My brethren and sisters, I ask that you be good enough to help me with your prayers that what I may say today may be in accordance with the mind and the will of the Lord, and then it will be of benefit and blessing to all of us.

I should like to refer to the fine instructions given us last night by President McKay, in which he told us that the duty of the elder is to teach and to warn, and if the Lord leads me along the line that I have thought I might talk about, I want to say something by way of warning.

I want to follow along the thought that was expressed and the situation that was referred to by Elder Stephen L Richards this morning, when he called attention to certain influences that are at work amongst us.

FREEDOM OF WORSHIP

One of our Articles of Faith says:

We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may  A of F 1:11

That is the expression of a great principle, a principle that has been operative among the children of God from the earliest period of which we have any record. It was pursuant to that principle, and in the exercise of the rights guaranteed thereby, that a third of the hosts of heaven revolted  D&C 29:36 in an effort to overcome the plan which God adopted.

Personally, I would not in any way, and in the lightest or slightest degree, hamper anyone's free agency. Literally, I feel and believe that men should worship how, where, or what they may. That is the spirit of the priesthood, the priesthood which we hold. The priesthood never compels. God himself does not compel the intellect, nor does he attempt to overthrow it.

If I might be specific, I would like to say how different is that principle from the principle of a great church which says, or has its presiding officers say in the oaths that they take, that they will attack and follow up all heretics, and over the centuries they have made good that oath.

TWO CHURCHES

The Lord has told us in the scriptures that in the last days there will be two churches  1 Ne. 14:10 John the Revelator spoke of the great church with worldly power that had under its dominion and leadership the kings of the earth—he spoke of it as Babylon, the Mother of Harlots  Rev. 17:1-6 and Nephi spoke of it as the great and abominable church  1 Ne. 14:10-17 I am not going to say what that church is, though I have a very definite and clear idea. But I want to say that those scriptures also tell us that the other church is a weak church, a church to whose assistance God has to come in order to preserve it. We certainly are not the great church, for no kings are tied to the chariot wheels of our Church. We are the other church.

SCRIPTURAL WARNINGS

Now, our enemies are seeking to attack and are attacking our Church. Time does not permit me to read all the scriptures that I have here, telling of the things that are to come in the last days. But I might call your attention to the fact that the Savior in the Sermon on the Mount said,

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves  Matt. 7:15

To the people on this hemisphere he made the selfsame statement  3 Ne. 14:15

I also call your attention to the words of Paul in his farewell to the elders of Ephesus. He said,

For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them  Acts 20:29-30

I would like to read what Paul said to Timothy  1 Tim. 4:1  2 Tim. 3:1-7  2 Tim. 4:3-4 but time forbids. But I will read what Moroni said to Mormon. I might read just one paragraph of the latter. It is the thirty-second verse in the eighth chapter of Mormon:

Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be churches built up that shall say: Come unto me, and for your money you shall be forgiven of your sins  Morm. 8:32

The ravening wolves are amongst us, from our own membership, and they, more than any others, are clothed in sheep's clothing, because they wear the habiliments of the priesthood; they are they to whom Brother Widtsoe referred, as distorting the truth. We should be careful of them, and I endorse every word that Brother Widtsoe said, as to the obligations of those who instruct the youth.

EFFORTS TO LEAD ASTRAY

Now, I want to say just a word or two about the church and secular organizations that are amongst us, and that are doing all they can to lead our young people astray. I say there are both church organizations and secular organizations. Their method of approach —or approaches—becomes rather clear.

They begin by making friends with our young people and also with members of that body of priesthood, as to which we have so much concern, the adult Aaronic Priesthood. They cultivate the friendship of these members of ours, then they invite them to their homes, then they take them to their socials, then to their classes of instruction, and before the members knew it, before we know it, this priesthood membership and the youth are gone from us.

