Righteous Wrath

IN the public press appeared a statement recently from an official of our Navy that we are losing this war and that we do not know it. ¶

If I express, therefore, some rather intense feelings at this trying and terrible time of unprecedented war and bloodshed, I hope I may be forgiven. If I say some things that seem to be critical, I hope you who listen will be good enough to look upon my assertions with charity and regard them merely as suggestions. ¶

A good many years ago my beloved friend, the late Henry van Dyke, put into my hands one of his poems entitled "Righteous Wrath." ¶

This poem reads: There are many kinds of hatred, as many kinds of fire; And some are fierce and fatal with murderous desire; And some are mean and craven, revengeful, sullen, slow, They hurt the man that holds them more than they hurt his foe. ¶

And yet there is a hatred that purifies the heart: The anger of the better against the baser part, Against the false, the wicked, against the tyrant's sword, Against the enemies of love, and all that hate the Lord. ¶

O cleansing indignation, O flame of righteous wrath, Give me a soul to feel thee and follow in thy path! ¶

Save me from selfish virtue, arm me for fearless fight, And give me strength to carry on, a soldier of the Right! ¶

On a large poster in the Strater Hotel of Durango, Colorado, I read recently these words: "We consider peace a catastrophe for human civilization." — Mussolini "We shall soon have our storm troopers in America." — Hitler "I am looking forward to dictating peace to the United States in the White House in Washington." — Admiral Yamamoto How Unlike Christianity ¶

How unlike the Christian teaching, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," or the spirit of the immortal Lincoln who "with malice toward none and charity for all" undertook to settle those great issues for which thousands had struggled on the battlefield. ¶

And under each of those quotations in the Strater Hotel is the statement, "What do you say, America?" And that is the question I ask you citizens of the United States: What do you say? ¶

As an American citizen I say these statements fill me with that "righteous wrath" of which Henry van Dyke speaks. But with deliberation let us examine some of the conditions in our country today. ¶

The Matter of Repeal ¶

During the years 1932 and 1933, the people of our nation voted to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and to repeal also all our prohibition laws. Will I be unpatriotic if I say to you that this action filled me with "righteous wrath"? The people did not then nor will they ever repeal that law of nature which makes alcohol a poison. Nor did the people then nor will they ever repeal that law of God which says, "Strong drinks are not good for man." ¶

In those days the strategy of many of our political leaders seemed to be that we could drink ourselves into sobriety. Ask the mothers and the widows and the fatherless children of the three thousand whose lives were lost at Pearl Harbor December 7th if that strategy was correct. Many of those three thousand, as I have been told by soldiers who were there, were killed by our own bombs because of the inefficiency of our own men, which inefficiency was due to the use of alcoholic beverages. Are the leaders of our nation and those at the head of our armed forces today proceeding on the theory that we can drink ourselves into victory? Alcohol and war will not mix any more successfully than do alcohol and gasoline. Ask the loved ones of those thousands who have lost their lives on our highways because of the use of liquor what they think of mixing alcohol and gasoline. ¶

The Word of God ¶

Latter-day Saints believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. This sacred record of recently revealed truth tells us that the Lord Himself has prepared this land of America as a land choice above all other lands, and that inasmuch as the people on this land keep the commandments of the Lord they shall prosper. (I Nephi 2:20) This land, the divine record says, has been provided for a righteous people. (Ether 2:7) and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, free from captivity and free from all other nations under heaven on condition that the people will but serve the God of this land who is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (Ether 2:12) ¶

These stirring promises of the Almighty are to be effective for the inhabitants of this land only if the inhabitants are a righteous people. This land, the revealed word says, has been prepared and preserved by the Lord Himself (Ether 2:7) and that whoso should possess it "henceforth and forever" must serve the true and living God or they will be "swept away" when they are "ripened in iniquity." (Ether 2:9) Let me ask, are we serving the true and the living God or are we ripening in iniquity? ¶

Immorality and Our Armed Forces ¶

More of the men in our armed forces, it has been said, are rendered unfit to fight because of venereal diseases than from all other causes put together. And it is said also that for seventy-seven days after December 7 prohibition was in force at Pearl Harbor. During the next thirty days after prohibition was discontinued by military order, the number of arrests for drunkenness at Pearl Harbor was more than six times the average during the seventy-seven days of prohibition. ¶

When I think of Pearl Harbor and the American lives which that disaster cost, I am filled to overflowing with that "righteous wrath" of which I have spoken. Let me say with J. Frank Hanley, I bear no malice toward those engaged in the liquor business, much less toward those young men who, in society, by example or otherwise have been taught to drink, but I do hate the liquor traffic. I hate it as virtue hates vice, as truth hates error, as righteousness hates sin, as justice hates wrong, as liberty hates tyranny, as freedom hates oppression. I hate it for its intolerance. I hate it for its hypocrisy. I hate it for its commercialism, for its greed and for its avarice and for its sordid love of gain at any price. I hate it for its domination of politics; I hate it for its corrupting influence in civic affairs and for the cowards it makes of public men. I hate it for the load it straps on the back of labor and for the wounds it gives to genius. I hate it for the multitudes of human wrecks it has made of men of outstanding ability and promise, for the prisons it has filled, for the insanity that it begets and for the countless graves it has made in potter's fields. I hate it for the mental ruin which it imposes upon its victims and for its moral degradation. I hate it for the crimes that it commits, for the homes that it destroys, and for the hearts that it breaks. I hate it for the grief it causes womanhood, for the scalding tears of women, for their hopes deferred, for their strangled aspirations, for the burden of want and care which liquor heaps upon them. I hate it for its heartless cruelty to the aged, the infirm, and the helpless. I hate it for the shadow it throws upon the lives of children, for its monstrous injustice to multitudes of the blameless little ones. "I hate it," concludes Frank Hanley, "as Abraham Lincoln hated slavery. . . . And I sometimes seem to see the end of this unholy traffic, the coming of the time when, if it does not wholly cease to be, it shall find no safe habitation anywhere beneath Old Glory's stainless stars." ¶

