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Show PRESIDENT BRINGS MESSAGE OF PEACE HEAD OF CHURCH DECLARES CHURCH IS AT PEACE WITH ALL THE WORLD. Opening Cession of Annual Confer ence of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Held on Easter Sunday. Salt Lake City. With the presen-c of nearly all ,he general authorities of the church, and a large and eu Ihusiastie crowd, the opening sesslot "t the eighty-fifth annual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat ter-day Saints was held on Eastei bunday. the first time in twenty eight years that the opening day o' conference has fell on Easter Sunday Present Joseph F. Smith, althougt he has not been entirely well t'01 eome time, presided and made tin opening address. His message was Mie ot peace. "Everything seems tc jiomt out," he said, "that the churct ;s pursuing its way peacefully It i-at i-at peace with itself and with all the '.vorld, for it carries a message of life peaceful salvation and redemption 1,0111 si- Our work is to make peact and to establish good-will." Following the principal part of his address, Fresident Smith announcet that he would take a liberty that, h( said, was rather unusual, because o the many false, wicked things tha had been charged against him and hi: brethren. He then gave a summarj of the tithes received during thi year of 1914 and of the uses to whict this money had been put. The tota amount received from tithes during the year he said was $1,887,920. In addition to the amount paid ou of the tithes to the poor, $116,238 there has been collected and paid t( the poor by the relief society $74,29U and there has been paid to the pool by bishops from the fast offerings ant other ward charity funds $7ti,000 making a total paid to the poor foi 1914 of $266,528. There has been collected for the war sufferers, which is being ex pended under the direction of Presi dent ITyrum M. Smith of the Euro pean mission, $33,000. Our records show that 73 per cen' of all the Latter-day Saint families residing in all the stakes of Zion owi their own homes. The birth rate of the church foi the year 1914 is 39.5 to the thousand The death rate for the year 1914 ii 8.3 to the thousand. Marriage rate for the year 1914 ii . 17 to the thousand. During the year there were 14,71", Dhildren biessed. There are 1,316 elders and 115 wo men laboring in the missions as mis sionaries. Of the membership of the churct residing in the stakes of Zion, 319, 000 were born in. the United States. There has been a net increase ii the membership of the church in tht stakes of Zion from the year 1901 tc 1914 of 129,943 souls. There are now 739 wards and thirty three independent branches. There are sixty-eight stakes of Zion anc twenty-one missions. During the yeai 1914 twenty-one new wards nave beer organized and two stakes of Zion. There have been performed in the temples during the past year 166, 1)09 baptisms for the living and dead tind 72,952 endowments for the living and dead. Altogether 326,264 ordi nances have been performed in the tour temples. This is a very consid erable increase over any previous year. The speakers at the opening ses ion were Fresident Joseph F. Smitt jnd his counselors. Anton H. Lunc jud Charles VV. Penrose. At the afternoon session 25,000 peo pie attended the three meetings held the speakers at the tabernacle being Klder Charles V. Penrose and Eldei t'rancis M. Lyman. The great organ was not used, be-:ause be-:ause it is undergoing repairs. The Boor of the tabernacle has been en lirely replaced; the seats have been repainted and revarnished and the juilding put in excellent condition. Nine thousand persons sat or stood !n the tabernacle Sunday night in at endance at what the program denom nated "the biggest Sunday school m lie world." the meeting being under he auspices of the Deseret Sunday School union and a part of the spring conference of the Mormon church. Speakers included President Joseph F Smith who by virtue of his office as head of the church is also genera superintendent of the Sunday School union, and other workers prominent in Sundav school activities. A feature of the services was singing sing-ing by a chorus of 1,000 voices, most 3f them children from the Salt Lake stake of the church. The report 0 Seorge D. Pyper, general secretary of he Sunday School association, showed a total Sunday school enrollment enroll-ment of 195,416, a gain of 8,46a over aMeeting8 of different societies were leld during the three! days conference confer-ence and the many visitors from very section of the Union will re-Jurnto re-Jurnto their homes feeling that much rood has been accomplished by the nembers of the church during the ast year. |