Opening Address

I think the hymn to which we have just listened is entitled to the place it occupies in our hymn book, namely, the first hymn -- the place of honor. It was written by the late Apostle Parley P. Pratt: ¶

A FIRST PLACE POEM ¶

"The morning breaks, the shadows flee; Lo! Zion's standard is unfurled! The dawning of a brighter day, Majestic rises on the world. ¶

"The clouds of error disappear Before the rays of truth divine; The glory bursting from afar, Wide o'er the nations soon will shine. ¶

"The Gentile fulness now comes in, And Israel's blessings are at hand; Lo! Judah's remnant, cleansed of sin, Shall in their promised Canaan stand. ¶

"Jehovah speaks; let earth give ear, And Gentile nations turn and live, His mighty arm is making bare, His cov'nant people to receive. ¶

"Angels from heaven and truth from earth, Have met, and both have record borne; Thus Zion's light is bursting forth, To cheer her children's glad return." ¶

I earnestly desire the faith and prayers of. this vast audience to assist me in that which I may say to you today. I sense the great responsibility of addressing so large an audience -- for this building is filled to overflowing -- and I desire that my remarks shall encourage and bless the Saints here assembled. ¶

A TRIBUTE TO PRESIDENT PENROSE ¶

Since we last convened in general conference one of the great and faithful laborers in the Church has departed this life -- the late President Charles W. Penrose. Perhaps no man in all Israel has written more in defense of the people than Charles W. Penrose, and I believe that the literature from his pen has been more widely distributed than the writings of any other of our leading men. He spent nearly twenty years of his life as a missionary in his native land. As I announced at his funeral, during the last nine months that I presided over the European mission we distributed about eight million pages of the writings of Charles W. Penrose. I have been thrilled by his discourses from this stand, from my childhood days until the time of his last public address. He was inspired in his utterances, and he had the capacity and the ability to make plain the principles of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as perfectly as any of our speakers that I have ever heard. We also rejoice from time to time in listening to the inspired hymns that he has written. We mourn his loss, but we rejoice in the wonderful record of labor and service that he made in the spread of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ at home and abroad. ¶

WILLIAM JENNINGS, Bryan's visit to salt lake city ¶

At one of our general conferences some years ago we were honored with the presence of Senator Owen from Oklahoma and Honorable William Jennings Bryan. These gentlemen remained until after the conference session, when an informal organ recital was given in their honor. Perhaps a hundred or a hundred and fifty people were present and following the recital, requests came from different parts of the small audience that Senator Owen and Mr. Bryan make some remarks. They did so, and from the press reports of the occasion we read the following: ¶

HIS ESTIMATE OF "MORMONISM" ¶

"Mr Bryan said the truths he had heard expounded there that day he should endeavor to carry with him throughout life, and he believed that through him many people might hear the truth concerning 'Mormonism,' for he would endeavor to give an exposition of what he had heard in plain truth to the people with whom he associated. Mr. Bryan said he had been undecided about coming to Salt Lake. He had been asked to speak in Los Angeles Monday, but he had obeyed a whim almost and had come to Salt Lake. He did not know why, but now he said he believed it was providential. At any rate he said he had heard truths uttered that impressed him deeply, and he knows that he is better equipped to perform his work in the world for having heard 'Mormonism' expounded. Particularly was he impressed, Mr. Bryan said, with the 'Mormon' belief in the personality of God. It is a beautiful belief, he said, and one by which the world might profit. He referred to the application of the gospel in the lives of the 'Mormon' people, and said such principles applied to the problems of the world would in very deed solve the difficulties with which the world is beset. ¶

He referred to the single standard of morality, as expounded by one of the speakers, and said that in very truth that is a principle that might well be applied to the lives of all men." ¶

HIS LAST SPEECH SHOWS HIS PERFECT FAITH IN GOD ¶

The publishing house of Revell & Co. have published a book containing the last address of William Jennings Bryan, which address was prepared for the celebrated evolution case in Tennessee, but was never delivered. I have had the privilege of reading and rereading the book. It shows that he had perfect faith in God our heavenly Father and in my judgment it is a very strong defense of the divinity of Christ and of the Godhood of our Father in heaven. ¶

