I feel subdued in spirit, brethren and sisters, as we come near the closing moments of this great conference. There is the promise that "when a man carries it into the hearts of the children of men"  2 Ne. 33:1 Because there are some here visiting with us as guests about whom I care deeply, I pray for an interest in your faith and prayers as I direct my remarks to them.

It has been our privilege over the past two years in the mission field to become acquainted with clergymen from a number of Christian churches. We find them to be good men—sincere, honest in their dedication to the ministry that they have chosen. It is to you "men of the cloth," as you term yourselves, that I speak.

Churches wanting

Would you be offended if I called you "our brethren"? This term, commonly used in the Church, is a title of dignity and honor, and I address you thusly in respect for your ministerial assignment.

Please understand the spirit in which I speak. It is with humility and without arrogance that I call to your attention a matter of significant spiritual importance; in the spirit of what might be termed "a call to the Christian clergy."

In conversation several of you have opened your heart and given expression to your solemn feelings concerning the Christian Church at large, the feeling that something is out of order that wants to be put in order. Not so much as you have said, that the clergy is not desirous of moving people to good works, but rather that there is something missing.

Your youth have become unresponsive, and although you have introduced innovations into the worship services—jazz combos, poetry reading, interpretive dancing, all thought to be appealing to youth—nevertheless, they are drawn away and grow up without faith.

"Famine in the land"

One reads with serious reflection the words of the Prophet Amos:

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

"And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

"In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst"  Amos 8:11-13

I testify that such a spiritual famine is upon the world. And as moral fiber is weakened, forces of darkness grow in courage. Evil has unclothed herself and walks the street in brazen impudence, defiant, frightening, persuasive.

In recognition of this, you point with nervous realization that the churches are not fulfilling their obligation to mankind; and you find yourselves reaching out to one another, hoping to draw close together, to stand shoulder to shoulder, sensing that in unity there may be strength.

You have told me of your councils—local, regional, national, and worldwide—in which you devote yourselves to the spirit of ecumenism. These are ecumenical councils in which you labor industriously to bring into one the whole of Christianity.

Church absent from councils

In all of this you see us, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, standing apart, not participating. We are not in the councils. And not only this, you find us sending missionaries among your parishioners, pleading with them to hear the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and bearing witness that he lives.

Why, you ask, will we not support the great ecumenical movement? Why do we absent ourselves from councils called in the name of Christian unity?

It is in answer to this question to you and to the wondering youth in the Church that we yearn with prayerful, fervent desire that you may feel the spirit in which we speak.

Need for unity

Our brethren, we declare that councils alone will not bring unity. The efforts of men only, regardless of how well-intentioned, will not call it forth. No more will be accomplished through uninspired reorganization and attempted unification of the Christian churches than has been accomplished through the uninspired separation of them.

It was when men denied the gift of the Spirit and failed to heed the inspirations from the Lord and the promptings of the Holy Ghost that they strayed from the gospel of Jesus Christ and began to contend one with another and to protest one against the other.

The very concern, the recognition of the need to be put together again, the very feeling that something is out of order that wants to be put in order, indeed, the very reason for which the ecumenical councils are being called are evidence that the division in the first place was wrong and even apostate in its dimensions.

There is indeed a need for unity. But we would be mistaken to assume that each of the multiplicity of Christian churches is part of the so-called "body of Christ" (one Church representing the arm, another the leg, another the head, etc.), and that putting them all together would make the full "body of Christ"  1 Cor. 12:27

They are not component parts, but are imperfect and distorted copies of the whole. To pretend that bringing them together will constitute bringing into one whole all that is essential for the salvation of mankind would be to mislead one another.

You have no doubt on many occasions read these words in the gospel of John:

"If ye love me, keep my commandments.

"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever

"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you"  John 14:15-18

Men need spiritual comforter

In no age in the history of the world were men more in need of that spiritual comforter.

Is it unreasonable to ask you, who are by disposition such seekers after truth that you have chosen the ministry, to set aside for a moment self-interest, prejudice, even concern over the source of your livelihood, and to openly and honestly and prayerfully consider that there may be an answer provided by the Lord that cannot be arrived at in ecumenical councils?

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts"  Isa. 55:8-9

Are you so illiberal that you could not admit at least as a thought that God may have chosen not to restructure, nor repair, nor to renovate, nor even to re-unite the churches?

Restoration needed

Mankind is not left alone. There is the answer to the problem of Christian unity, but it is not a reuniting nor a renovation. It is the restoration!

The Lord's way was certified to man on April 6, 1830, when there was organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Father and the Son had appeared. The heavens were opened!

Angelic messengers restored by ordination the priesthood. God once again spoke through his Prophet. A council of twelve apostles was called. And the organization, with proper authority, was restored as it had been first established by Jesus Christ.

It is not an easy way we offer. It is not easy to change, particularly when we come to see the path we have walked in a new light.

A naturalist one day knelt in the Scottish highlands with his magnifying glass focused upon some blossoms of the heather until, as he afterwards confessed, he lost track of time. Suddenly he glanced over his shoulder and found an old highland shepherd watching. I suppose he was somewhat embarrassed, but without saying a word he plucked the heather bell and handed it with the magnifying glass to the shepherd. The old man put the instrument to his eyes and peered at the heather bell. He was silent for awhile; then, handing back the flower and the instrument, he said slowly: "Ay, man, I wish ye no had shown me that."

"Why?" asked the naturalist.

"Because these rude feet have trodden so many of them." It is not easy to change.

In this conference you have heard quotations from the Book of Mormon.

Some have been offended that anyone would assume that the Bible was incomplete or that there needed to be more. They have, indeed, said, "A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible. What need have we for more Bible?" (see  2 Ne. 29:3

We are, nonetheless, inescapably faced with the fact that with the Bible only, well-intentioned men, as worthy as you today, with centuries of opportunity to seek their end, have devised such a multiplicity of churches that even the ecumenical movement seems hopeless to unite them. And if the present trend continues, the Bible itself will be repudiated by the churches.

"Missing something"

Our brethren, as you look for that "missing something," consider these words spoken by a Book of Mormon prophet:

"And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.

"And he hath said: Repent all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, and have faith in me, that ye may be saved.

"And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that these things are true which I have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you, with power and great glory at the last day, that they are true, and if they are true has the day of miracles ceased?

"Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?

"Behold I say unto you, Nay—for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.

"For no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name; wherefore, if these things have ceased, then has faith ceased also; and awful is the state of man, for they are as though there had been no redemption made.

"But behold, my beloved brethren, I judge better things of you, for I judge that ye have Faith in Christ because of your meekness; for if ye have not faith in him then ye are not fit to be numbered among the people of his church"  Moro. 7:33-39

"What today's world must have," said President J. Reuben Clark, "if humanity is to go on climbing upwards, is men—those wearing the cloth as well as the laity—who know that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ; men who, having this knowledge, have also the intellectual honesty not only to admit but to proclaim it; who have further the moral courage and the sterling character to live the righteous lives this knowledge demands. This knowledge must be a living, burning knowledge of God and Christ."

Today's dilemma foreseen

Our brethren, we bear testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's Church upon the earth, by his own declaration the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth with which he, the Lord, is well pleased  D&C 1:30

One hundred thirty-seven years ago, in anticipation of the dilemma that man would face, the problem of Christian unity was answered with the organization, the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, presided over by a prophet of God, having the apostolic power and authority and all the organization as it had existed in the primitive Church.

I bear you my witness that I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, that it is the power of God unto salvation  Rom. 1:16 and that all men who will may come and receive by baptism the saving ordinances of the Church and know of a certainty in their own heart of the truth of the message of this gospel. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.