Remarks

I have been greatly interested in the remarks already made at this overflow meeting, and one thing that impressed me in the beginning was the singing of "Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear." I also became very much interested in one of those O's that Brother Bennion spoke of -- the Origin of Mormonism. ¶

It has been my privilege during the past two months to visit some of the so-called waste places of Zion, and adding these places to the list of those I have previously visited, I am now able to say that I am more or less acquainted with nearly all the places that have become sacred to the Latter-day Saints because of their connection with the early days of this Church. ¶

It was a pleasant task for me to visit Sharon, Windsor county, Vermont, where the Prophet Joseph Smith was born, and to then 'follow in his wake to the western part of the State of New York and there to enter that sacred grove (a remnant of an extensive forest), where the Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith and gave him certain instructions about not joining the sects of the day, but to wait for further revelation. I also visited the old Smith residence, or the very spot where the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith on that memorable night between the 21st and 22d of September, 1825, and then followed the young Prophet, as it were, to the hill Cumorah, where I have stood a number of times looking at the place where the angel Moroni showed the Prophet ¶

Joseph where the plates containing an account of the old inhabitants of this land, were hidden, from which plates Joseph afterwards translated the Book of Mormon. ¶

Then on my last visit I had occasion to go down to the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to visit old Harmony where the Prophet Joseph, after he had been driven by mobs from his parents' home, translated the Book of Mormon. The work of translation was done in the States of Pennsylvania and New York, but mostly in that part of the township of Harmony, which is now included in Oakland, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. I also had the privilege of visiting the place, or the vicinity, where John the Baptist appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery on the 15th day of May, 1829, and ordained them to the holy Aaronic Priesthood, and again, to visit the vicinity where the Melchesidec Priesthood was restored and where the voice of Peter, James and John was heard in the wilderness on the banks of the Susquehanna River between Harmony, Pennsylvania, and Colesville, Broome county, New York. ¶

It was indeed a blessed privilege to me to stand upon these holy places, for such they are classed with me. I have also been permitted to enter the Kirtland Temple in the State of Ohio, and to stand in the very pulpit where the Savior himself appeared on the 3rd of April, 1836, and spoke to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, telling them that he had accepted of the temple which had been built to his name by the Saints in the days of their poverty. It was in the same pulpit and on the same occasion that Moses appeared and restored the keys for the gathering of Israel from the lands of the north, the isles of the sea and from other places to which Israel was driven thousands of years ago. The giving of these keys to men in mortality meant the fulfillment of prophesy to the effect that God who scattered Israel will gather them again in the last days. The congregation of Saints in this building and the thousands and thousands of people congregated upon this Temple Block today, attending this General Conference of the Church, are here as a result of those keys given by Moses in the Kirtland temple on that memorable 3rd of April. On the same day, Elijah the prophet, who was taken up to heaven without tasting death, appeared to Joseph Smith and gave unto him the keys for turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. And as a result of the restoration of these keys we witness today the work going on in the Temple for the salvation of not only ourselves but for our ancestors who have passed away without a knowledge of the true plan of salvation. It has brought love into our hearts for our progenitors and we hope the children after us will do their duty in continuing this great vicarious work. ¶

The visits to the earth of these holy beings and the restoration of the keys of the Priesthood is the origin of "Mormonism,"the beginning of it. It is a known fact that water never rises above its ¶

