The Spirit of God and Devotion to the Lord

I may have some difficulty, my brethren and sisters, in making you hear, but trust you will be patient with me, and that the Lord will assist me in my effort. I have very greatly enjoyed the services in this conference, and I hope that the same good Spirit that has moved my brethren may be with us this morning. ¶

It is an inspiring sight to look upon the faces of ten thousand people, nearly all of whom are of one faith. The Spirit of the Lord that accompanies this work accomplishes marvelous things in the hearts of the people. It gives to us new and additional sight, hearing and understanding, so that we see, hear and understand as people in the world are unable to do. This work is of the Lord, and it is only understood and accomplished by the Spirit of the Lord. The natural man is unable to comprehend it. It looks foolish and unreasonable to him, because it is beyond his comprehension. But to the simplest one who has repented and been baptized with water and with fire and the Holy Ghost, this work appears quite reasonable and natural. The hearts of the Latter-day Saints are becoming established and fixed in the service of the Lord, just in proportion to their devotion and faithfulness in keeping the commandments of the Lord. It is the keeping of His commandments that determines that we are His followers and disciples. Unless we do keep His commandments, we are not His disciples, though we may bear the name. The only reason that there can be found today among the Latter-day Saints people who are not quite settled and established, not quite converted to all the principles of the Gospel, is because after their repentance and baptism they have become backsliders, more or less indifferent, and have returned measurably to the ways and fashions of the world, so that they see and understand as the world does. ¶

It would be well for us who are here today, professing to be Latter-day Saints, to examine our own hearts, to discover whether we have really been working as the Lord has required, or whether we have been indifferent; whether our hearts have been set upon the things of the world, and whether we love the ways and the wealth of the world more than we love to serve the Lord. In partaking of the Sacrament we are enjoined, as the former-day Saints were, to examine ourselves. I would like to add to that the injunction that when we are about to pray night and morning, or secretly, and when we gather together in council and in worship, we should examine ourselves, and never put our faces toward our heavenly Father, in council or in worship, until we can do so with a firm determination in our souls that we will serve Him with all our hearts. I would like us to be impressed with this earnest devotion and feeling in regard to the service of the Lord; for we are here for the purpose of serving Him, doing His bidding, and sustaining His servants who preside over us. It is a hard work that we have to perform. Therefore, it should be the object of our lives to have whatever we do tend to strengthen our own faith, and the faith of our families and kindred, to uphold the hands of the servants of the Lord, and to sustain and advocate the work of the Lord among men. It should be our aim to be that peculiar people which the Lord is determined to have in the earth -- peculiar because we waive our own will for the will of the Lord, and hold our own selfish desires and personal preferences subject to His requirements. Every Latter-day Saint should be just such a person as this, so that when we come together in a congregation of ten thousand, as we have this morning, we can be looked upon as a very peculiar company of people, united as no people could possibly be united, only under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Here is a congregation whose hearts beat as a unit, with faith in God, with one pulsation, and filled with the inspiration of the Lord. We see alike in regard to the authority of the Priesthood and in regard to the ordinances of the Gospel. We are upright and conscientious, and we are not weak in the faith. This is a congregation of men and women who are strong in the faith, who are devoted to the Lord, who live in the light of His countenance, and who attend to the law which the Lord has given requiring one-tenth of our interest annually. If Latter-day Saints neglect this law of tithing, they are faulty, and lack oil in their lamps. The Lord requires His people to bow the knee before Him every night and morning, and to remember Him in their secret prayers. Every Latter-day Saint who neglects this requirement has not that supply of oil which is necessary to prepare him for the coming of the Son of man. The Lord requires us to be obedient to the counsels of the Priesthood, and to look to them for counsel. Every Latter-day Saint who is obdurate in his feelings and will not listen to the counsels of the servants of the Lord shows a lack of oil. The Lord requires that we shall meet together on the fast day, fasting, praying, and remembering our offerings for the relief of the poor. Every Latter-day Saint who follows his daily avocation and neglects this duty shows a lack of oil. The Lord requires us to love our wives, our husbands, our children, and to love our neighbors. The Latter-day Saint who does not do this shows a dearth of that oil that is necessary to enable him to stand and be prepared for the coming of the Son of man. The Lord requires us to preach the Gospel to all the world, and for this reason above all others He has endowed us with His divine authority. If we neglect to honor and magnify the Priesthood, as we ought to do every day of our lives, we evidence a lack of oil. ¶

