I am very happy, my brethren and sisters

I am very happy, my brethren and sisters, to be in attendance at this conference, and I hope and pray that I may be led to say that which the Lord would have me say. ¶

I do not know just what effect the testimonies of men, who have been members of the Church for many years, have upon those who do not know the truth, or just how far they may be led through such testimonies to investigate the gospel. But there is one thing by which they must be impressed, and that is that an organization that has held its own without a change for nearly a century is almost without a parallel in the world. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not changed in its doctrine. It is almost one hundred years since the Church was organized, and the doctrines that were taught by those early elders are still taught by the men and women of the present time. ¶

Those early leaders taught that man had an ante-mortal state, and we have held to that doctrine for a century. In my experience I have not found any man able to prove that doctrine to be untrue ; on the contrary, I have read the testimonies of hundreds of men and listened to thousands of them bear testimony that it is true, and give good scriptural evidence for it. The elders of the Church testified in the beginning concerning the Father and the Son appearing to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and declared unto the children of men that he is a personal being. The Church has taught this doctrine since that time, for nearly one hundred years, and in my experience I have never found nor read of anyone who has been able successfully to prove that it is not true, or that it was not a doctrine from the beginning of time. ¶

These principles of the gospel must surely find lodgment in the hearts of the honest wherever they are found and where men are able to study them. I glory in the fact that the Church has never wavered in the least in all its history in doctrine or in organization ; that it has constantly grown until it has become the greatest organization in all the world, in its order and system, in the excellence of its social scheme, in the perfection of its doctrines, and in its spiritual power. These things must certainly attract the attention of men. They are a warning to the children of men that the Lord has spoken, and the lives of men who testify of these things and live in accordance with these principles must be taken into consideration by those who oppose them and say they are not true. The Lord will undoubtedly call such to an accounting sooner or later. ¶

I have heard men and women by the hundreds testify that they know the gospel is true ; that its principles have been revealed from the Lord ; that they know they lived before they came into this world ; that they know that God our eternal Father has a body of flesh and bones ; that they do know that the power of the Priesthood is among the children of men and that the Lord has revealed, and does reveal and will constantly reveal his mind unto his servants here in mortality. ¶

They have testified unto me that they know they have been born again; that the doctrines which they had been taught previously were false; namely, that the Father through his Son had done all that there was to do, and left nothing for them to do but to acknowledge Christ and be saved. They have testified that they have found that there was something for them to do; that they must needs be baptized and receive the laying on of hands through the authority of the Priesthood on the earth. As a result they were baptized by fire and born again into a newness of life; they were thereby able to comprehend that the Father and his Son were personal beings; they were able to comprehend that they lived before they came into the world ; they were able to understand the need of baptism for the dead, as well as for the living; they were able to see the eternity of the marriage covenant ; they were able to see the great plan of our Father and to realize that this life is just a part of the existence of a human being. This knowledge made them in reality new individuals, they were thenceforth different in their lives. ¶

Not long ago I had a conversation with a sister eighty-two years of age who had just been baptized into the Church. She told me that she had been so bitter all her life that she would not even talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ according to the "Mormon" idea of it, and while visiting with a friend who belonged to this Church she had made the request that religion be not discussed at all. The good sister, who was a very dear friend of hers, said, "All right, we will not discuss religion." But she left the Book of Mormon open where this other sister could find it. She also left some tracts which she had purchased where they might be read by her friend if she so desired. The sister told me that she was so prejudiced when she saw that book open that she turned around and backed up to it and closed it for fear she might see something she would believe. However, at length, she read a pamphlet, and then another. She finally read the Book of Mormon, and was baptized. She told me that she had reared a good family, which she had loved as only a mother can love. She said she thought she had been as happy as a person could be when she was rearing her little children,) and when they grew to manhood and womanhood she had the privilege of living with them. She was still near them but now they were so enraged at her joining the Church that they would hardly let her visit them. Notwithstanding this she had never been so happy in all her life as she has been since she joined the Church. She had found nothing else to compare with the happiness she has found through the revelations of the Lord to Joseph Smith the Prophet in this day. In the hours of the night when she awakens she finds herself never alone; she has much to think about, much to read, and much to do. She said to me, "I have been born again. I know that I lived before I came into this world, and I know that my Father has a body of flesh and bones, and I know that the Lord has spoken in these the last days and has revealed unto Joseph Smith the truth. I am born again." And she said also, 'T could no more go back to my old way of thinking and my old way of worshiping the Lord than I could go back to yesterday." ¶

Truly these testimonies written and spoken, distributed in all parts of the earth where Christians reside, must awaken in the hearts of the honest of the earth a desire to love the Lord. ¶

My testimony unto you, my brethren and sisters, is that I know there has been no change in the doctrines of the Church. I have read the writings of the early elders of this Church in the days of the Prophet Joseph and those who were with him — Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, Wilford Woodruff, and all those mighty men. I have read many of their sermons recorded in the Journal of Discourses, and in the other histories that were kept and are now in existence. I have made it a matter of investigation for many years, and I have never found any change. The same spirit which prompted those men prompts the men and women of today, and it is the greatest testimony to the children of men, or ought to be, that there is one guiding hand which directs and governs the destinies of this Church. ¶

I know my brethren and sisters, that God lives and that Joseph Smith was his prophet and is his prophet, and that the power of his priesthood and his prophetic appointment was delivered to Brigham Young, who followed him, and that it is here in the earth today, with President Heber J. Grant. I know there is no other organization under the shining sun that holds the Priesthood and the power of God to administer in the ordinances of the gospel on this earth. I know that the history of this Church must be recognized and reckoned with. I know men who say there is no such thing as revelation in our day, yet the Book of Mormon has never been proved to be untrue by any man who has written or spoken about it. I know, my brethren and sisters, that the judgments of God are just, and that his rewards are certain and sure. I take great pleasure in bearing this testimony unto you. ¶

I take great pleasure and happiness in my work in the mission field, where I have been for a long time, and where I have traveled among the children of men in the six states of the Central States mission — fifteen millions of people. There is a great body of men and women there who bear testimony constantly that this is the work of God. The work of God our eternal Father is greater today than it has ever been before and more surely established in the hearts of the children of men, for witnesses such as this fine old sister I have referred to are found in almost all of the counties of the states where I preside. And what is true of that woman is true of others, whom the Lord God our eternal Father has raised up as witnesses in all parts of the world ; their testimonies are the same. ¶

My brethren and sisters, we ought to be happy in a knowledge that this is the work of God, and that he has reserved us to come forth in this day and generation of time when the fulness of his gospel is in the earth. I pray that we may be able to keep the commandments of God and walk in his paths and sustain him through his priesthood, and I do it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