Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

I was not present for this talk, although I did attend other JRCLS Devotionals. I listened to it later, and so appreciated President Packer's insights. While it is very easy to presume that we are self-made, the reality is that we truly are standing on the shoulders of giants, and we bear the names of those who have gone before us.

On the Shoulder of Giants

by President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law Society Devotional – Saturday, 28 February 2004, 6:00 p.m.

In my hand is a two-pound English coin. Around the edge is inscribed the words “Stood on the shoulders of giants.”

Sir Isaac Newton invented calculus and the reflective telescope, defined the laws of motion, and an astonishing list of other things. Asked how he was able to do it all, he answered: “I stood on the shoulders of giants.”1

We stand on the shoulders of a giant: President J. Reuben Clark.

Less than a month after my 37th birthday, I was sustained as a General Authority. On October 6, 1961, I was set apart in the council room by the First Presidency, and later that same day I received word, “President Clark just passed away.” His ministry closed the same day that mine began.

The mention of his name polishes the windows of my memory. I see clearly and feel deeply the memory of this great man. Now you must not assume that I suppose that I compare in stature with him. I am, with you, one of many who stood on his shoulders.

My close personal contacts with President Clark were very few. I heard him speak many times. I stood in awe of him.

I was in his office once and remember very clearly how he looked and what he said. I sat next to him at the dinner when he gave his address entitled “Reflective Speculation.”2 And there were other times.

The Question

Now I have a question for you of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society. I quote President George Albert Smith, the second of the three Presidents to whom J. Reuben Clark served as a counselor.

President Smith said:

A number of years ago I was seriously ill, in fact, I think everyone gave me up but my wife. With my family I went to St. George, Utah, to see if it would improve my health. We went as far as we could by train, and then continued the journey in a wagon, in the bottom of which a bed had been made for me.

In St. George we arranged for a tent for my health and comfort, with a built-in floor raised about a foot above the ground, and we could roll up the south side of the tent to make the sunshine and fresh air available. I became so weak as to be scarcely able to move. It was a slow and exhausting effort for me even to turn over in bed.

One day, under these conditions, I lost consciousness of my surroundings and thought I had passed to the Other Side. I found myself standing with my back to a large and beautiful lake, facing a great forest of trees. There was no one in sight, and there was no boat upon the lake or any other visible means to indicate how I might have arrived there. I realized, or seemed to realize, that I had finished my work in mortality and had gone home. I began to look around, to see if I could not find someone. There was no evidence of anyone living there, just those great, beautiful trees in front of me and the wonderful lake behind me.

I began to explore, and soon I found a trail through the woods which seemed to have been used very little, and which was almost obscured by grass. I followed this trail, and after I had walked for some time and had traveled a considerable distance through the forest, I saw a man coming towards me. I became aware that he was a very large man, and I hurried my steps to reach him, because I recognized him as my grandfather. In mortality he weighed over three hundred pounds, so you may know he was a large man. I remember how happy I was to see him coming. I had been given his name [George Albert Smith] and had always been proud of it.

When Grandfather came within a few feet of me, he stopped. His stopping was an invitation for me to stop. Then ... he looked at me very earnestly and said:

“I would like to know what you have done with my name?”

Everything I had ever done passed before me as though it were a flying picture on a screen—everything I had done. Quickly this vivid retrospect came down to the very time I was standing there. My whole life had passed before me. I smiled and looked at my grandfather and said:

“I have never done anything with your name of which you need be ashamed.”

He stepped forward and took me in his arms, and as he did so, I became conscious again of my earthly surroundings. My pillow was as wet as though water had been poured on it—wet with tears of gratitude that I could answer unashamed.3

The question is: What are you doing with the name of President J. Reuben Clark?

President J. Reuben Clark

President Clark’s service was divided into two equal parts: twenty-eight years in law and government and twenty-eight years as counselor in the First Presidency.
President Clark grew up as a farm boy in tiny Grantsville. At age eleven he could plow with a team of horses. If the weather was too cold for others to go, he would walk to the evening sacrament meeting alone.

In a large family he learned to work. He had a father and a mother of pioneer virtue and integrity. His father wrote in his journal, “I went down between the barley and wheat in the old ditch, and knelt down and prayed and dedicated the grain that we have sown and asked the blessings of the Lord upon it; this I do every year with everything that I plant.”4

Another local boy, Heber J. Grant, knew him well. These two farm boys would meet again.

With an elementary school education and at the urging of his father, President Clark moved to Salt Lake City to go to college. Dr. James E. Talmage was his mentor. When he went east to school, Dr. Talmage said, “He possessed the brightest mind ever to leave Utah.”5

He married Luacine Savage. They became parents of three daughters and one son. From 1898 to 1903 he was teacher and administrator in Heber and in Cedar City.
Before leaving to study law, he called on President Joseph F. Smith. President Smith cautioned him about the field of law and set him apart on a mission to be an exemplary Latter-day Saint.

Years earlier another young man wanted to go east to study law. James Henry Moyle, father of President Henry D. Moyle, met with President John Taylor. President Taylor said he was “opposed to any of our young men going away to study law. It is a dangerous profession.”

His counselor George Q. Cannon persuaded President Taylor that “Brother Joseph had to engage lawyers. So [did] Brother Brigham.”

President Taylor agreed then that it would be all right for Brother Moyle to go, and then he spoke of “the pitfalls into which the young man might slip unless he [was] careful.” He gave him a blessing, from which I quote:

As thou hast had in thine heart a desire to go forth to study law..., we say unto thee that this is a dangerous profession, one that leads many people down to destruction; ...abstain from corruption and bribery and covetousness, and from arguing falsely and on false principles, maintaining only the things that can be honorably sustained by honorable men;...

We set thee apart ... to go forth as thou hast desired to study and become acquainted with all the principles of law and equity; [then there is a big "if" in the blessing] if thou wilt abstain from chicanery and from fraud and from covetousness, and [another "if"] if thou wilt cleave to the truth, God will bless thee.

He was promised by President Taylor that if he would do these things, he would “grow up in virtue, in intelligence, power and wisdom, and stand as a mighty man among the House of Israel, and be a defender of the rights and liberties and immunities of the people of God.”

