like a family reunion. See a lot of people you haven't seen before. When I saw these Canadian friends here, it kind of reminded me of the Canadian fight I saw yesterday. Only this is better. Me and French Canadians were down in Utah visiting, and I'll tell you, they were a sight. I didn't think there was anybody that could top a Yankee, but they came awful close. Certainly a privilege, my dear friends, and I'm sure you appreciate it too.

to have this opportunity of meeting together choice and sacred opportunity many things to be learned and taught pertaining to the gospel and i hope the day is coming on when we'll be able to leave these things that we've been laboring with for many years and go on to some of the more comprehensive and beautiful principles of the gospel ask elder bigley to open the meeting Dear Righteous and Eternal Father in Heaven, we come before you in humility this day, meeting. We're grateful for this lovely day. We're grateful for the opportunity to meet together with our friends and loved ones and our families. We're grateful for the priesthood, Father. We pray that you will bless them, bless each and every one of us, that we will appreciate them and each other.

We pray, Father, this day that we will have a unified prayer in our heart for those who speak, that we might learn of thee and thy ways and hear the outpouring of the Spirit of Almighty God here today. Now, Father, we dedicate this meeting into your hands and pray for your Spirit to be here in a rich abundance. We are grateful for all that we have and ask you to have patience with us.

in our shortcomings until we can do better ask all of this thanking you for everything we have and we do again dedicate this meeting in your care and we do it humbly in the name of jesus christ amen brenton from canada coming i come to you with mixed emotions something that i didn't intend to start this meeting off by any sense of the words but i do say that i am happy to be here and exceedingly happy to shake the hands of my brethren. I see several friends here that I hadn't even anticipated seeing, some from further up in Canada than I am. That makes them very Canadian, I guess. However, my brethren and sisters, it is good to be here and anticipate the spirit that you have and to feel.

along with you of the good things of the gospel. I pray that the Lord will instruct my mind that I might say something worthwhile and worthy of being called to stand here and occupy this time. And I pray for your faith and prayers to assist me in that regard. The thing that has been up the most in my mind is probably today and has been for a long time that I should maybe mention is something that we spoke about for a few moments after lunch which is a very pertinent thing to me and that is one lady mentioned the fact that we too often say that I do not want my children to go through those things which I have passed through and that has been important subject to me for a long time, because I have felt keenly the thanksgiving in my soul for the things that I have been blessed to go through, which I hope will assist me to become a worthy Latter-day Saint. And I don't feel that we should take the responsibility on

to ourselves individually, to see that the Lord doesn't assist our children to all of the experiences that they can accumulate. You know, we're all in a school, one way or another, and there's a proving time. You find that all of our leaders have a period of time while they're in school, training them to become the leaders.

And I mean these brethren who are supporting me here at this moment. There isn't one of them that would trade one experience that they have to get away from some hardship that you might anticipate that they acquire. All through the sermons of President Young, in the early days, he spoke out as having never had a hardship by reason of the gospel.

spoke of them as an exceeding blessing. Now, my brethren and sisters, I think it's wise that I take leave from this station and let you hear from someone else. But I do offer you my testimony that I do believe in the work of the kingdom of God and in the fullness of the gospel as these men teach us wholeheartedly.

probably more than we are sometimes ready to receive. That's not their fault. And I would once again voice the thing that rings in my memory quite strong from President Heber C. Kimball, and that is that the only way that our brethren can advance faster is for us to come along faster. And if we do not come along, then it is important that we either stand aside or break the connection and let them go on ahead faster. And I leave this testimony with you humbly in the name of Christ. Amen. We're happy to see our visiting friends with us, say that they'll have a good time while they're here. I feel impressed today to tend to balance the time over to the council, fullest extent. I want each of you who are visiting here to feel that we will honor you through Brother Quentin's remarks. We'll call Elder Richard S. Jessup to speak to us. My dear brethren and sisters, it's quite an inspiration to look at this gathering. I wish each of you could see what I can see. I pray that what time I occupy this position in grace of God will be sufficient that our time will not be wasted.

There have been many impressions made on my mind this Sabbath day, and if it pleased the good Lord, I would like to remind some of you folks of some of these things. We live in a very important day and hour. As time draws to a close in this dear old Mother Earth of ours, time in this probation, we observe that the fight between right and wrong seems gradually to be intensifying. I don't know how many of you people have observed this fact particularly, but I'm quite sure that a good many have. We took a valiant part, those of us who are here today, in a struggle that occurred in another sphere before we ever came here, and we were not half-hearted about it. We were convinced that the position that we took was a correct one.

and that we had a mighty powerful opposition to contend with in the position that Lucifer took when he rebelled against the counsel and direction of our Father and God. And I'm continually impressed with the thought that in that encounter we had to be very much determined that the position that we took should stand because we knew it was correct and right.

And there were those in opposition whose inclinations were to, in a measure, sustain Lucifer in the position that he had taken, thinking that there was some virtue and some advantage and some right in his position. And by the power that was exerted through the authority of the holy priesthood, if you please, Satan was overcome and was cast out.

And knowing the plan as he did, he made haste to plant himself and his associates in this world in order to meet us as we came here. I say us, because most of us here were engaged in that encounter, many who have gone before and there are many yet to come. Having come here and forgotten all of the experiences of the past existence, we find ourselves in a way at a considerable disadvantage.

In our encounter with those same characters, those same individuals, if you please, with whom we engaged in a fierce struggle, an actual combat, a life and death struggle, in order to maintain a position that God our Father would sustain, that position that he had directed and championed. And those individuals have not forgotten, though we have.

Every individual who comes into mortal life comes forgetting the experiences of the past existence, and therefore they have not the advantage of a recollection of just who those characters are that he encounters in this bitter struggle in life, nor do they remember the incidents of that conflict. But we come here with a determination that we would continue on.

in the position that we had taken, and with a determination to see it through. There have been many who had taken that position before they came here, who have fallen by the wayside after they come, in the exercise of their agency, who have not felt inclined to stand true to the responsibilities that they bore and endure the opposition.

and the struggle and the strife and the contention and all that goes with it to maintain their integrity to the position that they had once taken. And the question that arises in my mind now with regard to myself, those who are entrusted to my direction in life, and to all of you, my brethren and sisters and friends with whom I have a delightful association, that question is, how near true are we standing?

to the responsibilities that we assumed in that encounter. And are we aware that those same characters with whom we struggled and against whom we fought and contended are still engaged in that fight and they are around about us, knowing us as well as we know one another, may be better. And they make their power and influence manifest through so many and such varied, circumstances in our lives that we often fail to detect that there's anything in action. The means that they can use to provoke us, to aggravate and annoy us, and to aggravate and annoy one another, and to provoke us into dilatory action and heedless resistance and non-resistance, we find ourselves yielding oftentimes to their power and influence.

And how we should remember and recall that since we come into this life in this condition and under these circumstances that we live under, where Satan rules, where he made haste to establish himself before we ever got here, and whose rule reaches over all of the population of this earth until there isn't a nation under heaven today. Very few have there ever been in this earth.

who are not under his dominion and under his power and influence. And unless we so conduct ourselves, so continue the fight, so sharpen our determination and our attacks against these adverse influences, the gates of hell will still prevail against us, and insomuch as that we find to be the case, Satan is a victor over us.

We don't have to necessarily commit a lot of crime and terrible sin. We can omit about everything that there is that we need to do, and Satan will conquer us by reason of that fact. So, brethren and sisters, we are facing a foe more deadly than the armies of the earth. Just as sure to vanquish and overcome those who are not valiant and true and firm and steadfast, and constant in their devotion, as are the armies of men sure to take over those who are asleep at the post. These things to me are very important and vital, my dear brothers and sisters. We live in a day and time when something is required of us besides just believing that the gospel is true. Something is required of us more than just taking for granted the things that we hear said without applying ourselves.

without acquiring a knowledge and understanding of the principle involved and incorporating those correct principles into our daily lives. So we have much to do. The whispering of the Spirit says to me that there are a good many in this congregation today who are valiant enough, who will be persistent enough, and are humble and contrite and devoted enough.

to seek after the wisdom of heaven and its guidance and direction, the revelations of the Spirit of God, that they will not fail. And how about the rest of us? How sure are we that we are measuring up today to the responsibilities that we bear? Let's take into consideration the fact, brothers and sisters, that yesterday is past and gone. We can't do anything about yesterday. Tomorrow never comes.

