President Woodruff’s Manifesto.

Proceedings at the Semi-Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

MONDAY FORENOON, OCTOBER 6, 1890.

President Woodruff

Said: I will say, as the question is often asked, ”What do the Latter- day Saints believe in?” we feel dis­posed to read the Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and should there be any strangers present, they may understand our faith in this respect. The question is often asked, “Do the Mormon people believe in the Bible?” so the principles that are read will show our faith and belief appertaining to the Gospel of Christ.

The articles were then read by Bishop Orson F. Whitney. They are here introduced:

ARTICLES OF FAITH

Of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.
3. We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may­ be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
4. We believe that these ordinances are: First faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second repentance; third, bap­tism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
5. We believe that a man must be called of God by “prophecy, and by the laying on of hands,” by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
6. We believe in the same organ­ization that existed in the primitive church, viz.: apostles, prophets, pas­tors, teachers, evangelists, etc.
7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc.
8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
9. We believe all that God has re­vealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things per­taining to the Kingdom of God.
10. We believe in the literal gather­ing of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes. That Zion will be built upon this continent. That Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisic glory.
11. We claim the privilege of wor­shiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our conscience, and al­low all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where or what they may.
12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers and magis­trates, in obeying, honoring and sus­taining the law.
13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul, “We believe all things, we hope all things,” we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything vir­tuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.—Joseph Smith.

Apostle Franklin D. Richards

Said: Beloved brethren and sisters, I move that we, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in General Conference assembled, do accept and adopt these Articles of Faith which Bishop Whitney has now read as the rule of our faith and of our conduct during our mortal lives.

It may be thought that it is super­fluous to otter it; but it must be borne in mind that we have a rising generation since this was last pre­sented to us, that are coming to years of judgment and understand­ing; and we wish to have all, old and young, rich and poor, bond and free, that have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in these articles to have a chance to express it by their vote, if they wish.

The vote to sustain Brother Rich­ards’ motion was unanimous.

President George Q. Cannon

Said: President Woodruff, as doubt­less the members of the Conference are aware, has felt himself called upon to issue a manifesto concerning certain things connected with our affairs in this Territory, and he is desirous to have this submitted to this Conference; to have their views or their expressions concerning it, and Bishop Whitney will read, this document now in your hearing.

Following is the manifesto as read:

OFFICIAL DECLARATION.

To Whom it May Concern:

Press dispatchers having been sent for political purposes, from Salt Lake City, which have been widely pub­lished, to the effect that the Utah Com­mission, in their recent report to the Secretary of the Interior, allege that plural marriages are still being solemnized and that forty or more such marriages have been contracted in Utah since last June or during the past year; also that in public dis­courses the leaders of the Church have taught, encouraged and urged the continuance of the practice of polygamy,

I, therefore, as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do hereby, in the most solemn manner, declare that these charges are false. We are not teaching polygamy, or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice, and I deny that either forty or any other number of plural marriages have during that period been solemn­ized in our temples or in any other place in the Territory.

One case has been reported, in which the parties alleged that the marriage was performed in the En­dowment House, in Salt Lake City, in the spring of 1889, but I have not been able to learn who performed the cere­mony; whatever was done in this mat­ter was without my knowledge. In consequence of this alleged occur­rence the Endowment House was, by my instructions, taken down without delay.

Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pro­nounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hereby declare my inten­tion to submit to those la as, and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.

There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associ­ates, during the time specified, which can be reasonably construed to inculcate or encourage polygamy, and when any Elder of the Church has used language which appeared to con­vey any such teaching, he has been promptly reproved. And I now pub­licly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land.

Wilford Woodruff,

President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

President Lorenzo Snow offered the following:

“I move that, recognizing Wilford Woodruff as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the only man on the earth at the present time who holds the keys of the sealing ordinances, we consider him fully authorized by virtue of his position to issue the manifesto which has been read in our hearing and which is dated September 24th, 1890, and that as a Church in General Con­ference assembled, we accept his declaration concerning plural mar­riages as authoritative and binding.”