I had the pleasure of visiting with Mr. Bryan, after his remarks following our conference, and he said that he was expected to deliver three speeches in California before leaving, but that he believed the world at large would get more benefit from what he had learned in our conference than the people would have received had he remained in California and delivered those three speeches. He promised to send me a little pamphlet containing his ideas about God. After reading it I remember saying to my family that William Jennings Bryan ought to be a Latter-day Saint, because many of his views were in perfect harmony with our faith. Every Latter-day Saint upon the face of the earth believes in the individuality and personality of God our Father, and of the Lord Jesus Christ. A man who does not so believe has no right to be called a Latter-day Saint. Every Latter-day Saint believes absolutely that God conversed with Joseph Smith, and introduced to him the Lord Jesus Christ as his well-beloved Son. ¶

During the past six months I have had the privilege of visiting in California and meeting with the Saints there. I had the pleasure of being present at the official opening of Zion's National Park in southern Utah, and of attending the general conference in June of the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement association, and also the Primary association. That great celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement association was one of the grandest that we have ever had. It was a marvelous outpouring of the youth of Israel upon the streets of this, the central city of Zion. The parade was an honor to the Mutual Improvement association and a credit to the Church. I believe that special credit for that parade was due to the insistence of Junius F. Wells, the man called originally by Brigham Young to organize the Young Men's Mutual Improvement association. For the very splendid and orderly way in which it was conducted, credit is due to Governor Mabey and to each and every one of those on the committees. Credit is also due to the various people who took part in speaking, singing, or giving orations or the various contests, musical and otherwise, at the conference. My heart was filled with gratitude and thanksgiving to know that we have today one hundred thousand young men and young women in these Improvement associations interested in laboring with zeal and energy for the advancement of the work of God. ¶

I had the pleasure of being present at a celebration in connection with the great dam that is to be erected at American Falls, where millions of money will be expended and a vast empire redeemed through utilizing the waters of the Snake River. It was also a pleasure later to attend the Burley stake conference. Saturday evening I held a meeting at Oakley at which thirty odd per cent of the people of Cassia stake were in attendance. I first visited that section of the country forty-four years ago this fall, when it was only a branch of the Grantsville ward of the Tooele stake of Zion, numbering perhaps a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty Latter-day Saints. There are now in that section of the country a number of stakes of Zion, among them the Twin Falls stake. The city of Twin Falls has over eight thousand inhabitants. None of our people were located there at that time, but I rejoice in the wonderful growth of our people and others in redeeming that section of the country. ¶

I was requested to go to Pocatello and dedicate an amusement hall -- a fine large building. I thought back to the time when I first went there and met with just a handful of Latter-day Saints in a little rented hall, and when I contemplated the fact that there are now six organized wards of the Church at Pocatello, and thought of the wonderful growth of Latter-day Saints in that section, I rejoiced in the material and spiritual advancement of the people there. ¶

VISITS MANY SCENIC WONDERS ¶

I was requested to send a speaker to hold a meeting at the West entrance of the Yellowstone National Park the Sunday evening that I was at Pocatello. I made several efforts to secure a speaker to go there, but all those to whom I applied were engaged. So I decided to drive from Pocatello myself Sunday afternoon, and attend the meeting at West Yellowstone. The next day and the day following I had the privilege of going through the Yellowstone Park, and then driving down to Driggs, where I held a meeting Tuesday night. Yellowstone Park can be reached from here in a night's ride on the train and the scenery there is among the grandest in all the world. ¶

Upon my return home Thursday I found an invitation from my son-in-law to climb Timpanogos the following Saturday, which I did. From the top of that mountain, the view of Wasatch, Utah, and Salt Lake counties, the cities therein, and other sections of the country in the distance, is one of the grandest that my eyes have ever beheld. ¶

