Death Has Brought Deep Sorrow To Us...

Death has brought deep sorrow to us all this day. President George Albert Smith has been called to the great beyond, and though we know it was the will of our Father in heaven, yet his passing will be keenly felt by the thousands of people who had come under his influence. His life was one of noblest effort to attain a knowledge of the purposes of the Lord. He never held aught against his neighbor; and every day witnessed a divine act for someone who was in need. Could each one who knew him vow to do his little task even as he did his greater one, in the manner of a true man, not for a day but for eternity, what a better world we would have. He was the spirit he worked in. As an Apostle and President of the Church of Jesus Christ, he was a light unto his people and pointed the way by his purity of life and constancy to the divine purposes of his God. Traveling hopefully on day by day, he gave every hour of his life to the dream of establishing the kingdom of God upon the earth. According to the promise, he looked for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. He lived ". . . to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:79.) His comforting word this day would have been: ¶

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. ¶

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. (Isaiah 60:1-2.) I should like to speak briefly to you seventies and to the priesthood of the Church in general. ¶

Present-day Conditions

We are all greatly concerned with the present-day social and religious conditions of the world. For all the wrongs that are in the world today, for all the false teachings and terrible wars that we have experienced, all the tragedies and sufferings of humanity caused by sin and the loss of faith in God, our children will have to pay in the future. It was the historian Froude who wrote: ¶

History is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust or vanity, the price has to be paid at last: not always by the chief offenders, but paid by some one. Justice and falsehood may be long-lived, but doomsday comes at last to them, in revolutions and other terrible ways. ¶

Our civilization has arrived at its present state after ages of conflict between right and wrong. All its achievements and all its hopes of greater things are now in a critical hour for better or for worse. Many men and women in governmental affairs have no clear idea of their responsibility that humanity should have towards the future of mankind. ¶

Inspired Men

It is true that good men do rise to their responsibilities. They understand the great problems of the hour. There are men who in the hours of human history have messages from God. They have been inspired because they approached life with deep faith. Fortified by faith these men have gone quietly about teaching the world the dream of moral and spiritual perfection. Such men are few, but their messages are universal. You and I, my brother seventies, know deeply in our hearts the meaning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. ¶

We are deeply convinced that we have the insight to listen to the voice from heaven. You must become profoundly convinced of your divine mission, and you will also come to know that there are men living today whose lives are lives of revelation. It is from Christ, our Redeemer, that we learn the lesson of eternal life and become conscious of the immortality of spiritual values. ¶

A Divine Title

The seventy of the Church bear a noble and divine title. To understand the words used to designate the meaning of our priesthood gives a better understanding of ancient life and thought. We sense more clearly the deeply religious atmosphere of Biblical life, which will awaken within us a more ardent missionary zeal. There was under Moses, and apparently in all ages, a senate or council of elders numbering seventy or seventy-two on whom lay a special responsibility as the advisers of the nation. Shortly after leaving Sinai, a council of seventy was chosen from among the elders or chiefs of all the tribes except Levi and solemnly set apart to their dignity by Moses, as a kind of senate to aid him by their counsel. ¶

After being confirmed in their dignity by the people, they assembled around the sacred tent, and the whole number broke out into prophetic enthusiasm under the influence of the Spirit of God. The seventy chosen from all the tribes anticipated, in their prophetic gifts, a characteristic of future generations. Says Geikie: ¶

It is singular to notice the constant recurrence of the number Seven: ¶

Seven priests go before the Ark with seven trumpets, for seven days, going seven times round the city on the seventh day. The Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles each lasted seven days. To ratify an oath was to "seven it." The number seems to have been regarded as the symbol of completeness or perfection, and to have been as such, connected intimately with everything relating to God. ¶

We recall the seven virtues or gifts of the Spirit, known in ancient times to the seventy elders. Balzac, the French historian, quotes Louis Lambert of whom he writes as declaring that the word "seven" is the "Formula of Heaven." Therefore as you live and express your thoughts, as you think, as you act, must be in accordance with the fundamental ideals of heaven. We see the beauty and the sacredness of the word "seven." We understand the meaning of the kingdom of God because we possess its power. We are reminded here of the saying above the door of the Harvard School of Music: ¶

To charm, to strengthen, and to teach — these are the three great chords of might. ¶

People Need the Gospel

The people of the world need to be taught the gospel of our Lord and Savior. Teaching is unfolding the divine spark within every person into its fullest majestic purpose and scope. Teaching is from within out. A teacher must know something about the subject he is explaining to a listener. For this reason every missionary should be a student, and this means hard work. It means self-discipline and the desire to live the "simple life," the life that reaches out to God. Of course the missionaries are idealists, caring first for the welfare of men to awaken them to a sense of what life really means. No one can deny the force or the beauty of the desire for extending one's own belief and hopes to others, for imparting to them the comfort and light of one's own salvation. This was the thing that characterized the life of Paul the Apostle and that inspires the mighty hosts of missionaries of today. Life in the missionary's heart is made over, and no sooner has the faith and the hope of an illuminated future taken hold of him than he is desirous to disseminate this possession to all the world. It is the power of the gospel truth that gives him what he calls his "testimony." There is a splendor of spirit and often a grandeur of achievement which bring to him hallowed feelings and a grateful heart for what he, through the Spirit of God, has been able to accomplish. ¶

Calling of the Twelve and Seventy

At an early period in his ministry, Jesus, after a night of prayer in a lonely mountain spot, chose twelve men for his Apostles. It was an important event in history, for it indicated the design of the Master to organize his ministry that the work of teaching the gospel might be inaugurated at once. The Apostles were to go forth two by two that the Master might become known. They were to work miracles, heal the sick, and bless the lowly. Reverently does James in his epistle describe how they prayed and anointed the sick with oil in the name of the Lord. (See James 5:14-15.) After choosing the Twelve, Jesus called the Seventy. We read in Luke 10:1, these words: ¶

After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. ¶

When the Apostles and Seventy were chosen, it is natural to believe that a discourse on the ideal life, under the sovereignty of the Father, was delivered by Jesus. This was the Sermon on the Mount, for he wished to teach his disciples the way of life that they might enter into the true significance of his doctrines. It was an ideal of principles, and not a code of rules. This viewpoint, that the Sermon on the Mount was the ordination sermon, is that of Luke and many modern writers on the life of Christ. ¶

Jesus founded his Church upon the rock of revelation, and he set forth in clearness that his Church is an organized reality, small in numbers, in its beginning, but destined to become a world movement. He inspired his Apostles and Seventies with a definite consciousness of unity. The men he called were not great men in the ordinary sense; they were representative of the common people, possessing neither wealth nor great learning. They were qualified for their calling by their deep desire for goodness and truth. In him they came to find the Word of Life. ¶

Teachers of Righteousness

You seventies are the teachers of righteousness to all nations. ¶

You bear your faithful testimonies to the divine light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The spirit with which you go forth is that of the Sermon on the Mount. The results of your teachings will be far-reaching. ¶

The world of today is awakening and looking to the future with renewed faith and hope. A spiritual epoch is upon us and a spiritual freedom is being made by mankind. President Brigham Young once said that "the one way to scatter doubt is for all to begin work." ¶

Hopes are more real than fears; faith more potent than uncertainty. ¶

Beautiful were the words of the shepherds of old when they said: ¶

"Let us now go unto Bethlehem, and see this thing that has come to pass." The world must turn to Bethlehem. ¶

May we Seventies come to a deeper realization of what our duties are, and so long as we are pure in heart and humble in spirit, the way will be made clear by our faith in God. I ask the blessings of the Lord upon us all, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