[MUSIC PLAYING] During the Church's general
conference of April 1989, President Ezra
Taft Benson was too weak to stand at the
pulpit in the Tabernacle on Temple Square. At President Benson's request,
President Gordon Hinckley, then of the First
Presidency, delivered to the world Ezra Taft Benson's
prophetic and timeless message on the sin of pride. Most of us think of pride as
self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance,
or haughtiness. All of these are
elements of the sin, but the heart or core
is still missing. The central feature
of pride is enmity-- enmity toward God and enmity
toward our fellow man. Enmity means hatred
toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition. It is the power by which
Satan wishes to reign over us. Pride is essentially
competitive in nature. We pit our will against God's. When we direct our
pride toward God, it is in the spirit of my
will and not Thine be done. The antidote for
pride is humility, meekness, submissiveness. It is the broken heart
and contrite spirit. God will have a humble people. We can either
choose to be humble or we can be compelled
to be humble. Alma said, "Blessed are they who
humble themselves without being compelled to be humble." Let us choose to be humble. Pride is the great
stumbling block of Zion. I repeat, pride is the great
stumbling block of Zion.