A Word with Young Men

A WORD WITH YOUNG MEN.

BY FRANKLIN D. RICHARDS, PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES.

[The following advice to young men is taken from a discourse by Elder Franklin D. Richards, delievered during the late Annual Conference of the Church. That we publish it in the Era —with the special approval of the author — is sufficient evidence of our appreciation of it; and we heartily commend it to our young men as the best possible instruction and encouragement that can be given them. —Editor.]

In speaking concerning the people at the present time, there isone important feature among us of great concern. That is, there are so many young men and young women who are of marriageable age and who ought to be taking seriously into consideration the importance of uniting themselves together properly, and commencing to build up families and to make homes for themselves, thus becoming persons of value and worth among the Saints in the latter days. If I could speak into the ears of a host of young men, I

would say to each one of them, Look around you, my young brother, find a young lady who is waiting for you to come and offer to take her to wife —some faithful girl, who is dutiful and obedient to her parents at home; who has been taught to work and to relieve her mother, and who feels a spirit of ambition and energy to take hold of life.Do not wait till you have got enough money to make a home and to store it with all the comforts of life. You that are studying upon that point, let me cite to you a case that occurred just over the river here a little while ago. A couple had got some

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land, built a house, had it nicely furnished, cupboards well stocked, a fine cow in the stable, and everything prepared for housekeeping. They went away to get married, and while they were away their home was broken into and devastated, so that when they got back they had no home to go to. I want to tell you, if you have no home, ask the Lord to bless

you and open up your way to make one. Go out and get a piece of land somewhere. There is plenty of land to be got in different places around. Young men, take this matter into your hearts, and consider how you will feel when you are seventy or eighty years of age, if you are blessed to live that long —and you would feel terrible if you had a witness that you would not. Think how you want to be found when you are that age. You want to see your children and your grandchildren come around you, to bless and comfort you, to eat and drink at your table, and to make you feel that you have a generation planted in the earth. Now, it is going to take some years to do this; but if you will get a good, honest-hearted girl, unite with her and plight your troth at the altar of the Lord, in his holy house, and let him seal your hearts together, and then go into this labor of life and make a home together, you will begin to be happy. I remember, as if it were only last week, when I married and. hired a room, in which my wife and began housekeeping. Our I

wants were but few; our means very limited; but we had enongh to eat, to be comfortable and happy with each other. I remember

the first time I bowed down to pray by that fireside that I had hired to live by. I tell you I felt nearer like a man than I had ever done before in my life. When I was a single man, traveling around as an Elder, I had either to find friends or to make them; for it is the business of the Elder to make friends if they do not find them ready made. I used to think sometimes that maybe I was in somebody's way; and when I was ill or afflicted, certainly I was dependent upon somebody's kindness, and I generally found it. But I did not feel that strange way in my own hired house. Now, my good young brother, to whom I am talking now, you want to become a man among men; you want to become an Elder among the Elders of Israel; you want to have a wife, and a home,

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where you can concentrate all the comforts and happiness of mortal and where you can have the fulfillment of the promise that life,

where two or three are agreed as touching anything it should be granted to them. I remember how we used to pray that the Lord would grant unto us that we might have children who would be kind, and dutiful, and obedient, and who would love him and walk in his ways. The Lord gave us such children, too. That is the way we felt when we called upon the Lord and asked him for every blessing that we needed. So we worked our way along as best we could. The Lord helped us and steadied us, until when we had to leave Nauvoo we were able to leave a nice, comfortable brick house, a garden and lot that we had bought and paid for, all fenced and cultivated. Then again, when the Prophet Joseph was killed, the question was, how shall we finish the temple? I recollect well that Elders were sent out through the Churches to gather means for this purpose. I was sent to Michigan. The thing was, that temple had to be finished or we could not go and get our endowments and learn the things that had been kept hid from before the foundations of the world. What was to be done? When we got back the Presidency called us together and told us the thing as it was. I recollect distinctly that one after another came forward and offered everything he possessed to finish that temple, and I was thankful that I could count one among that number. Of course, things are different now to what they were then. But this is what the

young man wants. If he has the holy faith of the Gospel, he has within him the elements of a kindred and friends, and power to be a man among men. A Saint among Saints. 0, what a blessing it will be to you young men when you get to be old, to feel that you

have a righteous race around you, who will try to carry out your will and pleasure after you are gone! You must consider, my boy, that your life is not all of today, tomorrow, this year or next year. You are but making a start here to obtain that life and immortality which is revealed in the Gospel, and to stand at the head of a righteous race. Father Abraham lived to be a hundred years old before he got a boy, and see what the Lord has made of him! His name, his seed and his generations are here, and his

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blood is in you. The promises that were made unto him and to his son Isaac, and then to Jacob, have been renewed upon your fathers and the faithful in these last days. Rise up and take hold of them. They await you. Speaking of my own case, I recollect well how, as we got along there came a time when we needed some consecrated oil. I took

a bottle of oil to President Young in Nauvoo, and asked him to consecrate it. He did so; and said he, "The next time you want a bottle of oil consecrated, do it yourself." This is the way a man develops. He comes to be a father, and he needs to prepare himself to assume the responsibilities of the position, that he may bless his little children as they come along, and consecrate the oil if need be. Iremember it struck me all over when the President told me to consecrate the oil. Could I do it? Would the Lord hear me? Well, he told me to do it, and I did it. So step by step we go along in the work of the Lord. I recollect the first time I went to stop with President Young.

When it came to prayer time, he asked Brother Franklin to pray. I was but a boy, and I turned to him and said, "President Young, I

would rather you pray; you can pray better than I can-" "0, well," said he, "you can pray well enough; you try it-" So I knelt down and prayed the best I could- Thus we have to prepare ourselves and be ready for every duty as we go along- I wish that some of these boys who are among us, scarcely knowing which way to turn or what to do, would just brace up and do what is rights let the consequence follow; and, as your fathers have done, go and

try to be somebody and do something that shall be worthy for both you and your children to remember- All these principles are important; and if the young folks sensed their importance I know there would not be so much carelessness as there is. You want to go into this union that I have been speaking of with a determination of purpose to bring to yourselves the pleasures and exaltations of the future life, bring back the pleasures and blessings of the former life, enter into the fullness of that life which is eternal, and take hold on the things of God, as if you meant to be men and women of God. Remember the pathway that some of your fathers and mothers have had tO'