“For nearly six thousand years, God has
held you in reserve to make your appearance before the second coming of the
Lord. Every previous gospel dispensation
has drifted into apostasy, but ours will not...While our generation will be
comparable in wickedness to the days of Noah, there is a major difference this
time. It is that God has saved for the
final inning some of his strongest children who will help bear off the kingdom
triumphantly. And that is where you come
in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God. All through the ages the prophets have looked
down the corridors of time to our day.
Billions of the deceased and those yet to be born have their eyes upon
us. Make no mistake about it-you are a
marked generation. There has never been
more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time as there is for us”
("In His Steps," BYU speeches of the Year, 1979 [Provo, Utah: BYU
Press, 1980], p.59).
