Remarks

My beloved brethren and sisters, I assure you it is with a feeling of timidity that I stand before this vast audience today, and I humbly pray that the few words I may utter may be guided and directed by the Spirit of the Lord. I rejoice in the opportunity that I have of being a humble servant in the work of the Lord. I am indeed grateful for the testimony which I have of the divinity of this work in which we are all engaged. My heart has been touched, and I have been thrilled, during the services of this conference in listening to the wonderful testimonies of our brethren, in listening to the words of inspiration which have been given to us through the power and blessings of the Lord, and his warning, advice, and admonition to this people. ¶

Reference has been made by many of the brethren to the fact that as a people we stand upon our individual testimony. I want to say, my brethren and sisters, also that with this individual testimony there comes an individual responsibility to every one who has named the name of Christ. No one else in all the world can save me but myself. No one can work your salvation except yourself. It is after all an individual work, and we have embarked in the service of the Lord, and we have made covenants with the Lord that we would keep his commandments and do his will. The Master while here on the earth said: "I must do the works of him that sent me, while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work."My brethren and sisters, the responsibility of doing this individual work is upon us today, not at some far distant time, and I am wondering, and have wondered, during the services of this conference, how many of us are going home and reduce to practice the admonitions and instructions that have been given us from the servants of the Lord. After all we have each and every one an individual work to perform. I think it was Emerson who said: "No man is born into this world whose work is not born with him."No one is born into the work of God whose work is not born with him. ¶

"There is surely somewhere a lowly place, ¶

In regions of a field so wide, Where I may labor through life's short day, For Jesus the crucified." ¶

Surely my brethren and sisters, in the work of God there is a place, there is opportunity for every one of us to do that work which God and Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, our Master and Captain, expects us to do. I am reminded of the words of the poet who said: ¶

"Out of the night that covers me, ¶

Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be, ¶

For my unconquerable soul. ¶

In the fell clutch of circumstance, ¶

I have not winced nor cried aloud, Under the bludgeonings of chance, ¶

My head is bloody, but unbowed. It matters not how strait the gate, ¶

How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: ¶

I am the captain of my soul." ¶

God help us, my brethren and sisters, to realize the responsibilities resting upon us individually. May we be able to carry to our wards and stakes the words as they have been given to us from the servants of the Lord, and inspire anew a determination upon the part of our brethren and sisters who have not been favored to be here, to be more faithful in the future than they have hitherto been in the work of the Lord, for I bear you my testimony in humility, in fear and in trembling that I know as I know that I live that this is God's work. I know that Jesus is the Christ, I know that Joseph Smith was and is in very deed a prophet of the living God, and I know that Heber J. Grant who stands at the head of the Church today is God's mouthpiece and prophet. May God help us to realize the responsibilities resting upon us, and to discharge them faithfully and well, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