--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Grant, Heber J. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 11 number: 10 published: 1908-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Heber J. Grant, "Temperance—Inspirations to Progress," *Improvement Era* 11, no. 10 (August 1908): 779–789.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera11010unse 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: improvementera11010unse start_page: 779 end_page: 789 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1908-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera11010unse publication_year: 1908 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 1908, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Temperance—Inspirations to Progress TEMPERANCE-INSPIRATIONS TO PROGRESS. BY ELDER HEBER J GRANT. [An address delivered to the M. I. A. Conference, Sunday, June 14, 1908, 2 p. m. ] Some weeks ago from this stand I read a number of items that I thought would be of interest to the members of one of the four Salt Lake City stakes; and when I was requested, by the program committee, to occupy a portion of the time today, in — trying to think of something that would be of interest to the young people from all parts of the Church, I concluded that to read the same things which I read here upon that occasion would be of as much value to my hearers as anything I could pos- sibly say. Although I realize from my experience in public speaking, that an audience is never as interested in something that is read as in something spoken extemporaneously, yet, believ- ing that the words I am about to read will be of greater value to you than anything I may say, I shall read, making such comments as shall come to my mind; with the hope that the comments as well as the reading will be beneficial: From the preface to Leaves Jrom the Diary of an Old Lawyer: I believe that it will require the force of the whole people, men and women, applied at the- ballot box, to effectually blot out of existence the great curse to the country, ' 'The laws that License and Permit the Sale of Alcohol as a Bever- age." I deny the right of the government to sell to one citizen the privilege ta tempt another to commit crime. I doubt the policy of those laws that seek to raise a revenue by the sale of that which debases the people, it is the prolific source of crime and pauperism, and costs the country annually a thousand times more than the revenue received therefrom. I deny the justice of those laws that on one page of the statute books legalize that which promotes crimes and makes criminals, and on the next, provide severe penalties to be administered to those 780 IMPROVEMENT ERA. they have tempted to transgress. This little volume is presented to the public to promulgate those views. They may be thought radical, and perhaps are so; but they are the result of long years of experience in our criminal courts, and are but a feeble expression of my abhorrence of the vice of intemperance, and the laws that encourage and promote it. "Tell me if I hate the bowl Hate is a feeble word I loathe— abhor —my very soul With strong disgust is stirred Whene'er I see, or hear, or tell Of the dark beverage of hell. I read further from the same book — and, by the way, this "little" book that he refers to is about as large, if not a little larger than the one I now hold in my hand (exhibiting the large edi- tion of the Doctrine and Covenants.) My experience at the bar has satisfied me that intemperance is the direct cause of nearly all the crime that is committed in our country. I have been at the bar over thirty years, have been engaged in over four thousand criminal cases, and on mature reflection I am satisfied that over three thousand of those cases have originated from drunkenness alone, and I believe that a great proportion of the remainder could be traced either directly or indirectly to this great source of crime. In sixty-three cases of homicide forty-nine have been caused by the maddening influence of strong drink Think of it, my brethren and sisters, forty-nine murders out of sixty-three cases, were caused by strong drink! I have seen upon the counsel table of our court room the skull of an aged father who was killed by a drunken son. My brother and myself sat by his side as his counsel, and I never shall forget the look of that son when the ghastly evi- dence of his guilt was laid on the stand before him. That silent yet eloquent witness! It was but an arch of bone, and was handled carelessly by the jury in their investigation, yet it had once been covered by a father's gray hairs, be- neath it had throbbed a brain full of pride and affection for the son who was now on his trial for murder, and as it passed from hand to hand the fearful expression on the face of the accused plainly told the terrible feeling of remorse that filled his soul. It was a wicked and most unnatural crime, and begot feelings of loathing and horror in the breasts of all who witnessed the trial. Yet it was not in reality the son who had committed the crime, but the demon that lurks in every cup of strong drink. And that cup had been filled and placed to the lips of that son by the hand of a most respectable member of society a man who had a — license from that very court to sell that which maddened the brain and prompted the hand to murder. I saw upon the table the skull of young B , who was killed by his most TEMPERANCE— INSPIRATIONS TO PROGRESS. 