Elder Mevin J. Ballard April 1932

The Great Depression was a hard time for everyone, including members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So, to read this General Conference must have been hopeful. It goes over how blessed the members are, with inventions like the telephone and light bulb, and the continued growth of the Church. When the talk does discuss the hardships, people were dealing with, it discusses it in a hopeful tone, saying not to despair and that God will help them through it.

Elder Melvin J. Ballard 
Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles

Benefits of Conference

It has been my great pleasure now for nearly forty years to be in attendance at the General Conferences of the Church. I count it a liberal education in the science of life to have had this distinguished privilege, not alone from the things that were said, but the spirit that prevailed during those many sessions has brought to me understanding, light and knowledge that I have prized most highly. I have observed that there has always been something suited for the occasion, for the times demanded certain instructions ; and that those instructions were forthcoming at the conference, for the profit, the guidance and the blessing of the people. I am sure this Conference is proving to be full of fruitful benefit to the membership of the Church.

Kingdom of Satan to be Shaken

In the beginning of the foundation of this work the Lord said — I am reading from the hundred and thirty-second section of the book of Doctrine and Covenants:

"Everything that is in the world, whether it be ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities, or powers, or things of name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by me, or by my word, saith the Lord, shall be thrown down. * * *

"For whatsoever things remain are by me; and whatsoever things are not by me shall be shaken and destroyed."

I read a statement similar to that in the Book of Mormon, Second Nephi, reading from the twenty-eighth chapter. Speaking of these days, which Nephi undoubtedly saw, full of all their peril and their trouble, he said:

"For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish.

"For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men and stir them up to anger against that which is good."

He expressed the same thought in the last chapter of First Nephi, and I read as follows; describing these very events such as we are now passing through, he observed:

"The righteous need not fear, for they are those who shall not be confounded. But it is the kingdom of the devil, which shall be built up among the children of men, which kingdom is established among them which are in the flesh —

"For the time speedily shall come, that all churches which are built up to get gain, and all those who are built up to get power over the flesh, and those who are built up to become popular in the eyes of the world, and those who seek the lusts of the flesh and the things of the world, and to do all manner of iniquity ; yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil, are they who need fear, and tremble, and quake ; they are those who must be brought low in the dust ; they are those who must be consumed as stubble ; and this is according to the words of the prophet."

These marvelous declarations that the day would come, in the history of the world, when everything that was set up by man, that was not in harmony with God's will and purpose, would be shaken and destroyed, indicates a new epoch in the history of this world.

As we look back over the hundred years that have passed since these prophecies in the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants were made known to us, we see evidences of the Lord fulfilling these very predictions; everything to be tested, to be tried and to be shaken, and only that which is the truth and that which was set up by the Lord shall survive.

A Century of Progress

What marvelous things the Lord has been doing in the earth, outside of this Church! Next year, in the city of Chicago, there will be a centennial exposition celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the founding of that great city, for it was established three years after this Church was organized. It has been named "A Century of Progress, "using the exact title of a very fine manual which the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association adopted in 1930. The exposition will set forth what has happened in human progress during the past hundred years.

I was impressed recently by reading a book entitled "A Century's Changes in Religion," and the observation made that the last fifty years have shown greater changes in religious thought and practice than all the ages of time. But what changes have been wrought! What changes have occurred in the science and the arts! How human thinking has been modified!

When Joseph Smith came forth declaring the restoration of this Gospel, with its clear-cut notions concerning the salvation of men, concerning the doctrine of deity, they were so diametrically opposed to every existing religious denomination that there is no wonder he had the hatred and enmity of religious bodies. But how the truth he taught has survived! Belief in miracles was necessary to accept Joseph Smith's statement, and that was not a miracle-believing age. But how the Lord has changed human thinking in these hundred years!

Let me read two items that I secured recently. One of them is a statement which occurred in the very year that Joseph Smith received his first vision, the year 1820.

