Chapter XVI: Marriage, the Home and the Family (2)

WHAT TO TEACH YOUR CHILDREN. We are a Christian people, we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we feel that it is our duty to acknowledge him as our Savior and Redeemer. Teach it to your children. Teach them that the {366} Prophet Joseph Smith had restored to him the priesthood that was held by Peter and James and John, who were ordained under the hands of the Savior himself. Teach them that Joseph Smith, the prophet, when only a boy, was chosen and called of God to lay the foundations of the Church of Christ in the world, to restore the holy priesthood, and the ordinances of the gospel, which are necessary to qualify men to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Teach your children to respect their neighbors. Teach your children to respect their bishops and the teachers that come to their homes to teach them. Teach your children to respect old age, gray hairs, and feeble frames. Teach them to venerate and to hold in honorable remembrance their parents, and to help all those who are helpless and needy. Teach your children, as you have been taught yourselves, to honor the priesthood which you hold, the priesthood which we hold as elders in Israel. Teach your children to honor themselves, teach your children to honor the principle of presidency by which organizations are held intact and by which strength and power for the well-being and happiness and upbuilding of the people are preserved. Teach your children that when they go to school they should honor their teachers in that which is true and honest, in that which is manly and womanly, and worth while; and also teach them to avoid the bad examples of their teachers out of school, and the bad principles of men and women who are sometimes teachers in schools. Teach your children to honor the law of God and the law of the state and the law of our country. Teach them to respect and hold in honor those who are chosen by the people to stand at their head and execute justice and administer the law. Teach them to be loyal to their country, loyal to righteousness and uprightness and honor, and thereby they will grow up to be men and women choice above all the men and women of the world.--_Apr C. R.,_ 1917, pp. 5, 6.

WHAT CHILDREN SHOULD BE TAUGHT. I pray you, my {367} brethren and sisters, who have children in Zion, and upon whom rests the greater responsibility, teach them the principles of the gospel, teach them to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in baptism for the remission of sins when they shall reach the age of eight years. They must be taught in the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ by their parents, or the blood of the children will be upon the skirts of those parents. It seems to me so plain a duty and so necessary for them to see to it that their children avail themselves of the opportunities that are afforded them in having them taught and instructed in these principles in the Sunday schools that are established in the Church and conducted Sunday after Sunday for the benefit of their children. I should feel contemptible, I was going to say, in my own mind, in my own feelings, if I had children who were neglected by their parents in regard to these matters. Our little ones are only too anxious to go to Sunday school, no matter what may occur, whether it rains or is cold or pleasant, or what not; whether they are sick or well, they cannot be kept from the Sunday school unless there is great cause for it.--_Apr. C. R.,_ 1903, p. 81.

TRAINING OF CHILDREN AT HOME AND IN SUNDAY SCHOOL. It does not need argument to convince our minds that our children will be just about what we make them. They are born without knowledge or understanding--the most helpless creatures of the animal creation born into the world. The little one begins to learn after it is born, and all that it knows greatly depends upon its environment, the influences under which it is brought up, the kindness with which it is treated, the noble examples shown it, the hallowed influences of father and mother, or otherwise, over its infant mind. And it will be largely what its environment and its parents and teachers make it.

The child of the lowest of our native tribes born in a wigwam and the child born in luxury start out almost equal, {368} so far as the possibilities of learning are concerned. A great deal depends upon the influence under which it is brought up. You will observe that the most potent influence over the mind of a child to persuade it to learn, to progress, or to accomplish anything, is the influence of love. More can be accomplished for good by unfeigned love, in bringing up a child, than by any other influence that can be brought to bear upon it. A child that cannot be conquered by the lash, or subdued by violence, may be controlled in an instant by unfeigned affection and sympathy. I know that is true; and this principle obtains in every condition of life.

The Sunday school teacher should govern the children, not by passion, by bitter words or scolding, but by affection and by winning their confidence. If a teacher gets the confidence of a child it is not impossible to accomplish every desired good with that child.

I would have it understood that I believe that the greatest law and commandment of God is to love the Lord our God with all our mind, might and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves, and if this principle is observed at home the brothers and sisters will love one another; they will be kind and helpful to one another, showing forth the principle of kindness and being solicitous for one another's good. Under these circumstances the home comes nearer being a heaven on earth, and children brought up under these influences will never forget them, and though they may be in trying places, their memories will revert to the homes where they enjoyed such hallowed influences, and their better natures will assert themselves no matter what the trials or temptations may be.

Brethren and sisters of the Sunday school, I implore you to teach and control by the spirit of love and forbearance until you can conquer. If children are defiant and difficult to control, be patient with them until you can conquer {369} by love, and you will have gained their souls, and you can then mould their characters as you please.

