Remarks

I have enjoyed myself very well during this Conference, and I trust that the same spirit that has animated my brethren will also rest upon me. I believe that I feel the importance of these gatherings and of the business transacted on occasions like this more today than ever before in my life. ¶

In the month of January I was called to go into Southern California on a brief mission, and it fell to the lot of Elder B. H. Roberts to be my companion and spokesman. We spent nearly two months, and in several important cities in Southern California obtained halls, advertised, and gave the people the privilege of hearing the Gospel as we have received it. We found that there are other people in the world who claim to be Latter-day Saints and followers of the Prophet Joseph and our hearers were somewhat confused to know whether they should listen to us or to others who claimed to be the legitimate successors of the Prophet Joseph and the Church that He established. I am reminded that this Conference makes about one hundred and one conferences of the Church that have been held since the death of the Prophet Joseph. Examining the history, we find that at the death of the Prophet Joseph there were standing, in their places in the Church, ten of the Twelve Apostles, including Brigham Young, President of the Twelve Apostles, ten of the very men who were designated by the voice of God himself as the chosen Twelve in this last dispensation to bear the keys of the Kingdom of God among all the nations of the earth. From then until now the Latter-day Saints have gathered together twice every year and by their unanimous vote have sustained the men who were designated by the voice of the Lord to bear the keys of the kingdom. Today you see on this stand ten of that same quorum who have been selected and designated by the voice of God to fill vacancies occasioned by death, or by the re-organizations, from time to time, of the First Presidency of the Church. From the day of the Prophet Joseph until the present time there has not been a conference but has sustained, by unanimous vote, the men that were selected by the Lord during the days of the Prophet Joseph, or their lawfully selected successors, chosen by the voice of God just as perfectly as they were selected in the days of the Prophet Joseph. There has never been a man placed in this quorum or in the Presidency of the Church but has been placed there by the word of God; and they have been sustained by the people up to the present time. I have thought it would be wise if we would keep an account individually of the line of the priesthood that is given to us, so that every man may know that he received his ordination from men in fellowship with the Church. It takes the whole of the quorum of the Twelve to hold the keys of the kingdom; one cannot lead off from the body and build up a kingdom himself. Every Apostle is subject to the direction and counsel of the Presidency of the Church. With all the authority and power that an Apostle holds, he has not right to go to California, or to any part of the earth, and build up a church independent of the direction and counsel of the Presidency of the Church. Yet every Apostle, in his labors and travels in the earth under the direction of the First Presidency of the Church, has power to organize churches and to regulate them in all parts of the earth. And when there is no First Presidency the Twelve are the presiding quorum over the Church. The Lord provided that the quorum of the Twelve Apostles should be equal in authority to the First Presidency of the Church for the very emergencies that arise whenever a president of the Church passes away; so that there should still be a quorum with the same authority as the Presidency of the Church. But can one of these Apostles separate and, without asking any odds of his brethren in the quorum or of the Presidency of the Church, build up a church and accomplish the purposes of the Lord? No. Whenever an Elder, a High Priest, a Seventy, or an Apostle leads off on his own account and operates contrary to the rules and regulations of the Church as the Lord has laid them down, Amen to that man’s authority. There have been but about two of the Twelve who have gone off and undertaken to establish a church unto themselves—William Smith and Lyman Wight. President Rigdon led off also, but he was never one of the Twelve. The authority and power that Apostles hold must be exercised upon the principles of righteousness and in accordance with church rule and discipline or their operations are void in the sight of God. ¶

We find that the “Josephites” claim that we have been cast out; that when we left Nauvoo and came into the wilderness we were going away from Zion; that Missouri is Zion and no other part of the country. But, fortunately, the Prophet Joseph, during the very last conference of the Church that he attended—in April, 1844—announced that America, both North and South, is Zion, and on the following day the Prophet Hyrum Smith announced the same fact. It would be very small for our Heavenly Father to be satisfied with the State of Missouri. Why, we would want the State of Missouri with just the few Latter-day Saints there are today. We occupy very much more country than there is in the state of Missouri. But this is the land of Zion; from one extreme to the other, as announced by the prophets of God. The “Josephites” hold that when we left Nauvoo we went wrong because we were going away from Jackson County, Missouri. I wonder if we had not good company when we left Independence. The Prophet Joseph was at the head of the people when they departed from Independence and went to Far West and to Adam-Ondi-Ahman, and on up to Nauvoo. The Prophet was with the people in all these movements. Not only that, but he crossed the Mississippi and was on his way for the west when his friends—his false friends—began to complain that he was cowardly and like a shepherd leaving the sheep. The Prophet Joseph replied, “If my life is not valuable to you, it is not to me.” And to all human appearances the Prophet Joseph would have been living today and at our head had it not been for that. But the Prophet Joseph directed us here. He announced before his death that many of the brethren who were present on a certain occasion, while across the river in Iowa, would live to go to the Rocky Mountains and would help build cities, towns and villages. He understood that, as also did the Prophet Brigham and his brethren—the very men that were designated by the voice of the Lord. Read of this, if you please, in the revelation given in 1841. The Lord says: ¶

