I rejoice, my brethren and sisters

(President of Northwestern States Mission.) ¶

I rejoice, my brethren and sisters, in this opportunity to bear testimony to you who have come here to receive the word of the Lord. The opportunity and privilege which is afforded us to assemble as members of the Church, to receive instructions at these conferences, will at the end of the ordinary life prove a liberal education in the vital things of life. And I do most sincerely hope that we shall not only come here to listen, but to believe that which we hear, and that we shall adopt it into ¶

practice in our lives. I have observed that it is easy to listen, and that it is difficult to practice that which we know we ought to do. I have occasion to know that many times we have to be reminded and told over and over again the things we ought to do and we know we ought to do them, but we do not have the courage to do them. I remember a physician advising a certain man that if he did not quit the use of liquor, he was going to suffer a premature death. The man who was then advised ceased the use of liquor; but the physician who had administered the admonition died a drunkard himself, notwithstanding he knew he was doing wrong. What we lack is the moral courage to carry into execution our convictions. ¶

My brethren and sisters, I feel that many of us Latter-day Saints have treated very lightly the instructions and the counsel that have been given to us by the leaders of this Church, we have not profited by their advice, and we will reap only that which we have sown. We shall discover that we will not escape the chastening hand of God, after having been taught and admonished, and we shall find God will not be mocked. ¶

I believe that this is the day of judgment. I believe that we are approaching a time when men and women cannot mock God and live in open defiance of his law without soon coming to answer for the responsibility that rests upon us to act as we please. I believe, brethren and sisters, that we live in the most important age the world has ever seen, a time foreseen by the prophets of old whose minds were lit up by inspiration when they ¶

spoke and talked of our day. There is not a man or boy here with whom Abraham would not have exchanged places. There is not a man that any of the worthy prophets of God would not rather have changed places with and lived in this day of wonderful opportunity, this day of the consummation of God's great purposes in the earth. They would rather have been where you are than where they were. ¶

I think sometimes we live too close to wonderful things to really realize them. I often have the opportunity of standing on Portland Heights, west of the city of Portland, and looking sixty miles east. On a beautiful, clear day, I can see rising majestic above the Cascade range of mountains, Mt. Hood, eternally crowned with snow, and its very base is the summit of the mountains — rising 11,000 feet to a distance approaching the storms' home ; and I always go away feeling more inspired. My backbone is a little stiffer, and I feel a little more that spirit of worship and adoration of God ; for not only do the heavens declare the glory of God, but his works around and about us, if we will only open our eyes, preach sermons to us. And I always wanted to go up to the mountain. I had the opportunity a few years ago, and when I reached the base of the mountain, the 6,000 foot elevation, I thought I would be filled by the wonder of that scene — but instead, I was up against the face of a great cliff that rose thousands of feet above me, and I could only see about a hundredth part of the mountain, and I was disappointed; but as I passed through that experience I said. ¶

"How that is like life : we are often too close to the big and the great and the grand things to really realize and understand them. We have to get a little further away to get a proper view and understanding. I understood then why it was that he who stands out as the most illustrious character of all the ages, who is the Summit of all peaks, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was not understood by his own generation. They were too close to him to see him. You have to get hundreds of years away before his greatness, his majesty, and his power can be seen and comprehended by the multitude. And I understood, too, how it is that the prophets have not been without honor, except in their own country and in their own time. It has taken one or two generations to elapse before men began to see the worth and the merit of those who have been the world's greatest benefactors. And so it has been with " Mormonism," and with the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was too close to the men and the women of his own time. They felt with him as they did with Jesus. Wasn't Jesus the carpenter's son? Didn't they know his father and his brothers? Just so men thought that they knew all about Joseph Smith, and that he did not have a message of any particular consequence to them ! And so they chose to turn their faces away from him. But as we recede from his day, and contemplate the man and his message, we discover that he begins to rise to his own place and position, for he will stand as one of the pinnacles in the midst of the children of men ; and that which he did, men shall yet come to acknowledge was ¶

given of God, for the salvation not only of a few Latter-day Saints, but of the whole world. When the Lord has a message to give, he does not ask us, "Whom would you like me to speak through?" It is his business and right, to take a shepherd, a tax collector, or if he chooses a farmer's boy, like Joseph Smith. That is his business. ¶

