Moroni's Exhortation

I appreciate very much the honor and privilege of expressing my feelings on this auspicious occasion when many thousands of people are assembled and many thousands of others no doubt are listening in on the radio to the proceedings of this conference. While I appreciate this opportunity I want to say that ¶

there is no other labor I have to perform in connection with my ministry that gives me so much anxiety and concern as that of anticipating a call to speak in the General Conferences of the Church. Notwithstanding the anxiety I have had I have enjoyed this conference exceedingly and I feel in my soul that it is one of the best we have ever had. ¶

I think that in considering the character of this vast audience I might conclude that there are present Latter-day Saints of every degree of faith and faithfulness, and others, good men and women, who have not identified themselves with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I desire with all my heart to be able to say something that will be of interest and profit to my listeners, and to this end I trust that the Lord will help me to bring forth some of the reflections which I have had while sitting here upon the stand. ¶

"We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God." ¶

This, without any qualification or apology. ¶

Moronl's Exhortation

I want to read to you a few verses from the 10th chapter of the Book of Moroni in the Book of Mormon. It was Moroni who had the responsibility of hiding up in the Hill Cumorah, many centuries ago, the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated ; and he had the responsibility of delivering those plates to Joseph Smith, and after they had been translated by the gift and power of God, received them back at the hands of the Prophet Joseph. ¶

Speaking of the time when this work should come forth he said : ¶

"Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your heart. ¶

"And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. ¶

"And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." ¶

The Revealed Word of God

We read in the scriptures of the New Testament that "no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men : but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." ¶

The things contained in the Book of Mormon are the things of God given to the children of men by the inspiration and power of the Holy Ghost, and so are the things contained in the Doctrine and Covenants, in the Pearl of Great Price, and in the Holy Bible, which books constitute the standard works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If we can enjoy that measure of the Holy Ghost ¶

which was felt by and which actuated those prophets of God who spoke the things contained in these books, and wrote them, we will understand as they understood, and they will not be mysteries unto us. Every Latter-day Saint who is faithful, having accepted the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel, having had the Holy Ghost conferred upon him, if he is true to these things, will know the truth when he reads it or when he hears it spoken. ¶

Men of God

When President Heber J. Grant stood up before the congregation in the first session of the conference and spoke, every true Latter-day Saint who heard him knew that he was and is the Lord's anointed, his mouthpiece and prophet to this people and to the world, as well as being the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I bear testimony to you that I know that he is God's recognized leader of this people and that he is guided by inspiration from on high — a humble man who seeks to know the will of the Lord in all matters pertaining to his work. I am grateful for the association I have had with President Grant and his counselors and with President Joseph F. Smith and those who were associated with him and are associated now in the leading councils of this Church. I know that they are prophets, seers and revelators in very deed. They are men of God, worthy the confidence and the following of this people, and if the people will follow them they will walk in paths which are straight and narrow and which lead to everlasting life. ¶

The Office of the Holy Ghost

By the power of the Holy Ghost which we through righteousness have a right to enjoy we know that all of those who have spoken in this conference in our hearing have spoken by the power of the Lord. They have spoken words of truth, and words which will make for salvation if we will receive them in good and honest hearts and live by them. This is the office of the Holy Ghost, who is a personage of spirit, one of the trinity of the Godhead. It is his mission and office to bear witness of the Father and of the Son and of the truth of all things. "No man may know that Jesus is the Lord except by the Holy Ghost." ¶

A Marvelous Manifestation

I want to say something about these other personages. I desire to call the attention of my hearers to an event which took place more than a century ago — to be more exact, in the spring of the year 1820 — when God the Eternal Father and his Son Jesus Christ, in answer to humble but fervent prayer on the part of the boy, Joseph Smith, whom they, had raised up for the ushering in of this Gospel Dispensation of the Fulness of Times, appeared to him in vision. I would call your attention to and have you visualize that wonderful manifestation, the greatest perhaps that ever did transpire. I know of no record or ¶

account of an occasion when both the Father and the Son have appeared to any individual at any previous time. I would call your attention to the importance and necessity of that wonderful revelation. You have but to consider today the lack of knowledge on the part of religionists the world over, pertaining to God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, to realize how necessary it was. ¶

Our Responsibility

In 1820 it was just as necessary that this revelation should be given to the world as at any other time in the world's history, I am sure, and more needed because of the ushering in of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. We have had the revelation now for more than a century, and as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which Church has been established by inspiration from the Lord through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith and those who have succeeded him, we have accepted the Gospel and with it the responsibility of preaching it in all the world as a witness before the end comes. For a century we have tried to present this message to the world, that God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ have revealed themselves anew to man on the earth, and that the children of men need no longer be in spiritual darkness pertaining to the personality and the attributes of these heavenly beings and the relationship which we sustain to them. ¶

