Remarks by J. Golden Kimball

{Of the First Council of the Seventy) ¶

Before I say anything else, I have something on my mind I want to get rid of first. I call attention to this picture — you cannot see. it very well at so long a distance. We have on this platform Brother William Jex. He was a great friend of my father's, and if he could not think of anything else to say he began to talk about Heber C. Kimball. This good man is 92 years old. He is a patriarch. He lives in Spanish Fork. I read the notation written under the picture ¶

he handed to me. He did not imagine I would read it. This picture shows, "a part of the family" — there is a multitude of Jexes, this picture being only a part of the family "of William and Eliza Jex, taken at their annual family reunion held January 1, 1914." Thirtyeight members of the family then living were not present — (could not get them all in!). "William and Eliza Goodson Jex were married in England, February 22, 1854."' That is one year after I was born. I am now going to tell you what damage they have done since. They embarked on a vessel bound for America. "The family now consists of the aged couple, eleven children, 115 grandchildren, 151 greatgrandchildren, and five of the fifth generation, making a total, on October 1, 1921, of 360 — including 64 who have become members of the family by marriage. Seventy-four of these have died." ¶

Now the climax comes. "The Jex family has spent altogether 76 years in the foreign missionary service, preaching the gospel, at an expense of $70,000 of their own means, over and above all their time for which they received no compensation. ¶

I call that faith and works. It puts me in mind of what my father said in talking in early days about this people. He said : "This people will multiply and increase until we will hardly know where to put them." Father told the Gentiles, "You will never be able to kill them off." Brother Jex has taken part in fulfiling this prophecy. ¶

It is not my purpose to talk very much. I haven't an outdoor voice. I have been trying to be sick for a couple of years, and I have rather fizzled out on it. I feel a good deal like the story I read the other day. "Some fellow was sitting on the pier that reached out into the ocean> — and he fell in, and he holloed, "Help! help! I can't swim." And an old fellow was sitting on the pier fishing, and he said : "Neither can I, but I wouldn't brag about it." I don't want to brag about sickness, because it is a kind of a disgrace to get sick in this Church, and not have faith to be healed. I was talking in one of the stakes of Zion to a bunch of careless Seventies, and I was trying to inject into them a little faith. Some fellow bawled out, "How do you get faith?" Well, it was such a sudden shock to me, I said, "I'll be blamed if I know." I told one of the greatest truths I have spoken for some time although somewhat crude. How do you know how you are going to get it? How do you know when you are going to get it? Nobody does. It just comes. And then it goes, and sometimes we do not have faith. That is about the way I have been since I have been sick. I have not had faith to be healed, and I have been ashamed. But I want to testify to you, and then read something into the record, and then quit. I guess there is a reporter here, isn't there? I am always afraid of those "blooming reporters ;" they always get things down as I say it, but it don't sound well. It sounds all right when I deliver it, but it doesn't read well in print. I don't know whether you believe what I say or not, and I don't care. All I care for is to finish my work, deliver my message, get through with this business, and if God can see ¶

fit in his mercy to give me salvation, that is all I want ; it is a mighty big thing to ask for — for the greatest gift of God to his children is salvation." My mother started out for a celestial glory. It is too big a climb for me. If I can get salvation, I will be happily surprised. Heber C. Kimball said : "If some of you 'Mormons' get salvation, you will be more surprised than anybody else." ¶

There are some things I know just as well as any Latter-day Saint knows. I am old enough to know a thing or two. I ought to know pretty near as much as some people who haven't had any more experience than I have. My only trouble is that I may lack authority to do and say some things, but I have got! all I can attend to. I have ordained hundred of Seventies. I do not know but it is thousands. Eight hundred and ninety Seventies have been ordained since January 1, 1922. Some of them are little good, but I did my work all right. I have set apart hundreds for foreign missions, and they have come back, many of them, and said, "Everything you promised me came true." ¶

I have seen the sick healed under my administration. I have witnessed nearly all kinds of diseases cured. And I will say right here, as far as God is concerned, and Jesus Christ, there is no disease that is incurable, if faith is exercised. I know that I have the key, that I hold the Priesthood, and there isn't a man in all the world to make me believe that I have not got it. It may be I do not live up to all the requirements — I will now begin to read into the record. I write books, but I put them in a pigeon hole and lock them up where they cannot do any damage. I feel aroused sometimes and the palms of my hands just itch to take hold of the jaw-bone of an ass and beat these things into dull men's skulls; I would do it, too, if I only had the jaw-bone. This is what I want to read to you. I want you to think about it. It is nothing new. But I want you to think about it as I have thought about it ; for I have read it dozens of times, and that is one big reason I am a member of this Church. If I did not believe what I am going to read, I would quit the Church tomorrow. ¶

These are the Prophet Joseph Smith's words. The Prophet Joseph Smith's words of instructions to apostles, at the last meeting held prior to their leaving on missions. You remember when that was, when they went to England and to other places. He said : ¶

