--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Bennion, Adam S. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 24 number: 10 published: 1921-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Adam S. Bennion, "The Church as an Ideal Institution", *Improvement Era* 24, no. 10 (August 1921): 880–890.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera24010unse 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: improvementera24010unse start_page: 880 end_page: 890 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1921-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera24010unse publication_year: 1921 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 1921, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Church as an Ideal Institution The Church as an Ideal Institution5 By Elder Adam S. Bennion, Superintendent of Church Schools My brethren and sisters. — I pray, in humility, that I may enjoy the spirit of this occasion, that I may be attuned to the beautiful things we have heard thus far. As I dwell with you upon those things that have come to us out of the past, if I may indulge a little liberty with the topic, I should like to address myself, sustained by your faith and prayers, to "The Church as a Church of Ideals." A Heritage of Latter-day Saint Ideals The Church has builded us an empire. It has given us this and many other beautiful buildings. Wherever we travel in its established stakes we enjoy its wonderful contribution to us in material and physical things. But above all these things, we here tonight enjoy a heritage beyond compare, — a heritage of Latter-day Saint ideals. I was impressed with the stanzas of that hymn by W. W. Phelpst, as they were recited tonight: There is no end to virtue, There is no end to might, There is no end to wisdom, There is no end to light. There is no end to union, There is no end to youth, There is no end to priesthood, There is no end to truth. Moral Condition of Young Men and Women It is timely that we address ourselves tonight to the ques- tion of Latter-day Saint ideals. Seven years ago the world was keyed up to a wonderfully fine pitch because of the patri- otic response to the call to arms. Men fought nobly, and women sacrificed nobly, until peace was declared. There has been the inevitable aftermath of war, and the nations of the world now suffer from the relapse spiritually, emotionally, that always follows a war. I have been impressed within the past month by press articles. If you turn to the Literary Digest, *Delivered at the M. I. A. Conference, June 12, 1921. tSee L. D. S. Hymn Book, p. 252. THE CHURCH AS AN IDEAL INSTITUTION 881 you will find that each number for May has at least one strik- ing article on the moral condition of our young men and women. There are those who believe the boys and girls of America are going cross-lots, at a terrific pace, to the nether regions; there are those who believe the youth of America today are a finer collection of young men and women than could have been found at any other time. It must be apparent to everybody that there is a good bit of carelessness and indifference in the world. The condition has been rather happily summed up, I think, in this little skit with reference to the ladies: They used to wrap heir hair in knobs Fantastic, high, and queer, But now they cut it short, in bobs, Or curl it 'round their ear. The skirts they wore would scrape the street, And catch the dust and germs; They're now so far above their feet, They're not on speaking terms. The things they do and wear today, And never bat an eye, Would make their dear old grandpas gray, — They'd curl right up and die. And the condition is not confined to our young men and women. Read the article in the Literary Digest, for May 7. "America is leading the world in divorce." I find Utah, our own state, quoted as having one divorce for every 7.61 marriages. I find in that article that there are six counties in five states in America where there are more divorces than marriages. The May 14th issue raises the question, "Is the younger generation in peril?" And the article clearly points out that the young men and women of America today are facing perils. The issue of May 21st is even stronger; it gives the religious press com- ments on youthful morals — comments very vigorous in de- nouncing modern tendencies in the dance, in dress, in manners and in morals. It is as if we could agree with James, the noted psychologist, when he said, "It would seem that we cannot have anything but we must have too much of it" — unless it may be in the matter of dress, and perhaps he was not so concerned with it in his day as we are in ours. I find in the Digest, for May 28, rather a wholesome tone. There is an article in that issue which declares that at Har- vard University no student now will be given his A. B. degree unless he shall pass a satisfactory examination in the Bible. It is being introduced elsewhere in the hope that it may tone down the American tendency to frivolity and carelessness. I 882 IMPROVEMENT ERA am reminded of the articles that came out in the Atlantic Monthly, in September, 1920, and the months to follow. From one end of this land to another, you will hear great alarm ex- pressed about the condition of our young people. I presume we can concede it. Our Forefathers Held Together Through Persecution Our forefathers, in the days of the Prophet Joseph, were held together through