My brethren and sisters, I should

My brethren and sisters, I should esteem myself and yourselves, my audience, very happy indeed if I might be able to address you under the impulse of that same power and spirit, and intelligence that so far has controlled and dominated this meeting. It is always a great pleasure to me, and no doubt to you and the Latter-day Saints as a whole,, to have the privilege of attending these our annual and semi-annual conferences of the Church. In these great ¶

assemblies are we permitted to listen to the testimonies and receive the benefit of the instructions, and to be roused by the enthusiasm of the brethren who so ably, and by appointment, preside over the destinies of this the Church of God. And not only is this privilege accorded us ; but by reason of the fact that we come together in great numbers, fired with the same desires, entertaining the same belief, we receive a renewed enthusiasm and power, spirit and determination with reference to the gospel and our participation in the labors pertaining thereunto. ¶

It is always a great pleasure to us, (I undertake to say behind the back of President Smith that which I would not say before his face) — it is always a great pleasure to us Latterday Saints to have the privilege of listening to our matchless leader. We are great admirers, we who know President Smith, of his splendid intellect. We have sat many times under the potent influence of his oratory, — potent, in my humble judgment, by reason of his sincerity, by reason of his knowledge, by reason of his uncompromising faith, by reason of his mastery of the English language, by reason of his versatility of thought and idea. We have all listened time and again with the most unspeakable pleasure and the most immeasurable advantage and benefit to his sermons. This is one of the great privileges accorded us in attending these conferences. Not least among the privileges that we have on these occasions is listening to the powerful testimonies of the brethren who preside in the missions of the Church. They are filled with enthusiasm. Their knowledge of the Gospel has been kept bright by exercise. Their armor is not rusty. ¶

We all learn from them and from the power and influence that accompanies their speaking" of the great advantage that there is and would be to us to labor constantly in the work of God. If we would have that spirit which they enjoy, the spirit which we had when we labored as missionaries in the field, it is only necessary that we, like them, should devote our whole time and attention to the Gospel. Of course this is not possible to the great majority of us. But still we may conclude that we would receive a great accession of faith and of power by increasing our attention, and by multiplying our labors in the great cause of truth and righteousness. ¶

It is my design to address you only for a very few minutes. Time would not permit that I should speak longer. I find my text in the words, or the idea at least (I cannot recall the precise words) of President Smith in his opening address this morning. The Latter-day Saints, he said, are a charitable people, filled with the fie si re to benefit and to save the world, and not to do the world injury. That is truly a characteristic of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We could not claim that this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if it were not a gospel filled with love and characterized by charity. If ours were a doctrine of hatred, if ours were a doctrine inculcating the spirit of persecution, then we would not be walking in tne footsteps of our great and illustrious Exemplar, the Son of Man. We thank God that the history of the Church, the history of the Latter-day Saints, is not marred by any sentiment or by any act of oppression. Thank God that throughout the history of the Latter-day Saints, there has been evidenced a love of mankind, a desire to bless and to benefit and to save, rather than a disposition to oppress and to constrain those who are not of our faith. Oppression would be entirely inconsistent with our views respecting God, our relation to God and our relations to each other. We could not believe as we do, that in the beginning we existed with God ; that we are in very fact the children of God ; that we are literally brothers and sisters ; that we will be saved, all of us, according to our faith and to our works. We could not believe, as has been pointed out, that those of us who might fall by the wayside, or falter in this world, will have an opportunity in the next world of accepting the truth, and of advancing on to salvation. We could not believe that every soul that has been born into the world may become eventually, through endeavor and the things accomplished, divine in his power and attributes, — I say we could not believe all these glorious and humane truths, and then persecute and despitefully use our fellow creatures in this world. It would be absolutely inconsistent in us to oppress those who fail to believe as we believe. They have within them, as we have, not only a divine origin but the. spark of divine potentialities. ¶

Thank God, we do not share the conception that has marked the ages of the past, and to a large extent reaches down to the present day, notwithstanding the evolution of religious belief in the past 100 years, that a large part of these sons and daughters of God have been foreordained to eternal destruction and damnation. I can well understand why those who entertain such perverted ideas of religion, who assert that we are foreordained, do what we may, to encounter the condemnation of God and to suffer irretrievably throughout eternity, would be inclined to judge us without charity or consideration. It would seem to be quite natural for such believers to exclaim: "Inasmuch as God has foreordained the condemnation of this people, well then let them be damned." I say, thank God that such charity destroying views and delusive doctrines have no part in the faith of the Latter-day Saints. Looking upon all mankind, those not of our faith as well as those that have come within the fold, as being of the same fatherhood, as brothers and sisters, with the prospect of salvation ahead of them, we would be sadly illogical if we were not filled with love and with charity, and a desire to help. ¶

And so, throughout the history of the Latter-day Saints, we have not been the persecutors ; but rather the persecuted. We have not been the oppressors ; we have been the oppressed. We have not been the libellers and the slanderers of our fellow men ; we have suffered from those offenses. As it was in New York, so it was in Kirtland, — we were the persecuted. When we went into Missouri, where thousands of our members, owners of the soil, were dispossessed of their property, it was the same ; and so when we were driven out of Nauvoo without offense upon our part. In this state, you may search the statutes from the time the state of Deseret was organized, before the creation of the Territory, and you will search in vain for one statute that ever discriminated in the least degree ag'ainst those who were not of the faith of the Latter-day Saints. We who have lived in this state have seen men who have slandered the leaders of this people, who have said ¶

and printed of them the most despicable things, who have accused them of unchastity, of dishonesty and of all of the crimes in the catalogue, we have seen those men live in peace in our midst and walk these streets absolutely without harm or molestation. And you know who have come from the west and the north, and from the east and the south, wherever our people have ever lived, that those who have charged these things against us and have done all manner of things to destroy us, you know that we have treated them charitably, that we have not sought to return evil for evil, but rather, following the example of Christ, that we have sought to return good for evil. I say I thank God that we are a charitable people. I thank God that we soon forget the offenses of people against us. We have elevated into the highest political positions in this state men who in other days have been among the most uncompromising of our opponents. In the charity of our hearts, we have forgotten all that they have done in the past. Thank God that we do not desire to injure others, but rather to bless them. ¶

Now may God help us so to live that as a community and as individuals we may grow in grace and in the things of God, and be finally not only saved but exalted in His presence ; which I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