DISCOURSE DIS COURSIE iriS vered red at the utah stake conference provo saturday jan ian 16 1897 by FRANCIS M LYMAN SIR E BY ARTHUR WINTER affords me very great pleasure my icren and sisters to meet with you in conference and to listen to the re of president partridge and it t john these reports give us to ferstand ter tand stand parti partially aliv the condition of rp eople le and the spirit of the lord ta ill iii enlighten us further so that breaking ing to you we may give such inn inaction as will tend to strengthen our in this great work I 1 presume ithe i the object of organization of and of priesthood in the the church and steb is tor 0 edifying ing the faith of the people way be a living faith for living Us productive progressive and sav abile bile other faiths are not we lid d be active and eng engaged aged constantly aming works of righteousness beve the secret of success to us as 19 and to the church is the conat labor r of the members their devo cited fervency a and nd that the church and develops in proportion tion to dorics s performed by the people I 1 pierc on n the page of 0 the doc and covenants some scripture behold it is no not t meet that I 1 should com atad in all things fo for r he that is compelled in the same is a slothful and not a wise ottati lt tati wile wherefore I 1 he rec receive eileth th no reward 1 I say men should be anxiously en t to abood a good cau cause causland seand and do many things of WB free will and bring to pass much ess IT the power is in in them wherein they are themselves and inasmuch as te taatto to d ck good they sh shall all in nowise lose their re it ut ba that boeth not anything until he is and receive th a commandment heart and keeneth it with the be same is damned Odet stand my brethren and sisters tt when ouen we become members of this it is important for us to be sly engaged in this good cause lain in bringing to pass much righteous 9 soft we are under obligations to be workers bers we have been warned and aver been blessed of the lord with a measure of faith and the measure of that faith is determined by our devotion a an individuals exercising the agency that god has given us and the power with which we are naturally endowed for we have power within ourselves to do 40 right and to work righteousness we may put ourselves in condition to receive faith from the lord to receive absil rom win kun the die power of the holy ghost rf t and to be endowed in a manner superior to people who have not entered into covenant with the lord if we take stock of ourselves today we will find that we receive of the lord faith intelligence li gence wisdom and revelation in in proportion to the exercise of that native power which god has endowed every human being with the gospel of 01 jesus christ is the law of I 1 liberty the low law of liberty there is no compu compulsion isi n exercised by the father upon the souls of the children of men we have perhaps three hundred people here this morning in this tabernacle I 1 am informed there are five hundred 1 hope there are because I 1 would like to have a great many people hear me I 1 do not come here very often and the more there are here the better we like to be heard beard by a great many people for when we visit you and labor with you we labor as the servants of the lord we are in the service of our master we are not hereon here on our own account we have not even called or appointed ourselves but our heavenly father has called empowered and appointed us to this ministry we are very anxious that the latter day saints should shod be under the sound of the voices of inspired men tor for that is a great blessing what a blessing it was to brethren who could sit under the sound of the voice of the prophet joseph and hear him talk and also the apostles who were associated with him in the early history of this church what a great blessing it has been to the people who had the privilege of listening to the voice of the prophet brigham young durin during ghis his long presidency and to the voice of president john taylor and to president woodruff and the apostles it is a precious privilege a privilege that cannot be so generally enjoyed by all the people in the future as it has een in the past for the people are becoming widespread and numerous the stakes of zion are numerous there be ing thirty seven in the church and five hundred bishops wards and the church has become a very important organization the most important organization upon this earth today I 1 say therefore the more that are here the better I 1 thank thi the lord there are five hundred it is a splendid improvement and I 1 felt encouraged this morning when I 1 saw ahe he people pour into this tabernacle although there is plenty of room left we have received of the lord his favors and blessings blessing and the light and inspiration of his holy spirit the church has been in training now for sixty six years and over there are a few members who have been in the church nearly that length of time possibly there may be some in the church today who have been sixty six years in it and others for a great number of years but the members of the church have be come fairly well established and itis it is the experience and training ol of the mem bers of the church that determines as to the solidity of the