A Missionary Testimony

I endorse from the bottom of my heart the words of the previous speakers, for I am engaged, as they are, in the mighty work of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we are not alone in this mighty ministry; there are 1,700 of us sent out from the stakes of Zion to bear the message of the restored gospel. There is joy in this work, for, as President Callis has said, It is the service that we give that brings us happiness. ¶

The missionary work of the Church is progressing. The message that Christ was in very deed the Redeemer of the world, that he gave us a plan of salvation that will save the souls of men, that the gospel, after the ages of darkness, was restored and given to the children of men through the Prophet Joseph -- this message is what we are bearing to the world. We go where we are sent. We go gladly. We give our time, we give of our talents, we give the best that is in us, for we know that God's work is paramount, here on the earth, and that ultimately the gospel of our Lord will triumph. ¶

It is true that ¶

High on the mountain top ¶

A banner is unfurled; ¶

Ye nations, now look up; ¶

It waves to all the world; ¶

In Deseret's sweet, peaceful land; ¶

On Zion's Mount behold it stand. ¶

We have gathered this week by the thouands, from the north and the south and the east and the west, many of us from distant ¶

parts, to hear the advice and counsel of our leaders; and to sustain them in their high and holy callings. I trust, and I really believe, that all of us who attend these meetings and listen to the words of our leaders, go back to our homes more determined to keep the commandments of God than when we came here. ¶

It is a wonderful thing, this gospel of our Lord. It is not to be absorbed by merely sitting idly by and wondering how we are going to be saved. All of us have an idea of some kind, of salvation. Rarely do you meet a man who does not have some belief in immortality; but when you propound to him the question, "What is the immortality in which you believe? what is the salvation for which you hope?" in most instances you will find that he cannot give you an intelligent answer. To the Latter-day Saint, however, who is living his religion, and who is progressing in a knowledge of his religion, through prayer, faith, and diligent study, there is a pointed, plain, beautiful conception of immortality and eternal life, that gives his life something new, gives him hope, gives him courage, and gives him an understanding that his life here on earth is more than merely gaining the things of this life. ¶

The Savior said, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." And truly the Savior spoke the truth when he made this wonderful statement. It is life eternal to understand the plan of salvation and to order our lives so that we are in accord with its teachings. It is life eternal to find such joy in our lives here, by righteous living, that when the end shall come, we will pass away in peace, not fearing death, but knowing that we have fought a good fight here, and that for having fought this good fight, the reward that awaits us will truly be ours. ¶

Again, the Savior said, "Search the scriptures, for in them ye have eternal life." My brethren and sisters, we, the Latter-day Saints, are blessed above all peoples of the earth in regard to the scriptures that we have to search. We have the holy Bible, that grand old book that has come down through the ages to us. We worship God and we read of him and we search that scripture and we order our lives in a large degree by its teachings -- to us the holy Bible is most sacred-- but we have more, we have the Book of Mormon, the parallel history, if I may say it, of the inhabitants of this continent. Then we have still more, we have the history or the recorded word of our heavenly Father as it has been given to his children in this day and age; and still more, we have that record, the Pearl of Great Price." These four books we accept as the standard works of the Church, as the divine revelations of our Father, as his law unto his Church. ¶

But, my brethren and sisters, in accepting them and declaring to the world that we believe them, do we know them? Do we search them, do we even read them? Do we study them that we may know the plan of salvation and that we may build up our most holy faith and our determination, by prayerful, consistent research? I fear that ¶

far too many of us take this matter of life and this matter of our duty to ourselves in the truth, far too lightly. I fear that far too many of us leave our books dusty on the shelves, rather than taking them down and reading the wonderful words that they contain. We can turn chapter by chapter through the Book of Mormon, and every chapter that we read opens our minds to something new; we can study it phrase by phrase, and our minds will brighten, if we will only do it. How many here today have read the Book of Mormon through? How many have read the other scriptures? Ask yourselves these questions. ¶

We are too prone, my brethren and sisters, to take life easy, to order our lives along the lines of least resistance. We are too prone to read the light, foamy, entertaing things of life, that do not benefit us, and to leave unread the vital works that make us mighty and strong and intelligent for our life's work. We have these four books, the holy scripture, which we should search. We have other works, and we can read and study and none of us will ever master one tithe of the wonderful truths embraced in these books. ¶

I want to read to you just one verse from the Book of Mormon. It is a beautiful verse, and has been published many, many times. I fear that most of us are not yet familiar with it. It is the 13th verse of the second chapter of Second Nephi: ¶

And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness, there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness, there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not, there is no God. And if there is no God, we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away. ¶

In this marvelously philosophical verse that we have in that chapter, there is so much truth to be pondered over and thought about, that if we will take it, read it, study it, analyze it, and pray over it, our minds will be opened and we will have an understanding of the things of God as we never had them before. ¶

