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Show A uvc K CWewS EDITORIAL PAGE Your Pedigree Chart live the gospel, we shall all be ardent genealogists. And why is this so? Because one ot our most sacred and pressing religious duties is to properly identity our dead relatives, and do the necessary temple work to assure their salvation in the world to come. The Lord is most kind in providing sahatiun lor all who will accept it. But it is more than kindness We are all His children, and He hopes to save as many as w ill be saved. But He w ants to save us as families. That is why we have such constant emphasis in (he Church upon families. We are His children, and hence IBs family. WE CAN AND SHOULD be saved as tamilies. We have our immediate families, each man with his wife and children, and these immediate tamilies are to be bound together eternally by the power ot the priesthood This is done m the temples But each ot us is a child ot a previous generation. And those pre ious generations likewise are descendants ol still other generations further back. Each child has parents, and each child should be part ol his own parents lairuly circle. There should be no vacant chairs in any ol these groups. HOW ARE THESE families een to be thus those dead lor many years brought together9 As in a chain, they are sealed to each other by the power ol the priesthood in the temples of the Lord, each generation being bound to each other This is w hy w e do w or k lor the dead Thi also is why we place such nnpoitaiice upon sealings as part ol our temple scmmci '11. is also is why w'e must work for our own 1 wo dead, to make certain that our own respective generations are thus bound together. But all ol this requires that w'e property-identit- the dead. How can we be sealed to our ancestral lines il we do not know who our progenitors are? Identification is essential. We cannot seal ourselves to nonentities. So what are we to do? We are to begin at once, if we have not already done so, to lesearch out our relatives who have gone before. WE HAVE BEEN asked to till out pedigree charts tor tour generations at first, showing our direct ancestors for that period. Then we are to till in names ot family groups associated with those direct ancestors. When we have the four generations completed, we are to go on further back as tar as possible, thus making a sealing chain ot all ot our tamilies. It is an exciting undertaking The Prophet Joseph taught that we cannot be made perfect without our dead relatives, and neither can they be made pelted without us. So it is obvious that the w ork is essential. Writing family histories makes the personalities in our pedigrees live lor us It is a most interesting undertaking to find pictures ot them obtain details of their lives, and prepale the histories and genealogical charts which aie so essential to our own work. When wc realize that our own salvation is so closely related to (hens, and that wc are in a very teal sense dependent upon e eh othei . it pi ov ides an added mcentiv e to i do tins v ital vv y board general encouraged vv it others, have constantly as an ollicial Church program. Today our Church is one ot the leading sponsoring institutions ol Scouting in the world. Although in the United States as a whole only 23 percent ot available boys are Saints in Scouting, among the Latter-dawe have 85 per cent thus enrolled On a per capita basis moi e than tw ice as Saint Scouts become many Latter-datrue ol the rest ot the nation is than Eagles The sponsoring group with the highest number ot troops in America is the Association Our Church comes second, with two other churches ranking third and fourth. TO ILLUSTRATE the altitude ot leaders y y Parent-Teacher- 16 s CHURCH WEEK ENDING JANUARY 17, 1975 Smith and intimate ol both the 1iophct Joseph and Brigham Young, George A Smith was an untiring worker in the Moi mon kingdom trom its two years before early years until his death m 1875 that ol Jo-ep- h Brigham Young years alter his death, a grandson. George Albert Singh, served as eighth president of the Church A non Moi mon mitor to pioneer Utah described George A Smith as a "huge, buily man, with a Friar Tuck ji.wui.l oi paunch at d visage, and a : oil m his bright eye which, m nme odd undelined sort oi way, su jested cakes and tie 'lie talked well m a deep lolling voice, and with a he it was, who dd'h ol hnn.oi m hi s woids and lone uievuenth but utcora'.ely likened the Tabernacle to a land turtle Many -- itii a v ma i,e ei dt by lull w ig lake teeth and elapse- - his apit.u.mcc evoked spontaneous mirth He icpoiti tin en.t id or bug the Indians hy retnov mg all Ihe-- e aePi, I.ilis I,. ie then. They called him liu'i imko w k liei i,,c it. mg man w tin takes himsell d I c it Illdt i Si, nt h w as Mei ! litei ale and humane, reading and coiresnon 'mg wi Iv and Idling his diaries with seimme accounts id ms expel ictiees as missionary, colonize l and aide to biuham Young lie was much admired by the Mormons w hose colonizing eltorts he led and advised, the southern I tub city ol St Geoi ge being u imed m hn honoi Because ol his blood iclationship to Joseph Smith and his close peisonm liier.dsh.p to Bngham Young he occasionally was asked to comment on the respective qualities ol the two leaders Gcoiee A Smith was a man who combined "horse sense" piactical wisdom - with deep religious commitment and unswerving loyalty to the Church But he was not ovcrlv taken with the gravity ot his i clumsily ami could lamji heaihly at his own toibles ami those oi his telluu Saints Leading a pioneer a n in s( tilm 1 the Li le Salt Lake Valley in loot, he aimed m camp on a Sumhy to find many ot the meii'C attei ed, m seireh ol game and on exploring expeditions As seveial moie prepaied to leave the c ami' lie lemai Red that d they should "chance to meet any bishops oi eldei s ol Isi aid by the w ay please remind them to i elm n and keep the Sabbath Dean L. May a ltd the Church toward Scouting over the v eai s w e quote Pi esident Hebt-- J Grant as r s "I am very happy to give the Boy Scout movement my full endorsement For many , y ears acting superintendent ot the Young Mens Mutual Improvement Association I w as active in the promotion of the program "I leel that thousands oi our boys have been helped in becoming good men by living up to the principles ot the Scout movement "It is a satisfaction to me to know that through the cooperation ot oar general, stake and ward oiheers, we have more Boy Sc outs per capita than any other church m the United States. I hope that our Scout leaders will lemember that it is our privilege and obligation, in connection with the promotion ol tins program, to see that our hoys also icceive proper religious training m order tha! they may become real American citizens (Gosp Stand p 178) a.-- Cousin ol I ol lollow 'Friar Tuck Joviality' V 01 k The Boy Scouts FROM THE INCEPTION ol Scouting m America, The Church ol Jesus Christ ot Latter-daSaints has been one ol its leading advocates Picsnlents ot the Church as well as other General Authorities and HISTORICAL VIGNETTES ! 1 1 i (f 31 o i 5 ' - produced bv the Church Histonca Department ) |