Northern States Mission Report

It is a great responsibility to speak here. This tabernacle subdues one's feelings and lifts up his heart. I do not think the Church has ever erected a monument that has become so widely known as this historic building. It testifies of the wisdom and sacrifice of a generation that has gone. ¶

The Northern States Mission has been presided over by a long line of strong and devoted men and is well established. Any ordinary man who will look after the common duties connected with it should be able to carry it forward. ¶

It does one good to go away from home and look at his people at a distance. The perspective gives one a better appreciation of them and of their achievements. ¶

Brother Colton has made reference to some of the monuments erected by the Church. As I walked down Temple Avenue this morning and saw the figure of Moroni which crowns the highest spire of this beautiful temple in front of me I was reminded that for twenty-five ¶

years, almost daily, I looked upon that figure which symbolizes the restoration of the Gospel in this dispensation, but never before have I appreciated as I do now its significance. ¶

That figure crowns two buildings and one monument — the Salt Lake Temple, the Washington chapel, and the monument at Palmyra, New York. ¶

I have traveled over the states in my mission and have noted with pride and satisfaction the magnificent monuments erected to the heroic dead in that land. One of the finest monuments in the world stands in Springfield, Illinois, erected to Abraham Lincoln. But never before, in any land or at any time, has an enlightened people erected a monument to a person commemorating what he did after he was dead. This is a most remarkable thing. And the fact that gives emphasis to it is the character of the people who did it. ¶

The Latter-day Saints are not a highly emotional people, given to hysteria. On the contrary, they are a matter-of-fact, practical, thoroughgoing people. To know that they have implicit faith in all that the monument commemorates — the appearance of a resurrected and immortal being to a young man in this generation — is a significant thing. This is material proof that personality persists after death and that the resurrection is a glorious reality. I know of no other monument like that. This is a marvelous testimony in a day of unbelief and skepticism. ¶

My brethren and sisters, a few of us have been commissioned to preach the Gospel in the world — you have been called upon to live it, and the sermon which you preach carries a conviction that words can never do. ¶

It is a matter of pride and satisfaction to know that when strangers visit you they are impressed with you and with your religion. ¶

We are made the custodians of great and precious truths — truths that will save and regenerate the world, and we are called upon to declare these truths to the world. God help us to do it in a way that will reflect credit upon the people which we represent and be acceptable to him I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