And this promise: “But if thou doest not these things, thou wilt go down and wither away.”6

In 1903 President Clark took his family to New York City to attend the Columbia University School of Law. In 1906 he graduated head of his class with an LL.B. degree. Shortly after he was appointed as Department of State Assistant Solicitor, and he published his classic “Memorandum on the Right to Protect Citizens in Foreign Countries by Landing Forces.” (Does that not sound familiar today?)

While living in Washington, D.C., he was appointed as an assistant professor of law at George Washington University.

He opened law offices in Washington, D.C., in New York City, and in Salt Lake City, where he specialized in international and municipal law.

A staunch Republican, he became influential in both Utah and national politics.

They tried more than once to draft him to run for the United States Senate. There was also an effort made to draft him as a candidate for the presidency of the United States until he firmly refused.

During World War I President Clark served as a major on duty with the U.S. Attorney General’s office. He helped prepare the original Selective Service regulations. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

President Calvin Coolidge appointed him as Under Secretary of State in 1928. He then published his “Memorandum on the Monroe Doctrine.” Even his critics praised it as a “monument of erudition,” a “masterly treatise.”7

The title of your society’s semiannual publication is The Clark Memorandum.

Call to the First Presidency

In 1930 J. Reuben Clark was named as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. Two and a half years later he was called by letter as second counselor to President Heber J. Grant.

General conference had come and gone, and a vacancy in the First Presidency was not filled. A senior Apostle told me that two members of the Twelve waited upon President Grant and said, “We see you did not fill the vacancy in the Presidency.”

President Grant replied, “I know the man the Lord wants me to have, and he is not ready yet.” Pointing his cane at each of them, he said, “I know that feeling when it comes. I had it when I called you! And I had it when I called you!”

“When that cane pointed at me,” one of them told me, “I felt as if I had been electrocuted.”

It was nearly a year before President Clark was able to come to Church headquarters. During the first fifteen months he was away for five months in Washington, D.C., or abroad on-call for the President of the United States.

In October 1933 J. Reuben Clark Jr. was honored at a dinner in Beverly Hills, California. Telegrams of tribute arrived—also one letter from Will Rogers, philosopher and humorist, perhaps the best-known American of his time. Will Rogers apologized for the letter but said, “I have more to say than I am able to pay for [in a telegram].”

John Nance Garner, the Vice President of the United States, was there, of whom Rogers said in his letter, “He ... deserves [better work] than he’s got.”

Rogers then spoke in admiration of J. Reuben Clark and closed, “So, God Bless Reuben Clark, and make him a Democrat, or Republican as necessity demands! [signed] Will.”8

President Clark came to the First Presidency virtually unknown in the Church. He had held no administrative positions, even on the local level.

He kept things very plain and simple. The president of Equitable Life once sent him a speech. President Clark replied, “A lot of it was over my head [trying to understand it], but I sort of held my breath and struggled to the top.... I accept your conclusions whether or not I fully understand the reasons, and I congratulate you on another fine speech.”9

I can imagine President Clark in his library with words scattered about on his desk. I see him discarding the longer ones and then picking up a word and fitting it into a sentence and then replacing it with one easier to understand. From words he made sentences, often very long ones, fastening them together into paragraphs and bundling them together into his inspired sermons.

His Reverence for the Lord

One way or another his writing and his speaking had a common theme. It was there when he first spoke in church at age eleven. Like Nephi, “[he talked] of Christ, [he rejoiced] in Christ, [he preached] of Christ, [he prophesied] of Christ, and [he wrote] according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Nephi 25:26).

His classic books Our Lord of the Gospels10 and Behold the Lamb of God11 are examples.

His “The Charted Course of the Church in Education,”12 prepared by assignment from the First Presidency, is an enduring classic akin to scripture.

I give you two examples from his sermons. To the priesthood he spoke of the burden of debt:

Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours.... Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.13

From his classic address “They of the Last Wagon” given in 1947, the centennial of the arrival of the Pioneers:

Morning came when from out that last wagon floated the la-la of the newborn babe, and mother love made a shrine, and Father bowed in reverence before it. But the train must move on. So out into the dust and dirt the last wagon moved again, swaying and jolting, while Mother eased as best she could each pain-giving jolt so no harm might be done her, that she might be strong to feed the little one, bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh. Who will dare to say that angels did not cluster round and guard her and ease her rude bed, for she had given another choice spirit its mortal body that it might work out its God-given destiny?14

President Clark’s mother was one of those so born in 1848.

Criticism

To President Clark criticism seemed to be an inescapable accompaniment of the doing of righteousness. He once wrote:

It seems sometimes as if the darkness that surrounds us is all but impenetrable. I can see on all sides the signs of one great evil master mind working for the overturning of our civilization, the destruction of religion, the reduction of men to the status of animals. This mind is working here and there and everywhere.15

President Clark spoke of the Pioneer leaders and in so doing described himself:

Upright men they were, and fearless, unmindful of what men thought or said of them, if they were in their line of duty. Calumny, slander, derision, scorn left them unmoved, if they were treading the straight and narrow way. Uncaring they were of men’s blame and censure, if the Lord approved them. Unswayed they were by the praise of men, to wander from the path of truth. Endowed by the spirit of discernment, they [knew] when kind words were mere courtesy, and when they betokened honest interest. They moved neither to the right nor to the left from the path of truth to court the good favor of men.16

Intellectual Vision

President Harold B. Lee said of President Clark:

In the universal sweep of his great intellectual vision he had few equals and perhaps no superiors. He once said of his grandfather on his maternal line, Bishop Edwin D. Woolley: “He was so eloquent in political discourse that even his enemies came out to hear him.” So it has been with this grandson of Bishop Woolley [referring to President Clark]. Even those who violently disagree with his views [and there were many] are intrigued by his eloquence, his forthrightness, pure logic, and penetrating insight into the center and core of whatever subjects he undertakes to expound.17

It was said of Bishop Woolley that if he should drown in a river, they would look upstream for the body.

President Spencer Woolley Kimball was a cousin of President Clark. When President Kimball would be very resolute (a kinder word than stubborn), one of the Brethren would say, “Well, he’s a Woolley.”

