OnsL dimdhsd. Jowdsstdk. ANNUAL
COHDCE
OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
Held in the Tabernacle Salt Lake City, Utah
OfvdL 6, 7 and, 9, 19M
With Report of Discourses
Published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Salt Lake City, Utah
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
WE PRESENT
JhsL (Book ofc QfloimotL
The latest edition cornea to you In four different bindings. Of course the tea* remains the same.
Missionary Edition 50c — by mail 60c
Cloth Binding, Embossed JS1.50
Full Morocco $3.50
J>JwjfL (plowboif to (pJwph&L
AND
OTZoihsJL SfoiieA, piom, Uisl Book of* OTlotmofu
By WILLIAM A. MORTON
This delightful voluma republished as a reiteration of the stories that children lore to hear and to read.
Price in Cloth .$1.25
JOu^ to Jhsioloqi^
By PARLEY P. PRATT (Reprint warranted by demand)
"Alms to embody In a concise and somewhat original manner and style, a general view of the Science of Theology as gathered from revelation, history, prophecy, reason and analogy."
Price _ Sim
9ti&t&u^ ofc JhsL tfhwuJv
Presented in two important sets and recommended to you as a vital record.
DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE CHURCH By Prophet loseph Smith Presented in 7 volumes
COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH Presented in 6 volumes For prices and other Information we urge you to write to us.
DESER.ET BOOK COMPANY
SALT LAKE CITY 10. UTAH
The One Hundred Fourteenth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The One Hundred Fourteenth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convened in the great Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, April 6, 7, and 9, 1944.
Sessions of the Conference were held as follows : Thursday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Friday at 10 a.m. and 2 and 7 p.m., Sunday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Through the courtesy of Radio Station KSL of Salt Lake City, the proceedings of the Conference, with the exception of the Friday evening meeting, were broadcast for the benefit of the general public.
President Hebar J. Grant was present and presided at all sessions of the Conference except the Friday evening meeting. President J. Reu- ben Clark, Jr., First Counselor in the First Presidency, presided at th it meeting, and, at the request of President Grant, President Clark con- ducted the services at all of the sessions of the Conference.
Owing to conditions incident to the War emergency, the general public were not invited to attend the Conference. Those present con- sisted of the following :
General Authorities of the Church Present
The First Presidency: Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., and David O. McKay.
The Council of the Twelve Apostles : George Albert Smith, George
F. Richards, Joseph Fielding Smith, Stephen L. Richards, * , John A. Widtsoe, Joseph F. Merrill, Charles A. Callis, A. E. Bowen, Harold B. Lee, Spencer W. Kimball, Ezra T. Benson, and Mark E. Petersen.**
Patriarch to the Church : Joseph F. Smith.
Assistants/ to the Council of the Twelve Apostles : Marion G. Rom- ney, Thomas E. McKay, Clifford E. Young, Alma Sonne, and Nicholas
G. Smith.
Of the First Council of the Seventy : Levi Edgar Young, Antoine R. Ivins, Samuel O. Bennion, John H. Taylor, ***, Richard L. Evans, and Oscar A. Kirkham.
The Presiding Bishopric: LeGrand Richards, Marvin O. Ashton, and Joseph L. Wirthlin.
* Richard R. Lyman excommunicated from the Church November 12, 1943.
**Mark E. Petersen was sustained at this Conference as a member of
the Council of the Twelve Apostles. ***Rufus K. Hardy excused because of illness.
2
Thunday, April 6
GENERAL CONFERENCE
First Day
Other Authorities and Officers Present
Church Historian and Recorder : Joseph Fielding Smith, and A. Wil- liam Lund, assistant.
Members of the General Committee, Church Welfare Program.
Superintendency and Priesthood members of Deseret Sunday School Union Board.
Superintendency and members of General Board of the Y. M.M.I. A. Commissioner, Seminary Supervisors and members of the Church Board of Education.
Temple Presidencies.
Presidencies of Stakes, former Presidencies of Stakes, Stake Clerks, former Presidents of Missions, Patriarchs, High Councilmen, Presi- dencies of High Priests Quorums, Group leaders of High Priests, Presi- dencies of Seventies quorums, Presidencies of Elders quorums, Bishop- rics of Wards, Presidencies of Independent Branches, and Presidents of Dependent Branches in organized Stakes.
