Conference Address

My brothers and sisters, I have been delighted with the messages we have heard from the brethren during this conference. I love to meet with the Latter-day Saints. I have a great appreciation in' my heart for you fine people and for your kindness to me as I am privileged to visit in the various stakes of Zion. ¶

Financial Obligations ¶

In trying to think what I might say today that could be an encouragement or help to you, I thought I might say a few words on our financial and temporal obligations to the Church because they are many, and there are some among us who feel that they are heavy. One stake president said: "It costs a lot to be a member of this Church," and I have thought a great deal of it. I have thought of the payment of our tithing, our fast offerings, our welfare contributions, our ward budget, our great missionary work, the building of our chapels and temples and places of worship, the temple work we are doing, and genealogical work, and I feel as many of you do that when we consecrate all that we have to the building up of the kingdom of God it really is a substantial thing as far as our temporal obligations and responsibilities are concerned. ¶

The Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith' that he had never given a temporal commandment unto his children, that all of his commandments were spiritual, for they all have a spiritual meaning and a spiritual development and a spiritual purpose, because behind all that the Lord is attempting to do in the earth, he has indicated that ¶

. . . this is my work and my glory — to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 1:39.) ¶

And hence, all of his commandments have been given for the achievement and the accomplishment of that great objective. ¶

"No Man Can Serve Two Masters" ¶

However, the Lord has made some definite statements with respect to temporal things and our responsibility therein. That is, I suppose, what Jesus meant when he said: ¶

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Matt. 6:24.) ¶

I take it he understood that in the lives of most men the time would come when they might have to make a choice as to whether or not they should choose God or mammon, and it is my conviction and my testimony that when we make the choice, if we choose to serve the Lord, it is just like forming a partnership with him. He will be on our side, he will see us through; and I wonder sometimes if we really sacrifice when we choose to serve the Lord, rather than to serve mammon, and make the necessary effort and contributions required to show our faith in him. ¶

You will recall that before the Lord needed any financial help to promote the interests of his kingdom in the earth he gave unto Cain and Abel the law of sacrifice. The Lord did not need the fruits of the field from Cain nor the first of the flocks from Abel, but they needed to give it; they needed to put their faith to the test. They needed to be able to show to God whether they served and chose God or mammon, for you cannot serve two masters. ¶

And you will recall that Cain brought of the fruit of the field, and his offering was not acceptable to the Lord, and Abel brought the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. We are told that Abel's offering was accepted. We do not know just why Cain's was not; probably he did not bring the best of his field, but at any rate, he was very much perturbed and put out when his offering was not accepted, and hardness entered into his heart. The light of the Lord left him, and he turned to that terrible sin of murdering his own brother. And the Lord indicated to Cain when he expressed his displeasure: "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?" (Gen. 4:7.) ¶

We often see in our midst brethren who turn away from the Lord, who cease to pay their tithes and their offerings, who neglect to prove to God that they love him better than they love mammon, and darkness comes into their lives, and they do things that are not pleasing to the Lord. They walk in the ways of darkness and cease to help to build the kingdom of God in the earth. ¶

Experience of Job ¶

You will recall the experience of Job when the devil came to the Lord and the Lord said: "Hast thou considered my servant Job?" (Job 1:8.) And the devil rather laughingly said, in substance: ¶

Oh, that is easy. You have surrounded him with so much. You have given him everything. No wonder he is your friend, but just let me take it away from him. ¶

The Lord gave him the privilege; told him he might take everything away if he would just spare his life. So he took everything away, his lands and his herds, and his buildings were burned, and his family died, and when his body was afflicted and sore, he lay there, and his wife said unto him: "Dost thou still retain thine integrity?" ¶

Now, brethren and sisters, I would like to read the testimony that came from Job. I think it is one of the most beautiful things that we have in holy writ, for this is what Job said: ¶

Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! ¶

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! ¶

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: ¶

And though after my skin worms destroy this body; yet in my flesh shall I see God: ¶

Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another. (Job 19:23-27.) ¶

Is there any amount of wealth in this world that could take the place of that positive assurance that Job had in his heart, as a friend of God, through the testimony of the Holy Ghost, that though his body should be destroyed yet in his flesh should he see God — whom he should see for himself? ¶

