Missionary Work and Brotherly Love

I am pleased to say that in the Eastern States mission our missionaries are enjoying exceptionally good health and that the work is progressing, I believe favorably, and I know that prejudice is being removed and that we are making many friends. ¶

In addition to the usual missionary activities we have endeavored to use modern methods of reaching the public, with marked, if not remarkable, success. Many addresses have been broadcast and hundreds more would have been delivered if we only had more fairly good singers. To my mind, one of the marvelous things that has occurred in this work is the fact that all of the 329 sermons broadcast over the radio in our mission in less than eighteen months were written and read by very young and inexperienced boys and girls. Every one of them was written by your sons and daughters, with comparatively little editing, to the enlightenment and enjoyment of many thousands of people. ¶

Our missionary system is commanding the attention and admiration of the world. It is a wonderful means of educating your children, developing their initiative, broadening their understanding, and giving them a better conception of their possibilities. It is sad to hear some of our missionaries say that they have been praying and praying that they might be permitted to complete their missions, but finally are compelled to return home for the want of money. It is a sad mistake for a ward or a stake or quorum or wealthy members of the ward to permit such missionaries to prematurely end their missions, and especially when they have become somewhat efficient and are so anxious to remain. They are doing a glorious work for themselves as well as others. ¶

We are also exhibiting the fruits as well as principles of the Gospel in fairs and expositions, and these young inexperienced missionaries are decorating and equipping attractive booths from which they distribute in a day thousands of tracts to people whom they could not otherwise reach. We have been successful in securing booths surrounded with prominent exhibitors, and thus have become the neighbors of all kinds of business men who are exhibiting their wares. Their frequent contact with our missionaries invariably makes them friendly. Our booths are so unusual, and with our fine young men and women who radiate the spirit of the Gospel, they arouse unusual interest and command respectful consideration. We thereby reach a very different class of people from those who ordinarily receive them in tracting and street meetings. People in the East, outside of the country, largely live in apartment houses and hotels where missionaries cannot enter, and in better residences they cannot get past the butler or maid. ¶

Our tracts are distributed free like other advertising matter, and visitors come and carry them away without solicitation. Most of the same people would close their doors to our solicitations. ¶

Another innovation is carried on through our newly established publicity department, through which we make personal contacts with newspaper men and thereby secure a greatly enlarged publicity of what we are doing and believe, and the same is presented to readers in a fair and respectful way. This makes Mormonism more acceptable and respected. ¶

In this activity, as well as in the radio and exposition work, we have no one with any previous experience or training for the work. Remarkable as it is, those upon whom the responsibility is placed, however seemingly inadequately equipped, are undaunted and go at the work in faith with a will, relying on the Lord rather than their own ability, with the result that they are getting hundreds of notices and friendly articles published which would otherwise not have appeared in the papers. ¶

But, alas, we have only two-thirds of the missionaries that we formerly had. This is even cutting down invaluable opportunities on the radio, as the loss includes some of our best singers. We have no professionals. We only ask for young people who have fairly good voices, whether they have been trained or not. Their voices are more attractive there than here at home. ¶

This is a wonderful work. I enjoy it. It is a great pleasure, and nothing have I enjoyed more than the uplifting spiritual influence which accompanies it, to discover more thoroughly and fully the depths of the truth and philosophy of the Gospel, and to make comparisons of it with the religious systems of the world. ¶

Bishop Wells referred to a most timely scripture today—the declaration of the Savior that the great commandment in the law was— ¶

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ¶

"This is the first and great commandment. ¶

"And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." ¶

I call especial attention to the next striking statement of the Savior: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." ¶

The great trouble with the social, industrial, and other systems of today is that they are not based upon either of those great commandments. If they were there would be a very different brotherhood of man existing, which must ultimately come, as no other system can be permanent. ¶

As I recently traveled through the Ohio and Mississippi valleys I saw miles of continuous fields with rich harvests of wheat in shocks, and corn standing as far as the eye could see; and yet there is unparalleled poverty stalking in the land. Half of the gold of the world is in this nation; wealth unbounded; granaries bulging, overflowing their capacity; over-production abounding; legislation of states to prevent the production of the prime necessities of life because of super-abundance,—and yet unparalleled poverty on every side. In the Latin-American republics there are revolutions; dictators and revolutions in Europe; dynasties falling; ungodly communism in Russia; threatened socialistic revolutions in Germany and unheard of mutiny in the pride and protection of the British Isles—her navy. Nothing, practically, but the dole stands between peace and revolution in old England, that land of liberty and law observance. In our own country, in the great cities, it is not an uncommon sight to see armored cars equipped with machine guns to protect the transportation of wealth—securities and moneys—through the thickly populated streets of the city, and from one bank to another. Revolution is threatening this very nation because of the unsatisfied demand of the many for social justice, or as we would put it, the lack of brotherly love that the Savior advocated when he said to the wealthy young man, "Give unto the poor that which thou hast." Under his inspiration his followers established a Christian socialistic system in which there were no poor and no rich but all things were held in common. ¶

