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This is the first General Conference Address delivered by President Henry D. Moyle after being called as Second Counselor in the First Presidency. It was also the first time he had ever been called upon to address the Priesthood session of conference.
My brethren, this is a solemn moment for me, I can assure you. I have been coming to these Saturday evening Priesthood meetings for a good many years -- all my life since I was ordained a deacon. I was here when President McKay was called into the Twelve. I was here when President Richards was called into the Twelve. I have come here many times with my father. I have realized that the instructions that were given to the Priesthood by the Brethren on these occasions were equally good for father and for son.
This is the first call that has come to me to address this great body of Priesthood, and I assure you that if I am able to give you any thoughts this evening that will be beneficial to the work, we shall have to ascribe the honor to our Father in Heaven. I am sure we must all of us feel dependent upon him for the guidance, the direction and the inspiration essential for each one of us to have ever present in order to fulfill the calls which are made of us by those who preside over us in the Priesthood.
I have a deep sense of appreciation for the work of these Brethren who have preceded me, and especially President Stephen L. Richards. For many years past it has been my great pleasure to be here and to expect to hear words of inspiration and wisdom from him, and I have never been disappointed. We miss President Richards, and we continue, as we undertake to carry on, to remember his beloved wife and all of his posterity, and pray that the blessings of the Almighty may continue to be with them, to guide and direct them in the footsteps of their illustrious father and husband.
We do not need, however, to eulogize men who perform their duties and responsibilities in the Priesthood. Certainly that which we undertake to do is not done for the purpose of being praised of men. It is to give us that solemn deep-seated satisfaction in our hearts that we in some small way have helped to establish the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father here upon this earth in these latter days. To this purpose we dedicate our lives and all that we have and are, and our constant prayer to our Heavenly Father is that we might have added strength, added capacity, added capability to accomplish more and more in his service. If I have any complaint tonight it would be that the days are not long enough. Some of you were here last night when I was suggesting to the bishops that we ought to increase the hours of proselyting of our stake missionaries, and I said I thought that we ought to strike an average of about 40 hours a week. I, of course, misspoke myself--I meant 40 hours a month.
But I have been thinking about that incident, and I know many men in this Church whose time would permit them to live up to the ideal which I spoke unintentionally. We have these--I was going to say, eight-hour days -- but I suppose nobody works eight hours any more, do they? Six times eight would be forty-eight, and it seems to me I heard something about a 40 hour week and sometimes weeks that call for lesser labor.
It may not be entirely a coincidence that these shrinking hours of labor required of us in our daily employment should come about coincident with the tremendous need that we have in the Church for work in the service of the Master. This subject of ward teaching that Bishop Cheever and Bishop Hill have so beautifully discussed with us tonight has at its root the performance of a service, a labor. It is time-consuming, but how tremendously rewarding to know that every month of our lives we have contacted somebody, made their lives happier and better than they otherwise would have been.
Now, I know one of these bishops pretty well. He had no more been called into the bishopric than he said to himself and to me and to some others in the ward, "I wonder if it's necessary for a young man to ever reach the age of 20 and not be worthy and ready and willing to go on a mission?" It is little wonder that he has ward teaching in his heart, because he could not have hoped for such a result had the homes in which those young men lived not been visited regularly.
Sometimes I get off on my statistics, but my best knowledge and understanding is that since he became bishop there hasn't been a single boy escape, and if there have, perchance, been one or two that I do not know about, I still say the record is miraculous, and it comes about as a result of work. Everyone of those young men who have gone into the mission field -- and I can speak with some feeling about this subject because one of them is my own son -- loves his bishop, and when they come back from their mission fields, as they do nearly every month, they go to their bishop and tell him they are ready to go to work in the ward.
I tell you, brethren, this ward teaching is basically fundamental. It is the foundation, so to speak, upon which we can build in any of our Church activities, to accomplish any results that are desirable. Now, we have in the Church today about one out of every four young men who reach the age of 20 who go on a mission. I want you bishops to ask yourselves this question: "Where have we failed with reference to the other three?" That was the plea that Bishop Isaacson made to you last night with reference to your Senior Aaronic Priesthood Group. I am sure that a bishop should either have that young man ready to go on a mission, or have the satisfaction of knowing that he had exhausted the resources at his command in attempting to qualify him therefor.
We have a tremendous need for missionaries, and I have a feeling, brethren, that if we started to exercise our Priesthood in our relationships with our families, our intimate relationships early in our family history, that our young men would have become so well assured of the power and the efficacy of the Priesthood held by their fathers, that it would become in very deed their principal ambition in life to receive that same Priesthood, and I cannot think of any greater satisfaction that comes into the life of a righteous father than to himself be worthy when the time arrives, and his son has qualified himself to receive either the Lesser or the Higher Priesthood, to confer that Priesthood upon him under the direction of his bishop or his stake president.
