Opening Address

The hymn, "Come, come, ye Saints," the great pioneer song with, the many memories it brings to me every time I hear it, has changed my program today. ¶

The first thing I am going to read will be from section 136 of the Doctrine and Covenants. This is "the word and will of the Lord" given to President Brigham Young: ¶

"And if any man shall seek to build up himself, and seeketh not my counsel, he shall have no power, and his folly shall be made manifest. ¶

"Seek ye; and keep all your pledges one with another and covet not that which is thy brother's." ¶

Avoid Covetousness

I cannot think of anything that appeals to me as being the mind and the will of the Lord stronger-than the last words that I have read, namely : "Covet not that which is thy brother's." ¶

I want to impress upon the minds of the Latter-day Saints not to covet that which belongs to any public institution, or that which belongs to any city, or county, or the government of the United States, Unless I have been misinformed, many people have said, speaking of the distribution by the government of supplies to the people: "Well, others are getting some, why should not I get some of it." ¶

Forty-five Years Ago and Now

I believe that there is a growing disposition among the people to try to get something from the government of the United States with little hope of ever paying it back. I think this is all wrong. I believe that there is not that same moral sense among the people today that there was forty-five years ago. Forty-five years ago I was associated in business with my brother and my cousin-in-law, and the first year we sold a hundred and twenty thousand dollars worth of goods, and ninety thousand dollars worth of those goods were sold on time to the farmers. We borrowed the money to carry these debts, and we netted $100.50 for every one hundred dollars we had trusted the farmers. The loss was only $300 and the interest received paid this, and fifty cents per hundred more. ¶

I am connected with that same company now, and it is known as the Consolidated Wagon and Machine Company. During the past few years we have had to charge off over one million dollars of loss on farmers' paper. I do not attribute all of this to a lack of honesty, but there are a great many people who are not honest today. ¶

I remember very distinctly that while I was in Europe J. M. Studebaker visited Salt Lake and was interviewed. He was the last of that quartette of wonderful men, the Studebaker brothers, who made buggies and wagons. He said that the only State or Territory in the union of the United States where they had sold wagons and buggies on time for ten long years, and where every wagon and buggy was paid for in full, was in Utah. That was a marvelous compliment to the people of Utah. ¶

Should Keep Pledges

Remember that it is the mind and will of the Lord that we keep our pledges. ¶

"Keep yourselves from evil to take the name of the Lord in vain, for I am the Lord your God, even the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. ¶

"I am he who led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and my arm is stretched out in the last days to save my people Israel. ¶

"Cease to contend one with another ; cease to speak evil one of another." ¶

Fault Finding Denounced

A growing evil among our people is to criticise and find fault. I think there is no hymn in the hymn book that I prize more highly — and it was the first one that I learned by heart — than "Should you feel inclined to censure" : ¶

"Should you feel inclined to censure Faults you may in others view, Ask your own heart, ere you venture, If that has not failings too. ¶

Let not friendly vows he broken ; Rather strive a friend to gain; Many a word in anger spoken Finds its passage home again. ¶

Do not, then, in idle pleasure, Trifle with a brother's fame, Guard it as a valued treasure. Sacred as your own good name. ¶

Do not form opinions blindly; Hastiness to trouble tends. Those of whom we thought unkindly, Oft become our warmest friends." ¶

Learn it by heart. You will find it on page 66 of our old hymn book. You cannot forget the page — 'the 6th of April and the 6th of October make 66 — so when you go home don't say you cannot remember it, because you cannot forget that number if you try. Learn it by heart and put it into your lives, and it will be valuable to you. ¶

"Cease drunkenness; and let your words tend to edifying one another." ¶

Danger in Repeal

Let me promise you right here and now that if you vote for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, there will be a great many more professing Latter-day Saints who will be drunkards than there have been while the Eighteenth Amendment has been in force. ¶

By the way, I received a postal card — the man who sent it did not have the courage to sign his name — asking me not to talk on the Word of Wisdom at this conference. I request each and every Latter-day Saint within the sound of my voice to read what I said about the Word of Wisdom just six months ago. Every word that I said I meant, and among other things I said I hoped and prayed that we as a people would not vote for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. Really, I was almost tempted this morning to read my whole sermon over again, and let it go at that, I think I shall have it printed — in fact I will have it printed, and anyone of you who wants a copy, or a half dozen copies of it, can write and get them. ¶

"If thou borrowest of thy neighbor — " Let me add, or anybody else — "thou shalt restore that which thou hast borrowed ; and if thou canst not repay then go straightway and tell thy neighbor, lest he condemn thee." ¶

Avoid Bankruptcy

That is one of the finest verses that was ever written, and please remember that this I am reading is "the word and the will of the Lord." In other words, do not take the bankruptcy act unless somebody knocks you down. All of my dear friends, many years ago when I was ruined in their judgment beyond the peradventure of a doubt, and there was no possibility, as far as they were able to see, of my ever being able to pay my debts, begged me to take the bankruptcy act. I said : "Not if I live a hundred and ten years. I will go on paying." And in the providences of the Lord I paid all of my debts. ¶

Now, I am not condemning those who have to take the bankruptcy act; but I know of men whom I have begged and pleaded with to not take the bankruptcy act, who, if they had only had the nerve, the faith, and the willingness to work, would have come out all right. One man took the bankruptcy act and left me carrying his obligation as I recall of $12,700, with $9,000 security, or a loss of $3,700. But eventually I made a profit of several thousand more than $3,700 by assuming the debt and carrying the securities for a few years. ¶

Revelations from the Lord

"If thou shalt find that which thy neighbor has lost, thou Shalt make diligent search till thou shalt deliver it to him again. ¶

