Conference Address

My brethren and sisters, I stand before you again, requesting that while I am before you I may have your faith and your prayers in my behalf, that I may be able to say something which shall be encouraging and comforting. ¶

I hope the choir will pardon me if I again tell them how much I have enjoyed their music ; likewise the wonderful choir from Hyrum yesterday. ¶

An Important Lesson Exemplified

It seems to me I see improvement from time to time in the work of our own choir. I think I have never heard a better chorus, to my untrained ear, than they gave us this morning in : "Say Watchman, What of the Night?" ¶

I look at the choir as the Tabernacle Choir mission, and I enjoy meeting with them on these occasions semi-annually. The concerts which they give Sunday mornings, the broadcasts, are a real lesson to the whole Church, a lesson in precision, in punctuality, in devotion, a lesson in achievement. With them there can be no such false doctrine as, "Well, this isn't so very good, but it will do." ¶

The only way in which any of us can live in accordance with the commandments of the Lord and do our duty as it should be done is this : Every task that comes to us, no matter how little or how great it may seem to be, calls for — demands — the best effort which it is possible for us to exert. Every one, no matter who he may be, who works on the theory that there are some things in life that are not worth his best effort, and who accordingly slights his work, will never be truly successful. So this choir gives to us a great lesson — to the Church, and to every other mission of the Church. ¶

Christ's message a spiritual one ¶

Today is the conventional anniversary of the day on which the Savior, beginning the last week of his mortal life, entered Jerusalem and was proclaimed king of the Jews. This is Palm Sunday. ¶

When the Savior came in through the gates of Jerusalem and moved on, on the lowly ass, to the temple, people looked to him and expected from him an announcement that he was the promised king for whom the Jews were looking. They expected him to proclaim himself a political power. I assume they did not know that more than three years before this time Satan himself had taken Christ upon the high mountain and had offered to him the kingdoms of the world if he would bow down and worship Satan, and that the Savior pushed this crown aside. The Jews, groaning under oppression, smarting under political suppression, thought that he came to give them a political life. ¶

But such was not his mission. And as the week wore away and he finished his earthly mission, there came unto the multitudes of Jerusalem a feeling that they had been disappointed, perhaps misled. The Savior's entire mission — read it, brothers and sisters, with care — was devoted to the spiritual side of life and to the relieving of human suffering, physical and mental. Only on three occasions did the Savior ever furnish food : once to the multitude of five thousand ; a very short time thereafter to the multitude of four thousand ; and lastly, after his resurrection he fed the Apostles on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. His message, my brothers and sisters, is a spiritual message. It is a message for the relief of human suffering, for the comfort, the consolation, and the exaltation of the human soul. ¶

Comfort in Distress Through Spiritual Enrichment

And that message, as Isaiah said, is so simple that "the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." It is so simple, so easy to understand, that the poorest of us may have a complete comprehension of all that is necessary for our spiritual welfare. ¶

It is in this message, and from the Savior himself, that we are to get comfort and consolation in these times of stress. If we who are spiritually poor were given of the abundance of life, we still, in these times, should be dissatisfied, because greed would still gnaw at our hearts. We should still be seeking after the things of the world. We should still be ambitious and thirsting for power; and wherever those base qualities enter into the minds and the hearts of men, they bring grief and sorrow. They do not ennoble ; they do not bring satisfaction and contentment; nor do they bring to us joy. ¶

Seek After the Erring Ones

There are among us, my brothers and sisters, men and women who have become discouraged, men and women who are straying away from the paths of truth. They need your help and mine. We may not simply sit idle and say: "Here are the principles, take them or leave them." It is the duty of each and every one of us, wherever we find the brother or the sister wandering aside from the straight and the narrow road, to go to that brother and that sister, and in humility, unselfishness, and righteousness try to bring him or her back into the fold. ¶

There are a number of heresies which today are abroad in the land. Mind they do not mislead you. When I say heresies, I am speaking of heresies in the matter of the Church, its doctrine and its government. Where you find brothers and sisters not understanding the true order, seek kindly and in a brotherly way to explain it to them and bring them back into the right path. If they are falsifying, teach them the error of their falsehood. Try to make them see that falsehood comes from the evil one. ¶

Falsehood and Deception From the Evil One

The Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph, in connection with the revelation given after the loss of the manuscript by Martin Harris, principles regarding falsehoods and falsifying which are applicable at all times. ¶

I am reading from Section 10 of the Doctrine and Covenants : ¶

Yea, he saith unto them: Deceive and lie in wait to catch, that ye may destroy; behold, this is no harm. . . . ¶

You see, he is giving us the representations which Satan makes to the people ¶

And thus he flattereth them, ¶

(that is Satan) ¶

. . . and telleth them that it is no sin to lie that they may catch a man in a lie, that they may destroy him. ¶

And thus he flattereth them, and leadeth them along until he draggeth their souls down to hell ; and thus he causeth them to catch themselves in their own snare. ¶

And thus he goeth up and down, to and fro in the earth, seeking to destroy the souls of men. ¶

Verily, verily, I say unto you, wo be unto him that lieth to deceive because he supposeth that another lieth to deceive, for such are not exempt from the justice of God. ¶

Laws of the Land Should Be Obeyed

Another heresy that is among the people has to do with obedience to the law of the land. And I read from Section 58 of the Doctrine and Covenants: ¶

Let no man break the laws of the land, for he that keepeth the laws of God hath no need to break the laws of the land. ¶

Wherefore, be subject to the powers that be, until he reigns whose right it is to reign, and subdues all enemies under his feet. ¶

Daily Revelations Not Necessary

Another heresy to which I wish to refer. Some of us sometimes appear to look for daily revelations to teach us how and what to do. This was so in the early days of the Church. When the Lord placed man upon the earth he set up certain general laws, fundamental principles, and then permitted man to develop himself within those laws and those principles. If he undertook to tell us each time what we were to do in every detail — and the saints of the early days of the Church thought, as I have stated, that he should do so, and the Lord reproved them for it — two things would happen. In the first place we would virtually destroy the free agency of man, the foundation stone upon which all of our existence is built. And in the second place we should be under great condemnation if the Lord had to reveal to us his will and then we failed to follow it. ¶

Quoting again from Section 58, the Lord said : ¶

For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things ; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. ¶

Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness ; ¶

For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward. ¶

But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned. ¶

Who am I that made man, saith the Lord, that will hold him guiltless that obeys not my commandments? ¶

Who am I, saith the Lord, that have promised and have not fulfilled ? ¶

I command and men obey not; I revoke and they receive not the blessing. ¶

Then they say in their hearts : This is not the work of the Lord, for his promises are not fulfilled. But wo unto such, for their reward lurketh beneath; and not from above. ¶

"love thy neighbor" ¶

It is the duty of each Latter-day Saint living his religion and observing the laws of the Lord, living the principles of the Gospel, to try to lead back into the ways of righteousness and life those who for the moment have permitted the light to burn low, so low that they stumble in the way, not seeing the pitfalls that are ahead of them. ¶

We may not, my brothers and sisters, think that merely by ourselves living we are doing our full duty. We must go beyond this. We must help our brother. "Love thy neighbor as thyself," the Lord said was one of the great commandments. ¶

May the Lord give us his blessing, enable us to understand his will, enable us to live as we should live, strengthen our testimony, give us the spirit of forgiveness, the spirit of truth, that we may not only save ourselves but help to save others, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶

The Choir and the congregation sang the hymn, "Praise to the Man who Communed with Jehovah," after which the Choir sang an anthem, "Like a Choir of Mighty Angels." ¶