[This isn’t the post I said I would put up today, but I don’t suppose anyone will really care. That one will be posted soon.]

A native of Scotland, Hamilton G. Park was born in 1826, joined the Church in 1840, emigrated to America in 1852, and crossed the Plains to Utah in 1854. He served Brigham Young as business manager, building flour mills, saw mills, the telegraph, developing mines and railroads, and building Z.C.M.I. (the department store that served as an outlet for so many home-produced goods). He served two missions to Great Britain, 1869-71 and 1875-77, and served in the Sunday School, the YMMIA, as a ward clerk, and as a counselor to two bishops.

On 10 December 1911, shortly after his 87th birthday, he bore his testimony in a high priests’ quorum meeting of the Ensign Stake; someone recorded his words. It was the last public testimony borne by the old pioneer, who passed away five months later.

-oooOooo-

My dear brethren: – I find as I advance in years, and this old body becomes more feeble, that you are dearer to my soul; that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints becomes dearer to me every hour, and my brethren and my sisters become more precious in my sight, and I love them better and love them more.

I was down to the First ward last night, and expected to go home to Third Avenue last evening, but was not able to go. ((He is probably referring to his inability to climb on foot the steep hill up to Third Avenue.)) I was in bed all day, but I got up this morning and felt a little wrathy. I thought there was an enemy trying to prevent me from doing my duty, and I said, I wish I were strong enough to throw him on his back, and I would do it this morning cheerfully and without a grudge; but I am very feeble, and my steps are becoming very unsteady, and I feel that interest in my brethren and my sisters that I want to talk to them and exhort them all the time, if I had the strength.

I joined the Church when I was 15 years old. My mother was very much opposed to it and said to me: “Hamilton, you have brought disgrace on the family. You have brought a greater sorrow to me than your father’s death.” This grieved me very much, and set me to crying, for I loved my mother. I distinctly remember going out into the orchard and prostrating myself upon the grass; I prayed to die.

While there I heard a voice which said to me: “Hamilton, what you have done is well pleasing to your Father in heaven. The young man, Joseph Smith, is a prophet, is without spot or blemish, chosen in heaven and ordained of God. If you will be faithful to the end, God will give you an everlasting inheritance in his celestial kingdom where God and Christ dwell.” This has been my testimony throughout all my days.

My mother afterward joined the Church and came to this country, crossing the plains with a hand cart, and finally died a faithful Latter-day Saint in her 93rd year.

To the brethren who have joined this quorum today and have been ordained God’s High priests, I want to say that we bid you welcome and hope all the good things stated to you in your ordination will be realized by you to the glory of God and the salvation of your own souls.

And now in looking over this congregation, I want to say that if there is any man here who feels that business is more important to him than his duty to God, I want to tell him to beware; because, in my advanced life, things of the future cast their shadows before, and the things of the present lose their interest. While it is good and proper and right for man to attend to the business of today, and sustain the Kingdom of God in its temporal affairs, I say to them not to neglect their duties to God and their holy religion, because, when they get to my time of life, it will not be how much stock you own in this and that institution, how many bonds you possess, and how much wealth you can count in the things of this life, but the question foremost and uppermost will be, have I been true to my God and His holy religion? have I neglected any one duty? Have I ever betrayed a trust, or gone back on a friend? Therefore, I say to our friends joining us this morning, welcome, and welcome, a thousand times welcome, to our quorum.

Now I want to say to my brethren, there is little I find I am able to do, but I can bear testimony to the truth of the gospel. I find now in my advanced stage of life, because I have commenced my 87th year (and my 72nd year in the Church), that I have seen the power of God in every advance of the way, and Lucifer also in every advance, for he is a living factor.

I will say right here to you, my brethren, that I may not have the opportunity many times more to bear my testimony, for I feel very weak, today, and shaky in my limbs; but in my early manhood, in my youthful days, in my own native land, I have mingled with the dying and the dead in a railway wreck, and fled in terror from the burning mine, but Mormonism was true, and Joseph Smith was the mighty Prophet of the living God.

In this fair land, I have been cold on the mountain, hungry in the canyon, and thirsty on the desert where water there was none, but Mormonism was true, and Joseph Smith was that mighty Prophet of the living God.

In this fair city, I have gazed on the faces of the dead; yes, when the soul was filled with sorrow and disappointment, with fond hopes shattered, yet Mormonism was true, and Joseph Smith was sent of God.

In my missionary travels, I have staggered and reeled on the storm-tossed deck, and clung to the quivering masts when the fierce winds whistled through rigging and sails, and the waves rolled mountain high, and the sky and waves seemed to meet and kiss each other, until it looked like all would be lost in the watery grave, when strong men feared and stout hearts quailed, yet I knew that Mormonism was true and Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God.

God bless you, my brethren.