Jesus Moving Among Men

This conference is a spiritual feast, a feast of fat things for the righteous prepared. Just before the close of this morning's meeting these words came to my mind. "Certain Greeks came to Philip, saying, 'Sir, we would see Jesus'." ¶

Jesus Moving Among Men

In the heavenly bodies, in the skies, God may be seen moving in his majesty and glory. The stars, those rounded orbits of light, the sun and the moon and the heavens declare the glory of God, but they do not declare his will. I would see Jesus moving among men, giving uplift of spirit to the distressed in mind and in body. ¶

Tennyson was asked by a friend : "What does Jesus Christ mean to you personally ?" ¶

The great poet replied : "Christ means to me what the sun means to the rosebush." ¶

I am thankful that the philosophy of our religion gives me the comfort of a personal God, who hears the widow's mournful cry, "sends the laboring conscience peace, and grants the prisoner sweet relief." I think it was Victor Hugo who said that of all the names of Deity, compassion was the most beautiful, and God is a compassionate being. "So nigh is grandeur to our dust, so near is God to man." ¶

The Road to Heaven

In the Book of Mormon we read that the great Creator suffered and bled on the cross, died for all men, that all men might become subject unto him. Jesus became subject unto man in the flesh. He was the suffering servant, the personification of service. Service was the road his sanctified and heavenly feet trod, and in all the philosophy of the world, yea in the philosophy of religion, the only road to heaven is the road of service. This shines like a gem. ¶

What glorifies a mother? She becomes subject unto her children and serves them, wearing out her splendid life to care for them. My brethren and sisters, if our children fail we too fail, in a measure at least. In this great Church Welfare movement, I see the spirit of Christ moving in compassion, in grandeur, in mercy, and in pity among the unfortunate children of men who are not blessed with much of this world's goods. ¶

Do you want to taste heaven ? Do you want to feel the presence of Christ? Then go with the Elders who have these charitable projects in hand. Minister to the needy, give aid to the worthy poor, teach people to work, to become independent. The fulness and the majesty of manhood rests upon him who is willing and anxious to toil and who has the opportunity to labor. What people get for nothing they do not always appreciate. As God became subject to man in the flesh, so in preaching this Gospel, in going about as Jesus did, doing good, we are serving, we are knowing that Christ lives, and that he is not far removed from us. I repeat, if we want to have a foretaste of heaven, if we do not want to wait until the millennium before we walk in the Garden of Eden, let us give liberally of our substance unto the poor. ¶

Christ the Author of Every Good and Perfect Gift

Christ is the source of all light. I do not believe there was ever an architect, a scholar, a surgeon, a painter, a builder, who did those wonderful things without the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. We may ¶

refuse to acknowledge it, but nevertheless it is true, for Christ is the author of every good and perfect gift that cometh from above. ¶

Our Church educational system, the Brigham Young University, and all our institutes and seminaries presided over by devoted men and noble scholars, are doing, I am fully persuaded, a great work in preparing young men and women to preach the Gospel, and in fitting them to face the problems of life. ¶

Jesus said : "Peace I leave with you ; my peace I give unto you ; not as the world giveth," but the peace that makes for godly contentment. And brethren and sisters, this world will never know true and lasting peace until righteousness goes before peace, for there can be no enduring peace without righteousness. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. ¶

The Resurrected Lord

Another promise : "Because I live ye shall live also." Oh, the sweet comfort this promise gives, I know that my Redeemer lives. And because he lives I shall live, my personality shall survive. I like to think of Christ immortal and resurrected in glory. I like to think of him as he moved among men upon the earth. I do not believe we change much in the way of rendering service when we go to the other world. Jesus, after he was resurrected, used the hands that made the world, to prepare food for his disciples, and when the resurrected Lord came to this glorious western hemisphere, he called for the halt and the blind, the maimed, the deaf, the sick and with those heavenly hands he touched their infirmities (which he had borne in mortality) and he healed them. ¶

I see crowded around him those beautiful children, not afraid of the Almighty, the little girls smiling into his face, the boys going up to him unafraid. And upon them he laid his hands and blessed them, and behold, as he knelt on the ground he "groaned within himself," for he was "troubled because of the wickedness of the people of the house of Israel." ¶

Now I do not think that when we get to the other world tears are going to cease to flow nor trouble cease to enter our hearts, for the Prophet Joseph said that our loved ones are not far from us, and they are cognizant of what we are doing, and some of our actions grieve them. I see the Savior praying, sympathizing with the multitude as he did in mortality. He fed the hungry, he listened to the complaints of the poor. Remember he said to the people : "The poor ye have always with you." ¶

The spirit of Christ is in this Welfare movement. It is going to lead us upward to higher and still higher spiritual heights, for Jesus is behind it. "Holy art Thou, Lord God Almighty." Amen. ¶