My Dear Brethren I Have Hardly Had...

My dear brethren, I have hardly had time to collect my wits, let alone my thoughts and notes, since President McKay called me this afternoon, to talk on the subject, "How to Improve the Reverence and Order in the Chapels of our Stakes." I believe that obedience is one of the first principles of the Gospel and that reverence is the very soul of Christianity. I revere our President, and I pray that I may have the courage to always follow his counsel, to sustain him and the General Authorities of the Church, and to follow their counsel. Such obedience, it seems to me, is the real essence of reverence. ¶

A month or so ago, President and Sister McKay attended a Pioneer League ball game at Ogden, and my heart filled with pride when the activity on the field stopped and the three thousand people present arose to their feet when the President and his dear wife entered the stadium. Honor and respect, my brethren, are elements of reverence. ¶

The Priesthood offices which we hold deserve our own personal respect and honor and the respect in which we hold them, I am sure, is a measure of our reverence. ¶

Our Priesthood is undoubtedly God's greatest gift to his children. Three reasons prompt that statement. First, we who hold the Priesthood are officers in his Kingdom; we are in training; and greater responsibilities lie ahead. Only one and one-half million out of two billion children — our Father's children — now gracing the earth, are presently enrolled in his Kingdom and since it is destined to cover the earth, the weight of our responsibilities is not only apparent but staggering. May the training we are now experiencing fit us for our tasks. ¶

Secondly, offices in the Priesthood are accompanied by a power that is beyond our present ability to appreciate. It may be likened to electrical energy. Vocationally I have been selling electricity for years, yet I've never seen it and I don't know what it is, but I do know some of the things it can accomplish and I'm sure additional uses will be discovered. The power of the Priesthood is similar to electrical power in that it, too, cannot be seen. And again, we do not know what it is, yet we are aware of many miraculous things resulting from its use. We have seen the sick healed; we know the dead have been raised; and we have been told that by the power of the Priesthood worlds without number were created. As officers in God's Kingdom, we have access to this power, and as we progress in our training we shall become aware of many other applications of this marvelous power. ¶

Lastly, if we are faithful to our Priesthood and magnify our callings, we may be sanctified, so we are told, by the spirit unto the renewing of our bodies, and all that our Father has may be ours. ¶

Now brethren, can you think of a greater gift? May I repeat, our Priesthood deserves honor and demands our greatest respect. These constitute the essence of reverence. ¶

My objective is not to philosophize on this subject of reverence. I have been asked to tell you what a stake president can do to promote and increase reverence in his stake. In my stake we have asked our stake Primary Board to introduce and spearhead an activity which they accepted at the last General Primary Conference. They have prepared a little dramatic skit involving the reverence theme which will interest any age group. It was presented to our stake executives in our monthly stake leadership meeting where Sunday School, M.I.A., Primary and other stake officers were in attendance. It was also presented in our monthly Priesthood Leadership Meeting where bishoprics, presidencies of elders, seventies and high priest quorums were in attendance. We have requested that it be presented in Ward Leadership Meetings and to groups of parents, invited by our bishops for the express purpose of discussing the problem of reverence. I commend it to you stake presidents with a suggestion that you have your stake Primary Boards, to whom the skit has been made available by the General Board, present it to leaders in your respective stakes. Witnessing the skit will create more interest and be more helpful than anything I might say tonight on the reverence subject. ¶

The conduct as well as attitudes of leaders in the stakes and wards too frequently promote irreverence. We teach by example as well as precept, and the first step in solving the reverence problem, or any other problem for that matter, is a frank recognition that the problem actually exists. ¶

The earliest training in discipline belongs in the home, but since parents generally neglect teaching the Gospel in their homes, it is reasonable to suspect that training in reverence is similarly neglected. The problem accordingly has fallen into the laps of Church leaders and teachers and we are obliged to make up for this parental neglect in order to enjoy reverence in our meetings or gatherings. ¶

Recently I observed a bishopric in action. Five minutes before Sacrament Meeting was scheduled to begin, I sat alone on the stand; the bishopric were greeting people at the door. When it was time to begin the meeting, they came to the stand, conferred among themselves, then signaled the organist to stop playing and then the meeting began, tardily. Notwithstanding the lovely preliminary music, there was disorder. Conversation was rampant, until the bishop arose to start the service. ¶

It seems to me that order or reverence might well begin with the leaders. Bishoprics should be counseled to be reverently in their place during the quieting music. How can they expect others to refrain from talking when they are conferring among themselves? In the Primary skit, to which I have made reference, teachers were observed coming to meeting late, as well as unprepared. They were shown in a huddle determining who would conduct, who would lead the singing, what song to sing, who would teach a class and who was to pray. ¶

Preparation, my brethren, is a key to reverence. Promptness in beginning meetings begets respect, and discipline is born of respect. ¶

One of my bishops, a while ago, visited a Primary meeting. He arrived before the teachers and he found children dancing on a grand piano; others climbing out of chapel windows. He angrily forbade his Primary to hold subsequent meetings in the lovely chapel. Later he did relent upon promise of the president to have at least one officer of the Primary there early to supervise the children as they arrived. We want our children to enjoy the environment of our lovely chapels. Beautiful surroundings — lovely class rooms — promote reverence. ¶

A new Primary president once came to me and said, "Our janitor at the chapel refuses to let children enter the building until the exact starting time of our meetings because the children run wild and deface the furnishings. He is rough; has an iron hook in place of a missing hand and has scared children away from Primary." What had really happened was obvious. Primary officers and teachers were arriving later than the children. There was no supervision and I discovered that children had actually been kept out in rain and snow until teachers arrived. This problem again was easily remedied by the simple assignment of one teacher to be on hand when children arrived with further instructions to stay on guard while other teachers were enjoying an early prayer meeting. ¶