persecution; they stood firm by the prin- ciples of the gospel, because persecution held them together. They came out here with Brigham Young, and in their iso- lation and their hardship they held close to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now we live no longer in isolation; we are thrown into the world, almost of the world. Inevitably we shall face some problems they did not use to face. We Face Great Problems, But There is Light Ahead I presume it will always be true that each succeeding gen- eration is a little out of sympathy with the generation that pre- ceded, perhaps with the generation that is to follow. At any rate, it is clear that we today face problems that are as great as have ever been faced in the history of the world. Do not think I am going to get pessimistic; I am optimistic, entirely so. I think I may indulge the new definition of optimism — I have quoted it rather frequently; it was given us back in At- lantic City: "An optimist is a man who can see a light where there ain't none; and a pessimist is some darn fellow that comes along and blows it out." I am optimistic enough tonight to be sure there are lights to be seen ahead, lights in this prob- lem of the welfare of the young men and women of this age. During the last month it has been my good fortune to see more than three hundred young men and women graduated from high schools and other institutions; I want to give it as my testimony here tonight that while there may be some young men and women in the world failing because of carelessness, and others who are indifferent, there are at least three hundred young men and women who stand up in purity and in honor throughout this good land, children of the Latter-day Saints, who are clean and sweet and pure, graduated from institutions of learning pledged to the support of this Church. I give it as my testimony tonight that there is hope in the youth of Israel, and it will be my happy lot to hold up to them to- night, through you, the ideals, as I conceive them, in this Church of ours which will make them even stronger men and women — the nobility of this land as their fathers and their mothers have been. THE CHURCH AS AN IDEAL INSTITUTION 883 Logic That is More Dangerous Than Persecution We need to hold to those ideals now as never before in the Church. I say we are almost of the world. We no longer are isolated, and our young men and women are being met on every side with that kind of logic that is far more danger- ous than persecution. I have no fear that the world will come against us in persecution and convert our boys and girls; — my fear is that in the easiness of modern life they may listen to the palpable arguments of men and women not of us. I have heard it said dozens of times recently, "It doesn't make any dif- ference what church you belong to." Our boys and girls are hearing these arguments: "You might as well be a Methodist as a Latter-day Saint;" "It doesn't make any difference whether you are a Catholic or a Christian Scientist;" "We are all going to the same place; it doesn't mat- ter what road we take." Tonight we have the problem of going out to Magna from this building as a starting place, it doesn't make any difference what road we follow; we may go down south to 33rd, and west; or we may go out on the Saltair road to the junction there, and drop down to Magna — it doesn't make any difference. It is Magna we want to go to. Or, if we want to go to Los Angeles, it does not make any difference whether we go over the Salt Lake Route, the Southern Pacific, or the Western Pacific; we leave the same town, and arrive at the Pacific coast. One of America's leading writers, who was in this city and delighted us with his poetry a short time ago, gave expression to the same idea. "Mr. Bennion," he said, "I cannot quite agree with you in your philosophy of 'Mormonism,' but that ought not to concern us much, because we are all headed for the same place; we all want salvation, and therefore, since we are all going to get together up there, it does not make much difference that you go one way and I another. You know as well as I that if we were going out of Chicago to New York, it would not matter if we took the Pennsylvania, or the Balti- more and Ohio, or the Lake Erie, or the Wabash ; in the course of a day or two, we would both get into New York. And so with churches; it doesn't make any difference." That is the kind of argument that I feel alarm for in the case of young men and women. I give it as my testimony here tonight that "It does make a difference." Ridiculous and Fallacious Arguments The argument of the roads begs the question; it assumes that all the roads are equally good. I grant you that in the hurried world of business, the roads are much alike; but the analogy generally is fallacious. I ask my friends to consider two 884 IMPROVEMENT ERA possible roads; one paved and the other cut up with chucks; which would they take? I ask them to fancy a road clearly defined and paved; and another one, with a big chasm along the way over which there is no bridge. Which road would they take? I ask them, even in the matter of trains, "Suppose you had your two trains, but one of them did not have any steam in the engine. Which train would you ride?" There are churches in these days that, while they have the rails and the cars, have not the steam, have not the Priesthood of God to drive their trains through to salvation. I have not