PRESIDENT WILFORD WOODRUFF
addressed the assemblage as follows:
I feel very thankful that my life
has been preserved to attend another
semi-annual conference of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints. I hope and trust that
while we are together our hearts
may be lifted in prayer to God, and
that we may enjoy His Holy Spirit
and the revelations of heaven; that
what may be said while we are as-
sembled together during our confer-
ence may be according to the mind
of God.
I feel that, of all people under
heaven, we have the greatest reason
to rejoice before the Lord that we
have lived in a day and generation
when the God of Israel has set His
hand to establish His Kingdom, to
gather together His people, to build
up Zion, to carry out the great pur-
poses which the Lord has promised
and given by revelation through the
mouths of inspired men—Prophets,
Patriarchs and Apostles—since the
world began. I rejoice in the Gos-
pel of Jesus Christ; I always have
since I have been made acquainted
with it.
It has been my lot and privilege
to be associated with the Latter-day
Saints for over fifty years. I have
seen the afflictions, the tribulations,
the persecutions through which this
people have been called to pass from
their organization until the present
day. But we have everything to
encourage us as the Saints of God,
as those who have entered into cove-
nant with Him, obeyed His com-
mandments, and walked in the ordi-
nances of His house. The Lord has
never in any dispensation or gen-
eration failed to carry out His
purposes and His works; and of all
the generations and dispensations
that God has given to men, this last
and great dispensation—the greatest
of all dispensations—has been re-
vealed to the human family.
The Kingdom has been revealed,
the Church of Jesus Christ has been
organized, the Zion of God has been
inaugurated, the people of God have
been called together; and in all the
troubles and trials through which
we, as a people, have been called to
pass, there has been no power that
has stayed the hand of God or
thwarted His purposes with regard
to the carrying out of His principles
or those which have been revealed
unto the Latter-day Saints.
The Lord has called—commenc-
ing with Joseph Smith, the Prophet
of God—Apostles and Prophets,
Patriarchs and Elders, High Priests
and Seventies in these last days to
go forth and warn the world. We
have been under the necessity of
doing this. As the Lord told Ez-
ekiel, He sent him as a watchman
unto the House of Israel; He told
him what the consequences would
be if he did not fulfil his mission
and do his duty—that the blood of that
generation of the House of Israel
would be required at his hands. [Ezekiel 3:17-18] So
the God of heaven ordained when
He raised up Joseph Smith the Pro-
phet to organize this Church and
Kingdom. He stood as a watchman
on the walls of Zion unto this gene-
ration. There are 30,000 people, I
suppose, today dwelling in these
hills of Israel who hold some por-
tion of the Holy Priesthood. It is
our duty to warn the world; we have
been called to do this; we would have
been under condemnation if we had
not fulfilled that duty; and so the
Church and Kingdom of God have
grown until the present day.
With regard to our future, it is in
the hands of God, who holds the
destiny of this people and of all
men in His own hands. I would
say to the Latter-day Saints. Fear
not; lay your burdens upon the
Lord, and He will not fail us. He
will not fail in carrying out all His
purposes and all His promises unto
us. The Zion of God will arise, and
so will the glory and power of God,
and we shall be prepared as a bride
for the coming of the bridegroom.
Let our hearts be raised to God
while we are assembled together in
this Conference, that we may have
His Holy Spirit with us continually.
