Now, my brethren and sisters, the hour is drawing to a close, wherein our great conference gathering will soon have become an event of the past. The sessions themselves will be mere history, but the messages, we hope, will ever remain on the tablets of our memories and will become moving factors in our daily lives.

There are one or two features I should like to name before announcing the closing hymn and benediction. It has been most gratifying to see the number of young people, college boys and girls, who have attended these sessions. I refer not only to the 350 or 400 students from Brigham Young University but to others with them, who have taken places throughout the congregation and who have manifested an interest in spiritual things. This is most encouraging. They have come voluntarily showing their eagerness to know something about the real things of life.

It has been most gratifying to note how the Spirit of the Lord has directed the remarks of members of the Council of the Twelve, the Assistants, the Seventy, and the Bishopric, and how frequently and impressively the messages have been directed to the young folks. We love them. We have confidence in them. We hope the messages will be read by others whom they have represented.

And now in conclusion I should like to say just one word or two and associate the thoughts with a very remarkable saying Of the Savior. He repeated it several times. It is a paradoxical statement. "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it"  Matt. 10:39

That form is recorded in the tenth chapter of Matthew, and over in the sixteenth chapter the Savior repeats it again in a little different way: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it"  Matt. 16:25

The pith of that paradox is found in the use of the word life. You cannot take it literally, that you are spending your life, your mortal life, that you are going to sacrifice your life in mortality, but it rather suggests two planes in life: the baser and the higher, the animal and the spiritual. You can apply it, with those two ideas in mind, in any phase of our activity.

In closing this conference I should like to apply it in two phases. First, either saving our lives or losing them in the home. Children may lose their lives in attempting to save them. The home is the foundation of society. It is a sacred institution to members of the Church of Christ. We believe in the eternity of the marriage covenant, in harmony in the home. Indeed our ideal is to have home just a little taste of heaven. Children constitute a very important part of the Latter-day Saint home.

We believe in obedience of children to parents. Young people in their teens particularly, strike out to find pleasure, to save themselves, to seek to gratify desire; they seek to achieve some sensation, some thrill, which may or may not be in harmony with the wishes of the parents. If out of harmony with the desire and advice of the parents, then those children seek to save themselves and in so doing may lose the happiness they seek.

Indeed, we find it applicable even among friends. One of our writers, not called a poet, but he is a very good, practical philosopher, Rotarian, said, and this is to you young people:

"You ought to be true for the sake of the folks
Who believe you are true.
If you're false to yourself, be the blemish but small,
You have injured your friends; you've been false to them all."

And this is better:

"You ought to be fine for the sake of the folks
Who think you are fine.
If others have faith in you, doubly you're bound
To stick to the line.
It's not only on you that dishonor descends:
You can't hurt yourself without hurting your friends."

Can you lose yourself for the good of your friends? If so, you will be happy. Higher than that, can you lose your impulses, your desires, or the love you have for your parents? If so, you will save your life and your home.

Husbands, that applies to you. Very frequently discords arise in the home because husbands desire to save their own dignity and have their own way, have their own wishes carried out. Wives desire the same. Some exercise their prerogative to have the last word. Husbands are sometimes even more eager to have it than wives. Each really is trying to save himself or herself, and instead of having harmony and peace in the home there arises discord. Instead of saving the life of harmony in the home, you lose it, merely because you are seeking to save your own selfish life, or have your own selfish way. Better to lose that desire. Say nothing, and in losing your desire and that feeling of enmity, of ruling of governing, you say nothing, and you gain your life in the home.

In a broader sense you can apply that to life. Browning in that great poem "Paracelsus" illustrates that same truth. You remember how he started out to save himself, that is, to gain knowledge as a great scientist with the intention of handing it down haughtily to the people. Festus, his friend, said, "You had better not withdraw from the people." That is the great benefactor.

But Paracelsus was haughty. He was proud. When Festus warned him, Paracelsus answered, saying, "Festus, are there not two experiences in the life of a diver? One, when a beggar he prepares to plunge, one when a prince who rises with his pearls. Festus, I plunge." His friend said, "We await you when you rise."

Years afterwards, after a life of scientific inquiry, and a successful life, his friend found him on his deathbed in a Greek conjurer's house. Without going into the story I will merely say, Paracelsus recognizing his friend, said: "Festus, I have found the secret of life."

"What is it? All that I have depends on that answer.

And the great philosopher said: "It is this: Live in all things outside yourself by love. That was the life of God. It ought to be our life."

In harmony with that, I read what the Prophet Joseph said, quoting the passage with which our conference opened:

"Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.

"Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work. . .

"And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.

"Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence"  D&C 4:2-3,5-6

"He that would save his life" in the home, in business, in society, in politics, and particularly in association with his fellow men should lose that life for the good of others. "He that will lose his life for my sake shall find it" (see  Matt. 16:25

God bless you stake presidents, presidencies, high councilmen, bishoprics of wards, members of Melchizedek Priesthood quorums, Aaronic Priesthood quorums, members of the auxiliary organizations—Relief Society, Sunday School, Young Menus and Young Women's Mutual Associations, Primary Associations.

Now I have included the entire membership of the Church, excepting the little babes. I repeat, God bless you that the spirit of this great conference may go with you to bring peace into your hearts as you lose yourselves for the good of others; harmony in your homes as you curtail that impetuous tendency to cause discord, as you control that tongue and do not say the thing that hurts.

God bless the youth throughout the world, members of the Church particularly, that they may seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, that all else may be added unto them, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.