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of me FLAME FAMILY on guard . . .
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By DR. FRANKLIN S. HARRIS, JR.
f ess than one in each twenty people over twenty-five years old in the United States has had a complete col- lege education, though one in ten has been to college, according to the U. S. census of 1940.
'"Phe sun does not rise earliest and set latest on the longest day of the year, June 21st, but the earliest sunrise is on June 1 1th, and the latest sunset on June 28th. The shortest day of the year, De- cember 21st, is preceded by the earliest sunset on December 8th, and followed by the latest sunrise on January 5th.
HPhe white patches which sometimes appear on the outside surface of brick walls are usually the result of soluble salts in the brick, such as calcium sulfate, which are dissolved in the brick when it gets wet and carried to the outer surface and left to form small crystals when the water evaporates.
HP'HE Ryukyu Islands, which are the tops of a submerged mountain chain lying between Formosa and Japan, are in many cases surrounded by coral reefs. Of the cultivatable land forty percent is used for growing sweet potatoes. +
P\uring the critical shortages of metals, ceramic gauges have been developed to replace gauges made of metals. Some of the advantages of this type of gauge are cheapness and long life before reconditioning. A metal gauge if dropped shouldn't be relied upon until re-standardized; however, a ceramic gauge, if not broken in the fall, can be used immediately.
4 .
/^Vum arabic has been found to be use- ful in a simple treatment for Bright's disease which "does restore many of the patients to work and ease the suffer- ing of those who are bedridden," Drs. Raymond E. Smalley and Melvin W. Binger report.
*TrO eliminate unsightly stitching in skin grafts and delicate face and breast surgery, a new technique involves painting the wound with blood plasma and applying thrombin in a spray. The wound is held together by the surgeon until a clot forms. Thrombin and fibrin- ogen react to produce the fibrin in the natural process of wound healing, and the fibrin holds the wound surfaces to- gether.
{Concluded on page 228)
MAY, 1945
For Delicious
Afternoon Snacks
Milk and
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PAINT
BENNETT GLASS &
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225
^Jke L^c
over
'"Phe cover is a study of the three central figures of the "This Is the Place" monument by Mahonri Young. Heber C. Kimball, President Brigham
Young, and Wilford Woodruff, who later became a president of the Church, constitute this group which has been titled, "The Pio- neers." (See page 256 for more details.)
X-
^J-rontisp
vece
"TPhE frontispiece, which is a study of an actual ward choir, and which appears on page 233, is from a photograph by Hal Rumel, adapted by Charles Jacobsen.
Editors
Heber J. Grant John A. Widtsoe
Managing Editor
Richard L. Evans
Associate Editors
Marba C. Josephson William Mulder
(on leave with the armed
forces)
General Manager
George Q. Morris
Associate Manager
Lucy G. Cannon
Business Manager
John D. Giles
National Advertising Representatives
Francis M. Mayo, Salt Lake City
Edward S. Townsend, San Francisco and Los Angeles
Dougan and Bolle, Chicago and New York
Member, Audit Bureau of Circulations
QmptdTeraeiiFEra
MAY, 1945
VOLUME 48, NO. 5
"THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH"
Official Organ of the Priesthood Quorums, Mutual Improvement
Associations, Department of Education, Music Committee, Ward
Teachers, and Other Agencies of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints
Jke (L-dltor's f-^aae Keep the Commandments ...Heber J* Grant 234
L^hwrch ^jreatures
General Conference Addresses See Index 227
Postwar Planning _ ...J. Reuben Clark, Jr. 236
Marriage and Divorce. David O* McKay 238
S. Dilworth Young John D. Giles 240
Milton R* Hunter G* Homer Durham 241
Evidences and Reconciliations: XCII — What Does It Mean
to Have A Testimony? John A. Widtsoe 273
The Church Moves On 271 Ward Teaching 286
Priesthood: Melchizedek 281 Genealogy 284
Aaronic 285
J^>pecial ^7~eature5
Water on the Hills Julia Nelson 246
On the Death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt 250, 272
Preparing for 1947 John D. Giles 256
The Southern Indian Mission — Part II Juanita Brooks 262
The Spoken Word from Temple Square.... Richard L. Evans 264
A Soldier Speaks Bruce B. Clark 269
M Men Basketball Les Goates 270
Exploring the Universe, Frank- lin S. Harris, Jr 225
Telefacts 228
Mary of Galilee, Helen S. Wil- liams 230
In the Golden Age 231
Conversation at Twilight — Loneliness, Alice Eddy Le-
Cornu 232
"Classic Period" of the South- west, Charles E. Dibble 257
On the Bookrack 268
Homing : One Step at a Time,
Gladys T. Olson 274
Cook's Corner, Josephine B.
Nichols 275
Here's How .278
Handy Hints -..278
News from the Camps 279
Your Page and Ours 320
L^ditoriai5
♦ ♦ . Of the First Council of the Seventy 272
America — and April 12 272
S^)torie6, J-^oetr
1
Birthday of a Mother Christie Lund Coles 247
The Southern Indian Mission.-. Juanita Brooks 262
Pike's Last Wish _. .Ann Woodbury Hafen 266
Gardening, Thelma Ireland 226 Growth, Mabel Jones Gabbott.259
My Ain Bonnie Lass, James It Is Well With the Child,
Hood -- 231 Winifred Davis .'.. 263
Frontispiece: Choir Practice, Poetry -..268
Helen Maring 233 The Cycle, John E. Donovan... .269
»de
L/arcLenma
By Thelma Ireland
Sing a song of de- fense, Pocket full of seeds, Four and twenty back
aches I got pulling weeds.
When my crop was ready
And my work was through,
I found that the var- mints Liked my garden, too.
Change of Address:
Fifteen days' notice re- quired for change of ad- dress. When ordering a change, please include stencil impression from a recent issue of the maga- zine. Address changes cannot be made unless the old address as well as the new one is included.
Executive and Editorial Offices:
50 North Main Street, Salt Lake City 1, Utah.
Copyright 1945 by Mu- tual Funds, Inc., a Cor- poration of the Young Men's Mutual Improve- ment Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. .All rights reserved. Subscrip- tion price, $2.00 a year, in advance; 20c single copy.
Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of Oc- tober, 1917, authorized July 2, 1918.
The Improvement Era is not responsible for un- solicited manuscripts, but welcomes contributions.
All manuscripts must be accompanied by suffi- cient postage for delivery and return.
226
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
— Photograph by Jeano Orlando
♦ ^!rndex +
APRIL CONFERENCE ADDRESSES
Ashton, Marvin O. 316
Authorities of the Church Sustained 261
Benson, Ezra Taft 254
Bowen, Albert E* 251
Callis, Charles A. 250
Clark, J, Reuben, Jr*
236, 237, 293, 310, 319
Evans, Richard L* 300
Grant, Heber J, 234
Hunter, Milton R. .297
Ivins, Antoine R. 304
Kimball, Spencer W. 253
Kirkham, Oscar A. _ 315
Lee, Harold B, 252
McKay, David CX 238, 309
McKay, Thomas E. 298
Merrill, Joseph F* 349
Petersen, Mark E. 255
Richards, George F. 243
Richards, LeGrand .260
Richards, Stephen L 245
Romney, Marion G, 302
Smith, George Albert 242
Smith, Joseph Fielding 244
Smith, Joseph F. .. ..! 258
Smith, Nicholas G. 294
Sonne, Alma .....306
Taylor, John H, 301
Widtsoe, John A. 248
Wirthlin, Joseph L, 295
Young, Clifford E. 293
Young, Levi Edgar 259
Young, S* Dilworth .306
"NJote: In addition to the above com- plete addresses by the General Au- thorities, addresses were delivered by Dr. Franklin L. West, Howard McDon- ald, and Hugh B. Brown, which do not appear in this issue, but which will later appear in the conference pamphlet. The Tabernacle Choir and Organ Broadcast also does not appear in this issue. However, the spoken comment by Rich- ard L. Evans will appear in the June issue of the Era,
MAY, 1945
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227
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Sit down to a juicy-rich half for breakfast. Treat yourself to refreshing Desert Grapefruit again at lunch or dinner. In every golden segment there's "health from the desert."
Daily you
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So serve Desert Grapefruit often— for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner.
Between meals, enjoy big glasses of fresh Desert Grapefruit juice.
|
T£i£FACT |
||
|
THE MEAT SITUATION YEARLY CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA IN POUNDS |
||
|
120 100 80 60 40 20 |
||
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KvXvXvXvM M ::. \v.yX\vXvX\ ^vXX-XyXyX'XI A'X'-'XyXvXX# ^XyXyXyXyXy.m ■y.y.y. y.yay. y» ^^f "•"""•'■'•'•'*' "•"'^^_ jf^"'"v"*' ' ■'•'•'*'"•*. y.^k ^^J**'- '■'"'"' '■'■'■ ^^_ # ''' '•'•'•*•'•'•'- v.v.v.v. 4t .. ^f -.v/XvX-Xv -'■'-•■'-•\ / | / a \ JvXvXvXvXv"vx\ XXyXyX-x-: x-x-x-XyxY § * \ \ \ \ \ l^v'Xv;v:-"'"-'''-"*'*''''-"-'-'\ f ; v.": yX'X-XvXyY "V \ V v^ < V~\ \ \ V— \ ^" \— |
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1935-39 1941 1942 1943 1944 (AVERAGE) |
||
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PICTOGRAPH CORPORATION |
EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE
(Concluded from page 225) 'T'he Moros of thePhilippines received their name from the Spaniards who discovering that they were Moham- medans called them "Moors." About a quarter of the words in Castilian Span- ish are of Arabic origin, due largely to the Moors who were in Spain from 711 to 1492 A.D.
Nearly one-third of Roman London lies under devastated buildings, twelve to twenty feet below the present ground level.
rp E. Young found in a million people a total of thirty who were centen- arians, twenty-one of them women. The all-time record holder, he admits, is a woman, who reached the age of 110 years and 321 days. +
TDombing has uncovered many relics
in England that date back to the
Roman occupation. Almost every
bombed town has given up some secrets.
J)enicillin may soon appear in tooth- paste to fight diseases of the mouth and throat. Sir Alexander Fleming, dis- coverer of penicillin, recently reported that nearly all the diseases of mouth and throat are sensitive to penicillin. "The task is to get the penicillin to the microbes."
T^'he translation of parts of the Bible into one Australian and three Afri- can languages, in 1943, raises the total number of languages into which some part of the scriptures has been published to 1062.
CIGARET CONSUMPTION in the UNITED STATES
^igar.et consumption is up in the United States! What's more, that's been the trend since the turn of the century. In the year 1 900 cigarets were consumed in the United States at the rate of just one cigaret for each man.
woman, and child every ninth day. To- day the cigaret consumption is over five cigarets daily for each man, woman, and child in the United States. Following are statistics showing the rise in the use of cigarets since the turn of the century :
|
JJfcfKTTES MANUFACTURED ■ 100 ISO ]& 2W 3W "'onIum*™™'' |
|||||||
|
1901- 1905 z |
m b |
1/9 |
|||||
|
1911- 1915 ' |
[-' |
9/20 |
|||||
|
1916- 1920 2 |
Il/l2 |
||||||
|
I926-I9301 |
-■-"._■.-■ |
i] |
2 9/20 |
||||
|
1931- 1935 2 |
j |
2 7/10 |
|||||
|
1940 |
"T |
3 9/10 |
|||||
|
1944 3 |
' *■* |
■■ ---'■■--:;--;::;, |
■ |
5 1/12 |
^■Includes both large and small cigarets 2Average for the period
3Fiscal year ending June 30, 1944, does not include millions of cigarets sent to our armed forces overseas
228
Graph made by John Henry Evans, Jr., from. "Statistical Abstract of the United States," 1941, table 891, and "Time" Magazine, August 7, 1944, page 78. Compiled by Albert £. Xobell, Jr.
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
Here "appears the Mormon leader, full stature and four square, im- measurably superior to most of the eminent men of his time."
JOSEPH SMITH, AN AMERICAN PROPHET $3.00
Joseph the Prophet lives in the hearts of his people with affection undiminished by time.
JOSEPH THE PROPHET $1.50
Another and different story of a most significant career.
JOSEPH SMITH, THE
PROPHET $3.00
Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Can- non, Jacob Hamblin, ardent, intelli- gent, fearless disciples of the Prophet, tell their story in the classi- cal manner.
THREE MORMON CLASSICS
$2.50
Know the Christian churches and you will understand the Restored Church.
CHRISTIANITY THROUGH THE CENTURIES . . . $2.00
"All other considerations were con- tained in the Holy Ghost."
THE HOLY GHOST $2.00
DESERET BOOK COMPANY
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The following books: ._ Herewith find $.
MAY, 1945
229
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WE hear much of the fact that Jesus, the Son of the Highest, was born in a stable, and had but a manger for his crib. But much less is said of the little mother of that babe, who had to pass through one of the greatest trials of life in a stable; of the mother who, at a time when of all times she needed the care of tender but skilled hands, and the comfort of sanitary shel- ter, was forced to have her first-born under the circumstances related in Holy Writ.
For soon after Mary and Joseph's marriage had been performed, a proc- lamation was sent forth that all the Jews were to go to their own city to be taxed. It was to be a long, hard journey for Mary, for her hour was not far hence.
Tired and weary, they finally reached Bethlehem, hoping to find rest. Mary was ill and so very tired; travail under ideal conditions is not easy! She knew that the time had arrived when she must seek shelter and find a place where her baby might be born. Again and again they inquired at the inns but were turned away. There was no place for them.
Finally into a little stable Joseph took her. "And she brought forth her first- born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn" . . . and there in a stable the Son of God, the Messiah, the King of the Jews, was born.
In a stable Mary must go through her
— From a panel by Avatd Fairbanks
later in life, as he became despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, she too suffered with him. As men heaped calumny upon him, as they hid their faces from him and esteemed him not, so they humil- iated her. And when they cried, "Can any good come out of Nazareth?" it could not be forgotten that she herself was a Nazarene — she had given him birth.
But when he was exalted, she was not forgotten, and in the hour of his greatest triumph, she could say as in times of sorrow, "Behold, this is my son."
HPhe joy of any mother when she looks upon her first baby is almost over- powering, and as Mary gazed into the face of her little one, it would be strange indeed if in the ecstasy and the new found thrill of motherhood she did not forget everything for the moment ex- cept that this baby was hers — her own baby to cherish, protect, and rear. But Mary had but a moment's happiness alone with her child, for the shepherds,
By HELEN SPENCER WILLIAMS
travail, without benefit of medical as- sistance so far as we know, without so much as another woman present to com- fort her. The babe who was thus born was blissfully unconscious of his sur- roundings, but not so Mary.
In that stable, it was Mary who must find comfort for the child. It was Mary who must even think of the swaddling clothes to cover the infant. It was Mary who must cradle her child in a manger while she herself reclined in the floor straw to recover her strength.
Think of such a travail and in such a place. Surely, like her son she too de- scended below all things that she might ascend above all things. For as that son descended below all things, the very nature of the circumstances required that his mother descend with him. And
230
who were in the same country keeping watch over their flocks by night, came to the stable to pay homage to the child who was the Son of God, and the King of kings.
With their visit came the realization that her child was not an ordinary baby, and Mary pondered in her heart the significance of their finding her and her child in this obscure little town of Bethlehem, in a stable. Her baby? Why should shepherds seek the baby of a humble Nazarene?
Later when the three wise men came bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and when they knelt and gave praise to her and to God for the things that they had heard and seen, in her heart she knew that her child was not hers, but God's.
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
XiL Golden Age
By Vilhjalmur Stefansson
Students of the Bronze Age, and of the late Stone Age, have many of them come to the view that sail- ing on the high seas was common thou- sands of years, or at least a thousand years, before the day of those Phoeni- cians who were publicized to us until recently in high school and college as the fathers of navigation. A statement of the new archaeological position was made by A. W. Brogger, director of the National Museum of Norway, in his presidential address to an international congress of archaeologists at Oslo in 1936. There he treated as an estab- lished fact the idea of a golden age of navigation which was at its height sure- ly fifteen hundred years before Christ, and that may have been on a high level for as much as a thousand or even two thousand years before. During this golden age, man is pictured as having swarmed over the Atlantic, discovering all the islands and plying between the continents that lie east and west of that ocean.
Of course, demonstrating that there was a golden age of seafaring three or four thousand years ago would not of itself prove American civilization con- nected with that of Egypt, or prove the rock structures of Mr. William B. Goodwin's farm in New Hampshire as completely Irish and as far pre-Colum- bian as he and some of his scholarly advisers believe. But establishing the probability of numerous crossings of the Atlantic before Homer would at least remove the barbs of ridicule from the quivers of those who attack anyone who even suggests it may be worth while to study American remains, whether north or south of the Rio Grande, that appear to have suggestions of both a European origin and of an antiquity not only be- yond Columbus in 1492 but also beyond Leif and the year 1000.
(Reprinted by permission of Doubleday, Doran and Co., from Iceland, The First American Republic, by Vilhjalmur Stefans- son; Introductory Statement on the First and Second American Republics, pp. 17 and 18. Published by Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc. Copyright, 1939.)
MY AIN BONNIE LASS By James Hood
One morning I roved with my wife and sweet babe, While the sun in its glory arose; The dew on the grass was in purity laid, While flowers their sweet beauty disclose. The birds sang a song, a heavenly theme, Oh, it reached me and touched my heart; I turned around, admiring the scene, Which truly did holy thoughts start.
0 sweet was the dew that bespangled the
grass, And sweet were the bird's lilting songs, But sweeter by far is my ain bonnie lass. Aye blessing and cheering me on.
