Remarks

My brethren and sisters, I suppose one could never grow old enough, at least I never expect to, to get entirely over stage fright. This is the third day that I have been sitting before this congregation, not knowing at what hour I might be called upon; and when one has gone through that experience for two or three days the stage fright becomes accentuated. ¶

It is recorded of Thomas Carlyle, who could not do his thinking if there were any great noise about, that he had a neighbor, a lady, who kept some chickens; and the crowing of the roosters was a source of annoyance to him. He sent a kind letter to his neighbor and offered to buy the chickens so that he might kill them. She refused to let him have them, and said: "Besides I don't see why they bother you. The roosters crow only at stated intervals." He replied: "Yes, madam, that is true; but you don't know what I suffer waiting for them to crow." ¶

I am indeed awed in the presence of this great multitude. My soul is subdued before this wonderful gathering, this splendid congregation, composed of men and women who are among the choicest of the earth. To stand before you and try to counsel, advise, or instruct is a responsibility which makes one feel his own insignificance. Except I have the Spirit of the Lord to assist me, I can be of little service in this position. I pray, therefore, for your sympathy and faith, and for the assistance of that same Spirit which has been given to the speakers of this conference up to the present. ¶

I listened with deep interest to President Grant's report of the various activities and work of the Church — its growth and all its splendid affairs of which we heard in the opening of our conference. The building of temples and their maintenance and operation take a substantial part of the means of the Church. Here we maintain the Temple and these beautiful grounds. I hope you will not fail to walk around this block and see if you can get out of it a thrill such as has come to me during the last week, as I have looked upon its beauty and have thought of the pleasure that it must afford to the visitors within our gates. All this is kept up at the expense of the Church, and it costs a good deal of money. The free organ recitals, given every day to the strangers — and to those of our home people, as well, who choose ¶

to go — are paid for by the Church; as also is the care of the organ, the upkeep of this building and these grounds, and it all costs quite a sum of money. ¶

Then, there are further expenditures for the building and meetinghouses, as the President called to our attention, and as Brother Rushton from Australia told us yesterday. They are spending considerable means for this purpose down in Australia; and we were also told by President Grant of large sums of money being spent for the building of places of worship in Sweden, in Norway, in Rotterdam, and in the cities of the eastern part of the United States. President Roberts told us of the chapels that have been built in Baltimore, and at other places in his mission; and, indeed, over all the face of the earth — in practically all of the civilized world, we may say — these activities of the Church are being conducted, and it takes a large, a very large, amount to carry them on. ¶

Where does all this money come from? It is the tithes you pay, and I pay, that the people of this Church contribute year by year. I am in a position to announce to you, and I feel it my duty to do so, that the means you pay, the money you contribute as tithing, all that comes into the hands of the Trustee-in-Trust, is expended in a judicious, wise, and righteous way; and only in the interests, the best interests, of the building up of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am in a position to know this, and I testify of it to you this morning. ¶

My brethren and sisters, the question I want to put to you, and to myself also, is this: Have you and I done our share in this respect? Are we doing our full duty in assisting in the building up of this work? Are we helping to keep missionaries in the field? Is it our means that help to extend this work in the wonderful way that it is being extended? If not, then this spiritual power, this force, has not yet gripped you and me sufficiently to make us know that our duty is to pay our tithes— the full amount the Lord requires — and to do it when the means come into our hands; not to wait until the end of the year, because then we may not have it. It is true that we are instructed to make settlement annually, paying one-tenth of our interest, and we should see that it is paid annually, and make our settlement annually; but the time for us to pay our tithes and to contribute to this work, to help it grow and to be partakers in it, not only in words, but in deeds as well, is when we have the money in our hands, when it comes to us. I know that I was brought up strictly in respect to this matter, for my good old mother did not wait until she made ten pounds of butter before one pound of it was paid to the bishop. We had no money in those early days, but we gave butter, eggs, potatoes, wheat and hay — all that the earth produced. She did not wait until she got ten pounds before she paid one. No, she paid it from among the first, to get the tithing debt off her hands. If there were a dozen eggs, or two dozen, or five dozen, the tithing, and a little more than the tithing, ¶

went to the bishop at once. So I say, that this is a good example for me, and a good example for you. When the means come into our hands, let us pay our tithing then and not wait, perhaps until the means have been dissipated. ¶

This Church, with its varied activities, tends to build up the communities in this country. Our Chamber of Commerce, in Salt Lake City, is asking for seventy-five thousand dollars in donations — what for? To advertise Utah. And what is the purpose of advertising Utah? To bring settlers here to make homes and to build up the communities. Well, that is a good thing. I contribute to that, as do many of you who live here. But this Church has two thousand missionaries, or about that number, in the field all the time, who are preaching this gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and who are winning souls to it. While they do not encourage those people to come immediately to Utah, or to this country, yet, as soon as these converts hear about the Temple of the Lord, as soon as the Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of this work get into their hearts, the spirit of gathering is there, and you cannot hold them back, whether they are in Germany, or Switzerland, or Norway, or in the United States, or wherever they are. They want to come to Zion, and our difficulty is to keep them from coming too quickly. Now, if it is a good thing for the country and for the city that we spend money to bring people here, isn't this Church one of the best institutions for the merchant, for the business man, and for other interests? For the people that we bring here are of a class who want to build and own their own homes, and who do that very thing. In a little while they are established on the land, and they make the best of citizens. ¶

