Doing Common Things in an Uncommon Way

Doing Common Things in an Uncommon Way A. Study for the Advanced Senior Class, M. I. A. 1922-23 By Dr. George H. Brimlwll, President Emeritus, Brigluim Young University Lesson X — Making Promises Importance.— Promise-making is the exercise of free agency in putting oneself under an obligation. Take away the power to promise, and you cut down one-half of the tree of liberty. Promise-making is a privilege of putting character up for se- curity, and affords the will a field of action obtainable in no other way. "I promise," should mean, "I will fulfil." A young man when told that he could escape payment of a debt because it was unsecured replied, "Unsecured! Why it is secured by my word, and my word is the best part of me. I am mortgaged to pay that debt and I will." That young man was Lincoln; in his words was the history of an honest past,. a strong present, and a prosperous future. A promise is always, in essence, a prophecy- fulfilment by the self concerning the self. Making promises and fulfiling them are the two processes that keep civilization from coming to a dead standstill. Making promises and keeping them is placed paramount- even above creation, by the greatest of all Teachers. Matt. 24:35. Some Common Promise-Making. Promising under psychic pressure.— We have all had the experience of feeling the pull of coaxing or persuasion against our judgment. In such cases it is a good thing to have some place of refuge such as, "I'll see father about it," or I 11 ask mother," or "I'll consult my wife." The mental pull is a great source of success to the salesman. Making promises to escape annoyance. The young woman who promises to marry a suitor to get rid of him was quite as consistent as the parent who makes promises to a child where importunities are simply annoying. Promising with nothing but hope for the fulfilment. Mak- ing promises when the means of fulfilment are just within the range of possibility is gambling with one's character; it is tak-

150 IMPROVEMENT ERA ing fearful chances with one's good name. Indulgence in this ad- venturous promise-making is symptomatic of an ethical break- down. The Uncommon Promise-Making There is much truth in the saying, "Promises slow in the making are hard in the breaking. Promises quickly spoken are easily broken." The uncommon promise has behind it not only good intention, but deliberation, for deliberation is the only safe anchorage for determination. Uncommon promises will contain consistency. A promise should be consistent with the worthiness of the cause in favor of which it is made, the merits of the person to whom it is made, and the ability of the one making the promise. Written Promises The superior value of written promises lies in the fact that "paper does not forget." It holds the pledges without modifica- tions. The making of a written promise by signing one's name should be preceded by an uncommonly careful reading, and if it be a complex document its contents should be submitted to ex- pert inspection. Lenders may well be cautious of the borrower who manifests any carelessness in his method of getting loans. Carelessness is not always wrongfully considered next to crook- edness in business. Religious Promises Covenants is the name by which a religious promise is known. The incomparable binding force of religious promises has been utilized in social and civic affairs. The spiritual ele- ment of promise-making has been wisely made a part of the marriage vow, and of the pledges of officers of the law, as security against failure in the performance of duty. The "Oath of Office" is superior to any simple affirmation. As to Latter- day Saint covenants, see Gospel Doctrine, p. 132. Questions and Problems 1. Wherein is the sacrament service a renewal of covenants? 2. How is the prayer for the sanctification of the water related to attending to our prayers and paying our tithing- 3. How is a "Mormon's" credit among men affected by his tithe-paying habit? 4. Wherein is a temple marriage vow naturally stronger than a civic one? 5. Why should we refuse to promise when under the psychic pull of persuasion against our judgment? 6. Mention some good ways of escape from a powerful persuader. 7. What should always be done before signing a written promise? 8. Distinguish between the promise made in a warrantee deed and one of quit claim.

