Dates of Important Events

Since April 6 of this year, 1939, is Thursday, and since our Annual Conference begins on that day, it occurs to me that a brief review of the great events which, according to the generally accepted calendar, occurred 1909 years ago on the same days this Conference is to be held, may be of interest. ¶

Dates of Important Events

Thursday, April 6, A. D. 30 ¶

Preparation for the passover. Thursday Evening, April 6, A. D. 30 ¶

The passover meal. Contention among the twelve. ¶

Jesus washes the disciples' feet. ¶

The traitor made known. Judas withdraws. ¶

The Lord's supper instituted. ¶

Peter's fall foretold. ¶

Jesus comforts his disciples. ¶

The vine and the branches. (I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5.) ¶

Mutual love. The disciples hated by the world. ¶

(These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own ; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. John 15:17-19.) ¶

Persecution foretold. Further promise of the Holy Spirit. ¶

Prayer in the name of Christ. ¶

(Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. John 16:23.) ¶

Christ's last prayer with his disciples. Thursday Midnight, April 6, A. D. 30 ¶

The agony in the garden of Gethsemane. ¶

Jesus betrayed and made prisoner. Friday, 1-5 a. m., April 7, A. D. 30 ¶

Jesus before Annas and Caiaphas. Peter's denial. ¶

Jesus before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin. ¶

The Sanhedrin lead Jesus away to Pilate. Friday, 5-6 a. m., April 7, A. D. 30 ¶

Jesus before Herod. Friday, 6-9 a. m., April 7,A.D.30 ¶

Pilate seeks to release Jesus. Barabbas demanded. ¶

Barabbas released. Jesus delivered up to death. ¶

Pilate again seeks to release Jesus. ¶

Judas repents and hangs himself. ¶

Friday, 6-9 a. m., April 7, A. D. 30 ¶

On the way to Golgotha. Friday, 9-12 noon, April 7, A. D. 30 ¶

The crucifixion. Friday, 12-3 p. m., April 7, A. D. 30 ¶

Mocked on the cross. ¶

The penitent thief. ¶

The mother of Jesus at the cross. ¶

Darkness prevails. Christ expires on the cross. ¶

The vail of the temple rent, and tombs opened. Friday, 3-6 p. m., April 7, A. D. 30 ¶

The side pierced. ¶

Taken down from the cross, and laid in the tomb. ¶

The guard at the sepulchre. Sunday Morning, April 9, A. D. 30 ¶

Morning of the resurrection. Women visit the tomb. ¶

Vision of angels in the tomb. Sunday Forenoon, April 9, A. D. 30 ¶

The women return to the city. Jesus meets them. ¶

Our Lord is seen by Mary Magdalene at the tomb. ¶

Report of the guard. Sunday Afternoon, April 9, A. D. 30 ¶

Jesus appears to two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Sunday Evening, April 9, A. D. 30 ¶

Jesus appears in the midst of the apostles, Thomas being absent. ¶

Jesus appears in the midst of the apostles, Thomas being present. During April and May, A. D. 30 ¶

Jesus appears to seven apostles at the sea of Tiberias. ¶

Jesus meets the apostles and above five hundred disciples on a mountain in Galilee. Thursday, May 18, A. D. 30, forty-one days after the crucifixion, ¶

Our Lord appears to James, and then to all the apostles. ¶

The ascension of our Lord. ¶

Answers to Prayer Cited

I desire now to make a few remarks on the subject of prayer. We have already been urged today to read the scriptures. Isaiah says : ¶

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found ; call ye upon him while he is near. (Isa. 55 :6.) ¶

Jesus himself says: ¶

Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you : For everyone that asketh receiveth ; and he that seeketh findeth ; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. (Matt. 7 :7-8) ¶

Our forefathers came to this country in search of religious freedom, religious tolerance, and real liberty. In our national anthem we sing: ¶

Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just, And this be our motto, In God is our trust. ¶

That is the motto of the country "over which flies the only flag in all the world that has never known defeat," to quote Lloyd George. And again we sing : ¶

