| Show DISCOURSE IMi delivered vered at the weber stake conference ogden monday jan 1897 by PRESIDENT GEORGE FORGE Q CANNON BY ARTHUR WINTER these reports to which we have listened made by brother ballantyne abd sd brother wright representing the sanday schools and the mutual improve associations of the stake are angly exceedingly interesting because upon aksu access of these organizations their waco influence ce and that which they accod puah depends to a very great extent the 46 etere of this people and of 0 the church I 1 oath think of the remarkable results the of that have attended organization 1 the S sunday schools as well as the mutual improvement associations condition we would have what a had bad the brethren not been been in mpr k j to 0 organize ar sunday schools isi it hit ol 01 oved a most timely organization ap occupied aed the field to the exclusion and has occue be gaidot those sectarian causion it may organizations and influences which would idd have been brought to bear upon the iatter day saints there was a bishop of the E episcopal church who h 0 orthis visiting orthis diocese visiting was 48 V 0 tai toe e bishop new rew y york ork and it came to my knowledge circle where he was one that in the ey waring aging he stated that brigham young shrewd man and a very capable a W kaaa a very cag man maja but he did not know the in malu u ebee cw education he was not aware of how potent 0 t e at education was in informing forming a f said there was a most pe poodle ope an and d be excellent opportunity 0 in utah to start schools V many of the young people he added manifest fest a great eagerness knowledge and education to acquire can raise the funds and and add if we eata establish blish schools there we will do a great work in converting the mormons cormons Mor mons fat his no use to attempt to convert the adults but by furnishing the children facilities for receiving education we can accomplish quite a work there acting upon that idea schools were started 4 e 0 in some places in sale sah lake city for instance and some of the children of the latter day saints attended them the rhe result was that in every instance that has come to my knowledge the pupos at those schools imbibed false ideas dias concerning re religion 1 igdon and became aliens to the faith of their parents I 1 do not know that they ever had much jaw faith but if the they did have they lost it and if they V did not have it they never obtained it but had other ideas instilled ja anio their minds you can see the re suits now in the families of those who in their eagerness tor for education were care I 1 leakas cul td totne the medium through which education should be obtained now the catholics have large edifices in salt lake city I 1 suppose you have one here and the episcopalians Episcopal ians and other denominations have established educational institutions in the midst of the people and teachers have been sent by the different denominations tor for the purpose of indoctrinating the children of the latter day saints with their views but through the organization of the sunday schools a great field was occupied that was very tempting to people ot of this character and through this organization they were discouraged from attempting to organize sunday schools I 1 believe there have been some attempts made but they have not resulted in anything that has been very noticeable and the field is now well occupied by our own P people eople and oui schools are improving and they are gathering in as they should do all the children in many places there are young people ap appointed pointed to go and labor with children who do not attend the schools to induce them to come to school and I 1 think myself that this is an excellent thing to do we have many very rude boys in some of our settlements and perhaps rude girls if all these could be induced to go to sunday school it would have a tea tendency dency to soften their manners and teach them proper prope rde deportment and good behavior i think it is an important duty devolving upon sunday school teachers to teach their children good manners and to give them the training which they may not in every instance receive at home our children need instruction ol of this kind for in many places there is a great deal of neglect upon this point and children are allowed to grow up in a manner that is not very creditable to their parents nor to the community I 1 am very thankful thank tul that there are so many children in the sunday schools and I 1 am thankful also that the sunday schools are becoming so efficient of course as the sunday schools grow so will the mutual improvement associations grow and I 1 think there is likely to be a more thu thorough rough and efficient organization of the mutual improvement associations from this time forward than there has been because some of our leading brethren are taking great interest in these associations and they feel the necessity of adopting methods that shall be more thorough than those that have heretofore been in vogue my brethren and sisters I 1 think it is of the utmost importance that we should pay attention to this question of the proper training of children I 1 feel deeply impressed myself with its importance I 1 hear bear as no doubt you all do of families who have been a long