Obedience to a Simple Commandment

Obedience to a Simple Commandment By Professor George Gardner, Brigham Young College One of the great lessons that has come to us from the chil- dren of Israel is the lesson of obedience. But few of us appre- ciate the importance of this simple yet eternal lesson. When Naaman, a great and honorable captain, came to Elisha to be healed of his leprosy, he had, no doubt, expected to hear some great and pretentious commandment. When Elisha sent a messenger saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean," Naaman was angry and went away. For he did not realize that a great blessing could come from obeying so simple a commandment. When Naaman's servant came near he said to Naaman, "If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?" Naaman consented. He washed in the Jordan and was healed. His obedience was a benefit to himself more than to the Prophet. Many of us are very slow to learn this lesson. We still imagine that we are obeying God's laws to please God. We think we are obeying the calls of those over us for the benefit of the Church. And we often overlook the great benefits that come to us individually. One of God's commandments to all is to seek first the king- dom of God. His promise is that if we do this all other things will be added. This is literally true, not only with individuals but with nations also. "This religion which we talk about for an hour a week on Sunday, is not only the vital force which protects our com- munity, but it is the vital force which makes our commu- nities. The power of our spiritual force has not yet been tapped." China is one of the richest nations of the world. In its vast forests, in its fertile plains, its deposits of copper, iron and coal, are untold millions in wealth. Yet last year the Chinese starved by the millions. People who have lived in Mexico, say that it is a land of paradise, one of the places of the world where it is most easy to make a living. Yet the condition of their poverty cannot be described. Women often sit all day long at the great granaries,

506 IMPROVEMENT ERA where the cobs are piled high, and the women pick over wagon loads of the cobs to get a hand full of corn; or they follow a camp wagon for a day to pick up a few grains of corn that the more prosperous horse may spill from his feed. They lack spiritual forces and, "The spiritual forces are the funda- mentals of prosperity. And the success of the individual, the success of the community and the success of the nations is due to religion." "The need of the hour is not more legislation. The need of the hour is more religion. More religion is needed everywhere, from the halls of Congress at Washington, to the factories, the mines, the fields and the forests." Most of the principles of Christ's religion are not difficult to obey. In fact many of them are quite as simple as dipping in the river Jordan. And the reward for obedience to some of these simple principles is greater than the reward that Naaman obtained. They may even prevent a moral leprosy; Naaman's disease was only of the flesh. We are told to pray. Brigham Young taught the pioneers to pray and they were a praying people. He told them that prayer kept a man from sin, and sin kept a man from prayer. The present generation is drifting away from prayer. Mr. Babson tells us that: Much of the prosperity of the nation is due to the family prayers which were once daily held in the home of our fathers. To a very large exient this custom has gone by. Whatever the arguments pro and con may be, the fact nevertheless remains that such family prayers nurtured and developed the spiritual resources to which the prosperity of the nation is due. The custom of family prayers should be revived along with many other good New England customs which some radicals may ridicule, but to which they owe all they possess. A prominent man in our Church has said that no one could go very far wrong in a single day, and if one had the protection of a prayer night and morning he would not go very far wrong. Again, praying is not more difficult than dipping in the river Jordan, and the rewards may be even greater. Logan, Utah Virtue brings its own reward, Sin its own sorrow, Souls are damned if life is marred, By "might-have-beens," tomorrow. Enoch Jorgensen, B. S.