A young university student of political science once spoke to Elder Lee about the student’s vigorous disagreement with President Clark’s lecture “Our Dwindling Sovereignty” at the University of Utah. Elder Lee’s response was, “Yes, I suppose it would be difficult for a pigmy to get the viewpoint of a giant. When I go to hear world authority..., I go to learn and not to criticize.”18

Other Giants

There are other giants of the law upon whose shoulders I have stood—Presidents Marion G. Romney, Henry D. Moyle, Howard W. Hunter, and James E. Faust.

The saintly Abraham Lincoln said that “lawyers should discourage litigation. Persuade [your] clients to compromise. The lawyer who is a peacemaker can become a good man. There will be business enough.... Never stir up litigation. If you do, a worse man can scarcely be found.”19

John K. Edmunds had a distinguished legal career. He served as a stake president in Chicago. David M. Kennedy, later Secretary of the Treasury, was his counselor. Brother Edmunds later served as president of the Salt Lake Temple.

He told me that a widow once came to him for help on a property matter. When he completed the papers and gave them to her, she asked, “How much do I owe you?”

He looked at her and said, “Why don’t you pay me what you think it’s worth.”

Relieved, she got out her coin purse and produced a quarter and put it in his hand.

He told me, “I looked at the quarter and looked at her. Then I got out my coin purse and gave her ten cents change.”

Only a wicked lawyer would take advantage of a widow or orphans or anyone else.

In Liberty Jail Erastus Snow, who probably could not afford legal counsel, asked Joseph Smith what he should do:

Brother Joseph told him to plead his own case.

“But,” said Brother Snow, “I do not understand the law.”

Brother Joseph asked him if he did not understand justice; he thought he did.

“Well,” said Brother Joseph, “go and plead for justice as hard as you can, and quote Blackstone and other authors now and then, and they will take it all for law.”20

A Charge
Those giants I named, like you, had something that I do not have—a degree in law. With this credential comes obligation.

You who hold the priesthood must be exemplars above reproach.

And I charge each of you lawyers and judges and put you on alert: These are days of great spiritual danger for this people. The world is spiraling downward at an ever-quickening pace. I am sorry to tell you that it will not get better.

I know of nothing in the history of the Church or in the history of the world to compare with our present circumstances. Nothing happened in Sodom and Gomorrah which exceeds the wickedness and depravity which surrounds us now.

Satan uses every intrigue to disrupt the family. The sacred relationship between man and woman, husband and wife, through which mortal bodies are conceived and life is passed from one generation to the next generation, is being showered with filth.

Profanity, vulgarity, blasphemy, and pornography are broadcast into the homes and minds of the innocent. Unspeakable wickedness, perversion, and abuse—not even exempting little children—once hidden in dark places, now seeks protection from courts and judges.

The Lord needs you who are trained in the law. You can do for this people what others cannot do. We should not need to go beyond the members of the Church to find superior legal counsel.

A Caution

Now I caution you, as President John Taylor warned James Moyle and as Joseph Smith warned Stephen A. Douglas at the pinnacle of his political triumph, “If ever you turn your hand against ... the Latter-day Saints, you will feel the weight of the hand of Almighty upon you.”21

We must look to you for legal counsel. You have, or should have, the spirit of discernment. It was given you when you had conferred upon you the gift of the Holy Ghost.

You must locate where the snares are hidden and help guide our footsteps around them.

Morally Mixed-Up World

You face a much different world than did President Clark. The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were localized. They are now spread across the world, wherever the Church is. The first line of defense—the home—is crumbling. Surely you can see what the adversary is about.

The Prophets Have Warned

We are now exactly where the prophets warned we would be.

Paul prophesied word by word and phrase by phrase, describing things exactly as they are now. I will quote from Paul’s prophecy and check the words that fit our society:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves—Check!
covetous—Check!
boasters—Check!,
proud—Check!
blasphemers—Check!
disobedient to parents—Check! Check!
unthankful—Check!
unholy—Check!
Without natural affection—Check! Check!
trucebreakers—Check!
false accusers—Check!
incontinent—Check!
fierce—Check!
despisers of those that are good—Check!
Traitors—Check!
heady—Check!
highminded—Check!
lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God—Check! Check!
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 3:1–7; emphasis added).

Recently Judge Robert H. Bork said:

Judicial invention of new and previously unheard-of rights accelerated over the past half-century and has now reached warp speed. It is not just Grutter’s permission to discriminate against white males and Lawrence’s creation of a right to homosexual sodomy. The Court has created rights to televised sexual acts and computer-simulated child pornography and, in direct contradiction of the historical evidence, has continued its almost frenzied hostility to religion....

In these and other judgements, the Court is shrinking the area of self-government without any legitimate authority to do so, in the Constitution or elsewhere. In the process it is revising the moral and cultural life of the nation.22

Once with other members of a city council, we met in the office of the city attorney. He pointed to a wall with law books and said, “Gentlemen, they are just like a violin. I can play any tune on them you are willing to pay for.” I thought there was something not right about that.

The Lord Himself, strongly condemning the lawyers, scribes, and Pharisees, said: “Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers” (Luke 11:46).

From the writings of the Prophet Alma:

These lawyers were learned in all the arts and cunning of the people;...

[The lawyers] began to question Amulek, that thereby they might make him cross his words, or contradict the words which he should speak....

They knew not that Amulek could know of their designs.... He perceived their thoughts, and he said unto them: O ye wicked and perverse generation, ye lawyers and hypocrites, for ye are laying the foundations of the devil; for ye are laying traps and snares to catch the holy ones of God....

And now behold, I say unto you, that the foundation of the destruction of this people is beginning to be laid by the unrighteousness of your lawyers and your judges (Alma 10:15–17, 27).

Nephi, son of Helaman, described what happened when the Gadiantons took over the lawyers and the judges: “Condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money” (Helaman 7:5).

You have heard of the courageous lawyer who, having been fined fifty dollars for contempt of court, replied, “It is an honest debt, Your Honor, and I shall gladly pay it.”

Lawyers and judges and even the sacred institution of the jury are being tarnished. When one considers some of the high-profile verdicts, one could believe this conversation:

Judge: “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached your verdict?”
Jury: “We have, Your Honor. We find the defendant innocent by reason of insanity.”
Judge: “What? All twelve of you?”

