Discharging Our Responsibility

Up to this point in this General Conference I believe that our meetings have been on a par with the meetings of previous General Conferences of the Church, in spirit, instruction and interest. I have been greatly edified myself and have been made to feel very grateful and thankful for my membership in the Church, the fellowship that I have with the Latter-day Saints, the knowledge that I have of the Gospel and the testimony I have of its truth ; for I do know that this is God's work, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I rejoice exceedingly in this knowledge. ¶

INTEGRITY OF STAKE WORKERS ¶

The brethren who have spoken in this conference, excepting the President of the Church, have been the mission presidents, and they have spoken of conditions that obtain in the world, of the faithfulness s of our young missionaries and the integrity of the Saints in the mission field. From my knowledge in visiting the missions I can bear testimony to what they have said, and in thinking of it I am reminded of the integrity and devotion of the Latter-day Saints in the stakes of Zion. We as General Authorities of the Church, visit them quite frequently. We are always received cordially, and are given a generous welcome. We are treated, I may say, as kings might expect to be treated, given the very best that the people have to give, and there are evidences that they sustain the Authorities of the Church, evidences of faith and faithfulness as members of the Church. ¶

A great many faithful workers are laboring in the stakes of Zion, men and women who are setting a worthy example before the people, living their religion, paying their tithing, keeping the Word of Wisdom, doing things that they are asked to do, and rendering service to God, to the Church and their fellow men. I am proud of this people, thankful that I am numbered with them, that I have association and fellowship with them, and I believe I have their confidence and support as do all of my brethren of the General Authorities of the Church. ¶

NEED FOR IMPROVEMENT ¶

I praise the Lord and thank him for these blessings, yet I realize that there is much in Zion that ought not to be. There are things that we engage in and do as members of the Church that we ought not to do. There are duties that ought to be performed that we neglect. I do not know whether the Lord is altogether pleased with us. I feel sure that he is pleased with the Church as a church, and with many of the individuals, but with some I am afraid he is not pleased. I am afraid that there will be disappointment on the part of some members of the Church when this life's work is finished, when our opportunities are past. Disappointment is something to be dreaded if not to be feared. ¶

SATISFACTION IN BEING RIGHT ¶

There is always a satisfaction, my brethren and sisters, in having been right on any question that has engaged our attention, especially if the wisdom and judgment of others have been brought to bear upon that question and we have not all agreed. You know how prone we are to say, "I told you so." The more important the question that is involved in a consideration of this kind, the greater satisfaction there will be in the end when we find that we have been right ; but if on the other hand it is found that we have been wrong there will be correspondingly great disappointment. The importance of the question involved determines the amount of satisfaction or disappointment. The greatest question that man has ever considered, according to my judgment, is that of religion, or salvation, of what it consists and how it may be attained. There is no other question I suppose that has engaged the attention of so many people or upon which there has been such diversity of opinion. That accounts for the numerous creeds and religious denominations that there are in the world today. ¶

Those of us who know the truth of the Gospel as it has been revealed in these last days through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith, know that there are millions of people who, in the end, when it shall be universally known of what salvation consists, how it may be attained, will be tremendously disappointed, and only the disappointment of the wicked or those who have fought against the work of God will be greater or supreme. We who know the truth and know the will of the Lord and the law of the Lord, understand that we are to love the Lord ¶

our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might ; that this is the first great commandment. And the second is like unto it : "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." ¶

DISCHARGING OUR RESPONSIBILITY ¶

We ought to desire above everything else, except our own welfare and salvation, the welfare and salvation of our fellow men. We are organized as a Church. We have received responsibilities from on high to preach this Gospel of the kingdom in all the world as a witness before the end shall come. For more than a century we have been trying as a people to discharge ourselves of this responsibility and prove our love of God and man by making sacrifice in the preaching of this Gospel. You have seen the results, and yet there are but very few of our Father's children in this dispensation who have embraced the Gospel, but that is not to be wondered at. It was ever so. Only a few in the days of Isaiah, as we read in the fifty-third chapter of the book of Isaiah accepted the truth. The prophet said : "Lord, who hath believed our report ?" Only a few. And in the days of the primitive church we find this expression: ¶

"But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord who hath believed our report?" ¶

This dispensation is a time of warning, just as much, I understand, as it was a day of warning when Noah the prophet of God was commanded to warn the people of his day that if they did not repent of their sins and obey the Gospel they would be destroyed. We are told that for a hundred and twenty years the prophet of God labored among that people, but in vain except for the saving of a few souls. A great flood was sent to destroy the people. I say for more than a century we have been preaching this Gospel of the kingdom to the people of the world, and the people of the world are rejecting the message in large measure, excepting a very few. They will meet with disappointment and in some instances condemnation, according to the law that has come to those who have heard and have rejected the Gospel. ¶

