Gems for the Young Folks

OVERCOMING DIFFIDENCE

DIFFERENCE IN PERSONS ABOUT SPEAKING IN PUBLIC – THE LORD WILLING TO HELP HIS SERVANTS TO OVERCOME TIMIDITY – EARLY EXPERIENCE IN PREACHING – A FEELING OF FEAR AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD NOT CONGENIAL – TIMIDITY CONQUERED.

It is most interesting to listen at meetings to the different testimonies which the Latter-day Saints bear concerning the work of God. The experience of no two persons is exactly the same, and yet all are true. One is impressed with an evidence of the truth in one way and another in another way.

So also it is with the experience of the Elders; the experience of each varies according to the constitution and temperament, the bent of mind and the circumstances which surround each one.

We have met with a few men in our life who never seemed to know what it was to be timid in standing up before an audience. They always seemed to be perfectly self-possessed, and did not suffer in the least from fear; while we have known others who felt that it was impossible for them to stand on their feet and address an audience.

Some Elders in starting out, quickly conquer their feelings of timidity. They soon get into the habit of thinking and talking upon their feet. They seem to care nothing about the congregation, while others require a long time to get accustomed to speaking to audiences, and are easily embarrassed.

We firmly believe that the Lord will help every man to overcome this timidity when sent upon a mission to preach the gospel. If he does not conquer the feeling of fear, it is because he allows it to master him, and does not use that faith which he should to shake it off.

The writer started out as a missionary when he felt that he was but a comparative youth. He was exceedingly timid, and had a mortal dread of standing up before a congregation. He sometimes thought that no one could have suffered from this feeling as he did.

But there was one thing that he made up his mind to do – to never shrink from the discharge of his duty. If he should be called upon to pray, to bear testimony or to speak, he was resolved that he would do his best, and put his trust in the Lord to help him out.

With the exception of a few meetings, his first experience as a missionary was in preaching in a strange language to a foreign people. This was doubtless more embarrassing than it would have been to speak to the people in his mother tongue, because there was his awkwardness in the use of the language in addition to the ordinary feelings of timidity to contend with.

He well remembers the feelings that he had prior to the first meeting. If he could have run away, and done so honorably, he would have done it, but this would have been disgraceful.

He did the best he could, and suffered considerably from embarrassment; and though he baptized some nineteen souls in the ensuing five weeks, yet he suffered at each meeting from the same feelings of dread.

Something occurred on the sixth Sunday to arouse him and make him somewhat angry. The conduct of some preachers and opponents of the gospel was very hateful, and in attending meeting that day he enjoyed greater liberty than he had at any time previously. A fearless spirit took possession of him, and the Spirit was able to speak through him as it had not done before.

The feeling of fear when it rests upon a man, drives away the Spirit of God. The two spirits cannot exist in the same bosom. One must have the mastery. If the Spirit of God has the mastery, it drives away all fear, and enables a man to speak under its influence with power. If the spirit of fear has the mastery, the Spirit of God is checked, and the man is not able to tell the people the will and counsel of the Lord.

After six weeks' preaching in this locality, the writer visited another place, where the people were very anxious to hear. He succeeded in getting a large meeting-house to preach in, and when he arose to give out the hymns and to pray, the sound of his own voice in the building frightened him.

The congregation was a larger one than he had ever addressed before; but he prayed earnestly to the Lord for help. He knew that no power but God's could assist him and enable him to declare the truth.

After reading a portion of the scriptures, he commenced speaking, and continued to address the people for upwards of an hour. He was completely carried away by the Spirit, and fear was banished. Tears coursed down the cheeks of the congregation, and many felt the power of God to so great an extent that they came forward and offered themselves for baptism.

A great work was done in that place and the vicinity, and from that time to the present – about thirty years – the writer has never suffered from fear as he did previous to that day.

It is true that many men never can arise before a congregation without feeling some degree of embarrassment and trepidation. The writer is one of these; but that fear which paralyzes the mind, that impairs the memory and produces a feeling of dread and utter forgetfulness of everything that one knows, he has never experienced from that time.

We relate this instance in our experience to show how differently Elders are affected. Some can speak without any difficulty or fear after the first time they get on their feet. It takes others, as in our own case, a longer time to overcome this feeling, probably arising from the fact that some have by nature more of that man-fearing spirit. Others, again, may require a still longer time; but what we wish to impress upon our young readers, and upon all who read these pages, is that they should not be discouraged because the first time they get on their feet, or the second or third, they do not speak with that freedom they desire.

