A Magnificent Conference

This has been a magnificent conference and I am grateful that I have been able to hear almost every sermon delivered from this stand. I have been impressed with the words of every servant of God who has spoken, and my testimony is that the Lord has been with this people in the past, and has been with them in this conference, and is with them today. ' ¶

I have just finished the reading of a book which is to me one of the marvelous works of the twentieth century, namely, "The Truth of Religion," by Adolph Eucken, of the University of Jena in Germany. It is a work for which Professor Eucken was awarded the Nobel prize in 1908, and has been pronounced by leading universities of Germany, as well as the Imperial Scientific Society of Germany, as one of the most marvelous contributions to religious thought in the history of the race. In this book Professor Eucken has made a marvelous deduction to the effect that the world, during the twentieth century, will wend its way back to a belief in Jesus the Christ, and that, when the purer Gospel of Christ comes again to the hearts of men, that Gospel will express itself through a magnificent co-operative institution, which shall be known as a church of the Most High. In other words, Professor Eucken has, unconsciously, given us the great thought that we have been bearing testimony to for nearly one hundred years, namely, that the principles of Jesus Christ, and that th? great plan of God for His children, will find expression through a splendid organization of men who are acting harmoniously with one another, and are keeping their souls tuned to God and the infinite. ¶

During this conference the great theme, seemingly, has been the testimony that Jesus the Christ has lived, and has brought life to the world, salvation, and redemption, through the Gospel plan of salvation, and I have rejoiced in this great message. It was only recently declared by a fellow worker of mine, and a classmate at Columbia University, that if Dr. William James, of Harvard College, had come to Utah before he died, he would have found a society that, above all other human societies, illustrates better the theory of prag* matism, brought out by that great psychologist than any other society on the earth today. William James before he died, — and he is recognized as the greatest American philosopher that we have had — declared that there must be a splendid belief in God, that this idea of man's relationship to Deity must come back again, as it is after all the most potential and the greatest influence for morality that has ever been given to the human race. When men learn that their institutions — their economic, civic, political, social and ethical institutions — must be in accord with some divine belief in man's power and his relationship to God, then men will have a truer religion, a better outlook on life, and men will begin to grow into their greater power of intellectual and ethical development. ¶

This book, in a sense, has been an exposition of great fundamentals of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, although unconsciously done. It is my firm belief and testimony that the intelligent of the world are today turning their faces to the light, by virtue of the hunger of their souls. Philosophy of man will never satisfy the longing that is natural to the human being, will never satisfiy that longing for God, 'and for a knowledge of man's relationship to his Creator. I believe, my brethren and sisters, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most magnificent example — I mean the Gospel of Jesus Christ as we understand it, and as we know it to be true — is the most magnificent example of what modern sociologists in their philosophy declare to be high-minded and critical intellectual type of philosophy. Professor Franklin Henry Gidding, who over a year ago spoke from this pulpit, declared that he believes that the American people will yet raise up a fine tvpe of critical intellectual mind. By this he means men who know life, men who understand life in its bigness and its gloriousness, and by understanding it live life according to the majesty of their divine beings. ¶

It is my testimony, and I take always the deepest pleasure in giving it, that the Prophet Joseph was a type of the critical, intellectual mind which is the dream of some philosophers ; that type of mind, that wishes truth and works for truth, and is open to truth, knowing that truth is power and that power is intelligence. I say this here because I do not wish the Prophet Joseph Smith misunderstood, though he had no formal schooling. That is why I believe he rose to be such a magnificent character before the world. His mind was never injured by some little or petty pedagogical principle that would have warped his being. ¶

The Gospel of Jesus Christ stands for truth in its reality; it stands for truth in its ideality, and takes that stand which Professor Eucken has announced, in that book which received the world's prize, that for a religion to become permanent it must make for righteousness, and righteousness in religion will come when every man, woman and child shall realize his own personal responsibility to his God, and will place himself before his Maker as one who believes in the divinty of his own soul. Therefore I believe the time will come when there will be a monument, a gracious and great monument, reared to the Prophet Joseph Smith ; and on that monument a sentence something like this will be inscribed: "To the memory of Joseph Smith, who was the agent of God to open the heavens to the children of men and give the meaning of the Godhead and man's relationship to his God." Amen. ¶