noon, . REPORTED BY ARTHUR WINTER. While the Sacrament is being passed to this congregation I will try to make a few remarks; but whether or not I shall be heard by this assembly I cannot say. If after the scene we have passed through during the last hour any man can answer his mind and sat- isfy himself before an assembly of this kind to occupy the position that I do, unless he is assisted by the God of Israel, he is made of differ- ent material to what I am. That which we have had before us this afternoon is a testimony to heaven and earth that what has been pre- sented here could not have been witnessed in the midst of any other people on the face of the earth, unless that people were the children of God. Here we have had ten thousand men and women lift up their hands in a vote to sus- tain not only the Presidency of the Church and the Twelve Apostles, but other men in their various po- sitions, and without a dissenting vote. Where on the earth can a scene of this kind be seen except among the Latter-day Saints? I feel it my privilege, right and duty to now make a few remarks with regard to myself and the deal- ings of God with me. But before doing that I will say that the Lord has never set His hand, in any age of the world, to perform a work among the sons of Adam, but He has prepared an element for that work. You will see this in the whole history of His dealings with the human family. It is so in the generation in which we live. The God of heaven, having set His hand to carry out His great purposes and decrees, which have been revealed in the records of divine truth, has been under the necessity of pre- paring a people to take hold of and to perform the work which He has decreed should come to pass. Ten thousand of that people are before me today, with tens of thousands throughout the land. With regard to myself I will say that in my early youth, while read- ing the Bible—the record of Judah, and the New Testament—I read of Jesus Christ, of His Apostles, their works, and the dealings of God with them, and of the doctrines which they received and taught to those around them. There was something glorious in those prin- ciples which the Savior of the world and His disciples taught in their day. I had a great desire in my boyhood and youth that I might live to behold a people who were in- spired of the Almighty, and who had power and authority to go forth and teach those principles which I read of within the lids of the Bible. At that time I could not hear them taught. They were not taught by any person within my knowledge. But, as I have said, I had a long- ing desire that I might live to be- hold a people on the earth who would teach these principles to me. I spent many a midnight hour in my mill, and among the rocks, in the forests and in the fields, in pour- ing out my soul to God and praying that I might live to behold a people on the earth who would teach these principles. In answer to my pray- ers, the God of heaven promised me that I should live to find such a peo- ple. He promised me that I should have a name and a place within the House of God and among His peo- ple—a name that should not be cut off. I am strongly impressed today, in reflecting upon our history and the history of myself, and the posi- tion which I occupy, with the promises of God to me in those early days. They have been fulfilled; and this day has crowned the pinnacle of the responsibility which is placed upon my head. I marvel when I contemplate these things, which are in fulfillment of the promises of God unto me. And when I say this of myself, I speak of hundreds of the Elders of Israel who have been moved upon in the same man- ner that I have been. Those with whom I stood connected in the early period of the Church—the Prophet Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, and those men that laid the foundation of this Church and king- dom, together with other Prophets and Patriarchs—have passed away. They are on the other side of the veil. I still have the privilege of