Malachi's Admonition ¶

Malachi gives us this call back to service of the Lord in the matter of the payment of our tithes and our offerings. I think the third chapter of Malachi was directed entirely to the people of this generation, for he begins that he would send his angel to prepare the way for his coming, and then he should come swiftly to his temple — that did not occur in the meridian of time — and that he should come cleansing and purifying as refiner's fire and as fuller's soap, and then he invites all Israel to return unto him, and they say: ¶

. . . Wherein shall we return? ¶

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. ¶

Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. (Malachi 3:7-9.) ¶

And I presume there, is not one here today who realizes what the truth of that statement was, for I think there was no church or people in all the world paying tithes at the time the Church was restored in these latter days, when the Lord sent his angel to call them back to serve him. ¶

And then the Lord said: ¶

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. ¶

And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. (Idem 10-13.) ¶

A Delightsome Land ¶

Brothers and sisters, when we think of the condition of this land when our pioneer fathers came here, has not the Lord fulfilled his promise; has he not made it a delightsome land; has he not proved that he would keep his promise? The Lord has indicated that he is bound when we do what he says, but when we do not what he says, then have we no promise. The Lord has made this a delightsome land, and all nations who know us and know of our prosperity call us blessed, and out of this land we are able to send forth the gospel message, as David of old saw, unto the inhabitants of the earth, for David said: ¶

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. (Psalms 50:2.) ¶

There is one part of that third chapter of Malachi that we do not usually hear much about, and I would like to read it to you today. ¶

After the Lord said that all nations should call us blessed, he adds: ¶

Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? ¶

Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: [and we hear that occasionally in our midst] and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? ¶

And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. (Mal. 3:13-15.) ¶

A Book of Remembrance ¶

In other words, as the scriptures say, the rain falls upon the just and the unjust, and when we see the unjust in our midst enjoying blessings of the Lord, sometimes, in our own estimation, beyond even the blessings of him who walks in His ways and keeps his commandments, we begin to argue whether or not it pays to serve the Lord. That is what Malachi saw, and the Lord heard them, and said: ¶

Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. ¶

And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. ¶

Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. (Idem 16-18.) ¶

I would like to see every friend of mine in this Church have his name recorded in that book of remembrance, and I am sure that when he comes to claim his jewels, he will realize that no sacrifice that has ever been required at his hands could compensate for the lack of that very thing, for they will be numbered among his jewels. That is what I think being partners with him means. ¶

What a promise! What a promise that he will bless the land! I wonder as we go about our daily duties from day to day if we are able to realize how much of the joy and the happiness and the success that is ours in life is really ours by virtue of our own doings and how much of it is the result of the blessings of the Lord. ¶

Redemption of Zion ¶

Do you remember the statement of Daniel Webster about this western part of America, when he said that he would not vote one cent from the public treasury to place the Pacific coast one inch nearer Boston than it was then? And Jim Bridger, when Brigham Young met him, said that he would give one thousand dollars if he only knew we could raise an ear of corn in these valleys, but Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the prophets of old, had seen the prosperity of Zion in these valleys of the mountains. The Prophet Joseph had declared that the Saints would continue to suffer persecution and be driven, and many would apostatize, and some would be put to death, and that they should ultimately be driven to the Rocky Mountains, and here they should become a mighty people in the Rocky Mountains. ¶

I want to read to you two brief statements from Isaiah with respect to what the Lord promised to do in the redemption of this wilderness, to make it blossom as the rose, and I want to say to you it is a miracle in my mind the part "water" was to play in the redemption of latter-day Zion. ¶

Isaiah said: "Behold, I will do a new thing," and as far as my understanding of this scripture is concerned, that new thing was the great principle of irrigation. It is true the Saints had to make the canals, they had to make the ditches, they had to put in the dams, but the land might have remained arid had not the Lord put into their minds the inspiration to do this very thing, and that is what Isaiah saw that the Lord would do. He said: ¶

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the ' desert. ¶

The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. . . . (Isaiah 43:19-20.) ¶

If you want to see the rivers in the desert, just go up through Idaho and see the great canals that come out of the Snake River. They are greater than many of the rivers of the land. ¶

[The Lord has done this] ... to give drink to my people, my chosen. This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise. ¶

And Isaiah states: ¶

I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. ¶

That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it. (Isaiah 43:20-21; 41:18, 20.) ¶