Mission Presidents: David A. Smith, Temple Square; Gustave A. Iverson, Eastern States ; William H. Reeder, Jr., New England; David I. Stoddard, Northern States; William L. Killpack, North Central States ; Thomas C. Romney, Central States ; Heber C. Meeks, Southern States; William L. Warner, Texas; Graham H. Doxey, East Central States ; Elbert R. Curtis, Western States ; Elijah Allen, California ; Ger- man E. Ellsworth, Northern California; Desla S. Bennion, Northwestern States ; Octave W. Ursenbach, Canada ; Walter Miller, Western Canada ; Arwell L. Pierce, Mexico; Lorin F. Jones, Spanish- American ; Ralph William Evans, Navajo-Zuni.
FIRST DAY MORNING MEETING
The opening session of the Conference was held in the Tabernacle, Thursday, April 6, and convened promptly at 10 o'clock a.m.
PRESIDENT J. REUBEN CLARK, JR.
First Counselor in the First Presidency
This is the opening session of the 114th Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are convened in the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Church was organized under the direction of the Lord 1 14 years ago today, with six members. Its membership today is approaching 1,000,000.
k There is on the stand this morning our honored, our revered, and beloved President Heber J. Grant, who is presiding at this Conference.
PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT
3
We thank our Heavenly Father that He has so blessed President Grant that he is able to be with us today. On the stand also are all the other General Authorities of the Church, except President Rufus K. Hardy of the First Council of Seventy, who is detained from the Conference on orders of his physician by an illness from which he has not yet fully re- covered. We send our love and greetings to him and our prayers for his early and complete recovery.
Elder Joseph Anderson is the Clerk of the Conference.
President Grant has requested his First Counselor, President Clark, who is speaking, to conduct the Conference services.
This full service will be broadcast over Station K.S.L., Salt Lake City, as will also the service this afternoon beginning at 2 p.m. The services tomorrow, Friday, at 10 :00 a.m. and 2 :00 p.m. will likewise be broadcast over K.S.L., and also the two services on Sunday at the same hours. There will be no sessions of the General Conference on Saturday.
The singing will be by the congregation, composed of several thou- sand members of the Priesthood leadership of the Church.
Conductor : Elder J. Spencer Cornwall.
Organist : Elder Frank W. Asper.
The first song will be "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet."
Song Folder No. 8, L.D.S. Hymn Book 288
Hymn Book No. 152
Words by William Fowler
Music by Mrs. Norton We suggest that our audience of the air join in the singing of the Conference.
The opening prayer will be offered by President George A. Christen- sen of the Emigration Stake.
The congregation sang the hymn "We Thank Thee, O God, For A Prophet."
Elder George A. Christensen, President of the Emigration Stake, offered the invocation.
Singing by the congregation, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" — Words from a Medley, Music by Lewis D. Edwards (L.D.S. Hymns No. 290).
President Clark : President Heber J. Grant, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has prepared a message for the people, which will now be read by the Clerk of the Conference, Elder Joseph Anderson.
PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT
I am grateful that the Lord has lengthened my life and increased my strength so that I may have the privilege and the joy of meeting with you at another general conference of the Church.
I am grateful I can say that I feel I am better now than I was at the
4 GENERAL CONFERENCE
Thursday, April 6 ' First Day
conference six months ago. I am able to work nearly half of each day at my office, and sometimes more, with the counsel and consent of my doc- tor. It is his recommendation, however, that I do not speak at this time, and so I shall ask your forbearance while that which I have to say shall be read. If I were on my feet, speaking under the momentary prompt- ings of the Spirit, perhaps it would be given to me to say more things in addition to those which are here written — and I ask the Lord that he may direct all who speak during this conference, that they may speak under the guiding influence of his holy spirit, and that those things which are now read, and those things which shall yet be spoken, will further bear witness of the truthfulness of the cause in which we are met, and give comfort and counsel to all who shall hear or read them.
