Conference Address

President Smith has requested that I speak next. I rather feel that perhaps, if we were to adjourn now, after the powerful and inspired utterances of President McKay, we would be better off than perhaps to have me try to say something, but obedient to the request of the President I shall do the best I can. ¶

I do pray that the Lord will bless me and that you will be good enough to ask him in my behalf that he will grant the blessing, in order that you may be edified, strengthened, and built up. ¶

Over the last year I have been doing considerable reading of a more intensive kind than I have before done, on the matters I have been reading about, and I have been impressed with certain historical facts to which I wish briefly to allude. ¶

Early Christian History ¶

For some reason, which is not clear, either from history or from scriptures, it does not appear that Peter, James and John, who were left as the First Presidency of the primitive church, ever appointed any successors to themselves. The result was what might have been expected. There grew up certain great centers, Alexandria, Rome, Carthage, Caesarea, and so on. As time went on, each of these was presided over by a bishop. They had no central guiding hand, and the result was they began to dispute about doctrine, and ¶

about rites and ceremonies. Cults grew up, one cult here, another there. These various units, headed by bishops, drifted off into contrary or divergent directions. They called councils from time to time to settle their disputes. The great council of Nicaea about 325 after Christ was the first great ecumenical council. There they tried to settle certain matters of doctrine. ¶

There was no unity in the church; there was no unifying direction. They were as lost sheep. ¶

The church moved fairly well while the apostles still lived. Then followed a secondary period when, the apostles having died, there still lived those who had known the apostles, and who had received from them instructions. This kept the church from wandering too far and too fast. Then the third church generation came, and not having the anchorage that was given by the apostles first, and next, by those who had known the apostles, they drifted and drifted rapidly, until by the middle of the third century, they had lost the priesthood, indeed they no longer pretended actually to confer it. Their ordinals merely prayed that the Lord would give the powers, the priesthood powers which Christ had conferred upon his apostles and which they, in turn, had, according to the sacred record, conferred upon a very few individuals. ¶

Importance of Unity ¶

I have never permitted an opportunity of this kind to go by without speaking on this question of unity. I have said to you brethren, over and over again, and I repeat it tonight, that if we were really united, if we really saw eye to eye, and then would move in unison, there is nothing in the world, in righteousness, that we might not do in accordance with the will of the Lord and not to defeat his purposes. But there comes to us as we get farther-flung in the world, there comes constantly back to the First Presidency, signs that if we did not have the priesthood, if it had been lost to us as it was lost to the primitive church, we would be marching along the same roads that they marched to complete apostasy. ¶

Now brethren, there is only one way to be united, and that is to be united. The Lord has set up amongst us, with our priesthood and with our auxiliaries, as nearly a perfect organization as we mortals, in our present condition, can carry on. Just so soon as we undertake, by ourselves and of our own thought and volition, of our own wisdom, to set up other organizations than those set up by the Presidency of the Church, under the direction of the President of the Church, the presiding High Priest of the Church, just so soon as we undertake to do that then we are on a detour. We are no longer going down the middle of the road, We are on a road that could lead to apostasy. ¶

I think perhaps that even now there are evidences that those in the outlying areas farthest away from the central organization of the Church, are feeling, perhaps, the absence of controls a little more keenly than they who are nearer in; and yet I would like to say here that my observation is that among those who are farther away from us, who do not see us every day, there is a higher regard for the General Authorities than there is among those who are around here. Yet there is that seemingly inevitable drawing away tendency in the remoter areas, to this time in details that leave us still strong. But we must be always alert. ¶

The Lord gave us our free agency, as you know, and we may think and we may talk as we wish, but we may not teach false doctrine for that is no part of free agency. In the spiritual domain false doctrine is the equivalent of libel, and slander in the civil domain. Those things we may not do. ¶

Plans of Men ¶

This is an age, a period, when everybody has a new idea as to what to do to cure the ills of society. There are almost as many plans as there are people, plans usually developed by men of no experience no training, no thought, and the plans gain currency among those who are equally untrained, inexperienced and ill taught. ¶

Amongst us, it is quite a common thing for us to look about and see something that needs to be corrected, and so we start a movement to correct it. We see something that should be done, some opportunity we think we see that has not been embraced, and so we form a plan to meet that opportunity as we see it. I think perhaps I might say that not always have our auxiliary organizations brought themselves under restraint, the restraint of the discipline of doing primarily the things that they were set up to do. But whether that be true or not, it is certainly true that here and there somebody gets an idea of what he ought to do and so starts out to do it. ¶