Immortal Beings

You know the story of the appearing of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith. Think of it, as the Father and the Son stood there we see them as men, not as women, nor as angels, nor anything else. They stood in the midst of a light although it was at midday, brighter than the noonday sun, and their countenances shone with a glory that was beyond description, showing that they were ' something more than are we mortal men. And what are they? They are immortal beings. And what are immortal beings? Immortal beings are those who have passed through the change by which there is a separation of the body and the spirit, and then the resurrection, which is a uniting of the body and the spirit, so that there will be no more any separation. And this inseparable connection of body and spirit is necessary in order that one may obtain eternal life. In these heavenly personages we see two immortal beings, two beings who are glorified and exalted, and one of them is the Father, and the other the Son — there can be no question about that, because the personage speaking said to the boy, "This is my Beloved Son, hear him." ¶

(Contrary to Sectarian Belief

Now we come to the scriptures to find out if that is in keeping with the New Testament, and we find that it is. (Yet the whole Christian world believe otherwise and have tried to disprove this for more than a century, but they have signally failed and they forever will ¶

fail, for they cannot prove the truth a lie. The Gospel which we have received, with its principles and ordinances, is just as foreign to the views and ideas of the sectarian world as is the fact of the personality of God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and yet it is scriptural and true. The belief that is almost universal is that God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ are not personages having bodies of flesh and bones, but that they are something having no body, no parts, no passions ; and that Jesus Christ has done for us all that is necessary to be done except to believe on him. I want to say that that is a grave and serious mistake. There has been a falling away from the true Gospel of the Master. Ordinances have been changed, the laws of the Gospel have been transgressed, the Everlasting (Covenant has been broken, as it has been predicted they would be. ¶

Gospel Truths Revealed Anew

The Lord has revealed anew the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its fulness, and it comprises faith in God the Eternal Father, in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. It includes repentance from sin and baptism by immersion in water by one having authority, for the remission of sins and the fulfilment of the law. It includes the laying on of hands by those in authority for confirmation to membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day faints and for the bestowal of the Holy Ghost. It includes other ordinances; and we have the holy priesthood. No man can under present rulings go into the temple to receive the ordinances there administered, above those of baptism and confirmation, without bearing the holy Melchizedek priesthood. And there are ordinances there administered which are absolutely necessary for those who would enter into the celestial^ kingdom, which makes the holding of and bearing worthily the Melchizedek priesthood, a conditinon necessary for any man to obtain a fulness of glory in the kingdom of God. ¶

Do the world understand that? They have not the priesthood; they have no power to receive it, only as they come into the fold of Christ and receive it at the hands of those who have authority to confer it. That priesthood is conferred upon those only who are proven to be worthy, if those who have the conferring of it follow instructions given and the established order of the Church of Christ. ¶

.Marriage for Eternity

There are other blessings and ordinances necessary to man's exaltation, that the sectarian world know not of ; for instance, the eternity of the marriage covenant. Those who attain to a fulness of glory m the celestial kingdom are to have an eternal increase and a continuation of the seeds forever. It is unthinkable and untrue that that condition could exist without sustaining the marriage relation in the other world. But in order that men and women may live there as man and wite they must enter into most solemn covenants that they will be husband and wife for time and eternity, and there must be a solemn ceremony per- ¶

formed by one having authority, sealing them as husband and wife for time and eternity, and then they must live worthy otherwise to enter into the celestial kingdom. ¶

Other Requirements

There are commandments to be kept, laws to be obeyed, and there is service to be rendered. We have to engage in this work of preaching the Gospel abroad. We have to engage in the work of redeeming the dead. This is a service of the very highest type, like unto that which God our Father and his Son Jesus Christ rendered when the Father gave the Son, and the Son gave himself, to be the Redeemer and Savior of this world. Yes, and there are sins to be avoided. We are to learn to love the Lord our God with all our heart, might, mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourself, and manifest it in our life. ¶

Should we not be thankful, Latter-day Saints, for the light of the everlasting Gospel, and although it entails sacrifice, service, self denial, etc., we know that in the end our reward will be ample, even that of eternal life. ¶

I am grateful above all that I can express, for the understanding I have of the Gospel, and of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and the testimony I have of the truth. I praise God for these things. May he add his blessings, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