Show CONFERENCE WAS RECORD BREAKER Largest Gathering of Saints in the History of the Church at the Seventyeighth Conference President Joseph F Smith Declares That There Is Today a Greater and More Gratifying Spirit of Union and Love In the Church Than Ever Salt hake City There can bo but little question that tho seventyeighth conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints was the largest gathering of the kind In the history of the church members of tho faith being present from all quarters of the globe The first days services of the con ference on Friday October 4 consisted consist-ed of tho semiannual review by Pres ident Joseph F Smith and addresses by President John R Winder and Apostles A II Lund Francis M Ly man John Henry Smith and Holier J Grant In the evening there was an Illustrated lecture and an organ recital re-cital by J J McClellan In the tabernacle taber-nacle and a meeting of the quorum of the seventies In the Assembly hall During tho evening also there were meetings and reunions in various parts of the city I In his address at tho opening of the conference President Joseph P Smith took occasion to say that there is today to-day a greater mid more gratifying spirit of union and lovo In the church than over before He said the Interest In the doctrine of the Latterday Saints Is more widespread than over and that the work of extending the teachings Df Jesus Christ ceases not but increases in-creases every day So far as I know and I think we are In a position to judge rightly there Is ti spirit ofunion and love in ill the church and pervading the people peo-ple of God Such a condition Is a source of pleasure and strength The duty of the Latterday Saints relative to the work of the Lord should be paramount par-amount to everything else It Is true that men and women necessarily nec-essarily have to engage In various temporal tem-poral occupations to provide themselves them-selves with the necessaries of life The Lord designed that His children should enjoy this life and Its blessings It has been said that the Idler shall not eat the bread of the Industrious nnd there should bu no Idlers among tho people of God Tbo Latterday Saints should put their highest thoughts to tho call o of Zion to the cause of truth to the cause of righteousness The Lord Instituted In-stituted this work for the salvation of men In this life as well as for the bouls redemption III the world to come I do not believe in the doctrine taught by some that it matters not what a man does In this life so long as he confesses Christ before death I wish to impress upon the Saints the necessity for observing the gospel precepts You know for yourselves the truthfulness of the gospel nnd now it is for you to live Itlvc up to the covenants you have made with God BO that no man can point to you as a transgressor as a wicked and corrupt man Let your light to shine that men will see your light and glorify your Father I in heavon Keep away from the Inunts of sin Have charity There are those who speak only evil of Latterday Saints Tinso pcrbons lire mostly in our midst They shut their eyes to all good and send out false reports I leave such persons in the hands of a Just God President Anthon II Lund devoted a largo part of his address during tho forenoon session of the conference to the work of missionaries In the foreign for-eign Held President Lund declared himself extremely pleased with the reports re-ports that cOllie from the various missions mis-sions The spcnkerdiislred to add his testimony to that of President Smith that everything points to greater unity and deeper lovo and believed that tho manifestation of this spirit Is due In no small degree to those who labor abroad There Is every hope anti encouragement encour-agement for the Latterday Saints said President F M Lyman In the course pf an hours discourse at the afternoon session of the conference There Is over reason why the people should bo cheerful declared Apostle Lyman The Lord continues to sustain sus-tain them They have been gaining experience and have an army of vet ernuB in < ho service of the Lord Glowing words of praise were those uttered by I Apostle Holier J Grant In memory of the late Apostlo George Tensdalo Twentyfour years ago tho two had assumed the olllco together said Mr Grant nnd there had never boon n moment when he did not ad and now mire the man as lie lived hat ho was dead ho revered hs mem Apostle Grant also urged a com ory pllnnco with the Injunctions laid down In ho Word of Wisdom Higher edcuatlon was the theme of nddresH by Apostlo John Henry nn Smith The trend of the speakers argument was that he church should encourage education and tho mombore thereof take advantage of It John H Winder llrst counselor of the first presidency with wellnigh four score and ten years hanging over his head spoke briefly Mr WIndfer offered up a devout proyer He said in thankfulness that his life had been spared thus long Smith ho attributed It to the goodness of the Lord that this Is so Mr Winder announced Jt to bo his fixed determination to stand staunchly by the president of the church and to servo the Lord more devotedly de-votedly than ever > j Second Days Session The crowd in attendance at tho Saturday Sat-urday session of conference of time Lat terday Saints was largely In excess of tho opening session It being estimated esti-mated that at least 12000 people wort present The principal address of tho day was made by Apostle Orson Whltnoy who In the commanding lanswvjjo 01 which he Is a master made answer tan < t-an alleged attack made by Blabno Spalding on Sept 22 In which the Episcopalian divine tools to task various vari-ous denominations irceds or cults Apostle Whitney entered Into a spir ited defense of the purity of the Mormon Mor-mon home and closed with the expression ex-pression of the hope that lilsliof Spaldlng did not realize what liewnk saying when be uttered the words at trlbutcd to him Apostle Hyrum M Smith took tho prod to what he characterized hypocrites hypo-crites and fakers aiming particularly at those who be said pretend to preach the gospel yet deny tbo personality per-sonality of God Other speakers wore Apostles Hud ger Clawson whose address was devoted de-voted largely to statistics George A Smith who also spoke on the subject of marriage and children and George A Richards who spoke of the progress prog-ress of the church Apostle Joseph A Klchards at the afternoon session said that there le every reason to be thankful to God for the Lords promises have been fulfilled ful-filled We have scon the church grow In seventyseven and a half years from a membership of six to one oi the magnificent proportions which we now behold This has been accomplished accom-plished in the face of tho sternest opposition op-position attacks artd vituperation on the part of the press nnd pulpit but In this work we know that the Eternal Father Is at the helm Apostle Richards declared that Mormonism Mor-monism was foreseen In a dream by Nebuchadnezzar and likewise I Its coming com-ing was the fulfillment of a vision of John who had seen another angel in the distance Tho Latterday Saints ought to bo encouraged and thankful They will become a mighty people They have the organization and the authorities of the primitive church Why ought not then the church of the Latterday Saints be the greatest |