What Is Your Concept of a Christlike Life?

WOULD be indeed ungrateful this morning were I not to acknowledge the blessings of my Heavenly Father to me and mine, and I do that most humbly. ¶

I seek for the uplift of the spirit of this great conference and your faith and prayers in these next few minutes. ¶

I could wish for no better background for the few thoughts I would like to express than the buoyancy of the wonderful youth representing our great Brigham Young University who have sung to us so inspiringly at this session of our conference. ¶

The text that I would like to consider for a few moments is in the nature of a question from a young Latterday Saint youth at Fort Lewis military training camp, a son of a prominent Latter-day Saint family. His question was: "What is your concept of a Christlike life? Please explain in detail the qualifications necessary for one to gain an exaltation in the kingdom of heaven." ¶

I was intrigued by that question, and if the Spirit of the Lord is willing, I should like to make an answer to that young man within the time limitations this morning; and if the congregation here will pardon me, I will talk directly to that young man who may possibly be in attendance because I believe that his question is the question that is being asked by every serious-minded Latterday Saint youth today. ¶

Young man, your question is not unique. It is not different. It is the same question that has been asked by the honest-hearted ever since the world began. It is the question that was in the mind of Nicodemus, the master in Israel, when he came to the Savior by night, and the Master discerning the purpose of his coming, explained to him what was necessary in order for him to enter or even to see the kingdom of God. ¶

It was the same question asked by the zealous Saul of Tarsus on that memorable occasion while on his way to Damascus when he was blinded by the light; he heard a voice speak out of heaven; humbled as only one can be humbled in the presence of a great spiritual experience. In answer to the Lord's rebuke, the humble Saul asked, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" ¶

(Acts 9:6.) It was the cry of the sinful David who, amidst his pleadings and his sufferings, gained the knowledge of the course which he must pursue, in order that his soul would not be left in hell. ¶

It was the same thing the Jews asked on the day of Pentecost: "What must we do to be saved?" (See Acts 2:37.) To answer your question fully, and that of these others to which I have made reference would require a full explanation of the plan of salvation given in the gospel of Jesus Christ. While yet in your youth, you have done well to ask that question, young man, to seek counsel as to your course in life, for every soul who lives has the possibility, as you have, of an exaltation in the celestial kingdom. ¶

I wish you could have been here to the general priesthood meeting on Saturday night, but maybe you were. I wish you could have repeated under President McKay's direction the first Article of Faith, "We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost," ¶

and then listened intently to every word as you repeated with President McKay the thirteenth Article of Faith: ¶

"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men. ..." But I would have you this morning think of another of the Articles of Faith in connection therewith because it has a particular significance in the answer to your question: "We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel." (Third Article of Faith.) A great philosopher has said the same thing in other words when he declared: ¶

"Every one of us, with the help of God and within the limitations of human capability, himself makes his own disposition, his character, and his permanent condition." (Emil Souvestre.) May I give you in answer to your question the example of three youths who, faced with the stern temptations of life, met those tests and came through nobly and victoriously, despite the odds against them. I say I give you these examples in order that you may learn and recognize three of the great dangers which confront youth today. ¶

The first, an example of a young girl, whom I met when I was asked to address a group of young girls a few years ago over at the Lion House where they were being shepherded under the direction of the great Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association. At the close of our meeting this lovely girl took me aside, and from her purse she unfolded a picture of a handsome young soldier. Underneath the picture was something about love, and his name signed. I asked, "Well, what does this mean?" Tears were swimming in her eyes. She replied, "I met that young man here in an army camp. He was not a member of the Church. He was clean and fine, and he had the ideals I had longed for in a companion, all except one thing, he was not a member of the Church. And when he proposed marriage to me, I said, 'Only will I be married when I can be married in the house of the Lord because love means something more than just a thing that pertains to this life. It is an eternal thing, and I want to be married in the temple.' " ¶

Well, he reasoned with her, he pleaded with her, he scolded, and then he became angry; and finally after repeated efforts to break down her religious objection to a marriage out of the temple, he finally left her. It was now time to go overseas, and she cried her heart out the night he left thinking that maybe she had made a mistake because her heart had gone out to this fine young man. ¶

During a long ocean voyage over to Australia where he was to be stationed and from where he was to go into combat, he began to think about this young woman. He began to think that he had been a little hasty in his judgment about her religious convictions. Perhaps it was her religion that had made her the fine girl that she was. With that on his mind, he began to seek companionship with our Latter-day Saint men. ¶

He finally met a Latter-day Saint chaplain there and became associated with the Latter-day Saint boys of the camp and began to study the gospel. ¶

On her birthday he had sent her this picture attached, and behind the picture was a slip of paper which proved to be a certificate evidencing the fact that he had been baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. In the letter which accompanied the picture, he had said, "I am preparing now to live worthy so that when I come home, I can be ordained an elder and together we can be married in the house of the Lord." ¶

There, young man, is the first thing that you must think of, if you would have an exaltation in the celestial kingdom. Marriage is eternal, and there was a youth who realized the foundation on which she must build if she were to have a fulness of eternal happiness. ¶

