My brethren and sisters, I think that with

My brethren and sisters, I think that with much propriety, so far as houses of worship are concerned on this block, we could sing the good old hymn: "Give us room that we may dwell," for Zion is growing. There are many people who have preached a funeral sermon over "Mormonism," and sung their mournful dirges ; these people have gone, but "Mormonism" survives. It lives because it is God's work. ¶

The Latter-day Saints, by obeying counsel and living their religion, can not fall into the hands of men. David said: "Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, * * * but let me not fall into the hand of man." When a man by neglect of duty or by transgression wanders from the path of the gospel, he falls into the hands of men, into a bondage cruel and bitter. Let us fall into the hands of God. ¶

The splendid message so splendidly delivered by the prophet of God, President Heber J. Grant, reached the hearts of the people. Why? Because he spoke under the power of the Holy Ghost, and the Book of Mormon says that when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost his words go to the hearts of the children of men, and so a minister of the gospel is not as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, but he is the medium, the instrument, through whom God ministers spiritual comfort unto the children of men. This people are led by wise shepherds. They are not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but the leaders of this Church, speaking the truth in love, are guiding the children of God on to their destiny, which God hath mapped out for the faithful. ¶

A great writer has said that the awakening of the conscience is the grandeur of the soul. If our consciences have been awakened, which I know that they have, if we have been renewed by the good spirit, by the counsel we have heard, then in the grandeur of our souls we will go to our homes and diffuse the spirit of life and instruction that we have received at this great gathering. Repentance is divine. Why? Because it is a gift from God. O God, awaken the conscience of the world that their souls which thou hast created may shine out in the grandeur of repentance. ¶

I have felt during this conference that the speakers have clarified our vision. What is a man without vision? What is a man without an object in life? He is like "a painted ship upon a painted ocean." A life, to be successful, must have directness of purpose, and one reason for the strength of this work and of this people is that God has blessed us with a mission, with a work. O, blessed be the man with a work and the people with a mission. When the Angel Moroni appeared to the prophet Joseph Smith he did not say, "you may wear soft clothing, God is going to give you ease," but he said : "God has a work for you to do," and in that work the Prophet Joseph Smith achieved greatness and the favor of God, and that is how we are becoming a great people, not by what we receive, but by what we give. For it is more blessed to give than to receive. Now the prophet of old said : Where there is no vision the people perish. I can not believe that he meant the gentiles exclusively. I believe he meant his people as well as the gentiles. Have we not a vision? What is it? First, our divine commission to preach the gospel unto every nation, kindred, tongue and people. Second, the glorious second coming of the Son of God, before whom all wickedness shall flee, and before whose power evil shall be subdued. Lord Macaulay said: "It was before Deity embodied in a human form — walking among men, partaking of their infirmities, leaning on their bosoms, weeping over their graves, slumbering in the manger and bleeding on the cross, that the pride of the philosophers and the swords of thirty legions were humbled in the dust." It is before this power that war is going to cease forever and God's will be done on earth -as it is done in heaven. We believe in the glorious millennial reign, in a literal resurrection of the dead, in the reunion of families in heaven, of the sanctification of this earth to be the abiding place forever of the sanctified of God. This is part of the vision. God help us that we may not lose this vision, that it may not be blurred by neglect of duty or by transgression. The Jews perished because they had no vision. They had the holy scriptures which set forth the coming of the Son of God. They had the words of the prophets, but when Jesus came they had no vision to perceive him, his glorious divine character, and they perished; they perished under means of grace until the times of refreshing shall come from the Lord. ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, what of the mission of Joseph Smith ? I tell you that above the dust and blood and smoke of the horrible carnage of the world-war stand in the prophecies of Joseph Smith. His prophecies are written across the sky that all may read. A great man has said that a prophecy fulfilled is a permanent miracle,' and therefore we can behold a permanent miracle every day of our lives. Go on historic Chickamauga, see the monuments that the southern people have erected to commemorate the valor of the boys who wore the gray. Go to Gettysburg where the northern people, have builded monuments to symbolize and to perpetuate in the memory of their children the bravery and valor of their fathers and brothers. Shakespeare spoke the truth when he said: "And this our life exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything." Each of the monuments on the great battlefields of this country preach a daily sermon, an hourly sermon, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. In the Doctrine and Covenants God said to Joseph Smith: "Behold the world is ripening in iniquity and it must needs be that the children of men, are stirred up unto repentance, both the Gentiles and also the House of Israel." Was Joseph Smith a prophet of God? Did he speak the truth ? Men have been preaching the results of daydreams : they have been building "castles in the air." They have asserted that, with the advance of medical skill and the cultivation of the arts and the sciences, the world was growing better every day, and yet God said that it was ripening in iniquity. It took the. draft boards, the examining boards, to discover to a great many people that they had been living in a "fool's paradise." Only a few weeks ago one of the foremost statesmen of an empire on whose dominions the sun never sets declared that his country could accomplish any task assigned her if it were not for consumption and venereal diseases. Did God speak the truth? Down at Savannah, Georgia, only a short time ago, a Methodist bishop declared that the world was more wicked and corrupt than it was in the days of ancient Rome and ancient Greece. I ask again, Was Joseph Smith a prophet of God ? Did he speak the truth? Yes, statesmen, theologians declare that he did. Now, my brethren and sisters, this is our mission, to proclaim repentance unto the world. God is going to create a new heaven, a new earth, for he says: "Behold, I make all things new." I tell you truthfully and in the fear of the Lord that he is working today perhaps a greater miracle than that of creating a new heaven or a new earth. We read that man is the noblest work of God and this is true. The young men, your sons, striplings, so to speak, are being sent out into the world, without much previous preparation for the ministry, oh, God is recreating those young men. He is making them powerful in testimony and in preaching his word. Samuel told Saul, that if he, Saul, did his duty God would give him another heart, and turn him into another man. God is recreating these young men, he is recreating you, by the principles of the gospel, by the principle of faith, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. ¶

Brethren and sisters, how good it is to be in the service of the Lord. In the Book of Mormon we read that when a man is engaged in the service of his fellow men, he is only engaged in the service of his God. Service is the crown of every good man's life. The life that is lived for itself is barren; it is no good. The man who lives for himself, shrivels up, he dies, for only by working for others can we hope to survive in everything that is good. The crown of President Grant's life is splendid service to God and his fellow men. The crown of the lives of the apostles and all the leaders of the Church, from Joseph Smith down to the present time, is the crown of service. It glows with the light of heaven's approbation. It is the crown of the life of the Son of God. He died, he served us that we might live, for he descended below all things to bring our redemption from sin and from the grave. ¶

I bear testimony unto you that Jesus Christ is in truth the very Son of God, the Redeemer of the world, the Christ. I bear testimony to you that Joseph Smith was his prophet, divinely chosen, a splendid servant of the Lord, a man whom God loved, a being whom all the earth shall yet honor and revere. ¶

Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah! ¶

Jesus annointed "that Prophet and Seer" — Blessed to open the last dispensation; ¶

Kings shall extol him and nations revere. ¶

Amen. ¶