Line yourself up with the help of heaven, Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve told Ricks College graduates April 25.

Speaking to the largest graduating class in the history of the two-year, Church-owned college, Elder Eyring told the graduates, "When you line yourself up with the purposes of heaven, you get the help of heaven."Elder Eyring, who serves as the Church Commissioner of Education, was the keynote speaker at the 109th graduation ceremonies, during which 2,946 degrees were awarded to a record-breaking 2,874 graduates.

This year's graduating class is an increase of 119 students compared to the 2,755 who graduated in 1997. The class of 1998 has 1,153 men, 1,721 women, 1,100 returned missionaries, 458 married students and 78 foreign students.

Elder Eyring, who was accompanied by his wife, Kathleen, said when a person is obedient to Heavenly Father's plan and the commands of the Savior, "The Atonement can work in you to soften and change your heart. Your desire to work hard and to do good increases."

He added, "Our problem, then, is to learn how to get ourselves lined up with the purposes of heaven."

He encouraged the graduates to find their new bishop immediately upon leaving Ricks and to tell him that they are ready to serve in any way he wishes.

"When the bishop calls you to serve, you will be on the Lord's errand," he said. "And when you are on the Lord's errand, you are entitled to the Lord's help."

Elder Eyring told of several personal experiences when he was willing to serve, even when he was in the military or in a challenging graduate school.

"My powers were increased and miracles came both in my education and in my service in the Church," he said.

"The Lord blesses those who try to serve Him, and He tells us what He would have us do to serve Him though His servants who hold keys," he said. "When we answer `yes' and when we persist in working hard in those calls, we assure ourselves of help far beyond and above our own powers."

Elder Eyring told the graduates they had succeeded at Ricks because of miracles that had happened in their lives.

"In every graduate's life there came the help of heaven," he said. "If we had time . . . they could tell us story after story. For some, it would be the day when they found just the right reference they needed to write an assigned paper. For another, it would be a sudden flash of insight during a feverish night of preparation for a test in mathematics. Or it might have been when a check arrived just in time to pay a bill."

He said some people call such occurrences "coincidences or simply the result of a natural process. But to the student who felt the miracle, it was more. He or she felt what we all have felt - that quiet assurance that the help came from heaven."

Participating in his first graduation at Ricks, its new president, David A. Bednar, honored both the graduates and their families and said it was a day to celebrate their accomplishments.