Welcome to the classic speeches podcast presented by BYU Speaches, bringing you treasured talks from 70 years of BYU Devotionals.

Be sure to check out our other podcasts by searching BYU speeches wherever you get your podcasts, or by visitingspeches.BYU.edu slash podcasts.

This address entitled A Unique and wonderful university was given on October 11th of 1988 by Gordon B. Hinkley, then first counselor in the first presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I marvel at the capacity of our people to listen to preaching. We came back from the Philippines just in time for general conference.

We were there for 10 or 12 days and speaking two or three

times a day.

Then came conference and following conference from other meetings.

And then on Sunday we were in St. George and we're here today.

On Friday I'll be in Bogota, Columbia, and on Sunday in Lima, Peru, and so it goes.

It reminds me of the occasion when a policeman noticed a man down in the gutter with his

ear to the curb.

He said, what's going on?

And the man said, get down and listen.

So the policeman got down into the gutter with his knee, his ear to the curb, and listened

very intently for a while, and stood up and dusted off his clothes and said, I don't hear a thing.

And the man said, I know, that's the way it's been all morning.

Now, President Benson was scheduled to have been here this morning.

He spoke wonderfully well in the general conference, just concluded, as you know.

But it was tiring for him. He's now in his 90th year, and does not have as much energy as he once had.

Neither will you when you reach that age.

If you ever reach it.

I bring you his love and blessing on this occasion when we in effect inaugurate a new year.

...