My beloved President David O. McKay, President Brown, and brothers and sisters: It is with great difficulty and a feeling of deep humility that I stand before you in response to this high honor and heavy responsibility that has been bestowed upon me, one of thy most humble servants, the weakest and least prepared of all. I humbly pray that the spirit and blessings of the Lord will attend me as I stand before you this morning.

I am sure that my call to this position must have been a shock to many of you, as it is to me. It is certainly another evidence of the fact that God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.