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The teachings of Jesus, with the testimonies of the prophets concerning Him and concerning His death and resurrection, constitute the Gospel message. That is a universal message, not limited to any time nor to any people, but applicable to all peoples of all times. It purports to lay down correct principles of living life in mortality, upon which in turn depends man's condition of living in immortality. In short, it becomes the law of life valid for time and for eternity. In that view it must be regarded as the embodiment of absolute human and spiritual values, not subject to alteration with the aberrations of changing times, nor to variation with the vagrant shirtings of prevailing opinion.
Those courses of behavior which harmonize with and conform to absolute spiritual values must be eternally right just as their opposites must be eternally wrong. Between the two there is undying conflict. They cannot accommodate themselves one to the other. If it were attempted to make adjustments between them by having each yield something to the other you might succeed in tempering the wrong but what you had left would not be the right. It could at best be right debased by an admixture of wrong, a counterfeit.
The Church as the teacher and interpreter of the Gospel message cannot countenance any dilution. There may be new techniques of exposition, improved approaches, expanding understanding of interpretation and application and even a weeding out of extraneous accretions which have fastened themselves upon the basic principles, but in the fundamentals of the message itself there can be no alterations. Wherever the majority opinion may for the moment lie, or however the conflict may swirl and lash about it the eternal right must still stand unshaken and unmoved as the fixed base to which men may with assurance and safety anchor their lives. That which is right does not become wrong merely because it may be deserted by the majority, neither does that which is wrong today become right tomorrow by the chance circumstance that it has won the approval or been adopted by overwhelmingly predominant numbers. Principles cannot be changed by nor accommodate themselves to the vagaries of popular sentiment.
If, as I have already said, the Gospel message has, as in the very nature of the case it must have, a universality of application, without limit as to time or locality or people, then it must have in it a specific cure for the ills of every age. In all circumstances, in every time we should, if it fills the requirement of its claim, be able to turn to it and find a direction suited to the needs of the hour. For it is not divorced from life but on the contrary is concerned solely with the lives of men and so must instruct and fortify them for life's requirements. Let us consider whether it meets that test as related to the conditions of today.
The mischief against which there is presently the most insistent complaint is the reign of violence with its train of accompanying evils. This grows out of the arrogance and egotism of rulers and leaders who seek to establish their supremacy at whatever cost, and without regard to consequences to humanity at large or to nations or individuals in particular. The Gospel message on the contrary admonishes men to humility.
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
But he that is greatest among you, shall be your servant.
Let these sayings characterize the desires of men and oppression would vanish away. There is no nation today whose leaders would not be immeasurably benefitted by a lesson in humility.
One of the results of a reign of violence is the denial of justice, but justice is a cardinal part of the Gospel law.
What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
In any land where that law prevailed there could never be the plundering, the robbing, the despoiling and the murdering that invariably accompany the rule of force. I have spent a large part of my mature life in dealing with and trying to adjust people's disputes. I have learned that there would be very little trouble between men in this world if only every one wanted to do about what is right--to be fair and just. The trouble grows out of the unjust advantage taken of situations which throw unfair opportunities into the hands of those who are willing to exploit them. The discouraging part about it lies in the difficulty of getting reciprocal willingness among disputants to yield to the principle of fairness. As one may be disposed to yield the other increases already unjust demands. But that has nothing to do with the existence of the principle about which we are just now inquiring. It only signifies rejection of the message.
Another evil consequence of the rule of force is that it begets reprisals, which lead to interminable conflicts. We are all familiar with the feuds of families and clans and the wars of tongs carrying down through long generations. The victim of a wrong suffered or a grievance borne waits the day of revenge and then takes it with interest compounded. The new sufferer in turn retaliates when a change of fortune favors him and so the mischief endlessly spirals.
"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord." Its exercise cannot safely be left to mortals. In nothing is the futility of war more surely revealed than in the inevitable consequence of reprisals. The victor despoils the vanquished. The latter with an undimmed memory waits the day of retribution and when the time of reckoning comes takes back what was before lost with something more besides, thus sowing the seed of a future war. Seemingly the memory of nations is long; they never forget and war never ends war.
We see the same vicious evil at work in all the contested relations of men. We may take an illustration from current happenings. Laboring men, by which we mean those who toil with their hands in the service of others, have complained that they have been unfairly treated. I have not any doubt that their complaint is a just one. They have striven for correction. Through unionization and a combination of circumstances they have possessed themselves of vast powers. Their direction unfortunately has fallen far too largely into the hands of unscrupulous exploiters and the spirit of reprisal is set in operation. They now in many ways seek to punish those against whom they have nursed their grievances. These offer resistance and useless quarrels grow.