1 look to the sky with its beauty so rare And deem flowers symbols of bliss,
But I look to it more because heaven is there, Where we get a sweet kiss for a kiss.
MAY, 1945
The LIGH
7/es first on
This hunter leaves its guns at home
It carries no guns, drops no bombs; yet the peeping-tom P-38 is one of our planes Japs fear most— and a great airplane that flies first on Chevron Aviation Gasoline. Armed only with aerial cam- eras, this photo version of the Lightning fighter ranges far behind battlelines to map Jap secrets. To flight-test and deliver many P-38's, Lockheed in the West chooses Chevron Aviation Gasoline, the fuel so many western aircraft builders use. Chevron Aviation Gasoline has to be good to match America's fighting planes— and it is, you'll see for yourself when a great new Chevron gasoline brings skyway performance to the highway.
STANDARD OF CALIFORNIA
In wartime, especially, it isn't easy to make the kind of soap people expect to find inside the Fels-Naptha wrapper. It isn't easy to get all the ingredients necessary to make Fels-Naptha pre- eminent among fine laundry soaps.
And that's only half the story. Now, a larger share of our stock of materials and our manufac- turing facilities must be used to make good soap for men and women in active service.
Obviously, this will mean some further incon- venience for civilians. In the months ahead, you may have to wait more often for the familiar Fels-Naptha wrapper to appear on your grocer's shelf . . .
but the soap inside the Fels-Naptha wrapper will be Fels-Naptha Soap.
We think the average woman wants to know these plain facts about the supply of Fels-Naptha Soap. We think her loyalty to a good name will survive this time of trial, which is shared — in some way — by all.
Fels-Naptha Soap
CONVERSATIONS AT TWILIGHT p a
tJLovieli
mete
By ALICE EDDY LeCORNU
"F
BAN/SHES TATTLE-TALE GRAY
232
iMiLY just hates the town they've moved to," said Mona Leah, putting down the letter from her friend. "She's so lonesome she's cried herself to sleep every night for a week."
"She'll soon get acquainted, and feel better," said Aunt Martha, "but in the meantime she should do something about it."
"Do something?" Mona Leah was skeptical. "Oh, I suppose you mean things like knitting, letter writing, and a good book. They get monotonous."
"They're all right," conceded Aunt Martha, "but I meant doing something actively."
"You're certainly a woman of action, Aunt Martha. You prescribe it for everything."
"It's good for almost everything, I find."
"But it's hard to go into action if you don't know a soul and there's no place to go."
"Nonsense!" retorted Aunt Martha, but she smiled kindly. "You can always walk around the block or down to the mail box or up the nearest hill, and there's nothing like a brisk walk to chase away the blues."
"You can't walk around all day," ob- jected Mona Leah, "think how tired you'd get."
"No harm in healthy tiredness," con- tinued Aunt Martha, "but there are plenty of indoor activities, too. Some- times it's a fine outlet for your feelings to scrub a floor or bake a cake."
"Yes, or move the furniture," said Mona Leah, catching on. "There's al- ways a skirt to press, too, or a sweater to mend."
'"Once I settled a vitally important problem while cleaning out my sewing basket and rearranging the pins and needles in my needle book," confided Aunt Martha.
"When I'm low, I usually wash my hair and try it a new way."
"That may account for the startling effects you sometimes achieve, but it's remarkable what a lot one can accom- plish trying to counteract loneliness or boredom."
"As a last resort," laughed Mona Leah, "one can always clean out bureau drawers."
Aunt Martha summed it up. "Too often, a lonely person is a self-centered person, so the best cure of all for lone- liness is not just to do something, but to do something nice for somebody else."
"I get the idea," Mona Leah an- nounced, "I'm going to write to Emily right now and tell her to snap out of it, and how."
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
CHOIR PRACTICE
By HELEN MARING
This is no mood of idle whims, These sweet young voices singing hymns. The choir Itoder measures time And brings the rhythm from the rhyme. The strength of Christian feeling sings And notes have sudden lifting wings. The tone expresses depth. Chords grow With light and beauty down the row Of singing throats. Expression— beat— And faith expressed in song is sweet And full with meaning, strong with mood— And God hears in his solitude.
:.?:".;■
KEEP THE
& president ^J4eber d. (urant
Address presented at the Friday
morning session of the 115th
annual general conference,
April 6, 1945, in the
Assembly Hall
PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT
IT does not seem possible that another six months have passed since we last had the privilege of meeting here in a general conference of the Church. Since then much has happened — in our own lives and in the events of the world. Since then, I have been privileged to complete my eighty-eighth year and to live into the eighty-ninth year of my life. The Lord has blessed and sus- tained us, both Sister Grant and me, and among the richest of our blessings are our brethren and sisters and our friends, whose prayers in our behalf have blessed our lives, and whose thought- fulness in many ways has made our days happier.
I rejoice exceedingly in the many blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we enjoy. I rejoice in having the fellowship and the faith and prayers and good feeling of those with whom I asso- ciate. I rejoice in the integrity, the faith, and the diligence of those who preside in the various stakes of Zion. I realize that we are beset with faults and fail- ings and imperfections, but I am con- vinced that almost without exception those who have the charge of the Saints in the wards and stakes of Zion, and in the missions are men of God, and that their integrity is beyond question, and that, if need be, they would be ready and willing to lay down their lives for the advancement of the kingdom of God. I believe that the elders of Israel in all the different wards and stakes of Zion earnestly desire to know the mind and will of our Heavenly Father, and that they are ready and willing to do anything that is within their power, to
fulfill that mind and that will and to carry it out in their lives. It is this in- tegrity and this desire that give me joy and satisfaction, and that encourage me in the responsibilities that devolve upon me.
Since we last met, the Church has been called upon to mourn the passing of two of our brethren of the General Authorities, Brothers Samuel O. Ben- nion and Rufus K. Hardy, both of the First Council of the Seventy. I honored them and loved them. They were true men of God, and rendered great service in the Lord's latter-day work. We miss them and shall continue to miss them in the presiding councils of the Church — but their place in our Father's kingdom is assured. They were valiant preachers of righteousness and will receive the blessings of the valiant and of the right- eous. May God our Father give his peace and comfort to their devoted wives, Sister Hardy and Sister Bennion, and to their families.
Concerning Tithing and Other Principles
T rejoice in the increased tithes and offerings of this people, and in the increased numbers who are fulfilling their financial obligations to the Lord, and I hope and pray that this principle and all the other principles of the gospel are being taught our children in our homes, and in our Church organizations. It should be the pride of every bishop and of every bishop's counselor, and of the president of every stake and his counselors, and of every officer and teacher, and of every member of this
Church, young and old, that they earnestly and conscientiously pay their tithing. We are capable of accomplish- ing this if we will only think so and labor to that end.
I realize and appreciate the fact that the Lord could pour out upon us an abundance of the wealth of this world, that he could make us all rich, because the mountains are full of wealth, and he could open up avenues to us that we could all become wealthy, but in doing this we would have no opportunity of showing our faith by our works; we would have no opportunity of develop- ing our manhood and of fitting and pre- paring ourselves by actual labor to go back and dwell in the presence of our Heavenly Father.
As I understand the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they were that it would profit no man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul. It is by the faithful discharge of the duties and the obligations that rest upon us in the Church of God that we are developed. It is by the exercise of our mental faculties that we improve upon them; it is by the exercise of our physical powers that we strengthen them; it is by the cultivation and the exercise of our spirits that we grow in spirituality, that we grow in the testi- mony of the gospel, that we grow in ability and strength to accomplish the purposes of our Heavenly Father upon the earth.
On the subject of tithing I heard a very splendid illustration given by a teacher in one of our children's classes : She brought with her ten beautiful red apples. She explained that everything we have in the world came to us from the Lord, and she said, "Now, if I give one of you these ten apples, will you give me one of them back again? Now, any one of you children that will do that, hold up your hand."
Of course, they all held up their
234
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
COMMANDMENTS ./GOD
hands. Then she said, "That is what the Lord does for us. He gives us the ten apples, but he requests that we re- turn one to him to show our apprecia- tion of that gift."
The trouble with some people is that when they get the ten apples, they eat up nine of them, and then they cut the other in two and give the Lord half of what is left. Some of them cut the apple in two and eat up one-half of it and then hold up the other half and ask the Lord to take a bite. That is about as near as they see fit to share properly and show their gratitude to the Lord.
Our children often feel that we are under obligation to them if they learn their lessons in school; they feel that they have done something that places the parents under obligation, while, as a matter of fact, they have done some- thing, if they have learned their lessons, that for all time will be of benefit to them individually. Likewise, a great many people in the Church act as though the Presidency of the Church, or the presidency of the stake, or the bishopric of their ward are under obligation to them if they obey the Word of Wisdom or if they obey the law delivered to us regarding tithing, or any other principle of the gospel. They feel that they have done some- thing that places the Church, or the au- thorities of the Church locally, or the General Authorities, under obligation to them. But every law that is given to us in the Church is for our own individual benefit.
Looking After Our Youth
T wish to impress upon the workers in all the organizations of the Church, the need for laboring prayerfully, un- tiringly, and diligently at this time to persuade the youth of Zion to be more faithful, more diligent in all their obligations and responsibilities, in safeguarding their virtue, and in observing what is known as the Word of Wisdom. I feel that while there are tens of thousands of our young men who are doing this, there may also be some who in order to be counted as hail- fellows-well-met, may be tempted to become careless and forgetful.
I ask our young people, wherever they are in all the world, to remember well all of their principles and ideals, under all conditions and circumstances, when they are at home, and when they are away from home.
There is nothing like looking after people. It is just the same in the gospel as it is in business. If a man does not look after his trade, it is sure to go from him. We must look after the people, our young people and all others, no mat- ter where they may go, if we hope to keep them in the line of their duty.
To Our Young Men in the Armed Forces
Aur hearts, our thoughts, and our ^ prayers go out to those who are in the armed forces. It would appear from all the figures we can gather, that more than one hundred thousand of our young men are in the services of their country, in uniform. We pray for them continu- ally. We pray for the preservation of their lives and for their faithfulness to those things which are dearer than life.
We say to you again to be clean, to keep the commandments of God, to pray, to live righteously; and if you do, peace and understanding will come into your hearts, and our Father in heaven will comfort you; and will let his pres- ence be felt in the hour of your need.
Young men of Zion, when you return to your homes, return with clean hands and clean hearts — and great will be your happiness, your faith, and your testi- mony. Your brethren and your loved ones cherish you, pray for you, and await the day of your coming.
And I pray with all my heart that if there are those who have made mis- takes, that they will repent; and by this we may know that they have repented — that they will confess their sins and depart from them.
To Those Who Are in Sorrow
Tnto many of our homes sorrow has come since last conference. In the days ahead we must face the fact that more homes and more families will be broken by news of death and of other tragedies. May the peace and comfort of our Father in heaven bring its healing influence to all who are called upon to mourn and to bear affliction. And may we be strengthened with the understand- ing that being blessed does not mean that we shall always be spared all the disappointments and difficulties of life. We all have them, even though our troubles differ. I have not had the same kind of trials that others have had to undergo, yet I have had my full share. When, as a young man, I lost my wife
and my only two sons, I was earnestly trying with all my heart to keep the commandments of the Lord, and my household and I were observing the Word of Wisdom and entitled to the blessings of life. I have been sorely tried and tempted, but I am thankful to say that the trials and temptations have not been any greater than I was able to en- dure, and with all my heart I hope that we may never have anything more to endure than we will be blessed of the Lord with the ability to withstand.
And may we always remember, be- cause it is both true and comforting, that the death of a faithful man is noth- ing in comparison to the loss of the inspiration of the good spirit. Eternal life is the great prize, and it will be ours, and the joy of our Father in heaven in welcoming us will be great, if we do right; and there is nothing so great that can be done in this life by anyone, as to do right. The Lord will hear and an- swer the prayers we offer to him and give us the things we pray for if it is for our best good. He never will and never has forsaken those who serve him with full purpose of heart; but we must always be prepared to say "Father, thy will be done."
May the Lord bless and keep you who are away from home, and bless your wives and your children, your mothers and your fathers.
May God bless and preserve the Saints and the righteous everywhere, in all nations, in the far-off islands, and in lands torn by war, as well as here among us. To all faithful, we extend anew the hand of fellowship, and hold you in remembrance before God; and may he accomplish his purposes, overrule in the affairs of nations, hasten the end of the war and of wickedness, and bring peace on earth.
Work, Thrift, and Integrity
T plead with all the Saints at this time, as all my predecessors in the presi- dency of the Church have done, to be honest, truthful, industrious, and thrifty; to get out of debt and stay out of debt; to prepare for the time when money may not flow as freely as it does now.
Even now, we are told that there will be leaner days ahead — notwithstanding that the war has progressed as far as it has. Let all of us who can, raise what we can of our own food and sustenance. (Continued on page 287)
^Jke L^dito^d f^aqe
MAY, 1945
235
i5u [-^resident st. /\euben L^lam, /jr.
OF THE FIRST PRESIDENCY
Postwar
Addt&ss delivered at the Friday afternoon session of the 115th
annual general conference, April 6, 1945,
in the Assembly Hall
Apart of the obligation of the presid- ing officer at these conferences is - that he shall take his turn in speaking to the people. For that reason I wish to fulfill my duty and try to say something to you that may be helpful and encouraging and to the furtherance of the cause of the Lord. I sincerely trust that while I speak I shall have with
Tn these days of terrible trial and stress the question is frequently repeated by those who lose their dear ones under circumstances that ten years ago were not believed possible. These dear ones sometimes write and say: I hope that God will forgive me for the things that I am having to do. The parents want to know what is the answer to that fear.
'J'he Lord will take care of the Church, if we shall but take care of ourselves.
me the benefit of that spirit which has been poured out in such rich abundance upon us today. So many themes have been touched, that we might further dis- cuss, that it is a bit difficult to know what one might most profitably do.
To the man who says, what has the Church to offer, in times like these, we might perhaps, without being too cruel, say: what is to be offered to the man who jumps off the house and breaks his
I would like to read to you what the First Presidency said on April 6, 1942, four months after the attack at Pearl Harbor.
In this terrible war now waging thousands of our righteous young men in all parts of the world and in many countries are subject to a call into the military service of their own countries. Some of these, so serving, have already been called back to their heav- enly home; others will almost surely be called to follow. But "behold," as Moroni
'Phe Church has to offer you and to the world, and has offered to you and to the world, the principles that had they been accepted would have wade this war impossible, and that if now accepted will make a recurrence of war impos- sible.
leg. Well, we can mend his leg, but it will always be a mended leg; but we have also to offer to the man the advice, do not jump off the house again.
And so to this war-torn world, war- torn from the beginning, we have to say to such a questioner: What has the Church to offer? The Church has to offer to you, and to the world, and has offered to you and to the world, the principles that had they been accepted would have made this war impossible, and that if now accepted will make a recurrence of war impossible. We bring you that message, the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, restored in this day and age of the world. Do unto others as thou wouldst be done by con- tains the rule which ought to guide us as members of a community and as one of the family of nations.
236
said, the righteous of them who serve and are slain "do enter into the rest of the Lord their God," and of them the Lord has said "those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them." (D. & C. 42:46.) Their salvation and exaltation in the world to come will be secure. That in their work of destruction they will be strik-
PRESIDENT J. REUBEN CLARK, JR.
places of power in a state of thoughtless stupor," those rulers in the world who in a frenzy of hate and lust for unrighteous pow- er and dominion over their fellow men, have put into motion eternal forces they do not comprehend and cannot control. God, in his own due time, will pass sentence upon them. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."( Romans 12:19.)
I have no doubt of the truthfulness of the theme developed by Brother Callis, that those who die as described by Moroni, will not be held guilty of the death of their brethren, and they will have the opportunity to go on to salvation and exaltation in the celestial kingdom.
T would like to say a word about the returning soldier, that being a ques- tion about which we all talk and hear so much. I said something about postwar planning at the last conference and pointed out that we could and should plan to bring our soldiers back to homes of purity, chastity, and of righteousness, and that it took no worldly position, no wealth, to carry on that postwar plan- ning. I want to add just a word along that line today.
These boys out in the field have
would not exchange the unerring, inspired
instinct of a good woman, fired with mother
love, or wife love, or the love of a loyal chaste
sweetheart, for all that men have ever written.
ing at their brethren will not be held against them. That sin, as Moroni of old said, is to the condemnation of those who "sit in their
placed before them constantly, achieve- ments and the value of achievement in the destruction of human life. The thing
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
Planning
for which they now receive praise, the things for which they work to get com- mendation, are unknown to us in our lives of peace. When they return they will bring back with them, of necessity, something of those urges that led them to their achievements, and we are going to be cold, however warm we try to be, to those achievements, which do not fit in with the gospel, nor with our methods of life.
To bridge over the time when they return as heroes for achievements in war, until they may resume their peace- time occupations and become heroes in peace and in peaceful occupations, to bridge that over is one of the tasks we shall have to undertake and to which we must give our best effort and best thought. I am not thinking of the tem- poral side of the bridge-over, I am thinking of the spiritual side, and what that means; and in that connection it seems to me that they who are to play the greatest part are the mothers, the wives, and the sweethearts of those who
return.
long before your men folks; you fre- quently have seen victory long before it came within the vision of those who battled. Your joy and tenderness and fortitude have succored the wounded and eased the passing of those who are called beyond. You never fail in kind- ness and mercy; your love endures for- ever. May God bless you, for you are angels of mercy. So, you mothers, wives, sweethearts, take into the sacred precincts of your heart around the altars of your homes these souls wounded in body, in mind, in spirit, and heal them as you alone can.