The present moment is ours to apply and to do with as we will. It's our duty and our responsibility to take advantage of the opportunities that we have. In the present time and circumstance in which we live and act, by a proper and correct use of the present moment all the time, certainly we can attain to those things that will bring to us an eternal and everlasting joy and satisfaction and victory.

in the end, over all the adversity that confronts us in our lives. I don't feel like I ought to occupy more of your time, my dear brothers and sisters, but I hope and pray that we can sharpen our intention, our determination, and our constant devotion to the principles of truth and righteousness.

as they are transmitted to us through the Spirit of Revelation by the servants of God. In this I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. President Jethro now, Jethro. This really is a sight, brothers and sisters. And I'm delighted to be with you and to partake of the sweet Spirit that is here. And I sincerely pray that the Spirit of God will direct my remarks for our mutual edification.

As I sat listening to the remarks of Brother Jessup, I felt, too, that there's much too great a tendency to, oh, shall I say, rest on our oars. I guess I'd better put it very plainly. There's a great tendency on the part of most for spiritual laziness. And I found that where that exists, there's physical laziness.

In many years past, many exhortations from the brethren regarding our attitude toward this work. It was a kingdom of God or nothing. I don't think we've graduated from that position. In fact, I think we need to graduate up to it. There is no halfway house in this business, brethren and sisters. It's all or nothing at all as far as I'm concerned.

We cannot compromise this position and be found useful in the hands of God in building up his kingdom. The Lord has called his servants to accomplish a labor. Under President Johnson today, there is a particular labor to be performed, and that is, to me, as I see it, a final preparation.

Brother Johnson has been most diligent in warning us and forewarning us to prepare for the great day of the Lord. The signs of the times are too apparent, and preparation is the crying need, and it's all-out preparation, not half-hearted or halfway house preparation. And it always boils down, as I see it, brethren and sisters, to the subject or the principle of faith. What is the nature of our faith? Faith is a relative principle according to our exertion. As other principles are, the Holy Spirit is obtained in degrees. It may have a rich outpouring on occasions, and it may have a very little according to our condition.

My brethren and sisters, we have not enough faith if we are dilatory, if we are spiritually lazy. Faith is the great crowning principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It runs through all of the others, including celestial marriage and the economic order of heaven. If we have not faith, none of these others.

will be of any effect or any good in our lives. According to how we exert our faith, whether we abide in the principle of celestial and plural marriage, or whether we abide in the United Order, or the spirit of the United Order, it is according to our faith that we abide in our sustaining support of the priesthood of God upon the earth. Show me your works by your faith.

Show me your faith by your works, I should say. What I'm trying to get at is that we become 100 percenters. All that we have and are should be centered in the work of the priesthood. We should forget and give up all of our former connections that are holding us in the church or in church-inclined institutions or cultures or anything else of its kind.

We're still inclined to want to go back to the flesh pots of Egypt. Wives still want to go back to the flesh pots of Egypt instead of getting 100% with their husbands. And brethren are still clinging on to church-type institutions or methods of organization, are hoping that the priesthood will organize us in church-type organizations. We have the priesthood of Almighty God in our midst.

brethren and sisters, to direct us, and we are most fortunate that we are able to have such close personal contact that we can go to President Johnson and get the counsel in the direction we need. I heard one of our brethren state that he is interested, or he can only give his confidence to those who are 100% behind President Johnson.

How can the Lord have confidence in us if we don't do that? How can husbands have confidence in their wives if they are not 100% with him? Can a man feel that he's got his wife with him if she is running back to the old flesh pot? If there's anything that is deterring her or him from 100% loyalty to legitimate authority that is placed over us, then it's about time we settled down and got the job done. What is it? It's faith. Faith is an exertion of the spirit. If it is weak, then we are lazy. If it is strong, then we are diligent and worthy servants and handmaidens in the hands of God. Our faith is centered in God. We know what his attributes are. We know who he is. President Johnson can call upon us and use us only in the degree.

that our faith is so perfect that we order our lives and assimilate our characters after the order of endless lives and that of God, our eternal Father. The Lord loves us, the brethren love us, but confidence is bestowed only where we find true, abiding, 100% faith. There are various degrees of that confidence bestowed according as we...

become like God in these attributes which we have had enumerated for us so many times. We have perfect faith in God because he has attained to perfection of these attributes of knowledge, faith, or power, justice, judgment, mercy, and truth. He is never changing. He is no respect to a person, and he is love.

Now as we become more perfect in these attributes, brethren and sisters, our brethren, our husbands, and the Lord will begin to bestow confidence in us, because that is the central theme of faith, these attributes of God. When we become perfect in them, then we have perfect confidence bestowed by God, and He knows at all times and under all conditions what we'll do.

And then our faith can increase by the power of God and getting the Spirit of God and keeping it at all times. Now we've all often asked, and I think it's well to repeat many times over, how to get the Spirit of God and keep it. Of course, basically it's by obedience, getting our loyalties straightened out, submitting ourselves to legitimate authority, and then going before the Lord.

Submit ourselves to him in all humility so that we can then have him begin to bestow confidence in us and give us his spirit. And as we grow in getting it more and more by greater and greater degrees, we will have the attributes of God. Because the attributes of God are the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit is the attributes of God. It seems to me it's so simple.

It's a process of getting and keeping more and more and more through our lives the Holy Spirit, which is the attributes of God, and then we will become like God as we incorporate it and ultimately receive a fullness of it. It's just that simple in my view, and it gets down again, as we've said so many times, to getting the Spirit of God. Then we will become like Him.

The Holy Spirit is the mind and the will of God. It centers in Him throughout all of His creation. It is disseminated through His servant. You cannot be at variance with the servant of God, with the president of priesthood, and have His Spirit. Heber C. Kimball said the thing that we've had repeated so many times, how do you expect to get the Spirit of God except through us?

speaking of Brigham and Heber and the brethren. And through all this, brethren and sisters, let us strive for the spirit of revelation, which is one of the gifts of the spirit. Let us know that we are led by revelation and get it for ourselves. Then we can add strength in our support to his servants when we know that we're led by revelation and they're led by revelation and all together then can move as one man.

in the hands of his servants. Let us get into the condition where we know that our course is pleasing to God, and this calls for great sacrifice. We cannot know that our course is pleasing to him unless we sacrifice all things of a worldly nature and come 100% in submission to his servants. Offer all that we have in sacrifice, and then the Lord will gather together his people who have made a covenant by sacrifice. May we be that people, brethren and sisters. Let us be more diligent in our efforts to build our faith, our confidence in the Lord, and through his servants become that nucleus that the Lord will use to bring to pass much righteousness and prepare for the coming of our Master. I humbly pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm calling Brother Timpson. I forgot my notes, brethren and sisters.

I'll ask you to combine your faith with mine that we might continue profitably in the spirit of the Lord. Brother Clinton hit a point that I'd like to refer to again. If possible, I'd like to give it just as hard as he did. Because it was hardly 24 hours that I was shot face to face with that proposition. Do you remember what it was?

I suppose there is no statement made by a person professing to be a Latter-day Saint that's quite as ignorant or displays as much ignorance as a statement like that. In the first place, his children are not ours. We must arrive at that conclusion starkly. They're not our children. They're our brothers and sisters. And in the second place, we're challenging God Almighty, who is their Father, and what he chooses for his children.

is his business and not ours. And I can't conceive of a person attending our meetings or the meetings of any other religious organization that would be so exempt as to make a statement like that. It just seems incomprehensible. It's a lack of faith. We've heard so much about it in the last few minutes. Now, faith in God is the capacity to leave oneself in his hands.

