Inculcating Faith and Love of the Gospel in Our Children

An inspirational hymn — Necessity for inculcating faith and love of the Gospel in the children. — Blessings invoked upon the good and oppressed of all creeds and lands. — Admonitions to the young. — Gratitude for the freedom guaranteed by American institutions. ¶

I picked up the hymn book and opened to a hymn that has strongly impressed my mind, and although I am not a very good reader, I believe I will endeavor to read it. It is found on page 127: ¶

Up ! arouse thee, O beautiful Zion, Wake, awake, hear the warder's deep cry, For the season of slumber hath ended. ¶

And the spoiler is watchful and nigh.. With courage elate, and heart to be great. ¶

All deadly incumbrance cast down. Gird on for the fight, your armor so bright, For the prize Is a glorious crown. Up ! arouse thee, O beautiful Zion, Give the mammon care-clouds to the wind, When the bugle's shrill summons is — Rally! ¶

They are cowards that linger behind. You've foes to o'ercome in each heart and home, Then fixed be your purpose, and high, With God at your head, O feel not dismayed, But go forward to conquer, or die. ¶

Who would shrink from the glorious battle. ¶

With so dazzling a guerdon in view? If so base as to herd with the traitor, It is, dastard! not sparkling for you. With nerve strong as steel, and soul that can feel, Stand firm for the pure and the brave ; Be foremost in right, and trust in God's might — 'Tis such heroes that heaven will save. ¶

Lo ! destruction hangs over the nations, Though not seen by the unholy throng ; And death will be heard in the echoes Of the gathering, ominous storm ! Then arouse thee, O beautiful Zion, Wake, awake, 'tis the warder's deep cry, For the season of slumber hath ended, And the spoiler is watchful and nigh. ¶

My brothers and sisters, it is a joy indeed for me to be with you in this conference today, and to have listened to the good words that have fallen from the lips of our brethren who have spoken unto us. We live in the day and time when the word of the Lord is to be carried to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, before the coming of that great and dreadful day when the judgments of our God are to be poured out upon the nations of the earth. What a sacred mission is ours in fulfillment of the obligation that he who has been warned is to warn his neighbor; that upon his shoulders rests in great degree the salvation of his fellowmen, at least to the extent of his ability to herald the Gospel among the children of men and declare its restoration. Not one of us, to whom the glad message of eternal truth has come, should fail to remember that upon us rests the responsibility of calling to repentance the children of our Father, our brothers and sisters in every land and clime. We cannot escape the effects of this requirement, only by discharging it to the best of our ability ; not alone in carrying the glad tidings of great joy to the world, or in entering the sacred temples of God and opening the doorway of salvation to the human race who have gone behind the veil, through the administration of the ordinances of the Lord's house, but also in the character of that sacred guardianship that we should throw around our sons and daughters. How shall we feel, as we stand in the presence of the Great Judge of the quick and the dead, when our ministry in life is done, if any of our children shall say to the Father, "In our household the moral obligations of the Gospel of Jesus Christ were unknown and untaught ; the principles and doctrines essential for salvation, and seeking the impress of the Spirit from on high, were unthought of and untaught in the household where it was my privilege to be reared." ¶

I trust that the words of the hymn I have read in your hearing will arouse you with gladness and joy, and will awaken in your souls the thought that the battle is on, that the banner of our Christ has been thrown to the breeze ; that it is our mission and ministry to preach repentance in our own homes, in our own neighborhoods, among the men and women with whom we mingle, as well as carrying the seeds of the Gospel to the children of the world, and pleading with them to turn from the evils that stalk abroad, and learn the way of life and salvation. My brothers and sisters, I ask you to remember these words : ¶

Wake, awake, 'tis the warder's deep cry, For the season of slumber hath ended, And the spoiler is watchful and nigh. ¶

I have nothing in the world but blessings for every one of you who honor God and the truth. I have nought but blessing for every Christian man and woman who is discharging the duties and obligations of a Christian according to the best light and knowledge he or she may possess. I have nothing but sympathy for the thoughtless, the wayward and the reckless. I love all the children of my heavenly Father. I feel that there is on our part a necessity for an awakening such as we have possibly never known before, in seeking to implant in the hearts of those whom God has entrusted to us an understanding of His great work, and such faith as was exhibited by the men and women who crossed the plains with hand-carts in 1856, amid the deep and falling snows, and who buried their loved ones in the drifts, determined upon doing the bidding of the Master. Is that spirit of heroism, of the love of right, and that determination to follow the commandments of God, being engendered in the souls of these sons and daughters that our Father has entrusted to us ? Are they ready to rise up and say, I glorify God for the mother that bore me, and the faith she displayed in leaving her fatherland to have part in the establishment of God's work? Are they in the spirit to say, I will stand by the father that begot me, who ministered and labored midst tribulation and trial to provide the blessings and comforts of life, and I wilt see that his last days shall be honored in an upright son, in a consistent, virtuous and true daughter, and in the fulfillment of my mission for" the betterment and blessing of the people with whom I mingle? Or shall we forget ourselves to the extent that the drunkard, the whoremaster, the villain that plots and schemes the destruction and overthrow of honest men, shall be the companions of our children and seek to lead them to destruction?" Shall not our voices be heard declaring God's word, proclaiming His truth, pointing the way of life, seeking to establish in men that fortitude that shall enable them to resist the evils that are leading to destruction so many of our fellows in various parts of the world? ¶