As I sit in this tabernacle my mind goes back over the many years that have passed since we first began holding meetings here. I see the leaders of this people who have come and gone — from Brigham Young on down — and I can see generations of the Priesthood of Israel who have gathered here to learn their duty, to renew their faith, and to go forth to labor for the furtherance of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faces and events pass in memory — the faces of mighty men of God, most of whom have long since finished their work here- — and you, my brethren, have taken their places, and carry forward the work from where they left it.
My Brother's Conversion
As I sit here today, I remember what to me was one of the greatest of all the incidents in my life, in this tabernacle. One Sunday afternoon, nearly fifty years ago, I came here as one of the youngest of the apostles to attend the meeting, and saw for the first time in the congregation, my brother who had been careless, indifferent, and wayward, and who had evinced no interest in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My brother, Fred, and I had engaged in a venture which had failed. We had both placed all that we had in it and more. Feeling that he had ruined me financially and being without that faith which sustains in time of crisis, Fred went into the woods with the intention of taking his own life. Finally, he got down on his knees and prayed, "O God, if there is a God!" When he got up from his knees, he threw his pistol into the brush, and sat down and wrote me a letter, saying that he knew there was a God who told men to do good, and that there was a devil who inspired men to destroy their own lives, which is second only to murder.
As soon as he had written the letter a spirit came over him telling him, "The minute your brother gets that letter he will insist on you being baptized. You are a fine specimen to be baptized; you are one of the worst prof aners in the country ; you once had an interest in a gambling house." And so he threw the letter into his trunk instead of mailing it.
The next night he wrote the same thing again, and shed more tears, but did not have the courage to send me that letter either. He wrote three such letters and put them all into his trunk. Finally, he wrote again and said, "Heber, this letter is going to be mailed," and he went to the post
PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT
5
office and mailed it. He fought all night with himself, and got up before daylight and went to the post office and got the letter out and threw it in the trunk also. Finally, he wrote again and said, "This letter will surely be mailed." He did mail it, and again he got up before daylight and started for the post office to get it out, but came to a large post or pole and threw his arm around it, and said, "I am going to stand here and hold on until the mail goes out," which he did.
When I got his letter, instead of my writing and telling him he was to be baptized I wrote him and said, "Fred, maybe now that you know there is a God and a devil, you think I will ask you to be baptized, but as long as you live I do not want you to be baptized until you yourself have faith in the truth of the Gospel."
I bought a Book of Mormon and took it to my office, and I prayed to The Lord that when I opened it it would be to the best passage in the entire book for my brother. It opened to the 36th chapter of Alma, wherein Alma tells of his going about with the sons of Mosiah, fighting against the Church, and that he had suffered the torments of the damned, but after praying to the Lord and becoming converted to the truth he had exquisite joy, and from that day he had labored unceasingly to bring souls to a knowledge of God.
I turned that page down, and I turned down a page at chapter 29 wherein Alma says : "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people !" I felt that those comments were the best in the whole book for my brother, and I thanked the Lord that the book had opened to the 36th chapter of Alma, and for prompting me also to think of the 29th chapter. When, after this, I saw Fred for the first time in this building, and realized that he was seeking God for light and knowledge regarding the divinity of this work, I bowed my head and I prayed that if I were requested to ad- dress the audience, the Lord would inspire me by the revelation of His Spirit, to speak in such manner that my brother would have to acknowl- edge to me that I had spoken beyond my natural ability, that I had been inspired of the Lord. ^
I realized that if he made that confession, then I should be able to point out to him that God had given him a testimony of the divinity of this work.
President Angus M. Cannon, who was presiding at the meeting, came to me and said : "Brother Milton Bennion is here and has been invited to speak, but he can come some other day."
I said : "I never speak long. Let Brother Bennion take all the time he needs and I will take what time is left."
Brother Bennion told of his visit around the world; among other things, of visiting the Holy Land and the sepulchre of Jesus.
While he was speaking, I took out of my pocket a Ready Reference that I always carried, and marked some passages that tell of the vicarious work for the dead, of the announcement that Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison, and proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them
-
. *
6 GENERAL CONFERENCE
Thursday. April 6 Pi"t Day
.... I intended to preach upon the fact that the Savior of the world had not only brought the Gospel to every soul upon the earth, but also that it reached back to all those who had died without a knowledge of it, and that they would have the privilege of hearing it. In choosing this subject, I thought, "What will appeal most to my brother ?" Our father had died when Fred was six weeks old, and realizing that work was being done where his father now is, it seemed to me that this was the best subject I could discuss.
