The Growth of Zion and Sunday School Work

My brethren and sisters, realizing that I should have to speak next for a few moments, I have been trembling upon my seat, but asking myself the question, Why should I fear to stand up before my brethren and sisters? Do I not know that this is the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Yes, most certainly. Do I not hold a portion of the Holy Priesthood? Assuredly I do. Have I not for many years been a member of the Church, endeavoring to understand the principles of eternal life and to obtain the spirit of the Gospel? I answer, Yes. Why, therefore, should I, or why should anyone who is clothed with the power of the Priesthood, who loves God, and who is seeking to serve Him, fear to address a congregation of his brethren and sisters? There is something, however, in large masses of people which has an influence that causes us all to feel our own littleness, our own insignificance compared with the body of the Church. ¶

I feel like those who have preceded me, that we can truthfully say and truthfully sing, "Zion is growing." The kingdom of God is increasing in power upon the earth. "We see it in our growth numerically; we see it in the increase of our settlements, in the area of country that we are covering, in the extension of the stakes of Zion, and in the growth of our Church schools. We can see it also in the greater obedience of the people to the law of tithing and to other laws that God has revealed. All these things tell us that the Lord is with His people, and that He will fully accomplish all that he has declared; for as we know, He is abundantly able to take care of His people and of His work. ¶

With regard to what Elder Joseph W. McMurrin has been saying, I also know that there is a dearth of experienced men in the foreign ministry of the Church. I know it because of the requisitions that so often pass through my hands from the presidents of missions, asking for more experienced men to be sent to them. I appreciate the diligence and zeal, the singleness of heart and purpose of our young men. Still, the power of the preaching of the Gospel would be manifestly increased if many of them had more experience, or, to put it in another form, if there was a greater percentage of experienced men associated with them in proclaiming the glorious principles of the everlasting Gospel. We know that the Lord is opening other gates in the midst of the nations, that he is prospering His work, that many are listening to the truth and that the Gospel is now being preached in numbers of places, cities, towns and regions where one or two years ago nothing was known concerning it. The demand from abroad is that more Elders be sent. It is very seldom —hardly ever indeed— that any president of a mission says he has too many Elders in the field. The constant cry is for more men, because there are more openings. But as far as my experience has gone, there appears to be no method by which we can guage the condition of any particular portion of the Lord's work by the increase of the Elders sent there, because there are times of sowing and times of reaping in the missionary fields, as there are in the field of the agriculturist; but, as a rule, the more Elders the more baptism's, though the percentage is not always higher, per capita by reason of an increase of the number of Elders in the field. ¶

I rejoice with you, my brethren and sisters, in these things, because I love the cause of God. I desire to see it prosper, and I know I will. ¶

There is another field of labor in which I am engaged that, I am thankful to know, is growing and doing its part — that is, the Sunday school portion of the work of the Lord. In conjunction with this is the work done by other auxiliary organizations connected with the Church. We find, especially abroad, that additional importance and fresh strength has been given to the Sunday school work. In some places the first foothold obtained in the preaching of the Gospel has been by the organization of Sunday schools in the midst of non-members of the Church, and we know of schools that are flourishing and numerically strong where scarcely one-fifth of those who attend are members of the Church or children of members of the Church. We can make a favorable report in this direction with regard to the growth of the work of the Lord and the increase of knowledge of principle amongst our young people. ¶

May God bless us, strengthen us, and enable us to do His will completely, whatsoever our calling or our duties may be, that we may fulfill the object of our creation, and do all for God's cause that He requires at our hands, is my prayer, through Jesus our Redeemer. Amen. ¶