(Pesident of the Western States

(Pesident of the Western States Mission.) ¶

I am keenly appreciative of the responsibility of this moment; and, to the end that I may be divinely inspired, together with those who shall follow in this meeting, I crave your indulgence and your faith, for ¶

in and of myself I am quite helpless to say anything by way of profit or edification to you. ¶

As I listened to the splendid tribute paid by President Smith to the mission presidents, at the opening session of this conference, I experienced a feeling of humility the like of which has seldom come to me, and when I realized from his remarks the confidence he has in those men, his faith in their integrity and in their loyalty to the work of the Lord and to the presiding authority of the Church, I felt entirely inadequate, even in a slight measure to fulfil the mission designed and the duties and responsibilities devolving upon me as one of those men; and I determined in my heart to continue to do all that I could for the advancement of God's purpose in the earth and to maintain always a prayer for those who stand in responsible positions in Israel. ¶

And when President Smith referred to the responsibility upon the. Latter-day Saints, speaking of our obligations to the Church, he said it was a "terrible reality," I thought, where do we lack in appreciating the positions that we should occupy as men and women who have taken upon ourselves such obligations and covenants to serve the Lord? and I wondered if our faith is what it should be. I instinctively thought of the great encouragement that is 'vouchsafed to all, in the words of James, wherein he says : "Is any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick." I then recalled a conversation I had recently at the home of a friend of mine in one of the Eastern cities, where I met a learned man, a professor of education, who himself broached the subject of miracles. After he had given the company his views and told instances, some of which he seriously questioned, I ventured the suggestion I had every confidence in the word of the Lord, and when he or his servants said that the prayer of faith would heal the sick I believed what they said. "Well," he replied, "under ordinary conditions I would believe it, but I cannot believe all things pertaining to it." He said a personal friend of his came to him one time, and related the following incident : His little son had broken his wrist, and he started with him to a doctor, but the boy having implicit faith, which undoubtedly was taught him at his mother's knee, said : "Father, if you will pray for me, my wrist will get well without going to a doctor." The father anointed that injured part with oil, and blessed his son, and the wrist went into place, and the bones knitted together. "Now," my friend said, "I do not credit that, and I cannot believe that statement." He enquired, "How would you view it?" I said, "If I thought the man's word was to be relied upon in other things, I would take his word as quickly for that as anything else. "Well," he said, "there was nothing to work on. The bones were broken, do you think that the Lord is going to make two bones grow together when they are broken apart?" I said, "I believe that he can make bones grow together, and I know of cases where he has not only restored flesh, but he has restored bone that has been taken out of a hand which was mangled." ¶

I told him of a case that occurred in Denver recently, where a doctor, an old man, had invited our missionaries to his home, and they had held a few cottage meetings there. This man was injured by being thrown off a hone when he was a lad, fifty years ago, and as a result one of his hands was crippled seriously, not having been properly set, and aside from that his feet were badly crippled from rheumatics. One evening after a meeting was held, he said to the conference president who happened to be there, "if you elders would come and administer to me I would get well, I would be healed." And they made an appointment to go to his home the next day. A ' new elder accompanied the conference president, a young man from this city, who had been there only two or three weeks upon his mission. They anointed this man and prayed for him and blessed him. He sat for fully five minutes, looking out of the window, not saying a word. Finally he commenced to feel of his hand, and then realizing it had been healed, he called his wife, and she came in and attested to the fact, and then the conference president, knowing that he had been healed thus miraculously, said unto him, "Why don't you arise and walk, and see if your other trouble has not been benefited also ?" And the man arose like a boy, and walked across the room, and then accompanied the elders to the car line, half a block from his home, enthusiastically talking and testifying until they parted. This man gave me his testimony to the same effect, and said, among other things, that he had been accused by his neighbors and friends as being fanatical and crazy about some things : but, he said, "I have been teaching 'Mormonism' for a long time, and did not know what ¶

it was." And so I told my friend of this case. "Well," he admitted, "I agree that perhaps if there was a dislocation without a break, that that might be healed, that the prayer of an individual might have the desired effect. But, I cannot believe if two bones are broken that any kind of power other than the power of science can unite those bones together." I thought of this today as Dr. Talmage referred to one phase of activity that we ought to be careful about, that is, when educated men pretend to place themselves above the word of God, when they undertake to say that they can readily judge between things of earth, and heaven, and that they, through their scientific investigation, aver that the scripture is a fraud, that the lives of the old apostles and the life of the Savior were but a story or myth. I fear that too often young people who go to colleges throughout this land and in the world, imbibe false doctrines and theories, and they sometimes lack faith enough to withstand the arguments that are brought to bear, on this tremendously vital question. ¶

We have, aside from the Bible, the words of Moroni, when giving his final testimony to the world he said : "And Christ truly said to our fathers, if ye have faith ye can do all things which is expedient unto me." I like to dwell upon that thought. I like to believe that this system of ours teaches us to pray to a personage, to a living God, to one who will hear and answer prayer when it is expedient to him. There are times we know when the power of the priesthood is brought to bear, and we see no results. We know that men and women must die, their lives cannot be prolonged indefinitely, and yet we would pray for them, and we do pray for them when they are upon their deathbed, that they may be restored to health, and still they die. It is expedient in the Lord, because he has said that all must die. But if our faith is such that we can rely absolutely upon him, then we are entitled to go to him with an undying faith, with a simple faith, and he will hear and answer prayer. And if at times he fails to answer our prayers as we think they should be answered, then we should acknowledge his almighty power and realize that it was not expedient in him that such prayers should be answered. ¶

O that we might have a living, abiding faith in God, above all things to realize the responsibility of life, to recognize the duties and the requirements that are made of us from day to day, to pray that when our young men and young women, boys and girls, go out into the world to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, that they are to get the best training that can come to them in life. The knowledge that will come to them, that Jesus is the Christ, that God lives, and that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God is above and beyond any other thing that can come to them. That is the kind of faith I like to have, and try to exercise. My faith in this work is simple, but it is absolute, and I hope to continue in that way, the Lord being my helper. ¶

1 recall, frequently with much profit and encouragement, the words of the great philosopher, Emerson, one who is looked upon perhaps as the greatest philosopher of our time, wherein he said, "I delight in telling what I think, but if you ask me how I know a thing I am the most helpless of mortals. What I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for what I have not seen," and so I believe that the great body of Latter-day Saints have seen enough, have known enough, aye have felt enough, for sometimes it comes as a spirit that tecstifies to our souls, and we do not know how it comes, nor from where, but I believe that we have enough of the spirit of vision that if there are things that we cannot see through, if there are things that science cannot take and dissect, and analyze as they do material things, then our faith is such that we can look to God for the information, that in his own due time he will enlighten our minds and open our understandings and make us to realize that we are indeed his children, and that we are here in a probation of mortality, seeking to know the way of life and salvation. ¶

May God grant his eternal blessings to us, that we may serve him with full purpose of heart, that we may magnify our callings, that we may sustain in our hearts and in our actions the Presidency of the Church, the presidents of stakes, the bishops of wards, and all to whom we owe allegiance in this great work, and cultivate humility and faith, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