When it came time for me to speak, I remember standing here at this pulpit, feeling that this was perhaps the greatest of all the great themes that we as Latter-day Saints had to proclaim to the world. I lajd the book down, opened at that page. I said: "I cannot tell you just why, but never before in all my life have I desired so much the inspiration of the Lord as I desire it today." I asked the people for their faith and prayers. I prayed for the inspiration of the Lord, and I never thought of the book from that minute until I sat down thirty minutes later. I closed my remarks at twelve minutes after three o'clock, expecting that Presi- dent George Q. Cannon, who was also present, would follow me. Brother Angus Cannon came to the upper stand, and said, "Brother George, there are forty-eight minutes left for you ; will you occupy the rest of the time ?"
Brother George Q. Cannon declined, and indicated that he thought it would be a good time to close the meeting. But Brother Angus refused to take "No" for an answer, and said : "I am not going to waste three- quarters of an hour. If you don't speak, I shall call on somebody else to occupy the balance of the time.
Brother Cannon said, finally : "All right, I will say something. And he arose and said in substance :
"There are times when the Lord Almighty inspires some speaker by the revelations of His Spirit, and he is so abundantly blessed by the in- spiration of the living God that it is a mistake for anybody else to speak following him, and one of those occasions has been today in the address of Brother Grant, and I therefore ask President Angus Cannon to call on someone to offer the benediction, after the choir has sung, and dismiss the meeting." Of course Brother Angus could do nothing else.
When I sat down after my talk, I remembered that my book was still lying open on the pulpit. President George Q. Cannon was sitting just behind me in the President's seat, and I heard him say to himself : "Thank God for the power of that testimony !" When I heard this I remembered that I had forgotten the sermon I had intended to deliver, and the tears gushed from my eyes like rain, and I rested my elbows on my knees and put my hands over my face, so that the people by me could not see that I was weeping like a child. I knew when I heard those words of George Q. Cannon that God had heard and answered my prayer. I knew that my brother's heart was touched.
I devoted my thirty minutes almost entirely to a testimony of my knowledge that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, and to the wonderful and marvelous labors of the Prophet Joseph Smith, bearing witness to
PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT
7
the knowledge God had given me that Joseph Smith was in very deed a prophet of the true and living God. I will not take time here to repeat that whole sermon, but some paragraphs from it I should like to recall how. I said:
"It affords deep interest, no doubt, to all the Latter-day Saints who are here, as well as to those who are not members of the Church, ... to listen to a recital that has any bearing upon the life and labors of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is a remarkable fact that we can never read of the labors which he performed, or listen to others speaking of the great work which he accomplished, without taking pleasure in it, while on the other hand, there is nothing so interesting in the life and history of any other individual but what by hearing or reading it time and time again we become tired of it. I can bear testimony, from my own experience, that the oftener I read of the life and labors of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the greater are the joy, the peace, the happiness, the satisfaction that fill my soul in contemplating what he did.
"It is also a source of unbounded joy to me and fills my heart beyond my power of expression to contemplate the fact that God our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ have visited the earth and again re- vealed the gospel to man ; and it fills me with thanksgiving and gratitude, far beyond my power to tell, that he has blessed me with a knowledge of the divinity of the work in which we are engaged. The Lord in this re- gard has been no respecter of persons. The humble, the poor, the un- learned (so far as the education of this world is concerned) have been as abundantly blessed of God with this testimony as- those that have had more abundantly of the things of this world. We find people that have been gathered from all the nations of the earth, in fulfilment of the prophecies that were uttered thousands of years ago, that the Saints should be brought to the tops of the mountains and that the Lord would establish His work here ; and this people are blessed with a testimony of the divinity of the work in which they are engaged. . . . No power upon the face of the earth, not the wisdom of all the wise men combined, could ever have united the hearts and the souls of the Latter-day Saints as God has united them. . . .