“I give unto you my servant Brigham Young to be a president over the Twelve traveling Council. ¶

Which Twelve holds the keys to open up the authority of my kingdom upon the four corners of the earth, and after that to send my word to every creature; ¶

They are: Heber C. Kimball, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, Orson Hyde, William Smith, John Taylor, John E. Page, Wilford Woodruff, Willard Richards, Geo. A. Smith.” ¶

Every one of these men stood solid and firm by the side of the Prophet Brigham after the death of the Prophet Joseph. Later some of them fell away, but not very man. Apostles have not apostatized and fallen away from the Church since the days of the Prophet Joseph so frequently as they did before. They have been men who have been found worthy, and who have been willing to lay down their lives for the kingdom and for their brethren, just as did the Prophets Joseph and Hyrum did; and these men have stood at the forefront of the people and they have walked in the very path that the Prophet Joseph trod all his life—the path of persecution and trial. As the Prophet Joseph, from the very beginning, was wrought upon in regard to the building of temples and died while a temple in Nauvoo was being built, just so was President Young; and he passed away while temples in these valleys of the mountains were being built. He laid down his life, not by violence, but in peace at home, and at the time when this great temple here, now finished, and others were being built. The burden of his anxiety and that of his brethren was that these temples should be finished and the work of God accomplished in them for the living and the dead. We have been a temple-building people Are there any other temple-building people today? Not on this earth. There are no other people on this earth doing work of the dead, giving endowments, sealings for eternity and the like. There are no other people preaching the gospel of the gathering. The very missions that were opened and established under the direction of the Prophet Joseph had been worked from that day to the present, and many others have been opened. The Prophet Joseph gave the word of the Lord to the Latter-day Saints in his life time, and when he spoke by the inspiration of the almighty he spoke the revelations of the Lord just as much as he did when he wrote. The words of the Prophet Joseph, when remembered and known today, are prized just as highly as though they had been shaped into a revelation, for he spoke by the power of God. And I say that he did not speak more by the power of God than did President Brigham Young and his brethren who have followed up to this day. When the Prophet Wilford Woodruff, standing at the head of the Church, the mouthpiece of God, gives to us the word of the Lord, it is just as binding and just as sacred as that that was given by the Prophet Joseph. When the word of the Lord is given through the Apostles, as they travel among the people, laboring, organizing, regulating and setting in order the Church of Christ, that is also binding on the people; and the labor performed by them, under the inspiration of the Lord, is as much the work of the Lord as that that was done by the Prophet Joseph. ¶

This is my testimony to you today, my brethren and sisters. I say that there never has been a moment when there was a necessity for any re-organized church or any other church to come in and break the thread of authority and of succession in the Presidency of the Church that we have here today. This body of men gathered together today, bearing the holy priesthood, is the nucleus of the kingdom of God upon the earth. This is the Church that Christ established himself; and the God of heaven graced the earth with His presence when it was established, in accordance with the words recorded in the Old Testament by Daniel, that in the last days the God of heaven should set up a kingdom which should stand upon the earth and all other kingdoms and powers should pass away. The Lord has established this Church and His authority is among men. We must hold that authority and guard it as sacredly as we would our lives. A man should prize the authority of God more than he does this mortal life; for it would be much better that a man should lose his life than that he should forfeit his right to the priesthood, or in any manner dishonor it. We cannot afford to dishonor it, for it is a most precious legacy that God has given to us. It is to bring us back into His presence, that we may dwell with Him and have eternal life with our families, our kindred and our friends. ¶

This is the testimony that I desire to bear to all Israel—that the Church has never been disorganized. There has never been but one quorum in the Church disorganized, and that is the quorum of the First Presidency, when the President has passed away. The quorum of the Twelve has never been disorganized; and never will be from this time henceforth and forever. The Twelve will remain standing at the head of the people, in the absence of a Presidency, bearing the same authority and power and the keys of the kingdom. God has so ordered that this Church is to remain and endure, and no power is to interfere with its progress and its advancement; and its greatness will increase from this time forward. God bless you, my brethren and sisters and all Israel, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