Nothing Can Be Done Against the Work of God

It is a source of great pleasure to me to meet once more with the Latter-day Saints in a general conference of the Church. I have listened with very much interest and pleasure to the remarks that have been made by those who have spoken thus far in our meetings. In standing before you this morning to bear witness of the goodness of the Lord to His people and to me as an individual, I desire most earnestly and humbly that what I may say may be for our mutual benefit; that it may strengthen us in our desires to serve God and keep His commandments. If I know my own heart, I believe it is set upon the advancement of the Church and Kingdom of God. I know that there is nothing on the earth that I rejoice over so much as I do in the fact that I am associated with the servants and handmaidens of God in the Church of Jesus Christ; and I do not believe that there ever is a day that passes over my head that I do not thank God for the restoration again of the plan of life and salvation, and that I have been made a partaker of the same. I supplicate Him earnestly that my mind may never become darkened, that I may never depart from the truth; that I may never forget any of the covenants that I have made, but, as I grow in years and increase in understanding, that I may grow in a testimony of the Gospel and in the desire — not only a desire but in doing it — to labor for the onward advancement of the Kingdom of God on the earth. ¶

When I look around and see the mistakes that I have made, and those that my brethren make from time to time; when I realize how many of those who have been wonderfully blessed of the Lord have fallen by the wayside, it fills me with humility; it fills me with the spirit of meekness and with an earnest desire that I may ever seek to know the mind and the will of God and to keep His commandments rather than to follow out my own desires. ¶

In listening to the remarks that have been made here this morning by Brother John W. Taylor with regard to the political agitation that is being stirred up, or at least the agitation that is being stirred up because of the political affairs in Utah, and his testimony that the meetings held by the Elders are doubly as well attended as they were before this agitation; and that they are now selling double the amount of tracts to what they did before this agitation, it furnished one more testimony to me of the truth of the sayings of those who have been inspired: "that nothing can be done against the work of God but what shall redound to its advancement." I have recently had the privilege of visiting three of the conferences in the Northern States mission, and we had exactly the same experience as that related by Brother Taylor. Some of the first meetings were very poorly attended, but when it was announced that some remarks would be made at a later meeting by myself upon what is known as the Roberts' case, we had a full house and we had a chance to say a few words with regard to the Roberts' case and a great many words with regard to the restoration of the Gospel and to bear witness that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the true and living God. ¶

Never have I rejoiced more in my life, that my lot has been cast among the Latter-day Saints, that I have been born in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, than I did in my recent visit to the East, when I came in contact with members of the Reorganized church. When I visited Kirtland, Ohio, and saw there the temple, and realized the fact that at the time it was erected by the Prophet Joseph and his brother, that it was a mighty work; when I considered the ordinances that are being performed in our temples here in Utah; when I reflected that we have the Gospel in its fulness; when I thought that they have the temple but know not how to put it to any use; when I realized that they are absolutely devoid of the inspiration of God, I rejoiced that my lot had been cast among the Latter-day Saints. ¶

I have often been surprised that so much of the time of our Elders has been wasted in the world in discussing with members of the Re-organized Church as to which Church was in very deed the Church of Christ. I have been astonished at this for the reason that it seems to me an utter waste of time to undertake to discuss with a man after you have knocked him down as to who holds the ground. We read that in heaven there was a rebellion and that God, our Heavenly Father, cast out one-third of the hosts of heaven with Lucifer at their head. We have no account after they were cast out that God stopped to argue the question with those that had been cast out as to who held the ground. In the Re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, about one-half, if not more, of its members, are those who have been cast out of the real Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They do not begin to have one-tenth the number we have, and why should we waste our time in arguing with them as to who holds the situation, and as to which is the Church of Christ? If the prophecies of Daniel and others that have been referred to here today are true, and we know they are true, then is the mountain of the Lord's house to be established in the tops of the mountains? Here it is, and here it is rolling forth and will fill the whole earth. Can any of these claims be made by this shadow, so to speak, of a re-organized church? We know that Joseph prophesied that the Latter-day Saints should be driven from city to city; that they should be driven from county to county; and that they should be driven from state to state; and finally, that they should be driven out of the confines of the United States to these Rocky Mountains and become a great, a prosperous, a mighty people. We know that this has been fulfilled to the letter. The Re-organized Church can lay no claims to being persecuted and driven from city to city, from county to county, from state to state, or of being driven to the Rocky Mountains. They have not become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains. Not only did Joseph Smith proclaim that the day should come when a city, a county, and a state should be arrayed against this people called Latter-day Saints, but he said, "the time shall come when the whole United States shall be arrayed against the Mormons;" and the day did come. I remember in my childhood days when the army of the United States came against this people. Not a state militia, but the army of the United States of America. I remember very well also that the property of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was confiscated. I remember to have picked up the papers time and time again at the time the confiscation suits were going on in this state, and read in bold headlines, "The United States of America, vs the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," and I have laid down the paper and said, "thanks be to God our Heavenly Father, that the United States of America has placed the stamp of divinity upon the utterances of the Prophet Joseph Smith." Every one of these predictions of the Prophet Joseph Smith have utterly failed if there is one claim that amounts to anything in the claims of the Re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because the United States of America has never lifted its hand nor sent its army against or confiscated the property of the Re-organized Church. Never has one thing been done by the United States of America against that church. ¶

