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My beloved brethren and sisters, the desire that shall prompt my remarks this morning to this congregation will be to say something by way of testimony to the divinity of the mission of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. to the divinity of the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and in support of the established and recognized authority of God our Eternal Father upon the earth. I feel a natural spirit of timidity in standing before this vast congregation, but I have an unshaken confidence in God, and I know that by His help and the aid and the sympathy and prayers of my brethren and sisters, I may be able to say something that will be of benefit to the Latter-day Saints who have gathered here in this conference for the purpose of being fed with the bread of everlasting life. I desire to read to you a few verses from the 39th Section of the book of Doc trine and Covenants. They are the words of our Lord and Master:
"Hearken and listen to the voice of Him who is from all eternity to all eternity, the Great I Am, even Jesus Christ.
"The light and the life of the world; a light which shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not:
"The same which came in the meridian of time unto my own, and my own received me not!
"But to as many as received me, gave I power to become my sons and even so will I give unto as many as will receive me, power to become my sons.
"And verily, verily, I say unto you, he that receiveth my Gospel, receiveth me; and he that receiveth not my gospel receiveth not me.
"And this is my gospel: repentance and baptism by water, and then cometh the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, even the Comforter, which showeth all things, and teacheth the peaceable things of the kingdom."
This is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; and it is perhaps scarcely proper to say that in Zion there are only 1,300 or 1,500 missionaries, for there are ever 50,000 men in this Church who bear the Priesthood of the Son of God, and there are over 300,000 souls in this Church that have their names upon the records of the Church; and inasmuch as we have received light concerning the value of the souls of men, every one of those who have a standing in the Church of Christ ought to have a testimony regarding the divinity of this work in which we are engaged, and be a witness for the Church and for Jesus Christ.
So, instead of there being 1,300 or 1,800 missionaries, we all should be missionaries for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; and indeed no one who bears a portion of the Priesthood of the Son of God ought to be satisfied with his life's work unless he has been an instrument in the hands of God of bringing some other soul to a knowledge of the truth. We are told in this same book of D&C that this is a day of warning, and not of many words, when every man who receiveth the light and truth should Warn his neighbor.
The trouble is, we do not do this. We feel that unless we are specially called to labor in one of the missionary fields we have not the right to make known our testimony of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a mistake. Everyone who has received a testimony that this work is of God is at perfect liberty to bear that testimony to his or her neighbors; and indeed, I feel that we will come under some degree of condemnation before God if we fail to do this. If we have received the pearl of great price, let us not hug it to ourselves and say that we do not want others to receive it, for fear it would diminish our joy and satisfaction to see them enjoying a like blessing. This is not the spirit of the Gospel. Every member of the Church of Christ, whether male or female, ought to be continually anxious that a knowledge of the Gospel shall be spread to every creature upon the earth.
We are as a light set upon a hill a beacon to the world; and we ought not to hide this light, but strive to let it so shine that people seeing our good works may be led to glorify God. This is the desire that should prompt us in our lives. We would then seek after eternal riches, even the bringing about of the salvation of the souls of men, more than we do other things.
I want to read you a few verses from the 64th Section of the book of Doctrine and Covenants:
"Wherefore I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another, for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses, standeth condemned before the Lord, for there remaineth in him the greater sin.
"I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men;
"And ye ought to say in your heart, let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds."
I do not desire, by reading this, to offer any plea of justification for wrong-doing; for the Lord has said that He cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, neither will the Gospel of Jesus countenance sin. At the same time our mission is to save the souls of men; and where the authority of the Holy Priesthood is conferred upon men, and it has a, right effect upon them, it will make them more humble and more childlike. It will not puff them up and make them great in their own estimation. The greater the authority or calling that is placed upon men, the more humble they should be, and the greater in their own estimation.
The greater desire they ought to have to save mankind. The whole need not a physician, but those who are sick. Those who are spiritually sick are the ones that need the aid of the servants and handmaidens of God. Those who know that Jesus is the Christ, those who know that Joseph Smith was sent of God, those who have implicit confidence in the leadership of this Church today, need no particular laboring with. They will labor for the benefit of others, to bring about much righteousness, although they may not be especially commanded to do so. But we want to look after some of those who have not this faith and this testimony.
Many of the men who were the pioneers of this work, and who aided in laying its foundation, I am sorry to say that some of their sons and daughters have drifted away from the Church of Christ. People may say that these men devoted so much of their time to the Church that they neglected their families. Be that as it may, these men were good men. They enjoyed the spirit of the callings whereunto God had called them; and if on account of their devotion to the work of the Lord some of their sons and daughters are not doing as they ought to do today, there should be a spirit of charity and of love manifest on the part of stake and ward officials toward them, to try and bring them back, and not to cast them off.
