CHAPTER SEVEN
CONCLUSION
Having come full circle, some will feel relief at the good news that there is a loving Father in Heaven who has designed a plan that will exalt all who truly desire to be exalted. Others, no doubt, will fight against the truths expressed herein, preferring instead (as one author put it) to “perish rather than accept the grace of God because it seems to them too easy.”1 Can it be so? Can it really be as easy as described? And if so, can it be that some will nonetheless reject the good news, preferring instead a more difficult way?
Thankfully exaltation is obtainable in the simple manner described. And tragically, some do desire a more difficult way, rather than to simply reach out to embrace the Lord and His Plan!2 Elder George Teasdale of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once noted: “Straight is the way and narrow is the path that leadeth to the exaltations, and few there be that find it. Why? Because they do not want it.”3 Similarly, President Brigham Young taught: “Can you save all? Yes, you can save all that will be [or desire to be] saved. If people are not saved, it is because they are not disposed to be saved.”4 President Young went on to say: “God will save all who are determined to be saved.”5 Now it may sound silly to say that some do not want exaltation. Yet, when we reject the declarations of God and His prophets regarding the easiness of the way, what else can we conclude but that we somehow do not want what God freely offers? Consider the following scriptural stories and how they illustrate the attitude we have been speaking of.
In the Old Testament we read of Naaman the leper, who came to the prophet Elisha because Naaman desired to be healed. However, when Elisha’s council was for Naaman to simply wash seven times in the Jordan River it was too much—or, better put, too little—to ask! Naaman went away enraged (see 2 Kings 5:10–12), disdaining to do what the prophet had advised him. He wanted something more complex, more difficult. He couldn’t believe that the miracle of healing could come in such a simple way, just as many of us cannot believe that the miracle of spiritual healing can come in the very simple way described in scriptures, and in this book.
There is also the well-known Old Testament story of the children of Israel being attacked by “fiery serpents” (Numbers 21:6; see vv. 8–9). In response to that attack, and the deaths that followed, Moses was commanded to lift up a brass serpent upon a pole and to instruct those bitten by the poisonous snakes to look upon the brass serpent in faith. “And as many as should look upon that serpent should live, even so as many as should look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit, might live, even unto that life which is eternal” (Helaman 8:15). So easy an act; so few willing to comply. Reflecting on this lack of faith, Alma records: “But few understood the meaning of those things, and this because of the hardness of their hearts. But there were many who were so hardened that they would not look, therefore they perished. Now the reason they would not look is because they did not believe that it would heal them” (Alma 33:20). And why did they not believe? Again, apparently they could not believe that God would give relief so readily. Likewise, some of us find it hard to believe God would give relief from sin and suffering so readily—but He does! I testify that He does!
For reasons unknown to me, some, regardless of the logic and prophetic teachings on the subject, will ever feel that God simply could not be as kind as He is described in the pages of this small book. And yet He is. He is that kind, and His Plan is that simple! Elder Neal A. Maxwell once noted: “The gospel of Jesus Christ is simple. Just because something is simple does not mean it is untrue. Jacob warned about the danger of preferring complexity, of ‘looking beyond the mark,’ and of seeking a tangled theology that people ‘cannot understand.’ (Jacob 4:14.)”6
Yes, we must strive to keep the commandments—for there is no “cheap grace.” But the frank reality is that none of us will succeed in doing so to the standard required, or even to the degree we are capable. That’s where Christ’s atonement must come in. As the Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “God does not look on sin with allowance, but when men have sinned, there must be allowance made for them.”7 The Atonement is that “allowance” that will address our failings. We must but desire to be good—to do our best (and our best will differ from day to day)! But with Jacob we declare, “O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace!” (2 Nephi 9:8). The Savior has provided the means for our redemption; not because He had to, but because He loves us. He loves us with the purest and deepest of love; a degree of love incomprehensible to you and me. “O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit” (2 Nephi 9:10). All that He does—all that He does— is for “the everlasting welfare of your souls” (2 Nephi 2:30). As Yale University chaplain William Sloane Coffin once stated: “God has more grace than you and I have sins.”8 Who of us is so numb to the Spirit of God that we can not feel it testifying to the truthfulness of those words? Oh, that we could muster the faith to firmly trust in the declaration: “The Lord will never give up his mercy” (Ecclesiasticus 47:22).
