EPISTLE OF THE GENERAL SUPERINTENDENCY.
To the Officers and Members of the
Young Men's Mutual Improvement
Associations throughout Zion.
DEAR BRETHREN: Once more, through
the blessings of the Lord, we are per-
mitted to address you in writing; and, in
doing so, we rejoice greatly in the bles-
sings of life and liberty with which you
are so abundantly surrounded on this
auspicious occasion. An appropriate
time has been chosen on which to hold
your first General Annual Conference,
for it is eminently befitting that the
young men of Israel should thus honor
the illustrious statesmen, colonizer and
Prophet Brigham Young, by holding
their conference meetings on a day so
near the anniversary of his birth. He
was inspired to organize the Mutual Im-
provement Associations throughout Zion.
With delight you can revere his memory;
for distrust of the young men of Israel
never marred his great mind. In them
he had unbounded confidence, and for
them unlimited love. The Almighty
endowed him with the faculty of reading
men more accurately and more thorough-
ly than most people read books. The
study of human hearts and the analyses
of human minds enabled him to distin-
guish between the good and the bad. By
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit frauds
stood rebuked, while sincere rejoiced
in his presence, and were comforted by
his love. Noting the yearly harvest
of death, and comprehending as few
men comprehend the magnitude of the
great work in which we are engaged, he
fully sensed the responsibility that must
ultimately rest upon you in bearing to a
victorious consummation the Church and
Kingdom of God.
The manner in which you have respond-
ed to his confidence and esteem has
produced the bloom preceding the
growth and ripening of glorious fruit.
Following in his counsels you will not
disappoint his anticipations, for you are
building upon a foundation resting upon
eternal principles. Continue faithful to
the covenants made with the Lord and
each other; give your hearts to God, and
listening ears to the counsels of His Holy
Priesthood, and when the storms beat
upon you and the house you are building
neither shall fall.
As your friends and brethren, we must
earnestly beseech you to avoid the snares
of worldly ambition. Enter not the gates
of pride, within which selfishness weaves
nets to bind the soul. Write upon them
the words inscribed over Dante's Inferno
—"Abandon hope all who enter here."
Thirst for the honors and praises of men
and undue love for the things of this
world are dangerous reefs, upon which
many have wrecked their hopes of eter-
nal life. Pride, wearing the garb of hu-
mility, often prays devoutly, preaches
eloquently; but dwellers in heaven are
as little children, of whom the youth of
Zion should be as an advanced class—
beautiful type of saintly humility and
unsuspicious innocence.
Haughty pride, insolent assumption
and over-reaching ambition come of him
who wrought rebellion in heaven, sowed
strife on earth, and trailed the serpent
through human hearts. Mocking infidel-
ity, atheistic boasts and sneering skep-
ticism are products of a power that reigns
in hell, because it would not serve in
heaven. Light and life, peace and puri-
ty, humility and homage, goodness and
grace, come of God. Misery and
mourning, pride and presumption, dark-
ness and death, come of Satan. Between
them, young men of Zion, you have
chosen well. Henceforth serve him who
made you, and heaven's light shall guide
your feet in the path of purity, leading
to the gate of perfection.
From mountain heights pause ye now,
and gaze upon the world's magnificence,
pride and pomp; then trace the gleams
of light along the way in which faithful
Elders, prayerfully and earnestly, follow
the lowly Nazarene to realms of heaven-
ly glory. Note carefully the faith by
which they endure earthly tribulations,
in order to gain heavenly crowns. Pa-
tiently and faithfully do they bear their
message amid the scorn of mocking
mobs. Over lands and over seas they
carry the Gospel, seeking not to save
their lives lest they lose them. Taking
no heed of the morrow, they travel
without purse or scrip, trusting in God,
and receiving, as did their Master, the
contempt of the world. What shall be
their reward? Peace here, exaltation
hereafter! Ministers of Christ here, ru-
ling princes and reigning kings hereafter!
Lives eternal shall be their reward; for
thus do they come to know God the Fa-
ther and Jesus whom He hath sent.
In the midst of trials of tribulations,
while deathless woe oppresses the
heart, mothers may forget their nursing
babes, but He who notes the sparrow's
fall, will not forget His covenant chil-
dren, though in infinite wisdom, as a test
of faith, He permits pride to mock and
insolence to deride, while persecution
grinds and kills; but death and the grave
will be conquered, when the King of
Glory wins the ultimate victory at
the very gates of hell. Down into its
bowels did He descend, thence led cap-
tivity captive, and gave gifts to men.
Alone, while treading the wine-press
of the wrath of devils and men, gained
He the keys of death, hell and the grave.
