Saints Cannot Plead Ignorance

I rejoice exceedingly in having the opportunity of again assembling with the Latter-day Saints in general conference—I have listened with much interest and pleasure to the remarks that have been made thus far, and while I stand before you I most earnestly desire that the same good spirit that has inspired the remarks of the previous speakers may be with me—There is no other desire in my heart than that I may be able to say something that shall be beneficial to those who listen as well as to myself, and which may be calculated to strengthen our determination to serve the Lord—I believe that every true Latter-day Saint desires to know the mind and will of God and to have the strength of character to perform, in the daily walk of life, those duties that will tend to advance the cause of God upon the earth—If we have not this desire in our hearts, then we are not true Latter-day Saints ¶

We have the commandments of the Lord before us in the written word, and from time to time we have our minds refreshed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon those who are called upon to preach to us—There is therefore no excuse for the Latter-day Saint who does not keep the commandments of God—We cannot say that we do not know what our duties are, because they are fo often and so forcibly brought to ¶

our minds by those who speak to us—I realize that it requires a constant effort on the part of each and every one of us to make a success of our lives—It requires no effort at all to roll down the hill, but it does require an effort to climb to the summit—It needs no effort to walk in the broad way that leads to destruction; but it needs an effort to keep in the straight and narrow path that leads to life eternal, and we are told that but few find this path—The all-important thing for you and me is to discover whether we are walking in the straight and narrower path that leads to life eternal, and if we are not, wherein have we allowed the adversary to blind our minds and to cause us to depart from that path which will lead us back into the presence of God? Each one should search his own heart to find out wherein he has failed, and then he should diligently seek unto our heavenly Father for the assistance of His Holy Spirit, that he may come back into the straight path—By the assistance of our Heavenly Father there is no obligation and no law in the Church that we cannot fulfill—The Lord will give us the strength and the ability to accomplish every duty and labor that rests upon us in an acceptable manner in His sight—The only question is, have we the disposition? I heard yesterday of a Bishop who said that he could not give up drinking coffee—I do not believe that that man tells the truth—I think he lacks the disposition to try and give up the habit—I believe emphatically in the statement of Nephi—If there is one character more than another whose history is recorded in the Book of Mormon who has inspired me with respect and with a desire to follow in his footsteps, that character is Nephi—When he came to his father's tent, after conversing with the Lord, his elder brethren were complaining against their father because he had asked them to go back to Jerusalem for the plates of brass—They said that he required a hard thing of them—But when Nephi came, his father blessed him because he did not murmur—The record says: ¶

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father, I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commanded them " ¶

This is the spirit that should animate every Latter-day Saint ¶

They went up after the plates and were driven out—The elder brethren desired to go back to their father; but Nephi said unto them, "As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us " They then gathered up their gold and their silver and their precious things and went up once more to try to get the plates—Laban stole their wealth and tried to destroy them—Nephi's brethren commenced to murmur again, and they took a rod and beat him with it—As they did so an angel of the Lord stood before them, and he commanded them to go up again, promising that God should deliver Laban into their hands—I call the attention of the young men and young ladies to this, for I have heard many of them say, "Oh, if I could only see an angel, I would believe and forever after be faithful " The seeing of an angel amounts to nothing, unless you are keeping the commandments of God—No sooner had the heavenly messenger departed than these elder brethren, who were lacking in faith and did not keep the commandments of God, commenced to murmur, and instead of having faith in the promises of the angel, they said unto Nephi, "How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, vea, even he can slay fifty; then, why not us?" Did this discourage Nephi? Did he lack faith? No; he believed in the promises of the angel of God, and he said unto them, "Let us go up again unto Jerusalem, and let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold He is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands?" They went up and were successful ¶

God has commanded the Latter-day ¶

Saints to keep His commandments—Ever since I can remember we have had preached unto us what our duties and obligations are—Well do I remember, when a boy, hearing President Brigham Young in the conferences that were held in the old bowery, teach the Latter-day Saints their duties and obligations—I say as Nephi of old said, that God has required nothing at our hands save He will prepare a way whereby we can accomplish it—What does God require at our hands? He requires that we shall overcome our selfishness; that we shall be honest in our dealings with Him, and that we shall pay an honest tithing—I want to make a little explanation here with regard to my remarks that were quoted by Brother Smoot—Any young man who would go around and make the statement that I said ninety cents would pay more debts than one dollar, simply states what is not true—It is like hearing a man say, "I killed John Jones in self-defense," and then quoting him as saying, "I killed John Jones," and leaving the "self-defense" off—I say to the Latter-day Saints that God will bless the man who is honest with Him, and that the nine-tenths will go further and will bring down upon his head the blessing of God more than though he robbed God and kept the ten-tenths—That is what I said, and I repeat it ¶

I have heard taught to the Latter-day Saints all my life that they should obey the Word of Wisdom; and I say that a Bishop, a father of a ward, who so far forgets his duty and the example which he should set as to break the Word of Wisdom, is unworthy to occupy that position; and if he does not repent, it is only a question of a short time before his resignation will be tendered to him, and he will have to accept it—The day is gone by when the Lord will trifle with the Latter-day Saints—He has said that His Spirit shall not always strive with man—In the very first section of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants the Lord says: ¶

"For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance; ¶

"Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven; ¶

"And he that repents not, from him ¶

shall be taken even the light which he has received, for my Spirit shall not always strive with man, saith the Lord of Hosts " ¶

