Elder Brigham H. Roberts.

(Of the First Council of Seventy.)

In placing upon record a number of visions granted to him when a prisoner upon the Isle of Patmos, the beloved disciple of the Lord, John, recorded this:

"I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue and people,

"Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."

Two very great things are implied in that scripture. First of all it is evident that "the hour of God's judgment" we naturally think of as in some way connected with a great epoch in relation to the earth and its history. "In the hour of God's judgment." it would appear from this scripture, men would be without the Gospel,-every nation and kindred and tongue and people,-or else why should there be need of the Lord sending an angel to restore that Gospel to the world in the hour of His judgment. if it was already on the earth. In the time of His judgment, also, it appears that every nation, kindred and tongue and people would be worshiping some other Deity than God who created the heavens and the earth and the seas and the fountains of water; or else why this call to all nations to return to the worship of the true and the living God, creator of heaven and earth?

The other great thing that is implied in this prophecy is the fact that in the hour of God's judgment He would restore the Gospel to the earth by the ministration of an angel.

Those two things, I think, stand out strongly in this scripture, and it is generally understood I think in the Church that the dispensation of the Gospel given unto us, brought forth in our age by the ministry of angels, is the fulfillment of John's vision, although there be some among the Latter-day Saints who think that this passage has nothing to do with the introduction of the Gospel to the earth in our day; and there was one man very high in authority in the Church who rather scoffed at the idea of the elders using that passage of scripture as a prophecy of the coming forth of the work of the Lord in these days. Yet the matter is decidedly settled by a revelation in the D&C that is called the "Appendix." By the way, our treatment of that revelation as to its placement in the Book of D&C perhaps is a little misleading; it was a revelation given on the 3rd of November, 1831, and was then called the "Appendix" to a little collection of the revelations that had been given to the Prophet up to November, 1831; and this revelation is the "Appendix" to that little collection rather than to the whole Book of Revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants; but because it was called an "Appendix" to that little collection, we have kept moving it back, in the book in succeeding editions, and admitting the subsequent revelations, still calling that the "Appendix;" but as a matter of fact it was the "Appendix" only to the first collection of revelations that was made and that was intended to be published, and was partly published, in the city of Independence, in 1833. In this revelation occurs this passage:

"For, behold, the Lord God hath sent forth the angel crying through the midst of heaven, saying, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make His paths straight, for the hour of His coming is nigh."

And again:

"Now, verily saith the Lord, that these things might be known among you, O inhabitants of the earth, I have sent forth mine angel"-

This is in 1831, be it remembered-

"flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel, who hath appeared unto some, and hath committed it unto man, who shall appear unto many that dwell on the earth;

"And this Gospel shall be preached unto every nation, and kindred, and tongue and, people,

"And the servants of God shall go forth, saying, with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come:

"And worship Him that made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and the fountains of wafers."

The language of this modern revelation describing the fulfillment of St. John's vision is so nearly identical with that of the Book of Revelation that I think there can be no mistake about it, viz: that this dispensation of the Gospel committed unto us is the fulfillment of John's great vision. And now, that being true, behold what burden, joyful burden however, is laid upon the Church of Christ! For with the acceptance of this dispensation of the Gospel. and the organization of the Church as the means of proclaiming that Gospel to the world, comes the duty of preaching that Gospel to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. The Church has two great functions to perform, that is to say, you can generalize her responsibilities and her duties to the world under two general heads, namely, the proclamation of the truth which God has deposited with her, to all the inhabitants of the earth; and the other great duty of the Church is to perfect the lives of those who accept those truths. Upon those two things hang all the law and all the prophets, so to speak.

I merely wish to call your attention to one part of that great mission, and that is the responsibility of making proclamation of the truth which God has restored to the earth, and deposited with His Church. That burden rests upon the whole Church of Christ; not upon one section of it. You may use, and we are waking up to a realization of the fact that it was evidently God's intent that we should use, the seventies of the Church as the means for the proclamation of this Gospel. Now you may use them as the agency for this work, the principal one, but the duty and the burden of carrying out that part of the mission of the Church rests upon the entire body of the Church of Christ, and not upon the seventies alone. We are beginning to realize that in sending forth this message to the world we are doubtless using too many young men of inexperience, of scarcely matured minds; young men whose judgment has not yet settled to full, manly judgment. In other words we have perhaps overlooked the admonition that the Prophet gave upon this subject in the very early history of the Church. For instance, he says in a letter from the elders in Kirtland to their brethren abroad, in 1833:

"Be careful about sending boys to preach the Gospel to the world; if they go, let them be accompanied by someone who is able to guide them in the proper channel, test they become puffed up and fall under condemnation, and into the snare of the devil."

