XIII. TITHING; THE POOR; INDUSTRY…

XIII. TITHING; THE POOR; INDUSTRY

WHY THE LAW OF TITHING WAS INSTITUTED. The Lord revealed to his people in the incipiency of his work a law which was more perfect than the law of tithing. It comprehended larger things, greater power, and a more speedy accomplishment of the purposes of the Lord. But the people were unprepared to live by it, and the Lord, out of mercy to the people, suspended the more perfect law, and gave the law of tithing, in order that there might be means in the storehouse of the Lord for the carrying out of the purposes he had in view; for the gathering of the poor, for the spreading of the gospel to the nations of the earth, for the maintenance of those who were required to give their constant attention, day in and day out, to the work of the Lord, and for whom it was necessary to make some provision. Without this law these things could not be done, neither could temples be built and maintained, nor the poor fed and clothed. Therefore the law of tithing is necessary for the Church, so much so that the Lord has laid great stress upon it.--Apr. C. R., 1900, p. 47.

ESSENTIAL NATURE OF THE LAW OF TITHING. By this principle (tithing) the loyalty of the people of this Church shall be put to the test. By this principle it shall be known who is for the kingdom of God and who is against it. By this principle it shall be seen whose hearts are set on doing the will of God and keeping his commandments, thereby sanctifying the land of Zion unto God, and who are opposed to this principle and have cut themselves off from the blessings of Zion. There is a great deal of importance connected with this principle, for by it it shall be known whether we are faithful or unfaithful. In this respect it is as essential {283} as faith in God, as repentance of sin, as baptism for the remission of sin, or as the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. For if a man keep all the law save one point, and he offend in that, he is a transgressor of the law, and he is not entitled to the fulness of the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But when a man keeps all the law that is revealed, according to his strength, his substance, and his ability, though what he does may be little, it is just as acceptable in the sight of God as if he were able to do a thousand times more.--Apr. C. R., 1900, pp. 47, 48.

THE LAW OF TITHING A TEST. The law of tithing is a test by which the people as individuals shall be proved. Any man who fails to observe this principle shall be known as a man who is indifferent to the welfare of Zion, who neglects his duty as a member of the Church and who does nothing toward the accomplishment of the temporal advancement of the kingdom of God. He contributes nothing, either, toward spreading the gospel to the nations of the earth, and he neglects to do that which would entitle him to receive the blessings and ordinances of the gospel.--Apr. C. R., 1900, p. 47.

THE LAW OF TITHING, THE LAW OF REVENUE. The purpose of the law of tithing is similar to that of the law of revenue which is enacted by every state, every country, and every municipality in the world, I suppose. There is no such thing as an organization of men for any purpose of importance, without provisions for carrying out its designs. The law of tithing is the law of revenue for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Without it, it would be impossible to carry on the purposes of the Lord.

TITHING. No doubt, a good deal more could be read from the scriptures in relation to this principle of tithing, which God has revealed to us in this dispensation, and which he requires at our hands, that we may sanctify, by obedience to his law, this land that it may become indeed a land {284} of Zion unto us; and the promise is, that if we will obey the laws of God, if we will put our trust in him, if we will draw near unto him he will draw near unto us, and he will reward us with his favor and his blessing. He will rebuke the devourer, and he will cause that the earth shall be fruitful, that it shall yield in its strength to the husbandman, the tiller of the soil, and to the herder of flocks. He will increase his kine, and will prosper him upon the right hand and upon the left, and he shall have an abundance, because he puts his trust in God; he draws near unto him, and he is willing to prove him, to see whether he will not open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings upon him that he shall not have room to contain them. Let every man who has received the gospel of Jesus Christ receive this saying, and hearken to these words, for all they are worth. Some men may esteem them lightly, and those who do, will, without doubt, fail to draw near, they will neglect to prove the Lord, they will not fulfil the commandments that he has given, and they will never know that God tells the truth, and that he is able to fulfil his word and promise unto his people when they are willing to obey and keep his law. While they who appreciate these promises, who obey these laws that were given anciently, and have been renewed again in the dispensation of the fulness of times, for the blessing of the people, for the building up of Zion, for the feeding of the widow and the orphan, or the spreading of the gospel of Christ to the nations of the earth, and for the gathering of the people from the four quarters of the earth, those who hearken to these words, prize them as the truth, and apply them in their practice throughout their lives, will come to know that God is a rewarder of those who diligently serve him, and that he is able to fulfil his promises unto them.

A short time ago I met a brother--I need not call his name, for he is but one among thousands who can bear the same testimony, not only by the word of mouth but by {285} the evidences of thrift, of prosperity, of progress and of improvement which surround him in the midst of the deserts. This season he has gathered in rich harvests, his farms having produced in abundance, while the farms of many of his neighbors are clogged with weeds, and their harvests have been only one-half or one-third what his has been. How do you account for it? I account for it in the fact that God has blessed him; and so does he, for he is an intelligent man, a man that not only labors wisely and prudently, but in the fear of God, and in the desire of his heart to obey his laws. He said to me and my companion with whom we were traveling: "God has blessed me because I have striven to keep his laws, and because I have been true to my family." He went out there upon the desert seven or eight years ago, impoverished by persecution and exile, being driven from his home and from his affairs, compelled to wander in exile for years, part of the time preaching the gospel. He returned seven or eight years ago, and settled down upon the desert. Today, out of the earth, the burning sands, he has produced beautiful homes, he has fruitful fields, which are spread out before the eyes of any man who wishes to go and look upon them. He pays his tithing, he remembers his offerings, he is obedient to the laws of God, and he is not afraid to bear testimony to his friends and neighbors that it is through obedience that God has blessed and prospered him, and made him what he is today. He is not the only one; there are others who are prospered in like manner. And I testify that it is because God has blessed him, and his soil, and his labors, that he obtained the increase, and secured the blessings for which he sought and labored. He has acted in good faith with the Lord; the Lord has known his heart, and has blessed him accordingly, and he is prosperous today in that desert, while as to many of his neighbors--go and look for yourselves at their broad acres. They tell the story for themselves. His lands are clear from noxious weeds, {286} because he has labored, and taken care of his lands, and because God has inspired him, and enlightened his mind. The Lord has blessed him in his basket and in his store, in his labors and in the thoughts of his mind, he has been inspired and enabled to accomplish the work that he has done: I testify that it is because of man's faith in the promise of the Lord, and his desire to obey his laws, that he is blessed and prospered of him.--Oct. C. R., 1897, pp. 35, 36.

THE WIDOW AND HER TITHING. Will you then deny the widow, because she has only a mite to bestow? Because the tenth which she proposes to give in obedience to the commandment of God is but a penny, are you going to deprive her of the privilege of having her name enrolled on the book of the law of the Lord, and of having her genealogy acknowledged and recorded in the archives of the Church? And because her name is not found there, are you going to deny her the privileges of the house of God and of the ordinances of the gospel? I think it is time the bishops understood this principle. The bishop should encourage every man, woman and child, who earns and receives a return for labor, to honor the Lord and to prove obedient to the law of God by giving the one-tenth of that which he or she receives, as the Lord requires, so that they may have their names enrolled on the book of the law of the Lord, that their genealogies may be had in the archives of the Church, and that they may be entitled to the privileges and blessings of the house of God.

I recollect most vividly a circumstance that occurred in the days of my childhood. My mother was a widow, with a large family to provide for. One spring when we opened our potato pits, she had her boys get a load of the best potatoes and she took them to the tithing office; potatoes were scarce that season. I was a little boy at the time, and drove the team. When we drove up to the steps of the tithing {287} office, ready to unload the potatoes, one of the clerks came out and said to my mother, "Widow Smith, it's a shame that you should have to pay tithing." He said a number of other things that I remember well, but they are not necessary for me to repeat here. The first two letters of the name of that tithing clerk were William Thompson, and he chided my mother for paying her tithing, called her anything but wise or prudent; and said there were others who were strong and able to work that were supported from the tithing office. My mother turned upon him and said: "William, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Would you deny me a blessing? If I did not pay my tithing, I should expect the Lord to withhold his blessings from me. I pay my tithing, not only because it is a law of God, but because I expect a blessing by doing it. By keeping this and other laws, I expect to prosper, and to be able to provide for my family." Though she was a widow, you may turn to the records of the Church from the beginning unto the day of her death, and you will find that she never received a farthing from the Church to help her support herself and her family; but she paid in thousands of dollars in wheat, potatoes, corn, vegetables, meat, etc. The tithes of her sheep and cattle, the tenth pound of her butter, her tenth chicken, the tenth of her eggs, the tenth pig, the tenth calf, the tenth colt--a tenth of everything she raised was paid. Here sits my brother who can bear testimony to the truth of what I say, as can others who knew her. She prospered because she obeyed the laws of God. She had abundance to sustain her family. We never lacked as much as many others did; for while we found nettle greens most acceptable when we first came to the valley; and while we enjoyed thistle roots, segoes and all that kind of thing, we were no worse off than thousands of others, and not as poor as many, for we were never without corn-meal and milk or butter, to my knowledge. Then that widow had her name recorded in the book of the {288} law of the Lord. That widow was entitled to the privileges of the house of God. No ordinance of the gospel could be denied her, for she was obedient to the laws of God, and she would not fail in her duty, though discouraged from observing a commandment of God by one who was in an official position.

This may be said to be personal. By some it may be considered egotistical. But I do not speak of it in that light. When William Thompson told my mother that she ought not to pay tithing, I thought he was one of the finest fellows in the world. I believed every word he said. I had to work and dig and toil myself. I had to help plow the ground, plant the potatoes, hoe the potatoes, dig the potatoes, and all like duties, and then to load up a big wagon-box full of the very best we had, leaving out the poor ones, and bringing the load to the tithing office, I thought in my childish way that it looked a little hard, specially when I saw certain of my playmates and early associates of childhood, playing round, riding horses and having good times, and who scarcely ever did a lick of work in their lives, and yet were being fed from the public crib. Where are those boys today? Are they known in the Church? Are they prominent among the people of God? Are they or were they ever valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ? Have they a clear testimony of the truth in their hearts? Are they diligent members of the Church? No; and never have been, as a rule, and most of them are dead or vanished out of sight. Well, after I received a few years of experience, I was converted, I found that my mother was right and that William Thompson was wrong. He denied the faith, apostatized, left the country, and led away as many of his family as would go with him. I do not want you to deny me the privilege of being numbered with those who have the interests of Zion at heart, and who desire to contribute their proportion to the upbuilding of Zion, and for the maintenance {289} of the work of the Lord in the earth. It is a blessing that I enjoy, and I do not propose that anybody shall deprive me of that pleasure.--Apr. C. R., 1900, pp. 48, 49.

THE WIDOW AND TITHING. I preach that which I believe and that which I do know to be true, and I do know that if men will obey the laws of God, God will honor and bless them. I have proven it all my life through. I saw it manifested in circumstances which occurred in my childhood, and I know that God has blessed the widow and the fatherless when they have been obedient to his laws and have kept his commandments.

I can tell you the history of a widow woman, with a large family, who was more particular, if possible, to pay the Lord what belonged to him than she was to pay to her neighbors to whom she might be indebted, and she never was indebted to her neighbors, thank God, for anything that she did not pay to the last cent, because the Lord blessed her with plenty, and in her latter years she did not have to borrow of her neighbors, nor did she have to call upon the Church for support, either, but she paid thousands of dollars in products and money into the storehouse of the Lord, although she was a widow with a large family to support. I know this. I can testify of this, and that the Lord Almighty blessed her, not only in the products of her fields, but in her flocks and herds. They were not devoured. They were not destroyed. They did not lie down and die. They increased. They did not stray away; and thieves did not steal them. One reason for that was, she had a little boy that watched them very carefully under her direction, and prompting. Her eye was upon everything, she had supervision over everything, she directed those whom she employed, and her children; and I am a witness--and here sits another witness (Patriarch John Smith)--that God, the eternal Father, blessed her and prospered her while she {290} lived, and she was not only enabled to maintain herself and children that were left to her in poverty, in a day of trial, and when she was driven out into the wilderness, but she was able to feed scores of the poor, and to pay her tithes besides. Verily the Lord prospered her, and she was blessed.--Oct. C. R., 1897, pp. 35-37.

WHO RECEIVES CHURCH HELP SHOULD BE TITHE PAYERS. When one comes to a bishop and asks for assistance because of his or her straitened circumstances, the first thing the bishop should do is to inquire if he or she is a tithe-payer. He should know whether the name is on the book of the law of the Lord, and if not on the book, if he or she has been derelict and negligent in relation to this principle of tithing, he or she has no claim upon the bishop, neither have their children; and if, under those circumstances, the bishop assists him, it will simply be out of pure charity and not because such have any claim upon the Church. That is why the widow who receives assistance from the Church should pay her tithing, so that her name may be on the records of the Church. It is not a law that is applicable to one and not to another. If the rich may not receive blessings because their names are not on the record, then neither shall the poor receive blessings in the house of God, if their names are not recorded. So long as a poor person receives his or her support through the tithings of the people, they should be willing to observe the law themselves in order that they may be entitled to what they receive. They should show by their observance of the law that they are law-keepers and not law-breakers. Our children, as soon as they become old enough to earn means, should be taught to pay their tithing, that their names may be written in the book of the law of the Lord, so that if perchance their father die and they are left orphans, their names as well as the names of their parents, will be found upon the records and they will, as God lives, be entitled to {291} their support and to their education. It is our duty to look after these children and see that they have an equal chance with those who are most favored with parents to look after them.--Oct. C. R., 1899, pp. 44, 45.

USE OF TITHING. I mention this simply to show that these men, whose whole time is occupied in the ministry, are only drawing their necessary support from the Church. They must have that. You would not begrudge them that. Men who are faithful, valiant, instant in season and out of season, and consequently engaged in the work of the ministry, you surely would not say that they should not have food to eat, raiment to wear, and where to lay their heads; and that is all these men get from the Church. The laborer is certainly worthy of his hire. So that your tithing is not enriching your brethren of the ministry. It is being used to keep up the ordinances of the house of God in these four temples. Thousands and thousands of dollars of it are being used in educating the youth of Zion and in maintaining the Church schools. Thousands of dollars are being expended to feed and clothe the poor, and to take care of those who are dependent upon the Church. They look to their "mother" for succor and support, and it is right and proper that the Church should provide for its own poor and indigent, feeble and helpless, so far as possible.--Apr. C. R., 1901, p. 71.

COMMERCIALISM AND TITHING. The Church is charged with commercialism. There is not the least resemblance of it, in truth. The Church is neither buying nor selling goods or chattels. It is not engaged in merchandising of any description, and never has been; and there could not well be a more false and groundless statement made against the Church than to charge it with commercialism. It is true that, unlike other churches or religious organizations, the people of this Church observe the law of tithing, which is the law of revenue of the Church. We do not pass around {292} the hat to you, nor the collection box, for means to defray the expenses incident to carrying on of the work of the Church. You give it voluntarily. This reminds me of another falsehood that is spread abroad by our enemies, namely: That the "Mormon" people are compelled to pay tithing, that the authorities of the Church demand it of them, that it is made obligatory upon them, and is tyrannically exacted from them all the time, which is an infamous falsehood, a slander, for there is not a word or syllable of truth in it. The observance of the law of tithing is voluntary. I can pay my tithing or not, as I choose. It is a matter of choice with me, whether I will do it or not do it; but, feeling as I do, loyal to the Church, loyal to its interests, believing that it is right and just to observe the law of tithing I do observe it--on the same principle that I think it is right for me to observe the law of repentance, and of baptism, for the remission of sins. It is my pleasure to do my duty with reference to the observance of these principles, and to pay my tithing. The Lord has revealed how this means shall be cared for, and managed; namely, by the Presidency of the Church and the High Council of the Church (that is, the Twelve Apostles), and the Presiding Bishopric of the Church. I think there is wisdom in this. It is not left for one man to dispose of it, or to handle it alone, not by any means. It devolves upon at least eighteen men, men of wisdom, of faith, of ability, as these eighteen men are. I say it devolves upon them to dispose of the tithes of the people and to use them for whatever purpose in their judgment and wisdom will accomplish the most good for the Church; and because this fund of tithing is disposed of by these men whom the Lord has designated as having authority to do it, for the necessities and benefit of the Church, they call it "commercialism." What absurdity! You may just as well call their practices in passing around their contribution boxes, for collecting means with which to build their {293} churches, with which to pay their ministers, and with which to carry on the monetary affairs of their churches, "commercialism," as for them to charge us with "commercialism," because we handle the tithing of the Church, and appropriate and use it for the benefit of the Church.--Apr. C. R., 1912, pp. 5, 6.

TITHING USED CAREFULLY AND FULL ACCOUNTS KEPT. I defy any man on earth to point his finger to a dollar that is wilfully wasted or stolen by the servants of God. The tithing books are kept as accurately and as perfectly as any books are kept in any bank. Every man who pays a dollar tithing gets his credit on the books; and if he wants to see that his credit is there he can go and see for himself. But we do not propose to open our books and show your accounts to every Tom, Dick and Harry in the land who never did pay any tithing. We do not propose to do that, if we can help it. But you Latter-day Saints who pay your tithes and your offerings, if you want to see for yourselves that you may be eye and ear witnesses, the books are open to you, and you can come and examine your accounts any business day you want.--Oct. C. R., 1905, p. 5.

BOOKS OPEN TO TITHE-PAYERS. The man who complains about not knowing what is done with the tithing, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, is the man who has no credit on the books of the Church for paying tithing. We do not care to exhibit the books of the Church to such carpers, and to that class of people. But there is not a tithe-payer in the Church who cannot go to the Presiding Bishop's office, or to the office of the Trustee-in-Trust, if he desires, and find his account, and see to it that every dollar he has given to the Lord for tithing is credited to him. Then, if he wants to be more searching as a tithe-payer, and find out what is done with the tithing, we will set before him the whole thing, and if he has any good counsel to give us we will take it from him. But we will not--because we do {294} not have to, and it is not the business of the world to require it--open our books to the world, unless we wish to. We are not ashamed of them. We are not afraid for them to be inspected. They are honest and straight; and there is not a man in the world who will look at them, but will say so, if he is honest himself.--Apr. C. R., 1906, pp. 6, 7.

WE SHOULD SYMPATHIZE WITH THE UNFORTUNATE. We too frequently see a disposition on the part of our children to make fun of the unfortunate. A poor cripple, or a poor, weak-minded person comes along, and the boys will poke fun at him, and make unbecoming remarks about him. This is entirely wrong, and such a spirit as this should never be witnessed among the children of the Latter-day Saints.--Oct. C. R., 1904, pp. 87, 88.

CHARITY TO BE ACCEPTED ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. There is such a thing as encouraging idleness and fostering pauperism among men. Men and women ought not to be willing to receive charity unless they are compelled to do so to keep them from suffering. Every man and woman ought to possess the spirit of independence, a self-sustaining spirit, that would prompt him or her to say, when they are in need, "I am willing to give my labor in exchange for that which you give me." No man ought to be satisfied to receive, and to do nothing for it. After a man is brought down to poverty and is under the necessity of receiving aid, and his friends give it to him, he should feel that it is an obligation under which he is placed, and when the Lord should open his way he would return the gift. That is the feeling we should cultivate in our hearts, to make us a free and independent people. The cultivation of any other feeling or spirit than this is calculated to make paupers, to degrade and bring mankind down to beggary, which is a most wretched condition for men to be in. It is a bad thing for men to think the world owes them a living, and all they have to do is to beg or steal to get it. * * * I don't refer to the {295} cripple, or to those who are enfeebled by age, because I look at them in an entirely different light; there is a necessity for them to live, and there is a necessity for us to assist such, but there is no great need in this world for men and women who are able to work and will not work.--Apr. C. R., 1898, pp. 46-48.

CEASE TO WASTE TIME; CEASE TO BE IDLE. I desire to say to this congregation at this time that I have felt very strongly of late a desire, a responsibility, I may say, resting upon me, to admonish the Latter-day Saints everywhere to cease loitering away their precious time, to cease from all idleness. It is said in the revelations that the idler in Zion shall not eat the bread of the laborer, and there is vastly too much, in some parts--not universally, but there is far too much precious time wasted by the youth of Zion, and perhaps by some that are older and more experienced and who ought to know better, in the foolish, vain and unprofitable practice of card-playing. We hear of card parties here and card parties there, and entertainments where the playing of cards is the principal amusement; and the whole evening is thus wasted. The whole precious time of those who are gathered together on occasions of this kind, aggregating many hours, absolutely wasted. If there was nothing else to be said against this practice, that alone should be sufficient to induce Latter-day Saints not to indulge in this foolish and unprofitable pastime.

Read good books. Learn to sing and to recite, and to converse upon subjects that will be of interest to your associates, and at your social gatherings, instead of wasting the time in senseless practices that lead only to mischief and sometimes to serious evil and wrongdoing; instead of doing this, seek out of the best books knowledge and understanding. Read history. Read philosophy, if you wish. Read anything that is good, that will elevate the mind and will add to your stock of knowledge, that those who associate {296} with you may feel an interest in your pursuit of knowledge and of wisdom.--Oct. C. R., 1903, p. 98.

