Appreciation of words and music of the hymns

"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire ¶

Unuttered or expressed, The motion of a hidden fire ¶

That trembles in the breast." ¶

That is the first verse of the hymn we have just listened to. The last verse is as follows : ¶

"Oh Thou by whom we come to God, The life, the truth, the way! ¶

The path of prayer, Thyself hast trod, Lord teach us how to pray." ¶

I pray earnestly and in humility that that same splendid spirit which has been manifested in all that has been said to us thus far in our conference may also be given to me. I ask earnestly an interest in the faith and prayers of this vast congregation, to the end that I may be able to say something which may be encouraging, and in its nature calculated to benefit those who listen. I was not only particularly impressed with the beautiful sentiment in Montgomery's poem that we have just listened to but I was also impressed with the very splendid music. I had the same feeling this morning . while listening to the splendid poem by Sister Eliza R. Snow. ¶

"Though deepening trials throng your way ¶

Press on, press on, ye Saints of God! Ere long the resurrection day Will spread its life and light abroad." ¶

I was impressed also with the beautiful music of this hymn. Both of the melodies that we have listened to having been composed by our fellow townsman Brother George Careless. I feel very grateful to the Lord, not only for the inspiration that has come to the men and women who have written so many splendid things that we hear from time to time, but I am also grateful for the ability possessed by Brother Careless, Brother Stephens and many others who furnish the splendid music for our hymns. President Anthon H. Lund, President Charles W. Penrose, three members of the council of twelve, and others, form a board of directors of the Genealogical Society of Utah. We feel a deep interest in the work of this society. Classes have been organized where the people are receiving instruction in the work that is necessary to be done in 'our temples. Recently a genealogical day was appointed for all the wards in the Church, where the subject should have been taken up, and we found, in many of the wards, that not one word was said upon this subject, thus showing a lack of interest and a great carelessness on the part of those whose duty it was to arrange suitable services for the occasion. We heard here yesterday thrilling words with regard to the beautiful Gull monument, in stone and in bronze, that has recently been unveiled. We heard regarding the wonderful testimony in stone of our Temple, but without the labors being performed within the Temple, it is like the body without the spirit. We have in very deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of God unto salvation. We find recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants that this is the Gospel, the glad tidings which the voice out of the heavens declared unto us, that He came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the sins of the world, and to save all the workmanship of the hands of God. One of the great works in this Gospel of salvation, devolving upon us as Saints, is to labor in the temples of God for the salvation of our dead. We feel that the Latter-day Saints, from one end of the Church to the other, should enroll themselves as members in the Genealogical Society, and that they ¶

should labor in the Temple as often as opportunity will present. ¶

I desire to read just a few words that I penned for the Improvement Era, fifteen years ago, and I read them in connection with the death of our beloved brother Ben E. Rich. Ben E. Rich, to my mind, lived a successful life. He died a millionaire in the wealth which is true wealth and which counts with God : ¶

"Not he who merely succeeds in making a fortune, and in so doing; blunts the natural affections of the heart, and chases therefrom the love of his fellows, can be said to be truly successful, but he who so lives that those who know him best shall love him most, and that God who knows not only his deeds but also the inmost sentiments of his heart shall love him; of such an one only, notwithstanding he may die in poverty, can it be said, indeed and of a truth, he should be crowned with the wreath of success." ¶

God loved Ben E. Rich. The prophet of God, and all of his associates in the Presidency, and the council of the twelve, and all of the general authorities loved Ben E. Rich. Those who came in intimate contact with him in the Southern States and in the Eastern States, men not of our faith, loved this man ; he gained their love, and those who knew him best loved him most, and God who knew the inmost promptings of his heart loved him. Therefore I say this man lived a successful life. I felt I would like to pay these few words of tribute to the memory of one who spent fully one-half of his mature years in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We find it recorded that if we labor all the days of our lives and bring save it be one soul unto a knowledge of the Gospel, how great shall be our joy with that soul in the kingdom of our Father, and if" ¶

we bring many souls how much greater shall be our joy. Both by tongue and with his pen, this man has brought many, many souls to a knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus. Christ. God bless his memory. God bless his. family and help his children to walk in his footsteps, and to place the love of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ first in their lives, is my earnest prayer in their behalf. ¶