"Thou shalt be diligent in preserving what thou hast," — in other words, do not be wasteful — "that thou mayest be a wise steward ; for it is the free gift of the Lord thy God, and thou art his steward." ¶

I commend to you that you read all of that section. I have read only verses 19 to 27, I will read one more verse : ¶

"If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving." ¶

One of the great testimonies to me of the divinity of the work in which you and I are engaged is the revelations that were given before the Church was organized, and that are recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants. I commend that you read all of the very first section of the Doctrine and Covenants. It is a very wonderful section indeed. I have decided to read a few verses of it : ¶

"And the arm of the Lord shall be revealed; and the day cometh that they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants, neither give heed to the words of the prophets and apostles, shall be cut off from among the people." ¶

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"Search these commandments, for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled. ¶

"What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." ¶

Revelation to Prophet's Father

Section 4 of the Doctrine and Covenants is a revelation given to the father of the Prophet Joseph Smith, in February, 1829, a year before the Church was organized : "Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men. ¶

"Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God ; see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day. ¶

"Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work; ¶

"For behold the field is white already to harvest ; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul ; ¶

"And faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work. ¶

"Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence. ¶

"Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." ¶

"white already to harvest" ¶

Many of these revelations given before the Church was organized announced that the field was white already to harvest. ¶

When I stop to think that Wilford Woodruff baptized some eighteen hundred people in less than a year in Herefordshire, England, and that Orson Pratt baptized several thousand people in his missionary work, I realize that the field was indeed ready to harvest. ¶

We have had as high as twenty-three hundred missionaries out in the field for one year, and they did not accomplish as much as Wilford Woodruff accomplished in one year. His labors were simply marvelous to me. The field was "white, ready to harvest." ¶

Today is a day of gleaning. ¶

Thou Shalt Not Be Idle

I read now from section 42, 42nd to 46th verses : ¶

"Thou shalt not be idle ; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer." ¶

I heard of a case of a man and his wife and their boy calling on the governor of the state who had a job for the boy. I believe that the amount he was to receive was thirty dollars a month. The man and the woman said : "Our boy shall not work for thirty dollars a month. We will beg first ; we will steal first." I hope that this story has been exaggerated. Thirty dollars a month when I was a child would have been a fortune. I am sure that my dear departed mother took care of herself and me on one-half of that amount. We did not have any butter on our bread, however. We did not sit up nights and have a fire burning, because we could not afford it. We went to bed very early. Why? Because we had plenty of bed clothes. ¶

"And whosoever among you are sick, and have not faith to be healed, but believe, shall be nourished with all tenderness, with herbs and mild food, and that not by the hand of an enemy. ¶

"And the elders of the Church, two or more, shall be called, and shall pray for and lay their hands upon them in my name; and if they die they shall die unto me, and if they live, they shall live unto me. ¶

"Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, and more especially for those that have not a hope of a glorious resurrection. ¶

"And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them." ¶

I now read from section 88, verses 124 and 125 : ¶

"Cease to be idle ; cease to be unclean ; cease to find fault one with another ; cease to sleep longer than is needful ; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary ; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated. ¶

"And above all things, clothe yourselves with the bond of charity, as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace." ¶

I now read from section 58, verses 26 to 29: ¶

"For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things ; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant ; wherefore he receiveth no reward. ¶

"Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness ; ¶

"For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward." ¶

Mind and Will of God

I have heard any number of Latter-day Saints say, "Why, the Word of Wisdom is not a commandment." What does the Word of Wisdom say? That it is the mind and the will of the Lord. And why was it given? "In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days," and a more damnable and evil design was never in the heart of any man than the advertisements that we see on the billboards showing a beautiful woman with an engagement or wedding ring, the smoke of the cigarette making the ring. ¶

What is the purpose of these advertisements? To get money by selling cigarettes to destroy the mind and the body and the intelligence of boys and girls. I get hot in the collar, as the saying is, every time I think of the millions upon millions, and the billions upon billions, of cigarettes that are consumed. ¶

A SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM ¶

Do you want to know how to obtain temporal salvation? Not only the Latter-day Saints, but all the world would have the solution of that problem if there were no tea, coffee, liquor nor tobacco used in the world. Peace, prosperity, and happiness would come to the entire world. ¶

I now read from section 130: ¶

"Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. ¶

"And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come." ¶

I know of no one of our general authorities who has studied more or was better posted — I know of no one of them who has been a greater promulgator of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, than were the two men who were with us six months ago — James E. Talmage, and Brigham H. Roberts — who have since passed away. They will go on progressing beyond the grave and using that marvelous store of knowledge and information that they had gained. We miss them, the whole Church will miss them. ¶

Blessings Promised

"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven, before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated." ¶

Spiritual and temporal salvation, with the destroying angel passing us by will come from observing the Word of Wisdom. It would solve all the problems of the Latter-day Saints, and of the nation, and of the world, if it were obeyed. Notwithstanding the fact that this anonymous Latter-day Saint asked me not to say anything about the Word of Wisdom, as I said before, you can read nearly an hour's sermon about it if you will read my sermon preached in this tabernacle six months ago. ¶

May the Lord bless and inspire all who shall speak during the conference. May we grow in the light and knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May each and every one of us who has a testimony of the divinity of the work in which we are engaged so live it in honesty in the daily affairs of life, so live it in energy and not in idleness, and so live it that those seeing our good deeds may be led to investigate the Gospel and receive that sweet and wonderful testimony that gives us a knowledge of the divinity of the mission and the Godliness of the mission of Jesus Christ our Savior and our Redeemer, is my humble prayer, and I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