We find it necessary to return to, this counsel, or to be admonished by it; and while we may continue to call young men, I hope we will, but at the same time we find a crying need for men of mature judgment, and of comprehensive knowledge of the great truths that we are to present to the children of men. In passing let me say that the Church has no higher duty to perform than this duty of teaching the Gospel. The organization of the Church is such that it proclaims to us, if we will but contemplate it, how highly the Lord regards the duty of His Church in making proclamation of His message unto the inhabitants of the earth, since He sets apart and makes it the special duty of the Twelve Apostles and of the great body of the seventy-now ten thousand strong-to perform that perform that duty. It is a labor worthy of the best manhood. and of the highest talent, in the Church; and is worthy of the greatest sacrifices, in order to send the message of God unto the inhabitants of the earth. This Church has prospered in proportion to her zeal and earnestness in fulfilling this high duty that she owes both to God and to the children of men. When dark clouds gathered about the Church in Kirtland, and it did seem as if the powers of the nethermost world were combined in an effort to overthrow the Prophet and the work that he was rounding, a strange thing happened. In a council meeting of the priesthood the Prophet arose and crossed the room and went to Heber C. Kimball and told him that the Spirit had whispered to him that for the salvation of the Church, it was necessary that the Lord's servant, Heber C. Kimball, cross the great waters and make proclamation of the Gospel in England. A strange way to save the Church, was it not? And yet it had that effect; for from the introduction of the Gospel at that time in England there began that great procession of new membership into the Church, which so mightily strengthened it. They gave to it new life and vigor and power in the world. The new disciples took the place of those who were disposed to fall away.

Again you would naturally suppose after the experiences in Missouri, when the Latter-day Saints who had gathered to that state were as a people scattered and peeled, dispossessed of all their earthly possessions, and driven from the State of Missouri, everybody in distress, in sickness, and in poverty-you would naturally suppose, I say, that nobody would think of missionary work then; and yet, in the midst of those trials, the word of the Lord came to the Prophet directing that the Twelve Apostles should take their departure from the land of Zion, from the public square in Far West. and cross the waters and preach the Gospel again in England: and so in the midst of the moving from Missouri and settling in Nauvoo, this mission was undertaken; and again the work took a mighty stride forward as the result of the mission of the Apostles to those foreign lands. Tens of thousands were brought into the Church, and the means essential to carrying on the work of the Lord, came from that mission, and strengthened the hands of the brethren at Nauvoo. In each of these crises, you see, the Church turned to her great duty of making proclamation of the Gospel, with the happiest results.

When our people were expatriated from the United States and had been wonderfully led through the wilderness to these mountain valleys, with a great portion of the Church still on wheels in the wilderness, and in encampments along the line of travel between these mountains and the Missouri River, you would naturally suppose that that was a time when every man of strength and wisdom and faith and spiritual power would be needed in Israel to locate the people in these mountain valleys; yet the prophet of the Lord, then guiding the affairs of Israel, in 1849, at the October Conference of that year, before anybody was very well settled in the new home, began a great foreign and domestic missionary work-leading to the founding of a number of foreign missions that have continued to this day.

Addison Pratt. a returned missionary from the South Pacific Islands, since the Church had no temple at that time, was taken to the summit of Ensign Peak and given his endowments, that he might return to those islands of the sea in which he had labored, with greater spiritual power. and with his two other companions go on with the work that had been opened up in those far away lands.

Elder Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich, the latter a newly ordained apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, were sent to the Pacific Coast, to California, to gather up those who had gone astray, and save the scattered sheep of the house of Israel.

Orson Pratt, in 1848, had been sent to England, to preside in that mission; and at this wonderful conference, of 1849, Franklin D. Richards, a newly ordained apostle, at the time, and a young man then, was sent to join Elder Pratt in the British mission.

Elder Lorenzo Snow was called to open the door of the Gospel in Italy and in other lands of Europe and India.

