Works of Righteousness and Combating the Menace of Intemperance

"He that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain, and shall say, Prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people." ¶

We believe in God the Eternal Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. This first article of faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is fundamental and indispensable to the belief of every Christian man and woman. We believe that without faith it is impossible to please God ; that we must believe in Him, must believe that He is. We must believe that He has control over our destinies, and that we owe allegiance and service to Him ; otherwise there would be no desire upon our part to find Him out or learn of His ways. This first article of our faith is accepted by very many people, so far as it applies to faith in our heavenly Father, who reject the remainder of it. Mohammed taught faith in God, and that doctrine today is the foundation of the Moslem religion. The Jews believe in the God of Abraham; but neither of these peoples acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God, nor as the Savior of the world. The Latter-day Saints believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ— not that He was simply a reformer, a prophet of His time, one seeking to establish righteousness, but that He is the Son of the living God and the Redeemer of the world. ¶

We believe in the Holy Ghost, which bears record of the Father and the Son, and which, when we are in possession of it, leads us into all truth. ¶

While we believe that these first doctrines of the Church are fundamental and indispensable, we do not regard them as sufficient to assure exaltation to the presence of our Father in heaven, but that they must be accompanied by works; that we must do the will of the Father, keep the commandments which He has given us, in order that we may be brought back into His presence. This congregation is made up largely of Latter-day Saints, people who have accepted these first principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who have repented of their sins, gone down into the waters of baptism, and have received the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. You have come up here to the mountains of Ephraim, that you may learn the way of the Lord, that you may learn to walk in His paths. I am sure it is for that purpose that you are here this afternoon, that you may be taught the way of the Lord. This congregation, undoubtedly, represents officially a great majority of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The presiding authorities of the Church are here ; presidents of stakes are here ; high councilors are here ; bishops of wards, and men and women who preside over the auxiliary organizations of the Church — all are here this afternoon that you may learn better the way of the Lord and how to walk in His paths. You are watch-men upon the towers of Zion, and the Lord has said, "Except ye warn the wicked man of his wickedness, and he die in his iniquity, his blood will I require at your hands ; but if ye warn the wicked, and he repent not, you have delivered your soul." My brethren and sisters, I understand the Lord to mean by this, that we who profess to follow Him, we who have been called to feed the flock of Christ, are to be advocates of righteousness, that we are to teach the word of the Lord by precept and by example, that we are to make plain that straight and narrow path in which He would have all of His children walk; in other words, that we are to remove the stumbling blocks from the way of the Lord, so far as it is in our power to do so. Where the stumbling blocks cannot be removed, they can at least be marked, that their existence may be known, in order that they may be avoided. ¶

I had been wondering what I should say to this congregation, because I thought that, probably, I might be asked to speak to you, and I felt at a loss until a circumstance which occurred, a short time ago, led me to a chain of thought and suggested a subject to which I shall briefly refer. I love to advocate the doctrines of the Gospel of Christ, because I believe in them with all my heart. I love to teach the way of redemption, which the Savior of mankind taught, because I know it to be the power of God unto salvation ; and I do not believe that there is any other way under heaven by which men and women can be saved, or by which power is given them over the sins of the world except through obedience to the Gospel. I love to speak of and to think of the good that exists in the world. This is a good world which the Lord has given us; there are abundance of good things, in it — everything, in fact, that we could desire, to make us happy, if only utilized as our Father designed that they should be. I feel depressed when I think and talk of evils which exist. To place myself in conflict with existing conditions, when I know that by so doing I may be subject to criticism, that my words may be misinterpreted and misunderstood ; to feel that I may be criticized and that my views may not meet with the approbation of people whom I would desire to please, — does not make me happy; it never did make me happy to think of evil, nor to talk about it. Yet, when I see conditions existing in the country— this God-given country of ours — which it seems to me are striking at the very foundation of society, conditions which have resulted in the downfall of nations, in times past, and which must inevitably result in the downfall of nations, or communities, or individuals, wherever they continue, — when it seems to me that these conditions are surely, if slowly, fastening themselves upon this country of ours, I feel constrained to raise my voice in warning to my brethren and sisters against them. I believe that I fully appreciate the value of care and wisdom in handling all great questions, particularly where questions arise in which men and women may conscientiously differ in their opinion. I have never desired to be an extremist. I have never liked sensationalism. I have never liked offensive partisanship in anything. I do not like it, even in the advocacy of the word of the Lord, because I do not consider it necessary. But those things against which the Lord has spoken, which are fundamentally wrong, those things against which the servants of the Lord have always warned us, — to those things at least, it seems to me, I should feel justified in referring, even at the risk of being misunderstood. I do not expect that my views, nor the views of the Church, are going to be adopted by all people. I recognize the fact that in this country in which we live, majorities rule, and that minorities must be subject to them. This is all right, and I submit to it; but I also submit that majorities are not always right, and while I yield, I may still remain unconverted. ¶