781 intimate friend in a drunken brawl at Hartstown, and the respectable proprietor at whose hotel the murder was perpetrated, and who sold the maddening spirit that prompted the deed, was witness to the trial. He said he had a license from that respectable court to sell liquor; yes, from the very court then sitting in judgment on that act, which was but the natural sequence of the license it had sold and granted. I have seen upon the table the skull of a little child, with the evidence upon it of a murderous blow, inflicted by the hand of a drunken mother. Yet it was not the mother who had committed the most unnatural crime. All our knowl- edge of the promptings of the human heart deny the charge. Who that remem- bers his own mother and her maternal love could believe it? No! a demoniacal spirit had violated the sanctuary of the mother's heart and cast out the tender, loving tenant that once resided there, and that was the spirit of strong drink, sold to the woman by a man who held a license to sell under the seal and sanction of that very court. I have seen upon that table the blood- stained skull of a wife, cleft from top to base by an ax in the hand of a brutal, drunken husband, who came home from a neighboring licensed beer-shop, reeling, drunken, and maddened by drink there sold by a most respectable dealer, by a man who had a legal right to sell that poison whose effects are more terrible than the plagues confined within the fabled box of Pandora, and under whose baneful influence The hand that should shield the wife from ill, In drunken wrath is raised to kill. I once defended a man for killing his own brother, by whom, in a fit of drunken frenzy, he had been attacked with a dangerous weapon, thereby compel- ling him in his own defense, to strike a blow that had taken his brother's life. He was tried for murder, and in his defense I called the "landlord" to prove that the murdered brother was mad from the effects of the liquor he had received at the witness's bar. He so testified, yet seemed conscious of no wrong. Why should he? He had a license from the court, and why should that brother's l)lood cry to heaven for vengeance against him? Oh no! he was a respectable citizen, possessing a good moral character, for the law grants licenses to none other. He had a legal right to present the maddening cup to his fellow's lips, and no- one should complain of him. He had acted in accordance with the law, and did not one of England's greatest and best of men say that "the law was that science whose voice was the harmony of the world, and whose seat was the bosom of God"? In my hurry, in going for these notes, I failed to find an advertisement of a saloon keeper in Arizona,* that I desired to ' * AN HONEST SALOON KEEPER. Tombstone, Arizona, claims credit for the frankest saloon keeper in the United States. He keeps the Temple Bar saloon, and advertises his business 782 IMPROVEMENT ERA. read. one reads the saloon keeper's advertisement, certainly If he should not be accused of misrepresenting his vocation. This man announced that he makes paupers, that he makes thieves, that he fills the penitentiary, that he breaks the hearts of wives, makes children orphans, and all poor. Yet his business flourishes, and he proposes to go on destroying the community, because the people want liquor, and he has a license to sell it. One of the books recommended to the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations throughout the Church, which we de. sired them, particularly, to read this year, was the book entitled The Strength of Being Clean, by David Starr Jordan. Mr. Jordan is the President of the Leland Stanford Junior University. This book is considered, by President Joseph F. Smith and others I have with most enterprising frankness: "Allow me to inform you that you are fools," he says, yet his place is usually filled. He maintains that he is an hon- est saloonkeeper, and that it will not hurt his business to tell the truth about it. He has had printed an advertising card which would make an excellent manu- script for a temperance lecture. Copies are being circulated through the western states and are attracting attention. The card reads as follows: Friends and Neighbors: I am grateful for past favors, and having supplied my store with a fine lot of choice wines and liquors, allow me to inform you that I shall continue to make drunkards, paupers and beggars for the sober, industrious, respectable part of the community to support. My liquors will excite riot, robbery and bloodshed. They will diminish your comforts, increase your expenses, and shorten your life. I shall confidently recom- mend them as sure to mutiply fatal accidents and incurable diseases. They will deprive some of life, others of reason, many of characters, and all of peace. They will make fathers fiends, wives widows, children orphans, and all poor. I will train your sons in infidelity, dissipation, ignorance, lewdness and every other vice. I will corrupt the ministers of religion, obstruct the gospel, defile the Church, and cause as much temporal and eternal death as I can. I will thus accommodate the public. It may be at the loss of my never-dying soul, but I have a family to support— the business pays, the public encourages it. I have paid my license, and the trafiic is lawful; and if I don't sell it somebody else will. I know the Bible says Thou shalt not kill. : No drunkard shall enter the kingdom of heaven, and I do not expect the drunkard- maker to fare any better, but I want an easy living, and I have resolved to gather the wages of iniquity and fatten on the ruin of my species. I shall, therefore, carry on my business with every energy, and do my best to diminish the wealth of the Nation and endanger the safety of the State. As my business flourishes in proportion to your sensuality and ignorance, I will do my best to prevent moral purity and intellectual growth. Should you doubt my ability, I refer you to the pawnshops, the poorhouse, the police court, the hospital, the penitentiary and the gallows, where you will find many of my best customers have gone. A sight of them will convince you that I do what I say. Allow me to inform you that you are fools, and that I am an honest saloonkeeper. TEMPERANCE—INSPIRATIONS TO PROGRESS. 