| Show OPENING OF CONFERENCE Sixty Sixth Semi Annual Session of Saints EXERCISES AT TABERNACLE Exhortation nnd Instruction from I tho Leaders of the People President Presi-dent Woodruff President Lorenzo Snow and Others Speak Reports from London and Mexico Weaily x a Million Baptisms Suit CaUo City Utah Octohor n j The sixtysixth semiannual confer once of the Church of Jesus Christ of atterday Saints fnet In the Tabernacle Taber-nacle yestciday moVnlng The services ser-vices were commenced at 10 oclock with the members of the First Presidency Presi-dency Wllfoid Woodruff George Q Cannon and Josoph F Smith rind vail Ious I-ous other officers of the church on the stand and a large attendance of the Saints In the body of thc building President Cannon called the confer t once to order and after the singing of n hymn by the choir and congregation h prayer was offered by President Lo icnzo Snow PRESIDENT WOODRUFF Then President Woodruff delivered the opening address as follows I feel thankful my brethren and sisters that I havo tho privilege this morning or attending this sixtysKlli semiannual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of LatterUay Saints with the Hitlers of Israel and tho Saints of the living God My first attending any ronftioiuo of this tliinvh wn In 1SII and fiom hit t day illl tho piosont from time to time us i licinnHtanrcv I ave peunlttod I t i havo on jONI this I blessing 1 And while I Ito iroph IB and Apostlrn and Kldorn nnd Saint i or God i groat ii iny of thorn HIli nnm her of Ihfin t who have uRomhlrd III tin so j rinvn nrn tmlnv litton Ito othor Rlllo of k thee vail still other men us Apoatlts nnd I 11 Isauhcts and Kldeis and mom In is of time I church stand In the llesh following In theIr footsteps I feel thankful to have tho privilege of meeting with tho Apostles and tho various quorums of the Church of Jesus Christ of LatterDay Saints today to-day And while wo are together during r this conference hope and trust that wo may all of uo have our hearts lifted UI In I Pitt yet anti thanksgiving to I Clod and ask Ids blessing that we mil IK guided by his Holy SpIrit In whatever wo rio called to teach to tim SatntH and Iho labors vu havo to pel form as time people 1 of God Wo have great reason to rejoice Croat reason to he thankful to nor Cro titer to God our Heavenly Father for Ills mercies and blessings over us today The hand of tho Loid may pry clearly Ito seen I think by all nun who enjoy I thin Spirit of God In the past history of tho letterDay Saints Ills hand has 1 > pen over us since our organization In iso until the piesent ilmv Vo have jiufigod of course through many trials aintl tribulations but Limo Lords mercy Is over us and we are planted hero In ho mountain of Israel the ion of God and jilattd hem with responsibilities listing upon us to ho cm lied out In our clay and lime I am pleased to meet with tin Apostles und trust as far ns wo hive line anti opportunity vvo shall have lie jnlvllego of hearing from them Tint I will say that President Snow Is expected to bo absent train us for a day or so In ntttndlng tho funeral of Judge Smith of llrlgham City nnd I will call upon him this morning to occupy a llltlo tlmo In talking to us PRESIDENT SNOWS TALK President Lorenzo Snow next addressed ad-dressed the conference He opened 0 with a picture of the blissful condition to prevail when the millennium shall arrive The world at present from amoral a-moral point of view was most forbidding forbid-ding Tho press was filled with accounts ac-counts of detestable crimea and human misery All would be altered byand by and all should endeavor to hasten the coming change lIe spoke of till need men foil at times for supernatural aid agtvliist earthly dllilcultles It seem to be necessary to try the Salits to the extent of their endurance U < ut their characters may bo developed devel-oped Sometimes the lives of elders I p f > had been in peril but they hal been saved by following the directions of the spirit of God President Snow t closed by asking God to bless Presi Jdent Woodruff f Elder H J Grant then addressed the conference He rejoiced In the fellowship fellow-ship nnd Integrity of the Saints and V In the diligence of those who presIded In the stakes of Zion 1ho disposition he paid to depend upon the tithing of oacli ntoKe for tIme support of Its poor etc was happily dying out and there was a pleasing tendency to sustain the presidency of the church with means ns well ns by faith It should he the pride of every Saint to pay his tithing for this purpose United effort would enable the Saints to place their tithes in the hands of those who could use It to best advantage for the advancement ad-vancement of thc work of God Elder Giant dwelt upon the Importance of training childien wisely They should he taught to ho obedient tu God so that as Saints they would be piepared for their high destiny The matter of personal lesponslblllly to God was em piiaslzod Especially should the priesthood priest-hood he said magnify tImely calling sustaining those over them In the church and In the government of the nation THE WORK ABROAD IClder John W Taylor who has Just returned from missionary service in London W4s the last speaker at tho morning service Ho described tho work he had been engaged In tIng t-ing interestIng pictures