Some little time ago, it was my pleasure to be in a great city, and I rode through its streets with a companion. I admired its beautiful residences ; I admired its public buildings; I admired its parks, and the things which men had done to embellish it. As we passed down one of its streets, I saw upon the wall of a dwelling a placard, just a yellow piece of cloth, which had "Smallpox" printed on it. I said to myself, that means that there is some one sick there, and that placard, which has been put there by health officers, is a warning to other people that they should not go into that house during the period it is infected with this disease ; and I said to myself, the people who live there, I suppose, are also restrained from going out. It is their own house ; they are unfortunately ill; why should the law lay its hand upon them and prevent them from going in and out of their own home, and their friends going to their assistance and going away again. I then reasoned, it is because the infection that is there may be carried to other people, and they may become sick; and so I concluded that, after all, it was well within the province of the law to take control of that house during the period of infection, and prevent people from either going in or coming out of it. I knew that after a while, if the patient recovered, that he would go out clean and without infection, and that neither he nor those with whom he came in contact would be in danger. We went on and turned into another street, and came to a great building. I saw the door swinging to and fro, just a screen door that was there. I looked in and saw that the room was beautifully embellished. There were mirrors ; there was music. I heard the clink of glasses ; I heard the laughter of men and women too, for as the door swung back and forth I saw that there were women there. My friend said, "That is a saloon ; we call it a saloon." Yes, and refreshments were served there, for I saw "Ice Cream" and "Refreshments" marked in great letters over the door ; and my companion said, "Just back of it, there in that group of buildings that you see, there are lawless men and abandoned women; and there ribaldry, and license and intemperance reign supreme." Then my mind reverted back to that other house. On this house there was no placard, nothing on the door to warn people that it was a dangerous place to go; yet I thought to myself of the two, the danger to society, the danger of infection, is far greater in this latter place than in the former. Why isn't there some warning there ? Why are not people given to understand the dangers of this place? Why are they, upon the contrary, invited into it? Why is this condition legalized and licensed here in this beautiful city ; then I thought of something else, and I am going to refer to it. I know that I am discussing a delicate question, but I thought of this; only a few days before I had read in one of the great magazines of the country, that they had taken the trouble to collect statistics, and that the medical fraternity of the United States had reported to them that 75 per cent of all the men in the great cities of this country, between the ages of 18 and 28 years were infected with disease that was almost incurable, as the result of their acquaintance with just such places as this to which I have referred— not diseases that can be easily eradicated, but that are handed down to the third and fourth generations of those who forget God and neglect to keep His commandments. I said to myself, the one great evil that menaces this nation today, the one great evil which menaces the Church — for whatever menaces the nation is a menace to the Church; thank God, these things do not exist in the Church ; they are no part of it ; they never have been, and if the Gospel of Jesus Christ could prevail, there would be no such places in the world— but I said to myself, the greatest menace to this nation today, and the greatest menace or enemy which the Church of Christ has to combat is intemperance and sexual sin. I just wanted to say that word to my brethren here this afternoon. You men who preside over the destinies of this people — isn't it a stumbling block that is in the path ? Every power that Satan can conceive of is exercised in defense of this evil, and all his forces are marshalled to support it, to promote it, to protect it. Now, the way to combat these evils, if I were going to suggest a plan, would be to follow the policy suggested by Brother McKay. I do not want to advocate offensive measures. I only want to say to my brethren and sisters that that which the law legitimately and properly authorizes you and me to do, that much, at least, we are justified in doing; and, regardless of the law, it becomes our duty, every one of us, to make known to our children, to the children of our brethren and sisters, and to the children of our friends in the world, the existence of this deadly menace, in the hope that they may be persuaded to avoid it. When Rome adhered to her simple life, when the honor of her men and the virtue of her women were above reproach, she became the mistress of the world; but when these things, to which I have referred, gradually fastened themselves upon her, she went into dissolution. ¶

One of the things I was impressed with, when I first went to Mexico, a few years ago, was a very beautiful growth which I observed upon the trees there. It was in the winter that I went there, but, as I traveled up those streams, I noticed that here and there, along the way, there was an occasional tree that was dotted with green — sometimes only one bunch, sometimes many bunches, all beautiful and green. I examined it and found it to be mistletoe. It seemed to be rather an embellishment to look at it, but after a while, as I went further up one of these canyons, one day, I observed a tree that was dying. It was literally covered with mistletoe, this beautiful plant. The fact of the matter was that the plant had fastened itself upon the tree just as other parasites fasten themselves upon that which other people create, until it had sapped the last bit of life out of it, and the tree had died. This shrub does not grow from the earth, as other plants do, it does not struggle for existence, as God seems to have designed that all good things shall struggle for their existence, from infancy to old age ; but it just waits till the tree has grown, till the tree has made the struggle and has become vigorous, and then the first thing you know you will see a bunch of mistletoe sprout out on one of the branches. After a while it goes to another branch, and then to another, and if left, as I have said, it takes away the life of the tree. Well, I said, to myself, it would be better to cut it off, better to remove that single bunch that has appeared, — and I made it a practice to do that with my own trees thereafter, and I found that it was an easy matter to keep it down, but if left to itself, if kept there because of its beauty — and it is a thing of beauty — it became a thing of danger. So, my brethren and sisters, that which God has ordained for the good of man, that which makes men and women happy, that which makes men and women temperate, that which makes men and women virtuous, that which leads men and women to believe in God and Christ and to serve Them — that we cultivate, that we cherish, that we care for. But that which comes into our midst, when the tree has become strong, and fastens itself upon us, with no other purpose in the world except to sap our life-blood, better cut it right off; better get rid of it, hadn't we ? I think so. So I want to say that any legitimate means which is in your power and mine we should exercise in the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the eradication of these things as they exist in the world, and to keep them out of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that they may have no place in it. God bless you, my brethren and sisters, through Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