Discourse 1898-04-03
Utah, on Sunday afternoon, .
-[At President Woodruff's request, President Cannon read the 1st Section
of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.]-
I want the attention and the prayers of the Saints who have assembled
upon this occasion. I have been sick and very weak in my body for a
month past, and did not feel that I would be able to attend this Confer-
ence till the day before it opened. I have been blessed in this respect to
be with you. I desire to say some things to you, and perhaps some
strange things, too. I feel disposed to say something about myself, to
give you a little of the history of my life, because of what I may want
to say, before I get through, to the rising generation of Israel. My re-
marks may be very eccentric to any but Latter-day Saints, and to them
also, I expect.
I suppose when I was born the devil knew what I should be called to
do; for there have been from the day I was born until the present two
powers with me—one to kill me, the other to save me. I stand before
you to-day pretty sound-looking, for a man ninety-one years of age. I
stand before you with a body in which almost every bone has been broken,
except my back and neck. I have had through my life a power after me
to take my life. When I was about three years old I was pushed into a
caldron of boiling water, which had just been taken off the fire. My
grandmother took me out, and my skin all dropped off excepting off my
head and feet. I was wrapped up for months in cotton and oil. That
was the beginning of my troubles. When I was twelve years of age I
was drowned; at any rate, I lay in thirty feet of water long enough to