The second example is that of an impetuous young man. One morning he was confronted by his mother with rather a startling statement. His mother said to him, "Son, last night I had a premonition. I had a feeling that you are going to be faced with a grave temptation by a certain woman who is setting her cap for you. I warn you to be on guard." And this youth brushed it aside in his characteristic way, "Oh, Mother, you are silly; nothing is farther from the fact. She is a fine woman." And the mother replied, "Well, be careful, my son." Within thirty days from the time of his mother's warning, that youth stood face to face with the temptation about which his mother had been warned. ¶

Youth, if you want to be guided by wisdom, stay close to your parents. Listen to the counsel of your father and your mother and lean heavily upon the experience of their lives because they are entitled to inspiration in the rearing of their family. Young man, may I plead with you to keep yourself morally clean? Revere womanhood. May I remind you of what you repeated some years ago as a slogan in the MIA. It was a quotation from a portion of a message of the First Presidency particularly to servicemen in military service during some of these strenuous, difficult times through which you and others like you have lived. This is what the First Presidency wrote: "How glorious and near to the angels is youth that is clean. ¶

This youth has joy unspeakable here and eternal happiness hereafter. Sexual purity is youth's most precious possession. It is the foundation of all righteousness. Better dead clean, than alive unclean." ¶

Honor your name, young man. You have come of an illustrious family. Not to maintain the high standards which the Presidency have suggested would not only be a blight upon you, but a blight upon that great family name you bear, and a blight upon the Church for which your forefathers and ancestors sacrificed their lives to establish. ¶

In the prayer at the dedication of the Idaho Falls Temple the First Presidency said something of great importance to the girls about the purity of life. This is what the Presidency wrote in that inspired prayer: "We pray for the daughters of Zion. May they be preserved in virtue, chastity, and purity of life, be blessed with vigorous bodies and minds, and with great faith. ¶

May they develop into true womanhood and receive choice companions under the new and everlasting covenant for time and for all eternity in thy temples provided for this priceless privilege and purpose." ¶

Young man, should you find companionship with a beautiful young girl, will you remember that quotation, and will you take occasion during your courtship to read to her that most vital message from the prophets of the living God in our day to warn her also against one of the besetting sins of this world in which we live? ¶

May I now give you the third example to suggest a third danger? The story of this incident comes from the testimony of the wife of a mission president who just returned from one of our Communist-dominated countries. ¶

A young girl attending a school in that country one day was abused by her teacher when he learned of her identity as a Latter-day Saint girl, having faith in a living God. As a punishment to her he demanded that she sit down and write fifty times, "There is no God." This little girl, shaken by the punishment imposed by that teacher, went home and talked it over with her mother. Her mother said, "No, my girl, you must never write, 'There is no God.' You go back and tell your teacher you know there is a God and you can't lie." And the girl went back and faced this teacher, and he said, more angrily than ever, "You go back and write that and write it a hundred times, 'There is no God,' or I warn you that something terrible will happen to you." ¶

The mother and daughter prayed nearly all night that night, and then next morning they fasted and went together to the room of that teacher. ¶

They waited for him to come. The time came for school to convene, and he didn't show up, and the principal, seeing that they were waiting, came to them and asked, "Are you waiting for your teacher?" She said, "Yes, we are waiting for him." "Well, I am sorry to tell you that he suffered a heart attack and died suddenly this morning." ¶

Something terrible did happen, but it wasn't to that young girl. It happened to a man inspired with satanic motives. ¶

Young man, I would warn you, along with the others of your age, to be forewarned of the threats to your faith. ¶

I warn you against the man-made philosophies and the doctrines which would destroy that faith in God basic to exaltation in the celestial kingdom. ¶

If you remember those examples, young man, and live worthy of your name, the marvelous rewards of our heavenly Father will be yours. Listen to what the Lord promised: ¶

Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul that forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and shall know that I am. (D. & C. 93:1.) And after you begin to understand that, then, young man, go to the 76th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants, in some respects, one of the most glorious visions that has ever been given to mortal man. Read from the 50th to the 70th verses of that great vision, and you will have understanding in better words than I can give you today. ¶

My son, go and have your patriarchal blessing, for there under inspiration your patriarch will give you, as someone has said, "paragraphs from the book of your own possibilities." ¶

And now after this brief conversation with you, my young brother, may I close it by a little quotation from a great thinker who said this: ¶

The highest of all arts is the art of living well. Beyond the beauty of sculpture and painting, of poetry or music, is the beauty of a well-spent life. Here all can be artists. Every man can be a hero. ¶

Obedience to that divine command, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," (Matt. 5:48) will ally man with God and will make of earth a paradise. ¶

God bless you, my young friend. ¶

Keep on thinking the serious thoughts and asking those serious questions, and in time, as you keep your eyes fixed upon the stars to guide you on and on and upward, you will reach your objective — an exaltation in the celestial kingdom of our Heavenly Father, which I pray for you and all youth of Zion, and all the world if that were possible, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