During The Few Moments That I Occupy...

During the few moments that I occupy this position, I seek humbly for an interest in your faith and in your prayers. ¶

I should like to take, if I may, a text from an inspired prayer that I heard President McKay offer several months ago in a sacred place, the burden of which was a plea for increased faith in God, which would act as an effective weapon against the great anti-Christ, to which he has made reference this morning, communism and dictatorship in nations, and sin and wickedness in men. ¶

In this expression, President McKay is in full harmony with that which has been taught by all the prophets from the beginning. The Prophet Ether, 2400 years before Christ, gave expression to that same thought, when he said: ¶

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works. (Ether 12:4.) ¶

The Apostle Paul impressed that same great truth in a negative way, when he said, ¶

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. (I Cor. 15:19.) ¶

Some while ago, I chanced to be visiting on the campus of Stanford University, and there on the walls of the memorial chapel, I saw written by some unnamed writer, what might be considered as a translation of that great truth into a formula of action, as a guide through life. This is what was written there: ¶

An eternal existence in prospect converts the whole of your present state into a mere vestibule of the grand court of life, an introduction, a beginning of what is to follow, an entrance into that interminable extent of being which is the true life of man. The best thoughts, affections, and aspirations of a truly great soul are fixed upon the infinitude of immortality. Destined, as such a great soul is, for immortality, finds all that is not eternal, too short, and all that is not infinite, too small. ¶

As I pondered the meaning of those words and the prayer of President McKay and the expressions of the prophets regarding the need for faith, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I remembered what the Lord said in the earliest commandment which was given to parents, ¶

And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, . . . the sin be upon the heads of the parents. (D. & C. 68:25.) ¶

And in that same inspired declaration by revelation, the Lord gave us what we might style as a five-point program by which parents could teach faith. ¶

First, he said, their children were to be baptized when they had reached the age of accountability at eight years; second, they were to be taught to pray; third, they were to be taught to walk uprightly before the Lord; fourth, they were to be taught to keep the Sabbath day holy; and fifth, they were to be schooled not to be idle, either in the Church, or in their private lives. ¶

All parents who have followed that formula and have so taught their children have reaped the reward of an increased faith in their family, which has stood and will yet stand the test of the difficulties into which their children would yet go. ¶

I read not long ago, an expression from a young man in military service, in which the young man gave expression to a faith in which undoubtedly he had been schooled by his parents who had followed that instruction of the Master to parents to which I have already made reference. This was the boyish way our boy in the military service declared his faith: ¶

We thank God that we have discovered that he will always help us to give our very best, and that we must take more and more from him in order that we will not let him down. We have learned that he will not fail us and that we must not fail him. Thank God for God. ¶

Someone has aptly said, "You do not need to train a boy to be vicious, just let him go without training and he will be vicious of his own accord." In that regard, I remember what Thomas Carlyle wrote: ¶

A man without a purpose in life is as a ship without a rudder, a waif, a nothing, a nobody. Have a purpose in life, and having it, throw such strength of muscle and brain into your work as God has given you. ¶

The youth who has been trained in a Latter-day Saint home has been schooled in what that purpose of life should be, "to gain immortality" and "to gain eternal life." Having such a purpose, our boys in military service, anchored by an abiding faith in the omnipotent power of the Almighty, might have written as a fitting epitaph to them as was written upon the tombs of early American heroes, So nigh is grandeur to the dust, So near is God to man, When duty whispers Lo, thou must, The youth replies I can. ¶

It is fruitless for us to try to enjoin youth to be chaste by merely doing as the military have sought to teach, merely because of a fear of a loathsome disease if he is unchaste, or as some of our schools would teach, merely because of the harm that would thus come to society as a result of his unchastity. ¶

Paul, the Apostle, taught that we must be girded with a girdle of truth. What truth shall we be girded with? Our loins must be girded with the truth that every handsome young man and every beautiful young girl is winged for a heavenly flight. ¶

How can we enjoin an alcoholic against his debauchery except we lift the shades of a darkened soul and let him glimpse himself as a son of God, as a child of God. The program of the Alcoholics Anonymous starts with two basic pillars: first, that the individual has a desire to quit the use of alcohol, and second, he must have faith in a Supreme Being. Any program upon any other basis intended to reclaim those in the vices of that vicious habit is doomed to failure. ¶

In short, we might well say, echoing that which was written on the Stanford Memorial Chapel walls, we must teach all such, and our youth, that "all that is not eternal is too short, and all that is not infinite is too small." ¶

Patriotism and loyalty in defense of the Constitution of the United States is constantly enjoined upon us. President McKay again this morning has made reference to the cause of liberty in his remarks. To be effective in such teaching, we must begin by inspiring in each heart the faith that the Constitution of the United States was written by inspired men whom God raised up for that very purpose. ¶

It was Joseph Smith who has been quoted as having said that the time would come when the Constitution would hang as by a thread, and at that time when it was thus in jeopardy, the elders of this Church would step forth and save it from destruction. ¶

Why the elders of this Church? ¶

Would it be sacrilegious to paraphrase the words of the Apostle Peter, and say that the Constitution of the United States could be saved by the elders of this Church because this Church and this Church alone has the words of eternal life? We alone know by revelation as to how the Constitution came into being, and we, alone, know by revelation the destiny of this nation. ¶

The preservation of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" can be guaranteed upon no other basis than upon a sincere faith and testimony of the divinity of these teachings. ¶

We have been given a serious responsibility in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. We have been told in meetings even preceding this conference session that we must reach out to the minorities. Our beloved Brother Kimball has urged others and has devoted his energies for the past few years to an energetic, proselyting urge among the Lamanites and those minority groups. But again, how can these backward children of our Heavenly Father be brought out of darkness and uplifted? ¶

A lifelong missionary, in commenting about his work among the Indians out in the west Shoshone reservation in Nevada, in reporting on various uplift activities to reclaim the Indians, made this very significant statement: ¶

All their zealous and patient efforts to help the Indian's plight tend to become another crutch that the Indian depends upon. Those Indians who have become progressively independent apparently have become so because of personal and religious factors wholly unrelated to the government program. ¶

What he is saying, in effect, is that the building of faith and testimony in these people is fundamental and essential to this redemption. ¶

It was that same thing the Master said about the reclaiming of the Jews, when he declared that ¶

the fulness of my gospel shall be preached unto them; ¶

And they shall believe in me, that I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and shall praise the Father in my name. ¶

Then will the fathers gather them together again and give unto them Jerusalem for the land of their inheritance. (See III Nephi 20:30-31.) ¶

It has been a great source of satisfaction to me to know that those who are now planning for a standard missionary program to be given out to the stakes and to the missions of the Church, have laid as the foundation for the introduction of the gospel to those who are our friends and investigators, a testimony of the divinity of the Godhead of this world, and a belief in the mission of Jesus Christ, as the Son of the Living God. ¶

To me the reclaiming of the souls of men must be begun by building faith, just as the parents in this dispensation were taught must be so in their own families. In the early rise of his Church, the Lord said, ¶

Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments; ¶

And also gave commandments to others, that they should proclaim these things unto the world. . . . ¶

That faith also might increase in the earth. (D. & C. 1:17-18, 21.) ¶

God grant that the gospel of Jesus Christ might be so effectively taught in all the world that the prayer of our President might be fully realized, that it might be an effective weapon against communism and dictatorship in nations, and sin and wickedness in men, I humbly pray, in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