church and its advancement not that I 1 would feel that when the church was made up of but lew few in number the lord could not maintain it but I 1 argue from our experience peri ence in early times the people were untried and unproven but it is not so now the church is numerous and the people have long been tried well tried and proven the doctrines and discipline of the church are so well understood der stood by the people and we have pas passed sed through stages of trial and ey peri evence ence for there are points that are lilethe like the narrows in the road occasional ly and it is a question as to who will be able to stand and go through the narrows and endure the hardships and the trials and th the onslaught of the enemy that is arrayed against us the power of of satan that is arrayed against us and against our heavenly father and has been arrayed against him and his purposes on the earth from the very beginning and will be until the end until satans gatans power is finished upon this earth but we can determine ourselves individually as to what strength and power ower of endurance we are possessed of C we can determine why we do not possess more why we are not stronger why we are not better established ana and fixed in the gospel than we are for though the strength that we have comes from the lord it depends upon us as to the measure of that strength and faith that we receive upon the exercise of our judgment and upon th the e execution of the will of god by each of us for the power is in us in connection with out our agency to bring to pass much righteousness and we are expected to be occupied therein I 1 have noticed how ready and willing our heavenly father is to bestow strength and faith upon us and how quickly it is done don when ewhen we put ourselves in proper condition as we are able to do I 1 say that every man in this church is able to put himself in a condition to receive what the lord has to bestow upon him we have ability for we are the sons oi of god we in inherit herit life from him and spirit and faith under standing and wisdom As natural men mortal fallen men we are endowed with a measure of understanding intelligence telli gence and power every particle of which comes from our heavenly father but he has yielded it to us we are entitled to it we inherited it for we are his sons and daughters and we inherit what he has and the power that he pos DOS besses we are like him we are his children born as he was born and tried and proven and having like experience as that through which our forefathers have passed and our brothers and sisters who have gone before us in the parly early generations of men we inherit in common with them and we have the power to serve the lord and to keep his commandments or we have power to reject them there is no compulsion upon the souls of the children ol of men there is no compulsion upon us when the gospel is presented to us as to whether we will receive it or not every man exercises his own agency and his own judgment and after we have surrendered and have received faith from the lord and have entered into cove nant with him to serve him and keep his commandments it depends then upon us as to whether we will continue in his service or not As we came freely and of our own choice into the church and have taken these obligations upon us so are we just jus t as free to go out of the church and desert the church whenever we please that is the liberty that we enjoy and the gospel does not deprive us of it and never will this agency will endure and the power in us will endure and will increase with our knowledge and with our experience now it is very desirable my brethren and sisters not only desirable and pleasing to the lord but it is very im to us as individual members of this church to know that we are actual ly pro progressing essing and that we are faithfully la laboring for the salvation of the souls of men first our own souls man should first save his own soul I 1 think if we turn to the history of any oi of the men whose record may be seen and read in any of these books bible and book of mormon you will find that where one has become a devout laborer for the salvation of the souls of men there has been wrought salvation in his soul first the first soul to be saved with me is my soul I 1 say the first soul to be saved with our savior the messiah was w as his soul and it required the devo de va tion and humility and determination that possessed his soul before he could come to be my savior and yours he had bad first to workout work out the salvation of his own soul as eve every other son of god has ind had to do but he me was the senior he stood next to his father he was our rider elder brother and as he had first labored and secured his own salvation he became the prince of saviors he was worthy to come as the savior of all saviors the lord of all lords lord among the children of men for in va valiancy lincy he was valiant he was valiancy itself he was obedient he was devoted he was the very personification of humility and of integrity and obedience he surrendered his whole soul entirely to the will of the father there were no questionings in his mind if the time bad ever been in his life that questions had bad possessed his soul as they have possessed the souls of great men all