Spiritual Training Indispensable in Education

Spiritual Training Indispensable in Education* By Alice Louise Reynolds, Professor of English Literature, Brigham Young University

We are living in a world of one thought. Whatever seemed of importance before the outbreak of the present war has sunk into comparative insignificance. Legislative bodies, the daily press, weekly and monthly magazines, the colleges, the vast in- dustrial plants, organized bodies of women throughout the world, are placing their highest productiveness at the disposal of those whose business it is to conduct the present war. Legislative bodies meet in prolonged sessions, and vote inconceivable sums of money; the daily press devotes its front pages to war news; the magazines keep conspicuous persons of the time and important war movements in the limelight; the etory of the boy in the trenches and the story of the boy in the aviation corps are the stories of the hour. Many of the best- known colleges have well nigh given an entire graduation class to the colors. Women's organizations have put aside their reg- ular work and are devoting themselves to conservation, Red Cross work, and other lines of national service. Yet the forerunner of all these war-like preparations was the most intensive work for peace. Men and women were wrought upon in many ways to work for it. Theodore Roose- velt, while yet President of the United States, did much toward negotiating peace between Russia and Japan. Presidents Taft and Wilson have each held peace in his heart of hearts. Ed- ward VII, of Great Britain, was signalized as the Peace King. The most important tributes paid him at the time of his death held in mind his great service to this cause. Plans were under way to erect a peace monument to his memory, when the pres- ent war broke out. Sir Edward Grey, Britain's great foreign sec- retary, had peace on the lead in his policy of state. William Jennings Bryan, United States Secretary of State, signed and pro- moted many peace pacts among nations. Mr. Edwin Ginn placed much of his large fortune on the altar, financing the work of David Starr Jordan whom he be- lieved to be the most able lecturer on peace in America ; and also

*From a brochure published by the Brigham Young University.

SPIRITUAL TRAINING 151

the very comprehensive work of Fanny Fern Andrews in the schools. Even after the war began, Mr. Henry Ford conducted, at his own expense, a peace party to Europe, in the hope that the ravages of war might yet be stayed. A very large amount of Andrew Carnegie's fortune has been devoted to obtaining and maintaining peace. The International Council of Women held peace meetings under its auspices and passed peace resolutions. Every state had its peace committee of influential citizens. The Hague tribunal met periodically at The Hague. It seemed the very irony of fate that the Peace Palace situated in the beautiful forest of The Hague should have been completed so near the outbreak of the present war. Book stalls in every land were flooded with peace books. Peace had its essayists, novelists, and writers of drama. George Bernard Shaw, the most brilliant of modern playwrights, has satirized and ridiculed war as only George Bernard Shaw can satirize and ridicule anything. The stage setting was for peace, the curtain parted, and lo, to the utter amazement, disappoint- ment, disgust and horror of the civilized world, the play was war! One by one, the men who had elected to play peace roles were drawn into the vortex of war, and the women who had hoped that their sons might be permitted to pursue the paths of peace, in citizen's attire, are daily forced to greet their boys in khaki. Theodore Roosevelt importuned the government for the privilege of leading an expedition to France; William Howard Taft announced long ago that the peace organization with which he was affiliated would devote itself to the defense of the na- tion; Woodrow Wilson, after a series of negotiations with Ger- many, decided that in defense of the principles of Democracy, America must enter the war. No peace monument has been builded to Edward VII. Sir Edward Grey found himself forced country. Wil- to handle a most difficult war situation for his Bryan resigned his portfolio, fearful lest he might liam Jennings pacts and be compelled to do things at variance with his peace who talked peace are either silent or his conscience. Those broken urging devotion in the present contest; Andrew Carnegie, in spirit, because nothing could be done to stop the present war, is reported to be in verv precarious health; while much of the money of the Carnegie Peace Foundation is being expended to war efficiency. publish and distribute books written to promote been offered to the government tor the Mr Ford's factory has of a peace con- manufacture of ammunition; while the thought made the butt of a joke, or is ference at The Hague is either attention of a public the last and least of thoughts to catch the eager for war news.

—

152 IMPROVEMENT ERA

Yet all this is precisely as the prophets of God have fore- told that it would be. The Latter-day Saints missionaries have for many years proclaimed these things to the very ends of the earth. The very first section, 35th verse, in the book of Doctrine and Covenants states that peace shall be taken from the earth. Taken, literally, so it would seem, for while all men appeared to desire peace, peace fled from among them. Not a ruler in the wide world but who denied the desire to precipitate war; while it was abundantly manifest to those who followed closely the

