Preparing a People for the Coming of the Son of God

Perhaps the most important event that is before the Latter-day Saints and the world is the coming of the Son of God to live among men in the flesh. The signs He said should precede His coming are appearing upon the right hand and the left. Those who have eyes to see, and hearts to understand, can easily discern the preparation that is going on in the world, and we can also discern that the Lord is working in the midst of the Latter-day Saints for the fulfillment of that glorious event. I desire to call attention of my brethren and sisters to that particular phase of the work which is devolving upon us. The Lord is working among the nations according to His good pleasure, but He has given special commission and labor to the Latter-day Saints to prepare a people, a place and a condition for His coming. I am asking myself am I preparing, and I ask, are the Latter-day Saints with whom I am associated preparing themselves to meet the emergency, or shall we disappoint the Lord and ourselves when He comes? ¶

It is a most pretentious claim the Latter-day Saints make. They say they are fulfilling the vision of the prophet who foresaw the stone cut out of the mountain without hands rolling forth and filling the whole earth. The Latter-day Saints claim that they are now fulfilling that prediction of the past, that while this is but the work in embryo, yet it is rolling forth to the accomplishment of that mighty purpose. It is growing at a pace, perhaps, that we should be entirely satisfied with, since this work is increasing in numbers, in influence and power in the world. I believe that last year showed the largest increase in history of the church. I do not know how it has been in other sections, but in our district we had the largest number of baptisms in any year in the history of that mission, although we had fewer elders than heretofore. Generally I believe that the Church is increasing in number of baptisms from year to year, and that is a gratifying thing. ¶

We have obtained such growth that, grouping all large churches, such as the Methodist, Presbyterian and so forth, we are rated as the eighth in number of members, in the United States. That is some distinction, and yet, when I look at it from another point of view, I wonder why this Church does not grow faster than it does when I know within my soul that it is the true Church of Jesus Christ, that it stands the test of reason, of argument, of scripture, or any other kind of test that can be applied to it. ¶

I marvel why, just as our fathers and grandfathers did when they were converted, why the world does not receive it gladly, and why hundreds of thousands do not join with us, instead of thousands only. I have wondered why the Lord does not cause it to grow faster, but in my contemplation of this question I have found a good deal of comfort from my observation of the facts of history and science. I discover that the physical organism which is calculated to live through a lengthy period of days, or years, seldom comes to maturity quickly, it grows slowly; and that form of life, whether it be vegetable or animal, which is calculated to last but a short period, as a rule, comes to its majority quickly, and soon passes away. The oak does not reach its height in the first year while the sunflower, for example, may lift its head above the oak in the first season, but, when the test of winter frosts is applied to it, it falls, while the oak twig remains, and each succeeding season becomes stronger and greater, and remains through ages to become the monarch of the forest. Those governments that have been destined to endure through long periods of time were, as a rule, very slow in their growth. Those that grew rapidly ordinarily passed away quickly. And so, I believe that God's hand is manifest in preventing a too rapid growth of His Church. That may seem a strange way to look at it, and yet I believe it is evident that the Lord is staying the too rapid growth of this work. ¶

There have been many difficulties in the way of men and women receiving the gospel; one being the gathering to Zion. If the members of the Church had remained in England, Scotland, Ireland and other places where they received the message of the gospel in early days, and would have built churches there, it is probable that there would have been hundreds join the church that never did come into it, because of the prestige that a local strong membership would have exerted. The fact that men had to gather from their native land to America, and go through the hardships of a long pilgrimage, an ocean voyage in the olden style sailing vessel, and then a long journey across the plains, was such a discouragement that it is likely there would have been thousands more join this Church if that sacrifice had not been required of them. It is doubtless true that if the Latter-day Saints could have remained in Missouri or Illinois, without molestation, there would have been a great many more belonging to the Church than there are today. Many of those who undertook the ocean voyage, stood that hardship but could go no further. Others faltered in the wilderness, "put their hands to the plow then turned back," and remained in various sections of the United States, they, and their descendants, hundreds who could not muster courage enough to go all the way. These were difficulties in the way of the growth of this work. ¶

It is doubtless true also, that if it had not been, and if today it were not required of those who receive the gospel, that they should observe the Word of Wisdom, and abstain from the use of tea and coffee, tobacco and liquor, hundreds who are not now united with us would have been. I know some who are outside of the Church because they cannot make the sacrifice to give up the coffee, tea, or tobacco that they have been used to for years. Indeed, if this test were applied, this one simple thing in the requirements the Lord has made, were required of any other religious denomination outside of the Latter-day Saints, if men had to accede to that one law among us known as the Word of Wisdom, it is doubtful whether they would maintain one-half of their membership. It is probable there are thousands who would have joined the Church had it not been for the requirement of the Lord in the law of tithing; they are standing aloof because they have not courage enough to join us since the Lord has asked us to donate a tenth of our income for the interests of this Church. It is true that there would be many come in if it were not for the fact that they are afraid they would have to go upon a mission. ¶

