My Dear Brethren And Sisters I Suppose...

My dear brethren and sisters, I suppose you wonder what I might say, and I will tell you I am wondering that myself. I have been looking for another interpretation of the scripture that says the first shall be last and the last shall be first. In this case the last is about the last. ¶

I certainly enjoy my work in the Church, and with the others I would like to bear my testimony to the divinity of this great work. It is wonderful to meet with the brethren, to feel their strength and their power. I wish you had the same privilege that we have of meeting with them. It is also a great privilege to travel in the stakes of the Church and meet you wonderful people in the areas in which you live. ¶

Since hearing Brother Moyle today and Brother Bennion last Friday, I have had the feeling that our members living in countries far away from us seem much nearer to us, and hearing the choir sing yesterday, representing the countries of Scandinavia, I could not help thinking what a wonderful representation they were of the people and how proud the Scandinavians would have been had they been able to hear this choir sing from this tabernacle. ¶

I have been equally thrilled by the marvelous music today. Brother Petersen had two foreign expressions that revealed his gratitude for the Scandinavian choir, but in the language that these people can understand, I can say in three words: It is wonderful! ¶

I have been thinking a little of the great day in which we live and some of the marvelous things we observe, some things that are blessings to us, some that might tend to destroy us, and others that might lead to our self-preservation. I have been thinking of the scientist or the inventor who sits in his laboratory with his test tubes, his chemicals, his minerals, and all of the devices to measure time, speed, weight, etc., and ponders over some of the remarkable things that he has produced. ¶

The atomic bomb that we have heard about during this conference is not very large. It is said that the one dropped at Bikini lifted ten million tons of water ten miles into the air. It is almost impossible to imagine such power. The H-Bomb exploded at Eniwetok all but wiped out a whole island in the Pacific Ocean, leaving a crater 175 feet deep and one mile wide. ¶

It is said that the power from this bomb exceeded the power of all the bombs dropped during World War II on Germany and Japan combined. ¶

You may have read recently that a one pound slug of polished uranium, which is about the size of a golf ball, contains more power than all the TNT you could put into Yankee Stadium. ¶

What man is doing is tremendous. ¶

I think of the speed and ease with which we travel. Compare this with the way Christopher Columbus and his crew crossed the ocean in the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria — fifty-one days, twentyfour hours a day. Have you ever multiplied that? He traveled and discovered a new land at the rapid speed of two miles an hour! Coming to conference, I am sure some of you walked five miles an hour to get a seat here. ¶

I read in the paper recently that a jet plane had traveled 1,900 miles an hour and had gone into the air fourteen miles and broken the sound barrier — whatever that is. I have had a jet ride. ¶

I know how it feels to travel five hundred miles an hour in the air. It is thrilling and exciting. Another jet plane went all but four times that fast. ¶

We are living in a great day! ¶

What man has been able to accomplish through his own intelligence is infinitesimal when compared to the power of the Creator. ¶

We, too, are living as it were in the great laboratory of life. We are being tried and tested. We are seeking the combinations by which we can progress and prove ourselves. We are living in this world filled with good and evil, with right and wrong, with truth and error, and with light and darkness. You have heard today that there are false teachers, false doctrines, false prophets; and here we have been placed. Reference was made last evening in the general priesthood meeting to the great privilege of having a mortal body. It means that we kept our first estate. We are now being tried in life's laboratory to see whether or not we can keep our second estate; and it is not an easy thing. We are being tempted all the time; even the best of us are subject to temptation. ¶

Think what we experience going through life and what it means to us. ¶

It has been said that we have the right to exercise our own free agency. I trust that this experience will enable us to select the things that will be constructive and that will bring us nearer to the Lord. It is said in the scriptures that the earth was covered with darkness, and gross darkness covered the minds of the people. I am grateful for that day when the light from heaven came again and the gospel was restored. ¶

Think of the advantages that men have now in this great laboratory to seek out the truth and get together those ingredients that will help us gain a testimony of the divinity of this great work. ¶

Men of science have done great things. Men living in life's laboratory can also accomplish great things. We shall not all be saved; some will be destroyed. We do not all think the same way. We shall not all get the right combinations and arrive at the same great purpose for which we have been brought here. But I hope, brethren and sisters, that all of us will have a desire to seek out those things that will eventually gain for each of us eternal life in the kingdom of our Heavenly Father. ¶

When you contemplate the power of the Almighty compared to the power that man seems to have been able to assemble, think of this: ¶

And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten. . . . ¶

. . . For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them. (P of G P, Moses 1:33, 35.) Think also of the power of the resurrection, when the elements that have gone back to mother earth can be assembled and united with the spirit to form a perfect, resurrected body; the power to save and exalt in the kingdom of our Heavenly Father. As has already been said, and not one sparrow shall fall unnoticed, neither shall one hair of the head be lost (See Matt. 10:29-31)— and that is comforting to some of us, too. ¶

God the Father and his Son have revealed themselves in this Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. I would like to read a quotation or two from the extracts of the history of the Prophet Joseph Smith. ¶

The first verse tells why he wrote this: ¶

Owing to the many reports which have been put in circulation by evil-disposed and designing persons, in relation to the rise and progress of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, all of which have been designed by the authors thereof to militate against its character as a Church and its progress in the world — I have been induced to write this history, to disabuse the public mind, and put all inquirers after truth in possession of the facts, as they have transpired, in relation both to myself and the Church, so far as I have such facts in my possession. (P of G P, Joseph Smith 2:1.) He continues by relating where he was born, when he was born, telling about the other members of his family, and about a great religious revival that took place in the area into which they had moved. I would like to continue from there: ¶

While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. ¶

Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. . . . ¶

So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. ¶

It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally. ¶

After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desire of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction. ¶

But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction— not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being — just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. ¶

It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other — This Is My Beloved Son. Hear Him! (Ibid., 2:11-12, 14-17.) I think the great message of the ages still is that God lives, that he is mindful of us, his children, that he is all-powerful, that his Son is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. ¶

Other messengers came also. I should not take more time, but just let me describe one other who came to the earth. Two or three years had elapsed since the time that the Father and the Son had appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith: ¶

While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor. ¶

He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands were naked, and his arms also, a little above the wrist; so, also, were his feet naked, as were his legs, a little above the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could discover that he had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open, so that I could see into his bosom. ¶

Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon him, I was afraid; but the fear soon left me. ¶

He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; . . . (Ibid., 2:30-33.) Actually these heavenly beings have been sent in this great Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. I would commend that you accept the testimonies of the brethren who have spoken during this conference concerning this great thing, the restoration of the gospel, and I am sure if you can accept them, you will have a conviction, a knowledge, and an understanding that this great latter-day work is divine. ¶

May we all, always, young people and all of us, have a desire to ask, to knock, to seek, and to put together those combinations that will help us eventually gain a home in the celestial kingdom of our Heavenly Father, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