Farewell Address of Apostle Heber J. Grant

FAREWELL ADDRESS OF APOSTLE HEBER J. GRANT.

DELIVERED IN THE SALT LAKE TABERNACLE, AT THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE, SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 1901.

I am glad to have the opportunity of addressing this confer- ence, and I desire that my remarks may be beneficial to the young people particularly. Some of you are aware that I have been try- ing for a little over a year to sing to the Latter-day Saints. I

have made one or two attempts in this Tabernacle, but have not al- ways been successful. I purpose tonight to preface my remarks by trying to sing you a song. I may not succeed, because in at-

tempting to sing, I imagine my position to be similar to that of some of our singers, should they attempt to preach. In my hand is a little sketch published in the Deseret News some weeks ago,

ivhich I will read:

Dear old Brother Goddard! Although it is more than two years since he passed from among us, his memory and his influence are as strongly felt in the circles where he moved as though he still were labor- ing among us in his own person. It will be many a year before he is forgotten in the Sunday Schools, among the old folks, or in the various Church circles where he labored. George Goddard was born in Leicester, England, December 5, 1815. He and his wife were baptized January 21, 1851. His death occurred in this city January 12, 1899. The following data, recorded in his own handwriting, just a short time before his death, in a little book which he presented to Heber J. Grant, gives a summary of his useful career: Fourteen months mission to Canada, by handcart to the Missouri River; 3 years gathering rags, as a mission; 9 years superintendent of the Thirteenth

684 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Ward Sunday School: 9 years superintendent in the Salt Lake Stake Sunday Schools; 27 years clerk of Presiding Bishop Edward Hunter; 26 years first as- sistant general superintendent of Sunday Schools 10 years clerk of the gen- ;

eral conference 4 years clerk of the School of the Prophets 3 years clerk and ; ;

treasurer to the Salt Lake Assembly Hall; 20 years member of the Tabernacle choir; 25 years member of the Thirteenth Ward choir; 23 years member of the Old Folks' committee. During the past 46 years, I have missed very few ward meetings, quorum, Tabernacle or fast meetings. I have had the pleasure and privilege of attending near 90 of our general conferences, and almost every meeting held during each conference. I am now 83 years old, lacking only a few days, and during the past five years I have traveled between twenty and thirty thousand miles by railway, [remember, young people, that this was from — the time he was 78 until he was 83 years of age the time when most people are in their dotage; when those that obey not the word of wisdom, as a rule, have been buried for a number of years,] and several thousand miles by team, over all kinds of roads, in heat and in cold, by night and by day, in the interest and for the benefit of the youth of Zion [and I might add, without one dollar of reward] who are connected with our Sunday Schools. I have visited 38 stakes of Zion [and that is all the stakes there were.] I use neither tea, coffee, wine, liquor, tobacco, or beer; and I am blessed of the Lord with good health, which causes my heart to rejoice exceedingly.

This little book which George Goddard gave me contains a copy, in his own handwriting, of all the songs he used to sing to the Sunday School children. He gave it to me at my request, and I promised to read these songs to the Sunday School children, and to keep his memory fresh before the young people. I never

dreamed that I would be able to sing them. I do not want this congregation of young people to go away with the idea that I make any pretension to being a singer. I simply sing these songs as an object lesson, to show that a person who is musically deaf, and cannot distinguish the keys upon the piano, can learn to sing. Please join in the chorus, and I will sing, or try to. I have been able to sing it through in the country wards, but somehow I seem to lose my nerve here. Please join in the chorus of "Who's on the Lord's side, who?" Let me say before beginning that when- ever I sing, as a rule, I encore myself; so, I may sing another song when I finish this one. [The speaker then sang "Who's on the Lord's side, who?" and afterwards, "The Holy City."J I had an object in view in singing to you tonight; it was that

I want to impress our young boys particularly to learn to sing. I believe that we can accomplish any object that we make up our minds to, and no boy or girl ought to sit down and say, because they

