We Carry Our Religion into Our Daily Work

I realize, my brethren and sisters, that this is a splendid opportunity afforded to deliver a message to the people, there being so many in attendance. I also realize, somewhat, the responsibility of such an undertaking and almost feel to shrink from the responsibility. ¶

It is my purpose to occupy but a few moments, and while doing so I desire the faith and prayers of the Latter-day Saints present. I am very glad to be able to say that my feelings have been in perfect accord with the spirit and instructions of the conference, both yesterday and today. ¶

WE CARRY OUR RELIGION INTO OUR DAILY WORK ¶

I desire to refer briefly to some of the statemejnts made by one of our honored visitors who spoke briefly in the conference yesterday morning. I refer to the remarks of Mr. Lory, from Colorado, in which he stated that we must learn to carry our religion into our every day work. ¶

If there is any one thing that we have tried to impress upon the minds of the Latter-day Saints from the beginning, it has been the necessity for carrying our religion into our daily work, and I believe there is no other people upon the earth who has so fully and well accomplished this as have the Latter-day Saints ; yet, I realize that there is opportunity for much improvement. Our understanding ¶

is not that we are here upon the earth for the purpose of accumulating the wealth of this world, with which to purchase the luxuries and pleasures of life. Our purpose here is more exalting, these other things, temporal, being but a means to a nobler end. ¶

WHY THE SAINTS ARE SUCCESSFUL PIONEERS ¶

In conversation with some prominent people in Arizona a few years ago, while paying a visit to the Roosevelt dam, when it was in course of construction, the leading draftsman upon the works asked me this question: "How is it, Mr. Richards, that your people are so successful as colonizers and pioneers?" The ajnswer came to me very readily, "Because, with us, it is a religious principle," and then I proceeded to explain that we pioneer new countries and colonize— not from a selfish viewpoint, but that we may prepare a place for those who gather in fulfilment of the predictions of the prophets, to assist in the establishment of God's kingdom upon the earth ; that our religion is one of service and helpfulness to one another, and this is one of the means by which we are able to manifest it. ¶

OUR RELIGION A POSITIVE RELIGION ¶

Another remark of Mr. Lory's was, that all that he observed pertaining to our people and of this city of Salt Lake and of this tabernacle, the construction of which President Grant had briefly explained as an evidence of the wisdom of the president of the Church who designed it, were on the positive side. That made an impression upon my mind ; and I thought, too, that our religion is a positive religion, from beginning to end ; that those who are in opposition to us and the doctrines which we teach are negative: We affirm and they deiny. You may take the principles and ordinances, one by one, as we declare their necessity for man's salvation anid exaltation, and you will find this principle involved, and the same with the gospel as a whole. It is a satisfaction to one to have been right on any question, and a disappointment to have been wrong ; and the greater and more important the question involved, the greater the satisfaction or the disappointment as the case may be. There is no other question so great, that has moved the people of the world in different dispensations as that of religion or salvation. What does salvation mejJn? How is it to be obtained? The religion of the Latter-day Saints answers these questions perfectly. It is the division upon this question that has made the various religious organizations that are upon the earth today. If there is a God in heaven, and there is ; and if the soul of man is immortal, and it is, the time will come when these facts will be generally known. If the gospel which we have received alnd are teaching to the world is indeed the gospel of Jesus Christ, the only true plan of life and salvation, and it is, the time will come when men and women generally will know ¶

this fact. Then the disappointment of those who have rejected the prophets of this day and the revelations which God has given us, by which men and women might be saved, will be supremely great ; while the satisfaction of those who have accepted the gospel, and have made it the guiding star in their lives, will be correspondingly great. ¶

