Welfare and the Way of Peace

This has been a gathering that might accurately have been described as a Church leadership conference. President Grant, at the opening session of this conference, bore testimony to the divine calling of those who have presided over the Church in this dispensation. In his testimony he has given us the key by which we may be safely guided in our own presidency and leadership responsibility, and he sounded the key-note that has carried through this entire conference. I am persuaded that any presiding officer who does not have such a testimony is not qualified to preside as an officer in the Church. ¶

From the beginning of time, as recorded in sacred scripture, the prophets of the Lord have sounded the warning note to the world and to the membership of the Church. There have always been those with apostate leanings who have ridiculed, and have stood on the side-lines and made light of the efforts of those who sought to follow that counsel. It was so in the days of Noah, and that history is repeating itself at the present time. ¶

In 1831, the Lord gave a revelation to this Church, in which He declared that "the time was not yet, but soon, when peace should be taken from the earth." That time, we all recognize, is here. In that same revelation the Lord declared: ¶

Wherefore, I, the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments. (D. & C. 1:17) ¶

Again He has declared, "whether by mine own voice, or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." (D. & C. 1:38) Not all of His commandments have been given to the Church in the writings of the scriptures. ¶

This conference has convened on the sixth anniversary of the launching of what we have styled the Church Welfare plan which was given to the Church by our leaders as they were inspired by the Lord. The activities of the Welfare plan have provided the greatest opportunities for spiritualizing this Church that perhaps have ever been given this people in our generation and as we have watched it unfold and its purposes be more fully revealed, we have come to see therein a building for not only the temporal salvation but also the spiritual salvation of the Church as well. Priesthood quorums everywhere who have rallied to that call, and have joined together as a group, have bound themselves in love and unity that has blessed this Church beyond our fondest expectations. ¶

We have come to understand, and it is my firm conviction that the thing most needed in the Church today is a membership stimulated to action by a fervent conversion to the divinity of the calling of the brethren who preside as leaders of this Church. We have been a most blessed people above all other peoples. We have been given the power of the Priesthood. We have been blessed with a divine leadership and an inspired organization, and a great pioneering heritage and experience. The Lord will hold us responsible for the blessings that He has given us, and if the calamities that have been foretold come upon this people, they will come because we have not done our full duty, and we have not made the most of our opportunities, nor have we discharged the responsibilities we bear before our Heavenly Father. ¶

We have had many evidences of the power manifesting itself from the united team work of Priesthood quorums. We have witnessed that wherever stake welfare groups have followed the counsel of the leaders, and have banded together as regional organizations, when there was a disaster or an emergency as was the case in southern Arizona during a serious flood situation, we have discovered to our delight that the way was provided by which true brotherhood was fostered. We have noted how Priesthood quorums have made large contributions, with but very little effort when they worked unitedly together. We have seen how great amounts of produce have come from those who saw in their assignment not merely an out and out contribution, but a chance to work together and to develop together, on a permanent foundation, some project of which their community was capable. ¶

We have been delighted to observe throughout the Church an attempt to study the basic reasons for our economic difficulties, and in farming communities we have noticed that farmers have set their goals to two prime objectives, namely, first to produce all they can on their own farms, for their own living; and second, to make an all-out war on debt. The analysis of how that work should be done has been something that I am sure would provide intelligent and profitable reading for those who are struggling with these problems. ¶

The general Church Welfare committee would have me say to you, that from the standpoint of organization there is no other way to carry forward this work except by the Ward Welfare committees, properly supervised by the stake Welfare committees. It can't be done without an intelligent analysis of problems as revealed in the survey that you have been asked to make. The only ones who are objecting to the carrying forward of that survey, or to the organization as now set up, are those who have never organized or who have never made the survey. ¶

We are pleased that in the Salt Lake region we have received the report that at least seventy-five percent of the wards are functioning according to program. ¶

We have been asked today to be patriotic. This Church, as has been read by President McKay, has a record of accomplishment that is a delight to all of us, and a testimony to the world of the patriotism of this people. We have been sending our boys into the army, and will continue to do so. We will buy war bonds and stamps. We will pay inordinate taxes, for the carrying on of the work for the buying of planes and munitions of war. We will produce and conserve foodstuffs, that there may be sufficient of the necessities to carry on, as we have been requested by our government. ¶

But beyond all that, the Latter-day Saints have a responsibility, that may be better understood when we recall the prophecy of Joseph Smith who declared that "the time would come when (the destiny and) the Constitution of these United States would hang as it were by a thread, and that this people, the sons of Zion, would rise up and save it from threatened destruction." (J. of D., Vol. 7:15) ¶

I want to ask you to consider the meaning of that prophecy, in the light of the declaration of the prophets of the Book of Mormon times, who declared that this land was a choice land above all other lands, and would be free from bondage and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of this land, even our Savior, Jesus Christ. (Ether 2:12) ¶

This is a people whom the Lord has chosen to preach the gospel of righteousness. We talk of security in this day, and yet we fail to understand that here on this Temple Block we have standing the holy temple wherein we may find the symbols by which power might be generated that will save this nation from destruction. Therein may be found the fulness of the blessings of the Priesthood. Yesterday morning, as we assembled and heard the broadcast from that place, broadcasting to the world a message, it to me was significant of the prophecy that from this place "the law shall go forth to the world, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." The spires on the eastern towers of the temple are to represent the presidency of the Melchizedek Priesthood; the spires to the west, the presidency of the Aaronic Priesthood; the gilded figure of the angel Moroni symbolizes the preaching of the gospel to the world. The gospel must be preached as a witness under the direction of the holy Priesthood: "Fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come." (Rev. 14:7) Therein lies the responsibility of this Church in sanctifying this people and this nation, that they might be spared the judgments that otherwise might come upon them, were it not for the preaching of the humble elders of this Church. ¶

The Prophet Isaiah comforted his struggling people with these words: ¶

Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him. ¶

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. ¶

There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. (Isaiah 57:19-21) ¶

May we return home and teach our people the way of peace -- peace because they are willing to live the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ, I humbly pray, in His name. Amen. ¶