F. M. Lyman

“ In cultivating the earth, in buying and selling, in caring for the wealth of the world, our object should be to supply our necessities, to make ourselves comfortable, to keep us alive, to keep us in good condition; but the chief part of our lives should be used in works of righteousness, of charity, seeking to improve the spiritual condition of man, to develop the intellectual man, to develop the moral man, and to gain favor with our heavenly Father; and to lay up treasures in this life that can be taken hence with us. We are not ambitious enough to excel in doing good. ”

“ If a man is endowed with the Holy Ghost; if he has first and foremost the kingdom of God and the righteousness of our heavenly Father, let wealth flow unto him as it may, he will use it properly; he will remember the poor, he will pay his tithing, he will give liberally for the building of Temples, for the supporting of the families of missionaries, and for the building up of home industries. The more wealth a man has, the better if he has the Spirit of God to guide him in its use. The kingdom of God must be built up with means. Money is necessary in some instances with us to-day. ”

“ The Lord knows exactly what men should do and how they should live in order to obtain happiness, the realization of which is the object or life. There are a variety of ways in which men seek happiness, which, however, result in their sorrow. But there is no sorrow to be found or experienced in keeping the commandments of God. It is true, we may have to face death, and perhaps meet it; we may suffer from the loss of property, and have to endure persecution; but when we suffer such experience by reason of our rendering service to God, it promotes eternal joy in the soul of man. ”

“ My brethren and sisters, I am pleased to meet you in this General Conference, and although it is a great task to undertake to speak to so large an audience, I am willing to undertake my part if you will give me your faith and prayers, and the Lord will bless me with His Spirit.
The work that engages our attention is more remarkable than any work that the Lord has ever commenced upon the earth. The determination of our Heavenly Father that this work shall stand forever, that it shall not be taken from the earth nor be given to another people, is one of its important features. ”

“ We ought to labor; we ought to be industrious; we ought to seek to gather from the elements means that would sustain us, to clothe us, to build our habitations, and to enable us materially to build up the kingdom of God. But as the spirit and body are one, and grow together, sympathizing with each other, the spirit giving life to the body, without which the body cannot live at all, so it should be with us in regard to the things of the kingdom. ”

“ When we look over the world and find it teeming with millions of people who have not a knowledge of the truth —and many of them just as honest as we are in their worship, but they know not the truth, they have not sought after it, and in some instances they have been so educated and so prejudiced, and have taken error for truth, until they do not know the truth when they hear it—what a boon it is to us that God has given us a spirit by which we may know the truth and not be deceived! ”

“ Hence he became profound in knowledge, a man possessing the true riches, a servant of the living God, who has gone to reap his reward—gone from his sorrow, from his weariness and from his labors in this life, and, as was remarked yesterday, he will find his quorum, he will find his place therein, and will abide with the saved, exalted and redeemed and those who have "fought the good fight and kept the faith." May this be said of us! But if it is said, it will be because we labor better in the future than we have done in the past.
Let every man look into his own heart! ”

“ Our mission as Elders should be from now on to vie with each other in doing the works of righteousness, and in living humble and pure lives. In this we will find wealth and joy, and I desire to say to you that the Elder, the Priest, Teacher or Deacon—and the term Elder covers every man bearing the Melchisedek Priesthood—who neglects these things, will be found sorrowing ”

“ We are ambitious enough to excel in obtaining wealth—and yet I do not know that it ought to be called wealth. Prest. Taylor gave a very nice explanation of true wealth yesterday. Quoting from the revelation of God to us which says, "He that hath eternal life is rich," and applying those words to our late Brother, Orson Pratt, he said, pointing to his remains, "There lies the body of a rich man." We all know that Brother Pratt was not rich in this world's goods, but it can be safely said of him, that he is rich. —rich in the things of God. ”

“ And it is the duty of every one bearing the holy Priesthood, to make his voice heard against extravagance and evil. But first of all let him see that he himself is free from that which he would denounce in others. He should himself observe the law which God has revealed as to what we should eat and what we should drink. ”

“ When a man is doing right he has remarkable courage. You know it is said that sin makes cowards of us all. Now, the man that would approach the Father should not be a coward. In approaching the throne of grace, we should do so with humility, but with frankness, asking in faith, believing that the Lord will give. ”

“ And we should not wait to be called to the Old Country or elsewhere, or to be set apart as Home Missionaries, or to be Bishops or Presidents of Stakes, High Counselors, etc. For I say unto you that every man who has received any portion of the Priesthood is a missionary; and the salvation of the world, to a certain extent, rests upon his shoulders. ”

“ And this earth has been brought together and arranged according to eternal principles, eternal laws, by which other worlds have been made, and by which other worlds will yet be made, that are behind us, that will follow this earth. ”

“ He has a right to say to us, when you cultivate the earth, "I require you to give me one tenth of all that is produced, and the nine-tenths you are welcome to use for your own support, and for the accomplishment of my purposes. ”

“ Circumstances have changed; and as the earth answers to the labors of the husbandman, we put on better clothing, we set our tables more sumptuously, and our homes are altogether better furnished. We eat more and drink more; we eat extravagantly and we drink to excess of things that are proper to be taken, and of things that are improper and should not be indulged in. ”

“ What a great gift and boon this is, and it ought to make us good husbands, good wives, good parents, good children, good neighbors, good men and women, laboring for the salvation of the human family.
We cannot be Saints without the spirit of the Lord. And as I said before in regard to these ordinances and requirements, they all tend in their particular place and time to keep us in the strait and narrow path. ”

“ We send our children to school, it is true; but there is not that system of education, there is not that training and teaching of the sons by the mothers that ought to be. We have grown more or less careless regarding these things; we have become somewhat wrapped up in the things of the world. ”

“ And I sometimes fear that we do not feel as ambitious, as energetic to do our part, to bear the responsibility that he designs to come upon our shoulders, that we are not as careful as we ought to be in observing his laws and requirements; that we do not appreciate them and prize them as we ought to. If we did we would not sin ”

“ And hence the necessity of all this carefulness, these detailed plans and regulations urged in the Gospel of Christ, to keep men in the strait and narrow path. And with all this, some of Israel will go over the wall, they cannot be kept in. They will break out in spite of all the guards and bulwarks thrown around them. ”

“ I have thought that if we as Elders of Israel would seek to obtain a knowledge as to why these principles are given to us and their force and effect upon us, we could then explain them better to our families than we can to-day. But we have been, satisfied by receiving a portion of the spirit of the Lord. We have not progressed as we should ”

“ Possibly we have gathered with the Saints into these valleys, but individually we have settled down more or less to follow the ways of the world, to the making of means, to the cultivation of our farms, etc. ”