My dear brethren and sisters : I

My dear brethren and sisters : I have faced audiences in many parts of the world, and feel that probably I have done myself justice, but this is the most trying position I have ever occupied. I am very grateful to God our Heavenly Father for this recognition. I am thankful to be counted worthy to stand in your midst, and proud to bear my testimony. I have known all my life that this is the work of God, and I expect to spend all my time in this glorious work. I expect to live and die among this people, because they are the best people in the world. I have traveled a great deal and I know we have the best people, that we have the Gospel in its true and pure state, and that the Church is blest with revelations from time to time. I know that President Joseph F. Smith is, and all his predecessors have been, prophets of God. I don't merely think it, I know it ! ¶

I testify that those associated with the President, his counselors, the apostles and the general officers of the Church are men inspired. Of course, I appreciate my standing in the Church, though I feel sometimes that I am a rather poor Latter-day Saint, but I am trying to do the best I know how. You will agree that I am a poor preacher ; but though I seldom express my love for the Gospel with my lips, I try to do that in my own way, at the great organ. God has given me a musical gift and I am trying to develop that ; and if I do my duty in that way, I feel that I am doing, partly, that for which I was sent here on earth. ¶

I know that the Gospel is true, and I have never been ashamed to say ¶

that I belong to this people ; I have always been proud of that fact, and have always associated myself with the Church, and shall always strive to do so. ¶

My standing in this Church, that I thank God for, means more to me that all the rest of the world's interests. I am sincere in this because I believe it with all my heart. In my way I shall dedicate my life to this work, under the direction of the authorities of the Church. I love our people. There is one thought I would like to present to this magnificent audience, and it is this : We have been the most persecuted people of modern times ; you well know that. I remember the persecution among our people in the early days, when I was a child, and my heart ached ; I thought we were the most abused people in the world. Having been so situated, having been so persecuted, we should as a people, I believe, possess a great degree of charity, one for the other. There should be no back-biting; there should be more evidences of brotherly love, and we should give the "other fellow" the benefit of the doubt. It is easy, as our dear president here, can testify, to be in the public eye and be hammered to death almost. Have you ever thought about it that we are most uncharitable sometimes toward our very own? I wish I had the power and eloquence of an orator to present this subject as it should be presented. This great thought, charity and forgiveness to one another, so beautifully touched upon in this conference, should be religiously cultivated among us. It would prove to be a wonderful blessing, if we bore a more kindly attitude to the erring ones. Let us do away with the habit of "knocking," which is prevalent to some extent in our communities. It is surely always bad for the "knocker" as well as for the one maligned. My dear brothers and sisters, I feel that being followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, and believers in His Gospel, as revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and knowing as we do that brotherly love is a great feature in our profession of religion, that it is a divine factor, we should encourage in each other kindly feelings, exhibit a forgiving spirit, and be in very deed brothers and sisters in the Gospel. ¶

I thank God for the Gospel, and I shall try in my humble way to assist in its upbuilding in the earth. I am grateful for this privilege of speaking to you ; and I pray that the Lord of Hosts will bless and help us all to do our duty according to the light that is given us. Amen. ¶