Report on the Central States Mission

(President of Central States Mission.) My brethren and sisters, it is a pleasure for me to have the privilege of addressing you this afternoon, and I trust that while I do so I will have an interest in your faith and prayers, and that our Father in heaven may bless us, that what is said may be in accordance with His mind and will. It is unprofitable for any one to address this congregation of Latter-day Saints, or anywhere else, I think, whether they are Saints or not, without the inspiration of the Lord to direct his remarks, while he is teaching the Gospel or acting in the authority he has received from the Lord. ¶

I was thinking this, afternoon about the great man who wrote Proverbs, who said, "Where there is no vision the people perish. But he that keepeth the law, happy is he." In traveling throughout the country we can see this is verified to the letter, that people will undoubtedly perish if there is no divine vision. If our Father in Heaven does not reveal His mind and will unto His people, through such means as visions, and through prophets, then they must perish in unbelief. That was the condition under which the world was when the Prophet Joseph Smith received instructions from an angel. When the Prophet read in the Bible the instruction that James laid down, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him," he was, perhaps, the first man in ages that had put the interpretation upon that passage that he did. He thus ascertained in his boyhood days that he might go and ask the Lord. It appeared clear to him that the Lord had inspired James to make this promise, and that, therefore he might go and ask God which of all the denominations of religion then upon the earth were correct. Thus the Lord had indicated a means through which His sons and daughters need not perish, and there would be no need for them to run hither and thither, searching for the truth and not finding it, but that He would again open up the channel of revelation to His children. ¶

Since that time the work has been going on ; missionaries have been going out into the world, under the appointment they have received of God through the Presidency of His Church, whom the Lord has appointed to guide and govern Israel in these last days. Through the inspiration of Heaven, thus coming unto them, thousands have received the truth. Under the inspiration of the Lord, thousands of authorized men have gone out and declared unto the people that there has been a vision again, that there has been and is now revelation to God's children here in the earth from the Eternal Father, that we need no longer perish in unbelief. We can call upon Him and receive an answer to our petitions ; we can serve Him in spirit and in truth, and know that if we follow the plans He has given through His Son Jesus Christ we will receive an inheritance in His kingdom according to our works here upon the earth. Our missionaries go out preaching these truths, and thousands of people have accepted the Gospel message which they bear, and now know that the doctrines of "Mormonism" are correct and that God has indeed again revealed His mind and will. The Prophet Joseph Smith declared this unto the world. He gathered around him many men who were capable of declaring it, who stood by him, and who went forth among the nations of the earth, and they have gathered fruit unto the Master. They can look into the faces of their brothers and sisters and declare that they know that God lives and has spoken again from the heavens, and that we are entitled to revelation from Him, the same as in the days when Christ and His Apostles were upon the earth. They declare the same Gospel that Christ taught; they teach with words of soberness that Jesus and His Father have again appeared unto the children of men, that there is a channel opened up whereby men and women may go on unto perfection, and be received back into the presence of their Heavenly Father. ¶

The Latter-day Saints as a body I think, do not understand this as perfectly as they should do; I believe they should pay more attention to it than they do. It is obligatory upon us to teach it unto all the sons and daughters of God that we come in contact with. It is our duty when we have children to teach it unto them, and prepare them that when the time comes for them to go into the world and preach it unto the children of men, they may be qualifed to do so. ¶

There are thousands of people, my brethren and sisters, who have not yet heard the Gospel of the Redeemer. As I have said, we are sending out missionaries to teach them the Gospel, to cry repentance unto them, and I want to tell you they are representing us nobly in the earth ; they are receiving praise and gratitude from those among whom they labor, and they are laboring earnestly and faithfully. I believe there are none under the sun who labor more faithfully than do the Elders of Israel, traveling from house to house, from state to state, without hope of remuneration in this life, preaching the Gospel freely unto the people, after the plan that the Apostles of old did, and the same condition that Christ laid down when he said : "Freely ye have received, freely give." They go out into the world, calling people unto repentance in their homes and upon the street corners, preaching in halls, and leaving books, tracts and other literature with them, that have been prepared by the Latter-day Saints, truthfully representing their principles and doctrines. ¶

It is wonderful, my brethren and sisters, the work in this direction that is going on in the world; and I may as well give a brief account of what is being accomplished in the mission where I have the privilege of laboring. During the last nine months, beginning with the first of January, we have had 216 baptisms. We have distributed over 49,000 books. We have held,6,633 meetings,have visited 195,471 families in tracting, and distributed 244,617 tracts. We have blessed 117 children. At a cost of, perhaps, an average of $20 per elder, per month, it is simply astonishing the amount of work that our elders are doing. Now this is just one corner of the earth, and we understand that the elders are laboring similarly teaching the Gospel that the Savior taught, distributing literature, asking the people if they won't, at least, read about us ; asking them to investigate the doctrines we are teaching, not asking them to be baptized at once, but listen to what we have to say. We ask them to "read the Book of Mormon, see if it does not testify unto you, through the Spirit, concerning its truthfulness." ¶

When we think of the great missionaries who have thus gone, and of the great work they have done, such men as John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, who went out without purse or scrip and taught this Gospel unto the people, going from house to house, from city to city, it is remarkable how strong and faithful those men were in times of trial, and what testimonies their converts received from the Lord that He had again spoken from the heavens. When men who had become disaffected sought to turn the baptized believers away from the Prophet Joseph Smith, it was invariably their reply, if the Gospel was true when you taught it to me, it is now. We have the privilege today of listening unto men of God, unto Prophets of the Lord, who prove unto us that the revelations of our Father in Heaven still continue, and that we need not perish in unbelief, if we will but open our ears to hear and our hearts to understand, and that this Gospel of the kingdom has been established and will never be thrown down nor given unto another people. The responsibility rests upon the Latter-day Saints to go out and declare unto the world the principles that have been revealed from heaven. There is nothing greater in the world than "Mormonism," there is no religion equal to it. So far as the conversion of the souls of men is concerned, our field is the world. It is our duty to go out and declare the Gospel of the Redeemer. Hundreds of thousands have already responded to the call. ¶

As to loyalty, there is nothing in the world that equals the loyalty of the Latter-day Saints. We know that the Lord has spoken from the heavens that He has a Prophet here upon the earth ; and we are sons and daughters of the pioneers of this chosen country, enjoying what our pioneer fathers and mothers prepared for us. I have wondered if we have been doing all that we should, and if we sense as we should the position that we occupy as sons and daughters of those pioneers who passed through so much hardship for the establishment of the people of God in this country. ¶

We have not any time to waste. No matter whether a man is at home or abroad, he should use his time and his talent, all that can possibly be given, to the building up of .the Church and Kingdom of our Father. A man who will do this will grow and increase in the earth, and will be blessed of the Lord, he will be a power for good wherever he goes, and will be in a position to return unto the Lord some of the blessings that he has received, some of the substance of the earth, and results of the talents that God has given him. Such a man will be entitled to the resurrection and exaltation which you and I are all seeking for. I thank the Lord for His mercies and I ask Him to bless the Latter-day Saints, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