2025 Beacons of Light

Elder Maxwell seldom spoke autobiographically because he did not like to draw attention to himself, but members of his family encouraged him to share some personal experiences and lessons he learned from them.

Elder Maxwell was in the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy when he delivered this devotional address at Brigham Young University on October 26, 1976.

First, my brothers and sisters, my gratitude to the prophet and his counselors for this call. To them, to Elder Richards and the members of the First Quorum of the Seventy, I pledge that my little footnote on the page of the quorum’s history will read clearly that I wore out my life in helping to spread Jesus’ gospel and helping to regulate His church.

My brothers and sisters, I would like to speak of and to a particular group of important individuals. These are they who fully intend, someday, to begin to believe and/or to be active in the Church. But not yet! These are not bad individuals but good individuals who simply do not know how much better they could be.

A few years ago, J. Spencer Fluhman, then-director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, and Elder Maxwell’s children (Cory Maxwell, Becky Maxwell Ahlander, Nancy Maxwell Anderson, and Jane Maxwell Sanders) collaborated on a volume of talks by Elder Maxwell that would allow Elder Maxwell’s words to echo through future generations. Considering over a hundred talks in a variety of settings, the family chose twenty-four talks they felt were the most incisive and enduring statements of gospel principles and of Elder Maxwell’s testimony.