“Mormonism”

EDITOR'S TABLE. 829 led me,used his fatherly care and love and guardianship over me, I now obey the gospel, I love my parents, I love the ordinances of the House of God, I love righteousness and truth, I love the people of God, and am one with them forever." Children should not be allowed to run about spending father's money, nor be off at pleasure resorts, perhaps with strangers, and associating with men and women unknown to them—girls associating with men they do not know, and never saw before—being free and unsuspecting in their natures, willing to accept the offers of courtesy and kindness—in a ball room, dance hall, theatre, or in other places where they may happen to be, and the first thing they know, they are entrapped and ruined. As parents we should see that the principles of the gospel are taught to our children, and accepted by them, that they may not be misled, tricked and led astray. More cases than one are constantly coming to our notice where sons and daughters have been led astray through their being turned loose at night, going to miserable shows, dance halls, resorts, and cheap penny entertainments. Many of these abominable habits are started by failure to properly observe the Sabbath day. Those who love their boys and girls with a pure and true love—the love of father and mother which is next to the love of God—will never permit them to be subjected to things of this kind, and will not permit them in these general amusement places unless they or other reliable persons are along to protect them from the snares laid for their feet, and the pits dug for them to fall into. On the Sabbath day we are commanded to go to the house of prayer, and to offer up our sacraments, thit we may more fully keep ourselves unspotted from the sins of the world. The father and the mother who truly love their offspring will teach them these things, and the son and the daughter who truly love father and mother will cheerfully obey them and observe this commandment. Joseph F. Smith. "Mormonism." "Mormonism" has for its basic principle the belief in God, the Creator of the world, and in his only begotten Son, Jesus

830 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Christ, who came and atoned for the sins of the world, and made it possible for man to triumph over death. "Mormonism" holds to the doctrine of God as given in the Old and New Testatm«nts of the Jewish scriptures, namely: the monotheistic conception of the Deity, and the divinity of man. It maintains that God has established his priesthood in different ages of the world's history, which gives to man the divine power to act in his name in all things pertaining to human activity, and especially those ordinances of baptism and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Hcly Ghost, which gives to man the power to save himself. Acting in the name of God in the holy ordinances is the second great basic principle of "Mormonism." It makes every man the agent of the Most High unto himself and his fellow man. It brings man into close harmony and union with God as an active worker for his own and for the world's redemption, through the grace of Jesus Christ. "Mormonism" looks upon man as a divine Light and Power, endowed with these attributes in the eternal world before his birth into this life. He has the free will to determine his course in this world and the world of the hereafter. "Mormonism" is, therefore, dynamic and not static. It holds that God reveals himself to man, ard in all ages man will receive new light and understanding from the Divine Source. The eternal progress of the race is assured through obedience to both divine and physical laws, which are revealed to men through inspiration and revelalation direct from God. God the Father is a God of order and law, therefore true religion is the adapting of oneself to law and order, both of this world and of the universe. "Mormonism" reiterates the teaching of the Old and New Testaments that God in various times of the world's history has given to man his grace to act in his name. But down through the ages since Christ lived, there has been a gradual leaving of the true course marked out by Jesus Christ, and although men since the days of Martin Luther have denounced the Roman Catholic church and the efficacy of its teachings, they have set up their own standards of religion and Christian ethics; and have not learned God's fundamental laws of salvation as universal and absolute facts. While their methods produced independency of

EDITORS TABLE. 831 thought, that which man is so in need of, they did not assure man of eternal life and salvation. Luther claimed no direct revelation from his Maker. Neither did Calvin or Knox or Zwingli or Wesley. Their systems of religion and ethics are based merely upon their individual interpretation of the holy scriptures. There is nothing absolute in them. But to "Mormonism" there is an absolute law. The claim of "Mormonism'' is that Joseph Smith went before his Father in humble prayer and asked for knowledge and truth. God answered him directly, and gave him the holy priesthood, the key to divine and absolute knowledge, by sending John the Baptist, and Peter, James and John, resurrected beings, who conferred upon Joseph the holy and divine power of Aaron and Melchizedek. In like manner was the priesthood of God given to man in ancient times. It must so be given in modern times. To "Mormonism," therefore, Jesus Christ is not a docetic man, but a divine, omnipotent man, with all the divine passions of a divine being. He lives in harmony with the laws of the universe, which he has learned through the experience both of this life and the life of the hereafter. God the Father and Jesus Christ, to the "Mormon" are real entities, intelligent, all love, all light. They are the acme of Divinity. This idea creates within the mind of the believer a most high and splendid conception of life's meaning and mission. The divinity of man asserts itself practically yet ideally, materially yet spiritually. "Mormonism" makes of a man a utilitarian-idealist. He sees the follies of man, the condition of the race socially, the sorrows of the race economically, the sins of the race ethically. No religion on earth is so great and broad in this regard. Ethically, "Mormonism" stands for the highest interpretation of life. It sets up the most refined standards of purity, virtue, intelligence and action. It is a complete system of scientific and Christian ethics. All the cardinal virtues are held sacred; the sins of the race, in the most loathsome horror. There is always a power and light within man which gives him the right to designate between right and wrong. Ethically, "Mormonism" lodges man's perspective in the eternal world of the hereafter. On the earth, it makes a man a creator, a founder of human institutions on the co-oper-

832 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ative plan, which develops the highest degree of altruism. Man is a student of life in this-world making for an understanding of higher and greater realities, pertaining both to earth and heaven. The intelligence expresses itself through the material universe. The body of man, as well as the spirit, is therefore diVine. The spirit and the body in perfection are the soul of man. "Mormonism'' is for this reason the highest standard of ethical law in existence. Activity of body and spirit must be along the highest lints of righteousness and purity, which bring him in time to a complete harmony of self with the natural laws in the spiritual and physical world. In man's adjusting himself to these laws he becomes scientist, moralist, religionist and philosopher. He attempts great things, he accomplishes much; he will accomplish all things. "Mormonism" has attempted great works. It has built and does now build up the social and economic life. It stands for the high-minded man. It stands by its ideals in the world of mental and muscular activity. "Mormonism" teaches man to look to the soil and the common pursuits of life. He is to take the earth and give it back to God in its pristine glory. This will come through work on God's great acreage. Man is of the soil. He lives by the products of the soil. In his tilling it and making it useful to the highest degree, he is redeeming it and preparing it for the return of its paradisic glory. Common man, then, has his part to play in creating greater and better conditions economically, hence "Mormonism" teaches a true brotherhood and democracy among all men. Every person is a child of God and Light. He has his part to play in the redemption of the soil. The land is his. Upon it he builds his home, and as he comes to understand the earth, the physical laws of the universe, so does his home become better and his standards of life higher. As he makes the earth a paradise, so will he understand better and more fully the higher things of life. The Latter-day Saints, or so-called "Mormons," are home-builders, for this reason. And with the home goes the school and printing-press, the museum and the drama. England's great poet has expressed this phase of philosophy in his Saul: