Elder German E. Ellsworth.

(President Northern States Mission.)

I am very grateful for the privilege I have this morning, in meeting with you to worship the Lord in our conference. I have no wisdom of my own with which to enlighten you, except I become a medium in the hands of the Lord through which His Spirit may prompt me to say something that will be good for our souls. I rejoice in the testimony I have of the Gospel, and as I listen to the testimonies of my brethren, and hear their declarations of its restoration, my whole being warms, and I rejoice that I also am found worthy to possess a testimony, and to be numbered with men and women whose hearts are set on righteousness and the salvation of our Father's children.

The testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith concerning the coming of the Father and the Son grows more wonderful to me all the time. Likewise the testimony concerning the visit of Moroni and the great mission of the Book of Mormon. I do not know of any book that has ever come forth in the earth that has so many evidences and so many testimonies concerning its truthfulness. The Angel Moroni came and instructed the Prophet Joseph Smith concerning the whereabouts of the plates upon which the Book of Mormon was written, and the circumstances connected with its coming forth. Joseph Smith the Prophet tells us the events connected with its coming forth, and declared that he translated the writings on the plates by the gift and power of God. We have three witnesses who likewise declare that they, in the presence of an holy angel, handle I the plates and heard a voice from heaven, affirming the truth of Joseph Smith's words, that the plates had been translated by the gift and power of God, a testimony that they could never afterward deny. Eight other witnesses also signed their names in testimony concerning the plates, and their belief in the truthfulness of this book.

The first writer in the Book of Mormon, Nephi, tells us that it is a true and faithful record. The last writer in the Book, of Mormon testifies, in like manner, with a promise that all who read it with a sincere heart may know of its truth, for the Father will declare it unto them by the power of His Spirit." This vast assemblage of people, together with all other Latter-day Saints, bear solemn testimony that they have received a witness in their souls concerning the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

My humble testimony to you and all the world is that the Book of Mormon is true. Along with the witness in my soul the Lord has blessed me with inspiration, akin to revelation, concerning the important part the Book of Mormon should play in the conversion of the world. The Bible has been scattered throughout the earth, and all nations who have received it are now called Christian nations. The Bible has been preceded, anti accompanied, and followed by stories concerning the great characters named therein, and the hand dealings of God with His people. I believe the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the depicted lives of its leading characters, and the faith-promoting incidents recorded therein, should find place in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints. I believe they should be well prepared to narrate those stories and tell them as well as the Christian missionaries tell the story of Adam and Eve, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of Joseph, and Daniel, and the three Hebrew children, together with the sacred history of Mary and her Divinely begotten son, Jesus, and His life ministry and miracles.

In my missionary experience I have found that people who are converted through reading the Book of Mormon, are solid in the faith, their faith seems to be planted firmly upon the rock of revelation. I was told today that in war-stricken Europe. where the people are left much alone, those who are converts to the Book of Mormon are not falling away front the faith. Within the past year numbers of families have sent for the elders to baptize them, who have read no other literature. or received no other instructions save that which they found within the lids of the Book of Mormon.

I am reminded that the missionaries who were sent out in the early years of the Church, had no other literature but the Book of Mormon, and this book, together with the burning testimony in their hearts concerning its truthfulness, and the wonderful way in which it came forth, was so powerful that it brought the honest in heart into the Church by hundreds. The character of these early converts is a strong testimony that there is no better missionary hook. As years went by, smaller books and tracts were written, many hundreds of thousands distributed, but I do not believe they have had the same effect as the Book of Mormon. In the Northern States mission, we have sought, diligently, for twelve years, to distribute the Book of Mormon, exerting every effort in our power to place it in the hands of the people, that it might fulfil its mission in connection with the Bible in bringing the world to Christ. The distribution of the Bible has made Christian nations, so the distribution of the Book of Mormon amalgamates the Latter-day Saints, with such nations. There is no more powerful record written concerning Jesus the Christ, no more beautiful stories of blessings following faith in God, and no clearer explanation of the plan of salvation found than that recorded in the Book of Mormon.

I rejoice in the testimony I have received from our Heavenly Father concerning the Book of Mormon. In listening to the testimony of President Joseph F. Smith, at the beginning of this conference. wherein he said he felt like he stood in the presence of the Lord, my mind immediately went to the time when the Prophet Joseph Smith, in the woods of Palmyra, as a boy, stood in the presence of the Lord and His Son Jesus Christ, and how He was almost consumed as it were, with the influence of their presence. President Joseph F. Smith made the Latter-day Saints feel, during his remarks, that he was standing in the presence of God, our Father, and we all rejoiced in the power and spirit of his testimony. The early missionaries of the Church felt much the same way. Some of them had stood in the presence of angels, or in the presence of men who had. They had felt the burning influence of the Spirit that had accompanied the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I bear witness to you that every elder who has ever come to the Northern States Mission, and has sought, with all his heart, to place the Book of Mormon in the hands of the people, has been made bigger and better than those who have delivered it doubtingly. The Christian world did not particularly want the Bible when it first came to them, neither did they sanction all the movements that were put on foot to scatter it abroad in the world. The Christian missionaries were not received with open arms; but they have persisted until the Bible can be found in almost every home in almost all nations of the earth; it can be found in hotels, upon railroad trains, in stations and everywhere that men and women are wont to congregate. I believe the Book of Mormon should follow the Bible, for in the Book of Mormon is found the more simple testimony, and a plainer explanation of the doctrines of salvation, accompanied by a spirit that finds lodgement in the hearts of the honest seekers after truth.

