Conference Address

This is a very overwhelming sight, my brethren and sisters, and is a position that I dread very much. I sincerely trust that I may have an interest in your faith and prayers the few moments that I stand before you this afternoon. ¶

The Uplift of Worship ¶

I want to express my appreciation for the privilege of being here in this great assembly. It is certainly a Sabbath day feast to come and attend these three days of general conference. It does something for our souls. You know in our agricultural pursuits Brother Widtsoe will tell us of the need of fallowing our land, permitting it to rest, that it might be recharged and revitalized. We come together for that purpose in these conference sessions, that we too might be revitalized and recharged, and verily these conference sessions give us the rest and peace of a Sabbath day. ¶

The Lord has told us that we should go to his holy house on his day and there worship before him, offer our oblations to him that we might be built up and strengthened. It isn't that the Lord wants us to honor him, but like all of his laws, they are for our benefit and blessing. His injunctions are that we might be happy, that we might grow and become spiritually strong, that we might ultimately be as he is, that we might take upon ourselves great power. We are here in this life for that purpose, that we might understand life and, as the scriptures say, that we might have life more abundantly. ¶

Age of Scientific Marvels ¶

President Smith referred this morning to the fact that these services were not only being broadcast but also that the Saints who are assembled in the Assembly Hall are permitted to see just what is being done, to see the Tabernacle Choir in its singing and to see those who are called to the stand to speak. It is verily a marvelous age. Reference was made by Bishop Isaacson to the fact that he talked to his son by long-distance telephone last night. You and I may talk to our sons even in Europe. We may not only talk to them but we may also see them. What a source of comfort it will be for a parent to pick up the telephone and talk to his son in a foreign country and at the same time see him visually, to know that he is well. ¶

Twenty-five years ago, had anyone said anything about television, we would have wondered whether or not he was sound in his thinking, and yet today we have these marvelous things right at our door. ¶

One of our brethren was down in our locality a few weeks ago to talk to one of our service clubs, Brother Alvin Pack, a son of Dr. Fred J. Pack who formerly was connected with the University of Utah, and has now passed to' the other side, a lovely character, a man in all of his scientific work stimulating faith. We were informed of some of the present-day marvelous achievements. He told us that as he came around the point of the mountain in his car a little flash on his dashboard indicated that he was wanted on the telephone and on picking up the receiver he was informed that he was wanted in New York on long distance. With only a flip of a button he was able, as he was traveling fifty or sixty miles an hour, to make that connection and talk to New York. Certainly this is a marvelous age. It is an age for youth, an age of opportunity, and as I thought of these things and thought of this achievement of television I wondered in my own heart if perhaps the time will not come when we can see our loved ones on the other side. That is not beyond the pale of possibility. To us now, of course, it seems impossible. Television was impossible for us not so long ago. ¶

We Must Walk by Faith ¶

Is it not within the range of possibility that we may at some future day be able not only to commune with those dear to us on the other side, but to see them? What an assurance this would be. God in his mercy has seen fit not to grant to us this great blessing and privilege now, because he recognizes we must walk by faith. We must live by faith. Human experience has taught that when we walk by pure knowledge, we forget the place of God in our lives. I think it was William Dean Howells who made this observation on one occasion, that he wondered if one of the reasons why the other side was shut out from our view was because if we positively knew, we would be less kind, we would be less sympathetic in the positive knowledge that would come to us, we would delay the day of making right wrongs that beset us; but the fact that we walk by faith, the fact that sometimes there is some uncertainty in our walking leads us to be more careful. Certainly the Lord in his great wisdom has withheld from us some of the things that we would all love to know and see; and yet, as we contemplate the marvelous experiences of life from day to day, we are conscious of the fact that in his great providence we will eventually be able to surmount all of the physical things that beset us. Then we will be ushered into the eternal things, and we will know as God knows. We will have power as he has power. Jesus had that power. He said in effect, "No man taketh this life from me, but I have power of myself to lay this body down and by the same power I shall take it up. This I have received from my Father." (See John 10:18.) Even so will we, his children, be given these great powers, but all of them predicated upon our subscribing to his divine laws and living in accordance with his holy will. ¶

Parental Guidance Needed ¶

I said a minute ago this is a great day for youth. Our boys and girls are having opportunities the like of which we never had in our generation. It certainly is a thrilling time to live and yet, my brethren and sisters, I have wondered many times if in this great field of physical progress we are keeping pace spiritually. I am led to this conclusion because of some of the experiences that our boys and girls are having and some of the things that are coming to light of their experiences. One of our boys recently came home from Japan, and when I interviewed him for a mission, he said frankly, "Brother Young, I find it much harder here to withstand temptation than I found it over in Tokyo." In interviewing some of these boys we find that they are lacking some of the parental care that they should have and doubtless did have a generation ago. I am wondering whether we as parents are frank enough with our boys and girls, if we take them into our confidence, if we are not relying too much on this mechanical age, for which we are truly grateful, for their spiritual strength, for the parental counsel that they need. It seems to me that this is one field of our activity that we need to emphasize more strongly than ever before. Our boys and girls need our help. They need our guidance; they need to know some of the pitfalls that may confront them in their experiences; and they need to be talked to very frankly about some of their sex problems, my brethren and sisters, the field that we seem to avoid. We need parents to sit down with their boys and girls and to warn them of dangers that are on every hand. There is no change, in all this progress, in all the present-day opportunities, in some of the fundamental concepts. It is just as wrong today to steal as it was four thousand years ago when the Lord gave his great commandment. It is just as wrong today to commit adultery as it was then. It is just as wrong today to violate the Sabbath day as it was then. It is just as important today that we should honor God, honor his holy name, not profane it, keep his holy day as it was four thousand years ago. These things never change. It is just as right and proper that we should honor virtue, that we should honor womanhood as we were taught centuries ago. These things never change. ¶

Glorious Age for Youth ¶

And so, I repeat, my brethren and sisters, with all of the great opportunities we have before us, the opportunities that our boys and girls have, it is a glorious age in which to live, one that brings happiness, if we keep the commandments, one that thrills us because of the great opportunities, and yet, with it all we must also keep pace spiritually and not forget some of these fundamental concepts that are always true and will never change. So I repeat again, we need to go back to some of the old customs of fathers and mothers sitting down with their children and talking through some of the problems that confront our youth. Our boys and girls need our help. I am not one that would say to a boy or a girl, "You're not worthy to go to the temple," but I would say, "You're not quite prepared. Let us sit down together and see if we cannot help you to become prepared." It may take six months or it may take a year, but the fact that our boys and girls may not be prepared does not relieve us of the responsibility of doing the thing we should do of helping our youth to become prepared for the problems of life and for the great spiritual opportunities that are theirs in this great Church to which we belong. ¶

May God help us that we may have wisdom in the direction of our youth, in helping them in their problems and above all of having a sympathetic understanding of them and what they have to face, and may he sanctify to our spiritual growth the great opportunities with which we are surrounded, these glorious physical opportunities, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