DOING COMMON THINGS IN AN UNCOMMON WAY 151 9. Discuss this proposition: Carelessness in promise-making is the chief cause of promise-breaking. 10. Give summary of President Joseph F. Smith's teaching concerning Covenants of the Latter-day Saints. 11. How is one's character and happiness affected by the habit of mak- ing new promises as an escape from keeping old ones? Lesson XI — Keeping Secrets What a Secret Is A secret is defined as that which should not be told. This definition makes it the duty of everyone to hold back or keep from divulgence even the truth, without a belief that it ought to be divulged. Perhaps it would be better to define a secret as information which one is under obligation not to divulge. And when we say obligation we should keep in mind the application of the Golden Rule. A secret may be called a truth-trust, and truth is always sacred, and becomes emphatically so when held in trust. Two Common Ways of Keeping Secrets One of thfe most common ways of keeping secrets consists in getting someone to help keep them. Usually the dhulgence of a secret is accompanied with a confession, "I ought not to tell," and the injunction, "of course, you will not tell." A little thought will reveal that the teller expects the hearer to be more ethical than his informant. The transaction analyzed contains the following facts: One party has proved his inability to hold a sacred trust, and another person has had burdensome re- sponsibility unnecessarily imposed upon him. Confidence is weakened, and danger is doubled. This form of keeping secrets writes upon the walls of our character, the sentence found re- corded in Daniel 5:27. Another common form of keeping secrets is the holding back of that which should be told. Failing to speak when duty calls is indicative of weakness called cowardice A kindness that makes a secret of contagion becomes a monstrous cruelty. One who is in possession of the enemies' secret and fails to inform the proper authority merits the same contempt as one who reveals the secret of his camp to the enemy. There is a wide difference between tattling and official reporting. One breeds mischief, the other sustains law and order. It is all too common to keep secrets from boys and girls which they are almost certain to find out from sources of the lower social levels. They are left to "pick up" what should be provided for them as a part of their education. The Twen- tieth Century youth is entitled to be brought up rather than left to just "grow up." Parents and teachers must rise above this

152 IMPROVEMENT ERA common secret-keeping with a realization that the youth has a right to know what he ought to know from higher sources than that of the street or other accidental meeting places. Some Uncommon Secret-Keeping We are so knit together that the sins of individuals hurt the group, and where the publication of names will hurt more than it will help, the policy of "withholding names" is in keeping with the ways of wisdom. See Doc. & Cov., Sec. 42:88-93. A mercifully preserved reputation may form a shield behind which successful character-mending may be carried on. There is a royal kind of secret-keeping which consists in refusing to let pass one's lips that which is defamatory to persons of good reputation. When slander spits her venom, uncommon secret- keeping refuses to spread her virus. Family secrets. — The high grads offspring will play the part of Shem and Japhet. See Gen 9:20-27. The true wife makes her bosom a silent tomb of her husband's failings, unless dissolution of partnership is at hand. And the worth-whils husband couples not the name of his wife with her short com- ings. "We all have our little faults," and some of us have big ones, but the man who talks about his wife unfavorably well deserves the title of a "boob" or a "bad one." Secret Keeping an Accompaniment of Safety and Greatness Uncommon secret keeping keeps one from falling into two errors, exceeding authority and overstepping the bounds of pro- priety. Light may be turned on in blinding qualities and truth has its time for publication. Perhaps no prophet was more thoroughly tested in the line of secret-keeping than was the Prophgt Joseph Smith. He faced the scorn and persecution of his enemies and the importunities of his friends and loved ones, and was true to his trust. History of the Church, Vol. I, p. 56; Doc. & Cov., Sec. 25:1-4. Questions and Problems 1. When does information become ethirally a secret? 2. Show how the golden rule should be applied in keeping secrets. 3. What is the chief value of secrets: (a) to the individual? (b) to society? 4. Discuss this proposition: Tell secrets to those entitled to know them. 5. What is the law of the Lord concerning the publicity of sin? 6. Discuss the difference between tattling and officially reporting. 7. What does failure to keep a secret reveal about our past, our present, and our probable future? 8. What danger is doubled by getting someone to help keep a secret?