They were forged in the crucible of in-
tense hate, not in the lap of luxurious
ease. Ingratitude heaped upon Him the
sins of the world, and heavy-eyed watch-
men slept while he prayed and sweat
great gouts of blood. Malice spat in his
face; Jealousy in mockery crowned him
with thorns; Envy mantled him with a
cast-off robe; Cruelty nailed Him to the
cross, then cried: "Come down, save
thyself." Son of God, Prince of Power,
commander of heavenly legions though
He was, the anguish of accumulated
woes, caused Him, as death's agony
bathed his brow, to exclaim: "My God,
my God, why has thou forsaken me?"
Ye sons of Zion, think of this, and
bear patiently the mocking scorn of un-
belief. Taunting skepticism may deride
your faith while sneeringly laughing at
your confidence in God. But remember
that the power to bear humiliation is
the test of humility. "There must needs
be offences, but woe unto them by whom
they come!" The exiled and imprisoned
may bear contempt; and while earthly
powers hold high carnival and mock at
sacred things, the promises of God may
seem to fail; but you who are wise will
know that the methods of Satan have
never changed. Pride, haughtiness, re-
bellion, oppression, deceit, rule and ruin
have ever been characteristic of the fallen
son of the morning. On the mountain
top he offered the Christ of God the
kingdoms of this world as the price of
false worship. Treachery lurked deep
when he sought to kill by tempting the
Lord to cast Himself down from the
Temple pinnacle; then sneeringly asked
that bread be made of stones to satisfy
hunger gnawing at famishing vitals. As
then, so now—Who lives godly in Jesus
Christ shall suffer persecution. 'Tis the
heritage of Saints. As they hated the
Master, so will they hate His servants.
Be not surprised, therefore, if for a time,
humiliation, contempt and scorn be your
part; for even while the hand of God
traced on the palace wall the doom of
the mocking king, the proud in drunken
revel defiled the sacred cups of the
Temple; but how quickly followed the
fall! Boasting Assyrian hosts, declaring
there was no God, reveled in sight of
the walls of Jerusalem; but the angel of
death passed over and wrapt them in
dreamless sleep, that knew no mortal
wakening.
Profit by these lessons of sacred his-
tory; trust the Lord, and place honor and
truth above the price of gold, and earth-
ly tribulations shall polish jewels that
God will set in frames of endless joy.
Permit not the illusive interests of this
brief life to shut out the hopes of that to
come, nor quench the light that should
cheer even in affliction. Narrow not the
sources of comfort and happiness by
selfishly debasing godlike powers. Do
not hunger after perishable riches, but
help the needy, thus keeping open the
fountain of mercy, love and charity.
Shun, we beseech you, as you would the
deadly upas, the vulgarity of unseemly
struggles for place and power.
When Eli permitted his sons to asso-
ciate with harlots outside the Temple,
while they lived on the fruits of the
people's labor, the Lord spoke through
the boy Samuel and foretold what
should result. [1 Samuel 2-3] A few of our youth have
followed the example of Eli's sons.
Their course has been downward, and
they have trodden the path leading to
destruction. Among all your acquaint-
ances think of one who, having deserted
and turned away from the Lord, has
gained thereby peace, happiness or
greatness. Have they not, without ex-
ception, been as the moth that falls into
the burning blaze? Have not those
seeking the "liberty" of saloons, gamb-
ling dens and the companionship of the
unclean had their wings clipped in the
flames of a quenchless fire?
As you value happiness, peace and
joy, as you hope for salvation and exal-
tation, go not near the haunts of vice.
They allure only to destroy. Sound care-
fully the causes leading to infidelity and
doubt, note the actions of those who
slur the things of God, and you will find
that vice has stained the body and
blotted the soul. The Holy Spirit of
God dwells not in unclean tabernacles;
and he who sins and repents not, doubts;
and he who doubts is damned. Converse-
ly, to him that believeth the things of
God all things, whether in heaven, earth
or hell, will be made possible. Go not,
therefore, into the wilderness of sin to
lean upon broken reeds, but hold fast to
the "rod of iron" leading to the fruits
of eternal life. [1 Nephi 8:19] While earnestly seeking
for knowledge to be found in good
books, bear in mind the fact that the
Holy Ghost is the safest and most pro-
found instructor. He will bring to your
mind things past and present, and show
you things to come. Seek therefore his
constant fellowship, and his teachings
shall make you wise, good and great,
and finally lead you back into the pre-
sence of your Heavenly Father.
