Reminiscences and Testimony

My beloved brethren and sisters: I have the honor, once more, of standing before you in the General Conference of the Church, in this great building that has witnessed so many gatherings of the Saints. I believe that all persons, making units of this congregation today, have come here with a prayer in their hearts that they may receive blessings, that they may receive new light and intelligence as a guide for their feet and a prompter for their conscience, to lead and direct them in the future, in the way of truth and right. ¶

We have been favored with discourses from our brethren, and I believe that I echo the sentiment of every one, that we have received a blessing from the Lord, and the remarks and the sermons given by our brethren, leaders of the Church, have found a ready place in our hearts, because we are in need of this kind of instruction and in this way proper impressions are made on our lives, from time to time. I rejoice in being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I remember very well the day I was baptized, when eleven years of age. I missed the opportunity of being baptized sooner, or I didn't have an opportunity, for the reason that, when my father's family emigrated from the city of Nauvoo, just prior to his leaving his home in that city, he took my elder brother and my elder sister down to the Mississippi river and baptized and confirmed them members of the Church. I was only seven years of age and he explained to me that I could not receive baptism and become a member of the Church until another year. But 1 pleaded with him, and he finally yielded the point and took me into the Mississippi river and baptized me for my health. And that satisfied me for the time. An opportunity for baptism again did not present itself until I was eleven years of age. ¶

I remember very well the day and the person who officiated. Doctor Orin P. Lee, was the one that administered to me that sacred ordinance. Just near by the bank of the creek where the baptism occurred lived my uncle, Phineas H. ¶

Young. I returned to his home after baptism, and there I met with a man somewhat famous in the history of the Church, namely Oliver Cowdery, one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon, one who wrote the manuscript of the Book of Mormon as the interpretation fell from the lips of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Oliver Cowdery was numbered as the second elder in the Church at the time of its organization, in 1830, on the 6th day of April. He had left the Church some years after and had engaged in the practice of law. On one occasion an opposing counsel said: "How can you listen to a man who has proclaimed that he is a follower of Joseph Smith, the 'Mormon' Prophet? How can you accept of his testimony, when he is far off in his calculations of things that occurred in a most natural way, and he looks at things from a spiritual standpoint, so he claims, and was at one time an associate of Joseph Smith, the 'Mormon' Prophet, and received a revelation, so he states, from the Lord?" Oliver Cowdery, after the gentleman had exhausted his tirade of ridicule, arose to his feet and said: "May it please your honor, I was once a member of the 'Mormon' Church. I was associated with the Prophet Joseph Smith, but through my own weakness I have been disfellowshiped by that people, and I am sorry that this ever occurred." And with tears streaming down his face, he declared that if the opportunity ever presented itself, he would again ally himself with the "Mormon" Church. When he came up to Kanesville to visit, at the conference held in 1848, under the direction of Apostle Orson Hyde, he stopped at the house of my uncle, Phineas Young, and that is where I met him. Oliver Cowdery had come to Kanesville for the purpose of asking to be again admitted a member of the Church. He had repented, so he declared, and on the stand the following day, in making the request to President Orson Hyde, said: "I do not ask for place or power or station or any responsible position. All I ask is that I may be again admitted a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and die with my record a member of the Church." His request was granted and he returned to Richmond, Missouri, and in a few months, died and was buried there. Early in the 70's another witness, also one of the principal witnesses, Martin Harris, came to Salt Lake valley. He, too, had seceded from the Church. He came to Utah with a desire to again be identified with this people, and made his request to President Brigham Young. In bearing his testimony that day, I remember that he made these remarks: "I had the honor, said he, "of being the scribe for the Prophet Joseph Smith in translating a portion of the Book of Mormon, but through my carelessness and through my want of foresight, the manuscript that I had written was lost, and never regained, and I justly received censure and reprimand from the Prophet Joseph Smith. Now I have returned to the bosom of the Church with the hope and prayer in my heart that I may again be admitted a member. His prayer was also granted. Soon after he moved up to ¶

Clarkston in Cache Valley and died there, and his body was buried in the cemetery of that place. ¶

The testimony of those two men, I have always remembered, and as they bore them personally they seemed overwhelmed with grief and sorrow to think they had forfeited their membership in the Church and their rank and their standing as they had it at first. Men who receive the testimony of the gospel, men who receive the witness of the divinity of the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, men who receive a witness of the divinity of the Savior and his great mission, seldom see the way to repent after they have lost the faith,.but these two men seemed to be specially favored of the Lord, and the gift of repentance had not entirely been blotted out from their hearts, and according to their prayers they were restored again as members of the Church. ¶