DOING COMMON THINGS IN AN UNCOMMON WAY 153 9. Discuss: Talking about home difficulties is like dumping home garbage on the highway. 10. Discuss: The teaching about life and its sources should not be left to the boy "gang," and to the girl "set.'' 11. Quote the words of Jesus concerning propriety in revealing the truth. See John 16:12. 12. Give illustrations of the fact that uncommon secret-keeping is an accompaniment of greatness. 13. Explain professional secret-keeping and discuss its value. 14. In what uncommon way did Bok increase the interest of both men and women in his magazines? Chapter 18, Americanization of Edward Bok. 15. Read to the class President Roosevelt's letter to Bok, and discuss the revelation of personal character contained in the communication. Amer icanizatimi- of Edward Bok, Chapter 19. 16. Explain the plan of "raising babies by mail." Bok, Ch. 16. Lesson XII — Making Good The Meaning of the Term "Making good" has come to mean winning one's way with little concentration of purpose or method. It of times covers the sentiment, "Put money into thy pocket, honestly if thou canst, but put money into thy pocket." That application of the term is to be dismissed with the statement that there is no making good in a bad cause or in any bad way whatever, and that making good shall mean winning fairly in a good cause. The Three Essentials to "Making Good?' Aim, Enthusiasm, and Industry. Without an aim, a pur- pose or an objective, making good becomes a matter of accident. Persons of luck may indulge in an aimless life, but those of pluck will insist upon having a purpose; to them life is a prob- lem, not a pastime. Psychology tells us that the grade of one's intelligence may be measured by one's power to see and pur- sue a purpose, and that the greater the distance between the person and the purpose, the higher the intelligence. In other words, the power to work and wait for results is an index to the intelligence of the individual. The "Bohemian" who must be paid his wage every night is of no such timber as the person who can wait to the month-end for his check. It is obedience to this law that places in the front rank, those who work on and en for preparation. Such persons show their superiority by beino; able to pursue an objective from a distance that discourages the weaker ones. The greatest of all leaders had his great objective beyond the clock ticks of mortality. Without a purpose we face the darkened sun of doom's day. Purpiose puts light into a dungeon. The story is told of a prisoner who, cast into a dark cell found himself approaching a state of despair. Finding four pins in his clothin" he scat- tered them about the dungeon and set himself the task of find-

154 IMPROVEMENT ERA ing them. In the interest of his search he often forgot the darkness. He then put himself in competition with himself to see how many times he could find the pins between the regular visits of the prison keeper. The time which, without aimful activity, would have dragged painfully on, passed by with a speed that cut his loneliness to a minimum. "My pin hunting saved me from despair," he said when released. Enthusiasm As well expect to hit the mark with a bullet in a powderless shell as to make good without enthusiasm. Emerson says, "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." To the worker, enthusiasm is interest; to the religionist, it is fer- vency; to everybody, it is enjoyment. Industry This means "hibitual diligence," with emphasis on the word habitual. There is a kind of diligence that is an aimful, en- thusiastic activity, which is so spasmodic that it will not fit into a scheme of making good. Drudgery-dodging is a bar to making good. "Genius will work," says Dr. William James, the great American philosopher, and work that counts in "making good" is aimful, enthusiastic, persistent activity. "Making Good" as a Parent The parents must secure obedience from children and have no habit of doing for the child what it can profitably do for itself. It must be said of the parent who is making good as it was said to Abraham, "You will command your children," i. e., obtain their obedience. Parents who permit the children to rule, fail in making good as did Eli of old. See I Sam., 3:1-14. "Making Good' as a Citizen To make good as a citizen we must have civic aims as to what the laws shall be and how they shall be administered, we must be enthusiastic in community prosperity and try to make our votes count somewhere at every election. We must pay the price of citizenship by obeying and sustaining the law, never seeking the nullification of law by the violation of it. Tax resistance may be resorted to in making good, but tax evasion never. "Making Good?' as a Church Member We make good as Church members by advocating its doc- trines and recommending the Church by our good conduct thus carrying out the instructions recorded in Matt. 5:16. We

