I Crave a Double Portion of the Spirit

I crave a double portion of the Spirit of the Lord while I stand before this magnificent audience of Latter-day Saints this afternoon. ¶

THANKS TO GOD ¶

I thank my heavenly Father for all his mercies in the past, and above all I thank him that I know that my Redeemer lives. I also thank him, at this time, for the wonderful care he has had over Sister Smoot. Over seven months ago I was directed by a man of science, a great doctor, that if I intended that she should be buried in Utah, I should at once arrange for the care of her body and make plans for leaving Washington within forty-eight hours. I have to acknowledge, not only to the Latter-day Saints, but to all the world, that it is not science that has kept her alive so long, but it has been the prayers of God's people, which have safeguarded her so far. God's will be done, not mine. ¶

THE INFLUENCE AND POWER OF GOD ¶

I have been more than pleased at this conference. It is so often said at the close of conference that it was the best conference that was ever held. I have never before attended one in all my life where I have felt the influence and power of Almighty God as I have at this conference. The Spirit of God has been with us, and no man, no matter what his belief may be, could stand before an audience of this character and listen to what has been said and not admit in his heart that there is something in "Mormonism" which no other religion on earth has. ¶

THE CATHOLIC FATHER MISTAKEN ¶

On the 22nd day of September last I was thinking of an experience that came to me forty-five years ago last July. I was then a young man of twenty years and was superintendent of the Provo Coop. I decided that I would go to Leadville and Denver, with a view ¶

of opening up a market for the products of the farm that we handled in Utah county. I made that trip and was successful. On my return, coming over the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, we had scarcely left Denver until a gentleman approached me. He was a Catholic father, a splendid type of physical manhood, a well educated man, one whose appearance would attract the attention of people anywhere. I had been conversing with one or two men. As I left them and took my seat he came and sat by me. Said he : ¶

"I understand that you live in Utah." ¶

"I do." ¶

"Are you a 'Mormon'?" "I am." ¶

He then began to discuss the question of "Mormonism," and among other things he said : "I tell you, young man, that no matter whether the Church has grown in years past or not, it will never live a hundred years." ¶

The reason assigned was that it was a fraud, that God did not reveal himself to man in these days; that the testimony of Joseph Smith was a falsehood upon its face; and an institution based upon a falsehood never lived a hundred years, and therefore "Mormonism" would not live that length of time. ¶

The thought came to me as I have looked over these vast audiences gathered here in this general conference, of what has happened during the last forty five years, and O how mistaken that father was. ¶

AN ANSWER FROM THE BOOK OF MORMON ¶

There were a number of things that impressed me greatly in what he said. I suppose many of the people of Utah and particularly my neighbors knew that I had up to that time not taken much interest in Church work. I was wrapped up, body and soul, in commercial affairs. I had no testimony that this was God's work. And so when I got home the first thing I did was to tell my mother of this circumstance. Among other things that he called to my attention was this, that there must be something wrong with the Church, with the organization, with the people, because the whole world was in opposition to them, and therefore the Church could not be true. Of course he gave his reasons why the great Catholic church was the only church of God. I told my mother this, and in her quiet way she said : ¶

"I wish you would read the second chapter of II Nephi, in that wonderful book, the Book of Mormon, and I think it will answer the statements made by the father or anyone else as to opposition." ¶

I took occasion to read it, and I want to call your attention to it today. Not the whole of it, by any manner of means. I wish I had the time to do so, but I am going to content myself after reading just a few of the statements regarding opposition, by asking you all to read that chapter in the Book of Mormon. It is an account of Lehi addressing his son Jacob, and in it Lehi says: ¶

"And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren. * * * ¶

"And he [speaking of God] shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain." ¶

And as to opposition Lehi says, in the eleventh verse of the chapter : ¶

"For it must needs be that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore all things must needs be a compound in one ; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life, neither death, nor corruption, nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility." ¶

NEED OF OPPOSITION IN ALL THINGS ¶

Lehi goes on to explain why there must be opposition in all things. When you stop to think about it, it is absolutely as God's servant, Lehi, predicted. If there were no opposition to business it would run to dry rot. And, brethren and sisters, if there were no opposition to the Church of Christ, it never would make the headway it is making. Its foundations never would be so strong as they are without the opposition it has encountered. Many of the hardships and evils that come to us, come as blessings in disguise. People wonder why weeds grow on the farm, why disease comes to the body, why the wicked among the peoples of the world, why evil exists upon every hand? Evil is a challenge to good. The fight is between evil and good, and God intends to have a people who know the difference between good and evil, and follow in the footsteps of the teachings of the Master. And nothing but good ever was uttered by him in mortal life. Why do we have the poor among us? Suppose we did not have any poor. I have always considered poverty a challenge, and it does challenge our sympathy and generosity, and do you know that that is a wonderful thing to broaden a man or woman? And I know of no other pleasure in all the world equal to that which comes to one whose generosity and kindness helps one of God's children. ¶

BELIEF IN REVELATION ¶

One of the things that the Catholic father complained most bitterly about was that we claim to have had revelation in this day direct from God, and that Joseph Smith received revelations for the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That I think, my brethren and sisters, is pretty well found to be one of the great criticisms of the Church. I know that in my own case, when there was an effort made to unseat me as a Senator of the United States, after all the testimony had been given and I think most everyone of my witnesses had testified to the effect that revelation was given to the founder of the Church, and I myself testified that I believed it with all my heart, Mr. Taylor, in summing up the arguments of the case to present to the Senators of the United States with a view to unseat me as being unworthy of a seat in that great body, made this statement : ¶

"Several hundred thousand sincere men and women have believed and now believe, as they believe in their own existence, that Joseph Smith, Junior, received ¶

revelation direct from God, and if anyone ever believed that, we must believe that Senator Smoot believes it. Now a Senator of the United States might believe anything else in the world but that and not be ineligible to a seat in the body to which he belongs. He might believe in polygamy; he might believe that murder was commendable; he might deny the propriety as a rule of life of all the ten commandments; he might believe in the sacrifice of human life; he might believe in no God or in a thousand gods ; ■ he might be Jew or Gentile, Mohammedan or Buddhist, Atheist, or Pantheist ; he might believe that the world began last year and would end next year, but to believe in the kind of conviction that Reed Smoot possesses, that God speaks to him or may speak to him is to admit by the inevitable logic of his conviction that there is a superior authority with whom here and now he may converse, and whose command he can no more refuse to obey than he can will himself not to think." ¶

My time has expired, but I want to tell you today that I haven't any more doubt in my mind than that I live that God did reveal himself to Joseph Smith, that this Church is founded upon the great principle of revelation from God. He is the author, the one that we worship, the one into whose presence we hope in time to return and give a report of the stewardship that he granted to us, such that the Father would say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." ¶

God bless the people, God bless our country. Instill in the hearts of the American people a greater love, if possible, in the future than in the past, of the great Constitution of this land. I feel in my soul that the time will never come in all the history of the world, be it short or be it long, that this people will deny that the Constitution of the United States came from God himself through men raised up for the purpose of establishing it and building upon it the greatest nation on earth. God be with us, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