OCR Text |
Show enly "Father, was the tteme of ApcfttH Reed Smoot at the morning session ol the conference on October 7. President Joseph F. Smith presided over both sessions. Apostle Smoot declared de-clared his belief that in the end the Mormon church will accomplish the work that the Lord designed for it and added that if the teachings of the church were put in force throughout the world, the world would be a great deal better place for it. Apostle Clawson spoke briefly in denunciation de-nunciation of moving picture houses and other forms of Sabbath amusements amuse-ments for their tendency to keep the young from religious observance. The irresistible growth of Mormon-ism Mormon-ism from a faith having but six followers fol-lowers in 1830 to the church's present day magnitude, together with a predio tion that the Father's decree that thu world should be redeemed by means of the latter-day dispensation as promulgated pro-mulgated through Joseph Smith, formed the nucleus of the opening address ad-dress at the afternoon session. Apostle Apos-tle George Albert Smith, the lirst speaker, likened the members of the Mormon faith to the leaven which shall some day accomplish the leavening leaven-ing of the world, at the same time calling the attention to the fact that even among the followers of faiths opposed to Mormonism there is a noticeable no-ticeable tendency to incorporate in the revision of their creeds some of the basic teachings of the Mormon faith. That Mormonism is not a book taught religion and that instead of being be-ing held down in lis teachings and operation to eon old tenets, it follows the last word of God, was the crux of the address delivered by Apostle Orson Or-son F. Whitney. Mormonism, he declared, de-clared, is the fulfillment of a prophecy of the coming of a marvelous work an; a wonder made 700 years before ti. birth of Je-sus Christ, and he said that the fulfilment of this prophecy in these latter days was such a wonderful thing that most men rejected it as a fable. Apostle Whitney followed the building build-ing up of Utah and the far west through the early days and of the gradual improvement that resulted following fol-lowing the arrival of the Mormons in the oxcarts. He, declared that it is God's will that man should avail himself him-self of progress and make use of the new things as they were introduced and not to follow ideas either in religion re-ligion or life that have become antiquated. anti-quated. Apostle David O. McKay made teaching teach-ing the subject of his address. He decried the fact that many of the members of the priesthood believe that their work is not of much importance im-portance and declared that no work in the church could be considered more, or less, important than another. The music, as usual, was one of the enjoyable features of the conference. At the morning session on Sunday, October S, it was necessary to hold overflow meetings. Present day extravagances, both by individuals and by the governing bodies of cities, states and nation, and the seeming tendency of members of the church to take part in Sunday amnsements and card playing, furnished fur-nished themes of addresses delivered by Apostles Anthony W. Ivins, Joseph F. Smith, Jr., and James E. Talmage. War was another topic touched on by Apostle Ivins. "In my travels," he said, "I met men 'who advocated war. They told me that our national dignity had been injured and they demanded in return that the guilty be humiliated. The only redress they could see was the humiliation of the other fellow. "Mexico is smaller than the United Slates and it may have looked easy to Austria to enter Serbia, but one never can tell where these things will end. It war comes to this country, I say, let it not be of our making. Let us stand for peace an example of kindness kind-ness and peacefulness to the world." The modern dance, picture shows, Sunday amusements and card playing came in for denunciation at the hands of Apostle Joseph F. Smith, Jr. "Should the Redeemer return to earth," he said, "he would find faith among the people. That Is, a small percentage of the people. He would not find it generally among the nations of the world." Apostle James E. Talmage reviewed the benefits that have been derived by members of the church in attendance upon the conference session by the words of the speakers. Praises had not alone been given, he said, but warnings also. During the afternoon service the general authorities of the church were sustained. President Francis M. Lyman Ly-man of the quorum of apostles lead the list of authorities, and as the names were called 15.000 hands were raised In affirmative approval of the selection made. The general authorities are the same that have held ol'tice since the last conference, with the exception of the appointment of Anthon C. Lund as conductor of the Tabernacle choir in place of Evan Stephens, who was honorably hon-orably released at his own request. Several new names wore included in the general boards of auxiliary branches, branch-es, but for the main the incumbent authorities were reinstated. At the afternoon session Seymour B. Young. B. H. Roberts and C. V. Xib-ley Xib-ley were the speakers. Board to Prevent Frauds. Washington. Because of numerous ' complaints that fraud has been practiced prac-ticed in tho organization of joint stock land banks under the new rurol credits law. the farm loan board announced Sunday that no charter would be granted to any joint stock land bank -In the organization for which there had been an expense for promotion. a,ul that the consideration ot charters for these banks would be deterred until un-til the completion of the organization 9t the fedora.' larru loan system. |