country. It sure won't rain on me. It never has. I'm sure. Buffered under this heat this summer. I heard one of J. Golden Kimball's stories the other day that kind of tickled me. I read it in his book. It's in the biography of his life many years ago, but I'd forgotten it. He's down in St. George preaching to the people. I guess it was one of those days when he was mopping his bow. He said, if I had a home in hell and a ranch in St. George, I'd sell my ranch and go home.

And I wouldn't blame him. I have a spirit of fear and trembling when I am called upon to address the saints, when I begin to realize the solemnity and the importance of the day in which we live. My weaknesses and our faults loom up before my eyes, the magnitude of the work. When I compare them both, I fear for it. Yet I have learned to appreciate.

observe and understand that these things aren't all accomplished in a day and that our people are gradually improving. The steadfastness and stability of the saints has gained a tremendous impetus and strength in the last 10 years. I wouldn't dare predict that this people are a faithful people and that you could withstand all the hardships that might be imposed upon you, but you've done well.

And I believe that the time has come when our people are better informed than they've ever been. And certainly our knowledge and our understanding has a direct import and bearing upon our steadfastness. And watching the people that fall away from this work, they're usually people whose testimonies have never been sure and stable, and that there's been some fault with their understanding.

more able to appreciate from day to day the statement of the Lord that the people can't be saved in ignorance. An ignorant man will lose his way as sure as the world, that is, if he remains ignorant. I may not be properly understood on this point, for I don't believe that it's, that I don't want to convey the impression to the people that a man has to be smart. There's a lot of difference in being just smart and having understanding. Some of our most humble and People are stable in their faith and in their knowledge. I often think of John Bateman down there, one of our faithful brethren. He's been there for a number of years and works hard. Health is such that he can't accomplish everything, but he has a correct knowledge of the priesthood. And he seems to have a character that can back it up. And he's about as stable as any of us. Pretty hard to deceive. Some boys tried to get him into...

shenanigans some time ago and he come to me he says what about this well i said it'll just lead to trouble and i never got a chance to say anymore he says i don't have anything to do with it now there aren't many men that'll do that you couldn't both men argue with you for a half hour saying that it won't lead to trouble but these things are are deeply important in our lives brothers and sisters that we come to some understanding and i guess this This thing has been brought about through very simple conditions. The Brethren got the foot up. Maybe you don't realize this. Maybe I'm talking out of school. But it's the truth. They got the foot up with our priesthood classes. They resolved that if they couldn't have a priesthood class that was a priesthood class, they wouldn't have one. So when they called the Brethren together, they told them that there wouldn't be any more arguing and contending.

over the principles of the gospel, that there were certain undebatable subjects that we wouldn't tolerate debating about. Well, by the grace of God, the brethren accepted it, and we began to grow. It's a fearful thing in the minds of the ignorant. It's a fearful thing, the spirit of contention. Men are men and women. It's a characteristic of humanity. They feel oftentimes that if they don't contend, that they're losing their agency.

That they lose their right to free speech or expression or that they're being domineered by somebody. I don't know. It's just something in the business. We just have to contend. And yet I, in my observation, and I think it's worth something at this point, my observation is that a contentious person can't learn or understand the gospel. And they can't subject themselves to leadership. So I don't, along with the other vices that they set to human nature, this is one of the worst.

It's a spirit of contentment. It's a spirit of hell and the devil and a home. A man can do a lot of good things and make a few little failures in the minds of his people and they'll begin to contend with him and the whole structure of his family life is destroyed. We've held to the point that the women could do well to submit to their husbands and avoid this spirit and...

And they'd get out of their difficulties much quicker than they were contending over these points. And I feel them of that opinion. A man's the head, and he has to have some leeway and liberties in working out his probation upon the face of the earth the same as a woman does. God grants him that. And if a woman would submit to him and not contend with him, you'd soon find the Spirit of God directing him, and they'd overcome their troubles. Usually these contending situations stir both parties.

