Remarks by Joseph W. McMurrin

(Of the First Council of Seventy and President of the California Mission) ¶

It is certainly a great privilege, my brethren and sisters, to be in attendance at this general Conference, and to have the opportunity of occupying a few moments in this meeting. I most earnestly hope that the words I speak may be prompted by the same good Spirit that has directed the remarks made by the brethren who have addressed the people thus far in the conference. I realize, my brethren and sisters, that one can only teach the things of the kingdom of heaven by the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord, and that ievery man must be under the direction and in the companionship of that Spirit, if he is to magnify his calling and Priesthood and discharge acceptably the duty and responsibility that rest upon him as a servant of God, who holds divine authority. ¶

I am very glad to say to the people that the California mission, is in a very prosperous condition. We are glad to be able to report that the missionaries assigned to that field of labor are striving as a general thing to discharge the duties that rest upon them. They are making earnest effort to come in contact with the people throughout the mission, and to deliver to them the message of the gospel, and make exposition according to their power and ability concerning the truths that have been revealed, and that they have been authorized to teach. The missionaries know that these principles are essential to the salvation of the children of men. Generally speaking, the missionaries are young men and women with but little experience in the Church. Many of them come into the mission field without any experience at all in standing before the people, to attempt to give expression to their ¶

thoughts pertaining to the gospel, but they all come with the determination to discharge their duty. They all manifest a very willing and obedient spirit. As a general thing, they are anxious to study the gospel and to obtain information by the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and by asking questions that will help equip them for the duties that rest upon them as preachers of righteousness. It is certainly a very wonderful thing to observe the spirit and attention to duty manifest by these young men and women, and to note the development they make and the understanding they come to concerning the work of God until, notwithstanding the feeling of weakness of which they are all possessed to a greater or less extent, they do come to feel and know in their very souls that they have been called of God to preach the gospel of his Son, and they do have an assurance that they have been blessed with that authority which is necessary in the preaching of the gospel. I oftentimes feel, as I listen to their testimonies, and note the development that they make, that they are just as sure in their own souls concerning the truth of the work of God, as their fathers and mothers are. There is no indication on the part of the missionaries who are laboring in the California mission that they love the truth of God one whit less than the generation that preceded them. They are just as anxious and they are just as determined to discharge the duties that pertain to their calling as their fathers or their grandfathers could have been in the days that have gone by. ¶

We have about ten thousand Latter-day Saints in the California mission. Most of these people are located in the state of California; a few, probably seventeen hundred, are in the state of Arizona, and a much smaller number in the state of Nevada. The mission includes portions of the state of Arizona and portions of the state of Nevada. There has been a very wonderful growth in the membership of the mission during the past two years, not so much by way of conversions although there are always some honest souls found by the missionaries, as they go from door to door, or as they lift up their voices in the proclamation of the gospel upon the street corners, who hearken to their message, and are brought to investigate the principles of the gospel, and become convinced of its truth, and cheerfully enter into covenant with the Lord our God by going down into the waters of baptism. A few hundred souls, year by year, are thus convinced of the message that the missionaries are seeking to impart to the people ; but the great development in numbers has come from people at home. We have had, probably, in the last eighteen months, or such a period, two thousand or more Church members who have come to California, bringing their recommends, and have undertaken to establish homes in various portions of the state. Many other Church members have come into the state who have not yet become identified with the Church. ¶

California has not been distressed financially to the same extent during the past year or two that many of the western states have been. There has been considerable employment; in fact, I think there has ¶

been employment for all who desired to find labor, particularly those who are engaged in building, as there are thousands of residences and many great hotels, theatre buildings, bank buildings, and other buildings of like character, that have been erected during the past year or two. The present year is one of the remarkable years in the growth of southern California. It has been stated by those who seem to understand and know what they are talking about, that there are more buildings now being erected, or that have been erected during the present year, than in any other like period in the history of California, and because of the lack of employment and dull business conditions in Utah, Idaho and Arizona, and other sections, many of our people have come to California to find employment. I am happy to be able to say that, as a general thing, they have found employment, and have been able to maintain themselves comfortably. These newcomers are strengthening, to a very wonderful degree, the branches of the California mission. I suppose the largest branch that has ever been known in the Church is located in Los Angeles. This branch has a membership of about three thousand souls. The Los Angeles branch is divided into a number of subdivisions. There are no independent branches in these suborganizations, but there are five other divisions where Sabbath schools are being held, where a preaching service is conducted every Sabbath morning, and where Relief Societies have been organized. There are also other districts that are being opened up where we hope in the near future there will be other organizations effected. ¶

We have been trying to give attention to the people who have come in from the adjoining states. We are seeking to effect organizations and endeavoring to impress upon the people, as they come, that they are always under obligation to give service to the work of God, and to be true to the covenants that they have made with our Father in heaven, and set an honorable upright example before the people. ¶

We try to impress upon the missionaries that it is the solemn obligation of every man and woman who has been called to be a preacher of righteousness to be an eloquent preacher in conduct. It may not be given to every man or woman to expound the doctrines of the gospel by word of mouth eloquently, but we feel that it is given to every man and to every woman to expound the gospel, most eloquently, by the uprightness of their lives, by living in such a manner that those who look upon them may feel in their hearts to say: This man or this woman is a good man or a good woman. Their conduct indicates that they have the fear of God in their souls, and that they desire to work righteousness. ¶

