Endorsement of the Missionary Call

Sensing very deeply this great responsibility, I approach it in humility and with a desire in my heart that I may be assisted by your faith and by the Spirit of the Lord. ¶

ENDORSEMENT OF THE MISSIONARY CALL ¶

I wish to endorse most heartily the remarks of our president. He has given an outline of the great work in which we are engaged -- the "marvelous work and a wonder"which the Lord said, through the prophets in olden times, that he would bring to pass in the latter days. ¶

I believe it will be an easy matter for the Latter-day Saints to comply with the president's request to send out an additional 1,000 missionaries to the United States and Canada and probably some to Mexico, to labor for six months, or longer, if the missionaries feel that they would like to remain longer, and many of them will, no doubt. I believe it will be the greatest missionary effort that has been put forth in the history of the Church, and no man can foresee the great good that will be accomplished thereby. Some of the wards, many of them indeed, can easily spare two or three mature, competent, capable men who have had experience, and who will not only be willing, but glad to go. We may therefore have considerably more than one from each ward, in which event there will be more than 1,000 missionaries. ¶

MATERIAL PROSPERITY AND BLESSINGS ¶

I rejoice very much in the growth and development of this great work. I am thankful to the Lord for the privilege of assistready and willing to respond to the call of the Bishops of their wards and the Presidents of their stakes to go out for six months ing in it. I have been thankful for that high privilege all the days of my life, and I have tried in my weak way to assist wherever I have been called. ¶

President Grant has referred to the wonderful productivity of the soil during the past season. We have never experienced anything like it in our history. The earth is fairly teeming with riches, in its products of every kind, and they are bringing fair prices. May I turn from the very splendid spiritual talk that the president has delivered, to the material things for a few moments. "Mormonism" comprises both the temporal and spiritual; they go hand in hand, but the spiritual is first. If for a few moments, therefore, I talk about temporal things, I hope you will pardon me and that that advice and counsel may not be lost. ¶

CAUTION TO THE PEOPLE TO WISELY CARE FOR THEIR WEALTH ¶

What are we going to do with these great blessings of the earth that the Lord has given and is giving us this season? I was told only a week or two ago that down at Delta, and over in the Vernal country also, where they were threshing alfalfa seed, in fact, wherever it was known that a farmer had a little surplus money, certain individuals were swarming like vultures, seeking to present every sort of scheme imaginable to try to separate that farmer from his money. They were going to make him rich "quick." All he had to do was to invest his little surplus in some scheme which this glib talker could portray in glowing terms, and it would make him rich. The talker did not know how to make himself rich -- of course not -- but he was going to make the farmer rich. ¶

TAKE COUNSEL BEFORE YOU INVEST IN PRESENTED SCHEMES ¶

I have had some experience with this class of people, and with such schemes. I have been fooled myself more than once, though once ought to be enough for any man. I have tried mines, and I have tried oil -- not the flow that Andy Gump pictures, but oil spouting from the ground, assuring riches quickly; and I have been fooled in every one of them. It is my advice, my counsel to you, my brethren and sisters, that you "pass up"the people that come with these get-rich-quick schemes. Otherwise you will be deceived; and you will be disappointed; you will lose your money. If you have surplus means to invest^and I hope you will have, consult the president of the stake, consult the bishop of the ward, consult your banker. Usually the banker in a community is a safe man to consult in respect to investments. There are plenty of safe and sane investments that may be made on which you can be absolutely sure and certain to receive a fair return. So my advice, my counsel is to turn away from men who are trying to make you rich over night. It cant' be done. ¶

THE SOUND COUNSEL OF BRIGHAM YOUNG APPLIES TODAY ¶

President Young used to counsel the Saints in his day to invest in something that they knew about, such as land, cattle, sheep and the like. "Make your investments," he said, "in something you know about, and keep out of mining." The time, he said, had not come to develop mining. Mining, of course, is a legitimate business, we cannot do without the minerals and the precious metals. The world could not get along without copper, lead, zinc, tin and other minerals; even silver and gold are needed also. President Young's counsel at that time was, as you may read in his sermons: "You, brethren and sisters, who will stay here at home and attend to your farms, look after what you have, I promise you that you will be richer and better off than if you go away hunting mines." ¶

Brethren and sisters, that counsel is just as sound today, to the Latter-day Saints, as it was the day President Young gave it. It is good sense yet. Let me say here that "Mormonism"is good sound sense. I know of investments that have been made in coal mines which have not turned out very satisfactory. Some fellow comes along, and he has a coal mine prospect. If you will only invest your money in a coal mine you are sure to get rich quickly. ¶

