It Requires Intelligence to Be Good

I believe that the Latter-day Saints here present must feel with me a certain amount of pride in listening to the voices of these Latter-day Saints' University students, who are rendering such beautiful music to us here this morning. A good deal has been said this morning in regard to the educational status of the Latter-day Saints. We have here now an object lesson, these young men and young women, members of the Latter-day Saints' University in this city, pursuing their studies there, also receiving instruction in the divine art of music, under the able leadership of Brother Kirkham. I am sure that we must feel proud of these our young brethren and sisters and what they are accomplishing in an educational way. I regard music as a part of their education, and the ability they have shown is a result of their application. I believe that it is the destiny of this people to become the leaders in education, in knowledge, in understanding and in all those accomplishments which go to make the perfect man and the perfect woman. Every acquirement in these lines helps to polish the young lady or young gentleman to give to them an air of culture and improvement that is completely in harmony with the great work of the Lord in which we are all engaged. ¶

If there is anything that this work stands for it is for enlightenment, for education; for improvement, and the accomplishment of the great ends for which this Church has been set up, organized and established, for after all our mission upon this earth is one of education. We are, so to speak, attending school, fitting and qualifying ourselves for a habitation in the realms above, in the presence of our eternal Father, whose glory is sometimes referred to as being intelligence. Intelligence is the glory of God. It is by reason of His great intelligence and knowledge that He is able to manifest such power, for knowledge is power. We have organizations that are particularly adapted to the youth of Zion, not only in our Church schools, that are doing so much in that line and are accomplishing such a great work, but also in the various organizations for our young people, the young men's and the young ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations, our Sabbath Schools, Primary associations and Religion classes. ¶

Sometimes people in the world imagine that the study of religion is not particularly an intellectual attainment, and that men and women can be religious and keep moral without any particular amount of intellectual pursuit or application. But I wish to call attention to the fact, which seems to me to be self-evident, that it requires intelligence to be good, to be moral, to be virtuous, and to be honest. It is a mistaken idea some people have, that they prefer — for they say they prefer — to bring their sons up into some occupation that will require a great amount of mental application. They would like to have their sons become good lawyers or physicians; but when it comes to following religion, why anybody can follow that, as it does not require any particular amount of intellect or knowledge to be an upright man. That, think they, is something that can be turned over to weaker minds. But I wish to call attention to the fact, that the greatest amount of intellectual energy is necessary to overcome evil in all its various forms as it presents itself to mankind in general. I wonder how many there are who have resolved in their own mind "I will do no evil, I will think no evil, I will resist all that is wrong and try to do only that which is good." In other words, how many are there who are trying to follow the injunction of the Lord Jesus Christ when he said, "Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect." If we have resolved this in our minds and determined that we are going to try to live that kind of a life, have we not learned, and found out to our own satisfaction, that it requires intellectual effort for us to do so? To govern the mind, the desires of the heart, require the greatest amount of intellectual power. To resolve in our minds that we are going to try, is the biggest step in that direction. What are our intentions? It has been said by some one that "hell is paved with good intentions." I do not believe one word of it, I regard that as a false aphorism. Hell is not paved with good intentions; it would be more appropriate to say it is paved with evil intentions. It may be true that some people have particularly good intentions at times, and fail to carry them out; but I believe that the most difficulty is in our failure to have good intentions. I believe this, that anyone with good intentions will never be found doing anything very wrong. If we can control our thoughts or our minds, if we can control our thinking, our intentions and our purposes, I believe that our deeds will take care of themselves. But we want to get the reins and hold them, that we may control the thinking of our minds; that is intellectual energy, and it requires a vast amount of it. There is no undertaking so vast and so great as the obtaining of this self-control, and it is all a part of our religion. The Gospel takes hold of us exactly in this way, or it should do so. ¶

Fundamental in the Church of Jesus Christ, is the principle of faith. We must have faith in God, and plead with Him for His 'assistance, for the companionship of His Holy Spirit. Fundamental, also, in our Church, is the great principle of repentance from sin. Without it we cannot improve. It is the application of this principle that is going to help us to cleanse ourselves from sin. The resisting of evil is exercised by us every day, if we are leading the lives of Latter-day Saints. Opportunity to exert these powers is afforded to us every day of our lives. We should indulge only in pure thoughts; do we endeavor at all times to reject the evil ones that are constantly presenting themselves to us? If we do, we have something to accomplish, something that requires our greatest effort. It requires a superior quality of spirit and intelligence for us to combat the evils of the world, not only as it applies to communities at large, but as individuals, fighting the great fight, cleansing and purifying ourselves from all evil. That is what repentance will do for us. But it necessitates constant and daily application, something that we have got to do every day of our lives. If we are imbued with this kind of a spirit, when we arise in the morning the first thought will be "Today I will keep myself clean and unspotted from the world; I will do no evil; I will resist every evil that presents itself to my mind that it may find no resting place within me." Someone has said — I do not know who it was — that "we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, but we can prevent them from building nests in our hair." Sometimes I think that we can, to a certain extent, prevent them from flying over our heads. A short time ago I was in the city of Los Angeles, and while there I visited a pigeon farm, owned by one of our people who formerly lived in Sanpete county. Nearly all the visitors who go to Los Angeles make it a point to visit this pigeon farm, for it is possibly the largest pigeon farm in the world. The brother showed us his pigeons, numbering 125,000. It is only a small farm as far as the area is concerned. There were housed there, as stated, 125,000 pigeons. There is a little creek running through his farm, and a little green growing on either side of it, and these pigeons fly all around on this particular farm, but it was noticeable that none of them left the boundaries of the farm. On the right and on the left were garden patches with green garden stuff, vegetables growing in the garden, and houses were all around. You would naturally think that these pigeons would fly over and devour these green vegetables, that they would go over on to the houses of the neighbors and rest upon the roofs. But no, they all remained on that farm. We asked Brother Johnson— I think that is his name — how it was. He said they never leave the farm. "When I first started business here they began to go on the neighboring farm, but I went out with a shotgun and I fired off a few shots and they went back, and," he says, "I never had any trouble since." Now, my brethren and sisters, if we fire a few shots at the evil thoughts and evil desires which sometimes present themselves to us, and set ourselves against them, we can prevent them from flying over our heads. We want to endeavor in every way to avoid evil thinking, because out of an evil thought comes an evil deed; and if we will take care of this part I think that the deeds will take care of themselves. ¶

I rejoice in the Gospel of repentance, because I know that it has within it the power of God unto salvation; and I know that it is necessary for us to make individual efforts to control the thinking powers of our minds, to control those elements of our nature that require our purification to fit and qualify us to dwell in the presence of God. That is the part of our salvation that is left to us. Through the grace of God we will be redeemed from the dead. Through the grace of God we will be relieved from the consequences of evil, not only from the original transgression of our first parents in the Garden of Eden, but also of all our own personal acts and shortcomings, provided we will practice this great Gospel of repentance from sin, and bring unto the Lord a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and manifest in our daily lives that we are determined to lead that perfect life and to resist evil in all of its forms, no matter how it may present itself to us. May the Lord of heaven help us to go on and on until finally we shall gain the victory, which is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