The Radio

I rejoice again at having the opportunity of meeting with the Saints in General Conference. It is a very inspiring sight to see this large Tabernacle filled to overflowing, and people standing, at the first session. ¶

The Radio

The exercises of today and throughout the conference are to be broadcasted; and it is estimated that in the neighborhood of a million people will be able to hear all that is said, provided they are listening in during the conference sessions. The radio is one of the most marvelous inventions man knows anything about. To have the voice carried for thousands of miles seems almost beyond comprehension. ¶

Let Us Serve God With All Might, Mind and Strength

I rejoice in the remarkable and wonderful growth of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in our day. Over a year before the Church was organized a short revelation was given through the Prophet Joseph, directed to his father. It reads as follows: ¶

"Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men. ¶

"Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day. ¶

"Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work; ¶

"For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul; ¶

"And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work. ¶

"Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence. ¶

"Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.", ¶

If there is any one thing more than another that I desire to impress upon the hearts of the Latter-day Saints it is that we should in very deed serve God with all our might, mind and strength, that we may keep pace with the progress of his work here upon the earth. This very audience here today, the immense auditorium filled to overflowing, testifies more eloquently than any language of mine regarding the growth of the Church of Jesus Christ. When I recall the revelations that were given to the Prophet Joseph prior to the organization of the Church foretelling the growth and the accomplishments of the work of God here upon the earth, it is one of many testimonies to me regarding the divinity of this work in which you and I are engaged. ¶

Outstanding Events and Activities of the Church in the Past Six Months

I believe the Saints will be interested in knowing something of the progress in various ways that has taken place in the Church since we last assembled here. Within a few weeks after the April conference it fell to my lot to go East and to hold meetings in Denver, of the Western States mission, in Independence, Kansas City and St. Louis of the Central States mission, and later to visit Omaha in the Western States mission. I had the privilege of speaking in all of these places. Also meeting with and instructing our elders. I found a wonderful spirit of loyalty on the part of the Mission presidents, of the elders, and of the lady missionaries in all of these places. I rejoiced exceedingly in visiting with them. I came in contact with a number of influential men, some of whom attended our services. Several of them afterward expressed their pleasure in having heard something regarding our faith that was new to them. The great majority of mankind pay little or no attention to the message of the Latter-day Saints, but many pay a great deal of attention to the things of a detrimental character that are published against us. Today men of intelligence, men of thought, and men who are studying, in seeing the wonderful progress of the work of God here on the earth, are beginning to realize that there must be something good in it, considering the class of people that are attracted to it. ¶

I had the pleasure of playing a game of golf in Kansas City, and learned that the title to part of the very ground upon which we were playing originally stood in the name of the Bishop of the "Mormon" Church. I also learned that a large proportion of Kansas City stands upon ground once owned by the Latter-day Saints. The title ¶

to much of it has never passed, and the only title people today have to a portion of that great city is by possessing the ground. In tracing the abstracts back they find that the title originally was in the name of the Bishop of the "Mormon" Church. We all remember with gratitude the wonderful courage and manhood of General Doniphan in saving the life of the Prophet Joseph. Part of our holdings in that section of the country — thousands of acres, as I remember it — was turned over to Doniphan as a fee for legal services. The price of those lands then was very insignificant, but I was assured that the very land turned over to General Doniphan is today worth more than ten millions of dollars. ¶

After returning from visiting the Western and the Central States missions, in June, I went East and visited the Northern States mission, the Canadian mission and the Eastern States mission. I had the privilege for the first time of visiting Montreal, in Canada, and of attending one of the sessions of the Rotary Club in Toronto. The work in all of the missions I have visited since the last conference is progressing in a splendid way. ¶

Since our last conference, President Anthony W. Ivins and Elder Richard R. Lyman have visited the Hawaiian Islands with members of their families. The work there is progressing splendidly. Our sugar plantations there are progressing more satisfactorily at the present time than for many years past. ¶

