Conference Address

It is always more or less an ordeal for me to face an audience, and particularly a congregation in this historic Tabernacle. I've been in hopes for years that I would outgrow that feeling, but I still think, study, and pray in anticipation; I tremble as I stand before you with the sense of inadequacy to give a timely message as it should be given; and after it's over, worry in self-reproachment for having failed to do justice to the cause. I suppose you brethren have all sensed these same feelings; so I ask for your sympathy, your help this morning. I particularly pray for guidance of the Holy Spirit. ¶

Teach All Nations Said the Savior to his Apostles: ¶

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: ¶

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. (Matthew 28:19-20.) ¶

Nearly every member of the Church understands that there are two general ecclesiastical divisions in the Church of Jesus Christ: one made up of the organized stakes and wards; the other, of the missionary work. ¶

It is of this second division I wish to speak this morning. Many of us fail to realize the value and potent possibilities of this great branch of Church activity. ¶

1 . — As an example of voluntary service in the cause of the Master, it is unexcelled. ¶

2. — As an incentive to clean living among youth, as a contributing factor to character building, its influence is immeasurable. ¶

3. — As an educative force and uplifting influence upon our communities, its effect is clearly manifest. ¶

4. — As a contributing factor to a better understanding among nations, and to the establishing of international friendship, it wields a significant influence. ¶

5. — As it is the purpose of the Almighty to save the individual, not to make him a mere cog in the machinery of the state, the missionary service works most harmoniously in the consummation of this eternal plan! ¶

Remember the worth of -souls is great in the sight of God; . . . ¶

And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! ¶

And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me! (D. & C. 18:10, 15-16.) ¶

Number of Missionaries ¶

Its importance, significance, and magnitude may be glimpsed when I tell you that the total number of missionaries assigned by the First Presidency, now actively engaged in missionary work, has reached 5001. At the next official meeting of the Missionary Appointment Committee, undoubtedly there will be assigned fifty or sixty additional missionaries whom bishops and stake presidencies have recommended. ¶

In addition to these, there are between 1200 and 1500 missionaries assigned by mission presidents, a number of whom are devoting all their time to the preaching of the gospel in the missions, and others working part time, making a total of approximately 6500 missionaries in the world today. ¶

This number is exclusive of the 2900 missionaries laboring in the stakes of Zion — a total number of approximately ten thousand. ¶

In monetary terms, applying it only to the five thousand plus appointed officially by the First Presidency, this means that missionaries and their parents in stakes and wards are spending at the present time in cash $275,000 every month, or $3,300,000 each year. ¶

The text I have just quoted, "go ye unto all the world" is really the missionary injunction given by the risen Christ to his Apostles. In effect he says: ¶

Consider this work unfinished until all nations shall have accepted the gospel and shall have enlisted themselves as my disciples. ¶

Now, that command was not given to men indiscriminately; for even to the Twelve, to whom he addressed that commission, he later gave a formal assignment and blessing: ¶

... as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. (John 20:21, 22.) ¶

With the same direct commission from the risen Lord who with the Father appeared in person in the beginning of the nineteenth century, the proclamation of the gospel is being made by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to "every nation, kindred, tongue and people" as fast as means and personnel can carry it forward. ¶

Forty-six Missions ¶

Though the Church is young in years and comparatively small in numbers, there are today, including the great mission on Temple Square, forty-six organized missions in Europe, the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, the Pacific Isles, Japan, and China. ¶

In these missions there are 1470 branches; if we include independent Sunday Schools, there are 1780. That number is exclusive of wards and branches in organized stakes. ¶

The forty-six men who preside over these missions are chosen generally from the rank and file of the Church. They are businessmen, contractors, ranchers, college professors, lawyers, physicians and surgeons, dentists, and members of other professions. When the call comes to any such, no matter what his responsibilities or circumstances, seldom if ever does he offer an excuse, but, as Samuel of old. replies: "Speak, thy servant heareth," even though such acceptance means a financial sacrifice and sometimes the loss of political preferment. ¶