When Moroni was translating the twenty-four gold plates, he interrupted his narrative to speak directly to us in our day. He told of the Gadiantons and their bands (in our day we would call them gangs):

Wherefore, O ye Gentiles [that is us], it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you,...

[He then warned us in unmistakable plainness]: Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you;...

Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved (Ether 8:23–24, 26).

When the Saints in Missouri were suffering great persecutions, the Lord said that the Constitution of the United States was given

that every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him. [Notice that it does not say free agency, it says moral agency. The agency we have is a moral agency.]
...
For this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood (D&C 101:78, 80; emphasis added).

The present major political debate centers on values and morals and the Constitution.

There occurs from time to time reference to the Constitution hanging by a thread. President Brigham Young said:

The general Constitution of our country is good, and a wholesome government could be framed upon it; for it was dictated by the invisible operations of the Almighty....

Will the Constitution be destroyed? No. It will be held inviolate by this people; and as Joseph Smith said “the time will come when the destiny of this nation will hang upon a single thread, and at this critical juncture, this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction.” It will be so.23

I do not know when that day will come or how it will come to pass. I feel sure that when it does come to pass, among those who will step forward from among this people will be men who hold the Holy Priesthood and who carry as credentials a bachelor or doctor of law degree. And women, also, of honor. And there will be judges as well.

Others from the world outside the Church will come, as Colonel Thomas Kane did, and bring with them their knowledge of the law to protect this people.

We may one day stand alone, but we will not change or lower our standards or change our course.

What Will You Do with His Name?

Near the end of his life, President Clark spoke at a dinner at Brigham Young University. I sat next to him. We steadied him as he made his way slowly and laboriously down the steps to his car and drove away into the night. That was the last time I saw him.

The funeral of President J. Reuben Clark Jr. was the first General Authority funeral I attended. South Temple was blocked off between State Street and West Temple. The General Authorities assembled in front of the Church Administration Building. There were thirty-eight of us then. With measured steps, we followed the hearse down the center of the street.

The solemn procession moved through the south gate of Temple Square and around to the northwest door of the Tabernacle. There we formed an honor guard, half on each side of the door, and stood at attention while the casket bearing President Clark and his family passed between us.

I ask you who belong to the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, What will you do with his name? It is very certain that one day you will be accountable to President Clark.

And it is equally certain that you members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be accountable for what you have done with the Lord’s name.

I wonder if you who are now lawyers or you who are students of the law know how much you are needed as defenders of the faith. Be willing to give of your time and of your means and your expertise to the building up of the Church and the kingdom of God and the establishment of Zion, which we are under covenant to do—not just to the Church as an institution, but to members and ordinary people who need your professional protection.

Another Testimonial Dinner

I told you about the dinner honoring J. Reuben Clark in Beverly Hills, California. There was another dinner held at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. It was a tribute to President J. Reuben Clark on his retirement from the board of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Elder Harold B. Lee was there to succeed him on the board.

Elder Lee told me that prior to the event President Clark called him to his hotel room. He found President Clark sitting, leaning on his cane, pensive and unusually nervous. He wanted to inspect Brother Lee’s formal dress to see that his cummerbund was just right.

Imagine those assembled, the great men of the world—cabinet ministers, leaders in business and government—all of different faiths. President Clark and Elder Lee were the only two members of the Church present.

President Clark began his valedictory by addressing them as “my brethren.” He taught them about the Lord Jesus Christ and concluded with his fervent testimony.

I conclude with my fervent testimony and invoke a blessing upon you who are lawyers and judges and who have great power to defend this people.

I invoke the blessings of our Heavenly Father upon you in your studies, in your practice, and more particularly in your home and in your family, that the Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of righteousness will be with you.

I pray that you can take justice and mercy and find a balance in them and fix them firmly with absolute integrity, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Notes:
1. Sir Isaac Newton, letter to Robert Hooke, Feb. 1676.
2. J. Reuben Clark Jr., “Reflective Speculation,” address given at Seminary and Institute Teachers Summer Session, 21 June 1954.
3. Sharing the Gospel with Others, Preston Nibley, comp. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1948], 110-12.
4. Journal of Joshua Clark, vol. 12, 25 Mar. 1886.
5. Harold B. Lee, “President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.: An Appreciation on His Ninetieth Birthday,” Improvement Era, Sept. 1961, 632.
6. Gordon B. Hinckley, James Henry Moyle: The Story of a Distinguished American and an Honored Churchman [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1951], 130–33.
7. David H. Yarn Jr., “Biographical Sketch of J. Reuben Clark, Jr.,” BYU Studies, 13 (spring 1973), 240.
8. Will Rogers to “Mr. Toastmaster,” 13 Oct. 1933.
9. J. Reuben Clark Jr. to Thomas I. Parkinson, 11 July 1947, fd 16, box 376, J. Reuben Clark Papers.
10. J. Reuben Clark Jr., Our Lord of the Gospels: A Harmony of the Gospels [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1954].
11. J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Behold the Lamb of God, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1991].
12. The Charted Course of the Church in Education, rev. ed. [pamphlet, 1994; item 32709].
13. J. Reuben Clark Jr. in Conference Report, Apr. 1938:103.
14. J. Reuben Clark Jr., “They of the Last Wagon,” Improvement Era, Nov. 1947, 705.
15. J. Reuben Clark Jr. in Conference Report, Oct. 1935, 92.
16. J. Reuben Clark Jr., “They of the Last Wagon,” Improvement Era, Nov. 1947, 747–48.
17. Harold B. Lee, “President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.: An Appreciation on His Ninetieth Birthday,” Improvement Era, Sept. 1961, 632.
18. Harold B. Lee, “President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.: An Appreciation on His Ninetieth Birthday,” Improvement Era, Sept. 1961, 632.
19. Abraham Lincoln, notes for a law lecture, 1 July 1850.
20. History of the Church, 3:258.
21. History of the Church, 5:394.
22. “Has the Supreme Court Gone Too Far?” Commentary, vol. 116, no. 3 [Oct. 2003], 25–48.
23. Brigham Young in Journal History, 4 July 1854.