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oannot do as well as somebody else, that they will not do anything. God has given to some people ten talents; to others, he has given one; but they who improve the one talent will live to see the day when they will far outshine those who have ten talents but fail to improve them. Musically speaking, I doubt if I possess one talent. Maybe I have half of one; that is about all. Let me tell you the diflSculties I have labored under, so that you may know what I have had to overcome. I was requested some months ago, at President Cannon's, to sing, "God moves in a mysterious way," and simultaneously, I was requested to sing, "0 my Father." I heard the first request, but not the second. I turned to President Snow's wife and said, "Will you kindly play that tune for me in the key of F. (Prof. C. J. Thomas very kindly took a book and wrote the keys in which I ought to sing, because I cannot sing in the key in which songs are written, my voice being too low.) Sister Snow very kindly, consented to play for me. She heard the request for "0 my Father," so she played the prelude to that. When she finished playing the first verse, I began singing, "God moves in a

mysterious way." As good fortune would have it, the first three notes of these two songs are the same, when "0 my Father" is sung in the old tune— and, by the way, I love the old tune because of its associations, and because the song was sung to that tune when Sister Eliza R. Snow was present. When I began to sing, "God moves in a mysterious way," the audience laughed, though I did not know why they were laughing at a hymn of this kind. Sister Snow, realizing what I was about, changed the music to "God moves in a mysterious way," and we got through with the hymn all right. When I was learning to sing, "I have read of a beautiful city," I practiced that song one day twelve times at one sitting. There are three verses in it; so I sang thirty-six verses, and by actual count I made five mistakes to a verse, which made 180 mistakes in one practice, and I knew nothing about it. When I first began to learn to sing, it took me from three to four months to learn two simple hymns. I learned a hymn a few weeks ago in three hours

—half an hour's practice every evening for six days, and I had it all rght. I mention this to show you the force of what some man has

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said, that which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do not that the nature of the thing is changed, but that our power to do is increased. I desire the boys to learn that their power

to do will increase if they only go to work. Do not have to say in the mission field, "We are very sorry, but we can't sing, and we wish we had a companion that could." You can all sing, if you are not tongue-tied, and I have proved it. I want the young people to take advantage of my object les- son here tonight. I have no ambition to become a singer; but I do feel that there is a great deal lost in the homes of the people by not having the songs of Zion sung therein, and many a mission- ary robs himself of strength and power and ability to accomplish good, and to make friends, by not knowing how to sing. Another thing, he prevents himselffrom getting many a supper and many a bed and breakfast, which he could get if he only knew how to sing. People would invite him in, and welcome him, if he knew how to sing. The songs of Zion bring a good influence into our homes. It is not the eloquence that you possess which will carry con- viction to the hearts of the people, but it is the Spirit of Almighty God that is burning in your hearts, and your desire for the salva- tion of souls. Brigham Young said that the Spirit of the Lord would do more to convert people than the eloquence of men; and I say that the singing of the songs of Zion, though imperfectly, with the inspiration of God, will touch the hearts of the honest more effectively than if sung well without the Spirit of God. Sing with the Spirit of God; love the words that you sing. I love the songs of Zion. I love the hymn we sang here today, "Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear; but with joy wend your way." I love William Clayton who gave us those noble sentiments, and I love these pioneers that sung them, and sung them with all their hearts. It always breaks my heart when our good friends here.

Brother Stephens and his choir, cut the fourth verse off, because it is the best of all:

And should we die before our journey's through, Happy day! All is well. That is the kind of faith our pioneer fathers had, and that is

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the kind of sentiment and teaching I like the boys and girls to have. That is what I would like them to sing, and to sing with the Spirit. When the Psalmody is republished, if I am not here, I want to leave my protest against having the songs with four verses chopped into three-quarters. I am quite long, but I do not wish to lose one-quarter of myself. Brother Stephens wishes it under- stood that it is not his fault that the choir does not sing all the verses; they are not in the Psalmody. When the next edition of the Psalmody is published, I hope my words will be remembered and all the verses be printed. I do not want them to sing ten verses, or sixteen, when there are that many. There is a limit to all things. But there would be no harm in publishing every verse that the poet wrote. There is another thing I wish to say, in this connection. I do not know who corrected our hymn book, but if I were the poet, and could get out of my grave, I would get out and protest against some changes in it. In one of Brother Phelps' hymns, he says, that in the last days they will sing in "Zion and Jersusalem" and he meant just what he said; but I don't suppose it rhymed as well, or the music did not fit quite as well maybe, so it was changed to, "these peaceful valleys." want to tell you that 1

