Although I am American by birth and Scotch by marriage, I am Scandinavian by ancestry, and because of that I have a very keen appreciation of the beautiful music we have heard today from this Scandinavian choir. I would like to thank them as one of their countrymen, once removed, for the beautiful music they have rendered. I could not say thank you to them in Danish nor in Swedish nor Norwegian, but I can express some appreciation in four foreign words I have learned, two in Spanish, "mucho gusto," and two in German, "genz gut."

I was recently touring one of the large paper mills in the Pacific Northwest, and as I stood by one of the tremendous paper making machines, watching those whirring wheels and the fast-moving belts and feeling the tremendous heat that comes from those baking ovens, I marveled at the remarkable safety record of that great mill. Then I was told, and my eyes afterwards confirmed, that a wonderful safety program was carried on in that big mill, so that very, very few personal injuries were sustained there.

As I stood by that giant paper making machine, my eyes went up to the wall and there in a sign about six feet square, I read four words. The first word was in great block letters and occupied about half the sign, and underneath appeared the other three words. The sign said, "Think, then act safely." I learned that was the theme of the safety program in that tremendous mill and that it represented the whole idea behind the fact that few men get hurt there.

But as I stood there watching that machine go, and then glanced up at that sign, "Think, then act safely," my mind immediately went to a problem which Brother Spencer W. Kimball and I face together, and which was coming to a focal point at that very time, because school was letting out. It was the latter part of May, and I knew that it would not be long until hundreds and hundreds of young people would be coming to Salt Lake City and Ogden and other centers, looking for jobs, looking for places to stay, and some of them getting into trouble. I thought first of all of the parents of those young people and wondered exactly what they were thinking about. Very, very few of the parents of those hundreds of young people ever thought of coming to Salt Lake City or to Ogden or to Los Angeles or to San Francisco with their boys and girls, some of whom were fifteen and sixteen and seventeen years of age, to help them find a good family with whom to live, or stay with them until they found a decent job in decent circumstances with decent people.

And I began to wonder what some of those parents would think if they knew what the police department knows about some young people who come from smaller communities to these larger centers, unaccompanied, unchaperoned, unprotected, entirely on their own.

Yes, my mind did go back to that big sign in the paper mill, and I wished that every parent of every boy and girl who expects to leave home and go to a larger city would only "Think, then act safely."

I thought, too, of these young people. Many of them had no idea what they were getting into when they left home and came to the larger centers. They had absolutely no idea. Some of them came with only three or four dollars in their pockets and thought of course the minute they landed here they would get a job and the three or four dollars—in one case a girl had six—the three or four to six dollars would last until they got their first payday, and then they would be on easy street, and everything would go fine.

They would come to the larger city and look for a cheap place in which to live. Some of them were really cheap, on Twenty-fifth Street or on West Second South, or down on Canal Street in another city. They could not afford much, so they would get into a rooming house of some kind and think they were on their own and then discover that they had walked into tragedy. Some of the young people, unfortunately, could not wait to leave their homes. They wanted to break away and get on their own, and they did not realize what it meant to cut loose from home, to get away from the protection of Mother and Dad, and get into a strange city. Although there are many good people in all these cities, there are others who are cold and grasping and predatory, seeking innocent boys and girls to get them in their trap.

My mind went to the bishops, to the stake presidents. I still wondered why we have not responded more readily to the appeal of the First Presidency of the Church that you bishops, you counselors in bishoprics, you members of stake presidencies, and you parents cooperate with the program instituted by the Presidency and headed by Elder Kimball in an effort to protect your young people as they come to these larger cities. Will you not cooperate, will you not help? If you parents cannot control your children and they must go away, if instead of their being obedient to you, you are more obedient to them, at least will you not go to your bishop and talk about it, and then let the machinery of the Church help you? Will you "think, and then act safely"?

One of the big fears I have in connection with these young people coming to the larger centers is that so many of them actually want to break away from home, cut the apron strings, so to speak. They feel that they are self-sufficient; they know it all; Mother and Dad are old-fashioned. This is a modern world, and they want to be modern; they want to live in a modern way.

I ask the youth of the Church, do you really want that? Do you really want to cut loose from the protection of home? Think of all that home means. Think of all the word mother means. Think of the strong protecting power of Dad. Think of all that home stands for. And then think of the opposite. Think of the powers that are destructive of the home. And think of the powers that work contrary to the advice of Mother and Dad and ask if that is what you want

O youth of the Church, "think, then act safely."

One of the big difficulties about the young people who come on their own and have cut loose, escaped the apron strings, is that they then feel so free and in such a new life, they want also to cut loose from the Church. They do not go to the meetings any more. They go to other places and meet other people, and instead of Church friends, clean, fine Latter-day Saint friends, they pick up friends of the other side, of the lower element.

A question was asked in a full page newspaper advertisement to which I have referred many times, and this question was: "How would you like to live in a town where there were no churches?"

Young people, will you think of the kind of folk there are in the non-churchgoing crowd? Think about them for a moment. Think of those who oppose the Church and refuse to go to church. Think of the kind of people they are and the kind of wives and husbands they have and the kind of homes they develop, and think also of the kind of children, if any, they have. Is that the kind of life you want? Is that to be desired above the beautiful cleanliness of fine Latter-day Saint homes? Is that to be desired over the marvelous influence of the faithful youth of the Church?

What kind of crowd are you going with? What kind of person will you marry? You will marry from the crowd you go with; and if you choose the non-churchgoing crowd, remember that is what you will get, and all it includes. Think, consider it carefully, and then act safely.

And if you go with that other crowd, it is not long until you get the invitation to take a smoke. Before you take that cigarette, will you weigh the consequences, and ask yourself if it is the smoking crowd you want to go with, if it is the smoking crowd you want to marry from? And will you remember that the cigarette is the first step to breaking down the standards and the barriers to sin. Do you want to let down the bulwark, do you want to break down the dam and let the flood in? Weigh all these things before you take the smoke. "Think, then act safely."

And inevitably there will come the invitation to take a drink. Before you take the drink, think what alcohol does to you. I am not just talking about the possibility of alcoholism. I am talking about the manner in which alcohol will rob you of your self-control, destroy your ability to think wisely, and put you in the hands of unscrupulous men or women who will rob you of that which is more precious than life itself. Do you want that? Then before you take the drink, really think it over, and then act safely.

If you travel with that kind of crowd, there is going to be the invitation to neck and pet. Do you want that? What will be your response? Will you realize, oh, youth of the Church, that anyone who attempts to pet with you attempts to make an indecent approach? Petting is indecent and sinful, and the person who attempts to pet with you is himself both indecent and sinful and is likewise lustful. The invitation to pet, remember, so often ends up in the invitation to something worse. The young people themselves call it, "going all the way." Is that what you want?

Will you not remember that in the category of crime, God says sex sin is next to murder  Alma 39:5 Do you want it? It will bring broken hearts and remorse and misery all the days of your life and only the most sincere repentance can ever wipe it out. But oh, how you will suffer as many have suffered the remorse that accompanies such a terrible sin as that.

Oh, youth of the Church, oh, parents, oh, bishops, who have charge of the youth, and you MIA workers and Sunday School and Primary, you Relief Society mothers, will you all use the intelligence God has given you, will you think, act safely, and live your religion?

That is my humble prayer for us all, in Jesus' name. Amen.