783 heard speak about it, as one of the strongest arguments that has yet been written by a non-" Mormon" in favor of and confirming the revelation given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, known to us as the Word of Wisdom. Mr. Jordan says: The resistance to temptation must come from within. There is no question about this. Another man, William George Jordan, whose books I admire very much, says that we are the architects and the builders of our own lives; and there is no ques- tion but what we, the youth of Israel, if we shall accomplish any- thing for the reformation of the world, must accomplish a refor- mation first within ourselves, and then set examples worthy of imitation. In our officers' meeting yesterday, a quotation was also made from William George Jordan's writings, that I desire to refer to here, namely, "that man has two creators: his God and himself." Let us, so far as we are capable, by and with the help of God, in humility, as the second creators of ourselves do some- thing, as young men and young women, for the spread of truth, and, above all, follow the advice of Sister Tingey by remembering that our lives are the finest possible kind of preachers — far better than precept. David Starr Jordan further says So far as the drink of drunkards is concerned, prohibition does not prohibit. But to clean up a town, to free it from corrosion, saves men, and boys and girls, too, from vice, and who shall say that moral sanitation is not as much the duty of the community as physical sanitation. The city of the future will not permit the existence of slums and dives and tippling-houses. It will prohibit their exist- ence for the same reason that it now prohibits pig-pens and dung-heaps and cess- pools. For where all these things are, slums and cesspools, saloons and pig-pens, there the people grow weak and die- I hope and pray with all my heart that the young Latter-day Saints, particularly those who are engaged in the Mutual Improve- ment cause, will make up their minds that they shall go from this conference, having partaken of the spirit of testimony that we had in our moiuiing meeting, having listened to the testimonies that were given in our officers' meetings, as well as the testimonies that have been given here, and remember that seventy-five years ago, God our Heavenly Father, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, proclaimed against the use of strong drink, saying that it was not 784 IMPROVEMENT ERA. good for man. This revelation was originally given not by way of commandment but only by way of admonition, as counsel and advice, but the Prophet Brigham Young afterwards said: "The time has now come when this revelation, known as the Word of Wisdom, comes to the Latter-day Saints as the Word of God and a commandment for them to obey." When I listened to our sister, who bore her testimony here today, telling how God gave to her, by the revelation of his spirit, the witness that this gospel, called "Mormonism" by the world, is in very deed the gospel of Jesus Christ,^! rejoiced also to hear her bear her testimony, that by that same spirit, and that same witness, she received a knowl- edge from God that it was her duty to obey what is known to the Latter-day Saints as the Word of Wisdom. This Word of Wisdom was given to us for our temporal salva- tion, and I want to say to the Latter-day Saints that had we obeyed this law from the day we arrived in these valleys, if all the money expended for tea, coffee, tobacco and liquor had been saved, this community, this State of Utah, would be today the wealthiest state west of the Mississippi River from which our fathers were driven, when leaving Nauvoo. A hundred times more damage is done to farms from insects than from the ravages of wild animals, and it is the small dribblets that go for tea, coffee, — tobacco and liquor, that amount to millions and millions of dollars. We find that there is today being consumed annually in the neigh- borhood of $20 per capita, for every man, woman, child, and babe in the entire United Kingdom — hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars annually are being expended in destroying our physical frames, the God-given tabernacles that we have received from our Heavenly Father. Now I plead with each and every worker in the Mutual Improvement Associations to remember that the will of God to us is to observe the Word of Wisdom, and may he help us to do it. I read a book, while I was in England, that did me a great deal of good, and put a good many ideas into my head. It is en- titled The Young Man and the World. It was written by Senator Albert J. Beveridge, and inasmuch as he is capable of saying many things that I think are inspiring to the youth of Zion, or any other. TEMPERANCE— INSPIRATIONS TO PROGRESS. 