T had intended to say something, but my time is past, along the line that Elder Petersen spoke. He used even the scriptures that I had intended using; but I would like to endorse all that he said, and I would like to say to the priesthood of the Church, among whom there are many who are steadiers of the ark — please do not be too much con- cerned. The Lord will take care of the Church, if we shall but take care of
Qo, you mothers, wives, sweethearts, take into
the sacred precincts of your heart around the
altars of your homes these souls wounded in body,
in mind, in spirit, and heal them as you alone can.
When all is said and done it will be our sisters who must take on that great load and that tremendous responsibility. Radio programs, magazines, and news- paper columns are more and more filling with instructions about how to treat our returning soldiers. All the deductions of modern psychology, and its kindred mental sciences are paraded for the guidance of the wives, the mothers, the sweethearts, in meeting, winning, and holding the boy back from the war. But I would not exchange the unerring, in- spired instinct of a good woman, fired with mother love, or wife love, or the love of a loyal, chaste sweetheart, for all that men have ever written. The boys say they do not wish to be re- garded as problem children. They want to get home and enter again the family circle, and in its sacred precincts again to take up life and forget hate, carnage, and death. I believe their cry will be, "Let us live again in love"; and you mothers, wives, and sweethearts can bring to them this blessing. None other can. So in this crisis we turn to the women of the earth to save them and to save us men from ourselves. So it has been, in reality, in every great world crisis, however much it may have seemed otherwise. Yours, you sisters, has been the loyalty that has never wanted; your courage has not failed, has not been daunted, whatever the odds. You have often recognized a lost cause
MAY, 1945
ourselves. He has laid down the ap- pointed way; he is the head of the Church. President Grant is his repre- sentative on earth. The Lord declares his will through his representative here.
There is much talk nowadays about democracy. I do not know of any democracy in the world. There are liberal monarchies, and there are repub- lics. We are democratic in our con- cepts in the Church, but we are not a democracy; we are a kingdom, the Church and kingdom of God on earth; and our guidance and our direction comes and must come through the head of the Church, who always has been possessed of the Spirit of the Lord and of his inspiration, and his revelation. So it will always be.
President Joseph F. Smith said to President Grant, shortly before Presi- dent Smith died, "the Lord knows whom he wants to be president of the Church, and he never makes a mistake." The Lord has laid down the rule and the regulation by which that president of the Church is chosen.
It is for us of the priesthood and for us the members of the Church to heark- en and to obey in matters which the president of the Church directs, and to see to it that we do not modify in any way the holy laws which the Lord has laid down. God grant that we may all be faithful to the end, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
THE CHURCH
WELFARE PLAN
vSu rf, IKeuben L^lark, dr.
Delivered Friday morning, prefacing the reading of the Financial Report
The primary purpose of the welfare plan has always been the supplying of food and clothing, shelter and fuel. There seems to be a great deal of uncertainty today as to what the real food situation of the country is. Some tell us we are faced with the greatest surplus that has ever existed in the his- tory of the country, Others tell us that the food supply is short and that we should raise all we can.
Under these circumstances the only safe thing is to assume a food shortage and proceed accordingly. I therefore urge you brethren to urge your wards and stakes to fill their quotas in order that we may be prepared should the predicted shortage occur.
Reports come to us that some per- sons, we hope not many, are carrying on what politicians call a "whispering campaign" against the welfare plan, proclaiming it a failure. At least some of these whisperers seem to have been against the plan from the first, profess- ing to see in it some deep-laid political scheme.
I am sure you will let me say now, and I was with the brethren when the plan was first worked out, that there was not then, there has not been since, and there is not now, any political pur- pose or end whatsoever in the plan. Those who proclaim the contrary are either wholly ignorant or completely misinformed.
The report I have read is a full demonstration that the plan is not a failure. Of course, if the people will not support it, so that the Lord with- draws his blessings from it, the plan will fall, but to this time the great loyal body of the Church, following the inspiration of the Lord, has sup- ported the plan which has had a truly marvelous growth both in extent and in efficiency. All of us thank the brethren and sisters who have had immediate charge of the building up and operation of the plan, and sincerely congratulate them upon the outstanding success which has attended their work.
The general committee, composed in large part of business and professional men, have given unstintedly of their time and effort without any monetary com- pensation whatsoever, in a service which has brought needed aid and suc- cor to tens of thousands who needed help. The Lord has blessed and will continue to bless them in their labor and lives. To the sisters of the general board of the Relief Society, and to the Relief Society workers throughout the Church, we offer our especial thanks and grati- tude for their great service, without which we should have been almost help- less. (Continued on page 288)
237
Marriage «j
Dm [^resident <UJavid \J. llvlcJ\a
THE FIRST PRESIDENCY
Address delivered at the Sunday morning session of the 115th
annual general conference, April 8, 1945,
in the Tabernacle
And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him.
And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you?
And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.
And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. (Mark 10:2-5.)
Recently, I heard President Grant express grave concern over the ap- parent increase of the number of applications for the severance of marital bonds. His concern and fears that there is a growing laxity in the minds of young people with respect to the impor-
"\TS7hen the Pharisees, seeking to justi- " V f y the granting of divorce, cited the fact that "Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement and to put a wife away" on the ground of "some uncleanness," Jesus answered:
. . . For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the begin- ning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (Mark 10:5-9.)
In the light of scripture, ancient and modern, we are justified in concluding
PRESIDENT DAVID 0. McKAY
Jn all the problems and perplexities of human existence, Jesus Christ is the one safe guide to whom we can go for guidance and comfort.
tance and sacredness of the marriage that Christ's ideal pertaining to mar covenant suggest the topic "Marriage riage is the unbroken home, and condi
and Divorce' to which I now invite your attention.
Adjustments to be made by newly married couples when young husbands now in the armed forces return to ci- vilian life suggest another condition that
tions that cause divorce are violations of his divine teachings. Some of these
are:
careful observers that our present mod- ern life tends to frustrate these pur- poses. Writes one:
Modern living conditions contribute to these frustrations. Formerly a married wom- an had a home to care for, often several children. Today, in many parts of our coun- try, a married woman continues either to follow her vocation or to spend her time seeking new stimulations — no children to care for — no house to clean — no meals to cook. Under such a condition her leisure time activities become her all-absorbing in- terests— interests which often lead her away from her husband rather than to him.
Unfaithfulness on the part of either
or both, habitual drunkenness, physical
violence, long imprisonment that dis-
makes such "a consideration not wholly graces the wife and family, the union of
untimely. an innocent girl to a reprobate — in these steamship Marama dropped anchor out-
In all the problems and perplexities of and perhaps other cases there may be side the coral reef that surrounds the human existence, Jesus Christ is the one
Twenty-four years ago when the
safe guide to whom we can go for guidance and comfort. Mark's account of Jesus' answer to the Pharisees on divorce sets forth the Savior's attitude toward this vital question.
A careful study of this text, and other references that he made to marriage and divorce, leave little doubt that Jesus set forth the lofty ideal that marriage is of divine origin and that the marriage bond should be held sacred.
This lofty ideal of marriage is con- firmed by modern revelation, and is recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants as follows:
And again, verily I say unto you, that whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man.
Wherefore, it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation;
And that it might be filled with the meas- ure of man, according to his creation before the world was made. (D. & C. 49:15-17.)
238
J^Jarriage is of divine origin and . . riage bond should be held sacred.
the
mar-
circumstances which make the continu- island Rarotonga, a passenger desiring ance of the marriage state a greater evil to go ashore asked the captain why he
than divorce. But these are extreme cases — they are the mistakes, the calam- ities in the realm of marriage.
On the other hand, to look upon mar- riage as a mere contract that may be entered into at pleasure in response to
did not sail nearer to the wharf. In an- swer the experienced seaman mentioned treacherous waters and pointed to an engine of one ship, the Maitai, and to the bow of another, still protruding out of the water — -both carrying mute evi-
a romantic whim, or for selfish purposes, dence of the danger of anchoring too and severed at the first difficulty or mis- close to the shore of this coral-bound understanding that may arise, is an evil island. "We anchor here," said the cap- meriting severe condemnation, especial- tain, "because it is safer to avoid being ly in cases wherein children are made dashed to pieces, as those two vessels, to suffer because of such separation. on those dangerous reefs."
A flippant attitude toward marriage,
TUTarriage is a sacred relationship en- the ill-advised suggestion of "compan-
tered into for purposes that are ionate marriage," the base, diabolical
well recognized — primarily for the rear- theory of "free sex experiment," and
ing of a family. It is claimed by some the ready-made divorce courts are dan-
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
Divorce
9
gerous reefs upon which many a family bark is wrecked.
N ever-decreasing birth rate and an increasing divorce rate are ominous signs threatening the stability of the
There is cause for concern over the in- crease of divorces in this country and even in our Church.
Divorce Rate in the Church and in the United States
With the assistance of the Presiding
Bishop's office and Professor Roy A.
West, I have before me a comparison An ever-decreasing birth rate and an of marriages and divorces in the Church
from 1920 to 1944. It sets forth the fact
that though there are fewer divorces American home, and the perpetuity of among couples married in the temples our present form of constitutional gov- and by stake and ward authorities than
ernment. An editorial in a weekly mag- by civil officers and other churches, yet 0f 51 marriages to every divorce; dur
ing the same year the Church had a ratio
TThe ratio of divorce to marriage in the United States is three times higher than in the Church. In 1920 there were 7.5 marriages to every divorce in the United States; while in the Church there were 24.8 marriages to every divorce. In 1935, the United States had a ratio
'J'o look upon marriage as a mere contract that may be entered into at pleasure in response to a romantic whim, or for selfish purposes and severed at the first difficulty or misunderstand- ing that may arise, is an evil meriting severe condemnation . . .
azine, published in the capital of the na- tion, says:
Since 1890 the United States of America's national birth rate has dropped from 32.9 per 1,000 population to 17.4 per 1,000 popu- lation.
In those same years, the national aver- age for divorces jumped from 5.7 per 100 marriages to 19.3 per 100 marriages.
A falling birth rate plus a rising divorce rate speak ill for individual faith in the future. Hence it speaks ill for the nation's future.
What, in the long run, is the point of vast new public programs if the individual, continually fearful of tomorrow, flutters from mate to mate and deliberately robs the nation of his, or her, own good qualities in the next generation? A nation's permanency is entirely dependent on the permanency of its individual homes, the family pride of its citizens and the reproduction of those fam- ilies, generation by generation.
Ex-president Taft on one occasion, said :
Our state rests upon our homes. And if we cannot keep our homes from this con- stant demoralizing breaking up, we had bet- ter go out of the business of government entirely.
In some states of the union, it is al- most as easy to get a divorce as it is to get married. As a result of this laxity,
are increasing even in
the
divorces Church.
For example, during the period 1920- 1922 there was one divorce for every 38.24 marriages among couples married in the temples and by stake and ward authorities, but there was, during those same years, one divorce for every 13.20 marriages among couples married by civil officers. Comparatively, that ratio continues throughout the twenty
of 1 7.9 marriages to each divorce.
The real source of security of our na- tion rests in the well ordered, properly conducted homes. The character of a child is formed largely during the first twelve years of his life. It is estimated that in that period the child spends ap- proximately 3,240 hours in school; 416 hours in Sunday School and church, but 52,560 hours in the home, not counting twelve hours a day for sleep. In other words, he spends sixteen times as many waking hours in the home as in school, and one hundred twenty-six times as many hours in the home as in the Church.
In the homes of America are born the children of America, and from them go out into American life American men and wom- en. They go out with the stamp of these homes upon them, and onlv as these homes are what they should be, will children be what they should be.
'J1 here are three fundamental things to xvhich every child is entitled'. (1) a respected name, (2) a sense of security, (3) opportunities for development.
'J'he marriage ceremony when sealed by the authority of the Holy Priesthood endures, as do family relationships, throughout time and all eternity.
years, as you will note by the following Luther Burbank, the great plant wiz-
taken at random : ( The first figure will ard, most impressively emphasizes the
need for constant attention in the train- ing of a child. He says:
Teach the child self-respect. Train it in self-respect just as you train a plant in bet- ter ways. No self-respecting man was ever a grafter. Above all, bear in mind repeti- tion— the use of an influence over and over again, keeping everlastingly at it. This is what fixes traits in plants, the constant re- petition of an influence until at last it is ir- revocably fixed and will not change. You cannot afford to get discouraged. You are dealing with something far more precious than any plant — the precious soul of a child!
be the Church marriage; the second, the civil marriage.)
1923 to 1925 — one divorce to every 33 marriages; one divorce to every 15 marriages.
1935 to 1937 — one divorce to every 28 marriages; one divorce to every 12.52 marriages.
one out of every five marriages ends either in divorce or annulment.
'T'hough statistics indicate that there
is a much lower divorce rate in the
Church than in the nation, yet there is
cause for concern over the number of
marriages annulled annually in the di- every 6.9 ( we will say seven ) marriages vorce courts. among couples married by civil officers.
MAY, 1945
1938 to 1940— one divorce to every
26.61 marriages; one divorce to
every 10.13 marriages.
Last year there was one divorce for
every seventeen marriages among
HpHERE are three fundamental things to which every child is entitled: ( 1 ) a respected name, (2) a sense of security, (3) opportunities for development.
The family gives to the child his name and standing in the community. A child wants his family to be as good as those of his friends. He wants to be able to point with pride to his father, and to
couples married in temples by stake and feel an inspiration always as he thinks ward authorities, and one divorce for of his mother. It is a mother's duty so
to live that her children will associate
{Continued on page 314)
239
S. DILWORTH YOUNG
TTNGTHER worthy son of a long line /-X of illustrious forebears has been •*- ■*■ called to one of the leading coun- cils of the Church. A well-merited recognition has come to both an indi- vidual and a family, or more properly a group of families. When Seymour Dil- worth Young was sustained as a mem- ber of the First Council of the Seventy on April 6, 1945, he became a member of a group which had included a repre- sentative of his family almost continu- ously since it was organized in 1835. His great-grandfather, Joseph Young who was a brother of Brigham Young, his grandfather, Seymour B. Young, and his uncle, Levi Edgar Young, preceded him into that council and each became the senior president.
Seymour Dilworth Young, son of Seymour B. Young, Jr., became the forty-second member of the council.
On his mother's side, the new Presi- dent Young is a great-grandson of Brig- ham Young, a great-great-grandson of Edward Partridge, first Presiding Bish- op of the Church, and a grandson of Hyrum B. Clawson, prominent in early days as one of the managers of the Salt Lake Theater and of Z.C.M.I. Levi Riter was his great-grandfather and Michael Dilworth his great-great- grandfather. Few members of the First Council of the Seventy have entered that group with such a rich background of historical and personal associations.
To his important position as one of the General Authorities of the Church, President Young brings a wider experi- ence than is given to most men of his age. He has a strong, positive character, strikingly similar to that of his great- grandfather, President Brigham Young, and a youthful, forward looking spirit. The strength of his testimony of the divinity of the work to which he has been devoted during his entire life has been demonstrated by his Church ac- tivities. He has been prominently as- sociated with Church organizations
S. DILWORTH YOUNG
or the ^J/Lrst L^ounclt of the J^eventu By JOHN D. GILES
BUSINESS MANAGER, "THE IMPROVEMENT ERA"
since boyhood. Reared in a true Latter- day Saint family, schooled in Church doctrine and traditions, experienced in Church procedure and practices, he is a thorough Latter-day Saint in every sense of the word.
President Seymour Dilworth Young, who signs his name S. Dil- worth Young, and who is known to thousands of Scouts and Scout leaders as "Uncle Dil" was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, September 7, 1897, shortly after the semi-Centennial Jubilee of tha entrance of the Mormon Pioneers under the leadership of his great-grandfather, Brigham Young, into the valley of the Great Salt Lake. His birthplace is al- most within a stone's throw of President Young's former home in the Beehive House.
His schooling began at the Lowell School in Salt Lake City when William Bradford was principal. Later he at- tended Granite High School where Dr. Adam S. Bennion was principal and Willard Ashton, athletic coach. To these men he pays high tribute for the "pro- found influence" they exerted in his life.
While at school he took an active part in football, basketball, baseball, track, and public speaking. In 1917 he was elected president of the Granite High School student body. A minor physical ailment, discovered after all his other tests had been passed, prevented his entering the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis to which he had been appointed in 1917. Later in that same year he joined the army in E Battery of the 145th Field Artil- lery in the first World War. The commander of that unit was Richard W. Young, his mother's cousin.
Discharged from the army in 1919,
his call to a mission came in January of the following year. He was assigned to the Central States Mission and to the Louisiana Conference. His companions were Elders Boyd Rogers of Phoe- nix, Arizona, and Melville Branch of Price, Utah. After three months' labor in that field and a similar period in New Orleans, he was called to the mission office and made secretary to President Samuel O. Bennion. He continued in this position until his release October 1 , 1922. President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., announced at the last general confer- ence that President Bennion had left in the mission office an excellent record of President Young's activities as a mis- sionary.
Returning from his mission Dilworth filled positions with various local firms until September 10, 1923, when he was appointed as Scout Executive of the Ogden Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He has served in that capac- ity continuously since that time and is now being released to permit him to devote his efforts to his new calling in the Church.
"\17hile being rated highly as a leader of boys for many years, the facts are that during those years he has really been a leader of men who have led boys. In this leadership he has been outstand- ingly successful and has won the love and respect of thousands of men with whom he has been associated. To the boys of the Ogden Area Council he is looked up to with something akin to hero worship. He joins the ranks of the General Authorities of the Church en- joying the full confidence of the men with whom he will be associated.