GOSPEL BLESSING OBTAINED BY LABOR. We can never attain to the blessings of the gospel by merely becoming acquainted with it and then sitting down and doing nothing ourselves to stem the current of evil that is preying upon us and upon the world.--Apr. C. R., 1900, p. 40.

IDLERS HAVE NO PLACE IN ZION. There should be no idlers in Zion. Even the poor who have to be assisted should be willing to do all in their power to earn their own living. Not one man or woman should be content to sit down and be fed, clothed, or housed without any exertion on his or her part to compensate for these privileges. All men and women should feel a degree of independence of character that would stimulate them to do something for a living, and not be idle; for it is written that the idler shall not eat the bread of the laborer of Zion, and he shall not have place among us. Therefore, it is necessary that we should be industrious, that we should intelligently apply our labor to something that is productive and conducive to the welfare of the human family. God help us to do this, is my prayer. Amen.--Apr. C. R., 1899, p. 42; Doc. and Cov. 42:42; 68:30; 75:29.

A MESSAGE OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS ON BEHALF OF THE POOR. The position of the Latter-day Saints in regard to the poor is perhaps well understood by most readers of the Era. But there are some points which are not quite clear to a number of our friends.

God has commanded this people to remember the poor, and to give means for their support. No other community, perhaps, has proved more willing than the Latter-day Saints to obey this command. They have demonstrated this in the past and have been very willing to impart of their properties to aid the poor and unfortunate, not only in their own midst, but also those who live in other nations and other {297} places in our own country. No call for help has ever been heard in vain by them. And this is true, notwithstanding the fact that they have often suffered from unjust oppression and great poverty, in which they have received little, if any, sympathy and no help. They have always taken care of themselves and besides have helped others.

A leading mission of the Church is to teach the gospel of Christ in the world. It has an important message to deliver, which not only includes the spiritual salvation of men, but also their temporal welfare. It not only teaches that faith is necessary, but also that works are required. Belief in Jesus is well and good, but it must be of a living 'kind which induces the believer to work out his own salvation, and to aid others to do the same. We do not believe in charity as a business; but rather we depend on mutual helpfulness. While the gospel message requires faith and repentance, it requires also that temporal necessities must be met. So the Lord has revealed plans for the temporal salvation of the people. For the benefit of the poor we have the fast instituted, a leading object of which among other things is to provide the poor with food and other necessities until they may help themselves. For it is clear that plans which contemplate only relieving present distress are deficient. The Church has always sought to place its members in a way to help themselves, rather than adopting the method of so many charitable institutions of providing for only present needs. When the help is withdrawn or used up, more must be provided from the same source, thus making paupers of the poor and teaching them the incorrect principle of relying upon others' help, instead of depending upon their own exertions. This plan has made the Latter-day Saints independent wherever they have settled. It has prevented a constant recurring of calls for help and established permanent conditions by which the people help themselves. Our idea of charity, therefore, is to relieve present wants and then to {298} put the poor in a way to help themselves so that in turn they may help others. The funds are committed for distribution to wise men, generally to bishops of the Church, whose duty it is to look after the poor.

We submit the equitable fast-day plan of the Lord to the churches of the world as a wise and systematic way of providing for the poor. I say equitable because it gives an opportunity for the contribution of much or little, according to the position and standing of those who contribute; and besides, it helps both the giver and the receiver. If the churches would adopt the universal monthly fast-day, as observed by the Latter-day Saints, and devote the means saved during the day to the alleviation, blessing and benefit of the poor, and with a view to helping them to help themselves, there would soon be no poor in the land.

It would be a simple matter for people to comply with this requirement to abstain from food and drink one day each month, and to dedicate what would be consumed during that day to the poor, and as much more as they pleased. The Lord has instituted this law; it is simple and perfect, based on reason and intelligence, and would not only prove a solution to the question of providing for the poor, but it would result in good to those who observe the law. It would call attention to the sin of over-eating, place the body in subjection to the spirit, and so promote communion with the Holy Ghost, and insure a spiritual strength and power which the people of the nation so greatly need. As fasting should always be accompanied by prayer, this law would bring the people nearer to God, and divert their minds once a month at least, from the mad rush of worldly affairs and cause them to be brought into immediate contact with practical, pure and undefiled religion--to visit the fatherless and the widow, and keep themselves unspotted from the sins of the world. For religion is not in believing the commandments {299} only, it is in doing them. I would to God that men would not only believe Jesus Christ and his teachings, but would broaden their belief to the extent of doing the things that are taught by him, and doing them in spirit.

He certainly taught fasting, prayer and helpfulness. No better start can be made than by fasting, praying to God, and sacrificing means for the poor. This law combines belief and practice, faith and works, without which neither Armenian nor Latter-day Saint, neither Jew nor Gentile, can be saved.

When appeals are made to the Latter-day Saints for aid, they are always willing to comply; but we have also our mission to perform; to preach the gospel, to establish peace, secure plenty, and promote happiness in the land; and our people have learned through the commandments of God how to take care of themselves and are trying to help others to do likewise. They are ever helping each other and it is seldom that poor are found among them who are unprovided for. They are practically independent and may become entirely so by a stricter adherence to the law of the Lord! We believe that if other communities would adopt the plans of consecration, fasting, and tithing, which the Lord has revealed to the Latter-day Saints and carry them out in spirit, with faith and works, that poverty and pauperism would be greatly reduced or entirely overcome. Opportunities would be presented so that all might obtain work and thus provide for themselves; and the other command of the Lord would be obeyed: "Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer."--Improvement Era, Vol. 10, pp. 831-833.

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XIV. TEMPERANCE; THE SABBATH

MAN SHOULD BE MASTER OF HIS APPETITES. How humiliating it must be to a thoughtful man to feel that he is a slave to his appetites, or to an over-weening and pernicious habit, desire or passion. We believe in strict temperance. We believe in abstinence from all injurious practices, and from the use of all hurtful things. Poison, in the judgment of the physician, may be beneficial, under some conditions in life, as a momentary relief; but poison, under any circumstance, should only be used as a temporary expedient, necessary, perhaps, in our best judgment, for the time being, for the instant--for sudden and certain desired relief--but the continued use of that poison will fasten its fangs upon us, so to speak, in such a way that by and by we will find that we are overpowered by it, and we become slaves of the pernicious habit that becomes a tyrannical master over us.--Apr. C. R., 1908, p. 4.

MODERATION. We may make evil of all amusements, but the Saints should not be unwise, but rather understand what the will of the Lord is, and practice moderation in all things. They should avoid excesses and cease from sin, putting far from them "the lusts of men;" and in their amusements and pastimes adopt a course that looks to the spirit as well as the letter, the intention and not the act alone, the whole and not the part, which is the meaning of moderation. In this way their conduct will be reasonable and becoming, and they shall find no trouble in understanding the will of the Lord.

Let me exhort the young people particularly, and the Saints generally, to weigh well the value of moderation in all their actions and amusements. Remember, too, that excessive {301} feasting is not good; neither is excessive labor, but idleness and waste of precious time is infinitely worse. "Let your moderation be known to all men."--Improvement Era, Vol. 6, p. 857, Sept., 1903.

TEMPERANCE. We endorse any movement looking to temperance, looking to virtue, tending to purity of life and to faith in God and obedience to his laws; and we are against evil of every description; and we are, in our faith and prayers, against evil-doers--not that we would pray for evil to come upon evil-doers, but that evil-doers might see the folly of their ways and the wickedness of their acts and repent of them and turn away from them.--Oct. C. R., 1908, p. 8.

HOW TO TEACH TEMPERANCE. The best way to teach temperance is to keep the Word of Wisdom; and the next best is to assist others to keep it, by removing artificial temptations from their lives. Such temptation is the saloon, and it is time that the sentiment in the communities where the members of the Church reside should be declared against this soul-destroying evil.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 46, p. 333, June, 1911.

USE OF TOBACCO AND STRONG DRINKS. The use of tobacco in its various forms and of strong drinks to some extent is also to be lamented and deplored, especially among the youth, and this evil should be stamped out. The people of God should set their faces like flint against these practices, and they should see to it that their children are taught better, and that a better example is set before them by their parents, in order that the children may grow up without sin in these things.--Oct. C. R., 1901, p. 2.

DO NOT SMOKE. Teach your children not to smoke; persuade them not to do it. Watch and look after them, and try to teach them better, and to be courteous and kind.--Apr. C. R., 1905, p. 86.

THE SALOON. No member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can afford to do himself the dishonor, {302} or bring upon himself the disgrace, of crossing the threshold of a liquor saloon or a gambling hell, or of any house of ill-fame of whatever name or nature it may be. No Latter-day Saint, no member of the Church, can afford it, for it is humiliating to him, it is disgraceful in him to do it, and God will judge him according to his works.--Oct. C. R., 1908, p. 7.

If, I say, the people observe the principles of this revelation (Doctrine and Covenants 89), there could not exist in their midst that most obnoxious institution known as a saloon; it can not exist where only Latter-day Saints dwell.--Oct. C. R., 1908, p. 6.

DEFEAT THE LIQUOR INTERESTS. The liquor interests--the enemies of the race--are again making keen efforts to restore the former low-down conditions. In some places, we understand, enough petitioners have already been obtained and the names filed with the commissioners requesting an election this June. With all good people we join in hoping that these efforts may utterly fail to restore the saloon. This should be the desire of all Latter-day Saints, and their prayers should be supported by their works and votes. In these elections the wives, mothers and sisters have their golden opportunity with fathers and brothers to arise and utterly crush the cursed traffic in drink for which so many have suffered in sweat, and pain, and tears.--Improvement Era, Vol. 16, 1912-13, p. 824.

VITALITY AND PATENT MEDICINES. Instead of flocking out to hear smooth-tongued impostors people should leave them severely alone. Instead of dosing themselves with patent medicines, they should learn to keep their bodies healthy by right living (see Doctrine and Covenants, Sec 89), by inhaling pure air, taking plenty of exercise, and bathing not only often in fresh water, but also in the sunshine with which our merciful Father has so abundantly provided us. If there are cases of sickness, as there will be {303} notwithstanding any precaution we may take, which common sense and good nursing, or simple home remedies do not suffice to cure, let us follow the advice of the Scriptures (James 5:14-16), but if we do not believe in the elders, or in the prayer of faith saving the sick, let a reputable and faithful physician be consulted. By all means, let the quack the traveling fakir, the cure-all nostrum, and the indiscriminate dosing with patent medicine, be abolished like so much trash.

The young man who would cope with the world, who would be full of vigor, and fresh for the battle of life, will find his strength in living according to the word of the Lord; for the promise is that all "who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel, and marrow to their bones, and shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; and shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint; and I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them."--Improvement Era, Vol. 5, June, 1902, p. 624.

STAMP OUT PROFANITY AND VULGARITY. We should stamp out profanity, and vulgarity, and everything of that character that exists among us; for all such things are incompatible with the gospel and inconsistent with the people of God.--Oct. C. R., 1901, p. 2.

SATURDAY'S WORK. A good modern eighth commandment might read something like this: Do not so overwork and fret on Saturday as to deprive the Sabbath of the devotions and worship that belong to it as a day of rest.

In the home, Saturday is the day set apart for house cleaning, for extra cooking, for mending and all sorts of repairs that the Sabbath is thought to require. In business, Saturday is a day for picking up all lose ends, for closing up all the unfinished details of a week's work.

{304} The consequences of our modern treatment of the last day of the week are too often manifested in an indolence and supine indifference that make our feelings and a total lack of energy almost incompatible with the spirit of worship. No worn-out man or woman, by the excessive toil of an early Saturday morning and a late Saturday night, can properly worship God in spirit and in truth.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 44, July, 1909, p. 295.

PURPOSE OF THE SABBATH. The Sabbath is a day of rest and of worship, designated and set apart by special commandment of the Lord to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we should honor and keep it holy. We should also teach our children this principle.--Oct. C. R., 1901, pp. 1, 2.

THE MEANING OF SUNDAY. True, Sunday is a day of rest, a change from the ordinary occupations of the week, but it is more than that. It is a day of worship, a day in which the spiritual life of man may be enriched. A day of indolence, a day of physical recuperation is too often a very different thing from the God-ordained day of rest. Physical exhaustion and indolence are incompatible with a spirit of worship. A proper observance of the duties and devotions of the Sabbath day will, by its change and its spiritual life, give the best rest that men can enjoy on the Sabbath day.

Saturday evening may be wisely set apart as a time for thoughtful conversation or helpful reading as an introduction to the Sabbath day.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 44, July, 1909, p. 297.

WHAT SHALL WE DO ON THE SABBATH DAY? My belief is that it is the duty of Latter-day Saints to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy, just as the Lord has commanded us to do. Go to the house of prayer. Listen to instructions. Bear your testimony to the truth. Drink at the fountain of knowledge and of instruction, as it may be opened for us from those who are inspired to give us instruction. When {305} we go home, get the family together. Let us sing a few songs. Let us read a chapter or two in the Bible, or in the Book of Mormon, or in the book of Doctrine and Covenants. Let us discuss the principles of the gospel which pertain to advancement in the school of divine knowledge, and in this way occupy one day in seven. I think it would be profitable for us to do this.--M.I.A. Conference, June 11, 1916, Young Woman's Journal, Vol. 27, pp. 455-460.

NECESSITY OF SUNDAY WORSHIP. It is imperatively necessary, at all times, and especially so when our associations do not afford us the moral and spiritual support which we require for our advancement that we go to the house of the Lord to worship and mingle with the Saints, that their moral and spiritual influence may help to correct our false impressions and restore us to that life which the duties and obligations or our conscience and true religion impose upon us.

"Good times" are often dangerous times, and social fraternity, if not of the right character, will prove more harmful than helpful. Let us, therefore, in the midst of our worldly callings and associations, not forget that paramount duty which we owe to ourselves and to our God.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 47, March, 1912, p. 145.

BE WISE IN ALL YOU DO. Leave these poisonous and injurious things alone; live within your means; get out of debt; and keep out of debt; do not run faster than you can go safely; be careful and cautious in what you do; advise with those who have wisdom and experience, before you leap, lest you leap into the dark; and so guard yourselves from possible evil and disadvantage, that the Lord can pour out the blessings of heaven upon you, yes, "open the windows of heaven" and pour out upon you blessings that you shall scarcely have room to contain them.--Apr. C. R., 1910, pp. 6, 7.

THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF FASTING. The law to the {306} Latter-day Saints, as understood by the authorities of the Church, is that food and drink are not to be partaken of for twenty-four hours, "from even to even," and that the Saints are to refrain from all bodily gratification and indulgences. Fast day being on the Sabbath, it follows, of course, that all labor is to be abstained from. In addition, the leading and principal object of the institution of the fast among the Latter-day Saints was that the poor might be provided with food and other necessities. It is, therefore, incumbent upon every Latter-day Saint to give to his bishop, on fast day, the food that he or his family would consume for the day, that it may be given to the poor for their benefit and blessing; or, in lieu of the food, that its equivalent amount, or, if the person is wealthy, a liberal donation, in money, be so reserved and dedicated to the poor.

Now, while the law requires the Saints in all the world to fast from "even to even" and to abstain both from food and drink, it can easily be seen from the Scriptures, and especially from the words of Jesus, that it is more important to obtain the true spirit of love for God and man, "purity of heart and simplicity of intention," than it is to carry out the cold letter of the law. The Lord has instituted the fast on a reasonable and intelligent basis, and none of his works are vain or unwise. His law is perfect in this as in other things. Hence, those who can are required to comply thereto; it is a duty from which they cannot escape; but let it be remembered that the observance of the fast day by abstaining twenty-four hours from food and drink is not an absolute rule, it is no iron-clad law to us, but it is left with the people as a matter of conscience, to exercise wisdom and discretion. Many are subject to weakness, others are delicate in health, and others have nursing babies; of such it should not be required to fast. Neither should parents compel their little children to fast. I have known children to cry for something to eat on fast day. In such cases, going without {307} food will do them no good. Instead, they dread the day to come, and in place of hailing it, dislike it; while the compulsion engenders a spirit of rebellion in them, rather than a love for the Lord and their fellows. Better teach them the principle, and let them observe it when they are old enough to choose intelligently, than to so compel them.

But those should fast who can, and all classes among us should be taught to save the meals which they would eat, or their equivalent, for the poor. None are exempt from this; it is required of the Saints, old and young, in every part of the Church. It is no excuse that in some places there are no poor. In such cases the fast donation should be forwarded to the proper authorities for transmission to such stakes of Zion as may stand in need.

So shall we gain favor in the sight of God, and learn the acceptable fast before him.--Improvement Era, Vol. 6, December, 1903, p. 146.

KEEPING THE SABBATH HOLY. To observe the Sabbath day properly is the plain duty of every Latter-day Saint--and that includes the young men and young women and the boys and girls. It may seem strange that it should be necessary to repeat this often-asserted fact. But there appear to be some people, and sometimes whole communities, who neglect this duty, and therefore stand in need of this admonition.

What are we required to do on the Sabbath day? The revelations of the Lord to the Prophet Joseph are very plain on this subject, and these should govern us, for they are in strict harmony with the teachings of the Savior. Here are some of the simple requirements:

The Sabbath is appointed unto you to rest from your labors.

The Sabbath is a special day for you to worship, to pray, and to show zeal and ardor in your religious faith and duty--to pay devotions to the Most High.

{308} The Sabbath is a day when you are required to offer your time and attention in worship of the Lord, whether in meeting, in the home, or wherever you may be--that is the thought that should occupy your mind.

The Sabbath day is a day when, with your brethren and sisters, you should attend the meetings of the Saints, prepared to partake of the sacrament of the Lord's supper; having first confessed your sins before the Lord and your brethren and sisters, and forgiven your fellows as you expect the Lord to forgive you.

On the Sabbath day you are to do no other thing than to prepare your food with singleness of heart, that your fasting may be perfect, and your joy may be full. This is what the Lord calls fasting and prayer.

The reason for this required course upon the Sabbath day is also plainly stated in the revelations. It is that one may more fully keep himself unspotted from the world; and to this end, also, the Saints are required to go to the house of prayer and offer up their sacraments on the Sabbath day.

Now, what is the promise to the Saints who observe the Sabbath? The Lord declares that inasmuch as they do this with cheerful hearts and countenances, the fulness of the earth is theirs: "the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth. Yea, and the herb, and the good things which cometh of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards." (Doc. and Cov. 59.)

These are all made for the benefit and use of man to please the eye and to gladden the heart, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul. All are promised to those who keep the commandments, and among the commandments is this important one, to observe properly the Sabbath day.

{309} The Lord is not pleased with people who know these things and do them not.

Men are not resting from their labors when they plow, and plant and haul and dig. They are not resting when they linger around the home all day on Sunday, doing odd jobs that they have been too busy to do on other days.

Men are not showing zeal and ardor in their religious faith and duty when they hustle off early Sunday morning on the cars, in teams, in automobiles, to the canyons, the resorts, and to visit friends or places of amusement with their wives and children. They are not paying their devotions in this way to the Most High.

Not in seeking pleasure and recreation do they offer their time and attention in the worship of the Lord; nor can they thus rejoice in the spirit of forgiveness and worship that comes with partaking of the holy sacrament.

Boys and young men are not fasting with singleness of heart that their joy may be full when they spend the Sabbath day loafing around the village ice-cream stand or restaurant, playing games, or in buggy riding, fishing, shooting, or engaged in physical sports, excursions and outings. Such is not the course that will keep them unspotted from the world, but rather one that will deprive them of the rich promises of the Lord, giving them sorrow instead of joy, and unrest and anxiety instead of the peace that comes with works of righteousness.

Let us play and take recreation to our hearts' content during other days, but on the Sabbath let us rest, worship, go to the house of prayer, partake of the sacrament, cat our food with singleness of heart, and pay our devotions to God, that the fulness of the earth may be ours, and that we may have peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come.

"But," says one, "in our settlement we have no other {310} day for amusement and sports, excursions and outings, ball games and races."

Then demand one.

Is it possible that parents, in the face of the promises of the Lord, will deny a day in the week when their children may have recreation; and so force them to spend the Sabbath in sports!

One prominent man, in one of the northern stakes, where ball games and other sports are said to be the rule on Sunday, asked what could be done to remedy the evil. He was told to try a half holiday on one of the week days.

"Then," he replied, "we can have no change nor remedy. Here are hundreds of acres of hay and ripening fields crying for workmen, and we cannot spare our boys for play."

The best reply to such an argument is the question: "Which is best--to let the hay go to ruin, or the boy?" Let the hay go; save the boy. He is worth more than all your material possessions. Save him in the spirit of the gospel--protect him from Sabbath breaking--by offering a little temporal sacrifice, and the Lord will keep his promise to you. Get together in your ward, unitedly select a day for play and recreation; and like faithful Saints demand that the Sabbath day, as far as you and yours are concerned, shall be devoted to the Lord our God.--Improvement Era, Vol. 13, 1909-10, pp. 842-844.

DO NOT ROB THE SABBATH DAY. It is incumbent on members of the Church to so plan their work that there shall be no excuse for robbing the Lord's day of its sanctity. To this end let the boys and girls have a half holiday during the week, which may be profitably used for recreations, leaving the Sabbath for spiritual culture and worship. It is equally obligatory that we so plan our amusements that these shall not interfere with our worship. Let therefore some other night than Saturday be provided for the purpose. The Lord has commanded his people to observe {311} the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and on that day to go to the house of prayer and offer up their sacraments in righteousness with willing hearts and penitent spirits.--Improvement Era, Vol. 12, 1909, p. 315.