We have been letting out High Councilors and Bishops that were failing to keep the commandments of God, and there will be more of them let out unless they repent—It is a disgrace for a man blessed with the Priesthood of God and with a testimony that God lives burning in his heart, to be so weak that a little insignificant cup of coffee is his master—How he must swell up in vanity when he thinks what a wonderful man he is that a cup of coffee is his master! The example is pernicious ¶

Now we desire that the Latter-day Saints shall be free from the bondage of debt—The Prophet of God has sounded the key-note to the people, "Pay your obligations, and do not go in debt " We pray to God day after day to bless and prosper the Latter-day Saints, and then we squander our substance in breaking a commandment of God—There is today more money spent in breaking the Word of Wisdom than there is paid in cash tithing by the Latter-day Saints—Very few of the people stop to reflect upon what good that money would do in helping their brothers and sisters to pay their obligations—The Apostle James says that faith without works is dead ¶

"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? ¶

"If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, ¶

"And one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? ¶

"Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone " ¶

The prayers do not amount to much of those Latter-day Saints who pray for the Lord to bless and prosper the Saints that they may get out from the bondage of debt, and who at the same time go on squandering their substance in breaking one of the commandments of God—What does money do? Why a dollar of money has the same effect as a drop of blood in the human body—It is a circulating medium—It goes over ¶

and over and over again—We find that the heart of man beats, on an average, about seventy-six times every minute, and that it handles four ounces of blood every time it beats—In other words, it handles nineteen pounds a minute—Multiply that by sixty, and you will find how much it handles in an hour—Multiply that by twenty-four, and you will find how much it handles in a day—Over twelve tons! I have figured this out since I have been sitting here on the stand—Over twelve tons in twenty-four hours, and yet there is only about eighteen pounds of blood in the human body; but it goes over and over again—It is exactly the same with a dollar—It is calculated that every dollar does at least twenty-five dollar's, worth of work in a year, and I have known it to do more than that in a single week—Now we spend nearly a million dollars a year in breaking the Word of Wisdom, and every dollar of that money goes out of this country—God said that the Word of Wisdom was given to the Latter-day Saints for their temporal salvation, and I say that if we had obeyed it we would be the richest people in this inter-mountain country, because the millions upon millions that we have spent since we came here in breaking the Word of Wisdom would have stayed right here in this country, instead of being sent away as it has been, and we would have had more wealth than any of the intermountain States if we had obeyed this simple commandment ¶

I know that the policy of President Brigham Young in advocating to the people that they support home manufacture and keep their money at home to build up the country, is the true policy for the Latter-day Saints to follow—I wear home-made clothes—I have done it ever since I was a little boy—Why? Because I believe it is better for this community that I pay twenty dollars for a suit of clothes than that the wool be sent East and bring only one dollar back ¶

I believe it is better to have the nineteen dollars circulating around here—I heard Bishop Farrell some years ago in the Assembly Hall tell a very good story on home manufacture—He said he believed in home manufacture ¶

because it benefited him as well as other people—He said that when he was coming down to conference he met at the depot a brother to whom he owed five dollars for making some shoes for his children—He gave this brother the five dollars, and he turned around and handed the money to another brother whom he owed, and he handed it to another, and he handed it to another, and the fourth brother came up and handed it back to Brother Farrell, saying "I owe you six dollars, here is five of it," and Brother Farrell put the money back into his pocket—That money paid five hundred per cent in debt there in just about the same length of time that it takes me to tell the story—But if the Bishop had bought the imported goods it would not have paid the five hundred per cent, because it would have gone out of the country—I went to a negro minstrel show once, and there were about ten or fifteen on the stage—One of them rushed in with his hat off and said, "which of these here niggers am lost two dollars?" holding up a two dollar bill—There hadn't any of them lost two dollars—"Well," he said, "if none of you have lost it, I found these two dollars right by the door here and it is my money " They said all right, and he put it in his pocket—No sooner had he got it in his pocket than up jumped a nigger and said: "Look here, George Washington Jones, you owe me two dollars; pay your honest debts!" He handed the two dollars to him—Another nigger jumps up and says: "Look here, Julius Cæser Brown, you owes me two dollars; pay your debt " He got it, and in this way it went clear round—When the last man got it, up jumps George Washington Jones, and says: "Here, give me back the two dollars; you owes me two dollars.' No sooner had he got it in his pocket than a fellow rushes in and said "which of — you niggers has found two dollars?" George Washington Jones took it out of his pocket and said: "Here, take your money and go home; we've all paid our debts " ¶

I desire that the Latter-day Saints should all pay their debts—One reason why I desire this is, I am in debt myself and I want to pay my debts—I want to live to see the day when I shall owe no man anything—I want the Latter-day Saints to not only pray for me but to keep a little more money in the country so that I will stand a better chance to get some of it—If they will— keep the commandments of God and do less praying, I will be obliged to them—I believe in the saying of the Savior: ¶

-He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me! and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him " ¶

If we keep the commandments of God He will love us, and the Savior will manifest Himself unto us—If we fail to keep the commandments of God, there is no promise made to us—The Savior said: -Not every one that sayeth unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven " It is the keeping of the commandments of God that causes men to grow and to become strong and powerful in the Church and kingdom of God—God bless you all—Amen ¶