Of the Father’s immensely merciful character, the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “Our heavenly Father is more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive.”9 President J. Reuben Clark Jr., of the First Presidency, stated:
I believe that his juridical concept of his dealings with his children could be expressed in this way: I believe that in his justice and mercy he will give us the maximum reward for our acts, give us all that he can give, and in the reverse, I believe that he will impose upon us the minimum penalty which it is possible for him to impose.10
Similarly, Elder Orson F. Whitney, of the Twelve, taught: “Our Heavenly Father is far more merciful, infinitely more charitable, than even the best of his servants, and the Everlasting Gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite minds can comprehend.”11 And more recently, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland stated: “The Father of us all... is divinely anxious to bless us this very moment. Mercy is his mission, and love is his only labor.”12 Around the time he was called to serve as an Apostle, Elder Bruce R. McConkie penned these words—the lyrics to the hymn “I Believe in Christ”:
I believe in Christ; he stands supreme!
From him I’ll gain my fondest dream;
And while I strive through grief and pain,
His voice is heard: “Ye shall obtain.”13
Elder McConkie clearly saw the Father in optimistic terms. “Ye shall obtain!” What sweet words to hear from the lips of Him who created all things! I firmly believe that nothing would please the Father more than to extend to us “our fondest dream.” Indeed, it is His “fondest dream” to have as many of His children return home to Him as desire so to do. And it is His intent to make that happen. Thus, the Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “the kindness of our Heavenly Father [calls] for our heartfelt gratitude.”14 And so it does!
In the hymn “I Know That My Redeemer Lives,” we learn of Jesus’ desire to secure our salvation. In the first three verses of that sacred song, we are reminded: “He lives to bless me with his love./He lives to plead for me above.”15 “He lives all blessings to impart.”16 “He lives my mansion to prepare./He lives to bring me safely there.”17 Echoing the words of this hymn are the words of the Lord Himself:
Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life. (D&C 45:3–5)
Can there be any doubt that Christ desires our complete and total forgiveness and our redemption? Can there be any doubt as to how the Father will respond to His Only Begotten’s plea? Given the price Christ so selflessly paid in Gethsemane and on Golgotha’s cross, could a just God—and loving Father—do other that accept Christ’s request on our behalf? The Spirit’s answer is a resounding “No!”
Our part in our salvation is important—as are our sincere efforts to accomplish what God has asked of us. But we must keep in mind His mercy, and keep in context His commands. God knows we’re going to fall short. His expectation of us is not perfection but an attitude of willingness to endure, sorrow for sin, and a determination to move ourselves bit by bit toward Him in our nature, thoughts, desires, and actions. Hugh Nibley frequently referred to the “Doctrine of the Two Ways,”18 which is this: You’re either drawing closer to God or closer to the devil. You’re either moving toward exaltation or toward damnation. The issue is not the rate at which you’re traveling. What matters is that you’re on the road, and you’re heading in the right direction. Not everyone can move at the spiritual speed of a Paul, or a Joseph Smith, or a Gordon B. Hinckley. But, thankfully, none of us will be judged in comparison to those Brethren. We will only be judged in comparison to ourselves—our progress, our efforts to stay headed in the right direction, our sincere attempts to always associate with the sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost. What others do, or do not do, has no bearing on us. All we need ask ourselves is this: “Am I on the path? Am I facing the right direction? Am I moving forward?” Little more is asked of us by God.
God does not seek to condemn us based upon some “loop-hole” in the law. To the contrary, He seeks to save us by applying any and every “loophole” He can. He will not condemn us for our petty imperfections, only for our willful rebellion.19 President J. Reuben Clark Jr., of the First Presidency, stated:
I believe that our Heavenly Father wants to save every one of his children. I do not think he intends to shut any of us off because of some slight transgression, some slight failure to observe some rule or regulation. There are the great elementals that we must observe, but he is not going to be captious20 about the lesser things.21
Likewise, Joseph Smith said that we should be merciful to others—and overlook their small faults and failings—just as God overlooks ours. Joseph rhetorically asked: “Suppose that Jesus Christ and holy angels should object to us on frivolous things, what would become of us?” Then he added, we must be like God and Christ. “We must be merciful to one another, and overlook small things... To the iniquitous show yourselves merciful.”22 Major sins unaddressed will bring significant consequences. However, petty failings caused by our human side will receive of God’s forgiveness, mercy, and grace, if we seek it.23
When Jesus was teaching Nicodemus, He reminded the inquiring Pharisee that His divine mission was not to bring damnation, but rather to bring life. Jesus said: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17; emphasis added). Not only is “happiness... the object and design of our existence,”24 but it is the “work” and the “glory” of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—to “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). And such will be the outcome of the great plan of happiness for all who wish it so to be! In this spirit, the Prophet Joseph Smith extended this comforting invitation: “Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed” (D&C 123:17). And Elder Bruce R. McConkie has also assured us: “Though you haven’t fully overcome the world and you haven’t done all you hoped you might do—you’re still going to be saved.”25
A number of years ago I heard Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve say to a group of Stanford University students, “God is not like an umpire waiting to call you ‘out’ at home plate.”26 He is more like the third base coach who watches out for you and who urges you safely on to home. When you’re hoping to score a home run, you have to trust that coach who urges you on. You can’t pause to look over your shoulder, and you can’t call into question his judgment. You know he wants you to score—perhaps just as badly as you want to. So you work together to make it happen. So it is with Father in Heaven. He urges us on. He lets us know how very close we are. He wants us to succeed—to safely make it home—just as badly as we do. And yet, He can see better than we do, and we must trust His judgment and follow His direction.
