President Anthon H. Lund.
The past fourteen years of increased tithe paying marks great progress in Church affairs--Remarkable increase in Temple work, and additions in Church membership--Faithful activity of workers in Church organizations--Extensive work of Church educational institutions--Detailed explanation of Religion Class work--The Universe governed by law, and God makes the law.
I feel the need of your sympathy and prayers in presenting myself before this large congregation. I have rejoiced in the good words spoken by our president. The uplifting and inspiring speech he has given us I know will be remembered by all present. I feel, as he told us, that we all stand in the presence of our Heavenly Father, who has means whereby He can know all about us, even of our inmost thoughts. Knowing this ought to make us careful to walk in His ways and obey His commandments.
I was also pleased to hear the figures read by the President, telling us what has been done during the past fourteen years. I thought, many small amounts have amounted to great sums. Millions have been spent in the upbuilding of this work, and the books are open to show where every cent has gone that has been paid into the funds of the Church, and I believe you all approve the purposes for which the money has been expended. Millions have been appropriated to the poor, to the erection of houses of worship where the Saints can go and be built up in their holy faith; great amounts have been paid towards the temples, the missions, and so on. I feel thankful that the Saints have opened their hearts and contributed of their means for the purposes we have just heard stated. They have felt to obey the law of tithing which the Lord has given us, and they have had full confidence that the money would be spent in the upbuilding of the Kingdom of God.
It is a large number of persons who have joined the Church in the short time that President Smith has stood at the head of this administration, and a great number also that have passed through the temples. It is encouraging to hear of the increase in our different associations; for they are all useful in the strengthening of the faith of their members.
The last statistics read stated that the Religion Classes had increased eighty-five per cent. I am pleased to hear this, for I have thought that the Saints hardly know what the Religion Class stands for, and in a good many places they have considered it was an extra burden upon the bishops and teachers. Now, I believe that when it is fully understood, the Saints will see the great necessity of sustaining and cherishing these classes.
At the beginning of Brother Woodruff's administration, the First Presidency were impressed to start more Church schools. They felt that places should be prepared where our young people could receive a systematic training in the principles of the Gospel. A Church Board of Education was organized whose members came together and discussed the problem of what would be the best plan for educating our children in the branch of theology, which could not be taught in the secular schools. The Church schools were started and were organized on the plan of the Brigham Young Academy. The Principal of that school, the able and devoted teacher, Brother Maeser, was appointed superintendent of the Church school system. You know how faithfully he worked to organize the Church schools, and how thankful hundreds and thousands of our young people are that they were favored by receiving an education in these institutions. These schools have continued to prosper, and their membership reaches as high a number as we are able to accommodate. They have done and are doing a world of good among our young people. We would like to have all our children educated in an institution where not only the hand and the brain could be trained, but where spiritual matters could also be attended to; but it is not possible for us to reach so far with the means at our disposal, although millions have been spent, of the tithing, to sustain the Church schools.
We have a splendid public school system in this State. Our grade schools, our high schools, our agricultural college and university stand high. I believe they compare favorably with any in the land. Of course there are higher institutions of learning, in other states much more highly endowed than our university, and able to do more; but for the means that are invested and have been spent here in the state, I think we see good results. Last year, our Governor told me, we spent on education in the state schools from eighty-six to eighty-eight per cent of the state taxes. This shows how great an interest is taken in education. I doubt that any other state in the Union can show so great a percentage of state means set apart for educational purposes as the Utah legislatures have done. But although the school system of Utah stands as high as any, there is a defect in schools that are conducted without religious instruction. Educators east and west who have Studied this matter have come to that conclusion.
Recently a large convention was held in Chicago, in which educators discussed the problem of teaching religion in our public schools. It is not so easy to do this here as it is in countries where they have a state religion, and consequently can teach that religion in their educational institutions, but here, where the public schools are open to children of parents belonging to different denominations, it is more difficult. Some of the educators present at this convention suggested that a certain time for studying religion might be put into the curriculum of the schools, and the children go into rooms where teachers or ministers could teach them the religion of their fathers. I don't know what conclusion was arrived at, as I have not read the full proceedings of the convention, but the suggestion referred to was something like what they do in Canada. There they have a law that provides for religious education in the public schools, and those who teach it are paid by the state. Their statesmen know that it is for the good of the children not only to have their intellects trained, but also the heart and the emotions, and to learn concerning God and His will with men. In Canada the public school is the same as here, free and open to all denominations, and the ministers of these have been given the right to gather the children around them in the school house and teach them the principles their parents believe in.
We realize the defect in an education without religious and moral instruction, and we want to supply some means whereby this lack can be remedied. In some places we gather the children once a week in the Religion Classes to teach them practical religion. In other places these classes meet five times a week or once every school day. The objection that has been raised that it lays too much burden upon the children to attend these classes, because they have so much to learn in the day school that they cannot attend to the studies which the Religion Classes would give them, is not of much weight, as the children are not asked to study these lessons outside of the Religion Classes. When they meet in the classes they are taught by concrete examples, and in a way that requires of them only their attention while in the classes; and teachers of such children say that they are more easily managed and pay better attention than they did before they took the studies in the Religion Classes.
As these classes were parts of the Church school system, Brother Maeser was placed in charge of them also, and tinting his last years be worked hard to make them a success. His whole soul was absorbed in studying the best way of reaching the children's hearts. Once when he was going to a place to organize the Religion Class, he asked himself the question. "What shall he the procedure?" He prayed about it, and the method we follow, called the six steps, came to his mind, and we have found this mode very successful.