MAN MUST BE MASTER OF HIMSELF. No man is safe unless he is master of himself; and there is no tyrant more merciless or more to be dreaded than an uncontrollable appetite or passion. We will find that if we give way to the groveling appetites of the flesh and follow them up, that the end will be invariably bitter, injurious and sorrowful, both to the individual and society. It is hurtful in example as well as in its individual effects; dangerous and hurtful to the unwary; while the denial of these appetites--the crucifixion of the flesh, so to speak--and an aspiration for something noble; whenever possible, doing good to our fellow creatures, hoping for the future, laying up treasures in heaven, where moth and rust cannot corrupt, and where thieves cannot break through and steal--all these things will bring everlasting happiness; happiness for this world and the world to come. If there is no pleasure in the world except that which we experience in the gratification of our physical desires--eating, drinking, gay associations, and the pleasures of the world--then the enjoyments of the world are bubbles, there is nothing in them, there is no lasting benefit or happiness to be derived from them.--Deseret Weekly News, Vol. 33, 1884, p. 130.

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XV. MANY DUTIES OF MAN

THE OBJECT OF MAN'S EXISTENCE. The object of our being here is to do the will of the Father as it is done in heaven, to work righteousness in the earth, to subdue wickedness and put it under our feet, to conquer sin and the adversary of our souls, to rise above the imperfections and weaknesses of poor, fallen humanity, by the inspiration of Almighty God and his power made manifest, and thus become indeed the saints and servants of the Lord in the earth.--Apr. C. R., 1902, p. 85.

WE DEAL WITH THE LORD. We are dealing with our faith and consciences, you are dealing not with me, not with the Presidency of the Church, but with the Lord. I am not dealing with men respecting my tithing, my dealings are with the Lord; that is, with reference to my own conduct in the Church as a tithe-payer, and with reference to my observance of the other laws and rules of the Church; if I fail to observe the laws of the Church, I am responsible to my God, and will have to answer to him, by and by, for my neglect of duty, and I may have to answer to the Church for my fellowship. If I do my duty, according to my understanding of the requirements that the Lord has made of me, then I ought to have a conscience void of offense; I ought to have satisfaction in my soul, in the consciousness that I have simply done my duty as I understand it, and I will risk the consequences. With me it is a matter between me and the Lord; so it is with every one of us.--Apr. C. R., 1911, p. 6.

NECESSITY FOR ALL TO ACCOMPLISH THEIR MISSIONS. He that sent his Only Begotten Son into the world to accomplish the mission which he did, also sent every soul within the sound of my voice, and indeed every man and woman in the world, to accomplish a mission, and that mission cannot {313} be accomplished by neglect; nor by indifference; nor can it be accomplished in ignorance. We must learn our duty; learn the requirements that the Lord has made at our hands, and understand the responsibilities that he has placed upon us. We should learn the obligation that we are under to God and to each other, and that we are under also to the cause of Zion, that has been restored to the earth in the latter days. These things are essential, and we cannot prosper in spiritual things, we cannot grow in knowledge and understanding, our minds cannot expand in the knowledge of God, or in wisdom, nor in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, without we devote our thoughts and our efforts toward our own betterment, toward the increase of our own wisdom, and knowledge in the things of God.

We labor day by day for the bread that perishes, and we devote but a few hours, comparatively, in seeking to obtain the bread of life. Our thoughts, in great measure, are placed upon worldly things, the things that perish, and therefore we are prone to neglect the higher duties that devolve upon us as the children of our Father, and to forget, in some measure, the greater obligations that rest upon us. It is therefore proper, and indeed it becomes the duty of those who are placed upon the towers as watchmen in Zion, to exhort the people to diligence, to prayerfulness, to humility, to a love of the truth that has been revealed to them, and to earnest devotion to the work of the Lord, which is intended for their individual salvation, and so far as they have influence upon others, the salvation of those whom they may have power to influence to move in the right direction; not that I can save any man, nor that any one man can save any other man or fit him for exaltation in the kingdom of God. This is not given to me to do for others, nor is it given to any man to be a Savior in this sense, or in this way, to his fellowman; but men can set an example; men can urge the precepts of the gospel. Men can proclaim the {314} truth to others, and can point out the way to them in which to walk, and if they will harken to their counsel, listen to their admonitions and be led by them, they themselves will seek the path of life and they will walk in it, and obtain their exaltation for themselves. And thus the work required of us by the Lord is an individual work, it devolves upon each individual alike. No man can be saved in the kingdom of God in sin. No man will ever be forgiven of his sins by the just judge, except be repent of his sins. No man will ever be freed from the power of death unless he is born again as the Lord Almighty has decreed, and declared to the world by the mouth of his Son in the meridian of time, and as he has declared it again in this dispensation through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Men can only be saved and exalted in the kingdom of God in righteousness, therefore we must repent of our sins, and walk in the light as Christ is in the light, that his blood may cleanse us from all sins, and that we may have fellowship with God and receive of his glory and exaltation.--Oct. C. R., 1907, p. 4.

GOD HONORS THOSE WHO HONOR HIM. Though the Lord should try me by withholding his blessings from me, and making me to drink to the very dregs the bitter cup of poverty, that should make no difference to me. The point is, what is the law of God? And if I know that law, it is my duty to obey it, though I suffer death in consequence. Many a man has gone to the stake in obedience, as he believed, to the commandments of God. Not one of the ancient disciples who were chosen of Jesus Christ, escaped martyrdom, except Judas and John. Judas betrayed the Lord, and then sacrificed his own life; and John received the promise of the Lord that he should live until He came again to the earth. All the others were put to death, some crucified, some dragged in the streets of Rome, some thrown from pinnacles, and some stoned to death. What for? For obeying the law of God and bearing testimony to that which they knew to be {315} true. So may it be today. But let the spirit of this gospel be so imbedded in my soul that though I go through poverty, through tribulation, through persecution, or to death, let me and my house serve God and keep his laws. However, the promise is that you shall be blessed through obedience. God will honor those who honor him, and will remember those who remember him. He will uphold and sustain all those who sustain truth and are faithful to it. God help us, therefore, to be faithful to the truth, now and forever.--Apr. C. R., 1900, pp. 49, 50.

QUALIFICATIONS OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. Now we all need patience, forbearance, forgiveness, humility, charity, love unfeigned, devotion to the truth, abhorrence of sin and wickedness, rebellion and disobedience to the requirements of the gospel. These are the qualifications requisite to Latter-day Saints and to becoming Latter-day Saints and members in good standing in the Church of Jesus Christ and heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. No member in good standing in the Church will be drunken or riotous or profane or will take advantage of his brother or his neighbor, or will violate the principles of virtue and honor and righteousness. No member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in good standing will ever be chargeable with such offenses as these, because members will avoid these evils, and they will live above them. Then we have a mission in the world: each man, each woman, each child who has grown to understanding or to the years of accountability, ought to be an example to the world. They ought not only to be qualified to preach the truth, to bear testimony of the truth, but ought to live so that the very life they live, the very words they speak, their every action in life will be a sermon to the unwary and to the ignorant, teaching them goodness, purity, uprightness, faith in God and love for the human family.--Apr. C. R., 1916, pp. 6, 7.

PERFECTION IN OUR SPHERE. I sincerely hope that the {316} spirit of the conference will abide with us, will go with us to our homes, and that we will be able to continue to build on the foundations of the gospel of the Son of God until we become perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect, according to the sphere and intelligence that we act in and possess. I do not expect that any of us will ever become in mortality quite so perfect as God is perfect; but in the spheres in which we are called to act, and according to the capacity and breadth of intelligence that we possess, in our sphere, and in the existence of the talent, the ability, and intelligence that God has given to us, we may become as perfect in our sphere as God is perfect in his higher and more exalted sphere. I believe that.--Apr. C. R., 1915, p. 140.

LET EVERY MAN LIVE TO BEAR CLOSEST INSPECTION. Let every man's life be so that his character will bear the closest inspection, and that it may be seen as an open book, so that he will have nothing to shrink from or be ashamed of. Let all men who are elevated to positions of trust in the Church live so that no man can point to their faults, because they will have no faults; so that no man can justly accuse them of wrongdoing, because they do no wrong; that no man can point out their defects as "human" and as "weak mortals," because they are living up to the principles of the gospel, and are not merely "weak human creatures," devoid of the Spirit of God and the power to live above sin. That is the way for all men to live in the kingdom of God.--Oct. C. R., 1906, pp. 9, 10.

NEED OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. It is not safe for men or women to conclude that because they have fulfilled carefully their public responsibilities they have done all that is required of them. Public requirements are changeable. Public demands vary with the times. Sometimes they are strict and sometimes they are very lax. Public sentiment becomes fickle and it is often indifferent to the conduct of individuals who take license from a public indifference to wrongdoing. {317} Individual responsibility is more concerned with the duties which men owe to their God whose requirements are positive and constant. When men feel that they are ever under an All-seeing Eye, their conduct is measured in the strictest terms. They are not subject to lapses of public sentiment.

The first and highest standard of correct living is to be found in that individual responsibility which keeps men good for the truth's sake. It is not difficult for men who are true to themselves to be true to others. Men who honor God in their private lives do not need the restraint of public opinion which may not only be indifferent but positively wrong. It is by the individual responsibilities which men feel that they are able to place themselves on the right side of all public questions. Those who neglect the inner life are dependent upon public guidance which leads them into all sorts of inconsistencies.

To walk safely and steadfastly without leaning upon the arm of flesh is the individual duty of every Latter-day Saint. Such a duty becomes a responsibility which men owe to themselves and to their God. The Saints should study their responsibilities, both public and individual, and find out, if they can, just what they are.--Juvenile Instructor, December, 1909, Vol. 44, p. 519.

CONQUER OURSELVES FIRST. I feel very grateful for the excellent peace and spirit which has pervaded all our meetings. It is true we are all engaged in a warfare, and all of us should be valiant warriors in the cause in which we are engaged. Our first enemy we will find within ourselves. It is a good thing to overcome that enemy first and bring ourselves into subjection to the will of the Father, and into strict obedience to the principles of life and salvation which he has given to the world for the salvation of men. When we shall have conquered ourselves, it will be well for us to wage our war without, against false teachings, {318} false doctrines, false customs, habits and ways, against error, unbelief, the follies of the world that are so prevalent, and against infidelity, and false science, under the name of science, and every other thing that strikes at the foundations of the principles set forth in the doctrine of Christ for the redemption of men and the salvation of their souls.--Oct. C. R., 1914, p. 128.

LET US CONQUER OURSELVES. Let us conquer ourselves, and then go to and conquer all the evil that we see around us, as far as we possibly can. And we will do it without using violence; we will do it without interfering with the agency of men or of women. We will do it by persuasion, by long-suffering, by patience, and by forgiveness and love unfeigned, by which we will win the hearts, the affections and the souls of the children of men to the truth as God has revealed it to us. We will never have peace, nor justice, nor truth, until we look to the only true fountain for it, and receive from the fountainhead.--Oct. C. R., 1906, p. 129.

CHARITY THE GREATEST PRINCIPLE. Charity, or love, is the greatest principle in existence. If we can lend a helping hand to the oppressed, if we can aid those who are despondent and in sorrow, if we can uplift and ameliorate the condition of mankind, it is our mission to do it, it is an essential part of our religion to do it.--Apr. C. R., 1918, p. 4.

LOOK FOR GOOD; NOT FOR EVIL. Change the focus of your view, and of your eye, from watching for evil to watching for that which is good, that which is pure, and leading and prompting those who err into that path which has no error in it, and that will not admit of mistakes. Look for good in men, and where they fail to possess it, try to build it up in them; try to increase the good in them; look for the good; build up the good; sustain the good; and speak as little about the evil as you possibly can. It does not do any good to magnify evil, to publish evil, or to promulgate {319} it by tongue or pen. There is no good to be obtained by it. It is better to bury the evil and magnify the good, and prompt all men to forsake evil and learn to do good; and let our mission be to save mankind and to teach and guide in the path of righteousness, and not to sit as judges and pass judgment upon evil-doers, but rather to be saviors of men.--Apr. C. R., 1913, p. 8.

ESTIMATE MEN BY THEIR NOBLE DEEDS. One fruitful source of apostasy from the Church comes from an inclination on the part of those who apostatize to consider the small, mostly unintentionally committed errors of its officers, rather than the broader and more important labors which enter into their experience. Young men so inclined turn from the infinite truth of the gospel, and the mighty plan of salvation, the eternal purposes of God, to carp and cavil upon the insignificant actions and the imperfect achievements of men, judging the inspiring magnitude of the former by the disagreeable and tiresome detail of the latter. Many of the serious annoyances of communal life among the Saints would be obliterated entirely, if men would search for the great and noble aspirations actuating their neighbors, rather than for the imperfect sidelights that lay bare their puny shortcomings. Those who wish to advance in the world will avoid soul-destroying, mind-narrowing thoughts, and devote the days allotted to them, which it will be found are none too numerous, in studying the greater, nobler, and grander subjects that tend to build character, provide happiness, and create harmony with the mighty purposes of the Church and its founder, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us estimate our brethren by their best desires and noblest aspirations, not by their trifling shortcomings and failures. We estimate the majesty of the Wasatch by Monte Christo, Baldy, Observatory, the mighty Cottonwoods, Clayton, Timpanogos, and Nebo--its loftiest peaks--not by its rolling elevations or hillocky spurs, rocky ravines or trifling {320} canyons. So also let us judge our fellows, and so the Church. It is the better way.--Improvement Era, March, 1902, Vol. 5, p. 388.

LET US SUSTAIN ONE ANOTHER. Let us sustain Christ, his people, and his cause of righteousness and redemption; let us sustain one another in the right, and kindly admonish one another in regard to wrongdoing, that we may be friends and saviors on Mount Zion, one for another, and that we may help the weak and strengthen them, encourage the doubtful and bring light to their right understanding as far as it is possible, that we may be instrumental in the hands of God of being saviors among men. Not that we have power to save men. We have not; but we have power to show them how they can obtain salvation through obedience to the laws of God. We can show them how to walk in order to be saved, for we have the right to do that, we have knowledge and understanding as to how to do it, and it is our privilege to teach it and to enforce it by example as well as by precept among our associates wherever we are in the world.--Oct. C. R., 1907, pp. 9, 10.

DO NOT BEAR MALICE AGAINST ONE ANOTHER. Brethren and sisters, we want you to be united. We hope and pray that you will go from this conference to your homes feeling in your hearts and from the depths of your souls to forgive one another, and never from this time forth to bear malice toward another fellow creature. I do not care whether he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or not, whether he is a friend or a foe, whether he is good or bad. It is extremely hurtful for any man holding the priesthood, and enjoying the gift of the Holy Ghost, to harbor a spirit of envy, or malice, or retaliation, or intolerance toward or against his fellowmen. We ought to say in our hearts, let God judge between me and thee, but as for me, I will forgive. I want to say to you that Latter-day Saints who harbor a feeling of unforgiveness {321} in their souls are more guilty and more censurable than the one who has sinned against them. Go home and dismiss envy and hatred from your hearts; dismiss the feeling of unforgiveness; and cultivate in your souls that spirit of Christ which cried out upon the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." This is the spirit that Latter-day Saints ought to possess all the day long. The man who has that spirit in his heart and keeps it there will never have any trouble with his neighbor; he will never have any difficulties to bring before the bishop, nor high council; but he will always be at peace with himself, at peace with his neighbors, and at peace with God. It is a good thing to be at peace with God.--Oct. C. R., 1902, pp. 86, 87.

HONOR YOURSELVES AND YOUR NEIGHBORS. We admonish, we beseech our brothers and sisters, in the gospel of Jesus Christ, not only to honor themselves by a proper course of living, but also to honor and love and be charitable to their neighbors, every one of them. We admonish you not only to keep the greatest of all the commandments that has ever been given of God to man, to love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and mind, and strength, but we exhort you also to observe that second law, next unto it, to love your neighbors as yourselves; return good for evil, do not revile others because you are or may be reviled. We have no need to tear down the houses of other people (using this expression as a symbol). We are perfectly willing that they should live in the homes they have erected for themselves, and we will try to show them a better way. While we will not condemn that which they love and cherish above all other things in the world, we will endeavor to show them a better way and build them a better house, and then invite them kindly, in the spirit of Christ, of true Christianity, to enter the better dwelling. This is the principle, and I wish to impress it upon you this morning. I desire to impress, if I can, upon the minds of the parents the necessity of properly {322} instructing and teaching their children with reference to this glorious principle, charity and love, that love for our neighbor that will enable us to cherish his rights as sacredly as we cherish our own, to defend his rights and liberties, put up the fallen bars in the fences of our neighbors that are carelessly left down, just as we would put our own bars up surrounding our own fields, in order to protect our crops from the ravages of stray animals.--Apr. C. R., 1917, p. 4.

AVOID COURTS. Be reconciled to each other. Do not go to the courts of the Church nor to the courts of the land for litigation. Settle your own troubles and difficulties; and, as Bishop Hunter used to say, which is an axiom that cannot be disputed, there is only one way in which a difficulty existing between man and man can be truly settled, and that is when they get together and settle it between them. The courts cannot settle troubles between me and my brother.--Oct. C. R., 1916, pp. 6, 7.

LET US LIVE OUR RELIGION. I will say now to all of the Latter-day Saints: Let us live our religion; let us pay our tithing and be blessed; let us remember the poor and the needy, and sustain and help them; let us visit the sick and afflicted, and administer consolation unto them; let us help the weak; let us do all in our power to build up Zion, to establish righteousness in the earth, and to plant in the hearts of the people the glorious truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer of the world, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of the living God, whom the Lord raised up in these last days to restore the everlasting gospel and the power of the holy priesthood to the world.--Oct. C. R., 1902, p. 88.

LET US BE TRUE TO THE FAITH. We should set an example; we should be true to the faith, as Brother Stephens sings to us; true to the faith! We should be true to our covenants, true to our God, and true to one another, and to the interests of Zion, no matter what the consequences may be, no matter what may result. I can tell you that the man {323} who is not true to Zion and to the interests of the people will be the man who will be found, by and by, left out and in a pitiable spiritual condition. The man who stays with the kingdom of God, the man who is true to this people, the man who keeps himself pure and unspotted from the world, is the man that God will accept, that God will uphold, that he will sustain, and that will prosper in the land, whether he be in the enjoyment of his liberty or be confined in prison cells, it makes no difference where he is, he will come out all right.--Oct. C. R., 1906, p. 9.

CHURCH DUTIES ARE PARAMOUNT. Our duties in the Church should be, I think, paramount to every other interest in the world. It is true that we are under the necessity of looking after our worldly interests. It is, of course, necessary for us to labor with our hands and our minds, in our various occupations for obtaining the necessaries of life. It is essential that the Latter-day Saints should be industrious and persevering in all the labors that devolve upon them, for it is written that "the inhabitants of Zion shall remember their labors, inasmuch as they are appointed to labor, in all faithfulness; for the idler shall be had in remembrance before the Lord." Again it is written: "Let every man be diligent in all things. And the idler shall not have place in the Church, except he repent and mend his ways." Again: "Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer." But in all our labors in life, in all the cares that beset us, and the temporal responsibilities that rest upon us, we should put uppermost in our thoughts, and highest in our appreciation and love, the cause of Zion, which is indeed the cause of truth and righteousness.--Oct. C. R., 1907, p. 2. See Doc. and Cov. 42:42; 68:30; 75:29.

WE SHOULD STUDY THE GOSPEL. I believe it is good to seek knowledge out of the best books, to learn the histories of nations, to be able to comprehend the purposes of {324} God with reference to the nations of the earth; and I believe that one of the most important things, and perhaps more important to us than studying the history of the world, is that we study and become thoroughly acquainted with the principles of the gospel, that they may be established in our hearts and souls, above all other things, to qualify us to go out into the world to preach and teach them. We may know all about the philosophy of the ages and the history of the nations of the earth; we may study the wisdom and knowledge of man and get all the information that we can acquire in a lifetime of research and study, but all of it put together will never qualify any one to become a minister of the gospel unless he has the knowledge and spirit of the first principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ.--Apr. C. R., 1915, p. 138.

ENCOURAGE SINGING. It delights my heart to see our little children learning to sing, and to see the people, our people everywhere, improving their talents as good singers. Everywhere we go among our people, we find sweet voices and talent for music. I believe that this is a manifestation to us of the purpose of the Lord in this direction toward our people, that they will excel in these things, as they should excel in every other good thing.--Apr. C. R., Sunday School, 1904, p. 81.