And the big thing is not after all the man through whom the message comes, but the message itself. Joseph's was a message of repentance to this generation. The Lord Almighty is deeply concerned over the men and the women of our own time. He has been pleading with us as Latter-day Saints to do the work he wants us to do ; but we have sometimes been very stubborn and indifferent to the message, and we have had to be forced, by circumstances that surrounded us, to do the things the Lord wanted us to do, because we were unwilling otherwise. But he has in his mercy hedged up the way and provided the means by which we would move where he wants us to, and do the things he wants us to do. ¶

And as he has been dealing with us, so is he dealing with the nations of the earth. And so I have this testimony — that God loves the whole world, and will save all men if they would repent — and yet not one single soul will escape the consequence of wrong doing, except he repent. I say that this is a day of judgment ; and I want to testify to you that the judgments of Almighty God are only beginning, and the war will go on, the judgments of God will go on until his purposes shall be accomplished in the earth, which is the humiliation, ¶

and repentance of the children of men. ¶

I want to testify that what Elder Whitney said this morning with reference to God compelling men to obedience, is true ; this has been witnessed many times in this generation. ¶

I recall a circumstance that happened some six weeks ago in British Columbia, one of the conferences of our mission. A certain man had been approached to obtain permission to have his daughter baptized. The wife and some of the children belonged to the Church. He first gave it and then rejected the elders and withdrew his permission. They labored with him two or three nights in succession trying to persuade him not only to give permission for the daughter to be baptized, but to be baptized himself ; and at last he became bitter, abused them, refused to have anything more to do with them, and said he was sorry he ever met the "Mormon" elders. When they left him they told him that they had borne witness and testimony to him of the truth, that he knew enough to condemn him, that they would be witnesses against him in the day of judgment, and that the Lord would deal with him. He simply laughed and said, "I am not afraid of the consequences, don't you worry at all about the judgment." The next night about 9 o'clock he was stricken with a malady that the physicians who were called could not diagnose, only that he was dying, that he was filled with pain from head to foot and he writhed in agony, and refused to respond to the treatment that was administered. He suffered for hours, until his proud, haughty ¶

spirit was broken. And then he turned to his wife and said, "You go find those 'Mormon' elders." It was one o'clock in the morning when the brethren were brought to his bedside; he began to cry when they came in, and said, "I have been in hell this night. I have been taken at my own word, and God has punished me." And he humbly begged their forgiveness and said, "I will not only give consent for my daughter to be baptized, but I will be baptized myself." They laid their hands upon him and blessed him, and his malady left him. He arose the next day, and with his daughter was baptized. I saw him three days later, and heard his testimony, and he said : "As Paul was stricken on the road to Damascus, so have I been stricken, and I am now willing to do what the Lord wants me to do." ¶

I want to say that while the Lord may be swift in some instances and slow in others, just as sure as we live, he will not be mocked ; and we shall come to judgment. We may hide our sins, we may try to cover them up, but every one of us shall come face to face with the judgment, sooner or later. O, may the Lord be merciful to us and chastise us before we have to go too far. ¶

I spoke yesterday concerning the war and its effect as I witnessed it in some of our Canadian territory, where we have seen the spirit of repentance coming over the people, and men began to enquire after the gospel. When our elders came to the homes of the people where the son or the father had been taken — for there was a terrible loss of life in the first companies of Canadian soldiers who went to Europe, and there was scarcely a block where ¶

there was not somebody weeping for the loss of their dead — the thing they wanted to talk about was the dead loved one. The sweet comfort of salvation for the dead, as revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, has brought consolation to many thousands of people ; and many began to pray to God who never prayed before. When a man begins to pray, he begins to repent and turn from the wicked things which he has been in the habit of doing. A spirit like this took possession of the people until we had an increase in baptisms of ten times as many as in any preceding year. I am expecting to see that same thing start all over this and other lands. ¶

We received the word of God not only for the Latter-day Saints, but for the whole world, to avoid the use of intoxicating drinks, to observe a more strict diet in the use of meat, not to use tea and coffee ; and only the Latter-day Saints have believed this doctrine. The result of obeying it has been that when our boys go to the cantonments, their physical examination stands higher than any other class of men. When some of our boys from one of our "Mormon" settlements in Idaho recently passed their examinations, the physician said, "Where did you boys come from?" they told him. "Well," said he, "I have never examined as clean a bunch of men in my life." There were not one among them that was not physically sound and perfectly clean. ¶

A major in the army, a "Mormon" boy, said to me: "I never appreciated the teachings of my father and mother until I came out here. I did not pay much attention to the Church, but when I came here and found the truths I had been taught were the very things now demanded of me by the officers of the army, I have a greater respect for my Church and parentage than I have ever experienced before. ¶

