The Great and Mighty Work

My brothers and sisters, on two occasions during this conference time, one of the revelations of the Lord, given before the organization of the Church, has been quoted. The revelation referred to is the one found in the 4th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, wherein the Lord says, "A great and a mighty work is about to come forth among the children of men." Each time that revelation was quoted, my mind went back to the beginning of this great work. I stood again in the grove where the Prophet Joseph Smith prayed unto our Father in heaven ; and remembered my many visits to that sacred spot. Again I stood, in my mind, with the Prophet Joseph Smith upon the hill Cumorah, where he met the angel by appointment, and year after year was instructed concerning the great things that were to come to pass in this day. I saw him receive the plates from which the great record of the Nephites was printed. I was with him at Kirtland where, under privations and toil, he built the temple in which so many glorious visions were given to the Latter-day Saints. I followed him from Kirtland to Missouri, and from Missouri to Illinois. I was there where he, under the direction of the Spirit of the Lord, directed the digging of a drain ditch which turned unhealthy Commerce into the healthful, beautiful city of Nauvoo. I saw, in my mind's eye, that place grow from only a few houses, to a city of 20,- 000, with prospects; of being the biggest city in the state of Illinois. I saw railroads directed toward that city, bridges constructed across the Mississippi and a permanent city of our thriving country built. ¶

Then I saw the Saints leave that city, under persecutions, following the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and his brother Hyrum the patriarch. ¶

I have wondered if the early Saints of the Church really realized what was meant in that revelation concerning the great and mighty work that was to be brought forth among the children of men. The Prophet Joseph Smith must have known what would come to pass, for he foretold of our coming to the Rocky mountains. Yet under his direction in the short space of five years, and that constantly disturbed by mob violence, the Saints worked with a heaven-born zeal to make that place part of the great and marvelous work that was to come forth. The people gave much time to public works, paving some ¶

walks with stone and dividing miles and miles of sidewalks from the street with splendid curb, much of which still stands today together with a number of fine old houses as a testimony of the wonderful integrity of the Latter-day Saints, fired with the revelations from the Lord for the building up of Zion in the earth. But the building of this city was only one little part of the great work referred to in the revelation. ¶

Fourteen years ago I went back to that city, and found about 1,500 people there. The public men asked when we were coming back, and offered' inducements that the Latter-day Saints might get possession of some of their old homes, and help them build up that city again, for, said they, "we can do nothing until you come back." About two years later, I was offered some stock in an interurban coming into that place — for, you know, that while there were four or five railroads projected into that city while the Latter-day Saints lived there, after all these years, Nauvoo stands without, a railroad. Nauvoo is little known to the railroad people, but the city of Montrose, across the river, and that, too, only a very small village, is the shipping point. ¶

I went back about three weeks ago, to hold conference there. I found that instead of 1,500 people, there were about 900 people. I found the projected interurban still unbuilt, the waterworks they felt sure of having only half-realized — and the beautiful flat next to the river, where most of the city stood in the day when our people flourished, all grown to weeds ; the ' houses were unoccupied and much of it almost a wilderness. The people were free, to admit there could ¶

be nothing done here until we came back and helped them. I said, "We do not need to come back — you people who live here now are not responsible for the driving out of the Later-day Saints, and neither were your parents, for there have been several peoples lived there since the Latter-day Saints were driven away. All you need to do is to heed the counsels and the advice and the testimonies of the elders that have been borne to you, from time to time; all you need to do is to repent of your sins, and be baptized, and become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ; if you will do this, you shall receive power to build this city, and make it known again as a flourishing city in the great state of Illinois." ¶

My brethren and sisters, it is a great and a marvelous work, "a marvelous work and a wonder," for God has set his hand in the last day to rebuild Zion, and to gather together all those whose hearts thirst after righteousness. This goodly land in which we dwell is the land in which the honest in heart of all nations shall be gathered together; and if we, who have been born in the covenant, we who are heirs to the richest blessings upon this earth, do not arise and magnify our callings in the earth, God will raise up from the nations of the earth, men and women like unto our fathers and our grandfathers, who will buckle on the full armor of God and go forth and build up his kingdom in the earth. ¶