I would utter this simple word of warning to my brethren and sisters. I wish that we would repent, and remember the Lord. We always remember him when we are sick and in trouble. When we are cast down and humiliated, we fly to the Lord in our distress. I want to advise this congregation, who are not sickly or invalids, to remember the Lord while they are healthy. The sick ones remember the Lord. They receive the ordinance of anointing with oil and the laying on of hands, and the prayer of faith is offered up that they may be healed. But when we are strong and well I fear that we are inclined to forget the Lord. When we are fairly independent and successful financially, I wonder if we do not think that we are able to walk alone and to take care of ourselves. When our sight and our hearing are good, when we are not palsied, or disordered in any way, I wonder if we do not lie down at night and get up in the morning, work hard all day and attend strictly to our own affairs, and forget the Lord. Who should remember the Lord? The hearty, the healthy, the vigorous. Why? Because their favors from the Lord are superior to the favors of others. When a man can see, he should never forget to thank the Lord for the sight of his eyes. A man should never forget to thank the Lord for the judgment and wisdom He endows him with. His heart should go out in gratitude to the Father that he is so abundantly blessed. His sympathies, too, should go out, as a strong, able man, to those who are less fortunate than himself. ¶

We are fairly faithful, but we should be more faithful and more devoted to the Lord. We should be more careful and conscientious in the performance of our duties, so that nothing that is required of us shall be overlooked. Let every man who has received the Priesthood, let every woman who has a husband bearing the Priesthood, let every family that is presided over by a man bearing the Priesthood, rejoice and thank the Lord and sing praises to His name every day, for the blessings He bestows upon them. If there are sick among us, let them call for the Elders of the Church, as we read in the scriptures, and let the Elders pray over them, anointing them with oil, and the prayer of faith shall heal the sick. How simple these ordinances are! How simple the ordinance of baptism, of confirmation, of ordination to the holy Priesthood! How simple the prayers that we are directed to offer, and how pleased the Lord is when we approach Him in the simplest forms of speech! How pleased the Lord is when we remember Him in our thoughts and feelings; and when our hearts go out to the Father in gratitude, how the inspiration of the Lord vibrates in our souls! How grateful we ought to be to the Lord that He has planted in our souls a knowledge of the truth; that we have been enabled to understand that He is indeed our Father, that we are His children, and that our Elder Brother Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the world! How grateful we ought to be that we were permitted to come upon the earth in this last dispensation of the fulness of times! What a wonderful favor this has been to us, that we were preserved and held in reserve until this auspicious time, when we could labor for our own salvation and for the salvation of our dead kindred! What a wonderful blessing that we could be the builders of temples; that we could come in the day when the Prophet came, when the Lord appeared and made Himself known to the world, as He had not been known for eighteen hundred years! How necessary it was that the peoples of the world should have a living witness, the witness of a man who had been permitted to see the Father and the Son, and who had the testimony in his heart in regard to the Father and the Son by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. We may not all be allowed to see the Father, yet we are all enjoined to know the Father and the Son, and to have the testimony of the Holy Ghost abiding in our hearts in regard to the Father and the Son; for when we know them we can rely confidently upon the doctrines that are taught us and upon the promises that have been made to us, and the more we become acquainted with the Spirit of the Lord the more we become established, and the more we comprehend the things of God. Governors, judges, kings and queens, and the great philosophers of the world do not know these things. The simplest Latter-day Saint in the Church has inspiration and light that the philosophers and the greatest among men have not tasted. There is a measure of light and inspiration that comes through the Holy Ghost to those who serve the Lord that the natural man, independent of the Holy Ghost, is not endowed with. It is the possession of this Spirit that makes us a peculiar people; and the reason we are not more different from the rest of the world than we are is because we do not live according to the light and inspiration of the Holy Ghost as we ought to do. Our fallen natures have too great power over us, and our weaknesses restrain us and turn us aside from keeping the commandments of the Lord as we ought to do. We hardly expect to be perfect in this life; but we do want to be perfect. That is the object of our being -- to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect; to do as the Son of God has done, to live as He lives, in the light and inspiration of the Lord, to serve the Lord, to be His sons and daughters, to keep His commandments, to know Him as He is, and have the inspiration and light of His countenance always in our hearts, in our homes, and in all our operations and labors of life. We are not here simply to exist, simply to provide bread and butter, to eat and drink, to wear clothing, to be comfortable, to sleep and to arise, to labor, and the like -- that is not the sole object of our coming here; but we come here to be developed, to be enlarged, and to become like our Father, following the example set by the Son of God; to not set up our own wills, and determine to have our own way and do as we please, but to do the will of the Lord, and to obtain the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord, that we may not be led astray, and that the evil influences and spirits which move among the children of men may not take hold of us, but that we may know the spirits and not be deceived by them. There is an endless variety of spirits in the world today, and we have need to be very cautious that we be not overcome; for Satan would like to destroy us and this work in which we are engaged. He uses agencies to blind the eyes of the people, and good men are led to oppose this Church and its doctrines because they do not comprehend them. There are thousands of people pitted against this work who, if they but knew that they were persecuting the Saints of God, would rather sacrifice their lives than continue to do so. They are conscientious and honest people, but blinded by the insinuations of Satan, who has made them to feel that if this Church is allowed to prosper the world will be demoralized and brought into wickedness and corruption, and for that reason they work against us. ¶

