is within the reach of every one. God has said that none who seek Him shall be turned away unsatisfied. Sometimes the testimony does not come in the way that we have desired. We do not receive the outward manifestations which we have been led to expect. But it is not the outward appearances; it is not the healing of the sick, nor the hearing of tongues, that gives a man or a woman the greatest strength in the work of God; for those who have never seen angels, whose eyes have not been closed to the glories of eternity, and to whom it has seemed impossible for God to forbid even anything which they asked—they have turned away from the truth, lost the testimony of the Spirit, and again gone into darkness. Better by far for us to possess is the still small voice of the Spirit—the inward feeling which is experienced in every fibre of our organization, which tingles in our veins, which reaches the extremities of our bodies, and tells our whole being that this is the work of God. This testimony it is possible for each to obtain and to retain by a constant observance of the requirements of the Gospel of the Son of God. I have heard men relate that they have prayed to see angels, and they have seen angles through their repeated importunities before God. Those same men today are outside of the Church. I have known men who have testified that they have seen the dead raised unto life; but these same men are today outside of the Church. I have known men to testify that they have spoken in tongues, and that they have prophesied; they are today outside of the Church. I know men and women who have not seen or heard any of these things that were remarkable, but have had a testimony of the Spirit, and they are still in the Church, firm, to all appearances, as these everlasting hills that surround us. Their feet are grounded upon the rock of revelation, and they never seek the Lord in prayer but they receive an answer, when they ask for those things which are for their good. ¶

It is fashionable in the world now to ridicule men for praying to God. Infidels make light of the petitions which are sent unto the throne of grace. God always gives to those who seek Him in prayer the things that will be for their good. What would you parents do if your child should cry that he might have in his hands a live coal? Would it be wisdom in you to place in his hands that which would burn him? Would it be wisdom in you, because your child cries for some poisonous substance, to permit it to partake of it? No; you would be unwise to do so, though he would plead with you to receive that which his childish and foolish desires might prompt. Instead of giving it a live coal, or some poison, you would seek to give it something that would satisfy it and would be for its good. So it is with our Eternal Father. We pray to Him sometimes for those things which would bring about our destruction, if granted unto us. With our limited vision we cannot grasp the result of such giving; but God, who knows the end from the beginning, and who overrules all things for good, understands what would result from our receiving the desires of our hearts, and He turns aside from us those things which we seek and which we fail to receive, and gives to us that which will be for our good. Take your own experience, brethren and sisters, in this and you will be able to see that God has operated with you, if you have been faithful, in your whole career through life. You have asked Him for blessings; they have seemed necessary to your welfare and to your success; you have not received them; your faith perhaps has been weakened at the time, because these things were forbidden you; but allow the time to pass, and in after years, looking back upon your experience, you see frequently wherein the reception of these things for which you prayed so earnestly would have been to your great injury here upon the earth and in eternity. ¶

Sometimes in your pleadings with God for your sick you see that they do not realize the healing power of the Spirit of God. Your faith is exercised; you pray earnestly to the Lord, and He seems at time to be near unto you; you call in the Elders; they are led in a certain way, and they promise life unto the one who is afflicted; yet you see this same sick one fail and die. How does this happen? The faith of men is tried in this respect. Is it because God does not hear prayer that your sick are not healed? Is it because He has turned a deaf ear to our entreaties that He takes away from us those we love? No, it is not. It is for some divine lesson He desires to impress upon our minds that He permits these things to occur—sometimes perhaps to try our faith and see if we will be true to Him under all circumstances. In administering to your sick you sometimes see that they recover for a short time under your administration, and time and time again the administration of the Elders and the faith they exercise seems to give new life to the one afflicted; and yet after repeated trials and the repeated exercise of faith, we are sometimes led by the Spirit to pray to the Lord that He would rather take the afflicted one from us than that he should be continued in his suffering, and that we should continue to hold on to him by the exercise of faith. ¶

It is proper for us to feel this way. It is right for us in our prayers to God not to set up our wills and our desires in opposition to Him; but when we have expressed to His, with all the faith which we are capable of exercising, our desires, either concerning our friends or ourselves, then it is the duty of every Latter-day Saint to say as the Savior said when He prayed that the cup might pass by Him, “Not my will, but thine, be done;” and even though afflictions come, the Lord will pour out upon us of His Holy Spirit, so that we may submissively yield to His righteous will and reap the blessings which even sorrow and trouble bring upon us. Better far to do this than by our faith—as I believe has been the case among the Latter-day Saints—rescue the sick from death, and yet see the same children who have been saved by our faith suffer something that is worse than death, for some children who have apparently been snatched from the grave by the faith exercised by the servants of God and their parents, have in time lost the faith, and have brought sorrow and affliction to the family to which they belong. There are things in this life far worse than death. There are sins which burden our hearts with grief far worse than to follow to their last resting place the bodies of our loved ones. It is better by far that we take to the tomb our loved ones and bury them in their purity and holiness than that by our faith and our constant wrestling with God we save them from temporal death and consign them to an eternal punishment. ¶

I testify to you, my brethren and sisters, that the Lord is a God who is near unto us. He hears and answers prayer, and He gives to His children who serve Him faithfully the blessings which are for their temporal as well as their eternal prosperity and happiness. I would admonish the young people to seek Him while He is near. There are troubles coming upon the earth which are to try the souls of men, and those who lean upon the testimony of others are leaning upon a broken reed, and at a future day they will find themselves without the support of those whose testimony is now so strong to them. It is necessary, in order to secure eternal life, that every man and every woman should have within himself and herself the unquenchable testimony of the Spirit of God, and then whatever comes will only serve to strengthen our faith in Him, and will only chasten us to receive in greater measure the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon us. Amen. ¶