Le besoin principal de l'Amérique — la religion

[FR] America's chief need — religion ¶

[FR] Is this nation, though it is the strongest, richest country in the world, headed for destruction? It is, say good authorities, unless the growing disrespect for law is stopped. ¶

[FR] "Growing disrespect for law," says James W. Good, Secretary of War for the United States, "unless it is stopped, will end in our destruction." ¶

What is Wrong with America?

[FR] A volume that was on the reading course of the M. I. A. last year bears the title, "What Ails Our Youth?" In the light of what the Secretary of War has said, it may be appropriate to ask also, "What ails our country?" ¶

[FR] "Train up a child in the way he should go, and, when he is old he will not depart from it." So says Solomon in Proverbs 22 :6. It may be that the citizens of the United States were not, in the days of their youth, trained up in the way they should go ; or that the young folks in our country today are not being well trained ; for it is a leading educator, George A. Coe, a professor at Columbia University, who has written a book with the title, "What Ails Our Youth ?" ¶

[FR] The Washington Post of March 9 devotes a whole page in large type to the following: ¶

[FR] "TO THE YOUTH OF WASHINGTON" ¶

[FR] "Where will you be five years from now? ¶

[FR] "What will be your mental outlook on life at that time? What your associates? What will be your physical and financial status? What your religious and mental standards? ¶

[FR] "It is sure that what you are doing now will point almost exactly to the answer of these questions. ¶

[FR] "Few men or women are able to make sweeping revisions in their modes of living overnight. ¶

[FR] "Most changes come in a gradual way. What man can stop a hundred bad habits in one day and begin a hundred good ones the next? ¶

[FR] "It isn't done that way. Life is a constant change, with everything being done by easy stages. The paths you are treading today will become broader and easier to follow, no matter in which direction they are leading. ¶

[FR] WHERE WILL YOU BE? ¶

[FR] "Where you will be five years from today depends upon whether you are a little better or a little worse tomorrow or a month from today. ¶

[FR] "Try to elevate yourself a little each day. Save a little money each week, deposit it carefully or invest it wisely, and you will be surprised at the growth in five years. ¶

[FR] "Spend your money and time foolishly, associate with wrong companions, and in five years you probably will be a liability to your community and a disgrace to your family. ¶

[FR] "Apply this test to the things you want to do — 'If I continue this indefinitely, where shall I be in five years ?' " ¶

[FR] This stirring appeal to the youth of the capital of the nation is signed by one hundred and ninety-two business men of that city. It thus appears that these business men also are asking : "What Ails Our Youth?" And may I ask: "What Ails Our Country?" Growing disrespect for law, our Secretary of War has said, is leading us to destruction. ¶

Prison Records of Crime

The records of a reformatory at Pendleton, Indiana, may throw light on what ails our young people. During twenty years they have received in that institution 20,000 young men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. This means an average of 1,000 a year. Of these 20,000 young men in that reformatory only four per cent claimed membership in any Église. These statistics may be the answer to the questions, What ails our youth? and What ails our country? ¶

[FR] May not conditions today be similar to those prevailing on the 30th day of April, 1863? Then Abraham Lincoln, as President of the United States, issued a proclamation setting apart that day as a day of fasting and prayer. ¶

The Wisdom of Lincoln

[FR] These were his words: ¶

[FR] "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. ¶

[FR] "We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our own hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. ¶

Our Greatest Need

[FR] "It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." ¶

[FR] What is it that the youth of our country needs, that the people of our nation must have, if our land is to be preserved from destruction ? It is religion. The people of the nation must follow more closely the teachings and the example of him who came to bring "Peace on earth, good will to men." ¶

[FR] Let us look to the words of the Master himself for an answer. ¶

Men Must Have the New Birth

[FR] "There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews : "The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God : for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. ¶

[FR] "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ¶

"Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? * * * "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. * * * "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." (Jean 3:1-7). ¶

The Power of Prayer

[FR] So I say, this is the advice, this the counsel, this the instruction, and these are the commands for the citizens of our country. We "must be born again" — born "of the water and of the spirit." The one thing needful is religion. ¶

[FR] Our country is filled with men who are rich, with men who, as one well-known author, Roger W. Babson, says, ridicule religion ; but he holds that these men are indebted for all the riches they possess to the family prayers once held daily in the homes of their fathers. ¶

[FR] This is a religious country. The citizens of this land ought to be devout. Our forefathers came to this continent primarily in order to secure religious liberty. The motto of our nation is: "In God We Trust." ¶

[FR] Is there any one that dares to point with ridicule at Washington upon his knees at Valley Forge? Who is there, enjoying the liberties of this free country, that dares to ridicule Benjamin Franklin? He said: "I have lived, sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men?" Who dares point with ridicule at these men, the idols of this land of liberty ? ¶

