Opening Address on Law, Government, and Obedience

It is a source of great pleasure and satisfaction to me to see such a magnificent audience here today, almost completely filling this house. I am sure that those who are standing in the gallery and on the south side of the building, by a little closing up on the part of the audience, could all have a seat. I have no recollection of ever seeing an audience here on a week day, in the opening of our conference, where there were so many people standing when we commenced speaking. There could be no greater evidence of the interest of the Latter-day Saints than is shown by this great outpouring of people at the first meeting of our General Conference, and I am grateful to all those who are here assembled. I know you have come here with a desire to be fed the bread of life. I have no desire whatever to say anything to you this morning except that which may be for your benefit, as well as for my own. ¶

Engaged for Many Years in Proclaiming the Gospel

Forty years ago this October conference, I met the late Elder George Teasdale of the Council of the Twelve, at the south gate, and he shook hands with me and said : "Brother Grant, I am delighted to see you. You and I are going to be" — and he stopped suddenly and his face turned red; but the Lord gave me the balance of the sentence. Four times in my life I have been permitted to read the thoughts of people. The balance of Brother Teasdale's sentence was — "sustained this afternoon as apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ to fill the vacancies in the Quorum," and that went through me like a shock of electricity. I came to the Sunday afternoon meeting of the conference, because of this partial sentence, and the balance that was given to me, with the assurance in my heart that Brother Teasdale and myself would be sustained as apostles. Those of you who were at that conference remember that it adjourned without filling those vacancies. I do not believe that any mortal man ever more humbly supplicated God during the next few days to forgive him for his egotism than I did for thinking that I was to be chosen as an ¶

apostle. As you are aware, within a week a revelation came to John Taylor calling Brother Teasdale and myself to those positions. For forty years I have been engaged in proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and bearing witness to my knowledge that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of the true and the living God. I have had the privilege of bearing that testimony in nearly every state of the Union, in Canada on the north, in Mexico on the south, in the Hawaiian Islands, in far-off Japan, in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and I have had exceeding great joy, during all of those forty years, in bearing this testimony. ¶

I was undecided in my mind, before coming to this meeting which of the many things that I had read in the Book of Mormon and in the Doctrine and Covenants I would speak upon. The only question was : Which is the one theme to present? I have no hesitancy now as to the thing to talk about, because the opening prayer was on the identical subject of the first item that I read this morning in the Doctrine and Covenants, and that was to sustain and to uphold the laws of the land. ¶

Belief of the Latter-day Saints on Government and Laws in General

I have been criticized, time and time again, by friends and others, and have had much splendid advice given to me not to read so much in public because nothing could be more tiresome to an audience than reading; but I am not here for the purpose of saying something to tickle your ears or to please you, but I am here with a prayer in my heart to say those things that shall be for your best good and benefit, and mine also. I honestly believe that it will be for our best good to hear every word of an entire section of the Doctrine and Covenants which is: ¶

"A Declaration of Belief regarding Governments and Laws in general, adopted by unanimous vote at a general assembly of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held at Kirtland, Ohio, August 17, 1S35." (Section 134.) ¶

"We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man ; and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society. ¶

"We believe that no government can exist in peace, except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the free exercise of conscience, the right and control of property, and the protection of life." (And that means the right to labor without taking the chance of being killed.) ¶

"We believe that all governments necessarily require civil officers and magistrates; to enforce the laws of the same ; and that such as will administer the law in equity and justice should be sought for and upheld by the voice of the people (if a republic) or the will of the sovereign. ¶

"We believe that religion is instituted of God ; and that men are amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless their religious opinions ¶

prompt them to infringe upon the rights and liberties of others ; but we do not believe that human law has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion; that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control conscience ; should punish guilt, but never suppress the freedom of the soul. ¶

"We believe that all men are bound to sustain and uphold the respective governments in which they reside, while protected in their inherent and inalienable rights by the laws of such governments ; and that sedition and rebellion are unbecoming every citizen thus protected, and should be punished accordingly; and that all governments have a right to enact such laws as in their own judgments are best calculated to secure the public interest; at the same time, however, holding sacred the freedom of conscience. ¶

