Sincerity of the powerful testimony pro- claimed by President Smith

Sincerity of the powerful testimony proclaimed by President Smith. — Ambiguity manifested by Christian ministry concerning divinity of Christ, etc. — Good homes give strength to the Church and to the nation. — Abundance of land in Utah for farms and homes. Liberality of the government in helping dry land farmers. ¶

I crave the blessing of our Heavenly Father upon me while I shall speak to you, this morning. I realize, my brethren and sisters, the responsible position that a man is placed in when facing an audience of Latter-day Saints, and speaking of God's goodness and mercies to His people. ¶

A distinct feature of this conference has been the testimony that has been borne by every one who has addressed the congregations since last Thursday. They have been powerful and earnest testimonies. I wish in my soul that every man and woman in the Church, and every honest soul that lives upon the earth, could have heard the testimony President Smith proclaimed last Thursday morning. He bore testimony that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God, blest of the Lord and called to open the last dispensation. He testified of the goodness of God to himself, and of ¶

the blessings of our Heavenly Father to His people. There was no equivocation in his testimony, and I cannot conceive how it is possible for any man or woman who heard it to believe that it came from any other than an honest and sincere man. While listening to the emphatic testimonies uttered during this conference, I could not help but think of, and quote, one expression recently delivered by an eminent divine in one of the fashionable churches, in one of the great cities of this country. He was speaking on the subject of belief in God and among other things, he said : "Within the dim twilight of revealed spirituality, troubled ones are constantly groping for the hearts-ease that is ever denied the traveler this side of immortality." My brethren and sisters, contrast our unqualified testimony of the knowledge of God revealed to this people, with the words of the divine : "Troubled ones are constantly groping for the hearts-ease that is ever denied the traveler this side of immortality," or, in other words, that hearts ease that comes to man, that testimony that he is doing the will of God, the understanding and knowledge in his soul that Christ is the Son of God, is denied, so this divine says, to all travelers "this side of immortality." I want to say to the good people here that it is no wonder there is mistrust in the minds of the people. No wonder there is an utter lack of a testimony of the Savior, when the people are taught by their ministers that they cannot know God, nor Jesus His Son, this side of immortality. That is one of the great differences between the Latter-day Saints and all the balance of the world. Our teachers and missionaries wherever they go, impress up- ¶

on the people, even before they are ready for baptism, that they can obtain a knowledge that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. When they become members of the Church, and that knowledge is obtained, they must live in such a way as to retain it, and that cannot be accomplished in any other way than by keeping His holy commandments. ¶

Let me call your attention, my brethren and sisters, to some testimonies of the prophets of God in former dispensations, and see if there was any doubt as to whether they knew that God lived, and see whether they knew it this side or the other side of immortality. Note the striking contrast between these prophets of old and the modern divine : ¶

Job says : "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth ; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not another ; though my reins be consumed within me." ¶

Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, the priest of Midian — what is his testimony? He says, "Now, ¶

I know that the Lord is greater than ¶

all gods." ¶

David, in a psalm of the chief ¶

musician says, "Now know I that ¶

the Lord saveth his anointed." Peter says, "Now I know of a ¶

surety that the Lord hath delivered ¶

me out of the hands of Herod." Paul says, "For I know whom I ¶

have believed," ¶

John says, "These things I have ¶

written unto you that ye may know ¶

that ye have eternal life." ¶

My brethren and sisters, I thank ¶

God from the bottom of my heart for the testimony I have that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that this is His work, and that He will have a care for and watch over the destinies of His people. I care not for all the powers of darkness, of evil, of misrepresentation, of falsehood, of slander — I tell you that they will never retard the growth of God's work upon this earth. The only thing that can do it is our own disregard of the teachings of Christ. Individual members of the Church may falter and fall, and thus weaken us in numbers ; yet, I have an abiding faith in the great majority of God's people remaining true to the end of their days. I believe that the young people who have been born under the covenant, will be as loyal and true to Mormonism as ever were the fathers and the mothers that gave them birth. I am thankful, indeed, for my testimony. ¶

I am thankful, my brethren and sisters, that we live in this glorious country of liberty. I have no words to express my appreciation that I am an American citizen, and next to that blessing comes the fact that I live in Utah. I want to ask all people having homes in the intermountain states to maintain them, and establish homes for your children and thus grow and increase in wealth and power. The strength of a nation is the home ; the basis of the Church is the home ; anything that interferes with the desire and love of home affects the nation and the Church. My brethren and sisters, I want to see in this intermountain country, homes that will be pleasing to God — prayerful homes, homes blessed with children, homes ruled by love, homes filled with contentment. I have noticed, ¶

in studying the history of the world, that every powerful nation has been made so by its people obeying the laws of God affecting the home ; and whenever those laws have been interfered with, no matter from what cause — extravagance, affluence, wealth, excesses, or any other causes, it was not long before the nation began crumbling to pieces. Oh, would that the people of my country would learn from past history the causes that destroyed some of the greatest powers on earth by destroying the home through disobedience to God's commands. ¶

I have heard Utah people say, that we have no more farming lands, and that our boys must go somewhere else to secure farms. Many having farms have a spirit of unrest. Remember that, "A rolling stone gathers no moss." I have lately visited the great Uintah basin, the Ouray basin, the Ashley Valley. There is room for an empire in these valleys ; they are desirable sections of the country, and if I were a young man, seeking to establish myself in a home, I know that I could go there and in a few years be absolutely independent. Our government has passed many laws in the recent past with a view of encouraging the people to become the owners of homes. Our statesmen have learned the lesson that a contented people must be a home-owning and a home-loving people. Since the homestead law was passed, many other measures affecting the public domain have been enacted into law. Only last year the Enlarged Homestead Bill was passed, giving to every citizen in this state a chance to take three hundred and twenty acres of dry farm land. There are millions of acres in our state capable of yielding an abun- ¶

dant crop of grain by the process of dry farming. If there were only two million acres in all the state, cultivated, with an average yield of only fifteen bushels to the acre, that would make thirty million bushels of wheat, which means more value than the production of all the silver and gold in the intermountain states, and more than all the sugar produced in the west. I only want to say there is plenty of land for every one of your sons to establish a home within the borders of the state of Utah. ¶

Thank God that we live in this land, the land that has been held in the hollow of God's hand for ages, that liberty might be established and a government formed granting all men equal rights. Of all the states in this glorious country, Utah is among the best. It seems to me that every time I travel in different sections of this land, or foreign lands, on my return home I see an added number of opportunities on every side. I wish that every Latter-day Saint, and every citizen that calls Utah home, owned their own home. Happy is the man with a farm large enough for his boys to work with him. Coming to Salt Lake the other day, I noticed, in one of the beet fields, a father with his five sons, all working together with one object in view ; my brethren and sisters, I felt in my soul that, if it were proper to envy a man's lot in life, I would envy him. He had about him his boys, all working to make home happy, all interested in one cause, and I thought there could be no happier position in this world than that of the man who held his family close about him, and followed the avocation which, it seems to me, has always been and always will be the ¶

most independent in all the world, that is the farmer's. ¶

May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, and may His peace be with you. May the counsel that has been given during this conference be carried home by each of you and taught to the people. I testify that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that this is God's work, and His watchcare is over it. May His blessings abound not only upon us as a people but with every honest soul that comes to live with us ; for we invite honest men, from all over the world, to come and help us build the greatest state of all the western states. May we uphold and sustain God's work, in honesty and integrity, as long as we live, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