Conference Address

I pray that what I say this morning may be dictated by the Spirit of the Lord. ¶

An ancient American prophet whose name was Moroni once wrote : ¶

And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth — that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief. ¶

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Awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem ; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled. ¶

James, a disciple of our Lord, says : ¶

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to ail men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. ¶

There is something calamitous happening in the world today; it has slowly been destroying our spiritual lives. I refer to the fact that human life on the one hand and religion on the other have been drifting apart. They are drifting apart today, and this is one of the greatest ¶

calamities of all history. We realize that the world has made wonderful strides in science and invention during the past century. From a material standpoint no one doubts the greatness of the age in which we are living. Electricity and mechanical inventions have changed our economic and social lives. Magnificent have been the achievements of men ; still more splendid will they be. The nations of the world have accumulated great wealth but the love of money has pushed aside their love of God. The conscience of Christian creeds has become blunt to the primary distinctions of right and wrong and the world is drifting to some ignominious end. ¶

When we look back to a century ago, we see here in America, a people strong in honesty and fortitude, subduing nature and building homes and cities. They traveled in small boats, ox-carts, and horse drawn wagons. The farmer was using the type of tools that resembled those that were used in the days of the ancient prophets. It took from May to early autumn to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. There were no railroad trains ; and steamboats were just beginning to ply the rivers of the West. Newspapers were printed by hand at the rate of two hundred copies an hour. Thought was transmitted only as fast as one could travel. Then came the age of machinery. Inventors gave us the telegraph and telephone; modern farming machinery, and ultimately the automobile and airplane. During the last years, the science of medicine has all but conquered disease. Space has been annihilated by the forces of travel, and the radio has brought the voices of men from the far-off quarters of the earth. The age has been one of marvelous thought and progress, tfielike of which the world has never seen before. ¶

As a result of this progress in the line of science, and the coming of foreigners to our shores, our civilization has become complex. Lawmaking bodies have created laws by the thousands, until we have come to believe that government is the source of righteousness ; that government by external means is the spring of morality and spiritual life. The morale of America has drifted to a very low state ; this is also true of all the civilized world. Our moral autonomy has gone, and men and nations have forgotten God. Satan is offering the kingdoms of the world to those who will fall down and worship him. The temptation of Jesus after his baptism has become today the temptation of men. Yet nations are crying for Peace. They have organized leagues of peace; they have made some determined efforts to do away with war; they have all failed for the reason that peace movements have not been founded on a proper comprehension of righteousness and truth. ¶

When our forefathers met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia in 1774 to draft some system of government by which the colonies could carry on, an old minister, Dr. Jacob Duche, was called in to offer a prayer, and as he prayed, John Adams tells us that tears "gushed into the eyes of all present." It was a fervent prayer to the Lord and I quote it in full for it carries a message of faith to us : ¶

O Lord, our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of Kings, Lord ¶

of Lords, who dost from Thy throne behold all the dwellers upon the earth, and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all kingdoms, empires and governments, look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, upon these American States who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor, and thrown themselves upon Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent cnly upon Thee. ¶

To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause. To Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support which Thou alone canst give. Take them, theretore, Heavenly father, under Thy nurturing care. Give them wisdom in council, and valor in the field. Defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries. Convince them of the unrighteousness of their cause, and if they still persist in their sanguinary purposes, O let the voice of Thine own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop their weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle. ¶

Be Thou present, O Lord of Wisdom, and direct the Council of the honorable Assembly. Enable them to settle things upon the best and surest foundation, that the scene of blood may speedily be closed ; that order, harmony and peace may effectually be restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst Thy people. ¶

Preserve the health of their bodies, the vigor of their minds. Shower down upon them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to ccme. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Savior. Amen. ¶

When the government of the United States was finally organized under the God-inspired Constitution, it was the result of toil and blood ; and faith in the providences of God. The age-long barriers of class were done away with, and those founders declared that here in this nation, there should be no slave ; there should be no king ; nor master ; nor subject. The fathers of the republic said to us : "We are all children of God, free and equal." ¶

Are we going to abandon our heritage? Shall we "look unto the rock whence we were hewn?" It was a wise piece of advice when the ancient psalmist wrote : "Remove not the ancient land-mark which thy fathers have set." Have we come to the time when we shall have to guarantee payment in silver before our citizens will go to war to protect the ideals of our government ? If we have, then our citizenry have lost the ideals of the founders, and have forfeited their rights and the finer feelings of what we call patriotism. When the American Revolution and the Civil War were fought, men went to war because of their love of country. They believed it a divine duty to die for their country. They were reared in the belief that sacrifice for truth is a divine injunction of God. Many of us recall the words of Garibaldi, the Italian liberator, when he spoke to the youth of Italy. Said he : ¶

