| Show MM mas MAI TZ ic S DELIVERED BY eiffler JOHM Q doon COON AD AN D buta im AND JOIN n the tabernacle salt SaIt lake nake city bunh sunday bunday h afternoon jung june 29 9 1884 REPORTED BY johs joun IRVINE ELDER joil joli joicy Q cannon cannoy said MY b brethren and sisters and friends it is with f feelings beelin which I 1 am utterly unable to express that I 1 stand before you this aftem afternoon oon feelings on the one hand band of gratitude to my heavenly father that after an absence of nearly three years from this city iam lam I 1 am again permitted to meet with my brethren and sisters in this place and with feelings on the other handoc hand of intense timidity in standing before so large an audience but I 1 rely my brethren and sisters upon your faith and prayers during the few moments that I 1 may stand defore you and I 1 rely f furthermore upon the promise which our lord gave when ile ho r said sald where two or three have gathered together in my name there t 1 am in the midst oll OIL of them I 1 am satisfied on my own part that we vye this afternoon have assembled ourselves in the name of the lord and I 1 am consequently satisfied lordge that his 1 spirit will be with us inasmuch as we seek for the same inasmuch as we rid ourselves of every f eeling feeling of worldliness and come together with pure hearts to partake of the emblems emblem sos of the death and dufferin suffering of our lord and to become instructed in the plan which he hag has laid doyn for our salvation it is 15 four days since I 1 returned f from roni roul a mission and in aix pix x weeks it will have been three years since I 1 left this et city in obedience to a call made upon me by k the authorities of the church on the ath of august 1881 1 left this cit city v on i a mission to great britain in company with eleven other missionaries aries arnes who were destined for scandinavia pavla navia we reached liverpool in due time and andl was assigned shortly after my ruy arrival there to theLon the london don doU conference ferb serb ference serence ilc lic here I 1 labored with byl th great pleasure until the lath of march 1882 early la in the month the then president of the european 1 mission apostle albert carrington noti notified nned fled me that I 1 should proceed to the german mission and within a f few ear days after receiving ceiling thi notice I 1 joined my brother in north germany of course in going to germany I 1 had to learn the language I 1 was utterly latterly ignorant of it when I 1 started and when I 1 landed there but the lord helped me by strengthening my memory and in a short time I 1 was able abie to ma make yke myself understood and pursue the real object of M my r mission I 1 labored it is not for me to fl say with how much t success until relieved a short time ago to return home I 1 can say my brethren and sisters that I 1 have enjoyed my mission greatly the blessing of the lord has been with me the promises that were sealed upon my head bead by the presidency before I 1 went nave have been literally fulfilled and to my mind iii in a most remarkable manner anner ni above all things I 1 prize my mission for the testimony it has given me of the truth of this gospel it may seem strange to you that I 1 make this assertion because one oula ouia naturally nat naturally think that I 1 had a testimony bea before ore I 1 went I 1 however confess this was not the case I 1 had heard what the world calls mormonism fram my childhood up I 1 had heard nothing else I 1 believed as much as it was possible that this the go gospel el as preached by the elders jo the church church of jesus christ of lat ter day saints was the true religion and was therian of redemption aspro as proclaimed by J jesus esus christ and his apostles this was my firm belief but a direct and firm and steadfast testimony of the truth of the gospel I 1 had not received and it was to obtain this testimony more than for anything else leise that I 1 obeyed the call that was made of me I 1 had heard as you yon had that every man who returned from a mission and rose up in this stand or elsewhere to proclaim his bis testimony and to report his labors 1 I had heard every man say 1 I know this Is the gospel of jesus christ 11 and I 1 within myself if I 1 can acquire a knowledge of the truth of the gospel through going on a mission admission I 1 am willing to go I 1 valued my salvation and a knowledge of tha the truth af pf the gospel just that much well I 1 v went rent and I 1 labored with great weakness I 1 I 1 have no doubt but the lord heard my prayers he granted ed unto me a te testimony stimon y of the rn truth rut h of the gospel and from i the time that I 1 received the first one until this moment ent one test testimony has followed another er in rapid succession I 1 am therefore able to proclaim before you as I 1 have done with much pleasure he be dorethe tore dore the world that I 1 do know that god has spoken in these our days that he has revealed himself and restored his priesthood by means of which w aich the human family farally those of them who are willing to be saved and to obey the requirements quire ments which he has given may be saved it was told me before I 1 started away the remark was made to me by my father my illy son you will find in the world that the nations are about