I often wonder if the young men of Zion, who are born heirs to the covenant, are like the sons of rich men, who fritter away the wealth that has been gathered by their fathers. I wonder sometimes what ¶

the destiny of that part of Zion that are born heirs to the covenant will be. Do we expect to compete with the world in the gathering of riches? Do we expect to compete with the world in the accumulation of wealth? Or do we expect to fulfil the great mission that the Lord has said must be done in this day? And that great mission is the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ — the calling of the world to repentance. And how can we call the world to repentance, if we ourselves do not repent? How can we expect the world to listen to our testimonies, if we ourselves are not living lives worthy of emulation? I referred to Nauvoo, a city of possibly five or six years of age, rising from a few houses to 20,000. They kept the commandments of God, proclaimed the gospel to their neighbors, sent it into the surrounding states, and to other nations. We do not need to be deprived of the riches of this world, if we would only seek God and his righteousness first, if we would only do the great things that our Father has said should be done by his children. ¶

There is nothing in this world that will bring more peace, more joy, and more happiness, than the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think that our fathers and our grandfathers are permitted sometime to look down upon the earth today, and see what has taken place since they were called away — for the hearts of the children of men everywhere have been touched by the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, restored by the Lord to the Prophet Joseph Smith and preached by our fathers. There are few people in the world today who believe in infant damnation for the unbaptized. Hundreds of people today believe in the restoration of the gospel, if not literally, as we Latter-day Saints believe it, they believe in a restoration of light from time to time, and they are adding truth upon truth to their belief, and practicing all the light they receive. I meet hundreds of people today who believe that baptism is absolutely essential unto salvation. I meet many people who believe that the laying on of hands is essential to the reception of the Holy Ghost. One of our elders told me the other day that a man converted in the state of Indiana to baptism in his own church, grew so enthusiastic over the baptism he had received, he wanted to know what could be done for his sister, who had died. He had read in Corinthians about baptism for the dead. The minister took him out and baptized him for the dead sister to satisfy his burning desire to have his sister saved in the same church as himself. ¶

There is a congregation of people in one of the conferences of our mission, who are feeling after and trying to find out how they can practice the great principle of baptism for the dead, that their fathers and their mothers may come into the same church in which they feel that they have found the light. ¶

About three months ago, in the city of Winnipeg, a minister there, to comfort the hearts of mothers who had been bereaved of their sons, and to administer hope and consolation to the widows of men who had died in the great struggle in Europe, preached a great sermon on salvation for the dead, declaring that he believed the merciful God would take care of those who had died for their country. Who can say that the leaven is not leavening the whole lump? Who can say that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not taking root in the hearts of the children of men? Thousands of men and women today believe in a personal God. Many people are growing to believe in Jesus Christ as the veritable Son of God, born of the virgin Mary and begotten of His Father. The Lord has said that this gospel would go forth) until it filled the whole earth; and there will come a time, my brothers and sisters, when they will only say, "Where can I find someone who can; officiate in some of the ordinances of the gospel? Where can I find a man who has been called of God to take me into the waters of baptism and there bury me with Christ for the remission of my sins? They will want to know where they can find a man who has the right to lay his hands upon their heads after they have been baptized, and confer by the power of God the Holy Ghost. Why? Because the leaven is working and the proclamation of the gospel, made by our fathers and grandfathers, and being made today, is taking root in the hearts of all the children of men. ¶

There is more tolerance in the world today than there has ever been before, at least in America, and they are only waiting for men to come to them who are fired with something that they have not got, something that will satisfy their souls, that will give them meat and drink. They are hungering and thirsting after something they know not what. ¶

Upon the Latter-day Saints, my brethren and sisters, has been laid this responsibility. The men of Zion, from the age of twelve years up, have received the Priesthood in ¶

every degree, and that priesthood carries with it the responsibility of proclaiming to the world the things that have been revealed by our Father. My brethren and sisters, I sometimes think "Woe be unto Zion, if she preaches not the gospel ! What are we here for, if we are not to proclaim to the world this wonderful thing that has been restored by our Father? How many of us have stood in the grove with the Prophet Joseph Smith, when he beheld God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son ! Hoy many have followed the Prophet Joseph Smith to the hill Cumorah, where he received the Scriptures of divine truth, as revealed to the Nephites upon this continent? How many have learned the beautiful things contained in that wonderful book? ¶

