Simplicity of Worship

My brothers and sisters, I am indeed blessed with you in the opportunity to be at this great Conference and at these wonderful services this morning. I glory with you in the ringing, honest testimony of President Grant. I rejoice with you in the wonderful message of President McKay, embodying in it those principles which would bring into the world, if practiced, peace and joy unexpressible. ¶

I again rejoice with you in the great work of this choir of ours and of our other musical organizations, the Singing Mothers, the Nebo Stake Choir who entertained and edified us yesterday, and the male chorus. I am sure I express your gratitude as well as my own and that of the Authorities when I thank Brother J. Spencer Cornwall for his untiring efforts and Brother Frank W. Asper and also, and perhaps especially, Brother Richard L. Evans. Sunday after Sunday, year in and year out, he prepares what is called the "continuity" to these broadcasts. His versatility arouses my admiration and my gratitude. ¶

AN OUTSTANDING SCOUT LEADER ¶

I would like to say a word about another man whom Brother Grant has mentioned and whom I think we do not fully appreciate. I am thinking of Brother Oscar A. Kirkham. Sometimes I wonder if he does not all too much indicate the truthfulness of that old saying, "A prophet is not without honor save in his own country." I do not know how Brother Oscar Kirkham stands with the superior officers of the Boy Scout Movement, but I suppose he stands well. I do know how he stands with the Boy Scouts of America. I saw him recently at the Jamboree in Washington. After the officers of the organization had attempted in vain to bring to silence and order 25,000 boys assembled there under the shadow of the great Washington Monument, I saw Brother Kirkham go forward on the platform, raise his hands, and bring silence to those 25,000 boys in less than half a minute. His influence for good in this world and in the Boy Scout Movement cannot be overestimated and I honor him and respect him for the work which he is doing. ¶

TRIBUTE TO CHOIR ¶

This choir of ours, I think, is the greatest missionary unit which we have. Wherever I go, on both sides of the Atlantic, I hear praiseworthy reference to their efforts. I am grateful to the Lord for them. It is rather an interesting fact to me that on this block should be the two great ¶

missionary units of the Church. I am thinking of the choir and its work and I am thinking of the work of Brother Joseph S. Peery in the Temple Block Mission. We are planning and hoping to intensify the work of both of these agencies. After listening to this congregation sing this morning, I think I am entitled to say that also the body of this Church assembled in these Conferences is a center from which radiates the Spirit of the Lord and the Spirit of righteousness. No base community or people could, sing as you sing. Your songs are filled with a feeling of righteousness. They come, do these songs, from a God-fearing, faithful people. God grant that always shall we be able to sing the songs of Zion and radiate the spirit which has come from this great audience this morning. ¶

Along with Brother Grant, I had the pleasure of attending some of the meetings of the Saints in foreign lands. Sister Clark and I made some tour of Europe. We come back to you, I am glad to say, enriched in our spirit and increased in our knowledge. No one can appraise the beneficial work which President Grant did in Europe. I am happy to add my own feeling to the expressions which he gave voice to yesterday — that too long have we remained somewhat aloof from those organizations of ours on the other side of the water and in the islands of the sea. I rejoice in his determination that from now on we shall bring them nearer to us and shall strive for a fuller realization of the fact that they are part and parcel of us. ¶

SIMPLICITY OF WORSHIP ¶

I return to you filled with gratitude for many, many things. I am grateful for the fact that our services are simple and in the line of the services which the Savior himself inaugurated when he was on the earth. I rejoice beyond my powers of expression that our worship is not one of great magnificence. I rejoice that our Church calls upon the individuals of its membership to carry on all of its activities — that there is nothing which is withheld from him or from her who is righteous. ¶

I rejoice in the fact that our buildings are simple and that we come into them for the purpose of worship and not for the purpose of admiration. I hope I shall not be misunderstood, nor that I shall be thought to lack charity or respect for others, but I hope the time will never come when we shall have a St. Peter's or a St. Paul's edifice connected with this Church. They would lead us away from the simplicity which keeps us humble. ¶

A LIVING FAITH ¶

Above all, I am grateful for the simplicity of our faith. We do not believe in, nor live in, a morgue or graveyard of Christian principles which have supposedly been tried and found wanting, nor of blasted hopes. On the contrary, we have a living faith ; a faith that guides us day by day and hour by hour; a faith that will lead us, if lived, back ¶

into the presence of our Heavenly Father; a faith that, lived here, will bring us a joy and a contentment that is beyond the power of any human pen or tongue to describe. ¶

