Discourse

I feel that I can certainly bear my testimony to those things which I have heard this morning, and I am very grateful to our Heavenly Father that we have so many evidences of His kindness and mercy towards Zion. We are constantly called upon from almost every quarter of the globe for more Elders to be sent out to preach the Gospel, and we have found it somewhat difficult to supply the demand, although the calls that are made upon the Elders are as a rule responded to with pleasure and alacrity. The general answer made by the Elders is, “I feel honored to be considered worthy to be called to go on a mission, and with the help of the Lord, I will be on hand at the time appointed.” But all of the answers are not of this kind. Occasionally, and especially of late, we receive replies that run somewhat in this way, “I am pleased to be honored with a call to go on a mission. But I am sorry to say that at present I do not see how it is possible for me to respond. I am in debt, and my affairs are in such a shape that it would be impossible for me to arrange them so that I could leave upon the mission at the time appointed, and I would be pleased if you could grant me six months’ or a year’s time and I will endeavor to straighten up my affairs and by that time be ready to respond to the call.” Of late we have had quite a number of responses of this kind from the Elders. Of course, we regret this, not only because we need their services in the missionary field, but because it grieves us to know that our brethren are in debt. As we are passing through a time of stringency and scarcity of means, it is the best time, probably, that we will experience to pay our debts, to get square with the world, and then resolve in our minds that for the future we will keep out of debt as far as possible. I have noticed that in times when money is plentiful and everything is flourishing the people are more prone to incur obligation that they are liable to fail in meeting them. In times of scarcity it is easier to economize, to retrench and to settle up our obligations as far as we can. ¶

We have demands for missionaries for Holland, and we search all over the country to find Hollanders who can go back to their native land to preach the Gospel. We find it difficult, however, to meet the calls that are made upon us for missionaries to that land. We are constantly called upon for Norwegians and Swedes to go to their native land to preach the Gospel, and we find it somewhat difficult to obtain sufficient number for this purpose. It is not so difficult to find Danes to go to Denmark. We are generally pretty well supplied with Elders of this nationality. We need Elders to go to Germany. It seems hard to find good, bright, intelligent men who can speak the German language and who can go to Germany to preach the Gospel. The Gospel is being opened up remarkably in that land, and religious toleration is enlarging there. We have had calls made upon us for Elders to go to the Holy Land, and we find it difficult to supply the demand. It is the same in other directions. Not that Elders are scarce; but to find those who are really suited for these calls is what makes it difficult. When a man is wanted to go to Sweden, we want to send a man that can talk Swedish; to Norway, a man who can talk Norwegian; to Germany, a man who can talk German. When we send Elders to the islands of the sea we are under the necessity of calling young men who are capable of acquiring with facility a knowledge of a foreign language. In consequence of this it is not an easy task to obtain a sufficient number of Elders to meet the calls that are made upon us. In addition to this, as I have said, when Elders are called upon, one is in debt and cannot go; another has married a wife, must make a home and cannot go; another has bought him a farm and he cannot go; and another has entered land and he has to stay until his time to prove up shall come; and there are a number of excuses of this kind, which adds to the difficulty we experience in meeting the many calls that are made upon us. But it must be said that these are the exceptions. The rule is that those who are called upon respond cheerfully, and this is very gratifying. ¶

You will please excuse me for talking a little about missionaries. There is a committee of Apostles appointed to look directly after the calls that are made for Elders to go out to preach the Gospel, and I happen to be a member of that committee; therefore, I have something to do in relation to these matters. The word of wisdom, also, concerning which Brother Young has been speaking, has something to do with these matters. For when we call upon a young man to go upon a mission and we find that he is addicted to the pernicious habit of using tobacco, it is an obstacle to his going. It will not do to send a man out to preach the Gospel with a cigarette, or a cigar, or a pipe in his mouth. It is a sorry thing to know that numbers of the young men of Zion who ought to be fitting themselves for any position in the Kingdom of God are addicted to this pernicious habit of smoking tobacco. Brother Heber J. Grant, probably, when he shall talk to you, will tell you about how many hundred thousand of dollars worth of tobacco is smoked every year. The amount would astonish you. Brother Heber is a mathematician, and he has been making calculations upon this subject, the result of which will astonish you, I think. A young man who is addicted to these habits of using tobacco and drinking is not a fit subject for a mission. He is under the necessity of reforming before he can become qualified to go out to preach the Gospel to the world. Then think of it for a moment—the idea of calling a young man to go out to preach the Gospel who needs to be preached to, and to reform! Is it not a sad reflection on the youth of Zion that there should be a single young man in Israel who, when called upon to take a mission, would have to undergo radical changes in himself in order to be prepared for that glorious work? We do not send young men abroad to preach the Gospel, if we know it, who are addicted to any pernicious practices. We must send young men that are exemplary in every way; who are pure-minded and faithful, and who will go out into the world and do good, not only by precept, but by example also. I do not know whether there are any young men in this conference who need preaching to upon this subject, but there may be a good many fathers where who have sons that will be called to go out to the world to preach the Gospel, and I would like to enjoin it upon the young men that are here and upon the fathers and mothers of the young men that are not here that from this time forth they will set their minds upon pruning out all these dry branches and bringing themselves to the standard that is set for us in the Kingdom of God, that when we are called upon for anything we shall be ready and be willing to say, “Here I am; the Lord can command me, and I am ready to obey His commands.” ¶

