There are present tonight in this great Conference, as reported from the various groups, 53,265 men, the largest attendance ever.

There are a number of service men present, and as the theme of this meeting began with reference to service men and our duty to them, will all the service men present in the Tabernacle and the Assembly Hall please rise. Thank you, and we come.

"If I were a voice—a persuasive voice
That could travel the wide world through,
I would fly on the beams of the morning light,
And speak to men with a gentle might,
And tell them to be true.

I'd fly o'er land and sea,
Wherever a human heart might be,
Telling a tale, or singing a song,
In praise of the Right and in blame of the Wrong."

    —Charles MacKay

The poet who wrote that had but one thought in his mind, and that was that men should be true to each other and true to their ideals. To the fifty thousand and more men of the Priesthood tonight, that is what I should like to say, and I should like to say it in the inspired words of Joseph Smith recorded at the end of that marvelous revelation on Priesthood:

"Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.

"He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved shall not be counted worthy to stand. Even so. Amen"  D&C 107:99-100

Two things mentioned in that revelation point out important elements in the Priesthood.

First, learning one's duty, and that means learning what kind of life a man who holds the Priesthood should live, being true to himself, to his loved ones, to the Church, to God. Every individual has that duty, and particularly every individual who holds the Priesthood. If he is honest to himself he is honest with the brethren; he is fair in his dealings in business circles, in politics he speaks the truth; he merits the confidence of his associates in business, civic areas, and particularly he should live so as to merit the confidence of members of the Church who trust him.

But the Lord was not content when he gave to the individual the Priesthood. He organized those men who were true in upholding the ideals of the Priesthood into groups that they might render group service to their fellow men. I hope that the fifty thousand men listening tonight caught that emphasis in the message illustrated so impressively by Brother Lee.

The duty of quorum Priesthood members to keep in touch with their members who are out in the service is a very practical idea. I heard of a very successful group of men who were dealing with the Senior Aaronic Priesthood. I wrote to a man who I know has been very active in that work, and if he and his associates can obtain the success he reports, so can every quorum of Priesthood in the Church. He and his group were formed into a ward committee. Listen to a paragraph or two from his interesting report:

"We had a fine group of men on our ward committee and we remained together with only a few changes until recently. We held our planning and ward meetings for an hour every Sunday morning where we reviewed our activities. We kept books on our members, reviewing the details of our visits so that we were all aware of the problems in each home. This was interesting work for all of us, discouraging in many ways and often a challenge, one which has not as yet been met to our satisfaction. However, as we go over the records we find that forty members in our ward have been advanced to the Melchizedek Priesthood, all, so far as we can determine, with satisfactory results. Many have moved away, but we have made contact with most of them."

One of the reactivated members "has had a fine influence on many of the other members of the league to which he belongs, and many of them are now active in the wards in which they live. On their Golden Wedding day, he and his wife took the entire family to the temple for the necessary sealing work."

The other instances result with equal satisfaction. "After a while," he says, regarding one with whom they worked, "it was not long until there was no smell of either liquor or tobacco about him, and nothing had ever been mentioned about his use of them. He was ordained a Priest later and made secretary of the Senior Aaronic Priesthood group. He began attending classes at Weber College and has continued to take three or four classes each year ever since. This man was ordained an Elder and soon afterwards was selected as President of his quorum. He chose one of his Senior Aaronic Priesthood associates as a counselor and both are doing fine work as officers at this time. He is a wonderful leader."

It is the duty of leaders in Priesthood quorums to watch over their members, to teach them their duty. They can do that independently of the Ward bishopric. They do it because it is their own responsibility, it is their duty to have their members fit to be called into ward activity, stake activity, missionary activity, as already explained.

"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!"

"And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!"  D&C 18:15-16

Quorums of the Priesthood throughout the world: Keep in touch with your members who are away, especially in the armed forces, surrounded by temptations. Keep in touch with your members here at home, some of whom are negligent, who need the spiritual food you can give them, and you will find as did this eminent physician who made the report I have given you, that there is much joy in bringing one soul, twenty souls, forty souls, into activity.

God bless all who are assembled in this great meeting tonight. May the spirit of the occasion govern their hearts, first, awakening a desire to live righteously, to keep their own souls free from the temptations that surround us in our wards and stakes, and second, awakening a determination to contribute of their earnestness and their purity of living, to the strength of the quorum, thus making it a power for good, not only in the stake or in the ward, but throughout the entire world, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.