President Gordon B. Hinckley delivered a simple message to Ricks College students Oct. 29 - "Love the Lord, cling to the Church and live the gospel."

Speaking to nearly 10,000 people during two overflow sessions at a regional conference of the five college stakes, the prophet delivered different messages at the morning and afternoon sessions. But in both sessions he spoke along similar themes of faith and commitment to the Church.President Hinckley's visit to Ricks College was the first by a Church president since President Ezra Taft Benson attended the inauguration of former Ricks Pres. Joe J. Christensen in 1986.

Other Church leaders addressing the regional conference, held in the Hart Auditorium on the campus of the two-year college, included Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve and Elder Spencer J. Condie of the Seventy, who is president of the North America Northwest Area.

Elder Maxwell's wife, Colleen, also spoke briefly, as did Pres. Preston B. Brimhall of the Idaho Falls Temple; Pres. Glenn Orr of the Idaho Pocatello Mission; and Steven D. Bennion, president of Ricks College.

Speaking in the morning session, President Hinckley said: "You are the greatest generation . . . ever in the history of this Church. You are the youth of the noble birthright, daughters and sons of our Father in Heaven, in whom He has great hope, as do your earthly parents and as do we concerning you."

President Hinckley then offered the following counsel:

- Love the Lord. "This is the first and great commandment, . . ." President Hinckley said, quoting Matt. 22:38-39. He then explained: "It is interesting to me that as I read that last night I saw that word `commandment.' Love the Lord is not just counsel, it is not just well-wishing, it is a commandment.

"It is the first and great commandment incumbent upon each of us, because love of God is the root from which springs all other types of love."

Cling to the Church. "Here lies the truth," President Hinckley declared. . . . Hold to the Church. Do not ever lose sight of the fact that the Church must ever remain preeminent in your lives if you are going to be happy as the years pass. . . .

"Never let yourselves be found in the position of fighting The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You cling to it and be faithful to it. You uphold and sustain it. You teach its doctrine and live by it. And I do not hesitate to say that your lives will be the richer and the happier because of that. You cannot find happiness fighting the work of God.

"Love the Lord," the prophet summarized. "Cling to the Church. Live the gospel. That is my formula for you, my beloved friends."

During the afternoon session, he invited listeners to "take a little walk along the path of faith with me."

He read John 20:26-28 concerning the appearance of the Resurrected Lord to the Twelve. "I bring to your attention those great words of the Lord to Thomas, `Be not faithless, but believing.'

"These years when you are in your college days, you learn to think for yourselves and to think critically and that is important," President Hinckley said. "Let me urge you also to not let your thinking override your faith."

President Hinckley then spoke on several subjects, including:

- Prayer. "The problem is, I think, that so many of us pray as if we are ordering groceries. We pick up the telephone and say, `Is this the right place to place my order?' and we proceed right to dictating our order. When we have then ended that list, we hang up. Pray in faith. Believe in God . . . that He will hear and answer your petitions."

- Jesus Christ. President Hinckley said: " `Be not faithless, but believing' in the Almighty Son of the Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, your great friend for time and for eternity. He who loves you so much, really, as your friend, that He was willing to suffer death on the cross . . . to atone for your sins and for my sins, an atonement that is absolutely infinite in its extension in behalf of the sons and daughters of God."

- Scripture study. The Church president urged the students to "take time in a methodical way to read the Book of Mormon. Read the `fifth gospel,' 3 Nephi, beginning with the 11th chapter. "Then read the entire Book of Mormon to fortify all of that. Then read the other gospels. They will give you things that will be as treasures to you in your life and will bring to you a greater understanding of the Savior of the world."

- Joseph Smith. "Believe in the divine calling of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Everything that we have that is good flows from the great and marvelous, most wonderful manifestation recorded in scripture, . . . when the Father and the Son appeared to the boy Joseph and parted the curtains anew to open this the dispensation of the fulness of times."

- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Believe in this Church . . . , the only true and living Church upon the face of the whole earth. Now I do not want to leave any misunderstanding. I believe that all churches do great good. I believe that there are millions upon millions of faithful, wonderful people who are members of other churches who do vast good in the world and whose lives are good in every respect. But the Lord made the declaration that this is the only true and living Church with which He said He is well pleased."

- Divine birthright. "Believe in yourself as a child of God. What a difference it makes when you know something of your birthright," President Hinckley said.

"I want to say to young women here today, do not ever have any inferiority complex about your place in this world in which you live. You are a daughter of God, and I am satisfied that our Father in Heaven loves His daughters as much as He loves His sons. . . . Live worthy of your divine inheritance, my beloved young women.

"You young men who hold the priesthood, `be not faithless, but believing' in the tremendous thing that you have. You cannot do a mean or demeaning thing without discounting the strength, and value and power of that priesthood.

"Keep yourselves, both young men and young women, on the highest plane of morality. You will be grateful if you do."

Elder Maxwell, in his brief remarks in the morning session, counseled, "Make the kind of memories that will nourish you in the years ahead." He encouraged his listeners to have enough faith to repent. "It takes faith to repent - otherwise, why bother? I see in your generation a quality of faith that indeed could become faith unto repentance."

During the afternoon session, Elder Maxwell said the natural man is not able to understand things that are spiritual. "Natural man is headed in the wrong direction. If you will keep the faith, then the Lord will bless you with the understanding that helps you get through."

In his morning address, Elder Condie spoke of the promised blessings found by living gospel principles. He said many blessings come from reading the scriptures, which he said "are our script in the stage of life. Unless we feast on the scriptures, we really aren't able to follow the script." In the afternoon session, he said the way to claim unclaimed blessings is to live the gospel.

Sister Maxwell spoke about the need for love of neighbors and family. "I've heard there are more people hungering for love than for bread," she said at the morning session. At the afternoon session, she spoke about thankfulness, and being in the Lord's debt.