Like Elder Tanner I Have Thoroughly Appreciated...

Like Elder Tanner, I have thoroughly appreciated what has been said here tonight. We have all been inspired by these young men and by the forthright, inspired talk of Elder Sill and the wonderful testimony of President Tanner. I shall not attempt to add to the subject which has been so well discussed tonight except to give you a few quotations, and then for a few moments discuss another phase of our work. ¶

From Sir Walter Scott: "Teach selfdenial, and make its practice pleasureable, and you can create for the world a destiny more sublime than ever issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer." ¶

And Robert Louis Stevenson wrote: ¶

"You cannot run away from a weakness. You must sometime fight it out or perish, and if that be so why not now, and where you stand." ¶

And another has said, "Decision determines destiny. There is absolutely no greatness that is not buffeted with goodness. Brace to the splendid day's work. Keep fit. Be a man." ¶

Many times I have quoted, and no doubt many of you have memorized the clarion call for men to match our message and our times: ¶

"God give us men! A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands. ¶

Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; "Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor — men who will not lie; Men who can stand before the demagogue And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking; Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duty and in private thinking; . . ." (Josiah Gilbert Holland.) Each one of us must live with himself throughout eternity, and each one is now working on the kind of man he must live with throughout eternity. Let us determine for ourselves the kind of man our eternal companion is to be. ¶

I say now is the time to act: It is neither too early nor too late. ¶

Some young men say, "When I get older, I will do something worthwhile but let me enjoy my carefree youth." ¶

Let me bring to your attention a few examples of young men who did things while they were young. ¶

Jefferson was 33 years old when he drafted the Declaration of Independence. ¶

Benjamin Franklin was 26 when he wrote Poor Richard's Almanac. ¶

Dickens was 24 when he began his Pickwick Papers and 25 when he wrote Oliver Twist. ¶

McCormack was only 23 when he invented the reaper, and Newton was 24 when he formulated the law of gravitation. ¶

May I add to this quotation, Joseph Smith was less than 15 when he had his first vision, 23 when he translated the Book of Mormon, 24 when the Church was organized, and he died a young man at 38 — yet he left an imprint upon this world second only to that of Christ the Lord. ¶

Jesus Christ himself was only 30 when he began his transcendent mission which lasted only three years but affected the whole world and will yet redeem it. ¶

Well, now, you older men, has your chance passed? You high priests, seventies, and elders, is it too late for you to do something worthwhile? Let me bring you another set of figures: ¶

Immanuel Kant was 74 when he wrote his finest philosophical work. ¶

Verdi was 80 when he produced Falstaff and 84 when he produced "Ave Maria." ¶

Goethe was 80 when he completed Faust. ¶

Tennyson was 80 when he wrote "Crossing the Bar." ¶

Michelangelo completed his greatest work at 87. ¶

Titian, at 98, painted the historic picture, "The Battle of Lepanto." ¶

Justice Holmes was 90 when he was still writing brilliant opinions. ¶

George Bernard Shaw was 88 and was superbly chauvinistic. ¶

President David O. McKay, past 90, is recognized world-wide as a dynamic and inspired religious leader. He is carrying a load which would buckle the knees of many younger men. At his advanced age he still leads us, shows us the way, and sets the pace. ¶

But perhaps some of you say, "Well, I have some handicaps." Sarah Bernhardt had as her motto, "In spite of everything." Paul Speicher writing in one of the magazines about what happens to men who refuse to be stopped, reminds us of some statistics, reminds us of what can happen to a man if he has the will to do, and knows what he wants to do. ¶

"Cripple a man and you have a Sir Walter Scott; put him in prison and you have a Bunyan; bury him in the snow at Valley Forge and you have a George Washington; have him born in abject poverty and you have an Abraham Lincoln; load him with bitter racial prejudice and you have a Disraeli; afflict him with asthma until as a boy he lies choking in his father's arms and you have a Theodore Roosevelt; stab him with rheumatic pains until for years he cannot sleep without an opiate and you have a Steinmetz; put him in a grease pit in a locomotive round house and you have a Walter P. ¶

Chrysler; make him a second fiddle in an obscure orchestra in South America and you have a Toscanini." ¶

History rests on the shoulders of those who accepted the challenge of difficulties and drove through to victory in spite of everything. I want to add this thought on self-control, decisions, determination, faith in God and in yourself. ¶

"You may be what you will to be, Let cowards find their false content In that poor word, environment, But spirit scorns it and is free. ¶

"It conquers time; it masters space; It cows the boastful trickster, chance, And bids the tyrant circumstance Uncrown and fill a servant's place. ¶

