Purpose of the Security Plan

My brothers and sisters : The Church as a whole, and we who are assembled particularly, rejoice that today we have among us again Brother Alonzo A. Hinckley. We thank the Lord for preserving his life, and he has our constant and daily prayers that the Lord will soon restore him completely to health and strength. ¶

FAITHFULNESS OF CHOIR COMMENDED ¶

Again, I would like to pay my homage to the Tabernacle Choir mission. I am sure that from one conference to another we can see a decided improvement. Brother David A. Smith informs me that this organization has an average attendance, counting its Thursday night rehearsals, its Sunday morning broadcast, and Sunday afternoon service, of better than 82 per cent. That is a record which is probably not excelled by any other organization in the Church. ¶

I want also to extend my congratulations and appreciation to the Singing Mothers (they delighted us, as always) and also to the Tabernacle Choir Male Chorus. I told Brother Cornwall the other day that we should expect to hear from this chorus more frequently in the future. And, lastly, we are grateful for those who have sung for us here in solos. Sometimes I feel that we get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer. ¶

I am grateful to the Lord, more than I can tell, for the cultural life which is among this people. Those who are not familiar with us and our achievements sometimes speak as if we had no culture, but I am sure there is no group of an equal size in the whole world that has a ¶

higher cultural rating than has this people, in music, in art, in literature, in science. ¶

PURPOSE OF THE SECURITY PLAN ¶

We have heard much during this conference regarding the Security Plan which the Church is putting into operation. That plan has behind it two essential things, first, that we shall see that nobody shall starve or really need for the things necessary for life; and, secondly, and just as importantly, that every one who can work shall have some work given to him or to her to do. I wish it were within my power, as I know it is not, to express what is in my heart regarding this great plan, and to say how I feel about the dignity and the honor of work. ¶

WORK THE LAW OF THIS EARTH ¶

I endorse everything that was said this morning by Brother Callis. Work is a great thing. It is the law of this earth. When Adam was cast out, upon him was passed the glorious sentence, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Man as he is would not and could not have existed except for the promulgation of this law. Work is a wonderful thing, no matter what that work may be. ¶

The great Milton, in that wonderful poem, "Paradise Lost," pays this tribute to work, which he expresses, after he opens to us the vision of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: ¶

God hath set labor and rest, as day and night, To men successive . . . Other creatures all day long Rove idle, unemployed, and less need rest ; Man hath his daily work of body and mind Appointed, which declares his dignity, And the regard of Heaven on all his ways ; While other animals unactive range And of their doings God takes no account. ¶

My brothers and sisters, if we can just get into our minds the dignity and the honor of work, no matter what that work may be, most of the ills from which we suffer will be solved. During the whole range of man's existence there has never yet been any plan by which men may live righteously in idleness, and no such plan, it is my faith, will ever be devised. ¶

RELIEF SOCIETY AND PRIESTHOOD PRAISED ¶

I want to thank the sisters of the Relief Society for the wonderful work which they have done in this Security Plan. We hear that many of them have worked and worked until they are worn out. This of course must not be. But how glorious is a tired body when in it there beats a heart filled with the light of righteousness. The exaltation and the exultation of having done one's duty ! ¶

How infinitely better to have a tired body from work and service for our fellow men than to have a nerve-torn body coming from the bridge gambling table, cocktails, and whiskey and sodas, with the moral decay which goes with them. ¶

I want to thank the Priesthood who have been untiring in their efforts. Brothers and sisters, I marvel, sincerely and truly marvel, at the work which this people can do when it sets its hands to do it; and I repeat what I said last night, that there is nothing that can stop this people in any movement which it sets up for the advancement of humanity if all will work together. No power on the earth or under the earth can defeat our purpose along these lines. And so I thank all the brethren from the bottom of my heart for all that they have done — including the general committee that is getting this Security Plan started. There is still work to do, brethren and sisters, if we are to carry on. ¶

TRUE HEROES ¶

As I observed last night, the distribution of this fund is going to be more difficult, in one sense, than its accumulation. The Bishops will have to supervise the distribution and it must be done in the spirit of love, in the spirit of fatherhood, without fear, without favor, without partiality. In no other way shall we succeed. ¶

