Lorenzo Snow

“ As has been said by our President, we can clearly see the rapid improvements and advances that this people are making from year to year. It is a pleasure to us, and we ought to feel grateful to our Heavenly Father for the strength that he has given to this people in consequence of the union, the knowledge, and wisdom that we are continually gaining.
We can easily see the improvements that the people are making. It is like the babe that passes from a state of infancy to childhood, and thence to manhood. ”

“ A man may be a very good man, and yet not have wisdom to do things right; but we have got the Spirit that will enable us to know how to put them in the best channel, so that they will be best calculated to roll on the kingdom of God, to make us happy, and prepare us for the scenes that lie before us. Is not the Gospel a good thing? Is it not worthy of a man losing his substance and even his life to gain the blessings that are promised to the faithful in Israel? ”

“ It is a matter of rejoicing to me, brethren and sisters, that I have the privilege of assembling here with you in a Conference capacity, contemplating the growth of the kingdom of the Almighty which has been upon the earth for the past thirty-one years, and considering the progress that this people have made in knowledge, power, and intelligence. We meet together in this capacity from time to time. Twice in a year we have always the same privilege. ”

“ Therefore we know if we are in the line of our duty; for the Spirit of the Gospel teaches every man who lives in the line of his duty that he is in the path of right, and so it does every woman. By it she knows she is walking in the path of truth and life. It is this Spirit which teaches the sisters as well as the brethren the right from the wrong; and she has a perfect right to know the truth of her religion—to have a knowledge for herself that the principles of her profession are divine. ”

“ If a man attains to any important position, he does not strive to elevate others to participate in the same blessings. In this respect there is a great difference between the Latter-day Saints and the world of mankind. The object of the Priesthood is to make all men happy, to diffuse information, to make all partakers of the same blessings in their turn. Is there any chance of a man's becoming happy without a knowledge of the Gospel of Christ? A man may make the thunders roll, the lightnings flash ”

“ If we are doing our duty, though we cannot point out the moment, the day, or the particular time when we receive the increase of knowledge, wisdom, or power, yet we know and feel conscious, as we reflect back, that we have gained. ”

“ The organised spirit which God gave us is the one which conceives through the revelations that are given from on high. The nature and the character of those teachings that come from the Priesthood are such that we comprehend them: the Spirit manifests them unto us as they are. By it we learn our duties to God and man. We are taught by it to shun the evil and cleave unto that which is good. ”

“ Though in the world they try to make themselves happy, still they are not successful in what they strive to accomplish. They cannot be happy except upon one principle, and that is by embracing the fulness of the Gospel, which teaches us not to wait till we get into eternity before we begin to make ourselves happy; but it teaches us to strive here to make ourselves and those around us rejoice in the blessings of the Almighty. ”

“ It is not miracles that produce within us that living faith of which President Young so frequently speaks; but we learn the nature and character of our religion. We learn that which is calculated to enable us to shun all evil power and to make us happy. ”

“ The man who has the priesthood, who is filled with the Holy Ghost, is to be guided and dictated by it in the way of happiness and life. It is very necessary for us to have these things laid before us frequently, that we may be put in remembrance of our duties. ”

“ There is no need of crying and mourning, for we are the saviours of men, appointed to be the kings and queens of the earth. We cannot always do what we would like to do, but we shall have the power to do that which we should do. ”

“ We are in the world, but we are ignorant. We do not know what will make us happy, or whether we shall receive what we anticipate. We know little or nothing about these things. We seek happiness and that which will make us comfortable, but we do not really understand what will make us happy for time and happy for eternity. ”

“ It has been bestowed upon man, that through that medium all who would like to be good and happy might have the privilege. The Gospel tells us how to be great, good, and happy. The Spirit of the Gospel of Christ teaches all things that are necessary for our present and future welfare. ”

“ When a man receives knowledge, he is prompted to impart it to others; when a man becomes happy, the Spirit that surrounds him teaches him to strive to make others happy. It is not so in the Gentile world. ”

“ We see farther and comprehend things better; hence we are better prepared for the things that are coming on the earth than we were ten, fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five years ago to know how to be useful—to know how to do things as they should be done. ”

“ You cannot tell the particular moments of its growth and increase in stature; you cannot point out the particular day, hour, or minute in which it increases; but you are all the time perfectly aware that it is gaining, growing, becoming greater continually. It is precisely so in regard to ourselves spiritually. ”

“ This is the condition in which they are placed, if they are acting in their proper positions, and if they are upholding and sustaining those who are in our midst, and who are appointed to lead and guide this people to eternal life and exaltation. ”