Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-10-05

subject; "The wars between, and
prosecutions of he Catholics and
Professionals by each other" And then
little afterwards, "Glve sketch OF
the United states government, etc"
Some of our teachers are pleased to
dwell considerably upon the history
of these different nations. and the re-
suit Is that some OF the lessons are
so devoted to what may be called pro-
fame history, that is ancient history,
that there is very little said about the
Gospel. and very little said about the
Lord
think this is an error. and such
lessons as these should not be carried
too far. our Sunday schools are for
the purpose of teaching our children
the principles Of the Gospel. We must
nut.mHke our Sunday schools too much
like district schools. That is not the
purpose The Sunday schools are to be
entirely devoted to the teaching Of the
principles Of the Gospel We want to
make Lntter-day Saints Of our chill
dren. II send q child To- sunday school
/ want that child taught the Gospel.
He can read history out Of the Sum
day school, He can learn history. and
great many other things outside of
the Sunday school, that ought not to
be taught in the Sunday school. In
the Sunday schools we should Conflnc
our labors to the object for which they
nave tetH tBllDlHntu.
l was speaking today In our meeting
of the Sunday School Union Board
that | am aversed to the multiplication
or rules, or of anything that Will fet-
ter the Sunday school teachers. We
want to teach the children the simple
principles of the Gospel. Care should
be taken by the superintendent to see
that this Is done, and that the
time Of the Sunday school is
not occupied In teaching subjects.
the knowledge Of which can be
obtained outside of the Sunday
school. l wish this could be impressed
upon the minds of our superintend-
is n school, MS | have said, and as you
all ought to and do understand, for
the purpose Of giving our children in
structions In the principles of the
Gospel to indoctrinate them with our
principles, and ii we give them any
history at all, 1t should be the history
of our Church, and the dealings OF
God with our people; that is from a
sacred standpoint, religious stand
point.
OF course, information concerning
the history Of peoples can be taught,
or brought to bear occasionally, Illus
trating Gods dealings with mankind
to prepare the way for the carrying
out of His work This Is proper, but
1t is not proper to go into extended
lessons upon secular history.
Some time ago l was visiting one OF
our quarterly Stake conferences, and
found a good many Of the Latter
day Saints had come from afar,
driven long distances to be present at
the meetings, and the forenoon. a.
had been given us according to in
structions, was devoted to the Sunday
school. The meeting house was not
large enough to admit of the gather
Saints who had come from a distance
1t seemed too bad that those who
come such distances should have &c
wait until the afternoon meeting IN
order to get instructions, and ] sug-
gested that we should meet at nine
o'clock with the Sunday schools, and
hold the meeting say until ten-thirty
and dismiss and allow the Saints tc
come into the meeting house and for
the conference to then be opened. This
object in doing this was not to inter
fere with the Sunday school, but tc
prevent too much Interference will
the conference Of the Stake.
thought both purposes could be an.
swcred by such an ARRANGEMENT
In consequence Of this II wAs sug-
gested that the Sunday schools in tn,
Stakes should meet at nine a. m. in.
stead of ten, where the Stake quarter,
ly conference was to be held, and
where the building was not large
enough to accommodate the adults as
well as the children. This, I believe
has been carried out to some extent
But lately we have heard that Other