"We believe that every man should be honored in his station, rulers and magistrates as such, being placed for the protection of the innocent and the punishment of the guilty; and that to the laws all men owe respect and deference, as without them peace and harmony would be supplanted by anarchy and terror; human laws being instituted for the express purpose of regulating our interests as individuals and nations, between man and man ; and divine laws given of heaven, prescribing rules on spiritual concerns, for faith and worship, both to be answered by man to his Maker. ¶

"We believe that rulers, states, and governments have a right, and are bound to enact laws for the protection ,of all citizens in the free exercise of their religious belief; but we do not believe that they have a right in justice to deprive citizens of this privilege, or proscribe them in their opinions, so long as a regard and reverence are shown to the laws and such religious opinions do not justify sedition nor conspiracy. ¶

"We believe that the commission of crime should be punished according to the nature of the offense; that murder, treason, robbery, theft, and the .breach of the general peace, in all respects, should be punished according to their criminality, and their tendency to evil among men, by the laws of that government in which the offense is committed; and for the public peace and tranquility, all men should step forward and use their ability in bringing offenders against good laws to punishment. ¶

"We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government, whereby one religious society is fostered and another proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of its members, as citizens, denied. ¶

"We believe that a'l religious societies have a right to deal with their members for disorderly conduct, according to the rules and regulations of such societies; provided that such dealings be for fellowship and good standing; but we do not believe that any religious society has authority to try men on the right of property or life, to take from them this world's goods, or to put them in jeopardy of either life or limb, or to inflict any physical punishment upon them. They can only excommunicate them from their society, and withdraw from them their fellowship. ¶

"We believe that men should appeal to the civil law for redress of all wrongs and grievances, where personal abuse is inflicted, or the right of property or character infringed, where such laws exist as will protect the same; but we believe that all men are justified in defending themselves, their friends, ana property, and the government, from the unlawful assaults and encroachments of all persons in times of exigency, where immediate appeal cannot be made to the laws, and relief afforded. ¶

"We believe it just to preach the gospel to the nations of the earth, and warn the righteous to save themselves from the corruption of the world ; but we do not believe it right to interfere wih bond-servants, neither preach the gospel to, nor baptize them, contrary to the will and wish of their masters, nor to meddle with or influence them in the least, to cause them to be dissatisfied ¶

with their situation in this life, thereby jeopardizing the lives of men; such interference we believe to be unlawful and* unjust, and dangerous to the peace of every government allowing human beings to be held in servitude." ¶

Duty of the Saints to Sustain and Live the Law

I endorse with all my heart this declaration sustained by the unanimous vote of the general conference in 1835. I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that it is the duty of every Latter-day Saint to sustain and live the law. I believe that every Latter-day Saint who has any idea in his or her heart that some law has been passed that is not a righteous law, after it has been fought out in the courts and has been decided, whatever the decision may be, by the highest tribunal of our great and glorious country, the Supreme Court of the United States, that it is his duty to obey such law. I believe that every Latter-day Saint — and by the way no man is a Latter-day Saint who drinks whisky — but any "Mormon" who drinks whisky today knows that he is in condemnation before the Lord Almighty, whether he is the one who bought the whisky, or whether he is simply a partaker of it. I believe that every Latter-day' Saint owes it to himself to uphold and sustain what is known as the cigarette law, and I believe that we as a people should know by the announcement of every man; who is to be elected to the legislature, that he will stand for that law, and if he will not so announce himself, if his opponent, no' matter what his politics may be, will stand for that law, that we ought to bury our politics and vote for the man favoring the retaining and enforcing of the cigarette law. ¶

Best Men Should Be Chosen Regardless of Politics

Politics reminds me very much of the measles. The measles don't hurt much if you will take a little saffron tea or something else to keep them on the surface, but if they once set in on you, they turn your hide yellow and sometimes make you cross-eyed. So do not let politics set in on you. I believe absolutely in the best men for office. I believe in honest, upright, good men being chose to occupy places and positions in the state and in the Church. ¶

