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Show , - RADIO ADDRESS SUNDAY, MAY KSL, 9 P. M. , 26,-191- ' CHAPTER IlL --- By Mankind ,cherishes freedom. Men fight and die and Women, suffer and pray for the right of life and property and the freedom, for creative expression. Can it be that the freedom we cherish is an illusion, a' phant,an which lures us Into the bog of Inefe wisp? Can ficiency as the a society of free men survive? Must the common' man become a cog in a great efficient, impersonalmachine, controlled and operated by a few - , s. will-o'-th- super-men- ? Did the religious community of we Book of Mormon recognize this problem? If so, how was the problem met? Lehi, speaking to his son, Snob, pressed the conviction: "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient untoman. And they are and eternal life, freelo choose-liber- ty through the great mediation of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power - of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself." (II Nephi 2:27) With Lehi this conviction of per, sonal freedom was not without logical basis, for he reasoned thus: fore, the ends of the law which the Holy One hath given, tintothe inflicting of the punishment which is af-- fixed, which punishment that is ifrazed Is in opposition to that of the happiness which is affixed, to answer the ends of the atonement; "For it must needs be, that there Is an opposition in all things. If not in The wilderness, so, my first-borrighteousness could not be brought to pass; neither ,wickedness; neither ness nor misery; neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore,it it should be one body,. it must needs main as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor- - incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. 'Wherefore, it must needs nave been created for a thing of naught; wherefore th2re would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. - A - 1. - - - -- Carl F. Eyring Dr.-- Of 014 !Sunday S'èhool declares that all things, all nature and all human experience, "Must needs be a compound in one," and that, without freedom of action between polar opposites, without "opposition In all things," there could be no moral life, no happiness, no creation, and no God; and when he emphasizes 'that, "the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore lean could not act for himself, save it e should be that he was enticed by one Or the other." So it was with our first parents. By acting for themselves and by belag "enticed by the one or tile other," - they, as we, could develop a knowledge of the opposites, good and evil. But could not this knowledge be obtained by some simpler or easier method? God loves His children, and although He realizes how important a knowledge of good and evil is, still He is aware that such a knowledge obtained as a gift, or as a single supreme miraculous act, could not possibly develop the character needed by an immortal has no spirit. The path to God-hood 11-,- - , ' GeneratBoard: - - -a - - Would man really care to be free. from the laws of nature? No, because he finds greater security for his free--: dom in an environment which is not Suppose one could estab- capricious. no lish no dependable bodily habits, of building- bridges, secure methods automobiles, or roads; suppose today gravity pulled one down to the floor and tomorrow to the ceiling; then certainly man would be a sorry victim of chance. We find a greater freedom in a nature with fixed and dependable laws, a nature which is neither cavicious itlelf nor subject to the whims of man. Freedom is found and enlarged by finding how nature operates, and then cooperating with ber - actions, The wise man does not wish ti be free from God. He is supreme in wisand dom, lave, goodness,Antelligence, In with Him be associated To power. cooperative endeavor is man's greatest privilege. The freedom we wish, then, is the privilege to choose from among our many thoughts and from among a licit supply of opportunities furnished by nature, society, and cod, the thoughts and plans of action which will contribute most toward the building bf Ahat ideal person we hope to be. This latter freedom is obtained by casting aside, if necessary, choice in trivial matters and entering into an unselfish cooperative endeavor with man, the forces of nature, and with God. Again the religious community of the Book of Mormon speaks to us with conviction and understanding. ) tipptng..5 (Continued from Page Five) son, Guy Van Alstyne,. Wallace' Boa- well, Oral Butler;- Wilbur Woolf, Bur-- tis Case, Mac Woolf, Tim Irons, T.:Re Valentine, Jay Shelley, Carl Hunter, Melba Clark, Lditise Bullock and Edward Sandgren. Absent were Rooert Carpenter and John Quist. The group includes priests, elders, seventies and high priests.Thornton awa Booth. Stake Changes: Levi Dunn - set apart as patriarch in the San Luis- Stake by Elder Joseph Fielding Smith of the. Council of tne Twelve. William James released as stake clerk in Ensign Stake after 25 years of service to take positi6n in stake High Priest-quoru- Ward Changes: ,Bishop C. Morvin Stutznegger, Counselors Ernest Hatiser and Conrad Barber new bishopric in Center Ward of Riverside Stake. Bishop Robert Leatham Bridge, Counselors Harold W. Jeffs and Lester Lees new bishopric of Twenty-eightWard of Riverside Stake.- - h Dedication;t NewGunnison Ward Chapel dedi--.-cated Sunday, May 26, by Pres. Rudger Clawson of the Council of the Twelve. Presiding Bishop Le Grand Rich, ards odedicated new $40,000 Spanish Fork First Ward Chapel Sunday, May -- 26. - - - - ! . -- - - , I school.- see if such strange medicine is in fact a true curative. Life can 1)e lived on the drab level of necessityMust! ,Must! Must! at every turn; butltneed not be so lived. Though forced to go the first ' miler the second may be of the nature of a chaice. Life must be lived; but it may be lived as a game in which thrills are looked for in common ations and found, in which new challenges are unearthed for the sake of which new obstacles a are welcomed as mountains to be - scaled. We may be compelled to Jive in poor circumstancestwo rooms, uncarpeted floOr, rough furniture, Pnd :unpapered walls. But so long as we have physical strength and a soul which reaches up for these rooms may be kept orderly, clean, and full of simple beauty; the floors may be scrubbed till they are immaculate; the kitchen table may be made attractive with. the orderly arrangement of tin dishes and with the savorineSS of well cooked, though cheap and simple, food; the doorstep may be clean and inviting; and along the path may be planted a row of