Our Duty to Honor Priesthood

I desire to express a word of appreciation and thanks to and for this wonderful choir. My faith and prayers are with the members. ¶

A PERFECT ORGANIZATION ¶

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a wonderful organization. In the year 1829 the Lord said that a great and marvelous work was about to come forth among the children of men. That was a few months before the organization of the Church. In the branches, wards and stakes, all presided over by properly appointed officers, we have a perfect organization in theory. I wish I could say that in regard to the practice. ¶

We have a perfect order of Priesthood, because it is divine. It is ¶

not man-made. The Bishop in the ward holds the keys of presidency, and the power to direct and set in order all things within his ward. Likewise the Presidency of the stake hold the keys of presidency, and it is their duty to set in order and regulate all things pertaining to the stake over which they preside. The President of the Church holds the keys of authority for the whole Church. He is the mouthpiece of God. It is through him that revelation comes for the guidance of the members. ¶

OUR DUTY TO HONOR PRIESTHOOD ¶

The Priesthood, being divine, should be honored. It should be honored by those who hold it, and it should be honored by those who are under the jurisdiction of it. When these men holding this divine authority speak, it is the duty of the members of the Church to give heed to their words and counsel. We fail in our duty if we do not do this thing. Brother John H. Taylor, in his remarks on Friday, stated that there were some members of the Church who said: "Why do the Authorities of the Church keep admonishing and teaching principles to this Church which they know the members will not follow ?" I may not be quoting him accurately, but that is the substance of it. I want to answer that question. It is the duty of the Authorities of the Church to speak by inspiration and revelation. If the membership, or any part thereof, should fail to heed the warning or accept the counsel, the instruction which these men in authority give, and especially the one who holds the keys of authority, still it is the duty of these men to give that instruction, even though they may feel it will not be followed, and then the responsibility rests upon the shoulders of those who hear it, and if they refuse to receive it the sin is upon their own heads, and they will have to answer for it. ¶

The Lord said : "Whether it be mine own voice or the voice of my servants, it is the same." I read in the preface to this wonderful book President Clawson has been telling us about: ¶

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. ¶

Those members of this Church who criticise and say we hear too much of this or that, and thus confess their sins, should take heed and repent, for if they refuse to accept the counsels that are given, then the responsibility of that disobedience is theirs, and they will have to answer for it. ¶

Short though my memory may be, I can remember not so very far back, when the President of this Church gave counsel and advice and pleaded with the membership of this Church to do certain things, which a large percentage of them refused to do, and I say the Lord is not pleased with the inhabitants of Zion. He said that once in the early days of the Church. I think we can truthfully repeat it now. ¶

I believe in the Word of Wisdom. I believe in the law of tithing and prayer and faith, and the keeping of the Sabbath Day holy, so I endorse all that we have heard on these questions during this conference. ¶

SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES ¶

One year ago it was my privilege to travel through the Eastern States Mission with Elder Don B. Colton, who then presided in that field. Our duties took us to the city of Boston, in Massachusetts, and in the afternoon we went into an eating house for the purpose of getting a meal, shortly before meeting should commence. It was a clean, respectable place. As we sat down to a table we noticed that upon the four sides of every table was the following: "Please do not smoke in this room. The majority, including those who smoke, appreciate a clean atmosphere in which to enjoy their meals. Thank you for complying with this request. Pure food and tobacco smoke do not mix." It struck me that some of these institutions that cater to the public here in Zion might profit by that example. ¶

I do not go into certain eating places for a mid-day meal, because I do not care to sit down at a table, and have some empty-headed girl at an adjoining table puff tobacco smoke in my face. That is why I am not seen in such places. I think that the semi-respectable places — I say semi-respectable, because if tobacco using is permitted in an eating house it is only semi-respectable — if they could adopt this notice in the eating houses that I speak of, I think it would be an excellent thing. This place in Boston was crowded. It did not seem to hurt their business. I do not think anybody stayed away because they were offended ; the notice was not offensive. Why can it not be adopted here? ¶

I want to read to you a statement that was made from this very stand by the President of the Church at the Conference in October, 1913. Now, this is a pretty strong statement. He was the mouthpiece of God. He spoke by inspiration, and it is good counsel, it seems to me, today. He said: ¶

President George Q. Cannon often said to me and to others that he would rather be shut up with a skunk than to be shut up in a smoking car with smokers. ¶

