I will take for a text

I will take for a text Jesus' lament over Jerusalem, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that stonest the prophets and killest those that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not. Now your house shall be left unto you desolate, until you shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." ¶

Jesus also said, A tree is known by its fruits. "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles ?" ¶

I wish to talk to you a few minutes of what the gospel has done for the Mexican people, the Lamanites, the peoples to the south. I have been in nearly every state in Mexico, and have been in Central America, and South America — on the River Sidon, .seen the Land of Zarahemla — seen many of the hieroglyphics and temples and objects of that character, manifesting that ¶

there has been a great civilization on this land of America. ¶

I had a conversation with one of the cabinet officers of President Diaz, and took him some of the products of the "Mormon" colonies in Chihuahua, and I will tell you a little of what they did there, the fruits of "Mormon" work, and how the people to the south esteemed it. They are of the blood of Israel, and there is not so much enmity in their hearts toward us and our message as there is in the north, for I have preached in both countries. ¶

President Diaz had said, "I have robbed your people." And he sent an expert, a German, by the way, to the colonies to investigate. He said, "I have heard so much about those people and the work they are doing, that I want you to go up there secretly. Travel among them, visit them, see them in their homes there, see how they are worshiping, and what they are doing, and come to me again and report." ¶

There was a national fair before this in the City of Mexico, and I was at that fair. We brought a carload of canned fruit, jellies, apples, butter, cheese, shoes, harness, and quilts, etc. And they gave us a prominent place in the show grounds, and we had our apples beautifully polished and our splendid harnesses and shoes, and everything first class ; and when the Mexican people came in — rich people who had gold and diamonds, they opened their eyes and drew up their hands. "Where did this come from ? This is from Mexico ? No, this is from California, or some of the best cities in the Union !" ¶

California never did outdo us in fruit-raising. We were equal to any fruit country that I ever saw in the world — and I never saw anything nicer than when they came up and we distributed those apples, nearly a carload of them; and we cut our cheese — hundreds of dollars worth of it, and distributed it to those people, and they ate it. And everything they saw they marveled at, and they went away with praises, took the apples and set them on the shelves in their offices, and to the hundreds and thousands of friends that would come there they would say, "That was raised in Mexico," and they would uplift their chins with pride. This is the product — what our people are doing in Mexico. ¶

I had business with President Diaz, and nearly all of his cabinet, with Madero — and I have been in prison three times, and have had the dagger over my head ready to let fall. I know the evils as well as the good things of the people. Now, in this conversation with the minister of education, L. Fernando, a great lawyer, one of the leading lawyers of the republic, when I took him some fruit and jelly and other things that were sent to him — for the Church finally, through our solicitation, appropriated $200 or $300 to be distributed in gifts to these important people, lawyers and statesmen and great men of the nation, when I took the little gift to him, he said, "Mr. Harris, tell me something about your people and their social relations, for if they can do what I see they appear to have done, I want to know something about them and their system of worship and what they are." ¶

I was a student then at the National School of Jurisprudence. I was in the sixth year. I was with young men from every part of the republic, who had come there to be lawyers, and to be educated. We were studying morality,the laws of right and justice, by Spencer and the famous German authors on morality, and the boys would learn by rote the principles of morality as discussed by Spencer and the leading moralists of the day. I was personally acquainted with nearly all of the three hundred that were in the school, having been there so long, and they were immoral, and I knew they were immoral. ¶

"Now," I told him, "we are studying in our school (he knew me well) the principles of morality ; but Paul says that 'the letter killeth, it is the spirit that giveth light ;' and morality — the boys can give you the rules number 1, 2 and 3 better than I can, but they go out and sin against the laws that they are studying and learning ; while our little boys, in the Primary Association, where they are sent, and the most capable, pure women and girls in the land take charge each week for one hour, learn that they have a Father and God in heaven, as they have on earth. They are taught to pray, to reverence God, who has ears to hear and a heart that can be touched by the prayers and the supplications of the little ones. Therefore, faith and spirituality is begotten in their little souls. After that, they go to their Mutuals. There the same lessons are being taught and reinforced. They go to their Sunday Schools and to their priesthood meetings." I outlined the work of each to him, then that the young ladies and girls on their side have the Young Ladies' Association, and the Relief Society, and then I outlined the work of these. And I said, from ¶

three points of view they are great, because of their physical perfection, because of their spiritual, and because of their mental strength — and the most perfect man must combine the three, and he can not be converted unless he has each one developed. ¶

Now the world is trying to develop the intellectual and the physical to the detriment of the moral and the spiritual, and I say the life of morality is spirituality, and without spirituality there can be no vital living morality. We can talk about Spencer and all the other theorists, but I know and you know, and I can bring your whole company of students here to bear the same testimony, that the morality that we study without spirituality is dead in their lives. ¶

Now, we teach spirituality to our little ones. We teach them morality, and teach them to sing and pray ; and we not only teach them by having others do it, but the little ones are called out by these young or old women, and there they say their prayers. Every one in the association learns to pray, and learns to sing. The esthetic part of their nature is developed in their singing. Another little girl is called up and she recites. Then they play their little games, and are taught to march, to straighten up — and their little physical natures are developed. ¶

And I explained these things to that great man in the Mexican republic, and when I got up to leave — and he was due at a cabinet meeting with President Diaz — I said, "I have talked longer than I thought I would — I have talked an hour and a half." He did not seem to be uneasy, and when I apologized, he grabbed me with both ¶

hands and thanked me, and said, "You have no need to apologize, for the things that I have heard are so grand and so great." ¶

Now I want to say to you that it is so with our children, for I am a witness. I was in the mission and presided over the mission for four years. I was the first President of the Relief Society in Mexico, and we set them to work sewing. We organized a little Sunday School, and all these associations, and they began to work; and today you go to their Sunday Schools and their little entertainments and hear their prayers ; and you go to the Relief Society and see what they have done; and if you had been there you would have seen that the fruits are just as uplifting, just as splendid with those Mexicans as they are with the Anglo-Saxon, with the Germans, with the Americans, or any other people on the earth. What is it? The gospel has done it, the system that we teach and advocate. ¶

Now, I bear you my testimony that I know the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, in things temporal, spiritual, moral, and physical. May we be true to it is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