NEED OF PROFITING BY THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS ¶

"History repeats itself." We are told that, "Experience is a dear school, but that fools will learn in no other." I think we may apply this to individuals and peoples, alike. Not only should we learn from our own experience and from things which we may read and study from books and which may be told us by those who have the authority to interpret the mind and will of God, but we should profit by the experiences of others. It has been a weakness of mankind, from the beginning, that we will not profit by the experiences of others; we must experience these things ourselves. Several references have been made already in this conference to the destruction of the ante-diluvians, because of their wickedness and because they rejected the message and messengers sent to them of the Lord. It does seem that in nearly every dispensation the people have not been prepared for that which God has had to give them, notwithstanding He, who knows the end from the beginning, has raised up prophets who have foretold the coming of events. So, it was with the ante-diluvians, and they were swept from off the earth with a flood. We should not stop there, in considering the seriousness of the consequences of their rejecting the prophets and the gospel which was sent to them. We are told in the third chapter of First Peter, that Christ went and preached to those people who were disobedient in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing. They had been shut up in prison, so characterized by Isaiah aJixl others of the prophets for about twenty-four hundred years. Just the character of their imprisonments, I do not understand ; but one of our Book of Mormon prophets speaks of it as a fearful, awful, looking forward to the time when the fiery indignation of the wrath of God should be poured out upon them. Then we should remember this, too, which the Lord has revealed through the prophet Joseph, found recorded in the 76th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants, that those of the terrestrial kingdom, of which the moon is typical, include those who were disobedient in the days of Noah. When we think of their physical destruction, their spiritual imprisonment, and their being consigned to the terrestrial kingdom, we are impressed with the seriousness of their mistake and the greatness of their disappointment. It is a terrible thing to reject the prophets and their message. All the dispensations since that time, should have profited by the unwise course and conduct of this people and the wisdom of the conduct of Noah and his family, who were true and faithful. The cities of Sodom and Gommorrah were burned by fire because of the wickedness of the ¶

people and because they rejected the messsengers that had been sent them of the Lord. The same old story, and if we knew the further results, we would, perhaps, discover that they would be in the same class with those alnte-diluvians who were destroyed by the flood. ¶

There is the case of Jonah's preaching to the great city of Nineveh. This shows the other side of the picture; how through conversion and repentance of the people, from the king upon his throne to the least member of that great city, the wrath of God and His judgments were turned aside and the people and the city were spared. ¶

We come to Jerusalem. The Lord sent Lehi, Jeremiah and other prophets, to tell the people of their wickedness, and call them to repentance but their message was rejected and the city was destroyed. Again, when the Savior came, in the meridian of time, lie came to His own but His own received Him not, and they were cursed and scattered and became a hiss and a byword among all nations. As a rule the word of the Lord, the gospel of Christ, has not been popular, it has been rejected by all except a few. It was so in the days of Isaiah, who said, "Lord, who hath believed our report?" or the equivalent of saying, "Lord, not many have received the gospel" ; and in the New Testament, we read of the days of Christ, "Not all have obeyed the gospel, for, as Esaias saith, 'Lord who hath believed our report?'" ¶

THE MESSAGE OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS ¶

The Lord has raised up a prophet in these last days, and he has been succeeded by other prophets, who have led this people, as the Lord's mouth-piece, not only to the chosen people of the Lord, but to the whole world ; and for almost a century, we have been trying to convince the world that God has spoken from the heavens ; that He has revealed Himself and His Son, Jesus Christ, and that the Father is indeed a resurrected immortal and glorified being, having a body of flesh and bones, and spirit like His Son after His resurrection, and that the Son ascended to heaven with His resurrected body, and retains it in the heavens and will come with that same body to reign and rule upon the earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. How many have received this message ? It is but telling the old story over again, that there are but few who have accepted it ; the same with other gospel principles. The gospel has been restored, i;n fulfilment of the predictions of many prophets. The Savior, Himself, said, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." Just prior to the coming of the Lord, then, this gospel which Jesus taught, must be taught again to the world. John, the Revelator, declared that he saw in the then future, the restoration of the gospel by an angel. It has been so restored. Daniel, in the interpretation that the Lord gave him of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, saw ¶

a kingdom which God, Himself, would set up in the last days, that should never be thrown down or given to another people. That kingdom has been established, and we have been trying for nearly a century to convince the world of this fact. How many of all the one hundred ten millions of people in these United States have accepted the message? A mere handful, less than half a million. ¶

The coming of our Lord is nigh ; the wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilence, apostasy and wickedness bespeak the near approach of His coming, and we have been giving this message to the people for about ninety years, pleading with them to repent and prepare the way and put on the wedding garments, to fill their lamps that they might be prepared to go out and meet the bridegroom. How many have received the message? The same old story — history repeats itself, men and nations have to learn, it seems, by their own experience, and many will suffer bitter disappointment and condemnation. ¶

May the Lord bless those of us, who have embraced the gospel, and enable us to be true and faithful and may He have mercy upon those who are in spiritual darkness, and who have honest hearts, and lead them to hear, to understand, and to obey its truth ; I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. ¶