Elder Walter P. Monson.

(President Eastern States Mission.)

My heart was touched in listening to the testimony of our beloved President, Joseph F. Smith, in the opening session of our conference, when he made that statement, very feelingly, that we stood in the presence of God, and that the eyes of great, good men who have lived upon the earth were upon us. I thought then, and have thought since, that the spirit of this conference is turning the hearts of the Latter-day Saints toward that personage whom we worship, as our Heavenly Father, and our God, Jesus Christ said in His reconciliatory prayer, which was offered up in the olive garden of Gethsemane, that "This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent," and if it is life eternal to know God as He is, then I consider it a vital question affecting the welfare of every son and daughter of God. My mind goes back to an ancient incident found in the 18th chapter of First Kings:

"And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim. Now, therefore, send and gather to me all Israel unto the mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezabel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and, gathered the prophets together unto Mount Car-mel. And Elijah came unto all the people, and said. How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered not a word."

Here was a time in Israel when they were following after false gods, and the prophet of God stood up in the midst of Israel and gave them a challenge, or gave a challenge rather unto the priests of Baal and the priests of the groves. He called upon Israel saying, "How long halt ye between two opinions?" There are two opinions respecting God's character today in the world, and the message that is being sent forth by the Latter-day Saint elders to the ends of the earth is calling upon Israel to choose between the priest of baal and the true and living God. I do not refer to the Christian world with any asperity, but rather to draw the comparison in these two points. The Athenasian creed says, "There is one living and true God, without body, parts passions." This seems to be the prevailing idea throughout the world with respect to the character and personality of Deity. And with the Athenasian Creed agrees the Apostles' Creed and the Nicean Creed, so that we can say that the whole Catholic and Protestant world have founded their faith upon that sort of a creature.

It is not strange to a Latter-day Saint that God has revealed Himself in our day and time, for with that prophetic announcement made by the Revelator John, when he said that "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."

Now, had the Gospel been upon the earth there would have been no necessity for an angel to restore it, and had the people been worshiping the God who made the heavens and the earth and the seas and the fountains of waters, there would have been no necessity for that prophetic announcement. In the 130th section of the D&C, the description of the God of the Latter-day Saints is given, differing with the bodiless, partless, passionless god, between which a choice should be made.

"The Father has a body of flesh and bones, as tangible as man's; the Son also, but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us." Here you have the "two opinions" stated, one that "God is a personage without body, parts or passions," and the other that "God has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's." Now we call upon Israel, "How long halt ye between two opinions." We might ask with the Savior, when addressing the Pharisees: "What think ye of Christ?" Is Christ God? Is He not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the God of Israel, the God who made the heavens and the earth, the seas and the fountains of waters? We read the testimony of John:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. * * * And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, * * * full of grace and truth."

Here you have the testimony of the Creator who "made the heavens and the earth and the seas and the fountains of water." I would like to know what purpose there would be in the resurrection, which is being commemorated throughout the Christian world at the near approaching Easter? If He is God, to what purpose did He take up His body? If the disembodied state of the spirit is a higher order than the resurrected state, the embodied state, then Jesus Christ was farther advanced the three days when His body lay in the tomb than He was when He had burst the bonds of death and walked forth with His immortalized, resurrected body. Can any one ever think that Jesus took a step backward from glory? Positively no. The greatest stride that was ever made toward glory was when that inanimate form that was put into the tomb of Joseph of Aramathaea was reanimated by the Spirit, which had three days previously been commended into the hands of His Father as He expired upon the cross.

Now, the whole Christian world has been teaching-the doctrine, as has already been stated in this conference, that the resurrection is something else other than the bringing up of the body. They look upon the resurrection as a sort of a spiritual resurrection, or awakening of spirit in some indescribable way. The Apostle Paul gives us a very striking testimony with respect to this question, which I would like to read. It is found in the 15th chapter of First Corinthians:

"Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and ye are found false witnesses of God, because ye have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ risen, and if Christ is not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order; Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father, when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power, for He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."

Therefore the greatest victory ever won by Christ was when He broke the bands, of death, and when the seed of the woman crushed the head of the serpent that brought death into the world.

Why, the world is preaching Jesus Christ crucified, and they leave Him crucified, and they have a crucified and dead religion. We are proclaiming to the world the resurrection of Christ, and we get a vital religion, a live religion that enters into the lives of men and women and raises them to the lofty pedestal of sainthood. If Christ be not raised, then is our preaching vain. I thank God that we have hope as Job of old, who said: "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." That is the testimony of Job of old. When people declare that God cannot be seen they are drawing into question the testimony of that righteous man, they are bringing into question also the statement of Jesus when He said, in that sermon upon the mount: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," and if He is unseeble, then how can Jesus Christ's promise be fulfilled? Some people claim that it was in the death of the cross--that the Christ was glorified. I do not speak disparagingly, nor do I wish to detract from the sacrifice that was made on Golgotha's hill, but I want to turn your attention to the thought and to the life that has come through that sacrifice. The very fact that Jesus was crucified did not make Him the Christ. That was the infliction of Roman capital punishment. You remember the scene at the crucifixion, the malefactors upon either hand of the Master, who were also crucified. Their crucifixion did not make them Christs. The malefactors had not the power to lay down their lives and take them up again as the Master had, who became the Savior of the world, by putting under His feet that enemy, the arch enemy of God, even death.

It is not an uncommon thing to meet people who say that Jesus Christ has come for the second time. I met a very influential minister in Brooklyn who declared that Jesus Christ has made His second advent and come into the world, in 1874, and is dwelling in the hearts of the children of men. What has He done with His body? Why, Jesus Christ, who was the Word, who was with God, who was God, took upon Himself that body of flesh and bones which Thomas handled and felt in his doubting moment, and then cried, "O Lord, my God," thus dispelling all doubt. He no longer doubted. As Christ ascended into heaven there stood upon the mount two angels also, who said: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven? this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Then He has not descended, in 1874, as His apostles saw Him ascend.

To show the necessity of accepting Jesus Christ as being a personage, possessed of a body of flesh, I want to bring to your attention the testimony of John, recorded in the fourth chapter of his first epistle: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world." Now a key given in the following verse: "Hereby know ye the spirit of God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus. Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of anti-Christ whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now is it already in the world." There were people in that day who were possessed of the spirit of anti-Christ who said that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh; and when Jesus shall make His second appearance those who have been faithful, and have become familiar with His voice in this life, will know positively that it is Jesus Christ who stands before them, and they will see the marks in His hands and in His feet and in His side. Then will He declare, "These are the wounds that I received in the house of my friends." "How long halt ye between two opinions?" If God is God, worship Him. If this nonentity without body, parts or passions be God, then worship it. I feel like saying, with Joshua of old, when he called Israel together and said, "Chose this day whom ye will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve God."

May God add His blessings to us all, and sustain Israel in all His work in the earth, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sisters Myrtle Doelle and Mary Cornwall, and the combined choirs, sang the Easter Song of Solomon, "Christ is Risen."