Closing Remarks

I say, in all candor, that I am sorry we can not have another day or two in which to continue our Conference, but it would not be wisdom to do so, under all the circumstances. There are many of our brethren whom you would delight to hear, and who are indeed a tower of strength in testimony and knowledge of the principles of the Gospel, who would be delighted to address you, if opportunity would permit. Our brethren of the presiding Seventy, will be deprived of the opportunity during this Conference of speaking to you, which I regret quite as much as you or they do, and I am sure you all regret not to have the privilege of hearing them ; but I cannot see how the time could have been more wisely, or earnestly, more intelligently, or profitably, spent than it has been. ¶

We have had testimonies here from those who mark the third generation of Latter-day Saints, and I am satisfied that there is no one other, perhaps, than the Prophet Joseph Smith himself who could have borne more powerful testimonies of the truth or could have told the truth more clearly, plainly and forcibly than it has been told by these young men who are of the third or fourth generation of Latter-day Saints. I want to say to you that there are thousands of young men in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of the third and fourth generation of members of the Church who can bear to you, as firmly and as strongly, their testimony of the divinity of this work, the divinity of the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and of the mission of the Son of God, as any of their fathers or forefathers could have done. ¶

When men predict evil concerning the children of Zion, they become false witnesses before God. It may be true that many of the children of the Latter-day Saints will lack understanding, will fail to improve their minds and their opportunities. It is not at all unlikely that many of the children, whose parents have neglected to teach them in their childhood, will grow up in a measure indifferent to the work of God, but those who are taught the truth will receive it and will abide in it ; and there will be sufficient numbers of these to carry on the work of God, to leaven the whole lump; that the leaven of the Gospel shall be carried, as it is being carried today, to the uttermost bounds of the earth, and every nation, kindred, tongue and people, will yet have the privilege of hearing the Gospel from the mouths and from the inspired testimonies of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth generations, of the children of this people. It is the duty of Latter-day Saints to teach their children the truth, to bring them up in the way they should go, to teach them the first principles of the Gospel, the necessity of baptism for the remission of sins, and for membership in the Church of Christ, teaching them the necessity of receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, which will lead them into all truth, and which will reveal to them things that have passed and things which are to come, and show to them more clearly those things which are present with them, that they may comprehend the truth, and that they may walk in the light as Christ is in the light; that they may have fellowship with Him, and that His blood may cleanse them from all sin. ¶

Speaking of the resurrection, the subject on which so much has been said during this Conference, and appropriately said, too — we distinctly believe that Jesus Christ Himself is the true, and only true type of the resurrection of men from death unto life. We believe there is no other form of resurrection from death to life; that as He rose, and as He preserved His identity, even to the scars of the wounds in His hands and feet and side, that He could prove Himself to those that were skeptical of the possibility of rising from the dead, that He was indeed Himself, the Lord crucified, buried in the tomb, and raised again from death to life. So it will be with you and with every son and daughter of Adam, born into the world. You will not lose your identity any more than Christ did. You will be brought forth from death to life again, just as sure as Christ was brought forth from death to life again, just as surely as those who ministered to the Prophet Joseph Smith had been raised from death to life — therefore, in the same manner in which Christ has been raised, so will life, and the resurrection from death to life again, come upon all who have descended from our first parents. The death that came into the world by Adam's transgression has been conquered, and its terror vanquished by the power and righteousness of the Son of God. He came to redeem man from the temporal death, and also to save him from spiritual death if he will repent of his sins, and will believe on the name of Christ, follow His example, and obey His laws. You may read it in the greatest plainness in the Book of Mormon, in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, as well as in the New Testament, and in the predictions of the ancient prophets concerning the coming of the Son of God and His resurrection from death to life. Paul used the argument that has been recited here a number of times : "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all ? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" ¶

Why did Jesus teach the doctrine that there was no marrying, nor giving in marriage in the other world ? Why did He teach the doctrine that marriage was instituted by the Father and designed to be accomplished in this life? Why did He rebuke those who sought to entrap Him when they brought to Him the example of the fulfillment of the law of Moses, for Moses wrote the law that God gave him, that if a man married in Israel and died without issue, it was the duty of his brother to take his widows and raise up seed unto his brother; and when seven of these brothers — ( which is doubtless a problem that these men put to the Savior in order to entrap Him if they could) — had taken her, to whom should she belong in the resurrection, since they all had her? Jesus declared to them, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." They did not understand the principle of sealing for time and for all eternity ; that what God hath joined together neither man nor death can put asunder." (Matt. 19:6); they had wandered from that principle. It had fallen into disuse among them ; they had ceased to understand it ; and consequently they did not comprehend the truth ; but Christ did. She could only be the wife in eternity of the man to whom she was united by the power of God for eternity, as well as for time ; and Christ understood the principle but He did not cast His pearls before the swine that tempted Him. ¶