And to do according to his will, according to our individual understanding. To me, that is faith in God. And it's just as simple as that. Giving ourselves back to the Lord, who gave us our lives, who gave us our spirit body, who gave us our physical body, who gave us our food and our oxygen we breathe and the water we drink. Now, if we can't acknowledge this fact, then we have no faith.

Faith isn't only meat, it doesn't exist in things spiritually. Oh yes, groundhogs have faith, and they've got enough sense that if they come out a certain day and the weather isn't just right, they can go back for a while. Pigs have faith to leave each other out of the trough, get what they want to eat. I'm not talking about that faith, I'm talking about faith in God, faith towards salvation. And the faith must accompany these.

divine attributes of deity. Now what does that kind of faith lead us to? Faith in God. What does it lead us to? It leads us to greater knowledge of him and his work. And knowledge leads us to more faith, doesn't it? The more we know about God, the more we have faith in him. So it leads us to power. Faith is power. Faith in God is power with God. And when we have knowledge of God, And when we have power with God, then we exercise justice toward our fellow men, toward each other. We exercise judgment in how we should conduct our lives and how we should call upon those under our jurisdiction to conduct theirs. In every detail, mercy is God merciful. If God isn't merciful, will you tell me why and how you people came to get here today?

Any one of you, can any one of you say that it wasn't through the extreme mercy of God that you're permitted to be here today under the voice of his servants? Mercy? If it weren't for the mercy of God to me this last week, I wouldn't be here. In fact, the other day that I lived, by the grace of God, we are here by his mercy. We continue to exist and continue to have faith in him. And by truth, all things are upheld.

He maintained in the universe a knowledge of things as they were. Now, Brother Joseph has been telling us about his knowledge of things as they were, back beyond the veil. He knows just as much he had a conflict with Lucifer back there as he knows that Satan exists in the earth today. And any of you people that don't know that Satan exists in the earth today don't have much knowledge because he's out here.

He's out here in this world with all the forces that he can muster to get the saints of God. There was a mortal battle, and it's still mortal, isn't it? Still mortal. Physical. Spiritual. And that's the battle of the saints today. Moral integrity. We don't have to fight quite the same battles that the pioneers did, but we have to fight moral issues. Integrity is the truth.

Satan was cast out in the earth and got his forces organized, as Brother Justice told me. The truth is that he came here with an understanding of the plan of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, next to Adam, is the greatest enemy that Satan has. He couldn't overthrow Adam. A great archangel, Michael, cast him out by his authority and his priesthood out of heaven. So he doesn't have much power.

And he tried to have power with Jesus Christ, and we find that he didn't. Jesus was one man that did not speak to sin and moral indecency and lack of intent. He kept the fight from the beginning to the end. And in order to keep the fight, he had to be in good physical condition as well as spiritual. We've heard how it seems that this battle grows more difficult as time goes on.

There's reasons for it. You think when you're 55 years of age that you can fight like you could when you were 35 physically. You can't. And it's only the wisdom that comes to age that takes the place and supplants the physical integrity and ability that allows older people to even remain in the race because there are not so many fools. They're not so foolish as they were when they were young.

kids. Joseph Smith says there's so many fools in the world that give the devil his bad. So we'll have to concede that the numbers are far, far ahead of us. But Brother Bluff has given us the answer. A great coat of armor that destroys all atomic bombs that the enemy can possibly concoct or throw. That's the heads that he put around, that the Lord put around Daniel in the lion's den.

It's the hedge he put around Jesus Christ through all of his temptations. It's the hedge that he put around Joseph Smith when he was in Liberty Jail in that dungeon. And he cried to the Lord. He said, how long are you going to hide your face from the injustices of the saints? And he told him to be comforted. He passes through all of these things and enumerates what they are.

Know this, my son, that these things are for thy good. Now, brothers and sisters, if you're ever tempted by the adversary to say, I don't want my children to go through the experiences that I've gone through, you are challenging God because he says to Joseph Smith, to Jesus Christ, and to us.

Know this, my son and my daughter, that all these things are for thy good, to give thee experience. And the Son of Man has descended below them all. He subjected himself to man and the flesh, and descended below all things, in order that he might rise above all things. Now we're dealing with exaltation, principalities, powers, and dominions, and endless lies. It can't be thought.

on anything short of descending below all things and submitting ourselves to God, submitting ourselves to the reality of mortality and accepting it as a challenge and not as a curse. It's a wonderful blessing that we have blood and that gets disease in it and that we get headaches and we get broken arms. We get broken spirits and we get discouragement. All these things are for thy good. You might know good from evil, as it might comprehend the weak from the strong, the spirit of discouragement from the spirit of God. Now the spirit of discouragement comes from the adversary of our soul, and only the spirit of God can defeat it. And only can the spirit of God defeat all of the other enemies that we have to contend with. May we keep it, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

That's where they're home to speak to us. This is a delightful sight, brothers and sisters. After being told this many times, you'll have to believe it. It's a joy to me to proceed with you, brothers and sisters, in the work that the Lord has outlined for us in this day and time. I delight to sit here with you and hear the message from the servants of God. And I can bear testimony in my heart that they have told us God's...

truth for us today i pray that you will continue your efforts we may continue to have a rich outpouring of truth and knowledge strength and comfort to our lives you're all very much anxious i'm sure to know what god has in mind for you from day to day seems that we're growing in that respect that we want to get closer to the lord we want to wait and quit wasting the time that god has allotted to us we want to make our efforts more fruitful there's a time in our youth when we're a little bit careless and carefree about those things thinking that we have a life before us but i'm sure you young folks who have been in on this work for some time now are realizing more than ever that you must put your lives in order have a more specific purpose for your

action than ever before. And we who have a few years upon us, we know how much we must act. We must get closer to God. We can't afford to waste another moment running after the ways of the evil one, spending our time and our efforts and our substance in idolatry, seeking after the idols, the pleasures, the comforts of the day.

Surely we know by now, all of us, of every age bracket, the greatest comfort, the greatest joy, the greatest peace, the greatest benefits come to us through the plan that the Lord has outlined. So why not pray a little more diligently, work a little harder to do exactly as the Lord has told us to do? If we don't know yet what the Lord wants us to do, surely there's a way to find out. We're not ignorant.

He's invited us to come to him to receive inspiration and revelation. And if we don't get it direct, we can come to his servants if we have any confidence in them and get it just as direct, if you can understand what I mean. Many of us feel that we must get it from God himself if we're to be convinced of a right activity for us. But I know and I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, for myself, When God answers me through his servant here upon earth, I have a closer relationship with God. I have an experience that brings greater comfort to me than any other way. A living witness of that answer having come. It places a great responsibility upon me. Now the brethren have asked us to engage ourselves most unitedly with the priesthood.

in every possible way to prosper the activities that we have. God has given us certain duties to perform right now. If we expect to gain our salvation and our exaltation, it will be in doing both things that pertain to us. The comfort that has come to my life in trying to consecrate my time, my effort, and talents to the establishment of the kingdom of God is the thing that brings me sustaining power from day to day. I know that God lives, brothers and sisters, that he has his servants here upon earth to lead and guide you and me to our salvation and exaltation. And if we expect to get there quickest and fastest, we must do those things that are outlined for us by God himself through these servants. The waste places that Christ and John had the people engage in building up,

are not for us today unless directed by our own medium. But we do have specific responsibilities to engage with the servants of God in those jobs we do have. We can read all about those other times, those other occasions, the great faith-promoting experiences they had. They're all very well and good. We want to profit by them. We want to feed our minds. We want to fill our hearts with...

