Testimony to the World

My beloved brethren and sisters, I am pleased to meet with you this morning, and I trust that I may enjoy the Spirit of the Lord during the few moments that I may address you, as our brethren enjoyed that Spirit yesterday—I have no desire to speak a word that cannot be heard by every soul that is here this morning, and I have no desire to speak a word that will not be dictated by the Holy Spirit of God—We have learned in our experience how easy it is for men to speak to the edification of the Latter-day Saints and those who are seeking the truth when they are inspired by the Spirit of Almighty God; but with all the oratory and learning of men, they are not able to convert those who are honest in heart, except they possess this Spirit—The men who have had the greatest success in converting souls to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have not been men of very great learning; they have been men who have been taught of God, who have been God-fearing, humble and willing to give unto Him the honor and the glory for all they were able to accomplish—So I desire this morning to possess that same spirit of humility and the Spirit of the Lord, that I may be able to edify the Latter-day Saints for a few moments and to touch upon some points that will be for the benefit of the people in general, or of some of us at any rate ¶

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there is everything, I believe, that is necessary for our happiness here upon earth and for our salvation in the future—Within its organization we can find everything to keep our minds occupied, everything to instruct us in every labor of life, and the Spirit of God to guide us in all that we undertake to do—A great many ministers who are not of our faith have made comments upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and some of them have remarked that all that was necessary to thwart our purposes and to bring to naught the work that has been set on foot by the Lord was to show up our principles; yet those who make such comments have always been of that class that have never undertaken to expose any one of our principles, they knowing full well that the principles of the Gospel which they have investigated are founded upon Scriptures and upon the word of God—All the comments that I have ever heard or read that our enemies have ever made upon the doctrines of Jesus that they have avoided the direct bringing to light of any one of the principles in which we believe; but they have made incorrect assertions, they have misrepresented us in various ways—This may be because they have not thoroughly understood our motives ¶

I have in my pocket a slip of paper clipped from the Portland Oregonian of March 26th, giving the opinion of one Mr. Stone, the secretary of the Young Men's Christian association—His comments are very much of the character I have mentioned—He says that the Mormons who have been members of his association have not been permitted to vote or hold office because they are not considered as Christians—We are excluded from the pale of the Christian churches, as they term it, and therefore our people have been excluded from voting or holding office in that assocation ¶

I would like to say a few words upon this matter, inasmuch as the Latter-day Saints are given to joining these various associations and societies that are not part of the Church of Christ—In this city alone we have a great many young Latter-day Saints — at least, they are the children of Latter-day Saints — who belong to these various associations—Now, we have no objection to people believing as they desire ¶

At the same time it is our wish that the Latter-day Saints should grow up with a knowledge of the Gospel—First implant the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ within their hearts, and then they cannot be contaminated by error, if they are true and faithful to the principles of that Gospel—In various places throughout the Stakes of Zion we find that the Latter-day Saints have been given to joining secret societies as well as other associations—This is forbidden by the Priesthood of the Son of God—There is all of the brotherhood and all of the insurance, if you please, contained in the Church of Jesus Christ that are necessary for us—It is a fact that there are Latter-day Saints, in Salt Lake City and elsewhere, who cannot find time to attend to their duties in the Priesthood, but do find time to attend to their lodge meetings—We are running wild in this respect—Irreverence for the Priesthood of the Son of God is growing out of this—Those young men who attend lodge meetings and do not attend their Priesthood meetings, what reverence do they have for the Priesthood of the Son of God? They have very little, if any, because they have never learned to reverence that Priesthood ¶