Erastus Snow was called at the same time to open the door of the Gospel to the Scandinavian nations.

Elder John Taylor was sent to open the door of the Gospel to the great empires of France and of Germany. These brethren had marvelous success, for God was with them, in establishing periodicals in the languages of the nations to which they were sent; also in translating some of the standard works of the Church-the Book of Mormon, the D&C, and other works. They made wide proclamation of the Gospel in those days, and founded the missions that have continued until this present time in those several lands. The work under Elders Pratt and Richards, in England, had a wonderful development. In the little less than three years that Orson Pratt presided in that land, the "Millennial Star" increased in its circulation from three thousand seven hundred to twenty-two thousand. In about the same length of time, a little less than three years, in the British Isles, twenty-two thousand were added to the Church of Christ, and five thousand five hundred were emigrated to the land of Zion. You see how wonderfully God blesses His Church when she pays full and complete attention to this holy office of making proclamation of the word of God to the inhabitants of the earth. It is the source of strength and life and progress to the Church.

I am saying all this to you because I believe, while we have not been neglectful, I think, at any time, our circumstances and conditions considered-we have not been neglectful at any time in attention to this great mission of ours; and yet from time to time there do come, apparently, special openings, special opportunities, calling for increased exertion upon our part, and, perhaps, the making of what we call sacrifices for this work. I believe that the stage of the world is being reset for increased opportunities for us to make proclamation of this message that has been committed unto us; that the nations are on the way to that humiliation, to that condition, when they will lend an ear to what we have to say. Now my point is this, that while they are in preparation for the incoming of conditions wherein they will be more willing to listen to our message, it is becoming in us that we make preparation for the enlarged opportunity that is promised for a fruitful proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ again restored to the earth.

In pursuance of these ideas we are going among our seventies, and the local authorities of the stakes and wards are being asked to give more attention to the seventies as the most proper officers in the Church to fill the call for missionary service abroad. The mission service of the Church needs men of judgment, men of weight of character. There is nothing truer in the psychology of things, than this, that if you would appeal to men of character, men that are heads of families, men that have mature thought, and are earnest in fulfilling the purposes of life, if you would reach those classes-and they are the ones I take it that we are anxious to reach, because when we reach one of them we will reach not a unit but a group, a family, and they are the ones to which we should make most earnest appeal. Now, I say, if you want to reach that class of men, then you must send that class of men to them, or you will not reach them-at least so effectively, you will not reach them. That is the kind of men we want; and if it calls for sacrifice, then let us make the necessary sacrifice, in wisdom of course, and judgment.

There is just one other thing connected with that important matter that I would like to call attention to, although I am afraid I am trespassing upon the time of others, but it is this: the Lord of heaven takes no pride in ignorance. His whole purpose is to give out intelligence and to save men through knowledge of correct doctrine and truth. He will take no pride in an ignorant ministry. When a number of elders assembled in Kirtland and were waiting for a conference to be held before they should return to their fields of labor, they asked the prophet what the Lord's will was concerning them, and the Lord gave this instruction:

"I give unto you a commandment, that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom;

"Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the Gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;

"Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land, and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms."

And why? Here is represented a very extensive field of knowledge. It covers every possible field of knowledge, why are the elders admonished, and even commanded to become acquainted with all these things? The Lord answers that question:

"That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you."

And again, in the same revelation: "As all have not faith-" as all are not able to attain unto knowledge by faith-not all gifted to drink at the very fountain head-

"And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and reach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom: seek learning even by study, and also by faith."

That was the instruction of the Lord to the elders who were contemplating their mission to the world, and that was what was required of them. Again, I say, since the world's stage is being set for a wider proclamation of the Gospel, let me admonish the seventies, among whom I stand, and with whom I more especially labor, let me say to them, to go to, now fill your minds with knowledge and also with faith, and let us draw to ourselves that spiritual power which comes from observing the laws of the Gospel; that when the great world's war shall cease, when its terrors shall no longer appal the people, and when they settle down to sober contemplation of the eternal verities, as they will, let us be prepared to teach them the truth as God has revealed it, and thus help in the great period of reconstruction that will come to the world, and that will be absolutely necessary to the world. That is my admonition to you, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Elder Horace S. Ensign sang a baritone solo, entitled,"Let us Have Peace."