time here tonight to follow that argument; it strikes me as ridiculous; I find that it is not true. Men can- not be converted to that sort of thing. It is as if these young women were proposed to by the young men who wanted to build them a home. Fancy the girl who would say, "It doesn't make any difference what kind of a home I have. All I want is a house, an adobe shack, a frame building, or a seven-room bungalow, it makes no difference!" Or it is as if the man with unlimited funds who wants to buy an automobile should say, it doesn't make any difference whether he takes a Ford or a Buick or a Hudson or a Pierce Arrow; they all have four wheels; they all run by gas, and they all take him over the same road; he might as well choose one as another. Find such a man. I believe that, in this great trip of life, we ought to pick that car which we know will take us through most safely, most certainly unto the greatest heights— will win us salvation and exaltation. I give it, my brothers and sisters, as my testimony, here tonight, that that car is the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat- ter-day Saints. Some of the Ideals of the Church That testimony rests among other things upon the fact that this is a Church of ideals. I cannot name them all, but in the little time we shall be here, I should like to call your attention to a few which have ennobled the lives of our forefathers and made this Church what it is today: / — Loyalty One of the keynotes of this convention has been loyalty. It has been treated in a most masterful way by the superintend- ent of this organization. Loyalty has always been an ideal of this Church and is today and shall always be. I was interested, the other day, in reading an account of the first Pioneer celebration that was held in this valley, in 1849. I find that the Saints were proud then to have made, out THE CHURCH AS AN IDEAL INSTITUTION 885 of imported material, a flag 65 feet long, which was carried in that procession, because the Saints were loyal to the gov- ernment, which had permitted them to be ousted from their former homes. I read in that same program that the Con- stitution of the United States, and the Declaration of Independ- ence, were presented to President Brigham Young in the Bowery, and he led the Saints in three cheers, that the Consti- tution might live forever, — their loyalty pledged to the Con- stitution and this great government of ours! Illustrations of Loyalty I was glad to know that President Ivins spoke to the sub- ject of loyal citizenship as an objective, as a goal, as an ideal of our good people. If there is any man who could well talk to that subject, it is President A. W. Ivins. Out here from New Jersey, in 1855; settling in Dixie, in 1861; called there- after to go into Mexico on a mission, and called a second time into New Mexico, on a mission to the Indians. After all that, he then came back to St. George, honored there with a posi- tion in the Stake Presidency. Politically favored and fortun- ate, he had served a term in this state legislature of ours, was made a member of the Constitutional Convention, and in the year 1895, when all these things were his, when he was looked to as the father of the southern end of this state, then came a call to leave it all and go down into Mexico, as the remark was passed, "Into that God-forsaken country." I have often been reminded of a line that I heard in a play once, and it is exemplified beautifuly here tonight in the super- intendency of this organization. Mexico may have been a re- mote and unpromising country, but it proved not to be a God- forsaken country. The play to which I refer had this striking situation. A young man, disinherited, forced to leave the East, determined that he would go out West, into Wyoming, to make a stake, and go back and win her whom he was anxious to win. She got the news that he was going,- and while I presume she did not tell him so, she let it be known that she would not have him go out alone. She was made of the same good stuff that prompted him to go out and win her. The fact is, she consented to go, and they laid their plans accordingly. When the girls of the club with whom she had been associated heard of her de- cision, they said: "Mollie, we cannot believe it; we thought you had pretty good sense, but now to leave it all, leave the club, the city, and all else and go out into Wyoming into that God-forsaken coun- try! What is the matter?" She turned to them — and I shall always remember her 886 IMPROVEMENT ERA speech: "Girls," she said, "there is no country God-forsaken, except the country in which man forsakes his God." Loyal to his call, loyal to this Church, President Ivins re- sponded, went into Mexico, made it a country where those men and women could worship God, and through that service, lifted himself, until today we honor him as the Superintendent of this organization and a member in the First Presidency of the Church. Loyalty always has been a keynote in this State of ours. My brethren and sisters — and may I speak as one of the third generation of Latter-day Saints, concerning whom doubts have been expressed? — I believe the young men and women of this Church do stand loyally today; I am sure if they were called to stand, they would arise. We are called, but often we cannot suspect the call. There are rumors, there are reports, there are those in this Church today following careless rumors, in- dulging