My brothers and sisters, with all my heart I believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ as the power of God unto salvation  Rom. 1:16 both spiritually and temporally. The testimonies I have heard in this conference have carried conviction into my heart that this gospel is true.

CHURCH BRINGS SALVATION

I know that had we lived in the days of the Master and had we observed him at work, we would have seen him placing in his organization apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists  Eph. 4:11 high priests, seventies, elders, priests, teachers and deacons. I know that had we heard his disciples bear their message we would have heard them all say that this organization set up by the Son of God is the organization through which the children of God would receive salvation. Had we lived a little longer, had our lives been extended for two or three centuries, we would have observed that this organization set up by the Master had practically disappeared as it had been set up, and yet we would have known, had we studied the words, that there would come a day and a dispensation when there would be a restoration of all things spoken by the mouths of the prophets  Acts 3:21 when the fulness of the gospel would be brought by one coming through the midst of heaven to the children of God upon the earth.

Now that we live in a dispensation known as the dispensation of the fulness of times, we are blessed and privileged to see an organization with apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, quorums of the priesthood, the same agency, the same organization in all of its departments as was set up by Christ our Lord, as his organization, and we are blessed in knowing that it bears his name, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints  D&C 115:4

GRATITUDE FOR FAITH OF TEACHERS

I have been thrilled by the testimonies which have been borne here. I thank God, my brothers and sisters, for the testimonies of men like Brother Oscar Kirkham and Brother Levi Edgar Young. These men were my teachers when I was struggling for an education in high school and in the university. I thank God that they touched my life with their testimony of the gospel more than they did with the instructions they had to give me as teachers of an educational institution. And as I look into the faces of the great educators who sit before me, who have in their charge thousands of our young people at this time, I am glad to know that they are men who know that in any field of science there has not been discovered, and they know that there will never be discovered, anything that will replace religion as the savior of the human family.

It is regrettable that we have in our institutions of learning, my brothers and sisters, some who would try to destroy the simple faith of our children which they have acquired at the knees of their parents and in the auxiliary organizations of the Church. You know and I know that there is no power under heaven in this day which will bring peace to the human heart and peace to the nations of the earth outside and beyond this simple faith in God our Father and in the efficacy of the gospel of Jesus Christ to regenerate the children of God here upon the earth.

You men who are at the head of these great institutions, some of which do not permit the teaching of religion although they do permit the teaching of everything and anything that will destroy faith in God, you have a great responsibility. It is your responsibility to touch the lives of your many students outside of the classroom as my life has been touched by men such as these I have mentioned.

BLESSINGS OF TEMPLE WORK

As President Smith has said, I have recently returned from a visit to the islands of the sea. It does me good to get down there among those great people, simple people with a simple faith in God. And I am reminded as I stand here that beyond this building there stands a temple of God and that down in those islands of the sea, many of them thousands of miles away from these great temples, there are hundreds and thousands of people who are trying to come over to these temples and receive their blessings. You know the promise that the Master made as he hanged upon the cross, one of the most beautiful and considerate of all his promises, a promise made to a sinner when he said to him: "Today thou shalt be with me in paradise"  Luke 23:43

We know where that promise is today. Brothers and sisters, our people in the islands of the sea, our people in the missions of Europe, know where that promise is. "Today thou shalt be with me in paradise"  Luke 23:43 And how they long to come to participate in the blessings of that promise, how they long to come to the Hawaiian Temple and go in there, as it were, into paradise, to reach back into their ancestry and say, "Today thou shalt be with me; today I will bring you into a knowledge and an appreciation of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

I have vividly in my recollection the last party of Maoris to come from New Zealand to the Hawaiian Temple, back in 1938. I see them now as they gathered together. President Smith was there, I think, at that time. As they gathered together in Auckland ready to embark, they had their tickets, return tickets. They had no money in their pockets. They carried with them their boxes of food, and they carried their blankets so that they could be fed and warm when they arrived at the temple. Everything they owned was consecrated to the reception of that great blessing, and they went with joy in their hearts. They traveled steerage on the ship, but they were happy, and they returned with a testimony in their hearts that Christ meant what he said when he said to the thief: "Today thou shalt be with me in paradise"  Luke 23:43

SALVATION FOR THE DEAD

Where is that promise, brothers and sisters, outside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? As I go about the islands of the sea, I learn that Christianity has only been among those natives a little more than a hundred years. Where is the salvation for the ancestors of those people, the children of Israel, Nephites, who lived prior to one hundred years ago in that vast expanse of ocean on those islands? Where, outside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is there salvation for the Polynesians of the Pacific who lived prior to the year 1840 in those islands?

Someone has said a bridge has no use unless it reaches both banks. We have the bridge, brothers and sisters, extending from one bank over to the other. You who work in the temples of God cross over that bridge from day to day, and you know that there is no other organization on this earth which has a bridge extending from one bank over to the other so that they can walk across and reach back beyond the year 1840 or 1740, or whatever the year may be, and bring across that bridge those great and noble souls who are our ancestors, the children of God.

God grant that we may have in our hearts the spirit of reaching back into the years and bringing out our people from that place where they are now confined. God grant that we may go into Potter's Field and bring out those broken pieces of clay and join them together into beautiful lives, that they may join with us in the great plan of salvation and exaltation in the kingdom of God. We cannot be saved without our dead, and our dead cannot be saved without us  D&C 128:15,18

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation  John 5:28-29 I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me  John 14:6

GATHERING OF GENEALOGIES

That is God's will that all his children who have lived in every day and age and dispensation of time shall come to the Father by his Son; therefore, let us cross the bridge and take the gospel of the Son to our ancestors. Let us study our genealogy. Let us get the names together. Let us not neglect this great and important work, and I know it is important because when I see our people in the islands of the sea writing their names down, gathering their genealogy and trying to get those names over to the temple, trying to get there themselves, I know that within their hearts they know that they are the children of God; they know that their ancestors were the children of God; and no Polynesian islander would want to be saved without his great and noble ancestors.

God grant that we may turn some attention, brothers and sisters, to the work for those who live on, on the other side of the bridge. Let us cross the bridge over to them.

TESTIMONY CONCERNING BRETHREN

I know as I stand here that God lives, that he has not forgotten his children upon the earth. I only wish that you people could have your lives touched as intimately as I have had my life touched during these brief two years I have been associated in the councils of these great and good men. Do not anyone ever say that any man who belongs to the councils of this Church has ever come into the councils because he needs or he wants monetary remuneration or because he wants wealth. If there is any man who is opposed to the welfare plan and program of this Church, I would like to have an argument with him if he thinks the brethren who sit here on this stand are not living on the welfare program, are not giving up much of this world's goods, its luxuries and its wealth by accepting the call.

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men  Matt. 4:19

God bless us all with the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God bless you men who are educators, you men who sit before me who stand at the heads of political organizations and occupy high government offices, that you may ever realize that there is no salvation outside of the plan of true religion, that there is nothing in political science or in physical science, or in any other science, that will replace the simple gospel of Jesus Christ as the power of God for the salvation of his children  Rom. 1:16

God bless us all, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.