I don't know how in the hell you're gonna 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.

I'm sure that that's why you had to do it. If some man had come along and tried to teach a man some of these things that you women have taught us, it would have been worse than war in heaven. It would have 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 one time in trying to teach a young group of why God created this earth. They were 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 and an opportunity to work out some problems and gain some experience. I'll go back to Brother Timson's proposition and then make a few remarks and close. I thought maybe 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 to let them. 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.

It's certainly a good thing for us to forget the past and lay hold of the future. But 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 attained to yet, at least very few. There may be a few if God had to.

The Church and Kingdom set an 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 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.

The attention of Brother Doc Spader 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. The men who is considered the stalwarts of this work. One thing or another, they stopped.

in things that they thought the mistakes and they didn't have the judgment and the gifts of the spirit of god enough to know for themselves whether they were in mistakes or not consequences which they've lost the faith beat our chests and both of our strengths while 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 showing evidence of them i see the storm clouds rather than i'm I'm convinced that God's ready to test the mettle of the people. And certainly the storm clouds are gathering. And bigger clouds than it's ever gathered in days gone by. Of course, 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 you. There will be arrayed against this people. Great churches.

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 that we're prepared to fight a greater battle than we've ever fought before. I think we're prepared to.

And so if we had some of the shabby battles of the past to fight over again, they wouldn't test our mettle. It's like a seasoned team going up against an incompetent foe. And so as our strength and our capacities increase, the labor and the tests and the trials of our day and time will increase. And if 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 in a final Herculean effort to destroy it. We've got to stand up and defend it and come off victorious, at least sufficiently that we can be added upon and the work can go on and be perpetuated that the millennium might come to this world. Now that's here, which is sure as the world.

It isn't going to happen in 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 and hoard the whole continent of Africa.

is in rebellion against their masters and all the slaves of the South, beating their drums in resentment to the treatment that they received. The great Indian nations are beginning to wage their war. I 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 fraught with anxiety and suspense.

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 have 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 that's preserving this people today is that the battle would have waved more fiercely than it's ever waved. They thought that it's...

small and unimportant, and I'm inclined to agree with him. 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, 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'm 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 heaven and get additional life and knowledge pertaining to the work. It has 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.

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 past of this work, and there's the great lack that was in the lives of the people, that they weren't actuated and directed by the Spirit of God in their labor. Now we have charity, I do 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 till 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. While I'm on my feet, 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. Some of the job is laid. We're going to have to have a tremendous amount 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 labor there with us and give us the most that's in us and not throw such a terrific burden upon us 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 up against the real McCoy now. We've 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 Brother 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.

amply convinced, and the brethren have 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. Exactly what they're expected to do.

And I'll tell you, when you talk about the Herculean effort food 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 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 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 battle. I 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 from 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 has to notify every post office in the United States.

the shark could just change his name what do we need why we need a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night and we're going to have to live to justify and i know as god lives that he's going to bring a division among this people unless we yield to that proposition we 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.

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. Not one. 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 sustain this priesthood. 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...

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 and lay aside all this lamentation and this quarreling and bickering that beset our lives. And I pray that we'll do it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.