A Testimony of the Centennial

ELDER JUNIUS F. WELLS ¶

Assistant Church Historian ¶

Necessarily what I shall say must be prefatory to that which I should like to have recorded as my contribution to the great volume of testimony that is going forth from this centennial conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to all the world. ¶

I feel as President Brigham H. Roberts did concerning the announcement of his prodigious work, which is perhaps one of the most important, and perhaps longest-lived contributions to this centennial year of any that shall go forth, the History of the Church, a work, I trust, that shall find its place in every public library, in every school library, and in the homes of the affluent who can afford to buy it. I will go farther and say I, hope it shall find a place in the homes of the stockmen, who should give their sons a calf to raise with which to pay for those books; in the homes of the agriculturists who should let their sons cultivate a sufficient acreage of sugar beets to pay for them. They will in the course of time be worth many acres of sugar beets. ¶

I wish to say a word concerning Andrew Jenson. I was so happy and pleased this morning that he should have the opportunity of addressing this great conference, for I knew that the desire lay near to his heart. Andrew Jenson, circumnavigator of the world in both directions, for years has devoted himself to historical study and research among the Latter-day Saints and has assembled a library of upwards of two thousand bound volumes, more than three thousand titled pamphlets and more than sixteen thousand manuscript biographies. These he has generously given to the Church and we have found lodgment for them in what we are designating the Jenson Alcove in the library of the Historian's Office. ¶

Now if I have not exhausted my ten minutes, I should like to bear my testimony. I have borne my testimony from this stand more times than one concerning the Church to which I owe my existence through the faithful acceptance of its doctrines by my father and my mother. I have borne my testimony concerning the personnel of its general officers: the successors to Joseph Smith in the Presidency, six of whom I have personally and somewhat familiarly known and served, and the forty-one out of fifty-four Apostles whom I have personally known and loved, admired and upheld by my faith and prayers. I will not attempt ¶

to name the number of Seventies, but I have known a good many of them. I desire to bear my testimony that these men were men of God. ¶

I should like to say a word concerning my testimony of Joseph Smith the Prophet, for I wish to challenge the world upon this proposition, that the world of unbelievers together with the believers among the Latter-day Saints, are witnesses before mankind to the fact that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I will prove it to you. On the night of the 22nd of September, 1823, Joseph Smith appealed to God for a further revelation concerning his standing before the Almighty, and almost instantly in response to his prayer his room was lighted up by a light exceeding that of the noonday sun and within it appeared a personage. This personage spoke to him. I will quote Joseph's own words: ¶

"He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people." ¶

Now we say to the world, you have fulfilled your part and are fulfilling your part, and will be held responsible for it before the heavens, in traducing the name of Joseph Smith, in proclaiming him as an imposter, in speaking evil of him. We Latter-day Saints, in this volume of testimony that is broadcast from this conference, and in the action that we have taken since Joseph Smith came to his ministry, to uphold his testimony and maintain it before the world, are speaking his name for good, have been doing so in the past, and shall continue to do so in the future. And so between us we declare to mankind that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and I challenge the world to refute that statement. ¶

The Lord bless you all. Amen. ¶