The following Sunday night I left for the scenic wonders of southern Utah, reaching Cedar Monday morning with President Ivins and wife, Sister Grant and my niece. We visited Cedar Breaks and Zion canyon, and the next day going to the Grand Canyon, or at least to the V. T. ranch in the Kaibab forest. We saw between two hundred and three hundred deer that afternoon as we were traveling to this ranch. The next day we visited Point Sublime and saw the Colorado river and that wonderful gorge in ¶

which you could drop about one hundred Grand Canyons of the Yellowstone. It is twelve miles wide and one mile deep as compared with the gorge thirteen hundred feet deep and two' thousand feet wide at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It is a sight that beggars all description. It is a marvel; it is a wonder! We drove that afternoon to Kanab and in the evening held a meeting with the Saints. I rejoice in the fine meeting house that they have erected there. ¶

The next day we visited Bryce Canyon, and I was more charmed with it than the first time I visited this, one of the scenic wonders of the world. The next morning, Friday, September 11, I parted with Brother Ivins; he returned to Salt Lake by way of Fish Lake, and I returned to Cedar City via Cedar Breaks and was present in the afternoon at the opening of the bridge over Ash Creek, which connects with the Black Ridge. I had the privilege of traveling over the road fifty-nine years ago, when the wagon in which I was riding jumped from one black rock to another, seldom finding any ground to light upon. On that old route which was selected by the pioneers who first went into St. George there is now, over the Black Ridge, one of the finest dirt roads that I have ever had the privilege of motoring over. It is a real delight to travel upon it. The bridge over Ash Creek is certainly a very creditable structure indeed. ¶

In my travels (in Europe) from Scandinavia on the north to Italy, on the south, and from Canada on the north to Mexico on the south, in Hawaii and in Japan, I have witnessed many wonderful scenes; but if they were rolled in together they do not compare with the Yellowstone and these wonderful sights in southern Utah -- Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks, Zion Canyon and the scenic points from the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. ¶

THE GREAT MISSION OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS ¶

Saturday and Sunday following the opening of the bridge over Ash Creek I attended the Parowan stake conference and enjoyed visiting there with the Saints and taking part in one of the conferences. ¶

I rejoice in the wonderful growth in all the stakes of Zion from Canada on the north to Mexico on the south, and in the increase of interest and faith on the part of the Saints throughout the world. I rejoice that there is a cry for more missionaries, from all parts home and abroad is to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to preach the individuality and personality of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to preach the restoration again to the earth of the plan of life and salvation. There is nothing that qualifies a man so much for preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as to study the revelations that the Lord has seen fit to give us in our day. In them he says: ¶

"For verily the voice of the Lord is unto all men, and there is none to escape; and there is no eye that shall not see, neither ear that shall not hear, neither heart that shall not be penetrated. * * * ¶

"Search these commandments, for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled. * * * ¶

"What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and earth pass away, my word will not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. * * * ¶

"Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength; that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day. * * * ¶

"And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good -- yea to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and this is my Spirit. ¶

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy. * * * ¶

"Seek not for riches but for wisdom; and, behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich. * * * ¶

""Verily, verily, I say unto you, even as you desire of me so it shall be done unto you; and if you desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation. * * * ¶

"Behold, I speak unto all who have good desires, and have thrust in their sickle to reap. * * * ¶

"Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I am the life and the light of the world. * * * ¶

"Say nothing but repentance unto this generation. Keep my commandments, and assist to bring forth my work, according to my commandments, and you shall be blessed." ¶

A CENTRAL THOUGHT APPLYING TO US ¶

This last revelation from which I have read was given to Hyrum Smith, the brother of the Prophet Joseph. He was martyred with Joseph Smith, as you all know, in Carthage jail. ¶

I wish to emphasize one passage in this revelation: ¶

"Behold, I speak unto all who have good desires, and have thrust in their sickle to reap." ¶

So that it applies to you, to me and to all the Latter-day Saints. The central thought in this revelation is that we are to keep the commandments of God. It is reiterated in this one revelation some three or four or five times, that the duty was upon Hyrum Smith to keep the commandments of God and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. ¶

The previous revelation from which I quoted was given to the father of the prophet. I will repeat the words of that part of it, as I did before, and I wish to emphasize it with all my heart: ¶

"Behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men."(As I look at this marvelous audience and think of the people on the outside, who are hearing what I say, as well as the audiences in Barratt Hall and the Assembly Hall, surely I can say that this revelation, given to the father of the prophet and the patriarch, has been literally fulfilled.) ¶

"Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye ¶

serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day." ¶

WORTH OF SOULS GREAT IN THE SIGHT OF GOD ¶

I am well aware of the fact that it is tiresome to any audience to listen to a speaker when most of his time is occupied in reading; but when I contemplate the fact that my words uttered here today will be published in The Deseret News, which goes into the homes of the Latter-day Saints from Canada on the north to Mexico on the south; when I realize that what I am saying here is to be published in a conference pamphlet, copies of which will be sent to the missionaries all over the world, then I am far more anxious to have the words of the Lord and the Savior of the world published in this address than to make remarks myself. I desire therefore to read what the Savior said: ¶

"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God; ¶

"For, behold, the Lord, your Redeemer, suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. ¶

"And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance. ¶

"And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth! ¶

"Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people. ¶

"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! ¶

"And now, if your joy shall be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me! ¶

"Behold, you have my gospel before you, and my rock, and my salvation. ¶

"Ask the Father in my name, in faith believing, that you shall receive, and you shall have the Holy Ghost, which manifesteth all things which are expedient unto the children of men. ¶

"And if you have not faith, hope, and charity, you can do nothing." ¶

This quotation is from the 18th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants. ¶

TESTIMONIES OF RETURNED MISSIONARIES ¶

It fell to my lot two weeks ago today to sit upon the stand in the Assembly Hall and listen to the testimonies of five young men who had just returned from missions, and then listen to the testimony of James H. Moyle, the father of one of those young men. My heart was thrilled with the testimony they bore, and their undoubting knowledge that God lives, that Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, the Savior of mankind, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of the true and living God, and that the gospel, commonly called "Mormonism"by the world, is in very deed the plan of life and salvation again restored to the earth. ¶

A TESTIMONY OF THE DIVINITY OF THIS WORK ¶

I rejoice in the absolute knowledge which I possess, of the truth ¶

as contained in section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants, which is known among us as "The Vision." I have been thrilled with the testimony there borne by the Prophet Joseph Smith, as I have repeated it time and time again; and if it were repeated every day of my life, as I supplicate God from day to day, it would do me no harm: ¶

"This is the gospel, the glad tidings, which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us -- ¶

"That he came into the world, even Jesus, to. be crucified for the world and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness; ¶

"That through him all might be saved whom the Father had put into his power and made by him; ¶

"Who glorifies the Father, and saves all the works of his hands, except those sons of perdition who deny the Son after the Father has revealed him."(Thank God they are few and far between.) ¶

"And now, after many testimonies which have been given to him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! ¶

"For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father. ¶

"That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God." ¶

When preaching to those not of our faith, in different parts of the world, I read, whenever I have the opportunity, the articles promulgated by Joseph Smith known as the 13 Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I rejoice in reading them and in testifying to those who know not the truth that in very deed those articles have been vindicated; that we believe in God the Eternal Father, and in his Son Jesus Christ, and I testify to the world that we know that they live, because they appeared to Joseph; that we believe men must be called of God, and we know that they have been called of God in our day, because the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ ordained Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. We believe that men should receive the Holy Ghost, and we testify to all the world that they have received it in this Church. I rejoice that all the gifts and graces, that were enjoyed in ancient days -- the speaking in tongues, the interpretation of tongues, the healing of the sick, and kindred gifts as enumerated in the Articles of Faith, are enjoyed by the Latter-day Saints all over the world, wherever this gospel has gone. I rejoice in the wonderful faith and knowledge of the Latter-day Saints regarding the divinity of this work. I am thankful beyond expression that wherever this gospel has gone, in answer to humble, faithful prayers, God has given to individuals all over the world a knowledge of themselves concerning the divinity of this work. What kind of men and women should we be, as Latter-day Saints, in view of this wonderful knowledge that we possess, that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God? We should be the most honest, the ¶

most virtuous, the most charitable-minded, the best people upon the face of the earth. ¶

That God may help us to live up to the knowledge we possess, that we may grow in the light and knowledge and testimony of the gospel, and that our lives shall be a bright and shining testimony of the divinity of this work in which we are engaged is my prayer, and I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen. ¶