Sometimes children do not like their teachers, and the teachers are impatient with the children, and complain of them as being very uncouth, uncontrollable and bad. The children in their turn tell their parents how they despise their teachers, and say they don't want to go to school any more because the teacher is so cross. I have heard of these things and know them to be true. On the other hand, if children say to father and mother, "We think we have the best teacher in the world, in our Sunday school," or, "We have the best teacher in our district school that ever lived," it proves that those teachers have won the affections of the children, and the little ones are as clay in the hands of the potter to be moulded in any shape desired. This is the position you teachers should occupy, and if you get their affections this will be the report the children will make regarding you.--_Oct. C. R.,_ 1902, pp. 92, 93.

TEACH CHILDREN THE GOSPEL. It is the duty of parents to teach their children the principles of the gospel and to be sober-minded and industrious in their youth. They should be impressed from the cradle to the time they leave the parental roof to make homes and assume the duties of life for themselves, that there is a seed time and harvest, and as man sows, so shall he reap. The sowing of bad habits in youth will bring forth nothing better than vice, and the sowing of the seeds of indolence will result invariably in poverty and lack of stability in old age. Evil begets evil, and good will bring forth good.

I have heard people say, "We pass this way but once, and we might as well have a good time and make the most of it while life lasts." This is in keeping with the prediction in the Book of Mormon: "And there shall be many which shall say, Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us. * * * Yea, and {370} there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, false, and vain, and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark." (II Nephi 28:7-9)

Let the parents in Zion give their children something to do that they may be taught the arts of industry, and equipped to carry responsibility when it is thrust upon them. Train them in some useful vocation that their living may be assured when they commence in life for themselves. Remember, the Lord has said that "the idler shall not eat the bread of the laborer," but all in Zion should be industrious. Neither should they be given to loud laughter, light and foolish speeches, worldly pride and lustful desires, for these are not only unbecoming, but grievous sins in the sight of the Lord. And, we read that the wages of sin is death, and death is banishment from the Spirit and presence of the Lord.

And above all else, let us train our children in the principles of the gospel of our Savior, that they may become familiar with the truth and walk in the light which it sheds forth to all those who will receive it. "He that seeketh me early," the Lord has said, "shall find me, and shall not be forsaken." It behooves us, therefore, to commence in early life to travel in the straight and narrow path which leads to eternal salvation.--_Juvenile Instructor,_ Vol. 52, pp. 19, 20, January, 1917; Rom. 6:23; Prov. 8:17.

TEACH CHILDREN THE STORY OF JESUS' DEATH. Should the little children of the kindergarten be taught the events leading up to and culminating in the death of our Savior? It is a principle widely accepted that it is not desirable to teach these little ones those things that are horrifying to childish natures. And what may be said of children is equally true in all stages of student life. But death is not an unmixed horror. With it are associated some of the profoundest and most important truths of human life. Although {371} painful in the extreme to those who must suffer the departure of dear ones, death is one of the grandest blessings in divine economy; and we think children should be taught something of its true meaning as early in life as possible.

We are born that we may put on mortality, that is, that we may clothe our spirits with a body. Such a blessing is the first step toward an immortal body, and the second step is death. Death lies along the road of eternal progress; and though hard to bear, no one who believes in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and especially in the resurrection, would have it otherwise. Children should be taught early in life that death is really a necessity as well as a blessing, and that we would not and could not be satisfied and supremely happy without it. Upon the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus, one of the grandest principles of the gospel depends. If children were taught this early in life, death would not have the horrifying influence that it does have over many childish minds.

Children are sure to be brought into some acquaintanceship with the incident of death, even during the kindergarten period; and it would be a great relief to the puzzled and perplexed conditions of their minds if some intelligent statements of the reason for death were made to them. No explanation of death to a child's mind can anywhere be found that is more simple and convincing than is the death of our Master, connected as it is and ever must be with the glorious resurrection.--_Juvenile Instructor,_ Vol. 40, p. 336, June 1, 1905.

WISE GIVING TO CHILDREN. It is very gratifying to parents to be able to respond to the desires of their children, but it is undoubtedly a cruelty to a child to give it everything it asks for. Children may wisely be denied things which even in themselves are harmless. Our pleasures depend often more upon the qualities of our desires than {372} upon the gratification. A child may be ladened with gifts which afford him little or no pleasure, simply because he has no desire for them. The education then of our desires is one of far-reaching importance to our happiness in life; and when we learn that there is an education of our intellects and we are set about that education with prudence and wisdom, we shall do much to increase not only our happiness but also our usefulness in the world.

