Some splendid things have been said during this

Some splendid things have been said during this Conference, and I am happy to find myself in hearty accord with them all. It may be supposed that differences of opinion have been expressed by certain speakers. But I do not recognize any such differences. It seems to me that there has been a wonderful unanimity of thought and utterance in the remarks of those who have addressed us. ¶

Differences of Viewpoint

What appear to be differences in the teachings of the Lord's servants at times, are not differences in principle, nor in conviction, but only differences of viewpoint. We are all looking at the same object, but not through the same pair of eyes. The splendid discourse of Elder Ballard and the equally interesting talk of President Harris (the latter at the Priesthood meeting) set me to thinking along this line. ¶

Mother and Daughter

I recall a trip to Rigby stake that I took some years ago, in company with my kinsman, Elder J. Golden Kimball. We were to attend a conference on Saturday and Sunday, but arrived at Rigby in the afternoon of Friday. A woman's meeting was in progress in the basement of the Tabernacle, and one of the sisters was holding forth to a large assemblage of mothers, wives and daughters. As we went in these words fell from her lips: "The girls of today are just as good as their mothers were when they were young — only they know more." And to clinch her argument she quoted a dialogue between a mother and a daughter, in which the mother said: "I never thought of doing such things when I was a girl." "No," answered the daughter, "if you had you'd have done them." ¶

Elder Kimball's Pro and Con

The conference opened in due season, and Brother Kimball arose to speak. The first thing he said that interested me was this: "There isn't one man in a thousand that knows how to treat a woman." And the sisters all over the house looked at each other and nodded their heads approvingly. Then Golden fired off the other barrel: "And there isn't one woman in a thousand that knows when she's well treated." I came home more than ever convinced that there are two sides to every question. ¶

The Youth of Zion

I have faith in the young people of this Church — not because I believe them without fault, nor because I think all are walking in the ways of wisdom and shunning the downward road. I have faith in them because of the character of their parents, because of the ancestry from which they have sprung, and because of the promise made by the God of Heaven, that "this Kingdom shall never be thrown down nor given to another people." ¶

A Word for the Wayward

You parents of the wilful and the wayward! Don't give them up. Don't cast them off. They are not utterly lost. The Shepherd will find his sheep. They were his before they were yours — long before he entrusted them to your care; and you cannot begin to love them as he loves them. They have but strayed in ignorance from the Path of Right, and God is merciful to ignorance. Only the fulness of knowledge brings the fulness of accountability. Our Heavenly Father is far more merciful, infinitely more charitable, than even the best of his servants, and the Everlasting Gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite minds can comprehend. ¶

A Precious Promise

The Prophet Joseph Smith declared — and he never taught more comforting doctrine — that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father's heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God. ¶

Who are these straying sheep — these wayward sons and daughters? They are children of the Covenant, heirs to the promises, and have received, if baptized, the gift of the Holy Ghost, which makes manifest the things of God. Could all that go for naught? ¶

Something that President Nibley said much impressed me. As I interpreted him, he was reminding us of how Latter-day Saints are made, and how we must build up the Church and Kingdom of God. ¶

A Scene from Shakespeare

Shakespeare, in that wonderful play, "The Merchant of Venice" — I presume you are all familiar with it — pictures a court scene in which Shylock, a Jew money-lender, is suing Antonio, a Christian merchant, whom he hates and would fain destroy. Shylock holds a bond from Antonio for a loan of three thousand ducats, which bond, if the loan be not paid within a certain time, permits the Jew to cut a pound of flesh from the merchant's body, nearest his heart, that being the penalty of the forfeiture. The money not being paid on time — Antonio's ships having been lost at sea — Shylock demands the strict fulfilment of the bond. ¶

Portia, a beautiful and talented lady, disguised as a lawyer, represents Antonio and entreats the Jew to be merciful. Shylock spurns the thought, and insists upon his pound of flesh. Portia then tells him to take it, but warns him, to shed no blood, lest he violate the law of Venice, which severely punishes an alien for seeking the life of a citizen. "Take your pound of flesh, but if in the taking of it you shed one drop of Christian blood, or cut off more or less than just one pound of flesh, thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate." Shylock now tries to recede, but the law still holds him. For contriving, though indirectly, against the merchant's life, all his goods are confiscated— half to the State and half to Antonio — and his life "lies in the mercy of the Duke." Then comes a most wonderful decision — wonderful in its supreme absurdity. The Duke, who is the Judge, gives the Jew his life on condition that he "presently become a Christian." ¶