What do they say? What I am about to say is not mere supposition. I am quoting or telling of actual incidents. They say, "Do you not find when you go into your church, that you are embarrassed sometimes because you smoke, or because you drink beer?" "Oh, yes," the man says. "Well, in our church, that makes no difference. Those things have nothing to do with religion. Come and join us."

So they take into their socials our members; our members drink a little and smoke as much as they wish. Finally the Rubicon is crossed, and the members are lost to us. These propaganda organizations are building, in some places, halls of amusement. In one of our mission fields, they have built next door to one of our own churches, where they carry on these amusements, not in accordance with our standards, at the same time that we are holding services. That is an extreme case, but there is such a situation and there are many other places where they are providing amusement under the same conditions and to the same import.

PRINCIPLES ATTACKED

They tell our people that the Word of Wisdom has nothing to do with real religion—nothing at all. Then they tell them that if you sin, you come and confess and pay some penance, the sin is forgiven.

They attack, among other things, baptism for the dead, and are finally bringing themselves around to the position of atheistic scholars who have said that that wonderful passage in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?"  1 Cor. 15:29 was addressed to pagans, and not to the early Saints; that the practice referred to was a pagan practice.

Well, read how the epistle to the Corinthians is introduced  1 Cor. 1:2 and read how the fifteenth chapter is introduced, then you will have no doubts that the epistle was addressed to the Saints, and that the early Saints baptized for the dead.

TOO HARD TO LIVE

On the principle that the wish may be the father to the thought, they say that our religion cannot last because it is too hard for the individual to live, and therefore our religion will fade away and become extinct. Of course, their present feverish activity belies that thought. But as I think of that statement, it seems to me that among the many answers that might be given to it, one of them is that our Church has been set up never to be thrown down, and that this gospel is never to be given to another people  Dan. 2:44 Another is that the restored gospel is more than what they mean by religion. When they talk of religion, they speak merely of a relationship between God and man; all questions of the relationship of man to man have passed out of their religion. But our plan is a plan of life and salvation, including, not only the relationship of man to God, but also as I have said, the relationship of man to man, throughout the eternities, and the divine destiny God has planned for his righteous children.

HERESY AMONGST US

There is a heresy which is amongst us now in some degree and which has existed since the early Christian days, which declares that the God of the Old Testament is not the God of the New, that the Old Testament God has disappeared. I have never quite been able to see how the proponents of this idea could square it with the statement which the Savior made repeatedly, that he did only what he had seen the Father do, and he taught only what the Father had taught him  John 5:19-20  John 8:28 Thus those who would drive out the God of the Old Testament must deny the Christ in order to do it. These other churches seem to regard God as a God of vengeance, seeking to destroy his children. We know that our God is a God of love, because he was the Father, and as I have said, Jesus said he taught what his Father had taught, and he did what he had seen his Father do.

OBLIGATION TO PRESERVE TRUTH

My brothers and sisters, if there ever was a time in our history when we must be on guard against the insidious influences and propaganda of the churches of the world and the atheists of the world, at time is today. We must not be asleep. We have the truth; we must preserve it and ourselves in it.

After Jesus had returned from the wilderness following his baptism, he came to the River Jordan where John was still baptizing. As John stood there, seeing the Savior, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God"  John 1:29 and apparently replying to somebody who wanted to flatter him and tell him how great he was, he added, ". . . whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose"  John 1:27

The next day Jesus came again to the group on the banks where John was baptizing, and again John said, "Behold the Lamb of God"  John 1:36 Andrew and some others who were the disciples of John, followed Jesus, who took them to his room and there taught them. Then Andrew went out and found Peter, and declared with joy, "We have found the Messias," the Christ  John 1:35-41

We of the Church have found the Messiah, the Christ. He authorized and directed the building of this Church. We must not let the error and the evil which knock at our doors, cross the threshold and enter therein to rob us of the greatest things that God has to give us—our children.

May we be as wise as serpents, and as harmless as doves  Matt. 10:16 May we protect our youth and those of ours who do not see as clearly as they should these dangers which threaten them, and against which I am warning you, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.