--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Park, Hamilton G. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 15 number: 8 published: 1912-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Hamilton G. Park, "Priesthood Quorums’ Table: The Last Testimony of Hamilton G. Park," *Improvement Era* 15, no. 8 (June 1912): 750–751.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1508unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1508unse start_page: 750 end_page: 751 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1912-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1508unse publication_year: 1912 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1912, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Priesthood Quorums’ Table: The Last Testimony of Hamilton G. Park Priesthood Quorums' Table The Last Testimony of Hamilton G. Park. — The following address, given to the High Priests' Quorum of Ensign stake is the last public address of Elder Hamilton G. Park. He died May 1, 1912, after an illness of several months. He was the son of Samuel Park and Isabella Grak and was born November 25, 1826, at Tilburnie, Scotland. He joined the Church in 1840, and in 1852 came to America, and to Utah, September, 1854. Two years after arriving in Utah he became the business manager of President Brigham Young, acting up to May, 1869. He was closely connected in this capacity with the development of the material affairs of Utah, especially in the construction of flour and saw mills, and the first overland telegraph. He was later business manager of Joseph A. Young in which position he combined farming, mining and railroading. He filled two missions to Great Britain, one in 1869-71 and another in 1875-77. Returning from his second mission he entered the employ of Z. C. M. I. at which he continued the remainder of his life. He was very active in Church work and faithful to the extreme; and in his time was a laborer in the Y. M. M. I. A., and the Sunday School, and acted as a home missionary, as ward clerk, as counselor to Bishop Edwin D. Woolley, up to 1876, and to Bishop Nelson A. Empey, 13th ward, up to 1900. At the time of his death he was the President of the High Priests' Quorum of the Ensign stake to whom his last testimony was given on Sunday, December 10, 1911, as follows: My dear brethren: — I find as I advance in years, and this old body becomes more feeble, that you are dearer to my soul; that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints becomes dearer to me every hour, and my brethren and my sisters become more precious in my sight, and I love them better and love them more. I was down to the First ward last night, and expected to go home to Third Avenue last evening, but was not able to go. I was in bed all day, but I got up this morning and felt a little wrathy. I thought there was an enemy trying to prevent me from doing my duty, and I said, I wish I were strong enough to throw him on his back, and I would do it this morning cheerfully and without a grudge; but I am very feeble, and my steps are becoming very unsteady, and I feel that interest in my brethren and my sisters that I want to talk to them and exhort them all the time, if I had the strength. I joined the Church when I was 15 years old. My mother was very much opposed to it and said to me: "Hamilton, you have brought disgrace on the family. You have brought a greater sorrow to me than your father's death." This grieved me very much, and set me to crying, for I loved my mother. I distinctly remember going out PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS' TABLE 751 into the orchard and prostrating myself upon the grass; I prayed to die. While there I heard a voice which said to me: "Hamilton, what you have done is well pleasing to your Father in Heaven. The young man, Joseph Smith, is a prophet, is without spot or blemish, chosen in heaven and ordained of God. If you will be faithful to the end, God will give you an everlasting inheritance in his celestial kingdom where God and Christ dwell." This has been my testimony throughout all my days. My mother afterward joined the Church and came to this country, crossing the plains with a hand cart, and finally died a faithful Latter-day Saint in her 93rd year. To the brethren who have joined this quorum today and have been ordained God's High Priests, I want to say that we bid you welcome and hope all the good things stated to you in your ordination will be realized by you to the glory of God and the salvation of your own souls. And now in looking over this congregation, I want to say that if there is any man here who feels that business is more important to him than his duty to God, I want to tell him to beware; because, in my advanced life, things of the future cast their shadows before, and the things of the present lose their interest. While it is good and proper and right for man to attend to the business of today, and sustain the Kingdom of God in its temporal affairs, I say to them not to neglect their duties to God and their holy religion, because, when they get to my time of life, it will not be how much stock you own in this and that institution, how many bonds you possess, and how much wealth you can count in the things of this life, but the question foremost and uppermost will be, have I been true to my God and His holy religion? Have I neglected any one duty? Have I ever betrayed a trust, or gone back on a friend? Therefore, I say to our friends joining us this morning, welcome, and welcome, a thousand times welcome, to our quorum. Now I want to say to my brethren, there is little else I find I am able to do, but I can bear testimony to the truth of the gospel. I find now in my advanced stage of life, because I have commenced my 87th year (and my 72nd year in the Church), that I have seen the power of God in every advance of the way, and Lucifer also in every advance, for he if a living factor. I will say right here to you, my brethren, that I may not have the opportunity many times more to bear my testimony, for I feel very weak, today, and shaky in my limbs; but in my early manhood, in my youthful days, in my own native land, I have mingled with the dying and the dead in a railway wreck, and fled in terror from the burning mine, but "Mormonism" was true, and Joseph Smith was the mighty Prophet of the living God. In this fair land, I have been cold on the mountain, hungry in