Conference Address

It is a privilege and also a great opportunity to stand here before you and look at this vast audience, this mighty horde which has come from a very small beginning. God has directed and has chosen the men who should lead and guide this work up to the present and to this very day. ¶

In the conditions in which we find ourselves situated it is very fortunate at least that we can look back and trace with an honorable hand the advancement of our people from the beginning of this Church. No other spot on the earth has such religious gatherings as this. In no other place may we find such a united, wonderful people. No place on this footstool of God are there hearts raised in praise to their Heavenly Father for the mercies and the blessings they receive, equal to the fervor and sincerity which we have here today among us. ¶

It is a strange thing that having come in poverty and toil and in trial into these valleys, our fathers, even as did the Lord Jesus Christ, passed through a period of suffering, trial, tribulation and preparation for the work which was to come to their children, even to us Even as Jesus Christ was forty days and forty nights in the wilderness without food, so did our fathers go many years in trial and anxiety to prepare that of which you and I are recipients and for which we stand ready to give our service, unto the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. ¶

You will recall that Moses, speaking to his people said : "And I have led you forty years in the wilderness ; your clothes are not waxen old upon you and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot." Even so today we can see by this great assembly that the truths of the teachings of Christ and the masterful things which have been given to us by our fathers have not waxed old upon us. ¶

There came to me a day or two ago a message from New Zealand, that land "way down under." I would like to read it to you because a cablegram from that people is rather a unique thing, particularly because I received it a clay before it was sent. They are just beyond the 180th meridian and about 38 degrees south of the equator. This cablegram was sent from Dannevirke, New Zealand, and says : ¶

"Conference assembled at Tahoriti. Huge concourse, both Maori and European send greetings. Wonderful spirit. (Signed) New Zealand Saints." ¶

This is the spirit which actuates all the people of the Church of Jesus Christ the world over, the spirit which is breathed everywhere by you. Your sons and your daughters have traveled the highways in all the principal cities of the world. They have acquired the culture, the art, and the refinement of all nations and all countries, bringing back with them as they do to this great hive of humanity, which we have here today, their knowledge and their power. ¶

It is plain to see that we as a people, blessed as we are by our Heavenly Father, should be the people to lead out in all noble, praiseworthy enterprises. We should be the people who can and will conquer depression. We should be by our faith and by our love and by our industry trained and taught to do those things that bring happiness and joy into the hearts of mankind. ¶

Just one thing more and I think my .ten minutes will be up. In a statement made by Herbert Kaufman he says : "The new era has cancelled the lie of vested right. Position and assured status can no longer be inherited. The millions have at last overtaken the thousands. The sons of service are standing shoulder to shoulder with the sons of privilege. The barrier is down, — this is the day of equal chance — when any man may have what he wills if he possesses the strength to reach it." ¶

God grant that we may possess that strength, that faith, to reach our own individual and collective ideals in the wonderful work in which we are engaged, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶

Church of the Air Broadcast

At 10:50 a. m. Conference proceedings were interrupted to prepare for the Church of the Air broadcast which commenced promptly at 1 1 :00. This program, presented on the Columbia Broadcasting System's regularly scheduled Church of the Air series, was released by more than seventy important network stations throughout the United States and Canada and was carried by short wave to Europe and other countries. The radio announcer was Richard L. Evans. ¶

The program opened with the Choir and congregation joining in the singing of the hymn, "How Firm a Foundation." ¶