I endorse with all my heart everything that I have heard during this conference. Pope says : ¶

"Vice is a monster of such frightful mien ¶

As to be hated, needs but to be seen; But seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace." ¶

Some among us are embracing, to the full extent, the vice of immoral dress, and I lift my voice in absolute and perfect harmony with every word uttered here by President Smith. We sing and have done so during this conference, "We thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet to guide us in these latter days ;" there are a great many who ought to put a postscript to that and say, "Provided he guides us to suit our own fancies and our own whims." The prophets of God, from Joseph Smith to the present day, have guided us and they have guided us aright, when we have listened to that guidance ; and the mistakes which have been made have been because of our failure to listen to the Prophet whose right it is to guide the people of God. I will give you one practical incident. Brigham Young stood in front of the home of the late Apostle, at that time bishop, Marriner W. Merrill, in Richmond, and he pointed over to ¶

the sandy country where Lewiston now stands and he said to Bishop Merrill: "Call some man to go over there and be a bishop, and organize a ward there, and have the people locate there. That will be the most valuable part of this valley, agriculturally, the greatest grain producing part of the country." Brother Merrill told me this, standing upon the spot where Brigham Young stood and he said, "I called Brother Lewis to go over there, and he was subsequently ordained as a bishop, and set apart to preside at Lewiston. After he had been there one season and ploughed up the ground, a wind storm came and took all his fine soil and piled it up in a heap by the fence. He came back and said, 'Bishop Merrill, I would not give my little twenty-acre farm here at Richmond for the whole country over there and I want to come back.'" Brother Merrill said, "Well you will not come back with my consent. If you come back you will have to run away from the call that has been placed upon you. I will not release you; the Prophet of God has said that is to be the granary of Cache Valley and you go back there;" and Brother Lewis went back disheartened and discouraged. Brother Lewis, who afterwards became the president of the Benson Stake of Zion, no doubt thanked Brother Merrill that he did not let him run away, seeing that during the last few years of his life, he harvested over ten thousand bushels of wheat a year. I know that the path of safety for the Latter-day Saints is to not only sing "We thank Thee O God for a Prophet, to guide us in these latter days," but to be ready and willing and anxious to be guided. ¶

I was thrilled through and through with the magnificent reference made to the Gull monument by Brother Roberts, and I was also thrilled with that magnificent poem which Brother Hart read. I thank God for my mother, and so does every true Latter-day Saint who has had a mother who has lived the life of a Latter-day Saint, and has been true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am thankful that healthy, vigorous, strong, sweet babies are the best crop of Utah, and I hope and pray earnestly that it will ever be so. I hope that the fashion which is a thousand times worse than are the fashions in dress, namely, that of drying up the fountains of life, will never become popular among the Latter-day Saints. That poem read by Brother Hart was a magnificent tribute to the mothers of the Latter-day Saints. I rejoice that honest men, as illustrated here, in the quotations made by Brother Levi Edgar Young, have to say good things, when they tell the truth, about the Latter-day Saints. I had a letter from a very dear friend of mine many years ago, written from London, and he was at the time general manager for the entire United Kingdom of a great corporation with hundreds of millions of dollars of money; he wrote me as follows: ¶

"My Dear Heber: Your nice long letter of the tenth came duly to hand. Of course you know, aside from the long and intimate personal friendship that we have had together, how much I have always been impressed with the genuineness and the sincerity of the men and women who hold your faith. Many times and oft I have said in conversation that the only people I ever knew who lived up to their professions were the 'Mormons' of Utah; and this is true. This it is that inspires respect even where there is a total absence of a belief in the doctrines. Your people carry their beliefs into daily life and act as if they think there is something in them. I cannot see how, as a sensible person, I could do otherwise, for if there is anything" — and my friend drew a big black line under the word "anything" — "in a belief which involves an eternity of future existence, there is everything;" and my friend drew another large black line under "everything." "If there is anything in a belief which involves an eternity of future existence there is everything." ¶

