If I can but control my fluttering heart

If I can but control my fluttering heart, I shall be pleased, my brethren and sisters, to respond for a few moments to this call made on me by the President of the Church. In doing so, I desire that the blessings of the Lord shall be with me to direct what I shall say, for I realize that of myself I am not capable of saying anything that will be profitable to you who have assembled this afternoon to be instructed upon the word of the Lord. Therefore I pray that the blessings of the Lord shall be with each of us, that our time here will not have been spent in vain. ¶

I was thrilled, beyond my words to express, with the meeting of this morning, by the spirit that was manifest, by the things that were uttered by the President of the Church, and by President Ivins, and also with the things we listened to this morning in the officers' meeting of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, and I am grateful that I have had this opportunity of assembling and listening to these valuable thoughts. I hope I shall get fresh inspiration from them, and from the meetings to follow in this conference, so that, as I return to the stake over which I preside, I may be able to carry back to the people the spirit of this great gathering and the valuable things imparted, and to be imparted, by the servants of the Lord called upon to speak to the Latter-day Saints. ¶

I thank the Lord, above all else, that I have a testimony concerning this great latter-day work. I hope and trust that this testimony the Lord has given to me will be an abiding one, that during the rest of my life I shall be able to retain it in my soul and make it a part of my very being. As I enjoy this blessing, my brethren and sisters, I desire that this same blessing may be upon you and upon every Latter-day Saint who has gone down into the waters of baptism, and had hands laid upon his head for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and who has been given a testimony concerning this great latter-day work. I hope and pray that each one who has entered into covenants with his Maker may have the Holy Ghost to abide with them. ¶

I was impressed very much this morning in listening to what was said, and the words of the Savior came to me and have been upon my mind since then. If you will bear with me for a moment, I would like to read some of his words, as recorded in the 14th chapter of St. John, beginning at the 14th verse : ¶

"If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. "If ye love me, keep my commandments. ¶

"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever ; ¶

"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. ¶

"I will not leave you comfortless : I will come to you. ¶

"Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. * * * ¶

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me : and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." ¶

The very fact that we have gathered ourselves together in this conference is an indication to me that we love the Lord and that we are exemplifying in our lives the words of the Redeemer of the world wherein he says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." The people in this conference have gathered from all parts of the Church, some of them coming hundreds of miles, paying their own expenses on the railroads and in the hotels, and all because of their love for the Redeemer of the world and the work that he has established in the dispensation in which we live. We are sending missionaries into the nations, and to every part of the known world, with the message of the restored gospel, and they go out, as you are aware, bearing their own expenses, meeting the scoffs and the scorns of the people of the world and many of them enduring the hardships because of the love they have for the gospel which has been made a part of their lives. Where else can you find such love manifest in all the world as is shown by the Latter-day Saints, willing upon every occasion (it matters not what the sacrifice might be) to go where they are sent, to bear this message of glad tidings of great joy to people who do not know as we know, that the Redeemer of the world liveth? ¶

I rejoice in the fact that we have identified ourselves with an organization that has for its object the love of humanity. Members of this great organization realize the responsibility of carrying this great message to the nations, regardless of cost, regardless of their time and means, and even the sacrifice of their own lives, if it becomes necessary. It is because of this love that our parents and our grandparents accepted the gospel in their native lands, and emigrated from the various parts of the world to this intermountain country, the place that the Lord spoke of through his servants as the dwelling place of latter-day Israel. ¶

I thank God that I was born of parents who had the love of God in their hearts, that when the gospel came to them they accepted it in the circumstances that it found them. They were willing to make sacrifice, willing to leave all that they had and journey westward to this land surrounded by these lofty peaks that we see on every hand. Many are the trials and hardships that our grandparents endured. My grandparents on my mother's side accepted the gospel in Sweden. They suffered much persecution prior to and during their journey here. They had but very little means to migrate to this western land. They had to stop upon various occasions and earn money, that they might continue their journey, and upon one occasion, when they were earning money in order that they might proceed upon their journey, it was necessary that they leave some of their children with friends. The friends with whom they left the children became attached to them, and when they had earned sufficient money to take them on a little farther, they went to gather their children. Some of the people were unwilling to give them up, and it was necessary for them to go into court in order to get them. They did so, and the court gave them their children, but after the court had decided in their favor and they went on their way, the people that were after some of their children waylaid them upon the road and took from them one boy, and from that day until the day of their death, they never had the privilege of again beholding the face of that son. That is just one instance, my dear friends, of the many trials and hardships that they had to endure because of the love in their souls of the gospel. It enabled them to journey thousands of miles to this western country and establish their children here. Upon their foundation we can build, in the enjoyment of the blessings of the Lord. I rejoice with you that we are surrounded with the comforts that the Lord has blessed us with, that we have plenty to subsist upon, to make ourselves comfortable and happy, and that, above all else, we still retain in our hearts that same love manifest by our fathers and mothers who accepted the gospel in the land of their birth. This knowledge and this love came to them through earnest prayer and through seeking after the word of the Lord. They were honest in heart, they desired to serve God and keep his commandments, and when the servants of the Lord found them, they recognized the voice of the true shepherd and embraced the truth, but it was because of earnest prayer and desire upon their part to know the will of the Lord, and to keep his commandments. The Lord has told us in the scripture that I have read to you that he will manifest himself to us. I bear witness to you that the Lord does manifest himself to the Latter-day Saints. He may not do it by personal contact in each individual case, but, through the promptings of the Holy Ghost, he manifests himself to the Latter-day Saints from time to time as needed, that they may be kept in the path of truth and righteousness. I know beyond any doubt that if we study the Spirit of truth, the Holy Ghost, and put ourselves in condition to detect its promptings, that it will continue to manifest itself to us. But I want to say to you that it requires study. We must conduct ourselves in a way and manner that when the Lord speaks to us we may recognize his voice and carry out the instructions given to us as individuals. The Prophet Moroni, you know, gives the keynote, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, Moroni 10. The Lord says, speaking through Moroni : ¶

"Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. ¶

"And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true : and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. ¶

I bear record to you that our fathers and mothers, when the gospel came to them, asked, as Moroni here gives us to understand, in His name, and when they asked, they received knowledge concerning the doctrines, as to whether they were of men or of God. The injunction given by the Savior, the Redeemer of the world, is that you ask in his name and you shall know whether the doctrine is of man or whether they come from our heavenly Father. ¶

I pray that the Lord will bless us as individuals, as members of this great organization and as elders of Israel, that each one shall perform his part well, that we shall realize the responsibilities we owe one to another, and especially the responsibility that we owe to our heavenly Father in bearing our part, in helping to preach the gospel and do the work at home and abroad, for the salvation of the living as well as the dead. I bear record that there is no joy, no pleasure, no happiness to be enjoyed in all the world, outside of the service of the Redeemer of the world. It matters not how much money men may have to spend in getting happiness in this world, there is no real joy outside of his service. I bear you this as my testimony, my brethren and sisters, in all humility, and in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