Remarks

On the day of Pentecost the people were assembled at one place with one accord and witnessed some marvelous manifestations of the power of the Holy Ghost. They heard, as it were, from heaven a rushing, mighty wind — a little different sort of a rushing, mighty wind from that which the people of Illinois and Indiana heard last month. After they had witnessed the outpourings of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, and Peter, the chief apostle, had given instructions in the prophecies of Joel and David, the multitude were pricked in their hearts and exclaimed, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"— meaning, as the Apostle Peter evidently understood it, What shall we do to be saved? They could have answered that question better if they had been able to answer another question which the Master asked of the Pharisees, when they were together in the multitude. He asked the question saying, "What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?"— a question, by the way, that was answered very clearly and emphatically yesterday by President Grant, by Brother B. H. Roberts, and others of the speakers. The M. I. A. this year will have as their slogan, "We stand for an individual testimony of the divinity of Jesus Christ."The M. I. A. can find in the conference proceedings of yesterday much rich material in support of the proposition which they desire to establish in the minds of the one hundred thousand members of the M. I. A. during the coming year. ¶

A similar question to that asked by the Master might be propounded in this day, "What think ye of Joseph Smith? Whose prophet was he?"and that question was well answered yesterday, and further testimony will be given today., ¶

But to return to the question at Pentecost, asked by the multitude under the influence of the Holy Ghost, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"It may not be necessary to give to an audience such as this the formula for spiritual salvation. Peter gave some of the essentials at that time when he said, "Repent ye, and be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."And. to indicate that it was not a temporary promise or requirement, he added, "For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord, our God, shall call."I say you are well acquainted with the formula, if I may use that expression, for spiritual salvation; but may we not anxiously inquire day by day as we return to our homes and are confronted by the practical problems of every-day life, may we not also in anxiety exclaim and do it prayerfully, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Women and sisters, what shall we do? What shall we do to be saved — saved financially, preserved in health, and to correctly solve all the other problems that are so vital to us? ¶

And do you not think this is a part of salvation? The Lord, in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, indicated that salvation was not confined to things that we generally understand to be purely spiritual. He gave a very broad meaning to the term spiritual. Listen to the 34th and 35th verses of the 29th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants: ¶

"Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of men; neither Adam, your father, whom I created. ¶

"Behold, I gave unto him that he should be an agent unto himself; and I gave unto him commandment, but no temporal commandment gave I unto him, for my commandments are spiritual; they are not natural, nor temporal, neither carnal nor sensual." ¶

And some of the philosophers have reached that conclusion; the late Elbert Hubbard put his conviction to the same effect in the form of a question when he said, "If we continue to progress, must there not come a time when we shall cease to differentiate and call some ¶

GENERAL CONEERENCE ¶

things sacred and some things secular?"And, of course, his question, put in that form, really answers itself in the affirmative, and it is but in confirmation of the information received of the Lord by the Prophet Joseph Smith. And so when we return to our homes, exalted, refreshed, rested, ready to take up the battle of life again, — we shall encounter practical problems. The duty upon the head of the household will be to safeguard the health of members of his family. Various members of the family may be in need of his help — young men going to school, the younger ones passing through the danger period of life, and the still younger ones whose footsteps need to be protected. And he may well exclaim, not only for his children but for himself and wife, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" ¶

I saw a poor old man, who appeared, at least, to be very old and decrepit, crippled with rheumatism, agonized, but only 63 years of age. What was the trouble? In a short time he opened his mouth, and I discovered that he had a mouth full of pyorrhea-covered pusbearing teeth, draining their poisonous cocci into his system every day that he lived; various kinds of germs breeding there and being poured into his body; — and so he was all crippled up. I said, "Why don't you have your teeth taken care of, and get rid of the rheumatism?" His tonsils also were diseased, adding to the supply of germs his body had to deal with. He said, "I cannot afford it."If that were true, it was time for some community assistance, a community dentist or doctor, or for some one to be called upon a mission, if necessary, in order to take care of his case. He was helping to raise the deathrate reported yesterday which we may well be proud of, 7.3 per thousand. We hope that every God-fearing Latter-day Saint may be proud of those figures; but in that connection, we must always keep in mind the credit due to the entire body and due to us as individuals. Let us not go to our homes all puffed up with the thought that we are wonderful and great individually, simply because the people that we are a part of are entitled to great praise because of a birth rate of 33, a death rate of 7.3, and a divorce rate of 15. Let us keep in mind always the distinction which the Lord gave through the prophet Joseph when he declared that he was well pleased with the people speaking of them collectively and not individually. Because good things may be said of this people collectively, let us not take them unto ourselves as a sweet unction to our souls, if we, as individuals, are entitled to none of the credit for these desirable qualities in the Church, because we are working against them. ¶

Again there are financial problems. The father and mother will sit down and try to plan whereby they can meet their just obligations, taking care of their children, paying their just debts, and being careful not to contract obligations they cannot pay. I do not have much patience with the Latter-day Saints who unnecessarily go into voluntary bankruptcy simply because the government of the United States has provided the means whereby a man, under certain circumstances, ¶

may protect himself. Let us not unnecessarily take advantage of that to wipe out our debts. What would you think of President Grant if, during the time of financial adversity to him many years ago, he had taken the bankruptcy act and wiped out his indebtedness? What would the people think of Abraham Lincoln if he had not insisted on paying every dollar of his indebtedness? We are called an honest people, a great people, and each one, who shares in the glory which comes to the Church he belongs to, should be very careful to contribute his share and not to do anything to bring down that general average. In addition to these health problems and financial problems there will be wisdom to be used not to unwisely educate, not to send the boy or girl to school at the time when the father and mother are suffering for the want of a little medical attention, for an education that he is not prepared to stand, nor to send him abroad to be educated under an infidel, an agnostic or unbeliever, only to have him lose the faith, when the father and mother have been at home drudging, perhaps, working their finger-nails off almost, to keep those same dear children under that instruction which will be pernicious for them. The problem will be to give our children education as fast as they are able to stand it, but not faster than their moral training will allow. ¶

And so, in these and hundreds of other problems which will concern the parents in their buying and selling, in their sowing and in their reaping, in their safeguarding of their family, in educating of them, and in training them to serve others, — the greatest service that they can engage in — they may well exclaim every day, "Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved — this day and this week and this year?" ¶

And may the Lord help us to solve all problems aright in each one of our households, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶

A solo, the Ninety-first psalm, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty," was sung by Mrs. Irene Southwell Cummings. ¶