Faith Exists Among the Latter-day Saints

Since the opening session of this conference, my brethren and sisters, one thought has been uppermost in my mind. It has been gratitude to the Lord that I am identified with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ; that, notwithstanding my weaknesses and imperfections, I' am permitted to be here with you this Sabbath mornnig in worship, enjoying your fellowship and, I trust, your confidence. ¶

The Redeemer, during his ministry upon earth, on one occasion propounded this question to his disciples : "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" And that thought came to me this morning, as I contemplated this vast congregation of Latter-day Saints come up here to worship the Lord, not because of idle curiosity, but that they may hear his word and learn to walk in his paths. ¶

The President of the Church stated, in his opening remarks, that there are now seventy-two organized stakes of Zion. I returned only a few days ago from a protracted trip which took me into and through a great number of these various stakes, beginning with the Alberta and Taylor stakes, in Canada, through Idaho, and Southern Utah where I had been in attendance at conferences of the Panguitch, Kanab, St. George and the Parowan stakes of Zion. I endeavored, as I associated with the people, to determine as far as possible their condition, believing it to be my duty to be informed regarding the spiritual and temporal welfare ¶

ELDER ANTHONY W. IV INS. ¶

of the people, and I want to say this to you, my brethren and sisters, that wherever I have gone, from Canada on the north to Kanab and St. George upon the south, large congregations of Latter-day Saints have assembled in all of the meetings which have been held. I have been impressed with the fact, as I mingled with the people, as I felt of their spirit, that faith does exist, that never before in the history of the Church were greater numbers of people gathered together upon similar occasions to hear the word of the Lord. I have been impressed as I have come in contact with the bishops, who preside over the more than eight hundred wards in the Church in these various stakes of Zion, with their faith and devotion to the responsibilities which have been placed upon them. I have been impressed, as I have come in contact with the presidents of these various stakes, with their devotion, with their faith, with the splendid service they are giving to the Lord and to the Latter-day Saints, in the discharge of the duties and responsibilities which have been placed upon them. They are young men in years, many of them young in experience, but I believe as devoted, as full of faith and hope and charity as men have been at any other period of the world's history. ¶

My thoughts have then carried me a little farther, while I have been considering the proceedings of this Conference, and I want to say the same thing in regard to my personal association, acquaintance, and knowledge of the character of the men who preside over the missions of the Church. They are devoted, faithful, capable men. For years, I have had my desk in the office of the presiding bishop of the Church. ¶

I have studied carefully, I have been an observer, because I wished to know, I wished to satisfy myself, and to speak intelligently and truthfully, if required to speak — so I have studied conditions there. All that I have said and more, if possible, applies to the administration of the affairs of the office of the presiding bishopric in this Church. The spirit of charity is there, the spirit of sympathy is there. No one is turned away without assistance, where it is necessary to render it. The business of the office is conducted in the most orderly manner. ¶

I have been associated with the First Council of Seventies. I know their devotion to be just as great to duty, to the requirements of their offices, that they are men ready at any moment to go or to come — to be, as far as frail man may be, what the Lord desires them to be, and to go where he wants them to go. It is needless for me to say that this same eulogy applies to the Council of the Twelve, with whom I am directly associated. There may have been more devoted men, there may have been men more united, there may have been men, every one of whom more earnestly desire the welfare of the Church, but if so, it has never been my privilege to come in contact with them. I am becoming an old man, and have been personally acquainted with many, in fact, nearly all, of our brethren who have presided over us in the past. ¶

I bear this same testimony to you, my brethren and sisters, regarding the administration of the affairs of the Church under the direction of the First Presidency. I have known personally every man who has presided over the Church since the days of the prophet, not, of course, acquainted with him, but I knew President Young, I knew President Taylor, I knew President Woodruff, intimately, every one of them, and President Snow — and I believe that I intimately know our brethren who preside over the Church today. I bear testimony to you that the affairs of the Church were never administered with greater care, they never were administered in greater humility, they were never administered by men possessing greater faith as to the destiny of this work, the accomplishment of God's purposes, than those men who preside at present over its affairs. ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, I am not saying this by way of compliment, I am not saying it because it appears to be necessary ! I am saying it because it is the conviction of my heart, and I know that I stand here speaking the truth as it applies to the body of the Church, where I have visited, as it applies to the bishops of wards and to presidents of stakes, as it applies to the men who preside over the temporal affairs of this Church, and men who direct its missionary activities, and the presiding authorities. I thank the Lord in my heart that I can stand here and bear this witness before you truthfully this morning. Those are the observations, the conclusions which have come to me from my observations during this long journey which I have just made in the Church. ¶