"On Fire for God and for Right" ¶

The great "Flying Squadron" that visited every state in the Union, all of the states' capitals and many of the other important cities of our country in the latter part of 1914 and the beginning of 1915, delivered stirring addresses in two hundred fifty-five cities in two hundred thirty-five days. These addresses were heard by a million people, it is said. Their slogan was, "We stand for the abolition of the liquor traffic. On this issue we fight. Whenever a politician or an executive officer or a political party prefers the liquor traffic above the public morals, such men must be set aside and such parties abandoned. To the accomplishment of this high purpose," they said, "we dedicate ourselves." ¶

This group of sixteen speakers of commanding eloquence and personal force were all "on fire for God and for the right." The name of President Heber J. Grant might very appropriately be added to this list of distinguished prohibitionists, for he and these other unselfish and effective workers gripped the hearts of thousands of the young and of the old throughout the country and gave to their hearers a clearer and a bigger vision of true Christian citizenship. ¶

We have now unsheathed the sword of the United States of America, and we have carried into this great world conflict "the only flag in all the world that has never known defeat." To complete the mighty task to which we have set our hands, to make the future better than the past, to create a better world in which to live, "America needs every man at his best." Daniel A. Poling says that whatever makes for physical incompetency is an enemy of the state. He says a moral incompetent cannot be a good citizen, an industrial incompetent cannot be a good citizen, a political incompetent cannot be a good citizen, and he adds that the liquor institution is the supreme tangible foe of the state because it is the supreme positive promoter of physical, moral, industrial, and political incompetency. He says, "Millions of citizens, men and women, immediately vital to the national and world program of this republic cannot be at their best until the liquor institution and the evils connected with it are destroyed." Alcohol was once regarded as a food, later as a stimulant. All scientists agree today that alcohol is a narcotic. Its. effects upon the human system are the same as those of ether and chloroform. Alcohol, a poison, is the greatest physical menace of the human race. Who would care to converse even with his best and most intimate friend if that friend were drunk or even tipsy. ¶

Another Drink of Whiskey ¶

The only thing that a drink of whiskey ever suggests is another drink of whiskey. Whiskey never suggested to a drunkard that he buy shoes for his children or furniture for his house, but it has suggested to creatures, once men, that they take the shoes from the feet of their babies, the furniture from their scantily supplied house to buy more whiskey. ¶

Prohibition is patriotic because it has proved itself to be a true friend of labor and a true friend of capital. Rome did not die for lack of college and public games, for the want of culture and refined society, or because she had no army or no navy. Rome died when she rotted at the heart. Rome committed moral and political suicide. Said Poling: I fear no yellow peril, I fear no foe that may embark from a foreign shore to do us hurt. I fear only the foe from within, this shackler of bodies, this impoverisher of industry, this moral despoiler, this corrupter of government which is called alcohol. ¶

And may we ever remember the sad lesson our country has learned that statutory legislation and constitutional amendments are helpless in the hands of unfriendly and indifferent political administrations. To our sorrow we have learned that prohibitory law is not an automatic machine. A tool must be used. An ax calls for a man to wield it. Prohibition demands an administration that will enforce it. ¶

Prohibition Laws Not Automatic ¶

Duty and patriotism today demand that by legislation or otherwise we do something to protect against themselves our fine and innocent young men, especially those who are serving as soldiers of our country. When in a doctor's office the father of a young man was informed that his son had a venereal disease, the father let loose his uncontrollable temper and berated the boy because of the boy's condition. Soon, however, the tables were turned, according to the doctor's story, so that the father was seated, and the boy was standing. It was then clearly evident that all the temper in the family was not in the father. ¶

"Who is to blame for my condition?" shouted the boy. "You are old and I am young. You knew and I did not. You had the information and I was in ignorance. You are the father and I am the son. Why didn't you teach me, why didn't you warn me, why didn't you protect me! I didn't know there was such a thing in the world as this disease. You are the one," shouted the boy, "that is responsible for my condition." No nation can endure indefinitely with a manhood afflicted with venereal disease and the liquor habit. The great need of our country is spiritual awakening. While our motto is, "In God We Trust," yet as Babson says, World Wars I and II have come about because the leading nations during the last fifty years have been trying to get along without God. If this war is to be fought to a finish it will end only when we repent of our sins, readjust our wasteful standards of living, and once more make God the Eternal Father the ruler of our homes, our schools, our businesses, and our nation. ¶

Have We Forgotten God? ¶

During our Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said the great difficulty with our country and our people was, "We had forgotten God." In a modern revelation to you and to me and to the people of this generation the Lord, speaking through the Prophet Joseph Smith, has said, "Behold, the world is ripening in iniquity; and it must needs be that the children of men are stirred up unto repentance." (D. & C. 18:6) Let us therefore as a nation return to church, let us partake worthily of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, let us come into closest possible communion and cooperation with God, the Eternal Father, and pray that freedom and liberty, that gift of God by us so highly prized, may come to all the people of all nations of the earth. And I pray humbly that we in this land, choice above all other lands, may be a righteous people who deserve the blessings the Almighty has promised to those who love Him and serve Him and keep His commandments, and I do this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