in the same condition as the athenians were when paul went to preach to them they have temples and the they y have altars built but these are dedicated to the Unk unknown novin god 11 1 I found this to be the truth I 1 found the word vord the written word of god was read in every church in every land and that ev every e ry family had it but I 1 was surprised to find that b but ut few of i hem we were re willing to receive the truths which are therein contained they were content with the dead letteron letter lette of the law and when I 1 undertook or attempted to explain the principles of life ilfe and salvation salvat ron hon the principles which jesus christ taught ills his disca disciples rie ric and which they taught lall those who 0 would listen to their testimony I 1 found there was a great coolness people would not listen they were content with what they had received this was my general experience on the other hand I 1 f found very many who acknowledged to me the truth of that which I 1 had said when I 1 said unto them faith in the lord jesus christ is insufficient to save you in ills kin kingdom when I 1 said that something ethin more was necessary than a simple faith falth Inthe in the lord jesus christ and attempted to prove my position by by scripture found many who said you are ric rig right something more is necessary accord in ing to the serl seri scriptures tures faith falth alone can cam not save us w tut but when I 1 went on to explain the other principle principles of the thy gos gospel el repentance baptism for the re remission mits miss lon ion of sins by one who has his authority to baptize and the laying layl beon neon on of hands for the gift of the holy ghost I 1 discovered that they said that may be all true it is true we believe but we dont want ity it that has been my experience and the experience of others in a great many instances there are thousands ja lothe lathe the world I 1 have spoken with huDd hundreds reds who naye haye have made a similar confes coules confession sion slon that faith rep repentance baptism and the laying on of hands handt for the reception of the holy ghost were scriptural principles les ies that they could not be denied t that t the same gospel was preached by bv jesus christ and ills apostles but I 1 I 1 have found among those hundreds very f few evv who virlio were willing drilling to td obey those principles I 1 am happy to say however that some f few ew have obeyed them t that at I 1 haye have been the means in the hands of god of bringing some to a knowledge of the i 1 truth and I 1 am very thankful for this privilege it may gerh gerb gerbais perhaps aps interest you to k know now comet something ir big bix of the present prospects of the swiss and german mission where I 1 have labored for upwards of two years we have some seyen seven seventeen teen elders in the field some som e of these have been laboring in austria one is in italy all the others are in switzerland and germany in certain parts of germany the laws are very strict public meetings of any kind are forbidden we are there therefore fere not allowed to preach this fei has been beem brought about by the action of the socialists with whom we are confounded they have held mee mec meetings tings as you who read the pa papers pars know aa and passed resolutions to upset governments and kingdoms and reduce ever everything athing to chaos if possible in the kingdom of 0 prussia however we are at present in ill the enjo enjoyment ent of liberty to a great extent vre ime we have the permission of the authorities of tile the city of berlin to hold our regular meetings and wo we can an bounce these meetings in the papers it if we desire of course course our meetings are visited by bv detectives and policemen occasionally to see that arary to the laws of the land is promulgated which action is of course quite agreeable to us this is the case however only as regards the kingdom of prussia in the kingdom of bavaria which Is strongly strong I 1 y catholic we have been u unable able abie up to the present time to ob obtain any rl rights whatever we have been bee th threatened reate n ed and in some cases expelled for having attempted to preach reach the gospel we have rave have been forbidden ridden eldden to hold meetings of any kind it has even bof be n declared to us thab tha where seven persons assemble together that number would be considered a meeting and if the participants were strangers they would be expelled while natives would be heavily tined lined inthe in the grand duchy of baden the same rule holds in the king kingdom doni dona of tem bergit it has never been forbidden that we hold meetings but we have as yet no official permission to do so fco bho sho of course in switzerland we have full permission we can hold our meet meetings ings in lit any house it is not yet allowed us or in fact anyone to hold 0 upen apen n air meetings the prospects of th the emission mission as I 1 look atit at it are very goo koo goodard good dand and I 1 hilluk think the day is soan soon coming v r hen ken licit these rigorous laws will be broken ro isell liell when shen all those who desire to serve god in the way that he has commanded alt ait bough hough it may not be in accordance i u ity iti it the desires of the rulers may inay lelve