Why has the Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith, in this dispensation, that great and glorious principle of baptism for the dead, the principle of turning the hearts of the children to the fathers, and of the hearts of the fathers to the children; that the fathers could not be made perfect without the children ; that the children could not obtain a fulness of happiness and joy, nor become perfect, without the fathers? Why did He teach us the principle of eternal union of man and wife? Because God knew that we were His children here, to remain His children forever and ever, and that we were just as truly individuals, and that our individuality was as identical as that of the Son of God, and would therefore continue so worlds without end. So that the man receiving his wife by the power of God, for time and for all eternity, would have the right to claim her and she to claim her husband, in the world to come. Neither would be changed, except from mortality to immortality, neither would be other than himself or herself ; but they will have their identity in the world to come, precisely as they exercise their individuality and enjoy their identity here. God has revealed this principle, and it has its bearing upon the evidence that we possess of the actual, literal resurrection of the body, just as it is and as the prophets have declared it in the Book of Mormon. Now, that is the faith of the Latter-day Saints, and that is the doctrine of this Church, as taught in the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, the Bible and the Pearl of Great Price ; and we are willing to stand by it ; and our children, and our children's children after us to the latest generation, will abide in this truth, for it is founded on revelation from God. ¶

Now, this is my testimony, and I know, just as my brethren know and have said, not any better than they do — for some of my brethren who have spoken here have told my own faith and my own testimony, and my own conviction, better than I could do it myself; for they have had the language and power of expression, to convey the truth better than I ever could have done it myself, and I believe their testimony — I know they have told the truth. The Spirit of God bears record of it in my heart. And when I hear my brethren teach these things, when I hear them bear testimony of the truth, it melts my soul, and I glorify my Father in heaven for the truth he has put into the hearts of my fellow-servants and co-laborers, in this great and glorious cause of human redemption in which we are so earnestly engaged. ¶

Let me conclude by saying to you what I have said many times, and what I hope I will ever stand by. I would a thousand times rather go to my grave as I am, with the convictions that I possess, than to falter for one instant in that which God has revealed to me. It is more than mortal life to me. My standing in the Church is worth to me more than this life — ten thousand thousand times. For in this I have life everlasting. In this I have the glorious promise of the associations of my loved ones throughout all eternity. In obedience to this work, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I shall gather around me my family, my children, my children's children until they become as numerous as the seed of Abraham, or as countless as the sands upon the sea shore. For this is my right and privilege, and the right and privilege of every member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who holds the Priesthood and will magnify it in the sight of God. Without it there is death and desolation — disintegration and disinheritance ; without it there may be a chance to become a ministering spirit, a servant unto servants throughout the endless ages ; but in this Gospel there is a chance to become a Son of God, in the image and likeness of the Father and of His only Begotten Son in the flesh. I would rather take my boys and my girls to the grave, while they are innocent, than to see them entrapped in the wickedness, the unbelief, and the spirit of apostasy so prevalent in the world, and be led away from the Gospel of salvation. ¶

I have lived here some seventy odd years, and I have had a purpose in life, and I have been steadily plodding on toward the accomplishment of that purpose. I have not been able to do any great thing. I do not feel capable of doing any great thing. Whenever, if ever, I say a word that is acceptable to God, whenever I speak His truth, it is by the presence and influence of His Spirit, and it is to His honor and to His glory that I do it. I never have taken any honor unto myself. I want no honor; I claim none except that of being a member of the Church of Christ, the honor of having a standing unsullied, undented, unshaken, and immovable, in the kingdom of my God and His Christ. That is all I want; and I mean to have it, by the help of God. I have gone too far on this road to turn back. I have held the plow too long to look backward in the furrow. I am going on and up, by the help of the Lord, and to the best of my ability, until I fill my mission and accomplish my work, whatever that may be. I thank the Lord for the Gospel; I thank Him for the testimony of it that I possess, and for the testimony that my brethren possess. That, to me, is worth more than gold, or silver, or precious stones. It is worth to me more than all the honors of the world to know that my brethren have the testimony of this Gospel in their hearts and that they know the truth, as they have said it here. There may be those who know it much better than I do, if only they have larger conception and comprehension of the truth, and greater capacity to receive and comprehend it. They may go much farther than I can, perhaps, in this world; but I hope to live long enough in eternity to catch up with them, if I can. ¶

May the Lord bless this people; and in the name of the Lord, and by virtue of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood, which holds the keys of all the spiritual blessings of the Church, I bless the Latter-day Saints and our friends gathered here, and also the Latter-day Saints and the people of God everywhere, throughout the intermountain states and throughout all the world. God bless His people — make them rich in the knowledge of the truth, in humility, in meekness, and willingness to obey the word of the Lord and keep His commandments, and help them to keep pure and unspotted from the world, and at His own pleasure and time those afar off may be permitted to gather to the house of the Lord where they may enter and administer not only for their own temporal and eternal union and exaltation, but where they may enter and administer for the salvation and exaltation of their kindred who have died without the knowledge of the Gospel. This is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