in independent thinking — so-called, — young men and women and older men and women setting up their judgment. They sustain the Presidency of this Church, as President Grant has often so happily said, "whenever it is convenient for them to do it." I plead with the young men and women of this Church to stand by the ideal that has always characterized "Miormonism" — loyalty to God's servants here and now — not to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young merely, but to those who guide our destinies today. I believe it is an ideal just as im- perative now as ever before. Very much could be said on that ideal but I must pass on. // — Personal Purity and Chastity I find that a second great ideal to which this Church has always been dedicated is the ideal of personal purity. I was im- pressed, this afternoon, when President Grant gave as his mes- sage to the young people of the Church, that they should be- lieve in Joseph Smith, keep the commandments, and particularly should they keep themselves clean. He discussed, at some length, the importance of abstinence from tobacco. I believe that young Latter-day Saints should subscribe to that ideal of personal purity. Some Good Men Smoke — but the Saints Stand Above that Goodness These lines struck me as I heard them recently on a trip through Arizona. They emphasize that it is an ideal not only of our Church, but of all nature : I have walked in summer meadows, where the sunbeams flashed and broke, iBut I have never seen the sheep nor cattle nor horses smoke; THE CHURCH AS AN IDEAL INSTITUTION 887 I have watched the birds with wonder, when the grass with dew was wet, But I've never seen a robin puffing at a cigarette. I have fished in many rivers, when the sucker crop was ripe, But I've never seen a catfish pulling at a briar pipe; Man is the only living creature, who pervades this vale of tears, Who like a blooming threshing engine puffs smoke from nose and ears. If Dame Nature had intended, when she first invented man, That he would have smoked, she'd have built him on a widely different plan; She would have built him with a stove-pipe and a grate, And he would have had a smoke-consumer, strictly up to date. As it has been pointed out here today, there are good men who smoke, but the Latter-day Saints stand above that good- ness; they dedicate themselves to a principle, the purity of which forbids that we smoke. I cannot conceive the Master of the world smoking, nor any of his prophets. I would that we could stand upon an ideal of personal purity that our young men would be too proud to smoke — proud of their ideals handed down by their forefathers. We stand for the ideal of chastity, and always have done so. Thanks to the teaching of good mothers all down the pages of our history, "I'd rather have you dead than impure." That is the kind of teaching passed on by our pioneers. God grant that we shall continue to have it. An Illustration I was called into a home, not so long ago, to see whether or not something could not be done to help a certain young man. Upon investigation, I found the secret of the whole trouble lay in the fact that there was a mother who had lost sight of her ideal, had married not only out of the Church, but had married out of her ideals, married a man untrue to truth, untrue to her, and she now faces a problem of life with family on her hands, wondering how she can give to them the ideals from which they seem to be slipping. I would that all the young men and women in this Church would marry in the temple of the Lord, and there pledge themselves to that most sacred vow, that they will keep themselves unspotted, chaste and pure, one for the other, throughout all time, to pass on this second great ideal of the "Mormon" Church. /// — Service to Our Fellows I would like to name, (merely name and pass on), as a third ideal, the ideal of service to our fellows. I was impressed in reading a little pioneer history the other day to find that when the Prophet Brigham Young came here with that first 888 IMPROVEMENT ERA company, he was not guided by an ambition to rule here; he had scarcely recovered from his sickness when he turned to go back to help to see that others could come to enjoy Zion. I marvel at our missionaries, who go out and come back trans- formed, almost spiritually translated. Why? Because they fol- low that great injunction of the Master, "If you would be great, be the servant of all." Service to others is the great keynote to growth and to happiness; it is service that dominates the missionary. It is service that has enabled one of the young men of Utah to stamp himself upon the good Saints and other good people of California. Claude Cornwall, I am proud of my association with him, small though he may be, has gone into California and written his name on the hearts of men and women down there because he has gone out to serve. Service — the service of our scouts, the service that young men and women will find is the key to the chest of happiness. IV — Glory of Progress Toward Perfection, with Illustrations But I must pass on. I'd like to dwell just for a minute on a fourth ideal that I think stamps itself upon every great leader we have had. I think, perhaps I can make it clear by reference to one or two men. Last Tuesday morning commence- ment exercises were held in the largest educational institution in this state, in which a particular man was honored. After he had delivered his speech