President Harold B. Lee

First Counselor in the First Presidency and President of the Council of the Twelve

Someone has said, "An event is an idea whose time has come."

For over thirty years-it will be next April-since I became a member of the Council of the Twelve, there has been talk of unifying the magazines of the Church. It has always been thought that it was right, but the time was not yet. The event now has become so because the time has arrived.

Unified Magazine

You will note that we have said these magazines are to be available to all English-speaking countries where we have members of the Church. You will be asking, what about the other of the 19 languages in which we are now teaching the gospel-11 into which we have translated the lessons of the Church. May I explain that we have a unified magazine printed in many of the languages of these foreign-speaking peoples. The materials for these magazines are edited through our editorial department, with a few pages left for each mission, to be used for that particular area. All the material that would go into these magazines will be the same, but printed in the language of those peoples, so that the entire Church, in every language where we have the translations, will have a magazine that will be a direct Communication from the priesthood of the Church.

Action of General Authorities

Much thought has gone into this. On the first Thursday of every month a very important meeting is held in an upper room of the temple where all the General Authorities come fasting. The first part of the meeting is a business meeting, at which time all the proposals for new ideas or new methods or new undertakings are brought forward, after having been processed through the month preceding, for the perusal and consideration of all the General Authorities of the Church. At that meeting, then, action is taken and by that action it then becomes the official action of the General Authorities of the Church-which must be considered to be the constitution of the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth.

That is the process by which these new magazines might be said to have become an "event." That is the process by which the future development has come. That is the process by which a bishops' training program will now be inaugurated throughout the entire Church. That is the process by which a Churchwide budget system will be inaugurated, and so will every other program that will be launched, as it comes now from the General Authorities of the Church, out to all the membership of the Church.

"The Will of the Lord"

One more thought: If you had to sit facing these blazing lights for these hours, as we do here on the stand, you would have seen beads of perspiration on Elder Monson's brow as he talked to you, and as you will see on my brow, and on others who will speak. We understand that the temperature here is about fifteen degrees higher than where you brethren sit. I say that so that you will be a little more comfortable.

Mind over Matter

I was up in Preston, Idaho, sometime ago, dedicating a meetinghouse, and I thought as I sat there in that lovely place, My, isn't it wonderful that we have these air-conditioned buildings today, such as we didn't have in my younger years. In the course of the meeting, the bishop announced that their air-conditioning system was not working. Suddenly I became very uncomfortably warm. That is what happens to us when our minds take precedence over matter.

I said to Brother Evans one day, "These punishing lights-they are devastating." And he said something to me that caused me some thought. He said, "If you want to be seen, you must be lighted."

Let Your Light Shine

Now I want to translate that into something for you to think about. If you want to have the power of the priesthood to be of any benefit to you or before the world, you must keep it lighted. You must exercise it.

If you want to be seen as holders of the priesthood, you have to keep your lamp lighted.

A Continuing Revolution

I want now to make one more comment. The kingdom of God must be a continuing revolution against the norms of the society that fall below the standards that are set for us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the field of public life, it must be a continuing revolution against proposals that contradict the fundamental principles as laid down in the Constitution of the United States, which was written by men whom God raised up for this very purpose. If we remember that, we will be in the forefront of every battle against the things that are tearing down our society.

Observing the Sabbath

I am sure we were all impressed when Brother Eldred G. Smith said in his address that it shouldn't be necessary to make laws to persuade the Latter-day Saints to keep the Sabbath day holy. If the body of the priesthood-if you 150,000 members of the priesthood who are in these various gathering places-would resolve here and now that neither you nor your families will hereafter patronize any business that is open on Sunday, it wouldn't be long until they would close their businesses on Sunday. You would wield such a force and power that you would dry up the businesses that are making their Sunday opening profitable. They are only catering to the needs of the people who are demanding Sunday service. You think about it, you brethren.

Pornography

Pornographic literature! It has been a shock, I am sure, to all of us to read the report of the commission that has been studying obscenity reports, and the recommendation that there should be a repeal of all laws prohibiting the distribution of explicit, sexual materials to consenting adults. Shocking! Now brethren, this is a thing that we must, as a priesthood, take a firm stand against, and do everything within our communities to see to it that by every means within our power we are going to play down the showing of or the distribution of any kind of pornographic literature, films, or advertisements. It has been a delight to us to have our Deseret News announce that, shortly, there will be no advertising of "R" and "X" rated films. We would wish it would be so in every community. If you brethren, in all of your communities, would now take a firm stand, I think there would be a time shortly when somebody would wake up to the fact that we are no longer going to tolerate these kinds of things that are placed efore our people to tear down their morals.

Heirs to Celestial Kingdom

Holy Spirit of Promise

In another revelation, he said that a man and wife who are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise shall pass by the angels and gods that are set there to their exaltation and glory in all things, as has been sealed upon their heads.

In an explanation of what it means to be sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, one of our brethren said this: "While we receive eternal blessings at the hands of the priesthood which has the right to seal on earth and it shall be sealed in the heavens, this revelation clearly states that it must be sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise also. A man and woman may by fraud and deception obtain admittance to the House of the Lord and may receive the pronouncement of the holy priesthood, giving to them so far as lies in their power these blessings. We may deceive men but we cannot deceive the Holy Ghost, and our blessings will not be eternal unless they are also sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. The Holy Ghost is one who reads the thoughts and hearts of men, and gives his sealing approval to the blessings pronounced upon their heads. Then it is binding, efficacious, and of full force." (Melvin J. Ballard, "Three Degrees of Glory.")

A Force in the World

Remembering that then, brethren, we are prepared to understand what the brethren meant when they spoke at the dedication of the Idaho Falls Temple about the stand we could take now in such matters as politics. We are approaching another election. Let us hear again what the brethren prayed for in that dedicatory prayer:

"We pray that kings and rulers and the peoples of all nations under heaven may be persuaded of the blessings enjoyed by the people of this land by reason of their freedom under thy guidance, and be constrained to adopt similar governmental systems, thus to fulfill the ancient prophecy of Isaiah, that out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

Brethren of the priesthood, if we will be united and let our light shine, and not hide our light under a bushel but exercise it righteously, and let our priesthood callings be an eternal revolution against the norms of society or against any proposals that fall below the standards as set forth in the gospel of Jesus Christ or as laid down by the Constitution of the United States written by inspired men, then we will be a force in the world that will be "the marvelous work and wonder" which the Lord said the kingdom of God was to be.

I pray that it might be so, brethren, and we would thus magnify, as President Smith has said, our callings in the priesthood, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.