ELDER GERMAN E. ELLSWORTH.

(President Northern States' Mission.)

I am pleased, my brethren and sisters, to have the privilege of attending this general conference of the Church. I have been delighted and instructed by the counsel, advice and admonition that we have received thus far.

I sincerely pray that, while I occupy the time, the Spirit of the Lord will direct me, that I may clearly express the thoughts that come to me while standing before you. In the opening address, our beloved President touched upon many of the glorious things that were revealed by the Lord to the Prophet Joseph Smith, for the education and preparation of His children upon the earth, to help them to come back and dwell with Him. Among the others, there was one thought which has been beautifully expressed by the poet that struck me forcibly. It is found in the hymn, "O My Father," wherein it says:

"I had learned to call Thee Father, Through Thy Spirit from on high, But, until the key of knowledge Was restored, I knew not why."

Most little children in the earth have been taught by parents and teachers to worship some kind of a Supreme Being, and for lack of power to explain their God they have taught them to worship our Father as a reality. Naturally, they have looked upon "Our Father in Heaven" as a personal being, the prototype of men, and in whose image we were created. It is only when the children have grown older that they worship the Lord (if they worship at all), in the abstract. They try to worship a being without body, without parts, and without passions. In this regard, we were like the rest of the world until the restoration of the Gospel. But, when the "key of knowledge was restored," we then understood really who God and Christ are. They visited the Prophet Joseph Smith, and revealed again Their true character to the world, which revelation enables us to know better than the rest of mankind who God and Christ are. As one of the speakers quoted yesterday, "To know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent, is life eternal." True, we have the scriptures that have been an aid in bringing much light and information into the world, but in addition to the ancient scriptures, we have the glorious revelations and manifestations of our Heavenly Father to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which light and truth is causing thousands in the denominations and sects of the world to also believe in a personal God. As Latter-day Saints we ought to rejoice in these things. It has also been revealed and taught to the Latter-day Saints that, associated with our Father in Heaven we have a Mother there. The poet, in the same verse partly quoted above, gave expression to this beautiful truth:

"In the heavens are parents single? No; the thought makes reason stare! Truth is reason; truth eternal Tells me I've a Mother there."

The people of the world, in a large measure, after eighty years have elapsed, are growing in belief in the consistency of this idea; they are beginning to say if we had a Father in Heaven, we must have had a mother, and to sustain that thought they quote the scripture, "God created Adam and Eve in His own image, male and female created He them."

During the late conference of the Northern States Mission, in Nauvoo, the fact was impressed upon my mind concerning the great liberty, rights and privileges that were asserted by the Prophet Joseph Smith should belong to women, m the organization of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since that time many organizations have sprung up among the women in this and other lands. They have been given a chance to become in very deed the helpmeets of men, and their equal in many of the walks of life. Today we find numerous Societies, clubs and organizations for the betterment, education and upbuilding of the women of the world. They have been given liberty, and opportunity for advancement far more since the Prophet Joseph Smith's day than in almost any other period in the history of the world. This is in keeping with what was promised concerning the last days, that knowledge should be multiplied, and that "truth should spring out of the earth and righteousness look down from heaven," not only for the blessing of men, but also for the women, for all of God's children, both male and female. I believe that the light of the Gospel is now rapidly permeating the whole world, and particularly the Christian world, along the lines revealed to our great Latter-day Prophet, and these truths are being recognized as coming from the Lord. Thousands now are heard to express a belief in God as being our Father, and having some kind of personality. Some sectarian ministers are now preaching that Christ was the revelation of God the Father to the children of men; and, while many may still believe that He is a spirit, or an essence, or some other substance, they are tending toward an absolute belief that Christ was a resurrected man, or a resurrected Redeemer, with a body of flesh and bones.

I believe, too, that the Christian world are fast growing to comprehend the true mission of women in the earth. Particularly in the last few years is this manifest. The thinking classes are now proclaiming to the world that the highest mission of women is to be mothers, and to seek to build up a better race--to successfully do their part in peopling the earth with a noble and intelligent class of citizens. In harmony with this idea, one of the present-day poets has expressed the same truth of motherhood in heaven as found in the "O My Father" hymn. I will read this to you, for it illustrates how the spirit of the Gospel is taking hold of the children of our Father, and it is in harmony with the declaration of President Joseph F. Smith concerning light coming into the world through the Prophet Joseph Smith. The poem is entitled "Completion," by its author, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, but I have called it "Eternal Motherhood," and it is, as I have said, in harmony with the idea of our having a mother in heaven, and in harmony with the light that has been given to the world, in relation to this subject.

When I shall meet God's generous dispensers Of all the riches in the heavenly store, Those lesser gods, who act as recompensers For loneliness and loss upon this shore, Methinks, abashed, and somewhat hesitating, My soul its wish and longing will declare, Lest they reply: "Here are no bounties waiting: We gave on earth, your portion and your share."

Then I shall answer: "Yea, I do remember The many blessings to my life allowed; My June was always longer than December, My sun was always stronger than my cloud, My joy was ever deeper than my sorrow, My gain was ever greater than my loss, My yesterday seemed less than my tomorrow, The crown looked always larger than the cross.

"I have known love in all its radiant splendor; It shone upon my pathway to the end. I trod no road that did not bloom with tender And fragrant blossoms planted by some friend. And those material things we call successes, In modest measure crowned my earthly lot, Yet was there one sweet happiness that blesses The life of woman which to me came not.

"I knew the hope of motherhood; a season I felt a fluttering heart beat 'neath my own; A little cry--then silence. For that reason I dare, to you, my only wish make known. The babe who grew to angelhood in heaven, I' never watched unfold from child to man, And so I ask that unto me be given That motherhood which was God's primal plan.

"All womankind He meant to share its glories. He meant us all to nurse our babes to rest, To croon them songs, to tell them sleepy stories, Else why the wonder of a woman's breast? He must provide for all earth's cheated mothers In His vast space of shining sphere on sphere, And with my son there must be many others-- My spirit children who will claim me here.

"Fair creatures by my loving thoughts created-- Too finely fashioned for a mortal birth-- Between the border of two worlds they waited Until they saw my spirit leave the earth. In God's great nursery they must be waiting To welcome me with many an infant wile. Now let me go and satisfy this longing To mother children for a little while."

Now the light along this and every other line revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith is permeating the hearts of the children of men, and though they have not acknowledged the source, the time will soon come when they will be glad to give credit where credit is due, and even praise the Lord for that source by which light and information have been given to the world. The Latter-day Saints, above all people, have defended and upheld the high moral standard of woman, and her divine mission and work in the earth. The Lord has acknowledged their labors upon the earth; He has borne witness in the hearts of the women that they are placed upon the earth to be mothers of the children of God, and in rearing their sons and daughters have joy and satisfaction. The women of Zion can rejoice and take heart in the great calling given them, in being privileged to be the earthly mothers of the elect sons of our Heavenly Father. God loves them, and has manifested that they are blessed above all other women of the earth. They will be thrice welcome in His kingdom for their faithfulness and devotion to their high calling of motherhood.

May the light and intelligence that God has so abundantly given to the Latter-day Saints eventually permeate the hearts of all the children of men, till God's kingdom is established and His will be done in earth as it is done in heaven, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.