DOING COMMON THINGS IN AN UNCOMMON WAY 155 make good by keeping up our correspondence with the Lord, by paying our tithing, and our fast offerings, by attending sacra- ment meetings, and by standing loyally by Church leaders. We may know whether we are making good as a Church mem- ber by comparing the record of any day's Church service with II Timothy 4:7. "Making Good?' as ta Leader We make good in leadership when we have for our chief aim the getting of others to do their work willingly and well; by being enthusiastic in leadership and by being habitually dili- gent in having every subordinate in the line of making good. A general may consistently and nobly share his meals and bed with a private, but to do the private's work puts the officer in a posi- tion of humiliation where he must confess a lack of ability to get others to do their share. One is making good in leadership no farther than he keeps in the front with aimful, enthusiastic, diligent followers near him. Questions and Problems 1. Why is it impossible to make good by bad methods? 2. Discuss this proposition: Success in a bad cause is a miserable failure. 3. Name the three essentials to making good. 4. Show the relative rank of the Latter-day Saints under the state- ment, "The greater the purpose, the greater the people." 5. Give illustrations of the truth: The greater the power to follow a purpose, the higher the intelligence. 6. Discuss Emerson's statement concerning enthusiasm and achieve- ment. 7. What are the requirements for making good as a parent? 8. When is a person making good as a citizen? 9. What must be done in order to make good as a Church member? 10. When is a person making good as a leader? The Book Of Mormon (Selections from the Journal of Discourses, by former Leaders of the Church) "The Book of Mormon came to Ephraim, for Joseph Smith was a pure Ephraimite, and the Book of Mormon was revealed to him."— Brigham Young, April 8, 1855; Vol. 2, p. 269. "Do you remember the history of the Gadiantons, as told in the Book of Mormon? We are surrounded by their descendants.

156 IMPROVEMENT ERA [The Indians.] Those loathsome, effeminate specimens of humanity, which we daily see in our midst, are their children, low, degraded, sunken to the lowest depths of human existence. We have our location amid their strongholds, where the ruins of their cities, towns, and fortifications are yet to be seen — they continue unto this day." — Edward Hunter, April 6, 1853, Vol. 2, p. 37. "No man can say that this book (laying his hand on the Bible) is true, is the word of the Lord, is the way, is the guide- board in the path, and a charter by which we may learn the will of God; and at the same time say, that the Book of Mormon is untrue; if he has had the privilege of reading it, or of hearing it read, and learning its doctrines. There is not a person on the face of the earth who has had the privilege of learning the gos- pel of Jesus Christ from these two books, who can say that one is true, and the other is false." — Brigham Young, Vol. I, p. 38. " 'Adam, fell that man might be.' Adam saw this, that the woman was overcome by the devil speaking through the ser- pent ; and when he saw it, he was satisfied that the woman would have to be banished from his presence; he saw, also, that unless he partook of the forbidden fruit, he could never raise up pos- terity ; therefore the truth of that saying in the Book of Mormon is apparent, that 'Adam fell that man might be.' He saw it was necessary that he should with her partake of sorrow^ and death and the varied effects of the fall, that he and she might be redeemed from these effects, and be restored back again to the presence of God."— Orson Pmtt, Vol. 1, p. 285, July 25, 1852. "What is the use of the book in question auyhow? Why, in the first place, it differs in its history from the Bible. The Bible is a history of things that took place in Asia principally, and a little of what took place in Europe and Africa. The Book of Mormon is a history of things in another hemisphere * * Could the rulers of nations realize that fact, and could they only have a copy in their libraries at the cost of $100,000, they would appropriate it for the history of the western hemisphere. * * * It is as important in its history as the Bible, and it is just as interesting and as necessary for men to get an under- standing of the ancient history of A.merica, as it is for them to get a understanding of the history of Asia." — Parley P. Pratt, Vol. I, p 304; July 10, 1853.