So The Translators May Be Forewarned I...

So the translators may be forewarned, I am going to say two things which are not on the paper in front of me. The first is that I fully and completely support President Tanner and Brother Monson in their positions. I am sure they know this already. But for any others who have any doubt about it, I want them also to know that I do. ¶

The second thing is with regard to some desirable attributes mentioned just now by Brother Brockbank. He named a number of things we must teach our young folk if we expect to have them stay true in the Church and have proper acceptance before the Lord in his kingdom. It has been my observation as a leader of youth that one does not teach youth in "lumps," if I may use the word — in bulk. Each thing one teaches to a boy must be taught to him separately from other things. May I illustrate: ¶

I can teach a boy to make a fire with two matches, to care for it and to put it out. This is one of the tests that used to be in the Boy Scout Handbook when I was in that movement. I can teach him so that I can leave him while he does it, and I can have confidence that he will perform the test without my having seen him do it. But the fact that I taught him that much of honor will not necessarily carry over to his schoolwork, and the next day he may cheat in an examination. I now must retrace my steps and teach that boy not to cheat in examinations, and then having taught him not to cheat in examinations, I must take any other virtue I want him to possess, center on it, and teach him that. I may not assume that because I have generalized on the code of conduct which I expect him to live by that he will get any of that code into his system, except as I detail it one item at a time. That has been my experience in teaching boys. ¶

That explains, to me at least, why we teach thoroughly the Word of Wisdom, and then discover to our sorrow that often times the person who would not disobey one phase of the Word of Wisdom sometimes doesn't have much conception of the moral code. Or we teach him the moral code, and he does not seem to have any conception of the Word of Wisdom. We cannot allow ourselves to assume that a boy, or girl either, is going to learn more than one thing at a time. ¶

Henry Van Dyke, an author read very much by the past generation, but little known to this one, once wrote a story concerning a man who lost the word which could save him. Until he could remember it, say it, and put it into his life once more, he found no peace — that's how the story went. ¶

Well, there is a word which many of the present generation have not learned to know in the first place. It is not lost, for it has not yet been learned. Yet without it we cannot go very far in our progress toward the kingdom of heaven. ¶

Like Mr. Van Dyke, I shall leave the word until the last part of what I shall say — but I shall talk to it. ¶

I found a suggestion of it in the words of President Heber C. Kimball when he wrote his feelings about first hearing the gospel. He wrote: "The family of John Young, Senior," (who incidentally is my great-great-grandfather) "of five sons and five daughters and two sonsin-law, John P. Greene and Joel Sanford, had moved to Mcndon a few years previously." Brother Kimball was in Mendon at this time. "They had the same principles in their breasts that I had in mine; truth was what we wanted and would have; and truth is what we did receive." ¶

I call to your attention these words: ¶

"Truth was what we wanted and would have." Nothing could change that. ¶

Their lives were a witness to what they "would have" for in spite of persecution, loss of property — several times in succession — the truth they found they "would have" — in spite of all obstacles. ¶

In explaining the principle of the second comforter, the Prophet Joseph Smith said these words: ". . . After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands) which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him and finds that the man is determined to serve him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter. . . ." ¶

(DHC 3, 380.) I call to your attention the words "he finds that a man is determined to serve him at all hazards." That is the word, and that is what we need today — determination— voluntary determination to serve him at all hazards. This is the lost word which is not lost, but which many of us have not known. ¶

This involves a man in his higher nature, too, in the realm of his free agency to do as he will. ¶

This generation of youth and we parents will find the key which opens the door to the solution of its problems by the practice of this simple but potent word — determination. Without it the gospel will not affect us very much. ¶

The past generations to which we point with solemn pride were determined to stand pure before the Lord. ¶

Each generation must in its turn show equal determination if it is to be accepted. Our present generation, young and old, is now making this choice. I pray that we may be determined in our turn to obey the commandments and to teach each of our children, one by one, each commandment, both by precept and example, and to stand true to the prophet of our generation, concerning whom I bear witness that he is a prophet. I also bear witness to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior and has given us his gospel to see if we will obey it. May the Lord help us to do it I pray in his name. ¶

Amen. ¶