One of the greatest commercial advertisers, and organizers of commercial bodies, spoke in our chapel at Portland a few years ago, he had experience not only among the Latter-day Saints, but all over the world. He turned to a company of "Mormon" missionaries, and said, "If you want to win the laurels and the plaudits of the world in the future, you just stay by the standards of your fathers and mothers, and you will come out on top with your colors flying. Do not abandon the things that they have held dear." He died last year, but this was his testimony, and this is my testimony to you, brethren and sisters. It is being demonstrated in the cantonments where our "Mormon" boys are now reporting for service. But the beginning of the reformation, and the change that the Lord wants to spread all over the world, until the whole world shall keep the Word of Wisdom, too, is coming. We have been preaching prohibition, the abstinence from the use of liquors — and I want to tell you that it would have taken fifty years to have accomplished the change among the nations of the earth that has come during this war. The Lord has forced the circumstances of nations so that they are abandoning the use of liquor. ¶

We will come to the day when we will abandon the use of tobacco. Instead of sending train loads to our boys to undermine their health, ¶

we will be loading those trains with food for them ; and instead of using the acres that are now planted to the raising of tobacco, we will raise wheat and other substances that shall be needed. We will come to the day when we will have to conserve this land for raising of more beneficial things ; so the leaven is working and God's purposes are being accomplished in the nations of the earth through the chastisement that is coming. ¶

Now, brethren and sisters, I do not think there is an experience through which we have passed but that has its lesson. What is the lesson to us ? The lesson to the Latter-day Saints is this, that we who have been called and chosen to be the ensign, the pattern, the example to the world, shall set our houses in order, that we shall turn our faces toward the Lord. And we know many of us have neglected him. We know we have failed to keep the commandments of the Lord. We must repent, for if we do not repent, we shall be chastised too, for the Lord does not look upon sin and wickedness in a Latter-day Saint with any degree of allowance, any more than in anybody else ; but because of our knowledge, greater responsibility rests upon our shoulders. ¶

Brethren and sisters, be not alarmed or disturbed if our boys go into battle. Be not concerned if some of them lay down, their lives — for if so, it shall be that we too need to be touched, and have our hearts turned back to the things of God that some of us have almost forgotten. In our mad zeal in the accumulation of the things of this world, we have almost lost sight of the purposes that God had in bringing our fathers to these valleys of the mountains, giving them more precious things than gold and silver. The blessed heritage of the gospel has been entrusted into the hands of the Latter-day Saints. The world has riches beyond anything we have, but we have the one precious thing that they do not have, and it is worth more than all other things in the world — the saving principles, the priesthood, the virtue and the power of the gospel of the Son of God. And that is the thing the world will desire more than they want anything else,, and they will come to it. Shall we be prepared to give it to them? We will be, if we are wise ; and this is the day when I say we ought to set our houses in order, a day when we ought to repent. And if we need chastisement, it will come to us, and sorrow will come to us, only for the purpose of turning our hearts to the Lord in humility and faith to obtain and maintain the blessings God has promised to the faithful. ¶

My brethren and sisters, I have a testimony as I have labored among the soldier boys who have been in these camps, that their faith is growing. I have listened to their testimonies, I have had the pleasure of ordaining to the Melchizedek Priesthood a score or more of them, some were not even deacons, when they went into the war, but they have been reading, associating with their companions, returned missionaries, and corresponding with their bishops, and they now seek the priesthood ; and I never have been more inspired in my life than in laying my hands upon their heads, and blessing them and conferring the priesthood upon them, and I ¶

have never seen men more eager than some of them are. Do not fear for them, for my testimony is they are going to be on their mettle and keep the commandments of God, they are preparing themselves if necessary for the great sacrifice. ¶

When General Green, the commander of the Ninety-first Division at American Lake, returned recently from France, he wanted every man in that cantonment to obtain a Bible, and said, "I want them to read over and over the story of the God-man who died for men, that you too may learn how to die for men." His statement to me was that he wanted our boys to have all the benefits of their church, all of its instruction and inspiration possible; this spirit is dominant among those men, and I say to you that I have a testimony that the majority of our boys will come back again. ¶

The Lord Almighty made a promise that in the last days he would mark his servants, even as the lintels of the doors were marked in ancient Israel, and the destroying angel who passed by spared those houses, so shall his servants be marked in their foreheads and spared destruction in the last days. I may not see the mark but the destroying angels shall, and in the midst of battle his servants shall receive protection. ¶

