Elder Anthony W. Ivins.

Evidences of continued and accelerated progress of the Church--Important mission of the Church in Peace movement--The Saints an example of peace and righteousness--Vital questions now perplexing the world--Present great need of nations is nations is just men to make and administer laws--Responsibility of the people to elect good men--The Church wants prohibition.

The proceedings of this conference, my brethren and sisters, have been very gratifying to me as I believe they have to all of the Latter-day Saints who have been present. The definite, unmistakable manner in which the fundamental doctrines of the Church have been presented by the Presidency, the testimony to the divinity of the work which has been borne by the presiding authorities of the Church and our brethren who have addressed us, the reports made to us in regard to the development and progress of the Church during the past fourteen years have all been very gratifying indeed to me, and I think ought to put at rest any doubt, if doubt there is, or has been, either in the Church or out of it, as to its development, its progress, its stability.

I have been thinking that if comparative figures were available, it would be seen that since the organization of the Church, eighty-six years ago until today, development has been consistent and constant, that from year to year the Church has gained greater strength, greater prestige, and that greater faith has come to the people as the years have passed. I have been asking myself the question, what will the next fifteen years of the history of the Church develop? Where will we be, what will be our numbers, what will be our increased influence in the world, what progress will the Church of Christ have made? I look forward with optimism because I believe that, just as from year to year there has been greater development, just as during the fourteen years of the history of the Church, which have been reviewed, its progress has been greater comparatively, perhaps, than at any other period of its history, so in the future will-there be increased development. This is the Lord's work and is in the world to prevail, to become better understood and to gain greater influence for good among the people.

I have been thinking if we could confine ourselves to this environment, if we could always be together, if we could always enjoy the spirit of testimony and assurance as the Lord gives it to us in these conferences, we ought to be a very happy, and contented, and satisfied people, and I believe that we are as a rule. But we go out from these conferences, and find ourselves in the world a very small part of the world, but nevertheless, a very important part of it, because the work of the Lord is not confined to the state of Utah; it is not confined to these United States; it is a world work, and consequently it must be vitally interested in world conditions, and its influence and power must be exercised in the affairs of the world if its destiny is to be accomplished. So as I have thought of the peace which prevails at home, of the satisfactory condition of the Church and the comparatively satisfactory condition of our country compared with other countries of the world, I reach the conclusion that our work is not by any means accomplished. It is just beginning, the influence that we expect to attain, the power of the Gospel for good, the establishment of peace and order, in the religious and the civil world, for we cannot separate them, is a mission that has tremendous possibilities. Perhaps I should not say possibilities, but tremendous certainty before it.

I have been thinking, while sitting here, of the words of Paul. Some of his words have been quoted this afternoon. He wrote, you know, to Timothy whom he addressed as his son, one who had accepted the truth just as we have accepted it. The spirit of those epistles, his whole admonition to Timothy was that he should continue devoted to the Lord, that he should retain the faith, never wavering; that he should remember the law of the Lord which he had pledged himself to keep and observe; that he should remember to honor and uphold the law of the land; and being devoted to these doctrines himself, admonish all other men and women to observe them. That he should teach men to keep the commandments of the Lord; that he should teach them to be industrious, providing for their own families, avoiding extravagance; that he should teach women to be modest in their apparel, not adorning themselves extravagantly. That he should teach the poor to be obedient and acknowledge God in their poverty, and the rich to seek righteousness rather than riches, admonishing them that the love of money was the root of all evil, but that if they acquired riches they must acknowledge God in it and give Him the credit. He told him that these things must be taught in the Church in order that men's feet might be firmly established in the truth; for he bore witness that the time would come, which he called the last days, when men would be lovers of their own-selves, rather than lovers of God; they would be covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. From all such turn away, for such people he says, are ever learning yet never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Comparing the condition of the Church with the condition which prevails in the world generally, I thought of these words of the apostle-prophet. Do you know, my brethren and sisters, how fruitless, in accomplishment have been the teachings of modern Christianity? The Christian world is engaged in deadly strife, nation ar-rayed against nation, people against people. They have, taken up the sword one against the other, are killing each other, and yet professing to be followers of the Redeemer of the world, all having the Bible, all having the word of the Lord as it is contained here in these scriptures, and yet are engaged in the most heartless and bloody war the world has ever known, in modern times at least.

