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I am very thankful to our Heavenly Father that I have the privilege of attending this conference and of rejoicing with my brethren that we are seventy years of age. I was very much impressed in listening to the instructions that have been given, how everything tends to establish the Scriptures. The 37th Psalm says:
"Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity:
"For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb.
"Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
"Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
"Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass:
"And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday."
From the testimonies that we have heard, this seems to be the history of the Latter-day Saints. They are the most valiant and courageous people on the face of the earth, because they "Trust in the Lord and do good." It required a great deal of moral courage to accept this Gospel, to come out of the world, and take up the cross of Christ, and to advocate a doctrine that was everywhere spoken against. But it has established in us an everlasting character. We know no fear. Our trust is in the Lord; and the exhortation to us, Learn the will of God and do it, brings forth and establishes within us a character. We are always willing to do the will of God. We cams into the Church for that express purpose. We found that it would be impossible for us to be delivered from death, hell and the grave, unless we accepted of the doctrine of Christ as taught by the inspired servants of God; and being on the unpopular side, we had to defend ourselves.
We tested the principles of everlasting life, and we have discovered they are true. God has given unto us line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, and we are growing in grace and in the knowledge of God. He has told us over and over again that if we will love him and keep his commandments we shall prosper in the land. The Scriptures are true. The Holy Spirit has come unto the sons and daughters of God in the day and age in which we live.
We all realize that we have our individual mission; that when we seek unto the Lord and ask His guidance, He guides and directs us. He gives us the opportunity of being everything that we could wish to be, in fulfilling the mission He has appointed us, to His honor and glory. There is no need of our ever being deceived or being beguiled by the influence of the adversary--who of course is adverse to God's will being done--if we will we will only observe the will of the Lord and do it. We have a Father in heaven who loves us, and who has given unto us the privilege of dwelling upon the earth in the dispensation of the fulness of times.
We encourage the rising generation to trust in the Lord and individually seek His counsel. The Lord does not require a blind obedience, but an intelligent obedience, and the Savior has exhorted us to ask and it shall be given us, to seek and we shall find, to knock and it shall be opened unto us. On one occasion he gave us the parable of the unjust judge, and told us to pray without ceasing, to put our trust in the Lord, and He would give us everything necessary.
The Church of Christ has a bad reputation. It always did have. "We desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest; for as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against," was said of old. It is a trick of the adversary that we should be evilly spoken of, and it is his disciples, who despise the commandment "thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," who have given us our bad reputation. But that matters very little.
We know we are of God, and that the world lieth in the arms of the wicked one. We know that the principles of everlasting life, which we have subscribed to, are true, and it is to our best interest individually to accomplish that which the Father has given us to do. If those who fight against us, who despise us and who will not fellowship us would search for themselves individually as we have done, they would see as we see and have the same comprehension of the principles of everlasting life, because they would have the same spirit even the gift of the Holy Ghost, without which no man knoweth the things of God.
I have no faith in the wisdom of man, nor in doctors of divinity. They have made a mistake from the beginning. The history of the world tells us that mankind always accepted false prophets and slew and rejected those who were sent of God with the glad tidings of great joy. In the days of Noah, but eight persons out of the whole world accepted the Gospel of the Son of God, and were saved, while the others, under the dominion of the prince and power of the air, rejected light and truth and made their bed where we would not like to go.
I say to you, my brethren and sisters, seek the counsel of the Almighty in your individuality, and when the Lord reveals to you what your mission is, fulfill it to the glory of God, no matter who else is pleased or displeased. The whole duty of man is to serve God and keep His commandments, and woe unto us if we do not do it. We have been slothful; we have been indifferent; we have robbed the Lord in tithes and offerings; we have been self-sufficient and have despised the counsels of the Almighty, and He has called upon us to repent, to reform, and to consecrate unto Him that which is His due, according to His commandment, which is, that of everything He shall give to us, we will consecrate to Him one-tenth, and our ears shall be open to the cry of the widow and the fatherless, and we shall visit them in their distress.
