A firm witness
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
"The testimony of others may initiate and nourish the desire for faith and testimony, but eventually every individual must find out for himself. None can permanently endure on borrowed light," said Elder Douglas L. Callister as he spoke of the difference between simply having a belief and obtaining a knowledge of the truth.
In his Sunday afternoon conference address, Elder Callister of the Seventy declared that the truthfulness of the gospel does not depend on how many believe it to be true. "In the genius of the gospel plan, he said, there ultimately has to be only one witness, but that witness must be you." The restored gospel is no truer today, he said, than "when a solitary boy walked out of the Sacred Grove in 1820."
"The moment of testimony realization — when you know that you know — is sweet and sublime," said Elder Callister.
He spoke of a young man who had been attending worship services for over a year but had not been baptized. When Elder Callister inquired about this, the young man replied, "I do not know whether it is true. I think it may well be true, but I cannot stand and testify, as you do, 'I actually know it is true."'
Elder Callister asked whether the young man had read the Book of Mormon. He responded he had read in it. He then asked if he had prayed about the book. The young man said he had mentioned it in his prayers.
"I told my friend that as long as he casually read and prayed, he never would find out," said Elder Callister.
"When a testimony has been realized, there is a burning urge on the part of the possessor to bear that testimony to others," he said.
"Our posterity must know that we know, because we oft tell them....Eternity is a long time to live without light, especially if our spouses and our descendants also live in darkness because there was no light within us."