Brother Phelps was inspired. God has revealed the Gospel, and it will be preached and sung in "Zion and Jerusalem." I am glad that the Psalmody has it right. It is only the last edition of the hymn book that has it wrong. Perhaps I have said enough on singing for one night. I had

an ambition to sing "The Holy City" before I left for Japan, and to do it in the big Tabernacle, and my ambition has been gratified. Whether I sang it well or not, I am not prepared to say, because my musical ear did not tell me; but I have sung it, and I leave the result as an object lesson. God has said that the song of the righteous is a prayer unto him, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads. He also says that he rejoices in the song of the righteous. I say to you, praise God in the songs of Zion, and he will bless you, because he has promised to do so. I want to read to the young people tonight a few words about

Joseph Smith, and I want you to remember them. This is from Josiah Quincy's Figures of the Past. Quincy was a lawyer, a

^688 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

statesman and philanthropist, and a man of importance in our country. I want you young men and young ladies to know some-

thing of what he says about the Prophet Joseph Smith. A fine-looking man is what the passer-by would instinctively have mur inured upon meeting the remarkable individual who had fashioned the mould which was to shape the feelings of so many thousands of his fellow-mortals. But Smith was more than this, and one could not resist the impression that capacity and resource were natural to his stalwart person. I have already men- tioned the resemblance he bore to Elisha R. Potter, of Rhode Island, whom I met in Washington in 1826. The likeness was not such as would be recognized in a picture, but rather one that would be felt in a grave emergency. Of all men I have met, these two seemed best endowed with that kingly faculty which directs, as by intrinsic right, the feeble or confused souls who are looking for guidance.

want the young people to remember this testimony concern- I

ing our beloved Prophet Joseph Smith. People have ridiculed him, have said that he was a weakling and an ignoramus; but here is a man who acknowledges what he was. And as the years go by, other men will acknowledge his greatness, the same as they are acknowledging today the greatness of Brigham Young. I rejoice in the testimony that was borne yesterday, at Saltair, by Judge Baskin. I rejoice to have lived to see that man stand up and bear testimony to the world concerning Brigham Young. There was that same power with Brigham Young that this man testifies was with the Prophet Joseph. I bear my witness to you here tonight, that in the days of Brigham Young, no other man that I ever met had that power within him that directed, as by divine right, the minds of other people. He had the spirit of a prophet upon him. He had power, and everybody felt it. I want to say to you that God Almighty has given that same power —and it is a testimony to me — to every man that has stood at the head of this Church. I know that John Taylor grew in power and strength and might from the day that God chose him to be his prophet. I know that Wilford Woodruff grew in power and strength, grew in very per- sonal appearance, in dignity and in force, from the day that God made him his prophet. I know that God has strengthened the voice of Lorenzo Snow, that it rings out withmore power in his old age than it was made the prophet of God. did before he There is power with these men whom God has chosen to represent him on earth, and I thank God that this man saw and recognized

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-this power in Joseph Smith, the founder, under God, of the Church of Christ upon the earth. It has been said that the Latter-day Saints were in favor of slavery. we were in favor of secession; that It has been said that

we were in sympathy with the South; but I was glad to hear that quotation by Brother Talmage, of the first message that went over the wires, "Utah has not seceded, but is firm for the constitution and the laws of our once happy country. Brigham Young" When I heard that yesterday, I thought of the position of the Prophet

