Report on the Central States Mission

I feel grateful in my soul to my Heavenly Father for the privilege of meeting with you in this conference to worship the Lord, and to have the pleasure of listening to the testimonies that are borne of the goodness of God and of the power of His Holy Spirit which is among His chosen people in this goodly land. I stand before you to represent one of the missions which, by the authority of God, has been established in these United States, covering five of the States and two of the Territories of this great Union. The work in the Central States mission is in good condition. The people are increasing in faith and in their devotion to the work of our Father in Heaven. While I was listening yesterday to the testimonies of our brethren, and to the statements of our beloved President Joseph F. Smith concerning the tithes and offerings of the people, I thought if the payment of tithes and offerings by the people of the Church is likened unto a barometer, registering the condition that exists, then certainly that register in the Central States mission must be encouraging. Within the last five years the tithes of the members of the Church in the Central States mission have increased nearly six hundred per cent. The tithes paid last year showed an increase of more than fifty per cent over the tithes of the previous year. The poor in the mission— whom we have also with us. as the Savior said — were supported largely from the offerings of the people. A year ago last January we set out to make that mission self-supporting, so far as help for the poor is concerned, and we were nearly successful. We hope in the future to be entirely successful. Through the teaching of this law of offerings for the support of the poor we have learned that the people are increasing in faith and in their love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. ¶

In that mission we are doing a little in the way of colonizing. In the state of Texas we have a colony of sixty-three families, with a membership of three or four hundred people. In the eastern part of the State of Kansas we have another nice little colony, where a number of people have gathered together, and they have built a house of worship and are now beautifying the grounds. During the past few years six or eight houses of worship have been erected in the mission, by the donations of the people; and we have not as yet found it necessary to call upon our brethren for contributions from the tithes for this purpose. The people in that part of the Lord's vineyard have manifested their faith in putting up these buildings for their own convenience. Doubtless in the future some help will be required from the Church in the erection of our mission building, for which we are now collecting means, and which will probably be located in that city around which cluster so many memories that are dear to the Latter-day Saints — the city of Independence, in. Jackson county, Missouri. ¶

My brethren and sisters, in our associations with your husbands and sons, and with a few of your daughters, who have been sent out there to carry the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ unto their fellows, we have experienced great joy and satisfaction; for we have learned to love them. There is a bond of union between us which we feel will not be broken in time nor in eternity. They are devoted and faithful in their work. Every missionary that is laboring in that mission gives support with his whole soul unto those men whom God has placed to lead and direct latter-day Israel. We are not tender about teaching the revelations of the Lord to our brethren and sisters in the world. The eternal principles of the Gospel are brought before them in plainness; nevertheless, we seek to use wisdom and discretion in our teachings. ¶

This in the work of our Father in Heaven. It has been established by revelation direct from Him. The work that is being done today we know is in fulfillment of the word of the Lord through His Prophets in former dispensations, pertaining to the redemption and salvation of His children in the latter days. While I have been thinking over this latter-day work, a few of the words of the Prophet Isaiah have come forcibly to my mind, and I will take the liberty of reading them in your hearing. You will find them recorded in the twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah. Speaking of the work in which you and I are engaged; speaking of a tiered record that was to come forth, then the work that was to follow its corning forth and the effect it should have upon those who accepted it and upon those who opposed it, he said: ¶

"The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." ¶

As I sat in this congregation yesterday and noted the joy and satisfaction that were depicted upon the countenances of the thousands assembled, I could not help but think that surely the words of the Lord are being fulfilled today, for the meek are indeed increasing their joy in the Lord and the poor among men are rejoicing in the Holy One of Israel. ¶

"For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: ¶

"That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought." ¶

It is no new thing, brethren and sisters, for those who do not love the Lord and who will not keep the commandments of God and observe the principles of purity, to lift their hands and their voices against those holding the authority of the Holy Priesthood. I say to you that he who raises his hand against the Church of Christ strikes at me as an individual. He who raises his voice against men whom God has placed at the head of His work strikes at me as an individual. Why do I feel thus? Because all the blessings that have come to me and my family have come through this work that God has established. The sacred ordinances and blessings that we have received as a family have come to us through that authority which has been perpetuated in the men whom God has placed at the head of His work on the earth, who have held the keys of the Holy Priesthood, and who have borne that authority with such faithfulness. So I feel that he who strikes at these men of God, and at the work of God, strikes at me as one of the members of the Church and places me upon the defensive. ¶

I feel encouraged in this work. With all my heart I am grateful that I am united with my brethren. I feel thankful for the blessings that the Lord has given to me and to mine. I am grateful for the spirit of faith that He has poured out upon your sons and daughters in the mission field, and for the same spirit resting upon the people who have received their testimony. These principles are finding their way in the hearts of the people. They are acting as a leaven, and many of the prominent men, and even some of the ministers in our mission, are receiving these principles of eternal truth, though they do not render obedience unto the ordinances of the Gospel. Only the other day I received a letter from two of our faithful young men who are down in the State of Texas, in which they related to me an interview they had recently with one of the prominent ministers of a popular church in that State. This man had read the Book of Mormon, and he said to these two Elders: "I know, young men, that we have got to begin to reorganize the line of work in our church, and we must conform more nearly to those principles that you Mormons are teaching unto the people." On every hand we have these testimonies coming to us. Let me say further, that the spirit in which your sons and daughters go among the people is finding its way into their hearts, and even ministers of the world who have bitterly fought this work are beginning in a measure to partake of that spirit, and they have more of the spirit of charity toward the servants of God than they have had. ¶

My brethren and sisters, my testimony to you this day is that God lives, that Jesus is His Christ, and that the man who stands at the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the man whom God has chosen, and He will uphold and sustain him, together with his brethren. May God bless you forever. I ask it in the name of Jesus our Lord. Amen. ¶