Elder Holland shared the following experience, which highlights the need, in those hours of doubt, to accept the assurances that have been offered in this book. Elder Holland said:
Katie Lewis is my neighbor. Her father, Randy, is my bishop; her mother, Melanie, is a saint. And her older brother, Jimmie, is battling leukemia. Sister Lewis recently recounted for me the unspeakable fear and grief that came to their family when Jimmie’s illness was diagnosed. She spoke of the tears and the waves of sorrow that any mother would experience with a prognosis as grim as Jimmie’s was. But like the faithful Latter-day Saints they are, the Lewises turned to God with urgency and with faith and with hope. They fasted and prayed, prayed and fasted. And they went again and again to the temple. One day Sister Lewis came home from a temple session weary and worried, feeling the impact of so many days—and nights—of fear being held at bay only by monumental faith. As she entered her home, four-year-old Katie ran up to her with love in her eyes and a crumpled sheaf of papers in her hand. Holding the papers out to her mother, she said enthusiastically, “Mommy, do you know what these are?” Sister Lewis said frankly her first impulse was to deflect Katie’s zeal and say she didn’t feel like playing just then. But she thought of her children—all her children—and the possible regret of missed opportunities and little lives that pass too swiftly. So she smiled through her sorrow and said, “No, Katie. I don’t know what they are. Please tell me.” “They are the scriptures,” Katie beamed back, “and do you know what they say?” Sister Lewis stopped smiling, gazed deeply at this little child, knelt down to her level, and said, “Tell me, Katie. What do the scriptures say?” “They say, ‘ Trust Jesus.’” And then she was gone. Sister Lewis said that as she stood back up, holding a fistful of her four-year-old’s scribbling, she felt near-tangible arms of peace encircle her weary soul and a divine stillness calm her troubled heart. Katie Lewis, “angel and minister of grace,” I’m with you. In a world of some discouragement, sorrow, and overmuch sin, in times when fear and despair seem to prevail, when humanity is feverish with no worldly physicians in sight, I too say, “Trust Jesus.” Let him still the tempest and ride upon the storm. Believe that he can lift mankind from its bed of affliction, in time and in eternity. Oh, dearly, dearly has he loved! And we must love him too, And trust in his redeeming blood, And try his works to do.27
“Trust Jesus!” That is what we must do. And trust the Father, too! You and I know Their nature. We know Their character. We’re intimately acquainted with Their constant and unflinching goodness, mercy, love, concern, and commitment to each of us. We know They want us to succeed. We must not forget this. We must trust Them, and trust in the Plan They have designed specifically to exalt each of us. As the Lord, Himself, stated:
For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:38–40; emphasis added)
Clearly Jesus and the Father intended the salvation and exaltation of all who would believe. They desired the damnation and loss of none. And Jesus was sent to bring to pass the Father’s desire and will. When we heard the Plan and its parameters and requirements presented in the premortal world, we “trusted Jesus” and we “trusted the Father.” We knew they would not place us in a dangerous scenario. Let us not forget that we shouted for joy when the Father revealed to us this plan. We sang “the song of redeeming love” when He presented it. With Alma, “I would ask, can ye feel so now?” (Alma 5:26). Oh, how we must!
The message of the scriptures is a positive and assuring one. The message of the restored gospel is likewise a positive and an assuring one. The message of the Holy Spirit is a positive and an assuring one. Indeed, President Heber C. Kimball once said: “I am perfectly satisfied that my Father and my God is a cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured Being. Why? Because I am cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured when I have His Spirit.”28 If our lives are saturated in God’s Holy Spirit we cannot feel pessimistic about our salvation. We should only feel joy and anticipation for what is shortly to be ours. As we previously noted, then-Elder Gordon B. Hinckley counseled us, “Don’t be a pickle sucker!”29 There is no place for pessimism in this Church, and there is no place for it on the road to exaltation! The message of the restored gospel is one of “good news”—and in addition to all of the “good news” we are wont to preach, there is the infrequently spoken fact, “Odds are, you’re going to be exalted!”
