Conference Address

I am sure we were all very much delighted, this morning, to have with us the president of our Church, to listen to the strong testimony that he bore and to the good instructions we received from the presidency of the Church. I rejoice in seeing so many faithful Latter-day Saints present here this afternoon, many that I have had the opportunity of meeting in the various stakes of Zion. I rejoice in the attendance of these my brethren, the presidents of the various stakes of Zion. ¶

and so many bishops and workers in various capacities in the Church. I know of their labors and their devotion ; I know of the time they are spending, the efforts they are devoting to the growth and upbuilding of the Church in the various stakes and wards and fields where they are laboring. ¶

We have ample evidence of the divinity of this latter-day work. Our attention is sometimes called to the weight of testimony that exists in the world in behalf of Christianity, and it is asserted that the evidence itself is sufficient to convince men of the divinity of Christianity aside from the matter of faith or the whispering to them of the still small voice. The same may be said of the evidence in support of the divinity of Mormonism. The Lord was very careful in laying the foundation for the coming forth of Mormonism, to have the testimony so clear and explicit that the understanding and reason of men might be appealed to. In addition to the appeals to faith, it was a part of the program that three men should be selected and called as special witnesses to the divinity of the Book of Mormon and its divine translation. That was thought of, centuries before the book was translated, and, of course, care was exercised by the Father in the selection of men who would be true to that testimony, men who would never falter, men who would not betray the trust that was reposed in them by the Father, of bearing the great honor of being witnesses of the divine translation of the Book of Mormon. They were true to that trust. Men examining, from the outside, the evidences upon which Mormonism rests, are convinced more and more of the fact that these men were sin- ¶

cere. There was no motive for falsehood upon their part. There was not the hope of financial reward, or anything of that sort, that would induce them to state that which was false. The very fact that each of the three was not able to live according to the strict discipline of the Church, and the Prophet disciplined them the same as he would other members of the Church, is an evidence to all mankind that there was no collusion or corrupt connivance between the Prophet and these witnesses to the divine translation of the Book of Mormon. The fact that two of them came back into the Church, sued humbly to again become members of the Church, is an evidence that they were convinced to the last that the work was of God. The other witness who did not come back into the Church was, nevertheless, as strong in his testimony, as printed in the Book of Mormon, to the day of his death, as he ever was. One of our elders visited David Whitmer a few years before his death, and put in verse the substance of an interview with him. The lines were afterwards read to David Whitmer, and he agreed that it was a correct statement of the interview. That part of the verses bearing upon his testimony printed in the Book of Mormon, is as follows. When asked if it was true that he had seen a heavenly messenger who showed him the sacred record upon plates of gold, ¶

"He lifted up his voice, and thus replied : ¶

My written statement I have ne'er denied; ¶

I saw the angel, and I heard his voice, And wond'rous things, that made my heart rejoice. ¶

"This interview was sought with earnest prayer, ¶

The Prophet and three witnesses were there; ¶

But Martin, conscience-struck, declined to stay, ¶

And wandered off alone, to watch and pray. ¶

"I do not know the angel's rank, or name, ¶

Who on this great and glorious mission came; ¶

I know that he was clothed with power and might, ¶

And was surrounded with effulgent light. ¶

"No tongue can tell the glory and the power ¶

That was revealed to us in that blest hour; ¶

The plates of brass and gold the angel took, ¶

And placed before us like an open book. ¶

"We saw the fine engravings on them, too, ¶

And heard the voice declare the book is true; ¶

No power on earth could from our ¶

minds efface The glorious visions of this trysting- ¶

place. ¶

"We've done, as then commanded we ¶

should do. And testified the 'Mormon Book' is true; ¶

And was translated by the power given ¶

The Prophet Joseph by the God of Heaven. ¶

"Thousands of people have been here to see ¶

The 'copy' Oliver has left with me; The characters, moreover, Martin took Professor Anthon — words of sacred book. ¶

"Some visit me who Mormonism hate. Some ranking low, and some of high estate; ¶

I tell them all, as now I say to you, The Book of Mormon is of God, and true. ¶

"In yonder room I have preserved with care ¶

The printer's copy, and the words so rare, ¶

The very words from Nephi's sacred book, ¶

That Martin to Professor Anthon took. ¶

"If this be not the truth, there is no truth, ¶

And I have been mistaken from my youth; ¶

If I'm mistaken, you may know from thence ¶

That there's no God, no law, no life, no sense. ¶

"I know there is a God — I've heard ¶

His voice, And in His power and truth do still ¶

rejoice; ¶

Though fools may ridicule and laugh todav ¶

They yet shall know the truth of what I say. ¶

"I've suffered persecution at the hands ¶

Of hireling preachers, and their Christian bands; ¶

I've braved their hatred and have them withstood. ¶

While thirsting for the youthful Prophet's blood. ¶

"They came, four hundred strong, with ¶

visage bold, And said, 'Deny this story you have ¶

told; ¶

And by our sacred honor, we'll engage ¶

To save you from the mob's infuriate rage.' ¶

"A mighty power came on me, and I spake ¶

In words that made the guilty mob- ¶

bers quake; And trembling seized the surging ¶

crowd, and fear, But left unharmed, I felt that God was ¶

near."* ¶

The other witnesses, like David, remained true to the last. One of them, before re-joining the Church, in bearing a very strong testimony to the words he had first given, said that by the help of God it should be his dying testimony ; and, strangely ¶

*An interview with David Whitmer, in August. 1883, by James H. Hart, of Bloomington, Idaho. ¶

enough, the same elder who heard him make that declaration was present at his deathbed, and the last distinguishable words that he uttered were in confirmation and support of the testimony as printed on the fly leaf of the Book of Mormon. ¶