The vote to sustain the foregoing motion was unanimous.

President George Q. Cannon.

On the 19th of January, 1841, the Lord gave His servant Joseph Smith a revelation, the 49th paragraph of which I will read:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, that when I give a commandment to any of the sons of men, to do a work unto my name, and those sons of men go with all their might, and with all they have, to perform that work, and cease not their diligence, and their enemies come upon them, and hinder them from performing that work; behold, it behoveth me to require that work no more at the hands of those sons of men, but to accept of their offerings.”

The Lord says other things con­nected with this, which I do not think it necessary to read, but the whole revelation is profitable, and can be read by those who desire to do so.

It is on this basis that President Woodruff has felt himself justified in issuing this manifesto.

I suppose it would not be justice to this Conference not to say some­thing upon this subject; and yet everyone knows how delicate a sub­ject it is, and how difficult it is to approach it without saying some­thing that may offend somebody. So far as I am concerned, I can say that of the men in this Church who have en­deavored to maintain this principle of plural marriage, I am one. In public and in private I have avowed my belief in it. I have de­fended it everywhere and under all circumstances, and when it was necessary have said that I consid­ered the command was binding and imperative upon me.

But a change has taken place. We have, in the first place, endeavored to show that the law which affected this feature of our religion was un­constitutional. We believed for years that the law of July 1, 1862, was in direct conflict with the first amend­ment to the Constitution, which says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” We rested upon that, and for years continued the practice of plural marriage, believing the law against it to be an unconsti­tutional one, and that we had the right, under the Constitution, to carry out this principle practically in our lives. So confident was I in relation to this view that in conver­sations with President Grant, and with his Attorney General, ex-­Senator Williams, of Oregon, I said to them that if my case were not barred by the statute of limitations I would be willing, to have it made a test case, in order that the law might be tested. We were sustained in this view not only by our own interpretation of the amendment to the Constitution, but also by some of the best legal minds in the country, who took exactly the same view that we did—that this law was an interference with relig­ious rights, and that so long as our practices did not interfere with the happiness and peace of society, or of others, we hid the right to carry out this principle. In fact, it is within six or eight months that, in conversation with two United States Senators, each conversation being separate from the other, both of them expressed themselves, though not in the same language, to this effect: “Mr. Cannon, if this feature that you practice had not been associated with religion, it might have been tolerated; but you have associated it with religion and it has aroused the religious senti­ment of the nation, and that sentiment cannot be resisted. So far as the practice itself is concerned, if you had not made it a part of your faith and an institution sanctioned by religion, it might have gone along unnoticed.” I do not give the exact language; but these are the ideas that they con­veyed to me. Now, we were very confident that this law was an unconstitutional one. President Daniel H. Wells will remember how he and I tried to get a case to test the constitutionality of the law during the lifetime of President Brigham Young. We wanted to get Brother Erastus Snow. It is the last thing that we should have thought of to put a man like he was in the gap if we had not been firmly convinced that the law was unconstitutional and would be declared so by the United States Supreme Court. We telegraphed to Brother Erastus in the south, thinking that his case would not be barred by the statute of limitations. He replied to us concerning it, and we found that it was barred. Brother A. M. Musser proposed himself, if I remember aright, to be a test case; but there was a defect in his case. We want­ed this case, whenever it was pre­sented, to be presented fairly, that there should be no evasion about it, but that it should be a case that could be tested fairly before the courts of the country. Finally, Brother George Reynolds was selected. I said to myself, when I learned the result, “it is the last time that I will ever have anything to do with a test case again which will involve the liberty of anybody.” I was promised when he was sentenced, by one high in authority and who had the right to make the promise, that he should be released, when the cir­cumstances were told to him; for they were laid fairly before him, and he was told that the evidence had been furnished by Brother Rey­nolds himself, and that everything had been done to make it a test case; the government had been aided in the securing of witnesses, and no difficulty thrown in the way. Afterwards, on the second trial, I believe Brother Reynolds' lawyers got frightened, and there was something occurred then that gave it a different appearance. But when the facts were related, as I stated, to one high in authority, he promised me that George Reynolds should be par­doned. There were those, however, in this city who were deter­mined that he should not escape imprisonment, and the prosecuting attorney wrote a letter which changed the mind of this high official, as he afterward told me, and he declined to carry out that which I had received as a pro­mise. But even then there were circumstances connected with this decision that made us reluctant to accept it.