May heaven's peace attend every good man and woman in every land who are following the propositions involved in the religious faith they have espoused, and are seeking to better themselves and their fellow creatures. May heaven's blessing be upon those who are oppressed in all lands, that the opportunity may come to them to find a home under the starry flag we love. May the principles involved in that government under which most of us, possibly, have been born and reared be established and written in our souls, — the love of God, of country, of liberty, of justice and mercy, of purity and truth, and a detestation and hatred of the immorality, crime and wickedness that stalk abroad. May the God of heaven write it in your souls, you "Mormon" boys and girls, that He has called you to repentance, has pointed to you the way of life, has given to you fathers and mothers whose hearts have been in His keeping. I trust that, though storms shall beat and tempests come, you will honor the father and mother that survived the dreadful experiences on the plains in 1856, or the fathers and mothers of other years who left fatherland, or those upon our own land whose feet were blistered and frozen as they fled from the schemes and machinations of foul and cowardly wretches who sought to destroy their liberties. ¶

My friends, I have this feeling in my soul today, and if I could write it in the minds of the "Mormon" boys and girls, I would write this motto there : "The flag that the Divine One permitted to be thrown to the breeze, as the stars and stripes, should never be lowered by human hand." The principles of liberty involved in the constitution of this country of ours should never be trampled beneath the feet of any man ; but every principle of honor, of justice, of purity, mercy and right, should be guarded by the men and women reared in some understanding of the principles of that faith which we ourselves have become acquainted with. ¶

A few years ago the President of the United States made an appeal to the descendants of that old Norse stock found in the Northwest. He said: "Your fathers and mothers located on these little farms; they built their cabins, they opened up and made prosperous the land they had adopted as their home. What are you, their descendants, doing in connection with this matter? Are you better citizens, more sturdy and true than your fathers and mothers were? Have you fulfilled and are you fulfilling your part in the citizenship of this land with the same industry, the same perseverance and the same determination that characterized them?" This was the question put by the Chief Executive of our nation to the descendants of those people who had come from another land. It is a question that well might be asked of the descendants of the French Huguenots, and the descendants of those who fled from the oppressions and tribulations of England, or other parts of the earth, and found a home under this flag we love. It is a question that I might ask the boys and girls of the Latter-day Saints today. For, while the Norsemen in coming from the old world to establish homes in the Northwest were led under the inspiration of a spirit and desire for greater liberty, and for better opportunities than could possibly be found in fatherland, such was not altogether the inspiration that led your parents to adopt this flag of ours and decide to live beneath its folds. To them this was God's own land — the land of Zion. It was their hope and ambition that upon this soil no tongue would wag to their hurt; that they would be secure here in every human right, so long as they interfered not with the rights and liberties of others. They loved it as a land of liberty, and desired its citizenship. They loved the prospects of the latter-day Zion, and looked to it as the only place where the great work they had become associated with, looking to the blessing of our heavenly Father's children, could be fully accomplished. Their ideals were ideals of honor; their course of conduct in keeping with the highest moral principles. No matter what the world may say or think, your father and mine, when they planted their feet upon the soil of the United States, adopted this nation as their own, and the land as the Zion of God, where the liberties of the human race were assured, where men could bow in reverence and respect to the Supreme Being, and where no man need ask whether they prayed to Buddha, or to Christ Jesus, or to the Unknown God, or to a stick or stone. Here under the flag of this country the great God of heaven had guaranteed, in the blood of the sons of the soil, the rights of liberty and conscience, and the privilege to perform their duties and discharge their obligations unto Him. ¶

Young men and maidens, it is the joy of my heart that I can look back over the past and note from the record that my first ancestor upon the soil of the United States loved this country and loved liberty. It is the pride of my heart that his descendants, as they have come down the line of citizenship, have stood upon that fair ground of liberty ; and one by one, as the conditions have arisen and the opportunities have been theirs, they have maintained and stood by the propositions involving human rights, showing that they would worship God and obey His commandments as they pleased, and not bow and cringe, or ask their fellows what they should believe. ¶