"While I was visiting in St. George and talking with the president of the St. George Stake of Zion, I was forcibly reminded of the faith that burns in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints. He was speaking of his early experience, and he told me that one day President Young said to him, 'Brother McArthur, within ten days I wish you to prepare to go on a mission to Europe, and I expect you to be absent for four and perhaps seven years.' That very day that he was told to get ready he had a child born, and when he returned home the child was over four years of age.
"In going upon that mission he did not have the means . . . , but he sold some property that was worth three or four times as much as he was able to get for it ; in fact, some few months after, it changed hands for about four times more than what he sold it for. He made this sacrifice, and without one dollar of reward he went to the nations of the earth and spent four years of his life proclaiming the gospel, declaring that the
8 GENERAL CONFERENCE
Thursday, April 6 First Dag
angel that was seen flying through the midst of heaven having the ever- lasting Gospel to preach to them that dwelt on the earth had come, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God who testified of this.
"BrotherMcArthur told me of many incidents of his mission that were truly remarkable. Among other things, he said the Prophet Joseph Smith visited him while he was on this mission. And I say to you today that . . . thousands, yes, tens of thousands of men and women will stand up and testify, as Brother McArthur did to me, that God our Heavenly Father has blessed them, that he has given them manifestations of his ap- proval of their labors which have been inspired by the Holy Ghost ; and they will, in all solemnity and without any excitement, testify to you that they do know for themselves that they are engaged in the work of God . . .
"More than once I have heard President Wilford Woodruff say, in private and public, that he has listened to the Prophet Joseph Smith stat- ing to them the fact that the Latter-day Saints would yet come to the val- leys of the Rocky Mountains and become a great and a prosperous people. We stand today as a living evidence to the world of the divinity of the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Why? Because our very pres- ence in these mountains is a fulfilment of the predictions of that inspired man. ... I stand before you today a mere boy, and yet Joseph Smith was martyred when he was a year younger than I am. . . . When we con- template what he did ... it is indeed a marvel and a wonder. In speak- ing of this I am reminded of . . . the book, Figures of the Past, written by Tosiah Quincy, who was a statesman and a philanthropist. In it was the following statement :
It is by no means improbable that some future textbook for the use of generations yet unborn will contain a question something like this : What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most power- ful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen ? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written : Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet.
"... The Latter-day Saints have seen scores of the prophecies that he uttered fulfilled to the very letter. Everybody that came into his pres- ence was impressed with the influence and spirit which he manifested. Many are the men whom I have met that have ridiculed the late Prophet Brigham Young, and I have persuaded such men to go with me to meet him, and they have invariably come away from meeting him inspired with a reverence for the man, because the Spirit of God surrounded him day by day. I tell you that it is by the inspiration of God, and not by the power of man, that Joseph Smith, that Brigham Young, that John Taylor, that Wilford Woodruff have been able to unite the hearts of the Latter- day Saints and to establish and build up the Church of Jesus Christ. Without the light and the guidance of the Spirit of God the work of God on the earth could not succeed ; it would crumble and go to pieces. . . .
"I want to say to the Latter-day Saints that it behooves us, having received a testimony of the divinity of the work in which we are engaged, so to order our lives from day to day that glory shall be brought to the work of God by the good deeds that we perform, so letting our light shine
PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT
9
that men, seeing our good deeds, shall glorify God. No people upon the face of the earth have been blessed as have the Latter-day Saints ; no people have ever had the many manifestations of the kindness and mercy and long-suffering of God that have been bestowed upon us, and I say we, above all men and women upon the earth should live God-like and upright lives. That God may help us to do so, is my prayer and my desire. . . ."
This, in brief, in spirit and in substance, is what I preached to my brother under the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord, in this tabernacle on January 26, 1896. I was then thirty-nine years of age!
The next morning, my brother came into my office and said, "Heber, I was at a meeting yesterday and heard you preach."
I said, "The first time you ever heard your brother preach, I guess ?"
"Oh, no," he said, "I have heard you many times. I generally come in late and go into the gallery. I often go out before the meeting is over. But you never spoke as you did yesterday. You spoke beyond your natural ability. You were inspired of the Lord." These were the identi- cal words I had uttered the day before, in my prayer to the Lord !
I said to him, "Are you still praying for a testimony of the gospel ?"
He said, "Yes, and I am going nearly wild."
I asked, "What did I preach about yesterday?"
He replied, "You know what you preached about."
