There is a salutation customary among us which includes all within sight and sound—"My brethren and sisters"—and I see no reason to modify it. I am grateful for the relation that all of us bear to all of us in the Fatherhood of God and the relationship we have to him

Because of an unusual series of assignments, we have circled the world twice this past year—once flying east, and once moving westward. We have been in many countries, among many peoples, in many places. We have encompassed areas where hundreds of different dialects and languages were spoken. We have been in the midst of a diversity of men, and in the midst of many differing religions and philosophies of life.

We count among our friends, men of many races, many faiths, many backgrounds, and beliefs, and these are not superficial friendships. They are part of our lives. We respect them and what they are and have an affection for them. We respect them and their beliefs, and we believe they respect us and ours.

As a consequence of this long journeying and these many friendships, we have been earnestly reading and seeking to understand the basic beliefs, the many philosophies of India and of Asia, and in doing so have consulted as closely as possible the people themselves and their authentic sources; and this we would ask our friends to do for us, as we would do it unto them also. When they want to know what we believe, we ask them to ask us, or consult our authentic sources instead of sources of intentional or unintentional distortion. No matter how many times an error is repeated, it is still an error. We believe that we ourselves are the best source of what we believe, as are other men of what they believe, and to those interested we should like to give the simple facts.

We have discovered, we think also, that mankind generally is sincerely searching, searching for the reasons, for the purpose of being, searching for the ultimate answers. "Man's success or failure, happiness or misery," President McKay has said, "depend upon what he seeks and chooses." What people believe is exceedingly important because what they believe will determine how they live. A person prepares differently for a short journey than he does for a long one, and a person who believes that life here is the end of all would prepare much differently and live much differently from him who believes that life is everlasting.

Thomas á Kempis said, "Where my thoughts are, there am I," and might have added, Where my beliefs are, where my convictions are, there am I—or at least in that direction I am headed.

For these reasons and because we love our friends, and because many of them have asked us, and because even if they hadn't we would want to do it anyway, we would like to say some few things today basic to our beliefs:

First of all, in common with many millions of men, we are devoutly Christian. This is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jesus the Christ, with the doctrines, the commandments, the revelation, the inspiration, the authority that come of him and through him, is the foundation of this Church. He is the chief cornerstone, and not any man.

We believe what Jesus taught, and in this we rely on scripture, including the Bible, which we believe as it came from the mouths of the prophets. We believe also other works, given to other peoples anciently and modernly, in addition to that word given to ancient Israel—works which are consistent with and complementary to the Bible. In addition, we believe in the words of the living prophets. We believe in continuous revelation, for we feel that a Loving Father still gives divine guidance, and would not leave his sincerely seeking children alone without counsel or direction—and him whose countenance you have seen this morning in conducting this conference—President David O. McKay—we accept and sustain as a prophet of God, as we accept Moses and Abraham, and Peter and Paul, and Isaiah and Elijah or any such others.

It does not seem a strange thing that God would speak to his children in the present as well as he would speak to them in the past. Certainly we do not need his guidance less today. What loving father would hold himself altogether aloof from his sincerely seeking children?

We believe in the literal language of scripture concerning the Fatherhood of God. We believe the language of Genesis which says that God made man in his own image  Gen. 1:27 We believe that God is an infinite intelligence with an infinite love for us, not indefinable, but a Father with a father's interest in us. This gives us a peace and purpose in life, a sense of belonging and of not being left alone.

We believe that the glory of God is intelligence  D&C 93:36 that no man can be saved in ignorance  D&C 131:6 that the search for truth is an obligation, as is education also; and that there must be freedom for the search.

We believe in the commandments of God; in causes and consequences; in the necessity for living within the law; and that there is real reason for every commandment and requirement.

We believe that the human body should be preserved in health; that it is unwise and ungrateful and unjustifiably foolish to partake of things that impair the fullest well being of the body and effective physical functioning. What is not good for us simply should be left alone.

We believe literally in everlasting life, in the eternal perpetuation of personality; that whatever knowledge a man attains to in this life will rise with him in the resurrection  D&C 130:18 and we believe in a literal resurrection, remembering the words of Pascal, who asked, "Which is more difficult? To be born, or to rise again?"

Birth is a great miracle. Life is a great miracle, and he who gave us life here will give us life everlasting. This we believe.

We believe that all men will be resurrected; that all men in this sense will receive salvation, but that in the hereafter there are different degrees of glory  1 Cor. 15:22-23,40-42 entitlement to which will depend upon the life we have lived, and by the living of the law and the keeping of the commandments we shall be entitled to return to live with our Father and go back to him where once we were, to a place of peace and progress, where there will be everlasting life, with family and friends, in a relationship that is everlasting.

Thus we believe in marriage, not only for time but also for eternity, and that we have an inescapable obligation for the children God has given us to teach, to train, and to set before them a righteous example of the living of life.

We believe in the divinity of Jesus the Christ. We believe in the scripture which says that he was in the express image of his Father  Heb. 1:3 We believe that he was born of a virgin, as the scripture says  Isa. 7:14  1 Ne. 11:13  Alma 7:10 that he lived, that he preached, that he ministered among men, that he was put to death, that he rose on the third day, that he ascended to his Father, that he will come again on earth to rule and reign.

This is a simple belief. It is a profound one also. It gives peace in life. It gives a sense of everlasting purpose. It gives the assurance that we are helping to shape our own future with our faith, with our works, with our learning, with our lives. It gives us the assurance that life is purposeful, meaningful, limitless, everlasting; that the gospel was given as a guide to help us realize our highest happiness; that all its ordinances are essential; that authority to administer them is also; and that this authority was again restored in the nineteenth century through Joseph Smith the Prophet, as the heavens were opened and the personality of God again revealed as the Father, pointing to his Beloved Son our Savior, said, "This is My Beloved Son. Hear him!"  JS—H 1:17

In this brief time there is much omitted, but this in essence is the faith that gives us peace and purpose in life and freedom from many of its fears. We believe there are clear-cut answers to life's questions; that much of the groping of life can be eliminated.

In Calcutta, in India, we read in the notebook of a wonderful grandmother an inscription which, among others, she had cherished since she was a young girl—an inscription which India's great poet, Rabindranath Tagore, had written in there for her in his own handwriting: "Surrender your pride to truth."

These lines Tagore also wrote on freedom—freedom for the search and on the importance of such searching—(and we have altered a word or two by inserting "me" instead of "my country" in the last line):

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action—
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let . . . [me] awake."

An eminent analyst has said: "I have learned in forecasting economic futures that what is going to happen is already happening." It is so in our lives. It is so everlastingly, and all of us ought to determine our ultimate objectives as early as possible and then faithfully pursue them. Life is not limitless here. Time soon passes. Every man takes himself and what he is with him wherever he goes, and he takes himself also into eternity.

What do we have to lose by indifference, by neglect? In words already cited this morning at an earlier hour, "we have nothing to lose except everything," and, conversely, we have nothing to gain—except everything.

In the words of Archibald Rutledge: "I am absolutely unshaken in my faith that God created us, loves us, and wants us not only to be good, but to be happy." No man can be indifferent to the issues of life and death. These are uppermost at one time or another in the minds of all of us.

With some awareness of the responsibility of doing so, with myself, my family, and to all men, I would bear witness of the truth of these things, of the everlasting importance of them, of the obligation that all of us have to seek and to search, of the interest that our Loving Father who made us in his image has in us, and of the incalculable importance of the gospel he has given us. I leave with you my witness, in the name of our Lord and Savior, who died that we might live, even Jesus the Christ. Amen.