The Great Need of Faith and Testimony in a Skeptical Age

I confess to being just a little frightened in standing before such an audience as this, and following the speakers who have addressed us. ¶

We are living in the most wonderful age that the world has ever seen. The first ten years of the twentieth century have been more eventful than almost any number of years in the past history of the world. The world has developed and grown rapidly. In the matter of population the increase has been great. In the way of material development the world has never seen anything like it before. Great undertakings have been projected, like the Panama Canal, which are being pushed to completion. The wireless telegraph and the flying machine are products of this new century — the latter made possible only through the wonderful development of the gasoline engine which is a rapidly developing power in doing the work of today. In every department of human affairs there is hurry and bustle as if there was not time enough to get the work done. ¶

The principle of liberty which the Lord caused to be established in this land, many years ago, is rapidly spreading and growing in all lands. In these first ten years of the twentieth century we have witnessed political upheavals in many countries, which testify to us how this leaven of liberty is working. In Russia the people have secured something of representative government, which has been wrung from the Czar and his advisers and a parliament, or douma, has been established ; something hitherto unknown in the great Russian empire. Even among the heathen in China, this same principle is at work, and representatives of that people are to meet in convention in 1913 and begin to assist in the governing of their own land. And so in Persia, and so in Turkey and to a greater or less extent in all parts of the world. In these recent years we see this spirit of liberty moving in the hearts of the people, overthrowing thrones and casting down the mighty ones of the earth. The people of the world are awakening from the sleep of centuries, and also from the degradation of centuries, and are coming gradually but surely into the light. In a material way, too, the people are improving, but whether the morals of the people are improving is an open question. Men of wealth and of large heart have given most liberally of their means for the establishment of schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, also for the promotion of science, and for the promotion of peace on earth. These benefactions are so enormous that they almost go beyond imagination. All of this is good and makes for the blessing and uplifting of humanity. ¶

In the conquering of diseases too, in medical science and surgery, there has been more development along those lines in the past ten years than in almost any other period of the world's history. The Yellow Fever, which always had been a scourge of the tropics, has been conquered in that time. Typhoid Fever may be said to have been practically conquered also. Consumption, the great white plague as it is called, if not entirely conquered is at least, to a very great extent, being subdued by the people learning just one practical common sense lesson, sleeping either in the open air or in rooms where there is abundance of fresh air. It has been discovered, too, in the ten years that I speak of, that the ordinary house fly is the most destructive and, perhaps, the most death dealing insect that exists in the world today, and that many diseases which have hitherto carried off millions of people can be practically controlled if we keep flies and filth out of our homes. This little fly, one writer says, carries more of death and destruction than all the reptiles, snakes, tigers, lions and all wild beasts in all the world put together. So we see men are growing in intelligence. The world, in respect to many of these matters, has grown and is becoming better. We know more about sanitary measures and how to live and how to take care of our bodies than we did formerly. Science is proving that that which has been revealed to the Latter-day Saints from the beginning, which we call the Word of Wisdom, is the truth, and is revelation from Almighty God ; which scientific confirmation, though a little late, is, nevertheless, appreciated by us. ¶

While all these good things which I have mentioned have come to the world, and many more could be mentioned that are good, there is one thing so very needful for the happiness and well being of mankind that the world, instead of progressing in, has actually fallen behind and retrograded. That is, in the spiritual or religious side of life. Man is a being who must believe. Belief, says a distinguished writer, is great and life giving. So long as he is sincere in his beliefs, and in his worship, such belief and worship will, to a very great extent, shape and control his life. But when he is trying to believe something which has grown to be unbelievable, his worship then becomes an insincerity and hollow mockery. So we see throughout the land that the churches, instead of being reasonably well filled, are practically empty. Men and women do not take interest in religious matters. They are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, and have a form of godliness which, in the main, is an insincerity and is attended to for form's sake only. The knowledge of God does not yet cover the earth as the waters cover the mighty deep, not by a long way. Indeed what little conception of God the world has hitherto had is being very rapidly overthrown during these recent years. ¶