As I said a moment ago, we are too prone to follow the lines of the least resistance, and not to strive to search the scriptures and to find out the things of God. The things of God are more than faith, repentance, and baptism, these first principles; the things of God embrace all truths, and if we search the scripture and master these basic truths of our Father, and then go outside and take the works of commentary of the great thinkers, we can day by day grow in an understanding of God and really know him. ¶

"This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent;" and, my brethren and sisters, we cannot hope to know the only true God nor Jesus Christ, if we do not seek them. True, it is within the power of our heavenly Father to bless us with positive knowledge, with no effort on our own part. It is within his power to magnify us so mightily that we ¶

could stand up as shining lights so that the world would marvel at our wonderful achievements. But God moves along natural lines; he gives us the intelligence, he gives us the faith, he gives us the wisdom, and if we will utilize these God-given faculties and will exercise them and will study and will seek, then we will know. Frequently do the missionaries come to us in the field with not even an idea of God. They have gone on a mission purely because they have been sent. How much finer, how much more capable would they have been if their parents had trained them in the home, and they had been trained in the schools and in the organizations of the Church, so that they had gone into the mission field positively knowing that the gospel of Christ is true; with no doubt in their minds. While they would not necessarily be wonderful preachers; and while, probably, they could not explain the gospel in detail, yet there would be something burning in their souls that tells them that the gospel is true, that Jesus was the Christ, and that Joseph Smith is indeed a prophet of the living God. This is life eternal to know these things, and in order to know them, we must search, with sincerity, we must be prayerful, and we must be really and truly and genuinely prayerful,-- we must go on our knees before our God; he demands it. ¶

Why he instituted prayer, I do not know, but he did it, and it suffices me to know that since he did it, my duty is to bow myself before my God and to appeal to him in prayer. Why the other ordinances were given, I do not know, but they were, and they have a purpose, and he who fails to keep these commandments of our Father cannot hope for the blessings. ¶

There is a remarkable relationship between keeping the commandments of God and enjoying his blessing. God chose in the beginning to give to his children positive commandments, that was his scheme, he laid down the law, and he said, my children must abide by that law if they will have the blessings. The prophet Joseph tells us, as recorded in the 130th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, "There is a law irrevocably decreed in the heavens before the foundations of this earth, upon which all blessings are predicated, and when we obtain any blessings from God, it is by obedience to the law upon which it is predicated." And the opposite of this is true, that when we violate the law, the punishment that God has designed that his children must take, if they violate the law, will be meted out to them. How, then, my brothers and sisters, can we hope to know, can we hope to develop, can we hope for the blessings of God if we do not exercise our God-given faculties. I said there is a relationship between the keeping of the commandments of God and the enjoying of his blessings. We must put ourselves in tune with him. We must keep his commandments. We must obey the law, or we cannot hope for, nor will we receive the blessings which God has in store for his children. In his justice, in his mercy, in his love for his children, he could not give to the sinner the blessing when he failed to keep the law, the same as we would give it to the righteous child who did keep that law. ¶

Now, knowing these things, and knowing that we must know God, that we must find him out, that we must know for ourselves, why is it that we stand by, let the world go on and let the Church go on, while we do nothing toward the salvation of our own souls? ¶

The message of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a wonderful one, it is the message of life and the message of salvation. The doctrines of the Church stand alone, they have borne the acid test of 100 years. The world, the best brains of the world have endeavored to disprove them. This wonderful book from which I have read, the Book of Mormon, has been held up to ridicule but after 100 years it stands unimpeached and unimpeachable, for it is indeed the word of the true and the living God. We have these things, they are ours, we have them in our hearts, most of them; and the books lie on the shelves in far too many cases, dirty and dusty from disuse. Why do we not magnify the intelligence that we have, study and learn, prepare ourselves, so that when the time comes and the opportunity presents itself for us to explain the principles of the gospel, that we will know what the gospel is, and that we will declare it to the people in power and in truth. ¶

The testimony that God lives is a gift to us; it comes to us when we are worthy of it. He blesses us when we strive for that blessing and reach out and try to get it. He is indeed our Father in heaven, to whom we can go and from whom we can ask a blessing. We know that the world gazes on an immaterial something, which they worship, in a way, as God. We know the true and the living God, the God of Israel, and we know that in this day and age he reveals his mind and will to his children. That testimony that the Prophet Joseph gave 100 years ago, rings in the hearts and the ears of the Latter-day Saints today. Hundreds are coming into the fold, the message is bearing fruit, and while he is not accepted generally, his teachings and his principles are being accepted by the world today. Mormonism is going forward, it will triumph; and the message that the missionaries bear by the hundreds and the thousands will bring the honest in heart into the Church, for it has the ring of sincerity. My brothers and sisters, it is life eternal to know God, it is life eternal to know his Son, it is life eternal to know that in this day and age God has revealed himself, his mind and his will to the children of men. ¶

May we be worthy, may our testimonies grow, may we, by righteous living, be so strong and so solid that we will know of ourselves without a doubt that God lives and that this is his Church, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