We have had some ten of the brethren, members of the Church, in this battle since the very beginning, three years ago. They have been in all manner of difficulties. A shell exploded near one of them and threw him forty feet in the air, and he fell on a pile of bricks. Three vertebrae were dislocated, but he recovered. They have been ¶

in the midst of fire, but not one has lost his life, although they have been wounded. One of the brethren told me that he was in charge of a squad of men carrying the stretchers that picked the men up right where they dropped, in the battle field ; and he was in the midst of bursting shells for hours, and he said, "I never went a step of the way that there was not a prayer in my heart to save those poor wounded men and save my own men and escape, and many times the inspiration of the Lord came to me, 'Take this road out,' 'Stop there,' 'Turn there,' and immediately I have seen where I stood; a shell drop that tore everything to fragments, and we would have gone into eternity." ¶

I do not think the Lord will take hold of the shell and turn it away from your boy, but I think the Lord will put it into the heart of your boy to be in a place of security, and those who command him will place him where he will do his duty and where he will be safe ; and the angels of the Lord shall be there, and it is my testimony that a majority of them shall come back home. ¶

I listened to the testimony of Harry Lauder, the great Scotch comedian. I heard him make a statement recently in Portland, and I give it to you as an evidence of that changing sentiment that is coming over the children of men. To young men usually death seems a long way off, but not so to the soldier boy. When we get old, we know we may be sick and near the time of death, but these tens of thousands of young men, feel that it may be only a month or two and they will be slumbering in France, They want to know what shall happen when their young life shall be cut short ; so many are now interested, and we have baptized three of these young men, as a result of our labors in the cantonment at American Lake. ¶

I now see some of the comforts and blessings of fathers and mothers having more than one son, for if I have ever seen a thing that is heart-breaking, it is to go into a home where there is only one child, one boy, and he is gone, and they are all alone. There is comfort left for those who have more than one son, if accidents do come ; but there are some families whose names will be wiped out, they have had only one child. Harry Lauder had but one child, never thought he would perish, but he did, and when the blow fell upon him, he was dazed, and said for days he was beside himself in grief. "At times during those first days," he said, "I almost questioned the justice and wisdom of a God who would allow such a thing to happen." And then he said : ¶

All this time while I had been raging against the cruel fates which had taken my son, there had been comfort and peace in store for me, and I had not known it. And that comfort and peace lay in my belief in God and a future life beyond this sphere. ¶

Now, while the pain and grief had been blinding my eyes, God had been waiting patiently for the first sharp agony to pass away, and when it did he gently lifted the veil from my eyes and showed me the promised land beyond. I mean that suddenly I realized that I had not seen the last of John, and that we were sure to meet in another world. ¶

Oh, that I could convey unto you the healing balm that that thought was to my soul! I would that I could picture to you the joy of the thought that I was to see my John again at some future date, just as if ¶

he had simply gone on a long journey, and was waiting for his mother and me to come to him. And I brought his image before me, and imagined him holding out his arms to his mother and myself to fold us within his loving embrace, and in the joy created by that picture I was able to assuage some of my pain and distress, and return to an almost normal state of mind. ¶

And because of the great comfort that my belief and faith in the future life have brought me, I have become humbly grateful and thankful that I never mocked the name of God or cast him from me at any period of my life. Because I know, I am convinced, that he has helped me to bear this great blow by making my conviction that this life is not the end stronger than ever. ¶

This spirit is sweeping over the world. And now the doctrine we believe that we shall live again, and be the same individual after death as in this life, though at one time believed only by few others than the Latterday Saints, has become the source of comfort and happiness among the children of men, and now they know they would not be satisfied if they could not meet the very John they laid away. They want to see him in the exact form and features, the very same individual. And now the blessed hope of salvation for the dead will come naturally into their lives. O, how wonderful are the provisions of our Father to meet all the emergencies of life — its joys, its sorrows, its distresses. Here is a gospel that meets all emergencies. ¶

But unless we keep the commandments of God, we shall not reap the results of joy, and happiness, and security, and safety in the midst of troubles that are to come. My brethren and sisters, this is my testimony, that God lives, that this is ¶

the hour of judgment, the day of repentance, and that men will be forced to yield even through much sorrow and affliction if not otherwise, for it is the time when they must yield to the will and the purposes of Almighty God. ¶

May he bless us and help us as members of his Church to stand in our place and discharge our duty, and come out victorious whether we live or whether we die, that we shall be prepared to come into his presence and into that realm where we shall meet the blessed, and redeemed, and saved in his celestial kingdom, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