Long may our land be bright With freedom's holy light; Protect us by thy might, ¶

Great God our King. ¶

And we members of the Church of Jesus Christ believe that the only king this our country shall ever know is Jesus, the Son of God. ¶

It is said that in our country today some of our leaders in business, many who are called empire builders, actually ridicule religion. A wise and thoughtful American has said : ¶

These very men are indebted for all that they possess to the family prayers which were once held daily in the homes of their fathers. (Babson) ¶

Many of our great Americans, you will recall, have been prayerful men. Franklin said : ¶

I have lived a long, long time, and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this fundamental truth, that God governs in the aifairs of men. ¶

He approached the unselfishness of the divine when in his prayerful appeal he said : ¶

For my friends, and for their prosperity, and for the fewness of my enemies, Father, I thank thee. ¶

Great is the respect and great the admiration we have for George Washington as he went upon his knees in those trying days at Valley Forge and appealed to our Heavenly Father that his powerful hand might be stretched forth to bring success to the armies of our colonies in their struggle for liberty. ¶

Lincoln, during those days in which our country was torn with war, set apart the 30th of April, 1863, as a day of fasting and a day of prayer, and as he did so he said : ¶

We have received the choicest blessings of heaven ; we have been preserved in peace and prosperity these many years ; we have grown in numbers, strength, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But, ¶

he added: ¶

The great difficulty with our nation is, we have forgotten God. ¶

I am wondering if that condition prevails today. He says further: ¶

And we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that this unusual outstanding success that has come to our country has been due to some superior wisdom or virtue of our own. ¶

Then he appeals to the people of the United States to assemble in their ¶

various places of worship, to call their families together around their own hearthstones, and to appeal to our Heavenly Father with a hope that the united appeal of the people will transform what was then our war-torn country into its former condition of happiness and peace. A great American has written: ¶

Daily we assembled in Independence Hall when we were struggling for independence, and daily we offered appeals to Divine Providence for his guidance and for his help, and our prayers were heard and they were graciously answered. ¶

I am just wondering if we the people of the United States have forgotten our powerful Friend. ¶

An Appeal for Family Prayers

A survey was made by the United States government in 1930 and revealed among other things that only one in eight of white Americanborn children in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades of the schools of the United States participate in family prayers. While many more than this attend church, the survey also showed that in the cities only thirty per cent, and in the country only thirty-eight per cent of the people ask a blessing on their food at meal times. ¶

The record of conditions in our own Church of course is far better than this, but I am wondering in how many of our homes we fail to participate in family prayers, — in how many of our homes we do not express our gratitude and thankfulness for the food we have to eat. And fearing that perhaps we too may also be forgetting our Father in heaven, that powerful Friend that gave support to our forefathers, the struggling colonies in America, to gain their independence, that powerful Friend who can always hear and who led our fathers in their matchless march across the desert and directed them in their struggles to establish here in the tops of these mighty mountains the "mountain of the Lord's House," — I say it is because I fear that we may be forgetting this our powerful Friend that I am making this appeal to you who are here assembled and to you who are listening in and to the people of the Church generally, to participate in family prayers. And I appeal not only for participation in family prayers, but for participation in secret prayers, and for participation in that sacred hour of worship known as our sacrament meetings. On these occasions it seems to me there is perhaps an opportunity to come into a closer communion with our Heavenly Father than at any other time. ¶

If we assemble in our sacrament meetings and there with eyes closed, heads bowed and hearts filled with a prayerful spirit, we appeal humbly and earnestly to our Heavenly Father for our shortcomings to be overlooked, for our sins to be forgiven ; if there we appeal for strength and power to carry out our renewed resolutions, then we shall have awakened in our souls that faith which is the grain of mustard seed which makes nothing impossible. ¶

Prayer, whether in the family, in secret, or as a part of our sacrament or other religious service, is something more than words ; it is a condition of the soul. It is an expression of affection for f ellowmen ; it is a something that emphasizes that great principle, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The Savior reached perfection in unselfishness when upon the cross he prayed, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34.) ¶

