Conference Address

I am sure I never fully realize how much I need help until I actually arrive at this moment and this place, and I earnestly hope that I shall have it. ¶

Advice Given to Moses ¶

I should like to read as preface to the few remarks that I shall make, some verses from the eighteenth chapter of Exodus: ¶

And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the. people; and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. ¶

And when Moses' father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even? ¶

And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to enquire of God: ¶

When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws. ¶

And Moses' father in law said unto him, the thing that thou doest is not good. ¶

Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. ¶

Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people. . . . ¶

And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. ¶

Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: ¶

And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. ¶

If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace. ¶

So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said. (Exodus 18:13-24.) ¶

Delegation of Responsibility ¶

There is a profound wisdom in this early utterance concerning the delegation of authority and of responsibility and of work. Surely it must be evident to every thinking person that there comes a time when, no matter how able or willing a man may be, he cannot further extend himself so far as person-to-person communication and effort are concerned. As surely as this Church grows, it must be apparent to everyone that a greater sense of responsibility must rest with all those who have membership in it and by that membership, therefore, have a responsibility for it. ¶

I called attention on one previous occasion, I think, to the number of days a man may reasonably expect to live — assuming that the scriptural allotment of three score and ten years were granted each of us. If you will get out your pencil and paper and multiply seventy by three hundred sixty-five, it will total about twenty-five thousand days, which means that if we were to spend one day each with twenty-five thousand different people, our lives would be gone. This would indicate the limit of our personal ability to spend time with individual people. But we can extend ourselves in other ways. We are extending ourselves today by television. For many years we have extended ourselves by radio. We can extend ourselves in print and by all other means of mass communication and by delegating responsibility to other people. But in person-to-person appointments in this Church and out of it. there is a limit to which a man can extend himself — a truth which the father-in-law of Moses discovered and expressed many centuries ago, and which is a still more pressing truth in our day as the Church and its responsibilities grow. ¶

Activity of Membership ¶

One of the great elements of strength in this Church is the activity of its membership, the individual testimony and responsibility of every member in it, in the priesthood quorums and otherwise. And we must, of course, delegate authority and responsibility. The Lord has done it to us; he has trusted us; and we must trust our brethren and our fellow men in like manner. We shall all make mistakes, but if the Lord with his patience and his wisdom can so long endure our fumbling and faltering, if he can stand by and watch his children as they work out their own salvation, surely we can well afford to watch the performance of one another as each of us attempts to work out his own salvation and to take responsibility of the work of the Church as a whole and for the salvation of one another. ¶

I remember on one occasion some months ago, when Brother George Q. Morris was called to preside over the Eastern States Mission, a farewell testimonial was being given for him by one of the general boards of the M.I. A. As a book was being presented to him on that occasion, Sister Emily Bennett, I believe it was, who was making the presentation, offered some apology because she didn't know whether or not he had that particular book in his library — but they were presenting it to him anyway. President Clark, as I recall, followed her and somewhat facetiously (and yet, I believe, somewhat seriously) said, "Why didn't you ask the First Presidency whether Brother Morris had this book in his library — others, it seems, don't hesitate to ask almost anything and everything of them." ¶

Now, the First Presidency, and all the other brethren, I earnestly believe, are very willing to do what they can do, to the full limit of their time and strength, and certainly when people have questions and problems, they must feel free to ask someone the answers. A man should not carry an unanswered question around with him and let it canker within him without being able to ask for the answer. But I am sure that so far as the Church to its broad extent is concerned, individual audiences with the First Presidency and with the other brethren shall be proportionately fewer. And greater and greater and wider and wider, responsibility on the part of all of us, down to the youngest and least able, must be the watchword for the accomplishment of the things that need to be accomplished. ¶

Shortcuts ¶

I don't know why the Lord is content to let us move by the slow means, or at least by the seemingly slow means by which we sometimes seem to move. But the fact that he is content to let us move so slowly must be significant, and it may be that some of the shortcuts that are sometimes suggested would not be good for us, individually or as a Church. ¶

I recall that a personality of great brilliance named Lucifer had some very drastic shortcuts to suggest and they were rejected of our Father in heaven. ¶

I am reminded of another story concerning a shortcut that my able associate on Temple Square, Brother Marion D. Hanks, invited to my attention sometime ago. It was an incident related by the late Justice Sutherland of the United States Supreme Court. Some years ago, he recalled a group of men, who had ascended the Arch of Triumph in Paris, and one very brilliant young man among them was theorizing as to the various ways of descending. There were the stairs down which they could laboriously and slowly descend, or one could jump over the edge of the monument and thus be down much sooner. Then the brilliant young man proceeded to demonstrate his theory: he jumped over the edge, and the next day they buried him. ¶

I think some of the shortcuts suggested these days in the world (and maybe some of the shortcuts suggested among us) may be in this category. It serves the purposes of God, apparently, to work through men, imperfect as they are. Certainly there are many things that he could accomplish more rapidly than by letting us do them in our fumbling and faltering way. Certainly he could send armies of angels to accomplish the things he has placed on our shoulders if he chose to do so. Jesus said to his own generation that God could raise up children unto Abraham from the very stones. I think all this must lead us to only one conclusion, which is basic in this Church: that the Lord lets us move as we move because it is his purpose and glory to bring to pass our eternal and everlasting salvation, our immortality and eternal life; and if he were to take some of these shortcuts, it might do the work without developing the individual. ¶

"We, the People" ¶

Men are only at their best and most effective under conditions of voluntary cooperation and never under conditions of coercion. When President Smith mentioned earlier this morning the Constitution of the United States, the first line from the preamble came to my mind: ¶

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, ¶

"We, the people" — it was not an edict from some tall tower directing that some mass of people should do something regardless of their own wishes. "We the people" do this. Men are most effective under conditions of voluntary cooperation, and that is one of the great pillars of strength of this Church. The free agency of man is basic. We are committed to it, and corollary with it is our own individual initiative and willing cooperation in a great cause. ¶

Now I have no concern as to the ability of our Father in heaven to accomplish his purposes in the earth. He could raise up children to Abraham from the very rocks. He could send armies of angels. He could take these and other shortcuts. He could no doubt do many things much more quickly, but he is interested in us, in our initiative, in our development, in our agency, in our voluntary willingness to cooperate one with another, and to move toward his purposes for our own soul's salvation as well as for the good of his work in the earth. ¶

I pray that we may each of us sense our responsibility in the world and in the Church, and that we who have responsibility for any part of the work may learn to delegate detail as occasion requires and trust these men, our brethren, and these women, our sisters, to do their part in pushing forward the things that need to be done, and to feel a sense of responsibility as concerns carrying forward this work. ¶

I should like to leave with you my conviction concerning the truthfulness and ultimate destiny of those things to which we are committed in this Church, which we earnestly accept as the Church of Jesus Christ, and I do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