It is practically inevitable, and just

It is practically inevitable, and just as morally certain to all those who believe the scripture and have followed the swiftly passing and tremendously vital events of recent months and years which are absorbing the attention of the whole world, that after the titanic struggle between the powers of Satan and God's power there will be a realignment of the religions of the world. ¶

Men and women everywhere have begun to examine their lives, to question themselves and others regarding the vital things pertaining to life. They have become concerned more of deity than ever before. They have come to realize and to ask themselves the question, what of God our Father and Christ our Savior and the hope beyond the grave? It is interesting, in connection with the situation as we see it, ¶

when churches are considering amalgamation with other churches, when different branches of some churches are trying to get together and join forces on some common ground, and when men's hearts are torn asunder, to ask ourselves, where do we stand in connection with these things ? Is there need for Latter-day Saints to alter their course? Is there need to change their fundamental teachings? Is there need to join with others in seeking to know the truth pertaining to the history of man, both in life and hereafter? We have no reason to change our idea as to Deity, because that idea has been well founded and established in the hearts of Latter-day Saints as they have become such, following the time when the Prophet Joseph said that God and his son had appeared to him, for we know in our hearts through our faith and works that God lives. The personal testimony has come to his faithful children since the organization of his Church in latter times, that he does indeed live and that his Son is our Redeemer. The minds and hearts of men are being turned to God, not only because of the serious condition in the world, but because men who have heretofore written novels and light literature have come to write pertaining to the more vital things of life. ¶

The most persistent criticism came at the beginning of the war, or in the first year of the war, when members of the church of England began to question whether or not the church was living up to its requirements. Criticism was found on every hand for the church for a time, and then celebrated writers began to elucidate things that perhaps were new to these people. ¶

H. G. Wells, the widely read novelist, wrote an unusually interesting book entitled "God the Invisible King." Sir A. Conan Doyle also wrote very pertinently as to religion,— all tending I believe to prepare men's minds to look differently than heretofore on the questions relating to Deity and the hereafter. Great religious newspapers began to take up the fight, some in defense of the church but many of them intimating and admitting that the churches as a whole, the so called Christian churches utterly failed in this crisis of the world's history. "The Biblical World," of Chicago, not long ago, in defending the attitude of the ministry declaring that Biblical students had taken their place in the ranks and had not availed themselves of the right to remain out of the war, said that if there was one supreme thing that the church should heed it was the spiritual side of life, and the particular sentence I refer to, and the closing sentence of this article, read : "After the war we shall need religion." We need religion during the war ; we need it now, when our sons are giving up their lives, or are prepared to do it, and when our daughters are going to the front and the very faith of many is being sorely tested, we need religion perhaps in a measure among our own people but more especially among doubting men and women everywhere, that they may acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ. I verily believe that this truth is coming to the hearts of men more today than ever in the history of the world before. In the midst of it all it seems to me that every ¶

forward movement, everything that has been done looking to the betterment of nations, of communities or of individuals, has all been a vindication of the teachings of "Mormonism." ¶

I said a few moments ago that we believe in a living God, in his Son Jesus Christ, as a verity. The world will come to know and acknowledge that more than ever before. You will remember that in the first few months of this awful struggle of nations the minds of great men were turned to the physical. They wondered whether or not men would be fit to fight under the then present conditions, — they began to look for some means of betterment, and so they abolished first in Russia the use of vodka, then in France they followed with a restriction upon the use of absinthe, and soon England took the cue and the restraining hand was put upon the use of beers. Later on, when they saw the almost unheard of benefit that came to the soldiers, they began to look for another underlying cause of weakness. They found that there were physical ailments affecting whole cantonments, and it was admitted in the first year of the war that more men had been put out of commission because of disease than from any other cause, and investigation on a huge and scientific scale was begun in order to better the moral atmosphere, and they have succeeded until the beneficent effects have been astounding. Today men are better fit than in any year of the war, because they have been restrained, and because protection has been thrown around them, and because they are getting different ideals of human experiences. The Word of Wisdom, if ¶

they only knew it, has been the watchword in many ways. It is true they have used tobacco, and will probably continue to do it. When men use it, if they do so of their own free will and pay for it themselves, it is their own business ; but there ought to be objection to sending tobacco to men, to give it to them and entice those who perhaps otherwise would not use it to become users of it. In the midst of it all, my brethern and sisters, there is one supreme thing that stands out, and that is that all of us who have anything to do with this struggle, either at home or abroad, should make individual sacrifice, should be willing to sacrifice from day to day in our appetite, our social necessities and in what we wear, that we should be constantly willing to make a personal appearance before the world that we are right living, and that our example here and everywhere should be made to conform to those who believe firmly that God lives, and determine in our hearts to uphold and sustain and maintain such belief. If we do that we have not much to fear. The Lord will bless our sons and our daughters. He may not preserve them all in life, but he will bless them, so that the example they set before the world will teach men and women that we know how to live, as well as how to die, and our faith and knowledge of the life beyond the grave is beyond nearly all else, and we can hold that hope out to every one and we can say to them that here is the supreme moment in our lives, when we can teach men to believe that we live after death and receive reward according to individual acts. If we follow the ad- ¶

monition of those who are our leaders, heed their instruction from time to time, listen to the inspiring words that come to us from the servants of God, we will be in the line of duty. If we are willing to sacrifice, if we are willing to live the Word of Wisdom, if we are willing to teach it by precept and example, and if we keep our lives unspotted, and if we send our boys away free from the sins of the world and do our utmost to encourage them in the line of their duty, we will have done a splendid work. ¶

May God bless Israel in its noble attempt to help the world in its struggle for democracy and for freedom. May we all have the assistance of God, that when the supreme time comes in our lives we will be ready to make every sacrifice that is demanded or required ; aye, that we may go farther than that, and offer that sacrifice, whatever it may be or where best we may serve, and may he bless and preserve his leaders in Israel, bless our beloved America and all who need our petition, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