785 young people who may read this book, and as it is told in better form than I can say it, and apologizing again for reading so much, I desire to read some of his counsel to young men You must be intellectually honest. Do not pretend to be what you are not no affectations, no simulations, no falsehoods, either of speech or thought, of con- duct or attitude. Let truth abide in the very heart of you. This reminds me, also, of the writings of William George Jordan, who says in the very first sentence in his book entitled Great Truths, one of our series of reading this year, that ' 'truth is the rock foundation of every great character." Now, if we want to become great in the sight of God, let us remember that the rock foundation of our character must be truth. At the very beginning. Nature writes upon the tablet of your inner con- sciousness an inventory of your strengths and of your weaknesses, and lists there those tasks which you are best fitted to perform — those tasks which Nature meant you to perform. For Nature put you here to do something you were not born to ; be an ornament. First, then, learn your limitations. Take time enough to think out just what you cannot do. This process of elimination will soon reduce life's possibilities for you to a few things. Of these select the one which is nearest you, and having selected it, put all other loves from you. Oh, how I wish that I had the power to impress upon all the youth of Israel that the one thing that should be nearest to all of us is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the plan of life and salvation, the redemption of the souls of men. Let us "put all other loves from us." Let us first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then shall all other things be added to us. While this senator has written these words for the people of the world, they have a greater meaning to you and to me, and to the tens of thousands of young men and women among the Latter- day Saints, who know that God lives, who know that Jesus is the Christ, who know that this gospel that we have espoused is in very deed the gospel of Jesus Christ. It should be our first love — we should think of when we arise in the morning, we should it think of it at noon-day and at night; and we should not allow the things of the world to crowd it oub of our love and affection. Work — that is the magic word. In these four letters all possibilities are wrapped up. Don't pay any attention to how fast you are getting on but go ahead and get 786 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . 071. Keep working. And work with all your might. How wise the Bible is: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." And keep on doing jt — persist— persist -persist. Again the Bible: "Seestthou a man diligent in his .' business, he shall stand before kings ' Do not fear hard knocks. They are no sign that you will not finally win the battle. Indeed, ability to endure in silence is one of the best evidences that you will finally prevail. He who worries, not only poisons the very fountains of his Oivn strength but arouses in the world's attitude toward him a sort of sneering pity. So the very first thing that I have to suggest to you is that you should he a man in all your doings and throughout jour whole career. If you have done your best you have done better than the man who has done more than you, but who has not done his best. Be a man— that is the first and last rule of the greatest success in life. For the greatest success in life does not mean dollars heaped in bank vaults nor vol- umes written, nor railroads built, nor laws devised, nor armies led. No, the greatest success is none of these. The supreme success is character. While the reputation of the Latter-day Saints, in the eyes of the world, is not good, because of the maligning of our enemies, yet I do thank God that the character of every Latter-day Saint, every man, and every woman, and every child, who lives up to the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is absolutely above re- proach. How I do thank the Lord that the Gospel of Jesus Christ fills every want, every requirement, every desire of an honest heart. I rejoice, with all my heart and soul, that there is no long- ing, no seeking in vain —none of that which the good sister re- ferred to this morning who had been seeking, year after year, for the gospel, but she could not find it until she heard the voice of the humble "Mormon" elder. From the same book: "I have just come from church," said a friend one day, "and I am tired and disappointed. Iwent to hear a sermon and I listened to a lecture. "I went to worship, and I was merely entertained. "The preacher was a brilliant man, and his address was an intellectual treat; but I did not go to church to hear a professional lecture. When I want merely to be entertained, I will go to the theater. "But I do not like to hear a preacher principally try to be either orator or artist. I am please if he is both; but before everythingwant him to else, I bear me the Master's message. I want the minister to preach Christ and him crucified." The man who said this was a journalist of ripe years, highly educated widely , experienced, acquainted with men and life. He was world-weary with that weari- TEMPERANCE— INSPIRATIONS TO PROGRESS. 787 ness which comes of the journalist's incessant contact with every phase of human activity, good and bad, great and small. * * * * Any man wbo assumes to teach the Christian faith, who in his own secret heart questions that faith himself, commits a sacrilege every time he enters the pulpit. He is like the chemist's grain of wheat, perfect in all its constituent ele- ments except the mysterious spark of life, without which the wheat grain will not grow. If then you do not believe what you say, and believe it with all your soul, be- lieve it in your heart of hearts, do not try to get other men to believe it. You will not be honest if you do. The world expects you to be sure of yourself. How do you expect to make other people sure of themselves if you are not sure of yourself? Thank God that every Latter-day Saint who assumes to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ has absolutely no doubt in his heart re- garding its divinity. "I would rather be sure'that when a man dies he will live again with his con- scious identity, than to have all the wealth of the United States, or to occupy any position of honor or power the world