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I join with you my brethren and sisters in expressing to our Father in heaven our thanks and gratitude for our great leader and president who stands at the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints here and now. I hope that we shall all have that faith in his admonitions which will permit us to go forward and enact in our lives the teachings which we thus receive through the mouthpiece of our Heavenly Father, here on this earth.
DIVINITY OF THE WORK
I know that I speak the thoughts of all who are here assembled when I say that we uphold and sustain President David O. McKay as our prophet, seer, and revelator. And so it is with great humility that I stand here before you and in his presence, in the presence of my brethren, to bear my testimony to you of the divinity of the work in which we are engaged.
I am grateful for the unity which exists among the General Authorities of this Church, and I know that there is, thus, an example set to the people of the Church by which they could very well profit. That same unity should extend into every stake and into every ward, every mission, every branch of the Church. I am grateful for the sustaining power and influence that comes into my life and assists me in my work as a result of your faith and prayers, my brethren and sisters. I am grateful for the affection, the sustaining power and influence, the faith and prayers of my brethren with whom I have the privilege to associate day by day, and acknowledge before you and my Heavenly Father that our ministry would be empty were it not for these sustaining influences. I know with all my heart that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ, and I want for nothing but to dedicate my life, my energy, to proclaiming this testimony to the world, to let my fellow men know that there can be no joy in life, and certainly no salvation hereafter, unless we understand the laws of God, given to us for our happiness and our salvation, and in turn lend obedience to them.
OBEDIENCE TO LAW
I feel to repeat the revelation given us by the Prophet Joseph Smith, which President McKay has already quoted you this morning, "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated, And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." (D. & C. 130:20-21.)
The Lord has said, "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." (Ibid., 82:10.)
President McKay has told us here this morning the responsibilities we have resting upon us as fathers and mothers in Israel. I testify to you that if we do that which we have been commanded, our children and our children's children will be blessed and will be encouraged to walk in our footsteps and will be crowned eventually with us in the glory of our Father's kingdom.
For a long time past I have been tremendously impressed with the fact that God is no respecter of persons, that his Church and kingdom here upon this earth is governed and regulated and controlled by law, and that that law is your law; it is my law; and to that law there are no exceptions.
We have been told in the scriptures that, "For there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. I say that those of us who have received the law must of necessity be judged by it and be responsible for any disobedience we contribute to it. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. (Ibid., 2:13.)
That is the law of the gospel, and so, as we understand these simple fundamental laws of the gospel, we must live them; we must teach them to our children; we must be bound by them; and we must claim no exemption for ourselves.
NO SPECIAL PRIVILEGES
Brother Widtsoe, who is absent from our midst today, has recently written, Full happiness within the Church demands that men comply with all its laws, regulations, and ordinances. Obedience is incomplete if a person decides to obey one and disobey another gospel requirement. Usually, an attempt to select some practices and ignore others leads to a weakening of the will for righteousness, and soon complete disobedience sets in. " ( Joseph Smith, p. 166.) I am sure we will accept that as true, that we must do nothing which weakens our will.
I have a feeling that sometimes we are inclined to exempt ourselves from the law. We seek special privileges. I don't know whether it has become so common in the world for men politically and socially to claim exemptions from the operation of the civil law as applied to them that they think maybe, within the realm of the kingdom and Church of God they are likewise entitled to special privileges. I am sure of one thing, that President McKay does not claim any special privileges for himself, and that the General Authorities follow his example, and we know and we believe that we are bound by the law.
STRICT CONFORMITY
I believe it is time when many of us should feel that it is important to hew strictly to the line, to keep our own houses in order. So I ask you in light of these suggestions, should we insist upon going on a mission or sending our sons unless we are worthy? Can we meet the requirements that have been laid down for those entitled to go? Should we ever feel it necessary to call upon our bishop or our stake president for a recommend to go to the temple if we know that we have not first met the law in respect thereto and have made ourselves worthy to receive this special privilege? Some of us may feel that we can impose upon the bishop a little bit, that we will be forgiven. I wonder how many of us realize that we cannot expect, if we go to the House of the Lord unworthily (whether we go there for our own endowments or to do vicarious work for those who have preceded us), the same efficacy will attach to our work as would to the work of those who go to the House of the Lord worthily. Let us think about that, and in place of asking for a special privilege, see that we keep the laws of God in our own homes and in our own lives, and encourage our own sons and daughters to do likewise in order that they might go to the House of the Lord worthily.
The same could be said of the Word of Wisdom, the payment of tithes, fasting. We have carried on in the Church, all this year, a great campaign connected with the welfare program of the Church to encourage our people to fast. I say to you today that there are none of the blessings of the fast that can come to you and me unless we fast. We must all fast in the same manner. There is no exception to the requirement that we do fast if we are ultimately going to have a real interest in the kingdom of our Heavenly Father, as King Benjamin once said.
In speaking of charity, Brigham Young and the Twelve said, in April, 1842, while building the temple in Nauvoo: "This is not all. It will be in vain for us to build a place where the Son of Man may lay his head, and leave the cry of the widow and the fatherless unheard by us ascending up to the orphan's God and the widow's Friend. It is in vain we cry "Lord, Lord" and do not the things our Lord hath commanded, to visit the widow, the fatherless, the sick, the lame, the blind, the destitute, and minister to their necessities." (D. H. C. 4:591.)
I call attention to prayer. Can we accomplish the purposes that President McKay has outlined for us with reference to our children if we do not pray, as a family, in the home, bring into our homes and into the lives of our youths the spirit as well as the power and inspiration of prayer? And so I say that no home should be surprised if its children do not receive the same strength and courage that other children reared in a home of prayer receive, if they are reared in a household which is a stranger to prayer.
HONESTY IN DAILY LIVES
Some of us claim the privilege of withholding support from our bishop, our stake president, and some of us feel that for one reason or another it is not incumbent on us to sustain the General Authorities of the Church, each man in his office and calling. But I say to you that we cannot fail to respond, especially those of us who hold the priesthood and our wives and our families, to the requirement which God has written into his law in respect thereto and receive the blessings that might otherwise be ours. In our daily lives it is impossible for us to cheat a little and still be honest.
The commandment is to pay every man his dues, and no man can get to heaven who justly owes his brother or his neighbor, who has or can get the means and will not pay it; it is dishonest, and no dishonest man can enter where God is. (Brigham Young and the "twelve,'- April
It is impossible for us to take advantage of one another in any way, shape, or form and still have that brotherly love which should characterize the membership of the Church of Jesus Christ. We could go on and review all of the activities of life and come to the same conclusion on each. It is therefore proper for us today to "Bring forth fruits meet for repentance And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for l say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. (See Matthew 3:8-9.)
For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. (Romans 4:13.)
In other words, no matter whether we today boast of being of the seed of Abraham, just as the house of Israel did in the days of old, we are nevertheless to be justified only by our obedience to the law of God. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in [Missing text in original]
We must never forget.
That which breaketh a law, and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment. Therefore, they must remain filthy still. (D. & C. 88:35.)
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:7-8.)
I hope and pray, my brethren and sisters, we shall as a result of this great conference go to our homes, to our work, to our wives, and to our families, and realize and appreciate that we must teach the law as it has been revealed to us in these latter days and then lend strict obedience to it, and dedicate our lives to our families and to our children that they might likewise be obedient, and this I humbly pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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