God's ways of educating our desires are, of course, always the most perfect, and if those who have it in their power to educate and direct the desires of children would imitate his prudence, the children would be much more fortunate in combating the difficulties that beset men everywhere in the struggle for existence. And what is God's way? Everywhere in nature we are taught the lessons of patience and waiting. We want things a long time before we get them, and the fact that we wanted them a long time makes them all the more precious when they come. In nature we have our seed-time and harvest; and if children were taught that the desires that they sow may be reaped by and by through patience and labor, they will learn to appreciate whenever a long-looked-for goal has been reached. Nature resists us and keeps admonishing us to wait; indeed, we are compelled to wait.

A man has a much greater capacity to enjoy that for which he has labored for a number of years than one who has a similar object given to him. It is, therefore, most unfortunate for children when their parents greatly weaken or almost wholly destroy the children's capacity for the enjoyment of some of the most wholesome pleasures of life. The child who has everything he wants and when he wants it is really to be pitied, for he has no ability to enjoy it. There may be a hundred times more pleasure in a dollar piece for one child than for another.

Our desires are the strongest motives which incite us {373} to energy and which make us productive and creative in life. If they are weak, our creations are likely to be puny and worthless. Money that a boy works for has a value upon his life and an actual purchasing power greatly in excess of the money that has been given to him. And what is true of boys is in a large measure true of girls. The girl who earns something, who works persistently and patiently that she may have money she can call her own has a capacity for enjoying the objects of her desires greatly in excess of the girl who never learned to earn a dollar. She also knows and appreciates the value of a dollar more than the girl who never had to wait until she earned it. It is a mistake for parents to suppose that a daughter ought never to be required to earn anything. Every effort by which we seek the fulfilment of our desires gives strength and character to manhood and womanhood. The man who builds a house has vastly more enjoyment in its occupation than the man who has had a house given to him.

It is just as wrong systematically to give a child everything he desires as to deny the child everything. When indulgent parents fancy that they are adding to the pleasure of their children's lives by giving to them whatever they wish, such parents are in fact destroying the capacity of their children to enjoy the gratification of desires weakened and perverted by over-indulgence. The ability to give to children wisely is indeed a rare attainment, and is acquired only by a thoughtful and prudent exercise of the highest sense of duty which parents can feel for their children. Duty is always preferable to indulgence.--_Juvenile Instructor,_ p. 400, July 1, 1903.

DO NOT PLACE CHILDREN UNDER PLEDGES. We believe it is questionable wisdom to put children under a pledge of any kind. We ourselves do not put our children under pledges, and we see no reason why we should permit others to do it. Instructions can be given to children warning them {374} against the use of strong drinks and tobacco just as well without their being pledged as by placing that responsibility upon them. No man or set of people should be permitted to call our children together for the purpose of joining a temperance society, without they first obtain the consent of the parents or guardians of those children; and we take it for granted that no such consent would be given. We also take it for granted that boards of education could not consistently, without such permission, allow such a thing to be done in the public schools.

It should be understood that we, the Latter-day Saints, teach temperance and morality as part of our religion, and that we ourselves are competent to do this kind of work among our own children without the aid of outside temperance societies.--_Juvenile Instructor,_ Vol. 37, p. 720, Dec. 1, 1902.

CHILDREN HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS WITH ELDERS IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. Our children should be taught also that they have rights in the house of the Lord equal to their parents and equal to their neighbors or anybody else.--_Oct. C. R.,_ 1904, p. 88.

DON'T MORTGAGE YOUR HOUSES. My brethren, see to it that you do not put a mortgage upon the roof that covers the heads of your wives and your children. Don't do it. Don't plaster your farms with mortgages, because it is from your farms that you reap your food, and the means to provide your raiment and your other necessaries of life. Keep your possessions free from debt. Get out of debt as fast as you can, and keep out of debt, for that is the way in which the promise of God will be fulfilled to the people of his Church, that they will become the richest of all people in the world. But this will not happen while you mortgage your homes and your farms, or run into debt beyond your ability to meet your obligations; and thus, perhaps, your name and credit be dishonored because you over-reached {375} yourselves. "Never reach further than you can gather," is a good motto.--_Apr. C. R.,_ 1915, p. 11.

NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE HOME. The growing tendency throughout the country to abandon the home for the hotel and for the nomadic life with its ever-shifting and restless spirit, manifests itself here and there among the Latter-day Saints. A word of warning at this time may not be inappropriate to those who imagine that there is some charm as well as benefit in moving about the world in quest of pleasure and novelties that come from changing frequently one's habitation.

There is no substitute for the home. Its foundation is as ancient as the world, and its mission has been ordained of God from the earliest times. From Abraham sprang two ancient races represented in Isaac and Ishmael. The one built stable homes, and prized its land as a divine inheritance. The other became children of the desert, and as restless as its ever-shifting sands upon which their tents were pitched. From that day to the present, the home has been the chief characteristic of superior over inferior nations. The home then is more than a habitation, it is an institution which stands for stability and love in individuals as well as in nations.