"Brethren, I have desired to see the temple built. I will never live to see it, but you will. I have sealed upon your heads all the keys of the Kingdom of God. I have sealed upon you every key, power, principle, that the God of heaven has revealed to me." ( You see we received all the keys.) "Now, no matter where I may go or what I may do, the Kingdom rests upon you." [See? He fixed that; he knew something about what was going to happen.] ¶

President Wilford Woodruff, who was one of the most wonderful men I ever knew — was a man who talked to me occasionally ; I never arose after a five-minutes' talk that I did not know that he was a ¶

prophet of God. He made these remarks at a Mutual Improvement conference, held June 2, 1889: ¶

"Do you wonder why we, as apostles, could not have understood that the prophet of God was going to be taken from us ? Neither could the apostles in the days of Jesus Christ understand what the Savior meant when he told them, 'I am going away ; if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come.' " President Woodruff continued : ¶

"Joseph Smith made these impressive remarks on the same occasion, 'Ye apostles of the Lamb of God, my brethren, upon your shoulders this Kingdom rests ; you have got to round up your shoulders and bear off this Kingdom. If you do not do it, you will be damned.' " — And so will the rest of us, if we do not do our duty. ¶

President Brigham Young said, after the martyrdom of the Prophet, "Thank God, the keys of the Kingdom are here." ¶

President Wilford Woodruff continued, "The keys of the Kingdom will remain with the Church until the coming of the Son of Man, which means until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds of heaven to reward every man according to his deeds done in the flesh. There have always been manifested among a certain coterie of men, who say that Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and others who have been presidents of the Church were not the right men to lead the Church." [I have heard that same thing said hundreds of times. I have heard it lately, "President Grant is not the right man." There are a number of men today, and always will be, who feel in their hearts that they ought to lead the Church, that they ought to be chosen apostles. The woods are full of them every time there is a vacancy. This same class of men feel that the Church itself is out of gear and going wrong. President Woodruff made this broad remark.] "I say to all Israel ; I say it to the whole world, that the God of Israel, who organized this Church and Kingdom, never ordained any president or presidency to lead the Church astray." I am glad of that, so that we need not worry about the Church. God knows we have enough other things to worry about. Go home and go to sleep ; God will never allow them to lead us astray. ¶

The question has been asked many times [now I have heard this until I am tired and lame all up the back], "Why is it the apostles who are standing as prophets, seers, and revelators do not have revelations?" The answer is given by President Woodruff, and I would like to have this truth soak into you. The answer is given by President Woodruff as follows : "I hold in my hand a book of revelations" [meaning the Doctrine and Covenants], "which contains enough revelations to lead this Church into the celestial kingdom of God." [That is about as far as some of us will ever get !] "Anybody who will obey and live up to these revelations can be saved in the celestial glory." [There are hundreds in this crowd, and you can count me in with them, who do not even keep the Ten Commandments, and then we are hunting for more revelations.] "We are not without revelations," says President ¶

Woodruff, "the heavens are full of them, and so is the holy Priesthood. You will conclude that I do not believe in any more revelation. If you had before you every revelation God ever gave to man, the Church and Kingdom of God could not progress and advance without the living oracles of God." Do not forget that, I do not care how much revelations you have ; the living oracles of God have got to have revelation and inspiration and prophecy from above. ¶

The First Presidency, the Twelve Apostles, the Seventies, the High Priests, the Bishops, all need revelation in all their administrations. What can a Bishop do without revelation ? What can the president of a mission do? What can an elder do? Haven't I heard the voice? Haven't I been a stranger in a strange land? Haven't I been tired and hungry, no place to lay my head, and I have heard the voice, "this is the way, walk ye in it." The Holy Spirit softened the hearts of the people, and they fed me and cared for me. I have heard the voice more than once. I heard that voice when I was a young, wild, reckless young man. I did not know what it was. I told my brother Elias, "I hear a voice; it tells me something a hundred miles away." And I knew all about it before my mother knew it, and Elias thought I was going crazy — and so did I But it was the right voice. I didn't know what it meant then, but I know what it means now. ¶

I am about through. You are the best outstanding crowd I ever talked to in my life. You know how it is ; we get people to talk to inside, and lock them in, so they can't get out ! I remember being up north. I said, "All you people that want to go, go ;" and they nearly all went, and I didn't blame them. ¶

"No man," says President Woodruff, "can be a witness for God and lift up his voice and declare that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true without revelation. The Holy Ghost, the Comforter, which is the spirit of prophecy and revelation, is not restricted and given only to 'apostles and prophets.' Do not forget it. It comes to and goes with all Latter-day Saints, men, and women [thank God they get a little of it, too; they need it just as much as men do] men and women and children, who have accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ can have inspiration and revelation, for their own guidance." "Therefore, verily, thus saith the Lord, Let Zion rejoice, for this is Zion, the pure in heart. For behold and lo, vengeance cometh speedily, upon the ungodly, like a whirlwind, and who shall escape? Zion shall escape, if she observe to do all things whatsoever I have commanded you." ¶

God bless you. Amen. ¶