Since that time the history of proceedings is before you and before the world. We have felt as though this command of God was of such importance to us, involving so many serious consequences, that we should do all in our power to have the world know the position that we occupied. There may be men among us who believed they would be damned if they did not obey this, accepting it as a direct command from God. Therefore, you can un­derstand how tenaciously we have protested, and how vigorously we have endeavored, as far as we could, to make public our views upon this subject.

I suppose there are two classes here today in this congregation—one class who feel to sorrow to the bottom of their hearts because of the necessity of this action that we have now taken; another class who will say: “Did I not tell you so?” “Did I not tell you it would come to this?” “Did I not say to you that you ought to take advantage of and comply with this years ago, instead of enduring that which you have suffered since that time?” There may be men here today who pride themselves on their foresight, and who take credit to themselves be­cause they foresaw, as they allege, that which we have done today, and would lead others to believe that if their counsel had been adopted, if the views that they presented had been accepted by the people, it might have saved very serious con­sequences to us all and left us in a better position than that which we occupy today. But I, for one, differ entirely with this view. I believe that it was necessary that we should witness unto God, the Eternal Father, unto the heavens and unto the earth, that this was really a principle dear to us—dearer, it might be said, in some respects, than life itself. We could not have done this had we submitted at the time that those of whom I speak suggested submission. We could not have left our own nation without excuse. It might have said, “Had we known all that you tell us now concerning this, we should have had very dif­ferent views about this feature of your religion than we did have.” But now, after the occurrences of the past six years have been wit­nessed by this entire nation and by the world, and by God the Eternal Father and the heavenly hosts, no one can plead as an excuse that they have been ignorant of our be­lief and the dearness of this prin­ciple to us. Upwards of thirteen hundred men have been incar­cerated in prison, going there for various terms from one or three months up to years. They have gone there willingly, as martyrs to this principle, making a protest that the heavens and the earth should bear record of, that they were con­scientious in espousing this principle, and that it was not for sensual indulgence, because if sensual indulgence had been the object we could have obtained it without such sacrifices as were involved in obe­dience to this law—without going to prison, without sustaining wives and children, without the oblo­quy that has been heaped upon us because of this action of ours. If licentious motives had prompted us, we could have secured the results in a cheaper way and in a way more in consonance with uni­versal custom throughout our own land and all Christendom. But the sacrifices that we have made in this respect bear testimony to the heavens and to the earth that we have been sincere and conscientious in all that we have done, and that we have not been prompted by a desire to use women for lustful purposes, but to save them, to make them honorable, and to leave no margin of women in our society to become a prey to lust, so that every woman in our land should have the opportunity of be­coming a virtuous wife and an honored mother, loved and respected by her offspring and by all her as­sociates.

If no other result has attended what may be termed our obstinacy, these results are, at least, upon record, and they never can be blotted out. The imprisonment of these men, the sufferings—the un­told, unwritten, yea, the unmen­tionable, it may be said, sufferings—of wives and children, they are recorded in heaven and are known to men upon the earth, and they form a chapter that will never be blotted out.

Latter-day Saints, there has been nothing lost in the five years that have just passed. We have lost no credit. There has been no honor sacrificed. We can look God in the face—that is, if we are permitted to do so, so far as this is concerned, we can; we can look the holy angels in the face; we can look mankind in the face, without a blush, or without feeling that we have done anything un­worthy of our manhood or of our pro­fessions and the faith that God has given unto us. This all of us can do; and if no other result has followed what may be called our obstinacy, than these which I now describe, they are grand enough to pay us for all that we have gone through.