There can be no genuine happiness separate and apart from the home, and every effort made to sanctify and preserve its influence is uplifting to those who toil and sacrifice for its establishment. Men and women often seek to substitute some other life for that of the home; they would make themselves believe that the home means restraint; that the highest liberty is the fullest opportunity to move about at will. There is no happiness without service, and there is no service greater than that which converts the home into a divine institution, and which promotes and preserves family life.

Those who shirk home responsibilities are wanting in an {376} important element of social well-being. They may indulge themselves in social pleasures, but their pleasures are superficial and result in disappointment later in life. The occupations of men sometimes call them from their homes; but the thought of home-coming is always an inspiration to well doing and devotion. When women abandon the home and its duties, the case is a more deplorable one. The evil effects are not confined to the mother alone. The children are robbed of a sacred right, and their love is bereft of its rallying place around the hearthstone. The strongest attachments of childhood are those that cluster about the home, and the dearest memories of old age are those that call up the associations of youth and its happy surroundings.

The disposition among the Saints to be moving about ought to be discouraged. If communities must swarm, let the young go, and let the old homes be transmitted from generation to generation, and let the home be erected with the thought that it is to be a family abiding place from one generation to another, that it is to be a monument to its founder and an inheritance of all that is sacred and dear in home life. Let it be the Mecca to which an ever-increasing posterity may make its pilgrimage. The home, a stable and pure home, is the highest guaranty of social stability and permanence in government.

A Latter-day Saint who has no ambition to establish a home and give it permanency has not a full conception of a sacred duty the gospel imposes upon him. It may be necessary at times to change our abode; but a change should never be made for light or trivial reasons, nor to satisfy a restless spirit. Whenever homes are built the thought of permanency should always be present. Many of the Saints live in parts of the country that are less productive than others, that possess few natural attractions, yet they cherish their homes and their surroundings, and the more substantial men and women of such communities are the last {377} to abandon them. There is no substitute in wealth or in ambition for the home. Its influence is a prime necessity for man's happiness and well-being.--_Juvenile Instructor,_ Vol. 38, pp. 145, 146, March 1, 1903.

WORSHIP IN THE HOME. We have in the gospel the truth. If that is the case, and I bear my testimony that so it is, then it is worth our every effort to understand the truth, each for himself, and to impart it in spirit and practice to our children. Far too many risk their children's spiritual guidance to chance, or to others rather than to themselves, and think that organizations suffice for religious training. Our temporal bodies would soon become emaciated, if we fed them only once a week, or twice, as some of us are in the habit of feeding our spiritual and religious bodies. Our material concerns would be less thriving, if we looked after them only two hours a week, as some people seem to do with their spiritual affairs, especially if we in addition contented ourselves, as some do in religious matters, to let others look after them.

No; on the other hand, this should be done every day, and in the home, by precept, teaching and example. Brethren, there is too little religious devotion, love and fear of God, in the home; too much worldliness, selfishness, indifference and lack of reverence in the family, or these never would exist so abundantly on the outside. Then, the home is what needs reforming. Try today, and tomorrow, to make a change in your home by praying twice a day with your family; call on your children and your wife to pray with you. Ask a blessing upon every meal you eat. Spend ten minutes in reading a chapter from the words of the Lord in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, before you retire, or before you go to your daily toil. Feed your spiritual selves at home, as well as in public places. Let love, and peace, and the Spirit of the Lord, kindness, charity, sacrifice for others, abound in your families. {378} Banish harsh words, envyings, hatreds, evil speaking, obscene language and innuendo, blasphemy, and let the Spirit of God take possession of your hearts. Teach to your children these things, in spirit and power, sustained and strengthened by personal practice. Let them see that you are earnest, and practice what you preach. Do not let your children out to specialists in these things, but teach them by your own precept and example, by your own fireside. Be a specialist yourself in the truth. Let our meetings, schools and organizations, instead of being our only or leading teachers, be supplements to our teachings and training in the home. Not one child in a hundred would go astray, if the home environment, example and training, were in harmony with the truth in the gospel of Christ, as revealed and taught to the Latter-day Saints. Fathers and mothers, you are largely to blame for the infidelity and indifference of your children. You can remedy the evil by earnest worship, example, training and discipline, in the home.--_Improvement Era,_ Vol. 7, Dec., 1904, p. 135.

THE BASIS OF A TRUE HOME. A home is not a home in the eye of the gospel, unless there dwell perfect confidence and love between the husband and the wife. Home is a place of order, love, union, rest, confidence, and absolute trust; where the breath of suspicion of infidelity can not enter; where the woman an the man each have implicit confidence in each other's honor and virtue.--_Second Sunday School Convention_.

