--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Grant, Heber J. 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: 'Heber J. Grant, "Significant Counsel to the Young People of the Church", *Improvement Era* 24, no. 10 (August 1921): 865–879.' 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: 865 end_page: 879 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. --- # Significant Counsel to the Young People of the Church Improvement era Vol. XXIV AUGUST, 1921 No. 10 Significant Counsel to the Young People of the Church * By President Heber J. Grant I have been reading, since the morning meeting, from the first number of the Improvement Era, published twenty-three years ago last November, Volume 1. No. 1, an article by Edward H. Anderson regarding the organization of the general board of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association. I find that on the 6th day of April, 1880, on nomination of President John Taylor, Apostle Wilford Woodruff was made the general super- intendent, with Joseph F. Smith and Moses Thatcher as his coun- selors, and with Junius F. Wells, Milton H. Hardy, Rodney C. Badger as assistants to the general superintendency, with Heber J. Grant as secretary and William S. Burton as treasurer. So that for forty-one years, last April, I have been associated a9 a general officer in the Mutual Improvement labors of the Lat- ter-day Saints, and I have had very great pleasure in these labors. I find in this same article a little remark regarding the object of the association that I shall not take your time to read. From the very first we have repeated again and again, and had it pub- lished very many times, the original statement made in the letter that was sent forth by President Brigham Young regarding The Object to be Accomplished in the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association "Let the keynote of your work be the mutual improvement of the youth, the establishment in the youth of an individual testimony of the truth and magnitude of the great latter day work, the development of the gifts within them that have been bestowed upon them by the laying on of the hands of the servants of God; cultivating a knowledge and an application ♦Delivered at the M. I. A. Conference, Sunday, June 12 1921. 866 IMPROVEMENT ERA of the eternal principles of the great science of life. And furthermore, that they may have an opportunity to be encouraged in bearing testimony to and speaking the truths of our holy religion. Let the consideration of these truths and principles be the ground-work and leading idea of every such association, and on this foundation of faith in God's great lat- ter day work let their members build all useful knowledge by which they may be useful in the establishment of his kingdom. (Signed) Brigham Young." I feel that the receiving of a testimony is the one great central object to be accomplished in these associations of our young men and young ladies. We, of course, seek after knowl- edge, light and intelligence and to inform ourselves upon all matters of importance. The glory of God, we have been told by the Prophet Joseph, is intelligence; and we desire to gain knowledge and to become as intelligent as we possibly can, but above and beyond all other things the fathers and the mothers in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints desire that their sons and daughters shall secure an abiding testimony, an absolute and a perfect knowledge regarding the divinity of the work in which we are engaged. That is of more value than any- thing else in this world, provided, of course, that those of us who receive that testimony, who obtain the knowledge that we are engaged in God's great work, abide therein and continue in the faith that this gospel, commonly called "Mormonism," is in very deed the plan of life and salvation; is in very deed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the plan of redemption for mankind. I feel that we cannot hark back too often to the foundation, so to speak, upon which these institutions have been builded and revert to the main, the central object for which they were or- ganized. I remember speaking, upon one occasion, in one of our great Church schools, and I said that I hoped it would never be forgotten that the one and only reason why there was any necessity for a Church school was to make Latter-day Saints. If it were only for the purpose of gaining secular knowledge or improving in art, literature, science and invention, so far as our information was concerned, and adding to it on these subjects, that there was no need of Church schools, because we could gain these things from our secular schools supported by the taxation of the people; and that we had an abundance of uses for all the means that the Church possesses, all the tithing that might come into our hands, without expending vast sums of money upon Church schools. But if we kept in our minds the one central thing, namely, the making of Latter-day Saints in our schools, then they would be fulfilling the object of their exist- ence. The amount of money expended would cut no figure at all, because we cannot value in dollars and cents the saving of a SIGNIFICANT COUNSEL TO YOUNG PEOPLE 867 single soul. I have remarked that if all our missionary labors in the great country of Germany, up to the day that Karl G. Maeser was converted, had been expended in vain and we had only captured that one great educator, it was worth all that had been expended up to that time. I remember upon one oc- casion remarking that if the Brigham Young University had done no more than to convert and graduate President