Conference Address

As I stand here this morning, my brethren and sisters, it is with a heart full of gratitude for the privilege of attending this conference. There is something stimulating in meeting with the Latter-day Saints. There isn't any place in all the world where one may be built up in his faith as in the service of our Heavenly Father. ¶

Philosophies of Men

There are many philosophies and concepts that have been advanced to bring comfort and cheer in this sorrowing world. They all have their place, and much good has come therefrom. Someone was kind enough to hand me a few lines, the lines of a bit of philosophy that I think are attributed to Plato, which runs something like this: ¶

God is love, but God is eternal, therefore love is eternal. But unless there is something to love, there can be no love; therefore, that which we love must be eternal because of the first proposition that God and love are eternal. Therefore we are eternal. ¶

These lines, doubtless prompted the lines of Wordsworth wherein he wrote: ¶

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar; ¶

Not in entire forgetfulness, ¶

And not in utter nakedness, ¶

But trailing clouds of glory do we come ¶

From God, who is our home. ¶

(Wordsworth, "Intimations of Immortality.") ¶

All of these, beautiful in very deed! ¶

Strength and Power of Gospel Message

But, after all. my brethren and sisters, there is nothing that equals in power and in strength the message of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a simple thing. God sent his Only Begotten Son as a Savior for the children of men, that he might give to them the gospel whereby they might so live that it would permit them to come back into his presence. Jesus came upon the earth; he taught his message; he lived it; he showed his disciples how to live it; he brought them in very deed glad tidings of great joy. He lived among his disciples for only a few short years, and then was taken by cruel men and ¶

crucified; and on the third day he arose from the tomb. Some of his disciples, anxious to complete the burial service, repaired to the tomb on that beautiful Sabbath morning, there to find, as they thought, that the Master had been taken away, later to learn that he was risen, that he had become the resurrected Lord. Many things in connection with his ministry transcend our power of understanding, but our lack of understanding does not change the fact that he did live and die and was resurrected. ¶

Evidence was given to the disciples of this: He came among them, showed them the wounds in his hands, partook of food with them, and then after a short ministry ascended to heaven with the promise that in the due time of the Lord he would come again. There is not anything, my brethren and sisters, in all the world that equals faith in this divine truth. There is not any comfort that can come to the human heart that equals a conviction of the truth of the message of the Lord Jesus. And to think that we have been made partakers of that, for he has revealed himself again in this day, once more revealing to the world that he lives, that he is the Son of God. that the resurrection from the dead is a reality, that our lives do not end in death, but that we live and will continue to live as immortal spirits until the time shall come when God will call us forth from the grave just as he did Jesus. It is a glorious faith, and I am grateful to join with you this beautiful morning in thanking our Heavenly Father for the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ. ¶

May we be worthy of these blessings and be able to order our lives that we may ultimately come back into his presence, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