J. R. Howard, former president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, and now head of the National Transportation Institute, stated in a recent address that back in 1820 the head of a school board at Lancaster, Ohio, wrote the following letter to one who had applied for the use of a school house for a debate on the practicability of the railroad and telegraph. Here is his letter:

"You are welcome to use the schoolhouse to debate all proper questions in, but such things as railroads and telegraphs are impossibilities and rank infidelity. There is nothing in the Word of God about them. If God had designed that his intelligent creatures should travel at a frightful speed of fifteen miles an hour, by steam. He would have clearly foretold through His holy prophets. It is a device of Satan to lead immortal souls down to hell."

Even as late as 1870, here is an item that appeared in a Boston newspaper:

"A man about forty-six years of age, giving the name of Joshua Coppersmith, has been arrested in New York for attempting to extort funds from ignorant and superstitious people by exhibiting a device which he says will convey the human voice any distance over metallic wires, so that it will be heard by the listener at the other end.

"He calls the instrument a 'telephone,' which is obviously intended to imitate the word 'telegraph' and win the confidence of those who know of the success of the latter instrument without understanding the principles on which it is based.

"Well-informed people know that it is impossible to transmit the human voice over wires, as may be done with dots and dashes and signals of the Morse Code, and that, were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.

"The authorities who apprehended the criminal are to be congratulated, and it is to be hoped that his punishment will be prompt and fitting, that it may serve as an example to other conscienceless schemers who enrich themselves at the expense of their fellow creatures."

Have we made any progress in a hundred years? When my voice is now traveling over radio — not over wires — to those of you who are listening, at the speed of light, one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second, almost eight times around this globe in one second — have we made any progress?

I listened to an international broadcast honoring America's greatest inventor, who passed away last year, Thomas A. Edison, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the invention of the electric light; his voice coming instantly, and the voice of Dr. Einstein from Berlin, on the other side of the world, in the smallest fraction of a second. Then 1 fell to thinking of what had happened in the fifty years that I could remember, and I concluded that more human progress had been made in these fifty years than in all the ages of time; and I asked myself : Why have I been permitted to live to see more than all my fathers, back to the day of Adam, had seen, all combined together?

The Hand of God Manifest

Why this marvelous change, and how it has changed human thinking! Now we live in the age of miracles ! There are a thousand of them that we see with our eyes. They are demonstrated, and yet we, many of us, cannot comprehend them. They are miraculous, and yet they are realities.

How all this mighty flood of truth has been an ally to this Church, perhaps its greatest ally! But I count it all as having come from God. He was fighting the battles of truth. When it was his good pleasure, as Joel saw, the day would come when the Spirit of God would be poured out upon all flesh, and young men would dream dreams, and old men would see visions, the vision of the things of God. These were all his secrets. It was not that the age that preceded ours was lacking in intelligence, that they did not discover these marvels that have brought us such great human transformations. It was that God had not willed it. When the hour came that he was willing that a new order of things should be established in the earth, he unlocked the secrets he had held, and let man come to know them.

Hence these have been our allies, for we find ourselves in no contradiction to any of these scientific truths that have come. We recognize the vast difference between the theories of scientists and the facts of science. I have failed to find this Church, or its teachings, in conflict with a single fact of science.

Growth of Church

It used to be said that Mormonism flourished where ignorance was most profound, but in the age of the world's greatest enlightenment there is no church on earth whose percentage of growth equals this, Church. While others are losing ground, how we rejoiced to hear yesterday the report of the continual progress and growth of this Church, and that in the age of the world's greatest enlightenment!

There was published in 1929 a volume entitled "The Story of Religion," and I read this regarding Joseph Smith and Mormonism;"The incredible thing about Mormonism is that such a respectable religion could have been derived from such a disreputable person. Mormonism is barely a century old, and yet it is one of the most successful religions on the American continent. If we are to accept the dictum of Jesus, 'By their fruits ye shall know them,' we must rate Mormons high. There is no disputing the fact, however, that Joseph Smith, the undoubted founder of Mormonism, was not only a psychopathic case, but also a shrewd schemer whose ethical sense was poorly developed.

