| Show SALT LAKE STAKE conference the regular pami donual conference of the salt lake stake of zion convened in the icie in salt bait lake city at ten am on sunday march there were present on the stand president george Q cannon of the first presidency of the church all the members of the presidency ot the stake represent at ivea of the first beven n president V and members berkof of t preside dedA ngue ngua AL cannon presided the choir sang redeemer of israel our only delight prayer by counselor joseph E taylor the choir sang how elow pleasant Us tie to see kindred and ft fi lends agree president angus M cannon said it gave him great pleasure to introduce to the congregation at the opening of their conference elder F F hintze who had lately returned from a juis ru laston siou to the holy land F F MINTZE HINTZE commenced his remarks by baying that he had spent everal years in the missionary field and part of the time had been pawed passed in turkey and palestine while on his turkish mission n it became his privilege to visit th the e city of jerusalem he had seen a great many things in the course q his experience which had proved of great benefit to him individually and he be hoped he might turn those experiences to profitable account upon going to preach the gospel to the people of asia the missionaries found a very different condition of things from what existed in the missionary fields of merka amera A a or even on the continent of europe he had had the privilege of of I 1 preaching the gospel in the northwestern states State of america in england and in scandinavia but when called upon to cross the bos pharous and go into asia he had bad to meet with an altogether different class of people he was unacquainted quain ted with their language and their customs were also entirely foreign to him but he be sought the lord and asked him for his blessing and after a time learned the langu language gge sufficiently to tie able to explain the true gospel to the people p e in t their air own tongue he spent espelt something so thing like three years among the urk and though the missionaries were not altogether successful in gaining converts yet they hail had the satisfaction of obtaining considerable knowledge in regard to the natives and how best to preach the gospel unto them prom from personal observation he had learnt that whereas the people of america and the nations of europe among whom the miss missionaries ionar I 1 es went were better prepared to receive their testimony being more or it as educated to understand the principles of when they carrad the message of I 1 life fe and salvation to those nations which are not called christian a vast vase difference was presented these were in many respects children to them and when they became acquainted with the elders anti and their ways they looked up to them with confidence as teachers almost as fathers among the turks armenians Armen ians greeks kurds burds and arabs if a person spoke to them they paid particular attention to what he said watched his every act and seemed very grateful for anything that was done in their bedair when the gospel was preached to those nations permanently it would be preached more for the purpose of reformation than for a testimony though the latter might also be ultimately understood it was necessary to present the gospel in those countries by example and in this way produce an influence for good among the people it would of course take time to bring bri og this about it would not be sufficient to go and tell them we are now presenting to you a gospel that will either bring you salvation or damnation 1 but continued elder hintze it will be necessary to present to them our better ways of living our better institutions our better knowledge anti and thereby produce an influence whereby they will also be able to do better f L this much however might be said concerning those people of whom he ha had been speaking there was a great deal of virtue among them indeed he had found more of this among the turks armenians Armen ians and greeks than among the nations of europe or even the people of this their own dear land true in cities such as constantinople smyrna and beyrouty Bey routh there prevailed a great deal of wickedness but among the people in the heart of the country there existed much virtue and honesty of purpose they were however bowed down with raft the greeks particularly so they were in perfect bondage enslaved by their old superstitions they were afraid to move in 16 any direction whatever for fear that some evil might befall them so far as concerned the christian nations perhaps less could be said for them than for the turks or mo hamm edans among the latter there were a great many good people ie and when afien the mohammedan re t gln was taken into consideration it was not such a bad religion after all he distinctly remembered the remark of president george Q cannon many years ago in re referring ferking to the different denominations and religions speaking of the good that might be found among them he then said we should not 1 suppose for a moment that the vo mohammedan ham religion was altogether false what at litt little e he e elder er hintze intze had observed of the mabom madans ans led him to say that although mahomet might not have been one of f