OCR Text |
Show TO THE SALT LAKE MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATION. <br><br> Gentlemen:- <br> I have thought much of you and your work during all the years since I came to Utah. <br> I have thought how great must be your faith, how tireless must be your patience, how little is your reward, reckoned as most men estimate rewards. <br> I have noted the abuse heaped upon you, how you have been made to feel that you are in an enemies [sic] country; how you have been misjudged by those whom you are trying to help, and have wondered if you have not often said to yourselves: "Lo! this people will not receive us; is it not time that we shake the dust from our feet and go away?" <br> I have seen you advertised as hirelings, a mercenary company working merely for the salaries you receive; then I have thought of your salaries and how much men of your equipments could obtain in almost any other walk of life, and I have wondered if God has been keeping the account and how much must be the credit to your balance in the great Ledger of Eternity. <br> I have often wanted to say kindly and encouraging words to you and would have done so many times, when I was in a position where a great audience read what I had to say every morning, except that I knew what I might say would supply a text for your further abuse. <br> Newspaper men do not mind the friction that comes when they do their duty, sometimes, it is a stimulant and they enjoy it; but you have no megaphone through which you can train your voices in your own defense in tones that the public can hear. <br> From the first you have been sappers and miners, a forlorn hope to storm the fortresses of superstition, of ignorance, of distrust and hate; there has been no visible guidon to signal your way, no music to cheer you on; it has been with you a march over a flinty path without hope of reward, save what your faith paints on the golden heights of the Beyond. <br> Yet your work has not been profitless. Indeed, if the shepherd rejoices more over finding the sheep that was lost than over all the flock beside, then you, too, nave had your joys, for you have gathered to the fold a good many sheep that had strayed and had no shepherd. <br> Neither do I for a moment forget that perfect faith carries with it great recompenses. To one who gives up his life to the service of the Master, surrenders himself with all his nature to his calling, I can understand how serene may be his walk even over thorns, for the glory of the work is upon his life, the splendor of the reward increases in promise as he advances; the petty things that annoy men here are not heeded, or if they are, they are hushed by the question that takes form in the soul; "What, ‘though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,' are not all the rolling ages of eternal sunshine just before me?" <br> The most impressive sentence in the bible, to me, is: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" <br> I can understand that men whose faith has lifted them to that height, can bear heavy burdens all their lives, and still smile as they toil on. <br> For the perfect peace in their souls must be as a shield around them to ward off the world's vexations, and the joy that comes to men when they can feel, <br> [Continues on next page.] <br><br> |