questions had been settled and he had passed that line when a man hath gone one so far he has passed assed the danger hue and jesus our elder elder brother had bad accomplished this and he had done it in his own proper person and spirit by his own devotion and faithfulness by his own serenity of mind and spirits spirit and his deep and undying devotion to his father who dwelt in heaven and the reason that he stood eminently preeminently pre emigen fly above all was because that he had out stripped all he had done more than all he was first and foremost and the greatest the champion the chiel between him and his eather all chances of division and separation had vanished I 1 might say all possibility of it had been dismissed he had bad thus proven himself but first as I 1 would draw your attention to tg first saving himself securing his own standing and fellowship with his father then he was prepared to help others I 1 will read a little to yu you from the lite life of alma he was giving instruction and exhortation to his son helaman the ben benefit befit ol of a fathers counsel and ex peri ence A thought I 1 would not like to lose sight of came to my mind while brother john was speaking of the primaries meeting with older people and I 1 will digress enough to speak of it here ohl oh how valuable it is for children to meet with their seniors their lathers fathers and their mothers people who have had e experience x peri ence and if it be valuable tor for children to meet with their parents and have the benefit of their experience knowledge and wisdom is it not just as true that it is profitable for the young people in zion to meet with the older ones and the experienced and to give ear to them that the young may have the benefit of the experience of the aged for as I 1 said there are times in this church when we pass through trying circumstances that if we had time might be referred to in detail where the people are thoroughly proven upon important points and it m must us t needs b be e that these times of trial should come and that offenses should come but woe to them by whom offenses do come but when the church has once passed through such an experience and has had bad a trial tria fand and proving the great majority of the people will remember that still there is always with the church a percentage of the people who are below the age of understanding they grow up and a generation comes along in a little season that knew nothing of those trials and have not been tried and had experience then the time of trial comes again it is necessary that these times of trial come the experiences that this church has passed through have been necessary for the proving and trial odthe people it was necessary that there should be an opposition as there was an opposition in the councils of the lord when satan led the hosts of the discontented against the son of god and the father it is is necessary that there should be opposition in this world the very conditions that exist in this world are important and necessary for our trial and proving and for this church it is necessary for the leading elders of the church to have experience and all the people to be tried also but if we are wise as young men and young women in the church we will be led and guided by the he older ones bries and profit by their experience experience and listen to the wise and profitable sounds that they may utter in our ears and profit by what they have endured and it will take all that we can possibly learn from their experience to enable us to endure if we are wise we may learn from what others have experienced but some of us are so dull that we need to learn by experience we are not always willing to profit by the experience examples instructions and precepts of others it is necessary that we should have some experience peri ermence ence and important that we should ee be tried but the strength of the ex peri ence 0 of f the aged in this church ought to be sufficient to preserve the young and the inexperienced and to prepare them to endure the trials that M shall come upon them but I 1 was to read some ot of the words of alma he says for I 1 went about with the sons of mo mosiah seeking to destroy the church of god but behold god sent his holy angel to stop us by the way and and behold he unto us as it were the voice 0 ice of f thunder and the whole earth did tremble beneath our feet and we all fell to the earth lor for the fear ol of the lord came upon us but behold the voice said unto me arisme and I 1 arose and stood up and beheld tha angel and he said unto me if thou wilt of thyself be destroyed seek no more to destroy the thet church of god and it came to pass that I 1 fell to the earth and it was for the space of three days and three nights that I 1 could not open my mouth neither had I 1 the use of my limbs and the angel more things unto nw me i which were heard by my brethren but I 1 did not hear them for when I 1 heard the words if thou wilt be destroyed of thyself seek no more ai to destroy the church chu ach of god I 1 was st struck ruck mi alth wl tH such u ch great fear and amazement lest perhaps I 1 li should be destroyed that I 1 fell to the earth I 1 did hear no more rut elut I 1 was racked with eternal torment for II 11 my soul was harrowed up to the greatest da