The answers God gave to those people, the help that he gave them along the way, so that it will help us to be more practical, more able, capable, determined to fulfill our portion. The United Efforts Plan has filled my life with things I know I could not have received any other way in any church or any society or any function. I know that God has inspired the laborers.

the program the order that we'll have and that we continue to have i speak of it only in a rejoicing and happiness for the part that i have been privileged to play and i don't have to tell most of you people about the successes the peace and the joy and the comfort that have come to you you know what it's about but we must keep right on doing the best we can pressing to the fore the economic order of heaven, along with the other companion principles. It's a day in time that affords great opportunity for all of us to do quite a good job, quite a lot to help. We must go forth in faith, must go forth in great energy, applying the principles that we know are right of industry and achievement, and then taking of those things and

restoring them in the proper places. We surely shouldn't by this time have any qualms about what God is trying to achieve through us. He wants to build up a school. He wants to build up a community. He wants to build up a pattern of operation. But we'll see us through the tremendous adventure, the tremendous scenes ahead. I think most of you here are old enough to read many of the signs.

along the way, the signs of the destruction and the fall that is imminent in this nation and the other nations. So let's weigh carefully our allotted time and our energy and our ability, and let's not waste any more time, substance, effort, or talent in building up the devil and his works. In that measure that we apply ourselves, will we be blessed and increased and strengthened and enlarged to carry on.

We'll have more encouragement than we've ever had before. If you don't believe it, put it to the test. God is not fooling us in these things. He wants us to arise and take upon us the golden opportunities that he's presented. No one has a greater advantage than anyone else. The field is open. We have a chance to prove ourselves without limits. So remembering these things.

realizing our own responsibility in it. No one else can do it for us. We must make the attainment ourselves. We must stand as individuals before the Lord and accomplish our portion in order to own our salvation, to have the peace and the joy and the comfort that's available. May God bless us to arise and cast off the shackles of ignorance, of faithlessness.

all my idolatry, and every other thing that holds us back, and arise and become true and faithful sons and daughters of God, enlisting wholeheartedly in this work, and we will be endowed with that power from on high that he promised. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. So now here's Melder Guide's message. Give everyone here one revelation. We say that you all...

No, what I'm going to say will be true, but I'm sure you don't. Or you'd leave everybody else in the world alone, religion-wise. But outside of man and wife, married relation and children connected with you, each one turn to your neighbor and see if you knew him before you came into the work. There's a revelation. You rejoice in being together.

i rejoice that i knew you in the spirit world i have this opportunity of meeting with you and working with you here in this life so this people and any other people like yourselves are the only people that i want to have anything to do with now this subject that has been approached part the unhappiness of those who live in the new and everlasting covenant of marriage is a subject that that i think about very often being a polygamist son i feel perhaps i might lend some light upon our trouble i think that the lord is very displeased with it because of the trouble we have with each other And because of the troubles we show our children, which tend to undermine their faith in the work of the Lord. We have all classes of people sitting here today. We have people who want to break the law and get another wife. We have people who are in the law who wish their wife would die and they could get another and start over again. We have men who have conned women.

to come to them as wives. And we have women who have conned men to get into their families. I say this because they fooled each other into telling things that weren't the truth. A man told a woman that he loved her more than anything else in the world and that he would do certain things for her, and he was lying because that's not the truth. In the first place, he loved God and his brother more than anything else in the world.

And we have women who have been tired of the world and who think, she thinks that if she can get hold of a nice, upright man in this work, that he can relieve her of many of her problems in this life. And she'll be able to stop the fight and settle down with the sugar daddy in a life of ease. We have women sitting here who had this idea.

And so I could go on and relate most of our ills and of our sins before our Father in Heaven. And these are the things that perplex us and that cause our children to stray away from us and run away from us, that make our homes not temples of learning and of peace and of joy, but habitations of coldness and displeasure from whence we would like to stay away. Although we realized the necessity when we were in the spirit world of coming here and getting ourselves a body, according to my father, we had to be pushed out. Now that's a pretty good indication of the virtue of a home.

of a priesthood home where the boy and the girl has to literally be pushed out. Now look around at yourselves and see how many homes are in that condition. Where it's a delight and a pleasure for the boy or the girl to return to their home where they love to be and where they find peace and joy and satisfaction. So this is a problem.

We have been able to subdue the land. We have been able to build houses. We have been able to learn most everything that we need to know, build and create and make a living, but we're still living at a poor dying rate domestically. And this is our problem. This is one of our main problems that the Lord feels to criticize us.

I have often thought that it would be a wonderful advantage to the Lord if he had organized a school to train young men and old men and middle-aged men and the females likewise how to live and act after they were married. Apparently, it is presumed that this training is had in the home. But this is not the truth. It is true that we're taught how to be virtuous and many other good things. How many men have really faced the truth that the whole sum and substance of their business in the wife and children business of raising women and children have actually faced that naked truth that that's the business that they have selected and that the Lord has permitted them to enter.

is in the perfection of a quorum of women and the raising of a group of children. There's hardly any other business that a man would attempt to perform without preparation. But he'll amble into this business with his eyes closed, with no thought of preparation. And a woman will do the same thing. Now, brethren and sisters, it's impossible for my tongue to say female and male, at the same time. So what I say about one, I'm saying about the other. I'm not putting the axe to the trunk against one of you any more than the other, except it might be the priestess, for they are the head of the woman. One thing that I don't understand is why a man and a woman, madly in love, cannot get along together.

I know some reasons why people's homes are in the condition they're in. One reason is that a man listens to the brethren talk, introduces this work to him, and so he yearns to get someone under his jurisdiction. And so he gets another wife. And he begins to pressure her with authority to satisfy his ego and vanity.

that he is capable of controlling. Very, very awkward situation for a poor male being, even though it might be an act of God. There's lots of things that my father ordained that's very awkward for the child. Even though it's a fine ordination of God, it's still a very awkward position for the poor.

female to be in. And maybe she needs it. Maybe she has pursued a course in her life where she needs that kind of training. The thing that I enjoyed most out of my mother and father was to see their beautiful association together. See their beautiful association together. And our home was such that I never remember ever traveling or staying with anybody else.

or eating with anybody else except one one home until i left on my mission at 18. now brothers and sisters some of our sons and daughters are leaving home because they can't put up with home any longer now some of us maybe some of these children are reprimanded maybe they're disobedient but i would rather suppose that most of our homes where this takes place is trouble It might be that we have found the work of God late in our lives, and our children are halfway or two-thirds of the way matured, and it's impossible for them to catch the light. It may be that a man has taken a girl with a full-grown family, and those children will not respond to the light. There may be many reasons that are attached.

some of these problems. But most of you who are sitting here today and who are in the South and the North and all over are having problems because you have failed to surrender yourselves to the proper principles as husbands and wives. Sometimes the husbands are ignorant as to how to direct women. They're wise. They're perfectly ignorant.

They don't know the first thing of what a woman needs or how she should be directed. And on the other hand, there's many women who come into the work, the spirit of the world, with the idea that she's going to run her husband, or she's going to let her father run it, or she's going to let her customs and traditions run it. We have men who openly threaten the marriage tranquility.

the domestic tranquility of their home when they get a young wife by showing how much more they enjoy the young wife than they do the middle-aged wife. We have men right in this audience who have proven that. Now that's just exactly what our enemies in the world have cartooned over. Just that situation. The woman with six children sitting over in the corner with all her children around her.

And the man with the 16-year-old girl in the other corner jostling her on her knees, feeling her around and so forth, kissing her. That's just exactly the way they have cartooned the whole situation from time immemorial. And the problem is that it's the truth in many instances. The man is certainly not committing sin. He can't sin with anything that belongs to him.

But he's creating an awful situation. And he's proving to the other women and the children and those who are watching him that he doesn't have much control over himself. He doesn't have much wisdom or judgment in himself in letting himself break away like that over the younger girl.

And yet we have that problem facing us all the time. We have men sitting here who are in the principle but who are monogamous in spirit. They love their first wives and they will not love their second. And they claim, as the judges of the third district court claim, that it's impossible for a man to really love more than one woman. He has taken the other women because of a commandment of God and to raise children up to God. So she takes the place of a concubine. There is an unwed wife and mother. An awful situation. And yet how many brethren today have that situation existing?

