The witnesses to the Book of Mormon, and the growth of the Church through revelation

This is a duty from which I naturally shrink. To address so large a congregation as I see before me, rather fills my spirit with awe. Nevertheless, I am glad to meet with you and to try to fulfil the duties always that are assigned me in the Church. ¶

I see nothing but good ahead for Israel, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church is increasing, I believe, in every way — increasing in numbers and increasing also in faith and good works. Surely this is a day when our faith should be made stronger, when we see what is transpiring in the world and what is being brought to pass; this day when thrones are tottering and falling; when abdications of kings and kingly powers are taking place when everything is in commotion and when men's hearts are failing them for fear of the things that are coming or transpiring upon the earth. ¶

I do not see how it could be otherwise than that our faith in the Lord and in the gospel of Jesus Christ should increase. The Church from the beginning has grown, notwithstanding the terrible opposition of ignorance, chiefly ignorance; the opposition, too, of maliciousness, wickedness, persecutions which it endured until very recent years, and which was so pronounced against it by all people misinformed concerning it. ¶

During the fourteen years in which the Prophet Joseph Smith led the Church, it increased, notwithstanding the malicious and wicked opposition that he encountered and that the Church encountered under his presidency. During the thirty-three years that President Young led the Church, notwithstanding its trials and tribulations, it increased in a wonderful way — a marvelous work and a wonder. In the ten years that President Taylor presided over the Church, the Church still continued to grow and increase; and during the ten years or so of President Woodruff's presidency, and the three or four years of President Snow's presidency, making seventy-one years of growth of the Church in all; during the presidency of these brethren whom I have named, it grew and increased all the time. During the Presidency of President Smith, which will be seventeen years now in a few days, the Church has doubled in numbers and has more than doubled in wealth; that is to say, the membership of the Church has increased to as large a number as the membership of the Church was after a growth of seventy-one years during the presidency of the former five presidents of the Church, and during that seventeen years the Church has more than doubled in wealth and in the payment of tithes. So that I see nothing but growth and good and development and spreading abroad and the fulfilling of the mission of this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Why should it not grow? Has God not spoken? ¶

I sat here this morning looking at this vast congregation, and I said to myself, "Why are we here? Why am I here?" Well, the answer came to my mind in this way. If Joseph Smith had not declared that he had a manifestation of the Father and the Son and a visitation from them, and that he had conversed with the Father and the Son, the Almighty God and Jesus Christ, his Son, the Redeemer of the world; that he had seen them and talked with them and been instructed by them; I would not have been here. It is because of that vision that I am here, that my parents received of that truth, believed it, accepted it with all their hearts, and for that reason primarily, fundamentally, I am here in this conference this morning. If the Book of Mormon had not been revealed in the marvelous and miraculous way that it was, I would not have been here today. This wonderful gathering of Latter-day Saints that we see here today and which gathers here for every semi-annual conference, would not so gather and we would not behold the spectacle that we do in this congregation, had it not been that the Lord spoke; the Lord manifested himself; the Lord sent angels to reveal his gospel, to reveal the Book of Mormon — a most wonderful and marvelous manifestation. Something to lay hold of from the Lord, is the Book of Mormon. As the tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments handed down to Moses became something real and personal in the way of manifestation to the people, so also the Book of Mormon, handed down in the miraculous way that it has been, is real and something tangible for us to take hold of and believe. If it is not true, what is it? Where did it come from if it is not true? If its origin is not what it proclaims it to be, then what is its origin? It is there and cannot be explained away as I see it, only by accepting the truth; only by accepting the statement made by the Prophet concerning its origin. ¶

We all know of the witnesses to it. Three men testified to it; truthful men, that God Almighty sent down an angel to reveal and testify to them of its truth, and their testimony stands; it cannot be impeached. Had Joseph Smith, in company with these three witnesses, framed up a story to delude and defraud and ensnare the world, it would have been quickly exposed, for the reason that these witnesses, one and all of them, became bitter enemies of the Prophet Joseph Smith and were cut off from the Church. Now, would not they have said, "We have been trying to palm off something on the world which is fraudulent, which is not true, which is false?" These three men became bitter enemies of the Prophet; they were cut off from the Church, as I remember, in 1838. Oliver Cowdery lived for ten years out of the Church; in 1848 he was rebaptized as a member of the Church, and I believe died in that year. During that ten years he was at enmity with the Prophet Joseph Smith and with the Church, now, wouldn't he have denounced the thing as a fraud and set himself straight before the world by publishing to all the world that he had made a false statement concerning the Book of Mormon, if his testimony had not in the first place been absolutely true? ¶

