Grateful for Blessings

My brothers and sisters : I am grateful for this great conference, and for the spirit that has been with us during its sessions. I am grateful for the music which we have had, all of it, for the great choir — and we may properly so term it — for its leader, Brother Cornwall, for faithful Brother Asper, and for Richard L. Evans and his sermonettes, which are reaching tens of thousands of people, and the inspiration and the spirit which will come to him from his new calling will many fold increase his influence in this work. ¶

I am grateful for the welfare plan, and for the success which is attending the efforts of those who are carrying it out. I thank the general committee, the regional committees, the stake and the ward committees, the Priesthood quorums, and last, but by no means least, the Relief Society, who are the "mothers" of the welfare household. ¶

I am grateful for every blessing which has come to us, which the ¶

Lord has given to us. He has given us bounteous crops, he has given us great natural resources, he has provided us with the necessities of shelter and of clothing, and if anyone shall suffer, it will not be the Lord's fault, but ours. One thing is required beyond everything else — we must not waste what God has given to us. ¶

satan's plan ¶

Repeated reference has been made to the great council in heaven, and to what it meant. One element of it I should like to refer to, namely, — what Satan then proposed to do was to give salvation without labor, that is, to get something for nothing. This is the spirit which is abroad today. It is the spirit which we must fight, or it will destroy us. ¶

Warning Agaist Foreign Propaganda

Last night I said something about the up-building of hate in the world, and about foreign propaganda with which this whole nation is being deluged. I warned that this propaganda does not give us the whole truth by any means. I indicated that hate, aided by greed, avarice, and ambition could overwhelm the world in another world war. I entreated the brethren as I now entreat you brethren and sisters to be charitable towards those people whom the propaganda would condemn unheard. ¶

I besought the brethren last night, as I now beseech you, to consider whether or not we Americans who have gained the most of the land which we possess — including that on which we stand — by conquest, and whether or not the other great nations who have glutted themselves with the spoils of conquest, are in a position to condemn without mitigation some other nation which is merely attempting to march along the way of empire which we and those other nations followed. I beseech you not to put yourselves nor this nation in the position of whited sepulchers. I loathe war, I loathe conquest, I loathe oppression, I loathe the destruction of the liberties of men; I love freedom, I love our free institutions, but let us not visit upon the people themselves the sins of their governments. Let us not make a great body of the membership of our Church feel that they are outcasts from us because of the acts of their governments. Let us draw the distinction between peoples and governments. Let us be patient in our judgment, let us exercise charity. ¶

Righteousness and hate cannot dwell in the same heart, no matter how great the righteousness nor how little the hate. ¶

Violation of Laws of Chastity Condemned

I want now to say a few words to the parents, to the teachers and to the youth of the Church about a matter that seems to me to be of the most far-reaching importance. ¶

To Moses on Sinai came the law of all time: "Thou shalt not commit adultery." ¶

The Master, Jesus Christ, found his most opprobrious term in the phrase, "an adulterous generation." ¶

The Lord in His time and in ours has put adultery and fornication side by side. Both are cardinal sins. ¶

The Church has from the beginning demanded of its youth — male and female — one standard only, absolute continence until proper marriage has legalized and hallowed the sexual relations. To this there is no exception. I repeat what I have said before: Man is a biological unit, an animal, but he is more than this, he is the temple of an immortal spirit ; that spirit can be defiled by the flesh, and defilement comes when the laws of chastity are violated. ¶

Our very civilization itself is based upon chastity, the sanctity of marriage, and the holiness of the home. Destroy these and Christian man becomes a brute. ¶

Eternal Union a Lofty Relationship

For Latter-day Saints the family relationship continues through eternity. It is the loftiest and most sacred human relationship we know. ¶

To the chaste young man and young woman beginning the building of a home there is a trust, a confidence, a joy unspeakable, an all but divine harmony, that no other purely human undertaking can bring. The rightful heritage of such a beginning is a life of righteousness that builds upward to eternal life. ¶

