BUILDING BRIDGES: Matthew Cowley, Oct. 1947

Matthew Cowley was an apostle of the Lord and champion of Native peoples the world over. He lived and served within many native communities. In this conference talk, given in Oct. 1947, he references the building of bridges. His life of service was devoted to building connections between all the sons and daughters of God, and this he did very well. However, he encourages in this talk to look even beyond this mortal existence to build bridges with our ancestors on the other side of the veil. He testifies that this takes place in the  Holy Houses of the Lord that are now dotting the earth. We are not only to become one with our brothers and sisters here, but we are to also connect our ancestors by building eternal bridges with them, becoming one with them. Thus creating Zion on both sides of the veil.

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CITATION:
Matthew Cowley, General Conference, Oct. 1947: https://historicalgeneralconferences.weebly.com/1947-october.html#MC

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello, friends. Welcome to the Thinning of the Vell podcast. I'm your host, Tia Smith. Now, we have talked a lot this week about, in particular, the tribe of Manasseh. We've talked about spiritual gifts that seem evident within that tribe. We've heard from John Smith bearing his own testimony of the reality of spiritual gifts. But what I have also noticed about Polynesian people or natives in general, it seems not only do they have these uh spiritual gifts, as we even saw evident in the prophecy that brought the elders to the church in New Zealand by these sears of the New Zealand, of the Maori people. But I also have always been struck by their faith. They have a simple faith that these things are a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And by these things I mean uh dreams and visions, revelatory experiences. It is a normal everyday part of their life, but their faith that it can happen and their faith in healing, in bringing miracles into their lives and other people's lives has struck me. As I have met with different Polynesian individuals over the years, really, it has been instrumental for me as I've left those conversations, just feeling like I want to speak about spiritual gifts like they do. It's so matter-of-fact. I want to have the faith levels that necessitate the coming of these gifts to oneself. As I really started pondering upon their abilities to do that, it put me on this path of trying to study and understand the patterns because I know and knew at the time that God is no respecter of persons and that these gifts are not just relegated to one tribe. It can be to all the tribes, individuals especially, as you learn and seek the patterns and then do the work necessary. The cool thing for me is that as I studied the patterns and had faith that those things could be evident in my life as well, and started gathering Israel, those gifts started coming to me. And while it seems to be easier to have spiritual gifts come and than it is to really have the faith levels necessary, I'm still working on the faith part for sure. But I am my testimony has been really uplifted and strengthened by hearing testimonies of natives all around the world. And like I said, especially this week with John, if you haven't watched that episode, please go watch it. So I could not think in that context of a better talk than Matthew Kelly, 1947 of October General Conference. Now, clearly, this is way older than recorded, it seemed sessions. So it's going to be read by an AI voice. The reason why I included Matthew Kelly in this is that he exhibited the same gifts, the same faith levels as the people that he taught, that he called friends, and that he immersed himself in. He was loved by so many Polynesian people and Native people around the world because he saw that they are also a part of this gathering, that we uh working together, Ephraim and Manasseh working together, will bring about Zion, will help the world to be prepared for the second coming. So in this talk, he talks about building bridges. It's important as we tend to keep to ourselves whether it's uh Ephraim, Manasseh, you know, oh, well, that's just Manasseh, we're Ephraim, or even within our own tribes, sometimes we go back to the IT system where, well, they're from this island or they're from this state, or whatever the case may be. We're we're always seeming to separate each other. When in reality, we're trying to build bridges not only with each other, but we are to be build building bridges for those on the other side of the veil, because there are many in all the different tribes who have not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ on the other side of the veil. It is now our opportunity and therefore opportunity to also have spiritual gifts relevant to that gathering as we become bridge builders. So I have thought a lot about this bridge building between Ephraim and Manasseh. I like I mentioned in John's podcast, this statement that Halana made to me such a long, well, it wasn't actually a long time ago, it was just a month or two ago. Ephraim and Manasseh are brothers, that has echoed in my soul. That has rang true to me. And I feel like as we study each other, as we welcome each other, as we uh understand the spiritual gifts and strengths of one another, that we will and can be prepared for the second coming by doing the work of our ancestors with our spiritual gifts. So please listen to Matthew Cali. Again, this is October 1947 General Conference. Join me next Tuesday as we continue this conversation about the strengths of Ephraim and Manasseh and how they are literally preparing the world for the second coming of the savior, and we're doing it arm in arm. It has been a prophecy foretold, and it is given in patriarchal blessings of our ancestors Ephraim and Manasseh. So please join me next week. And I hope you enjoy this talk by Matthew Cali. I hope it it helps you, gives you a visual of what we are actually doing, that we are gathering. We are also building bridges to those on the other side of the bell. Have a great weekend, my friends, and I will see you next Tuesday. In the meantime, seek out the patterns for the for these spiritual gifts, and please be involved in the gathering, as that is where it is most evident that these spiritual gifts are needed. So talk to you soon, my friends. Have a great weekend. Bye.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