New chapels are being erected in many of our missions. A site for a new chapel has been purchased on one of the principal streets in Washington, D. C, and we expect to erect a place of worship there that will be a credit to the Latter-day Saints, and worthy of that city of beautiful churches, wonderful public buildings, and palatial residences. We hope to have a building there that will be as much of a credit to us at Washington as our magnificent office building is to us here — not as expensive, of course, but in every respect worthy of the Church of Christ. ¶

Brother James E. Talmage has been chosen to preside over the European mission. Elder David O. McKay will have been in that mission two years by the time he leaves it. Previous to his being called there, he and Brother Hugh J. Cannon spent a year in traveling around the world, visiting nearly all of the missions in the world. Therefore we felt it was only fair to him to allow him to return to his mountain home without staying the usual three years that the brethren spend in England. ¶

We have sent considerable sums of money to the Norwegian and Danish missions for final payment on meetinghouses purchased years ago. We have purchased a fine large meetinghouse at Rotterdam. There has been erected a splendid meetinghouse at Honolulu; and others are now authorized in the Hawaiian Islands. We have secured a long lease of farming lands for the Tongan mission, not being able to purchase and get title there. ¶

The baptisms in the missions during the past six months number 3,156, a very decided increase over the average in years past. ¶

Two new stakes have been organized since our last conference, namely, the Grant stake, taken from the Granite stake, and the Minidoka stake, a part of the Blaine stake. ¶

Twelve new wards have been organized during the past six months. ¶

A large number of new meeting houses are being erected in Zion. I believe more building is going on at the present time in the various stakes of Zion than for many years past. ¶

We have ordered a monument to be erected at the grave of Martin Harris, in Clarkston, Utah. ¶

A new home is being provided for the Lamanites located near Cedar City, in order that they may be more comfortably situated. ¶

Successful conventions of auxiliary organizations are in progress at the present time all over the Church. ¶

Quite a number of seminary buildings have been erected by the Saints in various parts of the Church. ¶

There is a large and increased attendance at the Brigham Young University and our other Church schools. ¶

A very remarkable increase is noted in the attendance at all of our temples. The Manti temple has been overhauled, and extensive repairs made there, making it very much more comfortable and convenient than in the past. The repairs being made at the Salt Lake temple are now all completed. Rapid progress is being made in the erection of the Arizona temple. ¶

We have decided to erect on this block a monument in honor of the Three Witnesses (perhaps we will include the Eight Witnesses), to be located in the rear of the statues of Presidents Joseph and Hyrum Smith. The design has not yet been decided upon; but we will endeavor to have something that will be as attractive and as creditable, and that will preach the wonderful message proclaimed in the Book of Mormon as effectively as the Sea Gull Monument preaches the wonderful deliverance wrought by the Lord in the days when the crickets threatened to destroy everything. Undoubtedly some of the inspirational passages of the Book of Mormon, also the fact that these three witnesses declare that an angel of God came down from heaven and laid before their eyes, that they beheld and saw the plates of the Book of Mormon, and the engravings thereon, and that the voice of the Lord commanded them that they should bear record of it, with other incidents that proclaim the divinity of the Book of Mormon, will be features of the monument. ¶

We are pleased to note that there is an improvement in the support of our foreign newspapers. There are many faithful, diligent Latter-day Saints who, having embraced the Gospel in foreign lands at an advanced age, cannot read the English language, and it is a great comfort and blessing to them to have some of the sermons, messages, and news, regarding the work of God published in their own language. We bespeak for these papers the loyal patronage of those of foreign birth. Young men who have prospered here in the things of this world should be willing to assist in circulating at home and abroad the word of God through the papers published in the mother tongue of their parents. ¶

We have been called upon during the past six months to part with ¶

one of our loyal stake presidents, — President Andrew Kimball. It fell to my lot to have the privilege of going to Thatcher, Arizona, and attending the funeral, at which there was a wonderful outpouring of the people, showing their respect and love for their president. It was a source of satisfaction to me to have the opportunity of paying a tribute of love and respect to him at the services. ¶

