My beloved brethren and sisters

My beloved brethren and sisters, I rejoice with you in having the opportunity to attend this excellent conference. For many years these General Conferences have been a feast of blessings to me, and I have never gone home from one of these gatherings disappointed. I have felt in my heart, every time I attended them, that I had received strength in my soul and new testimony of the divinity of the work of God. I thank God for this testimony, and I desire to bear it to you this afternoon, if I may be led by the Spirit of God to do so, for I know in my heart that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of the living God. ¶

I rejoice in the remarkable growth of this people. For many years I have watched their gatherings, and it seems to me that the numbers who attend conferences are constantly increasing. When I heard President Robert D. Young speak this morning of the Rev. Mr. Collins, I felt sorry that the gentleman could not have attended one of these great General Conferences of the Saints, and I wondered what he would have thought of it, or what effect it would have had upon his mind. The impression that I have always received at these conferences has been, that the people who attended them were filled with the Spirit of God and were hungering and thirsting for His word, and that they were eager to hear the voice of the true shepherd. ¶

I rejoiced this morning to hear the voice of our beloved President and Prophet, the mouthpiece of God to this people, and I feel to sustain him with all my heart. When he arose to speak this morning and said that probably his condition was not such that he would be able to occupy much time owing to severe cold, I prayed in my heart that God might strengthen him, and I felt like one of the Elders of Israel of old, to uphold and sustain his arms, that God might give him strength to speak to the Latter-day Saints. And how remarkably impressive the ¶

word of God came to us ; I am sure that we all rejoiced in hearing the words of our beloved leader. ¶

There is no danger, my brethren and sisters, as far as I can see, that can come from the outside to injure this Church, as long as the people are united, and as long as we are performing our duties and labors in our humble callings in life. There is no danger of the adversary having power over, and prevailing against this people so long as we serve God and keep His commandments. The only danger that I can see to this Church, and that not collectively, but to the individual, is the danger which comes to the man and the woman who do not keep the commandments of God, those who neglect their prayers, who desecrate the Sabbath day, or who refuse to pay their tithes and their offerings, and who are not in harmony with their bishops and the authorities of the Church. There I can see danger, for as sure as we live, if we do not keep the commandments of God, little by little our faith will become weaker, and eventually we will lose interest in the work of God. ¶

For some time we have endeavored in our stake to bring a larger number of people to our Sacrament meetings, and to accomplish this we called into service some thirty missionaries and singers and musicians, who for the last two or three months have visited alternately every ward in the stake, preaching the Gospel and calling the people to repentance. So far we have seen some fairly good results. But it seems to me, my brethren and sisters, that the distinction is becoming more and more apparent between the men and the women who serve the Lord and ¶

keep His commandments and the ones who do not. I can see the need of labor, the need of visiting the homes of the Saints, and of praying with them, and bearing testimony to them of the truth of the Gospel. I know the words of President Smith, which he uttered in his opening address this morning, are true. I am convinced that great good will result from the faithful and devoted labor of the ward teachers, and of the officers of the Church, by prayerfully admonishing the people and teaching them the word of God. We sometimes go to our meetings to hear certain men speak, and we hear the question asked, "Who is going to speak today?" "Why, Brother so and so." "Well, I have heard him before, I do not care about going to meeting today." On the other hand we hear it said, "Elder so and so is going to speak, let us go and hear him, he is a good speaker." And so we go to our meetings. And I have wondered sometimes how many people, how many of us, go to our sacrament meetings irrespective of who shall sing or pray or speak, but because we love the Lord with all our hearts, and because we feel to go to the house of worship to offer up our oblations to the Lord our God by partaking, in humility, of the emblems of the atonement, in remembrance of the sufferings and the mercy of our Savior, judging our hearts, our conduct, and our worthiness, to partake of the emblems of the broken flesh and spilt blood of our Redeemer. My brethren and sisters, I am sure that if we love the Lord we will obey all His commandments, and if we do not keep His commandments, it is because we lack faith and devotion to the work which He has intrusted to us. ¶

I rejoice in the work of the Lord. I rejoice greatly in the labor, which I am permitted to perform. There is nothing compared with the privilege that we enjoy to labor in the vineyard, whether at home or abroad. Money-making, my brethren and sisters, does not compare with it. It does not bring the peace and the satisfaction which com,es to the soul of the man and the woman who faithfully and devotedly do their duty in the Church. I have this testimony in my soul. I have rejoiced greatly in my travels abroad among the people of the world, preaching repentance to them, and warning them of the judgments and the calamities, which would overtake the wicked, because of their unbelief and their rebellion against the warning voice of God. But I have experienced as great a joy and satisfaction in laboring at home, in the ward and in the stake in which I live. I have found inexpressible joy in teaching the boys and girls among our people, and I have oft returned to my home from Sunday School, or from the Mutual Improvement meeting, or from the homes of the Saints which I had visited, filled with gratitude to God for the privilege given unto me to labor in the vineyard, and of aiding someone, especially the youth of Zion, to obtain an understanding of the glorious principles of life and salvation. ¶

Brethren and sisters, let us all put our shoulders to the wheel, and labor faithfully and devotedly for the progress and advancement of the work of God, that we may stand blameless before Him in the day of judgment, which is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