Yesterday, the words of the Lord

Yesterday, the words of the Lord came to my mind as He spoke them unto Abraham, when He said to him : "In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." The remarks of President Smith brought this to my mind. A few conferences since, we voted that a temple be built in Canada. Yesterday the same privilege was granted us to vote for a temple to be built on one of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, that the work of the Lord which, in a measure, has been hampered might be extended, that those brethren and sisters who have heard the voice of the Redeemer might have the privilege of looking after their dead and uniting their families ; and that the doctrine might be made plain and shown unto all men that, though men and ¶

women die, they shall live again, and shall have the privilege of hearing the Gospel. ¶

No wonder Paul made the statement that "if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we of all men are most miserable." There would be no happiness or pleasure at all in this life if it were not for the fact that we are laying a foundation for the future. We build today for the future, so far as temporal affairs are concerned ; and we prepare for our future existence by our actions of today. The only blessing that can come to the children of men, whether in this world or out of it, will be through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel which Abraham taught, the gospel which he lived, and the gospel which made him the prominent character that he was and is in the hearts of the Christian world. ¶

The Latter-day Saints teach nothing more than the Lord has revealed We believe in a restoration of the Gospel. We have never been accused of a reformation of it. We believe in the same Gospel that the Lord established in the days of Adam, in the days of Abraham, in the days of Christ. We do not teach continued priesthood but we do teach a restoration of the gospel, the gospel plan which the Lord told Abraham would save or bless all men and all women. The strength of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lies in its principles and in its doctrines. It takes men to the isles of the sea and to foreign countries, and wherever the Gospel is to be preached, and it will continue until the Son of Man comes again in the flesh. ¶

Men and women who have died without a knowledge of the Gospel ¶

will have the privilege of hearing it, as was stated here yesterday, and I know that it is the truth. There is an organization of the Church on the other side. I can look back on my life and see men that I have known who have died, faithful men, men of integrity, men of character, filled with love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it would be absolutely impossible for me to believe that they are inactive. I know that' they are active, and that they are preparing a way for the Lord to come to His people, in His temple, when He shall have it erected in His own due time. ¶

The statement has been made that if polygamy should be stamped from among this people, the time would come that the Church would die: that those who practiced that principle were fanatics; and that the generations who were to follow would not have the strength and courage that their fathers had. But facts prove otherwise. The children who have been born from parents who came into this western country are here, as a witness unto the world that the faith of their fathers is increased in them, and that there is no such thing as cowardice, neither will there be, but that the strength of these everlasting hills, which has come unto them through their fathers, shall be among them to give them power to carry the Gospel unto the ends of the earth, until the Lord shall cry "Enough." There is no such thing as failure: there is no such a thing as this Church not having the power to go into all the world. It will go into all the world and it will not only teach a man to look after himself but it will teach him to look after his dead kindred. Thus will the plan of salvation, through which the children of Abraham shall be blessed, be manifested unto every man, woman and child. ¶

I want to tell you it is my firm belief that the children of this country, and men and women of this land, in other states of this Union, who know us not, shall become acquainted with us. In their being flows the blood of Abraham. I tell you that as I have placed my hands upon the shoulders of men and talked to them in the world, — my neighbors, men that I know to be good, honorable men, — I have felt that the day will come when the promptings of the Holy Spirit shall have its power and effect upon them, and they will listen to the voice of their Redeemer. They shall know it, and they shall stand for what they know to be the truth. They have grown up to be Methodists, Presbyterians, and so forth, and their environment has made them largely what they are, but the fact remains that, when they grow old enough to see and know for themselves that the gospel which they are following is not preparing them for the future, they will break away from those bonds and will reach out for the truth ; for the truth, after all, is loved by the honorable men of the earth, and this earth has millions of them. You will find them in every church and in every part of the country. This thing called prejudice is rapidly vanishing and it will depart entirely ; for that spirit of truth, that spark of light which came into the world when the Lord appeared to Joseph Smith, will dispel the darkness and gloom that cover the earth, and the children of men will see it. They will become acquainted ¶

ELDER SAMUEL 0. BENNION. ¶

with the revelations of the Lord, and they will come to this land and to the islands of the sea and receive their blessings for themselves and for their dead. And they will all know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and that the people who were brought into this country were led here by divine appointment, by a man who had been prepared from before the foundations of the earth. They will know and recognize that man as one who knew the truth and who dared to live it and who dared to come in the face of all trials and adversity and establish a place where men and women could rear children of faith, and through them the world would be blessed. ¶

This blood of Abraham has never ceased to flow among God's children who have passed on before, those who died during the dark ages and entered into the eternal worlds. There were men and women who knew the truth, and it is my firm belief that they have never ceased to importune the Father until He sent His messengers again. I believe that the spirit and power of prayer is in the eternal world as it is here ; that men and women pray there as they do here. I don't believe that our Father, who has the power to make and arrange such a beautiful world as this, and who has the power to fashion such creatures as men and women are, would leave His world and His people anywhere in an unorganized condition but rather th^t He does organize them, that His angels ascend and descend, and that they live with His children and are there to minister for good. ¶

I know that the power of the ¶

Lord is with the Latter-day Saints. I know that it is with the elders of Israel. My experience has been this : that of all who have labored in the ministry under my direction I don't know one who has left the Church, and there have been perhaps a thousand of them, clean honorable men and women who are going to carry the burden that shall be placed upon them, and who will do it under the direction of those who preside over them. ¶

I stood upon the streets of a city, a short time ago, holding a street meeting. The elder who was with me was a pale-faced young man that looked to me as if he could accomplish very little, just as frail as he could possibly be. His mother was struggling hard to keep him in the field. I never had such a manifestation of God's power in my life as I stood upon the streets of that city and listened to that quivering boy bear his testimony — without a dollar in the world, not knowing really how long he could stay, or what he would do when he returned home. But he stood there as brave and bold as a lion, bearing testimony unto those people that the Lord had revealed Himself unto the Prophet Joseph Smith and that the gospel which the prophets had predicted would be restored, was restored. I thought of the words again, that through the blood of Abraham would all the nations of the earth be blessed. ¶

All men will accept "Mormonism" sooner or later, when they are brought face to face with it. They may go into the other world without it. undoubtedly many will, but they will receive the truth when they are shown their path of duty. So as a Latter-day Saint, as one of the ¶

thousands of Israel, I feel to thank the Lord that He has so favored me, and I bear my testimony to it all the time. I have never seen a time in my experience when I did not tell people who I was. I never saw a time when I lost any favor through it. I want to tell you that, after all, the people of this world like to meet the "Mormon" people and like to talk to them, and like to become acquainted with our people. As young men and young women in Israel, we will prove that the faith of our fathers shall be manifested in us, and that we will not cease to carry the burden that has been placed upon us. We will do our duty and prove unto the world that we know the Lord lives and that we know that this is His people, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that "Mormonism" is true; that the Lord has a prophet to guide and counsel men, assigned to take care of His work on the earth ; that He is here with His people, and that He has a people in the earth who are keeping His commandments each day to the best of their ability, looking after their dead and looking after the living. ¶

I pray that we may find joy and happiness always in the knowledge of the Gospel principles we receive from time to time, and I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