The Strength of the Latter-day Saints

{President of the Southern States Mission) ¶

I humbly pray that I may be blessed with the Spirit of the Lord and speak lunder that divine power by which words are carried unto the hearts of the children of men. ¶

"The rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven." This comforting truth has been abundantly manifested in this conference thus far, for by the rights of the Priesthood, the President of the Church, his counselors, and other general authorities have spoken unto Israel, and the powers of heaven have responded, to the instruction and comfort of the Latter-day Saints. We are half in heaven and half on earth when we do the will of the Father; for there is no liberty so sweet and enduring as the liberty of the gospel ; and the wealth, the honors, the dignities of the world cannot equal nor bring that peace which comes from a still and quiet conscience, ¶

Isaiah said: ¶

"For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name sholl be called Wonderful,, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." ¶

It was the Prince of Peace who inspired President Warren G. Harding to call that notable assembly, the Disarmament Conference. Under the Spirit of the Prince of Peace, that conference labored to do away with the horrors of war, and 'bring peace to a troubled world. Is it not the beginning of the fulfilment of that great prediction that swords shall be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruninghooks? As the Lord can send peace to the nations who seek himt so can he send peace to the laboring conscience. In the beginning of this dispensation God commanded that the elders of this Church should preach repentance unto the people, because if people do not repent, they become ripened in iniquity, and then their doom is sealed, for the fulness of the wrath of God comes upon people and nations when they are ripened in iniquity. ¶

By the word of the Lord this land was designated as the land of promise, which was choice above all other land's, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people * * * whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve Him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them.. * * * And the fulness of His wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity. Moroni, in the second chapter of the book of Ether, gives this solemn warning to the people of this dispensation. He had in mind the people of the world today when "he spoke this word of warning: ¶

"And this cometh unto you,, O ye Gentiles, that ye may know the decrees of God — that ye may repent, and not continue in your iniquities until the fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done." ¶

In the same book is a fateful prophecy. The prophets "testified that a great curse should come upon the land, and also upon the people, and that there should be a great destruction among them, such an one as never had been upon the face of the earth, and their bones should become as heaps of earth upon the face of the land, except they should repent of their wickedness.'' On the banks of the Tennessee river, near Chattanooga, is an artificial hill, called the Citico Mound. The officials of the county in which the mound is situated were building a road and had commenced to plow away the mound ; but the leading Presbyterian minister of that city protested against it as an act of desecration. Why? Because scientists who had explored that mound discovered it to be a vast tomb filled with the hones of men and women upon whom judgments had fallen because of their iniquity. This is one evidence of the fulfilment of that prophecy. I ask you, is that not a proof that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God? ¶

What sin brings men and women in the ripeness of iniquity? I tell you, my brethren and sisters, it is immorality. Coming from Miami, a few weeks ago, to Jacksonville, in an automobile, a distance of four hundred miles, we saw many automobiles on the road in the dead' of night, after the clock had tolled the hour of midnight, and in these automobiles we could see by the light of the moon, girls of tender age, young women and young men, ofut riding that time of night in the country over lonely roads. Such practice will result in disaster. Young men and young women, who go automobile riding in the dead of night, when it is not necessary to make such journeys, so sure as God lives are sowing the seeds of misery and sorrow. "Woe to them," says the prophet, "that are at ease in Zion." Woe to the parent who is at ease when his sons and daughters are out pleasure-riding at night. Woe to the parents who are lulled into a sense of fancied security concerning their sons and daughters. These precious and splendid young men and women who come to the missions to preach the word of God are choice spirits — the greatest blessing that God has given to His people. ' Isaiah declared that Jesus was "a man of sorrows." ¶

"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." ¶

Physicians find diseases that baffle their skill, but ¶

"Earth holds no sorrow that heaven cannot heal." ¶

Jesus Christ is the ¶

"Joy of the desolate, light of the straying, Hope of the penitent, fadeless and pure." ¶

He, hy His gospel, will heal the diseased mind ; He will pluck from ¶

the repentant heart the sting of sin and wickedness. He will remove that awful torture of remorse of conscience, if the sinner will surrender unconditionally to Him and obey the gospel. The Apostle John says, ¶

"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light,, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." ¶

But suppose the sinner elects to take the downward path and become a law unto himself. What then? Listen to what the Lord says : ¶

"For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all that they might not suffer if they would repent." ¶

What wonderful goodness ! Well might Paul say, ¶

"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty, might be rich." ¶

Not rich according to the things of the world, but rich as to the things of God — the gift of salvation, the boon of eternal life, which will exalt us in the presence of God. ¶

"But if they would not repent, they must suffer even as I." ¶

Now Jesus describes the suffering of the sinner. Listen to Him : ¶

"Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit; and would that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink. ¶

"Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men: ¶

"Wherefore, I command you again to repent,, lest I humble you with my almighty power, and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit." ¶

What makes an apostate bitter? What makes a man rebellious at heart, and fight with fury and bitterness of soul the Church and the leaders whom God hath appointed?. I tell you, my brethren and sisters, it is the sins which were forgiven him at baptism that have returned unto him ; for so hath the Lord said. He commands men to retain by a godly life the remission of their sins, but if they sin, he withdraws His Spirit ; they are left to themselves, they are filled with bitterness and hate for the work of God ; no matter how bright, how glowing, how strong the testimony of the gospel, it cannot live, it will not abide, when men who had that testimony do wickedly. And they return to their former sins, as the dog to his vomit, and the sow to her wallowing in the mire, their former sins return to them and they are left in the bitterness of sin and in the thralldom and bondage of Satan. ¶

"Salvation," said the prophet Joseph Smith, "is for a man to be ¶

saved from all his enemies ; for until a man can triumph over death he is not saved. A knowledge of the Priesthood alone will do this." By the power of Jesus Christ the faithful Saints shall arise in the glory of the resurrection, clothed in white, heirs of God, and joint heirs of Jesus. ¶

Brethren and sisters, I bear you my testimony that this gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Just as surely as I know that I stand here, I know that Jesus is our Redeemer, and that He liveth and maketh intercession with God for the children of men. By the same Spirit I know that this gospel is the power of God Unto salvation — that salvation which shall conquer death and bring light, immortality, and glory and exaltation in the kingdom of God. ¶

Those here who do not belong to this Church, who have not tasted of the sweetness of the fruits of the gospel, I invite to repent and to be baptized for the remission of their sins, and they shall receive, by the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, a testimony that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God, and that this gospel is in truth and in deed the power of God unto salvation, which I testify in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