{Concluded on page 283)
BROTHER AND SISTER
S. DILWORTH
YOUNG
AND THEIR
DAUGHTER,
LEONORE,
IN THEIR HOME
IN OGDEN,
UTAH
240
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
MILTON R. HUNTER
of the ^jrirst L^ounclt of the ^ei/entu By G. HOMER DURHAM, PH.D.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
IT is June 1936, the scene, the office of Dr. Herbert E. Bolton, director of the Bancroft Library and ranking member of the department of history, University of California, Berkeley. It is commencement time. The hard-earned Ph.D. was won the preceding Septem- ber 1935. And now the young man from central Utah has come to attend the ceremonies and receive the coveted degree. He has called to pay his respects to the senior scholar in charge of his dissertation.
Hunter, I won't let you throw your career away on some little Mormon seminary in Utah. You have the makings of one of America's great historians. I haven't spent these past years in order for you to expend this training fruitlessly. If you will change your mind we will secure for you a proper place in a great university where expecta- tions, and the training you have received, may be realized.
Such was the gist of the remarks made by a world-renowned educator when President Milton R. Hunter, forty-third Latter-day Saint to be sus- tained as a member of the First Council of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced that he was returning to Utah to take a position in the L.D.S. Institute, Logan, Utah. Returning thus, to what most academicians would call "obscurity," President Hunter began at once the continuous and tedious task of devoting scholarly effort towards further illu- mination of the pages of Mormon his- tory, a task which today marks him as the peer of the younger historians of the Mormon epic, through the publica- tion of Brigham Young the Colonizer.
Further fulfilling his obligations to
scholarship, President Hunter published in 1 940, the same year as Brigham Young The Colonizer, another signifi- cant work, The Mormons and The American Frontier, to which he has since added Utah In Her Western Set- ting (1943), and prepared the text ( from manuscript materials gathered by the Weber County Chapter of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers) of a definitive history of Weber County, Be- neath Ben Lomond's Peak (1944). In addition to this series of scholarly books, articles on Mormon develop- ment have appeared from his pen in The American Historical Review and the Pacific Historical Review, achieve- ments that historians in large universi- ties seldom make with distinction. All of this work demonstrates two funda- mental qualities in the life of the new member of the First Council, first, un- swerving faith in and devotion to his Church and its people; second, that gifts enhanced by a thirst for knowledge and higher education do not depend for their expression on an easy, ideal environ- ment.
II^ilton Reed Hunter, the eighth of eleven sons and daughters, was born to John Edward and Margaret Teeples Hunter in Holden, Millard County, Utah, October 25, 1902. His early training benefited much from life among brothers and sisters in a house- hold of faith. In their advancing years, President Hunter's parents afford a worthy model for this generation to fol- low. Based on the fundamental teach- ings of such a home, schooling in the public schools of Millard County was accompanied by life and lessons on the
BROTHER AND SISTER
MILTON R. HUNTER
AND THEIR FAMILY
AT THEIR HOME
IN LOGAN,
UTAH.
LEFT TO RIGHT:
LINDA, FERNE
GARDNER HUNTER,
MILTON REED, JR.,
MARGARET, LOIS ANN,
ALISON, MILTON
REED HUNTER
MAY, 1945
MILTON R. HUNTER
farm. By 1929, the B.S. degree had been won from Brigham Young University, and in 1931, the M.S. A feature of President Hunter's education, from grade school upwards, is that it has been accompanied by hard work, not only in the classroom, but in the pursuits of life, earning his way. For example, paralleling the years taken to acquire the B.S., Brother Hunter also worked and taught in St. Thomas, Nevada, and in Leamington, and Lakeview, Utah. Upon receiving the bachelor's degree his ambition to enter the L.D.S. Depart- ment of Education as a teacher of the gospel was realized. And from 1928 to 1935, the seven years in which the master's and doctor's degrees were earned, he was also, in succession, prin- cipal of the L.D.S. seminaries at Lyman Stake ( Wyoming ) , South Emery Semi- nary, Ferrin ( Utah ) , and then a member of the faculty at the Provo seminary. Prior to his entry into service at Lyman in the autumn of 1928, Brother Hunter was ordained to the office of a seventy by President Rulon S. Wells. A whole- some, searching missionary spirit has characterized his entire career from that time until this.
Qn July 30, 1931, Milton R. Hunter ^^^ and Feme Gardner, daughter of Brother and Sister James H. Gardner of Lehi, Utah, were married in the Logan Temple. Sister Hunter, a gradu- ate of the University of Utah depart- ment of English in 1928, has been a perfect wife and mother and has con- sistently devoted her intelligent knowl- edge of the English language and litera- ture as help meet in her husband's pro- fessional life. They are the parents of five children, Milton Reed, Jr., 12, Mar- garet, 10, Lois Anne, 7, Linda 4, and Alison, aged 1.
In Logan, the family lives in a home they themselves built. Brother and Sis- ter Hunter selected their own lot, and Brother Hunter was his own contractor, builder, and chief carpenter. He is an ( Concluded on page 287 )
241
THE ORIGIN OF MAN
AND
Da J-^reiident (ueorae ^Mlbert J^mitk
J^roph
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
MY dear brothers and sisters, all divinely commissioned to speak for him,
children of our Heavenly Father: have taught Adam's descendants
Wherever you may be, I greet through the ages how to live to be happy
you and address you with a prayerful in mortality and so qualify that when
desire that what I say may be a source the time comes for them to die, they may
ecu
Delivered over KSL and the Columbia
Church of the Air, from the Salt
Lake Tabernacle, 11:00-11:30
a.m., M.W.T., Sunday, April
8, 1945, during the \\5th
annual general
conference
of comfort and prove to be a blessing.
The Holy Bible contains the advice of our Heavenly Father, and I accept without mental reser- vation the statements made in Gene- sis, chapters 1 and 2, that in
pass into immortality taking with them *
the riches of their characters and the
knowledge they have gained here. Those thereafter literally fulfilled when Moses,
who conform their lives most nearly to being a descendant of Abraham, led the
the teachings of our Heavenly Father children of Israel out of Egypt back to
will receive the greatest reward and enjoy the most happiness here and
the promised land.
Joseph, a faithful son of Jacob, who had been sold into slavery by his broth- ers, was in a prison in Egypt when Pharaoh had a dream that troubled him, that his wise men could not interpret.
GEORGE ALBERT SMITH
the heaven and the earth and every liv- ing thing that has inhabited the earth, including man.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. (Genesis 1:27,28.)
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. (Genesis 2:4. 5.)
hereafter
Among other things, the prophets
were required to keep a record of the
truth that was revealed to them from
time to time that it might be passed on Pharaoh was told that Joseph could in
for the benefit of their posterity, each terpret the dream, and he was brought the beginning generation inheriting from its forebears, before the king. He informed Pharaoh God created Today, therefore, we of this generation that he could not interpret the dream but
are in possession of a record that has that God would give Pharaoh the an-
been preserved for our guidance con-
taining information that the Lord has revealed from the beginning. I refer to the Holy Bible. Not only does it declare that which has occurred in the past, but it tells of events that were to occur in the future, in some cases genera- tions before they actually did occur. It also informs us that fulfilment occurred at the time that had been specified. The Prophet Amos said:
Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7.)
swer. Joseph, having received the in- terpretation from the Lord, told Phar- aoh that his dream was of great im- portance, that there were to be seven years of plenty throughout the land, fol- lowed by seven years of famine, and if Pharaoh during the years of plenty would accumulate food, when the fam- ine came his people would not starve. Pharaoh accepted Joseph's interpreta- tion and advice, then rewarded him by making him overseer of Egypt, only the king being greater than he. At the end of fourteen years the dream as inter-
This was all a spiritual creation. Then follows the physical creation.
preted by Joseph had been literally ful
I know of nothing of great importance filled, the Egyptians having been saved
that has happened in the world that the from starvation.
Lord through his prophets has not ad- Another prophetic incident was the
vised the people of beforehand so that attempt to rebuild Jericho. When the
they have not been left in ignorance of city of Jericho was overthrown, a curse
what was to develop but could plan was placed upon it, and the people were
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man be- came a living soul. (Genesis 2:7.)
It was in the plan of our Heavenly Father that every living thing that he
warned that any man who should re- build it would lose his first-born and his youngest son. The city lay waste until hundreds of years had passed, when Hiel, a Bethelite, who lived in the days of Ahab, ventured to rebuild the city, but no sooner had he laid its foun- dation than Abiram, his first-born son, died. Still persevering in his determina-
their lives, if they would, to their ad vantage. I cite the following incidents in support of this :
The case of Noah is in point. He was commanded of the Lord to build an ark in which the righteous might be pre- served from the flood which was to come. Noah built the ark and preached repentance to his generation for a period created should each reproduce after its of one hundred and twenty years, thus tion to complete his work, he set up the kind. Adam and Eve were the children fully warning them. The people, how- gates, and Segub, his youngest son, of God; they were our first parents, and ever, were so wicked that they failed to passed away, thus fulfilling the proph- every human being that has lived upon heed the warning. Having their agency, ecy. the earth descended from them. God they chose evil rather than righteous- gave them their agency to decide for ness. The rains descended, and the themselves in all matters and held them floods came, and only Noah and his responsible for their conduct. They family of eight souls were saved. All
received their instructions in the Garden had been fully warned, but because of people remain in bondage for seventy of Eden from our Heavenly Father and their wilfulness and their refusal to years. This was to be accomplished by those teachings were preserved for sue- repent they were drowned. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. In due
Another instance is that of Abraham time Jerusalem with its beautiful temple and his posterity. He was informed that was burned. Her princes, nobles, his seed would go into a strange land artisans, and many of her people were and after serving there for a period of carried as prisoners to Babylon along four hundred years would come out with the sacred vessels from the temple. with great substance, all of which was (Continued on page 311)
'TThen there is the instance where Jeremiah prophesied that Jeru- salem would be overthrown and her
ceeding generations
Biblical chronology indicates that nearly six thousand years ago our first parents began their earth life. The Lord instructed them how they should con- duct themselves, and his prophets,
242
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
ADMONITION
GEORGE F. RICHARDS
Address delivered at the Sunday
morning session of the 115th
annual general conference,
April 8, 1945, in the
Tabernacle
IF my remarks this morning shall be addressed, principally, to members of the Church, others listening in, or who may afterwards read what I shall say, may perhaps, learn something of the requirements, covenants, and obliga- tions of those who join the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which all men and women must do, if they would be saved with an exaltation in the kingdom of God.
But ye are a chosen genera- tion, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar peo- ple; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: ... (I Peter 2:9, 10.)
The Latter-day Saints are the people of God, a chosen people, a royal priest- hood, a covenant people, and a cove- nant-making people.
The greatest and most important blessings our Heavenly Father has for his faithful sons and daughters are re- ceived by covenant. One of the greatest blessings he has to bestow is member- ship in his Church and kingdom. This is received by solemn covenant.
When I was baptized, and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was required to raise my right arm to the square, and covenant before God, angels, and wit- nesses present, that I would henceforth keep the commandments of God, as fast as they should be made known unto me. This represents the nature of the cove- nant entered into, by every person who is baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. It is frequently spoken of as the covenant made in the waters of baptism. The nature of this covenant should be explained to every applicant for baptism, and he should manifest a willing acceptance, before being bap- tized.
"PvERY man who has received the Mel- "7"* chizedek Priesthood, has received the oath and covenant belonging to the priesthood, that he will magnify the same; to do which, he must live a right- eous life, and answer every call of au-
MAY, 1945
& (ueorae ~jr. IKichardi
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
thority that may come to him in the Church, keeping all other covenants he has entered into, or may do in the fu- ture. The Lord on his part covenants to give him all that he, the Lord, hath.
But whoso breaketh this covenant after he hath received it, and altogether turneth therefrom, shall not have forgiveness of sins in this world nor in the world to come. (D. 6C. 84:41.)
The blessings of the temple are of in- estimable value. The goal of our ex- istence, that of eternal life and exalta- tion, cannot be attained without them, but to receive these blessings, we must enter into solemn covenants of faith- fulness.
There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated — And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. (D. & C. 130:20, 21.)
We who have no other intent than to be faithful in all things do not hesitate making covenants to that end. Every covenant we enter into with the Lord, is for our own good and blessing. If there are any among us who are weak and hesitate, being fearful lest they might not be able.to keep the required covenants of the ; gospel, they should lean more heavily upon the assistance the Lord has promised to all such, when he said:
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matt. 11:28-30.)
would have the Saints, myself in- cluded, avoid as far as possible the disappointments and sorrow here in life, and hereafter, resulting from sin and neglect. Many of our sorrows, and the greatest sorrows we experience in life, are of our own making, and could have been averted.
Remorse of conscience, resulting from sin, is among the greatest of sorrows, and the hardest to heal. No person can afford to commit sin. There is no satis- faction derived from so doing that will justify the sorrow and remorse that re- sult therefrom. Many of our sorrows in life are the result of thoughtlessness on our part. We do things that are un- wise, and hurtful to ourselves and to others, not having first thought the thing through, and considered the inevitable consequences. This thought is empha- sized in the story entitled, "Clarence and Mother":
A woman, left a widow with one child, was obliged to take in washing for a living. One morning Mother called Clarence earlier than usual, saying: "We have a larger wash than usual, and will need quite a lot of wood." Clarence made no complaint, but dressed himself, and going to the wood yard cut up and carried in a wood box full of wood. Then he wrote a little note to his mother and put it under her plate at the table. When Mother turned her plate over, she found Clarence's note which read like this: "Mother owes Clarence 50c for cutting up a wood box full of wood." The mother's countenance fell for a moment, then she went where she kept her meager earnings, and found 50c and brought it and gave it to Clarence. There was not much said at the table, and the mother ate but little break- fast.
The next morning when they turned their plates over at the table there was a note from Mother to Clarence which read as follows: "Clarence, debtor to Mother, for going down into the valley of the shadow of death, to give him life, nothing; for board and lodgings nine years, nothing; for cloth- ing, and washing and mending his clothes, nine years, nothing; total, nothing."
Clarence had not thought the matter through to a correct conclusion, how much he was indebted to his mother, and that the hard work she had to do was as much for the boy as for the mother, and what an opportunity was here afforded, for him to show his love and appreciation for his mother, for what she had done and was doing for him. Clarence had not thought how deeply indebted he was to his mother, nor the fact that he could not live long enough, nor work hard enough, to pay fully the debt of gratitude he owed to her. Many of us grownups do things thoughtlessly that are just as censur- able.
Many members of the Church, young and old, through carelessness and thoughtlessness, are pursuing a course in life that will surely be a great sor- row to them in the future, and to those who love them most, if they do not change their course. And even should they in the future repent, and mend their ways, they may, like Saul of Tarsus, forever after have a thorn in the flesh.
My sympathy goes out to all such, and I would like to help them to see and choose the better way.
■nTHERE are in the Church today more than 45,000 men past twenty-one years of age, who hold some office in the Aaronic Priesthood, who, if worthy, should have been ordained to the office of elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood, at nineteen years of age, according to the order of the Church, but who have never received the Melchizedek Priest- hood, nor the endowments and sealing blessings in the house of the Lord.
Being past twenty-one years of age, a large percentage of them are married men, and as men of the Church, may not receive the endowments and sealing or- dinances of the temple without first re- ceiving the Melchizedek Priesthood. It is clear that they have not been married in the new and everlasting covenant, and that if they have children, they, the (Continued on page 310) 243
"THE
^rdler
JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH
Address delivered at the Friday
afternoon session of the 1 15th
annual general conference,
April 6, 1945, in the
Assembly Hall
7Vs I stand here before you, I seek the r\ guidance of the Spirit of the Lord and your help in what I may say. First of all, I wish to express my ap- preciation for the timely message that came this morning from President Heber
J. Grant. May the Lord con- tinue to bless him. I am like- wise grateful for the fine tes- timonies that we have heard so far, and I hope the pow- erful words spoken by
Elder Mark E. Petersen will sink deeply in- to our hearts. On the sec- ond day of January, in the year 1831, the Lord gave a revelation to the Church and in that revelation com- manded them to move from the head- quarters then established in New York to the Ohio. He gives the reason for it:
And that ye might escape the power of the enemy, and be gathered unto me a righteous people, without spot and blame- less— Wherefore, for this cause I gave unto you the commandment that ye should go to the Ohio; and there I will give unto you my law; and there you shall be en- dowed with power from on high. (D. & C. 38:31-32.)
In obedience to this commandment the people moved to the Ohio. The law the Lord gave, spoken of here in this promise, is found in Section Forty-two, in large part at least, of the Doctrine and Covenants. In this revelation many things are recorded for our benefit. I am only sorry that we have not always adhered strictly to these command- ments. Of course, I cannot mention all of the things recorded in this revela- tion, for there are many, but I desire to speak of one or two that were given for the benefit of the Church. First of all, let me say that when Adam was driven out of the Garden of Eden, the Lord passed a sentence upon him. Some people have looked upon that sentence as being a dreadful thing. It was not; it was a blessing. I don't know that it can truthfully be considered even as a punishment in disguise. The Lord said to him: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," and all down through the ages the Lord has called upon his people to be diligent, to serve
244
SHALL NOT HAVE PLACE
IN THE CHURCH"
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
him in faithfulness, to work. And here in verses forty to forty-two in this rev- elation I read:
And again, thou shalt not be proud in thy heart; let all thy garments be plain, and their beauty the beauty of the work of thine own hands; And let all things be done in cleanli- ness before me. Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer. (D. & C. 42:40-42.)
And to this I wish to speak.