. Well, people invested up in Cache valley and in southern Utah. What is the result? Hundreds of thousands of dollars were frittered away and lost in that way. That is not good judgment, nor does it show good sense. And this is not only the case in coal mines; we have communications come to the president's office sometimes about "dream" mines. Some brother or sister has dreamed about a mine located in a certain place, and it is a sure thing, because it has been "revealed." Well, now, don't take any stock in such "revelations,"they will not "pan out." You will only be disappointed. Save' your means and use them wisely. If we have means, and we owe any debts, our first duty is to pay our debts. If we owe a mortgage, for goodness sake wipe out the mortgage before we buy a new car. It is fine to have a new car, and I rejoice to see the many thousands that are parked in the streets around this block. Every street seems filled with automobiles. I am glad you have them, but don't buy any new cars while there is a mortgage on the home or on the farm. ¶

CULTIVATE THE SPIRIT OF THRIFT AND SAVING ¶

Try to economize, try to save. We have almost lost the spirit of thrift and saving. We hardly know what it is. Our children run wild to picture shows. It is only 25 cents to attend a picture show, and there are only four or five children, and they only go three or four or five times a week, and the money is gone, frittered away. What good has been done with it? "Well,"one says, "do you want the children to be shut up and not have any amusement?"No, people will have amusement; children need it; but we are going to extremes foolishly, spending money in excess of our ¶

means. We do not save; we have lost the old-time spirit of New England thrift or of Scotch thrift. We don't know what it means. ¶

REMEMBER YOUR OBLIGATIONS TO THE LORD ¶

Then there is another debt that we will owe this fall, not to our neighbors, but to the Lord, who has given us this wonderful harvest. Will we remember and pay our tithes and our offerings to him, to help build up this work? If you could see the stack of applications for the building of meeting houses all over the world, you would realize that we will never get more than is needed. There will always be more applications, I believe, as this work grows and extends, than there will be means in hand to fill them. We cannot do better with our tithes than build good church edifices for the Saints to worship in, places where our young people may meet, instead of running here and there, wasting our money. ¶

COUNSEL TO THE YOUNG TO MARRY ¶

When boys and girls arrive at the age of manhood and womanhood they should be counseled to marry, to settle down and raise families. That is the very purpose of our being here. We are sent to this earth to pass through this stage of experience, to bring to pass the work of the Lord, and to make it possible for the spirits that are waiting to come and tabernacle in the flesh, to have the opportunity. So it is much better for the young people to get married and settle down rather than to be running hither and yon, spending their means, not knowing how to save, or how to curtail expenses. But today the tendency is, not only here but all through the country, to put off marriage. " We haven't means enough," they say; "we haven't saved enough." Well, a good young man and a good young woman, working together, can save money anywhere and any time, if they will only make up their minds to do it. All it needs is work, application and saving. Just five words spell prosperity, success and happiness -- five words only -- and they are these: "Spend less than you get." ¶

SACRIFICE FOR THE GLORY OF THE LORD AND THE CHURCH ¶

Brethren and sisters, shall we not sacrifice for this work? Are we losing the spirit of sacrifice that existed in the Church in years gone by? Are we forgetting what our fathers and mothers did, and the sacrifices they made? Are we not willing to respond to the call of the president and to work in the spirit of sacrifice for the glory of the Lord and the credit of his Church, that it may be built up and made glorious? Let us make this place the best there is in the world, as I believe it is now, in point of citizenship. A community of this kind, without a single beggar of our membership on the street, is the best I know of. A community of this size, with as low a death rate and as high a birth rate (although not high enough), is a community that I don't know the like of anywhere ¶

in the world. So the Lord is working through us and is making us a little better; but we are forgetting, I fear, that spirit of sacrifice with which our fathers and mothers built up this country and passed through all the struggles and trials incident thereto. I hope we will try to impress that spirit upon our own minds and upon the minds of our children. ¶

WE ARE ENGAGED IN THE LORD'S WORK ¶

The Lord bless you, my brethren and sisters, and may he bless Zion. The Lord will comfort Zion, and will establish his kingdom. He is doing it. It is not the presidency and apostles, the seventy and bishopric, the presidents of stakes and the bishops of wards who are doing this great work, let me tell you. They are faithful servants, willing to be used, willing to help, willing to devote their lives to the upbuilding of the kingdom; but it is the Lord God Almighty who is building up this work, caring for it and leading it; and his power of leadership is just as strong in it today, through the president of the- Church, as it ever was in the history of the Church. The Lord Almighty lives. He is the only true and living God, and we believe in him, and in Jesus Christ whom he has sent. May that faith in him and in his Son and in the Holy Ghost be increased in our hearts, and may we turn our hearts and minds to him and say: "Lord, take me and use me. I will devote myself and my energies to the upbuilding of thy cause and kingdom in the earth." I humbly pray that we may be endowed with this spirit, and I ask this blessing and all blessings upon this Church, upon this people, and upon this nation as well, and those who administer its affairs, as well as upon all the nations of the earth, where righteousness is sought, where the people desire peace on earth and good will towards men. I ask blessings upon all, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. ¶