My dear brethren and sisters, I am thankful for the privilege of being with you in this great conference. As I approach this duty that has been assigned me, I humbly pray for the Lord to direct that which I should say and I invite your sympathetic feeling and prayers in my behalf.

I think there is nothing any man can say of himself that will tend toward our salvation. The Lord has said that we can do nothing in this work without him  John 15:5 I have been grateful in my heart during these services that we have the truth. How wonderful it is to have the truth upon which to stand; and to have it as a guide, as a support, as an enlightenment. The Apostle Paul referred to the gospel as "the power of God unto salvation"  Rom. 1:16 Truth is of God and only truth tends towards salvation. There is no power in error except to destroy, to spoil, to bring sorrow and regret and failure. We often speak and frequently dwell upon the need for salvation. May we assume that we accept the truth, that we need salvation. We are here in the earth, banished from the presence of God until we come back into his presence through faith and through his gospel and through obedience. We can only come there through principles of truth and righteousness. We can come back into his presence, where we belong, only by following the plan that he has outlined for us. No one else could outline it. That is his prerogative. It is his work and his glory to bring salvation to his children  Moses 1:39 and he is the one to plan for that salvation. It is planned according to eternal principles.

I urge our young people with all my heart to learn the doctrines of this Church, for in its doctrines, in its precepts, in its teachings is the power of God unto our salvation. I urge the young people in this Church to accept as a fact, that whatever success they may attain to in life, if they do not secure salvation in the kingdom of God, then that success is failure. We are the children of God. We belong back in his presence when this life is over. If we do not reach there, we have failed. Only the principles of eternal life taught in the gospel will bring us to that salvation.

So many people say, "Well, we want to be honest. We want to be good citizens. We want to be true to our neighbors and our friends. We need no intermediary between us and God. We will do what is right and trust to the future." Well, they are leaning on a broken reed. God has prescribed the principles that will save us and exalt us in his presence, and they are embodied in the teachings of the Church. And we are taught these principles because they are necessary for our salvation. I would that all our young people would study the doctrines of this Church faithfully, be constant readers of its scriptures, and know what is truth. Then when they go forth in the world, in their affairs, in college, in their occupations, they would have standards by which to judge all things; and if any things are contacted in their lives that do not conform to the teachings of this Church, that are contrary to it and the teachings and principles of the gospel, then those things should be rejected or laid on the shelf. They should not be adopted.

Now the Lord teaches us that we are the children of God, that we have a Father in heaven. That is a fundamental truth of the gospel. And that we are to worship him and keep his commandments. I remember not long ago reading of a survey made among college students. They were asked to give their conception of what God was like, and one of them said he considered that God was like an oblong cloud. Well, now I don't know where he got that idea, that God was an oblong cloud. He didn't get it out of the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ or the gospel of Jesus Christ. What salvation can there be in believing that God is an oblong cloud. It is an error. It cannot save. It can only destroy. We frequently go, and our elders have gone to others to bring them the message of the gospel, and as we begin to teach them the reality of God as our Father, they immediately reject the idea of God being in the form of man or being in any form that we can conceive of and understand because they say, in their superior knowledge, that God is unknowable. If we could know God, they say, he wouldn't be God. Well, to such extremes have gone the speculations and rationalizings of men who have not known the truth. Can there be inspiration? Can there be help, such as the brethren have been speaking of in having blessings and guidance and comfort and support, from an unknown God? The teaching of the gospel is that a knowledge of God and of his Son, Jesus Christ, is essential for our eternal life and salvation  John 17:3

We are taught to believe in faith and repentance and baptism, for admission to his Church and kingdom. Can we believe in something else and be saved through it? It is impossible.

I went into a great New York church, one of the finest in New York, at the beginning of last year. There was a splendid audience of men and women. I respect them and give them full credit for sincerity in their worship. It happened to be the time when they received new members into their church. There stood up on the front row about five or six people who had come to join the church. One of the ministers came down to the front seat and said to them, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?" They said, "Yes." He stepped up to them and shook hands with them, and said, "We welcome you into the church." Now does that mean salvation for them through that church? He didn't say, "I welcome you into the Church of Jesus Christ." He was consistent in that, because people are not brought into the Church of Jesus Christ in that way. The Apostle Peter told them how to come into the Church— when they had repented of their sins to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins that they might receive the gift of the Holy Ghost  Acts 2:38 That's a true principle. If we believe in that and obey that principle, then there comes salvation to us as we go forward obeying the truth. And so we may progress with respect to all truth.

The statement is frequently made that the gospel embodies all truth, and I can see one very good reason for saying that, because the Lord says that if we will keep his commandments, we will grow in knowledge and in truth until we have all truth  D&C 93:28 It is our prerogative as children of God, by obedience to gain all truth. It is all embodied in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I hope that when our young men go out to college that they will continue their study of the scriptures, that they will continue their activities in the Church insofar as it is possible where they are located; and if they are desiring with all their hearts to continue in their activities, they will probably find a way of doing it. I believe that young men may go through college and preserve their faith and grow in faith and in intelligence and understanding if they will be faithful and true to their religious obligations, but if they do not do that, they may lose their faith. If there is anyone who wants to go to college and hasn't the spiritual capacity to take on a college education without losing his faith, he had better stay on the farm and do his duty in the Church and serve his fellow men and serve God and grow in knowledge and intelligence and power there, because all the things he might get in colleges do not lead to intelligence. If a thing is true, it does. If it isn't true, it does not.

So, my brethren and sisters, thank the Lord for the truth. Thank the Lord for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank the Lord for the splendid leaders God has raised up to instruct us and counsel us and direct us. Let our youth preserve teachable hearts and minds, enlightened by the spirit and power of the Holy Ghost. Then they can go through all the colleges in the world, and all the occupations and needed experiences in the world, and preserve their faith and be successful as men among men, and always be thorough Latter-day Saints and then they are successful indeed.

May God give us power, and the youth of our Church power, to hold on to the faith, to love it with all their hearts, to incorporate it in their lives, to give it first place, so that God may bless and preserve them, and may we all do this and follow this principle, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.