I sincerely pray, my brethren and

I sincerely pray, my brethren and sisters, that the Lord will calm my spirit, and let His Spirit rest upon me for the few moments that I may ¶

stand before you. I ask myself the question why should I so fear and tremble, and I cannot answer further than to say that I sense, measurably at least, the great responsibility that rests upon me when I stand up to take the attention of this vast audience. One thing I can do, and perhaps that is all that is necessary upon this occasion, is to bear testimony to the divinity of this great work. I cannot remember the time, and never in my life have been perplexed with any doubts as to the divinity of this work ; in harmony with the teachings of a good father and a good mother, who from my childhood up taught me that this was the work of God, and that if I was a prayerful, humble boy, the Lord would manifest to my spirit the truthfulness of their testimony. I believed them, and the Lord has given me that testimony. He gave it to me before I went abroad, called as a missionary to proclaim the Gospel. ¶

Now I am very happy, in my visit at this conference, to have with me my son, a boy of twenty years of age, who stands up to his father's height, and looks me in the face and says : "Father, I am glad that I am here to be blessed and set apart to go and bear testimony, as you have borne before, to the nations of the earth that this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ." When asked, "Wouldn't you rather go to some Englishspeaking people than to go to far-off New Zealand?" "No," he said, "I would rather go where the Lord wishes me to go, for He knows where I can accomplish the best work." ¶

I was delighted with this spirit, and I thought when Brother Austin stood here and bore his testimony, and testified of the faith of his father, and of the teachings of his father and mother who received the gospel in the world, I shed tears of joy as I sat there and listened to that humble testimony, and I blessed the name of my father. My father never could stand up and preach the Gospel with any degree of eloquence, but with his wives and children, he taught them the Gospel, he bore testimony to them, and he had them grow up to pray, and to lead clean lives, and to seek the Lord and keep His commandments. Oh, it is my hope that my life shall be worthy of such a sire, worthy of such a mother, that when I shall have finished my work, and I shall appear before my father, that I can say, "Father I have cherished the testimony, I have lived the principles of the Gospel as you taught me, and after you left, as the Spirit of the Lord has led me, I have followed in your footprints." And then I want to be able to say further: "Now father, that your sons and daughters have gathered with you, and your family unit is complete, I hope also that I can bear testimony that my sons and daughters, with their good mother, are following : we have faith and reason to believe that they will come also, and then our happiness will be complete." I cannot conceive of anything that can minister to our happiness so completely as to see our sons and daughters in their daily life manifest that they have full faith in God, that they are not led off after the things of the world, but that they prize the Gospel and the truths thereof above all things else, and that they fear not in the face of men to stand up and bear testimony of the divinity of this great work. ¶

I feel happy when I think of my associations. I delight to bear testimony concerning the good men with whom I associate, and I say, as has been said in this conference, look at the fruits of the gospel. It has been our experience recently, in the Deseret stake of Zion, in visiting the priesthood, to call the men together and catechize them, to question them in every quorum, and we find the high priests, seventies, elders, priests, teachers and deacons, all working faithfully in the Church and kingdom of God. We discover that they pray, that their lives are clean, and that they are morally clean in every way; they are observers of the word of wisdom, and accept it as the word of the Lord. The fruits of "Mormonism" surrounds us in men of this kind, in fathers and mothers of this kind. We discover, by careful examination, that the officers of auxiliary organizations are also leading exemplary lives. What else can we have them than the best of men and women? Why should we be astonished to find men and women such as these stand up and bear testimony that this is the work of God, that the Lord has spoken from the heavens, that He has restored His everlasting gospel, and that He has established His priesthood: that men speak in the name of the Lord, and that it comes to us with the same weight, authority and significance as though the Lord Himself has spoken, for they speak as they are moved upon by the Spirit of God. ¶

The Lord help us to appreciate all that we have, and to live worthy to receive the blessings that He has in store for us, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