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Show WOMAN'S EXPONENT. 6 comes to my mind, which has helped me in my life, and I think it will help you, and it is a little quotation from Shakespeare, wherein he says, "Above all, to thine own self be true; and it must follow as the night does the day that thou canst not then be false to any man." I hope and pray that the Lord will bless you all, that you may work together in harmony, and support your leader, and the leaders of the Church, and Aunt Bathsheba for she needs your support and your prayers constantly. She prays for you, she is constantly thinking and working for you, and I think you are doing the same for her. May God bless you. Amen. Apostle John Henry Smith: My dear sisters, I regret that I did not have the privilege of hearing all of the remarks that were made this forenoon by the brethren and sisters who have spoken to you. It would have given us some ideas as to the spirit, in a greater degree, at least, that exists in your meeting in fulfillment of the great duties and responsibilities that rest upon you. I scarcely anticipated this privilege this morning at half past seven o'clock, but I am pleased to be here, and was pleased to hear the remarks that were made by President Smith this morning, and your president, and their words of commendation, and in the remarks that have been made by Sister Smoot or Sister Dusenberry, rather, in addressing you for a few moments this afternoon. I know of no body of people in this world to whom greater praise is due than the ladies who form the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints. The membership of that organization is made up of ladies whose hearts have been given to the service of It is true in all parts of the the Master. world that the ladies are the better element of society. The churches of the world would soon be closed if the religious sentiment and feeling of the ladies should abate, and they stop going to But church for about three months. in world there all the our sisters among are none whose opportunities have been so great, as have the opportunities of the sistership of the Church of Jesus Christ Saints. I am not here to of Latter-daare absolutely better than say that you your sisters among other peoples and other religious denominations; but I am here to say that no more heroic body of women have ever breathed the breath of life, than the ladies who compose the membership of this organization that our Father has established in these latter-dayWhen we think of the conditions that have been attendant upon your lives, gathering as your have done from many lands and from many climes, many of you reared under different circumstances with peculiar religious training, your acceptwork, ance of the truth of the latter-da- y from the your being brought together and instructed and earth of the ends molded under the direction of the prophets of this latter-dadispensation, and shown in your has been the heroism that of fulfillment the duties and lives, in the responsibilities that have fallen to your lot, commends you to every thinking man and woman who has noted your labors, and who has noted in any degree the good that has been accomplished by the sacrifices (if we can call them sacrifices) that y s. y you have undergone in the fulfillment of the destiny that our Father has marked out for His children in this day. ScarceSaints ly a home among the Latter-da- y but what has had its bread winner taken from there and sent into the world to preach the Gospel, and mother has been left with her little family to make her way as best she could, providing for their necessities, and aiding her companion in the fnlfillment of the obligation that he was sent to discharge in the world- - Our sympathies sometimes have gone out in large degree to the Elders in their fields preaching the Gospel, but the Elders in fulfillment of their ministry, in great measure have passed through most pleasurable scenes, in the changing sights, in the variety of circumstances that have surrounded them, and in the consideration they have received; while a stalwart and true wife at the fireside at home, offering her prayers in his interest, dividing the results of her handiwork with him, in seeking to provide him some him upclothes and a little means on his way, and in the guardianship of her offspring, and in the effort to impress upon their minds the dignity of the work in which their father was engaged; the nature of the obligation that rested upon her, with him in seeing to it that, having of been warned of the the Gospel it become their sacred duty to warn their kinspeople, their brothers and their sisters, and their neighbors and friends perchance, or to any of our Father's children to whom the glad tidings of great joy had not yet been carried. When we remember these conditions, and go into these homes, and when we meet with you and mingle with you upon occasions of this character, and remember the nature of the work that has fallen to your lot, it may be well said of you, as it has been said by many a husband speaking of his wife, or speaking of his neighbor'swife, or speaking of the friends and sisters of a district in which he lived, there are none better; there are none nobler; there are none truer, molded in the likeness and image of Mother Eve, than the homes over which thesewives have presided, whose hearts were given to their Maker, who have been devoted to the accomplishment of the divine purposes, the uplifting of their own children and implanting within them laudable and proper ambitions and caring in the midst of these efforts for those unfortunate ones that are found in every community, who need the sisterly and motherly care of some devoted friend 'in the midst of their to-hel- old-tim- e distresses. Standing before over three thousand people in the city of El Paso last fall, it was my privivilege to speak to that body of people, coming from every part of the country, and my brethren, some of them; and Upon that occasion I remarked to those people that no more heroic people ever breathed the breath of life than the wives and mothers of the Latter-da- y Saints; true in every place; earnest, devoted, unyielding, fixed in the establishment of their faith; they had stood by their homes and protected and preserved them while their helpmates were away in the world declaring the principles of .the Gospel, seeking to extend that truth which was dear to them all. I believe this is absolutely true. While I would not flatter you, or be guilty of offering you flattering words, I believe these are the words of truth; that when the history of this world shall be written and the history of mankind shall be put upon the sacred page upon which the future races may look, that the efforts that have been made in the interests of the extension of the principles of this latter-da- y Gospel, showing the position occupied by our ladies, will be one of the brightest and best upon the sacred pages How few, when we think of of history. of the conditions that we think wben it, have surrounded them, have failed in the fulfillment of that mission! I need not go away to any other home than to my own home to bring up in pleasing remembrance the conditions of the past, for in our home we were orphans, so far as fathers were concerned,, in large degree, the father ever absent, ever the public servant, ever in the discharge of a public duty: but around the fireside of those homes were mothers, brave, true, heroic no mark of infamy has ever attached to one of their sacred names; but in the fulfillment of the part that they had accepted, ministering in the interest and well-bein- g of the households to which they belonged, they have remained in the fulfillment, true and devoted in the enjoyment of the duties that were imposed upon them. And while I speak thus of my own home and its experiences, as I look around upon the experiences of others, and know the positions in which the families of so many were placed, the trying circumstances that surrounded them, the efforts so noble and so true that were made to aid their fellows, to share their scanty meals, to share their scanty clothe5, to share the light amount of fuel that was brought into the home, to help that home so that there should be no suffering, and that none should receive hurt, but that all should be blessed and comforted, and that these meagre supplies should be eked out to accomplish the best possible results to all concerned. How good the Master has been to us! How good he has been to these heroic women, these mothers. In the midst of their trying situations and limited supplies they made the best efforts possible that their children should be men and women cf the better mold, loving their country, but above all loving their God, and the propositions involved in the sacred message that He had entrusted to His servant in the day and age in which we live. True to husbands? Yes. True to wives?. Yes. True to children? Yes. True to the unfortunate and feeble? Yes. True to those men that have been selected, and the women also who have been selected to administer in the 'discharge of the obligations of counselors True to the ones who are and advisers. the upon picket lines of the world, dethe claring message of glad tidings to the children of men. True to every element of right, earnest, devoted, brave, heroic, the mission that they have performed will stand written in the Lamb's Book of Life, as a witness to God that His sons and His daughters who received this message of glad tidings from our father and from His holy Son, through the administrations of His prophet, were not selected unwisely, unwittingly, but they were selected for their merit, for their heroic courage, for their devotion, and love of everything that was good and pure. |