I said, "Well, you tell me."
"You preached upon the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith."
I answered, "And I was inspired beyond my natural ability ; and I never spoke before at any time you have heard me, as I spoke yesterday. Do you expect the Lord to get a club and knock you down ? What more testimony do you want of the Gospel of Jesus Christ than that a man speaks beyond his natural ability and under the inspiration of God, when he testifies of the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith ?"
The next Sabbath he applied to me for baptism.
Enduring to the End
God our Heavenly Father has promised that those who are faithful to the end shall be saved in his kingdom. It fills my heart with unspeak- able joy when I see the aged veterans stand up and bear their testimonies to the truth of the gospel. ... I rejoice also when I see the youth of Israel in the line of duty, the sons and grandsons of those who have labored energetically for the advancement of this kingdom. It fills my heart with gratitude and thanksgiving that the testimony of the Holy Ghost does abide in the sons and daughters of those who have been faithful to the cause of God.
But there is nothing that is more sorrowful, nothing that brings greater regret to my heart, than to see the sons and daughters of those who have been faithful turn away from the Gospel of Christ, but I believe that if we as' Latter-day Saints will arise in the might and majesty of
10 GENERAL CONFERENCE
Thursday. April 6 First Dag
our calling, arise in the testimony of Jesus Christ that burns in our hearts, and do our duty and keep the commandments of God our Heavenly Father as we should keep them, and set examples before our children that are worthy of imitation, few of them will turn away from the path of- right.
Go where you will among the elders of Israel, travel from one end of the Church to the other, and you will find a testimony burning in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints that this is the work of Almighty God and that his Son Jesus Christ has established it. You find this testimony, you hear it borne, but do we always live the lives of Latter-day Saints ? Do we live as we should live, considering the great testimony that has been given unto us ? Do we keep His commandments as we ought to do ? We carry upon our shoulders the reputation, so to speak, of the Church, every one of us.
When I look around and realize how many of those who have been wonderfully blessed of the Lord have fallen by the wayside, it fills me with humility. It fills me with the spirit of meekness and with an earnest desire that I may ever seek to know the mind and the will of God and to keep His commandments rather than to follow out my own desires.
The Repentant Sinner
There is nothing in the world that is more splendid than to have in our hearts a desire to forgive the sinner if he only repents. But I want to say, do not forgive the sinner if he does not repent. "By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins — behold he will confess them and forsake them." It is up to the Lord, however, and unless they con- fess their sins we are not obliged to forgive, but when they really and truly repent, it is one of the obligations that rest upon us to forgive those who have sinned.
The devil is ready to blind our eyes with the things of this world, and he would gladly rob us of eternal life, the greatest of all gifts. But it is not given to the devil, and no power will ever be given to him to over- throw any Latter-day Saint that is keeping the commandments of God. There is no power given to the adversary of men's souls to destroy us if we are doing our duty. If we are not absolutely honest with God, then we let the bars down, then we have destroyed part of the fortifications by which we are protected, and the devil may come in. But no man has ever lost the testimony of the Gospel, no man has ever turned to the right or to the left, who had the knowledge of the truth, who was attending to his duties, who was keeping the Word of Wisdom, who was paying his tith- ing, who was responding to the calls and duties of his office and calling in the Church.
There are some who are forever asking to know what the Lord wants of them, and who seem to be hesitating on that account. I am thoroughly convinced that all the Lord wants of you and me or of any other man or woman in the Church is for us to perform our full duty and keep the commandments of God. •
PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT 11
Pray Always
One of the requirements made of the Latter-day Saints is that they shall be faithful in attending to their prayers, both their secret and family prayers. The object that our Heavenly Father has in requiring this is that we may be in communication with Him, and that we may have a channel open between us and the heavens whereby we can bring down upon ourselves blessings from above. No individual who is humble and prayerful before God and supplicates him every day for the light and in- spiration of his Holy Spirit will ever become lifted up in the pride of his heart, or feel that the intelligence and the wisdom that he possesses are allsufficient for him.
Pray always, that you may come off conqueror ; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work. (D. & C. 10 :S.)
Pray always, that ye may not faint, until I come. (D & C. 88:126.)
