Conference Address

More than anything else this day, my brethren and sisters, I feel grateful to the Lord for membership in this great Church. It has been a wonderful privilege to associate with President Grant, President Clark, and President McKay in the weekly meetings that we have been privileged to hold with them as members of the Presiding Bishopric. To me they are indeed prophets of God. I love and respect the members of the Quorum of the Twelve likewise, and the Seven Presidents of Seventy. I am grateful to the Lord for my Counselors because they are truly men of God. I am grateful for all you who are here representing the great body of the Church, these General Boards, the Mission Presidents, Stake Presidents, and their associates, the Bishops, these Patriarchs, and all who are putting forth their energies for the upbuilding of the Kingdom of God in the earth. ¶

THE PRESENT NEED FOR TEACHING THE WORD OF WISDOM ¶

I was very much impressed with the charge given to the Priesthood by President Clark in the opening session of this Conference, and I thought of the words of Dr. Widtsoe when speaking of the Word of Wisdom. He said there are some in the Church who feel that we have said enough about it. I have been in private conversation, and Sunday School classes where the thought has been expressed that they wished President Grant would cease harping on the Word of Wisdom. In my heart I have felt to say, "Thank God for the leader that he is who has the courage to speak out and present to the people the things which God has revealed !" I am sure if we appreciated the Word of Wisdom and its meaning to the Church as much as Satan appreciates what it means when we can be persuaded to disregard the same, we would appreciate it more than we do today. I am grateful to my parents who taught me to observe and keep the Word of Wisdom. ¶

I am sure that as far as our young people are concerned, the members of our Church, a disregard for the Word of Wisdom is the first step that Satan would have them take in his great effort to destroy their souls. At the time there was war in heaven and Satan and his hosts were cast out, a cry went up in heaven saying, "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." ¶

In our Temples we are told of the use Satan would make of the riches of the world to try to destroy the souls of men. Last night in our Priesthood assembly Brother Merrill told us that some thirty million dollars are expended each year in the United States alone in advertising tobacco and liquor in an effort to induce our young people to break the Word of Wisdom. ¶

One of the most interesting things that has occurred to me during this Conference was a visit at the Presiding Bishop's Office of one of my former associates in the Church who was recently appointed a Patriarch and set apart and ordained by Dr. Widtsoe. He told me of how he felt his inability to meet that wonderful calling until he was blessed by Brother Widtsoe, and then he told of the joy he had had in giving blessings to the young people in the Church and of,the manifestations that had come to him. Among other things he said that while he was blessing one young man he saw an evil spirit standing by his side, and the impression came to him that the evil spirit was listening to what was being said so that he would know what his mission in life was, that he might try to destroy that mission. It reminded me of a picture I saw in Brussels many years ago, when I was on my first mission, of a man who shot his head off, and by his side stood two angels, one of light and one of darkness, and as he committed the deed the angel of darkness laughed with a laugh of triumph and the angel of light turned his head and wept. ¶

EFFECTS OF BREAKING WORD OF WISDOM FAR-REACHING ¶

I am sure, my brethren and sisters, the Evil One is doing all he can to try to destroy the lives of our boys and girls. He did it with the Prophet Joseph. You will remember the Prophet's own testimony of how he was first overcome by the power of darkness, when he went into the woods to pray. He is seeking to destroy us because we have been given the Light, and I want to say to you that when we disregard the Word of Wisdom, we not only suffer a biological ill effect upon our bodies by using things that are not good for the body, but it changes our mental attitude toward the things of God. If you brethren and sisters question this, I would ask you to inquire in your own homes or the homes of your associates. I think you will find that when boys and girls commence using tobacco or liquor they cease to pray, and in most cases they cease to attend Sunday School, the Mutual Improvement organization, and other Auxiliaries of this Church. I think an examination of the rolls would indicate that this is true in almost every case. And that is not all. The Lord has indicated to us that these bodies are tabernacles of the Holy Ghost and that the Holy Ghost will not dwell in an unholy tabernacle. Paul tells us that these bodies are not our own but God has purchased them with a price and he that defileth the body, him shall God destroy. So, when we commence to do the things we should not do, and thus we quit praying, the Lord withdraws His Spirit and we are turned over to the buffetings of Satan. It is first a cigaret ; then it is a glass of beer ; then it is a drinking party ; and that leads to immorality ; and some of us know from our experience in the Church something of what this means. I wish that in all the cities of this great country all the Latter-day Saints were keeping the Word of Wisdom. I want to tell you that the light and influence that would go forth therefrom would touch the hearts and the lives of men and women who reside in our midst who are not members of the Church, and they would be led to do likewise. As the Master said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." ¶

From a statement made by Dr. George Thomason, M. D., F. A. C. S., regarding the effects of tobacco, I read : ¶

Our hearts are saddened and our eyes filled with tears at the sight of the mangled and crippled human wrecks left as an aftermath of war; but these do not compare in horror with the innumerable multitudes of hereditary defectives left in the wake of the vast army of cigarets. Is it fair to make the man or woman of tomorrow — our posterity— pay the fiddler for our pleasures today? ¶

In the Ten Commandments, the Lord has said that He will visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him, but show mercy unto ¶

thousands of them who love Him and keep His commandments. Keeping the Word of Wisdom will free us and our posterity from these calamities. ¶

LIQUOR AND ITS TRAIN OF EVILS ¶

Regarding the use of liquor, I should like to quote from the words of Evangeline Booth of the Salvation Army : ¶

Drink has drained more blood, hung more crepe, sold more homes, plunged more people into bankruptcy, armed more villains, slain more children, snapped more wedding rings, defiled more innocence, blinded more eyes, twisted more limbs, dethroned more reason, wrecked more manhood, dishonored more womanhood, broken more hearts, blasted more lives, driven more to suicide, and dug more graves than any other poisoned scourge that ever swept its death-dealing waves across the world. ¶