old- fashioned flowers to give welcome lo the stranger who needs to find r2str.The first mile of forced poverty is made beautiful by the courage to find freedom in the territory of the second. Contrast this picture with that of the filth, confusion, and squalor to be found in homes where persons spend most of their time complaining about being poor. The first mile is drudgery because they have no vision of a sec- ond mile. Lehi saw clearly that we would rot wish to be free from law. "And if ye shall say there is no law," he said, 'ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sip, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness, there be no happiness. If there be no righteoui. ness nor happiness, there be no punishment nor mercy. And if these things are not, there is ho God. And if there is no God, we are not, neither the earth; 'for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away." Fundamentally we wish for .hat freedom which carries rich opportunities for personality development. We wish to be free to act, to think, and to feel in ways we consider will make us more like the ideal person we would like to be.. This is the freedom we cherish and strive for. We are ready to use our physical strength, our intellectual power, and our spiritual insight in a cooperative endeavor to produce a society that will provide, foster, and perpetuate such freedom. In such a society our children, for example, will receive a larger freedom than they could possibly obtain on an island where they are allowed to shift for themselves alone, and without social constraint. A larger freedom is achieved in the presence---o- f discipline which is rational and moral. One would not care to be free from the discipline of good human law. Only- - a few men wish to be anarchists; yet most men demand the .freedom of self government. Man feels free in being a subject, if in turn he is also a soyereign;he is, content to obey a law if he has a hand in making it.' For the simple rule, "keep to the Thus, He' urges against short-cu- t methods as symbolized by the eating of the fruit' of the tree of the knowledge of gcrod and evil, lest.. His disobedient children should reach for the "fruit of the tree of life," expecting to establish in their immortal lives the folly of attempting to circumvent the struggle needed in achiev- ing a knowledge of good and evil, they are banished in haste to a "barren and dreary earth." In such a situation man "labors arduously, under conditions of physical fatigue and suffering." But in the new environment knowledge of good and evil is acquired slowly but surely and by a process which gives strength and virility to the immortal spirit. Many sensible and loving earthly parents figuratively speaking; banish their children to a bhrren and dreary world of experience in order that there they might develcharacters of fortitude and op strength. Wherefore, this thing must needs deJust as freed6M of choice implies stroy the wisdom of God, and Pis the possibility of being enticed by one eternal purposes; and also, the power, or the other of polar opposites, so and the mercy, and the justice of lod. freedom, itself, seems to have its op"And if ya shall say there is no posite. For, does not life seem to be a law; ye shall also say there is no :An. of that which is possible and synthesis If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall that which is necessary? Yes, life as also say there is no righteousness. And it is lived seems to be a !caactually If there be no righteousness, there be nbination of the possible and the neces- : no liappiness. And if there be no sary. Therefore, if one is to niake righteousness nor happiness, there be free and creative, the kind of life Lehi no punishment nor misery. And if wishes for his sons, one must thee things are not, there Is no God. nize, not only the challenge of the And if there is no God, we are not: to choose between opposites, neither the earth; for there could have privilege but one must also be ready to make been no creation of things, neither to the "possibles as actual and significant act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, - as the necessary." all things must have Vanished away. On all sides we are hedged in by -- - "And I unto now, my. sots, speak the compelling power of necessity. We you these things, for your profit and must walk carefully or we will fail;; learning: for there Is a God, and He we must eat or we will die; we mustt bath created all things, both the heavmeet the demands of our social life ens and the earth, and all things that or we be ostracised; we must obey will in them are, :both things to act, and the law of the land or we will be rastt to be acted things upon. into prison; we must be courteous to "And to brin about --his eternal our customers or we will lose 1,114- 'purposes in the end of man, after he ness; we must go to work on time or had created our first parents, and the we will be fired; we must do our duty beasts of the field and the fowls of the or we will not be saved! But the air, and in fine, all things which are "Must" does not cover the whole of created, it must needs be that there life. There are still areas for the poswas an opposition; even the forbidden sibles. How shall we discover these fruit in opposition to the tree of Aife; free areas and thus find the freedom the one being sweet and the other bit- for which we so much ter; desire? The answer is simple yet "Wherefore, the LorclGodgave strange:- - If you are compelled to go unto man that he should act for niin- one mile, he magnanimous and go self. Whereföre man could not act for two! Jesus is the great physician of himself, save it should be that be was the soul. He would have us drive enticed by the one or the other," tit compulsion of going one mile by7 Nephi 2:1046) freely going the second. Let us apply' Lehi shows keen insight when he the principle to a life situation, and short-cut- ! - . For the same greatly degraded. reason, we do not turn loose tge in-sane and criminal, or permit children to run the streets instead of attending out-th- - ' permits t lefreedon:Lottravel not possible without it. Curtailing the liberty of a drunkard gives to sociely not only the freedom required, keeps the personal freedom of such an Irresponsible person from being too GREATER THAN REASON Whenever we can reason ourselves Into a thing we get a certain satisfae- Um out of it, it is true, but whenever throughfaithwe-ca- n PUesusilmist,--our- - -- accept-the-l-ife Lord and Masterr----- --- we get a development that no amount of reason can ever bring to der Antoine R. Ivins. us.---E- - -- |