Surely we can never forget that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established again upon the earth as the result of the prayer of faith uttered by a boy, age fourteen, after he had read in the Holy Book and believed the words, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." (James 1:5.) Had this divine message made a less profound impression upon the mind of that boy and if he had not had faith enough to appeal for light and guidance, I am wondering how and when and under what condition the Church of the Master might then have been restored to the earth. ¶

If it was necessary for the Savior to offer his prayers daily, if it was necessary for him, being divine, to appeal with such earnestness and such regularity to our Heavenly Father, if it was necessary for the Prophet Joseph Smith to make prayerful appeals so frequently and so earnestly to our Heavenly Father, how much more is it necessary for us to do this ! ¶

Joseph Smith's Prayer in Liberty Jail

President Grant read this morning a part of section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants. To give you some idea of the earnestness with which the Prophet made his appeals I am going to read the first part of that same section 121 — a prayer of the Prophet : ¶

O God, where art thou ? * * How long shalt thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries? ¶

Yea, O Lord, how long shall they suffer these wrongs and unlawful oppressions, before thine heart shall be softened toward them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them? ¶

O Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven, earth, and seas, and of all things that in them are, * * stretch forth thy powerful hand ; let thine eye pierce ; * * let thy hiding place no longer be covered ; let thine ear be inclined ; let thine heart be softened, and thy bowels moved with compassion toward us. * * ¶

Remember thy suffering saints, O our God; and thy servants will rejoice in thy name forever. ¶

No revelation was ever thrust upon the Prophet. These came only as a result of solemn, earnest, prayerful appeals for help and guidance. He says the Lord responded to his supplications. Revelations were received in answer to the Prophet's supplications and inquiries. Words to this effect are found in the preliminary statements in the Doctrine and Covenants to practically all the revelations which were given to the Prophet. Only faith and faithfulness and earnest, devoted appeals brought the light and guidance and inspiration of heaven in the form of revelations. ¶

I repeat, if it was necessary for the Savior himself and for the Proph- ¶

et to make these earnest and frequent appeals to our Heavenly Father, how much more is it necessary for us to do so. ¶

Quotations From a Young Man's Letter

To give you something of the spirit of one of our Latter-day Saint homes, I have here a quotation from a young man reared in one of our Latter-day Saint families. I wonder if he describes the condition that prevails in our homes today: ¶

Daily, he says, we had our family prayers. In father's absence mother was in charge, and she would either lead in prayer or call on one of us children to do so. However, when father was present he always did the praying, and what beautiful, what wonderful prayers they were! It seemed to me that he always talked to Divinity in the same familiar manner and matterof-fact way as if he were conversing with a friendly comrade who sat before him as he kneeled. In my later years as I have been cognizant of the hatred, the strife, the bitter jealousy and turmoil in the hearts of men, the desire or willingness of many to take unfair advantage of their neighbors, and the absence of the spirit of brotherly love and kindly charity in so many places in the world, I have many times thought that if every home in the land could hear such prayers daily by the head of the family as my parents used to utter in great humility and earnest sincerity and in kindly confidence and cordial good will, expressing genuine devotion and brotherly anxiety for the welfare of mankind, then the reign of love and peace and good will upon the earth, the great difficulties between man and man, and nation and nation, would quickly vanish and the threatening clouds of war and trouble would disappear. (Dr. M. C. Merrill) ¶

Admonition to Seek the Lord

I will conclude as I began, with the words of Isaiah : ¶

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found ; call ye upon him while he is near. ¶

And those impressive words of the Savior also, ¶

Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you : For everyone that asketh receiveth ; and he that seeketh findeth ; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. ¶

May we be faithful ; may we be devoted to our Heavenly Father ; may we remember our daily prayers, and our secret prayers; may we join in the prayers offered in our places of worship, that the work of the Lord may go on with more rapidity and speed. And I humbly pray that our appeals may be made in faith believing, that our prayers may ascend to the throne of grace, that they, united with the prayerful appeals of all good people, may help to bring that peace on earth and good will to men which is to follow conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. ¶

Thursday, April 6 ¶