Of this I testify.
Notes
^1. Robinson, Believing Christ, 78.
^2. Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote: “‘And because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished.’ (1 Nephi 17:41.) It is true today; the simpleness, the easiness of the gospel is such that it causes people to perish because they can’t receive it. We like variety. We like intellectual embroidery. We like complexity. We like complexity at times because it gives us an excuse for failure; that is, as you increase the complexity of a belief system, you provide more and more refuges for those who don’t want to comply. You thereby increase the number of excuses that people can make for failure to comply, and you create a sophisticated intellectual structure which causes people to talk about the gospel instead of doing it. But the gospel of Jesus Christ really is not complex. It strips us of any basic excuse for noncompliance, and yet many of us are forever trying to make it more complex.
“The Book of Mormon suggests a third reason why we may like complexity and reject simplicity, and that is because complexity is pleasing to the carnal mind. It gives us sanctuaries for sin. There are other reasons for craving complexity. One is our simple lack of courage in facing our own deficiencies. The Book of Mormon uses this terse phrase: ‘... The guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.’ (1 Nephi 16:2.)
“Most of us don’t like to be cut to the center, and when the gospel standards cut us it hurts. The tendency is to deal with the pain by rejecting the surgery” (“For the Power Is in Them...,” 48–49).
^3. Teasdale, in Stuy, Collected Discourses, 4:40.
^4. Young, in Journal of Discourses, 9:125.
^5. Young, Discourses, 86. President Young also stated: “The plan by which God works is rational.... None will be destroyed except those who receive the oracles of truth and reject them. None are condemned except those who have the privilege of receiving the words of eternal life and refuse to receive them” (ibid., 58).
^6. Maxwell, Deposition of a Disciple, 12.
^7. Smith, Teachings, 240–41. In Galbraith’s Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the cross-references to this declaration by the Prophet include the following: Jacob 7:12, which reads: “And this is not all—it has been made manifest unto me, for I have heard and seen; and it also has been made manifest unto me by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, I know if there should be no atonement made all mankind must be lost.” Also, Mosiah 13:28, where we read: “And moreover, I say unto you, that salvation doth not come by the law alone; and were it not for the atonement, which God himself shall make for the sins and iniquities of his people, that they must unavoidably perish, notwithstanding the law of Moses.” Finally, Galbraith cites Alma 34:9, which informs us: “For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.” Thus, according to Galbraith, Joseph is not saying we must make allowances for those who sin but that rather God makes allowances for man’s weaknesses and shortcomings (see Galbraith, Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 270, n. 5).
^10. Clark, in Conference Report, Oct. 1953, 84.
^11. Whitney, in Conference Report, Apr. 1929, 110.
^12. Holland, “Look to God and Live,” Ensign, Nov. 1993, 14.
^13. Bruce R. McConkie, “I Believe in Christ,” Hymns, no. 134, v. 4. It is striking how often the hymns of the Restoration emphasize God’s grace, mercy, and love. The following are but a sampling of lines from our hymns that emphasize this reality.
HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION
When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!
(Robert Keen, “How Firm a Foundation,”
Hymns, no. 85, vv. 5, 7)
JESUS, THE VERY THOUGHT OF THEE
O hope of ev’ry contrite heart,
O joy of all the meek,
To those who fall, how kind thou art!
How good to those who seek!
(Bernard of Clairvaux, “Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee,” Hymns, no. 141, v. 3)
HOW GREAT THE WISDOM AND THE LOVE
How great, how glorious, how complete,
Redemption’s grand design,
Where justice, love, and mercy meet
In harmony divine!
(Eliza R. Snow, “How Great the Wisdom and the Love,” Hymns, no. 195, v. 6)
WHERE CAN I TURN FOR PEACE?
Constant he is and kind, Love without end.
(Emma Lou Thayne, “Where Can I Turn for Peace?” Hymns, no. 129, v. 3)
AS NOW WE TAKE THE SACRAMENT
We contemplate thy lasting grace,
Thy boundless charity;
To us the gift of life was giv’n
For all eternity.
