Faith

Faith BY NEPHI JENSEN

On the afternoon of the 25th day of November, 1914, Thanks- giving Day, I stood beside Elder Oscar A. Kirkham, on the streets of Preston, Idaho, and watched the students of the Oneida Stake Academy on parade. It was Founder's Day, and the student band was playing, and banners were waving in the autumn breeze. One of the banners, held proudly above the heads of the marching stu- dents, had printed across it, in bold letters, "Labor conquers every- thing." As Brother Kirkham caught sight of this inscription, he turned to me and remarked, "Labor does not conquer everything. There are many things that can only be accomplished by faith." Then with emphasis, "faith should be the big word in Church school education." "Faith" is and should be the "big word," not only in Church school education, but in all Church work. When Joseph Smith said, "Faith is the foundation of all righteousness," he uttered one of the most profound religious truths. Faith is the mainspring of human endeavor. It is the heart of hope, the soul of morality, and the chief cornerstone of character. It is the moral gravity that holds the soul in the orbit of truth. Faith is the soul's shield and garment, woven by God's Spirit of the warp and woof of sen- timent and truth. Faith is mightier than reason. At the outer edge of known fact reason halts, but faith goes boldly on and discovers new truth that the eye has not seen nor ear heard. Faith is the only bridge that spans the chasm between the known and the unknown. If the inventors, explorers and discoverers had been agnostics, most of modern history would still be unwritten. It was faith, not reason, that marked Columbus' path across the Atlantic. It was faith, not knowledge, that impelled Morse to experiment, and experiment, until telegraphy became an accomplished fact. In the realm of

religion, faith is manifestly the "Key to knowledge too rare." In spite of Job's challenge,"Canst thou by searching find out God?" men of science have gone on striving to reason their way to God, and then, in their desperation, have exclaimed with Tyndal, "If you present God as a poem I will believe it, but as a fact I reject it." But Saints having faith stronger than sight, have through prayer and devotion found God to be very near, and the faithful unvarying "rewarder of those who diligently seek him." Reason is sometimes destructive, faith is always constructive. Reason is sometimes arrogant and proud faith always bows in ;

humble submission to the will of Him whose laws are just and true. Faith is the assurance of the actuality of the unseen and un- known. It knits the future into the present and makes spiritual laws as real as the laws of nature. It is through faith that the gospel becomes "the power of God unto salvation." The gospel is more than a system of ethics de- fining man's duty to man it not only holds before man the highest ;

conception of human destiny, but it also imparts to its devotees the faith which becomes the power to work out that destiny. Those who claim that religion is no better than man's philosophy, often tell us that Confucius before Christ gave the Golden Rule of conduct. If the contention of these critics is well founded, it need only be said that it is Christ, not Confucius, who imparts the spiritual power to do unto others as we would have others do unto us. In spite of Dr. Charles Eliot's conclusion, that, "The new religion will not teach that character is likely to be suddenly changed," it is the common experience of the elders of the Church, who have performed foreign missionary service, that people who truly become converted to the gospel receive the faith that com- pletely transforms their lives. The writer recalls a man in Georgia, of some prominence and more than ordinary intelligence, who, prior to his acceptance of the gospel smoked, drank, profaned and gave way to bad temper who, when he received the faith the ;

gospel imparts, immediately abandoned all his bad habits and be- came, and lived and died a saint. Vital faith in the immutability of divine law and the infalli- bility of God's promises, is the most powerful force for righteous- ness in the world. There is no deduction of science or conclusion of the philosopher that has so much restraining and controlling- power on human conduct as the divine mandate, "This is the way, walk ye in it." In spite of the positive conclusion of science that the use of tobacco is injurious to health, we frequently see doctors walking the streets smoking cigars and even cigarettes, while men walking side by side with them, who cannot explain scientifically the effect of nicotine upon muscle or nerve fiber, but who believe iti the "Word of Wisdom," neither smoke nor chew. How can

