Conference Address

My brethren and sisters, I am very happy to be present on this occasion, although I am not too happy at standing before you. ¶

I would not feel good if I did not express to you the deep joy and satisfaction I feel in attending these conferences, and as it were, sitting at the feet of the servants of the living God and listening to their instructions and encouragement. We have enjoyed a great outpouring of the Spirit and received an abundance of sound doctrine, and I am sure that those who are anxious to be faithful to their responsibilities will strive to carry out what we have been told today. ¶

It seems strange and a little bit improper to be here today reporting on the New England Mission after being away from it for nearly a year. We were released last May after five and one-half years of service. But I do want to express to you the gratitude I feel, and my wife likewise, at having had the opportunity of serving in the mission field and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to our fellow men. It was a grand and glorious experience; but we are happy to be home. ¶

I want to pay tribute to my wife, for the splendid work she did in the mission field. I served before the days when mission presidents had counselors, but in her I had a faithful and wise counselor, and a faithful and willing helper. We strove, at all times, to do things together, and much of our traveling and service was done together. She was a loyal and wonderful companion. She has now been called to an important position in the Church. It is an honor to her and to me, too. I am sure she did not seek it. In fact, I know she did not; and that if her wishes had been observed she would not have received the call; but now that it has come to her, I know that she will give the position the best that she has. She will work hard at it, and I assure you that she will have my support, such as I can give her. ¶

We had a wonderful lot of missionaries in that five and one-half years, and I want to publicly express my gratitude to them for the faithful service they performed under us; and to their parents and other loved ones who afforded them that opportunity. They rendered a great service and the effects of that service will be felt for many years to come. ¶

I want to say that in the New England Mission we have a lot of faithful, loyal and valiant members of the Church, who are a credit to the Church. They have assisted in advancing the cause of the Church, and with their help the Church has grown in the New England Mission. I have seen some of them, here in this Conference, for whom I have the greatest love and respect because of the creditable manner in which they devoted themselves to the service to which they were called. ¶

I think I owe it to our beloved President to tell you that his son, George Albert, Jr., is a faithful, loyal and dependable member of the Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the Cambridge Branch, he is one of the bulwarks. During all of the time that I served as Mission President, he was engaged in some teaching of the members. It was a source of great satisfaction to see the students in those great educational institutions flock to his classes to listen to his instruction on the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has attained some eminence by the sheer force of his own efforts and personality and is, today, the Assistant Dean of the Harvard School of Business Administration, perhaps the greatest school of its kind in the world. He is honored and respected. ¶

If it were my prerogative to preach a sermon, I should like to cry out against the hypocrisy that seems to prevail among some of our members. I am sure there is no greater offense against the Holy Ghost than insincerity, inconsistency, and hypocrisy. The Savior denounced it most vehemently. It does not get any of us — who do not practice what we preach and profess to be — anywhere or anything. Those who are true and loyal are the ones who reap the benefits, not only the direct benefits of blessings that come through obedience to the principles to the gospel, but also the incidental benefits. I want to tell you a little story. ¶

One of our members in the Branch of Cambridge was out of a job. He responded to an advertisement in the newspaper and went to one of the great manufacturing institutions of the area on the day appointed, and there he found twenty-five or thirty other young men seeking the same job. A questionnaire was handed out to them, and he answered it, disclosing qualifications which were required for the position. And then, at the bottom of the questionnaire, there was this question: "What Church do you belong to?" He said he scratched his head and thought if he told the whole truth he would not get the job, so first he decided to put "L.D.S. Church," and then he concluded that that would require some explanation that would elicit the truth and so he thought, "Oh, well, I am a Mormon and why not say so." And so he wrote in that column "Mormon." The questionnaires were gathered up and taken in to the manager and in a little while a young lady came to the door and asked this young man to come in. He said he could not understand why he got the first invitation for an interview. When he got inside the manager talked to him casually for a little while, then finally he said, "Do you keep the word of wisdom?" The young man said, "Yes, why?" The manager said, "Do you pay your tithing?" The young man said, "Yes, why?" "Well," the manager said, "I was in Salt Lake City some time ago, and I was introduced to President Grant and in his office he and other men, treated us cordially and explained some of the striking features of the Mormon Church. And," he said, "I will never forget what I was told about the Word of Wisdom and tithing. And," he said, "Young man, if you are that loyal to your Church, twenty-five hundred miles away from its headquarters, you will be loyal to us. You are the kind of man we want in our employ, and the job is yours if you want it." He was happy to accept the position and was instrumental, thereafter, in securing positions for quite a number of our young folks in that locality who needed employment. Now, there is one of the incidental blessings that followed obedience to the principles and practices and standards of the Church. All of us ought to want those blessings, but we will forfeit them if we are not faithful and obedient. ¶

I know that this is the Church of God. I am happy to be active in it, and hope I shall remain so all the days of my life. I found great joy in being acquainted with these wonderful men. No finer men exist anywhere in the world, whose aims and purposes and attitudes are cleaner and more wholesome and more beneficial to their associates than is the case with these men. It is a joy to know them and to associate with them, and I want to strive to remain as close as possible all the days of my life to men who exert that kind of influence upon their fellow men. ¶

I have never heard a single expression from the mouths of any one of these men that would have a tendency to lead any one of us astray or into unrighteous paths. They are always telling us to live good lives and be faithful members of the Church and be obedient to the gospel plan of Jesus Christ. God bless them, and God bless us and help us to be faithful and loyal and consistent, and avoid all forms of hypocrisy and be real "livers" of our religion instead of just "professors," and I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