That may be a little more impressive to me than it is for you because I have been around a little longer and may be a little closer to the end of the journey. Jeremiah pointed out that for each of us the summer would someday be past and the harvest ended, and maybe we would not have done all the things that we should have done (see Jeremiah 8:20). Because I have so many things left that I would like to get done, I feel a greater sense of urgency than most people do. I am in something of a hurry because there are so many things left to be done that I would like to do. I am not ready to be informed that this glorious second estate of mine has come to an end. There are a great number of things that I must get done before that time arrives. However, I would like to leave the idea with you that even though some of you are much younger, the time will surely arrive when you are at the end of your life. The time is going to come in every person's case when this magnificent experience of a second estate will reach the finish mark.

The other story that I would like to tell you in conclusion came out of Arabia many years ago. A horseman was riding across the desert at night, and as he went through a dried-up riverbed a voice out of the darkness commanded him to halt and dismount, which he did. Then the voice commanded him to fill his pockets with the pebbles at his feet, which he did. And then the voice commanded him remount and ride on, which he did. And as he rode out through the darkness the voice said to him, "At sunrise you will be both sad and glad." At sunrise he looked in his pockets and found that the pebbles he had picked up were diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and pearls. He was very glad and very sad. He was very glad that he had taken as many as he had, and he was very sad that he had not taken a lot more.

I would suggest that to all of us there will someday come a time when we will be delighted. We are going to be so pleased that we have lived in this magnificent latter day when the gospel has been restored, a time when there is no question about what the Lord wants us to do and what would make our lives successful. And when we have a great university like Brigham Young University, we can have as much education as we desire in any field.

We associate with some of the greatest men that ever lived upon the earth. I read a newspaper item the other day that said that eighty percent of all the scientists who have ever lived upon the earth are alive now. And certainly the Lord did not save his greatest scientists to come forth in this magnificent day only to bring forth religious leaders that were second-rate. Those who lead us in the Church are among the greatest spirits who have ever lived upon this earth. I am sure of this, for as the Prophet Joseph Smith said, "Every man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the Grand Council of heaven before this world was" (Joseph Fielding Smith, comp., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 365).

That means that Spencer W. Kimball was presented by the Lord in the council of heaven and was voted upon by all of us to come here to be the prophet of this last dispensation and this particular period, to increase the missionary work and the effectiveness of the Church in other areas. I am sure that all of us were there and that all of us voted for him; and then we ourselves were voted upon and approved to come here and be assistants to him, because he is only one man. After all, he is the head, the director, but he needs a lot of hands and feet and minds and spirits to go and do the missionary work, do the genealogical work, run the financial affairs of Church and government and nation, and do all the other work. The Lord has said that to him everything is spiritual, and I am sure that it is true.

We have come here in this great day, and someday we are going to be tickled to pieces--simply delighted that we have had the opportunity of living in this great period. Yet probably all of us are going to be awfully sad as well--sad that we did not take greater advantage of our opportunities to live up at the top of our condition and be the kind of people that the Lord would be proud of. You remember that on four different occasions he introduced one of his sons by saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." I am sure he would be just as pleased to say that about any of his sons or any of his daughters if we would just give him the opportunity.

May the Lord bless you, my brothers and sisters; and again I commend you and thank you and glory with you in the great privilege that you have of being alive in this great age and being in attendance at this great University. I ask the Lord's blessings upon each and every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sterling W. Sill was an emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this fireside address was given at Brigham Young University on 4 September 1978.

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