I want to leave this thought with you this evening, brethren. I do not believe that any one of us who are recipients of the Priesthood ever exercise that Priesthood in the performance of a single ordinance the performance of a single act, in which we invoke the power of our Priesthood, without having in our hearts simultaneously therewith a deepseated, genuine, true testimony of the divinity of the work in which we are engaged, and a knowledge that God has in very deed restored his Priesthood to the earth, and that we have been the beneficiaries of that great gift.
My thoughts go back at the moment to when I was a little boy. I was awfully sick, I thought. I do not think my sickness was very serious. I may have had a bad case of measles or something like that, but I was sick, and I was miserable, and my father had lived so closely to me that I was just as certain as that I lived that when my father came home and I asked him to administer to me that I would be healed. Do you think a boy can go through that kind of an experience with his father and have his prayers answered, have his faith justified, and not love that father? And even more important than that, not, have a keen realization and appreciation of the power that his father has by virtue of the Priesthood which has been conferred upon him? I am sure that from that moment on I lived as far as I can review my life in my own mind, to receive that same Priesthood, to perform that same service in behalf of my family when I might be blessed with one, and I never cease to be grateful to the Lord for the almost innumerable instances when I have had the privilege of exercising my Priesthood outside the family circle in behalf of my brethren and sisters throughout the Church, and being absolutely conscious when I laid my hands upon their heads that there was a power there making itself manifest in my ministry, that would bring about the purposes of our Heavenly Father here upon this earth.
And so I say if we exercise this Priesthood in behalf of our families we cannot help but have our families grow up to follow in our footsteps, and what father is there among us that would not have his son go on a mission. I have made this statement many times in the Church in many of your stakes--I have never yet been contradicted, I have never yet had a case brought to my attention that would disprove what I have said -- and that is this: that the Lord has so blessed and prospered the Saints that today we are well enough off to send anybody on a mission that is worthy and willing to go, and supplement whenever necessary whatever means he and his family may have to keep him on the mission. We are not having missionaries come home in the middle of their missionary terms because their families have run out of finances.
Now the Lord has blessed us for a purpose. His blessings have not been showered upon us for the purpose of our following the ways of the world. Why do you think we pay our tithing? Isn't it to put our hearts in tune with the Spirit of our Heavenly Father, to enter into a partnership with him and dedicate the other nine tenths to the best possible use available to bring about his purposes, first with the family, and second, with the ward.
I am sure the generosity of the Latter-day Saints knows no bounds. Some people say that there are too many calls made upon us, but I never yet, and I think I can truthfully say this, in all my experience in the Church heard anyone complain about the cost of a mission. There is something about a mission. Sometimes I think it affects the family at home even more than the missionary himself.
I remember one night many years ago in Charleston, West Virginia. We had a little group of missionaries there as we toured the East Central States Mission -- about 20, as I recall it -- and one elder got up and said: "Brother Moyle, I have only been on a mission for a year, but every day that I am on my mission I have a stronger assurance come to me that as a result of my mission I will bring my father into the Church. Do you know why I want to bring my father into the Church? It is because I have seen and heard my mother pray for that event to happen as far back as I can remember. I just have a feeling that if, through my diligence, my effort, my worthiness as a missionary, spending my two years in this mission, I can accomplish that result, I will have been able to give my mother that which she wants above all else on earth, and incidentally, make it possible for me to be sealed to my father and my mother, and give to them the benefits of the Holy Endowment."
I would like to charge, if it were possible, every Latter-day Saint home to produce a missionary. It would be easy to divide the homes in the Church between those who are presided over by returned missionaries, and those who are presided over by men who have not filled that call. I am sure that the latter group have always been anxious, always just a little disappointed that they did not go on a mission themselves. There need be no disappointment in the heart of any Latter-day Saint father, whether he has been on a mission or not. If I were the head of a family and I had not been on a mission, I would devote myself to receive the blessing of a mission through my son.
I want to say to you tonight, brethren, in all solemnity, that we can receive those blessings if we rear our children to qualify for that great service, the greatest service of all. That is the service to which the Twelve have been called, and all their Assistants and Associates. It is the prime charge that the Savior gave his Apostles of old -- to go into the world and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of life and salvation, to all the children of our Heavenly Father here upon this earth.
I know that God lives. I know that the power of the Priesthood is with us, and I know that there is vested in President David O. McKay all the keys of the Priesthood. There has flowed into this dispensation all of the power and all of the authority and all of the keys and blessings of all other dispensations. That we know. And I am sure that you brethren will have difficulty in realizing how deep-seated my gratitude to my Heavenly Father is for this testimony this knowledge that God lives, and that he sustains his mouthpiece upon this earth with power and authority to speak in his name every day of his life.