Hundreds of thousands of Books of Mormon have been distributed in the last few years in the United States, and hundreds of people have the leaves of them turned down by valuable passages, all the way through from the beginning to the end. How many of your Books of Mormon are turned down, page after page, upon the gems written therein, upon/ the things that will bring comfort and consolation to your soul in times of sorrow, upon the things that will inspire you to go out and proclaim the gospel or prepare yourself to do these things that God has laid upon our shoulders ? How many of you know the value of this great and wonderful record that has been given to us today to prepare ourselves for the preaching of this great and glorious work? O, you say, we are not out in the world. ¶

I told the missionaries of the Northern States mission, last night, ¶

that there is a better chance here at home, than there is in the world, for •real missionary work. How many of you have sought to visit your neighbor? and make a friend of him, until you have won his confidence? After you have won his confidence, how many of you have sat down and asked him to read the Scriptures with you? How many of you have won the love of your neighbor, so that you can put your arms around the man of the house, or around his sons, and tell them in all soberness that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, and that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth that will save him and his family and bring them peace and happiness and salvation if he will obey it? ¶

The winning of the soul of your neighbor will bring just as much joy, just as much peace, yea more, because you will have him with vou all the time for you will not have to go and leave him. All you who have been upon a mission know how hard it is to leave your friends out in the world. But if you can convert your neighbors, vou could live with them and enjoy their society and companionship, and grow together in the knowledge of God our Father; so I appeal to the elders, and especially all returned missionaries, to continue their labors at home, seek as many opportunities as you can, to get into the homes of the people and teach them the restored gospel. ¶

My brothers and sisters, every part of my body burns when I hear men testify of the restoration of the gospel, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that he was an instrument in the hands of God in establishing this great work ; for there is no greater work in all the earth. The building of the great cities of the world, the highways, the great bridges, all the wonderful inventions for the comfort and convenience of man, and all the things that have been done in any other division of God's work, cannot be compared with the great work of salvation that has been established in the earth. You may not be called upon to build bridges, neither to build railroads, neither airships nor telephones, but all you Latter-day Saints are called upon, by God our Father, to preach this gospel of his kingdom to your neighbors and to the world, and woe be unto those who preach not the gospel ! ¶

I would to God that all the young men and young women of Israel could be touched by one-hundredth part of the Spirit of our Father that touched the heart of the Prophet Joseph Smith, as he prayed in the woods of Palmyra. O that all of us could feel what Joseph Smith the Prophet felt when he was in the presence of the angel Moroni ; then we would feel a little of the responsibility that he felt, all the days of his life; -then our sons would go into the mission field better prepared, having had more opportunity to sing the songs of Zion. ' Some day, the world itself will hold us responsible for the great truths that we have. Doctors, in their code of etiquet, require every man to give the truth that comes to him to the medical world free. Scientific men are anxious to give their knowledge to the world, and all big men are happy to add all they can to the world for the good of their fellow men. We have something, as Latter-day Saints, that will do more good to the world than any other ¶

thing in it, but hundreds of us are holding it locked in our bosoms, being too close-fisted to let it out, feeling too stingy to open our hearts and teach it to the world. O that Zion could be touched with the Spirit of our Father in heaven, and take upon her the real mission of teaching every one concerning the restoration of the plan of salvation, given by our Father through the Prophet Joseph Smith. ¶

God bless Zion. May he give us power to hold up the hands of his prophet, Joseph F. Smith, for I testify to you, my brothers and sisters, that he is a prophet of God, a real, genuine leader, a mighty man, and a father in Israel, filled with love and good will toward all mankind. I wish that all you young men, if you cannot come in touch with an angel of God, might come in touch with the President of this Church, and those associated with him in the ministry for they are men of God, and have the welfare of Zion at heart. Their souls are filled with a desire that the young men and young women in Israel should arise in their strength and in the power of God, go among their neighbors and associates, and to thd world when they are called, and give the world a chance to become associated with the work that our Father has established in the earth. God grant that Zion may grow, that the young men and young women of Israel will not go seeking the pleasures that will mar their souls, and close up their hearts, but will open their hearts to the Spirit of God, and prepare themselves to be among the mighty men who live in this day and time; and I pray for these blessings in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