But the time has come when, in the providence of God, it seemed necessary that something should be done to meet the requirements of the country, to meet the demands that have been made upon us, and to save the people. President Woodruff and others of us have been appealed to hundreds of times, I might say;—I can say for myself, that I have been appealed to many scores of times to get out something and to announce some­thing. Some of our leading brethren have said: “Inasmuch as we have ceased to give permission for plural marriages to be solemnized, why cannot we have the benefit of that? Why cannot we tell the world it, so as to have the benefit of it? Our enemies are alleging constantly that we still practise this in secret, and that we are dishonest and guilty of evasion. Now, if we have really put a stop to granting permissions to men to take more wives than one, why should not the world know it and we have the advantage of it?” These remarks have been made to us repeatedly. But at no time has the Spirit seemed to indicate that this should be done. We have wait­ed for the Lord to move in the matter; and on the 24th of Septem­ber, President Woodruff made up his mind that he would write some­thing, and he had the spirit of it. He had prayed about it and had besought God repeatedly to show him what to do. At that time the Spirit came upon him, and the document that has been read in your hearing was the result. I know that it was right, much as it has gone against the grain with me in many respects, because many of you know the contest we have had upon this point. But when God speaks, and when God makes known His mind and will, I hope that I and all Latter-day Saints will bow in submission to it. When that document was prepared it was submitted. But, as is said in this motion that has been made, President Woodruff is the only man upon the earth who holds the keys of the sealing power. These Apostles all around me have all the same author­ity that he has. We are all or­dained with the same ordination. We all have had the same keys and the same powers bestowed upon us. But there is an order in the Church of God, and that order is that there is only one man at a time on the earth who holds the keys of sealing, and that man is the President of the Church, now Wilford Woodruff. Therefore, he signed that docu­ment himself. Some have wondered and said, “Why didn't his Coun­selors sign? Why didn't others sign?” Well, I give you the reason—because he is the only man on the earth that has this right, and he exercised it, and he did this with the approval of all of us to whom the matter was submitted, after he had made up his mind, and we sustained it; for we had made it a subject of prayer also, that God would direct us.

There never was a time in this Church when I believe the leading men of this Church have en­deavored to live nearer to God, be­cause they have seen the path in which we walked environed with difficulties, beset with all manner of snares, and we have had the responsibility resting upon us of your salvation, to a certain ex­tent. God has chosen us, not we ourselves, to be the shepherds of His flock. We have not sought this responsibility. You know Wilford Woodruff too well to believe that he would seek such an office as he now fills. I trust you know the rest of us sufficiently to believe the same concerning us. I have shrunk from the Apostleship. I have shrunk from being a member of the First Presidency. I felt that if I could get my salvation in any other way, I prayed God that He would give it to me, after He revealed to me that I would be an Apostle, when I was comparatively a child; and I have had that feeling ever since. These Apostles, all of them, feel the responsibility which rests upon them as leaders of the people, God having made us, in His providence, your shepherds. We feel that the flock is in our charge, and if any harm befall this flock through us, we will have to answer for it in the day of the Lord Jesus; we shall have to stand and render an account of that which has been entrusted to us; and if we are faithless, and care­less, and do not live so as to have the word of God continually with us and know His mind and will, then our condemnation will be sure and certain, and we cannot escape it. But you are our witnesses as to whether God is with us or not, as well as the Holy Ghost. You have received, and it is your privilege to receive, the testimony of Jesus Christ as to whether these men who stand at your head are the servants of God, whom God has chosen, and through whom God gives instructions to His people. You know it, because the testimony of the Spirit is with you, and the Spirit of God burns in your bosoms when you hear the word of God declared by these servants, and there is a testimony living in your hearts concerning it.

Now, realizing the full responsi­bility of this, this action has been taken. Will it try many of the Saints? Perhaps it will; and per­haps it will try those who have not obeyed this law as much as any others in the Church. But all that we can say to you is that which we repeatedly say to you—go unto God yourselves, if you are tried, over this and cannot see its purpose; go to your secret chambers and ask God and plead with Him, in the name of Jesus, to give you a testimony as He has given it to us, and I promise you that you will not come away empty, nor dissatisfied; you will have a testimony, and light will be poured out upon you, and you will see things that perhaps you cannot see and understand at the present time.