We would like you who have not attended a session of the Religion Classes to do so and see how our brethren and sisters are teaching the young that attend the classes. The classes are opened by singing, led by the teacher or by one of the children, as he or she may direct. The singing is not accompanied with instrumental music. We like them to be independent of such help and able to strike the right pitch themselves. When our young men are called to go out into the missionary field, you know what a blessing it is to them to be able to sing. When they stand on the street corner, with their backs to a lamp-post and a large congregation before them, they have no instrument to help them in starting the song, it is well for them if they are able to do it correctly. How many of you brethren have not had experience of this kind?
After the children have sung a hymn, their hearts are attuned for the second step, which is prayer. Here one of the boys or girls will volunteer to offer the prayer when the teacher calls on them to do so, and the boy or girl chosen to lead will utter a short sentence or a short phrase, which all repeat in concert, and then the next sentence will be given and repeated, and so on until the prayer is ended. Repeating the words spoken by the one offering the prayer secures attention, for all are alert to join in the prayers and to pronounce the words which the leader has spoken.
The third step is to learn a memory gem, or good thought. The teacher will lead out with a short part of the quotation and the children repeat it after her. When it is learned the next part of the quotation is given, and so to the end of it. By this method a great many precious thoughts are stored away in the minds of the children that will help them in time to come.
Then comes the fourth step, which is the real lesson, and takes the longest time. The lesson and the memory gem are generally so related that one explains the other. The lessons generally consist in narratives and concrete examples, which the children love to hear, and which will make such an impression upon their minds that they will remember them, and will try to carry out that which has been taught them.
The fifth step is testimony-bearing. We ask the children to bear testimony of what they have themselves experienced, what they know of the goodness of God, the goodness of their parents, and of others, what joy has come to their hearts in performing a good act, an unselfish act to others. All of this we consider good material for testimony bearing, and if you listen to these children bearing their testimony, it will often melt your heart, for you know they are innocent and honest in what they say, and we can see how the Spirit of the Lord is working upon their young hearts. They will tell of visiting a sick comrade and comforting them, perhaps bringing him flowers; they will tell of taking part in cutting the wood of a widow for winter use, and of so many other things that they have done. The object of the Religion Class is to imbue their hearts with practical religion, that is, as James defines it, "to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep themselves unspotted from the world." The sixth step is singing and prayer, conducted as were the opening exercises.
You ought not to neglect sending your children to the Religion Classes, for they need the instruction given there. I have heard many examples mentioned in our Board where these young children have been able to bring their parents to renewed diligence in the performance of their duty, and even bringing families into the Church that had not before understood the Gospel. It gives us joy to hear these things, and I will plead with you, my brethren and sisters, to sustain the movement of our Religion Classes. The children will be built up and encouraged in well-doing, and the time they spend there does not interfere with their other studies. I hope the time will come when educators in the whole land will be able to devise some plan whereby such religious teaching as the parents desire the children to receive can be given them in the public schools.
A short time ago I attended the dedication of the Brigham City Theological Seminary. It has been erected for the purpose of giving the students of our faith, who attend the high school there, an opportunity to study the history of the Bible and the principles of the Gospel. More than two hundred students are enrolled, and are enthusiastic in taking this branch of study. Having a school building on an adjoining lot to that of the high school gives the students attending it nearly all the benefits of a Church school education. There are a few other seminaries similarly located in the neighborhood of high schools, which are also doing excellent work. We do not want to induce the children of parents not belonging to our faith to attend these classes, but we would like our own students to do so, for we do see a great need of having their hearts fortified against the many theories that will be presented before them, and which tend to taking away their faith. We want to have them fortified against the insinuating suggestions they may hear of learned men, that the world is a self-sustaining machine, and consequently there is no need of a God, that there is no spirit in man, and hence there will be no resurrection; that everything is ruled by law and therefore prayer is useless. Now, we want a foundation of faith in God laid so firmly in the hearts of our children that it cannot be shaken. But some ask are you afraid, then, of evolution and other theories that are taught so extensively ? We are not afraid that the revealed Gospel shall be proved untrue by anything that men may discover; for truth will always square with truth, but theories of men are not always true; the scientists often take hypotheses as proven facts, and they assume that it has taken millions of years to produce the changes which they claim have gradually taken place in plants and animals, during the different periods of the earth.
We believe that everything is ruled by law. We are thankful that it is so, for otherwise we would live in a world of chance, in a fearful uncertainty of what would happen next. I believe that the material laws that can be traced in the creation had an intelligent will behind them, that the laws themselves were never superior to the will of God. He made those laws, and by His power they became effective to accomplish His purposes. It is to Him that we pray, and we know he is almighty and does hear prayers, and though He uses material laws to carry out His plans, His will was never subjected to the laws, lint the laws have ever been subservient to Him. Let no one think that God is impotent, that the laws He has made stand in the way of His hearing His children and answering their prayers.
I see the time is going. I feel thankful to be here with you brethren and sisters, to bear my testimony to the truth of the Gospel, which is that Jesus is the Savior and Redeemer of the world, and that He is the Only Begotten of the Father. May the Lord help us ever to be true and faithful in the covenants we have made with Him, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
President Smith read a notice, issued by the Presiding Bishopric, informing conference visitors concerning arrangements made for their lodging, etc., and made other announcements.
The choir sang the anthem, "Lift up the voice in singing."
The benediction was pronounced by Elder Henry H. Rolapp.
Conference adjourned until 2 p. m.
Afternoon Session
In the Tabernacle.
Conference was resumed at 2 p.m.
President Joseph F. Smith called the meeting to order.
The choir and congregation sang the hymn, "God moves in a mysterious way."
The invocation was offered by Elder Arthur Winter.
The choir sing the hymn, "Our mountain home so dear."