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This is Elder (then Bishop) Richards' address to the first General Conference following the onset of World War II.
Considerable has been said at this Conference concerning the value of a testimony of the Gospel. Some years ago I had a discussion with an associate of mine in the Church, an educator, who said he believed the day had come when we would have to appeal to the young people of the Church through reason rather than through that which we customarily call a testimony of the Gospel. I answered that if we had reached that stage, then I feared for the future of the Church, as all that we had accomplished as a people had been because of the testimonies that the Lord had given unto us.
A TESTIMONY BRINGS WITH IT WILLINGNESS TO SACRIFICE
I am sure we shall never forget the testimony we listened to yesterday from President Grant. I recall having been in this building as a boy and having heard President Woodruff's testimony of how the Lord had guided and inspired him all his life. I am not sure but what it was the last address he delivered here, and that testimony has always remained with me. When I think of President Grant's life and all he has accomplished, of his beautiful soul, his inspiration, and the sacrifices he has made in order to answer the calls that have been made of him in this great Church, I realize what his testimony has done for him.
Many of us remember having heard President Ivins from this stand tell how many times he had sold all he had and burned his bridges behind him to answer the call of the brethren to serve in some other part of the Church. Those of us who have labored in the mission field know how many of the Saints have forsaken all they had in this world in order that they might be obedient to the testimonies the Lord had planted in their hearts.
President Clark said in his address that in events that are yet to come we would find our testimonies of the Gospel our greatest solace. I feel as we are sending our boys at the present time into the service of their country if we can send them with a testimony of the Gospel in their hearts, that it will give them power to live their lives sweet and clean before God and all men, as they have been taught in their Latter-day Saint homes.
The Savior of the world indicated that if we would be His disciples we must be willing to forsake all that we have in this world, even to fathers and mothers, lands and herds, and I want to say to you that I do not believe men and women will forsake all they have because of any reasoning power they possess. They will do it when their souls are touched by the inspiration and power of the Spirit of the living God, which is the testimony of the truth, and then it is that men can love God more than they love anything else in this world, and hence forsake all because of their love of Him.
I wish we could send our boys into the service of their country with the faith and testimony the two thousand Lamanite boys had in the time of Helaman of old when they went forth to battie and came back every man because of his faith.
THE PROMISES OF THE LORD SURE OF FULFILMENT
We have great promises resting upon us as a people and as individuals through obeying and keeping the commandments of God. Reference has been made to the promise of the Lord through observance of the Word of Wisdom, not only that we should run and not be weary, walk and not faint, and that we should receive hidden treasures of knowledge, but the destroying angel should pass by us and not slay us even as the children of Israel.
It has been said that man's extremities are God's opportunities. We have all known that in our day should come the judgments of God, the great and dreadful day of the Lord, when all the proud, yea, all who do wickedly, should be as stubble, and that day should burn them up that it should leave them neither root nor branch. We have reason, if we have faith in God and keep His commandments, to believe that the destroying angel might pass us by as a people, and individually, and not slay us, and that we might stand as a light and an ensign to the world, and an evidence that God does not forget His promises. I hope every one of us believes in these promises the Lord has made to us.
A PATRIARCHAL BLESSING AND ITS FULFILMENT
Two weeks ago while I was visiting in Arizona a counselor to a Stake President told me of an experience he had which typifies many similar experiences of the members of this Church. He said that during the World War he was drafted. He was a young man and did not want to go to war; he felt if he ever went into action he would never return alive. So he went to the Patriarch, (and I met that Patriarch on the same trip) and the Patriarch came in from his field and said to this good brother: "You sit down at the table and write as I dictate." He laid his hands upon the head of this young man and pronounced a blessing upon him, and I took the time to write it down as he gave it to me. I would like to read a few words from that blessing here today:
Inasmuch as ye have been called to go to the defense of your country, I promise you if you will be humble and faithful and prayerful, that if your life is ever brought into danger, the way will be opened for your escape, and you will yet be given in marriage and have sons and daughters of good repute and be the means of doing much missionary work in the world.
You see all this was conditioned upon his being faithful and prayerful and humble. It is a grand and glorious thing to bind the God of Israel to us through obeying and keeping His commandments. You will remember that lie said to the Prophet Joseph:
I, the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.
This man had a promise from the Lord that was worth living for.
I want to say to you, brethren and sisters, I would rather have the promise of God resting upon me than that of any mortal man, just as this brother who went forth to battle for his country. Within ninety days after he received his patriarchal blessing he was going over the top in France, and in his company were 250 men to which were added thirty replacements. On the day that the Armistice was signed, at 10 o'clock in the morning, there were eighty men left out of the 280, and they were told they should cease firing. The men gathered around, three of them in one hole, including this brother of whom I speak. Two hundred yards away he saw the army kitchen, and he invited his companions to go with him to get something to eat. They had had no supper or breakfast and were sure they would get nothing if they went, so he went alone. Just as he was being handed a stack of hot cakes, a bomb fell in the midst of the little company of eighty he had left behind and thirty of them were killed and fifty were left. When he returned, there were the two men that were in the hole with him, with the tops of their heads blown off. The Patriarch had said:
If your life is ever brought into danger, the .way will be opened for your escape and you will yet be given in marriage and have sons and daughters of good repute.
He now has six children, one in the mission field.
THE SAINTS STANDING IN HOLY PLACES
Now the Lord made also this statement regarding the judgments that are to come in these latter days:
But my disciples shall stand in holy places, and shall not be moved; but among the wicked, men shall lift up their voices and curse God and die.
I do not know what you think about this promise. So far as I am concerned I think the Lord did not mean that we should stand on this Temple Block or back in Independence; I think He meant that His children should live such lives that wherever they stand the ground upon which they stand should be holy and sanctified because of their presence.
THE ELEMENTS REBUKED BY FAITH
You will recall that in the early days of the gathering of the Saints it was considered as good as an insurance policy when a company of Latter-day Saints embarked on a vessel crossing the Atlantic. I recall reading in my grandfather's diary of a time when the boat upon which he was sailing was in great jeopardy, so much so that the captain of the boat came to him and pleaded with him to intercede with the Lord in behalf of the boat and her passengers; and Grandfather, remembering that he had been promised that he should have power over the elements, walked out on the deck of the boat and raised his hands to high heaven and rebuked the sea and the waves, and they were immediately calmed, and the appreciation of the captain of the boat was so great that he offered him the use of his private quarters during the balance of the journey.
Now, brethren and sisters, I believe that in the experiences that are ahead of us through the judgments that are to befall the nations, God will stand by our side, and by the side of our boys even though they go forth to battle, if they take with them a testimony o the truth and the kind of faith they ought to have in the living God and in this great latter day work.
I pray God to bless you all, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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