As I Listened to the Very Able Presentation...

PRESIDENT DAVID O. McKAY ¶

As I listened to the very able presentation of the scholarly plan to correlate the studies of the priesthood and auxiliaries of the entire Church, I thought what is the end and purpose of all this? I visualized the fact that 30,000 or 40,000 men and boys in priesthood assemblies this night constitute an organization in the world with one great purpose in mind, and that is to fulfill or respond to the call that Jesus gave Nicodemus: ". . . Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And Nicodemus wondered, he could not comprehend it. And Jesus answered, ". . . Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:3, 5.) ¶

In that first sentence, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," we have the answer to the end and purpose of this great plan — to have our boys and our girls realize that there is a higher purpose in life than yielding to the pleasures and temptations of the flesh. ¶

In our conference today we had a great sermon — two sermons in fact — on the Holy Ghost and what it means. ¶

Associate with those words of Jesus to Nicodemus the words of Peter after he had been ordained and was guiding men of his associates to a higher life. He wrote on one occasion: ". . . that we might be partakers of the divine nature." (2 Peter 1:4.) He realized what it means to be in touch with the spiritual, to rise above the temporal, the sensual and partake of the divine Spirit of God. ¶

Fellow men of the priesthood, that is the purpose of making us more capable of responding to the Spirit and subduing the sensual. ¶

I am glad that Elder Lee referred to the ordaining of members of the First Council of the Seventy as high priests. There seem to be a number of men of the priesthood in the Church who are wondering about it, because they know that the Prophet said that what was going on in the early days of making high priests of seventies, was not in accordance with the will of God. ¶

Do you know what they were doing? Before a man was ordained a member of the First Council of the Seventy he was ordained a high priest. This practice, the Prophet said, was not in accordance with the will of the Lord. It should be sufficient for you who have the Spirit of the Lord to know that the work today is required of those members of the First Council of the Seventy which needs the High Priesthood. They do not join the high priests' quorum, but they are sent out by the Council of the Twelve Apostles to set in order the Church in the stakes and missions, and they should be given authority to set apart a president of a stake, a high councilman, a bishop of a ward, which requires the High Priesthood. ¶

The Lord has never said, nor has the Prophet Joseph, that that is against the will of the Lord. These men are sent out now to take care of 300 and some odd stakes, and they are given the authority as members of the First Council of the Seventy to attend to anything necessary in order to set in order the affairs of the stake and the ward, and that is in accordance with the will of the Lord. ¶

The members of the First Council of the Seventy are now given the authority of high priests to set in order all things pertaining to the stake and the wards, under the direction of the Twelve Apostles. ¶

There come to my mind now the following words of the writer, John Dryden, which I think are applicable to the spiritual part of our work, getting the Holy Ghost, and rising above the temporal, selfish, envious things which are contrary to the calling of any high priest, seventy, elder, priest, teacher, or deacon in the Church: ¶

"Dim as the borrowed beams of moon and stars to lonely, weary, wandering travelers, is reason to the soul." Notice that comparison — "Dim as the borrowed rays of moon and stars to lonely, weary, wandering travelers" (on the earth) "is reason to the soul. And as on high those rolling fires discover but the sky, not guide us here, so Reason's glimmering ray was lent, not to assure our doubtful way, but lead us upward to a brighter day." ¶

That day is faith, a realization of the enjoyment of the Spirit of God. What the sun is to the earth, so that Holy Spirit is to man, and the 40,000 assembled tonight — or 30,000, whatever the number may be — are entitled — each individual is entitled to that glorious light of the Holy Spirit. ¶

That is why we like to have every young man and every young woman utilize his or her time intelligently, usefully, to bring the soul in harmony with the spirit, that we all might be partakers of God's Spirit, partakers of his divine nature. That is the privilege, fellow workers, of all who hold the priesthood of God. ¶

I think this has been a glorious meeting — one of the best, if not the best, ever held in the Church. There is a glorious future. Our minds have been led to visualize the opportunities of the priesthood, and to be true to the priesthood, to be loyal to it, that we might in our own little way, give to the world the spiritual message of the gospel of Christ. People are denying his divinity. Nations are now taught — young boys and babes of forty years ago are now men forty years of age, who, during those forty years have been taught that God does not exist; that Christ was not an eternal being. Poor deluded men and women! ¶

Your responsibility and mine, of everyone who holds the priesthood of God, is the responsibility of letting men see that light which is to the spirit what the vital sun is to the old earth, "not as borrowed beams of moon and stars," but as the sunlight of the Spirit. ¶

God help us to discharge our responsibilities acceptably before him, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