The Saints Believe in the Words of the Prophet Joseph

We testify to all the world that Joseph Smith met the Creator of heaven and earth. We testify to all the world that in answer to the question asked of God, as to which of all the various religions in the world had the truth, that God pointed to his son, Jesus Christ, and announced that he was his well beloved Son and said: "Hear him," and that the Savior of the world told Joseph Smith to join none of them. We believe that the man who promulgated these statements regarding government and laws was a prophet of the living God. We believe the statements made in the section following what I have read to you — and by the way, as I am not here to please you, I will also read Section 135 : ¶

"Martyrdom of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and his brother, Hyrum Smith the Patriarch, at Carthage, Illinois, June 27, 1844. ¶

"To seal the testimony of this book and the Book of Mormon, we announce the martyrdom of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and Hyrum Smith the Patriarch. They were shot in Carthage jail, on the 27th of June, 1844, about five o'clock p. m., by an armed mob — painted black — of from 150 to 200 persons. Hyrum was shot first and fell calmly, exclaiming: I am a dead man! Joseph leaped from the window, and was shot dead in the attempt, exclaiming: O Lord, my God! They were both shot after they were dead, in a brutal manner, and both received four balls. ¶

"John Taylor and Willard Richards, two of the Twelve, were the only persons in the room at the time; the former was wounded in a savage manner with four balls, but has since recovered; the latter, through the providence of God, escaped, without even a hole in his robe. ¶

"Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever liyed in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power1 of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord's anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated! ¶

"When Joseph went to Carthage to deliver himself up to the pretended requirements of the law, two or three days previous to his assassination, he said: 'I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer's morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me — he was murdered in cold blood.'" (And that is said of him all over the world, whether by members of the Church or not, who are familiar with all the circumstances. A more dastardly, outrageous murder was never before committed in the world.) ¶

"The same morning, after Hyrum had made ready to go— shall it be said to the slaughter? yes, for so it was — he read the following paragraph, near the close of the twelfth chapter of Ether, in the Book of Mormon, and turned down the leaf upon it: ¶

" 'And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore thy garments are clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness, thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I * * * bid farewell unto the Gentiles; yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with yor blood.' The testators are now dead, anld their testament is' in force." ¶

My mother, as»a young woman, lived in Nauvoo for years. She assured me that no more God-fearing, upright mortal ever trod the ¶

earth than Hyrum Smith, the Patriarch, and I have no doubt whatever as to the absolute exaltation of Joseph and Hyrum in the presence of the Lord. I have no doubt that these two men are assisting in directing, by the power that they have on the other side, the work of God here on the earth, notwithstanding their martyrdom. ¶

"Hyrum Smith was forty-four years old in February, 1844, and Joseph Smith was thirty-eight in December, 1843 ; and henceforward their names will be classed among the martyrs of religion; and the reader in every nation will be reminded that the Book of Mormon, and this book ,of Doctrine and Covenants of the Church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation pf a ruined world; and that if the fire can scathe a green tree for the glory of God, how easy it will burn up the dry trees to purify thej vineyard of corruption. They lived for glory; they died for glory; artd glory is their eternal reward. From age to age shall their names go down to posterity as gems for the sanctified. ¶

"They were innocent of any crime, as they had often been proved before, and were only confined in jail by the conspiracy of traitors and wicked men; and their innocent blood on the floor of Carthage jail is a broad seal affixed to 'Mormonism' that cannot be rejected by any court on earth, and their innocent blood on the escutcheon of the State of Illinois, with the broken faith of the State as pledged by the governor, is a witness to the truth of the everlasting gospel that all the world cannot impeach ; and their innocent blood on the banner of liberty, and on the magna charta of the United States, is an ambassador for the religion of Jesus Christ, that will touch the hearts of honest men among all nations ; and their innocent blood, with the innocent blood of all the martyrs under the altar that John saw, will cry unto the Lord of Hosts till he avenges that blood on the earth." ¶