time in the church and you ask about their children and in some instances it is really painful to learn leam that the children are not growing up in the faith of the gospel that the young men and the young women especially the young women marry out of the church and that the young men grow up without faith in the gospel I 1 do not know anything scarcely that I 1 hear that gives me greater pain than to hear this because the parents of this church have made great sacrifices in many instances for the truth they love the truth and they have shown their love for the truth b by that which they have done and to think that their children should grow up without faith in the gospel and careless and indifferent concerning it is quite saddening and much of this is due to us as parents it is true that satan is in the world and his power is felt by all and even with the best of care we have no guarantee that all our children will be faithful to the truth and grow up vree free from wrongdoing there is no guarantee of this kind but we are assured from experience and by the word of the lord that parents who take proper pains dains with their children wilk will have their reward beward in the improved ed condition of the children and in their preservation sin sin I 1 feel that this is something that should address itself to all of us it should come home to every parent there has been a disposition in the church I 1 have sometimes thought so at least to have a large fai family nily men were proud of the number of children that they had but some seemed to be careless as to the quality qualify of their children they went in for quantity more than they did for quality 1 have often remarked that one isaac was better than a great crowd of sons who were untrue to the lord and who did not live so as to receive his bless ings isaac is the progenitor of a wonderful race of people and through his faithfulness blessings are felt by us who are here today they have come down to us from him and from his father and from his bis son jacob from whom sprang the twelve tribes of israel it is better to have a worthy faithful son well cared for well brought up well trained than to have any number that grow up with out proper knowledge and without proper care I 1 feel that this is important IR for the women of this church it is a trite saying and it is proved by all history that the women have the forming of the characters of the children toa to a very great extent it is often said that there is scarcely a great man to be found who did not have a great mother that is a mother of good qualities and who took care in rearing her children I 1 have noticed in my experience that where girls are indifferent about whom they marry and with whom they associate it is very frequently traceable to the influence of the mother A mother may have a careless husband she may have a man that is indifferent to the duties of his religion but if sh she e be a faithful wo man herself and exercise proper control and does have control over her children she can bring up her children to be faithful men and women in the church go where you will and examine the households of the people and you yon will find that the mothers influence is is a very wonderful influence not only upon the children but upon her husband but particularly so with her children she can teach her children to pray in early life and she can instill into them feelings and desires that remain with them throughout their life at least I 1 myself can testify to this I 1 can see features in ray my character that are the result of in my mothers teaching although she di died when I 1 was quite young myself and brothers and sisters were left orphans at an early age but the effect of mothers teaching is visible in all of us although the younger ones do not remember her scarcely I 1 want to speak a little of my own experience because it will illustrate the principle upon which I 1 am speaking my mother had a great abhorrence of anything that would lead to intoxication or drunkenness and she impressed upon me this feeling when I 1 was a child she said she hoped I 1 would never touch anything of an intoxicating nature and I 1 remember that when I 1 was about twelve or thirteen years of age she said to me if you will not take anything to drink of an intoxicating nature till you are fifteen I 1 will give you a silver watch patent levers were then just coming out and she bought one and put it aside for me to have when I 1 was fifteen years of age she died however before I 1 received the watch but I 1 got it after her death now the impression made upon me by her r remarks arks lias has been indelible she did I 1 no not want me to drink tea or coffee either but ut to observe the word of wisdom I 1 am today at my present age and I 1 never have drunk tea and coffee I 1 scarcely know the taste of either tea or coffee and I 1 have never touched tobacco nor anything intoxicating this is the re suk suh at least to a very great extent of her teachings and the impressions she made on my mind concerning articles of this kind now I 1 notice that where people have indulged in these habits and then broken off on they are always tempted to resume them under some circumstances while the smell of coffee is very fragrant to me I 1 never had the least inclination in my