With all the accumulated wisdom,
knowledge and understanding of the
world, what did the people know of the
laws of God until Joseph, the boy pro-
phet, came? In the midst of the glare of
modern civilization and enlightenment
the Bible was as a sealed book. The
harmonies of the universe seemed con-
fusion, while professed ministers taught
the doom of everlasting damnation alike
for ignorant heathens and innocent chil-
dren, neither of whom had heard of
Christ. Holding their dupes over the
flames of an imaginative hell, they pro-
claimed the hideous doctrine of non-re-
demption beyond the grave. While
leading redhanded murderers, all drip-
ping in the blood of innocence, to the
hangman's scaffold and there promising
them, as they died, a free pass into the
bosom of the stainless Christ, they
preached the consignment of unbaptized
infants forever to the regions of the
damned!
Blind leaders of the blind, how could
they know God and His ways? How
could they measure His infinite love?
An earthly father, doing with his chil-
dren what they claimed God daily did
with his, would have been regarded, even
in the dark ages, as an unmitigated,
merciless tyrant. No wonder that such
dense ignorance should produce the soil
of skepticism, out of which has grown
infidel iconoclasts, whose intelligent
shrewdness plays upon the darkness of
such unholy doctrines, as electricity plays
upon the blackness of night. Under
their teachings the loving husband
and confiding wife parted forever at the
grave! How awful the thought indicated
in the mocking marriage ceremony pro-
claiming union only "until death do you
part." Were that all, then indeed would
this world and its brief joys be but a
delusion and a snare! But it is not all.
In heaven there are fathers and mothers
and children; husbands and wives eter-
ally bound together in the bands of love,
cemented by holy sacred covenants made
on earth.
What a flood of light, what a heaven
of joy, came from God through His un-
cultured boy prophet! Until he came,
this world seemed as a black wilderness
of woe, beyond which no heavenly light
appeared. As the sun lights from the
east to the west, so the revelations of
Almighty God have penetrated our
hearts and given us comprehension of
earthly and heavenly things. This, or a
future generation, will produce historians
whose delight it shall be to trace the
effects among God's children of the mar-
velous light brought in the world in our
day through the instrumentality of the
great modern revelator. It was indeed
a startling declaration to the world when
he fearlessly proclaimed that God again
had spoken from the heavens! Ignorance
stood amazed, while scoffing hypocrisy
raged; but the work of human redemp-
tion goes bravely on, while the meek
and poor and honest rejoice.
Upon you, dear young brethren, much
depends. Upon your shoulders the Al-
mighty is rolling responsibilities the
magnitude of which has never been ex-
ceeded in any age. The kingdom of God
revealed by Joseph will be given to no
other people. It will never fall. Be ye
therefore to its interest and advance-
ment faithful and true. Its government
is of heaven, and under it human liberty
and the rights of man shall blossom and
bloom into perfect fruit, for the Gospel
of Christ is a perfect law of liberty. Why
should any dread its sway? Christ is the
king, and has not He earned the right
to the dominion and rule of His own?
His kingdom is not autocratic, neither
wholly theocratic. It is indeed theo-dem-
ocratic—the voice of God and the
sanction of the people. Its laws rec-
ognize everywhere the doctrine of com-
mon consent. The Almighty in the
beginning gave to man the right to ex-
ercise his own agency. He will never
deprive him of that privilege, for by no
other means can he ever develop the
godhead within him. Those alone who
sell their bodies and barter their souls to
Satan will be in danger of binding them-
selves with chains too strong to be
broken by man's love of freedom or by
God's decree of human liberty.
He who fought the Christ of God in
heaven and was cast down to hell, still
forges chains with which to bind the
souls of men. From the beginning Luci-
fer was an ambitious tyrant and accuser
of his brethren. Heavenly hosts wept
when they saw the misery and woe he
would work for the inhabitants of earth.
But the final great struggle is fast ap-
proaching. Let us fear not the result, for
Christ and His people shall conquer
here, as He and they conquered there.
Pending the great final day of the Lord
Almighty, let it be your duty, young
men of Israel, to fast and pray, so that
"your bowels may be full of charity
towards all men, and to the household
of faith, that virtue may garnish thy
thoughts unceasingly, then shall thy con-
fidence wax strong in the presence of
God, and the doctrines of the Priesthood
shall distil upon thy soul as the dews of
heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy
constant companion, and thy sceptre an
unchanging sceptre of righteousness and
truth, and thy dominion shall be an
everlasting dominion, and without com-
pulsory means it shall flow unto thee,
for ever and ever." [Doctrine and Covenants 121:45-46]
Wilford Woodruff,
Joseph F. Smith,
Moses Thatcher,
General Superintendency Y.M.M.I.A.