Remarks by Charles A. Callis

Brethren and sisters, it is a good thing to live in the present. The Apostle Paul said : "But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." There was a people in days of old who garnished the tombs of the dead prophets but who persecuted, stoned and put to death the living prophets. I believe that if a man is in opposition to the President of the Chruch today, such a man would have been found in opposition to the Prophet Joseph Smith. I also believe that if there is a disloyal American in this country today he ¶

would have been disloyal had he lived in (he days of George Washington. ¶

In a conversation with a prominent minister, two or three years ago — he was a fine gentleman I believe, a good man — we discussed the great World War, and I said to him,: "Do you not think that [his great World War foreshadows some great event, such as the glorious second coming of the Son of God, to judge the people and to inaugurate the blessed millennium?" ¶

The minister replied : "I think so now ; but if a man had told us, eight years ago, that this World War would have fallen upon the world with all its horror, we would have laughed him to scorn and then crucified him." ¶

I said : "Doctor, men did crucify such a man. Joseph Smith, the Prophet of God, foretold the great Civil War ; he likewise predicted by the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost, that the World War would come to vex the nations. He died a martyr for the testimony of Jesus Christ." ¶

The mission of this Chruch is to preach the gospel, to cry repentance unto a crooked and perverse generation, and in this dispensation the Almighty has declared that the whole world is ripening in iniquity, and it must needs be that the children of men be stirred up unto repentance. We have proved that God was as he always has been, as he always will be, right, for he knows what is in man. He said: "That by reason of transgression cometh the fall; which fall bringeth death ; and inasmuch as we were born into the world by water, and blood and the spirit which I have made and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water and of the Spirit and be cleansed by blood even the blood of mine Only Begotten Son, that ye may be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory. For by water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justif'ed, and by the blood ye are sanctified. * * * This is the plan of salvation, unto all men, * * * and thus may all become my sons." The Apostle John said that every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he, God, is pure. What hope? He tells us: "Beloved, now are we, the sons of God." In this glorious hope we do purify ourselves. But the pernicious, the groveling, theory which teaches, or seeks to teach that we came from a lower order of creation, that we came, from low decree, does not purify. But the gospel of Jesus Christ does purify us, for through it we know that we are the sons of God, that our heavenly Father is the Father of our spirits. ¶

I bear my humble testimony that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ," said Paul, "for it is the power of God unto salvation." Brethren and sisters, the Latter-day Saints are not only not ashamed of the gospel, but are not ashamed of its author, even Jesus Christ, for we testify that he is the ¶

Son of God, the Redeemer of the world, the Savior of mankind, the author of eternal salvation ; and in this hope we will abide and progress to eternal life. This testimony is the strength of this Church, and may we ever abide in it is my humble prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