It is important, therefore, that we should observe the Word of Wisdom that has been given to us. If the members of the Church were to abstain one year from the use of tobacco, intoxicating drinks, and tea and coffee, there would remain in this country enough money to pay every debt owned by the people. Talk about hard times and scarcity of money, when we are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars every year for these articles that are injurious and hurtful, unfitting us for the ministry and for good standing in the Church of God. The money expended for these articles is not kept in this territory; for these things are not produced here. They are articles that have to be imported from abroad, and every dollar that is expended for them by the Latter-day Saints goes out of the country. If there was no other cause than this, it would be ample cause for a scarcity of means in the territory. We believe that it is unwise for us to expend our means in this direction. It is doubly unwise. In the first place, it is unwise for the reason that these articles do not give us health or vitality. They are not necessary to life or to health. They are only necessary to our supposed happiness in so far as we have become happy in pernicious practice. The drunkard becomes a slave to his drink; others become slaves to the use of tea, coffee and tobacco, and therefore they consider them necessary to their happiness; but they are not really necessary to their happiness nor to their health. You cannot find an intelligent physician in the world that will tell you these things are not hurtful for common use. Every man that knows anything about the laws of life will tell you that the use of these articles is injurious to the human system. Yet we will use them, and we will become slaves to them, in defiance of the laws of nature and the word of the Lord unto us. Thus it is an evil and wrong. Furthermore, it is wrong because it takes our means from us and gives it to the stranger. Probably every drop of spirituous liquor consumed by those who profess to be Latter-day Saints is imported from abroad. Consequently every dollar that is expended for it goes abroad. We have a number of breweries, I am sorry to say, in Salt Lake City, and there are a number of people engaged in the brewing of beer. Of course, the money that is spent in this direction does not go abroad; but it is a business that is calculated to build up no one but the brewer and the vendor of his product. It does not build up the man that buys and drinks the beer. It does not give him strength or health. The brewer and the seller may become rich and build palaces out of this business; but they are the only ones that are benefited by this traffic, while those who patronize them only become the poorer for it. But aside from all this, the thing is, it is wrong for the Latter-day Saints to do it. The Lord has laid down a rule for us to go by. He has told us what is good for man and what is not good for man; and if we will only humble ourselves and acknowledge that the Lord knows what is best for us, and do as He tells us, we will begin to see the effects of it and be able to appreciate the beauties of it better than we can now. It is by putting the word of the Lord into practice that we will be able to appreciate it, not by simply looking upon it without doing it. When we do the will of the Lord, then shall we know of the doctrine, that it is of God; then shall we build upon the rock; then when the floods descend and the storms beat upon the house, it will not fall. ¶

Let us be doers of the word, and not hearers of it only. Let us keep the commandments of God, and not merely pretend to believe in them; for it is an axiom among mankind that when a man says he believes in something and yet does not do it, he either is deceiving himself or he is trying to deceive others; but when a man believes a thing and puts it into practice he is consistent. A man should walk according to his belief or his knowledge of that which is good. He must be consistent with his professions, or God will reject him. These are my sentiments. I believe in obeying the commandments of God, or else get out of the way. We ought not to be stumbling blocks to those who are trying to enter in at the door. God will hold us responsible for this. If there is a man on earth that has done wrong because I have set him the example, I am in some measure responsible for that wrong, and I will have to pay the debt in some way. Therefore, that I may not be stumbling block; that I may not stand at the door and hinder those who would enter, but that I may be an assistance to those that are faltering, I want to be consistent with my professions and do the things that I am commanded to do. No doubt I fail in a great many things, and others may see my weaknesses and failings much better than I do. We have not all yet attained the power to see ourselves as others see us, yet it stands to reason that every man ought to know himself better than his neighbor, and I believe that every intelligent man does know himself better than anybody else, unless it may be his wife or his children. Of course, your wife knows you better than you do yourselves, and your children have a great deal of knowledge concerning you. If there are any defects in a man or virtues either, the wife and the children will be pretty apt to see them, because he is right with them, and they see every side of his life—in his unguarded moments, in his thoughtless hours, as well as when he is on his knees before the Lord. They know him on every hand. And when a man’s wife and children respect and honor him because of his good examples, you may depend upon it he is a pretty good man. ¶

My brethren and sisters, may God bless you, and help us all to live righteously. May we keep the commandments of God, save our means at home, pay our debts, be free men and free women, and not bondmen and bondwomen, as many of us are today. Many of us are in the bondage of debt, and it may be difficult for us to get out of it; but if we possible can get out of it in honor, let us bend all our efforts to that end and do it; that when we are called to go on missions we can say, “Yes. I am ready and willing to do,” and what is more, “I do not owe anybody, and I have the means to go with, and to provide for my family while I am gone, that they shall not become a charge upon the Bishop.” If this people will only quit using strong drinks, and tea and coffee, and tobacco in any shape, and then cut off a great many foolish extravagances that they have become addicted to, they will have abundance of means to provide for themselves and their families; and with all, they will have health, the destroyer shall pass them by, they shall run and not be weary, walk and not faint, and they shall have access to the treasures of knowledge and of wisdom. For these are the promises that have been made to those who will keep the Word of Wisdom. God grant that we may be able to do it, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