--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young, Seymour B. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 9 number: 9 published: 1906-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Seymour B. Young, "The Missionary—The Soldier of the Cross," *Improvement Era* 9, no. 9 (July 1906): 695–697.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0909unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0909unse start_page: 695 end_page: 697 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0909unse publication_year: 1906 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1906, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Missionary—The Soldier of the Cross MISSIONARY—THE SOLDIER OF THE CROSS. BY DR. SEYMOUR B. YOUNG, OF THE FIRST COUNCIL OF SEVENTY. "Come, let us reason together." There was a time in our history when men were called into the ministry without previous preparation or any opportunity of schooling, who responded to the call without further notice, shouldering their knap-sacks and starting immediately to their fields of labor. At that time in our history men readily responded; and, though they were destitute in a financial way, and often left their families without a supply of daily bread, and oftentimes shelterless, yet there was no hesitancy on the part of those elders, although they left their families under those painful circumstances. Today we find circumstances changed for the better, so far as the financial conditions are concerned. The young missionary now is permitted, and in fact required, to be a student of the gospel and a member of a missionary class in some of our Latter-day Saints institutions of-learning, that he may become familiar with, and know how to express in public and in private, the sentiments of one who is called and inspired to teach its sacred principles. And now when the call comes, after this very necessary preparation, he goes out from home on a palace car, on which he rides with comfort to his field of labor, in this country, but if across the ocean, in a palace steamer, with every comfort that can be afforded him. And generally, after the elder gets to his field of labor, his relatives at home furnish him with sufficient means to supply him with the necessaries of life during his stay in the missionary field. And he has the assurance, also, that the family left 696 IMPROVEMENT ERA. at home will not lack for the necessaries of life, whether he has gone out from his father's family or left wife and children of his own. Under these improved circumstances, and in consideration of the fact that the gospel must be carried intelligently to every nation under heaven, the Church requires strong men. I mean by this, men of character, men who are clean and pure and who keep the law of chastity, and observe strictly that greatest of all hygienic laws that were ever written, the word of the Lord through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the word of wisdom, found on the 321st page of the Book of Covenants. "Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the entire section. The Church needs men who are physically and mentally in perfect condition, as well as spiritually and morally. We want men with straight backs, strong arms, and strong legs, with well developed chests. Men who, on account of their physical condition, can run without weariness, and who can walk any required distance without fainting by the wayside. A strong body with a resolute soul, free from the weakness of vice or wrong-doing. In conversation with the foreman of a big railroad recently, the writer was informed that his company was exacting better habits of life from their men than heretofore. Absolute abstinance from strong drink was one of those requirements, and no one of their men on duty, as a conductor, flagman, fireman, or in any way connected with a running train, was allowed to smoke during the hours of his employment. If physical duties, in which is connected merely the matters of dollar and cents for the labor performed, demand these better habits of life, how much greater the necessity for those who go forth to labor in the missionary field to save the souls of their fellowmen? President Eliot of Harvard said recently that for fifty years no student that used tobacco or strong drink had graduated at the head of his class. There are numerous examples that might be cited, but I think with the reading of the revelation before mentioned, on the word of wisdom, and earnestly considering the examples mentioned, enough on this point will have been said in this communication for the present. I wish to add, however, that during the month of April last, we examined physically and set apart more than one hundred missiona- THE MISSIONARY. 697 ries, of whom about seventy-five per cent were users of tobacco. The record has brightened since then, and only a few in the month of May have been breaking the law. True, those brethren were permitted to go on their missions, but only on condition that now and hereafter they would observe to keep the word of wisdom in the spirit and letter thereof. We hope that parents will also impress this thought upon their boys, and the sisters and wives of the young missionaries will help to impress upon them the observance of that law, in order that when they present themselves for their missionary blessings, that we may find them better prepared physically, mentally, and spiritually than were those who have heretofore violated a law of the Church. Recently we have learned with deep sorrow of the death of two of our missionary boys in the Netherlands Mission, from that loathsome disease, smallpox. The families of these two boys, parents, brothers and sisters, have our deepest, heartfelt sympathy. We earnestly pray that the Lord will give them that consolation which he alone can give, and these parents and loved ones may be assured that these noble sons have laid down their lives as martyrs to the cause of truth, for the Lord has decreed that they shall inherit a martyr's crown. This brings to mind the subject of vaccination. It is generally conceded that all of our missionaries should be vaccinated ere their departure from home. While this is not obligatory, nor to be forced upon any one against his wishes, yet it is advised, and the counsel should be observed in every instance, that elders thus exposed, especially in a foreign country, can be safeguarded by this great discovery of the immortal Jenner. From this time on, the elders will be invited to receive vaccination prior to the time that they report themselves ready to start on their missions. I must quote again here the requirements of one of our great railroad corporations; namely, the Oregon Short Line. They require today of their laborers that they be vaccinated, or produce a medical certificate that they have already been successfully vaccinated, or that they have had smallpox, thus making them immune to that very dangerous disease, before being employed upon their line;and the Church considers also that every safeguard should be thrown around our missionaries, especially those who go to foreign lands. Salt Lake City, Utah.