Show 1 CHURCHES YESTERbAY Rev Adelbert L Hudsons Discourse Dis-course at Unity Hall A GOSPEL OF GLADNESS THERE SHOULD BE BRIGHTNESS IX THE CHURCH Close oj tIle Stake Conference Ad < lreKK < K By President Woodruff i President cannon and Otlicrs The Authorities Sustained A Temperance Muss Meeting nt the Lyceum Rev A T Hudson spoka yesterday morning upon A Gospel of Gladness Ha said that the teachings of Jesus 4 were lull of religious optimism abouitding in the good cheer of hope and joy and gladness but that owing chiefly to the influence qf asceticism this gospel of gladness had become perverted Into one of glom Penance scorning and other forms of punishment punish-ment have been regarded a necessary religious exercises in the past and similar ideals only a little 1ess crude are found to prevail in our own century cen-tury An atmosphere of gloom and sadness is too often found in our churches as i this were the natural and necessary and expression of religion Sermons hymns ae apt to refer to men and omen in 3 sort of mournful and hopeless hope-less way as worms Sunday la been F made a day of repression and gloom Life has been made to seem an evil and religion a sort of barter in futures in which we give up a certain amount of happiness in this world in order to secure a large quantity in the next A false notion of pain has come to prevail I is often true that suffering is a means of discipline But the mistake mis-take Is made of deifying the pain itself as though it were a essential part of all religious experience and the more pain the more religion not recognizing re-cognizing that pain is simply evidence of imperfect or diseased conditions while joy is a sign of health On this account many religious people make a pretense of gloomy and melancholy feeling in speaking of life and religion L thinking this a proof of piety Others L come to gloat over a low state of feeling feel-ing as though this in itself would be a sufficient passport to heaven Of course all such distorted and perverted per-verted views are an injury to the cause of religion The true object of religion i to dispel gloom and uproot its cause to make life more cheerful and joyous now and here not merely to promise i herafter Joy is an essential es-sential element of the best sort of achievement in any field A low tone of feeling Lis unfavorable to the comprehension com-prehension of lifes possibilities or the exercise of our own energies And this is jut as true in religion as in business The religion humanity needs is a religion re-ligion which will stimulate our noblest powers by imparting to them hope and joy and courage L A caution is needed however against contentment With the mere contntment possession posses-sion of joyous feelings in religion Religious Re-ligious feeling of any kind is of little value except a it is translated into acts There is such a thing a indulging L indulg-ing n the mere luxury of joy having a some say a blessed season without w with-out any practical connection with the every day activities and relations of life Mere emotional intensity either of joy or sorrow of course is not re sOrow ligion Feeling underlies all action but it is incomplete until it expresses itself in deeds F Another caution is against the danger dan-ger or regarding excess of feeling as a test of joyfulnftss Turbulent joys are the lowest form o religious feeling Ecstacy is not E good a peacefulness Hippies show the shallows but the deeps are calm As human life grows more at one with the divine life through the uplifting power of religion there comes to us more and more the I benediction of that peace that passeth I understanding The spirit beareth witness with our spirit and the fruit I of the spirit is love joy peace The subject of Mr Hudsons sermon L next Sunday morning will be The Holy Grail I At the Tabernacle i The regular quarterly conference of I the Salt Lake stake of Zion was held at the tabernacle yesterday afternoon I the same being well attended and a lively interest in all that took place being manifested Elder Charles W Penrose read the following statement from the kindergarten kinder-garten Cash on hand March 21 1896 7505 Received from all sources since that date 41965 Total 549470 Disbursements Dis-bursements 49027 Balance on hand 443 The average attendance of the chil dren was 100 The average number of young ladies who were present at the sessions of the training class was 19 Joseph H Felt and Charles B Stewart of the stake presidency made the following report in relation to the Y M 11 I A for the year ending Mayo SO 1S9G There are 54 branches of the association associa-tion in this stake with a membership of 2132 and an average attendance of 1180 This is but 25 per cent of the young men in the stake which the presidency believe ought to be enlisted in the work Apathy on the part of some members and change in officers are the suggestions made by members of the association in to assocai response questions c ques-tions a to what are the causes for small attendance At the morning session of the t te moring conference con-ference Elder Abram H Cannon was the speaker Elder Cannon declared J that he believed a feeling of zeal and enthusiasm should be aroused among the young for the purpose of improving j improv-ing the education as to matters divine t There will come a time when those who are in authority will autoriy today wi no I longer be here and the generations generatons tf which are to come will need the advice t ad-vice and counsel of their elders as is the case r present The same questions f ques-tions which are potent factors today t existed wihen the church was In its infancy and will always be with us I Then how important it is that the young of today should mingle with those who have seen the advancement I and growth of the church that they may learn from them of the wisdom acquired r ac-quired by faithful adherence to the teachings of those who are set apart for the purpose The Prophet Joseph advanced the teaching that the planets were inhabited in-habited by a people in an advanced state of existence one superior to our own He maintained that this earth was the lowest in the order of Intelligence i Intelli-gence of beings The astronomers of this day ace proving this and while it is a work of God our finite minds cannot grasp the situation We cnnot gap require re-quire revelations and faith in order to I comprehend all that passes before us The latter is especially desirable The business man gets along much better when he has a abiding confidence in the works of his Creator The Mormon business men are no brainier than are others but his faith in God makes hIm more successful Elder Heber J Grant said that of all things in this world which amounted to nothing I was faith without workSj Men may Tvave faith may believe in i all the doctrines taught but unless they labor for the advancement of the churcfc they are doingjiothirg for the use The young ought to take advantage ad-vantage of the opportunities which