CULTIVATE SINGING. I can remember when I was a little boy, hearing my father sing. I do not know how much of a singer he was, for at that time I was not capable of judging as to the quality of his singing, but the hymns he sang became familiar to me, even in the days of my childhood. I believe that I can sing them still, although I am not much of a singer. When young men go out into the world to preach the gospel, they will find it very beneficial for them to know how to sing the songs of Zion. I repeat the admonition and request made by Brother McMurrin, who {325} has recently returned from a lengthy mission to Europe, that the young men who are eligible to preach the gospel, and who are likely to be called into the missionary field, begin at once to improve their talent to sing, and do not think it is beneath their dignity to join the choirs of the wards in which they live and learn how to sing. When we listen to this choir, under the leadership of Brother Stephens, we listen to music, and music is truth. Good music is gracious praise of God. It is delightsome to the ear, and it is one of our most acceptable methods of worshiping God. And those who sing in the choir and in all the choirs of the Saints, should sing with the spirit and with the understanding. They should not sing merely because it is a profession, or because they have a good voice; but they should sing also because they have the spirit of it, and can enter into the spirit of prayer and praise to God who gave them their sweet voices. My soul is always lifted up, and my spirit cheered and comforted, when I hear good music. I rejoice in it very much indeed.--Oct. C. R., 1899, pp. 68, 69.

BE FREE FROM DEBT. One of these subjects is, that in the time of prosperity, which we are now enjoying, it is highly proper for the Latter-day Saints to get out of debt. I have unceasingly urged this thought upon the brethren for the past year or more. Wherever I have had the opportunity of speaking, I have scarcely ever forgotten to hold out to the people the necessity--that I feel, at least--of our settling our obligations and freeing ourselves from debt in the day of prosperity. Our experience in the years that have passed must have led us to the conclusion that we have periods of prosperity, followed by periods of depression. We have now had a long period of success and prosperity, and we may expect, almost at any time, to see these conditions change and a time of depression spread over the land and over the people. I would say, in connection with this subject, that one of the best ways that I know of to pay my {326} obligations to my brother, my neighbor, or business associate, is for me first to pay my obligations to the Lord. I can pay more of my debts to my neighbors, if I have contracted them, after I have met my honest obligations with the Lord, than I can by neglecting the latter; and you can do the same. If you desire to prosper, and to be free men and women and a free people, first meet your just obligations to God, and then meet your obligations to your fellowman. Bishop Hunter used to put the matter in these words: "Brethren, pay your tithing and be blessed," and that is just what I mean.--Apr. C. R., 1903, p. 2.

WHAT THE LORD REQUIRES OF HIS SAINTS. There is a circumstance recorded in the Scriptures, that has been brought forcibly to my mind while listening to the remarks of the elders who have spoken to us during conference. A young man came to Jesus and asked what good things he should do that he might have eternal life. Jesus said unto him, "Keep the commandments." The young man asked which of them. Then Jesus enumerated to him some of the commandments that he was to keep--he should not murder, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor bear false witness, but he should honor his father and mother, and love his neighbor as himself, etc. Said the young man, "All these I have kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" Jesus said, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." And we are told that he turned away sorrowful, because he had great possessions. He would not hearken to, nor obey the law of God in this matter. Not that Jesus required of the young man to go and sell all that he possessed and give it away; that is not the principle involved. The great principle involved is that which the elders of Israel are endeavoring to enforce upon the minds of the Latter-day Saints today. When the young man turned away in sorrow, Jesus said to his disciples, "A rich man {327} shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven." (See Matt. 19:16-23.)

Is this because the rich man is rich? No. May not the rich man, who has the light of God in his heart, who possesses the principle and spirit of truth, and who understands the principle of God's government and law in the world, enter into the kingdom of heaven as easily, and be as acceptable there as the poor man may? Precisely. God is not a respecter of persons. The rich man may enter into the kingdom of heaven as freely as the poor, if he will bring his heart and affections into subjection to the law of God and to the principle of truth; if he will place his affections upon God, his heart upon the truth, and his soul upon the accomplishment of God's purposes, and not fix his affections and his hopes upon the things of the world. Here is the difficulty, and this was the difficulty with the young man. He had great possessions, and he preferred to rely upon his wealth rather than forsake all and follow Christ. If he had possessed the spirit of truth in his heart to have known the will of God, and to have loved the Lord with all his heart and his neighbor as himself, he would have said to the Lord, "Yea, Lord, I will do as you require, I will go and sell all that I have, and give it to the poor." If he had had it in his heart to do this, that alone might have been sufficient, and the demand would probably have stopped there; for undoubtedly the Lord did not deem it essential for him to go and give his riches away, or to sell his possessions and give the proceeds away, in order that he might be perfect, for that, in a measure, would have been improvident. Yet, if it had required all this to test him and to prove him, to see whether he loved the Lord with all his heart, mind, and strength, and his neighbor as himself, then he ought to have been willing to do it; and if he had been, he would have lacked nothing and would have received the gift of eternal life, which is the greatest gift of God, and which can be received on no {328} other principle than the one mentioned by Jesus to the young man. If you will read the sixth lecture on faith, in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, you will learn that no man can obtain the gift of eternal life unless he is willing to sacrifice all earthly things in order to obtain it. We cannot do this so long as our affections are fixed upon the world.

It is true that we are in a measure of the earth, earthy; we belong to the world. Our affections and our souls are here; our treasures are here, and where the treasure is there the heart is. But if we will lay up our treasures in heaven; if we will wean our affections from the things of this world, and say to the Lord our God, "Father, not my will, but thine be done," then may the will of God be done on earth as it is done in heaven, and the kingdom of God in its power and glory will be established upon the earth. Sin and Satan will be bound and banished from the earth, and not until we attain to this condition of mind and faith will this be done.

Then let the Saints unite; let them hearken to the voices of the servants of God that are sounded in their ears; let them hearken to their counsels and give heed to the truth; let them seek their own salvation, for, so far as I am concerned, I am so selfish that I am seeking after my salvation, and I know that I can find it only in obedience to the laws of God, in keeping the commandments, in performing works of righteousness, following in the footsteps of our file leader, Jesus the Exemplar and the Head of all. He is the Way of life, he is the Light of the world, he is the Door by which we must enter, in order that we may have a place with him in the celestial kingdom of God.--Journal of Discourses, Vol. 18, 1877, pp. 133-135.

CULTIVATE GRATITUDE. We are almost daily put under obligations to one another, especially to friends and acquaintances, and the sense of obligation creates within us feelings of thankfulness and appreciation which we call gratitude. The spirit of gratitude is always pleasant and satisfying {329} because it carries with it a sense of helpfulness to others; it begets love and friendship, and engenders divine influence. Gratitude is said to be the memory of the heart.

And where there is an absence of gratitude, either to God or man, there is the presence of vanity and the spirit of self-sufficiency. Speaking of Israel, Paul says: "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." (Rom. 1:21)

Thomas Gibbons expresses in verse most beautifully the idea of ingratitude:

"That man may last, but never lives, Who much receives, but nothing gives; Whom none can love, whom none can thank, Creation's blot, creation's blank."

Naturally people feel grateful to those who have done them a kindness, and the feeling of gratitude is generally a sufficient compensation for those who have done a kind and unselfish act. But when one does a favor for another, and behind that favor is the secret and selfish intent that the gratitude which is awakened by the favor shall become a debt which the receiver at some time and in some way must repay to the selfish needs of the one who bestowed the favor, then gratitude becomes a debt which it is expected will be paid.

An act of apparent kindness can never result in good when it is intended to put any man under obligations that deprive him of his freedom to act. That is the characteristic of a politician. It is buying up one's freedom, and such a bargain is worse upon the man who seeks to make it than Shylock's contract for a pound of flesh.

When we win the friendship of others, because that friendship is helpful and encouraging to us, and because we need it for our happiness in life, gratitude of others toward us has a {330} beautiful and lasting charm. That is the gratitude which Saints enjoy.

It is always safer and better to enjoy the gratitude which we feel to others than to set store upon the gratitude which we think others should have toward us. The grateful man sees so much in the world to be thankful for, and with him the good outweighs the evil. Love overpowers jealousy, and light drives darkness out of his life. Pride destroys our gratitude and sets up selfishness in its place. How much happier we are in the presence of a grateful and loving soul, and how careful we should be to cultivate, through the medium of a prayerful life, a thankful attitude toward God and man!--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 38, April, 1903, pp. 242, 243.

BACKBITING. In a letter recently received by me, the following request and question were submitted for my opinion: "I would like you to define backbiting. There seems to be a difference of opinion respecting the meaning of the term. Some claim that so long as you speak the truth about a person, it is not backbiting, no matter what you say or how you say it. Would it not be better, if we knew a person had faults, to go to him privately and labor with him, than to go to others and speak of his faults?"

Nothing could be farther from the spirit and genius of the gospel than to suppose that we are always justified in speaking the truth about a person, however harmful the truth to him may be. The gospel teaches us the fundamental principles of repentance, and we have no right to discredit a man in the estimation of his fellowmen when he has truly repented and God has forgiven him. We are constantly beset by temptation, and often say and do things of which we immediately repent, and no doubt, if our repentance is genuine, it is always acceptable to our Heavenly Father. After he has accepted the contrition of the human heart and forgiven men their trespasses, it is dangerous for {331} us to hold up their evil deeds for the contempt of the world.

As a rule, it is not necessary to be constantly offering advice to those who in our judgment are possessed of some fault. In the first place, our judgments may be in error, and in the second place, we may be dealing with a man who is strongly imbued with the spirit of repentance, and who, conscious of his weakness, is constantly struggling to overcome it. The utmost care, therefore, should be observed in all our language that implies a reproach of others. As a general rule, backbiting is better determined by the spirit and purpose that actuate us in speaking of things we consider faults in others than in the words themselves. A man or woman who possesses the Spirit of God will soon detect in his or her own feelings the spirit of backbiting, as that spirit is present in the remarks that are made concerning others. The question of backbiting, therefore, is probably best determined by the ancient rule that, "the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life."--Juvenile Instructor, October 15, 1904, Vol. 39, p. 625.

DO NOT INFLICT WOUNDS, BUT HEAL WOUNDS. Almost anyone can inflict a wound. It may be made by a word, a slight, or by general conduct. But the healing of a wound is an art not acquired by practice, alone, but by the loving tenderness that comes from universal good will and a sympathetic interest in the welfare and happiness of others. If people were always as ready to administer kindness as they are indifferent to the pain of others--if they were as patient to heal as they are quick to wound--many an unkind word would never be spoken, many a slight would be avoided. The art of healing is really one of the highest qualities and attributes of man; it is a characteristic of a great and noble soul; the sure indication of generous impulse.

In the discipline of the home, of the school, and social life, the infliction of wounds may be unavoidable, if they be {332} not an actual necessity; but wounds should never be left open to fester--they should be bound up and cared for until they are healed. Perhaps the most perfect ideal in the art of healing is the mother whose tender and gracious love asserts itself in taking away the sting of a deserved or undeserved punishment. How her love heals every wound! How quick her caresses bind up and soothe! The example of her life is the wisdom which love teaches. In the school, children may suffer humiliation into which their wayward or careless conduct has brought them, and their punishment may be just; but their wounds the teacher should never leave unhealed. Nature wounds us when we violate her laws; but nature has her antiseptic methods of treating and healing every wound. The wise teacher has his also.

The cultivation of kindly thoughts and sentiments towards others is always helpful in the art of healing. It is sometimes helpful to lift ourselves out of our own shells in which, by our surroundings and habits of thought, we are incrusted, and place ourselves in the positions which others occupy in life. Constant consideration for the welfare and happiness of others, is every day imposed upon us by the divine injunction, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

The test, then, of our soul's greatness is rather to be sought in our ability to comfort and console, our ability to help others, rather than in our ability to help ourselves and crowd others down in the struggle of life. If the reader will stop a moment to reflect upon the healing qualities of Christ's life, he will understand that Christ was a Master in the art of healing, not alone of the wounds he made, but of self-inflicted wounds, and the wounds that others made. What a comfort his life is to those in sorrow! How instinctively our thoughts turn to him! How prone we are to go to him for consolation He is truly the great Healer of the afflictions of others.--Juvenile Instructor, March, 1903, Vol. 38, pp. 178, 179.

{333} USE GOOD LANGUAGE. Language, like thought, makes its impression and is recalled by the memory in a way that may be unpleasant if not harmful to those who have been compelled to listen to unseemly words. Thoughts that in themselves are not proper may be exalted or debased by the language used to express them. If inelegant expressions should be eschewed, what shall be said of profanity?--Juvenile Instructor, May 1, 1906, Vol. 41, p. 272.

DO NOT DESTROY LIFE WANTONLY. I have just a few words to say in addition to those that have already been said, in relation to shedding blood and to the destruction of life. I think that every soul should be impressed by the sentiments that have been expressed here this evening by all who have spoken, and not less with reference to the killing of our innocent birds, natives of our country, who live upon the vermin that are indeed enemies to the farmer and to mankind. It is not only wicked to destroy them, it is abominable, in my opinion. I think that this principle should extend, not only to the bird life, but to the life of all animals. When I visited, a few years ago, the Yellowstone National Park, and saw in the streams and the beautiful lakes, birds swimming quite fearless of man, allowing passers-by to approach them as closely almost as tame birds, and apprehending no fear of them, and when I saw droves of beautiful deer herding along the side of the road, as fearless of the presence of men as any domestic animal, it filled my heart with a degree of peace and joy that seemed to be almost a foretaste of that period hoped for when there shall be none to hurt and none to molest in all the land, especially among all the inhabitants of Zion. These same birds, if they were to visit other regions, inhabited by man, would, on account of their tameness, doubtless become more easily a prey to the gunner. The same may be said of those beautiful creatures--the deer and antelope. If they should wander out of the park, beyond the protection that is established there for these animals, {334} they would become, of course, an easy prey to those who were seeking their lives. I never could see why a man should be imbued with a blood-thirsty desire to kill and destroy animal life. I have known men--and they still exist among us--who enjoy what is, to them, the "sport" of hunting birds and slaying them by the hundreds, and who will come in after a day's sport, boasting of how many harmless birds they have had the skill to slaughter, and day after day, during the season when it is lawful for men to hunt and kill (the birds having had a season of protection and not apprehending danger) go out by scores or hundreds, and you may hear their guns early in the morning on the day of the opening, as if great armies had met in battle; and the terrible work of slaughtering the innocent birds goes on.

I do not believe any man should kill animals or birds unless he needs them for food, and then he should not kill innocent little birds that are not intended for food for man. I think it is wicked for men to thirst in their souls to kill almost everything which possesses animal life. It is wrong, and I have been surprised at prominent men whom I have seen whose very souls seemed to be athirst for the shedding of animal blood. They go off hunting deer, antelope, elk, anything they can find, and what for? "Just for the fun of it!" Not that they are hungry and need the flesh of their prey, but just because they love to shoot and to destroy life. I am a firm believer, with reference to these things, in the simple words of one of the poets:

"Take not away the life you cannot give, For all things have an equal right to live."

--Juvenile Instructor, April, 1913, Vol. 48, pp. 308-309.

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS. The point which seems the most perspicuous, and which will appear with greatest force to your minds, no doubt, on this occasion, is that it should have a speedy ending. Not so, however, with the efforts of those students who graduate with honors from this college, {335} today. Before them lies a strange, meandering, endless path, by them as yet untrodden, however well beaten by the weary feet of pilgrims who have passed over to the great beyond. This path is fraught with all there is in life, of good or ill to them. They are entering upon the great problem of life, and each will be compelled to solve that problem for himself. The problem of death--which is spiritual midnight--the unenlightened soul--will solve itself. As the stream flows naturally down the slope to the dead waters of our inland sea, so is the common trend of the natural man down to the dark valley of the shadows of death. He needs to make no effort to reach this goal; by lazily floating on the tide of common events, he will reach it all too soon. But, to the fountain of life, to the summit of existence, to the fulness of moral, religious and intellectual manhood, the finger board of truth points eternally up the stream. To reach this glorious fountain, to scale this magnificent height, one must work; he must stem the current, must climb the hill--must climb and work and persevere. Thus he will succeed.

It is a very important thing to make a commencement in life. It is no less important to make that commencement upon a sound and proper footing. A man going to the summit of Twin Peaks, which tower towards the heavens on the southeast of us, will have a long, weary journey before he reaches his destination. Although not far away at first, if he starts off toward the northwest, the longer he continues in that direction the further he goes from his objective point. True, he may circumscribe the earth and, if he keep the proper bearing, will come back to the point at last. But eternity is a wondrous globe to circumnavigate, and we will find it to our advantage not to undertake the feat when we can so easily avoid it by commencing as we should. Error is a worthless and an injurious thing. To avoid it should always be our careful study. Mistakes, if they are indeed mistakes, are never fortunate, and may be extremely painful {336} and hard to rectify. But the sooner rectified the better. It is braver and more honorable to promptly disavow and fly from error, no matter what the present seeming cost, or to frankly acknowledge a mistake, and apologize for it, and thus get rid of it, than to crouch beneath the burden, which is moral cowardice.

The students now graduating from this school in the branches of education which they have taken, are ready to commence the application of the knowledge they have acquired to the practical duties of life. You may apply this knowledge to the development of the natural resources and prosperity of our country, or to the betterment of the social problems of the times in which you live, or you may apply it to the further intellectual development of yourselves and others. That which you have gained by study and the assistance of your teachers should be wisely used by you as an aid to the attainment of other and greater knowledge.

Whatever may be your course in the future, or your choice of occupation, always remember the grand scriptural injunction: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." (Ec. 9:10.) This scripture applies directly to the temporal life and death, and only to them. Whatever is worth doing at all, should be well and faithfully and thoroughly done. The failures occurring in the legitimate pursuits of life, resulting solely from the unprofitableness thereof, are few and far between. The vast majority of failures are the results of neglect, or of want of careful attention, or of ignorance, or of dishonesty on the part of the applicants, and not of the business itself.

Carefully select your occupation with a view to your qualifications or adaptability therefor; let it be worthy of the noblest ambition and purest desire, and then engage in it in earnest, put your heart into it, and your mind upon it, with due consideration to other essential things, until you {337} succeed. All extremes should be avoided. To fix the heart and mind upon a single object, however good, and close the eyes to all else in life, may make an expert, a bigot, or a crank, but never a wise and broad-minded man. It is foolish to become too much absorbed in material things. Labor and relaxation should go hand in hand, and pure and undefiled religion will lighten every burden you have to bear, and help to sweeten the bitter draught of many a sorrowing soul. The proper admixture of labor and leisure will not only promote the highest mental capabilities, but also the most perfect physical conditions.

Man is a dual being. He is spiritual and he is physical. The latter is dependent upon the former for intelligence and life. The body without the spirit is dead, but the spirit is an immortal and an independent principle and being. It is the more important part, yet man bestows more thought and labor upon the body, as a rule, than upon the better part. Neither should be neglected, least of all, the spiritual. This is truth, and it is the truth that makes man free. By it they stand, without it they fall.

The Great Teacher of the world has said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:31-2.) Again: "And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come." (Doc. and Cov. 93:24.)

This knowledge of truth, combined with proper regard for it, and its faithful observance, constitutes true education. The mere stuffing of the mind with a knowledge of facts is not education. The mind must not only posses a knowledge of truth, but the soul must revere it, cherish it, love it as a priceless gem; and this human life must be guided and shaped by it in order to fulfil its destiny. The mind should not only be charged with intelligence, but the soul should be filled with admiration and desire for pure intelligence {338} which comes of a knowledge of the truth. The truth can only make him free who hath it, and will continue in it. And the word of God is truth, and it will endure forever.

Educate yourself not only for time, but also for eternity. The latter of the two is the more important. Therefore, when we shall have completed the studies of time, and enter upon the commencement ceremonies of the great hereafter, we will find our work is not finished, but just begun, we may then say with the poet:

"Lay this aside--say not your work is done, No need of love or goodness ever dies, But in the lives of others--multiplies, Say it has just begun."

In conclusion permit me to repeat a portion of the first psalm: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so; but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away."--Contributor, Vol. 16, pp. 569-571. Delivered at the commencement exercises of the Latter-day Saints College, Salt Lake City, June 5, 1895.

OUR MAIN PURPOSE OF LIFE. The important consideration is not how long we can live but how well we can learn the lesson of life, and discharge our duties and obligations to God and to one another. One of the main purposes of our existence is that we might conform to the image and likeness of him who sojourned in the flesh without blemish--immaculate, pure, and spotless! Christ came not only to atone for the sins of the world, but to set an example before all men and to establish the standard of God's {339} perfection, of God's law, and of obedience to the Father.--Improvement Era, Vol. 21, p. 104 December, 1917.

HOW TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. Love your neighbor as yourself? How are you to do it? If your neighbor is in danger, protect him to the utmost of your power. If you see your neighbor's property in danger of injury, protect his property as you would your own, as far as it lies in your power: If your neighbor's boy or girl is going astray, go directly to your neighbor, in the spirit of love, and help him to reclaim his child. How are we to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It is the simplest thing in the world; but too many people are selfish and narrow and not given to that breadth of feeling which reaches out and considers the benefit and welfare of their neighbors; and they narrow themselves down to their own peculiar and particular benefit and blessing and well being, and feel it to say: "O, let my neighbor take care of himself." That is not the spirit that should characterize a Latter-day Saint.--Improvement Era, Vol. 21, pp. 103, 104, December, 1917.

QUESTION OF CHURCH LEADERS. We have come to ask you if you are in strict accord with the two great commandments: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, * * * and thy neighbor as thyself."--Improvement Era, Vol. 21, p. 98, December, 1917; Matt. 22: 34-40.

