Remarks

My brethren and sisters: I certainly desire an interest in your faith and prayers, that the Spirit of the Lord may be with me during the few minutes that I may stand before you. Of myself, I have always felt a great timidity in speaking on the things pertaining to the kingdom of heaven in the presence of my brethren and sisters, feeling my natural weakness. It is not because I dislike to meet with them and listen to the remarks of my brethren and sisters, but rather it is a timid feeling about attempting to address them. It is easier for me to listen to good things than it is to say them. But I have a testimony of the truth just the same. I had a little witness of that this morning. In our meeting of Religion Class officers, in one of the buildings near the Bishops' Building, I was very much pleased with the remarks of a young lady, who told us of her experience in training the boys, impressing upon us the necessity of doing individual work with the boys and girls and not with the people as a whole so much. I have felt that the same thing may apply to our older brethren, to our men and women, who necessarily, it seems, have to be encouraged individually; and the great truths and principles of the gospel which we have embraced give us an opportunity from time to time to explain, expound, encourage, and build up one another in the great work in which we are engaged. ¶

She gave some very nice illustrations of her work, which time will not permit me to repeat further than to impress upon you, or those of you who were not present at that meeting in the Barrett Hall, that there is such a work going on in this Church as Religion Class work. I do not know how many of you have ever attended the Religion Class in the respective communities from which you have come, or how many of you encourage your boys and girls to attend, that they may get the spirit of this work early in life. I want to encourage you, if there are any who do not, that you take this up. It may seem to some to be the least important work, but I want to tell you that it is not least in the Wasatch stake of Zion. More than 90% of our boys and girls who attend the district schools are attending Religion Class; and in our seminary work, nearly that percentage of those in the high school attend our seminary and are instructed. And of that group, practically all of our missionaries from the Wasatch stake, numbering between twenty and thirty of the long-time missionaries, nearly 90%, are young men and young women who were in the seminary and were taught in the Religion Class. In the Religion Class the foundation was laid; they received their faith in the principles of the gospel, and such information as they should receive at the age when they attend. I do not know of any other work that has been of greater result and benefit in the Wasatch stake than the Religion Class work and the seminaries. I want to endorse most heartily the Religion Classes and to encourage the brethren and sisters in the respective communities to uphold the teachers, to recognize their work. It would not be amiss to say a kindly word to those who are teaching your Religion Class in your respective wards and ask them how your boys and girls are getting along, whether they are truant or whether they are remaining for Religion Class. ¶

It was told to us today that some parents thought their children were attending Religion Class, and when they received the report, they found they were not there half the time. Whose boys and girls are they, and what are they worth to us? Without our boys and girls, it would seem to me that we have accomplished practically nothing in the world. If we have permitted them to slip away from us and lose faith in the gospel and in Jesus Christ, in this great latter-day work, I would like to know what we have accomplished! We have made a living; may have accumulated wealth, which we do not take with us; but those of our loved ones are of the treasures of this earth which, if they are saved in the kingdom of heaven, thieves will not steal from us, moth and rust will not corrupt. They are the most important of all the treasures and of all the work that we may accomplish in this life. So I want to endorse with my full heart and support the work of Religion Class and seminary. It is no fifth wheel. It came in the due time of the Lord, when we needed that kind of instruction, and it should be carried out, and no doubt is in other stakes, if I got the spirit of that meeting this morning. ¶

Another speaker, Brother Bennion, said he was reminded of a question that one of our noted authors, Elbert Hubbard, had proposed and answered. He asked, "Is a lady as good as a man?" and he answered, "She is, if she is." Our ladies are just as good as our men, if they do just as well in accomplishing the work to which they are assigned; and they have a most splendid opportunity in Religion Class work, because we have so many sisters who are school teachers. I am pleased to report that the school teachers in the Wasatch stake are not adverse to teaching Religion Class. ¶

Attending the meetings on this occasion reminds me very much of a meeting I attended, about fifty or sixty years ago as a boy upon this block. In a recent issue of the Improvement Era I read an article in which reference was made to the conversion, if you please, or the second conversion or bringing to these valleys, of Martin Harris, a witness to the Book of Mormon; how one of our elders found him in the world and brought encouraging words to him of the gospel and asked him why he left the Church. He said he did not leave the Church, but the Church left him, and I guess that was true. He remained in that country for a great many years, and finally through the encouraging words that were carried to him, he came to Zion. The thought occurs to me: How many are there of our brethren and sisters who are slack in their duties, probably negligent, doing nothing in the Church, as he had been doing for so many years, only bearing his testimony as one of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon? Are there any other men of his age who need an encouraging word? Are there any of us who are willing to give it? Are we interested in their salvation? Next to our own immediate families, I do not know of anybody we are going to encounter in the next world who will bring to us the joy and satisfaction that our friends will bring, and especially those who have given us encouraging words in this life and who have helped us to set aside the cares of this world and turn our attention unto the things of heaven. I was particularly impressed with his testimony which I read in the Era, because it was my great pleasure, as a boy about ten years of age, to sit and listen to the testimony of Martin Harris, that an angel of the Lord showed him the records from which the Book of Mormon was translated and declared to him that they were true and were translated by the gift and power of God. It was a great encouragement to me at the time I heard it. It has been a great encouragement to me from the time I heard it up to the present time that this man, Martin Harris, was alive and testified in my presence on these grounds. I cannot remember which building it was in. But he testified that the angel of the Lord appeared to him. ¶

