The President of the Church, in his address

The President of the Church, in his address this morning, declared that the missionaries went forth preaching that which they knew to be true. I testify to the truth of this statement. The Lord says in a revelation contained in the Doctrine and Covenants, that the power is in them, referring to the men who should preach his glorious word. When the father of John Wesley was dying, he said to his famous son: "It is the inward witness, John, that sustains us in the knowledge of God." This Gospel is being preached in the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost. The richest heritage that young people can possess in going into the world is to have the Holy Spirit as their abiding companion. ¶

A young man, living near Salt Lake City, left for a mission in the Southern States a few years ago. Before he left he said to his mother: "If I do not receive a testimony before I have been in the mission one month, I am going to return home." The mother sweetly answered: "My son, you have a testimony. My prayers will ascend unto God that you will be made conscious of that testimony before you have been in the mission field a month." The young man was put to labor in the Georgia conference. Three weeks after he arrived there, he and his companion were chased by a mob of angry men. The elders discarded their mission grips. They found that their coats impeded their flight, and they threw them aside; but when they had outdistanced their pursuers this young man who had told his mother he would return home within a month if he did not receive a testimony of the truth of the Gospel, shook his fist in the direction of the mob and said: "I know this Gospel is true." But it took a mob to make him conscious of his testimony. — "Sweet are the uses of adversity." ¶

A few days ago I received a telegram from a bishop in Zion stating that an elder's mother had died, and he desired that I should break the sad news to the young man. I took the young man to dinner: told him of the hardships, the griefs and the sorrows that had come, to many missionaries. When I thought I had him at least partly prepared to hear the sad news, I said: "My son, your mother has passed away." He wept as only missionaries can do, laboring under that great sorrow, and I wept with him. His mother, on her death-bed, had made the request that her son fill his mission. The young missionary said: "Don't be too kind to me. I am afraid I will get homesick. I am going to fulfil my mother's wishes." ¶

Brethren and sisters, did not that woman have the inward witness? Did her faith spring from a gospel that is not of God? The mission of her life, the mission of the Church burned in her heart, and she wanted to be one of God's children fulfilling his glorious purposes in her earth life. One cannot laugh away a statement like that. A court of law will accept a dying statement in proof of the case under consideration. Is Oliver Cowdery's testimony, is David Whitmer's testimony, is Martin Harris' testimony to the truth of the Book of Mormon true? We know by the power of the Holy Ghost that those testimonies are true. It is my firm belief that this sainted mother, who upon her death-bed made the request that her son fill his mission — and she is only one of many who have made this request — is an angel of God, and that before she breathed her last she was an angel of God. I don't believe it takes death to transform men and women into angels of our Father. Her spirit went to the God who gave it, a blessed woman, one among the multitude of the mothers of Israel. ¶

I pray God to bless us. Brethren and sisters, if you will have your children baptized when they reach the age of eight years, they will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, under the hands of the authorized servants of God, to be an eternal abiding companion to them; and though they wander from the path, though they grow indifferent and sometimes tread the wrong path, it is my firm belief — and unshaken testimony, that the prayers of the fathers and mothers in Israel (as did the prayers of Alma's father), will reach their sons and daughters in the hour of their direst need, and this witness of the Holy Ghost will prompt them to return to the faith of their fathers and mothers. I bear testimony that the power of the Holy Ghost attends this Church, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