Remarks by Rey L. Pratt

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, ¶

"Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come; and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." ¶

During this most splendid conference, my brethren and sisters, frequent reference has been made to the fact that we commemorate in this conference the one hundredth anniversary of the coming of that angel to earth with a dispensation of the everlasting gospel to preach unto the children of men everywhere. Truly it is remarkable to review the past one hundred years of achievement by this people, and it is marvelous when we contemplate that from that humble beginning there has grown the mighty Church of. which we now form a part. And truly we cannot contemplate without believing, it seems to me, that this Church is the answer to those prophetic words, when we contemplate that this gospel has been and is being preached in all the world as a witness unto all people everywhere, and the honest in heart from out the nations of the earth are being gathered together in bodies and in organizations, and are being taught more fully in the gospel plan. ¶

We note, from the scripture that I have read, that this gospel is eternal. It is everlasting ; it is unchangeable ; it is today what it was yesterday, and will always continue to be the same. There are many churches upon the face of the earth ; there are many systems that are called the gospel of Jesus Christ, but I should like to analyze this morning, for a few brief moments, this word. I shall refer you to the definition of the gospel as given by Paul in his epistle to the Roman Saints. He says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." So that we see in this gospel as established very distinctly two things : it is eternal, and it is the power of God unto the salvation of all men who will believe it. And the Savior said, "'He that believes on me, the work that I do he will do also." So that true belief implies, not a lip confession, but works that will harmonize our lives with the principles, the ordinances, the teachings of the gospel, and the commandments of our Father in heaven. An article of our faith states, "We believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel." ¶

We have in the world a great many faiths and a great many gospels. But let us apply the test for a moment to them. We find recorded in scripture, words to this effect, that no unclean thing can enter into the kingdom of our Father in heaven. The man who is a thief, who is a liar, who is an adulterer, who is unclean in any sense of the word, cannot enter the kingdom of our Father in heaven. But the gospel is given as a power of salvation from those very things. Now, I ask you to reflect for a moment and answer the question to yourselves : In all the history of the great Catholic church, has it been able to save the world from sin? I do missionary work in a Catholic country, and I recognize the fact, my brethren and sisters, that there are many, many sincere people who live the best they can, considering the light that they have, but I want to tell you that sin exists today perhaps to a greater degree than it has ever existed before in that Catholic country, and the "power of God unto salvation" of the Catholic people is not being manifest through their church nor through the gospel that they preach. ¶

Now, I ask you, my brethren and sisters, in the three or four hundred years' existence of the Protestant churches in the world, have the Protestant gospel been able to rid the world of sin? It seems to me, as we read in the current press that we are constrained to believe that perhaps as much today as in any age of the world's history, there is crime, there is vice, and there is disloyalty among the children of men, people professing to have the gospel of Jesus Christ. I ask you. if it is what Paul says the gospel is, why then is it not operative in the lives of these people ? Can they, consistent with the scripture teaching, be saved in our Father's kingdom before some power is applied in their lives to cleanse them from sin and save them from it? Why, no. In the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John says, ''Come out of her [speaking of Babylon], my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not her plagues." ¶

Has the gospel, as revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and as restored by the angel that flew through the midst of heaven one hundred years ago been a power unto salvation, unto the children of our Father in heaven who have received it? You know yourselves that it has been ; in some instances, of course, more and in some instances less. But because it has not operated in the full cleansing from sin of all those who have received it, judge not that the whole system is wrong, for those who have obeyed it have been able to overcome the tendencies in their nature that were contrary to the precepts of our Father in heaven ; they have been able to harmonize their lives to his will. ¶

Attention has been called during this conference to the Word of Wisdom. Our beloved President calls that document a letter sent from our Father in heaven to his children here for their guidance. Now. those who have lived it have found even a temporal salvation. They have found their bodies made healthier, stronger ; their resistance greater, their minds keener; and their intellects brighter; and they have wisdom, yea even hidden treasures of wisdom, and the hand of the destroyer has passed those people by as it has not passed any other people on the face of the earth ; for statistics prove the wonderful fact that the death-rate per thousand among the "Mormon" people is lower than perhaps among any other people in all the world. If it can do this, then it is, in its operation in our lives, the very power of God unto salvation. ¶

On the first Sunday of last month I was in San Antonio, Texas, in a fast meeting, and we had our Saints bear their testimonies upon that day, as they do at home, testifying of the goodness of our heavenly Father to them ; and one little woman, in fear and trembling, stood up in the back of the hall. She had only been a member of the Church for five months, but she testified that she knew the gospel to be true, and she gave as one of her reasons the following; "From my infancy, in the home of my parents, I was given coffee to drink. I grew up with the idea that I could not live without it. When I became a wife, in my home, we continued to use it. But for the last five or six years I have been practically a nervous wreck. I did not know what was the matter with me. All I wanted was my coffee. I did not care for food. I was becoming so weakened that it looked as if I would have to take to my bed. And the elders of the Church of jesus Christ came to me with the message of the gospel, and among other things they taught me the Word of Wisdom, and the Lord has said that coffee, among other things, is not good for man." She testified that she could not sleep, she could not rest, she was nervous and near to break down, but when she received the waters of baptism, she discarded along with her other bad habits, the habit of coffee drinking. And she says, "Here I stand, a witness before God today, that I have been benefited ; my health has returned to me ; my appetite has returned ; my ability to rest and sleep has returned." ¶