I pray God to bless all of you, my brethren and sisters; to fill you with His Holy Spirit; to keep you in the path of exaltation which He has marked out for us; to be with us on the right hand and on the left in our future as He has been in the past.

Before I sit down I wish to call attention to one remarkable thing, and it may be an evidence to you that the devil is not pleased with what we have done. It is seldom I have seen so many lies, and such flagrant, outrageous lies told about the Latter-day Saints as I have quite recently. I have not time to read the papers, but I have hap­pened to pick up two or three papers and glance at them, and the most infernal (pardon me for using that expression) lies ever framed are told. It seems as though the devil is mad every way. “Now,” says he, “they are going to take advantage of this, and I am determined they shall have no benefit of it; I will fill the earth with lies concerning them, and neutralize this declaration of President Woodruff’s.” And you will see in all the papers everything that can be said to neutralize the effect of this. To me it is pretty good evidence that the devil is not pleased with what we are doing. When we kept silence concerning this, then we were a very mean and bad people; and now that we have broken the silence and made public our position, why, we are wicked in other directions, and no credence can be attached to anything that we say. You may know by this that his satanic majesty is not pleased with our action. I hope he never will be.

President Wilford Woodruff

I want to say to all Israel that the step which I have taken in issuing this manifesto has not been done without earnest prayer before the Lord. I am about to go into the spirit world, like other men of my age. I expect to meet the face of my Heavenly Father—the Father of my spirit; I expect to meet the face of Joseph Smith, of Brigham Young, of John Taylor, and of the Apostles, and for me to have taken a stand in anything which is not pleasing in the sight of God, or be­fore the heavens, I would rather have gone out and been shot. My life is no better than other men’s. I am not ignorant of the feelings that have been engendered through the course I have pursued. But I have done my duty, and the nation of which we form a part must be responsible for that which has been done in relation to this principle.

The Lord has required at our hands many things that we have not done, many things that we were prevented from doing. The Lord required us to build a Temple in Jackson County. We were prevented by violence from doing it. He required us to build a Temple in Far West, which we have not been able to do. A great many things have been re­quired of us, and we have not been able to do them, because of those that surrounded us in the world. This people are in the hands of God. This work is in the hands of God, and He will take care of it. Brother George Q. Cannon told us about the lies that are abroad. It is a time when there have been more lies told about Mormonism than almost any other subject ever presented to the human family. I often think of what Lorenzo Dow said with re­gard to the doctrine of election. Says he: “It is like this: You can, and you can't; you will, and you won't; you shall, and you shan't; you'll be damned if you do, and you'll be damned if you don't.” That is about the condition we as Latter-day Saints are in. If we were to undertake to please the world, and that was our object, we might as well give up the ship; we might have given it up in the beginning. But the Lord has called us to labor in the vineyard; and when our nation passes laws, as they have done, in regard to this principle which we have presented to the Conference, it is not wisdom for us to make war upon sixty-five millions of people. It is not wisdom for us to go forth and carry out this principle against the laws of the na­tion and receive the consequences. That is in the hands of God, and He will govern and control it. The Church of Christ is here; the Zion of God is here, in fulfilment of these revelations of God that are con­tained in these holy records in which the whole Christian world profess to believe. The Bible could never have been fulfilled had it not been for the raising up of a prophet in the last days. The revelations of St. John could never have been fulfilled if the angel of God had not flown through the midst of heaven, “having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come.” Was that angel going to visit New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and the world, and call the people together and preach to them? Not at all. But the Lord raised up a Prophet. The angel of God delivered that Gospel to that Prophet. That Prophet organized a Church; and all that He has prom­ised in this code of revelations (the Book of Doctrine and Covenants) has been fulfilled as fast as time would admit. That which is not yet fulfilled will be.

