President McKay, your stirring message this morning has touched each of us very deeply, and I have felt the Spirit of our Heavenly Father on this most sacred occasion. I have thrilled with you in the testimony of Elder Monson. It brought very forcefully to my mind many similar experiences I have been privileged to share with him in the South Pacific. And I think it has been a fitting climax to have this marvelous choir share their testimonies through song as they have praised the Lord.

Did you know that Woodrow Wilson had a pretty long nose? And they tell us that he often wore his glasses near the end of it. Upon being asked the reason for this practice, he jokingly replied: "I wear my glasses near the end of my nose so that I can always see what I am talking about."

The new and different are suspect

I hope you ladies in the listening audience will pardon me if it seems to you for a moment that I don't know what I'm talking about. And I hope you will excuse me if I seem to be a bit frank. I think the hair styles you are wearing now—perhaps I should say some of the styles that some women and girls are wearing now—are, to say the least, quite out of the ordinary, although I suspect that if you would ask the opinion of men at the end of the season, you would find that they had become quite accustomed to your unusual styles.

Or take the problem of ladies' makeup. "If my sister or girl friend makes up her face like some magazine ads, I'll disown her," fellows used to say. But after a while they had "grown accustomed to her face" (as the hit tune suggests). "Well, it may be all right for girls, but you can be assured that my wife shall never so degrade herself in the eyes of other people," another says. A few months pass and something happens. "Well of course, if you really like it and since all the other women are doing it, go ahead, and see how it looks."

Now you brethren, don't tell me you haven't had some of these conversations or thought. But we did draw the line at grandmothers. All right for young ladies, not so bad for the middle-aged, but when it came to old folks—well, there we called it quits. And now we like it. At least when it's done in moderation and good taste and we find ourselves fussing when women threaten to return to the old style.

It's the same with inventions. I can remember when we used to laugh at certain makes of new cars, because they were so low slung, so close to the ground. To have real class, an automobile must ride high above the road and have enormous wheels. Today, after the passing of only a few decades, we seldom see one of the old skyscraper cars on the street, and when we do, we smile.

"Why, I wouldn't use one of those new-fangled electric sewing machines, it you'd give it to me," a highly educated woman said not more than 20 years ago. Now I'm quite certain she would be satisfied with nothing else.

Have you known many mothers, after using electric washers after for some time, who longed for the good old days when they had the privilege of washing their clothes by hand, or fathers who would give anything in the world to get rid of motor cars and go back to muddy roads and the one-horse shay?

And yet a lot of these same people, who gradually accept new styles and inventions, close their minds to new inventions, close their minds to new ideas and truths in religion that could bring them eternal joy and salvation.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could adjust ourselves as easily to new truth as we do to the new habits of styling and to new inventions? It is only natural that people should criticize when new ideas first arrive. Anything that is new and different always arouses suspicion. But why they should gradually accept new discoveries of truth in other fields and not in the restored gospel is difficult to understand. Still, I think there may be one reason for this difference. Folks accept new customs because through use they gradually learn to see their value. The reason some people don't accept revealed truth from heaven is because they are afraid or too stubborn to give it an honest trial and thus find its worth.

My brothers, sisters, and friends, our forefathers did not know all about electricity. Let us consider our knowledge of electricity as compared with that of Benjamin Franklin's day. Do we think that they had the last word in scientific truth? As mankind has grown in the use of electricity, so has he also grown in the knowledge of it. This, likewise, applies to the truths of the gospel. In the same manner, by using the gospel in our daily lives, we are prepared for increased knowledge of revealed truth.

Look to prophets for guidance

Today, as in every age, we should look to the living prophets of the Lord for guidance and direction. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is led by such a prophet in David O. McKay. Through him and the Prophets of this dispensation—beginning with Joseph Smith—many new truths have been revealed.

May I share with you five of the significant truths that mark the belief of Latter-day Saints in their understanding of a universe in which God is a gloriously real and intelligent being, and in which they, individually, have a significant part to play.

Man an eternal being

First, the Latter-day Saint knows himself to be an eternal being. He is challenged by a divine plan of progression that can make both mortality and the eternities to come an ongoing experience of purpose and meaning. He sees an unmeasured capacity within himself for growth and development in a universe of order and design.

His divine heritage

Second, he believes that he has a divine heritage. His eternal, primal self was born into a spirit body of which God is the eternal father. Thus men and women are truly sons and daughters of God. So men partake of the divine nature of God in whose image they are created  2 Pet. 1:4 Weak and imperfect as men may be today, their future growth and achievement is limited only by the extent to which they fulfill the promise of the spark of divinity that lies within them.

Freedom exalts the individual

Third, it is the freedom that exalts the individual. True freedom is a condition that every individual must develop for himself. It is based upon the gospel principle of responsible free agency—not just free agency, but responsible free agency—because responsibility and the right and capacity to choose go hand in hand in the gospel. We need to distinguish between free agency and freedom. Free agency is the right to choose, while freedom is both the ability and the opportunity to put that choice into action. True freedom, however, must be achieved. This achievement is accomplished through individual growth in the understanding of, and the ability to, accept and use eternal truth. You and I are not only responsible free agents, but we are literally divine offspring of God in that capacity. Personal freedom that comes from acceptance of, and adherence to, eternal truth is one of the great revelations that guides our lives today.

Marriage, an eternal principle

Fourth is the eternal principle of marriage. For the Latter-day Saint, marriage is more than a relationship established for convenience; rather, it is an eternal companionship that exists between husband and wife and between parents and children wherein they are bound together as a unit for time and all eternity. In line with the eternal nature of man, the Latter-day Saint idea of marriage is an exalting one, for, as the scripture indicates, ". . . neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord"  1 Cor. 11:11 indicating that the marriage and family covenant is not a "till death do we part" relationship but one that exists for time and for all eternity.

The Gospel plan is optimistic and positive

Fifth is the cheerful news that the gospel plan for man is both optimistic and positive. As the Prophet Joseph Smith explained, "Happiness is the object and design of our existence" (DHC 5:134). Progress is a mechanical thing. We must be aware of the forces that shape our lives and of our part in them. Sorrow and unhappiness mark our failures to seize upon and make the most of the opportunities life gives us for growth and achievement. Happiness is not the reward of an indefinite future but comes daily along the way. It comes to those who can recognize and mark their own individual progress in making the divine truths of the universe about them an effective part of their lives and daily living. The man most likely to use truth is the one who seeks to understand it and to appreciate its value in his own life.

Remember, as Bruce Barton has said, "When we're through changing, we're through."

"The secret of genius" declared Carlyle, "is to carry the spirit of childhood into old age—with boundless curiosity about the future—flexible, growing, hoping, trying, ready at all times for change."

And that applies to religion as well as to every other phase of thinking.

The Savior taught that "you must become as a little child"  Matt. 18:3 I take it he meant to be not only innocent, but also open-minded and searching, seeking unto the end of life for more and more truth, wherever it can be found—the truth that sets us free.

Today several thousand men and women, missionaries, in every corner of the world carry the divine message of the restored gospel. May I challenge you this day member and nonmember alike, to search your hearts. Open your homes and your hearts, that you might come to know the truth.

The revealed truths that we declare to the world today are true. God has spoken again, and he speaks through his Prophet, David O. McKay; I give you that solemn and personal witness, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.