1 am reading from Pauls epistle to the

I am reading from Paul's epistle to the Galatians: ¶

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. ¶

"For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." ¶

Years ago, Sister Snow, one of our gifted poetesses, wrote a hymn, the first lines of which are: ¶

"The trials of the present day Require the Saints to watch and pray, That they may keep the narrow way To the Celestial glory." ¶

The trials which she referred to were not the kind we are now familiar with. The trials of her day were of mob violence, of hardship, of struggle and strife. ¶

As we heard this morning, we have passed beyond that period of the Church's history, and yet we are not without our trials. They are of a different character, and still they require the saints to watch and pray if we are to preserve ourselves in the way to celestial glory. ¶

THE PRESENT GENERATION

I am not one of those who find pleasure in condemning this generation. I have a deep sympathy for the young people of our time. I believe they are as good at heart as their parents. Indeed I feel that God has kept them in reserve, as he did their fathers and mothers, to come forth in an age when he needs them; and that they also can be made true and faithful. I feel, however, that no other generation has ever needed wisdom, guidance, and help as much as does this generation of young people. They are in a new world, face to face with conditions quite unlike those that obtained in the time of their parents. So that my quarrel shall not be with them so much as with conditions that they must meet. I have a spirit of patience and of charity towards them. Yet I feel in my heart an anxious desire to awaken the members of the Church to the need of lending parental aid and assistance to these boys and girls, such aid and assistance as perhaps no other generation has really needed. ¶

CORRUPTION OF MORALS BRINGS DESTRUCTION OF FAITH

I remember in my early childhood being considerably shocked by a statement which appeared in this city from an enemy of the Church. After having attempted to convert the young people of the Church from the faith of their fathers and having failed, the suggestion was made, that if you want to convert the young people of the Mormon Church you cannot argue with them, you cannot attack the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith — but if you really want to convert them corrupt them, build brothels, get them into these institutions, and have their morals destroyed; then you can easily turn them from their faith. ¶

I believe that this is true, that the easiest way to destroy a man's faith is to destroy his morality; that when his morals are corrupted his faith totters; he cannot stand, except he repent, of course. ¶

METHODS OF THE ADVERSARY

So that I believe that while the enemy is not arraying men and nations against the Church, he has not quit the field. Let us not be deceived. With new methods, quite different from those employed in the days of our fathers, he is diligently at work, using more effective means to destroy, to corrupt, than he has ever used before; and the assaults that he is making are against the individual himself. ¶

I found in the mission field it was utterly impossible for any man to successfully attack the doctrines of this Church. When the elder was thoroughly familiar with the teachings of the Church he could defend the Church's position. I have never been afraid of such assaults, I have never been afraid of mob violence nor of disasters that should come from the elements; but I have been afraid of the power of the evil one to hurt this cause when he could corrupt the missionaries; and his favorite means of stopping the missionary is to get him to commit sin. He was never more successful in stopping the Lord's work than when he could induce the bearer of the message to sin and to transgress. I have discovered in my own experience with hundreds of missionaries that when the devil lays a snare for the feet of a missionary, he generally baits the hook with a woman. ¶

THE TRIALS OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY

We are in the age of self-indulgence. It is not peculiar to this Church; it is in the world. The spirit of it is rampant everywhere. It beats upon our shores from all points. It enters into the midst of the people. It is a deadly siege in an attempt to destroy that which persecution, mob violence, privation and hardship failed to destroy, — the integrity of this people. I am not a pessimist either. While I recognize the storms that are raging against our standards, I am as sure as that I live that the promises of the Lord will be fulfilled, and that this work shall not fail, nor shall it be given to another people. I recognize however, with my brethren, that the sorest trials that have ever come to the Church in any age of the world are the trials of peace and prosperity. But we are to do a new thing, a thing that never has before been done — We are to take the Church of Christ not only through the age of persecution and mob violence, but through the age of peace and prosperity. For we must learn to endure faithfully even in peace and prosperity. ¶

I am not praying for the return of persecution and poverty; I am praying for peace and prosperity; but above all things for strength and power to endure this test. For it was not the design and the intention of the Lord to have this people always in suffering in bondage and distress. They shall come to peace and prosperity, but it is the sorest trial that will come to them. ¶