What are the children to say? What are the women to say? Can't say all is well in Zion. Zion thought with all is well. My father got my wife and myself together and said, I hope that you don't have to go through what I have gone through, and if you don't improve, I'll see to it that you don't go any further in the next world. Now, he didn't mean that he hadn't had a good time. He meant that for some, reason or other that time hadn't come and the Lord hadn't revealed sufficient information for people to perfect themselves in this work so that all this trouble wouldn't exist. One of our biggest problems in the state of Utah today is a problem we have with polygamous kids who are in official capacity whose mothers

had a hell of a life in this world to hear them. So all these problems face one of us or the other of us in this world. It appears to me, as I've told you before, I expect that there are women in the world who will come under Paul's prophecy that they have unnatural affections. They have given their lives, they have donated their lives freely to the world.

and have become disillusioned, and they now have unnatural affection. But I have yet to have the brethren explain to me, to satisfy me, why a beautiful young girl doesn't fall madly in love with one of these good men that's her husband. I don't understand it. I guess a few things. I guess a few things. The man has one wife that he likes. He doesn't like any other.

He's used to her. And unless a woman can be exactly like she is, why he can't love her? That's one little reason. Another big reason is a man doesn't want the girl to fall too madly in love with him because then he has to teach her how to love and have the Spirit of the Lord. And it's an easier proposition to keep a woman quiet and obedient.

with half the love than to let her fall completely in love and then train her how to control it. Now that seems idiotic, doesn't it? But that's the truth. And so many of our good brethren take that proposition. So that second wife doesn't have the fullness of joy and satisfaction and love that the first wife has in relationship to her affections with the man.

Because the man doesn't want to assume the responsibility of letting her go all the way. So he holds her back. We have men here who dream that the best way to live in this work is to get a group of women and buy one of Brigham Young's old houses and put them all in the house and live happily ever after. So?

They spent all their time and money and strength to get hold of a great big house. Here comes John Law and says, I won't let you do it. Now you can either go to jail or you can live a different way. So that fear got into him. And then he finds that there's so much noise and confusion and argument and debate in that great big house.

that he decides perhaps that isn't the best thing after all. So his money is spent, his strength is spent, and the only thing he can put into the great big house is his first wife. What happens to the others? Some of them go to a little apartment. Some of them are in teepees. And what happens? The man visits them for an hour every other day.

So every three days, he comes in, brings a bag of groceries, gives the children hell, tells the woman how to look after the children, or he won't come again because you're not united with him. Kisses her, maybe stays long enough to give her a child, and poof, out he is again for another week, resting peacefully in the elegance and the beauty in the bosom of his first wife in the big house. Now, you're human. What would you do, brother, if you were that girl? What would you do if you were that girl? She can't get away from you because she loves you. Her desires have gone to you. She knows the principle is right. She knows that her marriage has been ordained of God. But what would you do?

If you were that girl, you would have a hard time, just like she has a hard time. And you would get mean, you'd get the stare of the devil, you'd whip your children, and there wouldn't be very many hours of the day that you'd feel good. And how could you feel good under that kind of a situation? That's how many of us are living under that kind of a situation today.

and expect everybody under us to feel good about the principle. Isn't it human to blame the thing that's close to us? What else are we to blame? We can't blame our neighbors. We have to blame each other. We have to blame the law that we live. We have to blame the circumstances that we're under. I'm not talking of perfect saints. I'm talking about you.

And you, and you, and you, and myself, imperfect people that are trying to live a perfect law in a very foolish way, some of us. And this is the reason that such a stink goes up. This is the reason that our enemies can get hold of this kind of a girl and pour the milk of human kindness over her for 30 minutes.

and learn more from her than he could coming to a meeting. What else is a girl to do? She's yearning for a little milk of humankind, but she's yearning for it. So the spotter spots her out and goes and gives her a little milk of humankind. The children are the same way. I have never lived among a people who have such a hard time time doing what comes natural that this people have in relation to men and women. You'd think it would be just as natural a thing for a fine man and a fine woman to get together and live in a natural, decent, beautiful, peaceful, loving way as it would be for the birds. But there's hardly any among us who can do what comes natural.

You know what? We've either been scared by some false tradition and teaching in regard to our relationship. There may be many other reasons. I have named a few of them. But we just can't shunt this problem off, brethren and sisters, because it's one problem that keeps us from having this faith that the brethren have been talking about. It's one problem that robs us of having this faith.

faith. Our home should be of such a nature that our children enjoy being in them. Our character should be of such a nature that we enjoy being in the presence of one another as husbands and wives. If we haven't got a child when it's 12 or 14 years old to the place where we can ask it to do a thing, And it'll do it, freely or not, doesn't make much difference, but it'll do it. Then it's too late to whip. Too late to whip. Is that boy or girl at 12 or 14, if we can't talk it into doing what we want it to do, it's too late in our present age. Yes, a hundred years ago, the law would have let you take it out in a woodshed at 18.

Right now you can't do it, so you may as well make up your mind to do that. And the minute you lay your hand upon it, it can go and seek protective custody, and I don't blame it. I would too if I was that old. There's a time for corporal punishment, and that's when it should be given. And that's the time that is the hardest time to give. The hardest to give it is when it should be given. And I'll tell you, if it wasn't for some respect that some of these good...

strong boys have for their elders, their elders would be chopped on the chin many times and made low. There's no doubt about that because of their foolishness and because of their demand. Authority coming from a man should be just like it comes from God and it shouldn't be naked. If all he's got to offer naked is naked authority to his women, it might be better than nothing.

But it's an awful tragedy. If his women and children can't find that they can obey him through their love and respect and devotion and confidence, why, the other is a very, very poor obedience. And all a man or a woman has to do is stop and say, what would my Father in Heaven do under these conditions? Our Father in Heaven faces these conditions daily.

He has all kinds of and capacities of people, children to deal with. So all you have to do is stop and say, what would my father in heaven do? And that's all that the woman has to do when she faces a crisis. What would my father in heaven do under these circumstances? And then do it. Do what's right. My father once says, he says, I wish to heaven most of the men, before they get one wife, would buy them a few animals, buy themselves a few animals, and learn how to govern them in perfection. And then they would be prepared to govern a group of women and children without making so many mistakes with them. And then this great sigh wouldn't go up in Zion.

from the children and from mismanaged women. This complaint wouldn't go up not only to the Lord, but it wouldn't go up to our Gentile friends and to our enemies. Why, it's easier to find a mismanaged child and woman in our group who will spill her soul than it is to find a saint.

And this isn't a healthy condition for us to be in, brethren and sisters. You don't have to worry about the group. All you have to worry is about your relationship with your own wife, brethren, and perfect it. Get it in a position where the wife can honor it and where she can love it and be devoted to it with all her might, mind, heart, and strength. Prepare.

You're home to be a temple for your children, where they can find love and peace and justice and wisdom, where they can find agency without debate and argument. The old idea, you either do this or get out of this house. Is that the way the Lord would do it? The way the devil would do it. To you to Satan, not in that to you to God. Man has a right to ask for...

peace and tranquility and for people to obey the law of his kingdom. But there's a way to do it. The Lord has a way and the devil has a way. The devil's way is for the robbing of people of their agency, where the Lord's way is simply laying before them the truth and letting them govern themselves. And if they don't want to come under his government, then he knows they must come under the government of the devil. Because there's only two governments. But yet there's many men today who exercise that kind of authority over their people. Until their people are scared to death. Until they get old enough and they know the law will protect them and the priesthood will have compassion on them. And they begin to break away.

and they don't tell very nice stories about their father and their mother now brothers and sisters i know that this is a touchy subject and i'm surprised that i've stood here so long and going into it because it's very controversial i remember i know that and perhaps i'm not quite wise in bringing it up but there's no use of you sitting here, year in and year out, thinking that you have peaceful homes when you don't. There's no reason for you to think that you're living the principle of tall marriage when you're not. There's no reason for you to think that you can go before the Lord and be justified in treating your families like you're treating them. When he received, Kimball said that he was prepared to go into the next life before the Lord.