The Lord has also commanded us to get out of debt, so that we may owe no man anything and be independent and keep the law of God. Unless we do so He cannot establish His statutes upon the land. I want to bear my testimony to the truth of these principles. I know they are true. I know that God lives; I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet sent of God. All mankind can obtain this testimony, if they will seek for it. There was a time when I did not know it. I sought the Lord for it, and he gave it to me, to my perfect satisfaction.
My exhortation to the people all the time is, for goodness sake be kind to yourselves; hear the word of the Lord and do it; stand in the dignity of your manhood and resist the influence of the world. Woe unto us if we are overcome of the world; woe unto us if we are excommunicated from the Church. We have a long list of men who should pay tithing and do not. I am sorry for them. I wish they had sense enough to be kinder to themselves, for they are laboring under a curse who rob God in tithes and offerings. They have no right to partake of the Sacrament, being unworthy. Every time they do it they eat and drink damnation; for they tell the Lord that they are willing to take upon them the name of Christ and to keep His commandments, yet they do not do it.
Hypocrites! Hypocrites! A great deal better if they should wake up to an understanding of the dangerous position they occupy. If the Bishops are kind and considerate to bear with them, to plead with them and to dig all around them. and they reject it, when they pass behind the veil their record is made, the day has gone, the night has come, and their souls are not saved. Then comes the agony; but we have made it ourselves.
We work out our salvation, or we work out our damnation. It is our own act. I know these principles are true; they are common sense. There is no blessing, no eternal life promised to those who despise God and His commandments. and who prefer darkness to light. It is a condemnation to reject light and truth; and when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come in flaming fire, to take vengeance upon them who know not God and keep not His commandments, those who love darkness rather than light will be punished with everlasting banishment from the presence of God and the Lamb.
I rejoice very much in the instructions that have been given today. I am in harmony with every revealed principle. I say that the Latter-day Saints are the noblest people upon the face of the earth; and instead of governments striving to stay their progress, they should do everything to enable them to progress in light and truth, and to develop principles and conditions which they know nothing at all about. We know what we are doing, and we understand the science of life. We understand where we came from, what we are here for and what is our future destiny, because we are taught of God. We are in harmony with eternal principles.
Our Elders go forth preaching the Gospel of the Son of God. They take their lives in their hands, leaving their families behind, and proclaim this glad message of great joy and that God has again spoken. They call the people to repentance, and warn them of judgments to come. We are told that judgment will commence at the house of God. It will fall upon this very class of people who despise God, and reject His commandments. We take our little children to our Sabbath schools. our primaries, our Mutual Improvement associations and quorums of Priesthood, for the express purpose of training them that they may grow up without sin unto salvation. The Lord wants to establish His righteousness. That is what He has hired us for, and we should love truth and righteousness, and have our ears open to hear, our eyes to see and our hearts to understand, that we may be for God and His righteousness.
Did you ever know this people so unpatriotic as to be petitioning the government against any handful of people? No patriot was ever guilty of anything of the kind. A patriot is a man who sustains the Constitution of the United States and believes in religious liberty. There are hypocrites among professed patriots, as well as other classes of people. I say God bless the patriots. God bless our government, and give them wisdom, strength of character and moral courage to stand by the principles of the Constitution, and not be cowards. I would plead for this with all my heart. For of all people in the world, we are interested in having a righteous government. We know how to appreciate liberty and freedom, and we never interfere with other people's doctrines or belief. We have enough to do to teach our own. We have the truth. the way and the life and we have no time to find fault with others. It takes us all our time to publish the glad tidings of great joy.
I pray God my eternal Father that He will establish the kingdom of God upon the earth in power; that the kingdom of heaven may come; that His will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven, and that we who have taken upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ may be true and faithful to our covenants, and that we may have the grace of God to overcome and endure unto the end, in His glorious kingdom, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
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