Fortune, who betrays us today, will smile on us tomorrow. I am going out from Rome. Let those who wish to continue the war against the stranger, come with me. I offer neither pay nor quarters, nor provision. I offer hunger, thirst, battles and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart and not with his lips only, follow me. ¶

Hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles, death. ¶

Such was the offer — nothing more — remarks the historian Tre- ¶

velyan. Today we are purchasing souls for war ; we are offering idleness for work ; we are dissipating the resources that God gave us ; we are trying to solve our problems from without, and not from within. Jesus said on one occasion: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." This sentence was the basic thought of his religion. He gave us the meaning of rich and radiant living. He told us to live our lives from within; and in this should be our power, which is the "inner light," the light of God ever leading us on. The forces which are to make the world the world it ought to be, are now within it. These forces are the divine principles that were taught by Jesus Christ our Lord. By these principles knowledge will be higher, ambition nobler, and life more divine. ¶

My brethren and sisters, it is religion that must solve the problems of our civilization today, and if we do not go back to God and the religion of the Master, our western civilization is destined to be destroyed. Religion at its best has supplied, and it can now supply, "the motives, faiths, insights, hopes, convictions, by which men inwardly come to terms with themselves and with their fellow men." We must come to a new spiritual ascendency over our baser selves. To achieve peace in this world of ours, this will have to be done. We must come to religion by way of life, and a deeper desire within to live life well. As soon as we strike this road again, we will find the high way where the seers and prophets of the spirit are walking ; and above all we will distinguish there the footsteps of the Son of God. We will bring our lives into the inner world of man's divine life and light. Once more we will bring God and his Son back to us through the inward and not the outward; through our faith and confidence in the Savior of the world. ¶

You and I and all people will have to do away with hatred in our hearts. The inner light is the light of God ; it is the light of love and truth. As I walked to this meeting this morning a man handed me a vicious document of hatred for the Jews. I wish to say unhesitatingly that I love the history of the Jews. They gave us the greatest book of all time, the Holy Bible, and they played a large part in the American Revolution. A Jew raised his voice in the Continental Congress one time and said, "It is for God and hence for right." The Jews are, as a whole, a noble race. All people have their failings but we must come to love the peoples of the world and do away with hate. ¶

The German Lessing, who wrote "Nathan the Wise," put these words into the mouth of the Jew and the Christian who were conversing. The Jew said : "O Christian, I understand you now because of the spirit of your Christ that is in my soul." And the Christian replied : "O Jew, I understand you because of the spirit of your God and our God." ¶

The spirit of the American government must be restored. Man must earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, then the old time patriotism will again be in the hearts of men. ¶

The real test of the strength of civilization is in the moral capacity of the rank and file of the citizens to give up the pleasures of the present ¶

for greater rewards in the future. This quality is the foundation of both moral and spiritual character. The social security of a nation is based on the character of the citizens, not on the amount of material comforts the government may bestow upon them. Hard work and sacrifice make men strong. Ease and gifts from any source are destructive to efficiency, character, and citizenship. Social security is in the character of the citizens and hence must come from within. Social security can not be bestowed from without. ¶

The Abby Genty, a French savant during the French Revolution, declared before the students of Paris University that "the independence of the Americans is the event most likely to accelerate the revolution which is to renew the happiness of the world. In the bosom of this new nation are the treasures which are to renew the world." He named the relief to crowded Europe as one of the blessings to come to mankind. The Emancipation of Slaves, the End of Conquest, Universal Peace, the Conversion of the World to Christianity, are others. All these were to spring from the truth, honor, and the virtue of three millions of Americans who believed in God. America has given us an ideal. It is not gold, nor silver, nor brass, nor iron which makes success. It is truth, honor, and justice. It is faith, hope, and love. It is, as the learned Abby suggested, on the virtues of mankind and the freedom of mankind that the future of mankind is to be builded. ¶

When we have learned the Christian way of living and have gone back to God, then the words of another sage will come true : ¶

It will change everything. ¶

I can see the end of war in this, some day. ¶

I can see the joy of women and little children, some day. ¶

I can see cities and great spaces of land full of happiness. ¶

I can see love shining in every face. ¶

There shall be no more sin, no pain, no loss, no death — ¶

Only Life, only God — some day when ¶

The world shall have learned. ¶

I pray that we may sense keenly two things this day. I pray that the Spirit of our Lord and Savior may find lodgment in our souls as never before, and that we may hold sacred as a trust of God, the Constitution of the United States. God grant that we may always see the right, I ask in Jesus' name. Amen. ¶