I would not have you understand that every condition which exists is satisfactory, that it is all just as we would like it to be. Not at all. It never has been, and I want just briefly to call your attention now — after referring to those things which seem so encouraging to me, which give me the absolute assurance that should the Redeemer come today, he would find faith upon the earth — to some of the things which it appears to me these men who are here before me must safeguard and carefully watch in their various stakes and wards of the Church. Wherever I went I found a degree of prosperity which perhaps has never before existed in the Church. The products of the soil, the flock, and the herd, the products of the factory, the business done by the stores and banks, are greater perhaps than ever before. The prices of commodities are high, and the consequence is that money is coming easy to many people where it came under great difficulties before, and I fancied, my brethren and sisters, that I could see a tendency to the extravagant expenditure of money, a lack of economy on the part of many people which might properly and profitably be corrected. ¶

I passed a splendid farm ; there were large stacks of hay and grain there, and cattle and horses in the pasture. I remarked to a man who happened to be a banker, that those boys, who were acquaintances of mine, would be rich after a little. I said, "Look at their abundant harvest, and the cattle that they have gathered around them." ¶

"Yes," he said, "it would be all right if it were not for the fact that so-and-so has a mortgage on their farm, and we have a mortgage on their cattle." How I regretted to hear that ! ¶

I went into one small incorporated city, and in discussing the apparent prosperity of the community, the man with whom I was talking, said it would take five hundred thousand dollars to pay the debts which this community owed to the banks. I went through a series of splendid fields and farms and the man who owns one of them said to me, "Eighty per cent of these farms are mortgaged." ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, I refer to this earnestly, and I earnestly admonish you that while this period of prosperity lasts, while money is so easy, see to it that mortgages are lifted from your farms, and from your cattle, and that the debts you have incurred are paid, because a day of reckoning is coming! I want to tell you that. This condition cannot always continue. The facility with which money can be acquired because of the great amounts which are accumulated in the banks makes borrowing easy, but it is not so easy to pay back. I don't want you, when that day of reckoning shall come, to find yourself in bondage to money lenders and brokers. I believe it will be worth your while to pay your debts. I fancied, my brethren and sisters, that I saw this same spirit of extravagance entering into the affairs of the little municipalities that I visited, a disposition to borrow and to bond and to increase the taxing power of the administration, with the result that many little towns are bonded until it will be exceedingly difficult for them to pay their debts. Don't you know that a bond on the town or city where you live is a mortgage on your home, a mortgage on your own personal possessions? There are times, it is true, when it may be necessary, both in personal and public affairs, to borrow money. I only want to urge the greatest care ; I only want to urge consistency; I only want to urge economy in the administration of public affairs to the end that you do not involve yourselves in debts which it will be impossible to pay. I fancied that I had seen that same thing in the administration of State affairs, a disposition to be extravagant in the expenditure of public funds. Twenty years ago this State came into the Union under a constitution which was framed by men who had been carefully selected from every section of it. I know how carefully every clause which went into that constitution was weighed. I know how anxious those men were to throw safeguards around the people which would protect them from excessive debt, limiting the power of legislative bodies to assess and collect taxes. I see a disposition gradually working to break down those barriers. Laws which appear to be very innocent and simple in themselves are proposed by which the constitution of the State in its meaning may be entirely changed, and I have observed that these proposed changes are all in the direction of increased taxation, the issuing of increased bonded indebtedness, and it appears to me the placing of additional burdens upon the people. I only want to admonish you that whatever you do in matters of this kind, you do with the utmost care ; that you carefully consider ; that you understand before you act; before you change the fundamental laws of this State or before you change the fundamental laws of this Nation, or of the Constitution upon which it is based, — be sure that step is a necessary and beneficial one. True, changes may be necessary and they will come. I am only advising and counseling the greatest caution in matters of this kind which may come before you. I refer to it because I have heard it discussed in my travels. I have heard men who advocate the thought that we are a progressive people, a progressive State, a progressive Nation, and that is very true. But we must progress along conservative, consistent lines, taking care not to break away from those moorings which God caused to be fixed by wise men whom he chose to give us the Constitution of this country, and the constitution and laws which govern this State. Now, another thing that came under my observation in this journey. I met men as I have traveled who advocate war, who tell us that our dignity has been injured, our pride has been humiliated, and that the only way that we may obtain redress is to go and humiliate the man or the people who have humiliated us. Three days ago, a man who stands before the American people asking for the highest place in their gift [Hon. J. Frank Hanly] publicly announced, and it has been published in all of the principal papers of this Republic, that if elected, he would immediately intervene forcibly in the affairs of Mexico. In other words, there would be an immediate declaration of war, because that is just what his policy would mean. Now, my brethren and sisters, it may seem a very simple thing to have a war with Mexico, just a handful of people, a few more in number than the inhabitants of the state of New York. Whenever you begin a war, you don't know just where it is going to end. It appeared to be a very simple thing to Austria to go over into Serbia, where a man and his wife had been killed, and to demand and enforce reparation by punishing the perpetrators of that crime, and it was a crime. The result is the death of millions of men, the destruction of property of untold value, a condition of degeneracy and immorality established among the people that a generation never can eradicate, — all from that simple, little beginning. ¶

