The present favorable opportunity affords us a proper occasion for
gratitude, and to think of and listen to those principles which
pertain to our salvation, to our improvement, and our advancement in
the knowledge of the truth as it has been revealed to us in this last
dispensation.
The earnest and cordial exhortation which we have just listened to is
one that appears to me very appropriate and highly important for all
faithful Saints to consider. All matters which affect the interest and
well-being of the rising generation are to us of the deepest
importance. As we hope for the rising glory and the triumph of the
Kingdom of God in the earth, so should we labor to educate our
children correctly in the fear of God, and in the principles of the
everlasting Gospel. For it is righteousness that exalteth a nation,
while sin is a reproach to any people. The Lord our God will make His
deliverance manifest, and the exercise of His power, less or more to
His people in proportion as His people incline less or more to draw
near to Him, and to learn His holy will.
If the Saints would make it their first and leading purpose in all the
labors and duties of their lives to draw near to God, to sanctify
themselves, sanctify their inheritance, their families, their
habitations, their houses and lands, their flocks and herds; if every
man in Israel who is the head of a family, and the possessor of
property, made it his business to sanctify himself, and all that he
has influence over unto the service of God and the building up of His
Kingdom, making that the leading matter of his life, we should find
ourselves progressing much more rapidly in the way of righteousness
and power of truth before the Lord.
We are making advancement by the directions of the Priesthood
in building Temples; we are making advancement continually as God
gives us increase by the multiplication of our numbers in the land,
all legislation concerning us to the contrary notwithstanding. The
Lord is not only multiplying and increasing us numerically in the
earth, but He has put us in possession of principles of life, power
and increase, which the world know nothing of, and which they despise,
which they waste and destroy to the ruin of their souls. He is giving
to us these blessings right along with the revolving seasons, with the
revolutions of the earth. Every day, every night, every week, every
month and every year witnesses increased advancement in some
direction; and if we can but make the improvement that we ought to do
in our own generation; if our fathers and our mothers can make the
improvement which they ought to do, and which they have in their power
to do in their generation, this people can become not only a great and
mighty people in number, but a vastly greater and more mighty people
than the same numbers in any other part of the earth, and the favor of
God—which we see and know already is turned toward us—will increase
upon us, and His blessings multiply upon us with a greater fruition
than ever before.
We are approaching the completion of a Temple. When I think of Logan
and Cache County, I realize that you are blessed almost beyond your
brethren and sisters in other Stakes of the Territory. You have a
tabernacle here, second to none as a place of worship for the Saints
of this Stake. You are supplied with other public buildings that place
you in a good, comfortable position, such as a splendid courthouse,
and a good, substantial college building, and you are in a position,
as a people, by means of that college, to enjoy all the general
benefits of a liberal and classical education and of knowledge that
may be imparted unto you, not only in the laws and ordinances of the
Church and the Kingdom of God particularly, especially and
pre-eminently, but also in the arts as well as the sciences. You
certainly occupy a very excellent position. But this is no reason why
you should slacken your efforts. On the contrary, this prosperity
should induce you to increase your diligence in all good things. For
you know very well—you see and have the experience right among you—you
have the contending elements striving to bring in drunkenness and
iniquity in your midst. This of course we have to put up with when we
take it as from the world and the ungodly, on the common ground of our
warfare to contend against those powers in high places; but when it
comes from those who profess to be brethren, when they undertake to
insist and push and crowd these things to the destruction of the souls
of their brethren, this seems sometimes to us more than we should be
required to bear, unless it be required of us from God. When brethren
will undertake to thus sow affliction, destruction and death among
their brethren, I do not know how long we shall have to put up with
it, and be silent. Our enemies we can bear. Like as one said of old:
"It was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it:
neither was it he that hateth me that did magnify himself against me;
then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine
equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel
together, and walked unto the house of God in company." Well, it seems
a good deal the same way, when we see men who are Elders in Israel,
partakers of the holy, High Priesthood, striving to urge the sale of
liquors, and to promote drunkenness in our midst. It seems
intolerable. How long shall we continue to bestow the fellowship and
patronage of the brotherhood in promotion of these evils? I would
exhort the brethren to be reminded, however, that there is one remedy,
one way that we can ward off this mischief from being extended and
promulgated among us; it is to let it alone and stay from those
places. Although there may be grog shops, and billiard saloons in your
midst, contrary to your wishes and contrary to your feelings, and
which you would prefer might never exist among you—they have the
liberty, they have not the right—still we have the reserved right to
let them alone; we need not patronize them, nor partake of their
poisonous draughts, nor gamble in any of their saloons. We are not
obliged to get down into their low-lived habits. Although we may have
to put up with these things in the sight of our eyes and the hearing
of our ears, and have the peace of our streets perhaps disturbed by
the cries of the drunken, and by the noise of the lewd, yet we are not
obliged to partake of them. And this is one of the reasons why the
exhortation of Elder Teasdale is so appropriate and timely; you want
your children educated in that way, that when they are grown up they
will abhor these places, and touch not, taste not, nor handle the
unclean thing. And we ourselves want to work against the appetites
which are inbred in many of us. I am not asleep to, nor unaware of the
fact that many of us coming from the world have brought with us a deep
craving for spirituous liquors, and for other things which are not
good for us, but which we may have dabbled in to gratify a wicked
appetite. Parents afflicted with these propensities ought to take
warning not to breed them into the natures of their children, and if
possibly they have done so, to use diligence to preserve them from
being thrown in the way of temptation until they come to years of
understanding, judgment and firmness of purpose, which will enable
them to practice self-denial, and live as men of God. These are
matters that need to be looked after. They are features in the society
of the Saints which ought to be considered, and no less but more
because you are here, as it were, under the very shadow of the Temple;
and are the people who have so abundantly contributed to the
construction of this house; they want now to preserve themselves in
purity before God, that they may be counted worthy to enter within its
walls, and there receive all the blessings which are to be bestowed
upon the just. We need this. It is a sentiment that should pervade all
the authorities of the Church from the First Presidency down to the
President of your Stake, the High Councilors and the Bishops of your
Wards, and all the lesser priesthood—all should be inbred with this
feeling.