It is safe to say that the means we spend every year in beautifying this block contribute more to the renown and glory of Salt Lake City than almost all the money that is spent elsewhere; and this money is contributed by you Latter-day Saints; it comes from your tithes; and it is good advertising; it is good work. We should not be ridiculed for it; we should rather be commended for it and blessed for it. This conference gathering every six months brings thousands of people here. ' I wonder whether that is not a good thing for the merchants and the business interests of this city. I wonder how these merchants would like to have our conferences suspended for a time. You would hear something other than criticism if this were clone. You would hear a plaint and a wail go up; so I point out to you, and to the people of this State, and to our friends who are not of our faith, that the activities in which we are engaged make for the building up of the communities, and are a good business proposition in the line of material advancement and the betterment of communities, apart from the spiritual benefits which we know we receive. All this wealth of means which you contribute to the Church is expended, as I have said, in the building up of the community. This is truly American. ¶

I rejoice this morning with all my heart that I am a member of the Church — this American Church that owes no allegiance to any foreign power or potentate, the only real American Church worthy of the name. It is American through and through. It was established by true-blooded Americans of Pilgrim stock, the best Americans from Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and the surrounding New England states. Such men were the founders of our Church. It is American in ideals, American in thought, American in every activity connected with it, American in its desire to bless and benefit the people. There is not any other church that can claim anything like that. This is verified by the men who sit here on this stand, President Grant, George Albert Smith and others, and by those who came before them — President Ivins, Elder Smoot and the Clawsons and Whitneys, Richards and Lymans — all sons of the American Revolution and leaders of this people. They are of the truest blooded American stock that can be found in this nation. I would like to have these things pointed out, and to let the world know that we are doing some good, that we are building up the country, and that the money which comes in as tithes is being righteously and properly expended for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. ¶

Again I say, have I done my share? Have you done your share? You alone can answer your part of that question. Some of us have not. I doubt if I have. We can do a little better; we can do a little more. We haven't done quite enough, for this is a great and good work. Check up on yourselves and see where you stand. This work cannot be conducted merely by preaching. It takes means to do all these things that the President has pointed out and that I am trying to rehearse to you, and there are so many, many more, and it takes means to do them all. The thought I want to leave with you is this: Have we done our full share? If not, why can't we try to do it? for the work is just beginning. In all truth, I can say that in its growth and development it has scarcely started yet. Let me read from the Book of Mormon. In chapter 14 of I Nephi, which I shall not take time to read through, there is a reference to the very hymn we sang, written by Parley P. Pratt. When you go home read this 14th chapter of I Nephi. Among other things that the angel of Lord showed unto Nephi was this: ¶

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the Church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with power of God in great glory." ¶

Scattered everywhere is this people, building churches, as has been pointed out, in the East, in the West, and on the Islands of the Sea. It means permanency for the Saints. There will be branches of the Church throughout the world. In 1906 I had the pleasure of ¶

visiting the Old Country, in company with our late beloved President Joseph F. Smith. In the city of Bern, in Switzerland, we held a Priesthood meeting one night, at which the power of God was richly and truly manifest. President Serge F. Ballif was there and is a witness to what I say. Joseph F. Smith said: "Not only will we have churches here, but in this land of Europe we will have temples of the Lord built here and there, all over the land." That was his prediction. I believe it. I believe in this vision of Nephi; that he saw our people scattered in small communities all over the face of the earth. The Church of God is permanent. We must build these churches. I have, said all along that this Church can spend its money to no better advantage than in building meeting-houses in which the people may gather together and worship, for this establishes the Church and lends permanency to its operations. ¶

I see that my time has expired. The Lord bless you, brethren and sisters, bless this work, bless his servants, and may we open our hearts and say in our heart of hearts, in our very soul: "Yes, I will do my share, my full share. I must not miss the opportunity. This work is too good, it is too great. The Lord has made me a partaker of it, and now shall I be miserly and withhold my assistance?" ¶

I think it is Brother Golden Kimball who tells the story of his father's owning a beautiful horse. Tithing was paid with horses, cattle, sheep, and everything obtainable in those days. The horse Brother Kimball had was a very fine one, and he said to the boys: "I believe I will turn that horse in for tithing; pay it to Bishop Hunter." The next morning one of the boys paraded the beautiful animal around and wanted to keep it, but President Kimball said: "See here, you take that horse right down and pay it in for tithing, before my heart puckers up." ¶

Now let us do our share willingly and loyally, before our hearts pucker up. God bless you. Amen. ¶