So as you brethren gather in your crops by day in the harvest time, remember that it was the Lord God of Israel who did this new thing in this great wilderness to make it to prosper as a rose and to be a land that would attract the attention of all the world. ¶

President Grant's Experience ¶

Now, I would like to remind you of a little statement that President Grant used to make often. He said: ¶

I believe that to those who are liberal, the Lord gives ideas, and they grow in capacity and ability more rapidly than those who are stingy. I have that faith and I have had it from the time I was a boy. ¶

I believe the Lord gives ideas to men who are liberal and men who have desires to serve God, and those who choose to serve the God of Israel rather than the God of mammon, and I remind you of President Grant's story. It impressed me when I was a boy. When he heard Bishop Woolley, President Clark's grandfather, in a fast meeting ask the Saints to be liberal in their contributions, he promised them that, if they would be liberal, the Lord would bless them four-fold. ¶

President Grant was then only a boy. He had fifty dollars in his pocket. He was working at the Zion's Savings Bank and intended to deposit it, but he handed it to the bishop, and the bishop wrote him a receipt for five dollars and gave him forty-five dollars change, but President Grant indicated that he wanted to pay it all. He wanted to put the Lord in his debt, because his mother needed two hundred dollars, and, if he paid fifty and he got four-fold, he would have his two hundred dollars. And Bishop Woolley said: "Do you believe, Heber, that you will get your two hundred dollars sooner if you give this fifty dollars to the Lord?" ¶

He said: "I do." And the bishop wrote him a receipt for the other forty-five dollars, and on the way back to the bank he got an idea. Where did he get it from? He might never have received it had he not paid the fifty dollars. God Almighty sends ideas and he has regard for each one of his children individually. President Grant wired a man in the East, and in a few days he sold him enough bonds to make $218.50 profit, so when he paid the tithing on it the Lord had given him his two hundred dollars and almost enough to pay the tithing. ¶

Testimony of Law of Tithing ¶

I met a man in the East when I was there on a short-term mission. I noticed that he paid a large tithing and that he was very regular in the payment of his tithing, and I said, ¶

Brother so-and-so, you must have a wonderful testimony of the law of tithing, and he said, "I have." I said: "Would you tell me?" ¶

"Well," he said, "my wife and children joined the Church a few years ago in England, but I didn't join because I did not have enough faith to pay my tithing, and I did not want to be a hypocrite. And so," he said, "one day when one of the young missionaries was being released, he came to me and said: ¶

"Brother so-and-so, I want to baptize you before I go home." ¶

And I said, "You cannot." ¶

"Why not?" ¶

"Well," I said, "I have not the faith to pay my tithing, and I am not going to join the Church until I have." ¶

And then that young elder spoke up, under the influence of the Spirit of the Lord, and the Lord heeded his words and his promise when he said: "Brother so-and-so, if you will let me baptize you before I go home, I promise you that within a year from now you will be in America earning three times as much as you are earning today." ¶

I said: "All right, where shall we go? That is good enough for me. If you are a servant of the Lord, I will take your promise." "Now," he said, "I did not see how in the world it could be fulfilled, because I was under contract to work for my company for three years, and I knew I would not break my contract." ¶

This was during the first world war when we had great difficulty here in America to get dyes that would hold their color, and we sent representatives from America to England to get dye workers. They went to this man's father, and his father said: "I am not interested, but I have a son who may be." ¶

They went to the son. The son said: "I cannot go. I am under contract with my company." ¶

"Well, if we will buy you off, will you go?" And he said, "Yes." ¶

"Now," he said, "to make the story short, the Lord just threw in a little for good measure. ¶

"Within a year I was in America with my family, and I was earning four times as much as I was when that young elder made me that promise." ¶

The Lord Fulfills His Promises ¶

I told the elders, where it has been my privilege to preside in the mission field, if they wanted to see what the Lord did in the way of fulfilling his promises just to keep their eyes open as they went around among the Saints — those who kept the commandments, paid their tithes and their offerings — and compare them with those who failed, and they would' know that the Lord is true to his promises. ¶

I say to you brothers and you sisters, may God bless you, and when you give, remember you are only giving to show your loyalty to him whom you have chosen to serve, for "No man can serve two masters." ¶

God bless you all, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