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Show .!..... . i m . J , .. J ! i L- J : i . L-Vu' U I .'"ui "ut Jl..! 1J performed in the temples in the last year than any previous year. "I would encourago the young people peo-ple to marry, and to marry right; to keep themselves pure, so that they can be able to go to their bishops and get a recommend to the temples and take their companion for life at the altar of the Lord and be sealed by that authority which binds on earth that which shall be binding in heaven. Belief for Chinese. . At the close of President Lund's remarks, President John K. Winder offered of-fered the following resolution, which was seconded in an impressive manner by B. H. Roberts: "Whereas, the President of ' the United States has called national attention at-tention to the existence of the sore distress in China on account of famine: fam-ine: snd, ''Whereas, the Lord has greatly blessed the Saints and the interest of the church; and, , "Whereas, our relief societies have stored up grain against a time of need; and therefore I move that the trustee in trust be and is hereby authorized to appropriate and donate toward the relief of the poor, famine-stricken in China, twenty tons of flour." The resolution was adopted unanimously. unani-mously. Following a solo by Elder Elihu Call, Sylvester Q. Cannon, who has been called to take charge of the Netherlands mission, addressed the conference con-ference for a few minutes. William H. Smart, president of the Uintah stake, told of the possibilities of that prt of the State. Apostle- George Teasdale was the closing speaker at the morning session. In part he said: ''Do you mean to tell me that this congregation is deceived! That it is under the domination of priestcraft t Do you mean to tell me that this vast congregation is not intelligent: did not know what they are saying when they declared that they knew that these principles are true: that they knew that God lived, that Jesus Christ was the Christ, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet! They had it by revelation, and how can the gates of hell prevail against revelation!" Apostle John Henry Smith was the first speaker at the afternoon session. He scored the Saints for their overindulgence overin-dulgence in pleasure. lie was not one of those who had serious se-rious , objections to pleasure; on the contrary, he was in sympathy with a reasonable amount of it, but he felt that' too much time was taken up with it by many and that a halt should be called. He was opposed to places of amusement that bring all classes of people peo-ple together and urged fathers and mothers to find out what kind of company com-pany their sons and daughters were keeping. Apostle Whitney took for his text that pfcrt of the general address which maintained that there could be no difference dif-ference between the Mormon people and the priesthood. "Why should it be thought that there is a great gulf of difference between the priesthood and the peoplefr- he asked. "Who are these men who have been chosen to be the general authorities of the church! They have come up from the. ranks. They are merely a portion of the peo-ple peo-ple that have the same thoughts and weaknesses you have, and they are no better than the average of tho people from whom they come. Neither do they pretend to be. Whv look for differences of this kind! Why expect, the v priesthood to be better than the people or tlfe people to be better than the priesthood!" In conclusion he said. "Tjiere is no danger to the church from the outside. The perils that threaten our destruction, if they do threaten, are always from within. But if there ever is a time that this work is really in danger, it is because there is something wrong within it, and not because the powers of the earth are arrayed ar-rayed against it; these are only driving us together." He counseled them to give no thought to the insidious voices that would institute schisms between the people and their leaders, but to present a united front. v i r The seventy-eighth annual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Latter-Day Saints came to a close yesterday. The attendance was aa large, if not larger, than at anysimilar gathering in the history of the church. At the morning session yesterday no fewer than 10,000 persona crowded into the Tabernacle andf an overflow meeting waa heid-ln the Aasembly halL At the afternoon session fully an additional ad-ditional thousand crowded into the Tabernacle, while more than 2000 filled the Assembly hall and another thousand attended an open air meeting in front of the bureau of information. It is estimated that no fewer than 15,000 persons were in the two buildings and on the grounds. The features of -yesterday's meeting were the addresses of Anton H. Lund, second counselor of President Smith; Francis M. Lyman, president of the anornm of the twelve, the address of Apostle John Henry Smith on amusements, amuse-ments, the blessing which the president of the church asked on the members of the church and the people of the world, and the passing of a resolution by which 40,000 pounds of flour will be given to the famine-stricken people of China. The features of Saturday afternoon's af-ternoon's meeting were the sustaining of the authorities of the church and the address of B. IL Boberts. S Prophet Smith Re-elected. . The name of Joseph F. Smith as I prophet, seer and revelator of the church was first presented for re-election and voted on. This was followed by the presentation of the names of his counselors, John B. Winder and Anton H. Lund. Next came the twelve apostles, apos-tles, and then the first seven presidents of seventies and the patriarch of the church. In each case, the vote was unanimous. Elder Boberts offered some reasons and arguments in support of the address ad-dress wnich was read by Apostle Whitney Whit-ney and adopted. The speaker took the position that the church was not to be bound by any interpretation of the scriptures made by others; that the church holds the right to interpret the scriptures for itself. Boberts said in part: 1 ''The document was promulgated to meet much of the misunderstanding and some of the .misrepresentation that obtains in the world concerning the work of the Lord in these last days," he said. "I desire to make a supplemental supple-mental contribution in the way of argument argu-ment and of historical illustration of some one or two points in it. We expressed a desire in the document to live at peace with all men, of all political po-litical parties and of all religions. And then attention is called to the fact that there exists a doubt of our ability to so live with our fellow citizens be-; cause we believe in revelation through' God and that the revelation may come at any time. And 'then in religion we refuse to be bound by the interpretation interpreta-tion which others "place upon our beliefs." be-liefs." The other speakers at the afternoon session were Seymour B. Young, Bulon S. Wells and J. W. McMurrin, all of the first seven presidents of seventies. President Lund Pleased. i President Anton H. Lund was the! first speaker at the morning session yesterday. He opened by saying that he "was particularly pleased with the auditor's report as he knew that it was in accordance with the truth. President Lund requested that all who had records rec-ords of value to the church lend them so that a copy might be made for future-reference or else make a copy of the record and send it to the historian's office. Beferring to the statistics of the church he said: "In looking oyer statistics of the church for the last year, I find that there has been a substantial increase in the numbers added to the church. There were 542 births more in 1906 than in 1905, and the death rate was 332 less than in 1905; in fact, the death rate in the stakes of Zion combined does not exceed 1 per cent. This is quite an item for life insurance companies." com-panies." He believed that the low death rate was due to the observance of the Word of Wisdom, and urged the Saints I to observe it more in the, future than they had in the' past. President Lund sail that he had noticed that the young people were entering the temples and feeing sealed. More marriages had been |