Without any wives or children, he meant that he had lived such a life that his skirts were clean and that there wasn't a woman or a child who could accuse him justly before the Lord. That's just exactly what he meant. And that's all that we have to learn how to do. You brethren don't feel like you're capable of loving a woman? Why, for pity's sake, buy yourself a dog.

That's what the world does, and I think the Lord has greater honor for such a thing than to take a woman and dishonor her and abuse her and to cast her aside and to let her go through this life uncultured and untrained and make her face the next life fully unprepared. I think it's a shame and a disgrace if a woman in any degree will respond.

When the Lord brings men and women together naturally, they're not madly in love. They're madly in love with God. They're madly in love with principle. And they have responded to principle. But the Lord fully expects when he bumps their heads together and puts their arms around each other and says, and you shall become one flesh, that that's what he means. But it shouldn't be long before they become united and one in all things.

that the woman loves the man and the man loves the woman for her virtues and that they love the Lord and are building up a kingdom that he can honor. We have men that won't keep their fingers out of their women's business. Now what would the Lord do under those circumstances? He has kingdom after kingdom and the Lord of the kingdom comes into his kingdom. He takes inventory.

He loves, he blesses, he corrects, he chastises, and he flies away for another period of time, expecting the queen of that domain to assume perfect control and authority over all the affairs under his direction. Now, how in the world can she do that unless she's trained to do it?

and given the wherewithal and the opportunity to do it. She can't do it. If that man feels like he has to have a leg and a hand in every affair, her cooking, the way she puts the tablecloth on, the way she brushes her teeth, and everything else, she'll get in a position where she won't do anything until he tells her to do it, and she'll be justified. And by the way, when the Lord is a dominion, leaves the Dominion after criticizing, loving, blessing, and chastising. He leaves with greater love on his part and on the part of his wife, his queen, and his children toward him than when he came. When I said that, he doesn't leave in a huff, and they don't know whether they're on speaking terms for the next two weeks.

period of awful anxiety as to whether the marriage is going to hold out or whether it's ordained of God or whether he'll ever return again into the kingdom. He chastises and he corrects and he criticizes under the direction of the Lord and then turns with greater love and affection to those to whom he has offered the chastisement as the revelation says.

lest they esteem him to be their enemy. Simple, isn't it? Simple and beautiful. And yet we have these conditions existing throughout Israel, represented in all the people sitting here tonight. These different conditions existing. It's too bad. It's fine. But if men don't know how to govern women, and don't know how to love them, don't know how to be devoted to them, as they should be, why, to find out, to find out before they go any further. And if a woman doesn't know how to give herself to a man, a man of God, if she doesn't know what to do towards her husband and how to give herself to him, for pity's sake, find out. There's a way of finding out. And find out how to live in the natural and normal.

condition before the Lord, so that your children can see something good in their relationship, so that your children can begin to see something good about the principle, rather than this other cry that goes up so much. Now, brothers and sisters, I hope that we can begin to improve ourselves. As I told some of you a week or two ago, for 30 years, I've heard the different people, different prophets, from Lawrence C. Woolley down to Fred and Johnson, tell us that we're a good people, the best people in the world, but we're not good enough. Now, if we're not good enough, something's wrong with us. And it's not because we're not willing to be faithful. It's not because we're not willing to give on money.

It's not because we're not willing to go and produce roses on the desert. It's not because we're not willing to keep some of the laws of God. I bless your souls, there's not a person here who hasn't signified a great capacity for sacrifice and obedience. And yet this problem stares you and I in the face when Fred and Johnson get...

up for he says you're good people but you're not good enough and unless we begin to find out why we're not good enough by 10 years from now we're going to be sitting here or in somebody else's house and the brethren are going to get up and say you're good people and i'm glad to be here with you but you're not good enough now something's wrong Something's wrong with us if we're not good enough. And one thing that is wrong with us is that we don't know how to live together in family units and get and keep the spirit of the Lord. That's one thing that's wrong with us. And I don't care to go into some other things that's wrong with us, but that's one paramount problem that we have, is that the man won't love the woman,

And the woman won't love the man. They're abusing each other all the time. And the children build seats as spectators to see the great war in heaven. As my father and I walked into a Dominion one day, and Father says, well, this looks like a very heavenly condition. The man says, yes, and there's war in it most of the time. I don't know how you fight. I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you start a gospel conversation with a stranger. I don't know how you deal with a relative, and I've been a missionary since I was 18 years old. What's that? That makes about 34 or 36. I've been a missionary for the church and the kingdom, and I don't know today.

how to start a gospel conversation with an alien. I don't know how to do it. Just like I don't know how you learn how to fight. The Lord teaches us how to keep peace and maintain it. But I don't know how you learn how to fight and how you learn how to get into these gospel conversations. If the Lord has to have us do that, he's going to have to put me under special training.

of some of you folks as to how to start a gospel conversation with people not of my kind who are aiding to the work of the Lord. I don't know how you do it, and yet you do it. It just comes as natural to you as drinking cold water. Now, my dear brethren and sisters, I certainly hope I haven't abused this wonderful occasion where we have been given some wonderful truths.

And the Spirit of the Lord has been here, and the Lord has manifested his desire to give us these great blessings. But I am concerned about our domestic problems, because until they are settled, we cannot get and keep the Spirit of the Lord enough. So important were they that the Lord made a point to the prophet, even though it wasn't his fault, He said, you go make peace with your wife before you can get my spirit. Again, in the power of translation. The Lord didn't say it was his fault. No doubt it wasn't his fault after we learned the nature and character of this woman. But that wasn't the principle. He had the authority and the wisdom and the judgment to keep peace in his dominion, even though he had the stoop to conquer. And the Lord made it a point.

And so the Lord is not pleased with our out-of-order domestic conditions in our homes and with the abuse that is being heaped upon some of the women and children that the Lord has sent here. The Lord is not pleased with it. And if we're not careful, he will permit our enemies to shake us up again so that we can be humbled and begin to search out the truth.

as to what we should do in regard to these things. Now this is a wonderful work, dear brethren and sisters. I have faith in it. And I have faith in my Father in Heaven. I have faith that our brethren and their associates behind the veil are doing a wonderful work. And I pray that our Father will encourage them and bless them and succor them.

and let them know that we desire to come under the strength and the light of their banner as we labor here upon this earth. And I pray for my brother who is sitting behind me, that the Lord will bless them and encourage them and build them up and give them the things that they need and let them live long upon this earth that he has given them.

to lead and direct the people. And I desire that the Lord will bless you and teach you how to live compatible with his spirit so that men will cease to say, I wish that I were dead. And women will cease to say, I have never seen a good day since I came into the work. And the cloudiness will be on the countenances of the children. I would like to see a group of people raised up who are living domestically in such a way that there could be no finger of accusations pointed to their home life. May the Lord bless us, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Johnson ought to speak to you, but he's, of course, as I make some remarks, he's been laced on me so tight, I don't know if I can stand up to him very long or not, but, oh, Friday boy. I often think of Brother Kimball, Jay Golden, when he stood up in the tabernacle for five minutes and he said, I don't know how in the hell you're going to get the Spirit of the Lord with the clock in front of you and the brethren behind you. And I...

feel deeply concerned sometimes over these issues. You have the laws of God to live, and about the only thing you can do is use the best talents you've got, and sometimes that's awful poor, especially in the face of accusing women. These women, not so many of you, but the ones that are not here, have really given this body of men some hard lessons, but they wouldn't take it from anybody else, so I'm sure that that's why you had to do it.

