Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 2 of 2)Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 2 of 2)
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches
mathematics, so you pay little attention to that subject; you will need
more of _belles lettres,_ of moral and metaphysical philosophy, of
languages and rhetoric, and eloquence. So your studies run along those
lines, and after completing this course you step from your colleges
into pulpits to instruct the world, at the same time knowing less about
that world than any other class of men whatsoever. Then, going into
that world, you are soon sequestrated into a very narrow portion of
it. As a rule, you have to deal most with christenings, with weddings,
with funerals; but you shine most at social functions, more especially
at pink teas. So that, all things considered, neither by your original
endowments nor by your environments nor by your training are you
prepared to meet the broad questions that concern humanity.
As was stated in the passage I read from Mr. Campbell's book a while
ago, your class "do not count for much in the ordinary affairs of
life." On practical questions you are relegated to the rear, and your
influence in community life grows less and ever less with the passing
years. Do you think I overstate the case? Then let me quote to you
what one of your own number says of you--again Mr. Campbell in his
up-to-date book before quoted. Before giving the quotation, however,
let me disclaim the existence of any personal animosity towards you.
All that I say is meant in the very best of feeling. I speak not from
malice concerning you, but from experience. I have been meeting your
class, gentlemen, for now thirty years; and have had controversies of
various kinds with it during that time, and I know you as a class quite
thoroughly. I speak from experience, not malice, and comparing you as a
class with other classes of men whom I have known, it is just a plain,
solemn truth that you are, as a class, narrow, bigoted, intolerant,
petty; and I say that in the very best of feeling. And now the
passage of Mr. Campbell's book. Speaking of the decline of organized
Christianity and its ministry, he says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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