Stephen L. Chipman, of the Alpine stake of Zion, it had accomplished enough to compensate us for the money expended there. If we can make Latter-day Saints of the boys and the girls who attend our Mutual meetings, and who take part in our programs, if we can fulfil this object as laid down by the founder of these as- sociations, President Brigham Young, and get a testimony, an abiding knowledge in the hearts of the youth of Zion regarding this work, then these associations will have justified themselve , and we will have the blessings of Almighty God upon our la- bors. Thousands have Received a Testimony Through the M. I. A. We find recorded in section 18, Doctrine and Covenants, reference to the calling of the Twelve Apostles, designating Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer as among those who were to choose them. We find recorded in that section: "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God ; "For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. • . . "And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance; "And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth. "Wherefore you are called to cry repentance unto this people; "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repent- ance unto this people, and bring save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father.' "And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me? I feel assured that there are hundreds, yes, that there are thousands of young Latter-day Saints men and women who have been brought to a knowledge of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who ha^e received the witness in their very hearts and souls of the divinity of this work, through these Mutual Im- provement Associations; therefore, we are in very deed fulfilling the object of the creation of these associations. // Ye Have Desires to Serve God, Ye are Called to Work I am convinced that our young people, in these associations, have come as near fulfilling one of the most splendid of all the 868 IMPROVEMENT ERA revelations contained in the Doctrine and Covenants, as any other people that are engaged in labor for the salvation of the souls of men. This is only a little short section of seven verses, and I will read it. It was given in February, 1829, a little over a year before the Church was organized, to the father of the Prophet Joseph Smith: •'Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men; "Therefore, 0 ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day; "Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God, ye are called to the work, "For behold the field is white already to harvest, and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perish not, but bringeth salvation to his soul; "And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work. "Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence. "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you. Amen." I repeat: "Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God, ye are called to the work." I believe that the young men and the young ladies in our Improvement Associations have desires to work, that they have always had such desires. I have found an enthusiasm, an energy, a determination and a faith upon the part of the ward, the stake, and the general officers of these associations from the time, as a boy, that I was first associated with them, that has been very pleasing to me. A Personal Experience ' One of the incidents in my life that I look back upon with pleasure is that when the first Young Men's Mutual Improve- ment Association was organized, under the direction of Presi- dent Brigham Young, that association was organized in the Thir- teenth ward of this city, and I had the honor, as a boy, of being made one of the counselors to the president of that association, the late Henry A. Woolley, a son of the late Bishop Edwin D. Woolley, a man of integrity and devotion from his boyhood to the day of his death, a worthy son of a worthy sire — and from that day until now I have had a desire to labor, and have had the opportunity to labor given to me in these associations. I re- call, with a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction, that when one of the superintendency of the Young Men's Association failed to live up to the requirements — not that I rejoiced in that, but when he lost his standing as one of the general authorities and at the same time his position as one of the superintendency — I of- SIGNIFICANT COUNSEL TO YOUNG PEOPLE 869 fered a prayer to the Lord, having the desire in my heart to labor among the youth of Zion, asking that 1 might be called as one of the superintendency. I bowed down in my room and prayed for the privilege of working. I never asked for any other office, political or religious, in my life, but I did ask for the privilege of being one of the superintendency. Soon after, when in the office of the Presidency of the Church, I was chosen in connection with Brother Roberts here, to be assistant to Brother Woodruff, Brother Joseph F. Smith being at the time also an assistant, so that for a short time we had three assistants to President Wilford Woodruff, and from that day until the present I have labored, and I have labored with energy, and zeal in each and every office that I have held in this Mutual Im- provement work, and have found great pleasure, joy and satis- faction in my labors; and in my feelings I have never lost sight of that keynote, so to speak, that President Brigham Young gave. President Grant's Message to the Young People of the Church I was asked to give a message to the young people here today, "A message