Last evening President Richards referred with some feeling to the children and to the grandchildren and to the great-grandchildren, who if the Church is to carry forward, must somehow catch the great message from their parents and go forward when the torch is tossed to them. I should like to spend my few moments in talking to them, if I might have the Spirit of the Lord.

I should like to speak to Lori and to Park, to Charlotte and to Annette, to Jack, to Brook, to Becky, and to Kirk, to Joan, to Norma, and to Ann, to Suzette, and to Carol Gay, and to Don, to Dale, and to LeGrand, and to Henry and to David—I could go on and on and on naming the children, some of whom are listening this morning, and many of whom are in Sunday School.

Some of them, when given opportunity, would arise to their feet and say something like this: "I believe the gospel. I believe that Joseph Smith was a Prophet." And then they qualify it by saying, "I do not know yet that it is true, but I believe it." I desire to say something to them concerning this qualifying statement, and I should like to say it in simple language so they can understand.

The power to bear testimony, the ability and the feeling of being able to say that one knows that Jesus is the Christ and that the restoration of the gospel has come through the hands of Joseph Smith, comes entirely by the power of the Holy Ghost. That power does not come through any education or through any special preparation on the part of the recipient in earthly things, but rather it whispers into the heart of the one who wants to know, and once whispered and once understood, that person may stand and say as surely as I or anyone else may stand and say it, that he knows that Jesus is the Christ. For the Spirit bears the witness, and it comes to everyone that in truth desires it.

I think that is the great message of Joseph Smith himself. He was only fourteen years of age, and he walked into his mother's home one morning and said, "Mother, I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true  JS—H 1:20 Well, each of our children is not going to receive a vision such as Joseph Smith received, but each can have the whispering, and each can know just as surely, no matter what his age. He does not have to grow to be an adult to have this knowledge.

I can remember when I was a small child at the Lowell School up on D Street and Second Avenue. Four of us boys were gathered in the corner by the school fence, two of us were Latter-day Saints, and two of us were not. The two who were not were baiting the two Latter-day Saints. One of them (it was not I, although I might have had the courage to do it) turned on these other boys and said, "Well, we have the truth, and you haven't, and that is all there is to it." And that is all there was to it, too. He did not know why he knew it, but he did know it. He was going to learn why later. All children will learn to understand that whispering someday, and only by that whispering can you children, wherever you be, know that Jesus is the Christ. You may pile up evidence and knowledge, but only by that spirit will you know it.

Now the spirit does not always whisper. Sometimes it leaves one, and then one is left to his own resources. Then enters free agency. I should like to say to my children, my grandchildren and yours, that you can be determined to know about this thing by your own desire. You do not have to take someone else's word about it. Say to yourselves, "I know that this is so. I believe it, and I am going to abide by it." As you get that determination and say it, somehow the spirit will re-enter into you and fortify you in it.

There will be times when the spirit will not come to you. Here are some evidences which eventually will grow into your hearts until they will sustain you when the spirit is not present. There is the evidence which you will gain from the Book of Mormon. When you read that book, it will be an evidence to you. Coupled with it will be evidences found in the ancient Old Testament of how the Lord dealt with his ancient people. You will discover that it is very similar to the way he dealt with those in the Book of Mormon. The pattern of the New Testament will be an evidence to you, for like that pattern the Church today is established. There you will read it and take comfort from it.

You, when you get old enough to understand them, will be able to gain great comfort from the books of Moses and of Abraham, the revelations of the Lord to great, inspired men. These will give you renewed assurance. Archaeological discovery, that is, the digging in ancient mounds to find evidences of what kind of people lived there, will further your belief, because slowly but surely, as these evidences come forth, they bear their silent, dusty witness of the truth of the gospel.

One of the most noble witnesses and one of the most assuring and convincing witnesses is the lives of your own parents. Watch them live, watch how the gospel touches their hearts and makes them gentle and kind. That is the surest evidence that it is a power beyond any earthly conception—its effect upon the lives of your own folk and those you see around you who are trying to work righteousness.

Another evidence, as you get older, will be the evidence you will see in the effort of the Church to help its own through the welfare program. Such altruistic things can come only from those who want to practice and believe the truth. This great evidence will also bear its witness to you as you get older and take part in it; as you go to the cannery or as you go to weed the beet fields and help harvest the peas. Those evidences will come to you because of your work and your actions in that program.

Then, of course, you are going to have a great deal of pleasure and fun, but you are going to see the evidence of the auxiliary programs of the Church. How they touch your lives, starting with childhood and taking you through to adulthood, giving you ideals and knowledge of how to handle yourselves and your companions, how to be happy and joyful, and how to enjoy that portion of the gospel, for the gospel is a happy thing. And the Mutual Improvement Associations and the Sunday School and the Primary will contribute evidences within your ability to understand if you will but heed.

And finally, not finally but somewhere along the line, each young man will be given the priesthood. And then he will have a chance to practice the power which will eventually take him into the presence of our Heavenly Father. You will not know much about it at first, for it will be evidenced by such simple acts as the passing of the bread when the sacrament is administered in honor of our Lord and Savior. Later on you will be able to baptize, and, too, you will be able to lay on hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and after that you will be able to administer to your own sick. And still you will not know what that power is. Finally you will feel it, and you will learn, when you become old, that eventually it will take you into the presence of your Father in heaven.

Determination does it, my young friends. Be determined that you are going to get these evidences into your hearts, and then pray to the Lord that he will give you the Spirit of the Holy Ghost.

One more thing—you will have evidence of the whispering of the Spirit. You will hear testimony borne by others that there sits on this stand one who is not only the President of the Church but who is the Prophet of the Living God. That evidence can be borne into your hearts no matter how young you are, that the Lord has seen to it that his power has been carried forward from the days of Joseph Smith.

Let me give you an example of what can happen to you. Brigham Young stood up one day in the early history of this Church and told the assembled people that the Lord, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, had put upon his shoulders and those of the Twelve, the kingdom; that they were to bear it on and it was not to be done by Sidney Rigdon and others who were making claim, but that the Prophet had given to him and his fellows in the Twelve the power of God to carry on this work. There sat in that audience, my young friends, those who were full of faith, and the Lord manifested to them through a miracle that what President Young said was true, for he appeared unto them to be the very Prophet Joseph himself, and his voice sounded like the Prophet. They knew by that sign that he spoke truth.

But there also sat in that audience those who did not, and who did not want to believe, and who were critical. They saw and heard nothing, and they did not believe, and they apostatized. Of those who believed, you in this audience are their descendants. Those who did not believe, where are they?

It is the right and privilege of everyone, grown-up, half-grown, or tiny, to know by the Spirit that the President of this Church today, President David O. McKay, is a prophet of the Living God, that his Counselors are prophets, that the members of the Quorum of the Twelve and the Patriarch are prophets. All of the rest of us should sustain them in their holy offices so that they can direct the work, and we can forward it under their direction.

That testimony every man, woman, and child may know, not by any knowledge that comes from books, but by the whispering of the Spirit of the Holy Ghost.

I would that I were as simple as a little child, so that I might have as simple a testimony as has a child, but I do know that these things of which I have spoken are true. I bear witness of them humbly in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.