Family Today Needs To Keep Close To...

Restoration needed

Mankind is not left alone. There is the answer to the problem of Christian unity, but it is not a reuniting nor a renovation. It is the restoration! ¶

The Lord's way was certified to man on April 6, 1830, when there was organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Father and the Son had appeared. The heavens were opened 1 Angelic messengers restored by ordination the priesthood. God once again spoke through his Prophet. A council of twelve apostles was called. And the organization, with proper authority, was restored as it had been first established by Jesus Christ. ¶

It is not an easy way we offer. It is not easy to change, particularly when we come to see the path we have walked in a new light. ¶

A naturalist one day knelt in the Scottish highlands with his magnifying glass focused upon some blossoms of the heather until, as he afterwards confessed, he lost track of time. Suddenly he glanced over his shoulder and found an old highland shepherd watching. I suppose he was somewhat embarrassed, but without saying a word he plucked the heather bell and handed it with the magnifying glass to the shepherd. The old man put the instrument to his eyes and peered at the heather bell. He was silent for awhile; then, handing back the flower and the instrument, he said slowly: ¶

"Ay, man, I wish ye no had shown me that." ¶

"Why?" asked the naturalist. ¶

"Because these rude feet have trodden so many of them." It is not easy to change. ¶

In this conference you have heard quotations from the Book of Mormon. ¶

Some have been offended that anyone would assume that the Bible was incomplete or that there needed to be more. They have, indeed, said, "A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible. ¶

What need have we for more Bible?" ¶

(See 2 Ne. 29:3.) We are, nonetheless, inescapably faced with the fact that with the Bible only, well-intentioned men, as worthy as you today, with centuries of opportunity to seek their end, have devised such a multiplicity of churches that even the ecumenical movement seems hopeless to unite them. And if the present trend continues, the Bible itself will be repudiated by the churches. ¶

"Missing something" ¶

Our brethren, as you look for that "missing something," consider these words spoken by a Book of Mormon prophet: ¶

"And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me. ¶

"And he hath said: Repent all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, and have faith in me, that ye may be saved. ¶

"And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that these things are true which I have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you, with power and great glory at the last day, that they are true, and if they are true has the day of miracles ceased? ¶

"Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved? ¶

"Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain. ¶

"For no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name; wherefore, if these things have ceased, then has faith ceased also; and awful is the state of man, for they are as though there had been no redemption made. ¶

"But behold, my beloved brethren, I judge better things of you, for I judge that ye have faith in Christ because of your meekness; for if ye have not faith in him then ye are not fit to be numbered among the people of his church." (Mora. 7:33-39.) "What today's world must have," ¶

said President J. Reuben Clark, "if humanity is to go on climbing upwards, is men — those wearing the cloth as well as the laity — who know that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ; men who, having this knowl edge, have also the intellectual honesty not only to admit but to proclaim it; who have further the moral courage and the sterling character to live the righteous lives this knowledge demands. This knowledge must be a living, burning knowledge of God and Christ." ¶

Today's dilemma foreseen Our brethren, we bear testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints is the Lord's Church upon the earth, by his own declaration the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth with which he, the Lord, is well pleased. ¶

One hundred thirty-seven years ago, in anticipation of the dilemma that man would face, the problem of Christian unity was answered with the organization, the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, presided over by a prophet of God, having the apostolic power and authority and all the organization as it had existed in the primitive Church. ¶

I bear you my witness that I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, that it is the power of God unto salvation, and that all men who will may come and receive by baptism the saving ordinances of the Church and know of a certainty in their own heart of the truth of the message of this gospel. In the name of Jesus Christ. ¶

Amen. ¶