It is hard for me to believe that Shakespeare wrote those words — unless his purpose was to satirize the State of Venice and its method of dispensing justice to Jews. Shakespeare was noted for his rare good sense, and I have always been told that good law is good sense. But where was the good sense of trying to convert a Jew into a Christian by a decree of court? Up to that point the logic is faultless, the wisdom abundantly manifest; after that, it is conspicuous by its absence. Christians, real Christians, are not made that way. ¶

A Colonizing Proposition

I place beside this fancied incident an experience of my own. I was on a train in the State of Idaho, and had just taken breakfast and resumed my seat in the Pullman coach, when a gentleman came and sat beside me. Said he: "I gathered from your conversation in the diner that you are a Mormon." I nodded assent, and he continued: "I have long desired to talk with some of your leading men. I know only one prominent Mormon" — and he named Rulon S. Wells as the man. "I am deeply interested in colonization, and regard the Mormon people as the most successful colonizers in the world. I have noted the vain attempts made by Baron Hirsch and other wealthy Hebrew philanthropists, to colonize poor Jews from the large Eastern cities upon arid lands in the West; a project upon which they have spent millions, and failed because of the utter lack of experience as colonizers on the part of those whom they have sought to benefit. Now, if the Mormon leaders would form a co-partnership with Baron Hirsch and his colleagues— they to furnish the millions, you the skill as colonizers— what a magnificent work might be accomplished! And mind you, you could stipulate in the contract, that every Jew thus colonized should become a Mormon! And just see how that would build up your Church!" I remained silent, thinking of poor old Shylock and his proposed conversion to Christianity. Does any Latter-day Saint or latter-day sinner within the sound of my voice, believe that this Church could be built up by a colonizing contract or anything else of a commercial character? No; "Mormons" are not made that way. ¶

How Made

There is but one way to build up the Church of God — and that is God's way, not man's. Faith, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the reception of the Holy Ghost under the hands of divinely authorized ministers of the Gospel — these are essentials in the process. That gift of God which imparts a testimony of the Truth, supplemented by toil and sacrifice and continued obedience to the divine will — that is what makes true Latter-day Saints. Divine revelation is the rock upon which this Church is built, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. ¶

As Dickens Saw Them

What was the character of the early converts to "Mormonism"? They were stigmatized as ignorant and malicious. It was ignorance and malice that so stigmatized them. "Scum of the earth," "off-scourings of civilization" — these were some of the pet names bestowed upon them by their enemies. How utterly unjust, how grotesquely misapplied these epithets, must be apparent to everyone who has any knowledge of the facts. The great Charles Dickens, then a reporter on a London newspaper, after visiting an emigrant ship anchored in the Thames, a ship loaded with Latter-day Saints and about to sail for America, described them as "in their degree the pick and flower of England." And if that be true of England, it is true of America, and true of all the countries from which the Saints of latter days have come. As a matter of fact, they were among the best men and women of their time. Many were descended from the Pilgrims and the Patriots who founded this Nation, and in their veins, as sons and daughters of Israel, flowed the blood of priests and kings, illustrious through a thousand generations. ¶

An English Heroine

A few years ago I spoke at the funeral of an aged English woman in the town of Payson. She had been at one time a member of the Eighteenth Ward in Salt Lake City, and I was her Bishop. Born in far-away Gloucestershire, as a young girl she joined the Church after hearing the first "Mormon" sermon to which she had ever listened. She went home a Latter-day Saint, and her parents turned her from the door. She had disgraced them, they said, by connecting herself with a people, who, like the early Christians, were everywhere spoken against — the unpopular and despised "Mormons." From that hour she earned her own living, earned it honestly, virtuously, and within ten years, her father, mother, brothers and sisters, by the mercy of God and influenced, no doubt, by her heroic example, had all been gathered into the Church. They emigrated to Utah, and here she continued her good work in the Temple, redeeming hundreds of her dead ancestors and becoming literally a savior to her father's house. Is it not amazing that a little slip of a girl, only nineteen years of age, could manifest such strength of character, such devotion to principle? "Scum of the earth," forsooth! Would to heaven there were more like her! And there are many like her in this Church, many thousands of them, just as true and steadfast as she. They are the mothers, present or prospective, of our boys and girls, men and women of the future. ¶