While Brother Grant was quoting statistics this morning I thought of, and during the noon hour copied from remarks made in the British Parliament, just a few days ago, by the Premier of England, these facts, that the European War is costing Great Britain alone twenty-five millions of dollars every day, or nine billion, one hundred twenty-five million dollars a year--figures that are staggering, almost beyond our comprehension. Statesmen in that country, and not in that country alone, for the very same question is being asked here in the United States, are asking what can we do to be saved? It is not so much spiritual salvation that they are asking for, but to save ourselves from ourselves, for they realize that this dissipation and waste in the wealth of the world cannot long continue, to say nothing of the waste in human life and human sacrifice which is being made. So these statesmen in England begin to look around for means of retrenchment. The English people are warned against extravagance, they are warned against needless expenditures; and among other things, and one of the most important things to which their attention is being called, is the fact that in that country every year there is expended for strong drink and narcotics, that might better be done without, the tremendous sum of five hundred fifty millions of dollars, or half a billion dollars every year.

We are not asking in the United States, so directly, what we may do to be saved, but we are asking what can we do to perpetuate existing conditions? Can we save ourselves from this world war? Will we be attacked? Will our resources be too dissipated and wasted? Men advocate greater navies, greater armies, stronger fortifications, in order that the God-given principles of liberty that exist in the United States, as they exist in no other part of the world, may be maintained and this heritage of our fathers be perpetuated. They are vital questions, questions that are before the world. They are before us and we cannot escape nor shirk them. Now there must be a cause for this condition, and a remedy, and I take it for granted that if I see, or think I see the cause, and if I see or think I see the remedy, it is not only my privilege but my duty to say so. I asked myself the question, the first day of this conference, in what does the strength of the Church consist? And the answer very readily came to me--in the first place it is the work of the Lord restored to the earth in the dispensation in which we live, divinely established through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith: the Gospel in its fullness has come to us. We understand it, we know that the laws and ordinances, of the Church are perfect, but I thought to myself, except those laws and ordinances are administered in righteousness, by trustworthy men, they amount to nothing. We may have the word of the Lord. We may profess righteousness, we may know His will, but if the will of the Lord is not manifest in our works, works being the expression of faith, they amount to nothing. I know that you could begin at the very head of the Church, and go down through all these quorums, to the presidents of stakes, the members of high councils, the bishops of wards, those who preside over the auxiliary organizations of the Church, and you will find that every man of them are selected with the greatest care, because of their integrity, and integrity expresses it all. If a man profess faith in God and has integrity, he will adhere to God's commandments; and you will find in the Church that these are clean men, devoted men. You cannot find an immoral man among them, not one. You cannot find an intemperate man among them, you cannot find a man whose word is not to be relied upon, you cannot find a man who is a hypocrite, who professes religion and does not exemplify it in his life: and that constitutes the strength of the Church, the strength of the men who are in it and who control its affairs. There can be no strength in the Church, there, can be no strength in the state, except that condition shall prevail, no matter what the constitutional law of the land may be.

They have just as good a constitution in Mexico as we have in the United States, but there has never been men there to execute it. They have perverted the laws; men have transgressed the law of God, changed the ordinances of the Church, and broken the everlasting covenant, while they profess to speak in the name of the Lord, so have men there perverted the just laws that have been written into the statute books by their fathers, until anarchy and confusion prevail. Now, in the scripture that I have read, Paul said the conditions referred to there would come in the last days. The Lord said to the Prophet Joseph, "In the last days, even now, the day in which I am beginning my work, the angels of the Lord stand ready constantly crying to Him to be permitted to go out and reap down the world, for the harvest is ripe." So we are living in the last days. Do you need to be told that men manifesting in their lives the condition referred to by Paul exist ? We come in contact with them wherever we go, and so I say--and I have little fear of successful contradiction--that the condition of confusion that exists in the world, both in the religious and in the civil world, is the result of the administration of the affairs of the church, and of the state by men who have departed from the way of the Lord. They are not men of faith, they take honor to themselves, they do not give Him the credit. They misinterpret the word of the Lord, because to properly interpret it would defeat their purposes.

Now, what is the remedy? Our Church needs no present remedy because it adheres to the word of the Lord, as I have borne witness to you. The responsibility of calling these men to conduct its affairs rests with the presiding authorities of the Church. Every one of these men know how they have been catechized, how their lives have been scrutinized and criticized before they are called to responsible positions, and they know that they must pass successfully that criticism if they are selected and sustained as representatives of the Lord's work and that if one of them should cease to be a man of integrity and character, no matter who he may be, one of us or one of them, the minute we depart from the way of the Lord, we lose our place. The minute we forget the obligation which rests upon us in His service, no matter what may have been our calling, the moment we place our personal affairs before the affairs of the kingdom, the minute we seek to gratify our own ambition or to accomplish our own selfish purposes through the influences of the priesthood, the Lord has told us that we lose the power that He has given us, and amen to the priesthood or authority of that man. He cannot be an immoral or wicked man and hold his place in the Church. Just as long as that condition continues, the Church is absolutely safe.