This Audience a Testimony to the Divinity of the Church

I have understood that this splendid account of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith was written by President John Taylor, known as the "Champion of Liberty" who received four shots in his body and who lived carrying some of those bullets to his grave, and who, years after the martyrdom, stood before the people in this stand as the President, Prophet, Seer and Revelator of the Church of Jesus Christ. Men may conspire, men may work against the Church of God again established upon the earth, but the statement here made that no man, saving Jesus Christ himself, has done more for the salvation of humanity than did Joseph Smith, cannot be controverted. I am at the defiance of the world tot have any religious people, I do not care where you go, with no more members than the Latter-day Saints have, to call a conference of the people and have such a splendid audience as there is here today. This very audience is a testimony to every living soul who stops to reflect upon it, that God has in very deed, through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith, established again upon the earth the plan of life and salvation ; that Jesus Christ did direct him. All the disbelief of all the world that God and" Jesus Christ spoke to him, cannot change the fact, if it is a fact — and God has given to me, to hundreds and thousands, and tens of thousands of his children, from the country of the Midnight Sun, Scandinavia, clear ¶

down to South Africa, all over Europe, from Canada to South America, and all over the Islands of the sea, an absolute witness by the Holy Spirit that Joseph Smith is in very deed a Prophet of the living God. ¶

Falsehoods Still Promulgated Cocerning the Church

Allow me to read a news clipping sent me in a letter by former Governor John C. Cutler. He says : "I thought the annexed clipping would be information to you, as it was to me" : ¶

"MORMON LEADER POLITICAL BOSS SAYS REFORMER ¶

(Exclusive Dispatch) ¶

"Winona Lake (Ind.) August 9. — The most powerful political private individual in America today is H. J. Grant, head of the 'Mormon' Kingdom," declared Dr. James S. Martin of Pittsburg, superintendent of the National Reform Association, in addressing the annual Christian Citizenship Institute here today. "Twenty-six years ago," he continued, "there was not a principal man in all 'Mormondom' who had even s,o much as a vote. All had been disfranchised by the United States government on account of their crimes. Today H. J. Grant patronizes presidents, makes bargains with great political parties, dictates the political policies of Utah and at least five surrounding states and wields effective political influences in at least five others." ¶

The gentleman must have been listening to one of the lying speeches of a notorious anti-"Mormon" woman. Martin is the Superintendent of the National Reform Association. If he is properly quoted he better reform himself, and purge himself of falsehood. There is a special place prepared for his kind, and if he does not repent he will land there. I announce to all the world that I do not even control, politicaly, Utah, and that I have no desire to control Utah, that I have never opened my mouth in favor of or against any individual in any of the adjacent states that he is reported to say I control politically. Joseph Smith was told that his name "should be had for good and evil among all nations," or that it should be both "good and evil spoken of among all people," and we, his successors, have had the same privilege. We have been lied about most scandalously. One anti-"Mormon" is reported to have said that I had fifteen million dollars in a Wall Street bank, as Trustee-in-Trust for the Church; and I never had fifteen cents. ¶

Disbelief and Lies of the World Can Not Stop the Progress of the Work

As I have said, all the disbelief of all the world and all the lies of men like Doctor Martin, who might inform themselves and therefore do not need to tell these lies, cannot stop the progress of this work. Just to show you that it cannot be stopped, let me read again what the Lord told Joseph Smith when he was incarcerated in Liberty Jail. You cannot keep the revelations of the Lord even from coming to the Prophet while in a jail. I will let you read some of it yourselves. It is Section 121. Read it all. I will start with the 33rd verse : ¶

"How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints. ¶

"Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they riot chosen? ¶

"Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson— ¶

"That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness." ¶

Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, or any one of his successors, cannot, and never1 could, handle the powers of heaven only in righteousness, and they never tried to. ¶

"That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition', or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves ; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved ; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man. ¶

"Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks, to persecute the saints, and to fight against God. ¶

"We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. ¶

"Hence many are called, but few are chosen. ¶

"No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; ¶

"By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile — ¶

"Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy; ¶

"That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death. ¶

"Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God ; and the doctrine of the priesthood! shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. ¶

"The Holy Ghost shall be thy "constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever." ¶

Liberty Jail did not keep back the inspiration of the living God from Joseph Smith ; as few if any greater revelations have ever been given us than this one received in Liberty Jail. ¶

I will now quote from section 76: ¶

"And this is the Gospel, the glad tidings, which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us — ¶

"That he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness." (Doc. and Cov., Sec. 76.) ¶

That is the testimony of the gospel that we bear to all the world. Men have said: "We believe that Jesus Christ lives, but we don't know it." Two men at least knew it, and here is their testimony ; this is the testimony of Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon : ¶

