A Call to Serve

President Joseph Fielding Smith

On Friday, August 27, at approximately 3 P.M., the President of the Church, Joseph Fielding Smith, left the adult and first session of the British Area Conference where he had delivered a stirring challenge to parents and went about seventy-five yards to Cumberland Hall where a youth session was being held simultaneously.

The President’s entry into the hall electrified the many youth present. Not only was it his presence, it was his forceful and direct call to get involved in the work of the kingdom that kept the spiritual current flowing. The President’s message was meant for youth everywhere; it is of universal application.

My dear brothers and sisters:

I am pleased to meet with and greet the youth of the Church in Great Britain. You are choice and wonderful young people. The Lord has blessed you exceedingly in the past, and he has many choice blessings in store for you in the future.

May I say that the future and the destiny of the Lord’s work here rests with you who are the youth of Zion.

As you know, the Lord has revealed his eternal plan of salvation in a number of gospel dispensations. We live in the greatest of these, the dispensation of the fulness of times, which was ushered in by the personal appearance of the Father and the Son in the spring of 1820 to Joseph Smith, who was then in his fifteenth year.

The gospel itself has been the same in all dispensations; the plan of salvation is the same for all our Father’s children in every age. From time to time it has been lost by apostasy, but whenever the Lord has had a people on earth, they have been offered the same laws and truths of salvation that he has revealed to us.

But there is one great added thing we have received in this age that has never been had before. In this dispensation the Lord has decreed that the Church shall never again be led astray; this time the gospel is here to stay. This time the revealed truth is destined to prepare a people for the second coming of the Son of Man, and the Church will be established in all parts of the earth when the Lord comes to usher in the millennial era of peace and righteousness.

As Daniel foresaw, the little stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands shall grow until it becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth; and it shall break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms; and it shall stand forever. In fact, there is to be a millennial day when the knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the mighty deep.

Now I say these things to you to make it clear that the destiny of the Church rests with the youth of Zion. The Church is here to stay, and the young and rising generation shall rise up and direct the kingdom in due course with great power and glory.

It is true that some of our youth may be led astray and fall into forbidden paths. But the great majority of them will remain faithful and true.

One thing this means is that among you are the future bishops and stake presidents, the future mission presidents and temple presidents here in Great Britain. You are the future leaders, and because of the great work that lies ahead for you, you have a special obligation to stand true and steadfast to the standards of the Church. Satan will tempt you, but if you will remain true to every trust, the Lord will guide and enlighten and preserve you for the labors ahead.

I hope that all the worthy and qualified young men among you may have the privilege of missionary service. There is a great need for more missionary service from among the young of the Church here.

We need to send our young missionaries from America, and some of you also for that matter, to some of the populous nations of the earth that have scarcely been touched as yet with the preaching of the gospel. The youth of Great Britain need to qualify to do the missionary work here and to help in other areas.

Above all it is my prayer that all of you shall keep the commandments and thus qualify for the blessings of the Lord. The crowning goal in your life should be to go to the house of the Lord and be sealed for eternity to a choice companion. It is out of this relationship that the greatest joys and satisfactions of both time and eternity shall come to you.

Now, my young brethren and sisters, I want you to know that I know that we are engaged in the Lord’s work. I want you to know that this work is true. I testify to you that the Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith, and that he thereafter received revelations, powers, and keys, and was commanded to organize again on earth the Lord’s one true church.

I know that this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the kingdom of God on earth and that the gospel is destined to roll forth and go forward until it will fill the whole earth.

I pray that the Lord will bless and prosper the youth of the Church in this nation and in all nations. I repeat: You are choice and wonderful young people. That every rich and wondrous blessing may be yours I pray, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.