This is a very inspiring sight

This is a very inspiring sight that has met my gaze, as I have been sitting here upon the stand this morning, a very unusual one to me. I am sure that I shall be voicing the sentiment of all who are here present when I testify, as my brethren have who -have preceded me, that I am profoundly grateful for the gospel, and for the testimony which the Lord has given to me of its truth. I have no misgivings about the future of this Church. I am positive that it is founded upon the solid rock, and that it will stand, and though I expect there will be renewal from time to time of persecution, I am still quite sure that the membership of this Church will not decrease, but that it will increase year after year until the Church, and the influence of the Church, shall spread over the whole earth. I feel quite positive that the youth of Zion will stand true and firm. As a member or a representative of the third generation of a family of Latter-day Saints, I am proud to say that I have full faith and confidence in the authorities of the Church as constituted today, and in the power of God as made manifest through the ministrations of the brethren who stand at the head of the Church. ¶

I have been thinking, this morning, of a conversation I had recently with a gentleman located in Utah, who came from one of the Eastern states, and has, for about four years, been quite intimately associated with our people, and is a student, more or less, of the gospel. He has studied our social conditions, and in the course of his residence among us has come to regard ¶

our people very highly. In the conversation referred to, the gentleman said : "I think I see signs of the time coming when we shall have arrived at a unity of faith. I believe that during my residence among your people I have observed a tendency of your coming somewhat toward us, and I think that, in some respects, the other churches are drifting toward you. I look forward to the time when your Church will not be quite so particular about its forms and ceremonies, and ordinances and the things you now hold sacred and necessary, and which differentiate you from other peoples and other churches of the world, when you will lay them aside and when we shall all view religious matters from almost if not quite one standpoint." ¶

Now, I have been thinking about that, and I have wondered if there is anything in connection with the outward expression, at least, of our religious life which would lead an outside observer to believe that we are veering somewhat from the straight line that our fathers and our mothers followed, if, indeed, our faith in these ordinances, and our reverence and respect for them, is diminishing. I am not at all pessimistic about this, but if there should be some such tendency — and it may be that you who are assembled here will have observed it if there is such a thing — it is a good time for us to discover it and check it. We might profitably take stock of ourselves, and see if our faith is as surely and safely founded upon the rock of revelation as was that of our parents ; if we recognize as fully as did they the necessity of having performed for us the sacred ordinances of the gospel ; if, for instance, the young people of today are just as desirous as young men and young women were in earlier days of the Church that when they take partners unto themselves it shall be under the sanction of the priesthood of God, and in the places that He has appointed ; or if there is a disposition to disregard this very important privilege, and to feel that it does not matter so much whether they are married by civil contract or in the temple of the Lord. If such a sentiment is found, it would be prudent for us to do all in our power to correct it, for, my brethren and sisters, the ordinances and ceremonies of this Church have been revealed as part of the gospel, and no one of them can be omitted or disobeyed by us, if we are to attain salvation in the celestial kingdom of God. ¶

We sometimes hear it said, by those who have no faith in the Church, or in the efficacy of its ordinances, that so long as a man is honest and does right to his fellowmen, all will be well with him in the hereafter. There is doubtless truth in that statement, but it is not the whole truth. There is a just God, and every man will receive a reward for the good he does. If he is honest, he will receive the reward of an honest man. If he is virtuous, he will receive in this world and in the next the reward of the virtuous. If he is truthful, he will receive a truthful man's reward. And so with others of the Christian virtues mentioned by the Apostle Paul, and which have been reiterated in our Articles of Faith, wherein it is said, "We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men." Men of the world can do and be all of these things, and many of them are perhaps living up to ¶

these laws equally as well as many of the Latter-day Saints. But these laws, my brethren and sisters, pertain to this world. They have to do with our relationships with men here on earth. They belong to the terrestrial plane, and living them will bring a terrestrial reward. Honorable men of the earth are entitled to this reward and this glory. But there are higher laws to be obeyed by those who wish to receive a celestial reward ; spiritual laws that govern in the eternal world beyond. The principles of faith and repentance, the ordinances of baptism and confirmation, and all the other forms, and ceremonies and ordinances which the friend of whom I spoke thought would sometime be dropped by the Church, these must all be observed and performed. I testify to you that not one of them can be or will be dropped, or changed or omitted by the Church. On the contrary, they will stand forever as essential principles and ordinances in the Gospel of Christ. ¶

Faith is the principle that unlocks the door to the higher kingdom. When men have faith in their hearts, they will repent of the sins they have committed, and penitently they will go before the Lord as those devout Jews went penitently before the apostles on the day of Pentecost, when they cried with one voice, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Whenever a man exercises faith and turns unto the Lord with that question on his lips, the answer will be to him as it was given by the Apostle Peter on that memorable day : "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Thus baptism becomes the door to the higher ¶

kingdom of God. Without this ordinance no man can be saved and exalted. It touches particularly the spiritual part of his being. Baptism and the confirmation which follows it are absolutely necessary if a man is to get into communion with God, his Father. Hence these ordinances mean everything to us. They have always been, are now, and will always be a part of the Gospel of the Lord, and can never be taken away from it. ¶

And there are other ordinances and ceremonies of like importance. If I were speaking to a group of young people contemplating marriage, I should suggest to them to be careful when selecting companions in life, that they choose those who can go with them before the priesthood of God, into the temples that have been prepared for that purpose, and there be united for time and for all eternity. Men of the world can unite them for time, and have authority to do so, but the power has never been given unto the ministers of the various denominations to unite a man and a woman in marriage for more than time, or only until death parts them. ¶

But how different with the Latter-day Saints ! We know that the Lord has given the priesthood unto men, and commissioned them to perform on earth the rites and ceremonies that are essential to prepare men and women for the life to come. Thus, to us, the ordinances of baptism, confirmation, blessing, administrations, ordinations, and marriage, are sacred and necessary parts of the gospel. We cannot dispense with them. And so, our young people are taught that when they marry they should do so under the blessing of the priesthood, and in the places prepared for this purpose, so that when they go beyond they may meet their life's companions, and continue there the relationships that have been so dear to them in life. ¶

My brethren and sisters, let us not lose the reverence our fathers and mothers have always had for these sacred ordinances. I thank the Lord that in this Church there has been established with the priesthood the right to bind upon earth and it shall be bound in heaven, to seal upon earth and it shall be sealed in heaven, and I hope and pray that the Lord will so temper the spirit and feeling of all the people of the Church that we of today may be in fact, as one of our singers has said : ¶

"True to the faith that our parents ¶

have cherished, True to the truth for which martyrs ¶

have perished, To God's command, soul, heart and ¶

hand, ¶

Faithful and true we will ever stand." ¶

May God grant this to us all, and may our young people rise in the dignity of the positions they hold, as descendants of the stalwart men and devoted women who, under the power of God, and with His blessings, were instrumental in establishing this Church, and stand forth as worthy representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, and be willing always to proclaim these truths to all the world. I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