It's hard for a person that has some authority to stand and be patient when somebody's contending with them. And so we lead ourselves from one degradation to another through this spirit. While I don't feel to dwell upon it, I feel that its absence now, in the midst of this people, has laid the foundation whereby we can be educated and trained and brought up in the knowledge of the truth. I don't suppose that there was any single influence.

that's been brought to bear in the lives of the priesthood council that's united them any more than their determination to quit contending over their opinions. When that happened, the Spirit of God began to educate us, and I suppose we've made more growth in the last three or four years than we've made all the rest of our lives in matters of doctrine and understanding and things that we needed to know to teach the people. And just by elimination of this ungodly characteristic in our lives. It could be well commended to this congregation. It's one of the most important things in the principles of unity. The young men and some of the old men, all of us yet, will still be contentious about our blessings. The Lord tries to do something for us, and if it isn't just exactly to our liking, we'll still contend with him over it. Somebody wants a better car, or they want a bigger house, or they want...

more wise, or they want this, or they want that, and the first thing you know, the spirit of ingratitude is taken possession of, and we're robbed of the graces and gifts of the Spirit of God. There's a multitude of things for this people to learn, and I agree with the opening remarks of Brother Musser, that we'll not only not learn them, but we'll never have the privilege of learning them.

Unless we can bring ourselves in such a condition that God can feel that we're a good investment. Men will survey the resources around them with a very critical and judicious eye and wonder whether things should be added upon or sold or destroyed or done over again. And I can see the eye of God surveying the people in the very same light.

Is this congregation in such a condition, or will they come to such a condition under the tutorship of the priesthood that's over them, that will bring them to such a place that they can be added upon, that they're worthy of further investment and instruction? We've told you people many times in days gone by that what all our labors had been remedial work, trying to get the people in such a condition that they could be taught a few things.

And while we've had the privilege maybe for a year, year and a half of teaching the people, yet there remains a good deal to learn. And it's useless. It major turns to condemnation if we heap upon the people things that they can't receive and won't try to practice. And so we're constantly, it seems, under this fierce burden of changing our characters and our aptitudes and making ourselves more submissive to the work of God.

I'm deeply apprehensive of the congregation of our people as I see us go along and become fearful that we won't change rapidly enough to meet the changing conditions that surround us. I see us getting wrapped up in the affairs of life sometimes, and we think that we have an eternity to work out these things, but there comes a time when some other things become more important than the things we're doing.

And if we haven't got them done, it's a necessity, it requires us to leave them and go to more important fields. This came to my attention in the past, maybe a couple of years ago. I began to look at myself. I found that I was reaching a certain age in life. There's certain things that I hadn't done yet, and I wondered what I ought to do. Whether I should go ahead and meet the challenges and responsibility of my years, or whether I should go back and try to remedy and take care of the things of the past and so on. And by force of circumstances, I was led to conclude that I had to live according to my station in my years in life. And the things that have gone by that were undone would have to remain undone. And that I couldn't correct them or do anything about them now. Children that I wanted taught would have to go untaught. Changes that I wanted made here and there would have to take care of themselves.

because new responsibilities were coming upon me that I had to meet. Well, it only bears out that we haven't, to me, that I hadn't done as well as I should have done. I was resting on my oars and supposed that I had time to do things, and when I woke up that day, I didn't have time. The day and opportunity and the whole situation was past, and a new day was here. Maybe there's blessings in it to keep us from wandering around in circles and meaningless affairs.

And maybe that might be a cue to this people. Let the past be the past. Begin to look at ourselves the way we are today. I see yet in the portions of this congregation that are still tampering, so to speak, with the fullness of the gospel. I don't know of anything on the face of the earth that's more dangerous to tamper with than the doctrines of eternal life. A man come out here to these meetings and he'll...

