My beloved brethren and sisters, in that spirit of prayer of which President Clark spoke so beautifully this morning, I pray that I may be given utterance to say that which would best be said in this place and at this time.

I think to those of you who have heard what has preceded at this conference, it must be somewhat apparent that there has been a considerable and, I think, significant emphasis and reaffirmation of the principle of revelation, of continuous revelation—or at least it has seemed so to me, as I have sat and listened with you.

There were some events associated with the dedication of the London Temple which I should like to relate, also. Our President went there, and we had arranged a press conference for him on the late afternoon following what was to have been the morning of his arrival, thinking that he would have time for rest and still time to face that arduous task. But his plane was three hours late, or more. He had been up all the night before with those who accompanied him, President and Sister Smith and Brother Reiser, and there was no time for rest; and he faced that battery of some thirty or forty newsmen representing the great London dailies and others of the British Empire and the wire services, and the BBC television camera.

They pressed many questions, difficult and sometimes tenacious and penetrating questions, as is the function of alert and seasoned newsmen. He met them forthrightly, with some declarations of affirmation as to things we would know and how we could be assured of knowing them. They were respectful, but one always wonders what will happen the morning after when what was said appears in print, with the reporter's personal color or understanding or misunderstanding on it. Some of us worried about it considerably. I saw the President in the lobby of the hotel that evening and expressed some of my concern, and he made a very significant statement. I do not know whether he remembers it or not, but I think I shall not forget it. He said, "When I have said what I know to be true, I do not worry about the consequences."

This put me in mind of that great statement of the Prophet Micaiah as he declared to Ahab, the king, those things which the Lord God had given him to speak. The king had previously said that he hated the prophet because he never prophesied him good, and the prophet replied: "As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak"  1 Kgs. 22:14

It is the burden of the prophets always to speak what the Lord God saith, no matter who likes it or who does not, or what one would wish to be the truth. It takes a kind of courage beyond what most men have reason to reach down for.

We might just as well have slept, those of us who didn't sleep so well that night, because the newspapers the next morning were factual and respectful, and none of them that I knew of had reached for the sensational, or the old false representations, that some of us had been accustomed to in times gone by.

President McKay's calm and assurance, which is so characteristic of him, was in evidence again (with which calm assurance some of us may have felt he has sent us at times into the fiery furnace, but we have never found ourselves scorched, and he has never sent us where he was not willing to walk with us).

To hear him six times deliver significant addresses at six of the dedicatory sessions, to hear the repeated notable dedicatory prayer, a meaningful document, inviting attention to the fact that the Magna Charta, 1215 A.D., had been signed in that same County of Surrey where the temple was now being dedicated, was a great privilege and a moving experience. And to celebrate with him his eighty-fifth birthday in that far land was a sweet occasion that some of us will never forget. And long before he arrived, he was with us, many times a day, because we had made a motion picture explaining the purpose of temples, with President McKay's voice and picture in colored film, and as those 76,000 and more visitors came and went into tents where this film was being shown, we heard his voice from fifty to one hundred times a day as the tents filled and emptied about as fast as the film could be shown. It was a choice and glorious occasion.

Now, one thing these newsmen wanted to know, some of them, is, "How do you know? How can you know some of these things?"

Does it seem a thing strange that the Lord who admittedly had prophets in former days should have them in this day? Does it seem a thing strange that there should be living prophets as well as dead ones? Does it seem that this people in this time should need less, for these changing times and changing conditions, the interpretation of the everlasting principles and standards, and less need a living voice to help to find the way? Is there less of wilderness in our generation and in our world than ever there was? Or less need for living prophets? Does it seem that the Lord would give prophets to one small people in one small place at one limited time, and leave all the rest of his children for all of the rest of time without the living witness of his words, and the interpretation of them according to their own time and day? Just consistency and reason would seem to suggest living prophets and continuous revelation without any deep-seated affirmation of it within our souls.

As to answering the question of the newsmen, "How can you know?" Of course, you can go back and read the record. We invited the attention of some of them to the fact that a prophet a century and a quarter ago had said that tobacco was not good for man, and that medical science was now affirming it. And they said, "Then in this respect your prophet was a century or so ahead of the findings of medical science." And we let them say it. We did not have to say it for them.

But beyond tangible and specific historical evidences, there are things a man can know inside his soul that are beyond the things he can touch and see and rest his feet upon, which are undeniable.

And as to those friends to whom President Richards spoke so earnestly yesterday morning, I would witness to them, also, with him, that this in which we are engaged is not merely a vocation or a profession, but the dedication of a life to a conviction that cannot be denied.

And as to how one can know: He who does not know cannot know that another man does know, and some things are so certain within the souls of men that they cannot be denied.

A few days ago President Clark spoke a sentence that I have not been able to forget. He said, "We are no better than we are." It is profound in its simplicity and it leads into many applications. Our positions do not make us better, or do not assure our being better than we are. I know of no generalizations that would save the souls of men. It is the specific performance of specific things that make men better—not theory, not merely the fact that there is a set of principles or that there are commandments, or that there is counsel, but the living of it.

I am thinking of the Danish sculptor of great fame, Thorvaldsen, who chose to be buried in the midst of his works—not in a cathedral or a cemetery, but in a museum among the monuments of his own making—in the midst of his statuary; and there what he made and what he did with his life surrounds him. He did not theorize upon sculpturing, only, but with his hands and with his creative gift he fashioned those things and he lies there in the midst of his works, as we all shall do someday—and it will not be the theories or the discussions or the speculations or the set of principles or the set of commandments that shall save us. We shall be no better than we are. We are no better than the tithing we pay, no better than the teaching we do, no better than the service we give, no better than the commandments we keep, no better than the lives we live, and we shall have a bright remembrance of these things and we shall, in a sense, lie down in the midst of what we have done when that time comes, and never in my life have I felt more fully to say with all the earnestness of my soul, "We thank thee, O God, for a prophet, to guide us in these latter days."

My beloved brethren and sisters, may we take counsel with each other. There is safety in counsel: counsel with our children, with the family, with our friends, with our Father in heaven, and not attempt to live life alone and to make the decisions alone, but to strengthen each other, and encourage each other, and go forward and do what there is to be done and follow the living leadership as the prophet interprets for us the great principles and commandments of all time.

I thank God for a prophet this day, for an assurance that I am not alone in life, and that you are not, that we none of us are, nor are left without inspired leadership. Thank God for it. And I leave this witness with you, in the name of him in whose name we do all things, and in whose name we are met, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.