I remember very well that soon after President Brigham Young had returned to Winter Quarters, from his pioneer visit to Salt Lake Valley, on the 5th day of December, 1847, the Twelve gathered' in the house of Willard Richards, one of the Twelve Apostles, the one that was ordained in Manchester, England, in 1840. If you remember the history of this good man, he was chosen an apostle before he left for England, at the time of President Young's mission to that country, but was not ordained until they arrived in Manchester. There were five of the Council of the Twelve found in the city of Manchester at that conference, and the proposition was made that Willard Richards be ordained an apostle, there and then, making him the sixth member of the apostles in that old country at one time. He was accordingly ordained by President Brigham Young, the president of the Twelve Apostles. On this 5th day of December, 1847, the Twelve gathered together and chose and elected Brigham Young to be the prophet, seer and revelator to and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in all the world -- that was the exact wording. How this last sentence thrilled me. President Brigham Young chose for his counselors. Elders Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards. I know that the Saints universally acknowledged President Brigham Young as the president and leader of the Church, before he was called and set apart by the rest of the apostles, for when Colonel Allen, the United States enlisting officer, came up from Fort Leavenworth to Mount Pisgah, there were several of the Twelve encamped at that point. He made his errand known to them and asked if it were possible for him to get an enlistment of five hundred ableboded men from the camps of the "Mormon" people, to go to Mexico to fight the battles of our country under General Zachary Taylor. The brethren listened to his request and then said: "We cannot decide this question for you, Colonel Allen. There is but one man that can decide it. That man is President Brigham Young. He is at the ¶

present time encamped near Council Bluffs, on the Missouri river. If you will take the journey with us, we will go to his camp, and you may ask him that question and obtain his answer for yourself." The question of raising five hundred able bodied men from the camps of the Saints thus leaving their wives and children and aged parents to the mercy of the camp of the plains, without a supply of food and clothing and covering, seemed appalling to everyone; and, as I remember, the majority of the apostles did not take the request kindly, but after discussing the matter, President Brigham Young said: "This call must be answered. We must furnish the men. It is a trial of our faith. It is a test of our loyalty, and we propose to furnish the men as the Government requires." ¶

Many a test has come to this people, many a trial to their faith. In the loss of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Patriarch Hyrum Smith, and then finally, as one leader after another had passed away, yet this eternal truth and testimony of President Brigham Young has always found a ready echo in the hearts of every Latter-day Saint. He said when the news of the martyrdom reached him in Boston, "although the leader of the Church, the Prophet Joseph Smith, has been taken away from us by violence, his blood has been spilled, he has sealed his testimony, but he did not take with him the Priesthood of the Son of God. That is still on the earth, the Twelve Apostles are still the representatives holding that power and that Priesthood, committed to them by the Prophet of the Lord. ¶

And so it has been, from time to time, and today we are honored again with having a full organization of the First Presidency of the Church and the quorum of the Twelve Apostles. And always the Saints have recognized at a glance the leadership of the man that has been chosen to lead Israel in every age of the history of the Church; and today, my brethren and sisters, you are assembled here in this great conference, rejoicing in the fact that the Church is growing, is marching on, is increasing in strength and power, commensurate with the humility and the firm, determined action and devotion of its members. As they devote themselves to the cause, so the Lord increases his blessings upon them. So their reward is sure, as sure as they work for it unselfishly. Today we are requested! to promulgate the principles of truth in our own communities. There are many non-"Mormons" living in our midst. The Seventies quorums have been requested to furnish missionaries to carry the gospel to these worthy citizens that have lived in our midst, some of them for many years past. I met one of our brethren recently who said: "I saw a gentleman who has been a neighbor of mine for years. Said he, I have been to your meeting tonight, and I didn't know before that the "Mormons" believed in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, and I did not know that you had any faith in Jesus Christ, that you taught that he died, that men might ¶

live.' 'Where have you been? Haven't you attended our meetings before?' 'No, this is the first time I have ever attended a "Mormon" meeting since I lived in your community.' " The necessity of preaching the gospel here at home became apparent to the officers of the wards and the stakes of Zion, and now this movement of preaching the word to all of our neighbors and of giving them a chance to know of the divine calling of the Prophet Joseph and the result of his labors, and the doctrines that we believe in, will reach these people who live in our communities, who have not known it heretofore. And this I believe is a step in the right direction, and is going to result in very much good, and many people will be won to a knowledge of the truth without cost or without very much sacrifice of time and means. A soul here in Zion is just as precious as a soul that is saved abroad in the nations of the earth, where it takes many hours and days and weeks of time and considerable expenditure of money to convert each one. The principles of the gospel are just as acceptable to those who are honest in heart, who live in our midst, as those who live far away, and the elders seem delighted with the work that they are engaged in, and seem intent upon carrying the principles of the gospel to their neighbors, evincing, more than ever before, that they have accepted of those two great commandments given unto them: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul; and thy neighbor as thyself." May this be our prompting sentiment continually, that we seek the welfare of others, that we seek to serve one another, that we seek to do good to our fellow men and to win those who do not know the truth, to a knowledge of the same, at any sacrifice that we are called to make, devoting our time and our best energies to the spread of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may stand approved and acquitted all the day long, and be acceptable to him, that we may have the spirit of the gospel within us continually, and the knowledge of its great truths burning within our hearts, desiring only to give these evidences to others that they may profit by them. I pray that we may be faithful to this end, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶

Ralph Jensen, of Heber, and David Cook, of Syracuse, sang a duet. ¶