I can’t hope that any of you will ever
think a tenth as much about what I shall say as I have thought in preparing it.
I was to present to you this morning the Church of my choice. I have selected
the characteristics that are not common with other churches. Some of them may
be found in other churches, but they are not common to other churches.
First: It is linked to heaven by divine
authority and it doesn’t need to have its history traced through the ages to
prove its origin.
Second: It glorifies intelligence and
declares that wilful ignorance is a bar to salvation.
Third: It holds sacred the free agency
of man--
a. In giving to every individual the right to go to God.
b. In extending to its membership the encouragement to seek knowledge from all
sources,
and
c. By declaring that all things shall be done by common consent.
Fourth: It provides for progress—eternal
progress—through continuous revelation, through the explanation of scientific
discovery as a part of God’s truth, through the adoption of what is superior though
discovered by others. As instance: the adoption of the Scout system by the Church.
Fifth: It recognizes recreation as
pleasing unto God. I believe we are the only people who have been not only
permitted by authority, but commanded to re-create. It imposes implicit confidence
in its young people. You may read the history of churches, but find if you can
where the recreation has been turned over to the young people. It offers a
field of ordinances activity that extends youthfulness into old age.
I sit in the Temple and I see more
than a hundred people ready for the ordinances of that holy house. Here is a young
couple to be married at the altar and I ask, “What visions are before them?” I
see them full of youth—perfect youth. Youth in its full sense means physical
strength, vigor, energy. Youth in its spiritual sense is measured by the faith,
the hope, the love—there is love.
Besides this couple that are to be
married for time and eternity that day sits another couple. There is no
physical youth there—perhaps three-score years have passed away, but they are
toe cause the wedding bells to ring in the spirit world at the end of that day
and I have asked as I have looked into their faces and into the faces of the
young couple, the one where the most physical youth is, “But in which couple is
the most spiritual youth, the most faith, the most hope, the most love?” And I
said, “There is youth brought back to old age and there is no old age in the
midst of this ordinance which is characteristic alone of the Church I selected.”
(George H. Brimhall, “The Church of My Choice,” in Long and Short Range
Arrows [Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1934], 142-44)
Mormonism has been and is a spirit of
inquiry. Truth seeking led Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, to search the
scriptures and then, following the direction of sacred writ, to seek God for
information. For a hundred years the Mormon missionaries have passed on the
call of the Savior—“Seek the truth.”
The spirit of inquiry is seen in full flight
in Mormon literature:
“Yes, say what is truth, ‘Tis the
brightest prize
To which mortals or Gods can aspire,
Go search in the depth where it glittering lies,
Or ascend in pursuit to the loftiest skies,
‘Tis an aim for the noblest desire.”
Chapel halls, temple walls and
mountain cliffs echo the singing of the above tribute to Truth, in testimony that
the Spirit of Mormonism is one of inquiry.
The Spirit of Mormonism is one of
Industry: It cries out against an interpretation of scripture that makes labor
a curse and its proclaims work to be a parent of human happiness. While it
trusts in God, the spirit of Mormonism never leans upon the Lord; its
heroism forbids leaving to Divinity that which can be done by humanity. “Do the
best you can and leave the rest to the Lord,” said one of the
Mormon prophets. Idleness is an iniquity that the spirit of Mormonism spurns,
whether it be gilded with gold or clad in poverty.
“The idler shall not have place in the Church,”
says the Book of Commandments.
With what fervor the Mormons sing the
pioneer song:
“Come, come ye Saints, no toil nor
labor fear,
But with joy went your way.”
And how fittingly the emblem, which
has given to Utah the title of “Beehive State,” accords with this Spirit of Industry.
The Spirit of Mormonism Is One of
Helpfulness: it urges getting for the sake of giving. To have simply for the
sake of holding is repugnant to the spirit of this pioneer American religion. “Live
and help” is its approved business policy.
No one with a close range with the
Spirit of Mormonism can, with any degree of consistency, charge it with being
mercenary. A century of its history points to its being almost ultra-generous.
Its helpfulness extends to the ends of the earth, through its missionary
system, and it reaches over into the realms of the world beyond, through its
temple ordinances. If one doubts that helpfulness is woven into the Latter-day
Saint life, let him listen to the Mormon children sing the chorus:
“Then scatter deeds of kindness,
Then scatter deeds of kindness,
Then scatter deeds of kindness,
for the reaping by and by.”
Onwardness is the most outstanding feature
of the Spirit of Mormonism—Behind this characteristic stands the doctrine of
Eternal Progression, providing for permanency of existence with constant change—Permanency
plus Progress. In the light of this spirit the truth of today is brighter than
the truth of yesterday and the fullness of the joy-cup of tomorrow will be more
than its fullness of today.
Perhaps no other hymn is more often
sung by the Morons than the one containing this couplet:
“Thus on to eternal perfection,
The honest and faithful will go.”
Let the visitor to Salt Lake City enter
the Temple grounds, look at the little log cabin in the south-east corner and
then up at the majestic “House of the Lord, forty years in building, with its
eastern tower, surmounted by a gold-plated figure of an angel, facing the
rising sun and holding a trumpet to his mouth;” then let our tourist go into
the tabernacle, face the great organ and listen to ten thousand people singing:
“The morning breaks, the shadows flee,
Lo, Zion’s standard is unfurled;
The dawning of a brighter say
Majestic rises o’er the world.”
And then the sigh-see-er will have had
an opportunity to see and feel something of the onwardness of the spirit of
Mormonism. (“The Spirit of Mormonism,” 1930, in ibid., 144-46)
Why the Mormon Church? That’s a
question.
First: From an intellectual point of
view. (I am now talking to those who are skeptical about God, but who believe in
religion as a social institution, a system, man-made, a machine for making men
happy.) To such the Mormon Church is entitled to preference because:
1. Of the onward call of its theology,
2. Of the superiority of its organization,
3. Of the uplift of its activities.
Second: From a spiritual point of view
those who believe in God believe that He has had a plan; believe that He has
revealed that plan to men and made them prophets, made them men who could see
history in advance. To that class this Church is entitled to choice
consideration because:
1. It came into existence in fulfillment
of divine promise;
2. It has fulfilled prophecy in its history;
3. It is now fulfilling prophecy.
Third: From an experience point of
view, the point of view of thousands who lived and died in the Church and of
thousands who are now living in it; the point of view of most of you and many,
many others. My experience, the experience of multitudes, gives answer to the
question: Why the Mormon Church? because:
1. The wider the wanders from the Church line of life the weaker I become.
2. The closer I cling to the Church the stronger I grow.
3. The harder I work in the Church the happier I am. (“Why the Mormon Church?,”
May 10, 1926, in ibid., 147-48)