The state needs the very same thing. I am going to assume to say that the one thing in the world that is needed today, the one great preparedness that the world needs is the men--men of integrity, men of faith, men of economy, men of industry, men who will control and manage your public affairs as you manage and control your private affairs, men selected by the voice of the people.

If conditions of confusion exist in the world I always look to the word of the Lord for a remedy, because I believe in it, I believe in it as He gave it to His people anciently, I believe in it as He revealed it to us through His prophet in this dispensation, I believe in it as it comes to us through living oracles of God who declare His word to us in the day in which we live. If the word of the Lord is to be depended upon the safety and development and welfare of the people of all nations depends upon the selection of good men, and honest men, and righteous men to represent them in public affairs.

How are you going to separate the church from the state? The state controls the church absolutely, controls your property, controls your lives. It takes your property from you if it wishes, it presses you into service, it declares war or makes peace and you cannot avoid it, however much you may desire, and however much we may claim that we are independent, that what we have belongs to us. After all the finality is that the state controls us. Is it necessary or important, then, that good men administer public affairs, trustworthy men? It seems to me that it is; not only necessary, but absolutely indispensable, and that is the reason I am calling your attention to it. There can be no peace, there can be no perpetuity of the institutions of this country without it, there can be no proper development in this state of ours without it.

I don't know that I need take time to read it to you, but here, in the D&C, the Lord tells us that in order that these conditions may be maintained it is our duty to seek out good men, and wise men and just men to control our civil affairs. I want to put emphasis on these words "Seek out." It seems to me that it has almost come to a point when, instead of seeking out men to serve us, we sit supinely down and let the men seek the office and hunt their way in. A man said to me the other day, "I have been approached and asked to run for governor. I have been told that if I can put up ten thousand dollars I will have a good chance to be elected." That kind of politics is dangerous. Men ought to be sought out by the people. Do you know what the Lord said to the Nephites who lived upon this continent of ours, and who were destroyed because of the very forces to which I am referring? Mosiah said, when they would have elected him king, that it was not wise, nor proper that a king should be elected among them, but rather he said let men be chosen by the voice of the people to frame laws, and administer them. It was done, and they administered the law in righteousness. For sixty years there was peace but at the end of that time there came an element into the politics of the nation which, under the very same laws, the very same constitution, so ingratiated themselves into the hearts of the people that the majority voted for wicked men instead of good ones, and the historian bears record that in the beginning of that sixtieth year, when the majority of the people accepted wicked men as their chief judges and rulers, their dissolution and destruction commenced.

So it is going to continue to be in all nations, and I wanted to sound this note of warning. Men who do the will of the people should be sought for office. Have I had any reason to doubt that the will of the people will be done, or has been done by men that you have elected to office, I think you only need to review the history of the last six years for an answer to this question. In a congregation similar to this the Presidency of the Church, the presiding authorities of the Church, expressed themselves clearly and unmistakably upon a great issue which was before the people, and we voted here to sustain that issue. The words were published, and have gone out to the world, and repeatedly you have sent men up here who absolutely ignored it, ignored your will, for I believe it was the will of the majority. Who was responsible for it? We don't want you to hold us responsible. We do not elect legislators. You who hold the franchise in this state are responsible and if you don't want good laws, if you want this state to continue to stand abashed and humiliated among its neighbors, if you want it to continue to sustain the two most pernicious influences that are at work today in the world for the destruction of your sons and daughters, go on sending up men that will vote for liquor, for open saloons, and with them for houses of prostitution, and it won't be very long till you will get it. I tell you that you must control it, you must subject it to your will, or it will subject you to its will.

I do not want to be misunderstood on this question. If you are like those people to whom I have referred, if the majority want a wicked man, a man who will disregard your will send him up; but do not be deceived; in the words of Rudyard Kipling, "Do not allow knaves to twist the truth men utter to make traps for foolish men and women," and lead them to believe that truth is error, and error truth: but exercise your judgment, with the Spirit of the Lord to direct you, and take this matter in hand and control it. There has been no change of policy so far as the Church is concerned upon that great question of prohibition. It stands right where it did in the beginning. We are for it and want it.

God bless you, my brethren and sisters, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.