Remarks

States Mission ¶

Through President Joseph W. McMurrin you have heard a report from the shores of the Pacific. I feel myself particularly happy to be able to follow him so nearly by making something of a report of the work of the Lord from the Atlantic seaboard, so that you may hear this morning, and in this same meeting a report from the shores of the sea west and a report from the shores of the sea east of the land of ¶

Zion. I too can report that the health condition of the missionaries in the Eastern states is very fine, and also that the spiritual health of our mission is splendid. That thing we used to speak of in the army as the corps d 'esprit is most excellent in the Eastern States mission. At the present time there are no doubt many more Latter-day Saints on the shores of the Pacific than there are on the shores of the Atlantic. Perhaps if our missions were to be judged as to its success by the number of baptisms, there might be considerable discouragement, for acceptance of our great latter-day message is rather slow on that tier of states that constitute the Eastern States mission of our Church. It is only proper to say, however, that the slow progress of our work is not due to any lack of effort or earnestness of purpose on the part of the missionaries who represent the work of the Lord in that place; and, in order that you may have data on which you may form your judgment as to that, I am going to read as rapidly as I may an account of a few of our activities. I did hope that I should be able to have in my hands, before I made this report, a compiled report for the last nine months, closing with September. That report, however, has not reached my hands yet, so I am going to take our report of the month of August, from which you can form some judgment as to the activities of the representatives of the Church in the Eastern States mission: ¶

Through the month of August we had 129 missionaries in active service. The number of hours spent in tracting, by that number of mission- ¶

aries, was 18,924 ¶

Hours visiting saints, of course for purposeful labor, 9,547 ¶

Hours spent in attending meetings 4,491 ¶

Hours visiting investigators, teaching them the gospel at their firesides 4,186 ¶

Hours spent in gospel conversations 14,659 ¶

Hours devoted to study by this body of (129) missionaries 8,443 ¶

Number of families visited 35,594 ¶

Number of investigators visited 1,890 ¶

The number of gospel conversations in the month, of this body of ¶

missionaries 28,087 ¶

Number of Books of Mormon sold, for the month 197 ¶

Other books distributed 527 ¶

Tracts distributed 43,105 ¶

Pamphlets distributed 26,942 ¶

Hall meetings held 394 ¶

Cottage meetings held 205 ¶

Open air meetings held 303 ¶

Making a total of meetings in halls, cottages and open air, for the ¶

month of August 902 ¶

Perhaps you will be disposed to agree with me that these figures represent a great volume of missionary activity. ¶

Now I am almost loath to read the next item because the numbers are so small, but I feel that we are not responsible for the smallness of these numbers, so you must have it with the rest. Out of all this effort, and perhaps very much effort that preceded the month of August, we only had thirty baptisms. You see we have to put forth a ¶

ton of effort in order to get an ounce of results; but, thank God, we did put forth the ton of effort. And then, if we count the value of souls, as God counts them, perhaps we had great reward for our efforts. The Lord in this new dispensation of the gospel has made it known that the value of a soul is great unto God. One of the elders in an early day of the Church was told that if he should devote his whole life to the ministry, and should save only one soul, yet great would be his joy with that one soul in heaven. ¶

During the last six months, nay during just the last month, September, we have completed and dedicated two chapels in the Eastern States mission; one in Baltimore, Maryland, and one in Fairmont, West Virginia. These two, with the chapel that was dedicated last January in Charleston, West Virginia, makes three chapels within the past two years that we have built and dedicated to the Lord in that land, at an aggregate cost of about $54,000. One third of the amount in the case of the West Virginia chapels has been raised by the subscriptions of the Saints and their friends in that land. I have been tempted to believe, that perhaps the establishment of chapels in the Eastern States mission marks progress in the development of the work of the Lord on the Atlantic seaboard of the land of Zion. It rather indicates that we are approaching that time when we shall establish permanent stations in that part of the land, when we shall carry to the people the institutions of Zion, not only the regular Church organization as expressed in branches, but our Sabbath schools, Mutual Improvement associations, Primary associations, Relief Societies and all those helps in government which can, as I believe, be made mighty agencies for reaching the lives of the people in those communities; using not only the testimony of the missionaries, but likewise the testimony of the institutions of Zion in bringing men to a knowledge of the latter-day word of God. ¶