source. All our mountain streams rise high up in the mountains and hills and they continue to run down grade, forming streams and rivers; thus a creek or river does not rise above its source. So with "Mormonism"; it must be traced to its source. The origin of Mormonism is revelation from heaven. God has spoken from his heavenly abode and restored unto the earth the gospel of Jesus Christ, with its Priesthood and authority. Based on such a beginning, we can boldly say that the doctrines taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are true and stand out in great contrast with doctrines taught by men. Joseph Smith was not permitted to "join the sects of the day because the preachers of these sects taught for doctrines the commandments of men; they honored God with their lips, while their hearts wer-e far away from him; they had a form of goldiness, but denied the power thereof. But the gospel which the Latter-day Saints advocate and which has brought such grand and glorious results is different. It has also brought into the world some of the best men and women that can be found anywhere on God's footstool. These indeed are the fruits of Mormonism, or the restored gospel of Christ. If it had not been for the divine origin of Mormonism, and the truths revealed to us from heaven -- not by the cunning craftiness of men but revealed by God himself -- our success as a Church would have been altogether different. Christ himself revealed to the inhabitants of the earth in our day his own religion, and that is why we claim that we possess Christ's Christianity -- not a German- Christianity, not an American Christianity, not an English or Dutch Christianity, but Christ's own Christianity, which in its nature is today similar to the doctrines advocated by the Savior in that grand and glorious Sermon on the Mount referred to by a former speaker. ¶

During my late sojourn in the East it was my privilege to travel over the Pioneer trial. I passed over it the first time fiftynine years ago, as a little white-haired Danish boy traveling with ox teams, and to follow the same trail now and to see Chimney Rock and many other important and interesting points of interest made by heart rejoice and reminded me of the days of my youth. I was pleased to think that I, who in 1866, walked all the way from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City as a lad, now had the opportunity to go over the same trail in an automobile as one of the Church historians, for the purpose of locating that trail so accurately that our children and all generations to come may know what is meant by the old "Mormon Trail,"and to a certain extent be made to understand how their fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, made sacrifices for the gospel's sake. Many of these weary pilgrims rest in unknown graves. There is scarcely a mile between Nauvoo, Illinois, and Salt Lake City, Utah, which would not have been marked by graves of the Latter-day Saints who fell as martyrs by the wayside, if a knowledge of their resting places had been preserved. ¶

There have been several classes of martyrs in this Church. Those who have been put to death violently by mobs number about fifty, and those who have died in the missionary field, like Brother Abel Evans' father, number about four hundred; these of the latter class sacrificed their lives while traveling in the different missionary fields preaching the gospel. And then more numerous than any other class of martyrs are those hundreds -- yes, thousands -- who died on the journey from Nauvoo to the west or later as emigrants from Europe died on the voyage across the ocean, on the passage up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers,and on the plains while trying to reach the homes of the Latter-day Saints in the Rocky mountains. ¶

I visited Nauvoo^beautiful Nauvoo as it once was -- with its old "Mormon"cemetery. It made me think of Palestine which once was a land flowing with milk and honey, figuratively speaking, but the people in that country transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, and broke the everlasting covenant, and brought the whole country under a curse. Thus, when I visited Palestine, many years ago, I could scarcely see anything interesting there except reminders of the good old times that once were but are no more. The curse of the Almighty has rested upon that land ever since the day of Isaiah, of which its present barrenness amply testifies, though some changes for the better may have taken place of late years since General Allenby of the British forces took possession of the country. ¶

When I saw Nauvoo, once a beautiful city, with a great temple costing a million dollars -- a city that covered almost the whole of the peninsular on which it was built, I felt sad to witness its desolation. Between New Orleans and the twin cities (St. Paul and Minneapolis) there is not a more beautiful place for the location of a city than Nauvoo. But what is Nauvoo today? A wilderness! I crossed the great Mississippi river, from Montrose to Nauvoo (which in years gone by had been crossed by so many of our people). I wanted to see Nauvoo once more, though I had seen it before; but on this, my last visit, I took occasion to visit certain places in and around Nauvoo that I never visited before. On my first approach to it, I wondered where the city was, for I wandered through the weed-covered streets, one after another, and only here and there saw a human habitation surrounded by weeds. On the banks of the river, where one of the old stone houses stood as early as 1839, I encountered thousands of vicious birds which swarmed around my head apparently with evil intent. And besides these there were millions and millions of flies -- "Mormon"flies, they call them -- though I think the "Mormons"had nothing to do with originating them. The people from the surrounding country do not like to visit Nauvoo for fear of being eaten up by flies, ravens and other vicious birds which circle around the visitor where there was once a high grade of civilization. Nauvoo, the Beautiful, is now a little ¶