Some man had come along and tried to teach the man some of these things that you women have taught us. It had been worse than war in heaven. It had been war on earth and heaven. We're a warring people. We have such egos and such spirits and such determinations in us that we're hard to conquer. We won't conquer ourselves, let alone let anybody else do it. The very foundations of this work will be destroyed by our own stupidity if we don't practice the things that's been outlined to us. The men and women in this group, that are left now and dedicated themselves to this proposition. Don't learn how to live, your names will be blotted out of the record. Because this is truly our business, is to learn to manage women and rear children. All other things, even the creation of worlds and the governing of the planets and all things pertaining to the existence of the human family are subjected to that one proposition. I often think of the thoughts that occurred to me when,

time in trying to teach a young group of why God created this earth. He was asking all kinds of questions that young children do, and they got to know, wanted to know something about the earth, and it occurred to me, well, why did God create it? Simply because they needed a home for some children. A great masterpiece, a great masterpiece was brought into existence because of a need. God had a large family that needed a home, an opportunity to work out some problems and gain some experience.

I'll go back to Brother Timpson's proposition and then make a few remarks and close. I thought maybe it was a little antidote to this situation that we don't want our children to pass through what we've gone through. I don't want mine to. I'd like to have them take on where I leave off and do better. It would be a disgraceful thing for my children to go through the things that I've gone through. In fact, it would be a pretty bitter pill for some of them. They may not be able to take it.

And I certainly don't want the children of you people to go through what many of you have gone through. It would be a disgrace for them and you, for leftists. And you women say that you don't want your daughters to go through what you've gone through? Hallelujah. I don't want them to either. I'd like to see my sons and the sons of my friends live in comparative peace. So it's certainly a good thing for us to forget the past and lay hold of the future. For certainly this work is not predicated upon.

what we've already done. It's going to be predicated on what we yet will do. Are there performances yet to be made by the saints that will bring them into the presence of God? And that's something we haven't obtained to yet, at least very few. There may be a few if God had the church and kingdom set in order that might have their calling and election made sure, but there are very, very few. There's one thing or another that's taken them out of this work and they...

It will continue to do so unless we strengthen and fortify it. I had occasion not long ago to look and see how many men were left who went to prison with a firm determination that they were doing God a service. Three have passed away and we've got three left. They're in this congregation today. With Timpson, Brother Dockstader, and Brother Virgil Jessup would be here if we hadn't had to hurry back home. And that's all that's left of a great raid that was made on this people and sent our men to prison.

Three out of 15 men are still alive, at a mortality of nine, you might say. Men who have considered the stalwarts of this work. One thing or another, they've thought things that they thought were mistakes, and they didn't have the judgment and the gift of the Spirit of God enough to know for themselves whether they were in mistakes or not, consequences of which they've lost the faith. We need to beat our chest and both of our strengths.

For we're still a very humble people and very dependent upon the mercies of God. I'm confident that he's willing to fight our battles. He's showing evidence of it. When I see the storm clouds gather, then I'm convinced that God's ready to test the mettle of the people. And certainly the storm clouds are gathering. And bigger clouds since ever gathered in days gone by. But I think the days of Nauvoo were fierce. All the states of the Union were arrayed against them.

And they had a fearful experience. But I think that all the clouds of 1880s that were arrayed against the people have been added to. There will be a raid against this people. Great churches and people of this nation will do their level best to bring this people to dissolution. And why not? Why not? That attention stimulated my mind when he said that he thought about people fighting battles in their youth and in their old age and whether the battle should get less strenuous or more well i think i think that we're prepared to fight a greater battle than we've ever fought before i think we're prepared and so if we had some of the shabby battles of the past to fight over again they wouldn't test our metal it's like a seasoned team going up against a incompetent foe so as our strength and our capacities increase

The labor and the tests and the trials of our day and time will increase. God has prepared this people to stand what appears to be coming, I'm pleased. I'm pleased. There's something that's got to be done. The people of this church and the people of this nation have got to array themselves against this work once more. The final Herculean effort to destroy it. We've got to stand up and defend it and come off victorious.

that we can be added upon and their work can go on and be and be perpetuated that the millennium might come to this world now that's that's here it's as sure as the world it isn't going to happen in somebody other some other people's time it's going to happen to us whether it's going to be in the next two or three or five or six or seven or eight years i wouldn't attempt to predict but the storm clouds are gathering the prophecies that joseph smith uttered in relation to this dispensation of his are beginning to show themselves very clearly. The slaves are rising against their masters in horror. The whole continent of Africa is in rebellion against their masters, and all the slaves of the South are beating their drums in resentment to the treatment that they received. The great Indian nations are beginning to wage their war.

Don't believe I'm presumptuous in saying that the highway is being cast up to the north country for the return of the ten tribes. So these days are a flock with anxiety and suspense. And certainly there's going to be a great reckoning. In the words of some others who've spoken before, certainly God has a controversy with this nation and with this people to whom he's restored the new and everlasting covenant. And all those who set their hands against it, They've got a controversy with God, not this people. And they're going to have to pay the price of their rebellion. The Lord has told us plainly in the Book of Mormon what would happen to this Gentile nation if they rejected the fullness of the gospel. And they've not only rejected it, they've spit upon it and slain our prophets. They would slay the rest if they thought that they were important enough. The only thing that's saving this people today is their smallness and their unimportance.

The only thing is preserving this people today. The battle would have waged more fiercely than it's ever waged. They thought that it's small and unimportant, and I'm inclined to agree with them. It is small, and we're very unimportant until we learn to serve God and keep his commandments. When we learn to look upon the Savior of the world and Joseph Smith and some of the great prophets of this earth and see their labors, and then after all their faithful works they decided that man was nothing i don't know how we can feel so important in our lives the only thing that can make a man important is his partnership with god until a man's name is written in the law's book of life never to be erased or blotted out he's nothing because he'll come to a full end i'm thankful brothers and sisters for my testimony of this work

for the knowledge and understanding that God has so graciously and mercifully given to me. Confidence that it's an important factor in our progress, and I am encouraged for this people when I see the Lord teaching the brethren. I've seen days and times pass when it seemed like we were held so closely and it was so hard to penetrate the heavens and get additional life and knowledge pertaining to the work that it seemed sometimes impossible.

But I know that the Spirit of God is thriving with his people. I know that we have the gift and power of revelation. That I know. I look back on the experiences that this priesthood has had, and I can testify to that fact in a literal way. I've had the gift myself, and I know that my brethren have had it. We have the gift and power of revelation, which is first and foremost on all the principles of the gospel. Of course, it can only be...

predicated upon faith and obedience to the principles that we have established. But I'm glad to see things as well as they are. A few people have heard me speak upon this same subject, and I think it's important. When I find myself failing and getting out of line, I can very often trace it back to the sufficient promptings of the Spirit of God. I think that if you look upon the path to this work, and there's the gate, The lack that was in the lives of the people, that they weren't actuated and directed by the Spirit of God in their labors. We have charity, I do. I have to have a little charity for myself or I couldn't carry on. How do we get the Spirit of God? Why, we get the Spirit of God through obedience. We get the Spirit of God through harmony with the servants of God. And how could we have harmony until we had understanding? And so all these things have been the outgrowth of inexperience.

But I, I hasten, I hasten to join my brethren in saying that the time has come for this people to do better. Haven't we had the experience, brethren? How much more do we want? There's only about 70 years here allotted to a man and woman to get that experience. When I see the hair that used to be dark now turning gray, and I'm beginning to wonder how much more time we're going to have for experience. Somehow we've got a lot to perform. I'm on my...