I will pause to say that in the day when this was said they had smoking cars. Now all cars, practically, are smoking cars, so are all buses and everything else. To continue the quotation : ¶

What right has a man to befoul with his nauseous breath the air that I breathe? What right have I to make noxious the air that you breathe. I have no right to do it, and you have a right to protest against my doing it, and to show those who are in the habit of doing these things your contempt for their practices, if you have any respect for them. You should show, at least, your contempt for that which they do foolishly, for the practice is wrong, pernicious, and they are unmindful of the rights of others. I have thought seriously that a boy or man who has become addicted to the use of tobacco in any form, to the extent that he is unable to resist his appetite for it, or who has practiced it until he is unable to ¶

resist or overcome it, is a man who is so mentally weakened, so morally degraded that he is not competent to perform, and would not be worthy to be entrusted with any responsible duty. Why? Because a man who has become so weak-minded, and irresolute that he cannot overcome the temptation to do wrong, or resist the power of an acquired, vicious appetite for poison, how can he be trusted ? It is a weakness, a degradation that sinks far below the ordinary weakness of mankind, and therefore, the person who is so enslaved to vitiated appetites for poisons, hurtful things, that he cannot overcome them, being a slave to a pernicious habit, a degrading practice, that he cannot rise above it, how dare you trust him? How can you entrust to one whose mind is become so weakened, so vitiated and so degraded, that he is not his own master, but an irresolute slave to unholy passion, any trust that requires honor, strength of manhood, determination and will-power to resist evil and temptation to do wrong ? You can't do it ! You can't trust a man who has not the power of will to say "No" to temptation to do evil, or to that which entices to evil. He is only worthy of condemnation, and you cannot safely trust him, and you ought not to trust him. ¶

CHARLES C. GOODWIN'S EDITORIAL ¶

A few days following the Conference where this was said, Mr. Charles C. Goodwin, who for many years was a very bitter opponent of the Latter-day Saints, but a very keen editorial writer, and who performed that service for many years on a morning paper in this city, took up the refrain of President Smith's remarks, and I want to read to you what he had to say, because he confessed that he was guilty of the habit : ¶

In a broad and general way I am for the anti-tobacco doctrine promulgated by President Joseph F. Smith at the opening of the October conference. And I am unprejudiced, because I use the weed. One can be pretty patient with the various weaknesses of human nature, but here is a habit which God never planted in any human being. It is unnatural for a man to chew or smoke tobacco. ¶

No habit is acquired at such expense of pain and discomfort, or against so positive and emphatic an opposition of nature. The man who smokes can remember when he began self-administration of nicotine poison, and he can remember no other convulsion of his frame which equalled that following his first cigar. The deadly sickness, the battle of normally clean tissues against the rank enmity of the weed, whether smoked or chewed, surpasses any other illness known to man. Seasickness is a horror, but it is a dream of Paradise and the Peri as compared with nicotine poison for the beginner. Ptomaine poison hurts, but it is colic compared to convulsions. There is no protest of the healthy body possibly approaching the physical warning against tobacco. And if the user of tobacco — the confirmed slave today — would supply to any useful endeavor the resolution, the persistence, the indifference to suffering, the courage, the power of will, the sacrifice of comfort, which he has devoted to acquiring the tobacco habit, he would have won — though the winning meant fame or fortune, love or leisure! ¶

President Smith is right. Smoking is foolish. There is not one word to be said in sanity to defend it. Chewing tobacco is beyond all expression filthy. It is vile, vicious, self-contaminating, offensive to companions, and repulsive to the community at large. ¶

And while neither he nor I will make an end of the custom, it is fair to say he told the truth, and it is a thing for patriotic men to applaud, because his word in that meeting will save some man from the one habit ¶

which has nothing to defend it and every consideration of cleanliness to oppose. ¶

Now, there is the statement of a man who has had the unsavory experience. ¶

CLOSING INSTRUCTION ¶

Brethren, sisters, keep your bodies clean. They are eternal, and the Lord expects us to keep them clean if we shall enter into eternal life, which is God's life, to be like him. Hearken to the counsels of the Priesthood. Keep the commandments of God. Follow the instruction President Clawson has given ; read these revelations and make yourselves familiar with them, that you may not fail nor be led astray by the teachings of the world and the philosophies of men. ¶

So I pray, in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