insignificant village. I came to the conclusion that a curse had indeed rested upon the place ever since the Saints were driven from there by wicked, bloodthirsty mobs in the memorable year of 1846. Some of the best houses in Nauvoo today are those erected by our people eighty years ago, among them the old residences of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, John Taylor, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, Edward Hunter, and a score of others. Only a few houses of any consequence have been erected since that time. The beautiful Nauvoo temple is no more; not one stone is left upon another of that grand structure in which so many of the faithful Saints received their blessings before starting for the mountains. ¶

The "Jack 'Mormons',"who succeeded the Saints in Nauvoo came into possession of the city for almost nothing. The Icarians, a French community, came next and tried to turn the temple into an academy, but did not succeed. They split up almost entirely as an organized community while endeavoring to make Nauvoo their home. Then finally came a German population, the present inhabitants of Nauvoo. Germans are good pioneers, usually, and have made good in the United States; they are generally classed among the best settlers and most industrious citizens who have come across the Atlantic to America, but even they cannot flourish in Nauvoo. The blood of the prophets which was shed there, and many others of the Saints who were mobbed and killed by their enemies is crying from the earth against their murderers and plunderers. The Lord was vexed because of these evil deeds and has caused a blight to rest heavily upon the country. The same thing is true, more or less, of Far West, the country around Haun's Mill, and the Crooked river country, in Missouri, where the Latter-day Saints Once lived and prospered. ¶

In following the Pioneer trail from Nauvoo on the Mississippi river I visited Sugar Creek, where a number of women gave birth to children prematurely through being exposed to the inclemencies of the weather. Richardson's Point, where a number of our people lie buried. Chariton River, so well known to our people who crossed the plains in 1846 and following years, and Garden Grove, founded by the Saints in 1846, where many of our people lie buried in a "cow yard." This made my heart bleed. At Mt. Pisgah, Iowa, a monument has been, erected marking the graves of some 250 of our martyrs, who fell by the wayside through being driven away from Nauvoo in the dead of winter, these, exiles suffering as only few people have suffered in this western land. ¶

Continuing my journey I crossed the Missouri river to old Florence, or Winter-Quarters, Nebraska and there visited the old "Mormon"graveyard. What did I find there? A lonely spot where some six hundred Latter-day Saints lie buried under the sod -- men, women and children, who could not stand the hardships of the journey any longer. Some of these martyrs were exiles from Nauvoo, while others had come up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers ¶

from the European countries. They took sick and died with cholera and other diseases, brought about by over exertion and privitations, and their bones are resting in the cemetery at Florence to this day, waiting for that glorious resurrection which awaits God's faithful sons and daughters. ¶

Now, my brothers and sisters, the origin and foundation of "Mormonism"is of such a nature that we can safely build upon it. Let us then be true to our God and to the gospel of Christ, true to our parents, to the pioneers of Utah and to the faithful Saints who died by the wayside. Let us ever remember that the origin of "Mormonism"is revelation from God, and that it is not a temporary organization, but rather what the late Patriarch John R. Murdock of Beaver, once said, when he referred to "Mormonism"as "the greatest thing a-going." Let us be true to our fathers' God and to every truth that we have espoused, and let us realize that we have within our reach the obtaining of a testimony, if we do not already possess it, to the effect that God is the founder of this work, that it is organized in the right way, and that it is expected of us to become the salt of the earth and to be a light and an example to all the world. Christ, addressing his disciples on the Mount said, "Ye are the light of the world * * * Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." This passage of scripture is also applicable to the Latter-day Saints. May God bless you, one and all; may we be true to our God, who is our fathers' God, true to our religion which is true Christianity, and true to every obligation which we have taken upon ourselves, and may we also teach our children to walk in the paths of righteousness, I sincerely pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶

The quartet sang, "What manner of man is this?"' ¶