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Show j SEMI-ANNUAL CONFERENCE. j Sunday, Oct. Stli, IbTl. ! Conl'iToncc convened at 10 a.m. Tlii chuir sa 115 "Oh God, our help in ages i:t.-I."ti Uishop Lenzo I). Y'ount; n tiered up prayer. Singing )iy the choir. Kr.DEitJoiiN TaVlou wr.s pleaded . to meet the people io thig capacity, lo consult witli them upon nmlLers pertaining per-taining to the welfare of tho kingdom ol' God upon the earth, and, under the , guidance of the Holy Spirit, devi.se such measure;! as .shall prove lor its advancement and progress. Spoke of the feelings of the people wheD they , first obeyed the gospel. Theso principles prin-ciples are still the same; like iho ircat Jehovah they were eternal and unchanged. un-changed. Truth, eternal truth, like its great author, is the same yesterday, to-day and lorevcr. Said lue Latter-day Latter-day Saints knew the truth of tho gospel gos-pel they had received and lor this knowledge they were not indebted to any human instrumentality, but to the Spirit of the Most llih which had revealed re-vealed U to theiu. Tlio speaker said if people were Methodist;, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Quakers or Shakers, that was all riht, he only claimed the privilege that was extended to others. He was satisfied with things as they were; he had no fault to Jin J. lie didn't even lind fault with the devil, for he presumed it wag necessary to have Hich a being. Referring to the treatment which the servants of Cod received iu these days, he said ho never know a time when men of God were well treated. The people here were comfortably situated, had good houses, good farms, and sat under their own vino and fig tree, and none could make them afraid. If any felt a trembling of the knee, let them go to their God and get a little more religion-and theu live it, and it would lead them to eternal life. Singing by Prof. Kishburne's choir: "Hark the song of Jubilee." Elder Geo. Q. Casnon addressed the congrrgrtion on the subject of (he Word of Wisdom, which principle, he aaid, was first given as a word of counsel, but that new it was a command. com-mand. And it was nceesscary that iho peoplo who were tho pioneers in the Kingdon of God hhould take such a courso in their habits as would lay the foundation that should stand forever; aud urged the necessity of the Latter day Saints putting away from tbem everything that would debar them from enjoying the spirit of God. The speaker treated on tho building of the Temple here, and the facilities which iho opening of tho Southern railroad to the neighborhood of the atone quarry would afford; and referred to the building of one at St. George, showing the advantage it would n fiord the people in the south in attending to their ordinances without having to travel to this city, a distance of 300 miles. He urged the payment of tithing, that these buildings might La speedily completed. This, he suid, wa3 the manner instituted for defraying the expenses of such works, and the Saints should perform their whole duty iu this matter. Speaking oi the sulTerings and persecution which the Savior and his apostles had endured, he suid those who crucified tbe Savior thought they were doing good service, supposing he was a malefactor; and doubtless thoo who killed the Apostles thought they wero wicked men. Mankind had not differed in this respect up to the present, but were as zealous in prosecuting tho servants of God as they had ever been. Tho apostles were the, marks at which all shafts were pointed, yet whatever might be the fate of the servants of the Lord in this age the work in which they wero engaged would stand lorevcr. lor-evcr. Anthuui fy the Tabevnaelc choir. Benediction by P.cst. Geo. A. Smith, Adjourned till 2 p.m. i P.M. Cofilu'-'iicc culled liiorder. Singing by I lie Tabernacle char. Eider Geo. O. Cannon prayed. Saeramcutal hymn by the Tubein.icle choir. Kldkr Orson Pratt took as a test Iho last two verses of the Old Testament: "liehold I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of tiie great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart ol' tbo lathers to the children, and the heart of the children to tbe lathers, lest I come and mite tho earth with a curse." The h day Saints, ho held, wore believer in the liiblo and tho Book of iMormon, io the revelations given 'through Joseph Smith, and "in every word that pro-ccedcth pro-ccedcth out of the mouth of God." Tbe doctrino that ho was about to speak on had relation to their dead, to their fathers who. had diod in past generations without a knowledge of the plan of salvation while hero on tho earth, as honest men and women, and who had gquo into thq spirit world, waiting a redemption that will include all the nations of the dead as well as all the nations of the living. His tot contained a plain and positive prediction. predic-tion. Had ihut prophet come, 'or was his coming yet in the future V" Would he travel among the people and minister minis-ter to them; or would ho come bearing the authority he had held when on earth and bestow it upon men, empowering em-powering them to act in fulullmeut of the purposes of God ? The speaker held -that El'jah had come, bestowed his authority upon men, and they had been engaged in the work of carrying out the objects in view by tho mission of this ancient prophet again to earth. In the temple' of Kirtland, Ohio, built by the Latter-day Saints when tho church was poor and lew in numbers, hosts of angels had appeared and Elijah had appeared, and had an- j nounced the fulfillment of Malaehi's pronheev. Tho rcd.etfiptioD ' of the j human )amil'y was in pursuanoo of a j plan devised before the generations of men had an existence on the earth. The speaker elaborated on the pro-existence pro-existence of man, tho identify and intelligence in-telligence of the spirit whether in or out of a tabernacle of flesh, and their power to receive and believe the principles prin-ciples of the gospel in the world of spirits as much as if living on the! earth in a condition ol' mortality. Pass- ' ing from this ho dwelt on tho doctrine ' afbapUm for tho deat), eaciiytliiii" ' his arguuiyuta b " ;" - iJerinri'-- - isolations from and urged the necessity of XJmples being built in which ordinances might be administered by tho Saints for tho fathers, that redemption might come to all who would obey the gospel, lie contended that baptism, like marriage, wiaau ordinance that could only be administered to persons in the Uesh, reasoning that the relatives of those who had died in past generations must he baptized for their dead who received the gospel in the spirit world, applying the scripture which speaks of Jesus goiug and preaching to the spirits in prison, and that where Paul says, "If the dead ri?e not at all, why are yc then baptized lor the dead." Anthem by ProJl.-.or l'lMiburne's ch"ir. ; iilder Geo. I. Cannon then presented pre-sented to tbe Conference the names of a number of ciders selected to go on ; minions, the selections buing sustained by unanimous vote: Elder Cannon aunounced that some I ofthoAO whose names had been pre-j sen ted might not be in a position to ' start immcdiatly on their niis.-ions, and their eases wouid be considered, lie j also said that others would be called, Oq motion of President Brigham ' Vournr the Conference wss adjoerccd nntil the 6th of April, 1172, to alembic alem-bic if. that date in the Nw Tabernacle at 10 o'clock in the morning. The Tabernacle choir san? an anthem; an-them; and President Geo. A. Smith pronounced the closing benediction. |