"And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him : That he lives ! ¶

"For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father— ¶

"That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God." ¶

Our Sacrifices for the Gospel a Proof of Our Love for It

"Oh but," says one, "I don't believe it." Once more allow me to announce that all the disbelief of all the world cannot change the fact, if it is a fact, and God has given to thousands and tens of thousands the witness by the revelations of his Holy Spirit that it is a fact, that "Mormonism" socalled by the world, is in very deed the plan of life and salvation; that Joseph Smith was in very deed the Prophet of the true and living God. People say: "We cannot understand the strength of "Mormonism," we cannot understand why two thousand young men and young women at one time, at their own expense or at the expense of their families, will go into the world, giving their time without money and without price, to proclaim the gospel losing their wages, paying their own way, to proclaim your faith." Every Latter-day Saint can understand it. They understand it because those young men and those young women who go' out to proclaim the gospel, live it, they in very deed are fulfilling the requirements laid down by the Savior "to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, might and strength," and the next great commandment, "to love our neighbor as ourselves." No other people in all the world are giving such an evidence of the love of God and the love of their fellows as is given by our missionaries. Day after day the majority of all the letters that come to the desk of the Presidency of the Church are from young men and young women who are called upon missions, and it is the rarest thing in the world to find a missionary call that is not favorably and willingly answered. ¶

When we send out these calls for missions the answer comes back : "I thank the Lord that he has seen fit to inspire his servants to call me upon a mission. It has been the dream of my life." Another : "My heart has always longed to go forth and proclaim this gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful that the call has come." That is the class of letters that we get day after day. There are tens of thousands of men and women who have gone forth to proclaim this gospel, and the amount of sacrifice in actual dollars, in proportion to our numbers, ¶

is almost beyond calculation. When you figure that these people could earn probably, on an average, $100 per month, that they are spending from $20 to, in same cases, $60 and $70 a month, an average probably of nearly $50; that two thousand or nearly that number, and sometimes it has been in excess, are giving all this time and this expense; add it together and it amounts to several million dollars a year, and all done with no hope of earthly reward. ¶

The Uncertain Replies of the Ministers

I remember while proclaiming the gospel in England I ran across a book written by ex-Senator Beveridge, I believe he was then a senator, entitled, The Young Man and the World. I have referred to it many times here, but I desire to refer to it again. In that book I found chapters on, "The Young Man and the Pulpit," "The Young Man and His Home," "The Young Man and the Law ;" and in the chapter on "The Young Man and the Pulpit," he said that a certain individual with very splendid chances for favorable answers, with good opportunities during an entire summer vacation asked of all the ministers that he met, three questions and he announced before coming to those questions that one of the greatest transportation men in all the United States had said that he would rather have a knowledge that we live again and that the soul is immortal than to have the greatest honor and the greatest position that could be given in all the world, and he told of another man that was just an ordinary ward politician who said he thought of many strange things — "Is the soul immortal and what is the soul anyway?" The three questions were as follows : ¶

"First, yes or no, Do you believe in God, the Father; God a person, God a definite and tangible intelligence — not a congeries of laws floating like a fog through the universe ; but God a person, in whose image you were made ? Don't argue ; don't explain ; but is your mind in a condition where you can answer yes or no?" ¶

"Not a man answered, "Yes." Each man wanted to explain that the Deity might be a definite intelligence or might not ; that the 'latest thought' was much confused upon the matter, and so forth and so on." ¶

Then the next question : ¶

"Yes or no : Do you believe that Christ was the Son of the living God, sent by him to save the world? I am not asking whether you believe that he was inspired, in the sense that the great moral teachers are inspired — nobody has any difficulty about that. But do you believe that Christ was God's very Son, with a divinely appointed and definite mission, dying on the cross and raised from the dead. — yes or no?" ¶

"Again not a single answer with an unequivocal, earnest 'Yes.' But again explanations were offered and in at least half the instances the sum of most of the answers was that Christ was the most perfect ¶

man that the world had seen, and humanity's greatest moral teacher." ¶

He was not a great moral teacher if he was not the Son of God, because he announced himself as the Son of God. He announced himself as the Redeemer of the world, and therefore he could not be a great moral teacher, if the foundation upon which he stood was a falsehood. ¶