While we have not neglected to bear our testimony in a personal way, nor failed to seek entrance to the homes of the people, yet we have kept uppermost in our minds the distribution of the word of God as found in the inspired record called the Book of Mormon. We have encouraged our elders to read it when they are feeling blue, or homesick, or discouraged, or in doubt, for they will thereby be comforted, their faith increased, and their courage to face the world be strengthened.

My brothers and sisters, I would like to leave this admonition with you, that you go home and become better acquainted with the faith-promoting stories of the Book of Mormon, with the strength of character of its prophets, and the wonderful doctrines of salvation that it teaches. Teach your children to relate the stories found therein as they hear and tell those found in the Bible. I believe that the missionaries, and all our young men and our old men; should know the stories found in the Book of Mormon that inspire faith in our hearts, as well as we know the Bible stories. They are beautiful, and faith-promoting. We ought to learn to tell them that the world may know them, for the knowledge of the world has not come to them so much by reading the Bible, as it has come to them by the stories" that have been told, by the sermons that have been preached from the Bible. The knowledge of the Book of Mormon will spread in the earth the same way, if we will learn to tell the stories found therein.

We have sought to establish the Book of Mormon in the homes of people by selling or loaning it to them and pointing out to them the good things found therein. On our first visit we leave a book and point to one or two good things; then go again and turn down a few other corners of the leaves until we have maybe 25 or more places thus marked in the book. Just as soon as we can induce the people to read two or three places in the Book of Mormon, they will not permit that book to leave their home. We hope, in time, they will learn to value it as they do the Bible, and value the Bible more than they do today.

The Book of Mormon, has, to some extent, changed the thought of the religious world. They are beginning to reverence Adam as they should, and no longer consign unbaptized infants to eternal damnation. Easter sermons have been so modified that you can follow the very language of Alma in some of the Easter sermons of the Christian ministers of today. That has come about, possibly, by a few copying some of the sayings of Alma, and others repeating it without knowing its source. If we will learn to appreciate the value of the doctrines contained in the Book of Mormon, and proclaim them to the world, they will become unconsciously part of the doctrines of the world.

I rejoice in the testimony of my brethren and the spirit of civic righteousness that I feel is spreading over this state. The world had no revelation concerning the word of wisdom which condemns the use of liquor and tobacco, but they are fast driving those evil things from their midst. In one or two of the states in the Northern States Mission you do not see cigarette smoking. I have been at times in several cities of 350,000 people, and never saw a man or a boy with a cigarette. I came here and met them on every side smoking cigarettes and yet the Lord told us more than two generations ago, that it was not for man. We have states in which there are no saloons, and they are praying there will be no state with saloons. When the saloon was banished from the state of Iowa, the 1st day of January, 1916, there was a great exodus from that state. Not one of you would have followed the crowd or desired habitation where they dwell. On the other hand you would have been glad to have followed the crowd that came in when the state was freed from the influences of liquor. Every decent person desired to live in Chicago and eastern cities in the prohibition districts. The homes are better, the surroundings are better, the people are better. Sometimes we elders have to bow our heads when people say. "Why do you people in Utah, who have the balance power, permit saloons and cigarettes" When I see states and nations leading out in these things. I am reminded of the scripture wherein it says the "children of the world are wiser in their generation than the children of light."

May God help us to faithfully live the first principles of salvation, inspire us with the spirit of the Book of Mormon, and bring back to us the spirit of communion with angels, for they are willing to come today to all who serve the Lord, and court their influence. Many elders have had their eyes opened, and have stood in the presence of holy messengers who have been sent to help them in their ministry. I think that the Latter-day Saints of all people in the world, ought to understand that they are children of God, and live according to His ways. Follow Him, and cast out those evil things that destroy peace and happiness, and drag men down to the level of the beast.

May God help us, my brothers and sisters, to save our young men, and women, that they may believe the spirit and testimony of the angels of God, who came to the Prophet Joseph and accept the testimony of the Book of Mormon, and the doctrines that it teaches, that our light may be the light of a people set upon a hill. May we be leaders instead of followers of darkened Russia in casting out the liquor evil. May we be, as God has designed, real leaders, and a real light to the world, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.