President Mckay President Clark And President Moyle...

President McKay, President Clark, and President Moyle, my brethren and sisters: ¶

We are here this beautiful day to worship God our Father and Jesus Christ our Redeemer. I know that everyone has this feeling and will listen to the words of his servants with joy and thanksgiving. There are so many phases of history that we love to study and think about. During the past year, I have studied the life of Christopher Columbus. Historians tell us that Columbus felt that beyond the western sea, land could be found. In the historical writings of the Italian scholar Padre Clementis he conserved a form of prayer said to have been used by Columbus on Friday morning, October 12, as he stepped on the land of the New World. ¶

Columbus declared in one of his letters to the king and queen of Spain that he was the "agent in the hand of God to go forth upon the mighty deep." According to Washington Irving, Columbus, when he set foot on the island of San Salvador, uttered the following prayer, which has been translated from the Latin: ¶

"O God, our Father, eternal and omnipotent, creator of heaven and earth and sea, we glorify Thy Holy name, praise Thy majesty, whom we serve in all humility, we give unto Thy Holy protection this new part of the world." ¶

Plymouth Rock has long since become the emblem of American freedom, that freedom born of a proper respect for the rights of all men and the recognition of the permanency of religion. The Pilgrim Fathers were men of deep faith in the Providence of God. Their coming to America over the uncharted deep was an event ordered of God for the ultimate bringing in of his kingdom upon the earth. Many centuries before the birth of the Savior, the Prophet Nephi wrote these words as he looked into the future: ¶

"And it came to pass that I looked and beheld many waters; and they divided the Gentiles from the seed of my brethren. ¶

"And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land. ¶

"And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters. ¶

"And it came to pass that I Nephi beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord." (1 Nephi 13:10, 12-13, 16.) It was by divine guidance that the Pilgrim Fathers came to America and planted here the institutions of civilization. By the Mayflower Compact they established a republic, the highest form of political institution known to man. ¶

Such a republic was unknown up to their time, and this was the only land where a nation of this kind was possible. ¶

This continent had been unknown until the right men, rightly trained, could build their homes in the wilderness and hold the ground for a purpose larger than they knew. These Christians had in mind a new city of God in the wilderness, and they made the fish the emblem of their commonwealth, which has from old been the symbol of Christian humility. ¶

Pastor John Robinson was one of the most prominent of the Pilgrim Fathers, yet he never set foot upon American soil. The little group that left Leyden, Holland, in 1620, received his blessing, and, in his parting words to them, he said: ¶

"Brethren, we are now quickly to part from one another, and whether I may ever live to see your faces on earth any more, the God of heaven only knows: ¶

but whether the Lord hath appointed that or not, I charge you before God and his blessed angels that you follow me no farther than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If God reveals anything to you, by any other instrument of His, be as ready to receive it, as ever you were to receive truth, by my ministry; for I am fully persuaded, / am very confident, that the Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy word. For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go at present no farther than the instruments of the reformation." ¶

That is why we are thankful that we have been blessed with a knowledge that the gospel was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and that is our testimony. The reason why I am speaking of it as I do, is because there are a number of people in this congregation who are not members of the Church. ¶

Thousands of people have accepted the gospel, and we believe in the purity of the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ as nobody else. It is a wonderful thing. ¶

When the time came for the Saints to move westward, they came headed by a prophet of God. They settled in this valley. It was a valley of sagebrush, very dry in the summertime, cold in winter. They came in the year 1847, and from then on, all the time, there were companies of Latter-day Saints on the plains, coming to Utah, coming in small numbers and then in larger groups, until the territory was settled, and Utah as a state was founded. ¶

A wonderful thought was expressed by President Brigham Young in the First General Epistle to the people at the close of 1847. It indicated the great love and respect that he and the Latter-day Saints had for all people. ¶

"Come, then, ye Saints; come, then, ye honorable men of the earth; come, then, ye wise, ye learned, ye rich, ye noble, according to the riches, and wisdom, and knowledge of the great Jehovah; from all nations, and kindreds, and kingdoms, and tongues, and people, and dialects on the face of the whole earth, and join the standard of Emmanuel, and help us to build up the Kingdom of God, and establish the principles of truth, life, and salvation, and you shall receive your reward among the sanctified, when the Lord Jesus Christ cometh to make up his jewels; and no power on earth or in hell can prevail against you. ¶

"The Kingdom of God consists in correct principles; and it mattereth not what a man's religious faith is; whether he be a Presbyterian, or a Methodist, or a Baptist, or a Latter-day Saint or 'Mormon,' or a Campbellite, or a Catholic, or Episcopalian, or Mohametan, or even pagan, or any thing else, if he will bow the knee and with his tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ, and will support good and wholesome laws for the regulation of society, we hail him as a brother, and will stand by him while he stands by us in these things; for every man's religious faith is a matter between his own soul and his God alone; but if he shall deny the Jesus, if he shall curse God, if he shall indulge in debauchery and drunkenness, and crime; if he shall lie, and swear, and steal; if he shall take the name of the Great God in vain, and commit all manner of abominations, he shall have no place in our midst, for we have long sought to find a people that will work righteousness, that will distribute justice equally, that will acknowledge God in all their ways, that will regard those sacred laws and ordinances which are recorded in that sacred book called the Bible, which we verily believe, and which we proclaim to the ends of the earth." ¶

In conclusion, I have a word or two concerning one of my devoted friends. ¶

The head of the Catholic Church in Utah, Bishop Duane G. Hunt, passed away the other day. He was one of the finest men, and it is only within a year when Bishop Hunt said to a visitor, "One thing I do know. The Mormon Church has been gracious and kind to every soul that lives. The people have gone forth giving and bearing their testimony that God lives and has restored the gospel." ¶

May we all come to the faith that has been this morning told us by the speakers and will be told us by the speakers today and Wednesday. Let us grow because in that growth is our salvation, our joy of living, and we certainly find what life means. ¶

God bless us all through the holy purposes, the priesthood of God, I ask in in his name. Amen. ¶