I believe that this note of permanency given to our work in the Eastern States mission means a return to the vision and purpose that were in the mind of the Prophet Joseph in the last conference that he held in Nauvoo, April 1844. At that time many of the Saints felt that the ideas about the establishment of Zion in Jackson county had been somewhat disrupted, and certainly postponed. The Prophet, to reestablish confidence in the minds of his people concerning Zion, and in the promises which God had made concerning Israel, enlarged their vision about Zion by calling their attention to the fact that it was not circumscribed by the lines of Jackson county, nor by the lines of the State of Missouri, but under a very burst of inspiration from God, he made known that the whole land of America, North and South, was the land of Zion; and that God's purposes concerning Zion (sometimes also called the land of Joseph), contemplated larger things than the brethren had so far dreamed of. He announced at that conference that the whole land of America — this ¶

"land choice above all other lands,"was Zion; wherever the elders went, and could find those who would receive the testimony which they bore, they were at liberty to establish "stakes of Zion"through their ministry in all parts of the land; and he specifically named the city of Boston as a suitable place for a stake of Zion, and New York as a suitable place for a stake of Zion, also I think Philadelphia. President Brigham Young, following him at the conference, in his remarks declared that the prophet's announcement was a "sweepstakes"in giving this larger vision of what would constitute Zion. Well, of course, the martyrdom of the Prophet, the expatriation of the Latter-day Saints from the United States, and their journey to these mountains, postponed, for a time, the things contemplated at that time by the Prophet Joseph. Perhaps, as a community, we were to learn what we sometimes find out as individuals, namely, that the farthest way around is often the nearest way home. It was necessary that these decades, between the martyrdom of the Prophet and now, should pass. The history that we have written in our exodus to these western lands, the establishment of stakes of Zion here — and the growth of the Latter-day Saints into a great and united community, where they could accumulate means, and experience, that would enable them to take possession of their larger inheritance throughout the land of Zion, were necessary. But now, strengthened as we are, experienced as we have come to be, may we not lift our vision to comprehend the larger purpose of God in the gathering of Israel out of the world to the whole land of Zion, and the redemption of it through stakes of Zion bein^ established east as well as west? For I do want to claim for the Eastern States that they constitute just as acceptable regions in which stakes of Zion can be established as are to be found on the Pacific shores of the land of Zion. And when we sing, "America,"that great American anthem — "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing"— we want to have a larger vision than the State of Utah affords; or that any other state affords. We want to include in our thoughts every part of the land that is under the protecting aegis of the Constitution of the United States, which God established, by raising up inspired men to lay the true foundations of civil liberty in the world. So, too, when we speak of Zion and God's purposes with reference to the gathering of Israel, and the establishment of Zion, we want to have a larger vision than these valleys of the Rocky Mountains afford, splendid and glorious as they are to us, and dear to our affections, for they are not the whole of Zion, nor even the center of Zion; and to those who understand aright, never were thought upon as more than a resting place for Israel while preparing for greater possessions, including these. We want to remember, Latter-day Saints, that Zion, her center place, the center city of Zion, where God's house, The Temple of temples is to be erected, has not been moved out of her place. It is still where God declared it to be, near Independence, Jackson county, Missouri, in the center of the land. ¶

The center as to these United States of America, midway between "the sea east and the sea west;"midway between our boundary line on the north and our boundary line on the south; and, strangely enough, when contemplated with reference to the old North American Continent — the land of Eden, as well as the land of Zion — contemplated with reference to the whole continent; midway, the Panama region and the far North beyond the Hudson Bay; and as already I have told you, about equal distance between the west sea and the east sea. Well, Zion has not been moved out of her place, and God's decree must be fulfilled in relation to the establishment of Zion itself, as well as the stakes of Zion. We want to keep that within the range of our vision. ¶

I am happy to say to you that in the East, no less than in the West, we are making proclamation of this same gospel to which President Joseph McMurrin bore such splendid testimony. We had made the keynote of our ministry in the Eastern States: "The Lord hath spoken!"We open with Isaiah's text: "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken!"And from that starting point we, too, develop the message of the new dispensation of the gospel. Not a new gospel. We have no new God to present to the world; no new Redeemer to offer; no new plan devised for man's salvation, but "the everlasting gospel." That gospel which was formulated and agreed upon by the children of God, even before the foundations of the earth itself were laid; being that covenant of eternal life which God, who cannot he, promised (Titus 1:2-3) before the foundation of the earth itself were laid. We are preaching this new dispensation of the old gospel; and your sons and your daughters in the east-lands, O Latter-day Saints, are faithful and true to the dispensation of that gospel committed unto them. God grant that they may continue true, and that we may be able to impress upon the hearts of the children of men that God has again spoken from heaven, and is reestablishing his Church in the earth, I pray, in the name of Jesus, Amen. ¶