We have to announce the death of Sister Elizabeth C. McCune, who, in connection with her husband, presented to the Church some years ago the magnificent McCune mansion on upper Main street, the name of which has been changed since the death of Sister McCune to The McCune School of Music and Art. We hope at no far distant date to have a portion of that building devoted to the fine arts in the form of beautiful paintings and sculpture. There are two magnificent pieces of sculpture there now, probably the finest in our state, which were presented with the mansion at the time it was given to us. ¶

I believe this covers the activities of the past six months that I thought would be of interest to the people. Of course, you will realize that if I were to enter into detail regarding these activities I could occupy not only the entire time of this morning's session with interest to the Saints, but even longer. ¶

On my way home after attending the funeral of Brother Kimball, in Arizona, I stopped for a few days in California, and the work in the California mission is progressing in a very favorable way. ¶

The Divinity of Jesus Christ

There is one thing that I desire to refer to, and a part of one of the revelations that I desire to read. There are no revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants that have made such a profound impression upon my heart and my mind as the one known as The Vision, recorded in the 76th section, and the one known as Prayer and Prophecies, given in Liberty Jail, and to be found in the 121st section. I rejoice every time I read the wonderful testimony of the Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon as contained in The Vision. When bishops over large churches in England announce that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God; that he was not divine, but merely a great moral teacher; when men who are ministers deny the divinity of Christ and are being tried for their lack of faith, I rejoice in reading the testimony of these two men, and never read it but my heart swells with gratitude to God: ¶

"And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! ¶

"For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father — ¶

"That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds. are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God." ¶

I rejoice that the Church of Jesus Christ is founded upon the first great vision that was enjoyed by the boy Joseph Smith over one ¶

hundred years ago. He declared that he saw two heavenly beings, whose glory and grandeur were beyond the power of man to describe and that one of them addressed him and pointed to the other and said: "This is my beloved Son, hear him." There cannot be any doubt in the heart of a Latter-day Saint regarding Jesus Christ being the Son of the Living God, because God himself introduced him to Joseph Smith. It is a fundamental truth of the Church of Jesus Christ in our day that Joseph Smith was and is and ever will be a prophet of the living God; and with Joseph Smith recognized as a prophet of God, and the testimony in our hearts of that fact, there will never be any schism, so to speak, in the Church of Christ. Any individual who does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world, has no business to be associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This Church is, as I read to you it should be, a marvelous work and a wonder. There is nothing like it in all the world, because Jesus Christ, the Son of God established it, and is the head of it; because Jesus Christ manifested himself to the Prophet and Oliver Cowdery, and to others; and because God, in answer to prayer, has given to people all over the wide world where the Gospel has gone, an individual knowledge and testimony regarding the divinity of the work in which we are engaged. ¶

A Profoundly Impressive Comparison

Never have I been more profoundly impressed with the power and blessing of God than I was when I visited Nauvoo upon my recent trip East. Three quarters of a century ago there were twenty thousand prosperous Latter-day Saints in that city, with a magnificent temple. Today there is not a single stone left of the temple where it was once erected, and the population has dwindled to about one thousand people. Men have told me that the site of the City of Nauvoo is one of the finest, if not the finest, to be found upon the great Mississippi river, yet to get there now you have to cross the Mississippi river in a little tub of a steamer, on the deck of which there are but five chairs, and as there happened to be six in our party one of us had to stand; and there are cities with thousands of inhabitants on the Mississippi and on the Missouri that have grown up since that was the great city of Illinois. When I contemplate all these things and then come home and gaze upon the Temple of God in the eastern part of this block; when I look at our office building, at the Utah Hotel, and at the magnificent bank buildings in our city; when I think of the prosperity of the Saints, with beautiful temples, not only in Utah, but in Canada and in the Hawaiian Islands, as well as one in course of construction in Arizona; when I think of all the accomplishments of the work of God, my language utterly fails me to speak in just praise of all that has been done. When I realize the condition of the place from which we were driven, the lack of prosperity and of ¶

success in that country, I thank God that we are located here in these mountains. I feel that the very persecutions and troubles through which we passed prepared us and educated us and strengthened us as a people for greater things. Perhaps the very finest residence, with one exception, to be found today in Nauvoo is the one erected by Erastus Snow. They told me that it was erected by Lorenzo Snow, but I have since been informed that the people there were mistaken, and that it was erected by Erastus Snow. One of the fine dwellings there was built with stones taken from the Temple Block. ¶

