My Beloved Brethren And Sisters I Feel...

My beloved brethren and sisters, I feel like I had just passed through a tornado, (laughter) I did not say that to make you laugh. But the Lord never blessed me with a voice nor the quality to explode when I get up to deliver a discourse, so I am deficient in those things. I do wish to say, however, that I have a testimony of this truth. I am grateful for it. I do not remember the time when I did not believe in the mission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ nor in the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and I hope you will forgive me if I get a little personal. ¶

I was trained at my mother's knee to love the Prophet Joseph Smith and to love my Redeemer. I never knew my Grandmother Smith. I have always regretted that, because she was one of the most noble women who ever lived, but I did know her good sister, my Aunt Mercy Thompson, and as a boy I used to go and visit her in her home and sit at her knee, where she told me stories about the Prophet Joseph Smith, and, oh, how grateful I am for that experience. ¶

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in very deed the kingdom of God, the same kingdom that was seen by a great king long before the birth of Christ in a dream or a vision that he received that had to be interpreted by a prophet of the Lord, in which the Lord made known to that king, not for his benefit, but to the benefit of the nations of the earth and the peoples who should follow after and more particularly I think for the Latterday Saints of this dispensation, that the Lord set up a kingdom, or would, for this king was seeing into the future to a time when the Lord would set up a kingdom that would endure forever, would never be destroyed or given to another people. ¶

I have always been very grateful for the testimony coming to me through the Spirit of the Lord that Joseph Smith, the Prophet of God, was called to stand at the head of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times when this kingdom would be set up, never to be destroyed or given to another people. That ought to be an anchor to our souls. ¶

We have people who go out of the Church from time to time and set up organizations of their own, claiming that the kingdom of God has failed, that they have something better. I am sorry for these people. I cannot believe that any of them are sincere. If they are, then they are to be pitied, but I think that they are malicious deceivers, trying to destroy the kingdom of God. ¶

Every person coming into this Church through the waters of baptism has hands laid upon his or her head by which they are to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to be a guide to them through time and all eternity. I wonder how many of those who have been baptized and confirmed members of this Church have so lived that they have had that guidance and have had the testimony come to them through the Holy Ghost that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, that Brigham Young was a successor in the Presidency of the Church, and so have each of the other brethren who have been called to that high and holy calling down through the years to President David O. McKay? ¶

The Church has not gone astray. The kingdom of God that was set up never to be destroyed or given to another people is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, and it is not going to be destroyed, and is not going to be given to any other people. There will be members of this Church because of their lack of faith and obedience to the commandments of the Lord who will go astray, for the Spirit of the Lord will not dwell in unclean tabernacles, and when a person turns from the truth through wickedness, that Spirit does not follow him and departs, and in the stead thereof comes the spirit of error, the spirit of disobedience, the spirit of wickedness, the spirit of eternal destruction. ¶

Brethren and sisters, teach your children from their infancy to believe in Jesus Christ as our redeemer, in Joseph Smith as a Prophet of God, and in his successors in this kingdom, and let them grow up with a knowledge of this truth in their hearts built upon faith and obedience to the commandments the Lord has given to us and through the guidance of that Holy Spirit which will not dwell in unclean tabernacles. ¶

Now my time is up. The Lord bless you, my good brethren and my good sisters here; do not let anything interfere with your faith, and if you will keep the commandments of the Lord and be faithful and do not forget your prayers in humility, you will not go astray; in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