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Show day by day, that they have been true to a holy trust must be very great. <br> Then I can understand that a elergy [sic] man, warmed by his faith, and every day absorbed in the study of how better to serve his Master, feels his soul drawing away from this world and approaching nearer and nearer the light and the music of the Beyond, and that to such a soul the beatings of the waves of the world's troubles upon it lose more and more their force, and their angry roar becomes muffled, as though sounding from afar. <br> Then your calling is surely the most exalting that mortal can engage in. To open the book of Knowledge to embruted [sic] men; to get them to realize it is a duty to advance so much in this life, that they will be worthy to take their places in a higher sphere; that they were created to live always, that the intention was that they should so acquit themselves here that it will be but a step for them at last to compass the distance between them and the angels that they are just above them; that every advance in Knowledge, that every superstition they put aside; that every vice they overcome, every evil passion in their hearts which they subdue, will bring them not only new happiness but new self-respect, surely that is a lofty calling. <br> I can believe that a man so engaged can imagine when the night comes down, that the still small voice of approval comes to him on the long-distance telephone of the ages, that the world's cares recede, the heavens seem bending down and flashes of celestial light are before his eyes. <br> But yours is an exacting calling. You ought to preach better sermons this year than you did last, for you should be nearer the light and the music than you were a year ago; with every new elevation you climb, the golden heights toward which you strive should be in fuller view. <br> You have asked me to give my idea of the situation and the future of Utah from the stand-point, I presume, of a man of the world, and, incidentally, regarding your work. <br> I need not tell you that almost any other man's judgment, that is, any other man who mixes much with all classes of his fellow men and keeps his mind alert, would be vastly more correct and valuable than mine. <br> I believe the time is drawing near when the theocracy which rules here will have to do one of two things: that it will have to take its iron clamps from the souls of the people or suffer a mighty loss of membership. <br> After awhile, and not a very long time hence, some masterful soul within the organization will begin to reason in this way,-"Our creed assures to us perfect liberty. That cannot mean the liberty of unreasoning obedience for that is mere servitude. If it does, then our creed after all, is but the invention of cunning priests, and it is sacrilege to say, it is God's will, for if God is as described, just, all-compassionate and no respector [sic] of persons, he never dictated such a rule for his children. <br> Again, if Joseph Smith as a revelation or an inspiration, declared that the Constitution of the United States was inspired of God, and hence that every Latter-Day-Saint should revere it, as we have been taught from our cradles to believe; then if at the word of any man we violate and dishonor that instrument, by doing what we can, by preaching and voting as directed, and in effect, on this soil which has been dedicated to civil and religious liberty, strive to sub- <br> [Continues on next page.] <br><br> |