to the young people of the Church," and my message to the young people of the Church is this: Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of the true and the liv- ing God. Joseph Smith was the instrument in the hands of God of establishing upon the earth the true gospel of the Lord Jesu3 Christ; Brigham Young was the lawful successor to Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young gave to all the youth of Israel as- sociations for their improvement, but the keynote he gave to those associations was that they should secure a testimony of this gospel. Advice on How to Obtain a Testimony I say to all Israel — to the youth of Israel particularly — join these associations, join them with a desire, and with a prayer in your hearts, if you do not have a knowledge of the divinity of this work, that God will give that knowledge to you. I have heard President Young and other men say many times that more often have young people received a testimony, in their very souls, of the divinity of this work, while standing upon their feet than they ever received while kneeling and praying for that testimony; that under the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord there has come to them, the rich outpouring of that Spirit, that their souls have been flooded with light and the knowledge that comes from God through the Holy Spirit. They have had the witness come into their hearts whereby they have been able to testify that they do know of a surety that they are engaged in the plan of life and salvation ; that they do know of a surety that 870 IMPROVEMENT ERA God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of the true and living God. Illustrations Never while I live shall I forget the first rich outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord to me as a young man while proclaim- ing this gospel, by the inspiration of that Spirit. By the aid of that Spirit I was enabled to preach with freedom, force, and power, because I had the Spirit of the Lord, which testified to me of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have referred to it many times, and I shall never fail to be grateful for it. I was then a young man, not twenty-four years of age, with little experience, never having occupied any position in the Church except that of a teacher — and I was really not a teacher; I very faithfully visited the members on the block where I was ap- pointed to teach — reguarly for several years, never failed once a month to go around and meet everybody, but all I did was to listen to the late Hamilton G. Park teach the people, one of whom I was. I owe much of my love of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the wonderful testimonies and the inspirational teachings of that man to the Latter-day Saints as a block-teacher. Practically all the teaching I did was to listen to him, and then at his request, at the monthly meetings, with Bishop Woolley and his counselors and the teachers in our ward, I made the re- ports. But as a boy, without experience, never having spoken in public in my life, for any length of time, never ten minutes at once, I was called to preside over a stake of Zion. I remem- ber preaching and telling everything I could think of, and some of it over twice, and ran out of ideas in seven minutes and a half by the watch. Among other things, I told the people that I knew nothing of the duties that devolved upon me, but with the help of the Lord I would do the best I could, and that with his help I had no fear at all but what I could get. along. I re- member a good brother telling me that I had made a very se- rious mistake, that I had destroyed my influence by telling the Saints I did not know anything. "Well," I said, "they may discover that I have a little sense, later on, and that will agreeably surprise them." I think you make no mistake in not pretending you know something when you do not. The next Sunday I did not do any better. I ran out of ideas in six or seven minutes. The next Sunday I did the same. The following Sunday I took a couple of very excellent preach- ers with me and went away down to the south end of Tooele county, the farthest settlement, to the little town of Vernon, sometimes called String Town, because it covered a long string of ranches. There was a little log meetinghouse, and, as I was SIGNIFICANT COUNSEL TO YOUNG PEOPLE 871 walking to meeting with the late High Councilor in the Ensign stake of Zion, John C. Sharp, who was then the bishop of Vernon, I looked around and said: "Why, Bishop, there is nobody going to meeting." "Oh," he said, "I think there will be somebody there." We were walking up a little hill from his home. The meetinghouse was not in sight. When we reached the top of the hill, I saw a number of wagons around the meetinghouse, but I did not see a soul going to meeting. "Well," I said, "there are some wagons there, but I don't see anybody going to meeting." He said: "I guess there will be somebody in the meeting- house." We walked into the meetinghouse two minutes to 2 o'clock, and the house was full, every seat occupied, and we were the last people to come in. At 2 o'clock, promptly, we be- gan the meeting. Brother Sharp told me he had tried to edu- cate the people to be seated before 2 o'clock; and, apparently, he had succeeded. I got up to make my little speech of five, six or seven minutes, and I talked for forty-five minutes, with as much freedom and as much of the Spirit of the Lord as I have ever enjoyed in preaching the gospel, during the forty years that have passed since then. I could not restrain the tears of gratitude which I shed that night, as I knelt down