Remarks

We are told that "prayer is the soul's sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed; the motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast." If ever I experienced that in my life, my brethren and sisters, I experience it at this moment, for it is the earnest desire of my heart today that our Father in heaven will bless me, that I may be able at least to bear my testimony to the divinity of this great work in which we are engaged. I have enjoyed the remarks in this conference very much. I have enjoyed the remarks of the former speaker here this afternoon, in which he quoted the revelation which says, "Behold a great and marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men." I have read that, time and time again, and I have wondered how the Prophet Joseph Smith, at the time he received that revelation and gave it out to the people, could have realized that a great and marvelous work was about to come forth, unless he was inspired by the influence of the Spirit of our Father in heaven. I feel with all my heart, my brethren and sisters, that the Prophet Joseph Smith was inspired to bring forth this great work. I believe that when our Father in heaven and his Son, Jesus Christ, appeared unto him, that they showed him the beauties and the marvelous work that was about to come forth through his instrumentality. There never has been a doubt in my mind with regard to his calling. ¶

I have always believed and have always pictured it in my mind as being fact, whenever I have read the account of the visitation of our Father in heaven and his Son Jesus Christ to the Prophet Joseph Smith. There never has been a doubt in my mind with regard to that matter and the divinity of this work. ¶

My brethren and sisters, I received a testimony in my young days that has never left me; and while I have been thrown into the company of men who have ridiculed the gospel, that ridicule has never had any effect upon my mind, because our Father in heaven gave me a testimony with regard to the divinity of this work. I was almost constantly with my father, a man who accepted the gospel in his native land of Wales. He left all that was near and dear to him, and came out to this country all alone, not a relative of any kind with him; came out here for the gospel's sake; and the testimonies that he bore to me on many and many occasions sank deep into my heart, and I believed with all my heart that he was telling me the truth, because I knew he was a truthful man. I knew that what he said was true, and he would relate the experiences that they had in the old world in the young days of the gospel, when people were possessed of evil spirits; and all of those things always had an interest for me; and while I was but sixteen years of age when he died, and was the only one of his family who happened to be present with him on that occasion -- at the time of his death -- out of nine of us in the family, I do not believe I shall ever forget, worlds without end, when a few minutes before his death he called me to his side. I knelt down by him, and he bore his testimony to the divinity of this great work. It had an impression upon me that has never left me and never will, worlds without end. I loved my father and knew he was a truthful man, and could not doubt the testimony which he bore to me upon his deathbed. He also gave me the charge that I should take that testimony back to my brothers and sisters. I have tried, in my weak way, to impress upon them the testimony as it was impressed upon me. I hope the day will never come that I forget his last testimony. ¶

Since that time I have had some experience in this Church, and the Lord has been good to me and has blessed me with an individual testimony, that I can bear without fear of any one that I ever met in my life -- and, as I stated, I have been thrown, upon many occasions, into rough company. I used to freight to Montana in early days and was thrown many a time into company that had no use for "Mormonism" in any way in the world; but I never met a man in my life that I could not look in the eye and say that I knew the gospel is true, whether he knew it or not. The Lord has blessed me to that extent that I have never feared, wherever I was, in bearing that testimony to the children of men, and I hope such a day will never come, because I know that there is nothing in connection with the gospel that we need to be ashamed of or for which we need to hang our heads in talking to anybody regarding it. Our town, Malad, has been a very much mixed town. Quite a large number of outsiders live with us. I have had to labor with them, have mixed with them upon many, many an occasion, but there has never been a time but I was willing to bear my testimony to them, and I believe that they respected me for it. I do not know of any of our Latter-day Saints who had more respect for me than the outsiders with whom I have labored in different ways, and this was exhibited when I was called to the position, that I occupy at the present time, of president of the stake. Almost without an exception, those men called me by phone and said, "We knew who were going to be the president." Well, I had not thought of it myself, and as I told the brethren when they came up there, that they might just as well have taken a shotgun, taken me out in the field, and taken a shot at me; they would not have come any nearer to killing me. I love the work of the Lord, but for some cause or other it is a hard matter for me to preach the gospel. It is not, however, because of the fear of man or anything of that kind; it is a weakness of some kind that is within me. Some of the Reorganized people up our way make considerable capital out of President Young's having said on one occasion that he was "not a prophet nor the son of a prophet." I can truthfully say that I am not a preacher nor the son of a preacher. My father was a very weak man when it came to preaching the gospel standing on his feet; but when the opportunity came to him in social conversation around the fireside or anything of that kind, he was always ready and was able to defend the gospel, and always did it very creditably. ¶

I pray God to bless us, my brethren and sisters, that we may give heed to all that may be said to us during this conference; that we may not be in the position that President Grant spoke of yesterday when he said that in nearly all the congregations that he attends, they sing, "We thank thee, O God, for a prophet" -- with the postscript, "provided he does not advise us to do things that do not suit us." I hope that whenever we receive any advice from those of our brethren who are called to those important positions, that we will be ready and willing to accept it, although it may possibly not be according to our way of thinking at the time. We have to wait only a short time until the thing will be demonstrated to our perfect satisfaction that those called to such positions are called of God and have the inspiration of God, our heavenly Father, to advise us along that line. ¶

I remember on many occasions hearing my father discuss the question of the personality of God to people who did not believe in a personal God. I remember the objection that they brought up. They would say that it would be impossible for a man put in the position that we believe God is, if he were a personal being, to know what is going on throughout his creations. My father used to say, "I feel that he has an organization or some way whereby he knows what is going on through all his creations." We have had to wait only a few years, brethren and sisters, before man has demonstrated that it is possible for us to hear people all around the earth, without any wires. The radio has demonstrated it and has demonstrated to my perfect satisfaction that our Father in heaven always has had some way, some means whereby he knows what is going on throughout all his creations. May God bless us, my brethren and sisters, that we may give heed to the counsel given to us by our brethren, from time to time, because I know from my past experience that if we will heed, it will be for our benefit and that we will reap the benefits that we desire. May God bless us, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