SNARES OF THE EVIL ONE

I recognize that there are some things connected with this subject that need to be brought to the attention of parents and of the watchmen presiding in the various stakes, wards and missions of the Church, watchmen who ought to distinguish, and they do I am sure, the presence of evil, and set up a defense for the people of the Church, particularly the young people. ¶

I believe that there is need for greater care over our young people during the period of their courtship. I have been grateful for all the blessings and joys of the automobile, but with it has come also dangers. The courtship of too many goes forward in the automobile, and there lurks a danger to many, because, unchaperoned and out of reach of parents, away from all restraint, they seem to think they are alone. But they are not, for the devil is often there to lay snares for their feet, to destroy their own happiness and to darken their spirits by leading them to sin and transgression. ¶

During the war I saw the breaking down of what seemed to me to be the most precious thing that the girls and women of this nation have, maidenly modesty, until now it has come to be a sort of custom among many young people (I regret to say even among us), that they feel at liberty to promiscuously engage in embracing and kissing each other when there is no thought of anything serious so far as engagement or marriage is concerned — only the thrill they get. I protest against it and say to you that there is danger in it, and that the fire will burn those who play with it. ¶

The sacredness of the kiss and affectionate relationships belong only to the engaged and married state, and ought not to be indulged in by those who are only seeking the thrill of the moment. There will come danger if we do not guard and keep, by all the strength and power we have, these splendid young people in the path of rectitude and safety. ¶

A PECULIAR PEOPLE

I believe that virtue is its own reward. We are to be a peculiar people. I do not think the Lord meant we were to be freaks or in any sense ugly or undesirable; but our peculiarities shall consist in that we are different from other people in some of these most desirable things. I remember, while on my first mission more than thirty years ago, meeting a gentleman who could not believe that these Mormon missionaries were clean and undefiled. He said, "You do not mean to tell me that married men will go upon a mission and stay for two years and keep themselves morally clean." I said: "I certainly do. That is our standard." "Well," he said, "You won't find it anywhere else." ¶

THE SINGLE STANDARD

I feel sure that this is true. Our standard that requires a young man to be as clean and as chaste and as pure as the girl he asks to be his wife, the mother of his children, is peculiar. We do not find it generally in the world. When I think of the assaults that are coming I recognize the weakness of the world's position because of its double standard. It required a higher standard of women than of men, and now it has given to women equal rights with men, not only in the franchise, but in other things. Some women are coming to ask the same privilege to sow their wild oats that men have, and then expect honorable marriage. ¶

We have no such double standard. We ought to be able to succeed under these circumstances better than others, because we have a single standard for men and for women. We expect our boys to be as good as our girls, and as clean. The Master said, in answer to the question, Who is guilty of committing adultery? that whosoever looked upon a woman to lust after her had committed adultery already with her in his heart; and the Prophet Joseph Smith said that unless such a one repents he will lose the Spirit. It is the quickest way to lose the Spirit. ¶

PROTECTION THROUGH MODESTY

There never has been a day perhaps since these words were uttered by the Master when there was greater temptation for men to think evil than in this age with its immodesty, in almost every avenue of life. I am not crying for reform in dress, but I do plead with the mothers of Zion to undertake modesty in dress. We may like to follow the fashion, but let us follow it in modesty. The most precious thing that a girl has is her modesty and, if she preserves this in dress, in speech, in action, it will arm, and protect her as nothing else will. But let her lose her modesty, and she becomes a victim of those who pursue her, as the hare is of the hound; and she will not be able to stand unless she preserves her modesty. ¶

PATTERN MAKERS FOR THE WORLD

I am therefore of the opinion that there is no peril that is threatening us today such as this peril of immorality. It is in the world. The standards that have long been maintained are being questioned and by many discarded. Are we also to succumb? No. If that day comes, and it will, when the people from the ends of the earth will say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob," it will be to learn of the ways of this people. If we act and live like the world, why need they come here? They are to find something different here. It is easy for us to drift with the tide. It doesn't take much courage to do that, but it is difficult to go against the current. God has called upon this people to be pattern-makers for the whole world, to hold up an ensign that shall attract the attention of the ends of the earth. Is it not worth fighting for to be admired and respected by all the good and the great? This is the battle that is before us, to preserve our standards. ¶