Go to Brother Guy's office and meet Brother Johnson, the priesthood, from time to time, and the first thing you know, he's got a testimony and a knowledge and understanding in this work, and he has no intention of doing anything about it. And I don't know, I don't believe Brother Kimball could get to his home in hell by selling his ranch half as quick as this, as a man can by tampering with the fullness of the gospel. I think he'll get to home in hell a lot quicker. Because these things are sacred things in the eyes of God.

And the 132nd section of the Doctrine and Covenants teaches us as the very first premise, the very first premise that was impressed upon the mind of the Prophet Joseph Smith in that revelation, was that all those who have these things revealed unto them must abide in the same. And so our judgment is placed. My eyes and ears and feelings serve me right. There are changes.

that are being affected in the midst of the people that I believe are going to bear fruit. I don't see any disposition on the part of the Lord to ignore the people or their problems or their needs and to refuse to provide for them. And it seems to me as long as he'll provide, then there's the opportunity for us to work, the consequence of which there's ways and means for us to work out our salvation. I'm anxious to see our young people embrace this work.

I'm anxious to see them labor with their feelings and be humble and contract and give themselves a chance to mature in the fullness of the gospel that they might carry on. We've lost some very fine young men in the last few months. It's not pleasing to the Lord. I think that our people, our parents, judging myself and what I see around, I think that our parents still have failed materially.

and teaching our children as we should have taught them. Teaching the fullness of the gospel, for me, needs a background and an atmosphere. I've traveled with Brother Bottle and Brother Johnson and Brother Zitting, Brother Musser and many others in this work and the years that I've been here, and I find out that the way I get information for those men is ask for it and create an atmosphere whereby I can get it.

I would urge upon you mothers that have charge of these homes that you create an atmosphere wherein your children can be taught. I know one place where the father walks into the house while the mother, well, you got anything to teach us? We'd like to have you teach us. Yet I can see the children looking askance at the TV. They turn it off reluctantly. Mother sits down like she wants you to teach some of the Bible stories to the children.

I don't think that's any atmosphere. If I was placed in a condition where I had to teach what a woman wanted me to teach, I'd have a pretty hard time. And I might, on occasion, interfere with the TV programs of the children, but if I saw a perpetual and persistent attitude that they'd rather watch the TV than listen to me, I'd be inclined to join them. Brother Johnson was around me, and he saw me interested in one thing. When he wanted to tell me something else, I think he'd...

See these lips and let me go his way. And so we've got to desire these things and we've got to create an atmosphere to receive them. And our women folks can play a tremendous part in drawing these things into the lives of themselves and their children. Priests that are busy, lots of work for them to perform. And they should help create these atmospheres, these conditions whereby they can learn.

I don't know of any better way to introduce the gospel in the family than to ask questions about it. For a woman to bring the thing together and just say, Now, Father, we want you to teach us why she's been laboring with her mind and the children have been tutored under her direction. They say, Well, now we've got some questions we'd like to ask. When you finish telling us what you want us to know, why we'd like to ask you some questions that come up.

It immediately creates a foundation wherein a gospel seed can be sown. But if you start to impose opinions upon people, they're very often forgotten and drift off into nothing. But if a group of children and a woman had been together and they said, now here, we came across this principle about baptism. And it said this here, and then we read on a little farther, it said something else, and we didn't quite understand it.

Now there is a foundation laid in the minds of the children previously for the answer to their questions. And then the Spirit of God can move in and help us to perform these works. Now I don't know all the signs of the times. I can't get satisfaction quite for myself just exactly what's going to take place when and how. But I can see conditions arising whereby the Latter-day Saints are going to have such responsibilities placed upon them that they'll stagger under the load. And we've got to not only inform ourselves about the things that we need to do, but we've got to practice. Now, there's a many-sided picture to this question that surrounds me. I've got several things that I need to do. Several things. My years are just like yours. They're moving on.

