A General Conference Address
Delivered by
Elder Anthony W. Ivins of the Twelve
October 1913

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

I have been thinking of these words of the Savior, my brethren and sisters, since the beginning of this conference, and applying them to the establishment and development of the Church. More than eighty-three years have elapsed since the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established. At its organization, on the 6th of April, 1830, there were but six persons present who were recognized as members of the Church, and who participated in the business which was transacted. Now, after the lapse of these years, hundreds of thousands of people profess membership in the Church. Many thousands of those people are here in this city, and are participating in the exercises of this conference. At the time of its establishment, men who were not familiar with the forces which were at work in its development, and which had brought it into existence, unbelievers, might with a degree of consistency have thought, or said, that it was just another movement in which a new religious denomination was being established by a man who had discovered errors in existing religious organizations, or that it was the work of a simple enthusiast who believed that the Lord had called him to establish a new church, or that it was the deliberate plan of an imposter who sought to take advantage of the wave of religious reform which was sweeping over the country to the accomplishment of his own selfish purposes. In either event it might have been thought, as was often said, that if left alone it, like many such movements which had preceded it would come to naught. It is not unusual that, in their inception, the success of many great movements which have resulted in inestimable benefit to mankind has been doubted. It is not at all unusual that movements which have been inaugurated with every prospect of success have proven to be failures.

So it is only after experience has given evidence by which we may reach conclusions that we may intelligently determine results.

Men who have addressed us at this conference have borne strong testimony to the divinity of this work and to its ultimate triumph. That testimony, if unsupported by evidence, our faith, even devotion to that which we may believe, if we are professed Christians, must be supported by the word of the Lord. I am a believer in these words of the Savior which I have read, as I am in all of His words; and if He spoke the truth then we and the religious world must be in harmony with the law and the prophets, for if they are to be fulfilled not one jot or tittle is to pass. Then if we profess faith in Christ and claim, as we do, that He is the author of the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we ought to be able to show that in its development as well as in its establishment, it is in harmony with the law and with the prophets, for by this measure sometime all religious denominations will have to be judged.

Then I have thought as I have looked into the faces of these magnificent congregations of Latter-day Saints, which have assembled here, that if the words of the prophets are true, Christ Himself, being the greatest of them all, we know, we have this assurance, that at sometime subsequent to the period in which He ministered in the flesh. His gospel must come back to earth and be established again among men. He taught this to His disciples from the beginning, that He must leave them, that He must suffer for the sins of the world, but just as He testified of His glorious resurrection from the dead, so He told them that the time would come when His gospel would again be preached upon earth for the redemption of his covenant people. Regarded in a general sense, that would be a little indefinite, and so they asked Him what should be the sign of His coming and of the end of the world. He warned them that they be not deceived, that many should come in His name and deceive many, that false prophets would arise and false Christs would arise, and that if possible their sophistry would be such that it would deceive the very elect; but, this He gave them as a guide, wherever the body is there will the eagles be gathered together, or in other words, wherever My gospel is preached, wherever the Church of Christ shall exist, there will the fruits of the Gospel be manifest among the people. That restoration was to be in the latter days. It was to be in a time when kingdoms would be divided, one against the other; it was to be in a time when there would be religious confusion, when one would cry lo here and another lo there, a time when there would be war in the land and contention and earthquakes, and when the sea would heave itself beyond its bounds, and the people of the world be in confusion.

Now that is not all that was associated with this idea of the restoration of the Gospel. He told us just how it should come, not handed down continuously from the time of the apostles to be preached to the inhabitants of the earth, but to come through the ministry of an angel, which John saw in that glorious vision that was given him of the Savior, while upon the isle of Patmos, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwelt upon the earth, calling men to repentance with a loud voice, warning them that the judgments of the Almighty were at hand. And that was not all, it was to be at a period of restitution, the restitution of all things spoken by the mouths of the holy prophets, these prophets to which I have referred, the priesthood, the ordinances of the Church, the hearts of the fathers were to be turned to the children, and vigorous work for the dead established, inaugurated in the day of the establishment of God's Church. It was to be a dispensation of gathering, not only restoration so far as the doctrines of the Gospel were concerned, but a time when scattered Israel should be gathered, for the prophets had said to them that though they be scattered to the uttermost parts of heaven, yet the Father said "will I gather you from thence and bring you back to the lands of your inheritance, and will fulfil the promises that I have made to your fathers." So we may expect not only a restoration of the Gospel but a restitution of the ordinances of the Church and a gathering together of the Lord's people.