(Lee Tom Perry, “As Now We Take the Sacrament,” Hymns, no. 169, v. 1)
GOD LOVED US, SO HE SENT HIS SON
Oh, love effulgent, love divine!
What debt of gratitude is mine,
That in his off’ring I have part
And hold a place within his heart.
(Edward P. Kimball, “God Loved Us, So He Sent His Son,” Hymns, no. 187, v. 3)
ROCK OF AGES
Not the labors of my hands
Can fill all thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and thou alone.
(Augustus M. Toplady, “Rock of Ages,” Hymns, no. 111, v. 2)
THE LORD IS MY LIGHT
The Lord is my light; the Lord is my strength.
I know in his might I’ll conquer at length.
My weakness in mercy he covers with pow’r,
And, walking by faith, I am blest ev’ry hour.
(James Nicholson, “The Lord Is My Light,” Hymns, no. 89, v. 3)
^14. Smith, Teachings, 187. If God extends such mercy and love to us, we certainly are called to do the same for those with whom we interact each day. Joseph Smith taught: “But while one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard; He views them as His offspring, and without any of those contracted feelings that influence the children of men” (ibid., 218). And also this: “The nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs. My talk is intended for all this society; if you would have God have mercy on you, have mercy on one another” (ibid., 241).
^15. Samuel Medley, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives,” Hymns, no. 136, v. 1.
^18. See, for example, Nibley, Ancient Documents and the Pearl of Great Price, Lecture 14, p. 3; Lecture 19, p. 7; Lecture 22, p. 3; Ancient State, 316–17; “Passing of the Church,” 143; Approaching Zion, 18–19, 30–31, 125–26, 463–64; Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, 93; Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, 258; Mormonism and Early Christianity, 16–17, 173–74; Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 53–54; Old Testament and Related Studies, 175–76, 177; Prophetic Book of Mormon, 462; Since Cumorah, 42; Teachings of the Book of Mormon, semester 1, lecture 10, p. 11, and lecture 17, p. 4; semester 2, lecture 40, p. 9, and lecture 48, p. 14; semester 4, lecture 92, p. 72, and lecture 112, p. 280; Temple and Cosmos, xvii, 220; World and the Prophets, 105–6, 184–85; Approach to the Book of Mormon, 24, 485 n. 22.
^19. Elder J. Richard Clarke of the Seventy taught: “The most damage to the Church is done by those who straddle the line, ‘with one foot in the kingdom and the other in spiritual Babylon.’ These people are playing on the Lord’s and Satan’s team... waiting to see which is winning before choosing sides” (“Be a Witness of God,” Church News, 14 Apr. 1985, 21; see also Clarke, “Hold Up Your Light,” Ensign, May 1985, 74). Likewise, of the willfully rebellious, the Prophet Joseph taught: “Our Heavenly Father is... more terrible to the workers of iniquity, more awful in the executions of His punishments, and more ready to detect every false way, than we are apt to suppose Him to be” (Teachings, 257).
^20. C aptious means “inclination to make petty criticisms or entrap or ensnare” (see Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.).
^21. Clark, in Conference Report, Oct. 1953, 84.
^22. Smith, Teachings, 239–40. Most of us project onto God our own personalities. We see God the way we see others. Thus, if we are prone to be judgmental and condemning of other people, we tend to see God as feeling that same way toward us. If, on the other hand, we’re more inclined to be forgiving and merciful toward others, we tend to perceive God that way. Joseph Smith encouraged the Saints to see others with compassion, understanding, and forgiveness. As we do so, the Lord will pour out upon us His mercy in the form of compassion, understanding, and forgiveness. Quite literally, there is a correlation between the way we judge others and the way Christ will judge us.
^23. We need to remember that Satan seeks to discourage us and dissuade us from righteousness every chance he gets. Feelings of discouragement never come from God; they are always of the devil. President Brigham Young once remarked: “Serve God according to the best knowledge you have,... and when the Devil comes along and says, ‘You are not a very good Saint, you might enjoy greater blessings and more of the power of God, and have the vision of your mind opened, if you would live up to your privileges,’ tell him to leave; that you have long ago forsaken his ranks and enlisted in the army of Jesus, who is your captain, and that you want no more of the Devil” (Discourses, 82).
^25. McConkie, “Probationary Test of Mortality,” 12; see also Christofferson, “Justification and Sanctification,” Ensign, June 2001, 25.
^27. Holland, “Look to God and Live,” Ensign, Nov. 1993, 14–15.
^28. Kimball, in Journal of Discourses, 4:222.
^29. Hinckley, “Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled,” in Speeches of the Year, 1974, 273.