I could enumerate other things connected with the growth of membership in this Church which seem to be a hinderance, and yet when I look at this whole question from another point of view — and I would like to see it from the Lord's point of view, for He is able to remove all these difficulties if necessary — when I look at it from what I think is His point of view, I confess that the Lord has done it just right, and I would not want to change or alter it at all. Of what value and worth, after all, would a large membership of the Church be, if the men and women would or could not meet its requirements? The Lord is building the most splendid institution the world has ever seen, in this work of the Church preparatory for the coming of the Son of God. The kingdom that is to be built up and established from this work is to be the grandest thing the world has ever seen, and the Lord cannot make it out of material that is not full weight, full measure, full capacity; and so these tests are applied to eliminate that material which is unworthy to be used in the building of this structure. The man or woman who cannot leave father and mother, house and land, for Christ's sake and the gospel, is not worthy of His favor; and so the gathering from the nations of the earth is a test, and those who stand the test, they and their children, can be used in the accomplishment of this work. Those were rejected who faltered by the wayside, who could not endure tests of Missouri and Illinois, tests essential in God's program for the building of the Church in this country. I believe that the troubles, sorrows, and difficulties experienced by the Saints in Missouri and Illinois were necessary, and that the men and the women who came to this country would, perhaps, not have remained true if they hadn't passed through those troublesome days. There were even greater troubles after they left that land, and the Lord was only preparing them for these. That was only as a schoolmaster to prepare them for greater sacrifices that they were destined to make. ¶

The Lord intends to make this people not only a people intellectual, but a people the physical superiors of any men who have lived upon the earth. In making the sacrifices that our parents did, they were laying the foundation for physical health of manhood and womanhood that shall ultimately produce a perfect race. In my heart I thank God that three generations ago my grandparents left off using tobacco, liquor, and tea, left those objectionable things in the old world, and haven't transmitted the taint or desire of them into my blood. I want to preserve that blessing, and pass it on to my generations after me, that this may produce a perfect race of men and women. Woe to me if I lose two generations of struggle and effort, and we turn back to the use of the harmful things that my parents and grandparents left. ¶

We have not finished the work, my young brethren and sisters. God laid the foundation through the labor of our fathers and mothers, and the superstructure is just beginning to rise. If we shall be counted worthy to be used as material in the building of that which God intends and contemplates, we shall have to maintain all that our fathers maintained, of faith, and virtue, and all the qualities of honesty and integrity that were so abundant in them, and we must add unto it or we cannot be accepted of the Lord. Israel Zangwill, the Jew, spoke of glorious America as the melting pot in which he saw the various nations of the earth absorbed, through the genius and spirit of American institutions; and he contended that, after a man has become an American citizen, he should no longer be called a Jew, or an Irishman, but an American. The great question is, can America absorb the hordes that come to her shores and transmit to them the ideals of the fathers who founded this government? Zangwill is hopeful this shall be the case; I trust it may. It is wonderful what America has accomplished through mixing the blood of various nations; she has produced a new type of men and women, a physical type of manhood that excels in most international athletic events, a type of physical beauty that excels the rest of the world. Oh, in that I can see another of God's purposes in gathering men and women from the nations of the earth. ¶

In our gathering places we have not been receiving hordes promiscuously, like the country at large has, but we have been selecting the stock, "one of a city and two of a family." They have not been from the ranks of the lowest society, nor the highest, but they have been, as a rule, from the choicest of the nations of the earth, the blood that is purest and best. These have been selected and brought here to a "melting pot" where men and women are being purified as gold seven times tried, the most perfect race of men and women the world has ever seen. That "melting pot" is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wherein the best blood of the various nations can mingle and produce not only the best race physically, but a race that shall continue to uphold standards of purity and qualities of life that shall ultimately make the cleanest and best people in all the world. Now I can see the wisdom of the Lord in bringing these people from Scandinavia, and Germany, and other nations, who have a like faith and belief, that their children may intermarry with each other and thereby maintain the advantage of such union, add unto it and carry it into future generations. ¶

The Latter-day Saint boys and girls who do not intermarry with those of their own faith and belief, counteract to a large extent, the benefit of the sacrifices made by their progenitors and nullify, to some degree, the purposes and object for which God has gathered us here. Latter-day Saint boys should marry Latter-day Saint girls, and Latter-day Saint girls ought to marry Latter-day Saint boys. I regret to say I have met scores of heartbroken, disappointed "Mormon" girls scattered over the northwest, who fully agree with me that they have made a failure, and a serious mistake in undertaking to live their ideals associated with men without these ideals, and without faith at all. ¶

God is building here an institution that is going to be, as I have observed, the most excellent of all the world, and we are not going to be discouraged if, after two generations, we have not accomplished it. If it shall take three, four, five, or six generations we won't be discouraged. We shall seize the advantages that our fathers have given unto us, we will hold it up before the eyes of our children as an unfinished work that God has called us to do, that may take ten or twenty generations, but it will be completed through God's help, if we only do our part. Our eyes may not see the consummation, but we are expected to do our duty and leave the result with our posterity who, may the Lord grant, shall follow our example as we should follow the example of those who have preceded us. That the Son of God may come soon, and live among men in the earth, is my prayer and desire in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