My Beloved Brothers And Sisters You Assembled...

My beloved brothers and sisters, you assembled in this building and you who look in by television and who listen in by radio: I plead with you to implore the Lord to give me his Spirit while I address you the next few moments. I have sought humbly for his help, and I believe he will give me his Spirit. If he gives you his Spirit, too, these few minutes will be worth your while and mine, and be to the glory of God. I thought at first I would bore you with a written speech, but I believe I can do it without one. Moreover, as I give you the message I have for you, I want to look you straight in the eye. ¶

My office is that of a special witness of the Redeemer and of his gospel. I desire to have the spirit of that office and to testify to you of some eternal truths which are worth while to my brethren and sisters in the Church who have fervent testimonies, to members of my own family, whom I love, to every one of you who is looking in on this conference from the outside, to every soul who hears my voice, and to all the ends of the earth. What I have to say I did not learn through my five senses. ¶

I have learned a lot about the truth through my natural senses, the concepts I have came from what I have heard and read, but the truths to which I testify I have learned through revelation. ¶

Now, do not misunderstand, I do not propose to give a startling account of an open vision. I have not seen one. ¶

Neither have I heard an audible voice. ¶

Revelation comes through three or four channels. One is the open vision; another is the audible voice; another is the witness of the Spirit. Enos spoke of this method— the witness of the Spirit — when he said that he heard the voice of God say unto him, . . . "thy sins are forgiven thee." (Enos 5.) And then a little later, after he had prayed for his brethren, the Nephites, he said, ... the voice of the Lord came into my mind again, saying: I will visit thy brethren according to their diligence in keeping my commandments. (Ibid., 10.) Recently I heard a famous character say, "What the world needs today is a prophet." That was a wise statement, but it is not exactly correct. The things the peoples of the world need today are ears to hear the living prophet, because we already have one. He has been sent by Almighty God, not only to the members of the Church, but also to you other good people who are seeing and hearing this service by television and hearing it over the radio. Most of the last three quarters of an hour that prophet has been standing before you, if you have been where you could see into this session. If you have not seen him, you have heard his voice. President David O. McKay is a prophet of the Living God. If you are the type of person who would have believed that Moses was a prophet, had you lived in his day, you know that President McKay is a prophet. If you would have accepted Elijah or even the Son of Man, you will accept President David O. McKay as a prophet of the Living God. ¶

There are other prophets who will talk to you during this conference. Two I will mention, the men who stand with President David O. McKay. As James and John stood beside Peter after the passing of the Redeemer, so President Stephen L Richards and President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., stand with President McKay. The three of them are prophets as much as any men who ever lived upon the earth have been prophets. I plead with you to hear their voices. ¶

There will be other men speak to you in the sessions of this conference who have been called with the same calling as the Twelve Apostles in the days of the Savior. These men will speak words of eternal life. They will bear record of the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ which you will need to accept and live by if you are to be true followers of Christ. These men will preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ as he himself defined it. ¶

That there may be no misunderstanding as to what that gospel is, I want to read two or three verses from the statement of the Savior. After he had told his disciples that if the Church was built upon his gospel his Father would show forth his own works in it, but that if it was not built upon his gospel, but upon the works of men or upon the works of the devil, they would have joy in their works for a season, but by and by the end would come when they would be thrown down and cast into the fire, he said: ¶

. . . this is the gospel which I have given unto you — that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me. ¶

And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil — And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works. (3 Nephi 27:13-15.) And then he added: ¶

Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day. ¶

Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel. . . . (Ibid., 27:20-21.) In this short statement the Master named four eternal verities upon which all else in his gospel is founded: first, the relationship between himself and his Father; second, the fact of his atonement; third, the universal resurrection; and fourth, the judgment. ¶

As to the relationship between himself and his Father, he said: "I came into the world to do the will of my father; because my father sent me." This verity, so simply put, is the cornerstone of his gospel. A Christian brotherhood can no more be built without the acceptance of the fact that Jesus is the Son of God than the superstructure of this great building can be supported without its foundation. The very burden of the Master's message during all his life was that he is the Son of God. ¶

The Father himself, who seldom speaks on any other question, time after time bore witness that Jesus is his Son. That fact is an essential part of the message of the restoration. ¶

That the atonement was a fact is as essential to the gospel of Jesus Christ as is the Sonship of Jesus. We have the sacrament to remind us every week of his atonement. The only purpose, or at least the main purpose, for which Jesus came into the world was to make the atonement. Others could have been sent to preach the gospel. As a matter of fact, others have been sent in every other dispensation — Abraham, Enoch, Moses, for example, and in this dispensation the Prophet Joseph Smith. These great prophets taught the gospel of Jesus Christ as plainly as did Jesus himself. ¶

But in the Meridian of Time Jesus came. ¶

He came not only to teach the gospel, but also to be the Redeemer of the world. He was the only one who qualified to be the Redeemer, first, because he and he alone had life within himself— eternal life, which he inherited from his divine Father. He was the only one who ever lived a sinless life upon the earth, and he alone was foreordained to be the Redeemer. ¶

The resurrection is inherent in the atonement. Jesus said he came to do the will of his Father, and that the will of his Father was that he should be lifted up upon the cross. He further said that the purpose for which he was to be lifted up upon the cross was that he might draw all men to him. That he does through the resurrection. ¶

The purpose for which men are to come before him after the resurrection is that they may be judged of the works which they have done in the flesh. ¶

These are the fundamentals of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as he put them in his own language. Having stated them, he followed with the commandment, Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost. (Ibid., 27:20.) Now, all men who believe in Jesus and want to be his followers will have to accept those four verities. They will also have to obey the commandment. ¶

When the commandment is obeyed, they will receive the witness of the Holy Ghost. Surely they will receive it. It comes to every man who will live for it. As an example, I read to you a few lines from the testimony of a missionary in the field. Six months ago today, he sat here in this building on his way to the mission field. After being in a foreign land for five months, learning a foreign language, he wrote this to his parents: ¶

When I first came over here and started in this missionary work, I did not know if I was going to be able to last it out. ¶

It was really hard on me to go out from door to door and have the people laugh at me and not listen to me. And for a while there I really wondered if I did have a testimony of the gospel. I knew that if I did not have a very strong one that I would not be able to stick it out. The devil was really working on me, too, because I had a feeling of unrest and uncontentedness, and I did not have the desire to go out and give the message to the people. ¶

But today there is nothing I would rather do. The Lord has blessed me with a .very strong testimony of the gospel. I know without any doubt that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that God lives and he has a body of flesh and bones. I know that Joseph Smith, Jr. was and is a prophet of God, that he restored the gospel here on the earth in these latter days. I know that the leaders of the Church today are prophets, seers, and revelators, and there is nothing I would rather do than tell these people we come in contact with that I know that these things are true. . . . ¶

I pray that I may be a worthy representative of my family and my Church and the Lord, and I bear you this testimony through the gift of the Holy Ghost and in the name of Jesus Christ. ¶

Now, there is a twenty-year-old lad who has that witness. He knows, because he has been touched through the sixth sense, if you will, the witness of the Spirit, that these eternal verities are true. ¶

Oh, my beloved brothers and sisters, my good friends whom I have never seen and who have never seen me, I bear witness to you that there is revelation in this day, that there is a power from God which wants to come into our hearts and bring us peace, that peace which will be conducive to the peace of the world, of which our great living prophet spoke this morning. I bear this witness to you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