"I have a testimony abiding in my
soul, and I know without any question that the work in which we Latter-day
Saints are engaged is the work of the Lord, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the power of God unto salvation unto all those who accept it and live
according to its precepts. It is the same as that which was instituted in the
councils of heaven before the world was. It is not a new Gospel, but the old
one restored.
"It is the same as Christ our
Lord taught and lived, and by living it made him what he was in life and what
he is after life, enthroned in glory and the right hand of our Father in
heaven. It is intended to make us like him and to save us with him, and it will
do so if we follow his footsteps, and walk in the light as he is in the light,
loving the Lord and keeping his commandments. . . .
"I bear you my testimony in all sincerity.
I know that this work is true. I know that God lives, a glorified and exalted
personage having a body of flesh and bones and spirit as tangible as man's,
all-powerful in heaven and in earth; the earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof. he is the Eternal Father of all men.
"Jesus Christ is the First-born
in the spirit and the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh; he is the only
name under heaven by which mankind may be saved. No man can be saved in the
kingdom of God without believing on the name of Jesus Christ and in the
efficacy of his atonement. (J. Reuben Clark, Jr., sermon at funeral services of
George R. Richards, August 11, 1950, in The
Life of George F. Richards: President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Provo, Utah: J. Grant
Stevenson, 1965], )
