Had Elder A Theodore Tuttle Been Clairvoyant...

Had Elder A. Theodore Tuttle been clairvoyant, he would have seen in the year 1914 a fourteen-and-a-half-year-old stripling entering the first seminary instituted by the Church. Across the street from Granite High School a building had been constructed — one room in size — a teacher employed, and the school opened to students. I was that stripling. ¶

There died yesterday the third teacher of that particular seminary. The teacher was John M. Whitaker. ¶

I should like to make a short tribute to Brother Whitaker. He likely did not know the profound influence he had upon me as a boy, as I studied minutely under him and Guy C. Wilson before him, the detail of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants. I look back upon it now, realizing that there was where I got my first detailed knowledge of these standard works. Could I have enough influence I would see to it that every boy and every girl in the Church had a like experience under a man of faith! ¶

There are other factors having to do with boys and girls. I should like to talk about one of those factors. ¶

I recognize that young people are faced with great stress and strain in these days. They are under great temptation. We accuse them of many things, and we think we know a lot of the answers which could keep them out of trouble. A recent great meeting in Washington, I am sure, found more answers. ¶

But the Church has had an answer from the beginning. To our first parents, after He had married them in the holy bonds of eternal matrimony, the Lord said, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." (Gen. 1:28.) In my opinion, what he did when he said that, was to place upon a father and mother the responsibility of educating their children and keeping them in the faith. Realizing there are other influences which can have effect upon them, theirs is the prime responsibility. ¶

This was later confirmed through the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith when he reminded the people in a revelation that ". . . inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost [which few parents undertake to teach their children], by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents." (D&C 68:25.) Now, I should like to offer some homely, practical suggestions. They have been said before many times, have been thought before many times, and anyone who has been a father has exercised them many times. I should just like to remind us of them. ¶

Do we want children to feel that the bishop of the ward is called of God? ¶

Then let us allow no note of impatience or disloyalty to enter into our voices as we mention his name. ¶

Do we want our children to learn spirituality? Then let us be spiritual. ¶

Do we want them to be able to learn the whispering of the Spirit and to hear it? Then let them see that decisions made by us in their behalf have been reached because we have heard that whispering. ¶

Do we want them to learn the use of money in the work of the Lord? Then let them participate with us in the tithes we pay and in the offerings we give. ¶

Do we want them to know that President McKay is the prophet, the seer, and the revelator, for our day? By our loyalty and repeated declaration of the fact, they can learn it best. ¶

Do we want children to grow up to be missionaries? The parental attitude on this service will be reflected in the preparation of the children. ¶

Do we want to teach them respect for the priesthood? Then let us give respect to its every bearer of authority, including the ward teachers. ¶

Do we want them to have unwavering respect for us, their parents? Then let us render unwavering respect for the eternal truths of the gospel, and for the men appointed to administer its teachings. ¶

These things consistently carried out by parents in the home, with others which they will think of as problems arise, will be the greatest factors that can be given in our day to preserve our children in faith. ¶

I add my testimony to those that have been borne as to the restoration of the gospel — that it has been restored through Joseph Smith the Prophet, and I bear witness that I know that President McKay is a prophet of the Living God, and I would that every child could know it. I would that everybody who ever influences a child could make ring in that child's ear what I learned in seminary from the mouth of John M. ¶

Whitaker, as each day at the end of each class he repeated to us his testimony, that he knew that (at that time) Joseph F. Smith was a prophet of the Living God; his voice following us out into the hall with the final statement, "And don't you boys and girls ever forget it!" ¶

That is my testimony. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