The Central States Mission

I am very happy, my dear brethren and sisters, to be in attendance at this Conference. It has been my privilege for a good many years, as a representative of the Central States mission to attend the Conferences of this Church, and these Conferences have always been a great source of inspiration to me. They have been to me, in part, a guide during the time I have been in the mission field. The instruction and doctrine that come from the leaders of this Church are inspiring and when reproduced in the different magazines of the Church have been encouraging and beneficial when I reviewed them later in the mission field. ¶

I am not at all alarmed over the attacks that are being made upon the President and the leaders of this Church. It has always been the heritage of the Lord's anointed from the very beginning of time, that men who have held the authority of God in the earth have been subject to criticism and attack by men and women who are not well informed and who have wicked intentions. ¶

There are individuals, who because of their own transgressions, have ever found fault and criticised and persecuted our leaders from the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith until now. ¶

Often we find the more bitter enemies coming from within the Church membership. If such individuals ever had a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ they have forfeited their right to it, and as a result they do not apparently recognize the gravity of the position they take and the attack they make upon the leaders of the Church. ¶

People who slander have never hindered the growth of the Church in the least, but my observation has been that it has increased the faith of those who are diligent in the work of the Lord. ¶

In my experience during the time I have lived in Missouri, in a period of twenty-five years, I have been able to observe that those leaders who were faithful in the discharge of their duty have made history that has always established faith among the children of men ; while those who fought the work of God in the early history of the Church, departed from the truth and were thus disloyal in their conduct, not only destroyed their own possibilities, but I have never found the descendants of those who fought the work of God, from then until now, to be faithful in the work of God. On the contrary, I have found them to be generally bitter enemies of the Lord's work. Those who stood by the Prophet Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and the rest of the Presidents and leaders of the Church from then until this present time, their descendants are found generally faithful and active and true to the trust in the organizations of the Church. The leaders of the Church have established the word of the Lord in the earth as instruments in his hands and will stand as witnesses for God, while those who oppose the authority of God in the earth will not have such a record. ¶

Most all of the places where the Church settled in Missouri and other places nearby are practically deserted. Places where once in- ¶

dustrious men and women of this Church were building" great centers in that land and where everything pointed to greater industries and activities are now found to be almost desolate. ¶

One has only to make observation in these valleys of the mountains to recognize where the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ is vested. Those places in Missouri where the people once lived are nothing to compare with these cities and settlements in the valleys of the mountains. Any one who makes a study of the growth and development of the Church membership can readily observe that the life and light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is found in the present membership of this Church. ¶

It has been an inspiration to have known President Grant these many years. I have been closely acquainted with him. To me, he has been as a father. T knew his predecessor, President Joseph F. Smith : he was as a father to me as well. They have been men that have guided me in many, many things with which a mission president has to deal in the mission field, and I know they are men of God. ¶

I have known the Apostles in this Church from the beginning of my ministry in 1904 until the present time. I have traveled with most of them in the mission field. They are men of great inspiration and power, and my testimony to the world is that these men are of God and that they are entrusted with the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in the earth. They will stand in the presence of our Eternal Father as his witnesses some day, to give testimony concerning the lives of men with whom they have lived. ¶

I know that men live after this life. I know that President Joseph F. Smith lives and that President Charles W. Nibley lives. I have seen them in my dreams since they have left us, and they are counseling in wisdom at the present time. ¶

I know that these leaders of the Church who sit on this stand are examples to all people with whom they come in contact. ¶

I listened to President Grant deliver a speech in Kansas City some years ago before the Knife and Fork club. Two hundred and fifty people at least were in attendance. He gave one of the most inspirational sermons I have ever heard. Men who were on the program to talk that night gave him as much of their time as he wanted. ¶

I heard President Ivins speak in a Boy Scout meeting in St. Louis and his was an inspirational and instructive address. I saw a man there who counted his money by the millions, yield his time to President Ivins. No finer tributes could be paid to these leaders of ours than were paid by those people who were not of our faith in the places where these two brethren were entertained at that time, and I know that men do have faith in the leaders of this Church. ¶

There are thousands of men and women in the world who love the truth and there are many of them who are searching for it earnestly. There are many preparing themselves to receive the Gospel. I know this is the work of God, — that this is his Church, that his priesthood is the governing power in the earth, and that the leaders in this Church, ¶

with President Grant who presides at this time, hold their offices with authority. ¶

Ours is an individual responsibility. I bear this testimony to you and close with the words of William Ernest Henley, the poet: ¶

It matters not how strait the gate, ¶

How charged with punishment the scroll, ¶

I am the master of my fate ; I am the captain of my soul. ¶

And this is the condition of every man and woman in the world. I pray the Lord to bless us in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