Stand before you, brethren and sisters, in humility this afternoon, and pray for your faith on my behalf, that we can call upon us the Spirit of the Lord, that we shall not detract from the proceedings thus far. I'd like to say to Leona, I'm sure that I speak for this entire congregation, to welcome you here and children. You belong to us, you always have, and we haven't been concerned about you.

Fearfulness and the realization of knowing that this is the work of God at times is overwhelming. Because of these weaknesses that we have to endure and for those that we allow ourselves to continue. The luxury of experiencing. We don't know why we continue to allow ourselves these luxuries, so-called life. The poet says life is real.

Life is earnest and the grave is not at school. I believe he spoke the truth. There isn't very much time for this fault of all. We allow ourselves to indulge in a form of luxury. This morning the requirements of life and of the Lord are sometimes rather dull, uninteresting, and that there's a certain amount of endurance that has to be experienced.

But like Brother Joseph has told us, we allow too much of our lives to be taken up in endurance and not enough in the zest and joy of living that we're entitled to if we will just exert ourselves. But nevertheless, no matter how we exert ourselves, the spirit and the mind, or the mind rather, and the body grows under the labors of the day.

And I believe this is what the Savior had in mind when he stressed so much endurance to the end. Enduring the common, ordinary things of life. But when we get the proper perspective of life, then we will find that joy dwells in the ordinary. Joy dwells in the love and association of friends. Joy dwells in the exertion of ourselves in our labors.

from day to day. Joy dwells in a good meal that is properly prepared after we've earned the right to it. Joy dwells in a good bed and rest after our labors are finished. And if all these things, in all these things, we can take the Lord into our lives and our conscience to such an extent that He can take us into His conscience and truly will be the joy of everyday living.

And when I see people that are restless and irritable, complaining in these everyday activities of life, I can't help but feel sorry for them. Because life is good, and our great Creator said that it is good. All these things that have been created for our benefit are good. We will be good only by applying good principles in our lives and eliminating them.

the evil. And the Lord has provided us with His Spirit to determine for ourselves what is good and what is evil. And I have never in my life found a person unhappy in doing good. That is the greatest testimony of good that I know of. The saints declare it aloud, and even the devils in hell shout it to the sky. The joy dwells in doing good. And God is the author of it.

And you and I don't have a corner on it, brothers and sisters. He's willing that all flesh shall come and partake of his bounties and his blessings. But the world does not want the ordinary and the good. And that is the difference between the world and the saints. I learned recently about a brother that got his affairs in order so completely. Left his family so well situated, got the wills all made out.

If there wasn't anything left in life to do except lay down and die, so he laid down and died. We can do the same thing if we want to. If our missions are completed, why, that's a good thing to do. If they're not completed, it's an evil thing to do. And if we have not won our salvation, so that we're sure that we're ready for the presence of the priesthood that has gone before us on the other side, then I would say, We better labor on. We better forget our wills. We better leave our house in confusion, our houses and our lands and our barns in confusion, and just look to ourselves and get ourselves ready to die before the day comes. I know how Ronald feels, and I know how these young men feel that are in our midst. But this is home, and they don't want to dwell outside of home.

But if they have to go out in the service of Uncle Sam or any other service, they're willing to go with a prayer in their hearts that they will do their job as is required of them by their brethren, and then return back in a condition that can be used. There's nothing quite so satisfying as having to go on a mission to return home in honor and dignity and virtue to a young man.

And most of our young men have to go through this experience of leaving their homes and going out into the world and contracting the elements of the world. And I pray to God that he will bless our young men that are called out into the world when they have to go, that they can maintain their dignity and their virtue and their integrity. To men that are in school, to young ladies that are in school, the Lord expects the same of you.

Excuse me, a credit to the house of God. A credit to the house of Israel. And if I may say so, a credit to the house of Leroy S. Johnson. All of that house. Hammond has been given a house. We speak of the house of Israel. There's a house of Johnson. There's a house of Hammond. And there's a house of Musser. And there's honor in those houses. There are presidents. There's honor in the house of these or other presidents.

I call on all of you who belong to these houses to honor those houses. For God and the head of those houses will spew you out of their mouths. It is in our midst. God expects us to honor it. He expects us to magnify it. He expects you women to magnify the priesthood as he expects the brethren who hold it to magnify it. I heard a sermon on only a deacon years ago in the church.

And I've never forgotten that. He took his text for asking a young man what priesthood he had. He said, I am only a deacon. He developed the theme of holding the priesthood of God, the son of Aaron, the rights of that priesthood, the honor and the dignity of that priesthood. It was nine years before the Lord allowed Joseph Smith, Jr. to hold that priesthood, after he personally visited him.

He told him that none of the sects of the day were right. They were all wrong and an abomination in his sight. And many other things he told me which I do not know, which I am not permitted to write. And yet he let him go nine years before he gave him and allowed John the Baptist to give him the Aaronic Priesthood. He wanted Joseph Smith, Jr. to dignify the office of the Aaronic Priesthood. After a short season, he...

will allow them to have the Melchizedek priesthood to the order of the Son of God. These are the sons of Moses, the sons of Aaron, the sons of Enoch, the sons of Jesus Christ. God, help us to honor this priesthood in our midst and to hold ourselves in subservience to it. Dignify these high and holy callings, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.