Our Young Men in Service
Between forty-five and fifty thousand of the young men of this Church are now wearing the uniforms of their respective countries. Some of them are here today, and thousands of them are scattered on far fronts in many lands. I hope and pray that every boy will feel in his heart : "I want to know what is right and clean and pure and holy, and I want God to help me." I want every Latter-day Saint soldier to get down on his knees and pray God to help him to lead a clean life, and to preach the Gos- pel wherever he is by the way he lives. There are no sins charged to our account because we are tempted, provided we shall resist the temptation. But we have no right to go near temptation, or in fact to do or say any- thing that we cannot honestly ask the blessing of the Lord upon ; neither to visit any place where we would be ashamed to take our sister or sweet- heart. The good Spirit will not go with us onto the Devil's ground, and if we are standing alone upon ground belonging to the adversary of men's souls, he may have the power to trip us and destroy us. We can't handle dirty things and keep clean hands. Virtue is more valuable than life.
I pray the Lord to bless you, our young men in the armed forces of the world, that our Heavenly Father will be with you to sustain you and to increase your faith day by day; that you may be preserved in your trials, your hardships, your suffering, with strength to face the eventual- ities of each day and with the assurance that the Lord, your God, will bring in his own way and time everlasting compensation to you for your sacrifice, as you walk in his ways and live lives that conform with the Priesthood you bear.
I pray for the wives, the children, the mothers and fathers of these men who are serving their countries the world over, that they may be sustained in their waiting, that their anxious fears may be quieted, that comfort and assurance may come into their lives.
I pray for peace ; for wisdom, reverence and humility on the part of
12 GENERAL CONFERENCE
Thursday. April 6 Pint Day
the leaders of nations ; for repentance, and a turning to the ways of right- eousness on the part of all men.
I pray for the Latter-day Saints in all nations, at home and abroad, and on the islands of the sea ; I pray that they may have the strength and the faith to live righteously, and I extend to them anew the hand of fel- lowship.
I pray for righteous men everywhere. To all of God's children who are worthy to be called such, I send my blessings, for we are all the chil- dren of our Father in heaven, and heirs to his blessings, according to our faithfulness and obedience.
I pray for the sorrowing, for the bereaved, for the oppressed that they shall be comforted.
N What the world needs today more than anything else is an implicit faith in God, our Father, and in Jesus Christ, His Son, as the Redeemer of the world. The message of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the world is that God lives, that Jesus Christ is his Son, and that they appeared to the boy, Joseph Smith, and promised him that he should be an instrument in the hands of the Lord in restoring the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this dispensation. I leave this testimony as a witness to all the world, and I do it in the name of Him whose work this is, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
PRESIDENT J. REUBEN CLARK, JR.
First Counselor in the First Presidency
We have just heard a message from President Heber J. Grant, Pres- ident of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, read by Elder Joseph Anderson, Clerk of the Conference.
President Grant: The people are rejoiced in the admonition you have given us, in the testimony you have again borne to the divinity of this Latter-day work, and in the hope and faith and inspiration you have again brought to them. Their constant prayer is that you may be pre- served yet many years to guide and direct the Lord's work and the Lord's Church on earth.
President Clark : President David O. McKay will now present the General Authorities for your sustaining vote. We suggest that all mem- bers of the Church listening in, participate in the voting.
GENERAL AUTHORITIES OF THE CHURCH SUSTAINED
President David O. McKay, Second Counselor in the First Presi- dency, presented for the vote of the Conference the General Authorities, General Officers, and General Auxiliary Officers of the Church, and they were unanimously sustained by those present, as follows :
GENERAL AUTHORITIES SUSTAINED 13
GENERAL AUTHORITIES OF THE CHURCH
First Presidency
Heber J. Grant, Prophet, Seer and Revelator, and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
J. Reuben Clark, Jr., First Counselor in the First Presidency. David O. McKay, Second Counselor in the First Presidency.
President of the Council of the Twelve Apostles George Albert Smith
Council of the Twelve Apostles
George Albert Smith Charles A. Callis
George F. Richards Albert E. Bowen
Joseph Fielding Smith Harold B. Lee
Stephen L Richards Spencer W. Kimball
John A. Widtsoe Ezra T. Benson
Joseph F. Merrill Mark E. Petersen
Patriarch to the Church Joseph F. Smith
The Counselors in the First Presidency, the Twelve Apostles, and the Patriarch to the Church as Prophets, Seers and Revelators.