David Whitmer lived some forty-three years after he was cut off from the Church in 1838 and never rejoined it. In 1878, the late Elder Orson Pratt and President Joseph F. Smith, who is with us today, visited David Whitmer at his home in Richmond, Missouri. That was forty years after David Whitmer had been cut off from the Church. David Whitmer at that time was in the possession of his faculties, clear and keen. A number of his relatives and immediate friends who were not members of our Church, were called into his room and sat in it with Elder Pratt and President Smith, and then and there David Whitmer retold the story of the visit of the angel to him and of the voice of God affirming that the Book of Mormon is true. For forty years this man, David Whitmer, had been out of the Church, estranged from it, he was never reconciled to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Don't you think that if he had been mistaken as to seeing and hearing an angel and hearing the voice of God, would not he in all that time have roused himself and said, "This thing is a fraud; Joseph Smith was not a true Prophet; our testimony concerning the Book of Mormon is false." But during all that time, notwithstanding his enmity to the Church, his ill-feeling toward the Prophet, he not only did not deny his testimony concerning the Book of Mormon but affirmed and reaffirmed it time after time, and this latter time that I speak of, in 1878, he affirmed it in the strongest possible manner in the hearing of Elder Orson Pratt and President Joseph F. Smith and a room full of non-"Mormon" friends, who were there and heard him. He declared to them all that his testimony was true, the God's truth; that he did see and hear the angel of the Lord, and that he did hear the voice of the Lord from Heaven, and that his testimony concerning the Book of Mormon must stand as the truth forever. ¶

And Martin Harris, the third witness, the same. I heard Martin Harris in 1870 stand right here on this stand, and although he had been out of the Church for thirty-two years, yet he came back and stood here, and I heard him testify that his witness to the divinity of the Book of Mormon was true before God. ¶

Can you anywhere in all the world get such convincing and unimpeachable testimony? No, you can't. Well, that is why I am here; that is why you are here; that is what brings these people together. ¶

The Lord has manifested by the power of the Spirit the truth of his work, and that with this work he has conferred upon this Church divine authority, given to his priesthood. He has conferred upon it authority to act in his name so that whenever an elder of this Church shall take a man down into the water and baptize him he does it by the authority of God and that ordinance is recognized by God the Eternal Father. And when the elders lay hands upon him and say unto him, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," he receives the Holy Ghost. That divine authority is here and it is nowhere else in all the world than here. What! Do you mean to say the Lord does not operate with any other people, only the small number of Latter-day Saints who are in the world? Oh, no! Oh, no! The Lord is operating all over the world by his power and manifesting it, oh, so gloriously these days in the battles that are going on. The Lord is there to see — to see what? To see that right shall triumph and that freedom shall obtain. The Lord reveals himself to the world in many ways. One of the old prophets declared that in the last days the Lord will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh. That means Chinese, Japanese and all others as well as white people; upon all flesh, he says he will pour out his Spirit. ¶

In this wonderful age in which it is such a glorious privilege to live, since this spiritual truth was introduced into the world through the agency of the Prophet Joseph Smith from God Almighty himself, see what has transpired; see what has come to pass! Why, for nearly six thousand years ships had been sailing as St. Paul said he sailed and waited three days for a favorable wind. They could not go anywhere without it. Could people travel to and fro as they do now? No. Daniel, the prophet, says that in the last days knowledge shall be increased — that is, the Spirit of the Lord shall be poured out upon the people and they shall get more information, more knowledge than they ever had before. And he is not pouring out that Spirit alone upon us but on all the world, and, as the Prophet Daniel said, knowledge shall be increased and many shall run to and fro. I do not know how the whole changed situation between the olden time and now could be put in fewer words than that knowledge shall be increased and many shall run to and fro, because there was not so very much knowledge on many things and people did not travel and had not the means to move to and fro, so these are the last days and the Lord has poured out his Spirit upon the people and invention after invention, multiplied by the million; knowledge after knowledge; improvement after improvement, we see in so many marvelous ways. Why have not these inventions come before? Because the last days were not yet here. Was the mind of man during the five or six thousand years that had passed up to the time of the great manifestation to the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1820, not as acute, not as capable of comprehending as the mind of man is today? We have it on the testimony of the greatest scientists, that there has not been any appreciable difference between the mind of man today and the mind of man four thousand years ago. ¶

