My brethren and sisters, I believe I speak for the Assistants to the Quorum of the Twelve when I express my goodwill and my good feelings towards the three men who have been called to associate with us in our work. I know these men personally. I know they are good men. I know they are capable, and I know, too, their willingness to lay upon the altar any worldly possessions they have in order to serve the Lord in spirit and in truth.

I believe in the future of the Church. I believe it has a great destiny. I believe in its moral standards. I believe its program is effective and the Church will grow and develop as the missionary effort increases in the world. I believe faith in God is the very foundation of right living, and I believe in the missionary system of the Church, which has proved so successful in recent years, and I believe the work will continue to go forward.

I also believe that many of the old barriers and obstacles are crumbling and giving way, and that we have a better opportunity than we have ever had to proclaim the gospel truths. I believe there are people in the world who are very anxious to hear the gospel message as it is proclaimed by humble men and women sent out from the headquarters of the Church to bear their testimonies.

I want to read a word from President Brigham Young. He said:

"The Lord will never suffer this people to dwindle down, and be hid up in a corner; it cannot be; neither does he want any person to help them but himself" (Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 676).

In other words, God is directing his work. It is not man-made, neither is it the creation of a human mind. The pioneer prophet Brigham Young was face to face with a gigantic task when he undertook to colonize the West and to keep alive the missionary movement. It was not an easy thing to set up a commonwealth and to transform a desert into cities, towns, and villages, and to provide homes, schools, and churches. It required more than ordinary skill to build up faith and hope and to develop a solid citizenship out of a people who came from many parts of the world.

Brigham Young could not have done it without God's help. He knew this, and never once did he claim the credit for this achievement. When he died in 1877, his enemies saw the end of Mormonism. There was no one, they argued, to take his place. He had presided over the Church for thirty years. Those who had stood by him in the early emergencies and difficulties had passed on. Willard Richards had died in 1854. Heber C. Kimball, the great prophet, and a stalwart, who had stood by his side in all the days of colonization and settlement, had died in 1868. Parley P. Pratt had met an untimely death in 1857. George A. Smith, who was regarded as a great leader of courage and wisdom, had died in 1875. And many others who stood valiantly by his side during the exodus and the colonization effort, also had passed on. Mormonism could not survive, at least that was the verdict of those who did not and could not understand. There was no leader, they claimed, to take his place. They saw the disruption and disorganization of the Church, and many would repudiate their allegiance and follow a divided leadership.

The enemies predicted the same thing when the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum Smith were murdered. The great enterprise launched by them, they thought, would burst like a bubble, but God will always have in reserve someone to take the place of him who is gone. Brethren and sisters, God's work will triumph in the earth.

Speaking of pioneer days, I should like to read a statement from the journal of Brother Richard Ballantyne, the organizer of the first Sunday School in the Rocky Mountains. Brother Ballantyne wrote this just five years before his death. Speaking of pioneering days, he said:

But those times are now past, and I believe never to return. A brighter day is now awaiting, but it will have its dangers.

"As wealth flows into the hands of the Church, and with its learning and refinement, pride is apt to enter the hearts of the children of Zion, as it entered into the hearts of the Nephites.

"God has signified by his servant that the day to favor Zion has come. The powers of the heavens are to be exerted in a way they never were before. The time for the uplifting of Zion has come. Kings and rulers will favor her. Her beauty and righteousness are beginning to appear in the world. She will not be looked upon as she has been in the past. The shadows are passing away, and the light is breaking in upon us."

I bear my testimony that God's work will stand, that Joseph Smith was his divine Prophet appointed to usher in the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. I bear testimony that his successors in the high office were all men of God, and that they were full of faith and prophecy. I bear testimony that the authority of the Holy Priesthood is operating in the Church as it has always done and that it will continue to do so until every knee shall bend and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ  Philip. 2:10-11 the Savior of the world, and that the Latter-day Saints comprise his Church and kingdom about which the ancient prophets spoke; and that the Church will continue to grow and extend itself, even beyond our imaginations, for it will surely reach to the uttermost parts of the earth.

I pray that his Spirit may continue with us, and that we may serve him always with a singleness of purpose, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.