Navajo Schools and the Word of Wisdom

(President of San Juan Stake.) I trust that during the short time I occupy this responsible position I may be blessed with the Spirit of the Lord, that my mind may be led in such channels as may be profitable to us who have gathered this afternoon. I rejoice in the privilege I have of living upon the earth in this day and dispensation, when the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has been restored; and I rejoice in the fact that I have been counted worthy, with my brethren and sisters, to receive, through the manifestations of the Lord, a testimony of the truth of the gospel. ¶

When I was laboring in the mission field, a number of years ago, in the Northern States, I used to wonder why it was that the Latter-day Saint Elders rejoiced so exceedingly in their labors in the mission field, and wondered if we should ever have the same spirit, the same influence, and the same peace and happiness in our labors at home. Since my return I have been called to labor in the ministry at home, and I have found that it is possible to have that same degree of pleasure and happiness in our labors at home that we have in the mission field. I am pleased to say that, in my associations with the brethren and sisters of the San Juan stake of Zion, notwithstanding there are many things that are not pleasant, I have enjoyed myself even better than while engaged in missionary labors abroad. ¶

I presume that a majority of the brethren and sisters who are here this afternoon have read in the Book of Mormon the statement made by one of the writers, quoting the words of our Savior, in regard to the city of New Jerusalem, that the Gentiles should be called to assist the Lamanites, or the seed of the house of Israel, in the erection and building of that city. I have wondered many times how this was to be brought about, but, since I have been laboring in the San Juan stake of Zion, I begin to see a little of the preparatory work that I think is going to fit and prepare the seed of Lehi, or the Lamanites, to perform this great and glorious work that has been predicted upon their heads. One of the ancient prophets predicted that kings and queens should be the nursing fathers and nursing mothers of the seed of Israel in the latter days ; and I find that, in a sense, this is being fulfilled in the stake over which I preside. The government of the United States, which, I presume, may be classed with the kingdoms of the earth, is establishing schools, and there is one in our neighborhood that I desire to refer to briefly. It is upon the San Juan river, among the Navajo Indians, and is costing several hundreds of thousands of dollars. The buildings and surroundings there are such that the Indian children are being trained under conditions that are far more favorable than those surrounding the schooling and education of the Latter-day Saints in that vicinity. They have the latest modern appliances in everything that they are doing, and many of the Indians are becoming skilled mechanics. There are hundreds of them employed by the government in farming, in carpenter work, and in learning the trades and sciences. Many of them are becoming quite proficient along these lines, and their children are becoming used to the conveniences and appliances of modern civilization even to a greater extent than we who have been more fortunately situated in the past. This, to my mind, is one of the evidences that the Lord is working with this government along these lines, and we who love to labor among this people rejoice exceedingly in this fact. It was my privilege about 28 years ago, when I was yet a boy, to remove to that section, and I lived there for a number of years when those Indians were not in the condition that they are today, when it was hardly safe for one to be among them, even his life was in danger. At the present time nearly all the men we can get to work for us are the Navajoes and Utes, and we have quite a number of them employed, and they are becoming very proficient in the work they have to do. They are gradually taking hold of the methods of civilized countries, and are learning to adopt the methods and manners of the people among whom they live and labor. ¶

I rejoice exceedingly in this, my brethren and sisters. Although they have not yet attained to that degree of advancement in civilization that we feel it wise or proper to preach the Gospel among them, whenever that time shall come that they are fitted and prepared to be colonized, to live in homes and houses of their own, their natures and dispositions are such that it would be in my opinion, a very simple matter to convert a majority of them to the principles of the Gospel. Some years ago, volunteer Elders went to labor among them, and a great number of them were baptized, but owing to the fact that we had no place to colonize them, and the impossibility for them to live up to the principles of the Gospel in the condition under which they were living, it was deemed unwise to preach the Gospel among them further at that time. But we look to see the time, in the very near future, when the possibilities we have in the section of the country where we are living and laboring will be such that it will be possible for them to have homes and farms of their own, and the Gospel may then be taught to their children as it is being taught to us and our children. ¶

I was quite impressed with the remarks of Apostle Heber J. Grant in regard to the Word of Wisdom, and if I may be inspired by the Spirit of the Lord, I wish to say a few words on this subject. Many years ago, in listening to one of the leading brethren speaking upon the Word of Wisdom, I remember he took up the financial phase of the question of our breaking that commandment, and he made the statement that he believed that from every town, city and village in the community there was a stream of money going to swell the river flowing out of this state every year for those things that are forbidden by the Lord. Further, he said that he did not believe there was a family or household in any ward in the whole Church but had contributed somewhat to that river of money that was flowing from among the Latter-day Saints. I thought to myself, there is at least one family in the Church that has never contributed one cent towards that stream ; and on my return home I made this statement to my wife, when, to my chagrin, she acknowledged that we had one pound of tea in the house ; so we had contributed at least the price of that pound of tea to that great river. However, I believe there are families among the Latter-day Saints, and many of them, who do not in any manner use these things, and do not keep them in their homes. It seems to me a strange thing that, after the many years this principle, this law of God, as it is to us at the present time, has been taught to us, that there are not more Latter-day Saints' homes in which tea and coffee, and those things that are forbidden, cannot be found. I find among the young and rising generation, where I labor, that those boys who are tempted to use tobacco and liquor, and other things that the Gospel forbids, have not the same moral courage, the same moral strength, that others have who have not acquired those habits; and I find that this will apply to those who are older in the Church. I believe the time will come when the Lord will not look with the same degree of leniency upon the violation of this commandment that He did in former years. Another phase of this question that seems to me ought to stimulate us in the keeping of this commandment is, that we ought to teach and set a proper example before our families. I have known families that were almost model Latter-day Saints, and yet some members of the family were not able to control their appetites in the use of tea and coffee ; sometimes grand children of people having that appetite fixed within them find it almost impossible to get away from it and keep the Word of Wisdom. It seems to my mind that, even though men and women go without articles of food they have been accustomed to all their life, even though it might shorten our life a day or two, that it would be well to get the spirit of this work, and leave off those habits rather than go to the other side with our bodies stained with things that the Lord has forbidden us to use. ¶

I rejoice in the testimony of the Gospel that the Lord has given unto the Latter-day Saints, and I bear testimony that the men who preside over us are inspired of the Lord. They are not tyrannical at all, they labor among us in love; and I am happy to say that, in the stake I preside over, there is not among the presiding authorities, so far as I am acquainted with them, the slightest feeling of anything but union among us all. I pray that this feeling and spirit may be with all the Latter-day Saints; I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶

Sister Edith Grant sang, "The Lord is my Light." ¶