Can we say. then, that the gospel, as we have received it, is not the power of God unto salvation? It is even in that sense in the life of ¶

that little woman? And so it will be in every other instance wherein we apply it. ¶

All the ills of this world can be corrected by living the principles of this restored gospel. There need be no more war, there need be no more bloodshed, there need be no more strife, there need be no more dishonesty between and among the children of men, if men will only live the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No man needs to knock at the door of heaven with his garments soiled with the sins of the world and of the generations in which he lives, if he will apply the blessed principles of repentance, if he will receive repentantly and in faith the ordinance of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins ; for although his sins may be as scarlet, in the blessed blood of our Redeemer, through compliance with these ordinances, he will be washed white as snow, and he shall enter, a new-born creature, into the kingdom of God, even as a little child, even in the similitude of that comparison made by the Redeemer himself, when his disciples asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" and he called a little child and placed him in their midst, and said, "Whosoever therefore, shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." ¶

Now, brethren and sisters, I know that the gospel is true. I know, and bear you my witness here today, that verily the angel did fly and he did come and he did converse with the boy prophet Joseph Smith, and he did deliver in due time into his hands the records that were for the first time shown him a hundred years ago, and the boy, through the inspiration and revelations direct from our Father in heaven, translated that most wonderful book, the Book of Mormon. It contains a history of the fulness of the everlasting gospel. It is being preached in all the world, and it will continue to be preached until every creature shall have heard the warning message. ¶

It is being preached, my brethren and sisters, with a double purpose, first to save those who will accept, who will believe and who will obey the sacred teaching of the gospel ; and second, it is being preached as a witness against those who will not do so. I tell our missionaries, in the mission when they are discouraged sometimes with the fact that more are not receiving the gospel, that if they are conscientiously and humbly and earnestly declaring their message in the world, they are ridding themselves of all responsibility. The responsibility of carrying this message, of a truth, rests upon the membership of this Church, but when we carry it forth, as I have said, and declare it to the people, then we roll the responsibility from off our shoulders onto the shoulders of the people of the world and they are left without an excuse. ¶

We have not done it all, by any means, owing to the magnitude of the work in the missionary field. We at home, I sometimes think, little realize it. I wonder, sometimes, if we at home are inculcating into our family spirit the missionary spirit of this Church. We cannot, my brethren and sisters, side-step the issue, it is before us. The signs of the time point to the fact that the end is near. One of the brethren ¶

said yesterday, "how hear we are not willing' even to recognize." And still I recall that this gospel, this everlasting gospel, this gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation, must yet be preached even more extensively than it ever has been preached ; for the Savior said that as the culminating incident that should precede his second coming, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall the end come." Until we have done our full duty that responsibility weighs heavily upon us. ¶

I pray for the blessings of the Lord to attend this Church. I further testify that not only do I know, my brethren and sisters, that the man chosen of God to initiate this great movement in the world was a prophet of God, but likewise that each of his successors, even to the man who stands in our midst today, Heber J. Grant, is a prophet of God. He speaks with divine appointment and by divine power, and it is for us to listen to the word of the Lord as it comes through him. We should cast out from us evil, and just so far as the gospel has not been able to perfect us, it illustrates the fact that it is not applied in our lives to the full extent that it might be applied. If I drink liquor, if I smoke tobacco, if I lie, if I gamble, if I steal, it is not an evidence that the gospel is not true; it is merely an evidence that I might have all the wires and globes, but the current of light is not turned on in my life. The Holy Ghost, that was given me as a spiritual birth in the kingdom of God, is not permitted to operate, because I choose to love darkness rather than light. ¶

So let us clean up our own houses. Let us take the word of the Lord that came to us in the opening" address of this conference, and as parents live and breathe in our family circle such a spirit that we can correct the evil tendencies of the age in our own children. I am a parent, and 1 realize what that means. No one knows better than I. perhaps, what a great responsibility it is to keep boys and girls going just right. My boys and girls have to live out in the world; they are not surrounded with all the environments here, and if it were not for a home influence, they would be just like the world, I am sure: so we have to strive to keep that alive. ¶

I do not wish to occupy more of your time. May the Lord bless you and help us to live more in harmony with his teachings, and to clean up our own homes and our own lives, that we may live so that the gospel of Jesus Christ can be in our lives in very deed the power of God unto salvation, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