An Ensign to the World

I feel very humble, my brethren, in occupying this brief moment in this great Conference. I am thrilled to be present again with President Grant. It was my great opportunity while serving in California to be closely associated with him during his visits there and I want to bear testimony here that he is the prophet of the Lord. At a time when he was stricken and when medical science said there was no hope for him, and as he lay in the hospital he detected our anxiety and concern. I recall the morning when we visited him there when in that calm assurance of faith he said: "Don't worry, the Lord has made manifest to me that I shall recover and I shall walk out of this hospital." It has been three years since that time and we are privileged to still enjoy his inspired leadership. I am grateful for this opportunity this morning to see him again and to witness before you our loyalty and appreciation of his great leadership of the Church. ¶

I want to bring you the testimony of the outside world: Recently the President of the College of the Pacific at Stockton, California, paid a visit to your city and for two weeks he mingled among you. He returned amazed at the great work that is being accomplished here by the great Church that has set up an ensign to the world, and when talking to a minister of another protestant church said, "I was absolutely flabbergasted at what I found in Salt Lake City. You know, Dr. Long, there were seventy-three churches, and they all held services on Sunday evening — Seventy-three churches in one city, and we can't get one church filled in our city here." ¶

That is the testimony of those who come among you. I appeal to you, my brethren, to continue to keep the commandments of the Lord, for you are an ensign to the world, and the world is coming here to learn the ways of the Lord. ¶

I am grateful for the opportunity that has come to me to serve in this Church, and I am thrilled with the new call that has come to me to serve with the men in the Service who I believe have a great heritage come to them through being the men who shall go before and make preparation for the coming of the Son of Man. I believe I see out of this great conflict, that this great army of freedom shall go in the might of the Lord and shall prepare the way so that the world might be ready to receive the King of Kings when He shall come. These young men who shall wear the uniform of this great army of righteousness that shall prepare the way like John the Baptist in the Meridian of Time, have a great responsibility and a great honor. I believe they go out as missionaries, these few, forty thousand among seven million, to be the light to the world and to prepare the way; and, by their lives, living among their buddies, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I see a greater opportunity before them to preach the gospel than the missionaries have had in the mission field, who have spent most of their time trying to find men who would listen to them. Now, in the privacy of their own barracks, to their own buddies they can preach the gospel many times without even saying a word. And so I appeal to you brethren who stand in responsible positions in the stakes and wards of Zion from whence our young men have gone into the Service, to let it be a distinct honor to your ward and stake that these are your representatives in the great army of righteousness. See to it that your membership and your families and the parents of these boys do not bother them with the petty things on the home front. They have all they can do in learning the great problems they have in their great work. I appeal to the parents to write encouraging letters to their boys and not to trouble them with the petty things at home. ¶

I bear testimony to you that this is the work of the Lord, and I pray that we as a people may be worthy of the great responsibility that is ours in being a light to the world, and so living our religion and so being faithful to our teachings that our lives may be exemplary and that other men, seeing our good works, may be led to glorify our Father in Heaven. I pray God to bless us and to bless our beloved President that his life may be prolonged upon the earth and that we may enjoy his inspired leadership. Help us all to be faithful and true, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