Conference Address

I have been edified by the remarks of my brethren during the several sessions of this conference. We have received instruction, admonition, warning; our attention has been called to our shortcomings; and I hope all will be remembered. ¶

It is my desire, in the few minutes that I have, to add my little part by testimony, instruction, and counsel as the Lord may lead me to speak. I have had a number of topics in mind since the beginning of this conference, and somebody gets up and delivers these talks. So I thought perhaps I could think of something that someone else would not think of, and I want to talk to you this afternoon for a little while on the sin of ingratitude, which I consider to be the most prevalent of all sins, for we are all guilty of it; I am, you are, the people everywhere upon the face of the earth are guilty of this sin in some degree. ¶

The Two Great Commandments

On one occasion, we read in the scriptures, a young lawyer came to the Savior with a question tempting him and saying: ¶

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment? And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matt. 22:36-40.) ¶

If we will observe this first law, the second naturally will follow, and in fact, as the Savior has pointed it out, we will not be guilty of a breach of the law and the prophets in anything else. ¶

Eternal Life

Jesus Christ came into this world with a definite mission as the Savior of men and the Redeemer of the world. When Nicodemus came to the Savior, making inquiry, and he came by night because he was afraid of the Jews, but believing in Jesus Christ, he asked him some questions and the Savior gave him some definite instruction in regard to baptism by water and by the spirit, and in the course of the remarks, that which followed, the Savior said this: ¶

And Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John 3:14-21.) ¶

Then the Savior adds: ¶

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36.) ¶

Atonement of Christ

Now, may I spend a few minutes presenting before us what we all know to be the truth, that Jesus Christ came into this world to die. That was his mission, and by that death upon the cross and through the shedding of his blood, to bring redemption, twofold, first, to redeem men from Adam's transgression, to restore them again to life, to destroy death, gain the victory, which apparently Satan had won through the transgression of Adam. In some manner which I cannot fully explain and which you cannot fully explain, there was a necessity for an infinite atonement, a God dying for a fallen world, and that had to be by the shedding of blood, and his blood only could be shed to restore again that life which had been taken away, and bring back again to man the power to live forever. And through his death there comes to us universally, to every living creature, a resurrection of the dead. The Lord does not ask us whether we want to be redeemed from death or not. We were not responsible for it, and, therefore, it is not held against us; it is not to our charge. As Paul has said: ¶

The Free Gift of God

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (I Cor. 15:22.) ¶

That is the free gift of God the Eternal Father, through Jesus Christ, his Son, to every living soul, men, women, children, from the fall of Adam to the end of time. ¶

Now that is a wonderful gift. It comes without our asking. It comes to the wicked as well as to the righteous. In the fifth chapter of John the Lord speaks to the people of the time coming, and he says it was already here, when the dead should hear the voice of the Son of God and they who heard should live. Yes, not only those who heard it, that is, received his truth, for he added this, when they marveled at what he had to say: ¶

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:28, 29.) ¶

Here is the word of the Lord himself that he was going to carry the message to the dead; they would all hear; they who were willing to receive that message of truth and abide in it should have everlasting life, but they who would not receive it or who were not worthy to receive it should come forth just the same in the resurrection to receive condemnation, but the resurrection was to come to all universally. ¶

Then again, the Savior died for all men upon the face of the earth, all creatures, that is, human creatures, who were willing to repent of their sins and keep his commandments. He has not redeemed any of us from our sins except it be through repentance and ¶

faithful adherence to the principles of the gospel and our endurance to the end. ¶

When he stood before his disciples upon this continent, he said to them: ¶

. . .no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end. (III Nephi 27:19.) ¶

That is definite. ¶

So, he redeemed mankind from death universally, and he has redeemed men from their own sins on conditions of their repentance, and they will not be redeemed from their sins unless they do repent and accept him and wash their garments white in his blood and endure in faith to the end. It is upon those terms that salvation comes. ¶

Gratitude for Blessings

Now, when we stop to think that the Son of God created this world? all things, the scriptures say, were made by him, and when we think that he came to this world with that mission which he accepted before he was born in Bethlehem, and by the shedding of his blood gave us life that we might rise in the resurrection to live forever; and when he, by the shedding of his blood has offered unto us the remission of our sins and eternal life, through obedience to the gospel — do you not think that we owe him something in return? We owe him everything. ¶

Paul says: "We were bought with a price." That price was the blood of Jesus Christ, and we are not our own. Oh, if we could only understand that by the shedding of his blood, he bought us. We belong to him. He has a right to tell us what to do and what not to do, and to command us to keep his commandments; however, we have our agency, and we act for ourselves. ¶

We cannot comprehend the great suffering that the Lord had to take upon himself to bring to pass this redemption from death and from sin. He spent a few years upon the earth, and during that short sojourn he suffered the abuse of men. They stoned him; they spat upon him; they cursed him; they ridiculed him; they accused him of almost every crime they could think of, and finally they took him and crucified him upon a' cross. ¶

Suffering of the Savior

We get into the habit of thinking, I suppose, that his great suffering was when he was nailed to the cross by his hands and his feet and was left there to suffer until he died. As excruciating as that pain was, that was not the greatest suffering that he had to undergo, for in some way which I cannot understand, but which I accept on faith, and which you must accept on faith, he carried on his back the ¶

burden of the sins of the whole world. It is hard enough for me to carry my own sins. How is it with you? And yet he had to carry the sins of the whole world, as our Savior and the Redeemer of a fallen world, and so great was his suffering before he ever went to the cross, we are informed, that blood oozed from the pores of his body, and he prayed to his Father that the cup might pass if it were possible, but not being possible he was willing to drink. And here is what he has said to the Church: ¶

For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit — and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink — Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men. (D. £>. C. 19:16-19.) ¶

Now, when he said that if we do not repent we will have to suffer even as he did, he had no .reference to being nailed to a cross, but it was the torment of mind, of spirit, that he had reference to, before he ever got to the cross, and if men will not repent, they will have to suffer even as he suffered. ¶

Now brethren, briefly, he did all this for us, the Son of God, and he did it, as I have read to you, because his Father commanded him and because his Father so loved the world that he wanted to save the world from its sins. ¶

Transgressor Shows Ingratitude

Now, he has asked us to keep his commandments. He says they are not grievous, and there are so many of us who are not willing to do it. I am speaking now generally of the people of the earth. We are not willing to do it. That certainly is ingratitude. We are ungrateful. Every member of this Church that violates the Sabbath day, that is not honest in the paying of his tithing, that will not keep the Word of Wisdom, that wilfully violates any of the other commandments the Lord has given us, is ungrateful to the Son of God and when ungrateful to the Son of God is ungrateful to the Father who sent him. If our Savior would do so much for us, how in the world is it that we are not willing to abide by his commandments which are not grievous, which do not cause us any suffering if we will only keep them? And yet, people break the Word of Wisdom; they refuse to attend to their duties as officers and members in the Church; many of them stay away from meetings the Lord has called upon them to support. They follow their own desires if they are in conflict with the commandments of the Lord. ¶

If we understood our position and we loved the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, or, as he has put it in the revelation given to us in these days: ¶

Wherefore, I give unto them a commandment, saying thus: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind, and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve him. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (D. & C. 59:5, 6.) ¶

then we would keep his commandments; when we will not do this, I tell you, my brethren and sisters, we show ingratitude to Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