"I Cannot Make the Sacrifice"

Let me now cite a different example. In the State of Ohio in the year 1877, while on my first mission, I formed the acquaintance of a very estimable lady, the widow of a Union officer who had fallen in battle during the Civil War. She loved her departed husband, revered his memory, and expressed for him the fondest, deepest devotion. When I told her of the doctrines of salvation for the dead, marriage for eternity, and the sacred sealings that pertain to the Hereafter — explaining that these were among the purposes for which the Latter-day Saints build temples and officiate therein — she was wonderfully interested. "Do you mean to tell me," she asked, "that if I become a Latter-day Saint I can have such work done for my dear husband, and be his wife in Eternity?" "Yes," said I, and she exclaimed: "I have never heard anything so beautiful, so sublime. Convince me of its truth, and I will be baptized if it were in a lake of living fire." Those were her very words. ¶

"I cannot convince you," I said, "but the Lord can, and will if you ask him." "I will ask him," was her hearty response; and no doubt she did, for she wrote me in a few days to this effect: "The Lord has given me the testimony that I desired, and I am now ready to be baptized." Overjoyed, I answered telling her that I would make up a little party and meet her at a certain point on the shore of Lake Erie, and there baptize her. ¶

The party was made up and about ready to start, when I received another note from her, reading as follows: "I never knew before what a poor, weak, frail creature I am. I thought myself strong enough, brave enough, to take this step — but I am not. If I should become a Mormon, all my friends would forsake me, I would lose my social standing, and my name would be cast out as evil. I cannot make the sacrifice. And yet I believe the doctrines that you have laid before me, and regard you as a true servant of God. I hope the day will come when we can stand upon the same plane as brother and sister in the Church; but I cannot do that now." ¶

I felt no anger — only disappointment and pity. How like the impetuous Peter, I thought, who said to Jesus, "Though all men forsake thee, I will not forsake thee;" and yet, when danger threatened, he denied him thrice — denied that he knew his Savior. But Peter repented, and the Holy Ghost, descending upon him, banished all timidity and made of him a brave man, ready to die for the Master. It is said that when about to be crucified, he begged the boon that it be with his head downward, not deeming himself worthy to die as his Lord had died. ¶

This good woman — for she was a good woman, a child of Israel, no doubt, else why did she believe? — had she been baptized she would have received the Holy Ghost, and it would have heartened and sustained her through every trial. She thought herself brave enough to be baptized in a lake of fire. But when weighed in the balance she was found wanting. It has taken braver women to build up the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ¶

The Impelling Motives

The motives that impelled the founders and early members of this Church were vastly different from the motives generally imputed to them. It was not for gold and silver, houses and lands, nor any of "the good things of this world," that they forsook home and country, crossed the stormy ocean, dragged rickety hand-carts over sun-parched plains and snow-clad mountains, to settle in a wilderness and suffer hardships and privations innumerable, while redeeming the waste and filling it with farms, vineyards and happy homes. No; it was for God and his Kingdom — nothing less. It was the love of Truth that inspired and impelled them. And they did not wait for Truth to become popular before espousing her cause. The poet Lowell little knew how admirably he was painting their portrait when he penned these glowing lines: ¶

Then to side with Truth is noble, When we share her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame and profit, And 'tis prosperous to be just; Then it is the brave man chooses, While the coward stands aside, Doubting in his abject spirit Till his Lord is crucified, And the multitude make virtue Of the faith they had denied. ¶

Perhaps a little verse of my own may not be deemed unworthy of association with Lowell's heroic stanza. I wrote it as an inscription for a bronze statue, "The Hand-Cart Family," a work of our gifted Norwegian brother, Torleif Knaphus, unveiled some time ago by President Grant at the Bureau of Information: ¶

Nor gold, nor glory, their exalted quest, Who won for East the wide unconquered West. They toiled o'er frozen crest, o'er parching plain, Eternal wealth in higher worlds to gain. Forever in remembrance let them be, Who gave their all for Truth and Liberty! ¶

And like begets like! Fear not for Zion's future. The sons and daughters of the heroes and heroines who laid the foundations of this work, will build thereon and bear off the Kingdom triumphantly. When put to the test, they will "show the mettle of their pasture." ¶