If we never used tobacco and liquor, we would never have any of these things to contend with. It seems to me that the Word of Wisdom might be regarded as an insurance policy ; if we keep the Word of Wisdom, Satan does not get to first base with us because we are not made subject to his temptations. ¶

OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE OF AN ACTRESS ¶

I should like to take the liberty of reading a quotation that appeared in the "Hollywood Citizen," under date of February 15, 1940, showing what the life of a Mormon boy or girl can do and of the notoriety it brings when they stand up for the things they have been taught in their Church : ¶

Wonders never cease and today we met in the center of Hollywood a movie actress, and a beautiful one, too, who never has tasted a cocktail nor smoked a cigaret. ¶

Her name is Laraine Day, and lips that touch liquor shall never touch hers, and if there is any other movie star with a record like that, we'll put it in our pipe and smoke it. ¶

We're not trying to spoof Miss Day, either. She is a member of the Church of the Latter-day Saints, she's engaged to a missionary, and we have the greatest of respect for her. Only we're a little surprised that a girl of her temperament and background is in the movies. ¶

"But it isn't at all surprising," she insisted, "Mormons don't drink or smoke, but they have no objections to the theater, or to motion pictures. In fact, I got my first stage experience in Church plays, and here in Hollywood I'm in charge of a Little Theater group sponsored by the Church." ¶

Miss Day, who is hazel-eyed, barely 20, and one of the brightest of M-G-M's younger stars, likes night clubs, where she drinks either soda pop or milk. ¶

"Keeping away from liquor is no problem for me," she said, "except in the movies. A few weeks ago I was in a picture where we were supposed to be at dinner, eating trifle. This is a British dessert, which consists of macaroons and whipped cream. So the studio sent to a caterer's and got a whole barrel of trifle. It was flavored with rum. I just tasted the whipped cream on top and didn't eat a bit of it! ¶

We suggested that a tablespoon of rum in a pudding was no more intoxicating than a spoon of vanilla extract, but Miss Day said she wasn't interested in that. It was the principle of the thing. ¶

Currently she is playing the leading feminine role in "And One Was Beautiful," opposite Robert Cummings, and if ever there was a living example of the fact that a girl needn't be wild to succeed in Hollywood, she is it. ¶

Then the article goes on to tell more about her, how she earns a good salary; how5 she pays her tithing to the Church; how she converted her young boy friend, and he is now filling a mission for the Church. ¶

If, like Miss Day, we would never touch tobacco or liquor, because of the "principle of the thing," we would never have to quit, and we would bring great honor to the Church. And, as I say, the principle is like an insurance policy, a protection against the snares of the Evil One and the consequences that follow the disregard thereof. ¶

IMMORALITY A MODERN CURSE ¶

In addition to the injury to the body because of the use of tobacco and liquor as I have stated, is the injury that comes from immorality. Those of us who have read and know something of the conditions in the world today know that this is a plague that is reaching into our very communities, that we should not be unmindful of, but we ought to surround our girls and our boys with all the influence and power possible to enable them to shun this evil. ¶

I was delighted with the plainness with which President Clark spoke on this subject. In one of our meetings with the First Presidency, President Grant told of a letter he had received from a young woman who had been untrue morally and how she wrote and said to the President, "Why don't you publish a warning in the 'Era' and the newspapers and tell it in the organizations so that young people will know what it is when they have lost their virtue ?" ¶

I hope that the fathers and mothers in Israel are training their boys and girls today as my father and mother trained me when they told me that immorality was the greatest sin a man could commit next to the shedding of innocent blood, and that they would rather lay me away in the grave innocent and clean than to know I had lost my virtue or had robbed a woman of hers. I think, my brothers and sisters, that we need to do a little more of that kind of preaching today. It seems to me that one of the evidences that there is a God is the great scourge and curse that He places upon men and women who are immoral in their lives. A few years ago we read in a Salt Lake newspaper that a young man had committed suicide, and the paper said, "because he was despondent," but his father told me that the reason he committed suicide was because his body was wasting away as the result of immoral living. I might not have understood what he meant had it not been for an experience I had in Chicago when I was on my way to my first mission as a boy. We saw there ¶

photographs of men's and women's bodies literally being eaten away by the effects of venereal disease. It made such an impression upon my mind at that time that I could not help but think it almost as bad as leprosy. I read a report in one of the Railroad stations in one of our large cities rfot long ago that indicated that 780,000 young men reach their majority in the United States each year, and of that number 450,000, according to statistics of the Bureau of Vital Statistics of the United States of America, suffer from venereal disease. And that, in this great land we call a Christian nation. When we know such conditions exist, my brothers and sisters, we realize more the need of teaching our young people. I feel to thank God for these teachings. In my position as a presiding officer in this Church, I have had men come to me in transgression. I have seen them shed bitter tears, and I thank God for the principle of forgiveness of sin. I have wished it were even possible, not only to forgive the sin but to blot out the memory of the sin, and then I think as they grow in experience, even if they repent and they become useful in the Church, of the scars that are still there, when they know there are women who know they have been unclean. ¶

The Lord said to Ezekiel of old that He had placed him as a watchman on the towers of Israel and when He gave a commandment unto him and he failed to carry it to the people, then their blood would be required at his hands, but if he delivered the message, he would be free. I think it is up to the Elders in Israel and the officers of this Church, as President Clark has said, to let the people know so that we might keep ourselves free from responsibility for their sins, and help them to remain unspotted from the sins of the world. "Blessed are the pure in heart," Jesus said, "for they shall see God." God help us to be that, and our children likewise, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