Regeneration of Life and Evils to Be Resisted

The choir and congregation sang the hymn commencing: ¶

Our God, we raise to Thee, Thanks for Thy blessings free, We here enjoy; In this far western land, A true and chosen band, Led hither by Thy hand, We sing for joy. ¶

• Prayer was offered by Elder Joseph E. Taylor. ¶

The choir and congregation sang the hymn : ¶

Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah ! ¶

Jesus anointed that Prophet and Seer — Blessed to open the last dispensation ; Kings shall extol him and nations revere. ¶

My brethren and sisters : I hope that the Spirit of the Lord will prompt the words that may be spoken by me during the few minutes I stand before you. ¶

One expression in the document that we supported this morning remains in my mind, and I feel to touch upon it, because I believe that it contains much food for thought, as does every sentence in that declaration. It is implied therein that the Latter-day Saints are members of the Church "for the fostering of spiritual life, and the achievement of moral and charitable ends ;" in other words, for the developing of the religious sentiment, the true religious spirit. This may be done in two ways : first, by seeking the truth and living in harmony with it ; and second, by resisting every influence, every power that tends to destroy or to dwarf in any way the religious sentiment. When the Latter-day Saint stood at the water's edge, before being buried with Christ in baptism, he had within him an implicit faith that the Church of Christ is established upon the earth, and that this organization is the best in the world today for the fostering of spiritual life, for the attaining of true religious devlopment, for the salvation of his soul. I repeat that this implicit faith was within him ; and with that, there was a true repentance, and that repentance carried with it a desire to leave off everything in the past life that was contrary to the teachings of the Gospel or the Church he was about to join. His old life, and the sins, if there were any connected with it, he truly repented of. He looked forward to the time when he would be born anew in the Kingdom of God. He was about to go through the ordinance of baptism, typical of the burial of his old life and with it all the imperfections, the frailties, the evils. the sins that accompanied that old living. He was to be buried by baptism, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the power and the glory of the Father, he might come forth in newness of life, a member of the Church of God, a child of the Father, a citizen in the Kingdom of Christ. By baptism he was born again, and became a fit recipient of the Holy Spirit. His body came forth anew, and the Holy Ghost was bestowed upon him ; he was confirmed a member of the Church of Christ. That is where we all stood at one time. Those were our feelings, our faith, our hope. We stood that day forgiven of past evils and follies. Now, the whole mission — the life, if you please, of soul development — was before us, and we had thus bestowed upon us the light that emanates from the Father, to lead us that our feet might not stumble, that the truths of His Holy Gospel might sink into our hearts — the truths that will give us knowledge, that our souls might be saved in intelligence. The Holy Ghost was to bring all things to our remembrance, to show us things to come, to testify of the Father; and as we seek that light, and live in accordance with the duties that are placed upon us by that obligation, we are seeking the true religious development, we are fostering the true religious growth. ¶

But what is the other element which we must consider? Along with this new life, with this seeking for truth, there should be a strong power of resistance. Someone has said that when God makes the prophet He does not unmake the man. I believe that, though being born anew, and being entitled to new life, new vigor, new blessings, yet the old weaknesses still remained with us. The evil one was eager and ready to attack and strike us at our weakest point, and he has been striking on it ever since. Why? That he might thwart the very purpose for which we entered the Church of Christ. That is his mission. Take as an example the Savior/. After He passed through that ordinance to fulfill all righteousness, after He had received the commendation of the Father, and the testimony from on high that He was the Son of God, the "Beloved Son" in whom the Father was well pleased, Satan was there ready to thwart His mission. Jesus went forth in fasting and prayer, preparatory for the great mission resting upon Him ; and when in His weakest moment — as Satan thought — when His body was weak and exhausted bv long fasting, the evil one presented himself in temptation ; and what was the temptation? An appeal to His bodily weakness : "If thou be the Son of God — (note the taunt — the very testimony on the bank of the Jordan was, "This is my beloved Son;") "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." In a moment of weakness and hunger, that temptation would be strongest, other things being equal. There was the moment of resistance on Jesus' part. His seeking had been manifested in prayer and fasting; His resistance came, at the moment of bodily weakness. Though the body was weak the Spirit was strong and Christ answered : "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Then Satan tried Him on another point. Failing in that, the tempter tried Him still on the third, tempted Him first on His love for physical comfort; second, tempted Him on vanity, and third, tempted Him on love for worldly wealth, and the power to rule the world. But all these temptations Christ resisted ; and the final resistance was : "Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written : Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve." We may not have heard audibly on the water's edge, the words : "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," but the Spirit bore testimony in our souls that God was well pleased with the act, and He was pleased to lead us as we sought His guidance, in fasting and prayer. We might not have heard in audible tones : "If you are a member of that Church, a member of that Kingdom, entitled to the Holy Spirit, do this or that — command these stones to be made bread." Our temptation may not have come in that form. It may have come in the form of the old love ; for the passion which we had satisfied for years. It may have been, and I doubt not that it was, in the form of some bodily temptation — some longing. It may have been the love of the old pipe which we determined — if we were sincere — to put aside when going into the waters of baptism. O when that longing came, after we were in the Church or Kingdom, who was it that said: "Though you pretend to throw that aside, take it only once more; this once will not hurt." There was the necessary moment of resistance. How many of us stood as Christ our leader and said: Get thee behind me ! This element of resistance in regard to our bodily longings — satisfying the passions, applies to every member of the Church of Christ. In some way the evil one will attack us. In some way he can weaken us; in some way he will bring before us that which will weaken our souls, and will tend to thwart that true development of religious sentiment; and what I mean bv that is this : the development of the spirit within, the strengthening of the inner man, the strengthening and growth of the spirit, that time cannot kill, but which is enduring and lasting as the eternal Father of that spirit. And the things that will tend to dwarf this spirit or to hinder its growth are things that the Latter-day Saints are called upon to resist. ¶

