Remarks

It is a very great privilege, my brethren and sisters, to be present in this great conference of the Latter-day Saints. It is a great privilege also to have the opportunity of occupying a few moments in this ¶

session of the conference. I have rejoiced very greatly in listening to the instructions that have been imparted, and in partaking of the spirit of the testimonies that have been borne from the lips of the Lord's servants who have been called to address the people. I am happy in the work that has been allotted to me to labor as a missionary in the California mission, and I am glad to say that my companions in that mission, as a rule, are at the present time in the enjoyment of good health They manifest an anxious desire to magnify their callings and discharge the responsibilities that have been placed upon them by virtue of their appointment as missionaries and representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The missionaries are very largely young men and young women who have not had very much experience in Church responsibility. It is, however, universal that when they come to the mission headquarters, they come with a full determination to try to play the part that may be allotted to them to the very best of their ability. They are ready and willing to go wherever they may be appointed; and it has been a source of constant wonder to note the manner in which they come to understand the principles and doctrines of the gospel, and acquire the ability to expound them. It has been a source of very great joy to me to be associated with the missionaries of the California mission, and I am sure that their hearts are touched and pricked by the power of God, and that they do believe, with just as great fervency as their fathers and mothers believe, in the truth of the restored gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. ¶

We try to encourage men and women to believe that the Lord our Godj as has been declared during these services, has manifested himself again to the children of men, that he has revealed anew the doctrines of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that he has conferred upon men, by the sending of holy angels from his presence, the authority that is necessary not only to expound understandingly, but to administer legally and properly the saving ordinances of the gospel. We try to impress upon the minds of these young missionaries that without that divine authority that was bestowed upon the head of the Prophet Joseph Smith, at the opening of this dispensation, there cannot be any salvation. Salvation is obtained through obedience to the doctrines of the gospel, and no man can teach those doctrines and administer those ordinances, except he be called of God as the Scriptures teach. We [try to impress upon them the truth of the doctrine set forth by one of the old prophets when he made the statement that we must go to the law and to the testimony, and if we speak not according to that word there is no light in us. I believe, and I am satisfied my companions believe, and the Latter-day Saints who reside in the mission believe, that there has been committed to this people a great and important message, and that that message has been committed to them in fulfilment of the promises made by the Lord our God long ago. For our Father in heaven declared by the mouths of holy prophets, in ages long gone by, that in the latter days the Lord God of heaven would ¶

set his hand to accomplish a marvelous work and a wonder. He declared that truth by the mouth of the Prophet Daniel when the king's dream was interpreted, and he declared that the dream was certain and the interpretation thereof was sure. We believe therefore we are to go to the law and to the testimony to discover the will of God and the doctrines of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. ¶

While we find many people in the mission who profess to be believers in the law of God, and who apparently are quite sincere when they make such declarations, we discover that when we read from the law of the gospel and the doctrines that were taught by the Redeemer of the world and his apostles whom he commissioned to teach the inhabitants of the earth, that they do not believe, as they claim to believe, in the messages found in the holy scriptures. We believe that we place in the hands of all men the key to prove the falsity of the religion we are representing, if it be not true, from the fact that we say that it is the old gospel restored anew; and the inhabitants of the earth have in their hands the record that contains the doctrines of that gospel, as they were taught by an inspired ministry in the meridian of time. And I am happy to say that it is not the experience of the missionaries in the California mission that men come to them with the word of God in their hands, and call to their attention doctrines that are being taught that are not in harmony with the law of the Lord. ¶