I rejoice in the testimony of my own dear mother, also in the testimony of Aunt Emmeline B. Wells and scores of men and women who were present upon that memorable occasion, after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph, when Sidney Rigdon endeavored to be appointed as guardian of the Church. I rejoice in the wonderful manifestation that was given to the people there, including my mother and other relatives of mine, when the mantle of Joseph Smith fell upon the Prophet Brigham Young, and he, Brigham, stood there and talked as with the voice of Joseph, his face being illumined and in appearance like unto the face of Joseph. The sheep knew the voice of the true shepherd. And from that day to this, of the hundreds who were present on that occasion, nearly every one has lived and died faithful and true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, loyal supporters of the Prophet Brigham Young and his successors. ¶

How to Exercise the Power of the Priesthood

I desire to read part of the wonderful revelation given to the Prophet Joseph in Liberty Jail. Remember, though he was chained in that prison, the Lord Almighty could and did speak to him, and gave to him a revelation that I commend here today to every Latter-day Saint. I particularly commend it to every man presiding in the stakes and wards of Zion, and in the various missions throughout the world. If we exercise the power of the Priesthood of the living God as he tells us in this wonderful revelation to exercise it, then there never can be and there never will be any just complaint made against the Church of Jesus Christ, because of the use of the Priesthood that has been restored again to the earth. It is when men do not follow the teachings and the revelations given of God to us through his prophet that mistakes are made. This revelation declares that by incarcerating the Prophet Joseph men could not rob him of the inspiration of the Living God, which revealed to him these wonderful words in that prison. Starting with verse 33, I read: ¶

"How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints. ¶

"Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen? ¶

"Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson — ¶

"That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness. ¶

"That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, or vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man. ¶

"Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks, to persecute the Saints, and to fight against God. ¶

"We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. ¶

"Hence many are called, but few are chosen. ¶

"No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; ¶

"By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile — ¶

"Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy; ¶

"That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death. ¶

"Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. ¶

"The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever." ¶

I feel that I cannot close my remarks with anything better than this wonderful revelation given to the Prophet of the living God. ¶

God's Blessings Invoked Upon the Church and Nation

I pray God's blessings to be upon the Latter-day Saints all over the wide world. I pray for those who stand as the General Authorities of the Church. I pray for those who preside in the stakes and the wards and the branches, and in all parts of the Church, from Canada on the North to Mexico on the South, and for those who preside and labor in the various missions all over the wide world. I pray for the people of the world; not only for the Latter-day Saints, but I pray God's blessings upon every loyal, patriotic man and woman that is endeavoring to do right, and to uphold the laws of the countries where they reside. I pray God's blessings upon the President of these United States of America. I thank God for the loyalty and the patriotism of the Latter-day Saints. I thank God that we believe that the constitution of our country was given to us under the inspiration of the Living God, and that the Lord supported George Washington and the ¶

patriot fathers of this country. I pray that God will inspire us to continue loyal and true to him, to our country, and to its institutions; and that we may in very deed preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by our acts; that, as we grow in years and increase in understanding, we may grow in the power and ability to live the Gospel, that our example of integrity, of honesty, of loyalty to God and country may inspire others to investigate the message of life and salvation. ¶

Closing Testimony

Before sitting down, I bear my testimony to you and to all the world that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer of the world, the Savior of mankind, the Creator of heaven and earth; that Joseph Smith was his prophet, the instrument in his hands of establishing again the Gospel of life and salvation. That we who have that knowledge may live the Gospel is my prayer, and I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Savior. Amen. ¶