THE SIN OF INGRATITUDE. And I believe that one of the greatest sins of which the inhabitants of the earth are guilty today is the sin of ingratitude, the want of acknowledgement, on their part, of God and his right to govern and control. We see a man raised up with extraordinary gifts, or with great intelligence, and he is instrumental in developing some great principle. He and the world ascribe his great genius and wisdom to himself. He attributes his success to his own energies, labor and mental capacity. He does not acknowledge the hand of God in anything connected {340} with his success, but ignores him altogether and takes the honor to himself; this will apply to almost all the world. In all the great modern discoveries in science, in the arts, in mechanics, and in all material advancement of the age, the world says, "We have done it." The individual says, "I have done it," and he gives no honor or credit to God. Now, I read in the revelations through Joseph Smith, the prophet, that because of this, God is not pleased with the inhabitants of the earth but is angry with them because they will not acknowledge his hand in all things.--Deseret Weekly News, 1884, Vol. 33, p. 130; Doc. and Cov. 59:21.

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XVI. MARRIAGE, THE HOME AND THE FAMILY

NECESSITY OF MARRIAGE. The house of the Lord is a house of order and not a house of confusion; and that means that the man is not without the woman in the Lord, neither is the woman without the man in the Lord; and that no man can be saved and exalted in the kingdom of God without the woman, and no woman can reach the perfection and exaltation in the kingdom of God alone. That is what it means. God instituted marriage in the beginning. He made man in his own image and likeness, male and female, and in their creation it was designed that they should be united together in sacred bonds of marriage, and one is not perfect without the other. Furthermore, it means that there is no union for time and eternity that can be perfected outside of the law of God, and the order of his house. Men may desire it, they may go through the form of it, in this life, but it will be of no effect except it be done and sanctioned by divine authority, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.--Apr. C. R., 1913, pp. 118-119.

MARRIAGE, GOD--ORDAINED AND SANCTIONED. "And again, I say unto you, that whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto men." (Doc. and Cov. 49:15)

I desire to emphasize this. I want the young men of Zion to realize that this institution of marriage is not a man-made institution. It is of God. It is honorable, and no man who is of marriageable age is living his religion who remains single. It is not simply devised for the convenience alone of man, to suit his own notions, and his own ideas; to marry and then divorce, to adopt and then to discard, just as he pleases. There are great consequences connected with it, consequences which reach beyond this present time, into all {342} eternity, for thereby souls are begotten into the world, and men and women obtain their being in the world. Marriage is the preserver of the human race. Without it, the purposes of God would be frustrated; virtue would be destroyed to give place to vice and corruption, and the earth would be void and empty.

Neither are the relationships that exist, or should exist, between parents and children, and between children and parents, of an ephemeral nature, nor of a temporal character. They are of eternal consequence, reaching beyond the veil, in spite of all that we can do. The man, and the woman who are the agents, in the providence of God, to bring living souls into the world, are made before God and the heavens, as responsible for these acts as is God himself responsible for the works of his own hands, and for the revelation of his own wisdom. The man and the woman who engage in this ordinance of matrimony are engaging in something that is of such far-reaching character, and is of such vast importance, that thereby hangs life and death, and eternal increase. Thereupon depends eternal happiness, or eternal misery. For this reason, God has guarded this sacred institution by the most severe penalties, and has declared that whosoever is untrue to the marriage relation, whosoever is guilty of adultery, shall be put to death. This is scriptural law, though it is not practiced today, because modern civilization does not recognize the laws of God in relation to the moral status of mankind. The Lord commanded, "Whosoever sheddeth innocent blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Thereby God has given the law. Life is an important thing. No man has any right to take life, unless God commanded it. The law of God as to violation of the marriage covenant is just as strict, and is on a parallel with law against murder notwithstanding the former is not carried out. * * *

Now, every young person throughout the Church should {343} understand this very thoroughly. The Church authorities and the teachers of our associations should inculcate the sacredness, and teach the duty of marriage, as it has been revealed in the latter days to us. There should be a reform in the Church in this regard, and a sentiment created in favor of honorable marriage, and that would prevent any young man, or any young woman, who is a member of the Church, from marrying except by that authority which is sanctioned of God. And no man holding the priesthood who is worthy and of age should remain unmarried. They should also teach that the law of chastity is one of the most vital importance, both to children, and to men and to women. It is a vitally important principle to the children of God in all their lives, from the cradle to the grave. God has fixed dreadful penalties against the transgression of his law of chastity, of virtue, of purity. When the law of God shall be in force among men, they will be cut off who are not absolutely pure and unsoiled and spotless--both men and women. We expect the women to be pure, we expect them to be spotless and without blemish, and it is as necessary and important for man to be pure and virtuous as for woman; indeed, no woman would ever be other than pure if men were so. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the law of love, and love of God with the whole heart and mind is the greatest commandment, and the next is like unto it: love thy neighbor as thyself. This also should be remembered in the marriage relation, for, while it is said that the desires of the woman shall be to her husband, and he shall rule over her, it is intended that that rule shall be in love and not in tyranny. God never rules tyrannically, except when men so corrupt themselves that they are unfit to live. Then, and under such conditions, it is the story of all his dealings with mankind, that he sends judgment upon them and wipes them out and destroys them.--Improvement Era, July, 1902, pp. 713-717.

RIGHTEOUSNESS AND NECESSITY OF MARRIAGE. Many {344} people imagine that there is something sinful in marriage; there is an apostate tradition to that effect. This is a false and very harmful idea. On the contrary, God not only commends but he commands marriage. While man was yet immortal, before sin had entered the world, our heavenly Father himself performed the first marriage. He united our first parents in the bonds of holy matrimony, and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. This command he has never changed, abrogated or annulled; but it has continued in force throughout all the generations of mankind.

Without marriage the purposes of God would be frustrated, so far as this world is concerned, for there would be none, to obey his other commands.

There appears to be a something beyond and above the reasons apparent to the human mind why chastity brings strength and power to the peoples of the earth, but it is so.

Today a flood of iniquity is overwhelming the civilized world. One great reason therefor is the neglect of marriage; it has lost its sanctity in the eyes of the great majority. It is at best a civil contract, but more often an accident or a whim, or a means of gratifying the passions. And when the sacredness of the covenant is ignored or lost sight of, then a disregard of the marriage vows, under the present moral training of the masses, is a mere triviality, a trifling indiscretion.

The neglect of marriage, this tendency to postpone its responsibilities until middle life, that so perniciously affects Christendom, is being felt in the midst of the Saints.

Certainly we are not in favor of the very early marriages that prevailed a few centuries ago.

But what we wish to impress upon the Saints is that the legitimate union of the sexes is a law of God, that to be blessed of him, we must honor that law; that if we do not do so the mere fact that we are called by his name will not {345} save us from the evils that neglect of this law entails, that indeed we are only his people when we observe his law; that when we do not do so we may expect the same unfortunate results to come upon us as flow to the rest of humanity from the same causes.

We believe that every man holding the holy priesthood should be married, with the very few exceptions of those who through infirmities of mind or body are not fit for marriage. Every man is a worse man in proportion as he is unfit for the married state. We hold that no man who is marriageable is fully living his religion who remains unmarried. He is doing a wrong to himself by retarding his progress, by narrowing his experiences, and to society by the undesirable example that he sets to others, as well as he, himself, being a dangerous factor in the community.

We say to our young people, get married, and marry aright. Marry in the faith, and let the ceremony be performed in the place God has appointed. Live so that you may be worthy of this blessing. If, however, obstacles, not at present removable, prevent this most perfect form of marriage, have your bishop perform the ceremony, and then, at the earliest possible moment, go to the temple. But do not marry those out of the Church, as such unions almost invariably lead to unhappiness and quarrels and often finally to separation. Besides, they are not pleasing in the sight of heaven. The believer and unbeliever should not be yoked together, for sooner or later, in time or in eternity, they must be divided again.

And now we desire with holy zeal to emphasize the enormity of sexual sins. Though often regarded as insignificant by those not knowing the will of God, they are, in his eyes an abomination, and if we are to remain his favored people they must be shunned as the gates of hell. The evil results of these sins are so patent in vice, crime, misery and disease that it would appear that all, young and old, must {346} perceive and sense them. They are destroying the world. If we are to be preserved we must abhor them, shun them, not practice the least of them, for they weaken and enervate, they kill man spiritually, they make him unfit for the company of the righteous and the presence of God.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 37, p. 400, July 1, 1902.

MALE AND FEMALE ENTER HEAVEN. No man will ever enter there until he has consummated his mission; for we have come here to be conformed to the likeness of God. He made us in the beginning in his own image and in his own likeness, and he made us male and female. We never could be in the image of God if we were not both male and female. Read the Scriptures, and you will see it for yourselves as God has made it. He has made us in his own form and likeness, and here we are male and female, parents and children. And we must become more and more like him--more like him in love, in charity, in forgiveness, in patience, long-suffering and forbearance, in purity of thought and action, intelligence, and in all respects, that we may be worthy of exaltation in his presence. It is for this that we have come to the earth. This is the work that we have to perform. God has shown us the way and given us the means by which we may consummate and fill our mission upon this earth and perfect our destiny; for we are destined and foreordained to become like God, and unless we do become like him we will never be permitted to dwell with him. When we become like him you will find that we will be presented before him in the form in which we were created, male and female. The woman will not go there alone, and the man will not go there alone, and claim exaltation. They may attain a degree of salvation alone, but when they are exalted they will be exalted according to the law of the celestial kingdom. They cannot be exalted in any other way, neither the living nor the dead. It is well for us to learn something about why we build temples, {347} and why we administer in them for the dead as well as for the living. We do this that we may become like unto him, and dwell with him eternally; that we may become sons of God, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.--Tabernacle Sermon, June 12, 1898.

MARRIAGE TO REPLENISH THE EARTH. Those who have taken upon themselves the responsibility of wedded life should see to it that they do not abuse the course of nature; that they do not destroy the principle of life within them, nor violate any of the commandments of God. The command which he gave in the beginning to multiply and replenish the earth is still in force upon the children of men. Possibly no greater sin could be committed by the people who have embraced this gospel than to prevent or to destroy life in the manner indicated. We are born into the world that we may have life, and we live that we may have a fulness of joy, and if we will obtain a fulness of joy, we must obey the law of our creation and the law by which we may obtain the consummation of our righteous hopes and desires--life eternal.--Apr. C. R., 1900, p. 40.

ETERNAL MARRIAGE. Why did he teach us the principle of eternal union of man and wife? Because God knew that we were his children here, to remain his children forever and ever, and that we were just as truly individuals, and that our individuality was as identical as that of the Son of God, and would therefore continue, worlds without end, so that the man receiving his wife by the power of God, for time and for all eternity, would have the right to claim her and she to claim her husband, in the world to come. Neither would be changed, except from mortality to immortality; neither would be other than himself or herself, but they will have their identity in the world to come precisely as they exercise their individuality and enjoy their identity here. God has revealed this principle, and it has its bearings upon the evidence that we possess of the actual, {348} literal resurrection of the body, just as it is and as the prophets have declared it in the Book of Mormon.--Apr. C. R., 1912, pp. 136-137; Mosiah 15:20-23; 16:7-11; Alma 40.

ETERNITY OF THE FAMILY ORGANIZATIONS. Our associations (family) are not exclusively intended for this life, for time, as we distinguish it from eternity. We live for time and for eternity. We form associations and relations for time and all eternity. Our affections and our desires are found fitted and prepared to endure not only throughout the temporal or mortal life, but through all eternity. Who are there besides the Latter-day Saints who contemplate the thought that beyond the grave we will continue in the family organization? the father, the mother, the children recognizing each other in the relations which they owe to each other and in which they stand to each other? this family organization being a unit in the great and perfect organization of God's work, and all destined to continue throughout time and eternity?

We are living for eternity and not merely for the moment. Death does not part us from one another, if we have entered into sacred relationships with each other by virtue of the authority that God has revealed to the children of men. Our relationships are formed for eternity. We are immortal beings, and we are looking forward to the growth that is to be attained in an exalted life after we have proved ourselves faithful and true to the covenants that we have entered into here, and then we will receive a fulness of joy. A man and woman who have embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ and who have begun life together, should be able by their power, example and influence to cause their children to emulate them in lives of virtue, honor, and in integrity to the kingdom of God which will redound to their own interest and salvation. No one can advise my children with greater earnestness and solicitude for their happiness and salvation than I can myself. Nobody has more {349} interest in the welfare of my own children than I have. I cannot be satisfied without them. They are part of me. They are mine; God has given them to me, and I want them to be humble and submissive to the requirements of the gospel. I want them to do right, and to be right in every particular, so that they will be worthy of the distinction that the Lord has given them in being numbered among his covenant people who are choice above all other people, because they have made sacrifice for their own salvation in the truth. Speaking of the fashions of the world, I do not care to say very much on the subject, but I do think that we live in an age the very trend of which is to vice and wickedness. I believe that to a very large extent the fashions of the day, and especially the fashions of women, have a tendency to evil and not to virtue or modesty, and I deplore that evident fact for you see it on every hand. Young men want to get homes that are palatial, that are fine in all their appointments, and as modern as anybody else's before they will get married. I think it is a mistake. I think that young men and young women, too, should be willing, even at this day, and in the present condition of things, to enter the sacred bonds of marriage together and fight their way together to success, meet their obstacles and their difficulties, and cleave together to success, and cooperate in their temporal affairs, so that they shall succeed. Then they will learn to love one another better, and will be more united throughout their lives, and the Lord will bless them more abundantly. I regret, I think it is a crying evil, that there should exist a sentiment or a feeling among any members of the Church to curtail the birth of their children. I think that is a crime wherever it occurs, where husband and wife are in possession of health and vigor and are free from impurities that would be entailed upon their posterity. I believe that where people undertake to curtail or prevent the birth of their children that they are going to reap {350} disappointment by and by. I have no hesitancy in saying that I believe this is one of the greatest crimes of the world today, this evil practice.--Relief Society Magazine, Vol. 4, June, 1917, p. 314 et. seq.

IMPORTANCE OF MARRIAGE WITHIN THE CHURCH. I would rather go myself to the grave than to be associated with a wife outside of the bonds of the new and everlasting covenant. Now, I hold it just so sacred; but some members of the Church do not so regard the matter. Some people feel that it does not make very much difference whether a girl marries a man in the Church, full of the faith of the Gospel, or an unbeliever. Some of our young people have married outside of the Church; but very few of those who have done it have failed to come to grief. I would like to see Latter-day Saint men marry Latter-day Saint women; and Methodists marry Methodists, Catholics marry Catholics, and Presbyterians marry Presbyterians, and so on to the limit. Let them keep within the pale of their own faith and church, and marry and inter-marry there, and let the Latter-day Saints do the same thing in their Church; then we will see who comes out best in the end.--Oct. C. R., 1909, pp. 5, 6.

NO MARRIAGE IN HEAVEN. Why did Jesus teach the doctrine that there was no marrying nor giving in marriage in the other world? Why did he teach the doctrine that marriage was instituted by the Father and designed to be accomplished in this life? Why did he rebuke those who sought to entrap him when they brought to him the example of the fulfilment of the law of Moses, for Moses wrote the law that God gave him, that if a man married in Israel and died without issue, it was the duty of his brother to take his widow and raise up seed unto his brother; and when seven of these brothers--(which is doubtless a problem that these men put to the Savior in order to entrap him {351} if they could)--had taken her, to whom should she belong in the resurrection, since they all had her? Jesus declared to them, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." They did not understand the principle of sealing for time and for all eternity; that what God hath joined together neither man nor death can put asunder. (Matt. 19: 6.) They had wandered from that principle. It had fallen into disuse among them; they had ceased to understand it; and consequently they did not comprehend the truth; but Christ did. She could only be the wife in eternity of the man to whom she was united by the power of God for eternity, as well as for time; and Christ understood the principle, but he did not cast his pearls before the swine that tempted him.--Apr. C. R. 1912, p. 136.

PLURAL MARRIAGE FORBIDDEN. Official Statement--"Inasmuch as there are numerous reports in circulation that plural marriages have been entered into contrary to the official declaration of President Woodruff, of September 26, 1890, commonly called the Manifesto, which was issued by President Woodruff and adopted by the Church at its general conference, October 6, 1890, which forbade any marriages violative of the law of the land; I Joseph F. Smith, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, hereby affirm and declare that no such marriages have been solemnized with the sanction, consent or knowledge of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I hereby announce that all such marriages are prohibited, and if any officer or member of the Church shall assume to solemnize or enter into any such marriage he will be deemed in transgression against the Church and will be liable to be dealt with according to the rules and regulations thereof, and excommunicated therefrom.

"Joseph F. Smith,

"President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

--Apr. C. R., 1904, p. 75.

{352} FURTHER STATEMENT. We have announced in previous conferences, as it was announced by President Woodruff, as it was announced by President Snow, and as it was reannounced by me and my brethren and confirmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, plural marriages have ceased in the Church. There isn't a man today in this Church or anywhere else, outside of it, who has authority to solemnize a plural marriage--not one! There is no man or woman in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who is authorized to contract a plural marriage. It is not permitted, and we have been endeavoring to the utmost of our ability to prevent men from being led by some designing person into an unfortunate condition that is forbidden by the conferences, and by the voice of the Church, a condition that has to some extent, at least, brought reproach upon the people. I want to say that we have been doing all in our power to prevent it or to stop it; and in order that we might do this, we have been seeking, to our utmost, to find the men who have been the agents and the cause of leading people into it. We find it very difficult to trace them but when we do find them, and can prove it upon them, we will deal with them as we have dealt with others that we have been able to find.--Apr. C. R., 1911, p. 8.

MARRIAGE AND LARGE FAMILIES DESIRABLE. Bachelorhood and small families carry to the superficial mind the idea that they are desirable because they bring with them the minimum of responsibility. The spirit that shirks responsibility shirks labor. Idleness and pleasure take the place of industry and strenuous effort. The love of pleasure and of an easy life in turn make demands upon young men who refuse to look upon marriage and its consequent family enlargement as a sacred duty. The real fault lies with the young men. The license of the age leads them from paths of duty and responsibility to the pitfalls of a pleasure-loving {353} world. Their sisters are the victims of neglect and of a great social and family wrong.

Women would marry if they could, and would accept cheerfully the responsibilities of family life. This loss to the home is a loss the nation must feel, as years go on. Time will vindicate the laws of God and the truth that individual human happiness is found in duty and not in pleasure and freedom from care.

The spirit of the world is contagious. We cannot live in the midst of such social conditions without suffering from the effects of their allurements. Our young people will be tempted to follow the example of the world about them. There is already a strong tendency to make sport of the obligations to marry. Pretexts of ambition are set up as an excuse to postpone marriage till some special object is attained. Some of our leading young men desire to complete first a course of study at home or abroad. Being natural leaders in society their example is dangerous and the excuse is one of questionable propriety. It were better far that many such young men never went to college than that the excuse of college life be made the reason for postponing marriage beyond the proper age.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 40, pp. 240, 241, April 15, 1905.

BE TRUE TO YOUR WIVES AND CHILDREN. And oh! my brethren, be true to your families, be true to your wives and children. Teach them the way of life. Do not allow them to get so far from you that they will become oblivious to you or to any principle of honor, purity or truth. Teach your children so that they cannot commit sin without violating their conscience, teach them the truth, that they may not depart from it. Bring them up in the way they should go, and when they get old they will not depart from it. If you will keep your boys close to your heart, within the clasp of your arms; if you will make them to feel that you love them, that you are their parents, that they are your {354} children, and keep them near to you, they will not go very far from you, and they will not commit any very great sin. But it is when you turn them out of the home, turn them out of your affection--out into the darkness of the night into the society of the depraved or degraded; it is when they become tiresome to you, or you are tired of their innocent noise and prattle at home, and you say, "Go off somewhere else,"--it is this sort of treatment of your children that drives them from you, and helps to make criminals and infidels of them. You cannot afford to do this. How would I feel to enter into the kingdom of God--(if such a thing were possible) and see one of my children outside among the sorcerers, the whoremongers, and those who love and make a lie, and that because I have neglected my duty toward him or have not kept a proper restraint upon him? Do you think I shall be exalted in the kingdom of my God with this stain and blot upon my soul? I tell you, No! No man can get there until he atones for such crime as this--for it is a crime in the sight of God and man for a father to carelessly or wilfully neglect his children. This is my sentiment. Take care of your children. They are the hope of Israel, and upon them will rest by and by, responsibility of the bearing of the kingdom of God in the earth. The Lord bless them and keep them in the path of righteousness. I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus. Amen.--Apr. C. R., 1902, p. 87.

RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS. I sincerely hope that we shall succeed in impressing upon the minds of the rising generation a sincere regard, not only for themselves, to keep themselves pure and unspotted from the world, but a sincere regard for the rights and privileges of others. Our children should be taught to respect not only their fathers and their mothers, and their brothers and sisters, but they should be taught to respect all mankind, and especially should they be instructed and taught and brought up to {355} honor the aged and the infirm, the unfortunate and the poor, the needy, and those who lack the sympathies of mankind.