When the Spirit of God takes possession of a man, and he will yield to its influence, it will take away all fear, and enable him to tell the truth in great plainness; and if he will persevere, nothing doubting, we dare promise every Elder that he will be able to overcome his feelings of fear and embarrassment, and be filled with holy boldness to declare the gospel unto the people in whose midst he is appointed to labor.

THE LORD WILL PROVIDE

A MOTHER AND CHILDREN IN GREAT WANT – THE MOTHER'S FAITH – HER PRAYER – IS PROVIDED WITH MONEY IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY.

In the year 1864, a little boy named Charles lived with his mother and sister in the city of C – , near the central part of the State of Indiana. His father and elder brother had enlisted in the army, then fighting for the Union. Charles was but four years of age, not large enough to earn anything, and their daily food depended upon what his mother earned by her hard day's labor.

It was in the winter season. Times were hard, and growing worse every day, and the people had but little for the mother to do. It was with great difficulty that she earned enough for herself and children to live upon.

One morning she went out in the cold wintry blast and gathered bark from the fence rails to keep her children from suffering with the severe cold, and at breakfast she gave them the last crust of bread that was in the house, not eating any herself. Then she went out into the city to seek something to do to earn some more bread for her little ones. But after a long search she returned, very tired, both in body and mind, without accomplishing her object.

The poor woman sat down and wept bitterly. Her children were crying for bread, and she had none to give them. But when they again asked her for bread she said to them, "The Lord will provide."

Presently she knelt down, her bosom swelling with grief, and asked the Lord to spare her children's lives.

Then rising to her feet, she thought of some carpet rags she had put into a barrel just the day before, and decided to take them to a store and see if she could sell them for some bread.

Just as she turned the barrel up-side down, to empty out the rags, she said in a tone of motherly kindness: "Dear children, do not cry; the Lord will not let us starve." Then she turned the barrel back, and, on looking into it, what do you suppose greeted her eyes?

It was something that made her countenance beam with gladness and her eyes dance with joy, and she exclaimed, "The Lord will provide! Blessed be the name of the Lord!"

It was a dollar bill. It had never been lost there, because she had washed out the barrel the day she put the rags into it. But how it got there I will leave you to form your own opinion. Suffice it to say, that it was neither in the rags nor barrel the day before.

It purchased bread enough to last them a few days, till they received seventy dollars sent them from the army.

DIALOGUE ON RELIGION

DR. BONHAM. – I understand that you are making some prosylytes to your Church in this country.

"MORMON" ELDER. – Yes, we have some fifty or sixty members that have been added to the Church lately, on this side of Sacramento River.

DR. B. – Nine-tenths of the religious portion of the community in this country look upon your people as being deceived, and your ministers as deceivers, and your doctrines as being false and pernicious.

M. E. – Yes, I am aware of this fact, and also of another fact: that is, that the same opinion prevailed among nine-tenths of the Pharisees and Sadducees, eighteen hundred years ago, about our Savior and His apostles and prophets, and the doctrines which they taught. The same kind of religious sentiment was arrayed against the gospel then, as now.

DR. B. – But you must know that the doctrines of a new revelation, and of apostles and prophets are a delusion, and that you are leading astray many of the people.

M. E. – Then the Bible must be a delusion, and it must be that it is leading many of the people astray, for the Bible teaches the same doctrine that we teach, namely, new revelation, apostles and prophets.

DR. B. – I deny that it does. "The law and the prophets continued until John, after which the kingdom of heaven was preached."

M. E. – Would you prove by this quotation that there were to be no more revelation, nor apostles and prophets after John? Then, indeed, was Jesus Himself a false prophet, and His apostles were false teachers, and all that was revealed to the world through Him and them was also false. Such a conclusion is impossible. What, then, are the facts? The kingdom of heaven was really preached afterwards, and that, too, by apostles and prophets, with a continual flow of revelation.

DR. B. – Yes, I will agree that new revelation and apostles and prophets were necessary till the kingdom was established; but after that time, they were no longer needed, and were rightly done away. They left us a perfect pattern in the New Testament, which is all that is needed to guide the church in all things.

M. E. – And, according to this perfect pattern you allude to, you have elders, bishops, priests, teachers and deacons in your church, have you?

DR. B. – Yes; to be sure we have. And these officers are in our church according to the perfect pattern given us in the New Testament.

M. E. – I suppose, then, you have apostles, prophets and seventies in your church, thus following out the perfect pattern to its completeness.

DR. B. – No; we have no apostles nor prophets; nor have we any seventies. They are all done away with.

M. E. – Now, can't you see that you are inconsistent? If the New Testament pattern requires elders and bishops to be organized in the church, it also requires apostles and prophets just the same. If this pattern is authority for an elder, it is just as good authority for an apostle. If authority for a bishop, it is just as surely authority for a prophet. Your assertion that they are done away with, and no longer needed, is a palpable contradiction of the plainest truths of the New Testament pattern.