The simple law is that a wrong is never righted by the commission of another wrong. The expressive common phrase is "Two wrongs never make a right." Those who have so bitterly inveighed against injustice now deny their fellow workmen who do not wish to join with them the right peaceably by their honest toil to earn their daily bread. Rival unions quarrel among themselves and in promotion of their feuds stop work to the irreparable loss of non-contending parties and the public at large. By violence property is destroyed, men maimed and murdered and anarchy supplants the rule of law and order.
We read daily reminders that a national peril hangs over us, which can be averted only by straining every productive power we have while at the same time plants are shut down and men forced to idleness as the alleged danger creeps steadily upon us. Boys by the thousands have been taken from their employment to prepare themselves for the fighting service where they receive twenty-one dollars a month. No one knows how soon they may be in armed battle, but the implements of war they shall need are not being provided because those who remain undisturbed in their employment, and who are already drawing from two to three times as much in a week as the soldier gets in a month, strike for higher pay and as a means of enforcing their demands not only refuse to work themselves but by violence prevent others who are willing to work from doing so. If the soldier boys go into war unequipped somebody will be answerable.
And how useless it all is. Instead of reprisals or vengeance the Gospel message teaches forgiveness and peace.
Let not the sun go down upon thy wrath.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite-fully use you, and persecute you.
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
In these principles of the Gospel message lies the way to industrial peace. I appeal to the laboring men to forego the methods of force and vengeance for they will never bring you peace of mind, contentment of spirit nor the rewards you seek. I think I am in a position from experience and observation to understand your aspirations. I have a deep sympathy with your desire to improve your conditions. It is a laudable ambition for every one. But vituperation and violence and hatred and reprisal will bring you in the end only disillusionment, disappointed hopes and the bitterness of remorse. The peaceful way of counsel and persuasion and a willingness to show justice and observe the right are the ways that will win. I make the same appeal to the industrialist, to the man of agriculture and to the whole race.
This goodly land of ours, the boasted refuge of the oppressed and the guarantor of freedom, is seething with unrest. Strife, class rancors, uncertainty, hatreds, greed, deception, demagoguery have driven peace from our borders. The simple truth is that the interests of all classes are inseparably bound up together. There is no legitimate basis for antagonisms between industrialists and laborers or between agriculturists and either of the others. They are kept apart by distrust, suspicion and a reciprocal lack of faith and confidence. Each is essential to the other. Neither can prosper alone, but they are set in conflict by stupid name calling, epithet hurling, and intemperate denunciations. These procedures have always failed. The healing for wounds is not more wounds but a soothing balm.
The final resort of a nation which seeks to impose its unbridled will upon others is war. War is always evil. It has always been so and never can be anything else.
If you read your Hebrew scriptures you will see that the destructions which befell the people were heralded by wars and slaughters. War was, the scourge by which the land was devastated as told in the Book of Mormon story. And when Jesus was describing to His disciples the sorrows and tribulations which were to be so terrible that except they should be cut short there should no flesh be saved, prominent among the initiating terrors were wars--nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
A war of defense may be justifiable. It may be the only means of saving from utter extinction those institutions and sanctions through which the ways of peace by conversion to a better way may be implemented. But so far as any lasting enduring results are concerned wars themselves settle nothing. It is their history that the settlements imposed at the close of one contain the seeds of another to follow.
But I need not pursue the point. The thesis I laid down at the beginning, namely, that the Gospel message is universal and has in it, all the necessary curative agents for the ills of the day, is clearly demonstrable. Your own reflection will carry you far beyond any place to which in the limits of my time I have been able to take you.
Let me in closing refer again to the second phase of my theme, namely, that in the eternal conflict between right and wrong there can be no compromise. The Gospel message cannot change its principles to accommodate itself to the caprice of the hour. Among the great unchangeables are the truth that God lives; that Jesus Christ is His Son, the Messiah, the Savior of the world; that He died, was buried and was raised from the dead; that man is a child of God, destined to immortality; that he is therefore a sacred being and that it is unalterably wrong to enslave him or to coerce the human spirit; that there is a moral law by which man must, through disciplined self-control, govern himself which finds its faithful expression in the Ten Commandments as given by Moses and reiterated and reinforced by the Master, and which cannot be rejected without destroying the foundations of civilized life. These convictions are the essential conditions to the incorporation of the principles of the Gospel message into the lives of men by which alone may be satisfied the hunger of the world for tranquility and peace. These truths the Church can never cease to teach.
It is for you leaders to see that they are taught. That God may give you power to do so, I pray, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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