Elder Uriah G. Miller.

(President Cottonwood Stake.)

I am not accustomed, my brethren and sisters, to standing in the presence of such a vast congregation of people. If I contribute anything this morning to the interest of this gathering and for the welfare of those who are assembled in this meeting, it will be because my heavenly Father, in whom I have faith, will come to my assistance and bless me with a goodly portion of His Holy Spirit.

I have rejoiced thus far in the things I have heard in this conference, in the testimonies that have been borne, in the doctrines that have been enunciated and, above all, I have rejoiced exceedingly in the Spirit that has been manifest throughout the conference. I am convinced, as a member of the Church, that these conferences are extremely beneficial to the individual members of the Church. I hope that, as men and women who are assuming responsibilities of the Church at home, that we have had our hearts opened to the things that have been said, and that will be said, that they will find lodgment in our hearts, that we shall be able to carry the instructions, and the spirit of them, to the various wards and branches of the Church, and bring them to the members of the Church who are not privileged to be with its in the congregations in the various sessions of this conference.

I am beginning to recognize, I believe, more than I have ever done before in my life, that there is a great mission and responsibility resting upon the members of the Church who reside in the wards and stakes of the Church. We are blessed, and privileged, to be members of what is recognized throughout the world as one of the most perfect organizations that has ever been established among the children of men. We recognize that there is one part of the organization that is directing the affairs of the Church; and that there is another department that is carrying the message of the Gospel to the various parts of the world. We recognize that in this organization there is provided ways and means by which the powers and influence of the Gospel are brought to the hearts of the children of men.

In our own homes, the responsibility is resting upon us, who are called to labor, and who are moving within the confines of the various wards and stakes throughout the Church, to do our part just, as carefully and consistently as are the other branches of this wonderful and magnificent organization to which I have alluded. I trust that we will be mindful, to a degree, at least, of some of these responsibilities that are upon our shoulders, for we recognize the fact that, very largely, we at home become members of the Church not, as do the people in the world, through conversion. We become members of the Church through the ordinance of baptism when we are children; consequently we have a responsibility resting upon us to take into our confidence, into our care, the boys and girls of the stakes and wards of Zion, and to give them in their own homes, testimony of this work.

I thank God that He has provided in this organization efficient ways and means by which we may be able to reach the hearts of the boys and girls of the Church. As parents, we very often recognize within ourselves that we are not able to reach the hearts of all of our boys and all of our girls. It becomes necessary that the organizations that have been provided will come to our assistance, and possibly through one or another of these organizations that are so well officered we shall, under the favor of our heavenly Father, be able to reach the hearts of the boys and the girls that possibly we are not otherwise able to reach, and be the means of instituting within their hearts the love and the testimony of this work. Of these wonderful auxiliary organizations that have been provided, possibly the Sunday School with all of its beautiful methods, and its powers, may not be able to appeal to some of our boys and girls; it may fall to the Mutual Improvement people to reach them. It may be possible that the Mutual Improvement people may not be able to interest them, but the Primary officers or the Religion Class, or perchance it may be the Relief Society sisters who shall be able, under the spirit of their work, to reach the hearts of these boys or girls, and bring them into the fold of Christ, with a testimony of the truth in their hearts.

In the midst of all of these, there are other organizations that to me seem superior to all the organizations put together, these are the priesthood quorums of the Church, and I hope that the spirit of the brethren in this Church will be inclined to the betterment of priesthood work. In my affiliations with the work with which I am connected, I am led to observe that very largely our boys, when they leave the deacons' quorum, are not noticed until we find them recorded, possibly, in the elders' quorums and when found in these quorums they simply have their names upon the records, and do not have the spirit of this work in their hearts. I shall rejoice exceedingly when the time shall come in the history of this Church that the boy as he leaves the deacons' quorum will be transferred to the teachers' and priests' quorums with the great spirit of this work in his heart. He then goes into the elders' quorum because he is eligible to become an elder, and has been educated in all the affairs of the Church, in all of the other priesthood quorums that have led up to it.

May God's blessings be with us. May we be true to our religion, and stand for that which is right; and may our lives be an example of the thing that we believe to he right and that we bear our testimony to the world is right, in Jesus' name. Amen.