The Words of the Brethren Ring True

"For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes." ¶

The Words of the Brethren Ring True

I have listened with great interest to the remarks that have been made by my brethren at the various sessions of this conference. I know that their words have rung true, that they have been accompanied with power, with authority, that they have penetrated the hearts of the people, and that we have gone from this building at the close of each service rejoicing, and bearing witness, one to another, that the truth has been declared; and, I believe, with the determination of making it more thoroughly a part of our lives when we depart from this conference. Truly we have heard the word of the Lord, and it has been spoken in power. The counsel, the advice, the instruction have been given unto us in authority. There has been no discordant note, no uncertain sound, but everything that has been said has been said with the conviction of the truth, and we rejoice. ¶

The Truth Grows Brighter With Use

Yet nothing has been said that is new. There has been no new revelation, no presentation of something that we did not understand, nothing that we have not previously been taught, and which had previously found a place in our hearts, for the truth endures forever. It is always new, it grows brighter with use. We love it the more we come in contact with it, which is not the case with falsehood. ¶

In one of the revelations given in the early days of the Church, the Lord said, speaking of one of the ordinances of the gospel; that he revealed "a new and an everlasting covenant, even that which was from the beginning." Those words are very significant. It is new because truth does not grow old, and yet was from the beginning, and hence must endure through all time, and through eternity; for that which is true must remain. ¶

Commotion and Unrest in the World

Throughout the world today, as we have already been informed by a number of the speakers, there is commotion and a spirit of unrest; and the people, many of them, feel that it is something to their credit to hold radical views, to consider themselves to be progressive, and to make attack upon things that have stood land have endured throughout the ages. This tendency is not alone found in the political world. It is found in the world of education, of religion, of government, of business and everywhere. Men are departing from the well-worn paths, no matter how good they are, and feel that conservatism, is a reproach; that it is the duty of man to do away with that which is old, or which has been established, and find something that is new. We stand practically alone in the world, yes, absolutely alone in the world, representing the truth of the living God, declaring to all men the principles of eternal truth which do not change. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not new in the sense in which the world looks upon things as being new, for it has endured through the ages, not merely since the days of the advent of the Son of God, but from the beginning of the world, for the plan of salvation was prepared for the benefit of man, and declared unto him in the beginning. These principles do not change, they cannot change, they must endure immutably through all time. ¶

The Christian world may be divided into two camps, one bitterly opposing the other; one calling itself the progressive or modernist division, the other calling itself the fundamentalist division. They may think they are founded upon the truth of the gospel as it has been established. But we stand for the revelations of God as they have been revealed in this dispensation, known as the dispensation of the fulness of times, unchangeable, immutable, enduring forever, because they are eternal. ¶

An Abiding Knowledge of Christ Brings Peace

If there is any one thing that brings joy and peace and satisfaction to the heart of man, beyond anything else that I know of, it is the abiding testimony which I have, and which you have, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That is a truth that cannot be changed. Men may attack it; they may ridicule it; they may declare that he is not the Redeemer of the world, that his mission was not true, or that its purpose, through the shedding of his blood, was not to grant unto all men the remission of sins on condition of their repentance. They ¶

may refuse to believe in the resurrection from the dead, or even that Christ himself came forth, as the Scriptures declare, after he had been put to death by his enemies; nevertheless the truth remains. He did die for the sins of the world, he did bring to pass redemption from death, he did grant unto men the opportunity of repentance, and remission of sins through their belief and acceptance of the principles of the gospel, and of his mission. These truths are fundamental, they shall endure; they cannot be destroyed no matter what men may say or think. Furthermore, the mission of Jesus Christ teaches us that there was a time when man departed from the truth, when transgression came into the world, and man, through his agency sinned, or violated a law, which brought death upon the world. For Christ came to atone for sin, to bring again the restitution of life, of peace, of happiness, through the things which he suffered. Now anything which is contrary to that is not true. ¶

The Atonement of Christ Fundamental

I bear witness to that which was said by President Grant at the opening session of this conference, that there is no place in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the man who does not accept, without reservation, the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, who does not believe that his mission in this world was to redeem, to restore, to grant again unto man the privilege, through his faith, through his repentance, and his worthiness, the opportunity of coming back again into the presence of God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. If there are within the Church those who have these so-called modernist tendencies, who deny the miracles of Christ, the miracles of the scriptures, the doctrines known as the gospel of Jesus Christ, who cannot accept him as the Redeemer of the world, then they should repent of their sins, for it is within the power, and it is the privilege of each individual member of this Church to know the truth for himself, through the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost. There need be no doubt, no uncertainty, in regard to this matter. The Lord has taught us these principles in modern revelation. He declared them while in his ministry upon the earth. ¶

Jesus Declared Himself to Be the Son of God

I know that there are those who make the statement that Christ did not declare himself to be the Son of God during his ministry. To the contrary, that was the claim he made from the beginning of his ministry, and which has been repeated in the revelations that have come unto us in this dispensation, one of which I shall read: ¶

"Hearken and listen to the voice of him who is from all eternity to all eternity, the Great I Am, even Jesus Christ — ¶

"The light and the life of the world; a light which shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not; ¶

"The same which came in the meridian of time unto mine own, and mine own received me not; ¶

"But to as many as received me, gave I power to become my sons; and even so will I give unto as many as will receive me, power to become my sons. ¶

"And verily, verily, I say unto you, he that receiveth my gospel receiveth me; and he that receiveth not my gospel receiveth not me. ¶

"And this is my gospel — repentance and baptism by water, and then cometh the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, even the Comforter, which showetli all things, and teacheth the peaceable things of the kingdom." ¶

Testimony That Jesus Is the Christ, the Son of God

Those words are true, absolutely true. I bear witness of this fact because I know it; you know it; and so we stand firmly planted on the rock of truth, bearing witness that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that through him comes redemption from death, which passes upon all men irrespective of their belief or their unbelief, their acceptance or their rejection of his mission, and also through him comes redemption to man from sin on condition of his repentance, and endurance to the end. ¶

May we be faithful and true in the discharge of every duty and to the truth which God has revealed unto us, and endure in righteousness to the end, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