We too frequently see a disposition on the part of our children to make fun of the unfortunate. A poor cripple, or a poor weak-minded person comes along, and the boys will poke fun at him, and make unbecoming remarks about him. This is entirely wrong, and such a spirit as this should never be witnessed among the children of the Latter-day Saints. They ought to be taught better at home. They should be thoroughly taught better than this in our Sunday schools, and in all the schools, so far as that is concerned, that our children attend. Our children should be taught to venerate that which is holy, that which is sacred. They should venerate the name of God. They should hold in sacred veneration the name of the Son of God. They should not take Their holy names in vain; and they should also be taught to respect and venerate the temples of God, the places of worship of their fathers and mothers. Our children should be taught also that they have rights in the house of the Lord equal to their parents and equal to their neighbors or anybody else. It always pains me to see our little ones disturbed in this right. I witnessed a little circumstance in our meeting this afternoon in the aisle; a little child was sitting by its mother on a seat. Somebody came along and took the little child off its seat, and occupied the seat himself, leaving the child to stand. I want to say to you, my brethren and sisters, that that act sent a pang to my heart. I would not, for anything in the shape of remuneration of a worldly character, grieve the heart of a little child in the house of God, lest an impression should be left upon its mind that would make the house of worship a distasteful place, and it would prefer not to come within its walls, than to come and be offended.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 39, p. 657, Semi-Annual S. S. Conference, October 9, 1904.

MUTUAL TREATMENT OF HUSBAND, WIFE AND CHILDREN. {356} Parents, in the first place, whether they do it or not, should love and respect each other, and treat each other with respectful decorum and kindly regard, all the time. The husband should treat his wife with the utmost courtesy and respect. The husband should never insult her; he should never speak slightly of her, but should always hold her in the highest esteem in the home, in the presence of their children. We do not always do it, perhaps; some of us, perhaps, do not do it at all. But nevertheless it is true that we ought to do it. The wife, also should treat the husband with the greatest respect and courtesy. Her words to him should not be keen and cutting and sarcastic. She should not pass slurs or insinuations at him. She should not nag him. She should not try to arouse his anger or make things unpleasant about the home. The wife should be a joy to her husband, and she should live and conduct herself at home so the home will be the most joyous, the most blessed place on earth to her husband. This should be the condition of the husband, wife, the father and the mother, within the sacred precinct of that holy place, the home. Then it will be easy for the parents to instill into the hearts of their children not only love for their fathers and their mothers, not only respect and courtesy towards their parents, but love and courtesy and deference between the children at home. The little brothers will respect their little sisters. The little boys will respect one another. The little girls will respect one another and the girls and boys will respect one another, and treat one another with that love, that deference and respect that should be observed in the home on the part of the little children. Then it will be easy for the Sunday school teacher to continue the training of the child under the hallowed influence of the Sabbath school; and the child will be tractable and easily led, because the foundation of a correct education has been laid in the heart and mind of the child at home. The teacher can then help the {357} little children, brought up under these proper influences, to render respect and courtesy to all men and especially to the unfortunate, the aged and the infirm.--Apr. C. R., 1905, pp. 84-85.

WE SHOULD BE EXAMPLES TO OUR FAMILIES. When I think of our mothers, the mothers of our children, and realize that under the inspiration of the gospel they live virtuous, pure honorable lives, true to their husbands, true to their children, true to their convictions of the gospel, oh, how my soul goes out in pure love for them how noble and how God-given, how choice, how desirable and how indispensable they are to the accomplishment of God's purposes and the fulfilment of his decrees! My brethren, can you mistreat your wives, the mothers of your children? Can you help treating them with love and kindness? Can you help trying to make their lives as comfortable and happy as possible, lightening their burdens to the utmost of your ability, making life pleasant for them and for their children in their homes? How can you help it? How can any one help feeling an intense interest in the mother of his children, and also in his children? If we possess the Spirit of God, we can not do otherwise. It is only when men depart from the right spirit, when they digress from their duty, that they will neglect or dishonor any soul that is committed to their care. They are bound to honor their wives and children. Intelligent men, men of business, men of affairs, men who are involved constantly in the labors of life, and have to devote their energies and thought to their labors and duties, may not enjoy as many comforts with their families as they would like, but if they have the Spirit of the Lord with them in the performance of their temporal duties, they will never neglect the mothers of their children, nor their children. They will not fail to teach them the principles of life and set before them a proper example. Don't do anything yourselves that you would have {358} to say to your boy, "Don't do it." Live so that you can say, "My son, do as I do, follow me, emulate my example." That is the way fathers should live, every one of us; and it is a shame, a weakening, shameful thing for any member of the Church to pursue a course that he knows is not right, and that he would rather his children should not follow.--Apr. C. R., 1915, pp. 6-7.

THE TRUEST GREATNESS. After all, to do well those things which God ordained to be the common lot of all man--kind, is the truest greatness. To be a successful father or a successful mother is greater than to be a successful general or a successful statesman. One is universal and eternal greatness, the other is ephemeral. It is true that such secondary greatness may be added to that which we style commonplace; but when such secondary greatness is not added to that which is fundamental, it is merely an empty honor, and fades away from the common and universal good in life, even though it may find a place in the desultory pages of history. Our first care, after all, brings us back to that beautiful admonition of our Savior: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. 6:33.)

We should never be discouraged in those daily tasks which God has ordained to the common lot of man. Each day's labor should be undertaken in a joyous spirit and with the thought and conviction that our happiness and eternal welfare depend upon doing well that which we ought to do, that which God has made it our duty to do. Many are unhappy because they imagine that they should be doing something unusual or something phenomenal. Some people would rather be the blossom of a tree and be admiringly seen than be an enduring part of the tree and live the commonplace life of the tree's existence.

Let us not be trying to substitute an artificial life for the true one. He is truly happy who can see and appreciate {359} the beauty with which God has adorned the commonplace things of life.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 40, pp. 752-3, Dec. 15, 1905.

PARENTS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR CHILDREN. The parents in Zion will be held responsible for the acts of their children, not only until they become eight years old, but, perhaps, throughout all the lives of their children, provided they have neglected their duty to their children while they were under their care and guidance and the parents were responsible for them.--Apr. C. R., 1910, p. 6.

THE FATHER THE PRESIDING AUTHORITY OF THE FAMILY. There is no higher authority in matters relating to the family organization, and especially when that organization is presided over by one holding the higher priesthood, than that of the father. The authority is time honored, and among the people of God in all dispensations it has been highly respected and often emphasized by the teachings of the prophets who were inspired of God. The patriarchal order is of divine origin and will continue throughout time and eternity. There is, then, a particular reason why men, women and children should understand this order and this authority in the households of the people of God, and seek to make it what God intended it to be, a qualification and preparation for the highest exaltation of his children. In the home the presiding authority is always vested in the father, and in all home affairs and family matters there is no other authority paramount. To illustrate this principle, a single incident will perhaps suffice. It sometimes happens that the elders are called in to administer to the members of a family. Among these elders there may be presidents of stakes, apostles, or even members of the first presidency of the Church. It is not proper under these circumstances for the father to stand back and expect the elders to direct the administration of this important ordinance. The father is there. It is his right and it is his duty {360} to preside. He should select the one who is to administer the oil, and the one who is to be mouth in prayer, and he should not feel that because there are present presiding authorities in the Church that he is therefore divested of his rights to direct the administration of that blessing of the gospel in his home. (If the father be absent, the mother should request the presiding authority present to take charge.) The father presides at the table, at prayer, and gives general directions relating to his family life whoever may be present. Wives and children should be taught to feel that the patriarchal order in the kingdom of God has been established for a wise and beneficent purpose, and should sustain the head of the household and encourage him in the discharge of his duties, and do all in their power to aid him in the exercise of the rights and privileges which God has bestowed upon the head of the home. This patriarchal order has its divine spirit and purpose, and those who disregard it under one pretext or another are out of harmony with the spirit of God's laws as they are ordained for recognition in the home. It is not merely a question of who is perhaps the best qualified. Neither is it wholly a question of who is living the most worthy life. It is a question largely of law and order, and its importance is seen often from the fact that the authority remains and is respected long after a man is really unworthy to exercise it.

This authority carries with it a responsibility and a grave one, as well as its rights and privileges, and men can not be too exemplary in their lives, nor fit themselves too carefully to live in harmony with this important and God-ordained rule of conduct in the family organization. Upon this authority certain promises and blessings are predicated, and those who observe and respect this authority have certain claims on divine favor which they cannot have except they respect and observe the laws that God has established for the regulation and authority of the home. "Honor thy {361} father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee," was a fundamental law to ancient Israel, and is binding upon every member of the Church today, for the law is eternal.

The necessity, then, of organizing the patriarchal order and authority of the home rests upon principle as well as upon the person who holds that authority, and among the Latter-day Saints family discipline, founded upon the law of the patriarchs, should be carefully cultivated, and fathers will then be able to remove many of the difficulties that now weaken their position in the home, through unworthy children.

The principles here set forth are of more importance than many parents have heretofore attached to them, and the unfortunate position today in the homes of many of the elders of Israel is directly traceable to a want of appreciation of their truthfulness.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 37, p. 148, March 1, 1902.

DUTIES OF FATHERS. May the fathers in Israel live as they should live; treat their wives as they should treat them; make their homes as comfortable as they possibly can; lighten the burden upon their companions as much as possible; set a proper example before their children; teach them to meet with them in prayer, morning and night, and whenever they sit down to partake of food, to acknowledge the mercy of God in giving them the food that they eat and the raiment that they wear, and acknowledge the band of God in all things. This is our duty, and if we do not do it the Lord will be displeased, for he has said so. He is only pleased with those who acknowledge his hand in all things.--Oct. C. R., 1909, p. 9; Doc. and Cov. 59: 7, 21.

MOTHERHOOD THE FOUNDATION OF HOME AND NATION. Motherhood lies at the foundation of happiness in the home, and of prosperity in the nation. God has laid upon men and women very sacred obligations with respect to motherhood, {362} and they are obligations that cannot be disregarded without invoking divine displeasure. In I Timothy 2:13-15, we are told that "Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety." Can she be saved without child-bearing? She indeed takes an awful risk if she wilfully disregards what is a pronounced requirement of God. How shall she plead her innocence when she is not innocent? How shall she excuse her guilt when it is fastened upon her?

The question of parental obligation in the matter of children is not generally denied. A failure to fulfill the obligation, however, is too frequently excused.

"Children," we are told, "are a heritage of the Lord;" they are also, the Psalmist tells us, "his reward." If children are cut off from their birthright, how shall the Lord be rewarded? They are not a source of weakness and poverty to family life, for they bring with them certain divine blessings that make for the prosperity of the home and the nation. "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." (Psalm 127:4, 5)

What answer shall men and women make in excuse of conduct which contravenes the commandments of God? Those whose hearts are in touch with God's most sacred laws will make great sacrifices honestly to fulfil them.

There has, however, of late arisen a condition in our social life that is working against the divine requirements of motherhood. Men and women plead the enormous increase in the cost of child-bearing. The requirements for motherhood in matters of doctor's fees, nurses' bills and hospital charges, are so great as to discourage men and women of {363} slender means. The burden of such expenses is certainly becoming great, and if they are likely to stand directly in the way of God's requirement, something should be done either to remove them or mitigate them, and some means should be provided that will protect the family and the nation against destruction. It is a problem well worthy the attention of our law-makers, who appropriate generously in matters that are insignificant when compared with the health, wealth and physical prosperity of the nation that encourages the birth of children.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 50, pp. 290, 291, May, 1915.

HUSBAND'S SUCCESS DEPENDENT UPON WIFE'S FITNESS. There is no organization or government in the world so perfectly planned for the education of men and women to executive responsibilities as is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Government in the home and in the Church constitutes an important part in the lives of the people, and the government in the home is the basis of all successful government in church or state. In the home the mother is the principal disciplinarian in early child life, and her influence and discipline determine in a great measure the ability of her children to assume in manhood and womanhood the larger governments in church and state.

In addition, however, to home government, women often stand with their husbands in responsible places and share in some measure the success or failure which characterizes their husbands' administration of affairs. In selecting men to occupy responsible positions in the Church, it not infrequently happens that a useful and competent man is barred from consideration because of the deplorable want of fitness in the wife, and though a wife may not always bar a husband's opportunities, she may, nevertheless, prove a great hindrance to him in the discharge of the duties that belong to his office. If our sisters could only realize how helpful they might be to their husbands who hold responsible {364} positions in the Church, and if they would only take pride and pleasure in their husbands' administration of affairs, the conduct of men in public office would in many instances be very greatly improved.

The word and the law of God are as important for women who would reach wise conclusions as they are for men; and women should study and consider the problems of this great latter-day work from the standpoint of God's revelations, and as they may be actuated by his Spirit, which it is their right to receive through the medium of sincere and heartfelt prayer. A woman without heartfelt devotion for the things of God is not prepared to stand at her husband's side and enjoy his confidence in the graver responsibilities that devolve upon him in the government of the Church. Husbands are justified in withholding their confidence from and in refusing to be influenced by wives whose worldly ambitions and want of appreciation of divine things lead them to contend for personal advantages and selfish gains. Wives of leaders should have a generous feeling for all that relates to the affairs over which their husbands preside. Such women should not be exclusive in their social relations, and should avoid the evils that frequently come from yielding to the influence and views of a small coterie that may have selfish aims and personal advantages to serve.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 38, pp. 371, 372, 1903.

DUTY OF PARENTS. It is the duty of Latter-day Saints to teach their children the truth, to bring them up in the way they should go, to teach them the first principles of the gospel, the necessity of baptism for the remission of sins, and for membership in the Church of Christ; teaching them the necessity of receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, which will lead them into all truth, and which will reveal to them things that have passed and things which are to come, and show to them more clearly those things which are present with them, that they may comprehend {365} the truth, and that they may walk in the light as Christ is in the light; that they may have fellowship with him and that his blood may cleanse them from all sin.--Apr. C. R., 1912, p. 135.

WATCH YOUR CHILDREN. Some people have grown to possess such unlimited confidence in their children that they do not believe it possible for them to be led astray or to do wrong. They do not believe they could do wrong, because they have such confidence in them. The result is they turn them loose, morning, noon and night, to attend all kinds of entertainments and amusement, often in company with those whom they know not and do not understand. Some of our children are so innocent that they do not suspect evil, and, therefore, they are off their guard and are trapped into evil.--Oct. C. R., 1909, p. 4.

DUTY TO TEACH CHILDREN. Another great and important duty devolving upon this people is to teach their children, from their cradle until they become men and women, every principle of the gospel, and endeavor, as far as it lies in the power of the parents, to instil into their hearts a love for God, the truth, virtue, honesty, honor and integrity to everything that is good. That is important for all men and women who stand at the head of a family in the household of faith. Teach your children the love of God, teach them to love the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Teach them to love their fellowmen, and especially to love their fellow members in the Church that they may be true to their fellowship with the people of God. Teach them to honor the priesthood, to honor the authority that God has bestowed upon his Church for the proper government of his Church.--Apr. C. R., 1915, pp. 4, 5.

WHAT TO TEACH YOUR CHILDREN. We are a Christian people, we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we feel that it is our duty to acknowledge him as our Savior and Redeemer. Teach it to your children. Teach them that the {366} Prophet Joseph Smith had restored to him the priesthood that was held by Peter and James and John, who were ordained under the hands of the Savior himself. Teach them that Joseph Smith, the prophet, when only a boy, was chosen and called of God to lay the foundations of the Church of Christ in the world, to restore the holy priesthood, and the ordinances of the gospel, which are necessary to qualify men to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Teach your children to respect their neighbors. Teach your children to respect their bishops and the teachers that come to their homes to teach them. Teach your children to respect old age, gray hairs, and feeble frames. Teach them to venerate and to hold in honorable remembrance their parents, and to help all those who are helpless and needy. Teach your children, as you have been taught yourselves, to honor the priesthood which you hold, the priesthood which we hold as elders in Israel. Teach your children to honor themselves, teach your children to honor the principle of presidency by which organizations are held intact and by which strength and power for the well-being and happiness and upbuilding of the people are preserved. Teach your children that when they go to school they should honor their teachers in that which is true and honest, in that which is manly and womanly, and worth while; and also teach them to avoid the bad examples of their teachers out of school, and the bad principles of men and women who are sometimes teachers in schools. Teach your children to honor the law of God and the law of the state and the law of our country. Teach them to respect and hold in honor those who are chosen by the people to stand at their head and execute justice and administer the law. Teach them to be loyal to their country, loyal to righteousness and uprightness and honor, and thereby they will grow up to be men and women choice above all the men and women of the world.--Apr C. R., 1917, pp. 5, 6.

WHAT CHILDREN SHOULD BE TAUGHT. I pray you, my {367} brethren and sisters, who have children in Zion, and upon whom rests the greater responsibility, teach them the principles of the gospel, teach them to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in baptism for the remission of sins when they shall reach the age of eight years. They must be taught in the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ by their parents, or the blood of the children will be upon the skirts of those parents. It seems to me so plain a duty and so necessary for them to see to it that their children avail themselves of the opportunities that are afforded them in having them taught and instructed in these principles in the Sunday schools that are established in the Church and conducted Sunday after Sunday for the benefit of their children. I should feel contemptible, I was going to say, in my own mind, in my own feelings, if I had children who were neglected by their parents in regard to these matters. Our little ones are only too anxious to go to Sunday school, no matter what may occur, whether it rains or is cold or pleasant, or what not; whether they are sick or well, they cannot be kept from the Sunday school unless there is great cause for it.--Apr. C. R., 1903, p. 81.

TRAINING OF CHILDREN AT HOME AND IN SUNDAY SCHOOL. It does not need argument to convince our minds that our children will be just about what we make them. They are born without knowledge or understanding--the most helpless creatures of the animal creation born into the world. The little one begins to learn after it is born, and all that it knows greatly depends upon its environment, the influences under which it is brought up, the kindness with which it is treated, the noble examples shown it, the hallowed influences of father and mother, or otherwise, over its infant mind. And it will be largely what its environment and its parents and teachers make it.

The child of the lowest of our native tribes born in a wigwam and the child born in luxury start out almost equal, {368} so far as the possibilities of learning are concerned. A great deal depends upon the influence under which it is brought up. You will observe that the most potent influence over the mind of a child to persuade it to learn, to progress, or to accomplish anything, is the influence of love. More can be accomplished for good by unfeigned love, in bringing up a child, than by any other influence that can be brought to bear upon it. A child that cannot be conquered by the lash, or subdued by violence, may be controlled in an instant by unfeigned affection and sympathy. I know that is true; and this principle obtains in every condition of life.

The Sunday school teacher should govern the children, not by passion, by bitter words or scolding, but by affection and by winning their confidence. If a teacher gets the confidence of a child it is not impossible to accomplish every desired good with that child.

I would have it understood that I believe that the greatest law and commandment of God is to love the Lord our God with all our mind, might and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves, and if this principle is observed at home the brothers and sisters will love one another; they will be kind and helpful to one another, showing forth the principle of kindness and being solicitous for one another's good. Under these circumstances the home comes nearer being a heaven on earth, and children brought up under these influences will never forget them, and though they may be in trying places, their memories will revert to the homes where they enjoyed such hallowed influences, and their better natures will assert themselves no matter what the trials or temptations may be.

Brethren and sisters of the Sunday school, I implore you to teach and control by the spirit of love and forbearance until you can conquer. If children are defiant and difficult to control, be patient with them until you can conquer {369} by love, and you will have gained their souls, and you can then mould their characters as you please.

Sometimes children do not like their teachers, and the teachers are impatient with the children, and complain of them as being very uncouth, uncontrollable and bad. The children in their turn tell their parents how they despise their teachers, and say they don't want to go to school any more because the teacher is so cross. I have heard of these things and know them to be true. On the other hand, if children say to father and mother, "We think we have the best teacher in the world, in our Sunday school," or, "We have the best teacher in our district school that ever lived," it proves that those teachers have won the affections of the children, and the little ones are as clay in the hands of the potter to be moulded in any shape desired. This is the position you teachers should occupy, and if you get their affections this will be the report the children will make regarding you.--Oct. C. R., 1902, pp. 92, 93.

TEACH CHILDREN THE GOSPEL. It is the duty of parents to teach their children the principles of the gospel and to be sober-minded and industrious in their youth. They should be impressed from the cradle to the time they leave the parental roof to make homes and assume the duties of life for themselves, that there is a seed time and harvest, and as man sows, so shall he reap. The sowing of bad habits in youth will bring forth nothing better than vice, and the sowing of the seeds of indolence will result invariably in poverty and lack of stability in old age. Evil begets evil, and good will bring forth good.

I have heard people say, "We pass this way but once, and we might as well have a good time and make the most of it while life lasts." This is in keeping with the prediction in the Book of Mormon: "And there shall be many which shall say, Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us. * * * Yea, and {370} there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, false, and vain, and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark." (II Nephi 28:7-9)

Let the parents in Zion give their children something to do that they may be taught the arts of industry, and equipped to carry responsibility when it is thrust upon them. Train them in some useful vocation that their living may be assured when they commence in life for themselves. Remember, the Lord has said that "the idler shall not eat the bread of the laborer," but all in Zion should be industrious. Neither should they be given to loud laughter, light and foolish speeches, worldly pride and lustful desires, for these are not only unbecoming, but grievous sins in the sight of the Lord. And, we read that the wages of sin is death, and death is banishment from the Spirit and presence of the Lord.

