The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-04-05
FIFTY-FIRST ANNUAL. con-
FERENCE.
FIRST DAY.

OuhUog AOA HlEBs April 5.
Called TO order by President job
Taylor. Choir sang the hymn {
page Iii:
~ praise to our reieeming Lord,
Whojoins as by his grace.
nj bids US, each to each, restored,
Together teek his face.
/ Prayer by President Joseph /
: Smith.
;, Choir sang the hymn on page la
Oh, my father, thou that dwelle-t
: Ia he high and g OrIou5 placel
VII N shall 1 regain thy presence,
And again behold lhy fac 2
PRESIDENT TAYLOR said: We ar
met this morning to attend TO tn
duties and responsibilities that de
VOlve upon us. We thought W,
would change the time little. As i
IS the spring of the year, most of tn,
people are busy but we though
everybody could come TO meetlna
to-day and not lose a days work in
, their fields. When we assemble to.
gether we ought to have ouI
hearts and feelings under the guild
ance OF the Almighty so that all we
do may be done acceptably. This is
the ffty-first anniversary of con-
ference of the Church of Jesus
Christ OF Latter-day Saints, that is,
1t will he next Wednesday morning.
and when We look upon what has
trans ired in that time we have
cause TO be thankful to God for the
many mercies we have received at
lis hands. and irrespective of the
theories of men we feel to bless God
for his kindness, and our feelings are
GLORY to God in the highest and on
earth peace and good will to men,"
and We feel this morning that our
desires are nothing but kindness to
all the human family. We are here to
advance truth, and TO establish Zion
and in our teaching and in our Sc
lecting missionaries to go forth to
preach, and in all we do while we
assemble together, we ask the guild
ance of the spirit of God, and to all
Israel we say God bless you, in the
name OF Jesus. Amen.
APOSTLE MILFORD WOODRUFF
'aid / think we all should have our
hearts filled with gratitude to God.
1t gives me much joy to have the
of meeting with the Lat
cannot but rejoice in
ooking at the dealings of God with
Is, to see how he has sustained us.
want TO give some of my medita-
ions on our position. In tracing his
DRY we have some peculiar Incl |
Tents of the trust of Gods people
n him. Look at the three Hebrew |
could not afford to |
low down and worship Nebuchad- |
leZar's, image. Men i'll all ages have |
,een blessed by Obeying the will of
Tod. No man ever attained any
hing by trying to avoid the word of
h. Lord. We have a notable in
tance of this i'll the case of Jonah.
We take our Savior, the apostles and
IL who followed him; he filled the
mission appointed to him by His
father. To see the Son of God born
n a stable and lead the life he did
lOuld nerve us up not to shrink from
ny thing we may be called on to
ass through. l bring it home to
urselves. Many of us have been ac-
TAINTED with our prophet and pa
riarch, and we know their lives.
hose noble men could not afford
D deny the faith whatever their
l wish to say the same
f all men who have entered into
OYenants with God. We can afford
D be true to our trusts; we can af-
ord to do the Will of God, but we
annOt afford to give up one princi-
lie that has been committed to US.
We have as good cause to trust in
IOd as any other generation has had.
cannot afford to disobey any prin-
Iple that God has given me. When
yer we do our duty and keep the
given unto us, we
Till see the fulfil.ment Of all the
rOmiSes gwen to us. | cannot find
4 any revelation any promise that
as not been fulfilled to the very
eiter. The Doctrine and Covenants
more hight, truth and prin-
iple than any other book we have.
VERY man can, by Srsdvinp nm
erstand his position both hrre and
fter death, from the revelau-1ns
obtained therein. We have beeh ;,
ustained by the power of God TO
his day. We have suffered much,
nd we are told that it is the result
t our practicing the principle OF
marriage. The nation
ares no more about our practice of
10 ygamy than about any other prin-
iplr. If we compromise this We
hOuld then have to renOunce all |
,ther principles we have, and say |
hat if we do not shrink we shall |
till be sustained. The God of |
heaven holds our destiny in his
lands; he controls the armies of
,he world. Let US, therefore, not
,enounce any principle, let US marry
wives, let us pay our tithing and do
our duty all the time. Of all the
people under heaven, there has
never been a people who had more
cause to rejoice than we have. The
God of heaven has given you the
kingdom aud the eyes of God and the
pyeS of the saints who are dead are
watching you, for they know they
are not perfect without you. Let US
strive then to do our dnty. We can
not afford to do wrong, nor can we
afford to disobey any principle re-
yealed to us. May God bless US all,
and may his spirit be with us
through this conference. Amen.
APOSTLE LORENZO SNOW said: L
believe truly that we, as Latter-day
Saints, can well afford to entertain
toward the world of mankind good
will and peace to all men" 1t is
for this purpose we have been
called. and this is the mission we
have been called to fulfill. Jesus
Christ's mission was for the purpose
of giorifying his father, and when he
called his seventies, apostles and
others. he called them to perform
the same work, that all might glo-
rify the father. On certain occa-
sion Jesus said: Il have glorified
thee in the earth, L have finished the
| work YOU gave me to do; and II
iorder that the work might go for
ward he conferred his authority OF
some of his followers and revealed
to them that through doing the VII
of God they would be perSecuteC
and hated by men. 1t is well for u
Ito understand that all we antlci
nate. or receive, that is of any ad
vantage to US, comes through GU
observance of the ways OF God
land we must get the splri
lof God to enable as TO UNDERSTAND
what the will of God is. It wa
J ordained before the foundation