Our missionaries, whose number has been increased some two hundred in the world during the last year, have also been performing a great work at home—One hundred and forty have been sent out among the Latter-day Saints in the various settlements, to bring in the indifferent and those who have been negligent in their duties, and to try to get them to take a live interest in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to join the various Improvement Associations—The effect that this corps of missionaries has had upon the people in general has been reported as being very good—Not only the Young Men's and the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement associations, but the various Priesthood meetings have been better attended than ever before, or for years before, at any rate—The Presidents of Stakes have reported, in many instances, that the Sabbath schools also have been improved through the work of these brethren, and also that the people have shown a more liberal spirit in the payment of their tithes and donations—They have received a general wakening up in their religion—I have ofttimes wondered how it is that we could afford to send so many missionaries abroad to preach the Gospel, and at the same time neglect our young men and young women here in Zion—When people are converted abroad and are brought to Zion, they see the example of some of the young, and they apostatize on account of that—Therefore, it has been deemed wise by the brethren to send out these missionaries, that they might go into the homes of the Latter-day Saints and teach them the Gospel—We understand that there are a great many quorums of the Priesthood that have not been able to discharge their duties as they should have done; the Teachers have not in all cases visited the Saints as they might have done; the Priests have not gone from house to house and expounded the Scriptures as it is their duty to do; and one of the difficulties has been that the members of the various quorums have not had anything to do—Inactivity is death—Wherever there is a body of people upon the face of the earth that has nothing to do, that quorum or body will die spiritually—The Spirit of God will not be with men who are inactive—The Spirit of God is a spirit of progression—Therefore, my brethren and sisters, we can see the necessity of the work that these missionaries have been performing here at home—We cannot deny but that there has been great need of this work—And they have worked just as zealously, for aught I know, and in many cases I know they have — as they would have done upon foreign missions—If we could keep those Elders who have returned from missions and the various quorums of the Priesthood at work, there would be little doubt as to the final outcome of this work—We wish to grow at home as well as abroad; not simply send our Elders abroad to preach the Gospel, but also encourage their work here, that the people may have their interest renewed in the Gospel and every man be at work—The organization of the Church of Jesus Christ is so complete that it reaches every man and every woman and every child ¶

Some things were spoken upon yesterday of a temporal nature that might be taken to heart to good advantage by all of the Latter-day Saints—We cannot separate our temporal salvation from our spiritual salvation—We should be a people who believe in enterprise, in benefiting each other and sustaining each other—There is one thing in connection with this that I would like to mention—There has been too much enmity or jealousy among the Latter-day Saints in relation to things that have been started for the benefit of the people—For instance, we go into a village and we find a blacksmith or a carpenter who has been doing a good work and able to earn a fair wage, perhaps he has become well off—Then our brethren get jealous of that brother because he is progressing, and they will start up a shop of the same kind next door to him, or very near—The result is, the profits have to be divided, and there is not enough for either of them perhaps; whereas, had they gone into something else, they would have been able to assist in the general prosperity—Our people at various times get a mill craze—They get a sawmill craze, or a creamery craze, or something of that kind; and because of their lack of union, they are cutting each other's throat financially—It appears to me that there is in the organization of the Church of Christ everything necessary for our temporal salvation as well as for our spiritual salvation, and if we would only make use of this beautiful organization, it would not be as we find it today, our people underbidding each other till their contracts are let so low in various places that they are unable to fill them ¶

Only a short time ago I noted in one of our valleys, which furnished supplies for Fort Duchesne, that on account of their lack of union in temporal affairs, they had underbid each other until the man who had secured the wood contract was unable to fill it, and his bondsmen had to do so—So it is in relation to the grain, and to the flour, and everything that is produced—When the stores made these contracts, the people got the idea that they were making too much money and getting rich, so they went in and underbid each other on government contracts and got them down to such a low figure that they could not possibly afford to deliver at the price contracted for—This is a suggestion, I believe, that it would be well to give consideration in various places—We find that mail contracts in Utah are contracted for, in many instances, by men who do not live in the State—The last ones that were let were awarded to men in Kentucky, and they sublet them to our people, who do the work for less than what their horses' feed will cost them, if their horses were fed as they should be—Therefore, we do the work and some one else gets the money—These matters pertaining to our temporal welfare, I believe, should be given attention by the Presidents of Stakes—We should not be jealous of our brethren and sisters when we see they are progressing and prospering—We desire that they should do well—We should desire that not only they should do well, but that all Israel should do well, that we may become an independent people, and not be the payers of interest, but receive interest; that we should have money to loan, instead of borrowing and having the shingles mortgaged over our wives and children as they are today in many cases ¶

I pray that the blessings of God may rest upon this people, that we may be blessed spiritually and temporally; that the power of God may be manifest in this Conference; that the brethren may all speak by the power of the Lord; that His Spirit may be with each and every one of us; that we may take to heart the instructions that are given in this Conference, and carry them to our homes, that this Conference may be the means of refreshing us, as our Conferences always do, to cause us to be a more moral people, a better people in every respect; which may God grant, for Christ's sake—Amen ¶