The third question was : ¶

"Do you believe that when you die you will live again as a conscious intelligence, knowing who you are and who other people are?" ¶

"Again, not one answer was unconditionally affirmative. 'Of course they were not sure as a matter of knowledge.' 'Of, course that could not be known positively.' " ¶

The Definite Answer of the Latter-day Saints to These Questions

The Latter-day Saints everywhere in the wide world, without one moment's hesitation, would answer : "Yes, yes, yes," to all three of those questions. We have no doubt that God is a person. Joseph Smith saw him and talked with him. We have no doubt that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the world because he declared that to Sidney Rigdon and to Joseph Smith in the declaration that I have just read to you. We have no doubt, because Jesus Christ appeared in the Kirtland temple to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. We have absolutely no doubt whatever regarding the immortality of the soul — ¶

"And should we die before our journey's through, ¶

Happy day ! all is well ! We then are free from toil and sorrow too, ¶

With the just we shall dwell." ¶

'I had a letter from the vice-president of a great banking institution, to whom I sang this song when he was in Utah, and he asked me for a copy of it. A few days later he repeated to me the last verse, and said: ¶

"Those are wonderfully inspiring words. I have never read a verse of any hymn that taught such an absolute, firm conviction in the immortality of the soul." ¶

In a letter which he wrote to me he referred to those words again, and he said: "I consider these the most sublime words I have ever heard. They inspire to courage and that beautiful confidence in the immortality of the soul that raises man to the stature of a God." ¶

Latter-day Saints answer those questions "Yes, yes, yes." Mr. Beveridge says that these ministers were among the most eloquent and high-grade ministers in the Eastern and New England states, and that they felt there was a decline of faith among the people. In that connection he said : ¶

"Is it possible that such priests of interrogation could warm the hearts of men?" He went on to say before he asked these quetsions that any man who stood up in the pulpit and undertook to teach the ¶

doctrines of Christ, when he lacked a faith in those doctrines himself, committed a sacrilege every time he entered the pulpit. ¶

Believe What You Say

I have heard it said that "damn" is not swearing, that it is only emphasis. I was preaching one night with the late President John Henry Smith, in the opera house in Phoenix. The legislature was in session. Hearing that two of the "Mormon" apostles were there, some of the members of the legislature waited on us and said they had arranged to hire the opera house, and they would agree to fill it if we would condescend to preach. Well, we usually hire our own hall and condescend to preach to empty benches ; so, of course, we condescended, and were delighted with the opportunity. One of the good sisters who came down from Mesa was sitting behind a man while I was preaching, and she heard him say, with emphasis, that I was an earnest preacher. Pretty soon, with that emphasis again, he said I was a good preacher, and finally once more with emphasis he said : "That man believes (with emphasis) every word he is saying." I ask no greater compliment. ¶

Gratitude to Parents Who Were True to the Faith

Before I sit down I want to say that I have never heard and never expect to hear, to the day of my death, my favorite hymn: "Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear, But with joy wend your way," but what I think of the death and the burial of my little baby sister, and the wolves digging up her body on the plains ; but what I think of the death of my father's first wife, and the bringing of her body here for burial, from Echo Canyon; but what I think of others that I know of, who laid down their lives; but what I think of that wonderful journey of Brigham Young and his band of Pioneers, and those who followed him, and my heart goes out in gratitude beyond all the power with which God has given me to express it, that my father and my mother were among those who were true to God, and who made those sacrifices for the conviction of their hearts, because of the knowledge that they had that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, and that Joseph Smith is his Prophet. I never hear this other hymn that we have sung here today — "Do what is right" — but what I desire with all the power of my being to impress upon the Latter-day Saints the necessity of following the teachings of the last verse of that hymn, ¶

"Do what is right; be faithful and fearless, Onward, press onward, the goal is in sight; ¶

Eyes that are wet now, ere long will be tearless, Blessings await you in doing what's right. ¶

"Do what is right, let the consequence follow, ¶

Battle for freedom in spirit and might, And with stout hearts look ye forth till tomorrow, ¶

God will protect you, do what is right." ¶

God bless you all. Amen. ¶