Desire for the Guidance of the Spirit

My brethren and sisters : That I may be led by the Spirit of the Lord is the sincere desire of my heart at this time. I feel the great responsibility in standing before this vast congregation, and, unless my heavenly Father shall aid me, I feel that I will not be able to speak to you satisfactorily. ¶

Reference has been made today, by one of the speakers, to the great sin of indifference. I wish to echo my belief that this sin is one of the prevailing ones in the world. I appreciate the fact that this congregation may not be charged with that evil; their presence here is evidence that they do feel some interest in the welfare of Zion, and that they are not totally indifferent to the word of the Lord. I appreciate the fact that they have come up hither to be fed the bread of life. I rejoice in the words that have been spoken. My soul has been made to feel that I have been fed the bread of life, and I believe that the Latter-day Saints assembled here today have that same sentiment in their bosoms, and they rejoice in the truths of the everlasting Gospel. They rejoice in the influence of God's Holy Spirit that has been made manifest in our midst. Nevertheless there are of our own number many who are indifferent regarding the religion which has been revealed in the day and age in which we live. The great enemy to religion is this spirit of indifference. Men are prone to take advantage of the free agency which our heavenly Father, in His infinite wisdom, has given to every soul, and in taking this advantage they have misapplied that agency, in making a wrong use of the talents and ability with which our Father has endowed them. ¶

There are two things which are very valuable to every human soul. There are others, but I wish to point out these two and the wrong use that is being made of them. They were given to us for an all-wise purpose, and with the bestowal of these gifts upon us, came the responsibility of making a proper use of them. The two things to which I refer are time and money. Some one has said that "time is money." We will all concede that both are regarded by the children of men as ranking among the things of greatest worth. If they are valuable to us as individuals, let us ask ourselves the question: Are they not also valuable in the bringing to pass of God's purposes among the children of men? What are we doing with our time and money? Are we devoting these great gifts of God unto our own selfish purposes, or are they being devoted to the service of God who made us? There are some who are foolish enough to think that if they devote a few hours of their time to serving the Lord that that is all He requires of them. They argue that, if they go to church upon the Sabbath day, if they attend the Mutual Improvement Association, or perform some other particular duty that devolves upon them, by reason of an appointment which they have received, they think that all the rest of their time belongs to themselves, and they can do with it just as they please. My brethren and sisters, if any have taken that view they do not understand the responsibility that the Lord has placed upon us, in giving us the life we have to spend upon this earth. ¶

The Lord expects us to devote all our time in serving Him. That may be regarded by some as an extravagant expression, but, if you will stop to analyze it, you will find that the Lord expects no less of you. The same thing can be said of money, the accumulation of wealth. Many argue : If I pay my tithes and offerings to the Lord, all the rest of my money belongs to me, and I will do with that just as I wish. This again is a false conception of what God expects from every child of His. As in the case of time, so with our wealth, the Lord expects us to devote it all to His service, and in the accomplishment of His great purposes upon this earth. That may again surprise you, but if you will stop to analyze it, you will find that He expects no less from every one of us. But may I not employ a part of my time in earning a livelihood _ for my family? Yes, certainly. But cannot you at the same time serve God ? Is it not a service to God when we provide for our own? Has not the injunction been laid upon us by inspired men that we should support our families? and is it not written that "he who will not provide for his own hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel?" It makes a great deal of difference how we provide for our own, whether in the employment of our time we are using it in the proper way and with honest purpose, or whether we are wasting that time or making an improper use of it. The same with wealth : May I not use a part of the means that God has blessed me with in giving to my family the necessaries of life? May I not leave some of that for the benefit and welfare of my family? Yes, most assuredly; that responsibility is also enjoined upon us. It is not alone in the payment of tithing that we have the opportunity of serving God, but we also have the opportunity of serving him in the use of every other dollar that we spend, and we ought to see to it that we spend our own money in the proper way, and in a way that will be in harmony with the will of God. If we were to employ our means in gratifying the lusts of the flesh, in profligate life, would that be considered a service of God? Certainly not. If we leave immense fortunes to our families without giving them the necessary wisdom to employ that money in the service of God, but leave it for them to waste away in wickedness and sin, that thereby they apostatize from the truth, would you call that a service of God? No, most assuredly not. Hence, those who are entrusted with great fortunes ought to consider in what way their means will be employed to further the purposes of God. One thing that I think ought to be encouraged among the well-to-do Latter-day Saints is to employ their means in such a way that every dollar of it may eventually be used to build up God's kingdom upon this earth; and, if they are able to prevent it, that not one dollar of their money should be utilized against the purposes of our Heavenly Father. It is this indifference regarding the employment of our time and of our money, the indifferent manner in which we regard these precious gifts, that leads us oftentimes in the ways of wrong and error. The proper employment of our time and our money will develop spiritual growth; it will develop that religious fervor which ought to abound among the Latter-day Saints, and which in many cases is woefully wanting. It seems to me that if we can surround our families by wholesome influences, by a proper utilizing of these gifts which our Father has given to us, if we create a love of the truth, so that every energy, every gift, all the time and all the means that we have may be devoted to the service of God, a more wholesome influence would be in the families of the Latter-day Saints. Some people think that they are not religious, that it is not necessary that they should be so devoted to God. It seems to me that a want of religion, a want of religious fervor, a want of spirituality, is mental deformity, more hideous than any physical deformity that we know anything about. Rather would I have my children maimed; rather would I have them without an eye, without a limb, without an arm, or some other important member, and thus be deformed through their natural life, than to have this mental deformity, this want of true religion, without which we form a false conception of the use that should be made of the things God has given us. It seems to me that if we love the truth, and love God with all our souls and with all our hearts, we can form no other conception of our obligations to Him. "Son, give Me thy heart," is the commandment of God to every soul, and it means this: that we should give to God our lives, because the heart is an organ of life, the vital organ which causes the life fluid to circulate throughout the body, imparting vitality to every part. So that, the Lord requires us to give our hearts, our whole lives in His service, and that means all we have and all that are, our time, our talents, our wealth, all should be devoted to the service of God. ¶

Brethren and sisters, let us endeavor, as members of the Church of Christ, to develop this conception of our obligations to our heavenly Father. You laborers in Zion, ask yourselves the question whether or not the interests that are entrusted to your care are suffering, because, terchance, your time is being devoted in some other direction? Are any of the interests entrusted to you languishing because you feel that you must be out with your herds of sheep, or with your cattle upon a thousand hills? Are any of the interests of Zion suffering at the hands of any of the Elders of Israel, because they are begrudging the use of the means that God has blessed them with? ¶

My brethren and sisters, I testify to you that I know this is the work of God ; I know it of myself and not from another. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet sent of God to usher in this great and glorious dispensation, the dispensation of the fulness of times. I know that the men who stand at the head of this Church today are inspired of God, and are there by His appointment. May we uphold and sustain them ; may we prove by our good works that we are devoted to that cause in which they are spending the energies of their lives, their time, and their means, in helping to accomplish God's holy purposes; may the Lord help us to do these things, I ask it, in Jesus' name. Amen. ¶