My first experience reading this talk was in 1999 in my CES class at BYU. Two things have always stood out to me from this talk. The first is President Clark's description of how we can tell where we are by checking our longitude (the Savior) and latitude (Joseph Smith). His discussion of this is remarkable.

The second thing is President Clark's description of the youth of the church:

The youth of the Church, your students, are in great majority sound in thought and in spirit. The problem primarily is to keep them sound, not to convert them.

The youth of the Church are hungry for things of the spirit; they are eager to learn the Gospel, and they want it straight, undiluted.

They want to know about the fundamentals I have just set out--about our beliefs; they want to gain testimonies of their truth; they are not now doubters but inquirers, seekers after truth. Doubt must not be planted in their hearts. Great is the burden and the condemnation of any teacher who sows doubt in a trusting soul.

These students crave the faith their fathers and mothers have; they want it in its simplicity and purity. There are few indeed who have not seen the manifestations of its divine power; they wish to be not only the beneficiaries of this faith, but they want to be themselves able to call it forth to work.

They want to believe in the ordinances of the Gospel; they wish to understand them so far as they may.

* * *

I have already indicated that our youth are not children spiritually; they are well on towards the normal spiritual maturity of the world. To treat them as children spiritually, as the world might treat the same age group, is therefore and likewise an anachronism. I say once more there is scarcely a youth that comes through your seminary or institute door who has not been the conscious beneficiary of spiritual blessings, or who has not seen the efficacy of prayer or who has not witnessed the power of faith to heal the sick, or who has not beheld spiritual outpourings, of which the world at large is today ignorant. You do not have to sneak up behind this spiritually experienced youth and whisper religion in his ears; you can come right out, face to face, and talk with him. You do not need to disguise religious truths with a cloak of worldly things; you can bring these truths to him openly, in their natural guise. Youth may prove to be not more fearful of them than you are. There is no need for gradual approaches, for "bedtime" stories, for coddling, for patronizing, or for any of the other childish devices used in efforts to reach those spiritually inexperienced and all but spiritually dead.

We seem to spend a lot of time in the church trying to entertain the kids, and not enough time helping them to understand true doctrine. I believe that President Packer is a disciple of President Clark's school of thought, and I've already posted some of Elder Packer's words on the urgency of teaching true doctrine. I do love this talk.

The Charted Course
of the Church in Education

President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.

First Counselor in the First Presidency,

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

August 8, 1938

With the approval of the First Presidency of the Church, JRC gave this address to Church seminary and institute leaders and others. The group was assembled at Aspen Grove near Provo Canyon as part of Brigham Young University's Summer School Program. The address has been referred to as the fundamental or constitutional statement concerning education in the Church.

As a school boy I was thrilled with the great debate between those two giants, Webster and Hayne. The beauty of their oratory, the sublimity of Webster's lofty expression of patriotism, the forecast of the civil struggle to come for the mastery of freedom over slavery, all stirred me to the very depths. The debate began over the Foot Resolution concerning the public lands. It developed into consideration of great fundamental problems of constitutional law. I have never forgotten the opening paragraph of Webster's reply, by which he brought back to its place of beginning this debate that had drifted so far from its course. That paragraph reads:

Mr. President: When the mariner has been tossed for many days in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence, and, before we float farther on the waves of this debate, refer to the point from which we departed, that we may at least be able to conjecture where we now are. I ask for the reading of the resolution.

Now I hasten to express the hope that you will not think that I think this is a Webster-Hayne occasion or that I think I am a Daniel Webster. If you were to think those things--or either of them--you would make a grievous mistake. I admit I am old, but I am not that old. But Webster seemed to invoke so sensible a procedure for occasions where, after a wandering on the high seas or in the wilderness, effort is to be made to get back to the place of starting, that I thought you would excuse me if I invoked and in a way used this same procedure to restate some of the more outstanding and essential fundamentals underlying our Church school education.

The following are to me those fundamentals. The Church is the organized Priesthood of God. The Priesthood can exist without the Church, but the Church cannot exist without the Priesthood. The mission of the Church is first, to teach, encourage, assist, and protect the individual member in his striving to live the perfect life, temporally and spiritually, as laid down in the Gospel, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect," said the Master.

Secondly, the Church is to maintain, teach, encourage, and protect, temporally and spiritually, the membership as a group in its living of the Gospel. And thirdly, the Church is militantly to proclaim the truth, calling upon all men to repent, and to live in obedience to the Gospel, "for every knee must bow and every tongue confess."

In all this there are for the Church and for each and all of its members, two prime things which may not be overlooked, forgotten, shaded, or discarded:

First: That Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh, the Creator of the world, the Lamb of God, the Sacrifice for the sins of the world, the Atoner for Adam's transgression; that He was crucified; that His spirit left His body; that He died; that He was laid away in the tomb; that on the third day His spirit was reunited with His body, which again became a living being; that He was raised from the tomb a resurrected being, a perfect Being, the First Fruits of the Resurrection; that He later ascended to the Father; and that because of His death and by and through His resurrection every man born into the world since the beginning will be likewise literally resurrected. This doctrine is as old as the world. Job declared: "And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not
another." (Job 19:26, 27)

The resurrected body is a body of flesh and bones and spirit, and Job was uttering a great and everlasting truth. These positive facts, and all other facts necessarily implied therein, must all be honestly believed, in full faith, by every member of the Church.

The second of the two things to which we must all give full faith is: That the Father and Son actually and in truth and very deed appeared to the Prophet Joseph in a vision in the woods; that other heavenly visions followed to Joseph and to others; that the Gospel and the holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God were in truth and fact restored to the earth from which they were lost by the apostasy of the Primitive Church; that the Lord again set up His Church, through the agency of Joseph Smith; that the Book of Mormon is just what it professes to be; that to the Prophet came numerous revelations for guidance, upbuilding, organization, and encouragement of the Church and its members; that the Prophet's successors, likewise called of God, have received revelations as the needs of the Church have required, and that they will continue to receive revelations as the Church and its members, living the truth they already have, shall stand in need of more; that this is in truth the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and that its foundation beliefs are the laws and principles laid down in the Articles of Faith. These facts also, and each of them, together with all things necessarily implied therein or flowing therefrom, must stand, unchanged, unmodified, without dilution, excuse, apology, or avoidance; they may not be explained away or submerged. Without these two great beliefs the Church would cease to be the Church.