Then I want to thank, and devoutly thank, that great group of Latter-day Saints who under this terrible depression, deprived of their jobs and livelihood, have lived on, struggling, using up the accumulation of the years that they might keep off the "dole," holding fast to the truths of the Gospel, cheerful, courageous, even to their last cent. They are true heroes, my brethren and sisters, and we whom the Lord has not so disciplined have been deprived of the blessings which that discipline has brought to them. To live on as they have lived, courageously, straightforward, honest, requires far more will and far more character than for us to live who have been blessed with a little more. Never forget them, my brothers and sisters. I repeat, they are the heroes of this terrible time. ¶

■GOSPEL AN INDIVIDUAL PLAN ¶

We have proclaimed to the world, and we have proclaimed what we knew, that we have the Gospel plan, and that the Gospel plan not only takes care of our spiritual needs, but our temporal needs as well. Under this plan there comes to us a double responsibility, for the plan provides how we shall guide and direct our work individually. It is an individual plan; it provides how I shall live and you shall live day by day, day in and day out, week in and week out, and throughout a long lifetime. For the individual, it leaves nothing to be desired ; it leaves nothing still necessary. But this plan does more than that, it teaches us how to live in a group under an organization and principles which enable us to live together as brothers and sisters, equal in all things insofar as we live for that equality. ¶

That places upon us a responsibility because this plan which has been given to us is a plan by which Christian rule can come and will come to the nations of the earth. We are in charge of that plan. No other people have had it given to them. We alone in all the world are possessed of this wonderful thing, this Christian plan, this Christian rule and the responsibility not to be escaped, is upon us, to make this rule known, to propagate it among the nations of the earth, in order that they may also know how to live as a truly Christian unit. We may talk and talk about Christian rule in the world but that rule will not come by talk. But we can bring Christian rule immeasurably forward if we shall ourselves adopt it. This Security Plan, which goes back to the principles which were given to the Church over a hundred years ago, puts us once more on the road leading to the establishment of a Christian rule. ¶

My brethren and sisters, such is our responsibility ; and our destiny is that if we shall live ourselves the Christian rule the Lord intends to use us by reason of our experience and our discipline, to extend this Christian rule throughout the world. We shall do it, by love, by mercy, by charity, by righteousness, by living the Gospel. ¶

LIGHT GROWS WITH RIGHTEOUS LIVING ¶

Every human being is born with the light of faith kindled in his heart as on an altar, and that light burns and the Lord sees that it burns, during the period before we are accountable. When accountability comes then each of us determines how we shall feed and care for that light. If we shall live righteously that light will glow until it suffuses the whole body, giving to it health and strength and spiritual light as well as bodily health. If we shall live unrighteously that light will dwindle and finally almost flicker out. Yet it is my hope and my belief that the Lord never permits the light of faith wholly to be extinguished in any human heart, however faint the light may glow. The Lord has provided that there shall still be there a spark which, with teaching, with the spirit of righteousness, with love, with tenderness, with example, with living the Gospel, shall brighten and glow again, however darkened the mind may have been. And if we shall fail so to reach those among us of our own whose faith has dwindled low, we shall fail in one of the main things which the Lord expects at our hands. ¶

My brethren and sisters, may the Lord bless us. May he give us faith, and hope, and charity; may he give us the vision to see the wisdom of the immediate task in which we are engaged. ¶

WIDESPREAD INTEREST ¶

I repeat what I have said several times since this conference began : The eyes of the world are upon us, newspapers from all over the United States are sending to us for information about this Plan of ours, and they want the details, how it is working, and why it is working. We are the city set upon a hill. If we should fail in this, and the Lord will not let us fail, great would be our condemnation. We should have ¶

lost the opportunity that has again come to the Church now after its early coming at the beginning of our Church life. ¶

I say, may the Lord bless us, bring us the vision of what we have undertaken and what we should do, give us the faith and the courage to carry on, as we know we should carry on ; give us unity, take from our minds and our hearts all bickerings and jealousies, and build us up into one great united people, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus, Amen. ¶