President Taylor. "Oh, yes, they may vote now if they choose to, everybody is willing they should vote now. [Laughter.] That is, they are willing the sisters shall vote on the wheat question. [Renewed laughter.] We may as well call a vote on this question now. All you sisters who are in favor of carrying out this request, hold up your right hand. [A forest of hands went up.] There they go, you see! [Laughter.] I think that is the most hearty vote yet. I knew they would do it."
A voice. "Is it to be loaned without interest?"
President Taylor. "Somebody asks if it is to be loaned without interest. Why, of course it is; we do not want any nonsense of that kind." Then raising his splendid voice to its grandest notes, so that it sent a thrill through the entire audience, he exclaimed, "IT IS THE TIME OF JUBILEE!"
Having finished with these public matters, President Taylor reminded the brethren that it was just as praiseworthy for private people to forgive one another their debts as it was for corporations to do it.
"If you find people owing you who are distressed, if you will go to work and try to relieve them as much as you can, under the circumstances, God will relieve you when you get into difficulties. I will tell you that in the name of the Lord."
Then in a circular issued to the officers of the Church a few days after the close of the conference, he added: "The rich * * * have a fitting opportunity for remembering the Lord's poor. If you are holding their notes and they are unable to pay, forgive the interest and the principal, or as much thereof as you might desire them to forgive were their and your circumstances reversed, thus doing unto others as you would that others should do unto you. For upon this hang the law and the prophets. If you have mortgages upon the homes of your brethren and sisters who are poor, worthy and honest, and who desire to pay you but cannot, free them in whole or in part. Extend to them a jubilee, if you can consistently. You will have their faith and prayers and confidence, which may be worth more than money. We invite Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution as the parent, all other co-operative institutions as the children, and our brethren who are engaged in profitable railroad, banking, mercantile, manufacturing or other remunerative enterprises, to extend a helping hand. Free the worthy, debt-bound brother if you can. Let there be no rich among us from whose tables fall only crumbs to feed a wounded Lazarus. * * The Church of Christ has set us a worthy example, let us follow it, so that God may forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors."
I have given a detailed account of these philanthropic transactions connected with the Jubilee Conference, hoping that the transactions themselves may not prove uninteresting, but more especially because they throw out in bold relief the noble generosity of President Taylor's character.
Apart from these acts of generosity, looking to the relief and blessing of the poor, the Jubilee Conference was noted for the out-pouring of spiritual power upon the Apostles and other Elders in their teachings, admonitions and testimonies. The regular conference was preceded by a two days' meeting in the Salt Lake Assembly Hall, and the last meeting of the conference was made memorable by ten of the Apostles bearing testimony to the truth of the great work of the last days, President Taylor closing that grand testimony meeting with these words:
"I testify as my brethren have done, that this is the work of God that has been revealed by the Almighty, and I know it. God will sustain Israel; no power can injure us if we will do what is right. This kingdom will roll on, the purposes of God will progress, Zion will arise and shine, and the glory of God will rest upon her. We will continue to grow and increase, until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ, and He will reign forever and forever."