THE IDEAL HOME. What then is an ideal home--model home, such as it should be the ambition of the Latter-day Saints to build; such as a young man starting out in life should wish to erect for himself? And the answer came to me: It is one in which all worldly considerations are secondary. One in which the father is devoted to the family with which God has blessed him, counting them of first importance, {379} and in which they in turn permit him to live in their hearts. One in which there is confidence, union, love, sacred devotion between father and mother and children and parents. One in which the mother takes every pleasure in her children, supported by the father--all being moral, pure, God-fearing. As the tree is judged by its fruit, so also do we judge the home by the children. In the ideal home true parents rear loving, thoughtful children, loyal to the death, to father and mother and home! In it there is the religious spirit, for both parents and children have faith in God, and their practices are in conformity with that faith; the members are free from the vices and contaminations of the world, are pure in morals, having upright hearts beyond bribes and temptations, ranging high in the exalted standards of manhood and womanhood. Peace, order, and contentment reign in the hearts of the inmates--let them be rich or poor, in things material. There are no vain regrets; no expressions of discontent against father, from the boys and girls, in which they complain: "If we only had this or that, or were like this family or that, or could do like so and so!"--complaints that have caused fathers many uncertain steps, dim eyes, restless nights, and untold anxiety. In their place is the loving thoughtfulness to mother and father by which the boys and girls work with a will and a determination to carry some of the burden that the parents have staggered under these many years. There is the kiss for mother, the caress for father, the thought that they have sacrificed their own hopes and ambitions, their strength, even life itself to their children--there is gratitude in payment for all that has been given them!

In the ideal home the soul is not starved, neither are the growth and expansion of the finer sentiments paralyzed for the coarse and sensual pleasures. The main aim is not to heap up material wealth, which generally draws further and further from the true, the ideal, the spiritual life; but it is {380} rather to create soul--wealth, consciousness of noble achievement, an outflow of love and helpfulness.

It is not costly paintings, tapestries, priceless bric-a-brac, various ornaments, costly furniture, fields, herds, houses and lands which constitute the ideal home, nor yet the social enjoyments and ease so tenaciously sought by many; but it is rather beauty of soul, cultivated, loving, faithful, true spirits; hands that help and hearts that sympathize; love that seeks not its own, thoughts and acts that touch our lives to finer issues--these lie at the foundation of the ideal home.--_Improvement Era,_ Vol. 8, 1904-05, pp. 385-388.

FOUNDATION OF ALL GOOD IN HOME. The very foundation of the kingdom of God, of righteousness, of progress, of development, of eternal life and eternal increase in the kingdom of God, is laid in the divinely ordained home; and there should be no difficulty in holding in the highest reverence and exalted thought, the home, if it can be built upon the principles of purity, of true affection, of righteousness and justice. The man and his wife who have perfect confidence in each other, and who determine to follow the laws of God in their lives and fulfil the measure of their mission in the earth, would not be, and could never be, contented without the home. Their hearts, their feelings, their minds, their desires would naturally trend toward the building of a home and family and of a kingdom of their own; to the laying of the foundation of eternal increase and power, glory, exaltation and dominion, worlds without end.--_Juvenile Instructor,_ Vol. 51, p. 739.

SECURE HOMES. In my judgment it would be prudence and wisdom for the young people to secure lands near the homes of their parents and near the body of the Church, where they can have the advantage of Sunday schools and the gatherings of the Saints, and in so doing they will be building for themselves, instead of permitting the stranger to come in and take the lands--strangers with whom in many instances {381} we could not affiliate. We all know there are classes who come in here who up to date have not proved desirable neighbors to affiliate with, and it is just as well for our own young people to stay in the land of their birth and build them homes. I will say that we do not approve of the disposition of some to go afar off where life, property and liberty are not safe. We wish them to remain together, so that if it is necessary or desirable that the Saints should colonize, they might do it in order.

I do not want to be understood as saying or thinking that one little state is big enough to contain all the young people, and I think it is wisdom and necessary for the Latter-day Saints to take every advantage in this respect that is possible. I think our young people should get homes in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado--in our own state and in adjoining states--in blessed America, under this grand and glorious government where life and property, and the liberties of men are safe and protected, where mob violence and revolutionary spirit do not stalk forth as in some countries of the world.

Another thing. In the old times an effort was made to co-operate and combine together and establish home industries for the production of the things that were needful for consumption of the people and to produce a revenue as well. Today we have allowed the home industry spirit to perish almost from amongst us, and we do not witness the same loyalty among the people to those things which are produced at home that there should be. There are too many people who would rather patronize some "cheap John" and buy shoddy goods, just because they can get them a few pence cheaper, than to sustain home industry, and get all wool and a yard wide. We should not encourage foreign capital to the exclusion of our own, and patronize foreign labor against our own, but we should build up our home institutions.--_From a Sermon,_ given in Logan, April 7, 1910.