Every once in a while I have a birthday, and it won't be too long until I'll have my last one. And during that period of time, I should have changed my character to meet my God, shouldn't I? I should have made of myself a saint, so that when I'm called into the spirit world, that I won't have to be put into a category where I won't have the full access and associations of the holy priesthood and our heavenly Father and our elder brother Jesus Christ and so on. In other words, so that my progress can continue, I must prepare for it. And you might say, well, isn't that about the only work we have to do? Well, I don't think so. There's a train of people coming along behind me, just like there is behind all of you. And I've got to join with you brethren and you women folks in preparing the way whereby they might inherit some of the blessings of our labor. If when we leave this work, we leave it in a better condition for our

young families and our young friends to carry on than we found. If we had to go back and perform the work and labors of Brother Barlow and Brother Musser, we'd find ourselves in trouble clear up to our necks. The Herculean labors that those men performed in order to bring about a condition where the servants of God could gather together the believers in peace on a day like this was Herculean. You little know. Tremendous energy.

and exertions and sacrifices and heartaches that those men performed. And there's mighty few here left to testify. Mighty few here left to even tell the story of their performances. But they performed the work that rested this priesthood and these principles of everlasting life from obscurity. It was Herculean in the state and the nation and the church.

And individuals were dedicated to the proposition that it would be sunk out of existence. They, under the direction of Lawrence's tutoring and training, and together with Brother Zitting, actually arrested, you might say, three men. Arrested those things from obscurity. It's no small task. They've left to us a heritage that's invaluable for you brethren here, whose names that I could name, and you sisters, to bring your children here and have a...

priesthood teach them and we can meet as peaceably as we do and have the atmosphere around us we do is one of the greatest gifts of god that could be bestowed upon us now what's my latest just make a say to myself or the only way i can make a say to myself is to perform my work if you stop and just start the business of making a goodie out of yourself you might be good but what will you be good for in making ourselves good we've got to be good for something and so it involves experience and labors and performances and all those things have their hazards and their hardships and their heartaches as well as their successes and pleasures but now they're before us and here all these innocent young men and women now have got to have an atmosphere and a foundation laid for them whereby they can carry on this work and it's got to be done economically just take them i could just i can see faces here before me that i can

that i could predict as surely and faithfully as the stars that if they have to go out into the world into the gentile population to rest out of living they'll be lost to this work before they're 40 years old you you people can join me in just naming your own children that you know that happens to be the case your sons or your daughters if we just say well now here you've got to start getting a little money in here to help father and you've got to do this and that and your daughter goes up here to get a A job why pretty quick handsome Bill comes along. And from then on why it's not the fullness of the gospel or anything else. It's her boy Bill. And she's gone. And how many of you better? I won't have to go any further than just ask you. How many of you better than if the girl that you had your eye upon would have accepted you that you wouldn't be gone today? So, talk about hazard. These people have got to be kept together if it's possible.

And ways and means have got to be provided for them where they can live the fullness of the gospel. Brigham Young said the fullness of the gospel is united order and plural marriage. And they've got to be perfected. And this people can't entirely wait for the church to be set in order and all those health and conditions surrounding them that's going to make it easy to do these things. We're a vanguard group and we've got to pioneer the united order as well as we've got to pioneer the law of plural marriage.

And pioneering those two principles, we've got to establish the priesthood. And with that labor upon our backs and successfully performed, we'll make saints of ourselves. I can't, I can't. A year ago, Brother Fred come to Brother Johnson and I and said, what about having a high school here in Short Creek? You remember Brother Williams? He was very anxious about it. Brother Johnson sat there a minute like he does, and he turned to me and looked at me a minute.

