As We Have Listened To The Announcements...

As we have listened to the announcements made by our worthy President in the various meetings of this conference as to the extent to which the proceedings of the conference are being broadcast into the various missions and nations of the earth, we are impressed with the privilege we have of living in this day and age when the Lord is doing so much to cut his work short in righteousness. We were told in the newspaper the other night that there would be a possible potential listening audience of ninety million people to our conference. Some of us are old enough to have participated from this pulpit when we did not even have a public address system, when some of the brethren with weak voices could hardly be heard under the gallery. Just think of the difference! ¶

Well, there are other developments in this world in the day in which we are living that are even more important than these physical advancements, and that is the spiritual advancement that has come through the restoration of the gospel in our day, the committing to this earth, according to the words of Isaiah, of "a marvellous work and a wonder." (Isa. 29:14.) The Lord said he would set his hand to do it in our time. ¶

There is a reported statement made by one of our nationally well-known commentators a few years ago in which he said that he had been asked what message could be broadcast to the world that would be considered to be of greater importance than any other. He said that after giving the matter consideration he decided that to be able to say to the world that a man who had lived here upon this earth and had died had returned again with a message from God would be the greatest message that could be broadcast to the world. ¶

I believe that, and that is the message of this Church, and that is why we are a great missionary Church. If we have a message to broadcast to the world, it should be something that the world is not already in possession of, or else there would be no reason for the Lord sending one back to this earth who had already lived upon the earth and died in order that he might bring back a message. ¶

As you brethren and sisters know, that messenger that I refer to now was Moroni, who lived upon this land of America as a prophet of God some four hundred years after the birth of the Savior, who was the custodian of the records that had been kept of a people over a thousand year period; and he hid them away, according to the command of the Lord and brought those records back to the earth in this day and time and delivered them to the Prophet Joseph Smith. ¶

The world doesn't change much. History repeats itself. Jesus said in his day that they decorated the graves of the dead prophets, but they rejected the living prophets. We have a precedent in the Bible of a man who had lived upon the earth and died and returned again with a message from God, and when a man returns with a message from God, he has to deliver that message to someone whom God directs should receive it, and that individual would be none other than a prophet of God. As Amos said: ¶

"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7.) Then you remember that when John the Revelator was banished upon the Isle of Patmos, the Lord sent his angel who showed John the whole history of the world from the time there was war in heaven and a third of the hosts of heaven were cast out, up to the final winding up scenes when there should be a new heaven and a new earth. He saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and they were judged according to the things that were written in the books, according to their works. ¶

When the angel had showed John all these things, he fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who said: ¶

". . . See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God." ¶

(Rev. 22:9.) He was but a fellowservant of the brethren of the prophets, which means he was an individual who had lived upon this earth and was sent back with a message from God. ¶

In that same sense the Lord sent Moroni back. He did not come of his own accord. If Moroni's coming and what he brought were recorded in the Bible, the Christian world would be willing to accept it, but because it comes from a new prophet in our day and time, they are slow as they were in the days of the Savior in accepting the words of the living prophets. ¶

One of the most tangible evidences that Moroni actually did come and visit the Prophet Joseph is the Book of Mormon and its translation and what it has contributed to the world. As I understand the Book of Mormon — and by the way, I think Brother Kimball gave us a marvelous description of it in his talk yesterday, and what it has to contribute to the world — as I think of that, I think it is an evidence that proves that the story told by Joseph Smith that Moroni did bring the plates is a tangible evidence that the world has to reckon with in order to be able to account for that book. ¶

We are told in the scriptures — you remember the words of Jesus on the way to Emmaus as he talked with his disciples. He said: "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken": (Luke 24:25.) And then beginning with Moses and the prophets, he showed them how in all things the prophets had testified of him. Peter tells us he opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures (Ibid., 24:45) and you remember what Peter said: ¶

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: ¶

"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. ¶

"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1:19-21.) As I understand the Book of Mormon and its teachings and the prophecies of the Bible, I think there are prophecies in the Bible that no man in our day can explain properly and intelligently without the information contained in the Book of Mormon. This is a new witness from God for our day, for the conversion of the Jew and the gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the very Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations. (See Book of Mormon title page.) So in the Book of Mormon we have information that gives us to understand statements in the Bible which we could not understand without the information contained in the Book of Mormon. I will give you a few illustrations of what I mean. ¶

When Moses gave a blessing to each of the twelve sons of Israel, he gave Joseph a blessing of a new land in the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills, and in describing that land, Moses used the word "precious" five times in just a few verses in the Bible, telling what a marvelous land the Lord had for Joseph, and he would be separated from his brethren. (Deut. 33:13-17.) I do not believe there is anyone in this world outside of this Church who can tell where that new land is and can give an account of how the Lord fulfilled the promises unto Joseph that he would be blessed in that land, even above the blessings of his fathers. Who were his fathers? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and yet Moses promised Joseph blessings even above the blessings of his own fathers. ¶

Why do we know about it? Because the Book of Mormon tells us how the Lord led a group out of Jerusalem into this land of America who were descendants of Joseph, and how he fulfilled his promise and commanded that a record should be kept. It seems incredible to think of the promises made to Joseph that the Lord would not have made provision that a record should have been kept of the fulfilment of those promises, but that he did, and that record is the Book of Mormon. ¶

There are other passages that also indicate the value of the Book of Mormon. ¶

Just to illustrate what I have in mind. ¶

I had the privilege of talking to a group of ministers just a few years ago by assignment from President McKay, and I quoted some of these scriptures. I asked them if they knew why the verses were in the Bible and if they knew of any Church in the world that did know why they were in the Bible, and the next record that I quoted was the one where Jesus said: ¶