and thanked God for the rich outpouring of his Holy Spirit, for the testimony that had come into my heart and soul, confirming the knowledge that I had of the gospel, giving me increased power, because of the knowledge that I had that God, by his Holy Spirit, had in- spired me to proclaim this gospel. I received another lesson the next Sunday for which I have been just as grateful, although not as happy over it. I went to Grantsville, the largest ward in the Tooele stake of Zion, and I approached the Lord with much the same attitude as Oliver Cowdery when he told the Lord, "I want to translate," and the Lord told him he could translate. But, failing, he was later told, he did not study it out, and he did not pray about it, and he did not do his share. I told the Lord I would like to talk again to the Saints in Grantsville. I got up and talked for five minutes, and I sweat as freely, I believe, as if I had been dipped in a creek, and I ran out of ideas completely. I made as complete a "fizzle," so to speak, of my talk, as a mortal could make. I did not shed any tears of gratitude, but I walked several miles away from that meetinghouse, out into the fields, among the hay and straw stacks, and when I got far enough away, so that I was sure nobody saw me, I knelt down behind one of those stacks and I shed tears of humiliation. I asked God to forgive me for not remembering that men can not preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with power, with force, and with inspiration only as 872 IMPROVEMENT ERA they are blessed with power which conies from God; and I told him there, as a boy, that if he would forgive me for my egotism, if he would forgive me for imagining that without his Spirit any man can proclaim the truth and find willing hearts to receive it, to the day of my death I would endeavor to remember from whence the inspiration comes, when we are proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the plan of life and salvation again revealed to earth. I am grateful to say that during the forty years that have passed since then, I have never been hu- miliated as I was humiliated that day; and why? Because I have never, thank the Lord, stood upon my feet with an idea that a man could touch the hearts of his hearers, be they Latter- day Saints or simmers, except that man shall possess the Spirit of the living God, and thus be capable of bearing witness that this is the truth that you and I are engaged in. I have never stood before an audience, except with a hum- ble prayer in my heart that I might be blessed of the Lord with that same Spirit that came to me as an inexperienced and unin- formed boy, and that brought to my mind passage after passage of scripture that I had learned as a child — not because I appre- ciated what I was learning, nor because I thoroughly under- stood those chapters that I learned in the Thirteenth Ward Sun- day School, which were the first five chapters, as I remember it, in Jaques' Catechism. They offered a book that I wanted, as a prize to the one who would learn those five chapters, and repeat them the most perfectly, and I won the prize. It was the prize I was after. I did not thoroughly comprehend the Scripture, but in proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, those passages that had apparently entirely gone from my mind, returned to me by the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Lord shall bring to our memory the things that we have learned. The things that we have forgotten, we will have brought to us in the moment when we need them. No man can proclaim the gospel under the inspiration and power of the Spirit of the liv- ing God, as I did as a boy, but what that man feels, knows and understands that he has been blessed of the Lord Almighty, and he is able to testify of the power of God that comes when we proclaim this gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We often laugh when the story is told of the good old sister who went to a fast meeting. For twenty long years she had attended such meetings but had never borne her testimony. When she came home, on this occasion, she said : "That was the finest meeting I ever attended." They said: "Why, who spoke?" She said: "I did." It was the finest meeting to her. The finest meeting of my life, up to the time that I was a boy of twenty-four, was in Vernon, Tooele county. Who spoke? I did. How? By the inspiration of the Lord. I was fed of SIGNIFICANT. COUNSEL TO YOUNG PEOPLE 873 the Holy Ghost as I had never been fed before. I was blessed of the Lord God Almighty in very deed as I had never been blessed before, while proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was to me the finest of all fine meetings. If people are hungry, their hunger will not be satisfied by somebody else partaking of food. I was hungry to proclaim the gospel of our Lord. I was studying, I was trying to prepare myself to fulfil the duties and the obligations resting upon me as president of a stake of Zion,and the Lord Almighty came to my rescue. He fed my soul, he filled me with the Holy Ghost who giveth utterance, that I could testify with a power and force that I had never been able to exert prior to that time. This experience of mine is the experience of hundreds and thousands. One of the sisters, this morning, speaking in the testimony meeting, announced that she had understood, in conversation with some of the elders who had labored under my jurisdiction, while I presided over the European Mission, that I had told those elders: "Whenever you are standing upon your feet, and you find that your mind is a blank, that you have nothing to say, I