irive the privilege g e the laws of bavar ia I 1 pre tend to give f ull full freedom ot bori wort w gnp buethe actual fact is is every let ler jacun leun leon o i i prohibited prohibited through pressure rt is rought brought to bear upon him from in ing anything but the established clant chinch eh which is catholic or the Lut lutheran neran people are ex expected acted to attend or it at least be meni members v ers of oue out of these thebe churches and they ther arc compelled to make an official acknowledgment led eident of their belief in their work books bosk which are a sort of credential containing the name age business anz and ana place of residence of every workman in the country inthis in this he N ik each man moan bounce hiar his r ilson dijon and if this happens to beany thit hut lutheran or catholic he is put to great trouble and inconvenience n would perhaps find tind difficulty In obtaining work at all au and in n case he called himself 3 I 1 mormon would be punished according to there gu lations ions lons which some of the tates states llave naye made I 1 do not believe belleve that the king of bavaria and the rulers of the kingdoms are as bitter as some of the subordinate officials the strongest persecution we have met abt with has been ideen in the city of and that nas has been on the tiie part of the circuit lud jud ludge judge e a man who in other respects is al but whose mind became prejudiced through I 1 it some false reports which came Mothe into the country and were scattered by the press just as we madea made a be beginning believe nning I 1 nevertheless hope and I 1 believe belleve it is the general feeling feering that the day is not far distant when freedom of worship will be allowed when the elders can go through the country and proclaim the gospel goshet without f fear ear or molestation we pray for that day and have great hopes that there are many thousands in those coun countries tres who will receive the gospel the elders are laboring energetically they have spared themselves no pains to discover those who are willing willin to receive their te testimony stimon the they are laboring faithfull yand w with iii cia good good results the emigration has been quite extensive as you know but the number of those baptized z edi exceeds by a considerable amount the number that have emigrated our branches aro are therefore growing continually mv bretheren and sisters I 1 am thankful to be able to testily to the truth of this gospel which is being preached in these days I 1 do know that joseph smith was a prophet of god and this is a testimony which I 1 have received for myself it is not because my parent tau taught lit me roe this or because I 1 have heard ti it from others that has given me courage to bear this testimony before others but I 1 have felt f free ree in saying to all men repent and be baptized and you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost and that will give you a testimony as it has given loto it to me that is the testimony my rny brethren and sisters that I 1 feel to bear before you this afternoon I 1 I 1 am glad to be once more in these mountains to breathe this air to see those with whom I 1 have grown up and to feel once more at home during the three years tears that I 1 have been absent absent manyIa many mans changes anges have taken place some of them very mournful to me but I 1 am than thankful kf ua to be back once more and now that I 1 am home I 1 hope to be able to work steadfastly in the cause of god and to do my part in helping to build u up his kingdom kingdo in upon the earth thip this is my desire and I 1 pray that the lord will la help heip elp ali alf all ali of us to remain true to the end in the name of jesus christ amen WILFORD WOODRUFF then addressed the congregation ile he said we have been listening to the testimony of one of our mormon mountain boys who has been called in ill his youth to go forth to the nations of the earth to declare the gospel of i jesus christ to the inhabitants thereof this is an example of this whole mor 1 mon work in the day and generation in which we live joseph smith himself was but a boy an unlettered youth when god palled called him over half a century ago to listen to the voice of the lord and be an instrument in his hands to lay the foundation of his church and kingdom on the earth in the last dispensation dispensA lon ion of the f fullness of times and from that day to this men have been called some from the plow the plane the hammer and from the various occupations of life to zo go forth and lift up their voices and bear record to the nations of the earth of the gossel gospel of the son of god and the lord lor has manifested his power and ills his mercy merey to all who have been becil called to go forth and bear record of ills his name and brother Bro flier cannon john Q who has addressed us like tens of t thousands of others can bear record before god angels and men before the heavens and the earth earb earh to the truths of the gospel of jesus jeus chr christ wh which ich have been revealed unto us ul the day and generation in which we live it is a marv ellous work and a wonder in inthe the earth and it is attracting the attention of the whole human family the inhabitants of the earth marvel and wonder and many times desire to know |