Pete, I'd like to make this remark about our labors in the South that there's never been a time when we more keenly needed the support of you people. We've got a schoolhouse down there that's probably 20 to 25 percent on its way. All the footings have been laid. Many of the foundations are in.

of labor conscientious labor our holidays and vacations are more or less past and we'd appreciate it if you brethren could come come with your families at home and and labor there with us and give us the most that's in us and not throw such a terrific burden upon us to to entertain while we're trying to perform our work i don't know when we've had a more pleasant time but we're we're up against the real mccoy now we set our hands to gather these prospective students that we have by the 12th day of september and i'll tell you it's going to keep us on the move to get facilities ready and we're going to have to have means we'd like to have you people rally around brother irwin and help him acquire electrical material as necessary to wire that building and we'd like to have you rally around better calvin nielsen and help procure the plumbing that's necessary

While we're laying the foundations of this building that we can lay it for a modern structure and then add to it as the time goes on. I am amply convinced that Brevin has shown their confidence by giving us the go-ahead sign and building this school that it's a vital necessity in the preparation of this people. This very condition that has been laid before us so strenuously here today is not going to improve.

until our young people are brought out of the hardships that they're in and have the gospel laid before them in a more susceptible manner. We have our students, they come here on Sunday and they hear these sermons that penetrate to their very souls and they go home with resolutions that they swear to high heaven they won't break. Tomorrow morning they go to the school and they're...

expected by their parents, by the governor, by the president of the United States, all the legislature, the sheriff, the probation officer, and their teachers and associates to yield themselves to a damnable, corruptible institution. That's exactly what they're expected to do. And I'll tell you, when you talk about the Herculean effort of the fathers and mothers, these young people are performing a Herculean effort by keeping their brains straight. There's not a...

textbook in this christian nation that's predicated upon the fact that god lives not one then we wonder how in the world these children why they wander away and why their minds are filled with doubt i'll tell you if we don't if we don't need to do something with ourselves i don't know when we will need to but i'll tell you there's no use of us rising up and and and performing some herculean thing and establishing a school and gathering our children together unless we intend to back it up by our lives and by our works so that God can fight our battles. I've just started a little innocent thing here just to show you how far and wide our situation goes. You can't cover it up to save your soul. We've got a town there that's all fraught with a name that's got about as much stench to it, I guess, as everything that's come up in the nostrils of humanity. Shark Creek is known for evil the world around.

We thought maybe we could change the name. As quick as you write to the Postmaster General of the United States to get a change of name, he asked to notify every post office in the United States. The Shark Creek has changed its name. What do we need? Why, we need a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. That's what we need. And we're going to have to live to justify it. I know as God lives that he's going to bring a division among this people unless we yield to that proposition.

He'll bring experiences into our lives that will again separate and divide and separate and divide. And then he'll labor with another people, finally to get them to come up to the place where they'll dedicate themselves to this proposition that we must serve God and keep his commandments. I don't feel to prolong my remarks, but I want to rejoice with you, my dear brethren and sisters, in this work.

If ever God has favored and held a people in the hollow of his hand, he's held us. He's favored us and cherished us and blessed us as mercifully as a people could be blessed. The women folks in this work have been sheltered and protected and guarded and blessed far beyond my fondest imagination when I entered this work. I read the histories of the people I knew how the saints had been blessed, but I've seen it with my eyes.

I've seen it with my eyes, and I know that God has honored the people that have honored this principle. There isn't a family that has fallen away from this work that has honored the priesthood and this principle. God has sheltered you. He's forgiven your backslidings and your faults and failings, picked us up and brushed us off and stood us on our feet and patted us on the back and sent us on our way. As long as we've tried to shelter this principle.

And there isn't a man that can say nay. Nor a woman. There isn't a woman that can stand up in this congregation that's done any feeble effort to sustain her covenants that God hasn't blessed. And the same is true of the brethren. I think we ought to acknowledge these things. We ought to begin to return to God a grateful spirit. Lay aside all this lamentation and this quarreling and bickering.

Let's be set our lives, and I pray that we'll do it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Now we'll turn the time until the moon comes up to Brother Johnson. As far as I'm concerned, my brothers and sisters, the moon can come up pretty quick. I trust the few moments that I stand before you that the Lord will put words into my mouth that we may not be led away from the trend of thought that that's been placed before you this evening. I was glad to hear President Hammond break the ice and say that he didn't want to see his children pass through the same experiences that he did. I don't want to throw a cloud on President Simpson and Dr. Quinton's thoughts because I fully realize what they meant and possibly they didn't stop to think for it.

how to straighten out the thought. Finally, Prophet Joseph was asked upon one occasion how he governed his people. He made this remark, I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves. I don't think there's a man and woman here but would like to see their children improve upon the experiences that they have had.

And don't think for one moment that the Lord hasn't got a few experiences tucked away in his own pocket that he can't throw in front of these children of ours to give them experience. Because I don't care what we pass through. There's something a little greater for our children to hurdle that will make better men and women out of them.

else how can we build up and establish the kingdom of God in the earth? If we're going to hold our children down to passing through the same experiences that we have, how are we going to raise a better people? As President Moss has said many times, we've been held up as a good people if we're not good enough. So let's don't think for one moment that the Lord hasn't got something.

to throw in the path of our children that will make them better men and women if they want to be. And the thing for us to do is to instill into the minds of our children, our wives and our children, a desire to become better than we are, that this kingdom might grow and take on its glory that the Lord is trying to do His work in the latter days. So let's don't think for a minute.

that there's been i had a word said here tonight because everything that has been said has been said for the education and building up the faith of this people but we don't want to let loose of the fact that we want to see our children to have experience and that experience will come in a way that will make better men and women out of us and build up the kingdom of god in the way that he'd like to have it. The lives of some of our people are such that they wouldn't like to see their children have to go through the same experience. And I wouldn't either, and Brother Hammond, and Brother Simpson wouldn't either, and Brother Clinton wouldn't. But they don't want their children to raise up without experience. Don't think for a minute the Lord hasn't got something to throw in their way that will give them experience.

very insecure, to make his work grow faster. We want to live for it. Now the Lord loves my brothers and sisters, or we wouldn't be here in this larger body today to listen to the sermons that have been preached. This work is growing. It's growing faster than we have any idea. Not by conversion of the world, but through the...

Many spirits that the Lord is sending here through this body of people. It's amazing. If we were to gather our people together all in one body, we'd have quite a large congregation. There were many, quite a number of people in the South two weeks ago, but not nearly as many as there was two weeks before that in this part of the country.

But we had a larger attendance two weeks ago in that little place than we had two weeks before that. 41 a month ago in that little place. And they gathered together. 340 some odd two weeks ago. I don't know how many there is here tonight. There's quite a nice little audience here tonight. If we had them all together, we'd be surprised.

About as many as Mr. Budd says there is. He says there's 12,000 in the state of Utah, and it's getting out of control. I hope he's right. I hope he continues to think he's right. Because as long as he thinks that there's that many here, he'll be afraid to tackle a job. He might say a lot of words, but he'll be afraid to tackle a job. So if this paper will...

continue to exercise their faith in the work that the lord is trying to perfect here and we'll continue to perfect our lives and perfect the lives of our children it won't be long until the lord will have a body of men and women that he can work with and after all this is a day of preparation and i hope that you'll take heed to what president mercy has told you, and stamp out these evils from in your home. And you men, folks, don't be afraid to sit down and explain the beauties of the gospel to your wives and your children, that they might be able to improve upon the traditions of their fathers and mothers, that a people might be built up and brought forth that God can use in this day.

Now I pray that the Spirit of God will rest upon us, that the Spirit of peace may dwell in our homes, and that we might carry that Spirit with us wherever we go. For I feel good in your midst, and I know these other brethren feel good in your midst. And we'd like to have your association, and we'd like to have you call on us, and let us help you over your trials and tribulations. May God bless you, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ.

We're grateful that you Canadian people have been with us. We pray that you'll go home with some ideas and thoughts that are going to be fruitful in your lives. We hope that this meeting and all others will have a tendency in our lives to cause us to improve. Brother John, have you dismissed the meeting? Our Father and our God, we come before thee at this time again with gratitude in our hearts.

as we dismiss this meeting, and ask Thee that Thou will instill within our lives the things that we have heard here this afternoon. We have been told, Father, so many times by Thy servants that we are a good people and not good enough, and we feel Thy Spirit here tonight saying that we must improve and ask Thee to help us improve. We ask Thee to instill in us the desire to go forward and work under the direction of Thy servants.

that we may return to thy presence if thou art willing. Now we ask thee, Father, to deliver us from the bondage of sin and from thy judgments, that we may overcome ourselves in the world. And we ask thee to be with us until we again meet in the like capacity, that we may keep thy commandments and do thy will. And we ask for it and pray for it and thank thee for it humbly in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.