When did you bishops last attend a Primary meeting, or an M.I.A. meeting? Some of you saw the film here last evening. You witnessed the interest the Aaronic Priesthood advisors had in the boys, how they labored with them, talked to them, and visited in their homes. When all of our leaders exhibit the same love and interest in the membership of their groups, discipline or reverence will no longer be a problem. ¶

Executives in all of our organizations can well afford to hold preliminary prayer meetings, in which arrangements for teachers and all other business of the meeting to follow can be checked. Teachers should never absent themselves from classes without providing substitute teachers and they should always remember that they are teaching children rather than lessons. ¶

Recently I visited an elders quorum meeting. The teacher passed the lesson manual around, inviting members to read sections of the lesson. I detected a spirit of irreverence. Obviously the class resented the procedure; some were reluctant to read, preferring, I am sure, to be taught by the teacher. He, obviously, was unprepared. Unpreparedness on the part of a teacher may well be a contributing factor to a state of irreverence. ¶

Now a word about younger children in sacrament meetings. Bishops, you have the responsibility of tactfully advising parents not to let their children run up and down aisles. This practice distracts attention and also disturbs speakers. Members have been frank enough to tell me that they dislike to go to meetings. "Too many noisy children," one said. Many of our chapels now have cry rooms. Parents with noisy children should be tactfully counseled to use them. ¶

Some of us may presently be occupying new chapels. There is no better time to initiate a program of reverence. The building is new, beautiful, and one has a natural desire to respect it as a House of the Lord. Years ago, I attended a sacrament meeting in a new chapel in Brigham City. My host said to me, as we were about to enter, "Please don't whisper during the service, otherwise one of the appointed monitors, seated in the rear, may observe and will surely come down and tap you on the shoulder. Let's not be humiliated." You may be assured I did not whisper. ¶

Now brethren, let us, too, be firm in this matter of reverence. Our approach should be firm, sincere, and of course tactful. Irreverence may actually be keeping some of our members from our meetings. ¶

Our stake Primary Board made a survey at the request of the General Board, to find out what children liked or disliked about Primary. One of the questions asked was, "How could my teacher make Primary better?" Many of the children answered, "Keep order in the class." Another question was, "What do you like least about Primary?" One child's answer summed up the many, "Disorder — especially when the teacher doesn't come." The survey clearly indicated that children want to be disciplined. The kind of teachers they like are good ones, strict ones, those who can give a good lesson, those who can keep the class quiet, the kind ones, etc. Surveys of this kind can be revealing. To questions that may involve embarrassment, adults are inclined to be evasive; children will speak truthfully, as well as eagerly. We discovered that in another children's survey several years ago. We asked, "How many of you have family prayers in your homes?" The truthful answers were startling, to say the least. We learned some things about the habits of a few of our leaders. ¶

In conclusion, let me inject one other very good reason for the most profound reverence possible in our sacred gatherings, namely, to avoid offense to our unseen visitors. There have been times when I have been conducting stake conferences that I thought I felt the presence of unseen visitors. We always request the help of our Heavenly Father in our opening prayers. Why then is it unreasonable to fancy the presence of that requested help? Isn't it reasonable also to expect that authorities on the unseen side of our Father's Kingdom are interested in what we may be doing? ¶

General Authorities come to our stake conferences to help and check on us; stake authorities go into the wards to help and check; and I fancy that some of our Father's other authorities, likewise come occasionally, to inspire and to check. And for their sakes, we ought to be profoundly reverent. ¶

Stake presidents and bishops cannot escape the responsibility of promoting reverence in our respective stakes and wards. Responsibility may be delegated but in the delegation presidents and bishops lose none of it, yet those so delegated receive it all. It's like "eating our cake and having it." That, however, is the peculiar nature of responsibility. ¶

I found an excellent reverence application in this story told by a Primary teacher. "Rupert stood by the side of the road watching an unusual number of people hurry past. At length he recognized a friend. 'Where are all of you going in such a hurry?' he asked. The friend paused, 'Haven't you heard?' he said. 'I've heard nothing,' Rupert answered. 'Well,' continued his friend, 'the King has lost his royal emerald! Yesterday he attended a wedding of the nobility and wore the emerald on the slender golden chain around his neck. In some way the emerald became loosened from the chain. Everyone is searching, for the King has offered a reward of ten pieces of gold to the one who finds it. Come, we must hurry.' 'But I cannot go without asking grandmother,' faltered Rupert. 'Then I cannot wait. I want to find the emerald,' replied his friend. Rupert hurried back to the cabin at the edge of the woods to seek his grandmother's permission. 'If I could find it we could leave this hut with its dampness and buy a piece of land up on the hillside,' he pleaded with grandmother. But his grandmother shook her head. 'What would the sheep do,' she asked. 'Already they are restless in the pen, waiting to be taken to the pasture and please do not forget to take them to water when the sun shines high in the heavens.' Sorrowfully, Rupert took the sheep to the pasture and at noon he led them to the brook in the woods. There he sat on a large stone by the stream. 'If I could only have had a chance to look for the King's emerald!' he thought. Turning his head to gaze down at the sandy bottom of the brook, suddenly he stared into the water. What was it? It could not be! He leaped into the water, and his gripping fingers held something that was green with a slender bit of gold chain. 'The King's emerald!' he shouted. It must have been flung from the chain when the King was crossing the bridge, on the highway, and the water washed it here. With shining eyes Rupert ran to his grandmother's hut to tell her of his great find. 'Bless you, my boy,' she said, 'but you never would have found it if you had not been doing your duty, herding the sheep.' And Rupert knew that this was the truth." ¶

Brethren, we too, will never find the reverence we seek unless we do our duty. May our Heavenly Father help us to do our duty in this respect, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