I do not know what in the world I could have done to be worthy of this close association with these men whom I revere and idolize. For 53 years President McKay has been as dedicated a man as ever lived upon the face of the earth to the tasks which have been his, and now I have the privilege of undertaking in my weak way to be of some assistance to him.
President Clark and I have been thrown together in our Welfare work these many years, and I have learned to love and respect and revere him. I do hope and pray that the Lord will bless me that my labors may in some small measure reflect the deep sense of gratitude I have in my heart for this call and make me capable, qualified, worthy, to continue to associate and to counsel with you, my beloved brethren. I love the brethren of this Church. I am so grateful that I have had these years of opportunity to associate with President Joseph Fielding Smith and the members of the Twelve. It was brought rather sternly to my realization that I was not a member of the Twelve any more when my beloved friend, Howard W. Hunter was called to take my place in the Twelve. I love and respect and revere him, as I do all of the members of the Twelve, and my prayer daily is that with this call which has come to me, the Lord may make it possible for me to stand even closer and be more intimate and draw greater strength from these Brethren who have sustained and upheld me all these years as a member of their Quorum.
Now, I do invoke the blessings of the Lord upon us all, and pray that we will constantly unite our faith and prayers that the Lord will bless and sustain President McKay and President Clark with the health and strength and vigor and vitality of body and of mind and of spirit, which will make it possible for them day to day to fulfill the righteous desires that they have in their hearts, the desires that they have to carry this work on, and this I pray humbly in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
"We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." (First Article of Faith.)
Upon this article of our faith is the Church founded. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master, is the Son of the Living God. Christ is our Head. His life and works in mortality had a twofold purpose in the eternal plan of man: first, to redeem man from the fall. Therefore, has he been called the Redeemer of mankind. We believe with Paul of old:
"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
"For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. 15:19-22.)
The atonement of Christ was in turn twofold, as I have said: first, to redeem man from the fall. It is through this atonement that man is resurrected from the dead that he might gain eternal life in its fulness, that there might be a reuniting of the body and the spirit after death. This constitutes the fulness of man.
The second purpose of the atonement was that we might be resurrected, free from our transgressions in mortality, and not live forever in our sins. Christ also atoned for all of our individual sins. Thus, we say he took upon himself the sins of the world. John tells us, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16.)
We say in our Second Article of Faith: "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression."
Thus we see that the atonement of Christ brings upon us the redemption from the dead. We all become fruits of the resurrection. Redemption from our own sins depends upon us. We are not saved from ourselves by grace alone as we are from Adam's transgression. To understand this simple difference gives us the power to differentiate in large measure truth from error. When we seek the inspiration of God in answer to our prayers; he inspires us. We repent, and repentance leads us to an appreciation of the laws and ordinances of God by which man can, through his own effort, through the exercise of his own will power, lift himself from sin to righteousness. When he does this, he is on the way to eternal salvation and exaltation in the kingdom of our Heavenly Father.
Paul said of Christ: "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." (Hebrews 5:8-9.)
In all things Christ has set us the pattern. For this purpose he came to earth. No deviation from his plan can be justified or tolerated either in the judgment or the mercy of God. Furthermore, no excuse, no reason, exists why all men should not lend obedience thereto, rather than to try to justify themselves in pursuing any other course in life. Christ came to help us work out our salvation.
There are two phases of Christ's earthly mission. First, he taught his followers the plan by example as well as by precept. His teachings began with his own baptism in the waters of Jordan at the hands of John the Baptist by immersion, and John had theretofore been duly commissioned of the Lord to perform this ordinance. Could he have emphasized the importance of baptism in any better way?
"And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:16-17.)
". . . for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." (Ibid., 15.)
We next see Christ in the hands of the tempter. Thus he taught us by his example to overcome the power of evil. We must all recognize in our lives the existence of two great powers, and learn early in life that with the power and inspiration of God we can overcome and resist and turn aside every evil force. Even his fasting for forty days gave us an understanding of how we can likewise efficaciously reach the source of power essential for our own progress. How could the Savior have taught us better how to begin a life of humility and of service?
We next see Christ on the mountain teaching his disciples whom he had chosen, and with them other listeners -- yes, the multitude -- the principles by which men could control their lives, and should control them. Out of these teachings we have the Sermon on the Mount. Would that it were understood by all men! But all men do not understand the teachings of Christ. His teachings are sufficient to have taught all who have heard and all who have read or now read that they should all have recognized him as the Son of the Living God.
There were only a relatively few who followed him. Too many were steeped in the paganistic practices of the past, too self-satisfied to open their minds and their hearts to the truth, even when spoken with the conviction and knowledge and power of God, made manifest through his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master.
Time will not permit the enumeration of all his teachings. How grateful we are that he gave us the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and commanded us to meet frequently and partake of that Sacrament and renew our covenants to keep his laws and obey his commandments, even as we covenanted to do at the waters of baptism.
