Elder Royden G. Derrick, while serving in the presidency of the Seventy, said at the April 1983 general conference: "William Shakespeare was insightful when he wrote: `All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.' (As You Like It, act 2, sc. 7, line 139.)
"Let me set the stage for a drama that is not fiction, but is reality. The drama is founded upon certain facts."It is a fact that God lives. It is a fact that Jesus Christ was and is a divine being. It is a fact that the Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove. It is a fact that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. It is a fact that God revealed His will through His prophets in biblical days, and that He does so today.
"The script for this drama was written before the world began. The script writer has revealed clues about future scenes to individuals who have shared them with all who would listen.
"For example, twenty-six hundred years ago, one of the important characters in the drama was shown some scenes of what shall be in the latter days.' (Dan. 2:28.) Daniel the prophet was shown the interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, from which he related,And in the days of these kings,' referring to the latter-day scenes, `shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.' (Dan. 2:44.)
"The scenes relating to these clues are now on stage, front-center.
"At fourteen and one-half years of age, Joseph Smith went into the woods and prayed to our Heavenly Father, wanting to know which church of all the churches was true. There appeared before him God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. The Father said, This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him! (Joseph Smith-History 1:17.) Then Jesus Christ told that fourteen-year-old boy that the true church of God was not on the earth, and that he had been selected to be an instrument in the hands of God in restoring the church of Jesus Christ and the true principles of Jesus Christ. In the scenes following,the God of heaven set up a kingdom' about which Daniel the prophet said, `
itT shall never be destroyed.' "
