I stand in reverential awe, almost breathless awe, in this auspicious moment in these services of President George Albert Smith.

A scribe came to the Lord Jesus Christ one day and said:

Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him . . . Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength . . .

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these  Mark 12:28-31

And then the scribe added that to love the Lord and to love his neighbor more than himself ". . . is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices"  Mark 12:33 And then the Lord said, "Thou are not far from the kingdom of God"  Mark 12:34

Whenever I thought of our beloved President, I have always felt that he was very, very near that kingdom.

It seemed to me that every act, every thought of our President would indicate that with all of his heart and soul he loved the Lord, and loved his fellowmen. Is there a mortal being who could have loved them more?

INTEREST IN AMERICAN INDIANS

As his great love for his fellowmen began to grow into a great compassion, he saw in vision a certain whole people who went down from the proverbial Jerusalem to Jericho and they fell among thieves. He saw them stripped of their raiment and sorely wounded. He saw them deserted and deprived. He saw priests come by who saw their plight and passed by on the other side. He saw modern Levites who came and looked and passed by on the other side  Luke 10:30-32 President Smith determined it was time to do something constructive for these Indian people who had fallen into misfortune. He determined that it was time to bind up their wounds, and to pour thereon the oil  Luke 10:34

He went to President Heber J. Grant, (President Smith was then in the Council of the Twelve), and asked him for permission to do work among the Indian people which was granted. A committee was organized and the work began in a small way as many programs do.

These words he said in one of his talks: "I have been intensely interested in doing something for the American Indians. I have traveled through several of the reservations; I have seen the need of something more being done for these children who are growing up. It remains for us who know and feel that these Indians, as we refer to them, are our Father's children.

"These Indians are descendants of a prophet of God who left Jerusalem 600 years before the birth of Christ. I have been in their homes, in many places, and have seen their poverty, their patience, and their forbearance." And then he went on and said: "I have had an interest in those Indians, and felt the urge to help, and only within the last two or three years have I had this opportunity and power to do something." He lived to see this work grow, from an infant organization, the Navajo-Zuni Mission, to the full fledged Southwest Indian Mission with more than a hundred missionaries.

He had already seen the effectual work among the Lamanites down in the South Sea Islands, in Mexico, in Spanish America, and in other places, and now he was to see practically every North American mission with vigorous proselyting work being done among the Indians. And then he lived to see many of the 184 Stakes of Zion with intensive proselyting being done in the Stakes among the Indians.

LATTER-DAY SAINT INDIANS PRESENT

He loved to see many, many hundreds of Lehi's descendants join the Church, receive the priesthood, and their endowments, and be organized into branches, and today there are in this congregation, more than a hundred of the Indian brothers and sisters from far up in the north to far down in the south, representing the Navajos and the Zunis, the Hopis and the Apaches, the Cocopohs and the Yumas, the Utes and the Piutes, the Walpis, and many, many others.

Never before, in modern days at least, has there been in a conference, and at a funeral, such a large aggregation of Latter-day Saint Indians, and I know that if President Smith could see them here today his heart would go out to them in compassion, love, and appreciation.

VISIT TO NAVAJO RESERVATION

About four years ago President Smith made a visit to the Navajo Indian Reservation, taking Elder Cowley and myself with him. It was a missionary meeting, there being priests and ministers present from many of the sects and denominations. A hundred and fifty men and women were there. There were some disputations. Apparently some missionaries had gone to the hospital patients of other sects to bring relief and succor, and heated suggestions were made to restrict missionaries to visit only their own people.

President Smith in majesty stood up, and obtained the floor and said: "My friends, I am perplexed and shocked. I thought people went to the hospital to rest and get well. If I were ill, it would please me very much if any good Christian missionary of any denomination would be kind enough to visit me and bind up my wounds and pour on the sacred oil."

And then President Smith went on to tell them that this Church not only believes in tolerance, but also in understanding, and expressed the thought that long years ago Father Scanlan, a Roman Catholic Priest, conducted mass in the St. George tabernacle at the suggestion and with permission of one of the Council of the Twelve and the president of the stake, who were there.

That happened on May 25, 1879. The priest had complained that he had no place in which he could conduct a mass for his people in southern Utah. The suggestion came from our brethren, and the mass was held. He had said, "We have no one to sing the Mass." The brethren had said, "You furnish the score; we will furnish the singers." And Catholic mass was conducted in a tabernacle.

He also told the group of ministers that the Church had also assisted some of the Protestant denominations to get started in Salt Lake City, and in Utah.

There was a general applause from these church dignitaries and it was as though a magic word had been spoken, like the Master spoke when he said "Peace, Peace, be still"  Mark 4:39 The waves of suspicion and antagonism became calm and placid.

PERFECTION OF LIFE

The Lord Jesus Christ told us, "Be ye perfect even as your Father, which is in heaven is perfect"  Matt. 5:48 And so to compare President George Albert Smith with our Lord and Master I do not count a sacrilege, for perhaps he came nearer than the great majority of his contemporaries to that perfection.

The Savior said, "When ye come into an house, salute it, and if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it"  Matt. 10:12-13 And President Smith was much like that. There are homes from ocean to ocean and then from ocean to ocean again who have felt the peace that a great prophet has left in their home.

And the Lord said "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves"  Matt. 10:16 and we have all seen the harmlessness of this good man as well as his wisdom and his inspiration.

The Lord said "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"  Matt. 5:5 and we have seen in him personification of meekness and lowliness of heart, for the Savior said of Himself, "I am meek and lowly in heart"  Matt. 11:29 and President Smith has approached it closely.

And then He said, "Well done thou good and faithful servant, thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many"  Matt. 25:21 He was good, he was faithful, and he has been ruler over many, but he will yet rule and reign over the many things throughout the eternities.

Way up in the north of this Palestinian country, the Lord asked Peter and his associates, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" and Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." And then the Lord said, "Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven"  Matt. 16:13,16-17

May God bless his memory and bless us that we may follow him in the righteous things which he has exemplified to us, I pray, and bear you my testimony also, that I also know that this is the truth, that he, President George Albert Smith, was a prophet of God and that he followed several others who were also prophets of God, and that the Gospel has been restored, and it is here for all the billions of peoples in this world. This I bear in great solemnity, and with a great love for my leader, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.