of London life Ills absence from Utah had taught him to more highly nppicolate the val IOVH and mountains of Zion The average av-erage individual In Utah ho paid was miioh better off thnn the average Englishman En-glishman Elder Taylor dcsulbed a Hhon noar the London mission which sold bone that had been discarded by jostaurantH and hotels Crowds of wretched people bought these bones for a penny or two a pound and then pat on tho curbstones near by gnawing the gristle and scraps of meat and digging dig-ging out tho marrow Many of you Kiigllfh people declared the speaker would ho Hnawlng bones In England 4t you had not como to the valleys of ion Elder Taylor related an Incident that occurred on thc train on which he returned turned The men In our sleeper the moinlng WI reached Utah ho said went Into thc smokingroom because thc ladles were dressing The room was full of smoko when I went In I never was a hand for smoke Id almost al-most rather see the Indies dress than to stand the smoUlng Laughter But I remained and listened to om > of the men attacking Bilgliam Young He declared that Brigham when he came I out beta never expected civilization to follow him or that railroads would be milt Into IIIII legion I just thought I would put III a word for Brigham ind I said to this man Brigham Young did not fly from clvlllratlon lIe led fiom just such savages as you appear ap-pear to bo Ho prefonod the led sav ages to the white And when you in Imato that ho did not favor inllioids yoU are mistaken for ho wan one of he greatest piomotoia of rallioad mlldlng west of the Missouri river and was one of thc largest contractors on the first transcontinental line Elder Taylor concluded with a mm illincntny reference to the Elstedd od after which tho people were dill nlsscd with a benediction by Putll arch John Smith AT THE AFTERNOON SESSION flu afternoon services began with the icndltion of the hymn Come Hear Us Lord and Como and Dwell Prayer was offered by President Edward Ed-ward 1attildge and tho hymn The Si lilt of God Like a Flic Is Burning Burn-ing followed Apostle George Tcasdalo missionary of the church in Mexico preached the opening sermon taking for his theme the mission of the church In spreading the gospel of truth to all the nations of the earth When the lalterday work was lovcalcd he said It made the utiulioment that all I I pi oplo olinulf i lopint and believe They weio called upon to believe In I a len < < lnlll God n imdlnlnr Christ Itsim they vvoie call I b tl upon tr I I eel I ee in I heavenly I via ionp tl lit vIMIatlnn of nngels nnd ml innilous m gifts Ho felt giatlflod I 1 at the t procresi mall by his oliuioh In shed ding light In darkened lands and said they hud great occasion for rejoicing Ill caw the evidences of Gods blessings bless-ings and revelations on all sides and as an instance pointed to the great templo which he said could not have been designed and built without dlvlm revelation He closed by felicitating HIP people upon the gland pin poses of time meeting and said he felt amplj repaid for his travel of 1200 miles In ordor to bo in attendance at the conference con-ference nceJOHN HENRY SMITH The duty and Importance of spreadIng spread-Ing the I gospel In I older that the I people may bo vvni nrd if the ipcstabllshiii of truth upon the caith formed the subject of Apostle John Homily Smiths dlscnurse He said the message entrusted en-trusted to the LattoiDtiy Salr s was nn > of Pence nnd truth nndXSeater gloiy happiness und peace of mind nnd heart could bo attained by living up to Its teachings as expounded by DIP leaders of tm I > church Theie were still million that had never hoard this glorious message which ho said was Intiodiieed by tho Savior and pleached by his disciples nnd the work of the Mti mon chinch I would not be finished until I tho I message hail 1 boon can led to all the people of the earth In spile or the projudlces that had always cx Islld in many mens minds the church was making wonderful progress pro-gress he said and the great scholars of the world were examining its teaching teach-ing and mnny were recognizing Its principles of love and truth He exhorted ex-horted his heaieis to awaken to a I greater leallzatlon of the Importance of their mission and manifest more Interest In the work STRENGTH OF THE CHURCH Apostle M W Merrill repotted the total number of baptisms in all the temples of the Mormon church from Its oiganlzatlon up to December 31 1S94 was 733737 These figures did not Include In-clude the work done In the endow menthouses which however had been duplicated In most cases so the number num-ber wan cry nearly correct The speaker considered thin but a small beginning compared with the multitudes multi-tudes to whom this great blessing was unknown He urged the members to greater Interest In temple work Plebldent Wllfoid Woodruff supplemented supple-mented Apostle Merrills closing remarks re-marks by saying thc temples had been built nnd should be made use of by time LatterDay Saints who were responsible re-sponsible for the deliverance of Gods message to the living and the dead After the announcement of society meetings the choir Bang the anthem Jctuu 1 My Cross lave Taken and the closing prayer was offered by J G Klmball The conference then adjourned ad-journed until 10 oclock this moinlng |
