My beloved brethren and sisters: I suppose I shall never approach this task without a keen sense of dependence upon your faith and prayers in my behalf, that perchance what I shall say may be helpful to some of us.

I feel to bear my testimony to you today that I know that we are engaged in the work of God, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that this work was established by him.

When he was talking to his disciples, he said to Peter, ". . . upon this rock I will build my church"  Matt. 16:18 and as I read that scripture, I believe that rock refers to a revealed testimony that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I fancy that if I should ask you who are before me today who can bear testimony to that fact through the Spirit of God to stand upon your feet, you would all arise. That testimony, brethren and sisters, is what should impel us to service in the Church in the interest of our fellows. A true testimony that we are engaged in the work of God should bring us to love our fellows, for love has been given by Christ as the great and underlying principle of the gospel—that we should love God and love our fellows as we love ourselves.

The Savior said, "If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments" (see  John 14:15 and I gather from that, that loyalty to this testimony which we profess must impel us to the service which indicates our love for our fellows.

I told you before of the statement which I once read which says there are more uncultivated souls in the world than lands. Our purpose is to cultivate our souls and the souls of other people. Work in behalf of others implies sacrifice, and sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. That service is manifest in many ways. I have in mind the early missionary work of the Church, in which men, President Young, for instance, undertook a mission while on a sickbed. I have in mind the service of men who had come by very tedious and difficult toil to these valleys, and who turned around and returned to the east, pushing a handcart from here all the way to the Mississippi River. I have in mind the service of my grandfather who began in his seventeenth year, I believe it was, as a missionary for the Church, and died without ever relinquishing that service. In it all I can see a certain element of sacrifice in the interest of others. We look upon it as sacrifice. In its ultimate result, it proves to be not a sacrifice but a blessing. But we are in the habit of looking at those things as sacrifice, and when we serve in that spirit, and that spirit only, there is a development and a growth and an enlargement of the soul of man that come no other way.

Now as members of the Church, we testify that God lives and that Christ is his Son, also that the priesthood has been restored, that through that priesthood the Church has been reorganized in this modern day, and that certain of us hold that priesthood—the priesthood, which they have to translate, according to Brother Clissold, into Japanese, as the power of God. We hold it and we give that testimony to the world without embarrassment but deliberately. Now if we have that testimony, and if we are loyal to that testimony, it implies that we should serve the Church. There are many ways of doing this—some in the missionary service, some in local presidencies, some as ward teachers, and many other ways. But today I have in mind another type of service. It is a service which impels one to reach down into his pocket, to take therefrom the funds that he might use for his pleasure and satisfaction and bestow them upon the Church for its benevolent purposes. Regardless of the wonderful progress that has been made in the payment of tithes and offerings as indicated today, and in appreciation of the tremendous contributions that have made possible the building program of the Church, my mind goes back to a time when the Church had no funds. My wife's grandfather told me of an occasion when he and a brother companion had the privilege of contributing nine hundred dollars to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to pay the interest on its obligations, which the tithes of the Church up to that time had not equaled. Now we have made tremendous progress, but we are still far from the goal that is set in that respect. In the twenty-one years that I have ministered with you and unto you as a member of the First Council of the Seventy, I have never yet visited a stake where every officer of the stake and the wards claimed to pay what we used to call a full tithing, which we now call a tithing. We have a distance to travel yet if we would meet that goal.

Now the scripture says, "Try me and see if I won't open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing upon you which you can scarcely contain" (see  Mal. 3:10 What type of blessing is it you look forward to when you pay your tithes and offerings? Is it a temporal blessing, an increase in your flocks and herds that you have in mind?

And if you do, I suggest that perhaps it is a selfish motive, and self-interest never develops and enlarges the soul of man. I have seen men who were so selfish that they couldn't see their own interest and welfare. Now if we are going to test our Father in heaven, what are we going to expect when we make our tithes and offerings? I suggest that the blessings that are to come to us from that service should be expected to be spiritual blessings, the enlargement of the soul, the increase of our love toward God and our fellow men, an increased determination to serve and the peace and the happiness that come into the heart of man upon the realization that he has done his bit to help the Church in its work of redemption, for that is our great purpose. There could be no greater blessing, it seems to me, come into your hearts than peace and tranquility, devotion to the work of God and love for your fellow men. I myself believe that that is the type of blessing that comes not only from the payment of tithes and offerings, but also from service in all the other branches of the Church.

May God give us a determination to serve him, with that single purpose, the purpose of blessing others, let happen to us what may come as a result of that service. God bless you. Amen.