President McKay and my beloved brethren and sisters. As we have listened during these days, there is a question by Daniel Webster that has come to mind, "How much is all this worth?" It is a question that everyone might ask himself.

"How Much Is all this Worth"

How much would it be worth to know the purpose of life?

What would it be worth to have an assurance of everlasting life?

What would it be worth to know that we may have life with our loved ones everlastingly?

How much would it be worth to have peace and quietness of conscience?

How much is it worth to be sustained in sorrow, in sickness, to know that the Lord God is aware of us, that he loves us, that we are his children, that he will not leave us alone?

How much is it worth to have a solid, sustaining faith in the future, despite the grievous problems and contentions that are prevalent among mankind?

The Lord Is the Source of Truth

Think what it would be worth to students, to young people who are tom between conflicting theories and teachings that change from time to time, with the many disagreements there are even among the experts, to be encouraged to search, to seek for truth, to know that the Lord God, whose infinite intelligence embraces the whole universe, is the source of all truth, and to know that there is no point or purpose in losing faith because of conflicting theories, because time and patience and research and revelation will sometime see them all resolved. After all, eternity is a long time, and there is infinitely much that men do not know. Why be disturbed about the little that we think we know. Many theories once thought to be true have since been set aside, and others will be.

The Gospel Encompasses This:

What is it worth to be able to look at all things with patient faith, knowing that all the answers will sometime be in evidence?

What is it worth to have standards, commandments, moral laws, rules of life which are God-given, and by which to judge our choices, our conduct, so as not to be left to the perversions and sophistries of men for such decisions?

How much is it worth to those who are discouraged, to those who have been harshly dealt with, to those for whom life has been hard, to those who don't quite seem to have found their place; to those who have been misjudged, to those who have been deprived of opportunity, to know that God is our Father, that he is mindful of us, that all we cannot understand will sometime be understood; that all injustices will be corrected, that in the ultimate working out of our Father's ways, no one will receive anything he shouldn't, and no one will be deprived of anything he should receive?

As Emerson said in his essay on "Compensation," which ties in to what Bishop Simpson has just been telling us, "The world looks like . . . a mathematical equation, which, turn it how you will, balances itself." It is impossible for a person to cheat anyone but himself. It all adds up.

God-given Rules of Life

All this and much, much more is encompassed within the gospel of Jesus Christ. And certainly such peace and purpose, such assurance, would be worth the meeting of his requirements the keeping of his commandments, and should give incentive for living clean and useful and honorable and dedicated lives.

All this should be worth young people's waiting for the proper time and season, waiting for life to unfold, with virtue, with prayerfulness, with respect for principles, with respect for parents, with the keeping of the commandments.

All this should be worth overcoming appetites, refraining from what the Lord has said is not good for man, heeding the simple counsel God has given, which will help us to have health and wisdom and knowledge and physical and spiritual blessings.

Often we rush. We sometimes aspire. We sometimes seek to acquire and accumulate. We live with many problems, with much unrest; we do much running around and take time for lesser things, looking elsewhere for answers, failing to find them.

Go to the Commandments of God for Answers

And with all the many things that men are finding, it would seem that bedrock answers should not be so elusive. Indeed, they are not, but the answers go back to the commandments of God, to the principles given by our Savior, to what has been revealed through the prophets, to that which gives peace and high purpose, and the assurance of everlasting life. And it is worth much to know that there are answers, that to all of the problems and all of the contentions of the world, there are answers. We heard Brother Romney speak of them. We heard Brother Kimball speak of them. We heard Brother Petersen and Brother Hunter speak of the commandments which have not been repealed. God has not changed his mind, as Brother Petersen indicated to us.

I should like to recall to your mind just a few sentences from these brethren:

From Brother Petersen: "To leave the path of virtue as set forth by Christ is an apostasy from Christ . . .

"I ask you—is God, who the scriptures say is the same yesterday, today, and forever  Heb. 13:8 now changing his mind?

"Does Jesus no longer believe what he taught when he was on earth?

"For any man to attempt to change the moral law is like trying to change the Deity himself."

May I cite a few phrases from Brother Kimball, when he reminded us that if the problem "could be solved with money, people would tax themselves to curb it. If penal or correctional institutions would suffice, a great building program would be initiated. If additional social workers could prevail, universities would add courses in these subjects. If judges and courts and attorneys, policemen and prisons and penitentiaries would solve the problem, the onrush of delinquency, such institutions would be dotted over all the land. But such are not the cures for the malady; but the Lord has given us a plan, so simple, so costless. It requires a change of attitudes and transformation of our lives."

It requires that self-control of which Brother Brockbank has been speaking. And any man who can't control his thoughts can't control his actions, and any man who can't control his actions isn't safe in society.

May I share with you one sentence from Carlyle. He said, "Over the times thou hast no power . . . Solely over one man . . . thou hast a quite absolute . . . power.—Him redeem and make honest."

There are two pertinent lines from the closing of a beautiful song which the Tabernacle Choir sings, "America, the Beautiful": "Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law."

Commandments Are Self-enforcing

Sooner or later we learn that the commandments are self-enforcing. In all things there are causes and consequences. In all things there are standards, and all that we haven't yet reached or realized we must arrive at by repentance and improvement. There is no way except the Lord's way. As Dr. James W. Clarke expressed it many years ago in a radio sermon quoted by William H. Danforth:

"Christ is the greatest need of the world. Many of us profess to be Christians, yet we must confess that we do not take Him seriously. Our surrender is but in part. We salute Him, but we don't obey Him. We respect Him, but we don't follow Him. We admire Him, but we don't worship Him. We quote His sayings, but we don't live by them . . . There is only one way out for the world—the way of the man of Galilee."

Eternal Life Gained by Keeping the Commandments

Jesus asked this of the Nephites, and then answered his own question:

"Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am"  3 Ne. 27:27

"And, if you keep my commandments," he said elsewhere, "and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God"  D&C 14:7

How much is all this worth? It cannot be calculated.

"We have nothing to lose—except everything." And nothing to gain except everything—eternal life with our Father and his Son, and with our loved ones with us everlastingly, and peace and purpose and assurance here and now.

Leaving you my witness as to the truth of this work and as to how much all of this is worth, in closing there comes to mind these words from President McKay: "Go home and live your religion . . . Radiate what you are and all who come under its influence will benefit from it."

May our Father's blessings be with you always, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.