Alfred Russell Wallace, and other scientists, so declare, and they declare further that the mind of man is just as much depraved today as four thousand years ago, so it is not that the mind of man is any brighter to grasp these things today than the mind was formerly, but because the Lord Almighty has poured out his Spirit upon all flesh in all nations, and so invention after invention goes on. ¶

What was it that made a James Watt sit there by his mother's fire in Scotland, and notice the tea-kettle lid move up and down? A thought, an inspiration of the Almighty fastened it in his mind. "There is power there," he said: "There is something there that makes that tea-kettle lid rise — the power of steam." Why, men had sat looking at tea-kettles for five thousand years or more. They had not thought of that power because the inspiration of the Almighty had not touched the mind to make them think of it. That is why, and that is the only reason why. "There is a spirit in man," says the Scripture, "and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding," and so he is pouring out his Spirit upon all flesh and these wonderful, marvelous inventions are the result. Here we see in this building these electric lights. Somewhere in the canyon, miles away, water is tumbling down hill over a wheel and here is the light. Wonderful! Marvelous! Why, on every automobile you have a complete electric light plant. Did you ever think of it? It is all so common with us now that it almost ceases to be a wonder. But when we stop to think, we see how wonderful it all is. Think of the engines of destruction that have been invented and manufactured during the present world-war. The whole face of the world seems changed through the knowledge that man has received from the Almighty. The Lord is giving this information and glory be to him and not to man. That is where the world makes a mistake, they take all credit to themselves. ¶

For about six thousand years men had been reaping their grain with a sickle. Why was there no improvement during all that time? I can remember between fifty and sixty years ago when we used to take a sickle and reap grain and lay each little bundle down as it was reaped. I can remember when we used to flail out wheat with a flail or tramp it out with oxen like they had done in the time of Moses when he delivered the law that thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. There had been practically no change in all these matters for about six thousand years. We do not sow and reap in that manner now. All these wonderful inventions and mechanical improvements, practically every one, have been revealed by the inspiration of the Almighty to the mind of men since the day the Lord spoke to the Prophet Joseph Smith and revealed himself and started what Brother Whitney so beautifully referred to yesterday as the new spiritual forces which should revolutionize the thought of the world, and which have in them the means of salvation for the world, for the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation. It is not in man that walks to guide his steps aright. The Lord is working these wonders and overruling in it all, and while we know that he is working in the nations and give him all honor and credit for it, we still know absolutely that in a special way he is working with this organization, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in which alone is the force and agency and power that will save the world and redeem mankind, and shall persist and continue forever. ¶

I thought yesterday, as Brother Whitney was talking, of some lines of Byron, who, lamenting how nations rise and nations fall, and history repeats itself — just a repetition of the old story — Byron says in these lines: ¶

Here is the moral of all human tales, 'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past. First freedom, and then glory; when that fails. Wealth, vice, corruption, barbarism at last. ¶

So history, with all its volumes vast, Hath but one page. ¶

It would seem it is just the same old story told and told, but I thought to myself, poor sceptical, unbelieving Byron. Has the Lord Almighty through the Prophet Daniel not declared that in the last days — and these are the last days all right, and don't you forget it — in the last days, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall stand forever; it should never fall; it should never be given to another people, but it should endure forever? ¶

This is the Church of God. This is Christ's Church; Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of the Most High God. The leaders of this Church have been inspired and are inspired of the Almighty to give direction, to give revelation, to give guidance to this great work, none more so than the present president of the Church who lives and has always lived so that the Lord, through his Spirit can manifest unto him, give direction and counsel and guidance to the Latter-day Saints, and it will not fail, it will stand forever. God grant it, through Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