Joseph Smith and the testimony of this man, Josiah Quincy: Smith recognized the curse and iniquity of slavery, though he opposed the methods of the Abolitionists. His plan was for the nation to pay for the slaves from the sale of the public lands. "Congress," he said, "should be compelled to take this course, by petitions from all parts of thfe country; but the petition- ers must disclaim all alliance with those who would disturb the rights of prop- erty recognized by the Constitution and foment insurrection." It may be worth while to remark that Smith's plan was publicly advocated, eleven years later, by one who has mixed so much practical shrewdness with his lofty philosophy. In 1855, when men's minds had been moved to their depths on the question of slavery, Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson declared that it should be met in accordance "with the interest of the South and with the settled consciene of the North. It is not really a great task, a great fight for this country to accomplish, to buy that property of the planter, as the British nation bought the West Indian slaves." He further says that the "United States will be brought to give every inch of their public lands for a purpose like this." We, who can look back upon the terrible cost of the fratricidal war which put an end to slavery, now say that such a solution of the difficulty would have been worthy a Christian statesman. But if the retired scholar was in advance of his time when he advocated this disposition of the public property in 1855, what shall I say of the political and religious leader who had committed himself, in print, as well as in conversation, to the same course in 1844?

I will tell you what I will say: he was a prophet of God; and this nation would have been spared the bloodshed and the millions of money expended in the war, and year after year in pensions; and the widows and orphans, made by the war, would not have been deprived of their husbands and fathers, had this nation listened to the inspired words of the boy prophet, Joseph Smith. If the atmosphere of men's opinions was stirred by such a proposition when war-clouds were discernible in the sky, was it not a statesmanlike word eleven years earlier, when the heavens looked tranquil and beneficent?

It was a statesmanlike word — was the inspired word of the it

Prophet of Almighty God.

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Born in the lowest ranks of poverty, without booklearning and with the homeliest of all human names, he had made himself at the age of thirty-nine a

power upon earth. Of the multitudinous family of Smith, from Adam down (Adam of the "Wealth of Nations," I mean), none had so won human hearts and shaped human lives as this Joseph. His influence, whether for good or for evil, is potent today, and the end is not yet.

No, the end is not yet. The little stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands is rolling forth, and the end is not yet.

I have endeavored to give the details of my visit to the Mormon prophet with absolute accuracy. If the reader does not know just what to make of Jo- seph Smith, I cannot help him out of the difficulty. I myself stand helpless before the puzzle.

In bidding good-by to the young men and the young ladies forming the Mutual Improvement Associations, I desire to impress upon their minds what was said here today by Brother Roberts, that it is work that will count with you boys and girls. It is keep- ing the Word of Wisdom; it is paying your tithing; it is avoiding bad company; it is valuing your virtue more than your life; it is

listening to the counsels and the advice of your fathers and your mothers, and the Priesthood of God, and doing your duty — it is

these things that will magnify you before God, and that will bring you back into his presence. I desire to leave with you my testi- mony. Josiah Quincy said that he did not know what to say about Joseph Smith; but I will tell you what I can say of him. I can say

that he was a prophet of God, and I desire to read one of his prophecies here tonight: August 6, 1842. I prophesied that the Saints would continue to suffer much and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains; many would apostatize; affliction, others would be put to death by our persecutors, or lose their lives in conse- quence of exposure and disease, and others would live to go and assist in mak- ing settlements and building cities, and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains.

While we honor Brigham Young as the great statesman, the great pioneer and colonizer, we must not forget that Brigham Young built upon the foundation, and fulfilled the predictions, made by the Prophet Joseph Smith; and Brigham Young, great as he was, on all occasions magnified the Prophet Joseph, and I honor and love him for the reverence he gave to the man who was the instrument in the hands of Almighty God of restoring the Gospel

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to the earth. What kind of a country was this when Joseph Smith predicted that the Saints would come here, and become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains? Hear the testimony, ye young men and young ladies, of the foremost statesman of the day, when this prediction was uttered — Daniel Webster: What do we want with this vast, worthless area, this region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs? To what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts, or those endless mountain ranges, impenetrable and covered to their very base with eternal snow?

We could put them to the use of supporting a great and a mighty people, and fulfilling the prediction of the boy prophet. Young men and young ladies, I leave with you my testimony that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God, and that Lorenzo Snow today is a prophet of God. How do I know it? I know it as well as I know that I

stand before you tonight. I know heat, I know cold; I know joy, and I know sorrow; and I say to you that in the hour of sorrow, in the hour of affliction, in the hour of death, God has heard and answered my prayers, and I know that he lives. I leave my testi- mony with you. God bless you. Amen.