I rejoice, as I have said, that I have been born among the Latter-day Saints. I rejoice in the growth and in the advancement of the work of God here on the earth. In hearing the remarks that have been made in this Conference of the great growth of the people I was reminded of being with President Wilford Woodruff, standing in a wagon, in Idaho, some fifteen years ago next May, and talking to a half a dozen, or a dozen young people that were located there, and I was also very forcibly reminded of the remarks of that Prophet of God made them. I remember that the young people were somewhat discouraged on Sand Creek, as they looked around over land, without a tree, without a shrub except sage brush, without so much as a log cabin. Brother Woodruff said to the young people: "Be not discouraged; be not disheartened, because God's blessing is upon this land. It will only be a little time until there will be prosperous and happy settlements of the Latter-day Saints here. You feel that you have gone away from your friends; that you are almost out of the world, but it will be only a short time when you will have a meeting house, and a school house and all of the facilities here that you had at home before you came here. God will bless and multiply the land." What is the result today? On that spot of ground stands the town of Iona, the headquarters of one of the Stakes of Zion, with about five thousand people instead of six or seven young people; the words of the Prophet Wilford Woodruff have been fulfilled to the very letter. ¶

The Latter-day Saints are indeed, as the Prophet Joseph said they should be, a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains and we are simply in our infancy. We are beginning to grow and to become a mighty people, but we are as nothing to what we will be. There is no question in my mind but what the Lord is going to multiply the Latter-day Saints and bless them more abundantly in the future than He has ever done in the past, provided of course we are humble and diligent; provided we seek for the advancement of God's kingdom, and not to do our own mind and will. We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ restored to us; we have the plan of life and salvation; we have the ordinances of the Gospel not only for the living but for the dead. We have all that is necessary, not only for our own salvation, but that we may be in very deed "Saviors upon Mount Zion," and enter into the temples of our God and save our ancestors who have died without a knowledge of the Gospel. I was particularly struck yesterday in listening to the remarks of President Cannon. He said, "Where is there a minister today that has the hardihood to stand up and preach that little babes who die are sent to hell because they were not sprinkled?" The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the leaven of the Gospel, is going through the whole lump. The whole world has partaken to a greater or less extent of the principles of the Gospel; and men dare not stand up today and advocate this doctrine of devils, so to speak, because it is a damnable doctrine to teach that little innocent babes shall be sent to hell. When we contemplate the Gospel as it is and as it has been revealed, as recorded in the seventy-sixth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, our hearts swell with joy and thanksgiving: ¶

"And this is the Gospel, the glad tidings of which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us. ¶

"That He came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness; ¶

"That through Him all might be saved whom the Father had put into His power and made by Him. ¶

"Who glorifies the Father, and saves all the works of His hands, except those sons of perdition, who deny the Son after the Father has revealed Him; ¶

"Wherefore, he saves all except them." ¶

Certainly this is glad tidings of great joy, that every human being except those that have a knowledge of Jesus Christ and who sin against that knowledge, shall be saved; and in this revelation the wonderful testimony has been borne to us by the Prophet Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon: ¶

"For we saw him, even on the right hand of God, and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the only begotten of the Father ¶

"That by him and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God." ¶

I bear witness to you, although I have not seen the Savior sitting upon the right hand of God, I know that He lives; that I know that Jesus is the Christ; that I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God; I know that the signs follow the believer; I know that hands are laid upon the sick and that the sick do recover; I know that we have the gift of tongues among the Latter-day Saints; I know that we have visions, dreams, and revelations; I know that Lorenzo Snow is a true prophet of God. I bear this witness to you and to all the world, and I pray God that as we grow in years that we may grow in the knowledge of the Gospel, and I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