I esteem it a great privilege

I esteem it a great privilege, my brethren and sisters and friends, to have the honor of attending this conference. It looked a few days ago as if I should not be able to be here, but through the prayers of faith, I have been permitted to attend thus far. I have listened with interest to the remarks of my brethren who have preceded me, and was greatly impressed by the exhortation and teaching of President Smith that men and women should provide for themselves and produce many things that they need so that they will not have to buy them ; also that they should patronize home industries. ¶

In the mission field where I labor we encourage the people to grow the crops that are necessary to produce a living. Our people in the south usually grow cotton ; it is the cash crop. They have been there for many years as renters, and as their landlords have generally prescribed the crop they are to raise, they have been forced to raise cotton, using all the money they could get out of that cotton to buy foodstuffs for their families and forage for their animals, paying high prices for it, when they might have ¶

produced these things themselves. But while this custom in the past has brought great hardships on them it has been a great labor to induce them to change their method of farming. However, in the past year, notwithstanding the great drought in the south, hundreds of people there raised their own forage, and have not had to buy the hay that has cost so much money and kept them so poor. They have yielded to the law of obedience and they have found that therein lies the only safety. That has always been my belief. I have learned in my experience that to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams, i also believe that the scriptures the Lord has revealed unto us in this dispensation are more essential for us to become acquainted with than anything we may think of in temporal ways. I believe that men and women ought to prepare themselves—that they ought to know something about the gospel of Christ, and why they are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or "Mormons," as we are commonly called in the world. We ought to take advantage of opportunities that are offered us from time to time to learn more of the gospel and to become acquainted with the truths contained therein. It is just as necessary for us to learn the words of life that will bring us spiritual glory and exaltation as it is to labor hard for temporal things. We need the temporal things of life as taught in this Church, but we ought not to let the spiritual side of life go undeveloped. I believe that men and women can be led and are led too much into the ways of money-making and accumulating of means, to ¶

the expense, often, of their own spiritual welfare. ¶

We have labored with great interest in the mission field in the Central States, and have seen men and women join the Church and grow in a knowledge of the Lord until they have become happy and contented in their lives. Many own their homes, as a result of the teachings of the gospel of Christ. I do not believe, my brethren and sisters, that a man or woman can ever succeed in this world without a knowledge of the gospel as well as they can with it. There is no real happiness, and there is no pleasure, there is no unity, aside from it, and as soon as men and women hear of the gospel, the majority of them are inclined to listen, although they do not always obey it. ¶

I believe that men ought to become acquainted with the Book of Mormon, a book which in itself is a direct testimony that this Church has something that no other church in the world possesses. If the Book of Mormon came into the hands of the "Mormon" people through their own ingenuity, then men and women ought to investigate it and prove it. If they prove that it did not, then they must acknowledge that it is inspired and came from God, for it is a direct evidence that the Lord has spoken in this dispensation. No man can read the Book of Mormon with a desire to learn the truth and deny the things that are in it. No man can read the Book of Mormon with a desire to know the truth and be honest in his heart without becoming convinced that it is real and that it does come from God. Joseph Smith said that he received it from an angel and that he translated the records into this present book by the gift and power ¶

of God. I know of no greater evidence that the Lord has revealed himself in this dispensation or in the latter days than the Book of Mormon. You may take any other church, let them offer what they have to prove their divinity, and there is nothing to be found that will compare with this great record. It was given to men in the earth to be distributed by the thousands, for men and women to read. It could never have been produced by man. Nearly a century has passed since this book came forth, and there have never been men nor a set of men with all their learning and with all their power, accumulated through knowledge received in this world, who have been able to produce or write one page like unto it. It is the word of God handed down to us in this dispensation, by which we may know that he does live, and that he reveals himself, that he has the power to come and to go as he chooses, and that he has a well-defined way and plan by which he works. The reading of the Book of Mormon gives unto men and unto women a testimony that he is and that he really does visit the children of men in the earth when he sees and finds the occasion to do so. The Prophet Joseph Smith stated as a boy that he received this book from an angel, and that the Father and the Son had visited him. Men may criticize the statement ; men may say that Joseph Smith was a dreamer. My brethren and sisters, here is his work (not entirely all, for he left many, many records), here is a book that has lived all these years, and no man has ever been able to successfully attack the words and the principles that are contained therein, some of the most ¶

beautiful that a man could read. The honest in heart cannot help but be touched, and they will surely change their method of thinking and of believing. ¶