could possibly give, " said a man whose name is known to the railroad world as one of the ablest transportation men in the United States. ' 'Do you know when I am by myself I think about a lot of strange things. Is the soul immortal, and what is the soul anyhow?" [It is a politician who is talking now, and a ward politician at that, a man whom few would suspect of thinking upon these subjects at all]. So you see, young man, — [Remember this address is to the young man that expects to be measured for the preacher's frock, as it is termed]. So you see, young man, you who are being measured for the cloth, that all manner and con- ditions of men are thinking about the great problems of which you are the ex- pounder, and longing for the answer to these problems which it is your business to give them. That is the condition of the mind of the millions. Now, this author goes on, after giving the conditions of the minds of the millions, and tells the young men who are being meas- ured for the cloth, those who expect to fill the pulpit, — he tells them what his experience was with those who do fill the pulpit ' Very well ! What is the condition of the mind of the young minister? A few years ago a certain man, with good opportunities for the investigation and a probability of sincere answers, asked every young preacher whom he met during a summer vacation these questions First, Yes or no, do you believe in God, the Father; God a person, God a definite and tangible intelligence — not a congeries of laws floating like a fog 788 IMPROVEMENT ERA. through the universe; but God, a person, in whose image you were made? Don't argue; don't explain; but is your mind in a condition where you can answer yes >" or no; Not a man answered "Yes." Each man wanted to explain that the Deity might be a definite intelligence or might not, that the "latest thought" was much confused upon the matter, and so forth and so on. Thank God that every boy, and every girl, and every child, that every Latter-day Saint, without a moment's hesitation, can answer "Yes" to this question. Thank God that the Manuals the young people have studied give an account of our Father as a per- sonal being. Second, Yes or no, do you believe that Christ was the Son of the living God, sent by him to save the world? I am not asking whether you believe that he was inspired in the sense that the great moral teachers are inspired — nobody has any difficulty about that. But do you believe that Christ was God's very Son, with a divinely appointed and definite mission, dying on the cross and raised from the dead — yes or no? Again not a single answer with an unequivocal, earnest "Yes." But again explanations were offered, and in at least half the instances the sum of most of the answers was that Christ was the most perfect man that the world had seen, and humanity's greatest moral teacher. Again I say, thank God that all Latter-day Saints, young and old, without a moment's hesitation, would answer that question: "Yes, Christ was the Son of God; Christ is in very deed the Savior of the world; Christ did appear to the boy Joseph Smith and did deliver to him the keys of the Gospel of life and salvation. Third, Do you believe that when you die you will live again as a conscious intelligence, knowing who you are and who other people are? Again not one answer was unconditionally affirmative. Of course, they were not sure as a matter of knowledge. Of course, that could not be known positively. On the whole, they were inclined to think so, but there were very stubborn objec- tions, and so forth and so on. The men to whom these questions were put were particularly high-grade ministers. One of them had already won a distinguished reputation in New York and New England states for his eloquence and piety. Every one of them had had unusual successes with fashionable congregations. But every one of them had noted an absence of real influence upon the hearts of their hearers, and all thought that this same condition is spreading throughout the modern pulpit. Yet not one of them suspected that the profound cause of what they called TEMPERANCE— INSPIRATIONS TO PROGRESS. 789 "the decay of faith" was, not in the world of men and women, but in themselves. How could such priests of ice warm the souls of men? How could such apostles of interrogation convert a world? I agree with this question. How could men who do not be- lieve in God as our Father, as a personal being, as the Father of Jesus Christ — how could men who do not believe in the divine mission of Jesus Christ, how could men who do not believe that when this life is over, we shall be resurrected and have a con- scious intelligence, and know and be known, how could they warm the hearts of the people? How could they teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which teaches faith in God, faith in his Son, faith in a resurrection from the dead, and faith in life eternal? It can't be done; but, thank God, the Latter-day Saints can give to the world the plan of life and salvation, and may we, as the youth of Israel, rise up and labor with all the zeal, with all the energy, with all the determination that we have, for the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is my prayer and my desire, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. PROHIBITION. Prohibition now claims eight States, with a total population of 13,000,000, in which the public sale of intoxicating liquors is forbidden; also 250 prohibition cities in 35 States, with from 5,000 to 160,000 each, and a total population of 3,500,000, Prac- tically 40,000,000 people, of whom 10,000,000 have been added within four years, are living in prohibition territory. It. is the big cities that resist prohibition. Independent, N. Y.