The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-10-09

LAAAs H4O1 AL bA4C Nv HUI
was the largest yet assembled being
called to order at 10 am. by Apostle F.
D. Richards.
The choir sang:
Zion stands by hills surrounded.
Prayer by Elder John r. Murdoch.
Singing by the choir, on page 1872:
Let those who viii Be SAINTS indeed,
Fear not what others do.
APOSTLE JOHN HENRY SMITH
said he had been requested to occupy a
few minutes in speaking to the Saints.
There are many themes. connected with
the gospel, which afford subjects which
may be dwelt UPON with profit. The
subjects so far spoken of were such as
should be weighed conscientiously by
the people. They were such as should
admOnlsh US TO the performance Of our
duties, and the publication of our lives.
| The laXity that exists IN the lives of
many people, and the incubation in
the world of the belief that repent
| anee at the gates of death is sufficient
for salvation, shows that special care
should be exercised to become free from
these traditions.
We read in the Revelations of st.
John, that there were to stand upon
Mount Zion one hundred and forty-four
thousand who shoulc be pure from de-
Element by women. We do not view
this statement as do the Catholics.
We believe that such are those who
have kept the laws of God in regard
to the intercourse of the sexes, and
who had not INDUCED, in violation of
lawful Wedlock, in sexual impurity and
crime. We find it laid down very early
in sacred writ that a law was interposed
against the 'uucoVeFing of nakedness"
within certain conditions. The Apostle
Paul says that the doctrine of forbid
ding to marry was doctrine of devils.
He knew that the tendencies which
God had implanted IN man for his adj
vancement and good would, if not gov
erned by law, corrupt man and lead
him to misdirect the powers which God
had given him to his degradation.
When a woman is united to man ac-
cording to the law of God, she feels that
she is bound to him by holy ties for all
time and, as rule, she will not leave
him, unless there is something which IS
very repugnsnt to the purity of her ma
ture. The Savior marked out to man
that ne shall be guided and controlled
by certain principles that he might
reach that eXaitation for which he
sought, by the practice OF virtue and
honesty and nobility of character.
God has made known unto US new
laws, and he las said that
| incest is a heinous crime, and
| sexual impurity was corrupting and
| damnable in its influences. We are as
careful of our children as We should be
10 instruct them IN regard to their own
organization, that they may be kept free
| from every vice into which they are
liable to fall. The parents should COM
mence early in instFuetIng. their chill
dren, and with a delicacy of manner
that will not repel should teach them the
nature OF their beings, and the means of
avoiding habits of vice, or acts of
crime. Mothers should be in eOnfid-
ence with their daughters; fathers
should be in the eonidenCei0f their sons,
so that they can dire t their course
Inteligeutly and with Judgment. Lay
doKnln the hearts of your children the
principle of purity, of discretion. Then
! lie the children walk on unstable
ground and fall into the pits Of degra-
d4tiln we are Tnotresponsible. But If
the parents have not taught them in
regard TO these principles they must
meet the re ponsi blity, and they can
not plead that they have been ignorant,
or have lacked light aud knowledge, for
God mas revealed laws by which our
lives should be governed. - ~Tal s.,
The speaker would bring YiYidly be-
fore the minds OF the people this prin-
ciple, and make 1t as forcible as be was
able, that they might be awake to the
degradation brought upon man by
his personal impnrity, and sense the.
magnitude of the fall brought upon
the perpetrators of the crimes of adult
terry, etc. He would be an outcsst from
the celestial kingdo s., or at best, could
become bus servants or lackeys 10 those
who are SO exalted. go,
This was, perhaps, the last time that
the speaker would have an opportunity
OF addressing the Saints during this
Conference, and he wished to urge the
Elders of Israel when they repaired TO
their homes to teach these principles OF
personal purity, that there may be an
influence exercised among the people
which viii prevent examples arising
among the people OF the instruction OF
those passions among tie young that
God has implanted in them and which,
if legitimately exercised, viii be minis
tiers TO their salvation. but If misused
Will drag man lower and lower 10 the
depths of degradation. God will not
strive with the spirit of the man who
Surrenders himself 70 sexual impurities.
One Of the reasons that exists today in
the world why men viii not believe IN
The gospel is on this account more than
upon any other on the face OF
the earth. They have barred the2a-'
selves, and have stepped themselves n
vice to that extent that they do not
comprehend il IN Its workings and OPP
erations, because cold, stiffened and
frozen IN iniguitiess Let Us haze cur
sons and daughters stand up IN the
face of mankind free aBd clean s7oRa the
impurities ard evils that exist; that are
marking the world for the distress and
destruction that God has de0Seed shall
be poured out TEe speaker PRAYED
that the Saints might possess faith