The Kingdom of God and Righteousness

{Assistant Church Historian) ¶

I esteem it a very high privilege to mingle my voice with the voices of my brethren, in declaring the kingdom of God and his righteousness before the great congregations of his people. I esteem it a very great privilege to be present at this conference, the first I have attended since President Grant succeeded to the presidency of the Church. I rejoice in seeing the manifestation of the spirit and power of his high office resting upon him, as I have witnessed it resting upon all of his predecessors, except Joseph Smith, the prophet, whom I did not know. I rejoice, my brethren and sisters, in the progress, of the work of the Lord. I recall fifty years ago sitting in this house listening to that great prophet and apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ,, Elder Orson Pratt. Upon that occasion he told of his conversion to the gospel at the age of nineteen, immediately after which he set out afoot, on a journey of between two hundred and three hundred miles, that he might visit Joseph Smith and gaze upon the face of that remarkable man. He was satisfied, when he did so, that; ¶

he stood in the presence of a prophet of God, and he received the ministry of that prophet. He was called immediately into the service of the Lord and the prophet told him that it was his destiny to be a preacher of the gospel; that the time should come- — this was only five months after the organization of the church, in 1830 — when twelve apostles should be chosen such as there had been in the days of Christ, and that he should be one of them. This astonished Elder Pratt, beyond measure, but he lived to realize the fulfilment of that prophecy, within five years, in 1835, when the apostles' quorum was organized. I recall upon the occasion of this wonderful discourse that Elder Pratt expressed his happiness and joy in the great progress that the work of the Lord had made up to that time. He foretold, in quoting from the scriptures, from the prophets and from the Psalms, the time when the fulness of times of the gentiles should come in. He still declared, after preaching for forty years, ever . since the organization of the Church, that the time was coming and should be fulfilled within the generation in which the Church was organized. He did not pretend to say just how soon it should be fulfilled, but he said : "Forty years have passed since we commenced to declare that this time was approaching. I do not know that I shall live to see the fulfilment of the prophecy concerning it, when the ambassadors of the Church, the elders, shall go forth, not so particularly to the gentiles, but shall turn from therm and go forth particularly to declare the word of the Lord to the Jews and to the descendants of Jacob, others of the house of Israel. That time is coming, he said, when there shall come forth from God a direct commandment to His servants that they should carry this message to the house of Israel, and, that they should go swiftly. They should be welcome when they then go in their ministry. He said that hundreds would receive them, and thousands and tens of thousands would welcome them for they should go in power: "In the day of my power, saith the Lord, my people shall welcome me." He pointed to the young men who were assembled in the congregation. I happened to be one of them, and it seemed to me that he was pointing at me. Anyway, I was thrilled to the marrow of my bones, for he said : "You young men, who are sitting before me, will see the fulfilment of the times of the gentiles, when this message shall be taken to all the house of Israel. The responsibility of carrying it rests upon you, and God will require it at your hands." A year after that, very much to my surprise, I was called to go on a mission. I was but a boy, and I desired to go to college instead; but my father said he could not send me to college, and proposed that I should go on a mission. I said: "Very well, I will go, get through with my mission, come home and go to college on my own account." He placed his hands on my shoulders and said: "You will never get through going on a mission, not as long as you are a Latter-day Saint." That seemed a hard saying. Instead of then giving me two or three hours' instruction he said : "Get the spirit of your mission. Don't know too much but believe all you can. I guess I needed that. I had not been in my field of labor, in old England, more than a few weeks when I obtained the spirit of my mission ; then I understood what my father meant, and I declare to you, my brethren and sisters, that from the moment I received the testimony of my mission, of my calling in the priesthood, and of my right to speak in the name of the Lord to my fellow creatures, it has been inconceivable down to the present moment when I should not be a missionary— in one fashion or another. I believe I have been, sometimes not very useful, but at other times perhaps more so, in different ways engaged in promulgating this work now for fifty years, and I thank God for it with all my soul, that I have been, in His mercy and providence, thought fit to perform some part in carrying on this great work. ¶

I rejoice in the greatness of this work, in the prosperity of this people, in the approach of that condition of power that its message will be welcome throughout the length and breadth of the earth, when it shall be carried as it has never been carried before, when it shall be taken on swift wings, through the clouds, on the wings of the wind. I was telling a Catholic priest the other day that some of those angels the Apostle John saw flying in the midst of heaven, did not have feathers; but they were in flying machines, and that we Latter-day Saints expected to carry the gospel like the angels sung of by the prophets of old, to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, flying with the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell upon the earth. I have seen that partly fulfilled already in watching President George Albert Smith and his son soar up from the Hangar in Brussels and fly away to London in an aeroplane — angels, ambassadors of the Lord, having the gospel of Jesus Christ to preach to them that dwell in Great Britain. We will send many of our missionaries that way, in the time of many of you, young men. ¶

I rejoice, my brethren and sisters, in the testimony the. Lord has given me. I know that his power, that his Priesthood is upon the earth and that we who bear it have a message that mankind stands in dire need of. There is no salvation outside of the ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ to the children of men, and no other people possess it, but this people, to whom it was given through the ministry of Joseph Smith the prophet. ¶

May God help us to be worthy and stand firmly, and assist in promulgating the truth, to the salvation of our fellow creatures, is my humble prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