Tn the early days of the Church in these valleys, great stress was placed upon industry by President Brigham Young and the other brethren, and it was neces- sary because our forefathers came here with nothing. They had to work. They had to be industrious. It was essential that they produce the things they needed, and therefore counsel to that extent and in that direction was given to them constantly that they should be industrious. They were taught not to be proud in their hearts. They came out here where they could worship the Lord their God and keep his commandments. They were told to be humble as well as to be diligent. They were to make their own garments, and they were to be plain. Oh, I wish we could remember that. I am sorry that we have forgotten. And President Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and others of the brethren in those early days taught the people and prevailed upon them to start industries throughout this country, to raise sheep, to gather the wool, to make their own clothes out of that wool, to plant cotton that they might have cotton also to make clothing, to plant flax that they might get linen, to build tanneries that they might tan the hides and make them- selves leather, and a thousand other things. We used to have some of these industries here among us, and would still have them if we had been willing to adhere to these counsels that had been given to us in those early days by the authorities of the Church, which we would not do. I used to wear suits that were made at Provo, in the woolen mills. I did that as long as I could get them. The suit I have on now was not made at Provo, nor was it made in Utah ■ — that is the cloth — but the tailor made it here. Last week at a stake confer- ence, I made the statement that I did not believe there was in that building an in- dividual born in this country who knew how to make a suit of clothes. If there
was one there, would he please make himself manifest, and nobody made him- self manifest. Then I said, "If there's a cobbler in this room, he was not born in this country. If there is a cobbler here, let him stand up." Nobody stood. There was no cobbler. And so we might go on.
"VTow, the Lord said, "Let all things be done in cleanliness before me." I could spend some time on that, but time will not permit; so I continue, the Lord said, "Thou shalt not be idle for he that is idle shall not eat the bread, nor wear the garments of the laborer." That is good sound sense, isn't it? Why should a man in idleness partake of the industry of the industrious — provided that this man who is idle, is in a physical condition that he can work? I am not at all in sympathy with any kind of move- ment that tends to destroy manhood by encouraging men to be idle, and I don't care what age that is. It doesn't matter how old he gets, if a man is physically strong and is able to perform services, he should take care of himself; that the Lord expects him to do.
The Lord said in another revelation:
And again, verily I say unto you, that every man who is obliged to provide for his own family, let him provide, and he shall in nowise lose his crown; and let him labor in the church. 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. (D. & C. 75:28, 29.)
So that is the counsel the Lord has given the Church today. And this is not merely to be applied to plowing fields, or to reaping and harvesting and engaging in industry, but it means like- wise that a man should be industrious in spiritual things as well as in the tem- poralities by which he makes his living.
Again, here is another commandment the Lord gave:
And the inhabitants of Zion also 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. Now, I, the Lord, am not well pleased with the inhabitants of Zion, for there are idlers among them; and their chil- dren are also growing up in wickedness; they also seek not earnestly the riches of eternity, but their eyes are full of greedi- ness. (D. &C. 68:30, 31.)
If the Lord were speaking to us today, ( Continued on page 292 )
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
ESSENTIALS FOR <? . ., / 7\ /
vSu Stephen <=JL IKichards
f
>evewpment
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
Address delivered at the Friday
morning session of the 115th
annual general conference,
April 6, 1945, in the
Assembly Hall
I
principles of truth among all men. You will be inclined to immediately label this as "propaganda," and unfortunately that word has come to bear the stigma of the imposition of one man's views on another. I hope you will accept my disclaimer of any attempt to force my
"forded me at this general conference [deas on You' *&<} l hoPe' to°' You wil1 concept of thc^ork in which I labor, by
of the Church to read a letter which believe mc when I say to you in advance having your attention focused upon
that my personal regard for you is the some ts of it which seem to differ
chief motivating factor in the writing
propose to use the opportunity af-
turies which we have to offer, but it is in essence, a refinement, an extension, an enlargement, and a perfection of them which I take the privilege of bringing to your attention. You will pardon me, I hope, if I venture the observation that many of you, for whose ability in normal investigation and research in the discovery of facts I have the highest opinion, have been distracted from the attainment of a real understanding and
I have prepared. My thought in pre- senting it here is that the message of my letter may have better prospects of
reaching those to whom it is addressed, and also that the sentiments which I have expressed may serve some useful purpose with my breth- ren and sisters in an endeavor comparable to my own. I shall be most grateful if this thinking The letter is
of this letter
Without affectation, I express my ad- miration for the splendid virtues which I have seen in many of you. Your in- tegrity, impeccable honor, generosity, courtesy, and ability command my esteem. I often think of you as repre- sentatives of the best types of Christian gentlemen and ladies. I have gained much from your association. I am sure that a great part of your thinking and
from the teachings and practices prev- alent in other Christian denominations. For instance, you are all pretty well acquainted with what we call the Word of Wisdom, with the tithing system of the Church. These and other somewhat unique practices of the Church have, I often fear, stood out so prominently in your observation and contemplation of the Church and its doctrine that you may not have troubled yourselves, because you may not be particularly attracted
good works is prompted by Christian b these uni thi tQ ddve into the ideals. I have no doubt that many of f4damentai concepts and principles you have been schooled m and accept underiying not only theSe special teach-
ings and practices but the whole body
STEPHEN L RICHARDS
proves to be justifiable, addressed :
To my friends and associates in vari- ous lines of endeavor who are not identified with the Church which I have the honor to represent.
My dear friends :
the almost universal Christian doctrines of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, the atonement of the Savior, the immortality of the soul, and the good life of virtue and altruism taught and exemplified by our Lord.
of truly Christian doctrine which we have to give to man. It is true that we regard it as important to refrain from the use of liquor and tobacco and to pay tithing, but adherence to these standards
I cheerfully and gratefully acknowl- does not alone constitute complete con- edge the beauty and efficacy of these version to and understanding of the great doctrines and teachings and the latter-day work, although generally universal distribution of the spirit of they are very acceptable evidences of it. God" in the earth. I am sure that the I WOuld like, if I can, at least, to glimpse Christian doctrine and faith over the for you what I regard as being the more For many years it has run in my mind centuries have been the mainsprings of basic foundation principles set forth in
a desire to approach you on the sub- ject of religion. I find it difficult to justify my delay and to discover any good reason why I have been so hesitant to talk with you about spiritual matters. I suppose that it is chiefly because I have indulged the assumption that everyone's religion is to be regarded as such a personal and private thing that I have felt more or less constrained to keep off the subject, except where
the civilizing processes which have the latter-day interpretation and presen brought beauty, culture, science, and tation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I education to their present high state hope I can make you see that these con- of attainment. Christian doctrine is cepts and interpretations are not in any also responsible for the finest concepts way antagonistic to the true Christian of liberty and justice which prevail in principles to which many of you sub- the world. I have profound gratitude scribe, but that they serve to make the for the great brotherhoods and con- Christian doctrines you have accepted gregations it has fostered and every m0re vital and real and more potent in good cause which has emanated from it. the realization of the hope and faith It is needless to say also that I have yoUr Christian experience has brought
casual questions have arisen which have the deepest admiration for many indi- to you.
brought on brief conversations. You vidual Christians who ally themselves Now I must proceed upon the as-
will wonder, perhaps, in view of such with the various Christian denomina- sumption that if you have any interest in
diffidence in talking to you, why I now tions of the world. I do not question the religion, and in the Christian religion in
choose this medium of an open letter sincerity of countless thousands who particular, your interest prompts you
give themselves to God — who strive with all the f ower and knowledge they have to serv^ him and keep his com- mandments. ! feel sure that he accepts their devotion; that he answers their
truding on the privacy of your views prayers of faith and humility and that
without your consent. he recompenses their every good act.
I hope you will not resent my concern I have deemed it desirable to so set
in your spiritual welfare. I must frankly forth my appreciation of the general
admit, and I hope the admission will not Christian doctrine and faith in order to
too seriously affect your consideration make clear to you that it is not a sub-
of what I have to say, that I am stitution of these lofty Christian prin- which the latter-day interpretation has
prompted in part by an earnest desire ciples which have been disseminated to offer is in this very matter.
to disseminate what I regard to be vital throughout the world for so many cen- (Continued on page 289)
MAY, 1945 245
to broach the subject and express my sentiments to you. The only answer that I can give, and it is not a very good one, is that it seems to be the easiest way of expressing myself to you without in-
to want the truth and to secure for your life the best which is obtainable. I am sure you will agree that the chief ob- jectives of the whole Christian doctrine are to improve life here and to attain a good and eternal life hereafter. Per- haps these two objectives are in reality one, for I think it safe to say that most Christians contemplate a relationship between life here and life hereafter. Now, one of the first contributions
The ditch winds, in graceful curved miles, through the valleys and over the hills. At one end of it, less than halfway between Cardston and Water- ton, on Number 5 highway, its banks are fresh-dug soil, and the furrows for water lie black and new upon the meadows and grain fields. At its source, the Driggs Lake reservoir, three and one-half miles southwest of Mountain View, lies evidence of a system built under a plan that has no equal in the province of Alberta.
From about 1 906, the foothill country of southwestern Alberta often became subject to drouth, with great loss of livestock, resulting from lack of feed. In 1919-20, referred to by ranchers as the year of the "hard winter," hundreds of cattle starved to death.
Mountain View, then a small Latter- day Saint settlement of less than one hundred families, petitioned the govern- ment for assistance in beginning an irri- gation scheme. However, the Leth- bridge Northern Irrigation District had been granted bonds for their project, and the United Irrigation District, or U.I.D., north of Mountain View had received capital to such an extent that aid for yet another group seemed inadvis- able to govern- ment officials.
Willi! m*:*itfei
Water
— Photograph, Harold M. Lambert
T^he need for water was so serious that the people decided to proceed with a
plan of their own. They chose a com- mittee. Seymour B. Smith, big, quiet, and unassuming, graduate in 1905 of the Utah State School of Mining, was elected chairman. He had for assistants Ernest Parrish, at that time ward bish- op, and Richard Bradshaw, another ward member. James Jacobs was elected secretary.
Organizing, under the Provincial Ir- rigation Act, the community obtained the title of Mountain View Irrigation District. Through a by-law, passed especially for them, negotiated by Mr. Smith, their representative, they were authorized to develop a system of ditches by their own labor, assessing each man a portion of the work and ex- pense, according to his acreage.
There was a lake, fed by early spring water, and located so that the outlet from it would bring irrigation to the en- tire district. This lake could, if neces- sary, be filled with water from the Belly River, after the U.I.D. had received, as first right, three hundred second-feet of the river water.
Mountain View people proposed the making of ditches below this lake, with no expense incurred from bank or gov- ernment. They would rely upon melting spring snow, and upon rain, to supply their reservoir, and be prepared to re- ceive rights second to the U.I.D. from Belly River, should it become necessary.
The work began in 1922, and re-
246
on the Hills wui
quired ten years to complete. The men who did it were the farmers and ranch- ers of Mountain View, who had to de- vote most of their time to their land and stock. The hours left were given to their dream of irrigation.
They drove their horses and mules through mud and rain ... up sticky piles of earth, and down rocky perpendicular banks, with clanging scrapers full of dirt, for they had vision.
They brought logs by the wagonload off the steep hills to a little sawmill they had procured, and made lumber for the headgates and other ditch structures. Brush and trees were uprooted by horse and mule and man power.
At one place on a sidehill, below a spring, many days of work were dis- couraging. Teams and men wallowed and sweat in the heavy wet earth, and stumbled down the dangerous incline, only to find, each morning, fresh slides of loose soil, washed forward by seep- age from the spring.
Believing that nothing is impossible, they hauled clay from a distance, and moulded it to form a hard, dependable wall against the hill.
A volume could be written in tribute "^ to this ten-year struggle, with a chapter for each of the loyal workers. When headgates were lifted inside the waiting ditches, on that great day of fulfilment in 1932, men's tears were
6 on
mingled with the water that coursed down across their fields. . . . Latter-day Saints had once more led the way, in pioneer irrigation!
The cash expense of the project, in- cluding payment of a surveyor, was less than one dollar per acre. A small bank loan was obtained for the surveyor's wages, and an annual charge of 30c per acre per year was made to the water users to pay the bank. About three years ago, with the debt cleared, unused money was collecting in the bank, so the levy was cut to and remains at 20c. It is used for operation and maintenance.
From records that each man kept, the entire cost by labor and cash, amounted to $7.10 an acre. There are 3600 acres in the project, and ninety percent of it can be irrigated. Assets of the company in 1943 were $6,267.51. Bank balance —$1,060.90. There are no liabilities. The business of the company is now carried on by an official trustee, and by a secretary who is also the watermaster.
In 1936 the P.F.R.A. (Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Association ) granted the Mountain View Company $3,000.00 for the enlargement of ditches. Later this same government association finished the reservoir with an earth dam, and ex- tended ditches to include 4,400 addi- tional acres eastward. This construc- tion contract, for the district of Leavitt, cost $45,000.00. Development is now {Concluded on page 261 )
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
dSwtkda
9
a
A,
.udrey Smurthwaite sat in the veranda swing, feeling the warm sun upon her hands, her shoulders. She was thinking of Tim. It was hard to think of anything else, especially now when her activities were so limited, when she wasn't going anywhere. When, as the books say, "Her time was drawing near."
Tim's mother was coming up the street from the grocery store. Rey wished she could call her "mother" . . . as Tim had wanted her to do. But she just couldn't. Even though she knew her better, understood her perhaps a trifle better — but not much — even though she had honestly tried, there was a wall be- tween them. She couldn't help feeling, that, in a sense, they were rivals. Even as she had felt that day, two months after they were married, when she had glared at her good-looking husband to say:
"Your mother has come here and darned your sox for the last time. 1 won't have it. I won't have her snoop- ing into my affairs. Telling me how to do things. If I'm not a good wife, you can go home to her and stay."
He had looked at her in surprise, blood mounting to his lean, tan cheeks. He only said, ' You've got it all wrong, Rey. She's not prying into our affairs. She's just trying to help you. After all, she's much older than you. And she hasn't any other interests."
She interrupted him to say, "Then she should get some. If it isn't prying, what is it? Wanting to do my mending, telling me what you like to eat. I know I can't darn as well as she, or cook either, but give me twenty-five years' experience, and I will." She drew a long, heavy breath then went on, more angry than before, "That isn't bad enough. But when you come home, she says, 'I darned your sox, Tim,' just as though they never would have been darned if she hadn't."
"That isn't fair," he told her, a little sharply. "She's just happy to do some- thing for me. I didn't use to understand it. When I was a kid, I thought she was trying to live my life. As I got a little older, I understood a little. Don't upset yourself so over nothing."
"I'm not upsetting myself. It's your mother who upsets me."
JTIe had stood up, tall and slender and so terribly dear. She hated herself now for every word she had said. But how was she to know there was a war coming, that they would take husbands whose wives were ex- pecting babies? She remembered his next words, for she had thought of them many times, since.
MAY, 1945
"My mother! Why don't you call her, 'Mother'; she wants you to. You don't remember your own mother. I'd think you would want to."
"I'm not sentimental, Tim. It sounds affected. Besides, it isn't me she loves, it's you. I'm just the unworthy woman you married."
His eyes flashed then, and she could see his hands clenching in his pockets.
"Wait till you have a child. Go into the valley of death for it."
"Oh, darling. That's sentimental, too. When I have a child, I'll be practical about it, I hope. As for the valley of death business, it's probably no differ- ent from any other pain."
She arose suddenly and came over to him, whispering, "Don't be cross with me, Honey." (She had never seen him angry before. ) "I guess it's just because I love you."
He drew her toward him, his eyes softening, a smile twitching at the corner of his mouth, but he added, "She loves me, too, remember."
"Oh, I'm sure of that. All she talks about is Tim, Tim, Tim. It's hard for her to remember you are grown."
He kissed the nape of her neck, tell- ing her, "We have so much happiness; we can afford to share it with her. Be a dear, won't you?"
Hi
.ER eyes were still soft and meditative as Mrs. Smurthwaite came on to the porch, her shopping bag in her hand. She smiled at the girl, "Any mail this afternoon?"
Rey shook her head, "No. Not a thing. But then, I suppose we can't ex- pect a letter every day, even though he writes that often."
His mother looked disappointed as
By CHRISTIE LUND COLES
she slipped into one of the wicker porch chairs, saying, "How do you feel?"
"I'm okay," the girl assured her, re- senting just a little this interruption of her memories. In another way, she was glad for someone to talk to. But she didn't feel it necessary to tell her of the nagging pain she had had intermittently all afternoon. She worried and fussed so over her. And Rey didn't like it.
Still, she was worried enough that she let the older woman have her own way when she insisted on staying to prepare the evening meal. "I've just a cold lunch, and it will be ready in no time," she called from the cool, shad- owed house, "You'll have plenty of work to do when this is over."
Rey smiled. She was kind and like Tim, too, in many ways. She looked out across the small-town lawn where the shadows were growing longer, where the birds were chirping in concert in preparation for the night, and she was glad to be here! Where would she have been with Tim gone, herself unable to work, with no one of her own to care about her!
The pain came again, only this time it was more sharp, a little more severe. Holding to the side of the swing, she got up and went into the house. Yes, she wanted to be near someone, to talk to someone.
Even after they had eaten, when she usually read a book or a magazine while her mother-in-law sewed or mended, she wanted to talk. She said, suddenly, "Tell me about Tim when he was a little boy."
Mrs. Smurthwaite looked at her strangely, her eyes suddenly bright. "Do you really want me to?" she asked, almost shyly. She had tried many times to tell her about her son's boyhood, but Rey had stopped her. Tonight, she wanted to hear, to hear anything that would keep her mind off the pains that were coming more often now and with greater intensity.
