Unity and the Mission of the Church

Of the First Council of the Seventy and President of the New England Mission ¶

I am happy to come from Boston to attend this Conference, and to report to the parents of the missionaries laboring in New England that they are a noble band of young men and women, and we are proud of them. They work very hard and it does not take long for them to prove themselves true servants of God. ¶

Labors of Missionaries Praised

New England is a difficult mission because we have so few members of the Church, but what we have are as true and noble as ever lived. If we have a branch of six or eight or ten members that have been converted in New England, we call it a large branch, and your sons and daughters go into these districts and sometimes far out on the borders of Canada, for we have Saints in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It is a fine people that we labor among. Boston is said to be the hub of America and the center of culture, and there are some twenty universities and colleges in Boston alone. So you see we are among a people who have always believed in education. You would be happy to see your boys and girls laboring, and could you be in the city of Lynn, a manufacturing center, at a Sunday morning meeting, you would find ten or fifteen young girls and boys, from the Methodist Church, singing in our choir there, and our Elders sitting in the Methodist Church of a Sunday evening taking part in their choir. ¶

A Tribute to the People of New England

You would like New England people. Many of them are descendants of the old Puritan stock; that stock that was represented in England by such men as Oliver Cromwell and John Milton. They came to America to build new homes and to be free to worship God as they wanted to worship. We speak unkindly sometimes of those people because they were very strict in their habits. They were Calvinistic and though they had their faults, they had their strong characteristics. They would not tolerate immorality. They would not tolerate impurity in politics. Said John Milton on one occasion: "Politics is the science of government and no politics can be pure until there is brought to bear on this great science the ideals that God governs in the affairs of men.." We do misunderstand them, it is true, but they were strict in their home life. I wish that today in the world we had more of the iron men like Cromwell, Admiral Coligny, and Governor Bradford of Plymouth Colony. ¶

American Ideals Corrupted

One of the great wrongs going on in America to-day is the idea held by millions of people that they have the right to enjoy the things of life which they have never earned. It is a form of dishonesty that is corrupting the youth of to-day, it has already corrupted millions. It has produced an aversion to hard work. Idleness and the love of pleasure have taken away many of our American ideals given to us by the fathers of this nation. The hate of man for man has grown in this country as it has grown in the lands across the seas. These forces have torn down religious ideals, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord finds little lodgment in the hearts of men. Our civilization is suffering from a breakdown in character because our teachings have not had a sufficient effect on the actions and lives of individuals. We speak of reforms, ¶

Human nature can only be reformed by a strengthening of prophetic religion. A new day for social betterment can come only through the revelations of God to his people -- the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ. Benjamin Franklin warned us in the Constitutional convention at the very birth of this nation that our government will end in despotism if the people become corrupt. This nation must turn back to God. ¶

Honor Done to C. E. Dallin

I should like to tell you about a lovely thing that happened in Boston two weeks ago to-morrow. It concerns the unveiling of the "Paul Revere monument," created for the city of Boston by our well known sculptor, Cyrus E. Dallin. The monument was inspired by the poem of Longfellow's which runs: "Listen, my children and you shall hear of the mid-night ride of Paul Revere." In 1884 Dallin entered his model in competition with ten other sculptors, the country's foremost. He won over men like Andrew O'Conner and Daniel Chester French. Dallin was told by the committee to execute his statue and it would stand in Copley Square. Then a sculptor named Trueman H. Bartlett wrote to the Boston Transcript: "It is the most outrageous piece of effrontery and lack of intelligence on the committee's part to have selected that model -- a model of an impossible man on an impossible horse --." These words had their effect, and the appropriation promised was never made. Dallin sought at intervals for fifty-five years to induce various mayors to appropriate funds for the statue, and a few years ago, he appealed to the Legislature of the State of Massachusetts, also without success. Several months ago, he presented his case to the five trustees of the George Robert White fund, who have the income of some $6,000,000 at their disposal for the erection of works of art. An appropriation was made for the statue and Dallin came into his own. The wrong done over half a century ago to a struggling art student of 23 was righted. There are compensations in life for long waiting when ideals are at stake. ¶

The statue stands in the north end of Boston near Paul Revere's old home and on the mall near the old North Church, from the tower of which hung the lanterns on the night of the nineteenth of April, 1775. ¶

I was present at the unveiling of the monument and heard Mayor Tobin of Boston say: "This day, I have the honor in behalf of the city of Boston to right a wrong that was done over a half a century ago.... I have the honor of introducing to you Mr. Cyrus E. Dallin, the sculptor of this beautiful statue." Mr Dallin arose, bowed to the crowd and sat down again. He had won at last and his noble heart was filled with gladness. ¶

Dallin's "Massasoit" the Indian who made peace with the Pilgrim Fathers, stands overlooking the sea at Plymouth Rock, and his "Appeal to the Great Spirit" stands in front of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. What, pride we all have in the beautiful Angel on the cap-stone of our Temple here, which was also made by Dallin. It is possibly his masterpiece. Dallin's story of how he came to make the statue at the request of President Wilford Woodruff is one of the loveliest things I ever heard. ¶

An Appeal for Loyalty to the Constitution

That Sabbath day after the dedicatory exercises of the monument of Paul Revere, an old priest stood before hundreds of Italians in the old church near by and spoke on the "God-given Constitution of the United States." It did my heart good to see those alien people pay deference to our flag and to Paul Revere. Herein is a lesson. You Italians, you Germans, and French, you Scandinavians and all other foreigners who have joined the Church and come to America have found freedom and liberty as you have never known before, and you may rest assured that this is a country blessed of God, and its Constitution was written by men who were God-inspired. Be true to your country and its Constitution which is for all time, for never can anything better take its place. The ideal of America was stated by President Grover Cleveland in! Philadelphia at the centennial exercises in honor of the drafting of the Constitution in 1887. Said President Cleveland: "When we look down one hundred years and see the origin of our Constitution, when we contemplate all its trials and triumphs, when we realize how completely the principles upon which it is based have met every national need and every national peril, how devoutly should we say with Franklin, 'God governs in the affairs of men,' and how solemn should be the thought that to us is delivered this ark of the people's covenant and to us sealed with the test of a century. It has been found sufficient in the past, and it will be found sufficient in all the years to come, if American people are true to their sacred trust. Another centennial day will come, and millions yet unborn will inquire concerning our stewardship and the safety of the Constitution. God grant they may find it unimpaired; and as we rejoice to-day in the patriotism and devotion of those who lived one hundred years ago, so may those who follow us rejoice in our fidelity and love for Constitutional liberty." ¶

Faith Overcomes Fear

My brethren and sisters, let us grow in faith; that faith which will regenerate our lives completely. If we have the enlarged faith in the living God that was taught us by the Master, nothing can hurt us. Do you recall the story of the three men who were thrown into the fiery furnace because they would not bow down to the golden image erected by Nebuchadnezzar and give up their knowledge of the Living God? The Jews were in the furnace of affliction, but they were not afraid. When the three men -- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood before the priests of Babylon, they answered: "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; but if it be not according to His plan, be it still known unto thee, O king, that we will not worship thy gods nor the golden image. ¶

"And the fire had no power upon their bodies, nor was the hair of their head singed, nor had the smell of fire passed upon them, for there was with them in the furnace a fourth whose aspect was like unto the Son of God." ¶

What a lesson for the martyrs of the day in which we live! ¶

I pray for the blessings of God upon us all, that we may be unto all people a light and life and a help in this darkened world, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