Any individual who does not accept the fulness of these doctrines as to Jesus of Nazareth or as to the restoration of the Gospel and Holy Priesthood, is not a Latter-day Saint; the hundreds of thousands of faithful, God-fearing men and women who compose the great body of the Church membership do believe these things fully and completely; and they support the Church and its institutions because of this belief.

I have set out these matters because they are the latitude and longitude of the actual location and position of the Church, both in this word and in eternity. Knowing our true position, we can change our
bearings if they need changing; we can lay down anew our true course. And here we may wisely recall that Paul said:

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. (Gal. 1:8)

Returning to the Webster-Hayne precedent, I have now finished reading the original resolution.

As I have already said, I am to say something about the religious education of the youth of the Church. I shall bring together what I have to say under two general headings--the student and the teacher. I shall speak very frankly, for we have passed the place where we may wisely talk in ambiguous words and veiled phrases. We must say plainly what we mean, because the future of our youth, both here on earth and in the hereafter, as also the welfare of the whole Church, are at stake.

The youth of the Church, your students, are in great majority sound in thought and in spirit. The problem primarily is to keep them sound, not to convert them.

The youth of the Church are hungry for things of the spirit; they are eager to learn the Gospel, and they want it straight, undiluted.

They want to know about the fundamentals I have just set out--about our beliefs; they want to gain testimonies of their truth; they are not now doubters but inquirers, seekers after truth. Doubt must not be planted in their hearts. Great is the burden and the condemnation of any teacher who sows doubt in a trusting soul.

These students crave the faith their fathers and mothers have; they want it in its simplicity and purity. There are few indeed who have not seen the manifestations of its divine power; they wish to be not only the beneficiaries of this faith, but they want to be themselves able to call it forth to work.

They want to believe in the ordinances of the Gospel; they wish to understand them so far as they may.

They are prepared to understand the truth which is as old as the Gospel and which was expressed thus by Paul (a master of logic and metaphysics unapproached by the modern critics who decry all religion):

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the word, but the spirit which is of God: that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Cor. 2:11, 12)

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. (Romans 8:5)

This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. (Gal. 5:16-18)

Our youth understand too the principle declared in modern revelation:

Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. (D&C 58:3)

By the power of the Spirit our eyes were opened and our understandings were enlightened, so as to see and understand the things of God . . .

And while we meditated upon these things, the Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened and the glory of the Lord shone round about.

And we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fulness;

And saw the holy angels, and them who are sanctified before his throne, worshiping God, and the Lamb, who worship him for ever and ever. (D&C 76:12, 19-21)

And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!

For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father.

That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.

And while we were yet in the Spirit, the Lord commanded us that we should write the vision. (D&C 76:22-24, 28)

These students are prepared, too, to understand what Moses meant when he declared:

But now mine eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him. (Moses 1:11)

These students are prepared to believe and understand that all these things are matters of faith, not to be explained or understood by any process of human reason, and probably not by any experiment of known physical science.

These students (to put the matter shortly) are prepared to understand and to believe that there is a natural world and there is a spiritual world; that the things of the natural world will not explain the things of the spiritual world; that the things of the spiritual world cannot be understood or comprehended by the things of the natural world; that you cannot rationalize the things of the spirit, because first, the things of the spirit are not sufficiently known and comprehended, and secondly, because finite mind and reason cannot comprehend nor explain infinite wisdom and ultimate truth.

These students already know that they must be honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and do good to all men, and that "if there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things"--these things they have been taught from very birth. They should be encouraged in all proper ways to do these things which they know to be true, but they do not need to have a year's course of instruction to make them believe and know them.

These students fully sense the hollowness of teachings which would make the Gospel plan a mere system of ethics, they know that Christ's teachings are in the highest degree ethical, but they also know they are more than this. They will see that ethics relate primarily to the doing of this life, and that to make of the Gospel a mere system of ethics is to confess a lack of faith, if not a disbelief, in the hereafter. They know that the Gospel teachings not only touch this life, but the life that is to come, with its salvation and exaltation as the final goal.

These students hunger and thirst, as did their fathers before them, for a testimony of the things of the spirit and of the hereafter, and knowing that you cannot rationalize eternity, they seek faith, and the knowledge which follows faith. They sense by the spirit they have, that the testimony they seek is engendered and nurtured by the testimony of others, and that to gain this testimony which they seek for, one living, burning, honest testimony of a righteous God-fearing man that Jesus is the Christ and that Joseph was God's prophet, is worth a thousand books and lectures aimed at debasing the Gospel to a system of ethics or seeking to rationalize infinity.

Two thousand years ago the Master said:

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? (Matt. 7:10, 11)

These students, born under the Covenant, can understand that age and maturity and intellectual training are not in any way or to any degree necessary to communion with the Lord and His Spirit. They know the story of the youth Samuel in the temple; of Jesus at twelve years confounding the doctors in the temple; of Joseph at fourteen seeing God the Father and the Son in one of the most glorious visions ever beheld by man. They are not as were the Corinthians, of whom Paul said:

I have fed you with milk and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. (1 Cor. 3:2)

They are rather as was Paul himself when he declared to the same Corinthians:

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (1 Cor. 13:11)

These students as they come to you are spiritually working on towards a maturity which they will early reach if you but feed them the right food. They come to you possessing spiritual knowledge and experience the world does not know.

So much for your students and what they are and what they expect and what they are capable of. I am telling you the things that some of you teachers have told me, and that many of your youth have told me.

May I not say now a few words to you teachers?

In the first place, there is neither reason nor is there excuse for our Church religious teaching and training facilities and institutions, unless the youth are to be taught and trained in the principles of the Gospel, embracing therein the two great elements that Jesus is the Christ and that Joseph was God's prophet. The teaching of a system of ethics to the students is not a sufficient reason for running our seminaries and institutes. The great public school system teaches ethics. The students of seminaries and institutes should of course be taught the ordinary canons of good and righteous living, for these are part, and an essential part, of the Gospel. But there are the great principles involved in eternal life, the Priesthood, the resurrection, and many like other things, that go way beyond these canons of good living. These great fundamental principles also must be taught to the youth; they are the things the youth wish first to know about.