promise you, as a servant of the Lord and the president of this mission, that if you will testify, as you have the right to do, because of the knowledge you have, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the true and the living God, the Lord Almighty through the inspiration of his Spirit will give you utterance, and you shall have liberty in proclaiming the gospel, upon such oc- casions." This sister said she had understood that that promise had been fulfilled. I can say to this congregation that I have had scores and scores of young men come to me when they were released to return home, and I never had one soul tell me any- thing to the contrary. * I, myself, time and time again, when I have been called upon to speak from this stand and in other places, and have thought — "What on earth can I say?" "I don't feel like saying a word; my mind is a blank;" I have used my own advice to those elders, and have borne witness to the knowledge that I possess that Joseph Smith was in very deed a prophet of the living God, and my mind has immediately been opened. I have had utterance, and have been able to preach with freedom and force the equal, if not the superior, to any other sermon that I have ever been able to deliver. Obtain a Knowledge of the Divinity of the Church of Christ The one central thing, the one great message that I desire to deliver to the youth of Zion is to get a knowledge of the di- 874 IMPROVEMENT ERj\ vinity of this work, and then to love the work and to follow out the admonition given to the father of the Prophet Joseph Smith : 'Oh ye that engage in the service of the Lord, see that ye serve him with all your might, mind and strength" How to Serve the Lord That is the central message that I wish to deliver. But how can we serve the Lord? By obeying his commandments. Faith without works is dead, like the body without the spirit. Let the young people be honest tithe-payers; let the young people observe the Word of Wisdom; let the young people at- tend to their secret prayers and supplicate God, night and morn- ing for the direction of his Holy Spirit; let them honor their fathers and their mothers, that their days may be long in the land which the Lord their God has given them. The M. I. A. Slogans Let us remember and read over and over again the slogans that these associations have adopted: "We stand for a sacred Sabbath and a weekly half holiday." A sacred Sabbath is not automobile-riding to the canyons on Sunday. A sacred Sabbath is not going out on excursions on Sunday. A sacred Sabbath is to attend to our meetings and to read the Scriptures, to supplicate God, and to have our minds set upon the things that are calculated to save us in this life and in the life to come. I believe that we have accomplished a great deal in our associations, and that many young people have learned to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy, because of this slogan. I believe that there is many a farmer who thought his boy had to work from sun-up till away after dark, six days in the week, and then, of course, there were chores, like milking the cows and taking care of the pigs and doing lots of things for Sunday included, so that there was never a chance for the boy to have an opportunity to play. I believe, actually, that some people have concluded that a boy is entitled to physi- cal exercise with pleasure attached, instead of getting it by milk- ing cows or currying horses. "We stand for a weekly home evening." I believe that there are many careless, wayward boys and girls who, because of the weekly home evening, have been touched by the testimony and experiences of their fathers and mothers, regarding the great blessings of God in their labors; that these weekly home even- ings have made an impression on their hearts for good, and that fathers and mothers have been able to save their children more easily than they would have done without observing this slogan. SIGNIFICANT COUNSEL TO YOUNG PEOPLE 875 "We stand for state and nation-wide prohibition" I give to the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Improvement Associations a world of credit for bringing to our state state-wide prohibition. I remember one man saying to me, in the Prohibition and Bet- terment League, when things were not going just exactly to suit him politically, "Oh, this league don't amount to anything, any- how." He was one of the officers. I said, "Oh, doesn't it?" He said, "No; nobody behind it." I said: "You are the worst fooled man in town. All the Young Men's and the Young La- dies' Mutual Improvement Associations are behind this league, and this league is just a kind of a buffer, so to speak." "Why, you have no organization," this party remarked. "Oh!" I said, "Oh, yes we have ; and a letter over my signature has gone to all the wards, to all the superintendents throughout all the state of Utah, and we have a better organization in the Mutuals to carry out this work than both of your political parties put together. It is going to be done and done this time, whether your party wants it or not." And he began to think that maybe there was an organization. There was, and we "put it over!" "We stand for thrift and economy." Do you know that it annoys me now and always has annoyed me, to see people waste things. There are many people of this class I call to mind — I am not going to mention any names — a friend of mine used to pare an apple so that he threw away a large per cent of the apple by making the paring so very thick. He was mighty close-fisted with his money. Now, you know there are many people who mistake a man who is generous for being a spendthrift. If