Did the angel of the Lord appear to him? Undoubtedly he did. It was his testimony, and the testimony of those of his associates, that the angel of the Lord appeared to them, which carries to me the most convincing evidence that Joseph Smith actually saw the Father and the Son. If Martin Harris saw an angel of the Lord, and the angel testified to him that this book was translated by the power of God, then it is not unreasonable to suppose that Joseph Smith actually saw the Father and the Son. And how important that is in this day of skepticism, when even the Christian world is denying that God is a personal being and that Jesus Christ is his Son, that faith might not depart entirely from the earth, but that there might be those who still believe in the divinity of the mission of Jesus Christ and that he was divine; that God truly created us in his image; that we are his offspring, and that Jesus Christ is our elder brother; and that as he is, we may become. ¶

To my mind it was a great encouragement to me as a boy, and I thank the Lord that I believed it, and that the Lord has given me a believing heart in the testimony of the brethren. I have never heard a brother speak from this stand, or any other in this Church, but my heart seemed to respond to the statements that he made and I believed them; and it has not hurt me. It has strengthened my faith in God and made life tolerable and desirable even in times of trouble. It has strengthened my faith that this life is not all of the mission which our Father in heaven has set for us. If God lives and Jesus Christ is the Son of God, he was truly resurrected, though the Christian world today do not generally accept it. ¶

I have listened to a most beautiful sermon -- so far as words are concerned -- in one of our picture shows here in Salt Lake. It was said that an able speaker was going to talk, and I attended to hear what he said. He told us nothing about the Father, because he did not know anything about him, his personality, nor even the image in which he is. He could not believe the Bible, that God created man in his own image. He told us nothing about Jesus Christ nor his resurrection, because he did not believe it himself, and he did not understand and did not know. But he made a most sympathetic appeal and a speech which brought tears to the eyes of many of those who were in the congregation, speaking of the great labors and work that had been accomplished in the great world war and of our great nation and its achievements. But he did not have the testimony that there ever was a resurrection, that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead. The world, even the Christian world -- not as a whole, possibly, but individually has denied that great accomplishment or work of our Father in heaven upon which, to my notion, all our hopes and faith are centered. If there be no resurrection, what will there be for us when we pass from this earth? Some may claim that we will still have an existence in the spirit world. "We will go back where we were before we came here," may be their argument, "as spirits, and be able to dwell on the top of a topless throne, or in the clouds of heaven; we will be retrogressive, going backwards instead of forward." But the Almighty intended that the spirit should be united with the body and assume the responsibilities of this life, which are many. We have all seen that we can take care of and accomplish the things in this life, learning of those things which we cannot learn so well in the eternal world, because the knowledge which we acquire in this world goes with us; and the memory of our first estate is taken from us, that we may be absolutely free to act, relying upon our own agency and doing what is in our hearts and what we desire to do. And if our hearts are inclined unto righteousness and we love the works of God more than we love evil, we will become righteous; and if we overcome evil with good and serve God and keep his commandments, it will be largely through our own efforts and desire and love of the truth. So without the resurrection, it would be retrogression, going back into the spirit world whence we came -- which may possibly be the lot of some -- but I trust it will not be the lot of the Latter-day Saints. I trust that we will go on, having received our bodies again, and become as the Savior was after his resurrection, when he said, "Handle me, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have." He was handled, he was seen, after his resurrection, by many of his disciples, his apostles, and nearly five hundred on another occasion, in this life; and then again upon this continent, with a body such as we expect to receive in the eternal world, and not as a spirit without a body. ¶

May the Lord enable us to understand and appreciate the great blessings that we enjoy, and be able to grasp the encouraging things which he gives; the testimony of the prophets, of Joseph and Hyrum, and of those who have succeeded them in the presidency of the Church, in the visitation of those brethren and the testimony of the witnesses. And may faith grow in our hearts and a testimony of God and of his purposes; for it is impossible, says the prophet, for us to be saved in ignorance; we must grow and obtain understanding of the mind and of the purposes of the Lord and develop the mind which God has given us, which is the most wonderful part of the human soul. It is after the order of God, the eternal Father, and as no man can comprehend all that man can do or may do in their day, it appears to me that there are none of us who comprehend what we can do, how faithful we can be, how many testimonies of the gospel we may have and what may be our lot, even in this life, if we strive for it; or what shall be the blessings which God has in store for his faithful sons and daughters in the eternal world. May God enable us to strive and to continue to do his will and keep his commandments all the days of our lives, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, the risen Redeemer and our Savior. Amen. ¶