The first requisite of a teacher for teaching these principles is a personal testimony of their truth. No amount of learning, no amount of study, and no number of scholastic degrees, can take the place of this testimony, which is the sine qua non of the teacher in our Church school system. No teacher who does not have a real testimony of the truth of the Gospel as revealed to and believed by the Latter-day Saints, and a testimony of the Sonship and Messiahship of Jesus, and of the divine mission of Joseph Smith--including in all its reality the First Vision--has any place in the Church school system. If there be any such, and I hope and pray there are none, he should at once resign; if the Commissioner knows of any such and he does not resign, the Commissioner should request his resignation. The First Presidency expect this pruning to be made.

This does not mean that we would cast out such teachers from the Church--not at all. We shall take up with them a labor of love, in all patience and long-suffering, to win them to the knowledge of which as Godfearing men and women they are entitled. But this does mean that our Church schools cannot be manned by unconverted, untestimonied teachers.

But for you teachers the mere possession of a testimony is not enough. You must have besides this, one of the rarest and most precious of all the many elements of human character--moral courage. For in the absence of moral courage to declare your testimony, it will reach the students only after such dilution as will make it difficult if not impossible for them to detect it; and the spiritual and psychological effect of a weak and vacillating testimony may well be actually harmful instead of helpful.

The successful seminary or institute teacher must also possess another of the rare and valuable elements of character--a twin brother of moral courage and often mistaken for it--I mean intellectual courage--the courage to affirm principles, beliefs, and faith that may not always be considered as harmonizing with such knowledge--scientific or otherwise--as the teacher or his educational colleagues may believe they possess.

Not unknown are cases where men of presumed faith, holding responsible positions, have felt that, since by affirming their full faith they might call down upon themselves the ridicule of their unbelieving colleagues, they must either modify or explain away their faith, or destructively dilute it, or even pretend to cast it away. Such are hypocrites to their colleagues and to their co-religionists.

An object of pity (not of scorn, as some would have it) is that man or woman, who having the truth and knowing it, finds it necessary either to repudiate the truth or to compromise with error in order that he may live with or among unbelievers without subjecting himself to their disfavor or derision as he supposes. Tragic indeed is his place, for the real fact is that all such discardings and shadings in the end bring the very punishments that the weak-willed one sought to avoid. For there is nothing the world so values and reveres as the man, who, having righteous convictions, stands for them in any and all circumstances; there is nothing towards which the word turns more contempt than the man who, having righteous convictions, either slips away from them, abandons them, or repudiates them. For any Latter-day Saint psychologist, chemist, physicist, geologist, archeologist, or any other scientist, to explain away, or misinterpret, or evade or elude, or most of all, to repudiate or to deny, the great fundamental doctrines of the Church in which he professes to believe, is to give the lie to his intellect, to lose his self-respect, to bring sorrow to his friends, to break the hearts and bring shame to his parents, to besmirch the Church and its members, and to forfeit the respect and honor of those whom he has sought, by his course, to win as friends and helpers.

I prayerfully hope there may not be any such among the teachers of the Church school system, but if there are such, high or low, they must travel the same route as the teacher without the testimony. Sham and pretext and evasion and hypocrisy have, and can have, no place in the Church school system or in the character building and spiritual growth of our youth.

Another thing which must be watched in our Church institutions is this: It must not be possible for men to keep positions of spiritual trust who, not being converted themselves, being really unbelievers, seek to turn aside the beliefs, education, and activities of our youth, and our aged also, from the ways they should follow, into other paths of education, beliefs, and activities, which (though leading where the unbeliever would go) do not bring us to the places where the Gospel would take us. That this works as a conscience-balm to the unbeliever who directs it is of no importance. This is the grossest betrayal of trust; and there is too much reason to think it has happened.

I wish to mention another thing that has happened in other lines, as a caution against the same thing happening in the Church educational system. On more than one occasion our Church members have gone to other places for special training in particular lines; they have had the training which was supposedly the last word, the most modern view, the new plus ultra of up-to-dateness; then they have brought it back and dosed it upon us without any thought as to whether we needed it or not. I refrain from mentioning well-known and, I believe, well-recognized instances of this sort of thing. I do not wish to wound any feelings.

But before trying on the newest fangled ideas in any line of thought, education, activity, or what not, experts should just stop and consider that however backward they think we are, and however backward we may actually be in some things, in other things we are far out in the lead, and therefore these new methods may be old, if not worn out, with us.

In whatever relates to community life and activity in general, to clean group social amusement and entertainment, to closely knit and carefully directed religious worship and activity, to a positive, clear-cut, faith-promoting spirituality, to a real, everyday, practical religion, to a firm-fixed desire and acutely sensed need for faith in God, we are far in the van of on-marching humanity. Before effort is made to inoculate us with new ideas, experts should kindly consider whether the methods, used to spur community spirit or build religious activities among groups that are decadent and maybe dead to these things, are quite applicable to us, and whether their effort to impose these upon us is not a rather crude, even gross anachronism.

For example, to apply to our spiritually minded and religiously alert youth a plan evolved to teach religion to youth having no interest or concern in matters of the spirit, would not only fail in meeting our actual religious needs, but would tend to destroy the best qualities which our youth now possess.

I have already indicated that our youth are not children spiritually; they are well on towards the normal spiritual maturity of the world. To treat them as children spiritually, as the world might treat the same age group, is therefore and likewise an anachronism. I say once more there is scarcely a youth that comes through your seminary or institute door who has not been the conscious beneficiary of spiritual blessings, or who has not seen the efficacy of prayer or who has not witnessed the power of faith to heal the sick, or who has not beheld spiritual outpourings, of which the world at large is today ignorant. You do not have to sneak up behind this spiritually experienced youth and whisper religion in his ears; you can come right out, face to face, and talk with him. You do not need to disguise religious truths with a cloak of worldly things; you can bring these truths to him openly, in their natural guise. Youth may prove to be not more fearful of them than you are. There is no need for gradual approaches, for "bedtime" stories, for coddling, for patronizing, or for any of the other childish devices used in efforts to reach those spiritually inexperienced and all but spiritually dead.

