1924-11-13—Millennial Star—NINETY-FIFTH SEMI-ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE

NINETY-FIFTH SEMI-ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE.

Millennial Star, November 13, 1924, pp. 723-724.

NINETY-FIFTH SEMI-ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE.

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Elder B. H. Roberts of the First Seven Presidents of Seventy and President of the Eastern States mission, the next speaker, observed that Elder McMurrin had reported the mission work on the Pacific coast. He would report the work on the Atlantic coast, he said. Comparison might seem unfavorable, he said, as the Gospel in the East is not so readily accepted as in the west, probably, lint it could not be said, Elder Roberts averred, that it is due to any lack of effort or diligence on the part of the missionaries.

Elder Roberts read a prepared report of missionary activities over the period of a recent month. One hundred and twentynine missionaries had distributed thousands of tracts, visited thousands of homes, held thousands of Gospel conversations, many meetings in homes, halls and open-air, and had put forth a vast amount of missionary work in the aggregate, he reported. And yet, he said, when results are given, the mere figures are not so gratifying, the number of baptisms are comparatively few. Thus, it might be said, declared Elder Roberts, that a ton of effort had been put forth for an ouuee of result. But, is that the true way to measure the result, he asked. When the value of a soul in the sight of God is considered, the result is mighty, he declared. In the same way, the Master accomplished a great work, putting forth His tons of effort regardless of the results, the speaker said.

Elder Roberts reported that within the past year, three chapels had been acquired in the Eastern States mission— one at Charleston, West Virginia, one at Baltimore, Maryland and one at Fremont, West Virginia. This progress, said Elder Roberts, would seem to mark the way to the establishment of permanent centers in the great land of America.

Here, the speaker referred to Church history, wherein is recorded the utterance of the Prophet Joseph Smith that the whole land of America is the Land of Zion. Elder Roberts said that the Prophet even designated Boston, New York and Philadelphia as places for stakes of Zion, and that Brigham Young, following the Prophet, said, in regard to the conception of Zion, that it is not to be merely Jackson County, Missouri, but all of the land of America.

Then, said Elder Roberts, came the martyrdom of the Prophet and the temporary delay in the establishment of Zion due to the migration westward of the Church. But now, he queried, after decades, duriug which the Lord's people have been trained and brought up under His care, might it not be said that the time is near when the Gospel word should spread to all the land, when stakes shall be built up all over the land of Zion.

Let Latter-day Saints get a larger conception of the field of labor than just Utah and the surrounding region, said Elder Roberts. " Let us conceive of this great land as the land of Zion," he said, "from Alaska to the islands of the sea, from seaboard to seaboard, with the center stake of Zion to be where it was promised by the Lord it should be — in Jackson County, Missouri." Zion has not been removed, said Elder Roberts, it is still America, and the temple of temples will be bnilt in the center stake.

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