Fulfillment of Promises and the Second Great Commandment

THIRD DAY. ¶

Wednesday, Oct. 6th, 10 a. m. ¶

Conference was called to order by President Joseph F. Smith. ¶

The choir and congregation sang the hymn: ¶

Come, let us anew our journey pursue, Roll round with the year, And never stand still till the Master appear. His adorable will let us gladly fulfil, And our talents improve, By the patience of hooe and the labor of love. ¶

Prayer was offered by Elder Samuel E. Woolley. ¶

The choir and congregation sang the hymn: ¶

'Guide us, O Thou great Jehovah, Lead us to the promised land, We are weak, but Thou art able — Hold us with Thy powerful hand. ¶

Holy Spirit, Feed us till the Savior comes. ¶

Fulfillment of the Lord's promises. — Saints should love and serve the Lord with all their heart. — The second great commandment. — Other commandments. — Proper observance of the Sabbath. — Evils should be uprooted. ¶

"Behold, blessed, saith the Lord, are they who have come up unto this land with an eye single to my glory, according to my commandments." ¶

The proceedings of this conference, this large congregation of Latter-day Saints who are assembled here this morning, have brought very forcibly to my mind the word of the Lord as it is contained in this 59th section of the book of Doctrine and Covenants, from which I have read ; and I feel like re-iterating those words : ¶

"Behold, blessed, saith the Lord, are they who have come up unto this land with an eye single to my glory, according to my commandments; "For they that live shall inherit the earth, and they that die shall rest from all their labors, and their works shall follow them, and they shall receive a crown in the mansions of my Father, which I have prepared for them." ¶

These are promises of very great value to us, my brethren and sisters; and I want to ask you, this morning, if you and I are not living witnesses of the fulfillment of this word of the Lord, so far as it applies to us who live? We are here in the enjoyment of the blessings which have been showered upon us in this goodly land, and it is of great importance to us to know, as we do know, because of the revelations of the Lord to the Church, that those who are not here, those who have died, having kept inviolate the covenants that they entered into with the Lord, do rest from their labors, that their works do follow them, and that they have gone to those mansions prepared for the righteous by our Father who is in heaven. "Yea, blessed are they whose feet stand upon the land of Zion, who have obeyed my gospel, for they shall receive for their reward the good things of the earth; and it shall bring forth in its strength; "And they shall also be crowned with blessings from above, yea, and with commandments not a few ; and with revelations in their time: they that are faithful and diligent before me." ¶

My brethren and sisters, you Latter-day Saints who have gathered up here to the valleys of these mountains, from among the different nations of the earth — you people from Scandinavia, from England, from Ireland, from Wales, and from Scotland, you German saints, you people from the mountains of Switzerland — I want to ask you if the Lord has not made good these promises, if He has not blest you with the good things of the earth ; if you have not received revelations in their time ; if your faith has not been strengthened, your confidence waxed strong in the Lord, and if you do not now stand firmly convinced that every word spoken by the mouths of His servants, the prophets, will be verified and fulfilled? ¶

It seems to me that I see so clearly the verification of this word of the Lord, that there can be no doubt but that He has gathered this people together. Nothing like it has ever been undertaken before in the history of the world. Nothing will ever be accomplished like it again ; for this is a day of restoration, a day for the redemption of Israel, a day when the Lord's people are to be gathered together, a day when He will manifest His power among them, a day when He will consummate all things spoken by His servants, the prophets ; and we see the verification of these things. Now, there is something more attached to this : these promises do not come to us except that we fulfill the requirements of the law. These blessings to which I have referred, promised by the Lord, are given to us upon these conditions : "Wherefore I give unto them a commandment," (as the Lord always commands, and as there are always conditions incident to every blessings that emanates from Him) "I give unto them a commandment, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind, and strength ; and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve Him." This is the first great commandment. It applies to every one of us. The Lord expects us — ■ because of His blessings, because of the great and marvelous work which He has set His hand to accomplish, and which He is accomplishing— to recognize Him, to love Him with all our hearts. And if we love the Lord, we will serve Him. It is not they who say "Lord, ' Lord," who shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but they who do the will of the Father ; they are they who shall enter into His rest. It is not sufficient that we acknowledge allegiance to the Lord, but that we give Him our hearts; and if we give Him our hearts, we keep His commandments ; we show our love, we show our appreciation by yielding homage, obedience and service to Him whom we acknowledge as our Creator. We do this in the name of Jesus Christ His Son, the Redeemer of the world, our advocate with the Father, He who came in the meridian of time and took upon Him the sins of the world ; whose blood was shed that we might be redeemed and thus brought back into the presence of God. Because of the sacrifice which He made, He became the first fruits of the resurrection from the dead ; and He made that sacrifice that we, likewise, might be heirs not only to eternal life in the presence of God, our Heavenly Father, but of physical resurrected life, through the redemption which He wrought out. Thus He is our advocate with the Father ; through Him the blessings of the Father come to us ; and if we please the Lord we not only love Him with all our hearts, we not only keep His commandments, we not only worship Him, but we recognize His Son as our advocate with the Father, and through Him we approach the throne of grace. Christ was asked what was the first great commandment. He said : "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." Then He said that there is another great commandment which is very nigh unto it, which approaches that, the most important of all commandments, which is that you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. So the Lord has reiterated to us this other great commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." It is frequently suggested that this — in our condition, clothed upon with mortality, as we are — is not possible. I believe, my brethren and sisters, that the Lord has made no requirements of us, no requirement of any of His children, which is not possible of accomplishment; and so I fully believe that it is just as empty for a man to say that he loves God, and manifest in his life his utter lack of affection, his lack of love, his lack of consideration for his fellowman, as it is to say that he loves God and then violate His command ments. If the love of God is in our hearts, if we have been born again, we love human kind; we love our neighbor; and if we love our neighbor, we seek to do to him as we would that he should do unto us. Upon this hangs the law and the prophets. ¶