Wa are trying to impress upon the minds of men the principles that have been spoken of in this conference. We are testifying to the people that we are living in a wonderful age in the history of the world, and that in this great and last dispensation in which we live, the Lord our God has in very deed revealed himself to mortal men; ¶

that by the sending of holy angels the divine authority, which had been lost from among men for ages, has been restored, and that there is necessity for this authority ; that men cannot be saved ifl the presence of God without the authority of the holy Priesthood. The ordinances of the gospel necessary to the salvation of men can only be legally administered by divine authority, and no man can assume that authority. If men pretend within themselves — even though they may have honest feelings in their own souls — that they have the authority to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to administer in the ordinances thereof, they but deceive themselves ; for the administering of gospel ordinances can only be properly and legally attended to by the authority of the holy Priesthood. ¶

We are trying to impress upon the minds of men the fact that that authority has been restored ; that God our Father in heaven has, in very deed, in this age of the world, given back to man the same power and authority that was exercised by the apostles of old, and by other men who were chosen, legally and properly by the apostles, and sent forth to preach the gospel of repentance. ¶

We do not feel that it is possible for any being to receive this authority from the Holy Scriptures. Recently, in one of our priesthood meetings, a young lady missionary, who feels the great responsibility that rests upon her, and her own weakness, and is seeking to discharge her duty in going from door to door, came to the home of a minister of the gospel, and the minister gave the young lady to understand that it was time wasted for her to come to his door with the message that she had to deliver. Pie told her that he had been a , preacher of the gospel for forty years, and wanted to know from her what right she had to come to his home with the gospel message. She then wanted to know from him where he obtained his authority. She asked a very simple question: "How did you obtain authority to be a minister of the gospel, and to administer gospel ordinances?" And he made answer : "I obtained that authority from the Holy Bible." Well, my brethren and sisters, weak as the lady missionary may have felt, she did know in her soul that he had never obtained one particle of authority to administer in the name of Jesus Christ from the Holy Bible. She had understanding and comprehension to know that no man living can find authority to speak in the name of the Redeemer of the world by the reading of the Holy Scriptures, that authority can only be received by the laying on of hands and by the voice of revelation and prophecy. ¶

When inquiry is made of missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as to how they obtained authority they give an altogether different answer. I have given it myself when men have wanted to know: "How did you receive authority?" I have made answer: "I was ordained to be a special witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, a Seventy in the Church of Christ, by a man named Royal A. Barney, and Royal A. Barney was ordained to the same calling by the Prophet Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith was ordained ¶

by Peter, James and John, who were ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ;" and I have no thought or fear in my mind when I make this sort of answer, that any man living can overturn the foundation of authority that has been given to me, by the laying on of the hands of a humble servant of God who had been properly authorized and commissioned by authority thus revealed from heaven in these latter times. It cannot be overturned. ¶

I rejoice in my soul in bearing witness that this divine authority has been given. I rejoice in the opportunity of inviting men to investigate the message of the gospel, and I understand that I am called to preach the fundamental principles of the gospel, thjat the responsibility is upon me, and upon my associates, to cry repentance among the people, to invite men not only to have faith in the Redeemer of the world, but to repent from sin, and we understand that if men repent, they turn away definitely and entirely from wrongdoing. As it has been said by one of the apostles : "Let him that stole, steal no more;" and this teaching applies to every other line of misconduct. We persuade men to repent and to receive the ordinance that has been given by our Father in heaven, whereby remission of sins can be obtained, through the holy ordinance of baptism by immersion. How it gladdens my soul ; and it gladdens the souls of my companions, when they go down into the waters of baptism and, lifting up their hands before the Lord God of heaven, and before their associates and witnesses, can say: "Being commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." For it is by that sort of commission, and by that character of authority that we lead men and women into the waters of baptism, and we do know that this authority has been given us. ¶

I sometimes feel that men think that it is a radical and improper attitude for young men and women, who stand up with more or less fear in their hearts, and make the declaration that they know that the truth of God has been revealed, and that divine authority has been restored. I, however, rejoice when I hear them bear such a record, for I know concerning this matter; and as God is my witness, I knew that God has spoken in the days of my boyhood. It came to me when I was far off, laboring as a boy missionary — the conviction and the knowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, the Redeemer of the world, and that he has revealed in this dispensation the principles and doctrines and ordinances that I have been called to teach. That knowledge came into my soul most convincingly fortyone or forty-two years ago, although it seems to me, when I look back that long, before that, before I ever felt that I could honestly and truthfully bear witness to such knowledge, when I look back now, it seems to me that there was always within me an abiding assurance that the religion of my fathers was in very deed the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do know, as my associates know, whether they be young or old, that we have not assumed this authority, that w« ¶

have not sent ourselves, but that we have been called of God by the Redeemer of the world, through the authority of the holy Priesthood to be preachers of righteousness ; and we do have the right to call men to repentance and to warn them of the judgments and calamities that are coming upon the inhabitants of the earth. The Lord God of heaven will confirm the testimony that is delivered by his servants and handmaidens, whether they be young or old, and the inhabitants of the earth in due time must be brought to comprehend and know that we speak the truth and lie not, thank God. ¶

And this is my joy and knowledge and testimony that these precious things that have been spoken by the presiding authority of the Church during these meetings are the truths of God, that they have been revealed, that they are to remain, that they are in very deed the power of God unto salvation. I feel again and again in my ministry to consecrate and reconsecrate my time and service to the spread of this glad message among the inhabitants of the earth. I feel that I am under obligation to the Lord God of heaven who has given me, from the very jaws of death, my life, and with the help of God I shall bear witness concerning his truth, whether men receive me gladly or whether they receive me with contempt. I am under obligation to bear this record and witness that God hath indeed spoken, that his Priesthood and authority have indeed been restored, that Joseph Smith was the great instrument to reintroduce the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation, and I pray that with you I may be true, firm and steadfast to this testimony forever and ever, through Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