Some Philosophies

SOME PHILOSOPHIES By Lloyd O. Ivie Charity is the opposite of egotism. Love sometimes hurts but never harms. How much of you is Latter-day Saint? Prayer should precede, not supercede our actions. Man usually says the most about that which he knows the least. Some men would rather have their own way than the right way. It is not where we are but what we are that determines our worth. Home is the greatest fore-taste of heaven this mortal world can know. A church is not a "storehouse of religion," but rather "our Sabbath home." Neither good nor evil can be judged by the number who partici- pate in it. The love of money is the root of all evil; not the possession or the correct use of it. Opinions are found more in consideration of personal comfort than of personal benefit. There is but one kind of love in this whole world which is never reciprocated — self-love. It is far easier to forgive those who have injured us than those whom we have injured. Conscience is that which God has given us to train our hearts in the path of righteousness. Each man's Zion is the size of his own heart; and some have a larger chunk of it than others. Man subjects himself to that which he fears. "The fear of God is the beginning of all righteousness." The question is not alone the ability to make friends, but rather the level upon which one makes them. Some men are born to thinking, others achieve thinking, while some have thinking thrust upon them. It takes a braver man to tell another what he thinks of him, than it does to tell everyone else but him. "Mormonism" is the biggest imposition that has ever been dumped upon the world; or else * * * it is true. It is harder to be thankful for that which we have always possessed than for that which God sends us in the hour of our need. When the Spirit of God burns in upon the heart of a man he looks to his own faults; when any other spirit, he sees the faults of others. Speakers are like automobiles. The engine is the spirit. If the brakes are poor, the car often coasts on for quite a way after the engine has stopped. There is more to gardening than keeping out the weeds. He

SOME PHILOSOPHIES 839 who would have a garden of only no needs would better stake his claim on a sand swept desert. In an effort to attain leadership one's whole heart must be, not upon that but upon follow-ship. If men would preach the latter, the former would come of itself. There is a great difference among schools. Some are efficient in training men to make dollars; while others possess the art of train- ing dollars to make men. It is not only necessary to have leadership; but it must betne proper kind. Only he is a true leader who has power to persuade men, and also the power to obey God. "Broken heart" — not heart-broken — means a heart trained to obedience in the things of God, even as a horse is broken to work. It does not mean a sad, weeping heart. Much evil and error is kept alive in the world, not because man does not perceive it, but because he points it out and suggests the remedy to anyone save him whom it most concerns. Glass is glass though broken into bits. But to be of service as a pane it must also fit the frame. The gospel of truth fits exactly the frame of mortal life; no other size will do. It is just as easy to understand that we have been as it is that we are; it is more reasonable to believe that we will ever continue to be than to think that a time will come when we are no longer. The monkey is no doubt the species of animal that God placed upon this earth to show man what he would be were it not for the divine within him. Take that away and wherein would he be ahead of the monkey? I think it would be an excellent thing if the Saints would do a little more praying for the returned missionary, as well as "the mission- aries abroad preaching the gospel." The returned missionary not only drops out of the work, but also out of the prayers of the Saints. There are two ways of correcting the faults of others. One is to pounce hound-like upon every little mistake we see, the other is to be such noble characters that others will become self-conscious of their weaknesses. The former are as a wrecking crew; the latter are builders of manhood. Distrust is that which brings out the vilest, the lowest, the meanest within the heart of man; envy and suspicion develops the same in self. Like the shell-crab we will leave our shells for a larger one when we have grown to fill it. But we will never consent to be squeezed back into a smaller one. The captivity of Satan is that he is in the pit he digged for others. The hell in which he reigns is a trap he devised for the subjection of others. It will also prove to be the hell of all. The opposite is also true. We rise to the heights we plan and seek for others; and we sink to the depths to which we ourselves would consign them.