Now, here is the mission of "Mormonism." Here is the great need of this Church ; that faith shall not be abolished from the earth, from the hearts of the children of men. I thought, while sitting here today, when I heard some of these brethren of the apostles preaching, if ever there was a time, in the history of the world, when there was need for special witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ that time is today. Never so much as today. If ever, there was a time when there was need for the testimony of these men that are sent out, these seventies, these elders, testifying for Jesus, standing for Jesus ; the miraculous Jesus, the Jesus who was begotten by His Father, the Lord God Almighty, and born of the virgin Mary — the Jesus of miraculous birth and miraculous life ; who went about performing miracles and doing good, doing no evil whatever ; the Jesus Christ who was crucified upon the cross, and who rose again. If ever there was a time that it was needful to stand for that testimony against the surges and billows of unbelief, that threaten the belief of the entire world, the time is now, right now. So this is our mission, my brethren and sisters ; and you are sustaining it who are contributing of your means to send your sons and daughters to bear this testimony, that God has spoken in this last time ; that the same Jesus shall be testified of as having, in a miraculous way, revealed Himself to the Prophet Joseph Smith. To testify of the miraculous coming forth of the Book of Mormon. To testify of the miracle of "Mormonism" in every way. "Mormonism" is very truly practical as well as spiritual, what with its colonization schemes, its building of roads, bridges, and canals, and carrying blessing with it to the people everywhere, in every way, yet with all the good in the practical or material side of "Mormonism" we need to testify of the miraculous "Mormonism" as well. The wonderful visions and manifestations made to the Prophet, the founder of "Mormonism," under the Lord Jesus Christ; the work which that Prophet did, all demand our testimony. ¶

So you, my brethren and sisters, who are sustaining this work by contributing tithes and offerings, and by sending your sons and daughters out as missionaries, thus testify of the truth of this miracle of "Mormonism." The organization of this most wonderful piece of spiritual machinery, called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is a miracle in itself. We must instill this faith in the hearts of our children, and try to get it established in the hearts of the children of men everywhere. This is very important. To accomplish this work our children should be educated. We believe in education; but some of us send our children away from home to be educated, and many of them come back seemingly determined to claim relationship with the apes rather than with the angels. They lose their faith by failing to call on the Lord in faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. We must teach faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ. Faith in the Prophet Joseph Smith ; faith in the Book of Mormon, faith in the miraculous birth, life and resurrection of the risen Redeemer. ¶

On next Sunday week all Christendom will be celebrating Easter Sunday. The theme of their sermons will be "He is not here, He is risen," and yet many disbelieve that He did really rise from the grave, that He is a living personality today, and that He will come again. How many of those who will hear in the churches throughout the land about this risen Redeemer believe that He is risen indeed? Perhaps not one in a thousand. So "Mormonism" is here with a mission and the Lord has provided men and women who are stalwart and true to carry on this work. His servants are determined men of God. Men of faith who believe that God has spoken; who are assured in their very souls that this is His special work; that He has established it, and they believe and accept it without reservation or equivocation. I bear witness of it. Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, whom to know is life eternal. I bear witness of His mission, of His life and of His resurrection. If we Latter-day Saints do not stand for this faith, shall the Son of Man, when He cometh, find faith on the earth? I tell you, mighty little, indeed, unless the Latter-day Saints, and their sons and daughters after them, carry out the mission whereunto we are called. ¶

I know that these men who are called to preside over the Church of Christ are men of God. I bear witness of that also, for I know them. It has been my high privilege to know, better than most men, better than almost any, of the life and labors of President Joseph F. Smith, and I know what manner of man he is. I testify to you that he is a man of God, choice and most precious, as I believe, above every man whom I know or have ever known ; honest, sincere, devoted, patient, forgiving, loving and most precious. This is the kind of man that God has called to lead His Church, in this the beginning of the twentieth century. At the beginning of this century Lorenzo Snow was President of the Church; and, by the way, Pope Leo the thirteenth was sitting in the papal chair at Rome as president of that Church. It is scarcely worth while, except to mention any other churches, to refer to associations of individuals or societies, to ¶

I bear testimony to you, also, concerning the integrity of these men, the twelve apostles, special witnesses of Jesus Christ, that miraculous Jesus, that same Jesus, the risen Lord. They are men of God, every one of them, and on Easter Sunday and indeed on every Sunday and every other day, they believe with all their souls, — with all the earnestness that men and women command, and they try to make other people believe that Jesus has indeed risen, that He is the Redeemer of the world ; and they try to instill that faith into the hearts of the children of men. I bear witness that these seventies are of the same high class of men, men of faith, men of God, who have that same testimony in their hearts, ready to stand before all the world and testify that God, our Eternal Father, has revealed that Jesus is the Christ, that He has risen, that He lives and that He will come and reign upon the earth. ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, this then is the great mission of "Mormonism" and herein is the great need of "Mormonism" in the world. It has its practical and temporal affairs, all of them good, as we heard from our president at the opening of the conference ; but with all that, with all its good work in practical matters, the greatest and highest need of all is this testimony of Jesus Christ, which must stand, and which we must not allow to perish from the earth. Amen. ¶