Eastern States Mission Report

During the last four years I have had the wonderful experience of laboring as a missionary in and president of the Eastern States Mission. That experience has been the most satisfactory of my life. I appreciate it sincerely. ¶

Soon after reaching the mission field we dedicated the Washington chapel. It has been one of the main centers since then for the advancement and for the preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have built and dedicated other chapels, and I feel that the mission in a material way has made substantial progress. We are building a chapel now in Philadelphia. ¶

One of the outstanding developments of that period has been the work at the Hill Cumorah where the Church has erected a beautiful and impressive monument and has also erected a Bureau of Information. During the last summer, an open air theatre has been erected. I mention these only in appreciation of the fine work that has been accomplished in creating and providing for us the agencies that are so necessary in aid of the preaching of the Gospel. ¶

The finest experience, however, that has come to me has been the opportunity of working with the groups of fine young men and women who have come into the mission field from the various wards and branches and stakes of Zion and other missions. They have been an inspiration to me, and if Mormonism may be judged by its fruits, we are not ashamed ¶

to have people know that these boys and girls represent the homes of the Mormon Church. ¶

I should like to say a word to my brethren, the Bishops. Thank the Lord for a Bishop who can find work for his returned missionaries, particularly in the work of the Church. I rejoice also in this great movement to provide work for our people. I can endorse fully the words uttered by the President yesterday morning. Most of our boys and girls who return are anxious to work. I pray that the Lord will open the way and help them that they may find employment. In the main they return full of the spirit of the Gospel, fine, clean young people. I hope that they shall not become discouraged nor soured in life. They have learned the greatest lesson of life, namely, that God lives. Their hearts have been warmed and their souls attuned to the Spirit of God. They have seen life in a different way. I hope that they shall not be disappointed, but shall find a place in the world and continue to make good. ¶

And now, just one word with reference to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the papers the other day it was announced that several noted divines had made the statement that during the last two thousand years Christianity had been failing. With all due respect, I cannot subscribe to that doctrine. Christianity has not failed. The failure, if any, has been due to the fact that people have not interpreted Christianity properly and have not lived it. God does not fail ; his works do not fail ; they succeed. God succeeds ; man only fails when he does not interpret the word of God correctly, and does not translate it into his own life. ¶

The evidence, therefore, clearly shows that during these two thousand years whatever failure has come has been due to men not accepting true Christianity. So, my brethren and sisters, the last four years have taught me that there is in the world a true Christianity, and I say this humbly and without the spirit of boasting. I recognize that good men and good women everywhere are trying to live Christianity, as they understand it, but the fact that it has not succeeded ought to be notice to them that somewhere along the line they have missed the charted course of the Gospel of Christ. ¶

I bear solemn testimony that there is a Christianity in the world that takes hold of the lives of men and women and makes them over, so to speak; that turns them from the paths of unrighteousness into the paths of truth and rectitude, and that God is directing the work of his Church. The Christianity that recognizes that everywhere the Gospel is in the world for the world's good, and that men and women who embrace it are " made better. So far as it is translated into their lives there is no failure, and when we find that it is failing, let us look to ourselves or to the doctrines that we have embraced. God's work is right. His truth never fails. It is always right. God is always right. May we seek to find his light and may we walk therein. I do know as I know that I live that God lives. It is the most precious thing in my life. I rejoice beyond my power to express that there has come to me the overwhelming conviction that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, the only name ¶

given under heaven whereby we must be saved. I rejoice that his truth has been restored, and pray that God will help us to live it always, in the name of Jesus, our Savior, Amen. ¶