Ohe leaned forward as Mrs. Smurthwaite began, settling herself comfortably, her knitting in her fingers. "I've told you what a cute youngster he was," she began. Then after a mo- ment, laying the knitting down, she took some pictures from her handbag. "I'll show you these," she told her. "This is Tim when he was six months. He had two teeth, can you see them?" She sighed, "He was adorable but it seemed -he grew sweeter as he grew older. Look at this when he was three . . . that mop of curly hair. Yes, that was a dear age. He used to say to me, over and over, 'I love you, Mumsy.' " (Concluded on page 276) 247
FULL SERVICE
JOHN A. WIDTSOE
Address delivered at the Saturday
afternoon session of the 115th
annual general conference,
April 7, 1945, in the
Assembly Hall
My dear brethren and you also who may be listening in: I am very glad today that I am a member of the restored Church of Christ. I have had this gladness in my heart all the days of my life, since my early boy- hood, and I bear testimony to you this afternoon and witness also, that this Church is of God, establish- ed by him, which, as has already been quoted here, will never be cast down or given to an- other people. We are deal- ing with eternal realities, everlasting, from the heavens above.
The excellent messages given us by our brethren during this conference have started in our minds, I know, many trains of thought. One particularly has been with me ever since one of the brethren spoke yesterday forenoon. I would like to discuss it with you brief- ly- Some years ago I had the opportu- nity to spend the night in a little tavern or hotel at the famous little town of Chateau Thierry, in France. That lit- tle town was a storm center of the great war of a quarter of a century ago. When we left, the next morning, the proprietor or hotel manager, a veteran of the last war, came out to say good- bye to us. Someone said something about the war in which he had served. He promptly pulled down the eyelid of one of his eyes and put his finger on the eyeball. It was an artificial eye, to replace one he lost in the war. Not sat- isfied with that, he pulled back his cheek and showed us a silver jaw that had been inserted by the surgeons to re- place the one he lost in the war. He looked at us and said, "This is all I got out of the war. What good is war?" I believe that man spoke the feel- ing of the great majority of mankind, of us common men.
Yet we stand now bewildered before another great war. I believe the world has never been so bewildered as at the present time. We cannot understand how this war has come about. We don't know how to solve the problems that will follow. We look into the future with a certain amount of dread. If I read the magazines and reports cor-
248
& srokn ^J4. lAJldtdoe
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
rectly, many are ready to surrender even their free agencies to try out something new in the hope that it may lead to something better. The answer to all this, by the Church of Christ, is simple. It is the answer that has been given since the beginning of time. If mankind had accepted the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, there would have been no bloody wars; and if the world today would accept the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, all problems that lie before us would be solved easily and well. We believe, and we have so taught, that every question confront- ing humanity may be answered by the gospel if we understand the gospel and accept it and use it properly; and every problem before us may be solved in the
same manner.
To this reply the leaders of nations say no, or a very doubtful yes. They are willing to concede that religion and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ may be very effective in the spiritual field, but not very efficacious in the tem- poral world of men and women deal- ing with living problems here upon this earth.
If gospel light is thrown upon Dum- barton Oaks and upon Yalta, the agree- ments made there, and upon the com- ing San Francisco conference, it will not be so difficult to write safe treaties or to discover the weaknesses inherent in agreements already made. Men are so willing in working out the prob- lems of the day, to cover with smiling diplomacy, riotous selfishness.
"^Tow then, having said this, let me ask, * ^ what is our obligation as a Church and Church members, in this day of confusion. Do we have an obligation? Are we willing to continue as other people, to use our best judgment as men, try to vote this way or that when an election comes up, depending on our human powers? Are we like all the other people on the face of the earth, or has the Lord placed upon us obliga- tions and conditions which make us different from all the world?
We say that the Lord spoke to the Prophet Joseph Smith and through him restored the eternal gospel, formulated in the heavens before the foundations of the earth were laid. The Lord has told us that the gospel is for all men. He has charged us, members of this Church, to carry the gospel message to all the world.
If it is true that peace can be won only through the gospel of Jesus Christ; and if our claim is true, as I verily be- lieve it is, that we alone have the true and full gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we carry a tremendous responsibility upon our shoulders. There will then
be no world peace until we do our part, accept our high commission, and teach the truth to all the world. In that sense we become the custodians, so to speak, of the world's peace, of the world's future, we humble men as- sembled here, with those who labor in the wards and stakes of Zion. I be- lieve that it is our duty to accept this challenge. We cannot sit in some cozy, warm, spiritual chimney corner, thank- ing God for the blessings of the gospel, for our membership in the Church, sel- fishly forgetting all else and everybody else. That is not our work, nor our destiny, nor our business in life, under God's command.
The possession of the gospel, the knowledge of it, does change a man tremendously, but the full joy of the gospel, that joy which we have all seen in many a humble person who has re- ceived the gospel, comes only when we use the gospel for others. He who receives must give, that is one of the first and most fundamental of all gospel laws.
Well, you say, we are only a small people, not quite a million people as reported here yesterday. There are about two thousand millions in the world today. Can we do it? Can we teach all the world? We are too few, are we not? Obviously, the first an- swer that comes when we speak of this high obligation that rests upon us is : We are few, yes. We claim no pre- eminence in physical or intellectual matters, nor in the affairs of men. But, we have the truth of eternity, and we have faith. Faith and truth are in- vincible. With the sling of faith and the pebble of truth, like David of old, we may lay low every giant of unbe- lief and error and opposition to truth in all the world. To go forth in this spirit is the call of the day to Latter- day Israel.
"V^ou remember that in days gone by, a great cry went forth, "Is there faith in Israel?" That is the cry today, faith not only to bless ourselves in our own mountain valleys, or those of our people in the coast country; but faith that this work will bless all humanity. We belong to a world organization; we have a world message; we are under a world obligation. We must lift our eyes and see this work in its whole- ness as the Lord has revealed it to us, and as we have been taught since the days long gone by.
I have the feeling, brethren, that we can't accomplish this work unless we give our whole selves to it. Half- hearted service will not suffice. There must be complete surrender to this (Concluded on page 304)
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
VL VALUE OF THE INDIVIDUAL
JOSEPH F. MERRILL
Brethren, we are alone this evening, the microphone having been switched off from the powerful KSL broadcasting station. We, there- fore, become a priesthood leadership meeting of the same type as we are now
holding as a part of stake quarterly con- ferences. So it will be in order for me, I hope, to talk about matters that primarily con- cern priest- hood officers.
In the bish- ops' meeting last evening in this hall, Bish- op M. O. Ash- ton told two stories that deeply impressed me. Each story was about a bishop and some boys. In the first one, a group of boys engaged in some Halloween pranks of a rather serious, provocative nature. The bishop secured the names of the boys and charged them to come to the sacrament meeting and publicly ask for- giveness for engaging in the pranks com- mitted, on pain of excommunication for failure to do so. In consequence there are in that community today a number of families that grew up outside of the Church.
In the second case a group of boys and a bishop were involved. A weddin party was held at the bishop's home, big freezer of ice cream waited on the back porch for the refreshment hour. When the cream was to be served, it was observed that the freezer was empty. Pondering over the matter the bishop decided to invite the guilty boys to an ice cream festival and provided two freezers of cream for the occasion. All the boys accepted the invitation. When the lads were seated at the feast, it was noticed that tears began to run down one boy's face. Soon all the other boys were in tears also. From among that group have come some of the finest leaders in their community.
Those were the factual stories told by Bishop Ashton. Hearing them I was reminded of section 121 : 39-41, Doctrine and Covenants, which reads as follows :
We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. Hence many are called, but few are chosen. No power or influence can or ought to be main- tained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned.
'T'he two bishops of the story were un-
doubtedly actuated by the best of
motives. Not for a moment would I
MAY, 1945
£ju do5epk J: rl/ler'rill
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
Address delivered at the Saturday
evening session of the 115th
annual general conference,
April 7, 1945, in the
Assembly Hall
question that. But one bishop was wise and the other unwise. The thought in the mind of one was to use persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, and love, so beautifully stated in the revelation quoted. In the case of the other bishop he seems to have acted impulsively, yielding to the influence of the evil power. He forgot the scriptural injunction found in the Doctrine and Covenants 64:9-10:
Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth con- demned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will for- give whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.
I do not find in the teachings of the Master the word "must" used in the sense of force. But we do find the mes- sage of the foregoing quoted scripture printed in a beautiful hymn, found in the L.D.S. Hymn Book, 24th edition, 1905, the first two stanzas being as fol- lows:
Know this, that ev'ry 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.
He'll call, persuade, direct aright, And bless with wisdom, love, and light; In nameless ways be good and kind, But never force the human mind.
We all remember, according to the scriptures, both ancient and modern, in that great council held in heaven when a plan was being considered to offer the Father's children when they came to earth, that Lucifer, the son of the morning, was there. He wanted to be sent to earth to have charge, promis- ing the Father that all his children would be returned to him — none to be lost — provided the Lord would give Lucifer his glory. (See Moses 4:1-4.) Satan proposed to accomplish his pur- pose by the use of force — by denying men their free agency, taking from them their inalienable right that the Father gave to all his children in the spirit world as well as in the world of mortali- ty. Free agency and accountability go hand in hand — they complement each other.
But I have digressed: let me return. There is no indication in the stories Bishop Ashton told that either bishop wanted to take free agency from the
boys, but they certainly wanted to reform the boys. One succeeded, and the other failed, due to the methods employed. And this suggests the need for care, study, and prayer not only in dealing with boys but in dealing with all other people as well. Perhaps no two individuals are exactly alike. What is good for one may be bad for another. What succeeds with one may utterly fail with another. I have heard physicians say that this is one reason that makes the practice of medicine in- teresting— the fact that the doctor con- tinually faces a challenge; for what is one man's meat may be another man's poison.
In large measure, a bishop deals with individuals rather than with people en masse. If it were not so, there would often be insufficient reasons for divid- ing a large ward, for large wards have some advantages not usually possessed by smaller ones. But the need of in- dividual treatment requires of the bish- op wisdom, discernment, tact, sym- pathy, love, in order that he may suc- ceed, without giving offense, in best serving his people. Among other duties, he is required to administer programs designed to help the boys and girls of his ward. As I see it these duties, in general, are second in importance to no others. If we can save the youth of the Church, we will save the Church. I would not have anyone think, however, that the individual exists for the Church. The reverse is true — the Church exists for its members. Because this is true, the Church is perhaps the finest example of a large democratic organization found in all the world. No individual can grow up in it, taking advantage of the opportunities offered him therein, without experiencing large personal growth and development in personality, attributes, talents, powers, and other leadership qualities.
"VTes, the Church teaches the fact that each of us is a child of God, both in the spirit and in the flesh. Since in the realm of life, like begets like, we normally must possess, even though in ultramicroscopic quantities, the attri- butes of God our Father. And a char- acteristic teaching of the Church is that "as God now is man may become" — a statement in poetic language of our magnificent doctrine of eternal progres- sion. Man is in very deed the acme of creation. In the language of the Psalmist we too can ask:
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. (Psalms 8:4-5.)
So in the plan of eternal progression
life here on earth is an essential link,
and in this link the most important thing
is man — the individual. This is evident
(Continued on page 308)
249
\Jn tke *Jjeatk of
FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT
(See also page 272)
In the passing of the President of the United States, the First Presidency of the Church released this state- ment at the invitation of the press, by a request that came a few moments after the announcement of the President's passing :
The President has gone. His passing will be mourned by many millions, many of whom have regarded his course as divinely inspired. He has lived, indeed has been a part of, one of the great crises of the world's history, during which opposing political and economic ideologies have striven for mas- tery. History will give him his proper place and his due measure of greatness. He had devoted, almost fanatical friends, and bitter, implacable enemies, but all will grant him the meed of enthusiam for his policies, determination for their carrying out, and the highest courage in the presence of physical handicaps of which he rarely spoke and which he brought into subjection to an all but indomitable will. He, in common with all mankind, has this great blessing: he will be judged righteously by the Lord and re- warded for the good he has accomplished. We extend our deepest sympathy to his bereaved loved ones and friends.
C hortly after the President's passing, *~* a request came to KSL from the Columbia Broadcasting System in New York, for a Tabernacle memorial broad- cast to be presented nationwide from 9:30 to 10:00 p.m., M.W.T., Thursday evening, April 12.
The three hundred fifty members of the choir were immediately and in- dividually reached by telephone and the program and continuity were put into production. The music was presented by the choir and organ with J. Spencer Cornwall conductingand Dr. Frank W. Asper at the organ. The "spoken word" by Richard L. Evans introduced the broadcast with this sentence : "We join with you at this solemn hour, as the mu- sic of the Tabernacle Choir and Organ from Temple Square in Salt Lake City is added to the chorus of remembrance that moves across America this night" — followed later in the broadcast by these thoughts and tributes :
Again we have solemn cause to know that death comes, in the overruling purposes of God, when and to whom it will. That this day it came to the President of the United States of America at a time when world- shaping issues are being weighed in the balance, is profoundly sobering to us, and to all peoples. Franklin Delano Roosevelt is mourned this night by unnumbered multi- tudes, as far as human habitation reaches. In a lifetime almost incredible in variety and accomplishment, his determined triumph over great physical handicap and its at- tendant discouragement, will be remembered unpredictably far into the future, and cited by those who would point to achievement in the face of much difficulty. But our thoughts tonight are more for those who mourn him
250
HEIRS OF THE
& L^karted s^t. L^aULs
wwiises
y
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
O
song
CHARLES A. CALLIS
ne of our poets put into form this sublime thought:
The works of God continue, And worlds and lives abound; Improvement and progression Have one eternal round.
In this dark and cloudy day, when, like the leaves of the forest,
many sad tears are falling, we can go to the holy scrip- tures, those wells of salva- tion, and draw from them peace and
comfort which only Jesus
Christ and his prophets can give.
The Apostle Paul eloquently de- clared :
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2.)
How wonderful it is to have a finisher of our faith. There are many beginners in this world, but there are few finishers. The Lord Jesus Christ, centuries be- fore he came into mortality, uttered these words. They are found in that treasure house of knowledge, the Book of Mormon, and are as follows:
... for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever. (II Nephi 29:9.)
The work of God must be noble and grand. The Redeemer said:
in close relationship. May the peace and comfort and understanding of our Father in heaven be with them, his family. And to all men we say, God lives. His purposes do not fail of accomplishment. The destiny of snen and of nations is in his hands, even this night — and in all the days to come. May his peace be with us all.
The broadcast, widely and warmly responded to throughout the nation, re- ceived appreciative press comment, and earnest commendation from New York by those at whose request it had been presented.
Memorial music and a memorial mes- sage were also presented on the regular nationwide CBS Tabernacle broadcast, Sunday morning, April 15, 1945, "The Spoken Word" from which will appear in the June Era.
Address delivered at the Friday
afternoon session of the 1 15th
annual general conference,
April 6, 1945, in the
Assembly Hall
For this is my work and my glory — to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:39.)
I think that a Mormon elder who ex- pects to pass away his time in the here- after singing and amusing himself or resting is not worth his salt. God Al- mighty is ever engaged in the glorious work of bringing to pass the salvation of man.
I have faith that those heroes who sink in death, paying the supreme sac- rifice on the field of battle — the faithful young men, trusting in God, shall have everything made up to them. They are heirs of the promises; they shall inherit the promises. I do not know in what way God will provide the means by which these splendid men shall reach the celestial kingdom and experience all the promises fulfilled in their lives, but I have firm faith in the Lord, for his words are true; and sometime, some- where, the power and the glory of God shall rest upon them; for the Creator will finish what he has begun.
'TPhe Prophet Joseph told a weeping mother, who had lost her baby in death, that in the resurrection she would have the privilege of rearing that baby up to its full stature, and have more joy in doing that than she could have had in mortality.
An eminent divine, nationally known, said the other day:
But my friends, I could not stand in this radio pulpit, if I did not believe that the good God takes these unfinished lives, with their unfinished work, and somewhere, some- how, in his house of many mansions, gives them the glory of going on. A just and loving Heavenly Father will keep faith with those who keep faith with him.
Thus the glorious light of heaven is spreading. Heaven's morning, with the joy and knowledge of hope and progres- sion beyond the grave, is breaking in upon the lives of men. The notion that in this life only we have hope in Christ, we do not accept, for "if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable."
Our grief, by the power of God, the Author and the Finisher of our faith, is lifted from earth to heaven, and the tears are wiped away by a loving God. Glory, majesty, and power be unto Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life, the Author and the Finisher of our faith, forever and forever. Amen.
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
Christian Principles THE ONLY SECURITY
ALBERT E. BOWEN
Address delivered at the Friday
afternoon session of the 115th
annual general conference,
April 6, 1945, in the
Assembly Hall
A few years ago I read an article in a national magazine written by an obviously well informed and high principled woman. Apparently she had never married and after many years of separation made a visit to an
intimate friend of her college days who had by then two well grown children, a boy and a girl. Her story is main- ly about the shock she ex- perienced from the conduct of these two chil- dren. She not- ed that their mother, her old friend, had substantially no influence with them. The daughter's bearing towards her mother was condescending. Her moth- er's exhortations and protests were re- ceived with a patronizing air of wearied tolerance as if to say that this superior young lady would have to bear with what resignation she could the hope- lessly old-fashioned, outmoded, and impossible notions of her matured mother.
The visitor heard the worried mother protest the indelicate indiscretions of the girl in her behavior with young men without even the precaution of privacy and heard the daughter's mockery of her mother's prudery and lack of soph- istication.
The boy of the household went and came pretty much as he pleased with no questions asked or answered. Home to him was a place to sleep and have meals, if convenient.
Exhibitions of this kind were a source of deep wonder and uneasy concern, as well as of embarrassment, to the guest in the house. But the climax came as the period of her visit was drawing to its close. She was awakened in the night by a disturbance in the house and was the unwilling ear witness of a fam- ily scene. The girl it seems had come home from a late party pretty thorough- ly intoxicated and was leading her es- cort, in like condition, to her room when they were detected and intercepted by her aroused parents. There was a noisy scene before the boy was finally sent off home and the girl put to bed.