{382} OWN YOUR HOMES. It was early the rule among the Latter-day Saints to have the lands so divided that every family could have a spot of ground which could be called theirs; and it has been the proud boast of this people that among them were more home owners than among any other people of like numbers. This condition had a good tendency, and whatever men said of us, the home among this people was a first consideration. It is this love of home that has made the Saints famous as colonizers, builders of settlements, and redeemers of the deserts. But in the cities there appears now to be coming into vogue the idea that renting is the thing. Of course, it may be necessary as a temporary makeshift, but no young couple should ever settle down with the idea that such a condition, as far as they are concerned, shall be permanent. Every young man should have an ambition to possess his own home. It is better for him, for his family, for society, for the state, and for the Church. Nothing so engenders stability, strength, power, patriotism, fidelity to country and to God as the owning of a home--a spot of earth that you and your children can call yours. And besides, there are so many tender virtues that grow with such ownership that the government of a family is made doubly easy thereby.

Let us continue, as a people, to be unlike the world in this regard. I hope the Saints will ever be a home owning people, and never become roamers, roomers and renters. We should no more follow the prevailing notions in this than in some other things. The people of Zion have a higher destiny than being led by the nose, as it were, by the prevailing whims. We do not purpose being led by evil tendencies, but rather glory in being leaders ourselves in all that makes for the welfare and happiness of the home, the advancement of the Church, the prosperity of the state.--_Improvement Era,_ Aug., 1904, Vol. 7, p. 796.

DO NOT MORTGAGE YOUR HOMES. Whenever a panic {383} comes, or there is severe financial depression because of monetary conditions, the people have before them a painful object lesson on the evils of mortgaging, especially of their homes and places of business.

Men owe it to their wives and children to be prudent and conservative when business considerations touch the home, and it is doubtful whether they really have a moral right to expose helpless wives and children to the mercies of the money lender. The evils are too abundantly manifest to permit of mortgaging homes that should be sacred to the needs of those who are dependent upon them.

The Latter-day Saints have often been warned and are now earnestly admonished not to hazard their homes, and with them their wives and children, upon the altar of financial speculations.

What was taught in the early days of our history in this intermountain region is equally true today, and it is the duty of every Latter-day Saint, so far as it is possible, to own his home, to possess an earthly inheritance. It has been our pride that among the people of all the world nowhere can a greater percentage be found of those who have title to the homes in which they live. Instead of declining year by year in the total number of homes owned by the Latter-day Saints of Salt Lake City, and other large cities, there should be an increase. The matter of the Saints possessing title to their homes is something more than a question of whether it pays best to rent or to own. It is a question of vital importance to our future position, and relative strength in a land to which by every rule of equity and prudence we are entitled. There is a virtue and an assurance and a certainty in the ownership of one's home that are never felt by those who are shifting from place to place without any landed possession. The influence upon child life that comes from the possession and ownership of the family home is of itself a sufficient reason to guard it against the repeated evils {384} of mortgaging. The Latter-day Saints owe it to themselves and they owe it to their God to be steadfast in the possession of the lands to which they hold titles, either by purchase or settlement. The evil of mortgaging homes to eastern firms, to men and companies who have no other motive than to secure their pound of flesh, is growing among the people, and especially among those in the larger cities. Against such evils the people have in the past been abundantly warned. If necessity compels the husband to place a mortgage upon the home, let it come, if possible, through a friend and not through those who may be the enemies of the people. If the Latter-day Saints will give heed to the prudent admonitions and lessons of the past, they will hesitate in the presence of the alluring temptations which are now everywhere held out, to mortgage their homes, their places of business, the canals, and the farms, for the means with which to speculate and grow rich. It is to be hoped, therefore, that where the Saints have mortgages upon their homes they will be persistent in their endeavors to remove them, and they are advised to keep intact and beyond menace the titles to their lands.

The admonitions here given are directed especially to those disposed to mortgage for the purpose of speculation, and not to those who may find it necessary through building societies or otherwise to secure homes by monthly or other periodical payments. The latter practice may lead to economic habits, while speculations too frequently create a spirit of extravagance.--_Juvenile Instructor,_ Vol. 36, pp. 722-723.