I believe that this doctrine may be better understood by the Latter-day Saints ; I believe that greater consideration may be had for our fellow ; I believe that we can show greater interest in his welfare, greater love for him, greater respect for him in his place and in his station. But, mark you, there is nothing in the word of the Lord which indicates that this love of our fellow, of our neighbor, shall extend to the extent that we justify him in wrong-doing, that we join with him in that which is evil. We stand squarely opposed to this, for it is not love that prompts one to indulge his fellow, his brother, his sister, his wife, his son or daughter in that which is wrong. Love may be as destructive, when it leads to indulgence, as it may be beneficial when its restraining influence is exercised over those with whom we are surrounded. So, while I would respect my neighbor in his rights, in his opinions, the Lord does not require me to in any way indorse, to in any way approve of the evil that may be in his life. On the contrary I am expected to use my influence, my example, my words for his reformation. For to love mankind, or to love God, or to love righteousness is to adhere to that which is right and refrain from doing that which is evil. I would that this love for our fellows might be established in the heart of every Latter-day Saint. ¶

Now, there are some other things here which the Lord requires of us : "Thou shalt not lie" — a very important admonition ; for what can be more disreputable than a liar. To lie is not simply to speak that which is untrue ; it is not to say "yes" when we mean "no," and "no" when we mean "yes." A man may conscientiously, be in error ; he may adhere to that which is wrong ; but if he does it with the thought that it is right, he is true before the Lord. Better such a man than he who for his own personal gain or interest, and against his own conscience, adheres to the right — a hypocrite before the Lord, and untruthful in his life before the people. ¶

"Thou shalt not steal" — not take that which belongs to another. The Lord requires that we should live by the sweat of our brow ; that with the labor of our own hands we should acquire the necessities of life. Men may steal by other means than by going in the dark hours of the night and appropriating that which belongs to their neighbors ; they may steal by other means than holding one up upon the public highway. Whenever we take that which belongs to another, by unfair means, by misrepresentation of facts, we take that which does not belong to us ; and the Lord is not pleased with us. He is not pleased with that which we acquire by any other means except those honest, honorable, truthful means that are provided, by which we have clear conscience before God and before the world. I wish this truth could be impressed upon the heart of every Latter-day Saint. We are living in an age when — you will all agree with me — to a certain extent, it is regarded as honorable to acquire means by methods which, critically examined, cannot be approved of; they are not honest. No man has a right to promote any enterprise, any industry that is not based upon principles which give reasonable hope and success. A man who goes out canvassing for things that he knows to be without value, taking away from the people their hard-earned means, places himself very nearly, I will say, upon a level with the man who goes in the darkness of the night and appropriates to his own use that which belongs to his neighbor. ¶

"You shall not commit adultery." The Lord requires the Latter-day Saints — you people whom He has blest, in your coming up here to these valleys of the mountains — to be pure in your lives ; that your morality may be above reproach ; that you may keep yourselves unspotted from the sins of the world. This is one of the conditions which He imposes, in this revelation, and upon which He predicates the abundance of His blessings to the Latter-day Saints. ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, I come to that portion of this revelation, to which I desire, more particularly, to call your attention: ¶

"And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day; "For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High; "Nevertheless thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all times; "But remember that on this, the Lord's day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord." ¶