you will just be economical and stand for thrift and economy then, as the years come and go, you will be able to be generous, be- cause you will have something to be generous with. But with- out thrift and economy I am afraid you will never have an op- portunity to be particularly generous. "We stand for service to God and country." Could there be a more magnificent slogan in all the world for young people than to stand for service to God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and service to this great,grand, glorious American coun- try of ours? "Service to God and country" — We have proved our service to God and country in all particulars during the late war. Now, it is very warm, and I know how tired you are. I will ask you to stand up, and we will ask Elder Oscar A. Kirk- ham to lead us in singing America and then I will go on with my address. ["America" was then sung by the congregation.] I don't believe there is another audienco of young people, of this size, in the United States of America who could sing that song with more of the spirit of it, and the prayer of their heart 876 IMPROVEMENT ERA for the great God to protect them, than the audience we have heard here today.) "We stand for spiritual growth through attendance at sac- rament meetings." I rejoice to know that the statistics com- piled in the Presiding Bishop's Office go to show that during the time after this slogan was adopted hy these associations there was a very material growth spiritually as a result of increased attendance at sacrament meetings. "We stand for the non-use and non-sale of tobacco." I have in my possession, and I intended to bring it here but overlooked it in a multitude of other matters, a list of the merchants, from Canada to Mexico, who have stopped selling tobacco, and it took page after page of names written on a typewriter to make the list of those in the different stakes of Zion, who have stop- ped selling tobacco, so we have accomplished a marvelous and a wonderful work in that regard. There is something in the use of tobacco that blunts the finer susceptibilities, the gentle- manly instincts of men. I say nothing about destroying the finer, admirable, wonderful qualities of ladies, that every true man almost worships. I know of some fine, gentlemanly men, in all other respects, who forget and actually light their pipes or their cigars in the presence of ladies. I am sure they would not do it if they stopped to reflect, because they must know that it is obnoxious to them. I have known of men who claimed to be gentlemen who became angry when it was suggested that they do not smoke in a banquet held in the Utah Hotel, on la- dies' night. You know they have made their own homes smoke houses, and their wives have become accustomed to living in smoke houses; so, they think everybody's wives ought to like a smoke-house. You know I like to sit in the rear car, the ob- servation car, when I am traveling, but I cannot do it. I can't take my wife out to enjoy the scenery. Why? Because the gentlemen who smoke go out there and smoke and have not enough regard for the ladies who do not smoke. I wanted to write a telegram, the last time I was on the train. I went into the observation car to do it, but before I got through writing, just a telegram of fifty words, I picked up my telegraph-blank and went back and wrote it on my knee, because the observa- tion car was like a smoke house, chuck full of smoke. The smokers talk about their privileges being taken away from them. Why, do you know there is a smoking compartment in each car? There were eight cars on that train, and there was not anybody in those eight compartments, which were provided specially for smokers, but they occupied the car that ought to be for ladies and for gentlemen who do not smoke. If they want to smoke they ought to have enough gentlemanly instinct to go SIGNIFICANT COUNSEL TO YOUNG PEOPLE 877 into one of the other eight cars, and do their smoking, and then come back and join the ladies, and those who do not smoke. Thank fortune, there will be a few public places where they can't smoke in the future, because of our anti-tobacco law — some ministers to the contrary notwithstanding. When I went to Ja- pan there was not a first-class hotel in the United States of America that allowed smoking. When I returned home, I was astounded to find a few that allowed it. I went to England for three years, and when I came home they all permitted it. I remember the first time I stopped in the Windsor, which was then the best hotel in Denver, that they had a very magnificent smoking room. I remember that when one man visited there — Phil Robinson, who wrote the book en- titled Sinners and Saints — he said he was delighted to find one hotel in America that had some regard for smokers. I would be glad now to find one that had some regard for non-smokers. He said he afterwards learned that that particular hotel was built by English capitalists who must have their big, nice comfortable place for the smokers. When I arrived in England I often found, if I entered a non-smoking compartment in any car where there was a gentleman and his wife he would take out his cigar and start to smoke. When I protested, she would say: "Oh, I don't object," and I would say, "Well I do, and inasmuch as there are twice as many compartments in these cars where smokers can go, as there are places where non-smokers can go, I will be much obliged to your husband if he will please go where he belongs." Why, I had more than one English lady, and on the con- tinent likewise, who looked at me as if she would like to bite my head off, because I had the