DR. B. – Does not Paul, in the 8th verse of the 13th chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, say, "Whether there be prophecies they shall fail?"

M. E. – Yes, and in the 10th verse of the same chapter Paul plainly tells them when prophecy shall fail, that is: "When that which is perfect is come." Paul, in his 4th chapter to the Ephesians, 11th to 13th verses, also refers to the apostles and prophets as being necessary in the church to bring about this perfection, also for the work of the ministry, and to continue "till we all come in the unity of the faith."

The work of the ministry is not or ought not to be done away. The perfecting of the Saints, and that unity spoken of, are works that belong to all time, as surely as it was necessary in Paul's time. Therefore, your quotation from Paul is certainly a very strong proof in favor of our doctrines.

DR. B – I cannot see the necessity of apostles and prophets; nor do I believe that God intended that they should be continued in the church. Is it not written in the last chapter of John's Revelations, 18th and 19th verses, that if any man shall add to or diminish from the words of this book, that a heavy penalty shall rest upon him? If God did not allow any more revelations to the world than they at that time possessed, then the necessity for apostles and prophets no longer existed, as they were the only mediums through whom He revealed His will to mankind.

M. E – What you see, or cannot see, or what you believe, or do not believe in this connection, does not amount to a pin, unless you see and believe the truth.

In the 12th chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, Paul compares the church of Christ to the body of a man, placing the apostles and prophets as the head of that body; other officers and members composing the other portions of the body.

There were many members, yet but one body. God had set the members in the body as it pleased him; first, apostles, then prophets, etc., down to the feet. The head could not say to the body, "I have no need of you;" nor again, could the feet say to the body, "We have no need of you." The body could not live an hour without the head. Therefore, the church of Christ could not live without apostles and prophets, these constituting the head of the Church.

DR. B. – But you have not answered my quotation from John, forbidding any addition to the word of God, thus cutting off the necessity of new revelation, and the channels or mediums through which it was given, forever after.

M. E. – That was just what I was going to come to when you interrupted me. God did, indeed, forbid any man to add to, or diminish from His word, as you correctly quoted. Also in Deuteronomy, 4th chapter and 2nd verse, we find a similar prohibition, given through Moses. Now what do these passages prove? Simply this: Man shall not add nor diminish, but the Lord can do so at His pleasure. A few days after the death of Moses the Lord began to reveal more of His word to Joshua, the successor of Moses. And it is recorded in history that the Lord did the same thing in St. John's case, for he wrote his narrative of the gospel and his three epistles after his Book of Revelations, from which you made your quotation.

DR. B. – Your doctrines are the most dangerous that I know of, and the best calculated to deceive the ignorant and the unwary. And your preaching ought not to be allowed in this country, and I shall try to prevent all that I can have any influence over from going to hear you.

M. E. – I have not done with your quotations yet. No man in our Church has ever added to or diminished the word of God. We have never violated those restrictions in the least, but the Methodists and many other sects of the present day have both added to and taken from the word of God. They have added the practice of infant baptism, and substituted sprinkling for the ordinance of baptism by immersion. They have heaped to themselves teachers, having itching ears, who have turned from the truth and have added their fables; they divine for money and preach for hire. They have added the mourner's bench to what they call the worship of God. The fear of God is taught by the precepts of men, and nearly all that is preached or believed in by them is of their own adding.

They have diminished from the word of God in that they deny new revelation, apostles, prophets, seventies, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the ordinances and power of the gospel, and all the grandest, best and most glorious promises contained in the great plan of salvation.

And I warn you to beware that the plagues John spoke of be not added to you, and that your part in the book of life and your part in the holy city be not taken away. For you have "transgressed the law, changed the ordinances and broken the everlasting covenant."

DR. B. – I understand that the government is sending an army to Utah, to exterminate you "Mormons." And I think it will serve them just right. Such gross impostors ought not to be allowed to live. No such delusion should be tolerated among civilized communities.

M. E. – That's right; come out in your true colors! Like the Pharisees of old, when you cannot bring any arguments to prevail against the truth, you would resort to the sword – you would have recourse to arms – to violence, and destroy all those that love and sustain the truth. And you, Doctor Bonham, would have been first among the men that crucified the Redeemer, had you lived then. You would have been the man to have beheaded John the Baptist, and for the same reason; and to have slain the apostles and prophets. Your antipathy to apostles and prophets prove it. "Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers," the Pharisees.

TESTIMONIES FOR THE TRUTH