My Personal Witness

No man who has not been through this experience can appreciate what it means. I am honored but humbled. For years I have been going up and down the land preaching, but in the hour of this greatest call I have no preachment. With your faith and prayers and with the sustaining influence of our Father in heaven, I should like to give you in a few brief minutes my personal witness. ¶

President McKay has been an ideal to me all my life, and I love him. ¶

Thirty-eight years ago I was called to the membership of the general board of Sunday Schools at the instance of President McKay and President Stephen L Richards. During those years I have sat at their feet to admire them, to marvel at their strength, to glory in their service. President Clark I have always regarded as one of the strong men of America. These men who constitute the General Authorities of the Church I have known and have worked with, and I honor and sustain them all. ¶

The members of the Twelve, and the Assistants, and the Presiding Bishopric, and all others called to these high positions — I love them. I can only hope in my heart that they will find it in theirs to sustain me as I sustain them. ¶

I love this Church and its people. ¶

In the fall of 1847 my grandfather came across the plains and lived in a log cabin such as is in the southeast corner of this block. For a quarter of a century now it has been my privilege to bring men from all parts of the country to this block, and in tribute to our pioneers I always take them to one spot. If you haven't seen it, I commend it to you. If you'll go yonder to the southeast corner and stand with one eye on their early abode, the log cabin, and the other eye turned a little to the northwest, you will realize that while they lived in the log cabin they dreamed dreams of a temple. A hundred years ago this year they laid the foundation. The men who come from New York marvel as they turn from the log cabin and its hint of poverty to the temple that took forty years to build and required four million dollars that they did not have. They were real people. ¶

I love this country. I love its inspired Constitution and its great free institutions. If I have had a text for the last twenty years, it has been the preservation of all that we cherish in the name of freedom. It is my hope that the things that are our benediction may be passed on to our children. ¶

This country has been wonderful to me as has this Church. ¶

I think that perhaps nobody in this congregation came from humbler circumstances than I, and for that I am grateful. I do not recall my father at all because he died when I was a year and a half old, but like you I had a wonderful mother. As a matter of fact, my life has been enriched by three wonderful women: the mother who bore me and nurtured me through the privations of those days when with five little ones she made ends meet somehow; the companion of my life who for forty-one years has sustained me with an unfailing devotion; and a mother-in-law who has none of the attributes that we so familiarly attach to the name, Sister Richard W. Young, with her ninety years of benediction. ¶

I have said I love this Church and its people. I love the Lord. My life is anchored to the testimony that I have that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ. I glory in my membership in a Church which was instituted through revelation, and I testify to you today that the Prophet Joseph Smith and all of his successors, men of God, have been inspired to build this great institution. ¶

President McKay, in the love I bear you, I give you my life and my service, and with your sustaining benediction and the blessings of heaven, I'll go where you want me to go; I'll give my best in an attempt to do what you and He would have me to do. ¶

God bless you all. If my assignment may in some part be with these grand young people such as are here from Brigham Young University today, it will be a glorious privilege to bear witness to a new generation of the glories of the gospel as they have blessed me at every turn of my life. I pray the blessings of God upon us all, and I dedicate myself to this service, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