Assistants to the Twelve
Marion G. Romney Alma Sonne
Thomas E. McKay Clifford E. Young
Nicholas G. Smith
■ - > Trustee-in-Trust
Heber J. Grant
As trustee-in-Trust for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The First Council of the Seventy
Levi Edgar Young John H. Taylor
Antoine R. Ivins Rufus K. Hardy
Samuel O. Bennion Richard L. Evans
Oscar A. Kirkham
I
14 GENERAL CONFERENCE
Thursday. April 6 First Day
Presiding Bishopric
LeGrand Richards, Presiding Bishop Marvin O. Ashton, First Counselor Joseph L. Wirthlin, Second Counselor
GENERAL OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH
Church Historian and Recorder Joseph Fielding Smith, with A. William Lund as Assistant.
Church Board of Education
Heber J. Grant John A. Widtsoe
J. Reuben Clark, Jr. Adam S. Bennion
David O. McKay Joseph F. Merrill
Joseph Fielding Smith Charles A. Callis
Stephen L Richards Franklin L. West
Albert E. Bowen Frank Evans, Secretary and Treasurer
Commissioner of Education Franklin L. West
Seminary Supervisors
M. Lynn Bennion J. Karl Wood
Auditing and Finance Committee
Orval W. Adams George S. Spencer
Albert E. Bowen Harold H. Bennett
Tabernacle Choir
Lester F. Hewlett, President; J. Spencer Cornwall, Conductor; Richard P. Condie, Assistant Conductor.
Organists
Alexander Schreiner
Frank W. Asper
Wade N. Stephens, Assistant
GENERAL AUTHORITIES SUSTAINED 15
CHURCH WELFARE COMMITTEE Advisers
John A. Widtsoe Albert E. Bowen Harold B. Lee Marion G. Romney Thomas E. McKay Clifford E. Young
Alma Sonne Nicholas G. Smith Antoine R. Ivins John H. Taylor LeGrand Richards Marvin O. Ashton Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Presidency of Relief Society
General Committee
Henry D. Moyle, Chairman
Robert L. Judd, Vice-Chairman
Harold B. Lee, Managing Director
Marion G. Romney, Assistant Managing Director
Mark Austin Clyde C. Edmunds Sterling H. Nelson William E. Ryberg
Stringham A. Stevens Howard Barker Roscoe W. Eardley Ezra C. Knowlton
GENERAL AUXILIARY OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH
National Woman's Relief Society
Amy Brown Lyman, President Marcia K. Howells, First Counselor Belle S. Spafford, Second Counselor with all the members of the Board as at present constituted.
Deseret Sunday School-Union
Milton Bennion, General Superintendent George R. Hill, First Assistant Superintendent A. Hamer Reiser, Second Assistant Superintendent with all the members of the Board as at present constituted.
Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association
George Q. Morris, General Superintendent Joseph J. Cannon, First Assistant Superintendent Burton K. Farnsworth, Second Assistant Superintendent with all the members of the Board as at present constituted.
16 GENERAL CONFERENCE
Thursday, April 6 J First Dag
Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association
Lucy Grant Cannon, President Helen Spencer Williams, First Counselor Verna W. Goddard, Second Counselor with all the members of the Board as at present constituted.
Primary Association
Adele Cannon Howells, President LaVern W. Parmley, First Counselor Dessie G. Boyle, Second Counselor with all the members of the Board as at present constituted.
President McKay : I should like to announce that the voting in all cases was, so far as I could perceive, unanimous in the affirmative.
The congregation sang the hymn, "Come, Let Us Anew" — From Wesley's Collection (L.D.S. Hymns No. 195).
REPORT OF CHANGES, OBITUARIES AND VITAL STATISTICS
Elder Joseph Anderson, Clerk of the Conference, read the follow- ing report of Changes, Obituaries, and Vital Statistics :
New M ission Presidents :
Hugh B. Brown appointed president of the British Mission to succeed Andre K. Anastasiou as acting president.
Octave Willis Ursenbach appointed president