upon that occasion, he was so applauded that he was called the second time, and while nothing was said, except through handclapping, you could read it on the faces of all those people there that they loved and honored that man. A little later in the day, he was presented with a diploma in- dicating that there had been conferred upon him the degree LL.D. I was reminded that only back in 1872, that man was born in far-off Norway. Twelve years later he came out here, moved to Logan with his brother and a widowed mother. I have not the time here tonight to tell the story of his rise through hardship and poverty; how he went through the Brigham Young College and later to Harvard, and later to Germany; came back, qualified as a teacher, stood as the head of the Ag- ricultural College of this state, came next to be the president of the University of Utah, and now stands a member of this General Board, and stands today an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ in this last dispensation. John A. Widtsoe pictures for me tonight the fourth ideal I want to name, the glory of prog- ress toward perfection. I am impressed that we sit here tonight in the presence of a man born to poverty, the only son of a mother who was de- prived of the father of this boy when he was only nine days THE CHURCH AS AN IDEAL INSTITUTION 889 old. Up through struggle, up through hardship — a volume might be said here tonight in just recounting the climb of that boy out of poverty, by the ladder of character — until tonight we are proud to honor him with the highest position in this world, the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I find, wherever I turn, that it has been an ideal of ours, "The glory of God is intelligence." Men shall rise through manhood to Godhood. May the youth of Zion rise to all the possibilities that are theirs! V — Faith that Leads to Prayer and Action One further ideal and I am through. I think it is the crowning ideal of them all, the ideal that stands out above them all. I would that I had it in my power to instil it in the hearts of our young Latter-day Saints this world over. I heard an interesting remark the other day that cryslalized it. A good brother said, "In the good old days, when anybody took sick, we used to send for the elders; now when anybody takes sick, we send for the doctors." I heard a similiar remark from the president of one of the stakes in southern Utah recently. "What we need in the Church today is prayer, the kind of prayer that Brigham Young used to believe in when he said, 'Prayer will keep a man from sin, just as sin will keep a man from prayer.' " What we need today, and I think we need it as we have not done in a long time, is ideal number five: I call it faith in the living God, faith that inclines a man to prayer, faith that tells him that this gospel is the biggest thing in all the world, faith that tells him that we should seek first the King- dom of God and his righteousness, and all other things shall be added. An Affecting Illustration I have been delighted within the past two weeks to visit one of our schools in Idaho, the Ricks' Normal College. I be- lieve that institution is doing as much to promote faith among the young men and women of this Church as any other institu- tion we have. I sat there through their commencement pro- gram, and one meeting particularly thrilled me. The students and the faculty organized, in a rather unusual way, a testimony meeting, and for an hour and a half, sixty-one young men and women with an occasional testimony from a father or mother, stood up and bore testimony. There was scarcely a dry eye in the hall when a little girl, Helen Balem by name stood up. I give her testimony in conclusion because it speaks for all the youth of Israel. A young girl, whose father has been dead a 890 IMPROVEMENT ERA number of years, came over with her mother and a step-father from England and moved up into Idaho. She is now left there, the mother having gone to Canada. Her first contact with Latter-day Saints was in Idaho. She came home one day and told her mother she had heard a wonderful story; she had heard a story that seemed to be true — the real story of Jesus Christ; and when she told that it was the story of "Mormonism," the mother said, "You must not mention it again in this house; if you ever become a 'Mormon,' you will cease to be my daughter; you shall leave my home." "All right," said the girl, "I want the privilege of going to that school for two years. Let me study it until I am of age, and then I promise you that I will come to you, and not till then, to tell you about 'Mormonism.'" And that little English girl stood up, and with tears in her eyes, said, "I am looking forward to the day when I shall go to my mother and say, 'I have found the truth, God's truth, in the gospel of Jesus Christ.' I look forward to the day when I shall be graduated from this institution and can be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have faith that I shall be." As she sat down, she said, "Boys and girls, you ought to be proud of your fathers and mothers. Thank the Lord," she said, "that you have parents who teach you the truth of the gospel and have faith in what they teach." I would that every young man and woman could have that faith. God grant that we may live up to the ideals of our forefathers, that we, indeed, may be Latter-day Saints, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.