Colonization, Religious Education, and Children

I am very thankful, my brothers and sisters, for the privilege I have had of listening to the remarks that have been made during this conference. I have enjoyed the testimonies that have been borne, and the Spirit of God that has been present. I am thankful for the prayers that have been offered. Each prayer in itself has been a sermon. I am thankful for the statements of principles that have been given during this conference, and that I am in harmony ¶

with the same. I am thankful that the world is growing in knowledge pertaining to some of the revelations that God has given His children. I am thankful that the Presbyterian ministers have seen the error of their position in advocating the detestable doctrine of infant damnation, and have announced to the world that they no more will preach that false theory. I am thankful that some of the Methodist ministers have seen the light, and are advocating the observance of the law of tithing. I am thankful that General Booth-Tucker, of the Salvation Army, is preaching to the world the great principle of colonization. At the National Irrigation Congress, held recently at Ogden, Utah, the gentleman named read a paper on the subject that was indeed praiseworthy. I listened with rapt attention to every idea he expressed upon that important theme. The mode of colonization adopted by the Salvation Army, compared with that established and followed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shows to me, and must ultimately prove to the world, that there is always a. difference between the ways of God and the ways of man. The general told us that the Salvation Army people believe in colonization, and that the body of religious people he represented were spending money, time, and influence in gathering their people from this and other countries, placing them upon farms, and making homes for them. But they are doing it, my brethren and sisters, by the help of the great money powers of the world. They are borrowing money by the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and making the land on which they colonize their people, together with the labor of the colonists, become security for the money advanced. With them it is simply a business proposition. I have thought to myself, however, what would they do if they were in the same condition as the Latter-day Saints were when the great principle of gathering and colonizing was revealed and established, with no friends anywhere upon the face of the earth, no credit with the money powers of the world, and hard- ¶

ly a dollar to buy lands for the people to go to. v I thought of the perpetual emigration fund that was started with a small sum of money, through which a few souls here and there were brought to the valleys of the mountains; and, as soon as God blessed them with sufficient means, they paid it back to the Presidency of the Church, who controlled that fund, and it in turn brought others here. It was slower; it was a great deal more of a sacrifice and required a great deal more faith, but it brought many an honest soul here, and they learned what colonization was in its truest sense. They learned also what gathering meant, and believed the revelations that God had given concerning it; and they learned through hardships, trials and troubles that it was God's will they should gather, and that they were here for the purpose of living their religion and serving God more fully. ¶

I am thankful, too, that many of the leading men in great institutions of learning in the United States, are at the present time deploring the lack of church training shown by the average student attending these great universities. Not later than last Wednesday, September 30, Chancellor McCracken of New York University, in his address to the student body, made the following statement: ¶

"I wish we could require from every freshman a Sunday school diploma that would certify that he knew by heart the ten commandments, the sermon on the mount, a church catechism of some kind, a score of scripture psalms and best classic hymns. This university will join any association of universities and colleges that will demand this as an entrance requirement. So much as in us lies, we will make the college a place for preserving and strengthening reverence for things divine." ¶

President Brigham Young, when establishing the Brigham Young Academy at Provo, and the Brigham Young College at Logan, told the people, and required of those who had these institutions in charge, that nothing should be taught therein, not even the simplest studies in arithmetic, reading, or grammar, or a lesson on any subject, without the Spirit of God being with the teacher and in his instructions. I see in Chancellor McCracken's remark that they are beginning to see the light, and I care not whether the world gives us credit as the original teachers of these truths or not. The honest people of the world, those who read and think, those who are watching the events of life as they pass, will learn ere long who were the first teachers of these great truths; and ascertain what Church first taught the law of tithing in this dispensation, and that it was the Lord's revealed plan for raising means to carry on His work. The world will have to acknowledge sooner or later that it was no other than the Latter-day Saints; that it was the Prophet Joseph Smith who received that revelation in this dispensation. The truths revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith, that we are presenting to the world, will demonstrate that he was a Prophet of God, and not a man with false ideas or vicious doctrines, as our enemies declare. I feel that every step forward, every advance we have made is towards the goal of success, and the firm etablishment of the Church of Jesus Christ, representing the little stone cut out of the mountain that will roll forth and fill the whole earth. ¶

I thought yesterday, when President Lund was pleading with the people, asking them to keep the commandments of God, also when President Joseph F. Smith referred to the proper training of our children, calling particular attention of the people to these two important items, how natural it sounds. Have not these admonitions been given by every inspired man of God from the day of father Adam down to the present time -- men whom God recognized as His mouthpieces upon earth? I thought of the words recorded in Deuteronomy, chapter 11, commencing at the 13th verse: ¶

"And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently to my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¶

"That I will give you the rain of your land in due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather ¶

in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. ¶

"And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. "Take heed to yourselves that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; ¶

"And then the Lord's wrath will be kindled against you, and he shut up the heavens, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you. ¶

"Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. ¶

"And ye shall teach them unto your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up. ¶

"And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates. ¶

"That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth." ¶

Away back in the beginning of the history of this world we find these teachings, and they are repeated to the Latter-day Saints. I call to mind a revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet teaching the same subject. It is in section 68: ¶

"And, again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents; ¶

"For this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion, or in any of her Stakes which are organized; ¶

"And their children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when eight years old, and receive the laying on of hands, ¶

