Elder Charles A. Callis
(President of the Southern States Mission.)
When the president of the Church was speaking yesterday morning, the feelings of that vast congregation were such as were described by the two disciples who walked with Jesus after his resurrection. They said: "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" And our hearts burned with the fire of the Spirit which has been rekindled and renewed by President Penrose and the rest of the speakers as we have listened to the message of life and salvation they have delivered.
This Church, I boldly proclaim and devoutly believe, has blessed the United States of America and all the world by its existence and by the doctrines it has taught. It has given to this nation especially, and to the world a treasure-house of Scripture. I refer to the sacred Nephite record, the Book of Mormon. Let us take from this treasure-house one or two of the gems of truth. One of these gems is as follows:
"And there was not any man who could do a miracle in the name of Jesus, save he were cleansed every whit from his iniquity." (III Nephi 8:3. )
Isn't this a clarion call to purity of life? The cleaner our lives, the purer our thoughts, the greater will be our power, by the prayer of faith, to heal those who are afflicted with bodily ills. It is the truth that the many mighty miracles that Jesus the Redeemer wrought was due to the fact that he lived so close to the Father, lived so perfectly the celestial laws of God, that unto him was given that superhuman power.
Another truth: God said: "For my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time hence forth and forever."
"The works of God continue, and worlds and lives abound; improvement and progression have one eternal round."
Over the portals of the prison house which God hath prepared for the sinners, the sectarian world has written this inscription: "Abandon hope all who enter here." But the Church of Jesus Christ has written above the entrance: "Prisoners of hope;" for God's mercy endureth forever, and shall reach the penitent and repentant when wrongs have been fully expiated for, even to the uttermost farthing.
Again, in the world today, who are denying the divinity of Jesus Christ. and also his resurrection? Some of the very people who have brazenly declared that this Church is not a Christian Church. Go to that splendid book of Mosiah and read the soul stirring testimony therein concerning the atonement of Jesus Christ, delivered by Abinadi, who sealed his testimony with his blood and suffered death by fire for daring to proclaim that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and through his atonement came forgiveness of sins and a redemption from the grave.
These are some of the gems from the treasure-house of scripture that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have given to the world; and I glory in and am thankful to God for the comfort and instruction in that book. It is true that many of the learned are denying the divinity of Jesus Christ. To be learned is good, says the Book of Mormon, if they hearken unto the counsels of God; when scholarship is made tributary to the truth of God, then blessed is he who uses his powers of learning in promulgating that truth. It was the common people who heard Jesus gladly. These ministers who arise in the pulpit and deny Christ's divinity and resurrection, are under the condemnation of the Redeemer who said: "That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." The words which deny the divinity of the Redeemer are idle words and shall have to be accounted for in the day of the great judgment.
I bear you my testimony that this gospel is true and of God. It is the power of God unto salvation, because through the gospel have come to light, life and immortality, and Jesus Christ hath abolished death and brought redemption from sin, death and the grave. I bear my humble testimony that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God; and that President Grant stands in the power and right of his calling as President of the Church: and oh, how blessed are we who listened to his inspiring teachings yesterday morning, when to every heart was brought home the great truth that he is favored of God and magnified in his calling as President of this Church and the leader of this great people. This testimony I bear in humility, in truth, and in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.