Thus On to Eternal Perfection

THUS ON TO ETERNAL PERFECTION ¶

I shall begin my remarks with a quotation from that masterpiece of literature and doctrine— the Sermon on the Mount: ¶

_ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. ¶

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good you y°U' Pray f°r thCm Whi°h desPitefully use y°u. and Persecute ¶

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh Ins sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. ¶

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? ¶

And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? ¶

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. ¶

—Matthew 5:43-48. ¶

RELIGION, THE WORLDS GREATEST NEED ¶

The greatest need of the world today is religion — the religion of unselfishness, the religion of Jesus that teaches, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." (Matt. 22:39) "Be ye perfect," etc. The unceasing influence of the Church for good is like a cord attached to the feet which continues always to bring back into that straight, that narrow way any who have deviated to the right or to the left, however great or however slight the deviation. ¶

Scholarship has nosuch pull. Science, literature and the arts cannot take the place of religion. While religion never ceases to exert a powerful influence for good, nevertheless it takes a tremendous amount of it to keep us, with our many human frailties, doing our best all the time. ¶

When Jesus said, "Be ye perfect," he set for us a difficult task. It is the aim of the Church to keep us on the way to perfection insofar as unceasing vigilance can do this. I shall mention a few of the practises of the Church which help greatly in this respect. ¶

TESTIMONY — -EXAMINATION MEETINGS ¶

One of these is a sort of annual examination or testimony meeting stake presidents are advised to hold with the members of their high councils, their bishops and other stake and ward workers who do their church work under the immediate direction of the stake presidency. ¶

And all other stakes and ward officers, including of course the bishops, are advised to hold similar meetings with those who labor under their direction. In fact all Church officers and workers in every department, including those in auxiliary activities, are to be checked up at least once each year to find out with what degree of success we are, with our mortal imperfections, succeeding in our efforts to be better all the time. ¶

_ May I illustrate what I mean by such an examination. The most rigid I ever had to take was given by Francis M. Lyman. He conducted the examinations for a group to which '1 belonged and over which he presided much as Benjamin Franklin proceeded with his examination of himself. ¶

Franklin said he knew or thought he knew right from wrong and he did not see why he might not always do the one and avoid the other. But he soon found that he had undertaken a task of more difficulty than he had imagined. However, in his practical way, Franklin made a list of thirteen virtues and by placing particular emphasis upon one of these at a time, he expected to be able to master that, and then proceed to another. By repeated efforts he planned to go on thus to perfection. ¶

TESTS BY CHURCH STANDARDS ¶

In much the same way Francis M. Lyman in his testimony and examination meetings named as best he could all the Church standards in accordance with which Latter-day Saints are expected to live. He referred to the payment of tithing, the keeping0f the Word of Wisdom, attendance at sacrament meetings, observance of family and secret prayers, etc. He asked if the members of the organization were good husbands and fathers and neighbors. Lie advised that they speak ill of no man, not even in a matter of truth, but rather excuse the faults charged against others, and upon proper occasions, speak all the good they knew of everybody. He asked if they were good citizens, that is, if they took a proper interest in public affairs. He wanted to know if they were frugal and if they paid their obligations promptly. He insisted that it is the duty of Church members when employed to live within their means, to try to be better off financially at the end of the year than at its beginning, etc. In brief, like Franklin, he hoped to have all the people struggle toward perfection all the time. ¶

''all these things have i kept" ¶

We were all impressed with the effectiveness of these examinations when on one occasion a man arose and said, "I have no difficulty in living according to the Word of Wisdom, it is easy for me to attend sacrament meetings and to remember with regularity my secret and family prayers. I have no trouble living within my income. I am better off financially today than I was a year ago. In fact," he continued, using almost the exact language of the Bible^ "all these things have I kept from my youth up, but I have one great weakness, an uncontrollable temper." ¶

At the meeting we sang the familiar number, "Scatter Seeds of Kindness," which in part is as follows: ¶

If we knew the baby fingers, ¶

Pressed against the window pane, Would be cold and stiff tomorrow — ¶

Never trouble us again — Would the bright eyes of our darling ¶

Catch the frown upon our brow ? Would the prints of rosy fingers ¶

Vex us then as they do now? ¶

Ah! those little ice-cold fingers, ¶

How they point our mem'ries back To the hasty words and actions ¶

Strewn along our backward track! How those little hands remind us, ¶

As in snowy grace they lie, Not to scatter thorns — but roses — ¶

For our reaping by and by. ¶

It was after hearing the harmony of this impressive song, glorified by the sweet tenor voice of George R. Emery, the leader, that our associate, our brother, with the tears flowing down his cheeks, said: "My great trouble is my temper. But I am struggling with it and I am glad to be 'able to report that during the past year I think I have made some progress." ¶

PERFECTION THROUGH RELIGION ¶

Thus a human soul was striving successfully to do that which real religion demands, namely, that we do our best to reach perfection. ¶