My brothers and sisters, with all my heart, I believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ as the power of God unto salvation, both spiritually and temporally. The testimonies I have heard in this conference have carried conviction into my heart that this gospel is true. I know that had we lived in the days of the Master and had we observed him at work, we would have seen him placing in his organization apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, high priests, seventies, elders, priests, teachers, and deacons. I know that had we heard his disciples bear their message, we would have heard them all say that this organization set up by the Son of God is the organization through which the children of God would receive salvation. Had we lived a little longer, had our lives been extended for two or three centuries, we would have observed that this organization set up by the Master had practically disappeared as it had been set up, and yet we would have known, had we studied the words, that there would come a day and a dispensation when there would be a restoration of all things, spoken by the mouths of the prophets, when the fullness of the gospel would be brought by one coming through the midst of heaven to the children of God upon the earth. Now that we live in a dispensation known as the dispensation of the fullness of times, we are blessed and privileged to see an organization with apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, quorums of the priesthood, the same agency, the same organization in all of its departments, as was set up by Christ our Lord, as his organization, and we are blessed in knowing that it bears his name, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have been thrilled by the testimonies which have been born here. I thank God, my brothers and sisters, for the testimonies of men like Brother Oscar Kirkham and Brother Levi Edgar Young. These men were my teachers when I was struggling for an education in high school and in the university. I thank God that they touched my life with their testimony of the gospel more than they did with the instructions they had to give me as teachers of an educational institution. And as I look into the faces of the great educators who sit before me, who have in their charge thousands of our young people at this time, I am glad to know that they are men who know that in any field of science there has not been discovered, and they know that there will never be discovered, anything that will replace religion as the savior of the human family. It is regrettable that we have in our institutions of learning, my brothers and sisters, some who would try to destroy the simple faith of our children, which they have acquired at the knees of their parents and in the auxiliary organizations of the church. You know, and I know that there is no power under heaven in this day, which will bring peace to the human heart and peace to the nations of the earth outside and beyond the simple faith in God our Father, and in the efficacy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to regenerate the children of God here upon the earth. You men who are at the head of these great institutions, some of which do not permit the teaching of religion, although they do permit the teaching of everything and anything that will destroy faith in God, you have a great responsibility. It is your responsibility to touch the lives of your many students outside of the classroom, as my life has been touched by men such as these I have mentioned. As President Smith has said, I have recently returned from a visit to the islands of the sea. It does me good to get down there among those great people, simple people, with a simple faith in God, and I am reminded as I stand here that beyond this building there stands a temple of God, and that down in those islands of the sea, many of them thousands of miles away from these great temples, there are hundreds and thousands of people who are trying to come over to these temples and receive their blessings. You know the promise that the Master made as he hanged upon the cross, one of the most beautiful and considerate of all his promises, a promise made to a sinner when he said to him, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. We know where that promise is today. Brothers and sisters, our people in the islands of the sea, our people in the missions of Europe know where that promise is. Today thou shalt be with me in paradise, and how they long to come to participate in the blessings of that promise, how they long to come to the Hawaiian temple and go in there as it were, into paradise, to reach back into their ancestry and say, Today thou shalt be with me. Today I will bring you into a knowledge and an appreciation of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have vividly in my recollection the last party of Maoris to come from New Zealand to the Hawaiian Temple back in 1938. I see them now as they gathered together. President Smith was there, I think, at that time. As they gathered together in Auckland, ready to embark, they had their tickets, returned tickets. They had no money in their pockets. They carried with them their boxes of food, and they carried their blankets so that they could be fed and warm when they arrived at the temple. Everything they owned was consecrated to the reception of that great blessing, and they went with joy in their hearts. They traveled steerage on the ship, but they were happy, and they returned with a testimony in their hearts that Christ meant what he said when he said to the thief, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Where is that promise, brothers and sisters, outside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? As I go about the islands of the sea, I learn that Christianity has only been among those natives a little more than a hundred years. Where is the salvation for the ancestors of those people, the children of Israel, Nephites, who lived prior to one hundred years ago in that vast expanse of ocean on those islands? Where, outside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is there salvation for the Polynesians of the Pacific who lived prior to the year eighteen forty in those islands? Someone has said a bridge has no use unless it reaches both banks. We have the bridge, brothers and sisters, extending from one bank over to the other. You who work in the temples of God cross over that bridge from day to day, and you know that there is no other organization on this earth which has a bridge extending from one bank over to the other, so that they can walk across and reach back beyond the year eighteen forty or seventeen forty, or whatever the year may be, and bring across that bridge those great and noble souls who are our ancestors, the children of God. God grant that we may have in our hearts the spirit of reaching back into the years and bringing out our people from that place where they are now confined. God grant that we may go into Potter's Field and bring out those broken pieces of clay, and join them together into beautiful lives, that they may join with us in the great plan of salvation and exaltation in the kingdom of God. We cannot be saved without our dead, and our dead cannot be saved without us. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. That is God's will, that all his children who have lived in every day and age and dispensation of time shall come to the Father by His Son. Therefore, let us cross the bridge and take the gospel of the Son to our ancestors, let us study our genealogy, let us get the names together, let us not neglect this great and important work, and I know it is important, because when I see our people in the islands of the sea, writing their names down, gathering their genealogy and trying to get those names over to the temple, trying to get there themselves, I know that within their hearts they know that they are the children of God. They know that their ancestors were the children of God, and no Polynesian islander would want to be saved without his great and noble ancestors. God grant that we may turn some attention, brothers and sisters, to the work for those who live on the other side of the bridge. Let us cross the bridge over to them. I know as I stand here that God lives, that he has not forgotten his children upon the earth. I only wish that you people could have your lives touched as intimately as I have had my life touched during these brief two years I have been associated in the councils of these great and good men. Do not anyone ever say that any man who belongs to the councils of this church has ever come into the councils because he needs or he wants monetary remuneration or because he wants wealth. If there is any man who is opposed to the welfare plan and program of this church, I would like to have an argument with him if he thinks the brethren who sit here on this stand are not living on the welfare program, are not giving up much of this world's goods, its luxuries, and its wealth by accepting the call. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. God bless us all with the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God bless you men who are educators, you men who sit before me, who stand at the heads of political organizations and occupy high government offices, that you may ever realize that there is no salvation outside of the plan of true religion, that there is nothing in political science or in physical science or in any other science that will replace the simple gospel of Jesus Christ as the power of God for the salvation of his children. God bless us all. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.