The speaker read from the Doctrine and Covenants (new edition), commencing at the 24th paragraph, and ending at the 33rd paragraph, of section 58.
This is a great people, and if anything would be likely to appall a man and make him feel his own nothingness, it is to stand up before such an audience as is here assembled, to attempt to speak to them and to instruct them. We have, however, something besides our own strength to rely on; if it were not so, I should not be here. The promise of the Lord is that when we assemble together as we have this day, and as we are now assembled, he will give unto us that portion of his word and his counsel as shall be suited to our circumstances, so that every soul shall eat of the bread of life and go away satisfied, and rejoice in the privilege he may have had of coming together as we now are.
This work in which we are engaged embraces more and more. The older I grow the more I become acquainted with its magnitude, with the responsibilities that are connected with it, and especially the responsibilities which rest down upon those who are the chosen leaders of the people.
We know, as was testified to this morning, that this is the work of God, that God has laid its foundation, that God has chosen the men who are associated with it and who are in authority connected with the work, to fill the situations which they occupy. We know also that he has restored the authority that was once enjoyed by man, by which men are enabled to act in the midst of the people in Christ's stead. And knowing these things we are encouraged as a people and as individuals to press forward and to help establish that cause which he has revealed to the earth. But there are many things connected with this work, with its advancement, with the binding of the people together, with the carrying out of the great designs which God has revealed for the salvation of the children of men; which press upon our attention and cause us to exercise every faculty of our minds in thinking, in pondering upon and in giving shape to measures that shall result in the greatest good to this great people.
The principles of the Gospel we are all familiar with, as a people; we have studied the lesson from the beginning and have become familiar with it in almost all its details. We have traveled, we have preached, we have borne testimony to this work; we have helped to gather the people together, organizing them, before doing so, into branches, into conferences, into missions, and then have organized them into companies to travel by sea, to travel by land, to bring them to the gathering places which have been appointed. With these labors the Elders of this church have obtained great familiarity; they have become experts in preaching spiritual salvation, in preaching the first principles of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; in telling the people how they shall be saved from their sins, and what they shall do to obtain the promises of God connected with obedience to this Gospel. And we have, in coming to these mountains, obtained considerable knowledge concerning other matters. Probably to-day a man would not be open to the charge of egotism, of being vain concerning the people, were he to say that, to take the Latter-day Saints, the men of this church, and in no other body of men of the same numbers will you find men of such experience in preaching, in traveling, as missionaries, as Elders, in organizing the people, in handling companies of large bodies of men and women and laying the foundation of settlements, in building cities, in developing countries, and in organizing systems of government in those countries. I do not know that I am open to the charge of being vain concerning the Latter-day Saints when I make this statement—that in all the earth, among all the inhabitants of the earth, you cannot find so large a body of principal men familiar with spiritual things, familiar with tem-poral things, familiar with the handling of large bodies of people and organizing them and dictating their labors and planning for their temporal salvation, and for their good government, as you will find in the midst of these mountains and numbered in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.