I spoke up like I always do, a little bit sooner than I should. I said, well, do you want my opinion? I said, well, I think we should forget it and let the city of Hurricane have them. Brother Johnson says, that's my opinion. And we forgot it. And all of a sudden, we got up one morning. I don't know where it came from. I couldn't put my finger on it to save me. But all of a sudden, it settled on me that we had to have a school. A year ago, you young students wouldn't have...

wouldn't have given it a thought and today it seems that we're going to have a hundred of them or we thought we might have to provide for about 35. now what's brought about that change simply because i'm confident that the priesthood on the other side could see that if we didn't take and gather these students together and teach them in the first place the truth about their lives that they're going to get frustrated and confused and we're going to have a great mortality in other words they're going to drift away Where today, if we can be successful in this matter, we've stepped down the road a long, long way. A long, long way. I was contemplating the other day about education in this nation. This nation is a Christian nation. They boast about it. You go back to the lives and labors of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, and they hardly corresponded with each other, that they didn't take God into their notice.

and ascribe unto him the honor and glory for the things that they had accomplished and that they were going to establish this nation under God. That was written into the Constitution. And yet the hand that rocks the cradle today, our educational system, so to speak, never mentions God except in a derogatory sense. If I ever get a voice like that, you ought to watch out. The Book of Mormon says that the inhabitants of the land shall serve the God of the land.

And yet I don't know of a nation of people that are rendering such a disservice to God as this one is today. Morality is the virtue. Immorality is the virtue. And God and priesthood and all these things are a hiss and a byword. And then you said that there's nothing for us to do. There's no responsibility. That these young people don't need to be taught and trained and tutored and brought up.

and stabilized and strengthened. Why, I see the children that we had on the outskirts of this state in hiding. They were longing to come home, but now they're home. They're changed individuals. They're changed individuals. And their whole hope and aspiration is the establishment of the kingdom of God. And the only thing that's brought it about is environment. The only thing.

How long does a man have to work in this rain, guys? We used to say a man that didn't know enough to get in out of the rain wasn't very bright. But I'd stand here and get soaking wet if this was down in Short Creek and be thankful for it. But I'm going to do like Brother Johnson did when he saw it clouding up. I'm going to bear my testimony that the gospel's true and bless you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Better try to take cover for a few minutes, and then we'll go on. Brother Hammond has some additional information for us. A few amusing things, but I better be careful, I guess. This is church. Where were we now? I guess that our anxieties should be dampened down once in a while, cool us off a little bit. The fact remains that we've got a lot of work to do. We've got a schoolroom down there, a schoolhouse that we've got.

Oh, I'd say it's about half done, that is, half along to where we can put a roof on it. And we sure do need your help. Now on Labor Day, we're going to have the lumber and material ready to put a roof on it. We need work even before then to get the adobes up and get it ready. I suppose Edson has by now about half the floor poured. We put two truckloads of cement in it. It takes about...

cement every time he starts pouring it takes a truckload but he needs probably three more loads of cement hauled and and down and then we'll be ready to have the adobes up to the roof now we need we need all the help we can get now we thought if we could gather you people like we did a year ago on as late as quick as you can get away friday night to have you come down we'll try and bed you down And we'll get a good start on Saturday morning and work through Monday night on this building. And you men should bring your hammers, and we'll try to furnish the rest of the tools. I'm really pleased with this little building. I don't suppose many of you have seen it, but we're going to have about seven classrooms, which will all be very commodious. We'll have arrangements where we can have a kitchen adjacent to our assembly hall.

use it for a dining room and so forth, which will make it very versatile and commodious for our needs. We'll have all the other facilities. We'll have fine plumbing and everything. We're making arrangements. We've got the well dug below the building now, and as quick as we can get some cement curbing, we'll lower it down into the water level and set electric pumps and be pumping our water for our building by the time we need it. I went over to our old sawmill site the day we had our last meeting that is the saturday before our last meeting two weeks ago and we've got 325 good-sized logs over there i guess that i'm sure that there must must be between 60 and 75 000 feet of lumber there which will take care of all our present needs and give us a little start for the winter so all our labors have not

been in vain. We had a kind of a hard time last year getting lumber out. We just got enough to take care of a few minor things, a shop and so forth, but now we've got a good start for this year. The Lord's blessed us. I was just thinking the other day, I was kind of discouraged that things wasn't better for us, but in the past year through the labors of the saints, we've established a water system there that there's never been a day that that except the times we've cleaned the tank that that water hasn't run over that storage tank down there in other words we've never used the water supply yet that we've we created to that pipeline and outside of just two or three minor occasions we've never had a bit of trouble those of you that remember the work that upper sluice box that we built buzzed a little bit one day and we had to go up and re-weld it and that's the only trouble we've had with that whole system so we feel very fortunate we brought in the