We believe and teach that there is but one gospel; and that seems at times not to be very palatable to many people with whom we come in contact. It seems popular in the feelings of men and women today to feel that there are many systems of religion which will carry them back into the presence of God, to be approved; and we do not feel that it is our privilege to delude people with any intimation that if they will continue in good living, being good citizens and good neighbors, all will be well in the life to come! We do feel that responsibility rests upon us to bear testimony to the things that the Lord our God hath wrought — and that is, the restoration of the authority to speak in the name of Jesus Christ. When we speak by that authority we teach only the doctrines that have been given by the Redeemer of the world by which men are to be saved. We feel in our hearts that, "we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation." We are under obligation to our Father in heaven, and to his Church here upon the earth, to expound those doctrines and to declare to the inhabitants of the earth that there is but one gospel, and that, though we or an angel from heaven or representatives from any religious denomination on the face of the earth, preach not the doctrine and the gospel that was taught by the ancient apostles, the curse of God will be upon us. We believe, my brethren and sisters, that the beginning of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is just as it is declared by St. Mark, that the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ taught the beginning of that gospel, when he taught men the gospel of repentance and the gospel of baptism for the remission of sins. We believe that in this age of the world, just as in that age of the world, men reject the counsel of God against themselves, not being willing to receive the principle and ordinance, given by the Lord our God, that initiates them into the Kingdom of God and that makes them members of the Church of Christ. ¶

You know that, in the gospel according to St. Luke, the declaration is made that the people who would not receive the ordinance of baptism, that was being administered to the people by John the Baptist, rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not thus baptized. We are trying to impress upon the minds of the people that there is necessity in this age of the world to hearken to those doctrines, and that it is of the greatest importance that they shall put away from them the follies in which men have believed and in which they are believing today, and that they shall receive the truth which has been made manifest by the revelations of the Lord our God. We are trying to convince men that the authority of which we speak has always been essential and necessary in the accomplishment of the purposes of our Father in heaven. Whenever God has had a message for the inhabitants of the earth he has raised up men who have been clothed with power from on high and who have been commissioned by the voice and commandment of God (o carry to the children of men the message that the Lord has for them. God has always operated through his chosen servants, and by them he has made known his will to the peoples of the earth in all past dispensations. ¶

We 'are trying to convince men and women of the truth and the fulfilment of the promise made by the Almighty through the lips of an inspired apostle regarding a great event in the latter time — for so he did promise. The angel told John, "Come up hither and I will show thee things that shall be hereafter"— not things that were transpiring then, in the meridian of time, but things of importance that would transpire in the future history of the world. So says the law of God, the law and the testimony. We invite men, whatever their religious persuasions may be, or whatever their expectations may be, to remember that if they speak not according to the law and to the testimony it is because there is no light in them, and the law and the testimony given by God through the mouth of an inspired Apostle is that in the latter times another angel should "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." So says the law. Let who will dispute it, let who will denounce it, and oppose it, it is the law and word of God, and we are under obligation and responsibility, in this great dispensation of the fulness of times, to bear witness that God is true and that the promises that have been made by him in ancient times, through his inspired ministry, are being fulfilled; and to bear record that the very heavens and the earth may pass away but the promise of God in ¶

relation to the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the latter times cannot pass away without fulfilment. ¶

We are joyful in bearing witness, wherever we have opportunity, that we have been made acquainted with that message, thus revealed, and that the angel, promised by the Lord our God, has come to the earth; and upon the head of the Prophet Joseph, by holy beings, the authority and power and the commandment and direction of the Lord our God were given for the establishment of the great work to which we have given our allegiance. We call men's attention to the manner in which this work was introduced by an innocent boy falling upon his knees and pleading with the Lord for information, that his soul might be saved. Who is there that can find fault with the boy appealing to God in this manner, and the answer that was given of our Father in heaven? Men do not believe it, but we not only believe, but we know, that in answer to that prayer our Father in heaven and our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, made answer, and made the declaration that the time had come, that was spoken of by the holy prophets, in relation to the work of the latter times. That knowledge has come into our souls. It has gladdened our hearts. It has filled us with a desire and a determination to clear our skirts of the blood of all men, and to bear witness that God has sent his hand to accomplish that work, and that the work will be accomplished. May the Lord God help us to play our part therein, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