The girl made no pretense of conceal- ing from her mother her habit of flouting the conventions so far as modesty and maidenly purity were concerned. So the author ended her visit and went
MAY, 1945
vJSia ^rtbert (L>. £5owen
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
home to clear her head and do some thinking. The result was the article mentioned.
Apparently she had a quite thorough- going acquaintance with the ideas and attitudes of the youth of the day, and she undertook a searching analysis of conditions as she knew them to be and as pointedly focused upon her atten- tion by her recent visit. Her whole sense of propriety and even decency was outraged by what she had seen at her friend's home.
That friend, in the days of their girlhood association, had spontaneous- ly, and as a matter of habit and accep- tance, observed the conventions and proprieties. She had been a girl of ro- bust health and exuberance, happy, wholesome, a delightful companion of high ethical and moral standards. She had a wholesome zest for life and en- joyed living. How to account for her children!
The author examined her own life and the atmosphere in which she had been reared as well as the lives of the youth of her time including the friend she had just visited. They recognized certain self-restraints which were ex- pected of girls of good upbringing and conformed to established standards of decorum and good breeding. They still did, now that they were come to maturity of life, and were pained by the departures of today. This natural- ly led back into an examination of the influences that had gone into the shap- ing of their characters. And that car- ried the examination inevitably back to the homes in which they had been reared.
The religious note was strong in those homes. The Bible was read and believed in. Families prayed there. Daily on their knees they talked to God who was revered and was a reality. They were church-going people and set apart one day a week as a holy day to hold sacred and on which to do reverence to the Author of life. The majestic hymns they sang carried mes- sages to their expanding souls. They heard the simple, direct, soulful, and convincing words of the gospels whose grandeur somehow silently carried over into their hearts and furnished the ideals for their living. Those ideals through practice were silently woven into the pattern of their lives, and they came out with established characters, and stable guides to conduct, which made them secure against the waves of lax- ity which washed about them with the changes of time.
Then the author did what to me
seemed a most astonishing thing. She proceeded to explain that, of course, she and her friend and their associates had in their college years given up the simple faith of their youth, had ceased to give credence to the beliefs which had sustained them, had given up their Bible reading and their church- going and their Sabbath observance and their prayers. They found that these artificial props were not neces- sary to their living of the good life. They didn't need the church — group practice of religion — they had their own religion which was quite sufficient, though really it was only a certain code of ethics originally rooted in their re- ligion but now cut loose from its roots and dying because no longer nourished from the roots. With an amazingly art- less simplicity, she deplored and was baffled by the barbarity of her friend's children without apparent conscious- ness of her own incredible failure to recognize the relations of cause and ef- fect. Her friend's attitude toward re- ligion and religious practices was sim- ilar to her own. Yet here she was mys- tified by the moral bankruptcy of her friend's children who had been de- prived of the very character-forming influences upon which the strength of her own character and of her friend's character, and the characters of their generation had depended for formation and growth.
"\Tt7HAT right have parents or others to " " complain that children's standards are not up to their own when they have deprived those children of the very faith and practices upon which their standards have been established? By her own confession the author whose analysis we are considering and like- wise the mother of the children whose conduct had provoked her study had been themselves living on the early- gathered fruits of a now discarded faith.
That might suffice to carry them through from the force of established habit. But with that faith discarded there was nothing to bear new fruit for the nourishment of the next generation. She and her friends had been living upon and had consumed their spiritual capital, and there was no inheritance left for the children.
It seems incredible that this highly intellectual woman whose penetrating insight had so unerringly led her to put her finger on the factors most power- ful in the stabilization of herself and friends could have been so wholly ob- livious to the need of those same in- fluences in the lives of new generations. (Continued on page 290)
251
L^katten^
e TO THE PRIESTHOOD
Address delivered at the Sunday
afternoon session of the 115th
annual general conference,
April 8, 1945, in the
Tabernacle
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
HAROLD B. LEE
When one is called as the last speaker at the end of the seventh session of a general conference, when thirty-three of the finest minds in the Church have spoken, he isn't con- cerned about what he may have
planned to speak, but he is concerned only about saying in those few minutes allotted him what his
Heavenly Fa- ther would like to have him say. That is my prayer in these few mo- ments.
I heard a story told from one of the war fronts where our ad- vancing soldiers were going into the land of a people who were fleeing from the ruthless enemy. These people be- lieved in and worshiped a pagan god. As the conquering army made up of the allied nations advanced toward the stricken town, they met long lines of refugees with few or no belongings, fleeing from the enemy. The chaplain was called to administer aid to an old lady who had fallen, unable to go fur- ther. She was in her dying moments. He knelt at her side to administer physi- cal and spiritual aid. He told her about the Savior of the world, how the Savior had come and died for mankind, how he came as the Prince of Peace and how he ministered among those who were sick, needy, and afflicted, how he or- ganized a work that had become a great work. This work had gone throughout the world under the banner of Chris- tianity. As he finished his story of com- fort, as he thought, to this dying woman, she looked up at him with dying eyes and asked, "Where have you Chris- tians been all this time?"
7V s I thought of that question I thought "^ of a visit I had with two of our Latter-day Saint marines who had just come back from the terrible fighting over Tarawa and others of the islands of the Pacific. They had found them- selves through all these trying times in company with twenty-five Latter-day Saint boys. One of these two boys had been set apart by Brother Brown as the M.I.A. group leader and had ministered as the leader and the father of the group. As he told me about these boys, he said, "We kept most of them clean and 252
sweet, but there are some of them that have slipped away from us. They have taken up habits that have not been good. I felt it was my responsibility, and I have done what I could to save some of them." Then I asked them this question, "Tell me, you two who have lived among these boys, what is the reason that some of our boys have kept themselves straight and others of our boys have slipped away from us?" Let me tell you what they said without any hesitancy: "The boys who have kept themselves clean have had regular correspondence with their wards and their priesthood quorums, and the boys who have fallen away from us are the ones who have never had a letter from their priesthood quorums or from their ward bishop." As I heard this simple testimony to the Tightness of the instruc- tion that you heard from this stand when this war had only just begun, and when I remembered that the priesthood of Almighty God was the power given by him to more than two hundred thou- sand of us to work and act in his name for the salvation of the souls of men — I paraphrased the words of that dying old pagan woman, "Where have the priesthood quorums been all this time?" I am hopeful that our boys won't return home without having had their quo- rums make some contact and some tie to which they can come when they do return.
I think if we could sum up the feelings of our boys as they return to us and have them tell us what it was that kept them firm and steadfast, they would say two things: First, that they have had an interest in life, and second, that they have believed there was someone at home who was concerned about them.
I listened to a doctor recently who said that the medical journals reported that the boys who had become mentally unbalanced in large majority, were the boys who had broken homes, whose wives or sweethearts had been unfaith- ful at home.
We have heard much in this confer- ence about our boys. We have heard but little about our girls. How much preparation are you making for the girl who has changed during this trying pe- riod? How much concerned are you that she will "come home"? And I am talking to the ones that live in your homes, for they, too, during this period, have gone through a most difficult time.
Chall I tell you what the boys have ^ been doing among themselves to keep going and to help each other to come back to the point of sanity and re- habilitation after they have been
through the struggle of war? Perhaps if I can give you three things that they have told us repeatedly maybe you bishops, you priesthood quorum presi- dents, you stake presidents, will take from their lessons, something to help you to build on the foundation that must be builded upon for their salvation. In the first place, we don't know how the boys are coming back, nor what they will truly need. We are sure that when they come back they will be a little bit more of that which they were before they left. If they loved God and home and country a little before they went away, they will come back loving God still more and knowing him to be a reality, loving home more and with more faith. If they were boastful before they went into the war, they will come back unbearable braggarts. If they were in- clined to immorality when they left us, they will come back slimy in their sin- ning, just so sure as we are here.
This is what they have done in their own little groups to try to help stabilize each other: In the first place, they have organized themselves into what they call ward teaching groups. At Fort Lowry, near Denver, down at Oak Knoll Hospital, for example, where our boys are coming back, they are send- ing out in pairs from their groups, those who are faithful, to visit the boys who will not come to their meetings, who have taken up habits that are keeping them out of sight. They talk of these boys and ask them, "Are you morally clean? Are you keeping the Word of Wisdom? Are you writing home to your parents? Are you true to your priest- hood?" When I asked them, "Isn't that pretty plain language to talk to these boys," they replied, "But how are we going to help these boys if we don't know what is the matter with them?"
Are you as courageous, you ward teachers? Do you really want to help? Then you must do the kind of ward teaching that the Lord said we were to do, if you are to help. The next thing they do is to teach the gospel. They don't preach sermons in great general- ities. They are searching into the scrip- tures. During these last few months, when I have had a somewhat intimate contact with the youth of the Church, I have found that they are hungry for the teachings of the gospel, and they tell me that rarely in the sacrament meetings where they attended do they hear the gospel taught to the members.
"VTow, if you want to help these boys
^ when they come back, may I ask
that you do like my little bishop friend
(Continued on page 319)
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
SPENCER W. KIMBALL
Address delivered at the Saturday
morning session of the 115th
annual general conference,
April 7, 1945, in the
Assembly Hall
MY beloved brethren here and breth- ren and sisters of the radio audi- ence : It is a great privilege and inspiration to be here in this conference of the Church of our Lord, Jesus Christ. May the peace of heaven be with you
and us.
A woman in the Far East who had lost her boy went to the Brah- man and said: "You must give me back my boy, you must, you
must." The Brahman with calm dignity said to her: "Come, daugh- ter, you must go out and get the leaves of a plant (which was as common as the com- monest weeds with us ) and make a tea of the leaves, and drink the tea, and I will give you back your boy. But the leaves must be gathered from the door- yard of a family that has never known sorrow."
The woman traveled from village to village, and from province to province, and finally heartsore and footsore she returned to her leader saying: "Father, I have traveled all over the land, but I cannot find one home where sorrow has not been." She had returned, not to get her son back, but to be content with her lot.
Yesterday we were told in confer- ence that about nine hundred of our stalwart sons had been sacrificed in this diabolical world holocaust. It has seemed to me even more than that, for as I have gone about the Church I have been confronted with such sorrow in all parts of the country.
These tragic stories of sons killed in the training fields and theaters of war have not been limited to any individual, or locality, but everywhere our rela- tives and friends weep in their loneli- ness and sorrow.
Tl^AY I read to you a letter which I wrote sometime ago to a mother of my acquaintance whose son had just been killed in battle? I do earnestly pray that some thought contained therein might have brought to her and may bring to others a bit of hope and com- fort and courage.
Dear Sister :
Very recently I have been enter- tained in the homes of parents who have lost young sons, still in their teens and early twenties; sons who were as clean and sweet in their lives as their mothers; sons who had ability and had developed their talents and possessed also the spirit
MAY, 1945
ii
^JkiA J^>on czLivetk
u
By SPENCER W.KIMBALL
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
and desire to use them for the advance- ment of the work of the Lord. It has caused me to ponder deeply.
One particular mother who poured out her soul to me was inclined to be bitter. She said:
Why would the Lord take my son from
me? Why didn't the Lord answer my pray- ers and save him? I know my son has re- mained clean; why should he be taken? Not only he, but the entire family has always been faithful; why is our worthiness not recognized? Why should he die so young when he was so righteous?
Well, you know the responsibility I felt in attempting to answer her. With all my soul I prayed that the Father would help me to bring her comfort.
As I sat in meditation my mind went back to a little hill, far away on which were silhouetted against the deepening shadows of a black, tragic day, three crosses on which were human beings writhing in the agonies of death, and the central One cried out:
My God, my God, why hast thou for- saken me! (Matt. 27:46.)
And I seem to see at the foot of the heavy cross the crouching figure of a mother torn in agony, saying:
Why should he die? So young, so pure, so able to teach the world a better way? Why, oh, why?
Then I seem to see another more modern picture of a mother grief- stricken, watching the approaching car- avan which was bringing two beloved sons home from a foul martyrdom in a jail some distance away, and I can al- most hear her through her sobs :
Why should they be killed? Why should they be taken from the infant Church which needs them so much? Why must they die, so young, so pure, so strong?
Then I realize that God does not take these lives. It is permitted because men have their free agency.
Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! (Matt. 18:7.)
Was there frustration in the martyr- dom of Joseph Smith? Joseph was pro- tected and his life saved in every in- stance of persecution until his work was finished and he had done his part in the restoration of the gospel and the priest- hood and all other keys of the dispensa- tion, and until the organization of the kingdom was effected. He could not be killed before that time, though all hell raged against him. He wanted to live.
Life was sweet to him. It held promise of sweet associations with his family, his brethren, and the satisfaction of see- ing the work blossom into a full-blown flower. But his work was done; other strong leaders could now carry on; he was needed in other fields. Only in his thirties, a very young man, he died, and commenced his work in other realms.
"\T7as there defeat in the crucifixion of * ■■ Jesus the Christ? If so, all creation were doomed and man would have re- mained in sin. If so, the crucifixion would not have taken place until a later date — until his hour had come. His life was not taken from him — he gave his life. To Peter, who smote off the ear of one of the mob, he said:
. . . the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? (John 18:11) and thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? (Matt. 26:53.)
He was young, only 33. He loved life also. He wanted to live for the richness that he could see in it — his friends, his growing kingdom, his brethren, his mother. Life was sweet to him. Did he not pray in Gethsemane:
. . . O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matt. 26:39.)
Then as the time passed, and no posi- tive answer came to his supplication, he cried out again in his torture :
O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. (Matt. 26:42.)
In the first prayer he still seemed to have a glimmer of hope that something could be done about it, but in the latter it seemed to have been definitely settled in his mind that no adjustment could be made, and in order that the purposes of God might not fail he must drink the bitter cup.
He was taken from his mother, though it broke her heart. His prayer, perhaps the most sincere and worthy ever ut- tered, was not answered as she would have had it. His was the perfect life, clean, guileless, divine, and yet he passed. His mother was devout as also were some of his people, yet his life ebbed. He was young and had not had time to establish himself in life. His first thirty years were spent in prepara- tion; his next three years in originating and developing his program, and now when he could have turned over to his followers much of the detail of the ( Continued on page 294 )
253
THE IMPORTANCE OF
i5y L^zra Uart ^5k
i6Sionan
v
Work
>en5on
E COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
EZRA TAFT BENSON
Address delivered at the Saturday
evening session of the 115th
annual general conference,
April 7, 1945, in the
Assembly Hall
I cannot refrain, my brethren, from expressing my personal gratification on the selection of the two fine men, Brothers Seymour Dilworth Young and Milton Reed Hunter to serve as mem- bers of the General Authorities of the
Church, As one who has recently come into the pre- siding councils of the Church, I can assure them that they can look for- ward to some of the sweet- est, most soul- satisfying ex- periences that come to men in this life. With all my heart I welcome them and assure them of my love and confidence.
I have been impressed during this conference, with the great responsibil- ities and obligations resting upon this Church and its people, I was impressed with the inspiring message of President Grant, which called to our attention some of these obligations which are ours as leaders. I have often felt that there are three great and important ob- ligations, possibly over-shadowing all others, which rest upon this people and upon this great Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first of these, at least in the order of emphasis in this dispensation, is that of missionary work — the responsibility which rests upon this people to carry the message of the restored gospel to the people of the world. We have been engaged in that work ever since the Church was organ- ized, yea, even before. Secondly, we have the responsibility of building up the stakes and wards and branches of Zion. This entails the building of a material kingdom, as well as a spiritual kingdom. It entails the providing of facilities — houses of worship, temples, seminary buildings — that are so neces- sary for us to carry on the spiritual part of the program. It entails taking care of our people, temporally, physical- ly, culturally, and socially, as well as spiritually. And in the third place, we have the great responsibility of per- forming certain sacred ordinances in the temples of the Lord, — a responsibility which rests upon every holder of the 254
priesthood as well as upon the sisters of the Church.
[ was pleased to note the importance . which President Grant placed in his message on the first mentioned obliga- tion— that of missionary service. In reading the revelations which the Lord has given to us in this dispensation, I have been impressed to note that prob- ably on no other subject has he referred so frequently as in the case of our ob- ligation as a people to carry this mes- sage of the restored gospel to the people of the world. In reading again the rev- elations which the Lord has given us, I noted that at least twenty-five to thirty of these revelations make specific men- tion of this great responsibility which is ours. I noted too that in some of the revelations, given more than a year be- fore the Church was organized, the Lord made special mention of this im- portant mission of the Latter-day Saints. May I call your attention, this evening, to a few of those revelations? There will not be time to discuss, in any de- tail, any of them. I simply call them to your attention. In February of 1829, the Lord said this:
Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.
Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day. (D. & C. 4:1,2.)
Then he goes on to point out in that and other revelations :
Behold, the field is white already to har- vest; therefore, whoso desireth to reap, let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treas- ure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God. (D. & C. 6:3.)
Many of those who came in contact with the Prophet Joseph, even prior to the organization of the Church, became convinced and received testimonies of the genuineness of his message. It was not an uncommon thing for them to ap- proach the Prophet and ask him to in- quire of the Lord as to their responsi- bilities and obligations. You recall the important part played by the Whitmer family. It was in the home of Peter Whitmer, Sr., that the Book of Mormon was translated — at least the latter part of it was completed there, John, David, and Peter Whitmer, Jr., approached the Prophet and asked if he would inquire of the Lord as to what they might do, — what was their duty as men who had recently received the testimony of the truth. The Prophet made inquiry and we have three sections of the Doctrine and Covenants devoted to the answer
to these inquiries. They are very sim- ilar. May I read from section 15- — the answer to the request of John Whitmer.
Hearken, my servant John, and listen to the words of Jesus Christ, your Lord and your Redeemer.