His second purpose was not finally completed until after his crucifixion and resurrection, just prior to his ascension to heaven, when he charged his apostles of old to go into all the world and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, and that they that believed should be baptized and thereby bring about their own salvation.
"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Ibid., 28:1820.)
Here again he set the great pattern to be followed by his disciples in every generation of time. The plan Christ thus gave us can be stated very simply:
We hear the gospel.
We repent.
We are inspired.
We are converted by that inspiration, the gift of the Holy Ghost.
We accept, and we learn the gospel.
We teach the gospel to others.
Its divinity is revealed to those who seek the truth by the gift and power of God. That is what is meant by the scriptures: ". . . seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." (Ibid., 7:7.)
We ourselves must act. We must initiate our own search for truth of our own free will. Once we do, the Lord magnifies us, fills our souls with his Holy Spirit, and leads us on to faith and to repentance. When we have received and understood the word, we accept the gospel and lend obedience thereto.
Our third and fourth articles of faith read: "We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."
"We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost."
We express our love and devotion to God for our conversion by proclaiming his word to others, even as he has given it to us. We spend our lives teaching the gospel to each other in the Church in our homes, in all our worshiping assemblies. We proclaim the truths of the gospel to our neighbors and our friends far and near. We fill our missions on earth by trying to follow in this respect, as in all others, the charge and the example and the teachings of Christ, our Lord.
After Peter and the apostles of old received this commission to preach to every nation, we see them next actually preaching the gospel, and our first recorded history of their missionary labors is recorded thus:
"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
"And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
"And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance....
"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
"Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
"For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts 2:1-4, 36-39.)
"But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
"And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you;
"Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
"For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
"And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." (Ibid., 3:18-23.)
"Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
"If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man by what means he is made whole;
"Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom Ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
"This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner." (Ibid., 4:8-11.)
Today, and for the past 130 years of the existence of the restored Church of Jesus Christ, the Spirit which prompted Peter and his associates of old has impelled the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to do likewise. Ever since 1830 we have had in the world young men and women who, because of their love of the gospel and the witness of its divinity which they have received of the Holy Ghost, preach the gospel in its truth and in its purity. They devote their time and their means to accomplish this mission, to call all people to repentance and to teach the plan of life and salvation given us of the Savior. The gospel has been restored to the earth in its fulness, in its simplicity and purity in this day through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Like Paul of old, they say, and they say it with pure hearts and clean hands, as they dedicate their lives to their missionary labors:
"For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
"And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
"And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
"That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
"For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." (1 Cor. 2:2-5, 9, 11.)
Every convert to the Church today has this desire in his heart to tell others what he has found. There is joy in knowing the truth, and there is joy in intuitively sharing it with others. This is the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is the sure sign of our conversion. Not all of the members of the Church leave their homes to go on missions into the world, my friends, to bring to you the gospel in your homes, but within the sphere of their influence our people continue through life to bear their testimony of the existence of God which gives to them that peace which can come alone from our Father in heaven.
As elders in Israel today we are charged with the responsibility of proclaiming his word to the world and crying repentance to the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. Our brothers and sisters throughout the world, those who are listening in, who may not be of our number, let us beg of you to give our missionaries the opportunity they so earnestly seek to give to you the simple principles of the gospel as taught by Jesus Christ himself. These missionaries come to you holding the priesthood of God. They have received his power and authority to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof. They have brought joy to hundreds of thousands in the past. All of us here today are here as a result of similar labors upon the part of former missionaries.
My friends, you cannot afford to turn a deaf ear to the truth, for we declare to you in all soberness that God lives and has once again spoken from the heavens, once again restored his power and his priesthood in its pristine strength and purity upon those of us whom he has called to carry on his work in this, the dispensation of time in which he has brought together all that he has given his children in all previous generations of man, all as foretold through his prophets of old.
We have the power and the authority to confer these same blessings upon all nations, as the blessings which were given by the apostles of old to the nations in which they served as missionaries.
Daniel tells us: "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." (Daniel 2:44.)
John, the Revelator, gave us one of the most beautiful predictions of all of the restoration of the gospel in these latter days, for he said: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
"Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." (Rev. 14:6-7.)
These prophecies have, in large measure, been fulfilled. The gospel has been restored to the earth. God continues to magnify those upon whom he has bestowed his authority in these latter days to serve his people and to guide and direct the honest in heart the world over into the paths of truth and of right. We declare most solemnly that we have been called of God, and that we proclaim his word to the world by virtue of his power and authority. We invoke his blessings upon all mankind, and particularly that their hearts might be opened, their desires might be toward righteousness, and that they might lend an ear and understand and appreciate the truth when it is presented to them by his duly ordained and constituted servants -- the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
God bless them, and bless us, and bless all who lend ear to their teachings, we pray humbly this day, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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