SACRIFICE BRINGS BLESSINGS ¶

Now in these times of financial stress and business troubles the Latter-day Saints, I suppose, are feeling these things the same as other people. The Lord rains on the just and the unjust alike. But the Latter-day Saints have more to encourage them than have the people of the world. We are here not for the gaining of wealth. That is not the end in view, but a means to a nobler end, that of serving God and working righteousness, striving to save our own souls and the souls pf others ; and we can afford to make the sacrifices that the Gospel entails upon us. ¶

Brethren and sisters, we know that we have the promise, and God's promises never fail, that we shall be rewarded abundantly in time and in eternity for all the sacrifices made for the accomplishment of his purposes. For the past number of years we have maintained in the neighborhood of two thousand missionaries in the field ; the report is made today that we have seventeen hundred and two missionaries out. You have heard the report of these mission presidents, how the numbers have been depleted in their mission fields. What are we going to do to keep up our record and do the work the Lord requires at our hands ? I have a recommendation for our mission presidents. ¶

LOCAL SAINTS AS MISSIONARIES ¶

Some of the presidents told us in our meeting with them a few days ago that they were using the local brethren and sisters, some in one way and some in another. In the closing remarks of President Hinckley of the California mission, who has just addressed us, he said he expected the branches in his mission to ,furnish a hundred local people to assist in this work. I want to relate to you a little experience I had in presiding over the European mission during the World War. I was there from August of 1916 until July of 1919. During that time in the British mission the number of missionaries from home was reduced from seventy-five to seven, including those who were in the mission headquarters. We had seventy-five branches that had formerly been presided over almost universally by Elders from home. Those were now presided over by local men . Men who were able to bear arms had been drafted into the service, ,and those who were not entered the factories for the manufacture of munitions of war. There were very few men left at home. We called as missionaries young men who were not old enough to bear arms. ¶

When I left that mission there were twenty-two local brethren laboring in the manner referred to, some of them giving part time, presiding over districts or branches, others giving their entire time as missionaries. We called into the service young women and married women, and at one time, as I remember it, we had three hundred and seventy-five of these good sisters working. They rendered their reports to mission headquarters the same as the missionaries had done who were from home. They distributed tracts, they held cottage meetings, loaned books, and did all the work that regular missionaries did. The result was that these missionaries were more faithful than ever before. The tithing of the British mission just about doubled itself in three years. We had almost as many baptisms as had been the case when we had seventy-five or more missionaries in the field. ¶

It shows what can be done with these local men and women in the world. They are just the same kind of people we have here in the stakes and wards. In every nation he that fears God and works righteousness is approved of him. I see no reason why men and women in the mission field should not labor in the Church as missionaries or in any other capacity where they are needed, just as well as the people in organized wards and stakes. They are doing it in some places. There are some missionaries called from one mission to another. Why not the mission supply its quota of missionaries and send them out into other missions ? These lady missionaries are doing a .splendid work in all the missions where they are used. There are ladies locally who are just as efficient ¶

as those who go from the stakes and are willing and could be used to advantage if we would make use of them. ¶

I remember two years ago when I was going through the Canadian mission with President Hart, at Hamilton we called for volunteer lady missionaries to accompany those who were there from Zion. Instead of sending out two lady missionaries from Zion who were there at such great expense, it was suggested that we take one of these lady missionaries and a local missionary, and have two sets of missionaries where formerly we had but one. Several sisters volunteered. We blessed these people and set them apart and we have reports that a splendid work was accomplished by those local sisters. Why can we not do this, and double the number of missionaries ? Suppose a woman cannot give all her time, if one sister would go out one day and another another day, if it took seven sisters to do a week's work along the side of a regular missionary, the work would be accomplished. Why not do the same with our brethren? ¶

I heard an Elder reporting his mission recently who said he tried out the plan of taking a little boy and giving him a tract and letting him lead up to the doors of homes, and it had a splendid effect. They would not shut the door on him or deny him. They would hear what he had to say, and his message would be an introduction for the missionary. T say that ,in that case the little boy was the equal of the Elder from home. When they go into a home there is no need for two Elders from Zion in that home to preach the Gospel, one can do all the talking ; all he needs is a companion and a witness, and here we have one. ¶

There are ways and means, and I believe that God expects us to be thoughtful men who have charge of this work in the mission field and at home. I think we can perhaps do better than we have been doing, and, brethren and sisters, all this means that we wash our hands clean of the blood of this generation, for we are as watchmen upon the towers. Our responsibility is to warn the wicked and to call them to repentance and to preach this Gospel of the kingdom to those who are in spiritual darkness. ¶

A wonderful work is being accomplished. May God be praised for it and the Saints for the work they have done, and may this work go forward to the entire satisfaction of the Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