"The human will, that force unseen, The offspring of a deathless soul, Can hew its way to any goal, Though walls of granite intervene." ¶

I wish all the priesthood members of the Church would obtain and read and study the masterful address of President David O. McKay delivered last Friday morning. It will be published in the Church Section of the News and in other periodicals, the Era later, and in the Conference Report. Obtain it, study it, read it. Do you know how long it took President McKay to prepare that talk? I haven't asked him, but I think it took him 90 years, because what he said came right out of his heart, and what is in his heart he has been building into that heart for 90 years. Now if it took him 90 years to prepare it, do you think you can get all there is in it in one reading? Get it, study it, apply it in your lives. ¶

I suggest you read the talks of other General Authorities who have spoken here today in the other meetings. Study them, follow the counsel, and you will be blessed. May I suggest especially that you read the talk of Elder Critchlow on priesthood — one of the best I have heard. And then obtain and read, especially you fathers, what Brother Packer said this afternoon about the responsibility of fatherhood. On that subject may I read what many of you have heard before. It applies to every father and to you young men who will be fathers. Fatherhood is next to Godhood, and therefore it takes a lifetime to become a good father. This is a confession of a father at the bedside of his sleeping child. ¶

"I am saying this to you as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a hot, stifling wave of remorse swept over me. I could not resist it. Guiltily I came to your bedside. ¶

"These are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when I found you had thrown some of your things on the floor. ¶

"At breakfast I found fault, too. ¶

You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a little hand and called, 'Good-bye, Daddy!' and I frowned, and said in reply, 'Hold your shoulders back.' "Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the hill road, I spied you down on your knees playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boy friends by making you march ahead of me back to the house. Stockings were expensive — and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! ¶

Imagine that, son, from a father! It was such stupid, silly logic. ¶

"Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in, softly, timidly, with a sort of hurt, hunted look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door, 'What is it you want?' I snapped. ¶

"You said nothing, but ran across, in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, again and again, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs. ¶

"Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands, and a terrible sickening fear came over me. Suddenly I saw myself as I really was, in all my horrible selfishness, and I felt sick at heart. ¶

"What has habit been doing to me? ¶

The habit of complaining, of finding fault, of reprimanding — all of these were my rewards to you for being a boy. ¶

It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected so much of youth. ¶

I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years. ¶

"And there was so much that was good, and fine, and true in your character. You did not deserve my treatment of you, son. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. All this was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good-night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, choking with emotion, and so ashamed 1 "It is a feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours, yet I must say what I am saying. ¶

I must burn sacrificial fires, alone, here in your bedroom, and make free confession. And I have prayed God to strengthen me in my resolve. Tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: 'He is nothing but a boy — a little boy.' "I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother's arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much. ¶

"Dear boy! Dear little son! A penitent kneels at your infant shrine, here in the moonlight. I kiss the little fingers, and the damp forehead, and the yellow curl. ¶

"Tears came, and heartache and remorse, and also a greater, deeper love, when you ran through the library door and wanted to kiss me! ¶

"I do not know of a better shrine before which a father or mother may kneel or stand than that of a sleeping child. I do not know of a holier place, a temple where one is more likely to come into closer touch with all that is infinitely good, where one may come nearer to seeing and feeling God. From that shrine come matins of love and laughter, of trust and cheer to bless the new day; and before that shrine should fall our soft vespers, our grateful benedictions for the night. At the cot of a sleeping babe all man-made ranks and inequalities are ironed out, and all mankind kneels reverently before the living image of the Creator. To understand a child, to go back and grow up sympathetically with it, to hold its love and confidences, to be accepted by it, without fear or restraint, as a companion and playmate, is just about the greatest good fortune that can come to any man or woman in this world — and, perhaps, in any other world, for all we know. ¶

"And I am passing this 'confession' along to the fathers who may be privileged to read it, and for the benefit of all the 'little fellers' — the growing, earth-blessing little 'Jimmies' and 'Billys' and 'Marys' and 'Janes' of this very good world of ours." ¶

— Author Unknown God bless you, my brethren of the priesthood. From the very center of my heart I bear witness to the divinity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I do not claim to have had visions or revelations, but I do claim that he has stamped upon my soul a knowledge of the divinity of this work which did not come through my natural senses but through the Holy Ghost. ¶

I bless you fathers that you may be real fathers to your children. I bless you young men that you may be honorable sons of your fathers. I bless all the priesthood here tonight and all those who are listening in in far places that all may go home from this meeting resolved that they are going to exercise self-control and fight their way through PRESIDENT DAVID O. McKAY in spite of everything and be worthy bs so I pray in the name of Jesus to bear the Holy Priesthood. May it Christ Amen. ¶