And with the eight, also, who testified that they saw the plates, handled them, and lifted them ; although three of them sidestepped and were not able to endure the hardships that bore upon the followers of the Church at that time, nor to live according to the strict requirements and discipline of the Church, yet those three of the eight witnesses never denied the testimony that they gave. ¶

Men are inclined to say that these were subjective experiences — these so-called miracles ; but that cannot be true ; that is not true. If the angel spoke to the Prophet Joseph of golden plates, there were the golden plates in confirmation of the information received, demonstrating beyond all question that it was not a mere matter of the mental condition or the subjective state of mind of the prophet. ¶

Men realizing that there is no ground for questioning the sincerity of these witnesses, are inclined now to concede their sincerity, but to question the accuracy of their observation. That position is as weak as to question the sincerity of the witnesses. It is a possibility for one individual to have a delusion of a single sense. That is within the experience of, perhaps, most of us, the possibility of having deluded, temporarily, a particular sense, particularly the sense of sight. Many of us may have had the experience of looking out over an alkali plain and having it appear to us to be a lake of water ; or of seeing small shrubs ¶

at a distance which under the operation of a mirage, appear to be tall trees; just as shrubs growing at or near the northern part of the Great Salt Lake appeared to Colonel John C. Fremont and his explorers to be trees. But when we have the sense of sight verified by the sense of touch, or the sense of hearing, then we may know of a surety whether or not there has been any delusion of the sense of sight. It would be a very singular thing for two men, or more, to have the sense of hearing, or the sense of touch, or any other sense deluded in exactly the same way at the same time. It is unthinkable to suppose that the three witnesses had a delusion of the sense of sight and of the sense of hearing at the same time, exactly in the same way ; or that the three witnesses had their senses impaired so that they experienced a delusion not only of the sense of sight but of the sense of touch also — because they handled the plates. They saw the fine engravings upon the golden plates, and observed the curious workmanship, the ancient appearance of the plates ; and, in addition to that, they tested the matter with the physical sense by "hefting" the plates, as they expressed it. So that when we have all those various senses of the witnesses conjoin in bearing to them the same percepts, we cannot reasonably explain away their testimony by supposing that it was a delusion upon their part. ¶

The modern theory of psychologists who attempt an explanation of Mormonism, is based very largely upon the sincerity of the prophet, Joseph Smith, and the sincerity of the witnesses, but that they were deluded. But, Mormonism cannot be explained away on the ground of some psychological misinterpreta- ¶

tion or delusion. The gospel is impregnable against scrutiny from a psychological standpoint, as well as from any other standpoint that we may view it from. I think there was a purpose in having those various senses appealed to, just as I think there was a purpose in the manifestation of our Lord and Savior to His disciples, after His resurrection. You will remember that He was not content to give them a mere view, a mere vision of His person, but that they might be assured, and that the children of men to the latest generations might be assured that it was no delusion of the sense of sight, that those disciples witnessed in the appearance of the Savior to them, He said, "Handle me, and see." They were asked to thrust their hands in His side, and feel the prints of the nails in His hands and in His feet, to know that it was a bodily presence, and not a mere apparition, or a mere vision, as the atheist has tried to claim, and, perhaps, would have successfully maintained with a good many persons, had it not been for the additional evidence that was presented by the sense of touch. ¶

Neither can objection be made to these circumstances that are testified to, on the ground of the miraculous. Of course, the atheist states the question in such a form that there can scarcely be proof of such a thing as a miracle. He says : "There must be a uniform experience against every miraculous event, otherwise the event would not merit the appellation." He thus places the miraculous outside of experience, so that the moment you establish the fact of the existence of the so-called miraculous, it then enters the realm of that which is based upon testimony or experience. There ¶

is this weakness to be noted in the strength of what is supposed to be according to uniform experience, and that is that it rests upon negative testimony, very largely, while a miracle, so-called — that which is miraculous to us — when properly supported by testimony, has the weight of affirmative proof. Where a fact is properly verified, athough not within the realm of that which ordinarily occurs, yet if it is properly attested by the affirmative proof it is entitled to great weight as against the negative statements of those who have not been privileged to witness anv such manifestations. ¶

The poet Tennyson, tells us that "faith and un faith can ne'er be equal powers," that "un faith in aught is lack of faith in all." The extent to which that may be true I shall not discuss, except to point out the application of it to lack of faith in these fundamentals that were discussed by President Smith this morning; for if we have unfaith in the existence of God, that in itself is far-reaching and amounts to lack of faith in all. This is true, also, to a very large extent, in reference to the foundation principles upon which Mormonism rests. A want of faith in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the divine establishment of Mormonism, and the prophetic mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, would be all-pervading in its consequences, so far as belief in Mormonism is concerned. ¶

I rejoice, my brethren and sisters, in the fact that in the establishment of Mormonism, so-called, and the enunciation of its principles, reason is appealed to, as well as faith. Some one has asserted that "faith is a higher faculty than reason." I rejoice in the fact that our gospel appeals not only to faith but also to ¶

the reason. That is true of the doctrines given us in this book that came to us in such a marvelous manner, the Book of Mormon. The principles announced there are reasonable, and are based on reason, and the same is true in reference to the glorious doctrines contained in that other product of nineteenth century inspiration, the Doctrine and Covenants. I do not feel to enter upon a discussion of that field, of the beauties of the principles contained and announced in those books, of the way in which they are supported by the writings of the philosophers, nor of the way in which they appeal to our reason. ¶

May the Lord bless us, my brethren and sisters, and enable us to realize, deep down in our heart of hearts, the truths of Mormonism, its divine founding, that it is God's work, that He has guided it in the past and will continue to guide it in the future. May we be faithful and true to the trusts reposed in us, and do our part in helping to establish this great work in the earth, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus, Amen. ¶