My Dear Brethren And Sisters I Am...

My dear brethren and sisters, I am thankful for the privilege of being with you in this great conference, and have been thrilled with the messages we have received, beginning with the impressive and inspired message from President McKay, up until this moment. I sincerely pray that the Lord may direct me to say that which is true and that he would have said. ¶

I have been impressed with the number of references to and testimonies regarding our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is our obligation and our privilege to proclaim him to the world. ¶

He has come to us in our day. He has established for us his Church. He has placed in it his authority and his power, and he is directing it through his servant on the earth who stands as his representative in the world today. ¶

It is our privilege and our pleasure and our joy to proclaim his divinity, and that fact, the divinity of Jesus Christ, is the center fact of human existence, and the basic truth in human life. If we do not know that and are not governed by it, our lives will be failures. Unless we have his message and his instructions, we shall not know what life is, we shall not know who we are or what we are; we shall not know how to live; we shall not know what aim to place before us in life, because it is only through the gospel of Jesus Christ that we know the truth that should guide us day by day and sustain us through our lives and make us truly intelligent beings. ¶

Jesus Christ is the spirit of truth, the spirit of light; and truth and light the Lord has defined as being intelligence. ¶

If we would be truly intelligent, we should learn the truth concerning his character and mission. ¶

The obligations are such and our relations to him are such that it is our most serious duty in life to know him and love him and keep his commandments and thereby know and love our Father in heaven and keep his commandments, because he is the messenger from the Father; he is the one chosen of the Father to represent him in the earth, chosen of the Father to be the Redeemer of the world, chosen of the Father to be the Creator of the world. Into his hands the Father has placed all things, and we are in his hands. One day we will stand before him to be judged, and we will be judged as to our relations to him and our attitude towards him and whether or not we have listened to his word and kept his commandments. We will all come to that day and to that accounting, and so will every man and woman in the world. ¶

It seems easy for some people to appraise Jesus Christ and put him in his place as no doubt a very great Teacher and a great Prophet, a man who lived a wonderful life. The "wise and the prudent" have a way of doing this. I rather think the humble and the meek accept him as the Redeemer of the world. He said: ¶

I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. (Matt. 11:25.) The Lord Jesus Christ is not on trial before the world. Men should understand that. The world is on trial before the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will have to account for the attitude taken toward him and his message, and we cannot accept him without accepting his principles and his doctrines. If we reject his principles and his doctrines, we reject him. If we reject his divinity, we reject him: ¶

Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. ¶

Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that acknowledged! the Son hath the Father also. ¶

(I John 2:22-23.) Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. ¶

He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. ¶

(II John 9.) Another thing that the world must understand if they will know the truth, and if they will only be humble and true before the Lord they will be glad to understand it, is that those who receive or reject the teachings and testimonies and admonitions of the servants of God receive or reject the Lord Jesus Christ. He said to the seventy when he sent them out to preach the gospel: ¶

He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me. (Luke 10:16.) How important to the world, that they understand these simple principles! If it were not for the traditions, the errors, the sins, and the shortcomings of men, all of the world would accept the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing but what a true heart and a right mind would rejoice in. He is perfect. He is love. He is righteousness. He is truth, the perfection of all things, and is devoting his great power and his whole being to the loving and saving of the children of men. ¶

Why should we not accept him with all our hearts? Only because of our shortcomings! It is not because of our superior knowledge and intelligence that we reject Jesus Christ. It is because we lack in superior knowledge and intelligence and humility and meekness that he is rejected. If we will be faithful and humble, as the brethren have said in this conference, and keep his commandments, we will know of his divinity, and it will be our salvation and our exaltation. ¶

Read the ninety-third section of the Doctrine and Covenants, on the matter of obedience. It is by keeping the commandments of God that we will gain in light and truth until we are filled with light and truth and know all things and become like unto our Father in heaven. The thing that prevents that is, as the revelation says, that Satan takes from us light and truth through disobedience. ¶

And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the traditions of their fathers. (D. & C. 93: ¶

39.) If you keep not my commandments, the love of the Father shall not continue with you, therefore you shall walk in darkness. ¶

(Ibid., 95:12.) Anything that we wish to attain or should attain to that is desirable, noteworthy, lovely, of good repute, that will be to our salvation and exaltation in the kingdom of God will be attained by the principle of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. ¶

I bear my humble witness that he is Christ, the Son of the Living God, that this is his Church and kingdom and that it is spreading throughout the earth and will continue to spread. In this conference there has been the announcement of a new era when on a worldwide basis the Church is to be visited regularly and supervised regularly, and we have seen plans put into effect that when finished will give us a line of temples that will encircle the globe — outposts of the kingdom of God. ¶

I bear witness that this spreading will continue until it covers the earth and the will of God will be done. Give us power, I pray, O Father, that we may be true and faithful to these ends, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