As I awoke this morning and looked out over this beautiful valley, conscious, as no doubt all of you are, of the hard winter that we have had, I opened the Bible, and read the nineteenth Psalm:

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun.

Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple.

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer  Ps. 19:1-14

As I contemplated these lines, and thought of the beauty of this day in contrast to our severe winter, I thought how much it is like life. We have difficulties, hardships, struggles. We have the storms and the clouds, and then we have the warmth of the sunshine to gladden our hearts, to give us renewed hope and faith. They are all necessary—these changes. It is all in keeping with the providence of the Lord. He never intended that we should have things easy. He intended that through sacrifice and struggle we should learn these great lessons of life and be able to adjust ourselves to them.

I remember one time listening to Sister Elsie Talmage Brandley relate an incident that happened as she traveled about for the Church. She was a member of the general board of the Mutual Improvement Association, and at one time associate editor of THE IMPROVEMENT ERA. Sister Brandley had a fine mind and a great faith. She told of her experience in Canada, how she and her husband living on a ranch had had sickness come to their home; they were too far away for medical help, and there was no way to summon help. She had related this incident to a friend who was not in sympathy with the tenets of our faith and who had asked Sister Brandley if she ever had any pleasures out of life. She replied, "Yes, I have great pleasures in life." And then she related this incident. She said, "You know in our Church our men have a special blessing known as the Holy Priesthood. By right of that they are able to bless their children, and in the authority of that power, it may be to rebuke disease; and the Lord hears those prayers." And then she went on to tell of this experience on the ranch where one of their little ones had been ill, and how her husband had blessed it by the power that the Lord had given him. She said, "Those are our pleasures; those are our joys."

And so it is, my brethren and sisters, in our lives. Sometimes the shadows overwhelm us, but behind them all comes the sun, with its glory, as we saw today, and it radiates into our souls the reality of God, the consciousness of his great blessings, and the assurance that he is our Father, and that we are his children.

Job the prophet taught this lesson forcibly. Probably no man suffered more than he. All of his friends had deserted him; he had lost his crops; he had lost his flocks and his herds; and even his own children had gone. Then when someone said to him that there was nothing left for him to do but to curse God and die, there came to him a consciousness of the reality of God. And he said,

Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

For I know that my redeemer liveth.

He knew notwithstanding all these things,

and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

And though after my skin [that is, after the way of the flesh; after all of these tribulations] worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me  Job 19:23-27

Seeing beyond the shadows—what a blessed faith it is, my brethren and sisters that we can do that, that we can adjust ourselves to the problems of life as they come. Our people have been very much concerned, especially our agricultural people in these mountain areas, during the last few weeks. Our livestock men fear that they can't get their flocks on the lambing grounds; feed is very short. It is a disturbing time. It is difficult. We have had these difficulties before. Our people have always had them. But in these struggles, in these economic adjustments we have to make from time to time, there come to us greater blessings just as they come spiritually, and greater powers come to us. The Lord seems to have understood that as he endowed us and placed us here in the earth. And so there is a great ray of hope. The Lord declares his goodness. Everything about us proclaims his blessing, proclaims the reality of him in whose name we are met here.

We heard so much yesterday, so much to inspire us about the growth of this Church, its great power, and how the stakes in California are responding to this great trust incident to the erection of the temple. These things perhaps are regarded by those not of our faith as very material; they think that we judge our works by the material things. That is not true. They are the symbols of a magnificent faith in this great work. I don't know whether you noted it but for the last three or four conferences, we have been told of the expenditures for the administration of this Church that come from non-tithing funds. I don't know whether you know the significance of that, but I recall as a young man, when this Church was in debt. It had lost much of its property at one time; it had been escheated by the government; and on its restoration to the Church, about 1896 it was, the Church was heavily in debt. And then when President Snow came into the Presidency on the death of President Woodruff through the inspiration and the revelations that had come to him in the St. George Temple, he promised the people that if they would be true and faithful to their trust, the Church would be relieved of bondage, and that promise was verily fulfilled.

When President Joseph F. Smith became the President of the Church he made certain sound investments for the benefit and blessing of this Church. And I recall that those not of our faith and who had no right to criticize, went up and down this land, in print and otherwise, maligning the Presidency of the Church, accusing the Church of a materialistic attitude, of not being a spiritual organization, of misleading the membership of the Church. That didn't make any difference. The leadership carried on just the same, and we have seen the benefits and blessings of that great leadership, and today we see that leadership, the spirit of it, the inspiration of it manifest.

And when I heard, I think the first time perhaps four conferences ago, when President Clark read the report, was thrilled when I heard him make the statement, "From non-tithes of the Church," are the expense of administration paid. Think of the wisdom, the inspiration of your leadership, the leadership of this Church. And so in these things that are regarded as material, there is a great spiritual power. There is evidence of the inspiration of the Almighty. There is evidence of the Lord directing his work, giving power and strength to the leadership thereof, and that is the way it will always be, because this is God's work, and it will not fail, no matter how the shadows may come, how the difficulties may come, no matter what sacrifices, seeming sacrifices; in the end they are not sacrifices; they are blessings. They are the accumulation of great powers that come to the members of this Church, and they become a sustaining force.

May God help us to appreciate these things and be true to our obligations. The Lord is in the heavens. Everything proclaims his goodness. Everything about us proclaims the divinity of this great work in which you and I are engaged, and the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the prophetic mission of the Prophet Joseph, whose name we praise, he who communed with Jehovah, and talked with God, a reality, the greatest evidence of our day of the divine mission of Jesus Christ. God bless you. Amen.