If a man representing himself as a minister of some church should come to one of us and say, "Here, I desire you to take this book and read it, it represents our church, and I tell you that it is the truth, and if you will pray unto the Lord for a knowledge of its truth you will have a witness from God that it is true," I want to tell you that most of us would take such a book and read it, and it would stand the test if it was the truth. Now, the Book of Mormon contains such a promise, and such a testimony, and when this testimony goes to any man, or when I deliver this book unto a man and point out to him the scripture and ask him to read so that he may know whether it is of God, or whether it is of man, then I believe that I have done my part, and if he is honest in his attempt to learn the truth and in his conviction, the Lord will manifest the truth of it unto him by the power of the Holy Ghost. I will read a few verses from the tenth chapter of Moroni : ¶

Behold I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam, even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. ¶

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest ¶

the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. ¶

I want to tell you, my brethren and sisters, that that is about all the Lord owes a man if he is a doubter. When he gives one of his sons or one of his daughters a chance to read his word which will bring them unto him and unto eternal life, with such a statement as that, if they will humble themselves, the spirit of humility will come into their hearts and pride and haughtiness will be banished ; then they will know the truth, or they will have been sufficiently warned. He says further: "Behold the spirit of Christ is given unto every man." All men have the spirit of Christ given unto them, when they come into the world, for they are the children of God, God's sons or daughters, and they receive his spirit, "that they may know good from evil; wherefore, I shew unto you the way to judge," says Moroni, "for everything which inviteth to to good and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God. But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil, for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither doth his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him" ( Moro. 1:16 17). ¶

Now, the Book of Mormon came into the world as a testimony unto all peoples, as a testimony for or against them, that they would be persuaded by the power and Spirit of God to know right from wrong, ¶

to know the truth and to know error, and it would be there as a witness unto them that God has spoken in these the last days. Latter-day Saints ought to become more acquainted with the Book of Mormon. They ought to become acquainted with the principles that are taught therein. I believe that it ought to be read more in the home. I believe that it ought to be taught in the schools, for children who have been brought up in this Church are much stronger if they have the privilege of reading or having these truths taught unto them. ¶

I endorse with all my heart, the Church schools of this Church. I believe that they were inspired of the Lord, and that the Lord inspired the leaders of this Church to continue them, that the children of men growing up in this land may be brought unto a knowledge of their Redeemer, that they may know good from evil and that they may know the source from which good comes and the source from which evil comes. ¶

I pray the Lord to bless Latter-day Israel. I pray the Lord to bless the leaders of this Church and to prolong the life of President Smith and his counselors, men who have grown old in experience that cannot be gained in a day. I believe that as a body of men and women gathered together here, our hearts should ascend in prayer unto the Father for the health of these men, that they might be left among us ; for that experienced men are needed for counsel and for knowledge and wisdom has always been shown in the history of the world. I pray that the Spirit of the Lord, may enter into the hearts of the Latter-day Saints, that we ¶

may follow the instructions of the leaders of this Church, that we may stand together as one, and when we do that, we stand behind our great Nation in anything that it calls us to do, at home or abroad. We accept these calls feeling that it is our duty; we enjoy them because it is a pleasure to do our duty, and if we look upon them in the right way and live according to the commandments God has given us, we will be saved in the eternal kingdom of the Lamb, and we will be permitted to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, live with our Father in heaven, and be regarded as men and women who have kept the faith and who have believed the testimony of humble men. This is, I am sure, the desire of all, and I ask that this may be our happy lot, in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