the great prophets yet it was certain in that god raised him up to be a great reformer just as much as luther or any other reformer in europe ro the doctrines which he it left te among his people were such as they could easily comprehend and had brought millions out of idolatry to the truth of the living god no people on earth could reverence god higher than the edans whenever the missionaries had bad had the privilege of explaining some parts of the gospel to the turks they invariably made a very good impression upon u pon them the edans were not at the present time permitted to accept christianity in any form although there was a law permitting various denominations to preach r ch in turkey and giving perfect FI cea religious freedom so far as regards the changing of faith yet the law was a dead letter and was not accepted by the edans and there were very few cases came in which they had turned over to christianity those who had had done so at the peril of their lives the book of mormon had been of great service to the missionaries I 1 in a preaching the gospel to the people and he knew that the time would come when it would do yet greater service among the heathen nations when it had been translated into their native tongue and scattered among them thereby they would obtain a new dew testimony in regard to the lord jesus christ and a thorough understanding as to hit hia great mission the edans did not believe that christ was a redeemer they did not understand him as a sou son of god but argued if jesus christ was the son of god that aou jd be just as much as to say god himself would be the son of somebody else therefore the prophet mahomet said in the koran god is not begotten neither does he beget but he is eternal having briefe briefly touched upon several of the principles of the mohammedan religion iiD the speaker turned his attention to palestine a land with which he be remarked the latter day saints hai bad I 1 a great deal of sympathy they were looking for the time when the lord would bring back its fruitfulness restore the jews jews und also the lost tribes of israel to their inherit 13 ance any move in that direction was received with much satisfaction not only by the latter day saints but by a greit great many others in the world looking forward to the restoration of the house of israel he himself was not so enthusiastic as many persons as to the class of jews now located in Ph palestine lestine he looked upon the peat areat majority of them as the most indolent people he had ever seen they say it was once a good land a land of prophets and of learning and think that it ought to be so today but they are doing nothing in particular towards building it up those who do the most in that way are the rich jews such a as 9 the hildis and baron hirsch it had appeared to him that the time would come when the latter day saints sainte would be called upon to do something by way of showing gitig what could be done in that land they as a people possessed all the qualities necessary for the rebuilding of the kingdom of god in any part of the earth they were receiving an experience in this land which would assist them great greatly y I 1 in n performing any work that god might require of them hereafter for the salvation of the human race in conclusion elder hintze earnestly exhorted the saints to remain faithful and true to their covenants and to keep strictly the commandments of god let them not take part in anything which they knew to be wrong one of the greatt greatest privileges they could possess was to be numbered with the latter day sainte he knew that this was the gospel of the lord jesus christ that they had bad received command from the heavenly father through joseph smith and all the prophets anti and apostles whom god had called in these latter days he had known this to be the work of god from his earliest childhood that testimony was with him today and he be hoped it would always remain ELDER SEYMOUR B YOUNG BYOUNG also addressed the congregation and said the day would come when all the nations of the earth would acknowledge that jesus is the christ the savior of the world he bore his testimony that joseph smith the prophet of the last days daya was a prophet of the living god the latter d day saints were the most despised of all people on the face of the earth but they possessed treone the one true gospel which was saving in its nature and if they would but keep the commandments of god they would be hereafter saved in RIB his eternal kingdom the choir sang the hymn commencing lord dismiss us with thy blessing fill our hearts with joy and peace benediction was pronounced by elder joseph horne home 2 rpm pm the choir sang great god attend while zion sings the joy that from thy presence ep springs rings prayer by elder milo andrus the choir and congregation sang the spirit of god like a fire is burning the latter day glory begins to come forth the priesthood of the tenth ward officiated in administering the sacrament BISHOP 0 F WHITNEY addressed the congregation he said I 1 have but one feeling in n responding to the call made upon me to speak this afternoon and that feeling is best expressed in the language of luther at the diet of worms worm here I 1 stand I 1 cannot do otherwise god help me though not net standing in his bis