God Is with Us

My brethren and sisters, a very unexpected privilege is afforded me this afternoon of standing before you and bearing my testimony concerning the principles of the Gospel of Christ. ¶

The last words of the hymn which was so beautifully sung here, the second hymn, by Brother Thomas and the choir, shall furnish me a text for the very few remarks that I expect to make: "God is with us, and we with Him." I ask myself the question, when I see these lines, if we are justified in asserting that God is with this people and we with Him? It is now 71 years since the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, and what has been the result? The Gospel has been preached in almost every civilized country in the world, and the thing that brings greatest joy to me, greatest consolation, greatest assurance, is the fact that God, in His mercy, has not only given me a testimony of the truth of the message that He commanded the boy Prophet to send out into all the world, but that He has given it to all of you! and I know that, if the opportunity were offered, hundreds of you would rise up and bear this same testimony with me this afternoon. And that is not all. We know that away up in ice-locked Norway and Sweden, in Germany, in France, in the British Isles, and in the islands of the sea, people are gathered together -- people with whom we never associated, people who are strangers to us, people who represent many different nations and kindreds and tongues, and that they are all bearing witness today that Jesus is the Christ, and that through His mercy the Latter-day dispensation has been ushered in through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith. They are all bearing testimony that there are prophets on the earth today. The revelations of God are made known for the redemption of mankind, and that today the gathering of scattered Israel has begun. This is a strong evidence that God has been with us from the very inception of this Church until the present time. Has he blessed us in the gathering of the people? Why, we extend from Canada in the north to Mexico in the south. I bring you greeting from Latter-day Saints who are laying the foundations of Zion securely, firmly and well in the lands of the Lamanites upon the south; for whatever joy we may have in contemplating the great manifestations of God toward us in the past, we know that the greater work is yet in the future. We know that the redemption of Zion has not yet come. We know that before the great day of the Lord shall come, that "Jacob will flourish in the wilderness and the Lamanites blossom as the rose." In 1884, I think it was, the Lord revealed to President Taylor, in a revelation that was given to him, that the time had come to establish and maintain the Gospel among the Lamanites. ¶

About that time the first Latter-day Saint, through force of circumstances, crossed the line which divides the United States of America from the United States of Mexico, and a few straggling colonists, went into that country. I am pleased to be able to report to you now that the blessings of the Lord have continued with our labors there, and we have maintained ourselves, that our colonies are prospering; that we rejoice because of the constant manifestations of God's kindness and care and blessing to us, that we see from day to day. And in that providential move we see the beginning of the great work which the prophets indicate must be performed among the remnant of Jacob upon this continent before Zion shall be redeemed. ¶

I rejoice in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bear testimony to you that His Gospel has been restored to the earth not to be taken from it again. Jesus sent his disciples into all the world to preach the Gospel to every creature, but he made no promise to them that they should prevail. On the other hand, when the Gospel was restored in this dispensation, when John the Baptist laid his hands upon the head of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, as he did lay his hands upon their heads and bestowed upon them the Aaronic Priesthood, he said: "Upon you, my fellow servants, in the name of the Messiah, I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministration of angels, of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and this Priesthood shall never be taken from the earth until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering in righteousness unto the Lord." ¶

We should feel grateful for these assurances, that the time has come for the consummation of all the promises made through the holy Prophets. The time of the redemption of Israel, the gathering together of His scattered people, the redemption of hundreds of thousands, yes millions of the remnant who occupy this country south of us, for there are probably 100,000,000 from Mexico to Cape Horn whose blood has not been contaminated by admixture with any other race. The Gospel is about to be preached to them. A mission is about to be established in the City of Mexico, indicating to us the consummation of things that we have long desired. The Lord tells us here in the Book of Mormon that "Whenever you see these things beginning to be made known to the remnant of your seed, then know that the time is nigh when I the Lord will fulfill all my promises which I have made to my people, O house of Israel." ¶

May God strengthen our faith, and bless us with fortitude and faith to continue until Zion shall triumph, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