Before he led the sustaining of the General Authorities in the October 1970 general conference, President Harold B. Lee, then a counselor to President Joseph Fielding Smith, spoke of what it means to sustain leaders whom the Lord has called.
He quoted D&C 21:4-6, a revelation given through Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830, the day the Church was organized. In the revelation, the Lord directs members to heed the Prophet's words and commandments, "For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth."President Lee said: "We have some tight places to go before the Lord is through with this Church and the world in this dispensation, which is the last dispensation, which shall usher in the coming of the Lord. The gospel was restored to prepare a people ready to receive Him. The power of Satan will increase; we see it in evidence on every hand. There will be inroads within the Church. There will be, as President [N. EldonT Tanner has said, `Hypocrites, those professing, but secretly are full of dead men's bones.' We will see those who profess membership but secretly are plotting and trying to lead people not to follow the leadership that the Lord has set up to preside in this Church.
"Now the only safety we have as members of this Church is to do exactly what the Lord said to the Church in that day when the Church was organized. We must learn to give heed to the words and commandments that the Lord shall give through His prophet. . . .There will be some things that take patience and faith. You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life. But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord Himself, with patience and faith, the promise is that `the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name's glory.' (D&C 21:6.)"
President Lee added: "As I thought of the role of President Tanner and myself as [President Smith'sT counselors, I thought of a circumstance in the life of Moses, when the enemies of the Church in that day were just as they are in this day. They were threatening to overcome and tear down and to stop the work of the Church. As Moses sat upon a hill and raised the rod of his authority, or the keys of his priesthood, Israel prevailed over their enemies; but as the day wore on, his hands became heavy and began to droop at his side. And so they held up his hands so they would not be weakened and the rod would not be lowered. He would be sustained so that the enemies of the Church would not prevail over the saints of the Most High God. (See Ex. 17:8-12.)
"I think that is the role that President Tanner and I have to fulfill. The hands of President Smith may grow weary. They may tend to droop at times because of his heavy responsibilities; but as we uphold his hands, and as we lead under his direction, by his side, the gates of hell will not prevail against you and against Israel. Your safety and ours depends upon whether or not we follow the ones whom the Lord has placed to preside over His Church. He knows whom He wants to preside over this Church, and He will make no mistake. The Lord doesn't do things by accident. He has never done anything accidentally. And I think the scientists and all the philosophers in the world have never discovered or learned anything that God didn't already know. His revelations are more powerful, more meaningful, and have more substance than all the secular learning in the world.
"Let's keep our eye on the President of the Church and uphold his hands as President Tanner and I will continue to do."
