President Gordon B. Hinckley
President of the Church
CES Fireside for Young Adults
9 Sept 2001
9 Sept 2001
My dear young friends, we are gathered tonight in this great Conference Center and in numerous Church halls elsewhere. There must be hundreds of thousands of you. It is a stimulating experience and a tremendous challenge to be with you. It is a wonderful opportunity to speak with you.
Distinguish between Truth and Sophistry
You are engaged in an intense gathering of knowledge, the accumulated wisdom of all of the ages of man. As members of this Church, ours must be a ceaseless quest for truth. That truth must include both spiritual and religious truth as well as secular.
"We believe in all truth, no matter to what subject it may refer. No sect or religious denomination in the world possesses a single principle of truth that we do not accept or that we will reject. We are willing to receive all truth, from whatever source it may come; for truth will stand, truth will endure. No man’s faith, no man’s religion, no religious organization in all the world, can ever rise above the truth"
But you must distinguish between truth and sophistry. There can be a vast difference between the two, and unless we are careful, we may find that we are believing in the sophistry of man rather than the truth of God.
I read the newspapers. I read those who write syndicated columns. I occasionally listen to the commentators on television and radio. These writers are brilliant. They are men and women of incisive language, scintillating in expression. They are masters of the written word. But for the most part their attitude is negative. Regardless of whom they write about or speak about they seem to look for their failings and weaknesses. They are constantly criticizing, seldom praising. This spirit is not limited to the columnists and the commentators. Read the letters to the editor. Some of them are filled with venom, written by people who seem to find no good in the world or in their associates.
You are engaged in an intense gathering of knowledge, the accumulated wisdom of all of the ages of man. As members of this Church, ours must be a ceaseless quest for truth. That truth must include both spiritual and religious truth as well as secular.
"We believe in all truth, no matter to what subject it may refer. No sect or religious denomination in the world possesses a single principle of truth that we do not accept or that we will reject. We are willing to receive all truth, from whatever source it may come; for truth will stand, truth will endure. No man’s faith, no man’s religion, no religious organization in all the world, can ever rise above the truth"
But you must distinguish between truth and sophistry. There can be a vast difference between the two, and unless we are careful, we may find that we are believing in the sophistry of man rather than the truth of God.
I read the newspapers. I read those who write syndicated columns. I occasionally listen to the commentators on television and radio. These writers are brilliant. They are men and women of incisive language, scintillating in expression. They are masters of the written word. But for the most part their attitude is negative. Regardless of whom they write about or speak about they seem to look for their failings and weaknesses. They are constantly criticizing, seldom praising. This spirit is not limited to the columnists and the commentators. Read the letters to the editor. Some of them are filled with venom, written by people who seem to find no good in the world or in their associates.
Accentuate the Positive
Criticism, faultfinding, evil speaking—these are of the spirit of the day. To hear tell, there is nowhere a man of integrity holding public office. All businessmen are crooks. The utilities are out to rob you. In our homes, wives weep and children finally give up under the barrage of criticism leveled by abusive husbands and fathers. Criticism is the forerunner of divorce, the cultivator of rebellion, sometimes the catalyst that leads to failure. In the Church, it sows the seed of inactivity and finally apostasy.
I come to you tonight with a plea that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I am suggesting that as we go through life we try to "accentuate the positive." I am asking that we look a little deeper for the good, that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment virtue and effort. Now I am not asking that all criticism be silenced. Growth comes of correction. Strength comes of repentance. Wise is the man or woman who can acknowledge mistakes pointed out by others and change his or her course.
What I am suggesting is that you turn from the negativism that so permeates our modern society and look for the remarkable good among those with whom you associate, that we speak of one another’s virtues more than we speak of one another’s faults, that optimism replace pessimism, that our faith exceed our fears. When I was a young man and was prone to speak critically, my wise father would say: "Cynics do not contribute. Skeptics do not create. Doubters do not achieve."
We are experiencing a serious economic downturn. You read of thousands of layoffs. This may be a difficult season for you. You worry much about your personal affairs. You worry about money. You worry about marriage. You worry about the future.
There may be some lean days ahead for some of you. There may be troubles. None of us can avoid them all. Do not despair. Do not give up. Look for the sunlight through the clouds. Opportunities will eventually open to you. I finished the University of Utah in 1932. It was the very bottom of the most serious depression of modern times. The unemployment rate in Utah was then more than 30 percent. There was much of cynicism. It was a time when men stood in soup lines, and some committed suicide in despair. But somehow we managed to eat and keep going. Opportunities gradually opened, first here and then there. In 1982, I spoke at the fiftieth anniversary of my graduating class. I met there men and women who had become prominent in many undertakings. They had begun almost in poverty. But they kept climbing upward. They had become leaders. They had looked for the positive in life, praying with faith and working with diligence.
No matter the circumstances, I encourage you to go forward with faith and prayer, calling on the Lord. You may not receive any direct revelation. But you will discover as the years pass that there has been a subtle guiding of your footsteps in paths of progress and great purpose.
As you walk your various paths, walk with faith. Speak affirmatively and cultivate an attitude of confidence. You have the capacity to do so. Your strength will give strength to others. Do not partake of the spirit so rife in our times. Rather, look for good and build upon it. There is so much of the strong and the decent and the beautiful to build upon. You are partakers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel means "good news." The message of the Lord is one of hope and salvation. The voice of the Lord is a voice of glad tidings. The work of the Lord is a work of glorious accomplishment.
I am not suggesting that you simply put on rose-colored glasses to make the world about you look better. I ask, rather, that you look above and beyond the negative, the cynical, the critical, the doubtful, to the positive and the affirmative.
