Teachings and Example of the Church Refute Charges of Immorality

I am pleased to again have the opportunity of meeting with the Latter-day Saints in general conference, and I rejoice in seeing so large an attendance at the opening meetings. It is evidence, to me, of great interest on the part of the people, and of their desire to hear what may be said by those who shall be called upon to address the Saints during this conference. I have rejoiced in the remarks that have been made in our hearing, thus far, and I earnestly desire that the same good spirit, which has attended the brethren who have spoken, may be with me in the remarks that I shall make. I desire to say only those things which will be for the good of the Latter-day Saints; and I am convinced that the desire which I have is the same that has always inspired the servants of the Lord when standing before the people to proclaim the gospel unto them. From my early childhood, when I had the privilege of attending meetings in the old tabernacle and in the old bowery, as I look back and recall the counsel and advice given by those who spoke in our conferences, I realize that it was always good, and for the uplifting, for the advancement, and for the welfare of the people. I have never heard, in all my life, any of the servants of the Lord giving any vicious advice, advising anybody to do wrong, or to perform any act other than a good act. The constant burden of the teaching that I have listened to, all my life, from my earliest recollections, from the servants of the Lord, has been : Serve God and keep His commandments ; live lives of virtue ; be honest ; be sober ; be loyal ; be patriotic ; serve God, and serve your country ; be good ; be kind ; be charitable ; be long-suffering. I do rejoice exceedingly in knowing that each and every one of the leading officials of the Church of Christ, from my earliest recollection to the present day, have labored, and labored unceasingly, for the benefit and the uplifting of the people. ¶

One of the great testimonies, to me, of the divinity of the work in which you and I are engaged is the fact that those who have turned away from the truth, without one single, solitary exception that I can recall, have done so because they have failed to keep the commandments of God. To me it is little less than marvelous that no faithful man or woman, within my recollection, has ever lost the faith of the gospel. Only those who have neglected to serve God, only those that have not kept the light of the Holy Spirit burning within their hearts, by obeying the commandments of the living God, they are the only ones who have lost the faith and turned away. This gospel of Jesus Christ has been proclaimed all over the world, and from the day the Church was organized, not one single, solitary missionary, who was diligent and true in serving God, has ever lost the faith ; and no missionary has come home with increased light and knowledge to tell us that the gospel is wrong, or that he has discovered the truth in some foreign land. But they have come home with increased faith, with increased knowledge, with greater love for the work of God than they had when they went away. I rejoice in these things. I rejoice that in all the travelings of all the elders, wherever they go, in every land and clime, they are constantly gaining increased testimonies, and evidences, and knowledge regarding the divinity of the work in which we are engaged ; and this is as it should be. I regret, however, that there should be any of the Latter-day Saints, that is, any of the product from the homes of the Latter-day Saints, who should go out into the world and become the enemies of this people. I regret that some of the sons and daughters of faithful men and women in the Church should turn away from the truth and should become the enemies of the people and be numbered among those who malign, and belie, and villify the leaders of the Church and the people generally; but I am thankful that those who do this almost without an exception have made a record for wickedness, for corruption, for licentiousness. I thank God that by their fruits ye shall know them, and that the fruits of all those who have turned away from the gospel and are fighting against it today are unworthy. I confess freely and frankly that it would stagger me and the reasoning faculties with which God has endowed me, if I should discover that as men and women grew in good deeds, as they grew in virtue, as they grew in the love of their fellows, as they grew in ability to serve God, they lost the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ ; but I have never discovered one such individual. ¶

I remember purchasing a North American Review, some years ago, on the train or at the depot in San Francisco, and I found in that North American Review a very vicious attack upon the Latter-day Saints, by a grandson of the prophet Brigham Young. This man accused Brigham Young and the Mormon people of disloyalty to the Government of the United States. From my earliest recollection, at my mother's knee, I have been taught by her, and in public and in ¶

private, by all those with whom I have ever mingled, loyalty to this country! At the very time that this young man wrote his article attacking the "Mormon" people as being disloyal — this young man had been recreant to his faith — his own half-brother, a man loyal to his faith, true to God and the religion of his grandfather, was commanding the Utah batteries in the Philippines. "By their fruits ye shall know them ;" and the fruits of the young Latter-day Saints have ever been the fruits of loyalty to our country. Today we are being attacked by a son of one of the late presidency of the Church, than whom no young man in all Israel has made a more unsavory record ; no young man in all Israel has been more guilty of bringing sorrow and pain and humiliation to his parents ; no young man has been more guilty of lying about the servants of God than this same man who today is publishing attacks upon the Latter-day Saints. "By their fruits ye shall know them." I rejoice that the wicked and the corrupt have no part with us. When I read such articles against us, I rejoice in knowing that they are false. The truth hurts, but falsehood never. "A lie lives only until it is found out;" but truth lives and survives; it will live forever, and it is bound to triumph. I rejoice in knowing that one of the most honest, one of the most God-fearing, one of the most humble, one of the most diligent of all the men whom I have ever known in the Church was the late Karl G. Maeser, and a vile, wicked, and corrupt article, written against the Latter-day Saints, was the cause of his investigating the truth. It has been said that nothing can be done against us but what shall be for us — nothing against the truth but what shall redound for the benefit of the truth. When Brother Maeser read this article — that the "Mormon" people were industrious, that they were frugal, that they took care of their poor, better than any other people, that they were honest and temperate, and yet that they were wicked and vile and corrupt— "why," he said, "the man who wrote this article is a liar." The article gave the address where missionary work was being carried on in Scandinavia, and he wrote at once and received information which eventually led to his investigating and embracing the Gospel. ¶