To the unchaste who marry there is ahead either a life of distrust, lack of confidence, unhappiness, leading to the divorce court, or a life of promiscuous sexual relationships that ends in misery, disease, and sham. Debauchery never gave birth to good of any kind. ¶

Chastity to Be Taught

Chastity is fundamental to our life and to our civilization. If the race becomes unchaste, it will perish. Immorality has been basic to the destruction of mighty nations of the past ; it will bring to dust the mighty nations of the present. Every one of us who instructs our youth in whatever place or position, and in whatever capacity, must teach the young people of today to abstain from unchastity. We must surround our teachings with due and proper reserve and modesty. We must approach and teach the youth as the children of God, with spirits that are to live throughout eternity, and tell them plainly and clearly that the laws of God, and of men also, demand that they live chaste. If we shall teach anything less than this we will destroy our youth and we will bring ourselves under a condemnation which is too great to be fathomed by human mind, and which God alone can alleviate. ¶

In what I have said I include all of us parents. How can we parents face our Maker if we have failed in one featherweight to meet the duty which is ours in these matters ? And let us not make the mistake, any of us, of assuming that our children are beyond temptation and may not fall. This is a delusion and a snare that will bring us to the very depths. Let every father and every mother, every brother and every sister, stand guard day and night, that their loved ones be not seized and carried away by lust. ¶

And now you young people — May I directly entreat you to be chaste. Please believe me when I say that chastity is worth more than life itself. This is the doctrine my parents taught me ; it is truth. Better die chaste than live unchaste. The salvation of your very souls is concerned in this. ¶

A Friendship Not to Be Trusted

I ask you to believe me when I say that whenever a man or woman, young or old, demands as the price of his friendship that you give up the righteous standards of your life, or any of them, that man's friendship is not worth the price he asks. You may not trust that friendship ; he will cast it off as he does his worn-out coat. Friendship is not now, and never was, the offspring of debauchery or unrighteousness. ¶

I ask you young women to believe me further when I say that any young man who demands your chastity as the price of his love, is spiritually unclean, and is offering something that is not worth the purchase price ; his love will turn to ashes under your touch ; it will lead you to misery and shame ; and too often it will curse you with dread disease. ¶

To you young men I say that any woman who comes to you offering her person outside of legal wedlock, is playing the harlot. ¶

The Lord has said in our day : "For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance." (D. and C. 1 :39; Alma 45 :16), and to Moses of old he said that no unclean thing can dwell in the kingdom of God or in his presence. (Moses 6:57.) ¶

Forgiveness Through Repentance

Yet there is forgiveness for the sinner who truly repents. God's mercy is just as boundless as his justice. To the woman taken in adultery, condemned to death by the Mosaic law, Jesus said: "Go, and sin no more." (John 8:11.) But the heart must be ripened in repentance before forgiveness can come, and sorrow alone is not repentance. A new and righteous life must be led. ¶

Church members, young and old, the Lord demands that you be chaste ; the Church requires chastity from you under penalty of disfellowship and excommunication. If any have already sinned, your brethren and sisters stand ready and anxious to forgive if you shall come with a repentant heart and contrite spirit. ¶

I have spoken plainly because plain speech is necessary. I have tried not to speak indelicately. I have not spoken lewdly. ¶

A Word to Scoffers

To the unbelieving scoffer who says, "All you say merely shows how old and out of date your religion is," — or, as one educator said, "How much your religion is of the kindergarten type,"— to the scoffers who say that man has outgrown the old God with his rewards and punishments, his standards, and that man must now create for himself a new God — and this is at the root of much of the modern so-called philosophy which considers man as creating his God, not God as creating His children — to these scoffers it is sufficient to say that thus have their kind spoken since Cain tried to find a better way than the one God had provided. Thus will they always speak until God shall close their mouths. ¶

Advice to Youth

Youth, be not disturbed. Be valiant. God lives. The Gospel is His way of life. Follow the Gospel path to eternal life. "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3.) ¶

May the Lord give us his Spirit, bring home to our hearts the necessity of chastity for every man and every woman, for every boy and every girl, I ask, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