While rising to the possibilities of the oath and covenant of the priesthood brings eternal life, the greatest of God's gifts, failing to do so would bring tragic consequences, which may seem daunting to priesthood holders, President Henry B. Eyring observed at the Saturday evening priesthood session.

President Henry B. Eyring

President Eyring, first counselor in the First Presidency, read the words of Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith as recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 84:35-43, regarding the oath and covenant and its associated promises for faithfulness and penalties for breaking it.

"If you are like I was when I first heard those words as a young man, the challenge of accepting the Melchizedek Priesthood could seem daunting," he remarked. "There are at least two reasons why you should be confident rather than discouraged with the penalties that would follow either failing to keep the oath and covenant or deciding not to accept it," he said. "Whether you accept the oath and covenant and find it too difficult, or if you fail to try, the penalty is the same. There is no question, therefore, that your best course and mine is to receive the Holy Priesthood and try with all our hearts to keep its covenants. If we choose not to try, we would certainly lose the opportunity for eternal life. If we try, and with God's help, succeed, we will gain eternal life."

He said there is yet another reason to decide now that one will try with all one's heart to qualify for the oath and covenant and have confidence that one will succeed: "God promises you the help and power which, if you exercise faith, will give you success."

President Eyring said the very fact that one has been offered the oath and covenant is evidence of the Lord's confidence in him. "With His foreknowledge of your strength He has allowed you to find the true Church of Jesus Christ and be offered the priesthood," he said.

He added that the Savior has promised His personal help to one who goes forward in honoring the priesthood, as promised in Doctrine and Covenants 84:88.

President Eyring said examples in his own life and the lives of others demonstrate that promise, noting that a friend who was a mission president told him that at the end of every day while serving, he wondered if he would have the strength to face another day, then, in the morning, found his strength and courage restored.

"Priesthood service will prepare you for living in eternal families," President Eyring declared. "It will change your feelings about what it means to be a husband or a father or a son or a brother."

In the same way, he said, faith in the oath and covenants will develop essential feelings of charity. He then shared an experience in which he was in the office of President Gordon B. Hinckley when the president was asked to take a telephone call. After the brief call, President Hinckley explained that the caller was the President of the United States who was flying over Utah in Air Force One on his way to Washington. He had called to thank President Hinckley for what priesthood holders had done in the aftermath of a hurricane. "The President of the United States had said that it was a miracle that we were able to get so many people so quickly working together so well. He praised our people by saying that we knew how to do things."

The greater reason for the miracle, President Eyring said, was that priesthood holders had such faith in the oath and covenant of the priesthood.