EVILS OF MORTGAGING. What a blessed condition would result in Zion if the evil of going into debt, of mortgaging the home, could be made very clear to every Latter-day Saint, young and old! Well, indeed, would it be if some of the burdens of the mortgage and its accompanying sorrows, could be felt and understood by every man who has in contemplation the pawning of his home and land for money--that {385} he might comprehend its slavery and terror--as thoroughly prior to the deed as he is sure to feel it after. In that event, he might be warned in time to avoid the fatal step, and awake as from a horrid dream to rejoice in his deliverance. With few exceptions mortgages on private property end in disaster to the giver. * * * What should we think of men who would jeopardize the position and place of the people of Zion! The land of Zion is an inheritance, and every man who mortgages his part of that inheritance places in jeopardy the land, thus not only disinheriting himself, but committing a crime against the whole community and the intelligence and wisdom that should characterize every true Latter-day Saint. The result of such action is appalling, and its contemplation something fearful to every lover of the people of God, the more so when one possesses a knowledge of how widespread is the evil.

Mortgaging, then, looked upon in its true light, is not only a private burden and detriment, in which a man's family is thrown out of house and home, and his own abilities, happiness and talents are destroyed or sadly diminished, but it is positively a public crime in a community like ours. Disposing of inheritances in Zion partakes of the nature of such action as individuals pulling up and selling for money the gold bricks from the streets of the Celestial City. It is intolerable, when looked upon in the right light! The old proverb: "Who goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing," and "Lying rides on debt's back," should appeal directly to every man who contemplates mortgaging. But if personal appeal is not strong enough, let him remember that his home or farm is likely to go for half of its value to satisfy his debt, and that his family who depend upon him will be left without adequate shelter and support. But if neither reason is strong enough to hold him back, let him remember Zion and his inheritance therein, and let her cause cry aloud to him to bring him to a realizing sense of the triple crime that he is {386} about to commit, in order that his hand may be stayed, and he saved the humiliation, worry, anxiety and sorrow that must inevitably overtake him, unless he repent.--_Improvement Era,_ Dec., 1901, Vol. 5, p. 147.

OUR FIRST DUTY TO OUR HOUSEHOLD. I want to tell you that we will be honest with you; we feel that it is the first duty of Latter-day Saints to take care of themselves and of their poor; and then, if we can extend it to others, and as wide and as far as we can extend charity and assistance to others that are not members of the Church, we feel that it is our duty to do it. But first look after the members of our own household. The man who will not provide for his own house, as one of old has said, is worse than an infidel._--Apr. C. R.,_ 1915, p. 10.

UNCHASTITY, A DOMINANT EVIL. The character of a community or a nation is the sum of the individual qualities of its component members. To say so is to voice at once an ordinary platitude and an axiom of profound import. The stability of a material structure depends upon the integrity of its several parts and the maintenance of a proper correlation of the units in harmony with the laws of forces. The same may be said of institutions, systems, and organizations in general.

Not alone is it fundamentally proper and in strict accord with both the spirit and the letter of the Divine Word, but absolutely essential to the stability of the social order that the marriage relation shall be defined and regulated by secular law. Parties to the marriage contract must be definitely invested with the responsibilities of the status they assume; and for fidelity to their obligations they are answerable to each other, to society, and to their God.

Sexual union is lawful in wedlock, and if participated in with right intent is honorable and sanctifying. But without the bonds of marriage, sexual indulgence is a debasing sin, abominable in the sight of Deity.

{387} Infidelity to marriage vows is a fruitful source of divorce, with its long train of attendant evils, not the least of which are the shame and dishonor inflicted on unfortunate though innocent children. The dreadful effects of adultery cannot be confined to the erring participants. Whether openly known or partly concealed under the cloak of guilty secrecy, the results are potent in evil influence. The immortal spirits that come to earth to tabernacle in bodies of flesh have the right to be well born, through parents who are free from the contamination of sexual vice.

It is a deplorable fact that society persists in holding women to stricter account than men in the matter of sexual offense. What shadow of excuse, not to speak of justification, can be found for this outrageous and cowardly discrimination? Can moral defilement be any the less filthy and pestilential in man than in woman? Is a male leper less to be shunned for fear of contagion than a woman similarly stricken?

So far as woman sins it is inevitable that she shall suffer, for retribution is sure, whether it be immediate or deferred. But in so far as man's injustice inflicts upon her the consequence of his offenses, he stands convicted of multiple guilt. And man is largely responsible for the sins against decency and virtue, the burden of which is too often fastened upon the weaker participant in the crime. The frightful prevalence of prostitution, and the tolerance and even condonation with which the foul traffic is treated by so-called civilized society, are black blots on the pages of current history. * * *

Like many bodily diseases, sexual crime drags with itself a train of other ills. As the physical effects of drunkenness entail the deterioration of tissue, and disturbance of vital functions, and so render the body receptive to any distemper to which it may be exposed, and at the same time lower the powers of resistance even to fatal deficiency, so {388} does unchastity expose the soul to divers spiritual maladies, and rob it of both resistance and recuperative ability. The adulterous generation of Christ's day were deaf to the voice of truth, and through their diseased state of mind and heart, sought after signs and preferred empty fable to the message of salvation.

