--- 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: 17 number: 5 published: 1914-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Joseph F. Smith, \"Editors' Table—Three Threatening Dangers,\" *Improvement Era* 17, no. 5 (March 1914): 476–478." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1705unse 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: improvementera1705unse start_page: 476 end_page: 478 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1705unse publication_year: 1914 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 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Editors' Table—Three Threatening Dangers Editors' Table Three Threatening Dangers Frequently, and from nearly all parts of the world, we hear of periodical outbursts of indignation against the Latter-day Saints. These are generally groundless and made by writers and speakers who are uninformed, and who get their inspiration from sensational books and literature published abroad by evil-designing persons who make money out of the credulous by their sensational stories. The stories may be false charges of polygamy against our people, or immorality, or undue political influence, or incredible financial power said to be exercised by the Church, and particularly by its president who lately was charged by a London paper of being an autocrat with an income of £200,000 a year. Thus many things are charged against us which have no foundation in fact, and in which there is no grain of truth. Though amusing where the truth is known, these falsehoods have the effect, of course, of prejudicing the ignorant, scandalizing the Church, and making it very unpleasant for its missionaries and membership. But scandal and falsehood never can have permanent injurious effect upon those unto whom they are unjustly directed. The Latter-day Saints need have no fear nor anxiety whatever regarding these things, so long as they are directed against them unjustly. Scandals die of themselves when discovered, as they are sure to be. What the Latter-day Saints need to dread, and what every man and woman in the Church should take to heart with trembling" and grave anxiety, is that we may fail to continue to guard our actions and conduct our lives in the way of right. To do right involves exceeding care upon our part, and a living up to the simple principles of the gospel taught us from the beginning. Our danger lies not in falsehoods from the outside, but in evil and impure actions and indifference from the inside. These are the things which we need to fear. There are at least three dangers that threaten the Church EDITORS' TABLE 477 within, and the authorities need to awaken to the fact that the people should be warned unceasingly against them. As I see these, they are the flattery of prominent men in the world, false educational ideas, and sexual impurity. Leaders of thought frequently express admiration for the social conditions of the Latter-day Saints, the simplicity and earnestness of their worship, their care for the poor, and the honesty and purity of their daily lives. For these reasons our people are sought as colonizers in various parts of the country, men having seen that their industry and good character are of immense value in the building of a community and in the development of a country. I sometimes fear that we are not altogether worthy of some of the good things said of us, and that they have a tendency to throw us off our guard, make us less watchful, and lull us to sleep, as it were, thus handicapping our continued efforts in the upward direction of right. Incorrect educational ideas are implanted in the hearts of our young people, often at home, and nearly always abroad. We have hundreds of young men, and young women, too, for that matter, who go abroad to receive their higher education, who partake to a great extent of the teachings of the world in these institutions. Not infrequently many of them return filled with the so-called "higher criticism" which not only tends to disbelief in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, but disbelief in God, and in the saving mission and divinity of Jesus Christ our Lord, upon which Christianity and the faith of the Latter-day Saints are founded. But the third subject mentioned, — personal purity, is perhaps of greater importance than either of the other two. We believe in one standard of morality for men and women. If purity of life is neglected, all other dangers set in upon us like the rivers of waters when the flood gates are opened. Our youth naturally incline to follow the tendencies of the age in this direction, which is toward impurity in thought and action, impropriety in dress, and a double moral standard which gives men liberties in sin which are not, and should not be, tolerated in women. The general inclination is towards moral looseness. It does not appear, notwithstanding declarations to the contrary, that the people are growing better in this respect, and that is a fearful thought to contemplate. Hence, there never was greater need than now of 478 IMPROVEMENT ERA teaching our people to lead clean lives, and of impressing upon our young men the imperative necessity of moral cleanliness. So many examples come to the surface every day showing sexual iniquity and impurity that it is time to cry out against this sin. Parents, teachers and Church authorities must diligently warn their son* and daughters against these vile sins of the world, and make plain to them the sorrow and death that await the sinners. The warning should come in a Christ-like, earnest, and sincere spirit, in wisdom, and without cant and hypocrisy. One illustration will serve to show the value and result of pure language, and let me say that undefiled language comes from pure thought, which is a fountain of pure life. I have in mind one of the noble men of our Church whose motto was "The Kingdom of God or nothing" — the late President John Taylor. There was a man who was worthy, a pure-minded man. A cleaner man in habits, views, language and sentiment, I never had the honor of associating with in my life. During President Taylor's Presidency and the latter part of his illness, I was with him by clay and by night, and I never saw nor heard a single thing in his actions or words that he might not have said or done in the presence of the most chaste man or woman in the world, or in the presence of angels or of God himself. I can say truthfully that I never heard him tell a joke, nor say anything that he would not have said in the presence of women anywhere. I have heard men say things in jest, among their brethren and among men, that they would not say to their wives and daughters, but never in my life have I heard President Taylor, either in story or jest, say anything that he would or could not have said in the presence of the most chaste in the world. He was a man of God, an example to all mankind. I wish to say to all who read these lines that the key to purity is found in chaste thoughts, and the young man who obtains it will be able to unlock a rich storehouse of cleanliness enabling his life to be as the fresh morning. If in our community we shall succeed, as heretofore, in rearing young men whose lives are thus clean and pure, whose actions are above reproach, who will observe the commandments and the teachings of the gospel, as we understand them, and as we are or should be teaching them to