My brethren and sisters, if there is one thing more than another that these presidents need to take back into the different stakes, over which they preside ; that these Bishops need to teach in the wards over which they preside; that you Elders of Israel need to teach by precept and example in the communities of Latter-day Saints, it is a righteous observance of the Sabbath day — a day hallowed and made sacred and holy by the Lord, for His worship, not a day of pleasure, not a day for excursions into the canyons, not a day for automobile rides into the country, not a day for baseball games on the public square, not a day for horseraces in the park, not a day when the Lord is forgotten and the pleasures of the world sought ; but a day when God requires His people to gather together and partake of the sacrament, acknowledging their allegiance to Him and His Son, and entering into covenants with Him that they will keep His commandments. It is not a day when representative men of the Church, who may be in New York, or in Chicago, or in Los Angeles, shall seek pleasure while the Latter-day Saints, who are there, are met together to partake of the sacrament and bear testimony to each other of the goodness of the Lord. They ought to be there in the congregations of the Latter-day Saints, at home or abroad, or wherever a branch of the Church exists ; and if no branch at all exists, we may still pay our devotions to the Lord, remembering Him, acknowledging our allegiance to Him, upon this sacred day. ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, these are fundamental doctrines of the Church, every one of them, unchangeable. We cannot please the Lord except we observe them. We must acknowledge the Lord; we must acknowledge His Son as the Savior of the world; we must love our neighbor; we must be truthful ; we must be honest ; we must be virtuous. We have been preaching these doctrines from the very inception of the Church; and, thank the Lord, we have made headway in this work ; thank the Lord, the great majority of the people believe and practice these doctrines ; but there is still room for reform. Now, we are taught these things by two methods : in the first place, the Gospel of Christ admonishes us to serve the Lord because we love Him — to do it without coercion, to do it voluntarily. This is His law to us. He loves every one of us, but He wishes us to exercise our own judgment, to follow after our own consciences in these things ; He does not restrain us. We wish that every man and woman in the world were converted to well-doing, and voluntarily and without coercion yield allegiance to these eternal laws, but they will not do it. Knowing this, and realizing the importance of restraining men in the willful exercise of their passions, which are evil, civil laws are provided which do restrain us, which do govern these things. I stand here this morning and advocate the righteousness of these laws. I believe that it is the right of the people to frame such laws in civil government, as will restrain crime, restrain that which is evil ; and if men and women will not, of their own volition, adhere to the word of the Lord, they must be restrained. So, if it were in my power, I would see today that these evils which menace us are struck down, in the proper spirit, by the hand of the law. Down upon the table-lands of northern Mexico, where I have lived, scattered here and there among the luxurious grasses which grow, there is a noxious weed, a weed which, ordinarily, a horse will not touch. At first he shuns it, but after a while, having grazed near it, having rubbed his nose against it and become better acquainted with it, he tastes it. Later he acquires an appetite for it, and it saps his strength ; it affects his intellect ; it makes him crazy — we say in Spanish "loco;" he becomes a locoed horse. Well, we found out that by keeping our horses in the stable all the time, we could keep them away from that weed ; they did not get it ; but it is a very difficult and inconvenient thing to always keep horses in the stable. They want the open air ; they want the green grass which grows upon the hills ; and we had to deprive them of all this, just simply because here and there on the hill, grew this noxious weed. We found a remedy; we turned out with hoes. We traveled over the hills, and we dug up the weed by the roots ; then we turned out our horses and they grazed, and no harm came to them. I am strongly of the opinion, my brethren and sisters, that we may talk of home and home influence ; we may throw protection around our children, which we know to be proper ; but the moment they go out of the house, evil is staring them in the face. So long as, under the law, men and women are permitted to desecrate the Sabbath day ; so long as places of amusement and pleasure are wide open before them; so long as saloons throw open their doors, and music and pleasure invite them to come in ; so long as houses of ill fame stand upon the corners of our streets, — just so long the evil will exist. Just as long as the horses continue to get out of the barn and on to the plains, they will eat the noxious weed that at first they refused and resented. After the appetite becomes acquired, the only way you can get rid of it is to go out and hoe up the weeds. Well, you will say, is that in accordance with the spirit of love, the spirit of tolerance which you advocate, that shall be exercised towards your brother ? It is. I am willing to go just as far as God, our eternal Father is willing to go. No one can be more merciful than He ; no one more tolerant ; and yet He never compromises with that which is wrong. His laws are as inevitable as fate itself. John told us that the books were opened, and another book was opened which was the Book of Life ; and the dead were judged out of the things written in the books, according to the deeds done in the body. Men cannot escape that judgment; all will be judged according to the deeds done in the body ; and so I say that mercy and tolerance cannot and ought not to rob justice. President Taft, in his recent remarks from this pulpit, referred to the administration of the criminal law of our country. He did not criticise the law; he stands for the law, for its vindication; he upholds it ; but he advocated that it be administered in charity, that it be administered with mercy — just as we advocate that all law should and ought to be administered. So, I do not want to be intolerant ; I do not want to be unjust; I do not want to ask of my fellowman that which I am not willing and ready to concede to him ; but I do believe this, my brethren and sisters, that reforms will never be accomplished until you strike at the root of the evil, and make it impossible, under the law, for these things to exist. ¶

God bless you ; keep us in the way of virtue, rectitude and righteousness, I ask, through Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