The missionaries, generally, are young men and women, ranging in age from twenty to thirty years, with a sprinkling among them of more experienced men and women. ¶

It is well to say here that the direct responsibility of preaching the gospel rests upon the priesthood of the Church — not upon the women, though the efficiency of the latter in cottage meetings, in Primaries, and Sunday Schools, and in other phases of missionary work, is of the highest order, and their willingness, even eagerness, to labor is not excelled by that of the young men. ¶

Who Missionaries Are ¶

Who are these youths chosen to represent the Church? They, too, as their mission presidents, come from the rank and file. They are farmers, artisans, factory workers, bank clerks, secretaries in business firms, and other vocations. Some who are married leave their wives and their children who help to support them in their work. All of them look forward to the time after their return when they, with congenial loving companions, may build happy homes. ¶

As already stated, each pays his or her own expenses, in most cases, of course, with the assistance of parents. True Christianity is love in action. There is no better way to manifest love for God than to show an unselfish love for your fellow men. This is the spirit of missionary work. Our hearts respond to the cry of the poet: ¶

"O brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother. Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there; To worship rightly is to love each other, Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer." ¶

These men go out in the spirit of love, seeking nothing from any nation to which they are sent: no personal acclaim, no monetary acquisition. Two or three years ago, many of these missionaries were honorably discharged from military duty. Not a few had saved their government allowance to pay their expenses in the mission field if and when they should be called. ¶

Influence of Missionary System Upon Youth ¶

In this fact we get a glimpse of the helpful influence of the missionary system upon the youth. Every deacon, teacher, and priest, every elder in the Church understands that to be worthy to be a representative of the Church of Christ, he must be temperate in his habits and morally clean. He is taught that there is no double standard of chastity, that every young man, as well as every young woman, is to keep himself free from sexual impurity. ¶

I once read one of the most impressive letters of a mother to a son that I think has ever been written. It contained only three words, except the signature: "Quinn, keep clean," and was signed, "Lovingly, Mother." ¶

Young men in the army, therefore, who looked forward to serving as missionaries and saved their money for that purpose, cherished higher ideals than their "buddies" who sometimes prodigally spent their earnings in saloons, gambling dens, and brothels. ¶

In more than one instance, Latter-day Saint soldiers sent home their earnings of their parents to be deposited in the savings bank to bear their missionary costs after the war. And we know of two or three young men each of whom added in effect: "If I do not come home, use the money to pay the expenses of some other young man to go out as a missionary." ¶

Trustworthiness ¶

These young men are instructed that they go out as representatives of the Church, and that a representative of any organization— economic or religious — must possess at least one outstanding quality, and that is: trustworthiness. He was right who said, "To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved." And whom do these missionaries represent? First, they represent their parents, carrying the responsibility of keeping their good name unsullied. Second, they represent the Church, specifically the ward in which they live. And third, they represent the Lord Jesus Christ, whose authorized servants they are. ¶

These ambassadors, for such they are, represent these three groups and carry in that representation one of the greatest responsibilities of their lives. ¶

Now, what is the outstanding message that they have to give to Christian, as well as to un-Christian countries? There must surely be something distinctive to justify their presence in all parts of the world. ¶

Divinity of Jesus Christ ¶

First, their message is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the redeemer and Savior of mankind. To these missionaries — "Jesus is not a legendary figure in history," to paraphrase a question asked by Hall Caine to the Christian world, ¶

... he is not merely a saint to be painted in the stained glass of church windows, a sort of sacred fairy not to be approached and hardly to be mentioned by name. But he is still what he was in the flesh, a reality, a man of like passions with ourselves, a guide, a counselor, a comforter, a great voice calling to us to live nobly, to die bravely, and to keep up our courage to the last. ¶