"And they shall also teach their children to pray and to walk uprightly before the Lord. ¶

"And the inhabitants of Zion shall also observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy. ¶

"And the inhabitants of Zion shall also remember their labors inasmuch as they are appointed to labor, in all faitheulness; for the idler shall be had in remembrance before the Lord." ¶

I believe every word of this revelation, and I believe that one of the most important things that rests upon every Latter-day Saint, father and mother, is the training of their children, teaching them the laws and commandments of God. Do we teach our children to pray? If there is a home in all Zion; if there is a father or mother in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who do not teach their children to pray they will live to see the day when they will repent of that neglect. I believe with all my heart that God revealed those words to the prophet Joseph Smith, and that parents should follow them strictly. ¶

I believe it was two years ago that Elder A. O. Woodruff in conference referred to the duty of praying in the family, not only praying, but before prayers, reading some part of the scriptures, and advised all to do so. I accepted that advice. We should designate a certain time, just before supper, or breakfast, or just after as the case may be, to get all the family together, and then take 10 or 15 minutes for the purpose of reading to them the word of God, and offering devotion to Him. I promise the father and mother who adopt this as a family rule that they will be blessed in so doing. Their children will bless them in years to come, and they will feel blessed in doing it as long as they live. I have heard others say they have adopted this plan for family devotion in their homes, and through it they have become better acquainted with the scriptures: that they have been better able to teach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ than ever they were before. I earnestly ask every Latter-day Saint family to adopt this plan. I see in the audience Brother E. J. Wood of Cardston, Canada. I stopped at his home on a recent visit to Canada. Every morning there was a chapter read from the Bible, the Book of Mormon, or some other book containing the principles of the Gospel; a hymn was sung, and prayers were offered. He took his turn as mouth, his wife took her turn; his wife's sister was there, and she took her turn; the children took their turn, and the spirit of prayer and peace was in his home, as it ¶

will be in every home where that is done. Not only that, it makes people better, and has an influence for good on all who visit the home. In my home we have prayers night and morning, and my children pray in turn. No matter who comes to visit us, we pray as usual, and they can not help but feel the spirit of prayer. I have had individuals who are strangers to this people and to the Gospel we believe in, come to my home, and they have heard my children ask a blessing upon the food; they have seen them kneel with the family and heard them offer their simple but earnest prayers to God, and I tell you it has had an influence upon them, and it has been an influence for good. Afterwards I have heard of it, outside of the state, while in conversation with men and women who said that the person who visited me reported to them what they had seen and heard. ¶

This is one way of living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and teaching it to strangers. Everything we do in this life that leads people to understand that we love Jesus, that we love His Gospel, and that we are trying to serve him and keep his commandments, is preaching, by action at least, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It will have its influence upon every soul. The fruits of the Gospel should be shown in the lives of the members of the Church. I have heard it said that missionaries have been called, set apart, and gone to their fields of labor, never having prayed in public or in the family circle. Thank the Lord there are not many of these, but as long as there is one such there is one too many. I hope and trust that no father, claiming to be a Latter-day Saint, will ever raise a boy or girl in the Church of Jesus Christ to manhood or womanhood and not teach them how to pray. ¶

Last night, Brother Joseph J. Jackson, superintendent of the Alpine Sunday schools, paid a tribute to the results of teaching in our Church schools. He said the Saints in that stake are favored by living close to the Brigham Young Academy, and the teachers in their Sunday schools were nearly all ¶

educated in that grand institution. They had received special training that fitted them for teachers, and had also a testimony that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ; consequently the Sunday schools of the Alpine stake are in a flourishing condition, being blessed with such teachers. I am an advocate of church school education, they are doing valuable work among the Latter-day Saints. I also call attention to the fact that the district schools are doing a good work in this state; and, fathers and mothers, you should let your younger children go to the district schools. Do not take them out when they reach the sixth grade. Let them remain long enough to complete the eighth grade in the district school. Why do I say this? Because, if you take your child out as soon as it reaches the sixth grade, in years to come it will become dissatisfied with the limited education received. There are hundreds of young men, many of them married and too old to attend the district schools, who decide that they must have a better education, after learning the necessity of it, and they are now attending our Church schools. This would not have been necessary if they had not been taken from school so soon. God bless them for the energy that they display in this regard. Many of them, if they had been left in the district school a couple of years longer, would have completed a course in the two higher grades, and, more than likely, would have been satisfied, and received education enough to have fitted them for the occupation they had to follow. Therefore, I hope and trust that the fathers and mothers will see that the boys and girls are educated sufficiently. The world can not deplore the lack of religious training, or devotion to religion, any more than the Latter-day Saints do. We have been taught the need of it from the first, and the benefits have been shown to us in our Church schools, and in our lives here in the Rocky Mountains. ¶

I ask the blessings of God upon all the people, and upon His Church. I am proud indeed to belong to the Church that has all of the principles in it that Jesus Christ taught. I want to emphasize the statement made here by Brother John W. Taylor this morning, that no one principle will ever save a soul in the kingdom of heaven. One good act will never save a person, but one bad act may be the means of his downfall and damnation. We, as Latter-day Saints, know what the teachings of Jesus Christ are. We know what the revelations are that have been given to us through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and all of the prophets of God in this dispensation, and we should try to honor every one of them. In order to receive the exaltation we all so much desire, I know we must obey them all. God give us strength to do it, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