It is doubtful if science, literature, art, scholarship, any one or all of these combined, can stir a mortal heart to put forth such strenuous eflort as that, for the sole purpose of making a human being stronger and better. Only religion, the Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, can do it. ¶

SEVEN EXAMINATIONS ¶

Another of the outstanding practises in the Church intended to make its members more nearly perfect is our way of advancing boys and young men in the priesthood. Our aim is to teach and train them to expect that at least seven times in their lives, if they are regularly promoted in the Church, they will find themselves alone with the bishop for the purpose of being given a kind and fatherly examination. The first comes when the boy is to be ordained a deacon, the second before he is ordained a teacher, the third before he is ordained a priest, fourth, before he is ordained an elder, fifth, when he is sent into the mission field, sixth, when he makes application to go into the temple, and seventh, when he is ready to take some charmingyoung woman with him to the altar for his marriage ceremony. ¶

These seven examinations are to consist of questions concerning details of Church duties and conduct, such as attitude toward tobacco, tea, coffee, liquor, tithing, keeping the Sabbath day holy, attending to secret and family prayers, being just and fair and charitable1 and patient in all dealings with neighbors and business associates. One question to be emphasized especially is "Have you lived in accordance with the Scout oath or promise, especially that part of it which says, 'On my honor I will do my best to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.' " Emphasis is placed especially on the last portion. Wise men have said if the Church can bring up a generation of men and women who all their days walk with accuracy in the path of virtue, then to such a genera tion nothing will be impossible. ¶

ORDAINED ELDERS AT NINETEEN ¶

And now, beginning with this year 1935, in addition to the seven exacting examinations above referred to, an additional procedure for the guidance and protection of boys and youngmen has been adopted. I refer to the new and definite policy of ordaining young men elders when they reach the age nineteen. ¶

It has been' the practise for years to ordain boys deacons when they are twelve, and now with the same unanimity and persistence worthy young men are to be ordained elders at nineteen. ¶

Dr. Karl G. Maeser used to say to us his normal students, "You are being trained and educated to teach and I want you to know and to remember that if 95 % of the members of any class do not finish the course with a passing grade there is something the matter with the teacher." ¶

And so I say, if 95 % of our young folks at age nineteen are not worthy, and the young men cannot therefore be ordained elders, make a careful survey of the situation and I predict you will find something wrong with the teaching or the training in the home or in the Church or in both of these. ¶

The plan is to have all young men at nineteen become by ordination full-fledged men, to have thus put upon them the stamp of manhood, the stamp of character, the stamp of dependability. We want this ordination to be made a sort of commencement or graduation. It will indicate that the course begun at twelve is completed not only with credit but with honor as well. ¶

SATISFYING A NATURAL CRAVING ¶

You know when a boy is twelve nature fills him with visions of and ambition for the future. He begins to long for the company and fellowship and leadership of men, to desire to break away from his childhood surroundings. He wants to run away from home. He begins to hear nature's cry for association with grown-ups. It is the awakening of ambition in the soul of the boy. At his age practically all our boys are ordained deacons and enter the Mutual Improvement Association. 'In his M. I A. work a boy is made a Scout and can be accepted as a member of the National Scout organization. ¶

In order to satisfy that natural demand, that craving for the association of men, we are not only requesting, but urging that a strong troop committee, a committee of developed, powerful men, the strongest available, be appointed by all the bishops in all the wards. ¶

The outstanding business of a troop committee is two-fold: First, to provide well-trained men to be Scoutmasters, assistant Scoutmasters, and leaders and associates for these boys. Second, to provide in some way or other whatever money is necessary to make the troop in every ward outstandingly successful. ¶

YOUTH TO BE GUARDED ¶

The prime aim and purpose of our program is to preserve youngpeople from temptation, to protect them from evil. The Church stands strongly for purity rather than for repentance. ¶

Is it not providential that this broad and intense training begins at the age of twelve? Remember Jesus was twelve when after three days his parents found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, the wise men of his day and time, both hearing them and asking them questions. Even Jesus at this age was hungering apparently for the association of men. ¶

While I have been emphasizing the responsibility of preserving the boys and young men frqm evil and temptation as this responsibility rests upon the bishops and their associates, I desire to make it clear that great and perhaps greatest of all is the responsibility which rests upon the parents. The home must do its part, and often that part can be done best by the mothers. Men may fail but women never, is one of my favorite expressions. ¶

From the Improvement Era I learned that one stake was organizing the mothers to help with the training of these young men and boys. If organized, the mothers of the deacons, the mothers of the teachers, the mothers of the priests, and the mothers of the Scouts can do more than any others in helping to train these boys so that at the age of nineteen they will be worthy men, noble, fine, young fellows, who can consistently be ordained elders. ¶

The forces of all our organizations are thus combined to bring not only our boys but our girls also through their boyhood and girlhood into manhood and womanhood from age twelve to age nineteen as nearly perfect as possible. ¶

With united ranks, we go forward singing, "Thus on to eternal perfection the honest and faithful will go." ¶