You Latter-day Saints here, ten thousand strong, have you ever been taught by the Elders of Israel to be wicked? Have you ever been led by them into wickedness, and encouraged in any kind of corruption? Have you been taught that you should be enemies to the world, or enemies to your neighbors? Do you persecute your neighbors? Are you disturbing their peace? Are you trying to rob and injure them? Or are you taught to be conscientious and honest, and to treat your brother, though he does not believe as you do, kindly? Have you not been taught to deal honestly with all men, to love all men, and to seek their salvation? You are my witnesses here today that we have not taught you to be wicked. You have not been led into wickedness. But you have been taught and exhorted all the day long in harmony with the doctrines that are published to the world by the Latter-day Saints, in harmony with the Gospel as laid down in the Bible. In obedience to the principles of that Gospel the testimony of the Lord Jesus has been planted in your hearts; and while that abides, you love your neighbor, you love your enemies, and would do them good, and not injury; you would seek for their salvation, for their happiness and peace, and you could not be persuaded to do a thing that was wrong. You could not be led into stealing, into thieving, into lying, into deception and fraud. You would not tolerate it in the leaders of Israel. If you detected dishonesty in them, you would expose it in a moment; for you have been too well trained and instructed under your local authorities as well as under the general authorities of the Church, and you know that it is necessary for you to live lives of purity and righteousness. You know that your mission in the world is for the salvation of the souls of the children of men, including your own souls. You are not allowed to be wicked and corrupt. If you are a thief we deal with you for your fellowship. Dishonesty, unvirtuous conduct, lying and thieving are not tolerated among the Latter-day Saints. We have not gone into the world to gather people who indulge in such evil practices; but we have labored all the time to gather the honest, the conscientious, the upright, and those who would be obedient and pure in their lives. If they are not willing to submit to these requirements, we do not want them. We cannot save them in their sins; they must repent and reform. If they do not do this, the Gospel has no chance to save them. The atonement wrought out by the Savior has relieved us of the sin of our first parents, and has brought us into communion with the Lord; but we are responsible for our own transgressions. We must repent of them. Baptism is unavailing without repentance. Faith that does not produce repentance is unavailing. But the faith that has been restored to us through the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith is a vital faith. It moves men to repentance and reformation, and to keeping the commandments of the Lord. It opens the way that we may know the Father and the Son; that we may know the Prophets, and that we may comprehend the principles of the Gospel. Having this faith, this congregation could not be deceived. No man could stand here and teach falsehood without being detected. The Latter-day Saints are as sensitive to the movements and operations of the Spirit of the Lord as the thermometer is to the presence of heat and cold. You know in a moment when the Spirit of the Lord is coming upon you. If the power of Satan were to be manifested in this congregation, it would be felt in a moment. Every person in the house would sense it from crown to toe. ¶

The Lord has thus been training and schooling us since the days of the Prophet. The Prophet Joseph Smith fulfilled his mission most grandly, and he laid down his life for the testimony of Jesus. The Prophet Brigham built upon the foundation that the Prophet Joseph laid, under the direction of the Lord. The Prophet Brigham was the servant and lion of the Lord in the midst of His people. The Lord counseled and led him; and the result of his labors and the inspiration and great power which God gave him is seen on every hand. President John Taylor and President Wilford Woodruff were men of God -- men who never showed the white feather, who were always true and devoted to the Lord in every impulse of their souls. President Snow, who is with us today, is a worthy successor to those who have gone before. The Lord has been with President Snow. His mission has been a remarkable one. The mission of each of the chiefs of this Church has been emphasized by some very important work. President Snow is to live to see this people made free, and relieved of their embarrassments, financial and otherwise. There is a stride being made by this Church today that has never before been made in its history. We are advancing, we are improving and gaining strength and power day by day. The Lord is with His people. The Gospel is being preached as never before. Nations that have not heard the Gospel are to hear it. And this administration of President Snow shall be made remarkable, as all the others have been. What peculiar strength and power have we noticed in any one of the leaders of Israel? Have they been uncommon men? No, except as the Lord has made them uncommon. A remarkable work was accomplished by the Prophet Joseph, though he died before he was forty years of age. He laid the foundation of this great work, which is to cover the earth, in a few years. He was a young and inexperienced man; but the Lord was with him. He saw the Father and the Son; he was inspired of the Holy Ghost, and was among the greatest of Prophets; in fact, there has been none greater on this earth, save the Son of God himself. The greatest dispensation ever committed to man upon the earth was opened up by the Prophet Joseph in 1830. The Lord was with him, and He has been with his successors. Not a man will ever stand in his exalted place and station, as President Lorenzo Snow does today, who is not most thoroughly proven, and who has not demonstrated by his life that he loves the Lord in preference to all else, so that God can handle and direct him in leading Israel. That is what the Lord can do with President Lorenzo Snow. It is what the Lord can do with President George Q. Cannon. It is what the Lord can do with President Joseph F. Smith. It is what the Lord can do with these Apostles whom you have voted for today to be prophets, seers and revelators. This Church will never be without prophets, seers and revelators, to stand at its head, and the vicegerent will stand as the representative of the Lord and speak for the whole Church. The Apostles hold the keys of the power of God in the earth, and the Lord enables them to turn those keys and give authority to men to open the door of the Gospel to the nations of the earth, that the purposes of the Lord may be fulfilled in the earth preparatory to the coming of the Son of man. Not only these Apostles, but these presiding Seventies, the presiding High Priests in the Stakes of Zion, and the Bishops of wards -- these men are all endowed with Priesthood and authority from God for the ministry entrusted to them. Blessed be the Bishop that takes care of his little ward, for his glory and exaltation shall be equal to any man's. A man who labors and is successful in saving souls, and who by his example encourages, strengthens and stimulates them and leads them back into the presence of God, oh, what honor will be conferred upon that man! The posterity of those souls will rise up and call him blessed before the Lord. ¶

My brethren and sisters, can we afford to be indifferent and neglectful, listless and foolish, so late in the day as this? for it is announced to us that the coming of the Son of Man is near at hand. O! that we will serve and honor the Lord and be ready at His coming; that the door shall not be shut against us, but that there shall be oil in our lamps, and we be well prepared. But not a man or woman can have the necessary oil and preparation who hath not earned it by his or her own devoted service to the Lord. And we have not a moment to be careless. Seek the Lord and serve Him every day of your lives. Then if you die before the coming of the Son of Man you shall see Him when you go to the other side, and you shall be welcome there. Let us be ready all the time, and let us labor with devotion and faithfulness. Never mind what others do; for me, I must serve the Lord, I must honor and serve Him with all my might and strength, in order that I may be redeemed and saved in His presence. ¶

God bless all Israel. I thank you, my brethren and sisters, that you have come to this conference. It is a blessed conference! The word of the Lord has been freely given; the Spirit of the Lord has been upon the brethren; it has been rich upon you, and it will increase upon you in your homes, the Lord will sustain and strengthen you. Zion will triumph, her numbers will increase, and where she now has five or six hundred wards, towns and villages, there shall be five or six thousand towns and villages; where there are four temples now being occupied by the Latter-day Saints, marking them as a people unlike any other people in the world, there will be forty temples, fifty temples, hundreds of temples all over the land, that shall occupy the labors of the faithful through the Millennium. That God may grant us to live to see these things accomplished -- or, if we go before, that we may go to Him approved, that it may be said of us. "Well, done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord," is my prayer, through Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