Brethren and sisters, it is our duty to be true to God and to be faithful. Make your prayers known unto the Lord. The Lord has told us what He will do concerning many things. He will fulfill His word. Let us be careful and wise, and let us be satisfied with the dealings of God with us. If we do our duty to one an­other, to our country and to the Church of Christ, we will be justi­fied when we go into the spirit world. It is not the first­ time that the world has sought to hinder the fulfillment of revelation and prophecy. The Jewish nation and other nations rose up and slew the Son of God and every Apostle but one that bore the Priesthood in that day and generation. They could not establish the kingdom; the world was against them. When the Apostles asked Jesus whether He would at that time restore again the kingdom to Israel, He replied: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” He did not say it would be established then; but He taught them to pray: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy king­dom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” It is a long time since that prayer was offered, and it has not been fulfilled until the present generation. The Lord is preparing a people to receive His kingdom and His Church, and to build up His work. That, breth­ren and sisters, is our labor.

I want the prayers of the Latter-day Saints. I thank God that I have seen with my eyes this day that this people have been ready to vote to sustain me in an action that I know, in one sense, has pained their hearts. Brother George Q. Cannon has laid before you our position. The Lord has given us commandments concerning many things, and we have carried them out as far as we could; but when we cannot do it, we are justified. The Lord does not require at our hands things that we cannot do.

This is all I want to say to the Latter-day Saints upon this subject. But go before the Lord and ask Him for light and truth, and to give us such blessings as we stand in need of. Let your prayers ascend into the ears of the God of Sabaoth, and they will be heard and answered upon your heads, and upon the heads of the world. Our nation is in the hands of God. He holds their destiny. He holds the desti­nies of all men. I will say to the Latter-day Saints, as an Elder in Israel and as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are approaching some of the most tremendous judg­ments God ever poured out upon the world. You watch the signs of the times, the signs of the coming of the Son of Man. They are be­ginning to be made manifest both, in heaven and on earth. As has been told you by the Apostles, Christ will not come until these things come to pass. Jerusalem has got to be rebuilt. The Temple has got to be built. Judah has got to be gathered, and the House of Israel. And the gentiles will go forth to battle against Judah and Jerusalem before the coming of the Son of Man. These things have been revealed by the prophets; they will have their fulfilment. We are approaching these things. All that the Latter-day Saints have to do is to be quiet, careful and wise before the Lord, watch the signs of the times, and be true and faithful; and when you get through you will understand many things that you do not today. This work has been raised up by the power of Almighty God. These El­ders of Israel were called from the various occupations of life to preach as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. They were not learned men; they were the weak things of this world, whom God chose to con­found the wise, “and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.” We are here on that principle. Others will be gathered on that principle. Zion will be redeemed, Zion will arise, and the glory of God will rest upon her, and all that Isaiah and the other prophets have spoken concerning her will come to pass. We are in the last dispensation and fulness of time. It is a great day, and the eyes of all the heavens are over us, and the eyes of God Him­self and all the patriarchs and pro­phets. They are watching over you with feelings of deep interest, for your welfare; and our prophets who were slain and sealed their testimony with their blood, are mingling with the Gods, pleading for their brethren. Therefore, let us be faithful, and leave events in the hands of God, and He will take care of us if we do our duty.

I pray God that He will bless these Apostles, Prophets and Patriarchs, these Seventies, High Priests and Elders of Israel, and these Latter-day Saints, who have entered into covenant with our God. You have a great future before you. You have kept the commandments of God, so far as you have had the opportunity, and by receiving the Gospel of Christ and being faithful your reward is before you. Your history is written and is be­fore you. I will say that this nation, and all nations, together with presi­dents, kings, emperors, judges, and all men, righteous and wicked, have got to go into the spirit world and stand before the bar of God. They have got to give an account of the deeds done in the body. There­fore, we are safe as long as we do our duty. No matter what trials or tribulations we may be called to pass through, the band of God will be with us and will sustain us. I ask my Heavenly Father to pour out His Spirit upon me, as His servant, that in my advanced age, and during the few days I have to spend here in the flesh, I may be led by the inspiration of the Almighty. I say to Israel, the Lord will never permit me nor any other man who stands as the President of this Church, to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty. God bless you. Amen.