"America has no better citizens than the Mormons. At first sight it is difficult to account for the evolution of present-day Mormonism from the teaching of such an erratic person as Joseph Smith.

"There are several factors of importance, however, in the situation. In the first place, in spite of his visions and vagaries, Joseph Smith was undoubtedly a commanding and attractive personality. That fact has been testified to by friend and enemy. In the second place, there were elements of power and worth in Smith's message."

We are making some progress, that we are counted to be among the most enlightened, and no religion more acceptable. Still they cannot understand how it could have come from such a disreputable person. How long shall we live until the whole truth shall be known, until out of the bigotry of that age that had conceptions such as I have just read to you, Joseph Smith shall yet arise gloriously, when the truth he taught shall be more fully understood by men ?

We know that they had not understood him. They have not understood us. But we shall yet win the world to pay honor and respect to that prophet of God, and know that those who traduced his character did not tell the truth. So I rejoice in that which is happening. I rejoice in what God is doing today, for he is moving among the nations of the earth.

Hopeful of Future

Yes, I see him even in this depression, brethren. I know that greater human progress will be made in the future than in the past. I am looking for greater progress in the alleviation of the economic distresses of the world in the next ten years than the last hundred years have seen. The men of this age are awakening to the need of it. God is preparing for the coming of his Son, Jesus Christ. He would not come to a world that was in the condition this world was in a hundred years ago. Neither is he ready to come just yet. There are many things that must yet be clone in the battle for truth and right. There shall yet be wars, certainly: but out of each conflict, no matter how deadly, will come victory for truth and for human emancipation, for it is in God's program.

You Latter-day Saints need not be afraid, if only you will continue to adhere to these principles that have brought us through in the past so successfully and shall deliver us from the trials of the future. Do not become alarmed nor disturbed. It is said of human beings, when they are confronted with disaster, the great majority lose their heads and go temporarily insane. If a fire breaks out in a theatre, the majority of people will trample each other to death. How few there are that in the majesty of their souls arise to the occasion, undefeated, and walk out calmly!

Advice to Latter-day Saints

In this time of panic and distress there are many who lose their heads and rush on banks, to wreck them. That ought not to be a characteristic of the Latter-day Saints. They ought, in majesty and in peace and in self-control, to be sane and not insane. There are those who lose their faith, some allow their spirit to be broken, and some even commit suicide. It should not be so with the Latter-day Saints. Our position should be to study our problem and discover what led us into our present difficulties. Then go to work and see to it that we solve our problem and let not this lesson be repeated unto us.

Let us not become ramblers. If we have failed in one place, we need not go to the ends of the earth to try again. Right in the same community where you are you will discover another chance. You need not leave your farming occupations either. If you will be patient, and stay by the enterprises that you have undertaken, and practice self-denial, God will deliver you. The greatest losses are not financial. They are spiritual. Our financial losses will all be recovered if we will only be patient and see the hand of God working for the furtherance of his holy purposes. We have reached the day, thank the Lord, when his truth is triumphant, when it is going to succeed, the greatest day truth has ever known.

Testimony of the Truth

My soul rejoices to be identified with the Church that has the truth. I am more interested in seeing the truth succeed than any organization to which I belong, but thank God, the organization to which I belong has the truth, and everything that has come forth in this age is demonstrating it. It will stand every test, and it will stand forever.

God help us to be loyal to it, support it; there never has been an opportunity, in the history of this world, for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to really demonstrate its power, its virility and its strength. Now its day has come. Live our religion, arid let our light shine, and we shall see God's work going forward to greater and holier accomplishments than in the past.

This is my testimony to you, my brethren and sisters, for I believe with all my soul that God has not deserted us, but he is moving forward to the accomplishment of his purposes. May they speedily be accomplished. May we keep the faith and be found with God's work in the day of its victory, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.