I believe in God the Eternal Father. I believe in His Son Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of the world. I believe in the doctrine of burial in the water as typical of the grave, and the coming forth to a newness of life. I believe in the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. I believe in the moral doctrines as presented by the Redeemer of the world. I believe in the keys and rights essential to the establishment, beyond the peradventure of a doubt, of the Father's children in His grace, and in the enjoyment of His gifts. I believe in the heavenly covenant, in the turning of the key of knowledge, in the announcement of the Patriarch of the past that he would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, that the earth might not be smitten with a curse. I believe in the fulfillment of the prophecies. I believe in the instance recently recorded in the experience of this nation, when our sister city to the west of us was destroyed by earthquake and flame, that it was a warning to the children of men. [ believe that when Valparaiso was shaken and many people lost their lives, it was the fulfillment of the Master's announcement to this people that, after their warning went forth to the world and the way of life was pointed out, if they rejected the message, then He would teach the world lessons that they would remember. I trust that an awakening may come among our fellowmen everywhere, that they may love righteousness more than unrighteousness, justice more than injustice, morality more than immorality, charity and forbearance more than harshness and intolerance ; that they may seek to implant within themselves that which makes the noblest manhood and the purest womanhood to be found in all the world. I say to this body of people, without fear of successful contradiction, that the man who will obey God's law as revealed in this dispensation will stand before his Maker accepted ; while the men who become its arch-enemies and whose lives are devoted to its hurt will be condemned. Look into their inner lives and you will find written in their souls the blackness of hell, the evidence of immorality, a rejoicing in the overthrow and destruction of pure womanhood, while vaunting their love for the gentler sex. Oh ! I wish that every man in the world could say what I heard a Lutheran gentleman once say to me in conversation with him. As he stood by his mother's side, impressed with the nature of true womanhood and the principles of faith, she extorted from him the pledge that under no circumstances would he dishonor one of her sex. O my Father, let it be written in the hearts of these mothers of ours that, as their sons shall go into the world to preach Christ and Him crucified, they shall go with the same admonition and prayer. No son of a Latter-day Saint should fail to have impressed upon his soul the feeling that women should be sacred to him. They are in the likeness of their mothers, and motherhood should be esteemed and honored by every man. No girl is likely to be cast down in sin and crime, and have wrong written upon her brow, by a man whose mother had fully done her duty. ¶

Now, my brothers and my sisters, I am happy to be with you. Thank God for "Mormonism," as the world calls it. Thank the Lord for a father and a mother who believed in the Redeemer of the world, and in the moral rules that purpose the best development of mankind. Thank Heaven for the faith that points out the possibilities of men and women standing in the presence of the Divine One, if they will be true to themselves and the laws He has revealed. Thank Heaven for a land where liberty exists, where the rights of men can be guarded. May we be preserved from the attacks of the vicious and the impure. May just and honorable men, of all creeds and classes, be chosen as the governing powers in the world, and be honored and esteemed in the discharge of the civic duties of life, that this land may be glorious in its development and growth ; and that the people of all lands who find a home here shall bow in respect and reverence, and regard with honor and esteem, the propositions involved in the Constitution which gives to them the right of conscience. ¶

May heaven's blessing attend you. The faith that has been delivered to you has come from the Lord Himself. It was the Father and the Son that ushered in this dispensation of the fulness of times. It was the Father and the Son that turned the key of knowledge, the light of heaven let in on the human race. And the charge laid upon you was to see to it that in your homes this faith was taught, that at your own firesides the principles of morality should be fully established, that from those homes the sons and daughters who went forth should go as soldiers of the cross, without fear of the frowns or the favors of mankind, declaring the truth, pointing out the possibilities within the reach of every repentant sinner — that his sins might be forgiven, and that he should thereby be led to walk in the way that would bring him back into the presence of his Maker. The Gospel, my brothers and sisters, is true in its entirety. May heaven bless you. May the spirit of cowardice, fear and trembling never come to you. May you stand up in the majesty of the cleanest, sweetest manhood, not blushing in the presence of your mothers, sisters or wives, nor even in the presence of the Lord, but be confident of His mercy. ¶

Again I say to you young men, be not afraid of the enemies of Zion, bow not in fear and trembling before any hand that may be raised. Accept the responsibilities that may be imposed upon you by the Divine Master, and preach His Gospel in the world. Stand for right, not only for your own house hold and those of your own faith, but see to it that the Catholic, the Jew, the Methodist, the Presbyterian, the atheist and the pagan shall enjoy that right of conscience which you yourself wish to enjoy, and that you with them shall stand up and maintain it with your lives, if necessary. May the spirit of heroism, faith, love, charity, forbearance, kindness and consideration, without fear or trembling, characterize the lives of all of you, that wherever you go you may mingle among men as honorable men or women, understanding yourselves, resolved upon the maintenance of purity of life, that the finger of God, if it should touch you, would not cause you to shrink with fear because of wrongdoing. May the Divine One bless our President with the health and strength necessary to the discharge of the arduous duties resting upon him, and his associates also that their hearts may be united and that they may continue to hold the keys of the eternal Priesthood which the Lord himself has given them; and that the same noble manhood which characterized the men of the past may be theirs even to death itself, that the love of right may abide in them, that all needful blessings may come to them, as well as to you and to every right-thinking man and woman within the confines of this great Republic, and throughout the world. This is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