the power lines through the labors of our boys and now there's not a home in shore creek that doesn't have electricity i'll tell you it just brightened the lives of those homes tremendously to have a refrigerator and electricity for lights and sewing machines and the various conveniences it's just changed our whole mode of living we've spread our water system from not only the tank to the regular homes that were using it before but if emergency arose and we needed to establish homes in that community. Now we've got a water line there that would at least furnish house water for 10 or 15 houses. Easy. Maybe more than that. Maybe 20. We've got at least, I'd say, about a mile of fireplace where you could put houses on both sides of it. So things haven't been so bad. We've built two new homes and remodeled some of the others.

As I say, he added plumbing to all these places, so we ought to be encouraged. We've had a good crop of wheat. We've got in about 35 or 40 acres of potatoes down in that country, but they're looking real good. Our hatch place is as dry as could be, and Sam was up against it. Sam Barlow was up against it for water, and about three weeks ago, he got a drencher right over there that just took in just that little area where our farm was and a few other places.

When I was there two weeks ago, they couldn't cultivate the potatoes because they were so wet. And the water had actually run down those potato rows. There was that much water coming. Brother Johnson was there just last week, and he was telling us that if we didn't get another drop of water, that we'd have a good potato crop there. We've got some wheat raised. We've got about over a thousand bushels of good turkey red wheat that grew on that Alvin place that we've talked to you so much about without a bit of rain.

all summer long. I'll tell you, that's something. I went there. When I was there two weeks ago, there was cracks in the ground at least that wide, an inch and a half wide, and you could poke a stick down in that far because of the drought. It just dried out, and the earth had just split right open, and the grain was growing right up through there. I never saw such strength in the soil in my life. So things are looking good for us, and if we'll unite our efforts.

and continue to pull for the future. I'm sure in spite of three years that the priesthood can have 5,000 bushel of wheat stored away for hard times and a lot of other things will be working in our favor. And I'm thankful, brothers and sisters, for these opportunities to do something with our hands and our minds besides just feel like that we've got to stuff it with book learning. As Brother Johnson said a while ago that Those of you who have contributed your means and your efforts surely must feel better. I haven't met a man that doesn't look better because of the labors that we were able to put forth. In consequence of that, we're strengthened through the whole system. We're in a more pleasing condition to learn and understand. I made a remark in Shore Creek here a week ago, and I'll make it to you people right now. It is one of the most sure foundations.

that a man can lay in this work. Take Irwin here or Lauren Zitting or any of you young brethren. They're coming up in this work and you're sitting at home there reading the Doctrine and Covenants and bringing your hands whether to do or not to and finally you decide to do. I'm going to go up with this work. I know it's true. Now how are you going to secure yourself the most effectual way to remain? There isn't anything that you can do in my experience that will keep you in the work of God.

any more than to put your hands and your money into it. Anything that will hold you in the work of God, like putting your, as well as your time and your talents and your little tithes and offerings, but to go and put your hands and dedicate your means to it. I've seen men weather some fierce storms because they had their all into the kingdom of God. How did Brigham and Heber C. Kimball do it? They were our foremost pioneers. And when it come time to...

To declare their inheritance, you couldn't tell which was theirs and which was the church's. Brigham Young supposed when he passed away that his whole estate would go to the church and would have done if his children hadn't arrested it through lawsuits and so forth from Brother Taylor and those who were presiding over the church subsequent to Brother Young's passing away. They'd have never known the difference.