That same system was revealed anew and an attempt made to establish it by the great prophet of this age, Joseph Smith. Like the former day saints they were apparently unable to live it. Then a stepping stone to it was established, the ancient law of tithing. My missionary experience has revealed to me that which I never fully appreciated before, namely; that the man who pays tithing is a Latter-day Saint. They say there are exceptions to all rules, but I haven't found an exception to this one yet. I have discovered that when one is a partial tithe payer he is only partially a Latter-day Saint, and when he doesn't pay any tithing at all he is not a Latter-day Saint, because his faith is dead—it being without works. He doesn't understand the philosophy of the Gospel, or if he does he is too selfish to yield obedience to that great beneficent law. The Lord would have us give, yes, and give in abundance, and it is only thereby that we are going to preserve the peace of the world and this most powerful of all nations. The level of intelligence of man is such that the extremes of poverty and wealth cannot exist beside each other. The cry of the father and husband for work in order that he may have food for his family cannot continue long unanswered. There is nothing that brings greater satisfaction than being of service to others. The Christianity of today must meet the challenge of the many who are weak for a greater brotherhood. ¶

Selfish and weak as we are I nevertheless maintain that we are partially meeting that challenge and developing in a notable way real evidence of brotherly love through our willingness to render unselfish service in going on missions where we give years of our time, and great sums of money are spent without earthly compensation. ¶

Again, our charity system is notable and unparalleled, for by it a hundred per cent of that which is contributed to charity goes to the object of charity through the unselfish and unpaid-for services of our ward teachers and bishops and our splendid woman's Relief Society. These are not temporary or spasmodic efforts; they have continued without interruption for a hundred years, and the world is coming to give us credit for our response to the needs of the poor. ¶

Another clearly unselfish service is the vicarious work for the dead—doing something for those who can make no earthly return. The breadth and depth of that saving work is hardly fathomable. It is an unselfish earthly service, nobly conceived and unselfishly performed. ¶

What other people are attempting such altruistic brotherly love effort? ¶

Can we not point with pride to this evidence of being imbued with the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and are we not an example in these respects at least, of making progress in the accomplishment of the purposes of the Lord; to which might appropriately be added the payment of tithing, which I think is one of the surest tests of sincerity and honesty. ¶

Another unique conception and practice is characteristic of Latter-day Saints, namely, the Fast Day donation, or contribution of the value of the morning and noonday meal on the first Sunday of each month for the relief of the poor. Greater stress could be appropriately placed upon its observance, as fasting is good for the body, as is also the giving, for the soul. ¶

If that practice, common to us for a hundred years, were followed by all in the United States at 25c per meal or 50c per month for each individual, it would eliminate the cry for bread. Fifty cents a month from a hundred million would be fifty million per month or six hundred million per year, which if conserved in prosperous years, for years of scarcity, would remove the possibility of extreme poverty. ¶

We have had ever since the days of the children of Israel in Egypt years of plenty and years of scarcity, and they will probably continue to come, and suffering will exist where there might be plenty, until that system of which I speak is established in the earth, and which I believe is nearer at hand than we realize. ¶

Out of this great financial distress there should come some great good. Nothing could be better than a greater brotherhood, a better comprehension of the responsibilities and duties of the strong to the weak. We are our brother's keeper, and those who are strong and able and more richly endowed with the ability to do good and to accomplish the most in this life, whether physically, industrially, socially or religiously, must help those who are weak. That is the greatest problem that now confronts the world. ¶

May the Lord help us to so live that we can enjoy his Spirit. I never was happier, I never enjoyed myself so much when striving only for selfish interests as I do now in working for the great cause of human redemption. His Spirit has been with me in this great and glorious work. It has enabled me to solve problems that I apparently could not see through and which looked dark indeed. I have gone to bed at night puzzled, but with a prayer for light and help, and have awakened in the morning with an understanding as clear as the noonday sun. ¶

The Lord is blessing this work and those who give to its service their whole hearts, souls and minds. May he help us to so live that we may enjoy the companionship of his Spirit at all times, and have that joy and peace which accompanies it, and which I have experienced during the last two years and nine months of my life, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