Not only have you and I a faith which involves an eternity of future existence, but we have a knowledge of the divinity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which we have espoused, and it does involve an eternity of future existence, and we will have that existence in pleasure, in happiness, in joy, in association with all the good and the noble who have lived the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or we will be expelled from that company, according as we shall keep the commandments of God. How I do pray that God will inspire His people with a determination to live their religion, so that this faith, involving an eternity of future existence, shall also bring to them an eternity of exaltation and joy in the presence of our God and of our Savior. ¶

I received a letter from William George Jordan, the author of a number of books which we have published in serial form in the Improvement Era, "Individuality of Self Control," "Little Problems of Married Life," and others. He is also the author of, "The Power of Truth," the English edition of which is "Great Truths." I sent him a number of tracts, a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets, and in acknowledging their receipt he thanked me for them and expressed the hope that some day he might visit Utah and learn by personal contact regarding our people. "From what I know of your people," he said, "your religion more than that of other creeds yields dividends of finer individual lives; no faith is of any value unless it does yield dividends of better lives." I feel that compliments or praise of this kind, coming from those who are not of us, are precious, and should be appreciated by every Latter-day Saint. I rejoice that men not of us discover that for honesty, for sobriety, for uprightness of life, for virtue, that no other people can make a better record than do the Latter-day Saints. I rejoice exceedingly in the magnificent record which has been made by our boys who have gone to Harvard, and to the other universities from one end of the country to the other. For quality and quantity, and for upright lives, the record which our boys have made is one that every Latter-day Saint should be proud of. I rejoice in this record for, because of it, we are becoming better known; people are beginning to recognize what Mr. Jordan has said, namely, that this Gospel of Jesus Christ commonly called by the world "Mormonism" is in very deed yielding dividends of better individual lives. ¶

I was very much pleased indeed with the reference made here yesterday by Brother Penrose, with regard to supporting and upholding and sustaining our local manufacturing institutions. From the time that I was a boy sixteen years of age, I never bought but one suit of clothes in Salt Lake City that the cloth did not come from the Provo Woolen Mills. I bought that suit to go to a ball in the Salt Lake Theatre. I had the honor of being a member of the Utah Legislature at the time that the members of the Legislature from Wyoming visited us, and we gave them a ball in the theatre. As my Provo suit happened to be of a light color, I did not want to be the only "white sheep," so to speak, and so I bought a black suit to harmonize with the others; but the next day I gave it away to a poor relative, so that when I stood up to preach I would not be wearing an imported suit of clothes and, provided I wanted to talk home manufacture, that the chips would not fly back in my own face. I never bought but that one suit until the factory closed down. I wear goods that are made in our own knitting factories, I stand up in Z. C. M. I. shoes; they are good enough for me. ¶

Speaking of home-made shoes reminds me of a little story. A number of years ago, in the Assembly Hall, Bishop George L. Farrell announced that one reason why he bought home-made goods was because he loved Bishop Farrell; he said, "If I buy home-made goods my money stays at home and it floats around and I get a chance to secure a little of it occasionally." You know they say, opportunity has a large lock of hair on its forehead and that it is bald behind, and that if you don't grasp the lock as it comes by, the hand will slip off; and Brother Farrell believed in grasping opportunity. He said: "I have been coming down here to conferences from Cache Valley once or twice a year, for something over twenty years, and, every time I have gone to the depot, when I could possibly get a gold piece I put a mark on it; knowing that the railroad was owned by eastern capitalists. I wanted to see if I would ever get any of that money back, but I never did. When I would buy home-made goods I would put a mark on that money, and time and time again, I got my home-made marked money back again. To give you a practical illustration, this identical trip, at the depot at Smithfield, I saw a man who had made some shoes for my children and I handed him five dollars in payment. He saw another man at the depot to whom he owed five dollars and he gave him the five; and he saw another and he gave him the five; and he saw another and he gave him the five, and when the fourth man got it he came up to me and said, 'Bishop Farrell, I owe you six dollars; here is five on account,' and I put my home-made shoes back in my pocket." (Laughter.) I am not vouching for the exact language but I am vouching for the facts, because I heard the talk. So five dollars' worth of home-made shoes paid twenty-five dollars' worth of debts as quick as I have been able to tell it to you, or as it took Brother Farrell to tell it. ¶

