Elder Maxwell Talks

It is a privilege to speak to this distinguished group. I commend you or the service you render; let others be sarcastic about the legal profession. I respect those in your profession who practice advocacy without animosity. I admire those lawyers who go beyond merely resolving conflict by judicial decision—who manage conflict by peacemaking.

I have chosen to speak today about a very pedestrian principle: patience. I hope that I do not empty the Marriott Center by that selection. Perhaps the topic was selfishly selected because of my clear and continuing need to develop further this very important attribute. But my interest in patience is not solely personal, for the necessity of having this intriguing attribute is cited several times in the scriptures, including once by King Benjamin who, when clustering the attributes of sainthood, named patience as a charter member of that cluster (Mosiah 3:19; see also Alma 7:23).

Often, when speaking to student leaders in higher education, I have used the analogy that—in a university—the faculty, staff, and administration are like the natives, and the students are like the tourists. In many ways, a recurring devotional speaker is more like one of the natives.

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.