Conference Address

I am very happy, my brothers and sisters, to have the privilege of attending this conference. I think we have been wonderfully blessed of the Lord in the outpouring of his Spirit, and, above all other things in this world, I thank the Lord for my membership in this Church, and fellowship with the Latter-day Saints. ¶

Joy in Missionary Work ¶

It has been forty-one years this month since I left Salt Lake to fill my first mission in Holland, and I have been thinking while sitting here that from that time to this the gospel has meant everything in the world to me. I remember when I gave my report at the close of my first mission in the ward to which I then belonged. I made the statement that I hoped the Lord would send me on a mission often enough so that I could retain the spirit that I had enjoyed in the mission field. The gospel with all its teachings and its promises and its blessings has become a real thing in my life, and with all my heart I know it is true, and I hope to do all I can as long as I live to help to promote faith in the hearts of my fellow-men. ¶

Jesus said in that marvelous Sermon on the Mount: ¶

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. (Matt. 5:6.) ¶

And I want to bear testimony to you that I know that promise is within the reach of every man and every woman who does hunger and thirst after righteousness. ¶

Excerpt from a Letter ¶

About ten years ago, while I was president of the Southern States Mission, I received a letter from a woman in the South telling of the number of books and pamphlets she had read regarding Mormonism, since the elders called at her door. ( By the way, she is here in Salt Lake, the first time she has had an opportunity of visiting the headquarters of the Church, and I imagine is present in this meeting. ) In this letter she said: ¶

Since I have come to the conclusion that "Morraonism" is the most wonderful thing I have ever heard of (and Ihave always thought I could never be anything but a Baptist), I would like to know what the members of your Church read. I have read books on philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, Christian Science, etc., in search of answers to my own life's problems, and needless to say, the problems remained unanswered, but now I have hope. ¶

And I am grateful to the Lord that in the gospel we teach there is an answer to life's problems. I have wondered just what one could really want to know that he cannot find an answer to in this glorious gospel, and I wonder if those of us who are here today feel that "Mormonism" is the most wonderful thing we have ever heard of. I wonder if we have the faith that the early members of the Church had when they made such sacrifices in order that the missionary cause of this Church might be carried on in the world. Their hearts were touched; they were led out of darkness; and they realized the glorious truths the Lord had revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith. ¶

Adam Taught Baptism ¶

There was another in the earliest days of the history of the inhabitants of this earth who hungered and thirsted after righteousness. That was our Father Adam, and he went to the Lord. He wanted to know from the Lord why it was that men should be baptized in water and receive a remission of their sins. And I would like to read to you the statement of the Lord to Adam in answer to his question. He said: ¶

. . . inasmuch as ye were born into the world by •water, and blood, and of the Spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water and of the spirit and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even ¶

immortal glory; . . . Therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power, according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment. (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 6:59, 61.) ¶

Now the Lord gave Adam to understand that it was by being born again of the water and the Spirit that it was given to abide in him the record of heaven. I wonder just what the Lord meant by the "record of heaven," and I thought that it meant that it reveals unto us who we are, where we come from, why we are here, where we are going, and that great eternal truth that we are in very deed sons and daughters of God, the Eternal Father. Is there any truth that men could acquire through their faith and their obedience that would mean more than to know that every man born into this world has the possibility to grow and develop and become like unto our Heavenly Father? ¶

. In our relationship to each other we are in very deed brothers and sisters, and Christ was the Firstborn, the Elder Brother, who offered himself as a ransom for sin of all the inhabitants of the earth. Then it tells us the purpose of our creation, that we are here to gain knowledge and intelligence and experience and prepare ourselves that we might go on and become as he is. ¶

The 76 Section of the Doctrine and Covenants a Guide ¶

I like to read the seventy-sixth section of the Doctrine and Covenants which we have been wont to refer to as "The Vision." To me that is one of the most marvelous scriptures that has ever been revealed to men, and as far as we know it never was revealed until this last dispensation, and when it was given to the Prophet Joseph he was told that it was a transcript of the record of the eternal world. Paul was privileged to see it, for he was caught up into the third heaven and the paradise of God, but he was not permitted to write the things that he beheld. This revelation indicates who are worthy or will be worthy to obtain a place in each of the three degrees of glory as described in that revelation, one like unto the sun, one like unto the moon, and one like unto the stars. Is there any man or woman in all Israel who loves the Lord and loves the truth and hungers and thirsts after righteousness who would not desire this information to guide him in his life and to indicate what his life must be in order to be worthy of the glory which we know as the celestial glory, likened unto the sun? ¶

And then we are told in the song written by Eliza R. Snow, "O, My Father": ¶

For a wise and glorious purpose Thou hast placed me here on earth And withheld the recollection Of my former friends and birth. ¶

Blessings for Those Who Desire Them ¶

When I think of the information that comes to us individually as Latter-day Saints through the patriarchs of this Church, when I think of what my blessing has meant to me that I received at the hands of my father when I was eight years old, I realize that in the sight of the Almighty we are in very deed individuals, each one with a destiny and a purpose and a mission in life to fill, and I can think of no greater disappointment that could come to one of our Father's children than to finish his life and then be told that he had failed to accomplish the things for which he was sent into this world. ¶

Then Adam was told that it should be given to abide in him, the Comforter; the Comforter that makes known all things, things which are present, things which are past, and things which are to come. Jesus explained that it would be necessary that he should go away or the Comforter could not come, that he should teach us all things, bear witness of the Father and of the Son. President Clark this morning related the testimony of Peter which he received because of that witness. ¶

Adam was told that it should be given to abide in him, the peaceable things of immortal glory, and I wonder if anybody can understand the peaceable things of immortal glory without understanding the glorious promise of the eternal duration of the marriage covenant and the family unit and our association with each other beyond the veil. Senator Beveridge said in his book, The Young Man and the World, in a chapter devoted to "The Young Man and the Pulpit," that a prominent railroad man in America said that to know that he would live again, with a conscious identity, knowing who he was and who other people were, would be worth more to him than all the wealth of the United States. This knowledge we gain through hungering and thirsting after righteousness; and also we learn that we will be resurrected and that we will lose nothing through our death, but that it will be a gain to us. In the words of Paul: ¶

. . . Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (I Cor. 2:9.) ¶

Then he was told that it would be given to abide in him, the truth of all things. ¶

We are not only to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God; not only to know that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer of the world, but to understand the truths of heaven, the principles by which we might live that will guide us in our thinking, guide us in our living, give us power among men because it is given to abide in us, the truth of all things. ¶

"That which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things, that which knoweth all things," the understanding of scripture, to know the truth of the Book of Mormon, the truth of the Bible, to know the truth of the revelations that God has revealed in these latter days. I tell you, brothers and sisters, it was well said when Jesus said: ¶

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matt. 5:6.) ¶

Adam received an answer to his inquiry from the Lord, and the woman from the South, through finding "Mormonism," was able to say that she now had hope of finding an answer to her own life's problems. ¶

When you see these glorious temples, when you see this great assembly of the Saints of God, when you see the priesthood of God, when you see apostles and prophets such as the primitive church had, which God placed in the Church, ¶

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. (Ephesians 4:14.) ¶

I ask, is there anything more we could want to know? If we understood all these things, then we could understand why Isaiah, when he saw the temple of God builded in the tops of the mountains in the latter days, saw people all over the world, and heard them say: ¶

. . . Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. . . . (Isaiah 2:3:) ¶

And may God help us to do it, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