I believe as I believe that I stand here, that in the resurrection of the dead, there will be some stake and ward officials come under sore condemnation before men that have stood as leaders in this work, because their sons and daughters have not been sought after and labored with as much as they ought to have been--where this spirit of forgiveness has not been exhibited. No matter what authority a man may hold in this Church, it does not exalt him to that degree that he Is justified in not forgiving the repentant and those who desire to do better, and who will come and supplicate for forgiveness. Men who have taken this stand will come under the condemnation spoken of in the verses I have read, and in them will remain the greater sin.
Thank God, there are not many unforgiving men in this Church; but occasionally we have found men who have been unforgiving to those who have sinned and then repented and sought forgiveness. Where do you suppose we would be if God should deal with us in this way. It is not right. I tell you that the stake or ward official who will take this stand will receive sore reprimanding at the hands of the fathers of these sons and daughters that have thus been dealt with, when they meet them in the resurrection. An unforgiving spirit is by no means an evidence of strong character; it is quite the reverse. A man of strong character, who understands the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, would ask his own little child to forgive him, if he had wronged that little one; and he would not feel, even if he had received some great calling in the Priesthood, that it was beneath his dignity to go to the one he had wronged and make it right. As a result of this spirit of unforgiveness, which has been exhibited in the past in some of the stakes of Zion, though, I am happy to say, to a very small degree, we occasionally find men who are not doing anything in the Church. because they have some grievance against the president of the stake or the Bishop. Can not the man who is called to be the shepherd of that flock afford to go a little more than half way in order to save some member of his flock? Can he not afford to go to the one who feels offended at his action, although he may not be in the wrong, and say, "Brother, I want to straighten this matter out with you?"
But why is it that some of our brethren, instead of doing this, will feel like beating them over the head and keeping them down; and if they manifest any desire to do right again and to take an active part in the Church, instead of holding their arms out, as Christ would, to welcome them back to the fold as they should do, they continue to drive them forth and to cast them out, and to keep them down, so that they never have any chance to do better, unless they move out of the confines of that stake or ward.
My brethren and sisters, in these things all that is required of any man who presides over a stake or ward is to follow the example of the men who stand at the head of this Church. The Presidency of the Church will never require anything of the Presidents of Stakes that they would be unwilling to do themselves. They are anxious for the salvation of the souls of men, and that none should be cast out; that those who are weak and sore in their spirits should be healed and brought back, if possible, into full fellowship with the Church of Christ.
We do not want to lose any of those that are committed to our care. If God will help us, we do not intend to do it. If He has made us the shepherd, the watchman upon the tower of a Stake; if He has made us the shepherd of a ward, or the watchman upon its towers, let us guard that flock well, and strive with all the power that God has given us to save all those who have been committed to our care. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and give the time and the lives of our Elders to spread the Gospel abroad, and why should we not be just as anxious to save those at home who have drifted away or have become cold in the Gospel? Why should we not be just as anxious to bring them back to the fold and awaken the spirit of God within them, as we would be to go to Japan or other parts of the earth to make the Gospel message known there? One is quite as important as the other; and I am sure that a president of a Stake, a Bishop of a ward, or any other man holding a responsible position in the Church will not feel happy in the resurrection if a son or a daughter of one of the prominent men of this Church, or of any other man, comes up and says, "Brother, I did wrong when I was in the flesh. I went to you, as my Stake President (or as my Bishop) and I asked you to forgive me, and you would not." I feel that that man will occupy a most unenviable position, and will have sorrow until that son or daughter is saved and enjoys that degree of glory that he or she would have enjoyed, had he done his part to help the erring one along life's pathway.
I rejoice exceedingly in the spread of the work of God. I rejoice that wherever the Gospel tree has been planted it has not been uprooted, although our people have had much to contend with, and have had to perform a work that could not have been performed by any other people upon the face of this earth. Read the words of Isaiah as contained in the 8th chapter of II Nephi, as follows:
"Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness: Look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence ye are digged.
"Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah, she that bear you: for I called him alone and blessed him.
"For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody."
Are we not, as a whole people, witnesses unto God our Eternal Father and all men this day that this prophecy has been fulfilled under our eyes? It is peculiar that, although this is the chosen people of God, they have been called to settle the desert and barren spots of this earth? It is peculiar in one sense, and yet it is quite natural in another, when we take into consideration that through the conversion of the desert wastes into gardens and thus fulfilling the prophecies, the Lord has had a chance to prove His people, to develop a superior type of manhood and womanhood, and to bring out the best qualities of their natures.