And above all else, let us train our children in the principles of the gospel of our Savior, that they may become familiar with the truth and walk in the light which it sheds forth to all those who will receive it. "He that seeketh me early," the Lord has said, "shall find me, and shall not be forsaken." It behooves us, therefore, to commence in early life to travel in the straight and narrow path which leads to eternal salvation.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 52, pp. 19, 20, January, 1917; Rom. 6:23; Prov. 8:17.

TEACH CHILDREN THE STORY OF JESUS' DEATH. Should the little children of the kindergarten be taught the events leading up to and culminating in the death of our Savior? It is a principle widely accepted that it is not desirable to teach these little ones those things that are horrifying to childish natures. And what may be said of children is equally true in all stages of student life. But death is not an unmixed horror. With it are associated some of the profoundest and most important truths of human life. Although {371} painful in the extreme to those who must suffer the departure of dear ones, death is one of the grandest blessings in divine economy; and we think children should be taught something of its true meaning as early in life as possible.

We are born that we may put on mortality, that is, that we may clothe our spirits with a body. Such a blessing is the first step toward an immortal body, and the second step is death. Death lies along the road of eternal progress; and though hard to bear, no one who believes in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and especially in the resurrection, would have it otherwise. Children should be taught early in life that death is really a necessity as well as a blessing, and that we would not and could not be satisfied and supremely happy without it. Upon the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus, one of the grandest principles of the gospel depends. If children were taught this early in life, death would not have the horrifying influence that it does have over many childish minds.

Children are sure to be brought into some acquaintanceship with the incident of death, even during the kindergarten period; and it would be a great relief to the puzzled and perplexed conditions of their minds if some intelligent statements of the reason for death were made to them. No explanation of death to a child's mind can anywhere be found that is more simple and convincing than is the death of our Master, connected as it is and ever must be with the glorious resurrection.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 40, p. 336, June 1, 1905.

WISE GIVING TO CHILDREN. It is very gratifying to parents to be able to respond to the desires of their children, but it is undoubtedly a cruelty to a child to give it everything it asks for. Children may wisely be denied things which even in themselves are harmless. Our pleasures depend often more upon the qualities of our desires than {372} upon the gratification. A child may be ladened with gifts which afford him little or no pleasure, simply because he has no desire for them. The education then of our desires is one of far-reaching importance to our happiness in life; and when we learn that there is an education of our intellects and we are set about that education with prudence and wisdom, we shall do much to increase not only our happiness but also our usefulness in the world.

God's ways of educating our desires are, of course, always the most perfect, and if those who have it in their power to educate and direct the desires of children would imitate his prudence, the children would be much more fortunate in combating the difficulties that beset men everywhere in the struggle for existence. And what is God's way? Everywhere in nature we are taught the lessons of patience and waiting. We want things a long time before we get them, and the fact that we wanted them a long time makes them all the more precious when they come. In nature we have our seed-time and harvest; and if children were taught that the desires that they sow may be reaped by and by through patience and labor, they will learn to appreciate whenever a long-looked-for goal has been reached. Nature resists us and keeps admonishing us to wait; indeed, we are compelled to wait.

A man has a much greater capacity to enjoy that for which he has labored for a number of years than one who has a similar object given to him. It is, therefore, most unfortunate for children when their parents greatly weaken or almost wholly destroy the children's capacity for the enjoyment of some of the most wholesome pleasures of life. The child who has everything he wants and when he wants it is really to be pitied, for he has no ability to enjoy it. There may be a hundred times more pleasure in a dollar piece for one child than for another.

Our desires are the strongest motives which incite us {373} to energy and which make us productive and creative in life. If they are weak, our creations are likely to be puny and worthless. Money that a boy works for has a value upon his life and an actual purchasing power greatly in excess of the money that has been given to him. And what is true of boys is in a large measure true of girls. The girl who earns something, who works persistently and patiently that she may have money she can call her own has a capacity for enjoying the objects of her desires greatly in excess of the girl who never learned to earn a dollar. She also knows and appreciates the value of a dollar more than the girl who never had to wait until she earned it. It is a mistake for parents to suppose that a daughter ought never to be required to earn anything. Every effort by which we seek the fulfilment of our desires gives strength and character to manhood and womanhood. The man who builds a house has vastly more enjoyment in its occupation than the man who has had a house given to him.

It is just as wrong systematically to give a child everything he desires as to deny the child everything. When indulgent parents fancy that they are adding to the pleasure of their children's lives by giving to them whatever they wish, such parents are in fact destroying the capacity of their children to enjoy the gratification of desires weakened and perverted by over-indulgence. The ability to give to children wisely is indeed a rare attainment, and is acquired only by a thoughtful and prudent exercise of the highest sense of duty which parents can feel for their children. Duty is always preferable to indulgence.--Juvenile Instructor, p. 400, July 1, 1903.

DO NOT PLACE CHILDREN UNDER PLEDGES. We believe it is questionable wisdom to put children under a pledge of any kind. We ourselves do not put our children under pledges, and we see no reason why we should permit others to do it. Instructions can be given to children warning them {374} against the use of strong drinks and tobacco just as well without their being pledged as by placing that responsibility upon them. No man or set of people should be permitted to call our children together for the purpose of joining a temperance society, without they first obtain the consent of the parents or guardians of those children; and we take it for granted that no such consent would be given. We also take it for granted that boards of education could not consistently, without such permission, allow such a thing to be done in the public schools.

It should be understood that we, the Latter-day Saints, teach temperance and morality as part of our religion, and that we ourselves are competent to do this kind of work among our own children without the aid of outside temperance societies.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 37, p. 720, Dec. 1, 1902.

CHILDREN HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS WITH ELDERS IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. Our children should be taught also that they have rights in the house of the Lord equal to their parents and equal to their neighbors or anybody else.--Oct. C. R., 1904, p. 88.

DON'T MORTGAGE YOUR HOUSES. My brethren, see to it that you do not put a mortgage upon the roof that covers the heads of your wives and your children. Don't do it. Don't plaster your farms with mortgages, because it is from your farms that you reap your food, and the means to provide your raiment and your other necessaries of life. Keep your possessions free from debt. Get out of debt as fast as you can, and keep out of debt, for that is the way in which the promise of God will be fulfilled to the people of his Church, that they will become the richest of all people in the world. But this will not happen while you mortgage your homes and your farms, or run into debt beyond your ability to meet your obligations; and thus, perhaps, your name and credit be dishonored because you over-reached {375} yourselves. "Never reach further than you can gather," is a good motto.--Apr. C. R., 1915, p. 11.

NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE HOME. The growing tendency throughout the country to abandon the home for the hotel and for the nomadic life with its ever-shifting and restless spirit, manifests itself here and there among the Latter-day Saints. A word of warning at this time may not be inappropriate to those who imagine that there is some charm as well as benefit in moving about the world in quest of pleasure and novelties that come from changing frequently one's habitation.

There is no substitute for the home. Its foundation is as ancient as the world, and its mission has been ordained of God from the earliest times. From Abraham sprang two ancient races represented in Isaac and Ishmael. The one built stable homes, and prized its land as a divine inheritance. The other became children of the desert, and as restless as its ever-shifting sands upon which their tents were pitched. From that day to the present, the home has been the chief characteristic of superior over inferior nations. The home then is more than a habitation, it is an institution which stands for stability and love in individuals as well as in nations.

There can be no genuine happiness separate and apart from the home, and every effort made to sanctify and preserve its influence is uplifting to those who toil and sacrifice for its establishment. Men and women often seek to substitute some other life for that of the home; they would make themselves believe that the home means restraint; that the highest liberty is the fullest opportunity to move about at will. There is no happiness without service, and there is no service greater than that which converts the home into a divine institution, and which promotes and preserves family life.

Those who shirk home responsibilities are wanting in an {376} important element of social well-being. They may indulge themselves in social pleasures, but their pleasures are superficial and result in disappointment later in life. The occupations of men sometimes call them from their homes; but the thought of home-coming is always an inspiration to well doing and devotion. When women abandon the home and its duties, the case is a more deplorable one. The evil effects are not confined to the mother alone. The children are robbed of a sacred right, and their love is bereft of its rallying place around the hearthstone. The strongest attachments of childhood are those that cluster about the home, and the dearest memories of old age are those that call up the associations of youth and its happy surroundings.

The disposition among the Saints to be moving about ought to be discouraged. If communities must swarm, let the young go, and let the old homes be transmitted from generation to generation, and let the home be erected with the thought that it is to be a family abiding place from one generation to another, that it is to be a monument to its founder and an inheritance of all that is sacred and dear in home life. Let it be the Mecca to which an ever-increasing posterity may make its pilgrimage. The home, a stable and pure home, is the highest guaranty of social stability and permanence in government.

A Latter-day Saint who has no ambition to establish a home and give it permanency has not a full conception of a sacred duty the gospel imposes upon him. It may be necessary at times to change our abode; but a change should never be made for light or trivial reasons, nor to satisfy a restless spirit. Whenever homes are built the thought of permanency should always be present. Many of the Saints live in parts of the country that are less productive than others, that possess few natural attractions, yet they cherish their homes and their surroundings, and the more substantial men and women of such communities are the last {377} to abandon them. There is no substitute in wealth or in ambition for the home. Its influence is a prime necessity for man's happiness and well-being.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 38, pp. 145, 146, March 1, 1903.

WORSHIP IN THE HOME. We have in the gospel the truth. If that is the case, and I bear my testimony that so it is, then it is worth our every effort to understand the truth, each for himself, and to impart it in spirit and practice to our children. Far too many risk their children's spiritual guidance to chance, or to others rather than to themselves, and think that organizations suffice for religious training. Our temporal bodies would soon become emaciated, if we fed them only once a week, or twice, as some of us are in the habit of feeding our spiritual and religious bodies. Our material concerns would be less thriving, if we looked after them only two hours a week, as some people seem to do with their spiritual affairs, especially if we in addition contented ourselves, as some do in religious matters, to let others look after them.

No; on the other hand, this should be done every day, and in the home, by precept, teaching and example. Brethren, there is too little religious devotion, love and fear of God, in the home; too much worldliness, selfishness, indifference and lack of reverence in the family, or these never would exist so abundantly on the outside. Then, the home is what needs reforming. Try today, and tomorrow, to make a change in your home by praying twice a day with your family; call on your children and your wife to pray with you. Ask a blessing upon every meal you eat. Spend ten minutes in reading a chapter from the words of the Lord in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, before you retire, or before you go to your daily toil. Feed your spiritual selves at home, as well as in public places. Let love, and peace, and the Spirit of the Lord, kindness, charity, sacrifice for others, abound in your families. {378} Banish harsh words, envyings, hatreds, evil speaking, obscene language and innuendo, blasphemy, and let the Spirit of God take possession of your hearts. Teach to your children these things, in spirit and power, sustained and strengthened by personal practice. Let them see that you are earnest, and practice what you preach. Do not let your children out to specialists in these things, but teach them by your own precept and example, by your own fireside. Be a specialist yourself in the truth. Let our meetings, schools and organizations, instead of being our only or leading teachers, be supplements to our teachings and training in the home. Not one child in a hundred would go astray, if the home environment, example and training, were in harmony with the truth in the gospel of Christ, as revealed and taught to the Latter-day Saints. Fathers and mothers, you are largely to blame for the infidelity and indifference of your children. You can remedy the evil by earnest worship, example, training and discipline, in the home.--Improvement Era, Vol. 7, Dec., 1904, p. 135.

THE BASIS OF A TRUE HOME. A home is not a home in the eye of the gospel, unless there dwell perfect confidence and love between the husband and the wife. Home is a place of order, love, union, rest, confidence, and absolute trust; where the breath of suspicion of infidelity can not enter; where the woman an the man each have implicit confidence in each other's honor and virtue.--Second Sunday School Convention.

THE IDEAL HOME. What then is an ideal home--model home, such as it should be the ambition of the Latter-day Saints to build; such as a young man starting out in life should wish to erect for himself? And the answer came to me: It is one in which all worldly considerations are secondary. One in which the father is devoted to the family with which God has blessed him, counting them of first importance, {379} and in which they in turn permit him to live in their hearts. One in which there is confidence, union, love, sacred devotion between father and mother and children and parents. One in which the mother takes every pleasure in her children, supported by the father--all being moral, pure, God-fearing. As the tree is judged by its fruit, so also do we judge the home by the children. In the ideal home true parents rear loving, thoughtful children, loyal to the death, to father and mother and home! In it there is the religious spirit, for both parents and children have faith in God, and their practices are in conformity with that faith; the members are free from the vices and contaminations of the world, are pure in morals, having upright hearts beyond bribes and temptations, ranging high in the exalted standards of manhood and womanhood. Peace, order, and contentment reign in the hearts of the inmates--let them be rich or poor, in things material. There are no vain regrets; no expressions of discontent against father, from the boys and girls, in which they complain: "If we only had this or that, or were like this family or that, or could do like so and so!"--complaints that have caused fathers many uncertain steps, dim eyes, restless nights, and untold anxiety. In their place is the loving thoughtfulness to mother and father by which the boys and girls work with a will and a determination to carry some of the burden that the parents have staggered under these many years. There is the kiss for mother, the caress for father, the thought that they have sacrificed their own hopes and ambitions, their strength, even life itself to their children--there is gratitude in payment for all that has been given them!

In the ideal home the soul is not starved, neither are the growth and expansion of the finer sentiments paralyzed for the coarse and sensual pleasures. The main aim is not to heap up material wealth, which generally draws further and further from the true, the ideal, the spiritual life; but it is {380} rather to create soul--wealth, consciousness of noble achievement, an outflow of love and helpfulness.

It is not costly paintings, tapestries, priceless bric-a-brac, various ornaments, costly furniture, fields, herds, houses and lands which constitute the ideal home, nor yet the social enjoyments and ease so tenaciously sought by many; but it is rather beauty of soul, cultivated, loving, faithful, true spirits; hands that help and hearts that sympathize; love that seeks not its own, thoughts and acts that touch our lives to finer issues--these lie at the foundation of the ideal home.--Improvement Era, Vol. 8, 1904-05, pp. 385-388.

FOUNDATION OF ALL GOOD IN HOME. The very foundation of the kingdom of God, of righteousness, of progress, of development, of eternal life and eternal increase in the kingdom of God, is laid in the divinely ordained home; and there should be no difficulty in holding in the highest reverence and exalted thought, the home, if it can be built upon the principles of purity, of true affection, of righteousness and justice. The man and his wife who have perfect confidence in each other, and who determine to follow the laws of God in their lives and fulfil the measure of their mission in the earth, would not be, and could never be, contented without the home. Their hearts, their feelings, their minds, their desires would naturally trend toward the building of a home and family and of a kingdom of their own; to the laying of the foundation of eternal increase and power, glory, exaltation and dominion, worlds without end.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 51, p. 739.

SECURE HOMES. In my judgment it would be prudence and wisdom for the young people to secure lands near the homes of their parents and near the body of the Church, where they can have the advantage of Sunday schools and the gatherings of the Saints, and in so doing they will be building for themselves, instead of permitting the stranger to come in and take the lands--strangers with whom in many instances {381} we could not affiliate. We all know there are classes who come in here who up to date have not proved desirable neighbors to affiliate with, and it is just as well for our own young people to stay in the land of their birth and build them homes. I will say that we do not approve of the disposition of some to go afar off where life, property and liberty are not safe. We wish them to remain together, so that if it is necessary or desirable that the Saints should colonize, they might do it in order.

I do not want to be understood as saying or thinking that one little state is big enough to contain all the young people, and I think it is wisdom and necessary for the Latter-day Saints to take every advantage in this respect that is possible. I think our young people should get homes in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado--in our own state and in adjoining states--in blessed America, under this grand and glorious government where life and property, and the liberties of men are safe and protected, where mob violence and revolutionary spirit do not stalk forth as in some countries of the world.

Another thing. In the old times an effort was made to co-operate and combine together and establish home industries for the production of the things that were needful for consumption of the people and to produce a revenue as well. Today we have allowed the home industry spirit to perish almost from amongst us, and we do not witness the same loyalty among the people to those things which are produced at home that there should be. There are too many people who would rather patronize some "cheap John" and buy shoddy goods, just because they can get them a few pence cheaper, than to sustain home industry, and get all wool and a yard wide. We should not encourage foreign capital to the exclusion of our own, and patronize foreign labor against our own, but we should build up our home institutions.--From a Sermon, given in Logan, April 7, 1910.

{382} OWN YOUR HOMES. It was early the rule among the Latter-day Saints to have the lands so divided that every family could have a spot of ground which could be called theirs; and it has been the proud boast of this people that among them were more home owners than among any other people of like numbers. This condition had a good tendency, and whatever men said of us, the home among this people was a first consideration. It is this love of home that has made the Saints famous as colonizers, builders of settlements, and redeemers of the deserts. But in the cities there appears now to be coming into vogue the idea that renting is the thing. Of course, it may be necessary as a temporary makeshift, but no young couple should ever settle down with the idea that such a condition, as far as they are concerned, shall be permanent. Every young man should have an ambition to possess his own home. It is better for him, for his family, for society, for the state, and for the Church. Nothing so engenders stability, strength, power, patriotism, fidelity to country and to God as the owning of a home--a spot of earth that you and your children can call yours. And besides, there are so many tender virtues that grow with such ownership that the government of a family is made doubly easy thereby.

Let us continue, as a people, to be unlike the world in this regard. I hope the Saints will ever be a home owning people, and never become roamers, roomers and renters. We should no more follow the prevailing notions in this than in some other things. The people of Zion have a higher destiny than being led by the nose, as it were, by the prevailing whims. We do not purpose being led by evil tendencies, but rather glory in being leaders ourselves in all that makes for the welfare and happiness of the home, the advancement of the Church, the prosperity of the state.--Improvement Era, Aug., 1904, Vol. 7, p. 796.

DO NOT MORTGAGE YOUR HOMES. Whenever a panic {383} comes, or there is severe financial depression because of monetary conditions, the people have before them a painful object lesson on the evils of mortgaging, especially of their homes and places of business.

Men owe it to their wives and children to be prudent and conservative when business considerations touch the home, and it is doubtful whether they really have a moral right to expose helpless wives and children to the mercies of the money lender. The evils are too abundantly manifest to permit of mortgaging homes that should be sacred to the needs of those who are dependent upon them.

The Latter-day Saints have often been warned and are now earnestly admonished not to hazard their homes, and with them their wives and children, upon the altar of financial speculations.

What was taught in the early days of our history in this intermountain region is equally true today, and it is the duty of every Latter-day Saint, so far as it is possible, to own his home, to possess an earthly inheritance. It has been our pride that among the people of all the world nowhere can a greater percentage be found of those who have title to the homes in which they live. Instead of declining year by year in the total number of homes owned by the Latter-day Saints of Salt Lake City, and other large cities, there should be an increase. The matter of the Saints possessing title to their homes is something more than a question of whether it pays best to rent or to own. It is a question of vital importance to our future position, and relative strength in a land to which by every rule of equity and prudence we are entitled. There is a virtue and an assurance and a certainty in the ownership of one's home that are never felt by those who are shifting from place to place without any landed possession. The influence upon child life that comes from the possession and ownership of the family home is of itself a sufficient reason to guard it against the repeated evils {384} of mortgaging. The Latter-day Saints owe it to themselves and they owe it to their God to be steadfast in the possession of the lands to which they hold titles, either by purchase or settlement. The evil of mortgaging homes to eastern firms, to men and companies who have no other motive than to secure their pound of flesh, is growing among the people, and especially among those in the larger cities. Against such evils the people have in the past been abundantly warned. If necessity compels the husband to place a mortgage upon the home, let it come, if possible, through a friend and not through those who may be the enemies of the people. If the Latter-day Saints will give heed to the prudent admonitions and lessons of the past, they will hesitate in the presence of the alluring temptations which are now everywhere held out, to mortgage their homes, their places of business, the canals, and the farms, for the means with which to speculate and grow rich. It is to be hoped, therefore, that where the Saints have mortgages upon their homes they will be persistent in their endeavors to remove them, and they are advised to keep intact and beyond menace the titles to their lands.

The admonitions here given are directed especially to those disposed to mortgage for the purpose of speculation, and not to those who may find it necessary through building societies or otherwise to secure homes by monthly or other periodical payments. The latter practice may lead to economic habits, while speculations too frequently create a spirit of extravagance.--Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 36, pp. 722-723.

EVILS OF MORTGAGING. What a blessed condition would result in Zion if the evil of going into debt, of mortgaging the home, could be made very clear to every Latter-day Saint, young and old! Well, indeed, would it be if some of the burdens of the mortgage and its accompanying sorrows, could be felt and understood by every man who has in contemplation the pawning of his home and land for money--that {385} he might comprehend its slavery and terror--as thoroughly prior to the deed as he is sure to feel it after. In that event, he might be warned in time to avoid the fatal step, and awake as from a horrid dream to rejoice in his deliverance. With few exceptions mortgages on private property end in disaster to the giver. * * * What should we think of men who would jeopardize the position and place of the people of Zion! The land of Zion is an inheritance, and every man who mortgages his part of that inheritance places in jeopardy the land, thus not only disinheriting himself, but committing a crime against the whole community and the intelligence and wisdom that should characterize every true Latter-day Saint. The result of such action is appalling, and its contemplation something fearful to every lover of the people of God, the more so when one possesses a knowledge of how widespread is the evil.