opening scenes of the present war that many were the ministers of state who struggled titanically to avert it. But though all else fail the word of the Lord cannot fail, and God has warned and forewarned his people of the advent of war, declaring that war should be poured out on all nations. Then, too, it is quite evident that other prophecies, familiar to the Latter-day Saints, are finding their fulfilment in whole or in part in the days in which we now live. Often has it been pre- dicted that in the last days thrones should totter and kings should topple from their thrones. During the present war, covering a period of three years, we have to record the abdication of Czar Nicholas II of the Russians; Constantine of Greece; Nicholas Petrovich, the old king of Montenegro, whose crown is lost at least for a season; King Ferdinand of Rumania; Peter, King of Serbia, who was the second king to lose his crown during the present war; and the King of Hedjaz, formerly Sherif of Mecca. To this list might be added a group of monarchs, whose abdication so closely preceded the present war that the matter is within the memory of practically all persons now living. In this group we would mention Manuel II of Portugal; Otto of Ba- A r aria, deposed in '93; Abdul Hamid II, once Sultan of Turkey;

and the Emperor of China. Rather a formidable list, we take it, in the very short period of time covered — nor does anyone feel that the end is yet. Another example of the exactness with which prophecy is being fulfilled is to be found in the 61st section and 15th verse of the Doctrine and Covenants, wherein it says, "Wherefore the day will come when no flesh will be safe upon the waters." Revelation given to Joseph Smith the Prophet, August 12, 1831. The wholesale destruction of the merchant marine of the worM by German U-boats has certainly brought this to pass. To have a knowledge of the word of God, and to believe the word of God is much. To know that God's word fails not even in that which we would so gladly put out of our individual lives, and out of the civilization of which we form a part, is to be equally certain that all promises for good and the triumph of righteousness in the earth are sure.

SPIRITUAL TRAINING 153

This knowledge, that is balm and healing to our souls, and a lamp in the dark to our feet, science, sociology, art, or other avenues by which men come to knowledge of truth, cannot give. This knowledge can only be had through study and such spiritual quickening as come to the souls of men and women who enjoy the companionship of His Holy Spirit. With this no other knowledge can compare. Those places where the spiritual life can be nurtured and made to grow are valuable above all other places. No other thing is so completely indispensable to the life of man when viewed in the broad sense, as this same spir- itual life; and no other thing is so completely indispensable to his education. To turn to another phase of our subject that threatens to touch practically every fire-side: In this hour when husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons, are everywhere joining the army; under these circumstances, infinitely trying to all concerned, where do we turn for support? Instinctively we seek to know and to find out what has been the history in the past, under sim- ilar circumstances. Instantly, we call to mind the story of the two thousand Nephite boys; the story of the young men of the Latter-day Saints who enlisted for service in the Civil War; the story of the young men of Israel who did service in that war that annexed the Mexican territory to the United States. No one can believe that the arm of the Lord is short, and that he will do less for his children of the present than he has done for those of the past, provided they are as deserving of his protection. This done, we would know if the prophets of today have any message for the soldier boy, and we read these words from a discourse delivered by President Joseph F. Smith at a con- ference, June 10, 1917: "My boy, my son, when you go out to face the disasters that are now afflicting the world, go out as you do on a mission; be just as good and pure and true in the army of the United States, as you are in the army of the elders of Israel that are preaching the gospel of love and peace in the world. Then, if you unavoidably fall a prey to the bullet of the enemy you will go pure as you have lived; you will be worthy of your reward; you will have proved yourself a hero, and not only a hero, but a valiant servant of the living God; worthy of his acceptation and of admission into the loving presence of the Father." "If our boys will only go out into the world this way, car- rying with them the spirit of the gospel, and the behavior of true Latter-day Saints, no matter what may befall them in life, they will endure with the best. They will be able to endure as much as anyone else can possibly endure of fatigue or of suffering, if necessary, and when they are brought to the test they will stand

!

15*1 IMPROVEMENT ERA

it! They will be free from fear of the consequences of their own lives. They will have no need to dread death, for they have done their work; they have kept the faith; they are pure in heart, and they are worthy to see God!" And now, we would call attention to the peace that reigns in President Smith's own heart, even with the knowledge that his own sons and loved ones may be called to the front: "We hear about living in perilous times; we are in peril- ous times, but I do not feel the pangs of that terror. It is not upon me. I propose to live so that it will not rest upon me." Think of the calm, the repose, that rests in the heart of President Smith; truly he is at rest in Christ. Who dare say that he has not chosen the better part in choosing the spir- itual life? Yet President Smith has no monopoly on this calm, but it is to all thosewho will accept of the word of God and do his will even as President Smith has done it. Is not this thing beyond all price? How magnificently does his state of mind contrast with the many, many people to whom life is a burden The Declaration of Independence may recognize as man's inalienable rights, the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; but only the gospel of Jesus Christ can give life, and that more abundantly; liberty, that really makes one free; hap- piness, that is a fulness of joy. Are not these things essential and indispensable to education? Provo, Utah

PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH With his automobile company, on their recent trip south. Taken on the steps of the Manti Temple.