Respecting Priesthood and Missionary Joy

I have great joy, my brethren and sisters, in being in your midst this day. I rejoice in the knowledge of the Gospel of the Son of God, and I am grateful that I have the privilege of coming up to Zion to listen to the precious truths that have been taught during this conference. It has been food to my soul. I have feasted at the fountain of light in listening to the instructions that have been given up to the present time. You have been hearing from many of the missions, and I will say that I have been laboring in the California mission for some length of time, and I take pleasure in saying that the spirit of the Lord has been with us. We have had many good, faithful Elders laboring there, and a goodly number of people have listened to their testimonies. We have good branches in different parts of the State, and the Lord is with us manifesting His presence by the power that He pours out upon His servants in the healing of the sick and the blessing and comforting and instructing of the Saints. ¶

One thing struck me very forcibly while hearing the instructions of this conference -- the reference made to the necessity of respecting the Priesthood. From my earliest childhood, and long before my parents ever heard the Gospel -- when, in fact, I was a little boy of eight years, my mother taught me to read the Scriptures, sitting upon a little stool at her feet, while she would be doing the family sewing. And I learned to read the wonderful works of the Apostles and of our Savior. I remember in that early day of my life my feelings when I read of those wonderful things, and I thought in my heart, "O, what would I not give if I could have lived in the days of the Apostles!" When I read of our Savior taking little children in his arms and blessing them, I thought, "O, what would I not give to have been one of those little children!" And when I read the great works of the Apostles in ancient times and the wonderful healings that they performed by the power of God, I thought, "O, what would I not give to have lived in the days of the Apostles." I was perhaps about 11 years of age when my parents found the Gospel. A poor, straggling Elder ran against the family by some means or other, and they all came into the fold, and finally all reached Zion. And now I "look to the pit" from which "I was digged" and the "rock from which I was hewn." Far away to the ends of the earth, the Lord sent for me, as He did for many others. I have from that day to this continued to thank and to praise and to bless His holy name, that He had that love for me, a poor, weak mortal, to gather me home to His fold; and my soul goes out in thanksgiving and praise continually that I have been accounted worthy, amidst the millions of the inhabitants of the earth, to be gathered and brought to see and permitted to rejoice in the knowledge of the truth. And it is a source of gratitude in my soul to be permitted to stand in the presence of Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. ¶

Recently Apostle Grant and Brother J. Golden Kimball have been out with us in the California mission. It was a pleasure, indeed, to me to introduce them in that mission; it was a pleasure greater than I can express to introduce Apostle Grant as one of the Apostles of Almighty God. It has been a satisfaction to me that I have been permitted occasionally to see one of the Apostles of the Lord Jesus. What other people experience when they come into their presence, I do not know; but I do know that I never come into the presence of one of the Apostles of Jesus Christ but I feel the influence that surrounds them, and my soul goes out in gratitude to the Almighty that I am permitted to associate with such men, and, in fact, to live in the day when they live, and to listen to their instructions, that I have the privilege to receive the words of the Almighty and of eternal truth as they flow from their lips, and that I am permitted to bow in obedience to their words and the requirements they make of me. It is a joy to me to be accounted worthy to go forth and preach the Gospel to the wicked. It is a satisfaction that I have never gained in any of the avocations in life -- and I suppose that I have had my share of pleasure in human life -- but none have ever risen to the height of extreme satisfaction that I have enjoyed in preaching the Gospel to this generation, lifting up my voice to those who know not God. ¶

I will tell of an instance that occurred in Los Angeles. There is a corner there where they permit us occasionally to preach upon the street, and we often go there to preach. It is the lowest down spot in Los Angeles. It is where the saloons and the riff-raff of that community gather. It is a fact that oftentimes when we have been holding meeting upon those corners, we could hardly hear ourselves for the lewd songs that were being sung inside of the saloons upon each corner of the street. ¶

