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Show uvc SQYewS EDITORIAL w PAGE Summer Employment ith school vacations in the effing, it will not be long until many thousands of young people begin looking for summer jobs. Work will be comparatively scarce, but the need is there. It is most unfortunate when students are placed in enforced idleness, with no school in session, and no work to do. Idleness is still the devils workshop. With this in mind, every community should look to projects in which the youth of every neighborhood may be given some employment, or some special training in civic or other matters. SUMMER BIBLE CLASSES are held by many churches, giving a worthwhile interest to youngsters who might otherwise be roaming the streets. Many youths could well be invited to contribute labor on welfare farms and similar projects. Home improvement can employ a great many, especially in painting and fixing up and providing good gardens, as President Spencer W. Kimball has requested. Each year a goodly number of young people leave home for the larger cities. thinking to find work there. But work is scarce in the cities too, and no family should allow a son or a daughter to go to the city alone without some firm promise of work and a decent place in which to live. PARENTS SHOULD accompany such young people to the city, when necessary, and assist them to find adequate and wholesome housing, and be with them as they seek work. They should make certain also that such youngsters have sufficient funds to maintain themselves until pay day comes around. Many are the human parasites who take advantage of country youths in the big city. WHEN BISHOPS LEARN of young people from their wards going elsewhere to seek work or to attend school, they are urged to send their names and addresses to the Presiding Bishops office to be rerouted to the bishop of the new home ward. He in turn will encourage their church attendance. Every effort should be made to give proper direction to the army of youth as they are freed from their school Days of Violence WHAT CAN WE DO to fight the violence which seems to sweep this and almost every other nation? Careful observers fear that vc shall be engulfed by crime within another decade. Thoughtful people are becoming frightened at its increase, and well they may, for in it are the seeds of utter chaos, even of the destruction of civilization. Too often we look upon violence as something which only affects the other fellow, or as something which is native to the underworld but not a part of the better side of society. THIS IS A FALLACY. Corruption is invading the best of circles and the highest categories in our society. Dishonesty has reached into the very heart of our social structure. If it is not checked and reversed we cannot survive as a civilized race. The Lord has firmly warned America through the Book of Mormon. Its pages are replete with evidences of the destruction of the people as they depart from righteousness. The warning is blunt and direct The inhabitants of this land must either repent and serve Cod or be destroyed. But who are the violent ones9 The criminals? They certainly are, heaven knows. But what others are violent? WOULD WE BE shocked to realize that every person who violates the law, and the lords divine precepts, is a violator, a law breaker to that degree? 16 CHURCH WEEK ENDING MAY 15, 1976 If we violate the rules of right and justice, are we ourselves violent in that respect. And if we, who profess to be citizens, tolerate even a little violation on our own part, can we blame others who are wrnrse than we are? There is a song which says, Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. We all might well adopt that thinking and say: let there be an end to violence, and let it begin with me. Strong individuals can build strong families. Strong families can build strong communities, and virile communities can make a powerful nation. IF EACH INDIVIDUAL would cease to steal, cease to lie, cease to cheat; if each of us would stop lustful practices, selfishness and covetousness, we would take a mighty step toward eliminating violence all tolaw-abidi- gether. When it is realized, for example, that a large percentage of men, women and children in America are shoplifters, costing the nation billions of dollars erch year, does it not bring the problem close to home? If we want violence to end in this country, we had better begin in each home with each family and each individual. That would be the leaven in the lump. If such action were to multiply and spread as fast as shoplifting l as spread, we would make a glorious beginning toward national peace and security. HISTORICAL VIGNETTES 'Excursion of Pleasure' It must have been with some trepidation that a shipload of emigrating Saints left Liverpool harbor on Jan. 16. 1843. During the 10 days they were delayed while they waited out a storm, they had watched damaged vessels limp back into the harbor, rigging lost and masts broken. Grateful for the prudence of the captain, however, they set sail after the storm had subsided, and, except for the seasickness which affected most of them a few hours into the waves, their journey was remarkably pleasant and agreeable as their leader, Elder Lorenzo Snow recorded. An excursion of pleasure rather than the business of emigration, he added. But Elder Snow, returning from a nearly three-yea- r mission to England, felt one disappointment: the captain remained very distant and reserved, apparently already prejudiced against the Mormons. Elder Snow then records an incident which rings like an echo from the New Testament accounts. The captain's steward was stricken with a severe illness. Attempts to save him failed, and his death was imminent. One by one the sailors filed through his cabin to bid him farewell He expressed sorrow for his wife and two children in Hamburg. One Sister Martin of Bedford, attending at his bedside, suggested that Elder Snow might administer to him. The weakened steward pleaded that he be sent for, although it was then 2 a m. Elder Snow records that he had no sooner got thro the administration than he arose up . . spatted his hands together shouting praises to the Lord for being heald. The following morning the bereaved sailors were amazed to see their comrade going about his business as usual. That incident occurred just two weeks into the journey; the rest of the way the captain, the steward, and two mates attended services, read, and studied with the saints. The steward was baptized when the ship reached New Orleans, Elder Snow records, and the captain and both mates vowed they would as well. Elder Snow heard later from one mate that both had kept their promise. Maureen L'rsenbach Beecher . (Part of a series produced by tbe Church Historical Department |