When Brother Barlow died, could you tell which was his and which belonged to the group? There wasn't any difference. He wouldn't even claim his own children. He expected every son and daughter he had would lend their time and their talents to building up the kingdom of God. What about Brother Musser? Why, he dedicated his whole life to it. And consequently, we buried him with the...

tenderest feelings and finest honors that this people can muster. Now, if that's good for them and the gospel's true, why isn't it good for this man and this woman and me and all the rest? Why should Brother Bono, President Joseph Smith, and Brother Taylor and all the brethren put their all into the work of God and we hold back a part of ours? And yet we want to go up and sit down to the banquet table and feast with them. Just consider yourselves.

consider yourself. You may wonder about this and wonder about that, but the most sure place that you can put your means and your energies is in the kingdom of God. I made a remark here some, oh, maybe six months ago. I made a quick, snappy remark that those who look forward to pensions and so forth would apostatize. Well, I want to qualify that.

If a man's working for an institution and it's part of their program to pension him when he gets so old, I'd say by all means get it. Let them pension you at 50 if they will and then devote all your pension and your strength to the building up of the kingdom of God. That's what to do. But to work and labor for a pension that you might retire, you'll lose the faith. And I think well of this congregation because of their determination to...

to come and labor and put their hearts and their hands in the same place now we we want you breathing down there on labor day if you can band together in automobiles and save the expense and let our folks down there lend all their attention and labors to that job and not have to do too much entertaining we'll be grateful some of you women that can come and help out your friends why we'd be glad to have you but let's try to make this a labor day We've had some wonderful times in the past, but we'd like to have you, Brevin, and your big sons come and give us a hand. There's going to be an awful lot of nails to drive because there's, I don't know how big that building is, Richard. What is it? 88 feet by 132 feet long. Now, I'll tell you, that's a lot of roof to put on. And we're going to need all the help we can get and all the means. I suggested here two weeks ago that you men have got a little money that you can contribute. Now, I haven't.

I've tried to remain modest about pressing you for money to help build this building. We've had one man come forth with some means and laid the foundation financially, and I haven't pressed you people. Well, we need your financial help as well as the labor of your hands. And Cal and Irwin are being asked to furnish the plumbing and the wiring. Well, let's not leave them holding the sack. You'd rather step right up there and ask them how they're getting along. Well, here's $20.

There's 20. And give it to them. You don't have to pass it through my hands. Go and talk to them. It's going to cost a couple of thousand dollars, isn't it, Erwin? And I don't know why we shouldn't contribute it. I don't know of anything on the face of the earth that's going to be better for us. The enthusiasm that our young people are going to receive that thing. And we're not through yet. I think that we're going to need it more in the future than we've needed it in the past. Brother Guy, when we were talking about education, passed to me a very...

stinging sermon by a president or ass of snow and the and the language that he used an accusation of the people of latter a group of latter-day saints carrying their children over to the gentiles to educate was was something and it is something i've got children here in this congregation that have that have suffered in their feelings and they come home distressed and agonized because of the conditions they had to live in school and then what they tried to get home with some might find it easy but And some might find it hard, just about the way with the individuals. But I've got troubles around me because of this school situation. And I can't help but feel it's the same with others. And there's going to be a wonderful blessing come out of it for all of us. Some of you young people are wondering about credentials. I pressed Louis Barlow about this matter. He says, what are you talking about? Well, I says, what is an accredited high school? And you know, it's an elusive thing.

It's out there in the ether and you can hardly put your hand on it. And I find that there's a couple of associations in which you can buy membership and become an accredited school by meeting certain scholastic standing. Just like this hospital up here. The LDS hospital was not an accredited hospital at one time because they were out of favor with the accrediting institution. Does that mean to say that that hospital had slipped? Their politics weren't in order.

That's about all it amounts to. I've sought out several of the young people, and they say the entrance to college is an examination. I understand that any man can enter, or woman either, can enter a college or university today up here on the hill, that they can pass their entrance examination. And I'm confident, too, that if our dreams are even partially realized, that we'll turn out better students.

than any school in the country. I'm quite sure of it. That little town of Harrican down there, we were looking over their program, and I'll tell you, it was pretty small compared to what we expect to do for our own. We anticipate these things because we anticipate that our young people are interested in learning and not playing. I think that we're going to move down the road a long, long way.