MARRIAGE FOR A HOLY AND SACRED PURPOSE

Then when we come to the question of marriage, our standards invite young men and women to live worthy to enter into the holy contract of matrimony for time and for all eternity; and that involves upon them another sacred obligation, which is to fulfil the first great commandment of God, "multiply and replenish the earth." Not companionate marriage, no, but marriage with a given and definite purpose. I plead with you parents and teachers in Zion to hold up the ideal and the standard before our young people that they enter marriage for a holy and sacred purpose. Not that they are to use these glorious bodies with their God-given power of procreation as mere harps of pleasure. If they do they shall reap disgust for each other and stand condemned before God. ¶

I do not know of course what we agreed to before we came into this life, but I have a deep conviction that we promised our Father's children who long had been waiting for the privilege and opportunity to come into mortal life that we would remember them when we came into life ourselves. If we wilfully and deliberately neglect that promise and forget them and determinedly live a childless life, we shall stand condemned in the presence of those to whom we have made sacred promises and before God himself. ¶

POVERTY NOT A BAN

Are poverty and the expense of raising children to be a ban that shall deter us from maintaining the high standards of our fathers and mothers? No. Poverty never was a ban against children rising to eminence. Lincoln was not held back from the highest office within the gift of the people because he was born of poor parents in a log house. Nor need it be in this age of liberty, education and great opportunity for even the poor. Let us not be afraid to assume the full obligations and receive the blessings that God has promised to those who keep this first great commandment. ¶

As far as the nations of the earth are concerned, I have made some study of their statistics and they show that going hand in hand with a decreasing birth rate is an increasing divorce rate. The cement that binds hearts together, children, is lacking, and as a result dissolution comes; and as the family institution begins to crumble, so will the government and the Church. ¶

THE CRIME OF SEXUAL IMPURITY

I plead with you, therefore, my brethren and sisters, that we rally to our standards. Certainly our teachers were right when they held up an ideal that virtue was as sacred as life itself, and that we had better lose our lives than lose our virtue. That was the teaching I received; and next to the crime of murder itself is the crime of sexual impurity. The boy who would deliberately look upon a clean, chaste, and pure girl to rob her of her virtue is almost as guilty as though he contemplated sending a knife into her heart to destroy her; for when she loses her virtue she loses that which is more precious than life itself. If she does lose her virtue the devil is apt to deceive her, for he often does, and make her believe, and a young man also, that now he or she has committed this sin they are lost forever. Repentance is in order always, and mercy for the sinner. ¶

THE WAGES OF SIN

I was saying to a young woman who was confessing her own sins recently, wondering if there were any hope for her, that if she continued the sale of her glorious body for the filthy lucre of this world she soon would come to the end of her career, and, like an old worn-out shoe, be cast aside, and die prematurely, full of disease, in some charitable institution. ¶

REWARD OF THE VIRTUOUS

When you contrast that condition with the glorious privilege God has offered to the sons and daughters of Zion who keep themselves clean and pure and undefiled, to go into the temples of God to receive a companion for time and eternity, that they may be worthy to pass on by the angels and the Gods, to their glory and inheritance and attain unto the power of endless increase, is it not inducement enough to call for sacrifices, for cleanliness of life, for purity, so that we may reap these glorious blessings and holy privileges? ¶

A WORTHY EXAMPLE

I believe that the strength and the power is in every boy to be as good as was Joseph our forefather who was sold into Egypt. From the time of my childhood the story of his life has appealed to me. When he, comely and desirable, was sought after by the wife of the ruler, he resisted her again and again; and when she seized upon him he fled from her presence, though he left part of his clothing in her possession. Condemned falsely, he still stood true to his convictions, and God vindicated him. ¶

Let the young men of Israel, the descendants of this Joseph, look upon their ancestor and be inspired to die rather than to be defiled, that they may be worthy to come into the great heritage that God has for his faithful sons and daughters. For if this generation shall keep themselves clean and undefiled they shall reap honors and distinction like unto which their fathers who subdued the deserts and made it blossom never attained. We shall indeed be peculiar. ¶

REQUIREMENTS TO WEATHER THE STORM

I have confidence and a faith that the great majority of this people shall weather the storm, but it will require the closing in of our ranks. It will require closer co-operation between parents and children. It will require every effort and every power that this people can put forth to preserve this generation in purity. God give us the strength and the power to do it, that we may receive the great distinction and blessing and the eternal joy that shall come as a result of achievement and accomplishment, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