The Example of Our Leaders

[FR] Washington, Franklin, Lincoln, Joseph Smith — each of these, in times of dire need and real distress, went upon his knees and made appeal to Divine Providence. It was Franklin who said : "In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible to danger, we had daily prayer — for divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard ; and they were graciously answered." ¶

It is religion, it is the guidance which comes from divine providence, that is most needed. Our Lord and Savior said to his nearest friends, "Why sleep ye? Rise and pray lest ye enter into temptation" (Luc 22:46). ¶

"Pray without ceasing," the Bible tells us (Thes. 5:17). "Watch and Pray," the Master said again, "that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak" (Matthieu 26:41). ¶

"Seek Ye the Lord"

[FR] To pray without ceasing is the practice needed by the youth of this country; for they are, in these days, surrounded on every hand with pitfalls and unusual temptations. The words of the Master ought to be kept ringing in their ears : "Why sleep ye ? Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." ¶

"Seek ye the Lord," is another admonition that applies also to the people of these days. Those whose lives are well-nigh completed, those who have had long years of experience and know with certainty what is worth while — these are the ones who ought to call out to the youth of today, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found." Today is the accepted time; tomorrow may be too late. O youth of our country, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near" (Ésaïe 55:6). This is the doctrine and the practice that the people of our country are most in need of at this very hour. ¶

Not Faith Alone, But Works

I hope I shall not give anyone the impression that we favor bringing up a generation of young people who rely on faith only. We like to emphasize the words of the Master: "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthieu 7:21). That we believe in doing as well as in saying, in works as well as in faith, is proved even by the chapels we have built in the Église. Most of the chapels have recreation halls connected with them. ¶

[FR] As real Americans, the training we aim to give our young people is accurately described by the following words of Theodore Roosevelt : "Of course what we have a right to expect from the American boy is that he shall turn out to be a good American man. Now, the chances are strong that he won't be much of a man unless he is a good deal of a boy. He must not be a coward or a weakling, a bully or a prig. He must work hard and play hard. He must be clean-minded and cleanlived, able to hold his own under all circumstances and against all comers. It is only on these conditions that he will grow into the kind of man of whom America can really be proud. In life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: 'Hit the line: don't foul; don't shirk. Hit the line and hit it hard.' " ¶

Chief Aim of Real Religion

[FR] While praising and commending this strenuous and vigorous life, we impress upon our young folks ever to bear in mind these words of the Master: "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." What does this mean ? That we must be touched with religion ; that we must have in our hearts and souls the satisfying conviction that comes as a testimony from a life of righteous living. ¶

[FR] Our chief aim in religion is to bring up a generation of young people who have character and honor. Before our young people we are constantly holding up the words and character of such men as King Albert of Belgium, whose deeds have made him immortal. His reply to the repeated German appeals for permission to march the German army through his country was: "I cannot do so in honor." Standing to their guns, he and his people maintained their honor "intact and immortal." ¶

We Seek to Understand Youth

It is works like these, not faith alone, which we are struggling to make a vital part in the lives of our people. To them we often repeat : "Take ye heed, watch and pray" (Matthieu 13:33). Ye must be born again of the spirit. To him who relies upon daily prayer, "Every day is a fresh beginning, every day is the world made new" (Susan Coolidge). ¶

[FR] Believing purity to be better than repentance, we teach our children to pray, to place their trust in divine providence. We do our utmost to keep them from sowing wild oats. We are struggling to understand youth, we are hoping to make youth understand us. The stirring appeal of Stephen L. Richards this morning for a better understanding of youth indicates how earnestly we are struggling to understand the young folks and to keep them in the ways of truth. ¶

The Well-Balanced Life

We believe in the well-rounded out, the well-balanced education, of both mind and heart. During the past year the President of the Église and his associates appropriated nearly one million and a half dollars for educational purposes. If you knew how generously money has been expended to train our youth, to teach them to "pray without ceasing;" if you knew that the Église is pressed today for funds because of the great expenditures made for the religious training of your sons and daughters; that the President and his associates, in order to give our young folks the religious training which the nation and the youth of our country so much need, have established eighty-two seminaries and maintained many Église schools — then, I feel sure, you faithful members would come forward more liberally with your tithing. There is no price in time, in effort, or in money that you cannot afford to pay, if by so doing you can have your young folks so taught and trained that they will bring to you and to your family honor and not dishonor, credit and not discredit. ¶

Aims of President Grant

As to the President of the Église, his heart is noble, generous. He not only prays daily for the youth of the Église, but he has made appropriations for their welfare more liberally than is justified by the amount of tithing that you faithful Église members have paid. May we take to heart the words spoken by him at the opening session of Conference, when he said : "Pay your tithes." ¶

[FR] I have every faith in him. He is the inspired servant of the Most High. I believe in the promise he made: "Pay your tithes, pay your offerings, and you will be richly blessed." ¶

[FR] By so doing, we make it possible to place our religious training, our seminary instruction, within the reach of students in the public schools. Only thus shall we be able to bring up a generation of people the like of whom the world has not known. ¶