How beautiful upon the mountains

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." ¶

"Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: For they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion." ¶

These words of the poet Prophet, Isaiah, came to my mind frequently during this conference, when hearing the testimony of our brethren as to the increase in membership and faith, and integrity and loyalty of our people, of their growth in temporal things, of the prominence that we have among our friends for ¶

everything that goes for the uplift of humanity, and for the conservation of social virtues. And my heart was made to rejoice because I felt that Isaiah, in these words, was prophesying of this very time and day, and in prophetic vision had seen the Saints gathered in the tops of the mountains, had heard the reports of the brethren relative to Zion, which God has brought again and established for the last time. ¶

During the past season we have had, as reported, a great many visitors, and it has been my privilege in common with many of my brethren, to meet not only the leaders of our own state, but the leaders among men of affairs in this country and from the nations abroad. It was my high honor recently to become a member of several conventions, among which was the International Irrigation Congress. We held several sessions in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, and then one in San Francisco, at the great Panama-Pacific International Exposition. It added to my faith to sit under the teachings of world renowned men day after day, to learn that in their ideals and striving after that which will benefit mankind most, they were following in the wake of the leaders of Zion. Men were present to this Congress from Australia, from New Zealand, from Hindoostan even, from China, and from the Dominion of Canada. Representative men of our own government, who had been sent abroad to look into the civil and sociological conditions of Ireland, of France, of Germany and of Italy and to study their modes of co-operation and community growth, brought home the knowledge thus gained to the United States, to enable our people to foster their best interests, to conserve the strength, and the manhood and virtue of her people, and to husband her finances by the subjugation of the soil, etc. ¶

To find that these men in their ideals, as I have said, were following in the wake of the leaders of Israel, made my heart rejoice and sing for the testimony of the truth it brought to me. I learned again that God is with His people, that He led them in the beginning of our history, that it was no chance at all that a modern Moses struck his plow share into the barren soil of the West here, and married the waters to the land, and made of this wilderness a garden of the Lord where "joy and peace, thanksgiving and the voice of melody" is found. I learned again that the spirit of cooperation and of the building of communities for the conservation of social virtues, for fostering of the drama, the school and the church, that they commend as essentially necessary for the growth of America, and for the proper redemption of the soil, and to turn away from the cities the thousands of men and women that become there "the slaves of clock and bell and prisoners of walled up streets," was the very methods that established our people in this land and made our little towns and villas and cities appear "like apples of gold in a platter of silver" held in the hands of plenty. It was an inspiration to me to hear these men say how they "must get nearer the colonist," and they "must study his interests," "must see that land is procured at a more reasonable rate, that interest shall not be so heavy, a longer time for payment given," and that in this they are looking abroad for the best of the land, for the best men ¶

and women, the men of heart and blood as well as of mind and education, men who love mother earth, and nursing deeply from her precious and luscious breast, shall receive full and rich compensation for their trust and toil. They will welcome the laboring classes, from Europe to America, and will assume the necessity of caring for them after they have been planted upon the soil ; for we learn that the original purchaser has in most instances made a failure, and it is the second and third settler who has made a success of farming. ¶

We learn that as the cities have increased from sixteen to twenty-two per cent in population during the last decade, that in the country our increase has been but four per cent, so they are saying to you, "we must seek after the immigrant and, feel after him, look after the colonist, and nurse him, and not let interest abate just so soon as he has purchased a piece of ground. How familiar this doctrine must be to the ears of my aged brethren and sisters who were found by the Gospel in the old world, and were brought to this land by the "perpetual immigration fund," had their feet planted here upon the soil, then were nursed tenderly and carefully until they in turn were able to help care for themselves and aid others. In all these things, in all these avenues and vocations of trade mentioned by our leading men at our recent congress, I found an added testimony to the worth, integrity and divine guidance of the prophets of God. ¶

May the Lord guide us to His praise, and deliver us from evil, and enable us to recognize His hand in all things, that we shall keep the faith, and when we have finished ¶

our labors in earth have the same acknowledged by our Father, and be crowned with eternal lives in His presence, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