Training Up Young Men and Women in the Faith

My beloved brethren and sisters, I trust that during the few moments that I occupy, I may be impressed to say something that will be beneficial and of profit to those who may listen, as well as to myself. I have had many reflections while the brethren have been speaking to us. I have thought of the power of God that has been made manifest upon many occasions, that has been an evidence and a testimony to me of the divinity of this great latter-day work, in which we are engaged. ¶

I have listened with a great deal of interest to the remarks of our brethren. I have been acquainted with these men for many years, and I know them to be men of God, men of great worth in the community, in the labor of love that we have espoused, in preaching the gospel, in building up Zion and instilling into the hearts of the young and rising generation the principles of the gospel. The power that attends these principles in the growth and development of our young people is what we need in our midst. ¶

I was reflecting when President Rich spoke of the young men who had been on missions continuing at home in the same good missionary spirit that had predominated in their hearts and in 'their labors in the mission field. I have had the pleasure, and the privilege of preaching the gospel in some of the nations of the earth, and I can say that the spirit that is usually manifest among the elders, is a spirit of love, the spirit of charity, the spirit of forgiveness, the spirit of willingness to go and to come at the bidding of those who preside over them, in preaching and presenting the principles of the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth. ¶

We discover that some of our young men, on their return in our midst, become somewhat luke-warm and careless pertaining to their duties and labors in the stakes of Zion. It has been my prerogative and privilege to preside over a stake of Zion now for ten years, laboring with the young people, preparing them to go abroad and preach the gospel, and to labor at home in the various organizations of the Church, schooling them in the principles of the gospel, so that they would be more useful in the sphere in which they operate. We occasionally discover among our young people, especially among the young men, a spirit of indifference and carelessness as they grow up in our midst. I think perhaps this is due to the fact that we, as fathers and mothers, do not follow up, as closely as we should, our young men and young girls in their amusements and in their work. We too freely allow them to go and come as they please, and they have acquired more or less a spirit of independence and freedom in having their own way. ¶

This reminds me forcibly of a play put upon our stage at one time, where a young man, who had formed a habit of drinking and smoking, and possibly profaning and doing other things that sometimes young men subject themselves to, he, singing upon the stage, made the statement, "I have had my own way. Don't I look it?" He certainly did look it ; and I think this is the great trouble with some young men, they have had their own way, and they look it. ¶

Solomon said, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Some of our people, I think, mistake this reading. They think if they teach their children correct principles that they ought to grow up and be all right; but this is not always the case. Our children should be trained to make themselves useful from their infancy up, they should be doers of the word as well as hearers, and when they get old, they will not depart from it. It has been my experience and observation that among the young men who go upon missions and receive honorable releases, when they return home there are some who resume objectionable habits in which they had indulged before they went away. In most of such cases where they do fall away, it is because they had not formed proper habits in their earlier lives. ¶

I was reading, a short time ago, a statement of one of the professors in a California university, where he said : "You permit young men to sow their wild oats, as you call it, and as a rule, they will continue to sow wild oats in their manhood." I believe there is regrettable truth connected with this. ¶

I notice young men and young ladies who take active part in our Mutual Improvement Associations, our Sunday Schools, Primaries, and other organizations and quorums of the Church, if they work and labor diligently in these quorums, they grow and develop in the gospel. These are the young men and women who remain stable as a rule, in the Church. These are the young men who fill honorable missions and then come home and remain faithful, who are obedient under the direction of those who preside over them. ¶

I pray that the Lord will bless you, increase your faith, and strengthen your testimonies concerning this work. I testify to you that I know, as I know that I am standing here, that this is really and truly the work of God. It has not been instituted by men, it has been instituted by God, and it will stand forever. ¶

May God bless you, and may we hold on to the iron rod, which is the word of God, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