During a meeting held September 6-8, 1850, we read the following concerning the meeting held on the evening of September 7, 1850:
2 o'clock P.M.
Conference called to order
by W. Snow; singing—prayer by W. Snow—singing.
Elder O. Hyde delivered a
lecture to the Honorable Chancellor and Board of Regents of the University of
the State of Deseret, in presence of the Conference, on Education.
Education is not confined to
letters only, but to the excluding of all darkness, and when a man has ascended
to the summit, he can then bask in the light, having nothing to obscure his
vision. Every person is under a responsibility to impart the intelligence that
he enjoys, unto others. The child that is born into this world, is like a blank
sheet of paper, susceptible of any impression and we have cause to be thankful
for the place of our birth; that it has been in a country where intelligence
has burst from the heavens through the administration of an angel.
Great honor has been
conferred on parents to mould [mold] and fashion that mind, which is put into
the tabernacle by the Almighty himself, that they may be qualified to fill the
stations they are destined to fill. Here is the honor of rearing up children to
the glory of our Father in Heaven, and we have an opportunity of rearing it, to
offer it to our Father and our God, from whom we received the pledge.
Man originates ideas by
external circumstances, and there must be some vehicle to convey his ideas to
others, or they are comparative[e]ly useless. How pleasing it is when a man
gets hold of a brilliant idea, to be able to convey it to others. We can conceive
ideas as splendid as the heavens, as brilliant as the orbs that roll above us;
but when we want to convey our ideas, our language is imperfect. There was a
time when God talked with Father Adam in the garden of Eden, in a language so
perfect, and pure as the water that flows in rills around. Afterwards, God
confounded the language all over the world. Yet an imperfect language is
better than none at all. If you could bring all the best authors now living,
together, they will express their ideas in different words, and they will all
admit, that our language is imperfect, yet we have to use that which we have,
in order to accomplish the object which is before us, and fulfil[l] the
obligations we are under, one to the other, by using the instruments already in
our midst.
A certain portion of your
property ought to be devoted to the education of your children, in order to
qualify them to be good representatives. Let them be full of light and
intelligence and then they are able to give an answer to anything. The
schoolmaster occupies an exalted sphere in the field of labor. My feelings are,
endow your teachers with a liberal compensation and then they will spare no
pains to educate your children. If you sustain the teachers, they will bless
you in return; and that people that pays the school master well, are destined
to prosper; and may you increase in knowledge until ignorance is burned up in
celestial fire; may God grant it, Amen.
President Young said we have
been highly entertained by Elder Hyde, he has dealt out the food I like. I feel
it my duty to speak in behalf of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund for the Poor.
Last year we did wonders, we accomplished a good thing in raising over $5,000,
which was sent back to the States for the Poor. Benediction by Elder P. P.
Pratt. (“Minutes
of the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
held at Great Salt Lake City, State of Deseret, Sept. 6, 1850,” repr. The
Deseret News 1, no. 14 [September 14, 1850]: 110, emphasis in bold added)
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