Pray for the Spirit of God to be with us and enlighten us. Open the way for us whereby we might realize our dreams and ambitions. The kingdom of God might truly grow. That we might learn to hold our peace and not flaunt it before our enemies and antagonize. For if we can do that, we can take this work a long, long ways without interruption. I'm thankful to be in the works. I have lots of time to meditate and think.

I was talking to a man the other day. He said that he had gone back over his experience, the time that he had been excommunicated from the church, and that the knowledge of this work had come to him. And he says, if I had the power within my hand to go back and change it, he says, I don't know where I would change one thing. And I can truthfully say the same thing. My knowledge and understanding of the gospel gives me much more.

gratitude and satisfaction than I ever had before in my life. The association of the people that I mingle with is far beyond what I ever dreamed of having. The knowledge of the priesthood is way over and above what I ever dreamed about. These things don't come to us in a day. But I'm truly grateful, my dear brethren and sisters, for my knowledge of priesthood. I didn't understand priesthood when I was called into this council.

I understood a little bit, but it's been by the grace of God and our studies and our mutual edification that my knowledge has increased on this most important subject. And it's far beyond anything the Church has to offer. And it's in harmony and in keeping with the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the lessons that Brother Taylor has left us on priesthood, are harmonious with our feelings and our knowledge and understanding is predicated.

upon the things that we've learned from the former prophets in this last dispensation. So our foundation is true. So there's nothing but rejoicing. I just pray to God that I can fulfill my life in honor before him and accomplish the work that I want to accomplish. For I truly desire to bring my character into subjection to the Spirit of God. And I know that that's the only way that our characters will ever be changed.

We will never become God-like in all this world until we're actuated by His Spirit. And if we're actuated by the Spirit of God, our character will just change and unfold day after day and day after day until it'll become a reality. And it'll not be a labor. It'll not be a labor. But it'll be the result of a condition. Changing of our characters will be the result of the influence of the Spirit of God upon us.

Along with that will come our light and knowledge and understanding and the increasing of our testimonies and the elements of eternal life. You go back home tonight if you want to read something that's right interesting on this subject and read on page about 89 or 90 in volume 2 of the Journal of Discourses on what President Young said was the sum and substance of our existence in relation to man and God and so forth.

He said it was to incorporate into our lives the principles of eternal increase. If you brethren are sowing your seeds and planting your labors in the midst of the Gentiles, you're not going to reap very big harvests because their nation is ripe for destruction and your assets and your labors are going to go down with them.

laid your labors on the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the midst of the saints and the direction of the priesthood, you have built yourselves along the lines of eternal increase. While your labors might look rather precarious at times because of the hardships that they're subjected to, as the years roll by, they'll always resound to your good. I can't help but look at Sister Barlow. She's weathered a major depression that we had in the 30s.

In all these years that she's been in the midst of the saints, she's had very little to comfort her life. She's been in need and in want most of the times that I've seen her, but she's habitually cast her lot with the priesthood. And as I look at her day after day, it seems to me like her circumstances continue to get better. She reaches, rapidly reaching that place where I desire to reach, and I'm sure that you do.

body in my labors by, that I'll have an assurance in my heart that when I meet my brethren on the other side, that I'll be welcome in their society. Now, I can't conceive of a greater blessing, and on the opposite score, I couldn't conceive of a greater curse. I can't conceive of a more agonizing, heartbreaking condition than to feel after all the years of labor that I've gone through, that I've sown my seeds in the wrong field.

to brethren don't have any need for me. Now, you brethren, think it over. You watch your step. You study your circumstances and see if you can't bring yourself to that condition where everything you do will tend to build up the kingdom of God. Now, I'm thankful to be here and I'm grateful for this opportunity to speak to you and to enjoy getting wet with you and so forth. It'll be a day we won't forget. God bless you. Amen.