We accept without reservation or qualification the affirmation of Deity, through an ancient Nephite prophet: "For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts." (Jacob 2:28.)

We hold that sexual sin is second only to the shedding of innocent blood in the category of personal crimes; and that the adulterer shall have no part in the exaltation of the blessed.

We proclaim as the word of the Lord: "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

"He that looketh on a woman to lust after her, or if any shall commit adultery in their hearts, they shall not have the Spirit, but shall deny the faith."--_Improvement Era,_ June, 1918, Vol. 20, p. 738; Doc. and Cov. 63:16.

DEGREES OF SEXUAL SIN. There are said to be more shades of green than of any other color, so also we are of the opinion there are more grades or degrees of sin associated with the improper relationship of the sexes than of any other wrongdoing of which we have knowledge. They all involve a grave offense--the sin against chastity, but in numerous instances this sin is intensified by the breaking of sacred covenants, to which is sometimes added deceit, intimidation or actual violence.

Much as all these sins are to be denounced and deplored, we can ourselves see a difference both in intent and consequence between the offense of a young couple who, being betrothed, in an unguarded moment, without premeditation {389} fall into sin, and that of the man, who having entered into holy places and made sacred covenants, plots to rob the wife of his neighbor of her virtue either by cunning or force, and accomplishes his vile intent.

Not only is there a difference in these wrongs, judging from the standpoint of intent, but also from that of the consequences. In the first instance the young couple who have transgressed can make partial amends by sincere repentance and by marrying. One reparation, however, they cannot make. They cannot restore the respect that they previously held for each other; and too often as a consequence of this loss of confidence their married life is clouded or embittered by the fear that each has for the other, having once sinned, may do so again. In the other case, others are most disastrously involved, families are broken up, misery is forced upon innocent parties, society is affected, doubt is thrown upon the paternity of children, and from the standpoint of gospel ordinances, the question of descent is clouded and pedigrees become worthless; altogether, wrongs are committed both to the living and the dead, as well as to the yet unborn, which it is out of the power of the offenders to repair or make right.

Sometimes an argument is advanced to limit the provisions of the law of God, as given in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, both with regard to punishment and to forgiveness to those who have entered the House of the Lord and received their endowments. This is not possible, as so many of these provisions were given in revelations published several years before the Saints were permitted to receive these holy ordinances, indeed, before any temple was built. The law as given, we believe to be general, applying to all the Saints. But undoubtedly when, in addition to the actual offense against the laws of chastity, covenants are broken, then the punishment for the double offense will, either in this life or that which is to come, be correspondingly greater {390} and more severe.--_Juvenile Instructor,_ Nov. 15, 1902, Vol. 37, p. 688.

PURITY. There is something in man, an essential part of his mind, which recalls the events of the past, and the words that we have spoken on various occasions. Words which we spoke in our childhood we can readily bring to mind. Words that we heard others speak in our infancy, we can recall, though we may be advanced in years. We recall words that were spoken in our youth and in our early manhood, as well as words that were spoken yesterday. May I say to you that in reality a man cannot forget anything? He may have a lapse of memory; he may not be able to recall at the moment a thing that he knows, or words that he, has spoken; he may not have the power at his will to call up these events and words; but let God Almighty touch the mainspring of the memory, and awaken recollection, and you will find then that you have not even forgotten a single idle word that you have spoken. I believe the word of God to be true, and therefore, I warn the youth of Zion, as well as those who are advanced in years, to beware of saying wicked things, of speaking evil, and taking in vain the name of sacred things and sacred beings. Guard your words, that you may not offend even man, much less offend God.

We believe that God lives, and that he is a judge of the quick and the dead. We believe that his eye is upon the world, and that he beholds his groveling, erring and weak children upon this earth. We believe that we are here by his design, and not by choice; that we are here to fulfil a destiny, and not to fulfil a whim, or for the gratification of mortal lusts. We believe that we are immortal beings. We believe in the resurrection of the dead, and that as Jesus came forth from the grave to everlasting life, his Spirit and body uniting again never more to be separated, so has he opened the way for every son and daughter of Adam, {391} whether living or dead, to come forth from the grave to a newness of life, to become immortal souls, body and spirit, united, never to be severed any more. We raise our voices against prostitution, and against all forms of immorality. We are not here to practice immorality of any kind. Above all things, sexual immorality is most heinous in the sight of God. It is on a par with murder itself, and God Almighty fixed the penalty of the murderer at death: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Furthermore, he said that whosoever committed adultery should be put to death. Therefore, we raise our voices against sexual immorality, and against all manner of obscenity.