Remarks by Samuel O. Bennion

I do not know that I have ever attended a conference when I have felt more of the Spirit of the Lord and the power of testimony than in this conference; and I trust that I may enjoy a continuation of God's Holy Spirit and be led to say that which he would have me say at this time. ¶

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is growing and will continue to grow until it fills the earth. Daniel, a prophet of God, made such a prediction, and it will not fail for God's word has ¶

never failed. Men have failed but his word has never failed, neither has the word of his servants. Wicked men, for periods of time, have prevented his power from growing in the earth, but: when opportunity has come and when it has been expedient, he has restored it again. This power he gave unto Adam and it has been in the earth; whenever his authority has been in the earth in the different dispensations of the gospel. The strength of the Church, it has been said, does not lie in its numbers, or in its wealth, or even in its educational work, but it is vested in the principles of the gospel which the Lord our God has revealed. ¶

We are accounted a strange people and a peculiar people by some, and it is true, in a way, that we are. Our belief separates us from the rest of the world gathered together in the great churches of the day. As they meet to worship our Father, they are taught doctrines that are not in harmony with the gospel as the Lord gave it unto Adam, Noah, and Abraham and unto all who represented him in the earth before the Christ, and as he restored it in the dispensation of the fulness of times. Think of the millions of people called Christians 'who today are worshiping a Father without body or parts or passions and who sits on the top of a topless throne — something that really could not be ; yet men and women enlightened by the theology of men and by the science of the earth believe that their Father and your Father and mine is without a body and without form. They believe also that they had their beginning here. Go where you may you will find few if any public speakers in any of the churches of the day who teach the ante-mortal state of man. They do not believe in preexistence. They believe that Christ existed before but that man had his beginning here. They believe that a man's life here is the end of his opportunity to work, that the Lord has provided a way for him and all he has to do is to acknowledge the Christ and be saved regardless of the life that he has lived. ¶

It is no wonder that mere boys and girls who are sent into the world, can "hold their own" with the great leading minds of the country who study the scripture for their guide. These missionaries have the truth, the power of truth. The fact that a man is on the right side and has the right to operate and to stand for the Redeemer of the world makes him strong. It is no wonder that boys in the missionary field can hold meetings night after night, occupying one and two hours at a time, preaching to the congregations of the world the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not to be wondered at, when we know that they have the truth. ¶

The things that our missionaries accomplish are almost miracles. During the past summer, in the Central States Mission, two of our missionaries, and one of them with only a few months' experience, have held as many as ten meetings, night after night. The same congregation of people came again and again to hear them discuss the principles of revealed religion : that God who sits enthroned in yonder ¶

heavens is an immortal Being who has a body of flesh and bone and that we are his children, fashioned and made after him ; that we lived before we came into this world ; that we did not come here as a matter of chance but that we came here according to appointment ; that some were leaders, some were followers, some were men of faith ; that this time that is allotted unto men here in the great school called life is but preparatory for the future which surely must come to every son and every daughter of our father in heaven: that to those who have not had the privilege of receiving the gospel of the living God in mortality, .shall be given a chance in the hereafter. ¶

These are only a few of the things that God has revealed which make life of interest and worth while, which cause men and women to say to themselves : I believe the voice of that young man or that young woman ; the logic appeals to me. I want to say to you, my brethren and sisters, that the world is filled with honorable men and honorable women, if we could only reach them. It takes time to change them, it is true, because they have lived believing they are right. They ought not to be condemned ; God will not condemn them until he gives them a chance. That is, why we are here today. That is why this Church lives. That is why the work of (Joel will grow. Our father will give his children a chance. He gives his missionaries opportunities. He is by their side. If the veil could only be lifted, we could see that his representatives are with them in the, earth. It is not the power of man they possess, but the power of the eternal God, because they are only acting in his name. They are his agents, his representatives sent into the world in this da)- to give the people a chance to be redeemed. ¶

The strength of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is vested in the truth which God has revealed. Men need only be willing to serve him, and by his power miracles are wrought from the pulpits. By his power miracles are wrought through the laying on of hands, through the speaking in tongues, through the logic given unto his children unto the convincing of the honest in heart that he lives and that the world is not without him, that his Priesthood is here in the earth, and that the authority to act in his name is here. ¶

May God give the Latter-day Saints the power to continue to educate their children, whom they hold in trust for him, so that the Lord may be able to use them for the glorifying of his name, through his Son who died that we might live, I pray in the name of Christ. Amen. ¶