GRATEFUL FOR OUR COUNTRY ¶

I am grateful, also, as I return to this country, for our country itself. I am grateful for its territorial aloofness from the rest of the world. Even with the most modern, destructive weapons of war, we are almost immune. I am grateful for our political international aloofness and I pray our Heavenly Father that we shall never lose the security which comes from minding our own business and remaining aloof from the quarrels and the pettiness of the politics of the world. ¶

I am grateful for our economic sufficiency — that we can, within our own borders, produce all that we need for our daily lives, and the most of what we need for our luxury. The need of other great powers for this sufficiency threatens to bring sometime in the future another devastating struggle. ¶

I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for our free institutions, for the liberty which we have, the freedom of the press, the freedom of religion, freedom to do as we wish within the law. I am grateful that the great principle behind our system of government is that we may do anything which the law does not forbid. There are other systems in the world in which the individual may do that only which the law permits, and between those two great principles lies the difference between freedom and slavery. I am grateful for this, my brethren and sisters, far beyond my power to tell. ¶

SECURITY PROGRAM IS SUCCESSFUL ¶

I want to say a word about our Security Program. I want to say to you brothers and sisters that the Security Program is highly successful. Bishop Cannon has furnished figures to show that during the first six months of this year almost 25,000 Latter-day Saints were helped directly or through work and there is no letting up. There are still a few who must be taken care of, off the government relief. If government projects shall be abandoned, there will be more. But if we shall do in the future as we have in the past we shall meet the task that lies ahead. ¶

Over and over again the last four and one-half years I have told you what I firmly believe — that we, if we put into practice the principles of our religion and if we utilize the organization which the Lord has provided us for taking care of our own, we should become an ensign and an example, a city upon a hill pointing the way to the rest of the world. If you read your papers and your magazines, you know that this has come to pass and people now are asking — they ask me on all sides : What is it in your organizations that brings you the ability to do these things ? That, my brethren and sisters, brings up the next great point which we wish the world to look at. ¶

What is the source of this unifying power that motivates this great ¶

people ? And when that question is answered, it will be understood and known that it is the power of the Lord and the power of the Priesthood among this people that does draw them together ; that does unite them as a single man. I want to say here that I am very grateful to all who have taken part in carrying on this security program — the men and the women who have worked in the Relief Society, and all the auxiliary agencies, the Priesthood, and particularly those men of the central committee who so willingly give their time, without compensation, to the supervision of this great and vital undertaking. We thank you all for your cooperation and for your support. Without it nothing at all could have been done. ¶

GIVES ADMONITION ¶

May I add again an admonition : Live within your means. Get out of debt. Keep out of debt. Lay by for a rainy day which has always come and will come again. Practice and increase your habits of thrift, industry, economy, frugality. Remember that the parable of the ten virgins, the five that were wise and the five that were foolish, can be just as applicable to matters of the temporal world as those of the spiritual. ¶

My brethren and sisters, our revelations are filled, revelations ancient and modern, with the statement that this work of the Lord is to roll forth as the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, and fill the whole earth. This Gospel of ours, my brethren and sisters, is not merely for us. It is, said the Lord, in his time for every creature in the world. The Lord has given to us the responsibility of trying to bring home to humanity the truths of this Gospel, not by exhortation alone, because exhortation has failed and that is why men tell you that the principles of Christianity are dead. But we are to bring this home to humanity by living it. This great responsibility the Lord has placed primarily upon us in America. But this is not an American Church. This is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its destiny as well as its mission is to fill the earth and to bring home to every man, woman and child in the world the truths of this Gospel of which I have spoken. ¶

OUR MISSION ¶

My brothers and sisters, that requires not only devotion to duty of the very highest character but it requires sacrifice. There is no good comes into the world, there is no good comes to the individual which in some way does not demand a sacrifice. Righteousness must pay the price. ¶

May the Lord bless us. May he bring into our hearts an understanding of the mission of the Church and beyond that of the mission of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May he particularly bring into our hearts an understanding of our own responsibilities and duties, because if we fail to meet them, not only shall we ourselves suffer and fail to get the blessings that come from obedience, but someone in the world somewhere will hold against us the charge that we did not meet our duty and bring to him the principles which we believe. ¶

And so may God be with us at all times and help us in all ways that we may do his will ; that we may spread the Gospel ; that we may point to all humanity the way to temporal salvation, not only, as we are trying to do now, but spiritual salvation and exaltation also, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen ¶