Remarks by Abel J. Evans

(Second Counselor in the Presidency of the Alpine Stake of Zion) ¶

My brethern and sisters : I have had many experiences of various kinds, in my life, but I think nothing to equal this. I certainly desire that the few moments I shall occupy, I may do it under the inspiration of our heavenly Father. I am sure President Chipman would have been delighted to be here to occupy a short time this morning, and I should have been proud to listen to him. We have worked together for over twenty-two years — President Clark, President Chipman and myself — and we have not yet had our first disagreement in opinions, although we do not always agree in the beginning as to just certain methods, but it is all in brotherly love and kindness and for the welfare and interest of the Latter-day Saints over whom we are called to preside. ¶

I rejoice this morning in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, after having spent now seventy years of my life, having been born in the Church and having gone through the various vicissitudes through which the Church has been called upon to pass, during that time. My testimony today is as bright, and my assurance as great as ever and my determination perhaps stronger than ever before, and my desire is to remain faithful to this great Latter-day work. I have had the honor, upon two occasions, to go out into the world to lift my voice in calling the children of men to repentance, and I have rejoiced exceedingly in that labor, and I have continued work at home in a small degree in this great Latter-day cause. ¶

I could not help but reflect when President Grant made the remark that only President Seymour B. Young and himself and two or three others are still alive of the General Authorities who were present when the Temple was dedicated. I remember that occasion very well. Oh, my heart rejoiced! I think that if ever words sank into my soul as deeply as they did upon that occasion I do not remember it. The Prophet of God told the people assembled that if they had made their wrongs right ; if they had come to that dedication with clean hands and with pure hearts, having adjusted their difficulties and their troubles with the people with whom they associated, the Lord God Almighty would forgive their sins. I rejoiced exceedingly in that declaration and promise and have sought from that day to this to keep in line. I have known personally every President of the Church since the Prophet Joseph Smith, and I have loved each of them with all my heart, and President Grant no less than his predecessors. His counselors are men of God, standing for the right, seeking to promulgate the interest of this great Church that God has instituted in the day and generation in which we live, unselfishly devoting their time and their talent to the interest and the advancement of this great Latter-day work, ever looking into the details that are necessary to accomplish the greatest purposes. They have been exceedingly liberal in extending help to the various stakes of Zion in the erection of their meetinghouses and amusement halls, and blessing the missionaries by bringing them home from their fields of labor. I have rejoiced in this, and I have felt in my heart that if we Latterday Saints would stand as faithfully by them, as they have stood by us, the Church would advance by leaps and bounds, because more means would come into their hands from the honest tithes of the Latter-day Sains, thereby giving them the opportunity "to do more than they have been able to do heretofore, because we have closed our hearts, in many instances against the principle of tithing which the Lord has instituted for carrying on his work in the Church. ¶

May the Lord bless us, my brethren and sisters ; may we appreciate our condition, and be thankful that the Lord God of heaven has given us a testimony of this great and divine work, and that the Book of Mormon came through the power and gift of God in its delivery and in, its translation by the Prophet Joseph Smith. I rejoice in this with all my heart, and I desire that the Lord will continue to preserve me in the truth until I shall have finished my work in this world ; and I have an assurance, an abiding faith that I will meet my. father and my mother. My father gave his life in this cause, having laid it down in the mission field, and I feel that he will wear a martyr's crown. I have it in my heart to pray that I may conduct myself in such a way that I may meet him, with some degree of satisfaction upon his part. May the Lord bless us, my brethren and my sisters, from President Grant down to the last and least in the Church, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