are afforded them Attend church and Sunday school and learn those things which are essential to a thorough knowledge of the divine The Sabbaths Sabbath-s were dismissed this morning in order to allow the children a chance to attend the conference but it is doubtful If one In ten are present The teachers should have brought them and the congregation would have been much larger No amount of faith will bring to our minds a knowledge of the teachings of the gospel unless deeds accompany them 11 R N Allred spoke on the same subject and the conference recessed until 2 oclock At the afternoon session after all the authorities of the stake had been sustained President Vilford Woodruff spoke and said that no man who has the privilege of the gospel can forsake his responsibility He must rise up and magnify his calling and all Lat terday Saints should understand that God is not trifling with the people of the earth There is nothing more pleasing than to see the young men and women growing up in the faith to have them go on missions and bring encouragement to the church He urged a larger attendance at the Sunday Sun-day schools George Q Cannon thought every parent ought to impress upon the minds of their children the importance of the privilege of hearing President Woodruff speak His testimony is very valuable inasmuoh a he has passed through all the trials of the church and is competent to speak He received his endowments at the hands of the founder of the church and is the only living apostle of the number num-ber who came here with the Saints We are living in a remarkable time a time when the discoveries of science seem to have almost a supernatural character The things which our chil dren regard as common were a few years ago remarkable t us and we are at the threshpld of the door of new discoveries We must learn that all knowledge comes from God and that He is but manifesting Himself to us Temperance Mass Meeting Lyceum theatre was comfortably fled fl-ed last night by an appreciative audience audi-ence which listened to a scholarly discourse Citizenship Duties and course on CiizenshipIt Dut Dangers by Caroline Linte Stevenson corresponding secretary of the national organization of the Womans Christian Temperance Union Miss Stevenson is a pleasing speaker of more than ordinary talent and was given the closest attention by her auditors during the hour and a half she spoke The meeting opened with a duet by two little folks and this was followed ltte by a charming solo by Miss Sabin Judge George F Goodwin then introduced duced Miss Stevenson and in doing so briefly referred D the organization of the white ribbon movement twenty two years ago I was the pleasure of Utahs only temperance league to present pre-sent tonight one of the W C T Us staunchest and most distinguished workers Miss Stevenson dealt with her subject sub-ject from a broad standpoint She went back t the time of the Roman empire em-pire and held that the Romans had a greater conception of true citizenship than the people of more modern times The speaker then gradually traced the progress of governments up to the present pres-ent time and made the deduction that under our own form of government citizenship wa wrought with greater I resiKmsibilities a well as greater opportunities op-portunities than any other government under the sun She had no room for the idle talk that our government was I a failure To upset such a theory she only had to refer to the early struggles for freedom the gradual acquisition of territory and the marvelous progress and development until we have taken a front rank among the nations of the earth Our government had not been a failure in the past but its success in the future depended upon the actions of the men and women who made up the naMon te Among the dangers to our government govern-ment the speaker characterized those abstract in their nature to be most feared and hence most to be remedied One of the greatest of these was complacency com-placency Some one had said that God takes care of three things children child-ren fools and the United States There might be some truth in such a saying and still i vas a bad principle to inculcate into growing generations No government should be content with the letwellenoughalone theory I should always strive for progress greater victories and grander possibilities possi-bilities Too much of the partisanship spirit was another danger A lack of interest in politics by the business man was another and to much hankering after public office by the professional politician was still another danger Miss Stevenson contrasted the picture of George Washington reluctantly accepting ac-cepting the highest position in the gift of our people to the scramble for such an office during the present day The speaker then came to what she terme the greatest o all darters tour t-our government the liquor traffic and intemperance She spoue of IKS tin o t-in this order because she contended that intemperance was the result of the traffic as surely a the law of cause and effect was true The traffic increases in-creases intemperance remove it and intemperance will nearly if not entirely en-tirely pass away Miss Stevenson da cried the idea that the traffic was nccessaT on account of the demand de-mand believing that the supply in this instance regulates the demand and notice not-ice versa The traffic was dangerous to the national government because its stronghold Is politics I has a grip on the nation well organized and ready to do battle to everything that seeks to overthrow its power I the Saloon is in politics then the politics emanating from the saloon must ofe necessity I ne-cessity be saloon politics Today we are coiJironted with the spectacle of the saloon entrenched behind law through the agency of politics Lasty the menace to the church of Christ which the existence of the S loon causes In speaking of this phase of the question she desired to have i applied in its broadest sense taking jn all the denominations Gradually the church was coming to the point where itn members prayed like angels but voted with the saloon keeper The speaker read an extract from a journal published in the interest of the liquor I traffic wherein it was stated that the opposition to prohibition had nothing to fear from church members actual I statistics showing that only two percent per-cent of its meiribership vote for the banishment of the grog shop They may pass resolutions pledging to work against the saloon but when it comes to the b lot box they deposit one marked the same a the man in the adjoining ad-joining stall the liquor dealer Miss Stevenson was accorded liberal applause at the close of her address Dr Iliff was called upon and made a collection talk after which the Y M C A quartette rendered a selection The national anthem was sung and then followed the benediction Also pure and moneybacked Schilling Schil-ling Bet cofee bakingpowder soda spices and flavoring extracts I Schilling Company 8S San Francisco |