I maintain that no man can reflect upon what has been read to us here today, unless his head needs fixing, and not be able to see a refutation of the charges made against the Latter-day Saints. The great life insurance companies of America, the greatest in all the world, being mutual companies, having no anxiety to make money for the stockholders, as they have none, and they will not insure a man's life unless he is up to a certain standard of health — they would not have me until after I was over forty years of age ; they thought I was going to die, and would not take my money— but with all their selection of risks who come up to their standard, they have ten and a fraction who die to the thousand. With the lame, the halt, the sick, and all kinds among the Latter-day Saints, we have nine and a fraction. What a wonderful refutation that our people are vile ! Do a corrupt people live long? No, they do not. Are they healthy? No, they are not. ¶

And in the divorces — five times as many divorces in the United States, on an average, as among the Latterday Saints ; and the crying evil, today, in this country, is the breaking up of families, a lack of fidelity, men not being true to wives and children. Another great crying evil is the destroying of life, and the failure to have families. We lead them all, multiply them time and time again, by the number of children who are born among the Latter-day Saints. In all the vital statistics that go to make for good, we stand at the head. Years ago, when we were eighty-five per cent of the population of Utah, we had less than fifteen per cent of the criminals ; and the remaining fifteen per cent of the population furnished the eighty-five per cent of the criminals. When it comes to insanity, we have, less of insanity. When it comes to sobriety, we have more of sobriety. When it comes to drunkenness, we have less of drunkenness. And so in all the vital statistics that go to make for good, we are not afraid to compare with the whole world. Let us remember that the fruits of the gospel of Jesus Christ speak for themselves in the lives of the Latter-day Saints ; but let us, each and every one, make up our minds that we are going to improve our already splendid record. ¶

I rejoice in the key note that has been sounded here that, under the law which has been enacted, we can and should do away with the saloon in every community where the Latter-day Saints are in the majority. I read a few verses today along this line. When I read a thing that strikes me, I write it down, or if it is in a newspaper, I cut it out. I read something about a saloon, and I will read it to you: ¶

THE SALOON BAR. ¶

"A bar to heaven, a door to hell — Whoever named it, named it well! A bar to manliness and wealth, A door to want and broken health; A bar to honor, pride and fame, A door to sin and grief and shame; A bar to hope, a bar to prayer, A door to darkness and despair; A bar to honored, useful life, A door to brawling, senseless strife ; A bar to all that's true and brave, A door to every drunkard's grave; A bar to joy that home imparts, A door to tears and aching hearts; A bar to heaven, a door to hell — Whoever named it, named it well!" ¶

I recommend that you expel this door to hell from your communities. You have the ability to do it ; and if you do not do it, it will be your own fault. If, in years to come, the tears and the dishonor and the shame that are depicted in this little piece of poetry, come into your own home by the lives of your own children, a part of the sin will fall upon your own heads. We find recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, that it shall be the duty of parents in Zion, or in any of her stakes that are organized, to teach their children faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they are to teach them to pray and to walk uprightly before the Lord, and that they are to repent and be baptized before they are eight years of age. If the parents do not do this, the sin shall be upon the heads of the parents. Now, teaching by precept, without example, is mighty poor teaching. The apostle James is one of my favorites ; he says : How much does it profit a man to say to the man who is hungry, Be thou fed, without giving him any food? Nothing at all. How much does it profit us to teach our children to serve God and to keep His commandments, ¶

and yet to put temptation in the way of our children. We have the power, so we are told in the Doctrine and Covenants, wherein we are agents unto ourselves, and that we should bring to pass much righteousness of our own free will and accord. Now, I would have liked, very much, during the last year or so, to have made a whole lot of speeches in favor of prohibition ; but do you know that the disease of politics is of such a character that a man can't open his mouth, in the presence of some people, but what he is misunderstood, and they think he is preaching politics. Politics, as I have often said, are a great deal like the measles : The measles don't hurt very much, if you will take some saffron tea and keep them on the surface ; but if they once set in they turn your hide yellow and you can't see straight. (Laughter). And politics have more or less of the same effect. Let us keep politics on the surface, so far as any reformation is concerned, anything for the benefit of the people, for the advancement of the people, to help them to better serve God. We should not let politics interfere with anything of this kind. ¶

Now, another thing, I maintain that we have been very careless about sustaining and upholding law for the benefit of the general health of the people. There is a lack of interest, on the part of the people, in observing sanitary regulations. Let us improve in this regard. I took quite a lively interest in this question recently, and by request spoke once at a tuberculosis exhibit. The result was that I was asked to speak again and again, which I did, and finally I was asked to contribute my money and become a member of the association, which I did, because one good turn, they say, deserves another, (laughter) and you have to keep it up. I was astonished to find the lack of interest, a lack on the part of the people in being interested in a thing of this kind, something for the general benefit. I was astonished to find that we could spend any amount of money legally for schools, for roads, for bridges, for public improvements, but we could not spend a dollar from the county funds to aid educationally, for the benefit of the people's health. I read of one good lady up in Dakota who said, if one of her hogs was sick, or if anything was the matter with any of the fruits, or flowers, or vegetables and garden truck, if there were troublesome insects or anything of that nature, all she had to do was to send down to Washington, and the Agricultural Department would supply her with information how to cure the hog or protect the plants in her garden. But, if her husband, her son or her daughter was sick, and she should write to the Government, she could not get any information or help. Moral: Be a hog, and the Government will take care of you, if you get sick. (Laughter). I hope we may be able to develop a better public sentiment for the improvement of the health of the people. I hope the people will think enough of the health of their fellows to quit expectorating all over the sidewalks. There has been a law against this for years, and yet some of the people pay no attention to it. ¶

Let us seek to better our condition— intellectually, physically, morally, and above all let us seek for the inspiration of Almighty God to guide us in all the walks of life, I ask it, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