To meet and vivify the moral life of man with truths from the Word is a use
eminently adapted to the position and mind of the legal profession. We need
the services of such ministers, especially at this day, when we inherit
from the fallen churches of the past an inclination to the love of
spiritual and temporal dominion or rule, and the love of money and of vain
show without regard to use. The evils that result from the gratification of
such perverted affections must be fearlessly exposed, and a call to
repentance made, before the injustice, oppression, and wrong which exist
all over the world can be materially lessened. Lawyers, by making a special
study of the Word in connection with their professional-studies, could not
fail to impart much valuable instruction both to the Church and the world.
Christian physicians and lawyers would take hold of men in their present
low state, showing them what acts are evil and wrong, and why they are so;
and would call on them to repent and stop doing the evil acts which the
truth condemns, fully realizing that a man must cease doing evil before he
can cease thinking and willing evil; or, in other words, that reformation
must commence on the natural plane, and from the highest motives of which
the individual at present is susceptible.
It is the duty of our clergy to teach spiritual truths and the spiritual
sense of the Word, and to lead men and women to live good lives, in
obedience to the Divine commandments, from spiritual and celestial motives.
But it is difficult for them to fill the entire field where religious
instruction is needed, for we are living in the midst of the most direful
evils of life, which must be put away before the New Jerusalem can descend
and have an abiding place with men. Evils so terrible as to destroy vast
multitudes of men and women of all ages, and even innocent children, all
around us, too frequently go unheeded by our clergy and the periodicals
under their charge. I know that in this respect there are some noble
exceptions among our clergy and editors; but however willing and anxious
they may be, it is impossible for one man to possess the knowledge and to
impart all the necessary instruction as perfectly as three men thoroughly
educated and trained for the different fields for labor could do it.
To recapitulate: The physicians are required to teach and to lead men to
obey, from a principle of obedience, the spiritual and natural laws of
health and life; the lawyers are required to teach and lead men by
spiritual truths to act from a principle of justice, truth, and neighborly
love in all their relations with others; our ministers are required to
teach and lead men to act from love to the Lord and thence the neighbor,
and to do right because it is right, and to administer the ordinances of
the Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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