My dear brethren and sisters, I am always glad to bear testimony to the faith within me. Yet I confess that standing before such an audience, I feel a sobering effect. Brigham Young felt it in his day. He declared that since we are all children of God, there is within each one of us a part of God's very nature, and that to stand before a great group of Latter-day Saints, the accumulation, so to speak, of their godliness, lifts a man to a feeling that he stands before the great dignity of the Maker of us all.

I have listened with great interest to the messages of this conference. We have had a good time together. I know we have all been touched by the eloquent words just spoken by President McKay. He has touched the very center of our spiritual being, of our membership in the Church of Christ.

KINDNESS OF GEORGE ALBERT SMITH

During the events of the last few days, many memories have crowded in upon my mind. In a late afternoon of a warm, sultry day in August or September, I sat in my office rather tired after the day's work. The University of Utah had had internal dissensions which had been fanned by enemies into a nationwide scandal. I had been called in to assist others who were trying to return the institution and its work to a normal condition. It was the third time in my life that I had been obliged to serve my state in such a capacity. I was weary. Just then there was a knock upon the door, and in walked George Albert Smith. He said, "I am on the way home after my day's work. I thought of you and the problems that you are expected to solve. I came in to comfort you and to bless you."

That was the way of George Albert Smith. Of the many friends I have throughout the state and beyond, he was the only one, except a few of my intimate friends, who took time to give me the loving help in the work I had to do. Of course I appreciated that; I shall never forget it. We talked together for awhile; we parted, he went home. My heart was lifted. I was weary no longer.

You see, love, of which we have spoken so much during this conference, is not a mere word or a sensation within. To be a worthy love, it must be brought into action. President Smith on that occasion did that. He gave of his own time, his own strength, to me. I hope that those of us who have attended this conference these last few days will understand that the test of love is whether the person who loves gives of himself, of his powers, to the loved one. There is no true love unless that is done. The husband must give of his own self in a large sense, to the wife he loves; and she must give of herself surrender perhaps, for him, the things that she would like to keep and have. Parents and children must have the same relationship. There is no true love without sacrifice for the loved one. Since we have spoken so much about love, perhaps we might keep that in memory.

THEME OF ADDRESS

Shortly before the death of President Smith, I heard one of his addresses, perhaps it was his last, I am not quite sure. He chose as his theme, the unhappy condition of the world at the present time. He laid down a principle which I believe to be correct and inspired, that there will be no peace, no final solution to the world's problems, until this body of people, comprising the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, cleanse themselves, accept the doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ, spoken of so beautifully this morning, and set to work to battle for righteousness and for truth; only then can we hope for peace. He admitted that of course it was a tremendous claim, but the claim is eternal. Truth is always the winner, truth is never defeated. In the words of the old poet: "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." He left on that occasion the message to me and to others that we must cleanse our hearts, as said here today by President McKay. We must gather up our courage, and we must set forth to battle for righteousness in the world. Then, just as a leaven leavens the lump  1 Cor. 5:6 so we shall leaven the whole world. A tremendous mission, isn't it? Tremendous to think about—that this handful of people have within themselves the power, if properly used, to change the whole world for good or for evil.

EXAMINATION OF TESTIMONIES

I have felt on many occasions, especially after that sermon, that what we need to do, each one of us, is to begin to examine our own testimonies of the truth. After all, with our testimonies as our chief weapon, we go out to battle evil. We speak of a testimony, yes; we say we have a testimony—but is the testimony of a kind that will enable a man to accept and obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ under any and all conditions? It might be good for us Latter-day Saints to begin to re-examine our own testimonies. A man who goes into battle cleanses his sword, looks after his gun, and he is ready for the battle when it comes. We are in the midst of a great battle today, the battle of the ages, foretold by prophets throughout the long ages of the past. We must begin with a certain understanding of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and a willing, ready acceptance of it, as indicated by President McKay. There is no other way. But have we done that? Have we looked into our own hearts, to our testimonies, and added that which is wanting, taken out that which is unworthy? We should be fit for the battle.

In the words of President Smith, we, like the leaven, shall leaven all people. His life of love was merely an illustration of that larger view of the concern of all who follow the Christ.

