My father finished working on the manuscript of this book just ten days before he passed away. By that time he had little energy, but in the last weeks of his life, he was focused intently on two almost-consuming priorities: spending time with his family, including giving blessings to grandchildren who had not yet received one, and finishing his last manuscript.
As these priorities exemplify, Neal A. Maxwell was a teacher. He loved the word of the Lord. He believed with the psalmist that the word of the Lord "is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105). He observed, "When one sees life and people through the lens of His gospel, then one can see forever" ( Ensign, May 1974, 112). That perspective guided his life's work.
Dad often said the gospel was inexhaustible, and his actions underscored that belief. The gospel was for him an endless source of truth and joy; he found the study of it invigorating. He taught it in his daily walk and talk and through his sermons and books. His desire to capture in words the insights and connections his perceptive mind noted stayed with him throughout his mortal life.
At my father's funeral, President Gordon B. Hinckley noted: "I know of no other who spoke in such a distinctive and interesting way. When he opened his mouth we all listened. We came alive with expectation of something unusual, and we were never disappointed. . . . Each talk was a masterpiece, each book a work of art, worthy of repeated reading. I think we shall not see one like him again" ( Church News, 31 July 2004, 3).
Moving in His Majesty and Power is the last installment in Elder Maxwell's printed legacy. It includes, in revised form, three talks he gave in the last two years of his life and which he felt were worthy of publication. It also includes a section of succinct, penetrating gospel insights on a wide variety of topics, similar in format to that of his previous work, W hom the Lord Loveth.
I hope you will enjoy this book. More importantly, though, I hope my father's objective in writing it will be achieved, namely, to help us resolve to become more committed disciples and to deepen our gratitude for the inexhaustible gospel he loved so deeply and proclaimed so tirelessly.