You teachers have a great mission. As teachers you stand upon the highest peak in education, for what teaching can compare in priceless value and in far-reaching effect with that which deals with man as he was in the eternity of yesterday, as he is in the mortality of today, and as he will be in the forever of tomorrow. Not only time but eternity is your field. Salvation of yourself not only, but of those who come within the purlieus of your temple, is the blessing you seek, and which, doing your duty, you will gain. How brilliant will be your crown of glory, with each soul saved an encrusted jewel thereon.

But to get this blessing and to be so crowned, you must, I say once more, you must teach the Gospel. You have no other function and no other reason for your presence in a Church school system.

You do have an interest in matters purely cultural and in matters of purely secular knowledge; but, I repeat again for emphasis, your chief interest, your essential and all but sole duty, is to teach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as that has been revealed in these latter days. You are to teach this Gospel using as your sources and authorities the Standard Works of the Church, and the words of those whom God has called to lead His people in these last days. You are not, whether high or low, to intrude into your work your own peculiar philosophy, no matter what its source or how pleasing or rational it seems to you to be. To do so would be to have as many different churches as we have seminaries--and that is chaos.

You are not, whether high or low, to change the doctrines of the Church or to modify them, as they are declared by and in the Standard Works of the Church and by those whose authority it is to declare the mind and will of the Lord to the Church. The Lord has declared he is "the same yesterday, today, and forever."

I urge you not to fall into that childish error, so common now, of believing that merely because man has gone so far in harnessing the forces of nature and turning them to his own use, that therefore the truths of the spirit have been changed or transformed. It is a vital and significant fact that man's conquest of the things of the spirit has not marched side by side with his conquest of things material. The opposite sometimes seems to be true. Man's power to reason has not matched his power to figure. Remember always and cherish the great truth of the Intercessory Prayer: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." This is an ultimate truth; so are all spiritual truths. They are not changed by the discovery of a new element, a new ethereal wave, nor by clipping off a few seconds, minutes, or hours of a speed record.

You are not to teach the philosophies of the world, ancient or modern, pagan or Christian, for this is the field of the public schools. Your sole field is the Gospel, and that is boundless in its own sphere.

We pay taxes to support those state institutions whose function and work it is to teach the arts, the sciences, literature, history, the languages, and so on through the whole secular curriculum. These institutions are to do this work. But we use the tithes of the Church to carry on the Church school system, and these are impressed with a holy trust. The Church seminaries and institutes are to teach the Gospel.

In thus stating this function time and time again, and with such continued insistence as I have done, it is fully appreciated that carrying out the function may involve the matter of "released time" for our seminaries and institutes. But our course is clear. If we cannot teach the Gospel, the doctrines of the Church, and the Standard Works of the Church, all of them, on "released time," in our seminaries and institutes, then we must face giving up "released time" and try to work out some other plan of carrying on the Gospel work in those institutions. If to work out some other plan be impossible, we shall face the abandonment of the seminaries and institutes and the return to Church colleges and academies. We are not now sure, in the light of developments, that these should ever have been given up. We are clear upon this point, namely, that we shall not feel justified in appropriating one further tithing dollar to the upkeep of our seminaries and institutes unless they can be used to teach the Gospel in the manner prescribed. The tithing represents too much toil, too much self-denial, too much sacrifice, too much faith, to be used for the colorless instruction of the youth of the Church in elementary ethics. This decision and situation must be faced when the next budget is considered. In saying this, I am speaking for the First Presidency.

All that has been said regarding the character of religious teaching, and the results which in the very nature of things must follow a failure properly to teach the Gospel, applies with full and equal force to seminaries, to institutes, and to any and every other educational institution belonging to the Church school system.

The First Presidency earnestly solicit the whole-hearted help and cooperation of all you men and women who, from your work on the firing line, know so well the greatness of the problem which faces us and which so vitally and intimately affects the spiritual health and the salvation of our youth, as also the future welfare of the whole Church. We need you, the Church needs you, the Lord needs you. Restrain not yourselves, nor withhold your helping hand.

In closing I wish to pay a humble but sincere tribute to teachers. Having worked my own way through school, high school, college, and professional school, I know something of the hardship and sacrifice this demands; but I know also the growth and satisfaction which come as we reach the end. So I stand here with a knowledge of how many, perhaps most of you, have come to your present place. Furthermore, for a time I tried, without much success, to teach school, so I know also the feelings of those of us teachers who do not make the first grade and must rest in the lower ones. I know the present amount of actual compensation you get and how very sparse it is--far, far too sparse. I wish from the bottom of my heart we could make it greater; but the drain on the Church income is already so great for education that I must in honesty say there is no immediate prospect of betterment. Our budget for this school year is $860,000, or almost seventeen per cent of the estimated total cost of running the whole Church, including general administration, stakes, wards, branches, and mission expenses, for all purposes, including welfare and charities. Indeed, I wish I felt sure that the prosperity of the people would be so ample that they could and would certainly pay tithes enough to keep us going as we are.

So I say I pay my tribute to your industry, your loyalty, your sacrifice, your willing eagerness for service in the cause of truth, your faith in God and in His work, and your earnest desire to do the things that our ordained leader and Prophet would have you do. And I entreat you not to make the mistake of thrusting aside your leader's counsel, or of failing to carry out his wish, or of refusing to follow his direction. David of old, privily cutting off only the skirt of Saul's robe, uttered the cry of a smitten heart: "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord."

May God bless you always in all your righteous endeavors, may He quicken your understanding, increase your wisdom, enlighten you by experience, bestow upon you patience, charity, and, as among your most precious gifts, endow you with the discernment of spirits that you may certainly know the spirit of righteousness and its opposite as they come to you; may He give you entrance to the hearts of those you teach and then make you know that as you enter there you stand in holy places, that must be neither polluted nor defiled, either by false or corrupting doctrine or by sinful misdeed; may He enrich your knowledge with the skill and power to teach righteousness; may your faith and your testimonies increase, and your ability to encourage and foster them in others grow greater every day--all that the youth of Zion may be taught, built up, encouraged, heartened, that they may not fall by the wayside, but go on to eternal life, that these blessings coming to them, you through them may be blessed also. And I pray all this in the name of Him who died that we might live, the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world, Jesus Christ. Amen.