audacity to go where there was "No smoking allowed," and to "call the fellow down," who was smoking. I first asked the gentlemen if he could read. He said, "Yes." "Did you read the sign on the door — 'No smoking' "? "Yes." "Well then, will you kindly put out your pipe" or "your cigar." The wife would speak up and say: "Oh, I don't object." But I always objected. If they would put a sign in observation cars, "No smoking," I would object double-quick, and suggest that, as there is a smoking room or compartment on every sleeper, where a man can go and take his smoke, that he go where he belongs. "We stand for loyal citizenship." I am sorry that each and every soul here assembled did not hear the very splendid ad- dress on loyal citizenship by the Superintendent of these asso- ciations, Anthony W. Ivins, but I am glad to know that that ad- dress was taken down in shorthand and that we will have the 878 IMPROVEMENT ERA privilege of reading it when it is printed in the Era. I recom- mend it to each and all of you. (See July Era, pp. 836-841.) Neither Murmur nor Find Fault — Be Ready and Willing Now I am absolutely certain myself that about the most interesting thing that I could possibly say just about now, con- sidering the heat, would be to say, "Aimen," and for once to close a conference without having the last meeting two full hours, but before doing so I want to read a passage from the Book of Mormon, which will not take more than ten minutes. As a boy, I read the Book of Mormon. I fell in love with Nephi' and more than any man who has ever written or preached, bar- ring only the Savior — this man Nephi has been the guiding star of my life. Study the slogans of the Mutuals, get a testimony of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; and then learn the words that I am about to read to you. Nephi found that the Lord had commanded his father to send his sons to Jerusalem to secure the brass plates containing the genealogy of their fore- fathers, and some of the ancient scriptures. Nephi learned that his brothers were complaining that their father had required a hard thing of them. Their father said he did not require it, Jbut the Lord had required it. "I have not required it," I think he said, "but it is a commandment of the Lord, therefore go, my son, and thou shalt be favored of the Lord, because thou hast not murmured." If I could only impress upon the hearts and souls of the youth of Israel not to murmur, not to find fault, but to be ready and willing to perform the tasks that devolve upon them, I would feel that my address had not been in vain : "And it came to pass that I Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. "And it came to pass that when my father had heard these words he was exceeding glad, for he knew that I had been blessed of the Lord." Every man, woman and child is blessed of the Lord if they obey the commandments of the Lord, because he will give us power, he will give us strength, he will give us inspiration, whereby we can accomplish those commandments if we have the heart, if we have the desire, and the willingness in our hearts to perform them. Nephi and his brothers went, they tried to get the plates but they made a failure and his brothers wanted to go down to their father in the wilderness again, and they were very sorrowful but he said unto them as follows: "Behold I said unto them that; As the Lord liveth, and as we live SIGNIFICANT COUNSEL TO YOUNG PEOPLE 879 we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have ac- complished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us. "Wherefore, let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord." That is the keynote to the success of every Latter-day Saint. Let us be faithful in keeping the commandnients of the Lord. You remember how they went to work, they gathered up their riches, which Laban stole, and he sent his servants to kill them. But as they were running away from these servants, an angel of the Lord came and spoke to them. After the angel had disappear- ed, Laman and Lemuel again began to murmur. Why, do you know I have met scores and hundreds of people who have said: "If I could just see an angel, and hear an angel deliver a mes- sage, I would be faithful all the days of my life." In this case the angel had just got out of sight when these men commenced murmuring. Men who are keeping the comandments of God do not need an angel, they do not need a message from heaven, to tell them what to do; they just quietly go to work and com- mence to do it. But Nephi's brothers commenced to murmur, and said: "How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? The angel had told them he would, but they asked the ques- tion: "Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us? " And it came to pass that I spake unto my brethren, saying: Let us go up again unto Jerusalem, and let us be faithful in keeping the command- ments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thou- sands?" Or the millions of the world? Remember the Lord is mightier than all the earth; remember this is the Lord's work; remember to keep his commandments, and God shall bless you in time and through all eternity, which I ask, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Discourage nest-robbing, boys, among your companions, and encourage in its place an intelligent interest in the living birds. Fish should be killed as soon as taken out of the water by a sharp blow on the back of the head, that they may not suffer before dying. Such fish keep better, and are better to eat; and the best fishermen in Europe and America always kill their fish as soon as they catch them.