We have in the 89th section of the Doctrine & Covenants, the word of the Lord upon a few little things — little as considered by many, and particularly by the men of the world, which the Latter-day Saints are asked to. observe. It is a temporal law, and pertains to our physical welfare. We can say nothing about resisting the temptation of vanity. That, too, comes to us ; but O I hope it will keep out of the Church. I hope our sisters will resist all the temptations of the world that may come under that heading — vanity. I hope that we may have strength to resist all the allurements that come with wealth and worldly position, when we make those two things an end in themselves. Today we have only time enough to consider those few little things with which Satan tempts us, in regard to our body: ¶

"Verily, thus saith the Lord : In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation ; that inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before Him; and behold this should be wine, yea pure wine of the grape of the vine, of your own make. And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies. And again, tobacco is not for the body neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and -all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill. And again hot drinks are not for the body or belly. And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man. Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving. Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly; and it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used only in times of winter or of cold, or famine. All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth ; and all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their nave!, and marrow to their bones; and shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures ; and shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint; and I the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them." ¶

These things mentioned here — strong drinks, tobacco, hot drinks — tea and coffee included, — are a few of the temporal things that Latter-day Saints who would follow the true religious sentiment of this Church should resist. Every young man throughout Zion, when he comes forth from the waters of baptism ought to know that it is part of his duty to resist smoking a cigarette. Every young person in the Church should be taught, when coming from the waters of baptism, that he should resist the wine cup that is passed around at the social gathering. Every young member of this Church should know that tobacco in any form should not be used. He should resist all these habits, not only for the blessing that is promised herein by our Father, but because of the strength that will come to him to resist greater temptations. ¶

Now, just a word in regard to this resisting under circumstances that seem difficult. A young man who may refuse his coffee or tea at the home, and who may find it easy to do so, might yield when he is out in company at a social. When all the others partake of coffee, he might not have strength to resist the temptation. That is the moment when the true soul growth should be made and fostered. That is the moment, in the hour of greatest temptation, when the strongest resistance does the most good. It is not when it is in the family circle, when father and mother's influence help to keep these things away. In this respect it is to be hoped that every father and mother will set a good example. I hope that parents will not set bad examples so that the children indulging in weakness may say, "I am following you." As far as possible let our fathers and mothers restrain themselves in these things. Parents, resist that appetite. What though you do love it? The more you love it, the greater should be your resistance and the greater will be your soul development. It is no credit for us to resist drink, who do not love it. The man who grows most by resisting, is the man who resists what he loves, who will say, in the strength of the Gospel, "I will stop it, I will resist it." ¶

"It's easy enough to be pleasant When life flows by like a song, But the man worth while Is the man who will smile, When everything goes wrong. ¶

"It's easy enough to be prudent, When nothing tempts you to stray; When without or within, No voice of sin Is luring your soul away. ¶

"But it's only a negative virtue Until it is tried by fire, And the soul that is worth The honor of earth, Is the soul that resists desire." ¶

May God grant that as we are seeking the further establishment of the Kingdom of God, that we may instruct our young people, and the members of the Church everywhere, to resist the temptations that weaken the body, that destroy the soul, that we may stand truly repentant as we were when we entered the waters of baptism, that we may be renewed in the true sense of the word, that we may be born again, that our souls might bask in the light of the Holy Spirit, and go on as true members of the Church of Christ, until our mission on earth is completed, and God receives us and rewards us according; to our merits. May this be our lot, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶

Sister Edith Grant sang the soprano solo, "Fear not, O Israel." ¶