A UNIQUE PEOPLE

I think that we Latter-day Saints can afford to be a unique people. Once in awhile I meet a young person, sometimes an older person who says, "Well, that may all be true, but I don't want to be different from other people. I want to be like other people. Why can't we be like the others? It's so much easier then to go through life."

But we can't help it, my brethren and sisters, if we are different. We are different—in righteousness, in virtue, in the teachings of the eternal gospel—we are different. We can't escape it. If our testimonies are sound and true, we know that we cannot be like other people unless they, too, accept the truth as we possess it.

I don't know of a figure in the last two thousand years who was more different from the mass of humanity, the millions of men and women, than the Prophet Joseph Smith. He stands alone, unique—the only such religious leader in two thousand years, since the days of the Christ. He received his commission from God himself: he was instructed by God himself; he spoke at one time with God himself. No other man in the midst of the great apostasy from simple truth has ever been able to make that claim. And we know it to be true. Of course we are a different people. Since I mustn't take too much time today—many of us are yet to speak—let me say to you that we have the right, in searching our testimonies, in getting them ready for this great battle, to remember that a testimony is a living thing, not a static, dead thing—it is alive and sometimes fills a man and a woman until the visions of heaven are opened to him or to her. By that token of life, a testimony must be fed, cared for and nurtured, kept in its right place and position, protected if needs be. In doing that, we have the right and the need to take all evidences that lie about us, all evidences of the truth of this great latter-day work. The Lord himself told us so to do. We may read in the Doctrine and Covenants, section twenty, when the foundations of this Church were laid, when our Church constitution, so to speak, was written (you will find that evidences are there mentioned), that by the evidences that lie all about us we shall be judged  D&C 20:7-16 Joseph Smith set up evidence after evidence of the reality and truth of all that he said and did.

WITNESSES TO PROPHET'S WORK

I am thinking of one great argument in favor of Joseph, debated and talked about for over a hundred years: He had witnesses, human flesh and blood witnesses, such as we are, of his work. He was alone in the grove when the first vision came; he was alone when Moroni called; the Church had not then been organized, hardly begun. But from that time on, almost everything he did of a spiritual nature, his communions and communications with the Almighty and divine beings, were shared by him with others. It is really a wonderful thing. The great spiritual leaders of the last two thousand years have gone into the woods, fasted and prayed, and come back with these messages, alone. They have gone into caves—Mohammed, for example—always alone. But this great latter-day prophet, after the beginning of the work, had companions who shared with him his great experiences. Twelve honorable men of unquestioned probity saw the plates of the Book of Mormon; when the priesthood was restored by John the Baptist, Oliver Cowdery, an honest man whose integrity has never been questioned, received the priesthood with Joseph. When Peter, James, and John came to give the higher priesthood, Oliver Cowdery was there. When the great messages in the Kirtland Temple came, which we frequently overlook in their greatness, Oliver Cowdery was by his side. When the message that men shall be judged by their works—a tremendous doctrine in that day of apostasy—was given, Sidney Rigdon was with the Prophet Joseph Smith. And other men, ancestors of some of you men who are here today, were in the room with the Prophet time and time again when the revelations of God came to him. Some of them have described in writing how it occurred.

We don't stand alone. We have witnesses to our faith. We are a unique people. All about us are witnesses to the truth of this great latter-day work. It might be well in building our testimonies to begin with the simple foundation—events. Ultimately we will then win that greater testimony, the testimony of the spirit which is the testimony, but which we must achieve little by little  Isa. 28:10 in a natural manner that the Lord has prescribed:

A WORLD MESSAGE

So brethren and sisters, let us look into our testimonies. Are they just words on our tongues, or do they really represent our convictions? If they need mending, mend them; if they need building, build them. Remember that our message is a world message—I have said before from this stand that we are not confined to these valleys and mountains—our message is for the whole world. For every nation, every tongue, and every kindred  Rev. 14:6 we have responsibility.

God bless us and be with us, not only in our search for truth, but also in our use of truth, for the accomplishment and the completion of the great purposes of the Lord in these days, I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.