And more than that, He made clear the condition under which that gathering should take place, that He would send out His messengers unto the world, and they should hunt them out from among the nations, they should bring one of a city and two of a family, and they would come out to some place that they called Zion with songs of everlasting praise. We are not left in doubt either so far as that place is concerned. It was to be in the mountains. Do you not remember that Isaiah said in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord should be established, and that it should be established too in the tops of the mountains, and that all nations should flow unto it, that many people should come and say "Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord's house, to the house of the God of Jacob, that we may be taught His ways and learn to walk in His paths." It was not a fruitful land but a desert land, if the prophets are to be fulfilled; for this same man told us that the wilderness should be made glad because of them at the time of this gathering together, and it shall rejoice abundantly and blossom as the rose; that in the desert streams of water should break forth and pools in the desert places.

Now, my brethren and sisters, I cannot take time to continue quotations of this character which indicate to me and which I love to study and to contemplate, and which have been outlined by prophets of God which have lived before us, and refer to the dispensation in which we live. Read the scripture, study it, and you will find that I have only mentioned a few of that great multitude of details which must be brought harmoniously together wherever the work of the Lord is to be accomplished. Then I have looked back over these eighty-three years and asked myself the question, does the history and development of the Church fit in to these prophesies? Are they being fulfilled? Have they been? The testimony of the spirit comes to me that in every detail from the organization of the Church until this year of grace, 1913, gradually but surely the Church of Christ has justified the declaration which we make to the world that it was divinely established and that it is established for the redemption of His covenant people. The Gospel came just as the Lord said that it should come. Joseph Smith did not assume, as other men had assumed, to establish a new church, another sectarian Christian denomination until God had authorized him to do it. He understood full well that he could not give that which he himself did not possess. Notwithstanding the fact that in that glorious vision the Father and Son had manifested to him, notwithstanding the fact that he had there been told that there was a great work for him to perform, notwithstanding the fact that Moroni had visited him and talked with him and instructed him, and entrusted to him the plates from which this Book of Mormon was translated, which he did, for those things are true and certain as any truth of heaven, but yet he made no effort, he took no steps looking to the establishment of a church, but as he read there he found, as he undoubtedly had observed before, that baptism was essential to the salvation of man. Christ had said that a man could not enter into the kingdom of heaven except he were baptized, born of water and of the Spirit, and as he translated from those plates he found that doctrine reiterated there, and in the humility of his soul, just as he had done before, he went to the Lord. I have never thought that be anticipated that which was to occur. He believed that his prayer would be heard and answered, but he himself and Oliver Cowdery who was with him, declared that the human mind cannot conceive the joy that entered into their souls when John the Baptist, descending in a cloud of light, came from heaven, laying his hands upon their heads, ordained them to the Aaronic Priesthood and conferred upon them the keys of that priesthood which holds the right of the preaching of the Gospel of repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.

Then this gospel dispensation was opened; then they had authority to confer upon others that which the Lord through His servant had conferred upon them, to preach the Gospel, to administer in the ordinances of the Church which belong to that lesser order of the priesthood. Then came the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood; then came the keys of the turning of the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers, and which authorizes the work which is being done in these temples of the Lord. Then came authority to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, and to gather up the outcasts of Israel, bring them here to the tops of these mountains that they might be taught the word of the Lord and learn to walk in His paths, this desert land which has been made to blossom, this desert land where pools of water now stand, streams have broken forth, where the voices of music and children are heard upon the streets, in a country which was once a barren waste, this land which is full of gold and silver, just as the prophets said that the land of gathering should be.

So, my brethren and sisters, I thank God that from the very beginning we have been in harmony with the law and with the prophets, that they are being fulfilled. I testify to you of it. I know that Joseph Smith was no imposter. I know that he, assumed to do nothing except that which he was authorized to do of the Lord. I know that the men who have succeeded him have followed in his footsteps, every one of them, and that today in the Church its strength is greater and its influence for good is greater than it has ever been before in its history, and that nothing under heaven except transgression by the people themselves can stay the progress and development of this work of the Lord, because the law and the prophets are to be fulfilled as Christ declared, and if they are to be fulfilled you may look in all the world in vain to find a people who are fulfilling them away from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

My brethren and sisters, become familiar with the prophets, become familiar with the scripture, understand, so far as it is possible, and it is possible to understand because God will help us if we desire, the importance of this great work in which we are engaged, and that there are yet many of those sacred and precious promises and prophecies in future. This is Christ's Church, it is entrusted to us, we are His shepherds, we are developing it, establishing it, gathering in His covenant and scattered people, to the end that He may come to the Church, which He will do, because that is another one of the prophecies, that He will come in the clouds of heaven to us to vindicate our work and bear witness to the world of the everlasting truths of the doctrines which we preach and the work which we have accomplished.

The Lord help us to keep the faith, that we may be prepared for His glorious kingdom and coming, when it shall be established in fullness, in power and dominion upon the earth, I pray, through Jesus Christ. Amen.