These missionaries declare with Peter of old ¶

. . . there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12.) ¶

Relation to other Organizations ¶

The second distinctive message is this: Every missionary should clearly understand, and so declare in unmistakable words, the relation of this Church to other Christian organizations — that it is neither an outgrowth nor a division of any of them. True, the Church is generally classed with the Protestants; but Protestantism began with the great dissenters — Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, Ulrich Zwingli, John Knox, and others. These great reformers denounced corrupt practices in the Roman Church, particularly the selling of indulgences wherein delinquents could make satisfaction by money contributions, a practice carried on under one pretext and another until it became a regular financial expedient for increasing papal revenue. ¶

It was extended even to souls in purgatory. ¶

The great men whom I have named rebelled against this evil and others, and organized churches in protest. ¶

Accordingly, when the second Diet of Spires in 1529 passed a resolution ¶

. . . disallowing further religious innovations in the Lutheran states, whilst prohibiting the profession of the Zwinglian and Anabaptist forms of the reformed faith, the Lutheran minority protested, and this protestation was signed by fourteen cities as well as by the elector of Saxony, the landgrave of Hesse and four other provinces. Hence the name Protestant as a designation of the evangelical party. ¶

Protestantism, under many different names, spread over Europe and later among the American colonies, and freedom to worship as one sincerely wished became more and more the proscribed right of the individual, but in the hearts of many a true believer in Jesus of Nazareth, there remained an abiding belief, a feeling that the authority to represent him had been taken from the earth, and that there ¶

. . . can be no recovery out of that apostasy till Christ shall send forth new apostles to plant churches anew. ¶

True Church Restored ¶

This in effect is what the Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith when as a fourteen-year-old lad he inquired which of all sects was right and which should he join. Joseph was told to join none of them for ¶

"they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; they teach for doctrine the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof." (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith, 2:19.) ¶

A few years later, specifically, April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith received by the spirit of prophecy and revelation instructions from the Savior "to organize his Church once more here upon the earth." ¶

Thus was established by direct revelation and divine authority from the Eternal Father and Jesus Christ who founded the Church in the Meridian of Times, the Church of Latter-days, which is set up as a fore-runner, if you please, to the establishing of the kingdom of God upon the earth. In the words of President John Taylor, with such an organization there is a chance for the Lord, God to be revealed. There is an opportunity for the law of life to be made manifest, a chance for God to introduce the principles of heaven upon the earth and for the will of God to be done upon earth as it is done in heaven. (J. D. 18:140, Oct. 10, 1875.) ¶

With these two great fundamental truths as the heart of their message, namely, ( 1 ) the divinity of the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, and (2) the restoration of his gospel in this age, the missionaries are to the best of their ability, fulfilling the injunction to preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever the Lord has commanded. ¶

This, then, brethren, is a world-wide Church organized preparatory to the establishing of the kingdom of God on earth by means of which ¶

. . . the Lord God may be revealed, and an opportunity for the laws of life to be made manifest. ¶

Ambassadors of Good Will ¶

These thousands of missionaries and men who hold the priesthood everywhere are ambassadors of good will, the ultimate purpose of whose service is to change the hearts of men everywhere from selfishness and greed to tolerance, compassion, and brotherhood. And, so, with all our hearts we can sing: ¶

Go, ye messengers of glory; Run, ye legates of the skies: Go and tell the pleasing story That a glorious angel flies, ¶

Great and mighty, With a message from the skies. ¶

Go to ev'ry tribe and nation: Visit ev'ry land and clime; Sound to all the proclamation. Tell to all the truth sublime: ¶

That the gospel Does in ancient glory shine. ¶

Go, to all the gospel carry. Let the joyful news abound; Go till ev'ry nation hear you, Jew and Gentile greet the sound. ¶

Let the gospel, Echo all the earth around. ¶

Bearing seed of heav'nly virtue, Scatter it o'er all the earth; Go! Jehovah will support you; Gather all the sheaves of worth; Then, with Jesus, Reign in glory on the earth. ¶

— John Taylor ¶

May the heart of every missionary be inspired by the spirit of his Lord, whose authorized servant he is, to the end that selfishness and violence now so powerful in the world will be replaced by loyal service, truth, and brotherhood! I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