For behold, I speak unto you with sharp- ness and with power, for mine arm is over all the earth.
And I will tell you that which no man knoweth save me and thee alone —
For many times you have desired of me to know that which would be of most worth unto you.
Behold, blessed are you for this thing, and for speaking my words which I had given you according to my commandments.
And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this peo- ple, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father, Amen.
Jt was only a short time after this that the Lord in another revelation, in which he indicated the calling of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles in this dispensation, made this statement:
Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;
For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suf- fered death in the flesh; wherefore he suf- fered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. (D. & C. 18:10 and 11.)
And further:
And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father. (D. & C. 18: 15.)
The Lord spoke frequently regarding the obligations of the elders of the Church and ofttimes commended them for their faithfulness and devotion, even to the extent of indicating that whatever they spoke when moved upon by the Holy Ghost would be the will of the Lord, the word of the Lord, and would be scripture to the people. Yet, at times, in those days, as in this day, there were men who feared men more than the Lord, and occasionally he had reason to chastise some of the elders of the Church.
In section 60, we read the following verse :
But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their mouths, but they hide the talent which I have given unto them, because of the fear of man. Wo unto such, for mine anger is kindled against them.
And then in the 68th section — reference to which I have already made —
And whatsoever they shall speak when
moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be
scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall
be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word
{Continued on page 307)
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
ON SUSTAINING
Dm y flam (L. f^etefden
^Svuth
on
•t
t
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
MARK E. PETERSEN
One day an ancient prophet called his son to his side and talked with him about liberty. They dis- cussed the free agency which God has given to us all, which permits every man to choose his own course in life, wheth- er good or bad. The fa- ther told his son that it is impossible for a man to exer- cise his right of choice un- less alterna- tives are placed before him : virtue and vice, light and darkness, the bitter and the sweet. Then he said, "Man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other." Therefore, "it must needs be that there is an opposition in all things." The ancient prophet told his son that this opposition in all things had existed from the beginning of time and that even in the Garden of Eden the forbidden fruit stood in opposition to the tree of life. (See II Nephi 2:11- 16.)
When Jesus began his ministry, he also dealt with this opposition in all things. He recognized that evil is in the world, and he acknowledged that all men have their free agency and have the right to choose between the good and the evil. All through his ministry he taught men to choose the right and told them of the many blessings they would receive if they would do so.
Again he said that if men were to choose the evil they would be con- demned; that their offences would bring sorrow, not only upon other men but upon themselves. Therefore, he said:
Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh. (Matt. 18:7.)
As he went about in his ministry, Jesus was met with varied reactions. There were some who gladly accepted him, followed him wherever he went and tried to live his teachings. There were some who were indifferent, and then there were others who openly opposed him. So the people of that day had before them a clear working example of the law of opposition in all things. On the one hand was Jesus preaching the way of life; on the other were the Scribes and the Pharisees who fought him at every step. Then
MAY, 1945
there were the indifferent ones. Can we say that they were for the Lord or against him, or were they merely, as we say, indifferent? I call to your mind that the indifferent ones did not keep the commandments, and by their indifference they encouraged others to be indifferent, and as the others be- came indifferent, they also refused to obey the commandments of the Lord their God.
These indifferent ones built up a bar- rier against the Christ, and as they spread the example of disobedience they became a hindrance to him in his work, and for that reason the Lord said :
He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. (Matt. 12:30.)
At another time he said, "Ye are my friend, if ye do whatsoever I command you"; and then again he said, "He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings." His attitude regarding the indifferent ones is further shown by the message of the Lord to the seven churches as given to John on Patmos; and you remember what was said to one of those churches :
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Rev. 3:15, 16.)
So with the Lord we take sides. We are either for him or we are against him. We are strengthening his work or we are weakening his work. Every Latter-day Saint should ask himself whether he is for the Lord or whether he is against the Lord; whether his deeds are sustaining and strengthening the work of God or whether his deeds, even his indifference, are weakening the work of the Lord.
,rpHEN there is another lesson which the Lord taught in those days, and that lesson was this : that we cannot be for the Lord and at the same time be against his authorized servants.
Jesus well understood that he would not remain long in mortality and that his ministry would necessarily be limited, and so he planned to follow the age- old example of the Lord in raising up and calling to the ministry living proph- ets, authorized men of God, to carry on the work.
But in doing so it was necessary for the Lord to warn these servants in the ministry of the attitude of the people. He remembered that in the ages past there had been a tendency on the part of the people to resist, reject, persecute, and even slay the prophets of God, and Jesus knew that that tendency continued even in his own day because he had
Address delivered at the Friday
afternoon session of the 115th
annual general conference,
April 6, 1945, in the
Assembly Hall
felt it. And now, as he was about to send forth his authorized servants to minister among the people, and having in mind this tendency, he said to them, "I send you forth as lambs among wolves."
What a commentary upon those who reject and resist and persecute the au- thorities of the Church. What a rebuke from the Lord himself to those who stand in opposition to the servants of the Lord.
He tried to comfort these disciples. He told them that whosoever would receive his authorized servants would receive him; and whosoever received him would receive him who sent the Lord. But then he said:
... he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me. (Luke 10:16.)
Remember, he was speaking to the authorities of the Church. Then he said further :
. . . whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, . . . Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judg- ment, than for that city. (Matt. 10:14-15.)
Then with this warning these chosen servants of the Lord, these authorities of the early day Church, went forth as commanded by the Lord, and they tasted of the opposition in all things. There was opposition within the Church, and there was opposition out of the Church. Persecution both within and without increased. The spirit of apostasy spread, and finally apostasy overcame the Church. The leaders of the Church were destroyed, and taken out of the ministry. The people were left in darkness, and gross darkness cov- ered their minds, and we had a complete apostasy from the truth.
It was decreed, however, that in the last days there should be a restoration of the Church, and we who are here are witnesses of the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored in these last days. But it has been restored upon the same basis that the Church was built upon in ancient times and is founded upon a foundation of apostles and prophets. In other words, the au- thorities of the present day Church were especially appointed by the Lord to represent him in these last days because he could not be here always in person any more than he could in the days of Paul. Therefore, the Lord spoke (Continued on page 291 )
255
e_-
PREPARING FOR
When Brigham Young first saw the valley of the Great Salt Lake, he gazed intently for a time and then said to his companions, "This is the right place."
In a little more than two years one of the most outstanding centennials of all western history will occur. The one hundredth anniversary of the date upon which President Brigham Young made this memorable statement, "This is the place," is important not only to those who live in the valley of the Great Salt Lake or Utah, or in the intermountain region, or in western America- — it is one of America's most noteworthy anniver- saries. It marks the beginning of the settlement and development of most of the states of the West.
When the great pioneer leader on July 24, 1847, indicated that "the moun- tain of the Lord's house" was to be "es- tablished in the tops of the mountains," reaching out from the valley which lay before him, the destiny of the whole of western America was determined. His exact words as given by Wilford Woodruff, in whose carriage he was riding and who later became president of the Church, were: "It is enough. This is the right place, Drive on." With that declaration, shortened later to "This is the place" the tired and weary Pioneers knew that their long trek was at an end. They knew that here the foundations of Zion were to be laid — that here would be established the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that "all nations would flow unto it." They knew, too, that with many thousands to follow them, many during that same season, and more and more as means of travel and sustenance could be made available, the country in every direction must be explored and plans made to establish "settlements" where the immigrants could establish their homes. Before that exploration
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THIS IS THE PLACE
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY-TREASURER,
"THIS IS THE PLACE" MONUMENT
COMMISSION
was finished, hundreds of settlements, large and small, had been established in all the western states, Mexico and Canada.
HPhus the centennial of "This Is the Place" is of special interest, not only to all the West by reason of the influence which that event has had on the settlement and development of the West, but to the entire nation because of the influence the decision made at that time has had upon the entire union — the United States of America.
As the centennial approaches, much will be written of the faith, the heroism, the suffering, and the achievements of those who gave so much to establish the restored Church of Jesus Christ in what was then described as a "vast and worthless wilderness." Richly deserved honors will be given to those who made "the desert blossom as the rose." It is hoped that the most gifted and inspired pens will tell this epic story to the world between now and July 24, 1947.
Preparations are gradually taking definite form for a reverent, respectful, and wholly appropriate celebration. Several groups are already at work on plans to make this anniversary properly commemorate the event it signalizes. One of the first of the major projects definitely to get under way is that of building a magnificent monument to cost upwards of $250,000.00 at the mouth of Emigration Canyon. The site chosen is near the spot where the carriage in which President Young was riding was turned to provide a view of the Salt Lake Valley, and where he uttered the words which since have been carried around the world — "This is the place."
"President Heber J. Grant is chairman of the state commission, appointed by the late Governor Henry H. Blood in 1937 to plan and build the monument. Other officers selected at that time were: Most Rev. D. G. Hunt, bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake, first vice chairman; George Albert Smith, second vice chairman; Joseph E. Cardon, third vice chairman; Herbert S. Auerbach, fourth vice chairman; Mrs. Cornelia S. Lund, fifth vice chairman; John D. Giles, executive secretary and treasurer; Ira A. Huggins, assistant secretary and treasurer. Other members of the original
MODEL OF "THIS IS THE PLACE" MONUMENT BY MAHONRI YOUNG
256
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
commission were: Rt. Rev. A. W. Moulton, Rabbi Samuel H. Gordon, Gen. Walter C. Sweeney, E. B. Erwin, Silas E. Tanner, Taylor H. Woolley, Mrs. Ida M. Kirkham, Joel E. Ricks, Mrs. Fred Davidson, Alice Reynolds, John A. Anderson, Levi Edgar Young, William H. Reeder, Jr., George W. Middleton, J. Francis Fowles, John P. Madsen, Fred W. Keller, Glenn E. Snow, Mrs. Blanche Woods, R. H. Wootton, George Q. Morris, Mrs. John T. Wahlquist and Walter M. Stookey. Death and removal have caused some vacancies.
On motion of President Heber J. Grant, chairman of the commission, the cost of the monument was set at "not less than $250,000.00." Of this amount, $125,000.00 has been appropriated by the state of Utah. In addition $20,000.00 has been provided by the state of Utah in the past for preliminary work. The state appropriation of $125,000.00 was made on condition that an additional $125,000.00 would be raised by popular subscription. A campaign for that pur- pose is now under way. The plan being followed will make it possible for every descendant of a Utah pioneer, and all others who desire to contribute to the fund, to have his name deposited in a receptacle in the monument.
Sculptor of the monument, who has been at work for nearly six years on the models, is Mahonri Mackintosh Young, son of Mahonri Moriancumer Young, whose father was President Brigham Young. Sculptor Young was not se- lected because of his relationship to the prophet, pioneer and statesman who was his forebear, but because of his widely recognized ability and his stand- ing as one of the master sculptors of the world. Of him Encyclopedia Bri- tannica says:
Young, Mahonri Mackintosh (1877. — ). American sculptor, painter and etcher, was born at Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 9, 1877. ... He studied with J. T. Harwood, Salt Lake City, at the Art Students League, New York City, and at the Julien and other academies in Paris. After his return to the United States he became instructor in draw- ing at the Art Students' League and later instructor in sculpture at the American School of Sculpture. His work is character- ized by simplicity, dignity, and breadth of conception, united with exquisite workman- ship. He is known chiefly through his statuettes, figures of laborers and cowboys, which exhibit close observation of nature and virile form. Among his best known works are "Man With Pick" in the Metro- politan Museum of Art, the Hopi and Apache groups in the Museum of Natural History, New York City, "A Laborer" and "The Rigger" in the free public library, Newark, N.J., the "Seagull" monument at Salt Lake City, "Rolling His Own" and "Monument to the Dead" (with Bertram Goodhue) in Paris.
Who's Who in America says :
Young, Mahonri (Mackintosh), sculptor, painter, etcher, b. Salt Lake City, August 9, 1877. s. Mahonri M. and Agnes (Mack- intosh) Y. Pupil Art Students League, New York; Julien, Colorossi and Delacluse Acads., Paris. State prizes for painting and sculpture, Utah Arts Inst., 1906; Helen Fos- ter Barnett prize, Nat. Acad, Design, 1911;
MAY, 1945
hon. mention Am. Art Assn., Paris, for etch- ing, 1904; hon. mention Buenos Aires for sculpture, 1910; silver medal for sculpture, Panama P. I. Expn., 1915; prize for portrait Nat. Acad. Design, 1931; first prize for sculpture, Olympic games, Los Angeles, 1932; A.N.A., 1912, N.A. 1923, Mem. So- ciety of American Etchers, Inst. Arts and Letters. . . .
"KTembers of the monument commis- sion who have visited the sculptor's studio at Ridgefield, Connecticut, while the work has been in progress, are con- vinced that when completed "This Is the Place" monument will be one of the great works of art of this nation and of the world.
The monument will have an over-all height of more than sixty feet; its width is eighty- four feet. The site which was granted by act of Congress in 1936 to the Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association is on an eminence which commands a view of the entire Salt Lake Valley. Present plans are to com- plete the models and begin the land- scaping of the twenty-acre park which will surround the monument during 1945; to build the granite structure and cast the fifteen bronze models and com- plete the landscaping in 1946; leaving only the placing of the bronze and com- pletion of the landscaping for the spring of 1947. It is planned to dedicate the monument on July 24, 1947, as a part of the great centennial celebration now be- ing planned by a special state commis- sion, of which President David O. Mc- Kay is chairman.
Readers of The Improvement Era, and especially those who are members of the Mutual Improvement Associa- tions, will have more than ordinary in- terest in what will be the culmination of many years of trail marking and pres- ervation of pioneer landmarks by that organization. In 1915, a party organ- ized by the M.I.A., following the last thirty-six miles of the Mormon pioneer trail from Henefer in Weber County to the Salt Lake Valley, and with the aid of the original Pioneer journals, established the location where President Young gained his first view of the Salt Lake Valley and made the statement which is now familiar in all parts of the world where members of the Church are found. In the party which established the site were President George Albert Smith of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, then a member of the general board of Y.M.M.I.A., and later its gen- eral superintendent, who was leader of the party; B. H. Roberts and Andrew Jenson, assistant Church historians; Presiding Patriarch Hyrum G. Smith; Nephi L. Morris; Oscar A. Kirkham; John D. Giles; and others. When the Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association, which initiated the move- ment for "This Is the Place" monument was formed, President George Albert Smith became its president, and has guided its efforts for the past fifteen years.
In 1921, the M.I. A. erected the cast stone monument with the familiar buf- falo skull design which has stood guard to mark the site until a more suitable
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Jke
CLASSIC PERIOD
or the Southwest By DR. CHARLES E. DIBBLE
During the years 900 to 1300 A.D. the Pueblo Indians of the South- west made rapid cultural prog- ress. Superior stone masonry enabled the Indians to construct three and four story apartment houses. To this period belong the large population concentra- tions found in Mesa Verde and Chaco
MESA VERDE MUG, AND CHACO PITCHER IN BLACK AND WHITE
Canyon. It may be that these large vil- lages were built up in response to a de- sire to live together in greater numbers, or it may have been a, measure of pro- tection against intruding enemies.
This period of four centuries can be characterized as a period of high cultur- al development. In fact, the last two centuries are referred to as the "Classic Period" of the Southwest. This is the period when the Southwest made signal gains in pottery, masonry, religion, and the art of living together.
During this period of Pueblo history there was a tendency for local areas to specialize in a particular form of black and white pottery. Centers of regional pottery appeared at Mesa Verde, Colo- rado; Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; and Kayenta, Arizona. The inhabitants of the Mesa Verde area exhibited a prefer- ence for a black and white mug; the Chaco Canyon potters produced a characteristic long necked and short bodied pitcher; in the Kayenta area polychrome pottery appears.
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monument could be erected. It still stands in the place which previously had been indicated by two temporary wooden markers placed by the M.I.A.
257
JOSEPH F. SMITH
Address delivered at the Sunday
afternoon session of the 115th
annual general conference;
April 8, 1945, in the
Tabernacle
This is great company. I wish to thank my Father in heaven for the incomparable privilege of being a little part of it.
As I have listened to this conference, beginning with the message of the
Lord's proph- et, and have felt the cumu- lative power of the suc- ceeding testi- monies and admonitions, I have been in- creasingly aware that if I am to make any contribu- tion at all it must be with the help of my Father in
heaven, for which I pray, and I ask you to join me in that prayer.
I wish to record before this present congregation and before the unseen audience my emphatic witness, without hint of reservation, that Jesus of Naza- reth was the Christ, is the anointed One of Israel, the very Redeemer of the world, that he rose from the tomb in a literal resurrection which, by the Christian world, is not believed, in spite of its flaunted celebration of Easter. I wish further to record that because of the wickedness of men the gospel was taken from the earth and that in this dispensation was restored, and that the priesthood of Almighty God was re- stored with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery as instruments, that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of the Living God and that every one of his successors is also a prophet.
^Jot long ago, some weeks ago, I re- "^ ceived a letter from a Canadian boy in England. He said in part:
Will you promise to do something for me when and if you manage to get to Edmonton this summer? Will you go to my home and see my mother and talk about me a little? She likes me a lot, and she likes to talk about me to someone else. Since you may be in Edmonton, and especially if something has happened to me by that time, you could gratify this little trait of hers. With love, Roy.
And just a month ago there came to my desk in the tortured handwriting of a grief-stricken mother this letter :
Mr. Smith, Roy has gone. Please will you say a sermon for him?
Roy was not a member of the Church. He was a boy of great talent, a boy of great promise, and he is gone as thou- sands of others are going, killed in bat- tle.
What sermon shall we say for Roy, together with the thousands of our own boys and the tens of thousands of
258
THE