Mortgaging, then, looked upon in its true light, is not only a private burden and detriment, in which a man's family is thrown out of house and home, and his own abilities, happiness and talents are destroyed or sadly diminished, but it is positively a public crime in a community like ours. Disposing of inheritances in Zion partakes of the nature of such action as individuals pulling up and selling for money the gold bricks from the streets of the Celestial City. It is intolerable, when looked upon in the right light! The old proverb: "Who goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing," and "Lying rides on debt's back," should appeal directly to every man who contemplates mortgaging. But if personal appeal is not strong enough, let him remember that his home or farm is likely to go for half of its value to satisfy his debt, and that his family who depend upon him will be left without adequate shelter and support. But if neither reason is strong enough to hold him back, let him remember Zion and his inheritance therein, and let her cause cry aloud to him to bring him to a realizing sense of the triple crime that he is {386} about to commit, in order that his hand may be stayed, and he saved the humiliation, worry, anxiety and sorrow that must inevitably overtake him, unless he repent.--Improvement Era, Dec., 1901, Vol. 5, p. 147.

OUR FIRST DUTY TO OUR HOUSEHOLD. I want to tell you that we will be honest with you; we feel that it is the first duty of Latter-day Saints to take care of themselves and of their poor; and then, if we can extend it to others, and as wide and as far as we can extend charity and assistance to others that are not members of the Church, we feel that it is our duty to do it. But first look after the members of our own household. The man who will not provide for his own house, as one of old has said, is worse than an infidel.--Apr. C. R., 1915, p. 10.

UNCHASTITY, A DOMINANT EVIL. The character of a community or a nation is the sum of the individual qualities of its component members. To say so is to voice at once an ordinary platitude and an axiom of profound import. The stability of a material structure depends upon the integrity of its several parts and the maintenance of a proper correlation of the units in harmony with the laws of forces. The same may be said of institutions, systems, and organizations in general.

Not alone is it fundamentally proper and in strict accord with both the spirit and the letter of the Divine Word, but absolutely essential to the stability of the social order that the marriage relation shall be defined and regulated by secular law. Parties to the marriage contract must be definitely invested with the responsibilities of the status they assume; and for fidelity to their obligations they are answerable to each other, to society, and to their God.

Sexual union is lawful in wedlock, and if participated in with right intent is honorable and sanctifying. But without the bonds of marriage, sexual indulgence is a debasing sin, abominable in the sight of Deity.

{387} Infidelity to marriage vows is a fruitful source of divorce, with its long train of attendant evils, not the least of which are the shame and dishonor inflicted on unfortunate though innocent children. The dreadful effects of adultery cannot be confined to the erring participants. Whether openly known or partly concealed under the cloak of guilty secrecy, the results are potent in evil influence. The immortal spirits that come to earth to tabernacle in bodies of flesh have the right to be well born, through parents who are free from the contamination of sexual vice.

It is a deplorable fact that society persists in holding women to stricter account than men in the matter of sexual offense. What shadow of excuse, not to speak of justification, can be found for this outrageous and cowardly discrimination? Can moral defilement be any the less filthy and pestilential in man than in woman? Is a male leper less to be shunned for fear of contagion than a woman similarly stricken?

So far as woman sins it is inevitable that she shall suffer, for retribution is sure, whether it be immediate or deferred. But in so far as man's injustice inflicts upon her the consequence of his offenses, he stands convicted of multiple guilt. And man is largely responsible for the sins against decency and virtue, the burden of which is too often fastened upon the weaker participant in the crime. The frightful prevalence of prostitution, and the tolerance and even condonation with which the foul traffic is treated by so-called civilized society, are black blots on the pages of current history. * * *

Like many bodily diseases, sexual crime drags with itself a train of other ills. As the physical effects of drunkenness entail the deterioration of tissue, and disturbance of vital functions, and so render the body receptive to any distemper to which it may be exposed, and at the same time lower the powers of resistance even to fatal deficiency, so {388} does unchastity expose the soul to divers spiritual maladies, and rob it of both resistance and recuperative ability. The adulterous generation of Christ's day were deaf to the voice of truth, and through their diseased state of mind and heart, sought after signs and preferred empty fable to the message of salvation.

We accept without reservation or qualification the affirmation of Deity, through an ancient Nephite prophet: "For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts." (Jacob 2:28.)

We hold that sexual sin is second only to the shedding of innocent blood in the category of personal crimes; and that the adulterer shall have no part in the exaltation of the blessed.

We proclaim as the word of the Lord: "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

"He that looketh on a woman to lust after her, or if any shall commit adultery in their hearts, they shall not have the Spirit, but shall deny the faith."--Improvement Era, June, 1918, Vol. 20, p. 738; Doc. and Cov. 63:16.

DEGREES OF SEXUAL SIN. There are said to be more shades of green than of any other color, so also we are of the opinion there are more grades or degrees of sin associated with the improper relationship of the sexes than of any other wrongdoing of which we have knowledge. They all involve a grave offense--the sin against chastity, but in numerous instances this sin is intensified by the breaking of sacred covenants, to which is sometimes added deceit, intimidation or actual violence.

Much as all these sins are to be denounced and deplored, we can ourselves see a difference both in intent and consequence between the offense of a young couple who, being betrothed, in an unguarded moment, without premeditation {389} fall into sin, and that of the man, who having entered into holy places and made sacred covenants, plots to rob the wife of his neighbor of her virtue either by cunning or force, and accomplishes his vile intent.

Not only is there a difference in these wrongs, judging from the standpoint of intent, but also from that of the consequences. In the first instance the young couple who have transgressed can make partial amends by sincere repentance and by marrying. One reparation, however, they cannot make. They cannot restore the respect that they previously held for each other; and too often as a consequence of this loss of confidence their married life is clouded or embittered by the fear that each has for the other, having once sinned, may do so again. In the other case, others are most disastrously involved, families are broken up, misery is forced upon innocent parties, society is affected, doubt is thrown upon the paternity of children, and from the standpoint of gospel ordinances, the question of descent is clouded and pedigrees become worthless; altogether, wrongs are committed both to the living and the dead, as well as to the yet unborn, which it is out of the power of the offenders to repair or make right.

Sometimes an argument is advanced to limit the provisions of the law of God, as given in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, both with regard to punishment and to forgiveness to those who have entered the House of the Lord and received their endowments. This is not possible, as so many of these provisions were given in revelations published several years before the Saints were permitted to receive these holy ordinances, indeed, before any temple was built. The law as given, we believe to be general, applying to all the Saints. But undoubtedly when, in addition to the actual offense against the laws of chastity, covenants are broken, then the punishment for the double offense will, either in this life or that which is to come, be correspondingly greater {390} and more severe.--Juvenile Instructor, Nov. 15, 1902, Vol. 37, p. 688.

PURITY. There is something in man, an essential part of his mind, which recalls the events of the past, and the words that we have spoken on various occasions. Words which we spoke in our childhood we can readily bring to mind. Words that we heard others speak in our infancy, we can recall, though we may be advanced in years. We recall words that were spoken in our youth and in our early manhood, as well as words that were spoken yesterday. May I say to you that in reality a man cannot forget anything? He may have a lapse of memory; he may not be able to recall at the moment a thing that he knows, or words that he, has spoken; he may not have the power at his will to call up these events and words; but let God Almighty touch the mainspring of the memory, and awaken recollection, and you will find then that you have not even forgotten a single idle word that you have spoken. I believe the word of God to be true, and therefore, I warn the youth of Zion, as well as those who are advanced in years, to beware of saying wicked things, of speaking evil, and taking in vain the name of sacred things and sacred beings. Guard your words, that you may not offend even man, much less offend God.

We believe that God lives, and that he is a judge of the quick and the dead. We believe that his eye is upon the world, and that he beholds his groveling, erring and weak children upon this earth. We believe that we are here by his design, and not by choice; that we are here to fulfil a destiny, and not to fulfil a whim, or for the gratification of mortal lusts. We believe that we are immortal beings. We believe in the resurrection of the dead, and that as Jesus came forth from the grave to everlasting life, his Spirit and body uniting again never more to be separated, so has he opened the way for every son and daughter of Adam, {391} whether living or dead, to come forth from the grave to a newness of life, to become immortal souls, body and spirit, united, never to be severed any more. We raise our voices against prostitution, and against all forms of immorality. We are not here to practice immorality of any kind. Above all things, sexual immorality is most heinous in the sight of God. It is on a par with murder itself, and God Almighty fixed the penalty of the murderer at death: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Furthermore, he said that whosoever committed adultery should be put to death. Therefore, we raise our voices against sexual immorality, and against all manner of obscenity.

Then, we say to you who have repented of your sins, who have been buried with Christ in baptism, who have been raised from the liquid grave to newness of life, born of the water and of the Spirit, and who have been made the children of the Father, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ--we say to you, if you will observe the laws of God, and cease to do evil, cease to be obscene, cease to be immoral, sexually or otherwise, cease to be profane, cease to be infidel, and have faith in God, believe in the truth and receive it, and be honest before God and man, that you will be set up on high, and God will put you at the head, just as sure as you observe these commandments. Whoso will keep the commandments of God, no matter whether it be you or any other people, they will rise and not fall, they will lead and not follow, they will go upward and not downward. God will exalt them and magnify them before the nations of the earth, and he will set the seal of his approval upon them, will name them as his own. This is my testimony to you.--Improvement Era, Vol. 6, p. 501, May, 1903.

THREE THREATENING DANGERS. There are at least three dangers that threaten the Church within, and the authorities need to awaken to the fact that the people should be {392} warned unceasingly against them. As I see these, they are flattery of prominent men in the world, false educational ideas, and sexual impurity.

But the third subject mentioned--personal purity, is perhaps of greater importance than either of the other two. We believe in one standard of morality for men and women. If purity of life is neglected, all other dangers set in upon us like the rivers of waters when the flood gates are opened.--Improvement Era, Vol. 17, No. 5, p. 476. March, 1914.

THE GOSPEL THE GREATEST THING. One of the most important duties devolving upon the Latter-day Saints is the proper training and rearing of their children in the faith of the gospel. The gospel is the greatest thing in all the world. There is nothing to compare with it. The possessions of this earth are of no consequence when compared with the blessings of the gospel. Naked we came into the world, and naked we will go out of the world, so far as earthly things are concerned; for we must leave them behind; but the eternal possessions which are ours through obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ do not perish--the ties that God has created between me and those whom he has given to me, and the divine authority which I enjoy through the holy priesthood, these are mine throughout all eternity. No power but sin, the transgression of the laws of God, can take them from me. All these things are mine, even after I leave this probation.--Improvement Era, Vol. 21, pp. 102, 103, December, 1917.

DUTY OF HUSBAND TO WIFE. If there is any man who ought to merit the curse of Almighty God it is the man who neglects the mother of his child, the wife of his bosom, the one who has made sacrifice of her very life, over and over again for him and his children. That is, of course, assuming that the wife is a pure and faithful mother and wife.--Improvement Era, Vol. 21, p. 105, December, 1917.

WIVES AND HUSBANDS IN ETERNITY. We expect to {393} have our wives and husbands in eternity. We expect our children will acknowledge us as their fathers and mothers in eternity. I expect this: I look for nothing else. Without it I could not be happy. The thought or belief that I should be denied this privilege hereafter would make me miserable from this moment. I never could be happy again without the hope that I shall enjoy the society of my wives and children in eternity. If I had not this hope, I should be of all men most unhappy; "for if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." All who have tasted of the influence of the Spirit of God, and have had awakened within them a hope of eternal life, cannot be happy unless they continue to drink of that fountain until they are satisfied, and it is the only fountain at which they can drink and be satisfied.--Deseret Weekly News, Vol. 33, p. 131, 1884.

IMPORTANCE OF FILIAL AFFECTION. Do not add to their burdens by neglect, by extravagance or by misconduct. Rather suffer that your right hand be cut off, or your eye plucked out than that you would bring sorrow or anguish to your parents because of your neglect of filial affection to them. So children, remember your parents. After they have nurtured you through the tender years of your infancy and childhood, after they have fed and clothed and educated you, after having given you a bed to rest upon and done all in their power for your good, don't you neglect them when they become feeble and are bowed down with the weight of their years. Don't you leave them, but settle down near them, and do all in your power to minister to their comfort and well-being.--Improvement Era, Vol. 21, p. 105, December, 1917.

FAMILY GOVERNMENT BY LOVE. I learned in my childhood, as most children, probably, have learned, more or less at least, that no love in all the world can equal the love of a true mother.

{394} I did not think in those days, and still I am at a loss to know, how it would be possible for anyone to love her children more truly than did my mother. I have felt sometimes, how could even the Father love his children more than my mother loved her children? It was life to me; it was strength; it was encouragement; it was love that begat love or liking in myself. I knew she loved me with all her heart. She loved her children with all her soul. She would toil and labor and sacrifice herself day and night, for the temporal comforts and blessings that she could meagerly give, through the results of her own labors, to her children. There was no sacrifice of self--of her own time, of her leisure or pleasure, or opportunities for rest--that was considered for a moment, when it was compared with her duty and her love to her children.

When I was fifteen years of age, and called to go to a foreign country to preach the gospel--or to learn how, and to learn it for myself--the strongest anchor that was fixed in my life, and that helped to hold my ambition and my desire steady, to bring me upon a level and keep me straight, was that love which I knew she had for me who bore me into the world.

Only a little boy, not matured at all in judgment, without the advantage of education, thrown in the midst of the greatest allurements and temptations that it was possible for any boy or any man to be subjected to--and yet, whenever these temptations became most alluring and most tempting to me, the first thought that arose in my soul was this: Remember the love of your mother. Remember how she strove for your welfare. Remember how willing she was to sacrifice her life for your good. Remember what she taught you in your childhood and how she insisted upon your reading the New Testament--the only book, except a few little school books, that we had in the family, or that was within reach of us at that time. This feeling toward my mother became {395} a defense, a barrier between me and temptation, so that I could turn aside from temptation and sin by the help of the Lord and the love begotten in my soul, toward her whom I knew loved me more than anybody else in all the world, and more than any other living being could love me.

A wife may love her husband, but it is different to that of the love of mother to her child. The true mother, the mother who has the fear of God and the love of truth in her soul, would never hide from danger or evil and leave her child exposed to it. But as natural as it is for the sparks to fly upward, as natural as it is to breathe the breath of life, if there were danger coming to her child, she would step between the child and that danger; she would defend her child to the uttermost. Her life would be nothing in the balance, in comparison with the life of her child. That is the love of true motherhood for children.

Her love for her husband would be different, for if danger should come to him, as natural as it would be for her to step between her child and danger, instead, her disposition would be to step behind her husband for protection, and that is the difference between the love of mother for children and the love of wife for husband--there is a great difference between the two.

I have learned to place a high estimate upon the love of mother. I have often said, and will repeat it, that the love of a true mother comes nearer being like the love of God than any other kind of love. The father may love his children, too; and next to the love that the mother feels for her child, unquestionably and rightfully, too, comes the love that the father feels for his child. But, as it has been illustrated here by Brother Edward H. Anderson, the love of the father is of a different character, or degree, to the love of the mother for her child; illustrated by the fact he related here of having the privilege of working with his boy, having him in his presence, becoming more intimate with him, learning {396} his characteristics more clearly; becoming more familiar and more closely related to him; the result of which was that his love for his boy increased, and the love of the boy increased for his father, for the same reason, merely because of that closer association. So the child learns to love his mother best, as a rule, when the mother is good, wise, prudent, and intelligent, because the child is with her more, they are more familiar with each other and understand each other better.

Now, this is the thought that I desire to express: Fathers, if you wish your children to be taught in the principles of the gospel, if you wish them to love the truth and understand it, if you wish them to be obedient to and united with you, love them! and prove to them that you do love them by your every word or act to them. For your own sake, for the love that should exist between you and--your boys however wayward they might be, or one or the other might be, when you speak or talk to them, do it not in anger, do it not harshly, in a condemning spirit. Speak to them kindly; get them down and weep with them if necessary and get them to shed tears with you if possible. Soften their hearts; get them to feel tenderly toward you. Use no lash and no violence, but argue, or rather reason--approach them with reason, with persuasion and love unfeigned. With these means, if you cannot gain your boys and your girls, they will prove to be reprobate to you; and there will be no means left in the world by which you can win them to yourselves. But, get them to feel as you feel, have interest in the things in which you take interest, to love the gospel as you love it, to love one another as you love them; to love their parents as the parents love the children. You can't do it any other way. You can't do it by unkindness; you cannot do it by driving; our children are like we are; we couldn't be driven; we can't be driven now. We are like some other animals that we know of in {397} the world. You can coax them; you can lead them, by holding out inducements to them, and by speaking kindly to them, but you can't drive them; they won't be driven. We won't be driven. Men are not in the habit of being driven; they are not made that way.

This is not the way that God intended, in the beginning, to deal with his children--by force. It is all free love, free grace. The poet expressed it in these words:

"Know this, that every soul is free, To choose his life and what he'll be; For this eternal truth is given, That God will force no man to heaven."

You can't force your boys, nor your girls into heaven. You may force them to hell, by using harsh means in the efforts to make them good, when you yourselves are not as good as you should be. The man that will be angry at his boy, and try to correct him while he is in anger, is in the greatest fault; he is more to be pitied and more to be condemned than the child who has done wrong. You can only correct your children by love, in kindness, by love unfeigned, by persuasion, and reason.

When I was a child, somewhat a wayward, disobedient little boy--not that I was wilfully disobedient, but I would forget what I ought to do; I would go off with playful boys and be absent when I should have been at home, and I would forget to do things I was asked to do. Then I would go home, feel guilty, know that I was guilty, that I had neglected my duty and that I deserved punishment.

On one occasion I had done something that was not just right, and my mother said to me: "Now, Joseph, if you do that again I shall have to whip you." Well, time went on, and by and by, I forgot it, and I did something similar again; and this is the one thing that I admired more, perhaps, than any secondary thing in her; it was that when she {398} made a promise she kept it. She never made a promise, that I know of, that she did not keep.

Well, I was called to account. She said: "Now, I told you. You knew that if you did this I would have to whip you, for I said I would. I must do it. I do not want to do it. It hurts me worse than it does you, but I must whip you."

Well, she had a little rawhide, already there, and while she was talking or reasoning with me, showing me how much I deserved it and how painful it was to her, to inflict the punishment I deserved, I had only one thought and that was: "For goodness' sake whip me; do not reason with me," for I felt the lash of her just criticism and admonition a thousand fold worse than I did the switch. I felt as if, when she laid the lash on me, I had at least partly paid my debt and had answered for my wrong doing. Her reasoning cut me down into the quick; it made me feel sorry to the very core!

I could have endured a hundred lashes with the rawhide better than I could endure a ten-minutes' talk in which I felt and was made to feel that the punishment inflicted upon me was painful to her that I loved--punishment upon my own mother!--Extracts from an address given at a "Home Evening" meeting in Granite Stake, 1909. Improvement Era, Vol. 13, pp. 276-280.

THE HOME AND THE CHILD. But what are we doing in our homes to train our children; what to enlighten them? What to encourage them to make home their place of amusement, and a place where they may invite their friends for study or entertainment? Have we good books, games, music, and well-lighted, well-ventilated, warm rooms for their convenience and pleasure? Do we take personal interest in them and in their affairs? Are we providing them with the physical knowledge, the mental food, the healthful exercise, and the spiritual purification, that will enable {399} them to become pure and robust in body, intelligent and honorable citizens, faithful and loyal Latter-day Saints?

We frequently neglect giving them any information concerning their bodily well-being. In our cities we appear to be providing our young people too much mental exercise, and no physical diversion and work, while in our country settlements, we seem to be overburdening them with bodily labor, and in many cases doing little or nothing for their mental development and recreation. Hence, in the one case they seek forbidden places and pleasure, on account of too much mental exercise; and in another, because of too little.

Now then, are we studying their wants as we do our business, and our farms and our animals? Are we looking after them, and if necessary bringing them in from the street when absent, and providing them in our homes with what they lack? Or are we to a great extent neglecting these things in the home and home training, and considering our children of secondary value to horses and cattle and lands?

These are important points for consideration, and fathers and mothers should honestly study them, and as honestly answer them to their own satisfaction. We may well invest means in the home for the comfort, convenience, entertainment and training of our children. We may well give our sons and daughters some time for recreation and diversion, and some provision in the home for satisfying their longing for legitimate physical and mental recreation, to which every child is entitled, and which he will seek in the street or in objectionable places, if it is not provided in the home. In addition to this, and supplementary to the training in the home, it is to be hoped that our organizations will as soon as possible provide every arrangement for legitimate entertainment and recreation, physical and intellectual, that will tend to attract our young people, and hold them interested, loyal and contented within the pale of our own influence and organizations.--Imp. Era, Vol. 11, pp. 302-3, 1907-8.

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