Mothers’ Day in the U. S. A.

THE CONTACT 631

close vital contact with God, the source of all moral power can give this victory." This aged man's conclusions suggest the Grecian myth concerning the giant Anteas, whose strength was doubled every time he touched mother earth, and who was finally conquered by Hercules because he lost contact with the earth. The myth holds more than a grain of truth. Contact with the source of power is the only way to conquer. Break the wire that unites the buzzing machine in the mill, with the dynamo, in the distant canyon, and the machine instantly stops. Sever the connection between the electric lamp in your room and the source of the electric current, and your light goes out. Let man become estranged from God, and he immediately loses the spiritual life which alone gives mastery over the foes of the soul. It was left for Joseph Smith to discover for modern man the way to come into vital touch with the living God. At the age of fourteen he became intensely concerned about his soul's salvation. He wanted to know which was the true church. The preachers could not satisfy his yearning for certainty on a matter so important. Their indefinite and conflicting speculations only bewildered his youthful mind. In the midst of his mental disquietude he read God's promise of wisdom to those who "ask in faith." With perfect confidence in the promise, he decided to put it to the test. He went into a nearby grove and prayed. His sincere prayer prevailed. God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to him; and the Son, after being introduced by the father, gave instructions to the boy. That day, ninety-nine years ago, this boy made the greatest discovery of modern times. He discovered the power of faith, the only power that can give man the same mastery over the forces of evil that science has given man over the forces of nature. With the undoubting faith which this boy found and revealed to man, and by this alone, can man become "more than conqueror" in this world, cursed by "vaulting ambition," corrupting impurity, and corroding narcotics. The story of this boy's triumphant faith is the most thrilling incident in modern annals. There is life, light and inspiration in it. It is the beacon of hope that lights the way across the dark chasm which ages of ignorance and superstition have placed between man and God. Tens of thousands of true-hearted men and women who have heard this story have gone in quest of the knowledge of God with a sincerity and fervor so genuine that they have received that witness of God's Spirit which has made them so certain of God's existence, the divinity of Christ's mission, and the reality of the future life, that the besetting evils of this world have lost all power over them.