Punctuality and Sunday School Training

It is a pleasure to me, my brethren and sisters, to participate in these meetings. I desire to say, as far as my understanding goes, that the people in Arizona are following the line of the Sunday school work and they are equally progressive with those in the other stakes of Zion. ¶

I have been very much impressed the last two or three weeks with the necessity of speaking upon the subject of punctuality. I believe that the parents can do much towards assisting the Sunday schools in this direction. I fear that we leave too much to be done on the Sabbath morning, and I would like to urge upon the mothers, that they do the washing of the babies on Saturday night and place their clothing in readiness, that the children may not be embarrassed on the Sunday morning in going to Sabbath school late. ¶

I have listened with a great deal of pleasure to the remarks that have been made during this conference, and am reminded of a circumstance in line with what we have heard in reference to the training of our children. It was my pleasure to assist in the territorial legislature, some three years ago, in Arizona, in securing a company of the national guard to be under the auspices of our academy in Thatcher, Arizona. Brother Emil Maeser, who has been the principal of our academy for some five years, and has done a splendid work, succeeded, through the training he has had here, in training our boys so that they stood ahead of all the national guards in the territory. During the past summer, a strike broke out in a mining camp, some 45 miles from us. There were in the neighborhood of 1,200 miners broke away from the regulations of the camp, and would not submit to the requirements of their employers. The Legislature had passed an eight-hour law, the miners wanted 10 hours' pay for eight hours' work. The company made them an offer to give them nine hours' pay for eight hours' work, but they wouldn't accept that. The governor called out the territorial national guard, and our boys were mustered into service. They were green boys who had attended the academy; they were Sunday school boys who had been trained at home. When one of the lieutenants came to my door about 3 o'clock in the morning and told me of a telegram he had received, and asked if I would meet the boys on the campus about six in the morning, and encourage them, for it was their first encounter; my feelings were wrought upon considerably. Then I thought for the first time of my labors in connection with the national guard, which had resulted in our boys being mustered in. Well, I thought the situation over, and I asked the Lord to bless and protect our boys, and when I thought of the training they had received in the Sabbath school, and in the academy, then the peace of the Lord rested upon me, and I was impressed to say, These boys will go in peace and return in safety, if they live up to the teachings that they have received at home and in these institutions. I asked the captain to line them up before me at the railroad station, and I said: "Boys, you are going away to where there is much danger. If you will live up to the instructions you have received from your mothers and your fathers and in the institutions of the Church, I promise you that you shall go in safety and return in peace, and you will not be called upon to shoot any person, and they will not be called upon to do you any harm." I am pleased to bear my testimony, that those boys came back full of happiness and joy in the testimony that they had received, for they said that a peace came over them, in the hour of their greatest danger, and my promise came to their minds. Then they said: "We will go and do our duty, and no harm will befall us." So it was; and they came home unmolested, and the word came back to us from the government officers and officers of the regular army that our boys conducted themselves better than any other of the national guard, and they were so trusted that the officers had them go into the saloons and other places and get out regular soldiers and bring them back to duty. They were blessed to go in safety and return in peace. ¶

I am going to suggest to you a method that we have pursued in our little stake. We are of small consequence away down there, but it may be possible that we can suggest something that will be for your good. The suggestion is that the presidencies of the stakes establish one regulation time. The time of this entire country, I believe, is the mountain time. Get the same time in all your settlements, so that when our brethren come and visit the Sabbath schools they will not come with one time and you have another time to start your schools. We have the time alike all over our stake, and at the same moment, at 10 o'clock in the morning, all of our Sabbath schools start up. I was thinking today, in the conference of our method, when the brethren, the presidents of stakes and others who have reserved seats, were coming in late, the large congregation waiting for them, to take the seats if they were not taken, by those for whom they were reserved. The way we do, is to reserve seats for the Priesthood, and we expect them to set an example to the people, and if they are not there "on the dot" the ushers let others have their seats. We urge upon the parents to send their children to Sunday school on time. ¶

God bless you, my brethren and sisters, and bless the Sunday school workers. May the peace of heaven be upon them, and may they reap the reward of their untiring efforts to save the children of our Father, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