There was handed to us tonight a plan to satisfy all the needs of the members of a proposed group, from an economic, social, physical, spiritual and educational standpoint. Well, that is quite a program, just to start out with right from scratch. They have several hundred members they say. ¶

The Lord's Plan ¶

Now brethren, the Lord has set up, as I said to begin with, an organization that is as nearly perfect as we mortals can live, and the only safety we shall have will be in following that plan and that program. ¶

I sometimes think that maybe we take to our souls a little more unction than we should over the thought that the Lord has set up his work never more to be thrown down or taken away and given ¶

to another people. I believe that as I believe I am looking at you, as I know I am looking at you. But that does not say that all of us are going to be among those who stand firm by the plan which the Lord has given. Let us be sure that we do not get away from the Lord's plan. ¶

You Elders quorum men, Seventies, High Priests, all of you brethren of the Aaronic priesthood, cling by what the Lord has given to you. There is opportunity for all of the activity that you can possibly participate in and as it is under a divine plan there will be nothing in it that is not profitable for you. Do not go off and try to reform the Church. Let us reform ourselves, and the Church will take care of itself. ¶

Direction of Holy Ghost ¶

Sometimes people get to preaching, preaching false doctrines. Sometimes the Elders get to telling their own ideas about what the Gospel is, making their own explanations. The Prophet records that on one occasion a man came to him and was very much surprised when the Prophet told him that a prophet was not always a prophet. He was a prophet only when he spoke with the spirit of prophecy. ¶

On two occasions today that passage of the scripture has been quoted and referred to, which was really directed to Orson Hyde, but it is applicable to all of us, that whatever the servants of the Lord say shall be scripture, the mind of the Lord, the will of the Lord, the voice of the Lord, the power of God unto salvation. Sometimes we overlook the beginning, "what ye say under the direction of the Holy Ghost." ¶

You remember that Paul and Barnabas had a little trouble in their time. One of them at that particular occasion did not have the direction of the Holy Ghost, the inspiration of it. Peter and Paul had their troubles. They were not then both being moved by the Holy Ghost. ¶

The Prophet tells — you will find it in his works — that some of the brethren in the early days got very much interested in the book of revelation, a pregnant source of speculation, and he rebuked them for it. ¶

I would like to urge you brethren to read the scriptures yourselves. We have had some wonderful talks today about reading the Book of Mormon. I subscribe to all of it. And the other books were mentioned at the same time, the Bible, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. But read the scriptures and get your own ideas about them. ¶

In speaking about Brother Hezekiah Brown the Prophet Joseph said he was so happy that men could read and think and speculate; we were not cramped like the sectarians were, but he cautioned the brethren that they should be careful about what they taught. There is only one source on the earth that has any right to change or modify or extend any revelation of the Lord, and that is the President of the Church, the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, the presiding High Priest. He alone, through the inspiration and revelation of the Lord, can change the revelations already given. All the rest of us can think about them, talk about them, speculate about them, but we cannot change them, and until he speaks the revelations stand as is. We ought not, therefore, to get discouraged because somebody sees a revelation in a different light from the way in which we see it. We are entitled to our opinion; the other man is entitled to his opinion, but the revelation stands until God changes it in the regular way. ¶

Appeal for Unity ¶

Brethren, I return again to this question of unity. Can we not forget our little troubles, our little disagreements? Can we not unify on the words of the Lord, even as He spoke them; and having unified in our belief, can we not unify ourselves in our observance? I am talking, I know, to brethren who are the stalwarts of the Church, the brethren to whom the Lord looks, and President Smith as the Lord's representative looks, to carry on the work of the Church. You must do it. President Smith cannot be everywhere. And you have done a great job. But we are in perilous times, economic, political and spiritual, and if you will just harken to what the Prophet of the Lord says and be guided by the revelations which God has given through his prophets in ancient times and modern times, all will be well. ¶

I pledge you that I will try, with all my mind and soul and heart, to do the things which our leader wishes us to do. I wish that you brethren, each and all of you would follow me in that pledge, and if we shall do that, we shall be nearer heaven, this great priesthood body of the Church, we shall be nearer heaven than we have yet been in this dispensation. ¶

I bear my testimony that I know that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ and the first fruits of the resurrection. I know that the gospel and the Priesthood were restored through the Prophet Joseph. I have the testimony of the Spirit to that and the testimony of the Spirit seems to me far greater than the testimony of the senses. ¶

May God be with all of us, at all times, and may we so live that he can be with us under all circumstances, which means that we live pure lives, that we keep away from sin and the places of sin, and that we go to no place where we might not ask our Heavenly Father to go with us, may we so live that we may be saved and exalted in his presence, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus, Amen. ¶