life to taste it for the appetite was never awakened the same with liquor and with other things I 1 walk along the street on a frosty morning and if if I 1 should happen to be following a man who is smoking a good cigar the smell of the cigar is i agreeable to me in the open air but I 1 never had bad the least inclination to touch it ft if I 1 had drunk coffee to any extent or perhaps smoked I 1 have no doubt that when I 1 would smell these things my mouth would water for them but never having had the taste awakened of course there is no temptation I 1 think it important brethren and sisters that teat we should teach our children not to touch these things A story was told to me by a very estimable man in this church he said he was brought up not to touch anything of an into intoxicating xa i nature by a mere accident lie he one time tasted brandy he was with a lot of young men and they gave him brandy and I 1 think they told him it was cider under this impression he drank some of it and be said from that time up to the time he was talking to me some seventeen years he had always had that taste to contend with it had awakened within him a fondness that had always slumbered until he tasted it and would have continued to slumber probably throughout his entire life if it had bad not been for that unfortunate drink I 1 believe there is in many people a latent fondness for liquor for tobacco for tea and coffee which they have ingeri inherited ted and when they taste it or drink it this fondness is awakened it is like a demon in the blood that is unchained by the taste of these articles I 1 have heard men say that when they heard the burgl ing of whisky or liquor poured out of a jug it would make their whole frame tremble and their mouths water they wanted it so badly now it is tar far better never to have that feeling awakened and this can be done by teaching our children never to touch never to taste anything of this kind mothers should not teach their daughters to drink tea they should not allow them to touch tea or coffee fathers should not allow their sons when they can prevent it by their influence to touch anything of an intoxicating nature or anything like tobacco I 1 had this illustrated in my own family a few years ago I 1 was going off to washington and I 1 called my children together and gave them some instructions and after a while I 1 got to this sub eject it is something I 1 rarely ever talk about in my family because we set them examples we do not drink tea or coffee nor use these things in my household but I 1 happened to have my mind directed to them and I 1 asked the children a number of them were grown about their habits and whether they had ever drunk anything ot of this kind and I 1 found that there were only two that had ever tasted either tea or coff coffee ee one of these was my baby boy the baby of my first wife who is dead when he was a baby my wife was sick and she used a little tea and this child had tasted the tea and his sisters had told me tiow how much he liked tea now that by boy if he were not careful no doubt would always have an inclination tor for tea one other boy had tasted coffee but none of the others had bad ever tasted tea or coffee I 1 think children brought up in this w way ay do have advantages over children brought up where there is looseness or carelessness I 1 have noticed in my association with men and women who have once been in the habit of drinking tea and coalee that if they are tired or cold or sick and there is tea or coffee brought forward they are tempted to take it the old desire is awakened and they are apt to yield to the temptation so with liquor so with tobacco and so with all these things which the lord has told us are not good for us have not we as a people been organized long enough to do away with these things and to live a better life this church has been in existence for sixty six years now and it seems to me that the teachings we have received on these points should be observed by all the people I 1 have traveled as many of our young men have in the early days and been e exposed ased to a great deal of hardship I 1 have e traveled across the plains to and from california when our water was so bad being full of alkali that some of the brethren could not drink its it and they made it into coffee I 1 have traveled when it has been so cold that when we have sat around eating breakfast the water would freeze in our cups but I 1 always took water and I 1 noticed that I 1 was able to endure cold better it if anything than those who drank the warm drinks and I 1 was better able under other circumstances to endure hardships than the boys who drank liquor I 1 proved that by experience and I 1 know that it is better in every way for us t to 0 be free from the habit of using these stimulants I 1 am sure we are healthier and I 1 am sure it is better fo for our brains as well as our bodies A man that uses stimulants is not likely to be so well balanced in his mind so clear in his judgment as the man who does not have recourse to them I 1 do not like to talk about personal af affairs lairs but it seemed to me that by relating my personal experience in this direction I 1 could give point to my ideas on this subject I 1 would like to see every child in our community taught by their parents |