position nor asked to r do what was required of him I 1 feel as if I 1 needed the help of the almighty iwas I 1 was interested inthe in the remarks made by the brethren this morning and rejoiced to hear bear the report of elder hintze in relation to his mission to turkey and the holy land I 1 was impressed by what he said ot of mohammed the prophet of islam one of the great characters of the world is history god inspires many men outside tb the pale I 1 e of his church to do works for ellian him J and I 1 am thankful to stand among a people who are able to take this broad and philanthropic view those who believe in mormon ism are supposed to be the bigoted and narrow with little interest save for themselves them selven their kindred and fellow churchmen but this jis is an incorrect view of the effects or the teachings of mormonism N if there are any in ila this church who have supposed or suppose now that god is only interested in the of this little handful of people they have not lead mormonism aright they have listened in vain to the teachings of the prophets and apostles of this and all alf dispensa eions for they have truly tau taught ht that all men are the chi children ld ren of god and the objects of his love and solicitude mohammed was no doubt in some degree inspired of heaven he did a great work although he wrought with the sword in one hand and the koran in the other he elevated the religion of his countrymen from a debased system of idolatry is a worship of sticks and stones to a worship of the god of heaven as be understood him it to is wise and proper for us to recognize the hand of the lord in all things sometimes we are so placed that it is difficult to do this to see the hand bund of mercy and benevolence iu in our sorrows disappointments and afflictions but if I 1 we take a spiritual view and jook at aright it will not be so difficult to see the purposes of the almighty even in our untoward surroundings aud and experiences perien ces the ways of god are not as mans ways ws he knows what is best for his children and what experiences it Js is needful that they should pass through and he ordal ordains no our groa greatest test trials as individual sand as a people for our purification and development the Pr prophet phet joseph told prest dent john raylor soon after the latter joined the church that he had received the spirit of truth which if he be cultivated and heeded at all ames t me would always lead him aright it might often prompt him to go contrary to his personal inclinations cli nations but if be would listen to and obey it and sacrifice his bis own desires be would never neve go astray I 1 remember an Inci incident dentin in the history of one of our missionaries which illustrates lu this truth bishop whitney here related how a mormon elder in early days who had given out an appointment to preach in a certain place in the backwoods was threatened with death dath d ath by a burly ruffian if be attempted to fill the engagement ga ement to 0 em emphasize issize his threat the man after tuf the people had as sem bled and before fore the elder bad arrived walked to and fro before the meetinghouse meeting house door with an ax on his shoulder prepared to carry out his murderous design but the elder calmly and deliberately walked in while the fellows back was turned took his bis place in the pulpit read a few verses from the bible and preached his sermon as if nothing had bad happened while his would be assailant amazed at the elders intrepidity throw threw down his ax and departed powerless to execute his threat here was an instance where human judgment would have prompted the elder to forego his appointment but which the voice of the spirit bade him ful fil many elders might relate similar simil ar experiences experienced I 1 remember reading of an incident in the life of president wood woodruff ru ff he was camped one stormy night under some trees tree when the spirit bade him arise and move his bis wagon away from them he did dia so go just in time to save himself his wagon and team from being crushed by the railing falling of one of the trees stricken by lightning thus is P proven 20 v en the inestimable value of ane spirit of god as a guide and monitor far more reliable than the most excellent natural judgment the most important thing for the saints to do la is to live so that they may have the spirit of revelation and inspiration to direct them in all the affairs of their lives when jonah was commanded to 5 go 0 to Niri nineveh eveh and predict the cites destruction be shrank from the u undertaking n der taking he probably remembered the fate of other prophets sent forth to warn the wicked and was appalled at the danger of the pros 1 hect buethe but the lord was resolved that nineveh should be warned and I 1 that jonah should fill the mission to which he had been called god in this did not tamper with jonah agen cyas some might suppose but he so overruled events ast as to induce jonah of his own volition to prefer the path of duty to that of disobedience jonah took passage in a ship going in another direction tb thinking inking perhaps he could hide bide himself in some remote corner of the earth where the all seeing eye of god could not dot behold him but a great etore arose which imperiled the ship and crew |
