President McKay, Counselors, President Smith and other General Authorities of the Church, my brethren and sisters and friends:

I appreciate more than I can express in words the privilege of being here this morning, to express to you all my love and my thankfulness, for these General Authorities, for all my brethren and sisters, and my loved ones. I want you to know that I appreciate your thoughtfulness in my behalf, I trust that I will merit this kindness throughout my life. I am grateful, especially, to my Father in heaven for his many blessings, for answering your prayers for me. I am a great believer in prayer. "More things," we are told "are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of," and I know that is true. I know that prayers have been answered; otherwise I would not be here.

I was very thankful to hear announced this morning that Sister Lohner, Margrit Feh Lohner, would conduct the singing, and that Elder Edwin Q. Cannon would offer the invocation. Sister Lohner, or Margrit Feh as we knew her in Europe, was just a little girl when I met her first in the Sunday School. She was the life of the Sunday School in Zurich, Switzerland. Brother Cannon was one of my missionaries, and a wonderful missionary he was. This makes me feel more at home.

I love the gospel, brethren and sisters, and with President Clark who has just delivered a wonderful address and the others who have spoken yesterday and today, I bear my testimony with them that the gospel is true, that the gospel has been given to us for our happiness, not altogether in the life to come, but in this life. I think the Lord has meant that we should be happy here and not wait until the hereafter, and I know we can be.

"Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy"  2 Ne. 2:25 joy in this life, and the greatest joy that any person can have is through obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has been given to us for that purpose, that we might have joy, and I testify to you that through obedience to the gospel we will be happy, the happiest people in the world. I believe we are, today, because of the gospel. I like the expression, too, in the Declaration of Independence:

. . . all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We all like that expression, "the pursuit of happiness."

God help us to understand the gospel, and to live it, and to appreciate it. It is a beautiful world. These beautiful flowers, how they add to the enjoyment of all of us, more than we realize! I was delighted, too, more than I can express, that the brethren and sisters in Hawaii remembered the wives of the Authorities, and sent them beautiful orchids. That touched my heart.

Our wives and our mothers are too often forgotten in this world, and, brethren and sisters, you cannot estimate what they mean toe of us, and I think that we should express our appreciation for them more than we do. We men love our wives, of course, but we take it too much for granted, I think, sometimes, and we forget to tell them that we love them. We go home from our work at the office, a little tired, find a wonderful meal prepared for us. What do we do? Get the newspaper, get it in our left hand, and then swallow the meal down with our right, not knowing sometimes what we are eating even. Our wives have spent a lot of time preparing the meal for us, and it would not hurt us to express our appreciation. I think that some of the wives have not had a bouquet of flowers since before we were married. We used to take them a bouquet once in a while when we were "sparking" them, as we say, a box of candy perhaps, and that is the last they have had. It would not hurt us occasionally; in fact, it would help us as well as them, if they were remembered. Many of us do not know when their birthday is; we do not remember the anniversary of our marriage; these little things we forget. My favorite theme is appreciation; I like to talk along this line. My favorite song is "There is beauty all around when there's Love at Home," and I like to hear that. I am glad the home was mentioned so often yesterday. In fact, I appreciate everything that has been done and said in this conference, the singing yesterday and the singing today, the sermons that have been delivered. I am glad I am in harmony with them.

I have not time, it would not be wise to take more time to develop some of these principles. President Clark did it so beautifully this morning, and I am in harmony with everything he said. God bless him and the other Authorities of the Church, they have been very kind to me, and I want to testify to you that I am here today because of their faith, because of the authority of the priesthood which they bear, and with which they used that authority in laying their hands upon my head while I was lying in the hospital. I love these brethren with all my heart, and I love you, my brethren and sisters.

I love the gospel, as I say. There are many tourists in our midst that come and go. I wish they would call at the Bureau of Information, or perhaps the Church Office Building and ask for a little card on which are printed our Articles of Faith. They are wonderful. Many of these tourists do not know whether we are Christians or not, for example they ask: "Where do you fit in? Are you Protestants?" "No." "Are you Catholics?" "No." "Well, what are you?" "We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our head. It is his Church to which we belong." Our First Article of Faith would answer that question. "We believe in God, the eternal Father, and in his son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost"  A of F 1:1 And then the other articles—they are very short. It is wonderful how concisely they are written, and yet how instructive they are.

We are thought by some to be a little narrow. Well, the gospel is for all. "We believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved"—not just Mormons, but "all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel"  A of F 1:3 And so on down.

We love all mankind. "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience," another article says, "and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may"  A of F 1:11

And the thirteenth article is my favorite:

"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things." Then in conclusion, "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things"  A of F 1:13

Brethren and sisters, it would be well for all of us to learn these Articles of Faith, as well as the tourists, and not only learn them, but also live them, and may God help us so to do, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.