We might find ourselves lacking in judgment. Some of the lessons, the impressive lessons of my life, have been taught in very simple ways, and this was one of them : In my early life, in a limited way I was a freighter. The etiquette of the road required that a man going down hill should give the road to the man going up hill ; or the man with the lighter load should give it to the man with the heavier load; but there were some men on the road who were possessed of the idea that no matter what the etiquette of the road demanded, the other fellow should always turn out. I remember once a friend of mine driving along a freight road leading to Pioche. He met a team with a young fellow driving it, and they came up pretty close together. Hank stopped his horses and said, "Are you going to get out of the road?" "No," the boy replied, "I can't very well get out, where I am here." "Well, you will have to get out," and one word brought on another until Hank climbed down off of the high seat of his wagon and started over to take it out of the boy's hide. A little later some of us drove along and found him sitting there by the creek washing the blood off of his face. One of the boys said, "What is the matter, Hank?" "Oh," he said, "nothing. I just made a mistake in judgment; that is all." ¶

Well, sometimes nations make mistakes in judgment as well as men. Now, my brethren and sisters, shortly after that affair to which I have referred, I was again on the road. There was a man freighting there who always carried a gun on the spring seat with him, not a gun around his waist, but a double-barrel shotgun that he could use very quickly. He never was without it, and he was a terror wherever he went. I suppose there are men in this congregation who have met and know him. One day, when I was pulling up a grade, in the mud, after a rain storm, I saw the ears of his big mules flopping over the top of the hill, and when he came in sight about the first thing I noticed was the shotgun, as he drove along down the slope. The etiquette of the road required him to turn out, and when our teams came close together, they stopped. He looked at me through his grizzly beard and said, "Young man, are you going to get out and give me the road ?" I said, "I can't very well get out." He said, "Do you know what I will do, if you don't?" "No, sir," I said, "I don't know." "Why," he said, "I will get out." "Well," I said, "if you will just pull your mules' heads around a little, I will make my horses pull this load out of the road if they can." We both turned out and each, giving part of the road, passed. Now, I have told you that simple story because it illustrates the thought that I want to leave in your minds. Which of the two men was the good neighbor? Which of the two men did the right thing, the sensible thing? — the man who was determined that the other fellow should turn out and who made a mistake in judgment, or the man who might very easily have prevailed and dominated the road, who was willing himself to give half of it and be satisfied? My brethren and sisters, if war comes to this country, let it not be of our making ; let us not advocate it ; let us not lend ourselves to it, but stand for the establishment of peace by which a great and a powerful nation may be an example to the world in patience, in long-suffering, kindness, in righteousness, which shall bring men to a condition when that great Confederacy of Nations referred to during this conference may become possible, and peace prevail on earth and good-will exist among men. ¶

My brethren and sisters, I feel happy in the truth. I bear testimony to the truth of the things that I have named as the result of my observation in the Church. I feel happy in the Lord, happy in the association of the Saints, happy in the character of the men who administer its affairs ; and there is no fear in my heart as to the ultimate triumph of this work. God's kingdom has been established upon earth to endure, never to be thrown down, never to be given to another people, but to stand forever, and through righteousness, and not by the shedding of blood, to bring unto it all nations of the earth. ¶

The Lord help us to keep the faith, and to faithfully and humbly discharge the duties that devolve upon us from day to day, leaving the past to take care of itself, except in so far as we are able to profit by its successes or its errors, looking hopefully forward, believing that each tomorrow will bring us greater happiness, will bring us greater strength, and that when this life is finished, we will be on the threshold of another tomorrow, still looking hopefully forward towards that ideal and eternal life to which we all aspire. I pray for these blessings through Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