Willingness to Labor According to Assignment

All should ba willing to labor according to assignment— Eternal character of the Priesthood. ¶

I desire, my brethren and sisters, to make myself heard, if possible, by this vast congregation of people, though I feel it will be a difficult matter. I want to say that this call has come to me as a great surprise— doubtless as great a surprise to me as to you who are assembled upon this occasion. I feel my weakness and my inefficiency, and that there is nothing that could make me equal to the acceptance of this appointment, of this high responsibility, except a knowledge that this is the work of the Lord. I testify to you that it is the work of the Lord. I feel and realize that the Lord can make His servants equal to every responsibility. I have this faith and this desire; I am willing to work and to labor wherever the Lord wants me to labor, under the direction of my brethren. I desire your faith and prayers, and your support; that you will sustain me in this high calling, as I desire te sustain and hope to be able to sustain my President, President Lorenzo Snow. I desire to be a help and a strength to him, and a counselor in very deed. It is the aim of my life that wherever I am called tolabor, in any position, to give my heart and soul to that labor. I want to say to this great congregation of people that I am willing to be used where the Lord wants me, as I feel that this should be the case with all the authorities of the Church of Christ. There is no appointment in this Church, that I know of, that is absolutely permanent, excepting the Holy Priesthood, which we are called to hold. When we receive that we hold it in this life, and we take it with us in the life to come. We exercise it in the world, and we exercise it out of the world, so long as we are faithful. I think that the Latter-day Saints ought to be educated to the great truth that there are some offices in this Church that are permanent, and others that are not necessarily so. There are some offices conferred upon men that when they remove their residence, or die, cease with them; but not so with the Priesthood. I rejoice in this Priesthood and in this testimony, and I pray God to give me His Spirit and to strengthen me, and I invoke your blessing, your assistance and your faith, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