I rejoice in the work our people are performing. I rejoice that the Lord has aided and befriended us, and that He has raised up many friends from those who are not of our faith to assist us in getting our rights and to aid us in establishing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus in various parts of the world. I rejoice in the faith that the people have manifested in converting these waste places, in their colonization work, and in the effect that this labor has had upon them.
If they had never accomplished anything by way of making homes, they have benefitted themselves and been rewarded for their labors in the spiritual advancement that they have made while engaged in such work, by the development of faith and seeing the promises of God fulfilled upon their heads. And we are not through with this work yet. Calls are made from time to time for our people to go to this or that place, and the only trouble is, we have not colonists enough to meet the demand. I shall welcome the day when the gathering, without which the Gospel is not complete, shall be more thoroughly carried into effect than it has been during the past few years.
It has been rather discouraging on account of the lack of labor and the conditions which have surrounded us, and I shall rejoice when these barriers are removed and the gate shall again be open; when the people of the Stakes of Zion shall exhibit that liberal spirit which was exhibited by the people in the early days here, in taking in the newcomer and assisting to get him employment, so that he might establish himself in Zion. We do not have as much sympathy for the people who accept the Gospel abroad as we ought to have, for the reason, I think sometimes, that we forget their situation. We forget that if they remain where they are, although they may be able to do much good in assisting the Elders and in spreading the Gospel, their children will naturally intermarry with those not of our faith, and therefore they will not have the joy or the satisfaction which the Gospel in its fulness carries with it where the people are gathered and enjoy the blessings of Church organization.
I would ask the Stake presidents to encourage a spirit on the part of the people to be willing to say to the Presidency of the Church, "If you will send us ten families (or twenty or thirty, as the case may be) into this Stake, we will see to it that they are aided in making homes, so that they may establish themselves in the borders of Zion." I believe that great good could be accomplished in this regard by the Stake presidents and Bishops getting together to exchange ideas in relation to this matter, so that there may be a more thorough looking after the new converts who come into the Stakes of Zion, that they may not feel friendless and that there is no one to receive or welcome them, but that someone may look after them and nurse them until they are able to go alone. If this is done, how grateful they will be to us in after years. It may take some of our property, it may mean some sacrifice on our part to do it, but how they will bless us when they themselves have good homes in Zion, with their sons and daughters around them, married in the Church of Christ and having a numerous posterity.
This is an individual work that we are engaged in. It is not the Work of any one man, or any quorum of men; the responsibility rests upon the shoulders of any individual in the Church, and it becomes us all to feel an interest in these things. If we will do this, the Lord will bless us, and He will make us happier. We must not simply strive after dollars and cents; but let us do some good to others and we go along, by assisting them to enjoy the comforts and blessings which we enjoy.
I rejoice exceedingly in this conference. I thank God that He has permitted our Brother Grant to return home and visit with us. His mission has been a success. If he never accomplishes any more, he has gone and turned the key in the Gospel door to the nation of Japan, and the Gospel has been established there; at least, the seed has been sown, and has partially taken root. This will bring Joy and satisfaction to the many Latter-day Saints who have upheld and sustained him by their faith and prayers, just as we uphold and sustained Apostle Lyman in his presidency over the European mission. Every Latter-day Saint feels a personal interest in the labors of these brethren and their associates in the mission field, as well as in every other mission president and every Elder who is laboring for the spread of truth upon the face of the earth.
I rejoice in the advancement of the work of God, in the numerical strength that we have gained, and in the prosperity which God has sent to us in answer to the prayers of the people and in fulfilment of His promises if they would obey His law. I rejoice in a testimony of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; that I have a knowledge that this is God's work, and not the work of man; that I have a knowledge that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of the true and living God, and that Joseph F. Smith and his counselors are the men that God has called to preside over this Church at this time, and that they hold every key, every gift and authority which was conferred upon the Prophet Joseph Smith; that this people have come to the vales of Israel in fulfillment of the prophecies which were made by the Prophet Joseph, and have established villages, towns and cities throughout this intermountain region, and that the work will roll forth until it fills the whole earth. God grant that we may be faithful, in connection with our brethren and sisters, in this great latter day work, that our hearts may be filled with sympathy, and that our education in this life may not be wholly of the head, but of the heart also; which may God grant, for Christ's sake. Amen.
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