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this be ? There is only one answer. Real, vital faith in the word of God is a mightier power for right living than the wisest words of the wisest men. Many who doubt the divinity of Christianity, point to the present crumbling and crashing of European civilization as proof of the failure of the teachings of the Nazarene. But these critics are unjust. This fearful clashing of maddened human hoards is only a demonstration of the impotence of faithless, Godless theol- ogy. It furnishes proof of the futility of man's efforts to establish enduring civilization without building upon the chief cornerstone, the fatherhood of God. Those who have gloried in this vaunted European civilization should now humbly acknowledge that "the inspiration of the Almighty giveth man understanding," and that man's understanding without the "inspiration of the Almighty," is nothing to boast about. European civilization has not failed because Europe has been without religion. She has had a religion which has dwindled from the dynamic "faith once delivered to the Saints," to a mere senti- ment, devoid of the wonder-working power of faith. The nations of Europe have departed from the ways of peace because they have not been held in closeness to God and truth by that faith which was made invincible by the confirmation of miracles, which nerved the primitive Saints to endure bonds, prisons and death for the name of the Master. If these warring nations had soul-rooted faith in Him who said, "My kingdom is not of this world," would they now be making the rivers of a continent run blood in the name of worldly pomp and power? If they doubted not the mighty fact of Christ's mission would they have forgotten that he was the Prince of Peace ? Those who believe that the "torch of reason" is a better guide than faith, refuse to "walk by faith," because they are required to receive the word of God upon the testimony of others. A bright young lawyer, in conversation with the writer said, "I don't want any priest to tell me my duty to God. One man knows as much about religion as another." I asked my friend, "What would you think of a farmer who, after receiving your opinion on a technical, legal question should exclaim, T will not accept your opinion one man knows as much about law as another?' Really, would you not think you had earned your fee?" My friend assured me that he thought he would have taken the money. It is no more rational to say that "one knows as much about religion as another," than it is to say. one man knows as much about medicine or engineering as another. And notwithstanding Dr. Eliot's assertion that there is a "decline of reliance upon abso- lute authority," there is a marked increase of tendency in business, industry, and even farming, to be guided by the conclusions of experts. What is an expert? He is a person upon whose au-

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thority we accept certain statements as facts, because of his supe- rior knowledge of an experience in the subject matter. Might there not be spiritual experts? Who shall say that a prophet who has spent a lifetime in devotion to God and the study of his ways is not truly an expert upon whose authority we would be justified,

and even obligated to receive the word of God Faith is the very life of religion through which it becomes and is God's soul-molding force in the world. But religion, dis- associated with the idea of special divine providence, is a mere sentiment. Where there are no miracles there is no faith, and where there is no faith there is no vital soul-saving religion. The Christ plainly taught that the manifestation of the power of God through him, in the work he did that human ingenuity and skill cannot do, was the very insignia of his calling and priesthood. He made the working of miracles the very test of the divinity of his mission. To the messenger sent to him by John the Baptist to inquire if he was the Messiah, Jesus said, "Tell John the sick are healed, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life." Why send such a message to the Baptist? So that he would know that Jesus was the Christ, by the fact that he had power over the issues of life and death that are beyond the might of man. In God's great latter-day work, faith, confirmed and made vital by new revelations of God's unvarying willingness to answer the soul's cry for truth, with truth, has been and is the soul-im- pelling and controlling power through which God has worked out, and is working out, the destiny of modern Israel. "Mormonism" was born of the undoubting faith that God will answer prayer. From the first vision of the Prophet Joseph Smith to the last in- stance of special divine intervention in the lives of the Latter-day Saints, the whole history of the Saints has been the history of the triumph of faith revivified by modern evidences of the infallibility of the Master's promise, "Ask and ye shall receive." Some men who behold the splendid achievements of the Latter-day Saints exclaim, "The 'Mormons' are a great people." But those who look deep into the history of the Saints say, in their souls, "What hath God wrought!" When gold was discovered in California, Mark Twain, who was then living in New England, with others, caught the gold fever and started for the new El Dorado. On his way, he stopped in Salt Lake City a few days. There was one circumstance about the Saints which wrote itself deep in the brain of the great humor- ist. He noticed with astonishment that the Saints, although sev- New eral thousand miles nearer the gold fields, than the people of England, remained peacefully and contentedly at the foot of the Wastch mountains. In his notes to Roughing It, he wrote of this circumstance:

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"Neither hunger, thirst, poverty, grief, hatred, contempt, nor perse- cution could drive the 'Mormons' from their faith or their allegiance and even the thirst for gold, which gleaned the flower of the youth and strength of many nations, was not able to entice them! That was the final test, an experiment that could survive that, was an experiment with some substance to it somewhere."

Ah, yes, Mr. Twain, you spoke more truthfully than you knew. It is too bad that you did not find, as others have found, that the name of the "substance" in the "Mormon" experiment is Truth ! It is unfortunate that you did not find, as others have found, that the power in "Mormonism" which is stronger than the lure of gold, is faith, sublime faith, anchored to the rock of reve- lation, which was, is, and always will be the enduring strength of the Church

Somewhere Today

Somewhere, today, you've a mother, my boy. Somewhere, near by or afar And if she is all that a mother should be, Is she not your guiding star?

Somewhere, today, you've a mother, my boy, Mayhaps who once taught you to pray. When you knelt by her knee at the bedtime hour. Your childish petitions to say.

Somewhere, today, you've a mother, my boy. Although she be not upon earth ;

Somewhere, today, you've a mother, my boy, Whose agony gave to you birth.

Somewhere, today, you've a mother, my boy. Who trusts you as none others do E'en if for bread you've given but stones, Methinks she is pleading for you.

Then, oh! today, for that mother, my boy. Who gave of her best unto you. Place o'er your heart the emblem so pure,* In honor of motherhood true. Grate Ingles Frost.

*The white carnation.