My brethren and sisters. Although your faces are

My brethren and sisters. Although your faces are new and strange to me, yet I know that your hearts beat with mine, in the same desire and the same aspirations. Therefore, in responding to this call this afternoon, I do so with the assurance in my heart that you have come up here to worship the Lord, and to receive encouragement and strength to help you to keep the vows, covenants and obligations which you have made unto the Lord as His covenant people. It is these covenants and vows which we have made that make us a peculiar people, the people of God, and which characterize us differently from all other peoples of the earth. Because of the reverence and faith we have in those who preside over us we are thought not to be as independent in our lives as other people, but we have learned the principle of the freedom of obedience. We have tried and tested the advice of the leaders of this Church and people, for so many years that we have perfect confidence in what they advise and teach us as being the mind and the will of the Lord. And, in carrying out their teachings in our lives, the Spirit of the Lord has uniformly borne testimony to us we are truly shown the way of life, truth and righteousness. ¶

In listening to the words of President Smith this morning, I thought of the principle that sometimes is inculcated in political platforms, to the effect that a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is essential for the perpetuity of the liberties of mankind, that it is necessary for us to go back to the simple life ; it is necessary for us to remember the foundation stones and principles upon which our body politic is founded and upon which it rests ; and upon which our rights, both social and personal are founded. We must not forget them, but that we must live them in our political life if we would preserve our political liberty. Likewise, President Smith has called us back to the fundamental principles of our home life, of our individual duties as members of the Church. He has warned us against any departure from them, and has pointed out the benefits that would follow the performance of our duties, humbly and fully, as Latter-day Saints. ¶

In every age, where God has had a people upon the earth, the cry has gone forth to repent of waywardness and indifference, and turn to God. The prophets of old exhorted Israel : "Turn, O back-sliding Israel, return to your God and to the ways and to the teachings of the prophets." The Savior of the world cried out to Israel : "How often would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not." The call of President Smith to the Saints to practice the minor as well as the weightier matters of the law is to us the word of the Lord. It means that we must, in our homes and in our wards and in our stakes, if we have departed from those simple. ¶

fundamental principles, go back to them, if we would maintain the truth and righteousness so characteristic of the people of God. All that we have accomplished as a people in this western commonwealth, and as a Church, has been accomplished because of obedience to these fundamental principles of the Gospel. ¶

We must remember the Lord ; we must be grateful to Him. night and morning, for the blessings that we receive. We must not forget to thank Him for bounties with which He has blessed us ; we must not forget to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, to go to the house of the Lord upon the Sabbath day and partake of the sacrament. and worship with the Saints of God. We must not forget to pay our tithes and our offerings in the day and the season thereof. We must not forget to show by our acts and bv our lives that we are in fellowship with our brethren and sisters, and that we uphold and sustain those who preside over us. These, my brethren and sisters, are some of the fundamental principles, some of the fundamental duties, of Latter-day Saints, and it is the doing of these duties, and the observance of the law of the Lord, which makes us strong and vigorous as a people, not only physically but intellectually and spiritually, and gives us power and influence in the earth for good among the honest and virtuous of the earth. ¶

There is an oft-repeated passage in the New Testament, of Paul's, that he was not ashamed of the Gospel, for it was the power of God unto salvation. The Gospel, if we live it, is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation, as the Prophet Joseph Smith interpreted it, means the placing of us beyond the power of all our enemies. Now these enemies are not personal enemies. They are not enemies of the flesh in the form of men that we are afraid of ; but they are our own weaknesses, the weaknesses with which, perhaps, we were born, the weaknesses that perhaps we have acquired through bad habits which we have formed. The observance of the laws of the Gospel gives us power over all such enemies, in short, saves us from them. For instance, if we obey the Word of Wisdom by persisting year after year in the abstinence of the use of tea, coffee, tobacco, and intoxicating liquors, does not this persistence in this habit, and this determination on our part to keep this rule of life become so rooted in our natures and in our lives, and in our very existence, that we are saved from their degenerating influence? Thus the Gospel, so far as this one principle is concerned, has become to us the power of God unto salvation. We are saved from that enemy: we have overcome it. The strength of being clean lives proves effectually that the Gospel, indeed, is the power of God unto salvation. ¶

Likewise in the payment of our tithes and offerings. If we have paid our tithing honestly and scrupulously in the time and the season thereof for years and years, it has become to us the power of God unto salvation, because the temptations of the flesh, the sordidness with which we are possessed, and the love of money, are rooted out of our systems. It is no longer a temptation to us to retain that for our use which rightfully belongs to the Lord. We never think of withholding it. So we might go on from one principle to another, and we should find that if we persist in obeying principles of righteousness such persistence becomes unto us the power of God unto salvation, not only here but hereafter, for our salvation hereafter, we know, depends upon our life here. ¶

My brethren and sisters, I rejoice with you in this gospel. I am thankful beyond words to express that I was born in the Church, of good parents. I am thankful for the influences that the Gospel has had upon my life. There is nothing that I would exchange my faith in this Gospel for. There is no wealth, no influence, nor possession for which I would exchange the simple faith that I have in God, and the knowledge that I have, that this is the kingdom of God, the Church of God, and that it is being led by the influence and power of God. ¶

May the Lord bless us, and sanctify all, that we may receive during this conference to our good, that our determination shall be to do the will of God and keep His commandments, that we may enjoy salvation, here and hereafter ; which I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