Remarks

My beloved brethren and sisters, I presume an apology is due from me for coming into the meeting late. I have been a subscriber to the Deseret News, and a reader of it for fifty years, but the notice that was published there escaped my attention and for that reason I was called from the congregation in the large Tabernacle by President Grant this morning, and I rejoice exceedingly this morning that I have been counted worthy to occupy a few moments of your time in this conference. I feel great diffidence in arising to address you, for I have long since learned that no elder of this Church can interest the Latter-day Saints except he be guided by the divine influence of our Father,^ and therefore I beseech of you an interest in your faith and prayers for a short time. ¶

I rejoice in this great Latter-day work, and bear witness to the remarks made by Elder Ballif that I heard after coming into the building. That great apostle of the Gentiles, Paul, in writing to the ¶

Corinthians, made this remarkable statement: "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things God hath laid up in store for those who love him." And then let me add that "those who love him will keep his commandments." I sometimes fancy that perhaps we are not as appreciative of our membership in this Church as we ought to be, for when we remember that no person can occupy a position of trust in this Church without first becoming a member thereof, and that all these blessings and these wonderful experiences that we are permitted to enjoy and by reason Of participation, in which our souls become enlarged, our vision extends, and we are better able to appreciate and see the handiwork of our Father. We realize that all these matters grow out of our membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I can say for one that I have been in the Church all my life, and at no time, during that entire period, have I been better satisfied, had more assurance, or ever felt in my mind more determination to continue to the end than I do this day. I thank God for that. It has been my privilege to traverse land and sea to the old world to preach the gospel, and I have sought in my humble way to explain the principles of our doctrine. I have borne my testimony in private homes, upon the street corners, and in assemblages of people in halls, bearing witness of the divinity of the restoration of the gospel anew -- not a new gospel but the old gospel introduced and ushered into the world while we have been permitted to live in it. O, what a wonderful thing it is, and when we contemplate all the great multitude and millions of people extant upon the earth, we realize that but few in comparison have had their hearts touched and their souls lit up so that they have received a witness of the divinity of this great latter-day work. When I contemplate the condition of my own father and mother; and when I refer to that, it is not from a selfish standpoint, because many of your grandfathers and grandmothers were under the same condition-- my father belonged to no church, he took very great delight in going and putting ministers to rout. He was a great reader of the Scriptures and could put them all to rout by the Scriptures themselves. When he heard a man by the name of Hanshaw had come to preach the gospel, he and his father went there for the very purpose of exploding the things that he would put forth. When he heard that witness, though in broken sentences, and with a stammering tongue, bearing witness that the Lord had revealed anew, that the Lord had come himself and brought his Son and introduced him to that boy, in answer to prayer, that he was to restore that lost gospel that had been obliterated from the earth for so many years, it touched his soul, and not a word came from his lips. And when they were going away, my grandfather said to him, "Abel, how is it you did not pitch into this man?"He said, "Father, that man has the truth, and I shall not be found fighting against God." And I think, as I understand it, that he was the second man baptized in Wales. He devoted ten years of the best of his life from the time he was 25 years old to 35 years old in preaching that gospel in his native land. He then came out here to Utah, under trying circumstances, and endured the common hardships incident to pioneer life in Utah, and then was called from the Great Tabernacle without previous notice and sent back to his native land, and after a year and a half of service, laid down his bones in that land for the gospel's sake. ¶

My mother, a girl of twenty years of age, never met my father until they were on the sea. She left the home of her father and mother, who were dear and good people, because her heart had been touched with that divine message, and went out into a world among strangers, knowing not where she was going, except that the voice had called and she had heeded it, "Come out of Babylon; the great Babylon is falling." When I think of these things, I wonder sometimes, my brothers and sisters, if we have been as true to them, if we have been as faithful to the trust and heritage committed to our keeping as we should be, when they endured what they did in these trials and circumstances! ¶

So I rejoice in this great latter-day work, and my mind reverted back to a passage of scripture when Brother Ballif was reading this great Sermon on the Mount, considered and accepted as among the greatest sermons ever delivered to humanity. The closing part of it came to my mind: When ye read these things, if you accept them not you will be as a man that built his house upon the sand, and when the winds blew and the rains descended and the floods came and beat upon that house, it fell, because it was builded upon the sand; but those who hear these words of mine and do them, I will liken unto a man that built his house upon the rock, and when the winds blew and the rains descended and the floods came and beat upon that house, it fell not. Why? Because it was built upon a rock. I want to bear witness to this congregation here this morning that this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is builded upon the rock. And when the winds blow, as they have blown in the past, when the rains descend, as they have descended in the past, when floods come, as they have in the past, it will not fall, because it is founded upon a rock. All the persecution, drivings, scourges that have been put upon this people have left them standing firm, and unmoved from their mooring, because God is at the helm. ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, we should rejoice in this work. If there is one principle that has sunk into my soul and over which I rejoice, as much as any that has come into my life, it is because I am sure beyond the question of a doubt that men and women will be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body. If that is true, it should be an incentive to you and me, in every walk in life, to see to it that we shall give to the world, to our friends, to our Church, to our God, the best there is in us. That is the way ¶

it appeals to me. We might deceive our bishop, brethren and sisters, we may deceive his counselors, we may deceive our neighbors, but let me assure you that you cannot deceive God. The Lord has told us that we should* pay one-tenth of our interest annually into his storehouse, that the means may be provided for the Church that it may be carried on properly in conformity with the plan he has instituted to carry out his work. I wonder if we are doing it. If we are, then we are justified; if we are not doing it, we are not, for it is a most gracious and just law, the most equitable perhaps ever instituted in the world. If a man only earns $100 a year he is only required to pay $10; if he earns a thousand dollars, $100; $10,000, then a thousand. It is equitable, it is distributed properly and justly. And O, what a blessing it is that this system has come into our midst, that the Lord has revealed it anew in the Doctrine and Covenants, the law that was carried out anciently. You remember what the Lord charged his people with when he said, "This whole people have robbed me." If they were robbing God then, if we are doing the same thing now, we are robbing him now. Do you want to rob him, my brethren and sisters? I take it that you don't. But sometimes we lack just a little faith. ¶

It seems now that the world is moving mighty rapidly; we must have automobiles, we must go to places of resort, we must dress in fine linen. That seems to be the rule, but I want to tell you and warn you now that there must be a curtailing in these things, that our hearts may turn to God and his purposes and his work in the world; for we are the salt of the earth, and don't forget it, and on us rests the responsibility of preaching this gospel to the nations of the earth, that all people may be warned to repent and come unto the Lord. That is our mission. And then in addition to that we are expected to gather in the genealogy of our ancestry, that we may be bound back to father Adam, for they without us cannot be made perfect, nor we without them. This is our responsibility. Will we discharge it? Each one must answer for himself? ¶

May God help us to do it, my brethren and sisters, to see the light and then walk in it, for I bear witness that this is the work of the Lord. Joseph Smith was divinely called by the Father, and I have not any more doubt that the Father and Son appeared to Joseph Smith and that the Father instructed the Savior, and the Savior delivered the message to Joseph Smith, than I would have, had I heard it, because God has borne witness to me. You remember in the case of Thomas, when the Savior was resurrected and Thomas would not believe, unless he could see the prints and thrust his hand into the wound, this is what the Savior said wheu Thomas did see him, "Come hither, Thomas, and put your fingers in the prints, thrust your hand into the wound." Then he said, "Blessed art thou, Thomas, for thou hast seen and believed; but more blessed are those who have believed and not seen"-- because of the witness and the divine impression of the Holy Ghost. ¶