Joseph Smith's First Vision

We first see him in the woods on the frontier of America praying as a child might pray and the Lord appearing to him. Using the words of the Psalmist, "Grace is poured into thy lips, therefore God hath blessed thee for ever more." ¶

Joseph Smith's First Vision

With the Father was Jesus the Savior. Joseph heard the voice of God and the divine words: "This is my Beloved Son." A new day was at hand. From that moment he was heart and mind to the word of the Lord. What a message for our missionaries of today! ¶

He learned that day that the divisions of Christendom are its most conspicuous reproach and the chief cause of its inefficiency. They present a moral affront to the enterprise inaugurated by Jesus Christ, and constitute the outstanding limitation of its progress. Christianity is weakened by its division in facing the problems of today, among which are class hatreds, race antagonisms, blindness to social justice, the lure of vicious literature, crime-instigating narcotics, and the spread of military spirit in the world. ¶

The supreme test of religion is revelation. No religion can be persuasive unless it relies on the principle of revelation. The living Church of Jesus Christ must be revelatory. One readily sees that the very lifeblood of the Church is the principle and potency of redemption. Christianity in its pure sense is the religion of redeemed ¶

personality. While all true men reveal God, the completest carrier of revelation can be no other than a chosen personality. ¶

The Message of the Restoration

By the power of the Holy Priesthood which he received from heaven, Joseph established our true relationship to God. Out of this grows the salvation of man -- his true immortal life. The nations all bear witness to the need of a light that is not of man. We can give our word to the world that the forces which are to make the world the world it ought to be are now within it. The Prophet Joseph Smith gave a new idea of the duty of man toward God; of man's duty to man in religion, politics, and society; of the duties of nations towards one another. His message was for the fireside, for we are taught that the gospel must be in the home; it is "pure religion breathing household laws." The father holds the priesthood of God; the mother is heir to the same influence of the priesthood. It brings the truest conception of home life, which lies at the root of civilization. Here are the children born and reared. Here are the teachings of faith expressed in prayer. Every child is taught faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye single to the glory of God. Reverence for God is the basis of morality. ¶

Joseph Smith's concept of government and law was divinely enlightened. Government was instituted by Almighty God, and the Constitution of the United States was written by men inspired of God to bring just civic life to the world, for there is a sacredness of citizenship which we all should know. It requires the faithful use of political rights. He saw the wrong of slavery and advocated that the government buy the slaves from their masters, and give them the opportunity to develop their own lives adapted to them. What a tragedy this could have averted. There must be a revival of civic pride in America, a keener respect for law and order. All the written laws in the world cannot bring back that fine old love of justice and the ways of God. There must be the spirit of consecration, of selfdiscipline, of devotion to the righteous teachings of God. Far back in the ages, Isaiah, six hundred years before the Savior of mankind came, wrote: "Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in." (Isaiah 26:2.) There is a conscience of nations as there is of individuals. We had once a national conscience, as expressed by the Puritans, Quakers, and the many other religious devotees who settled these shores. They knew moral integrity, moral purpose, moral restraint. ¶

, The Meaning of Civilization ¶

Our civic ethics, our social idealism should rest securely on what an eminent lord chief justice of England said: ¶

Civilization is not dominion; wealth, material luxury. Not a great literature and education, good though these things are. Its true signs are ¶

thoughtfulness for the poor and suffering, chivalrous regard and respect for woman, the frank recognition for human brotherhood, the doing away with war, the love of ordered freedom, abhorrence of what is mean and cruel, ceaseless devotion to the claims of justice. ¶

Yes, we need the old-fashioned ethics, "when it was taught that every man should give account of himself to god." ¶

The vision of the boy Prophet revealed two mighty truths: the reality of the spiritual life -- the divine life; and the divinity and sanctity of the human body. The proper knowledge of the the personality of God and of Jesus Christ gave foundation for the redemption of the world from sin. ¶

Body and Mind Closely Related

The connection between body and mind is a commonplace of thought with us, but it is not a commonplace of practice. The relation of mind and body is a very close one in which each affects the other for good or evil. We are more dependent on physical conditions for our happiness, and even for our goodness, than we perhaps like to admit. The keenest brain and the spirit of man need a foundation of physical health to do their best work. The treatment of the body must be put on a moral basis. Every act of intemperance of whatever sort, every sin against the.physical constitution, every wilful neglect of the laws of health and moral life, is injuring the self in ways too delicate to estimate, and is dimming the radiance of the soul. There is such a thing as physical morality. ¶

Beautifully has the Prophet depicted in the Doctrine and Covenants that God reigns in heaven and in earth. He is the rightful King of nations, and the source of supreme good to man. It is through forgetting God and forsaking him that spiritual and moral degradation and all the sorrows of this war-torn world result. It will be by mankind acting for God and responding to his call that a new age will come. More majestic are his words: "Man must be called of God to administer in his holy ordinances and to teach his eternal word." Must be called of God! Do we of the priesthood of the Lord deeply feel and deeply know what this means? "It administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God." "In the ordinances the power of Godliness is manifest." ¶

If the priesthood is a living reality in our lives, all thought and action will be regulated by our relation to God. Through a knowledge of God alone can human life assume its true destined significance. "All duties will become in the highest sense duties to God; morality will become holiness. ¶

The congregation arose and sang the hymn, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way," L.D.S. Hymns No. 50, Hymn Book No. 22. ¶