--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Smith, Joseph F. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 15 number: 9 published: 1912-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Joseph F. Smith, "Editors’ Table: Strive to Be Broad as the Gospel," *Improvement Era* 15, no. 9 (July 1912): 843–845.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1509unse 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: improvementera1509unse start_page: 843 end_page: 845 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1912-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1509unse publication_year: 1912 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 1912, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Editors’ Table: Strive to Be Broad as the Gospel Editor's Table Strive to be as Broad as the Gospel The Gospel of Jesus Christ, properly taught and understood, inculcates broadness, force and power. It makes intellectually broad and valiant men. It gives to men good, sound judgment in affairs temporal as well as spiritual. These are reasons why it is worth a young man's while to embrace it. Outside of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as taught by the Latter-day Saints, and sometimes within the fold, we frequently look about us and see people who incline to extremes, who are fanatical. We may be sure that this class of people do not understand the gospel. They have forgotten, if they ever knew, that it is very unwise to take a fragment of truth and treat it as if it were the whole thing. For example, it is, of course, essentially just and necessary to believe in Jesus Christ, but it is not characteristic of one who understands the gospel to rest with this belief and consider it enough. The true believer in Jesus teaches that in order to be efficacious, faith, or belief, must be followed by works, — the two go hand in hand. Again, while prayer is essential and is one of the fundamental principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is nonsense for a person to pray only, and not work. A well-balanced person would naturally do everything that he could do and at the same time petition the Lord to help him in his efforts, thus aiding to bring about his desires. By work, patience and integrity, such a person would support his prayers by so living that the Lord could be justified in granting his petitions. The commandments which the Lord has given us, in ages past, and those now being revealed, teach us that human desire and effort are necessary to obtain divine assistance. We believe in the doctrine of the healing of the sick, as did the ancient saints. We believe that when any person is sick the elders are to be called, that they are to come in answer to that call with clean hands and pure hearts to anoint and bless the sick, and the prornise is that the "prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise them up, and if they have committed sins 844 IMPROVEMENT ERA. they shall be forgiven," but even this splendid principle of the gospel is but a fragment of the whole truth, and it would not be wise for us to base our faith on this fragment alone and let our lives be directed thereby, thus failing to perform other duties. It is true that in recent years churches have been founded upon this particle of truth alone — the principle of healing. Many have been misled thereby and some have even left the true Church on its account. This principle of the gospel is deeply embodied in our faith and in the Church. We believe with all our hearts in the healing of the sick, and in administration to them. We strive to live so that we may be worthy of an answer to our prayers and we have thousands of testimonies that these answers have been given by our gracious Father to the saving of the sick, but we understand just as thoroughly that while this is an essential principle of the gospel it is not enough upon which to base our faith and to lay all other things and doctrines aside on its account. So we might take up every principle of the gospel, but any single one of these is not enough to insure our salvation. There must be the work on the part of the believer, and all the principles must be obeyed. There are certain actions and works that are absolutely necessary to make our faith effective unto salvation. And, as stated, not a single principle will suffice, but in addition to the mercy of God, our progress and salvation will depend upon our faithful performance of every requirement. These must be adopted, accepted and carried out in our lives and every-day actions. So that, while the first principles of the gospel, faith in God, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, the healing of the sick, the resurrection, and, for that matter, all the revealed principles of the gospel of Christ are necessary and essential in the plan of salvation, it is neither good policy nor sound doctrine to take any one of these, single it out from the whole plan of gospel truth, make it a special hobby, and depend upon it for our salvation and progress either in this world or in the world to come. They are all necessary. It should be the desire of the Latter-day Saints to become as big and broad as the gospel which has been divinely revealed to them. They should, therefore, hold themselves open to the ac- EDITORS' TABLE. 845 ceptance of all the truths of the gospel that have been revealed, that are now being revealed, and that will be revealed hereafter, and adopt them in the conduct of their daily lives. By honorable and upright living, by obedience to the commandments of God, and by the aid of the Holy Spirit, we shall place ourselves in a position to work out our own salvation here and hereafter "with fear and trembling," it may be, but with absolute certainty. This is a work that makes every soul who engages in it big and broad. It is a life-work worth the while of every man in the world. Joseph F. Smith.