One night I was there with the brethren, and we were holding a meeting upon that corner. One of the other brethren was speaking, and I expected to follow him. I was looking at the motley crowd that had gathered around us. There were negroes, half-breeds, Mexicans, Indians, Chinamen and some whites. It was about the hardest looking lot that I ever gazed upon as listening to a religious sermon; and as I looked at them I thought to myself, "Why, if we could baptize this whole lot they are not worth having." My soul sank clear down to my boots, as it seemed, and I felt that I hadn't the courage to speak to such a congregation. I fairly dreaded the very thoughts of the ordeal immediately before me, and dreaded the brother stopping that was then speaking. Finally every bit of courage had oozed out of me when he did stop. But I stepped forward, and in the weak, humble way that I felt, began to speak. I felt so disheartened, so discouraged to think that there was one of the great cities of the country and a fine people, but the rules of the city councilors were such that we could not go upon the better streets; we had to take that corner, and here we had to stand and speak to such a lot of people. However, I began to speak, and as I proceeded it seemed to me that the Spirit of the Lord came upon me, and those old, dark, swarthy visages took on a different hue in my mind. Every one was leaning forward as far as his balance would let him to listen to what I said. The most profound attention was being given by that hard-looking congregation; and as I proceeded to speak the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me more and more, and it seemed as though they became beautiful before me. It seemed to me as though, instead of having the thought that I wouldn't do anything for them, that I could not only preach the Gospel to them, but if necessary I could lay down my life for them. I continued on until the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me so abundantly that it seemed as though I did not stand upon the ground. It seemed as though a mighty power surrounded me and caused me to see the value of their souls to the Lord. The attention they gave was wonderful, and I spoke on, filled with the Spirit overcome with the joy that I had known under no other circumstances in human life. I say to you that never, under any conditions in life, have I had such joy as I had in preaching to that congregation. They gathered around in immense numbers until they stood all around me. They doubled and quadrupled in numbers. The other meetings that were being held on the opposite corners of the street had dismissed, and all their congregations had come and gathered around us, and we had a grand and a splendid meeting. We spoke as long as we had power to speak. We rejoiced in the knowledge of the truth; and I wish to state that many of our best members in the State of California have been caught by hearing preaching on the streets. No one can tell, as he preaches the Gospel upon the street what word he says is going to sink down into the hearts of his hearers. He does not know what sentence he utters or what passage of scripture he quotes that is going to have its effect upon somebody; and so we will be able to stand as witnesses against those people in the great day of judgment, that we have preached the Gospel unto them. We do gather many, too. Many of them become investigators and come to our hall meetings which are advertised, and good, honest souls come out; and we are building up branches in that mission, and we rejoice with them. ¶

I wish to say that it seems to me that we do not appreciate fully and to the extent we ought the blessings the Almighty pours out upon us. It seems to me that we do not appreciate the fact that we are not groping as the blind for the wall upon the grand question of religion. Do we appreciate the fact that every one of us can commune with the Almighty whenever we please if we will get down upon our knees and do it? Do we appreciate the fact that we have men standing in our midst who can reach the Lord and obtain His mind and will at any time under all circumstances; that we, His people, need not be in the dark? ¶

During the whole of this conference the great principle of tithing is kept before us. The Saints of California pay a good tithing. The mission is self-supporting; and this is one of the things that we preach. Not openly; we say but very little of tithing openly; very little indeed. But, it is a rule that we have in the mission that no one shall be baptized until he or she understands the principle of tithing perfectly; no one shall be led into the waters of baptism by any Elder until this grand question is laid before him or her. They shall not have the privilege of coming up and saying, "You have deceived me; you advertise that the seats are free and there are no collections, but you have something you bring forward afterwards in the form of tithing." The principle of tithing is carefully laid before them before they are baptized, and we have many there who have paid tithes before they were baptized. I regard this principle of tithing as one of the grandest, and it is indeed the touch-stone. He who pays his tithes will not be far out of the way on every other question. ¶

I rejoice in the Gospel! I rejoice that I am accounted worthy to bear a portion of the ministry to the nations of the earth, and feel in my soul that it is the greatest joy that we can have and the grandest work we can perform, and I am ready and willing, and gladly will I spend the residue of my days in preaching the Gospel to the unbelieving world. It is my determination to be obedient to every requirement that is made of me, to live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God through His servants, whom He has placed and appointed to direct all things here upon the earth. This is my determination, to live in such a way that I can claim the blessings of the Lord, and do everything that is required of me from this day forth, in all my life. God bless you. Amen. ¶