"And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." ¶

(John 10:16.) I asked those men if they knew anything about those other sheep or the fulfilment of the promise of the Lord that he would visit them, and they would hear his voice, and there should be one fold and one shepherd. None of them could tell, and so I just turned to the Book of Mormon and showed them that when Jesus, following his crucifixion and resurrection and ascension, visited his people here in the land of America, he told them they were the other sheep of whom he spoke to his disciples in Jerusalem, and he said that never at any time did the Lord command him that he should tell his disciples in Jerusalem who the other sheep were; only that he had other sheep that were not of that fold, and them should he visit. He told them they were the other sheep. No one can answer intelligently that statement in John 10:16 without the knowledge that the Book of Mormon has brought to us. ¶

Ezekiel was commanded by the Lord that two records should be kept, one of Judah and his followers, the house of Israel; another for Joseph and his followers, the house of Israel; and that in the days of their children, meaning coming generations, he would bring these two records together, and he would make them one in his hand. I asked these ministers if they knew anything about that record, and they did not. ¶

I said, "Well, we know all about it," ¶

and then I showed them that that was the Book of Mormon the Lord promised. ¶

No man can believe the Bible without knowing there is a companion record that the Lord of heaven said he would bring forth and join it with the record of Judah, which is the Bible that has remained with us, and he would make them one in his hand. (Ezekiel 37:15-20.) You remember the words of Isaiah when he said: ¶

"Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. ¶

"Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel." (Isa. 29:1-2.) If you will read that thoughtfully, you will know that he not only saw the destruction of Jerusalem, but he saw the destruction of another great center like unto Jerusalem. Then he adds: ¶

"And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust." (Ibid., 29:4.) Nobody in this world could explain that intelligently or know what people Isaiah saw like unto Jerusalem without the Book of Mormon. Here is the explanation in the Book of Mormon. ¶

"After my seed and the seed of my brethren shall have dwindled in unbelief, and shall have been smitten by the Gentiles; yea, after the Lord God shall have camped against them round about, and shall have laid siege against them with a mount, and raised forts against them; and after they shall have been brought down low in the dust, even that they are not, yet the words of the righteous shall be written, and the prayers of the faithful shall be heard, and all those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not be forgotten. ¶

"For those who shall be destroyed shall speak unto them out of the ground, and their speech shall be low out of the dust, and their voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit; for the Lord God will give unto him power that he may whisper concerning them, even as it were out of the ground, and their speech shall whisper out of the dust. ¶

"For thus saith the Lord God: They shall write the things which shall be done among them, and they shall be written and sealed up in a book, and those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not have them, for they seek to destroy the things of God." (2 Nephi 26:15-17.) How could Joseph Smith have known these things when the Book of Mormon was published even before this Church was organized, except for the fact that the Book of Mormon is the promised record that God said he would bring forth and join to the record of Judah. ¶

How could anyone understand this prophecy of Isaiah without the explanation contained in the Book of Mormon. ¶

There are more prophecies of the scriptures that we could not understand without the revelations of the Lord that have come to us in the Book of Mormon. ¶

The Book of Mormon stands, after one hundred and thirty years, without any criticism as to its truth. Just think of a book of over five hundred pages being printed with a promise in it that when that book should come that if the person receiving it would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, that God would manifest the truth of it unto him by the power of the Holy Ghost. (Moroni 10:4.) Thousands and hundreds of thousands have borne testimony that God has revealed the truth of that book to them, and so it has been a tangible evidence that this messenger sent of God really came with a message from God. ¶

When I was in the mission field, I read an article that appeared under the Associated Press of a man who came to California by the name of William A. ¶

Kennedy from Lima, Peru. He was gathering money to set up an institute or college there to study the history of the early inhabitants of the land of South America, including the Mayan and the Inca civilizations, and he had the promise when matched by the small Americas of some thirty million dollars, and President Hoover had agreed to serve on that board. I never heard of what became of it, but the statement went further to say that within ten years that amount would increase to seventy million dollars. ¶

Just think of their being willing to spend seventy million dollars to learn something of the history of the early inhabitants of America, when we could give them a copy of the Book of Mormon for fifty cents, and if they did not have the fifty cents, we would give it to them for nothing, because it would not only tell about the artifacts they are finding as they dig into the depths of the earth, but it contains the words of the holy prophets and the promise of the Lord to this land, which is a land choice above all other lands, the promise that the Christ should be the God of this land, that he would fight the battles of this land, that the New Jerusalem would be built upon this land, and they will not get that when they will have spent their seventy million dollars. ¶

Just think of what the Lord has given us in this record to show us the things that he has in mind to accomplish. We have many other testimonies of men as to the value of the Book of Mormon. ¶

I bear you my witness that I know that book is true. Sister Richards and I read it last year as the priesthood were asked to do, and we would keep saying as we would read, "Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? How could Joseph Smith at his age have written anything like that except by the inspiration of the Almighty?" ¶

It reminded us of when we attended a course given by Dr. Widtsoe here some time ago in the Barratt Hall on the Doctrine and Covenants. He had Sister Inez Witbeck read. He would say, "Now read section so-and-so," and then he would pause and say, "Now, you college professors and you college students, could you write anything like that?" He would say, "I wish I could," ¶

and there he had been president of two universities, but the things of God are understood by the Spirit of God, and the testimony of those three witnesses that an angel of God came down from heaven and showed them the plates with the engravings thereon, and bore testimony that it was by the power of God, is a testimony to all the world. ¶

That is my testimony to you here today, and I pray God to bless us all that we may realize what we have by the opening of the heavens and the restoration of the gospel, and leave you my blessing in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