We have had a time of peace, a time of great prosperity, a time when
the Lord has so far preserved to us our local government and our
rights here in the land. He having thus manifested His kindness to us,
in this way, we ought to draw nearer to Him, and seek to establish the
righteousness of God on the earth. I would, therefore, this morning,
remind every Elder, Priest, Teacher, and Seventy, that they
are called to be preachers of righteousness. Brethren, every one of you
are called to be preachers of righteousness as much as I am, as much
as President Taylor, or any other man in Israel. Everyone who has
partaken of the Priesthood has covenanted to be a preacher of
righteousness, preachers by practice as well as by precept—in your own
families among your children, among your neighbors, among your
friends, and all around—and if everyone is thus magnifying his
calling, behold! Here is the people of God, and the fear of God is
upon that people, and the blessings of God cannot be stayed from them,
and they will know the right way, and walk in it.
The Temple has proceeded very nicely. It is very gratifying to me, as
a member of the Temple Committee, to observe how the work has
advanced, and to hear Superintendent Card say that in about three or
four months, with the ability to use certain necessary means, the
building will be completed. What a joyful time we have arrived at! Yet
here is a little matter of means that needs to be attended to, to
complete the Temple and to pay some liabilities that have been
incurred, necessarily, in its erection. The Superintendent has
endeavored to progress with this work and keep out of debt; but one
thing and another has come along so much faster than means have come
into his hands, that he has got a little behind. That, however, is a
very small matter. If the Presidents of Quorums would arise and say to
the Elders, "Let us wake up and pay a dollar a head for the finishing
off of the Temple," in three months not only will the Temple be
finished, but every dollar of debt will be paid; and the Temple could
be ready to be dedicated next quarterly conference, if the First
Presidency were so minded. It is but a trifling matter, yet it is a
matter of sufficient importance to delay the dedication of the Temple
until it is entirely paid for, so that we can offer an acceptable
offering unto the Lord. We trust and pray that God may be pleased to
make manifest a gracious acceptance of this offering, and that the
blessings of heaven may rest down upon His people.
I rejoice greatly in the glorious latter-day work that has been
commenced, and that is being extended on every hand. The Gospel is
being spread among the nations of the earth, among the islands of the
sea, and among the Lamanites, the remnants of the house of Ephraim,
here upon this land. Ephraim and Mannasseh, a multitude of nations in
the midst of the earth, are reaching out after the house of the Lord,
and are seeking counsel at the lips of the servants of God. The glad
tidings have not only gone to the Sandwich Islands, but also to New
Zealand. The aborigines of that country have taken hold, and we learn
that something over one hundred of that fraction of their race have
engaged in the work of the Lord. And not only so, but the inhabitants
of the eastern countries are being wrought upon by the hand of God,
and Judah is being turned toward Jerusalem. The reports are that many
thousands of Jews have been gathered to the land of Judea, and regions
round about, within the last twelve months. Well, the Lord is at work
in all these matters, and we ought to realize that we are but an item,
as it were, in the great work that is being carried on.
There is a great deal that I sometimes feel I would like to say, but at this time I do not feel to occupy your time any longer.
I pray that an earnest spirit of improvement and purification among
parents, among children, among households, among members of Wards and
Stakes, may take possession of the presiding authorities of the
laboring Priesthood, and that they may put away iniquity, and all
manner of unrighteousness, and become more and more acceptable in the
sight of the Lord. Then we shall be more and more ready to do anything
that the Lord would have us do in the interests of His Kingdom. We
must remember that the strength of the Lord's people does not consist
in their numbers; for times have been, and may be again, when they
that are with us may be too many. It will be found—if you search
carefully among us as a people—that you are carrying a great many
people and their sins, and if you don't shake them off they will lead
you down, you will be partakers of their sins, and you will have to
answer for them. It is necessary that the Bishops—more especially
those who have not had experience—learn cor rect principles of
government—how to build up their Wards in righteousness and in the
power of God. And this feeling and influence should be carried into
every habitation of the Saints; because where there is righteousness
and faith there is the favor and blessing of God; and when the sick
are among you and you have this faith, you can call down the blessings
of God upon them, and if you don't, and remain careless, then you will
find that you have not the power to take hold of and receive those
blessings. We want so to live day by day, that whatever affliction may
overtake us, we may be prepared for the worst as well as for the best.
May the Lord help us to draw near unto Him, nearer than we have ever
done before; that we may be able to go into His presence and realize
the association of angels, and that we may realize all those blessings
which He has in His hands ready to bestow upon us as fast as we will
put ourselves in a position to receive them; this is my prayer and
desire and labor in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
- Franklin D. Richards