"Who am I, saith the Lord, that I command and am not obeyed? Who am I, saith the Lord, that I promise and do not fulfill?" We have again the privilege of assembling ourselves together upon another Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I hope and trust that, what time we may spend in Conference, our hearts may be lifted up unto the Lord, that his Holy Spirit may be given unto us, that we may be dictated and directed in our words, thoughts, acts, and teachings, in such a manner that we may be justified before him.
We have said, time after time, and year after year, that we live in a very peculiar age, generation and dispensation, and this is true. Time rolls on, carrying with it its events, and fulfilling the revelations of God, unto us especially. We live in a day of darkness; unbelief and infidelity are covering the whole face of the earth, until it seems as though the whole Christian world had lost all hold of faith in God and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Bible, the revelation of God to man. And this being the case, if the Lord has any people on the face of the earth, they should be increasing in faith in him. You let a Christian come here, no matter who, whether he be a minister, professor, or believer, or any one who professes to believe in the Bible, and let him ask an Elder in Israel—"Do you really believe, in your soul, sincerely before the Lord, that Mormonism is true?" When the Elder answers him "yes," he is about as much astonished as we were yesterday when these magazines exploded. The fact of it is, as I said before, the world do not believe in God or in revelation, and they marvel very greatly to find any man who has really got independence of mind enough to stand up and say—"I believe that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and I believe in the revelations that were given through him; I believe in the literal fulfillment of prophecy, as written in the Bible." To hear men say this astonishes the Latter-day Saints to see the amount of darkness and infidelity that are abroad in the earth. Hence, as Latter-day Saints, I think it requires on our part an increase of faithfulness in the practice of our religion, and in the various revelations of God contained in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.