When I heard the Bishop's talk I was interested in a factory and I was trying to get a Salt Lake merchant to buy our goods and he said they were not as good as the imported. I told him he did not know good goods when he saw them; that they were better than the imported; but he did not believe it. "Well," I said, "look here. There is no doubt if you can make something you would buy the home-made goods." "Oh yes." You know of all our father's sons we love ourselves the best; and this merchant was no exception. I said, "I will take orders on your store instead of cash, and as you make probably twenty-five or thirty per cent profit, you can afford to buy our goods." Then he was loyal enough to do it. ¶

I gave to those working in the factory ten per cent of their pay in orders and the balance in cash, and I asked them to tell me what they did with the orders and when they told me where the orders went I followed them all up. Those orders were out of our factory an average of six days, and they averaged paying seven hundred per cent. In other words, every five dollar order went through seven hands in six days. They did one hundred per cent of work a day and worked enough in six days to rest on Sunday. Now I once had the bumps on my head felt by Professor Fowler, and he said the biggest bump on my head was a practical bump, and I believe that that practical bump is fully satisfied with these two illustrations, that it is good business to buy home-made goods and thereby keep our money at home. ¶

A Montana divine in January, 1910, said: ¶

"I maintain that the Christianity of the present is face to face with a lamentable loss. The Christianity of today has acquired much, but in its getting it has lost its own soul; it has lost the Holy Ghost. No true man will dare to refute this argument; for go where you may in Christendom today you will find that our religion is void of the supernatural element which the Bible claims it must have in order to exist." ¶

I differ with this divine in one particular: Go where you may in all the world except among the Latter-day Saints. I maintain that in every land, in every clime, wherever the Gospel of Jesus Christ has gone, from Scandinavia on the north to South Africa on the south, to New Zealand, Australia and the islands of the Pacific, from Canada on the north to South America on the south, go where you will, wherever the Gospel of Jesus Christ, revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith has been proclaimed, and people have embraced it, the supernatural element, the power of God, and the Holy Ghost have always been manifested. "There are periods in the Christian era we look back upon with wonder and admiration. In those days men were convicted of sin and a judgment to come." All over the world, wherever this Gospel goes, men are convicted of sin and a judgment to come, and they repent of their sins and they go down into the waters of baptism, and they do receive a remission of their sins and they do receive the Holy Ghost, that this man says Christendom is devoid of. "Then the more than human element was visible in our creed." As stated before, the more than human element is visible in the creed of the Latter-day Saints wherever the Gospel is proclaimed. "Holy men had heavenly visions." Holy men and holy women have had heavenly visions, by the hundreds and by the thousands, yea by the tens of thousands since this Gospel was restored to the earth in our day. "Sickness was cured by spiritual power." I stand here today and in all humility before God acknowledge that I am a living monument of the healing power of Almighty God; and we heard the strong, able voice of Joseph W. McMurrin here yesterday, and he, too, is a living monument of the healing power of God. We have them by the hundreds in the Church of Christ. "Holy men spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Holy men and holy women have spoken with other tongues. I seldom hear a hymn written by Sister Eliza R. Snow sung in any of our meetings, or sing one myself, that I do not thank God for the gift of tongues to that noble woman. She gave to me a blessing when I was a child, predicting incidents in my life, promising me that I should grow to manhood and become one of the leaders in the Church of Christ, Sister Zina D. Young giving the interpretation. I thank God that we have the gift of tongues. My wife, whose body lies in the tomb, gave to me a wonderful blessing by the gift of tongues, every word of which has been fulfilled. I know that God lives, I know that Jesus is the Christ, I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, I know that the gospel tree is alive, that it is growing, that the fruits of the gospel growing upon the tree are good. I have reached out my hand, I have plucked the fruits of the Gospel, I have eaten of them and they are sweet, yea, above all that is sweet. ¶

May God help me and you and every soul who has a testimony of the Truth to live the Gospel of Christ so that our good deeds may encourage other men to seek for a testimony of the Truth, is my prayer and I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