There are great things before us which
we see must be done, and as fast as the means can be obtained
we must go forward. Patient, painstaking effort needs to be made
for the encouragement and uplifting of the surrounding communities,
and for their education in industrial and sanitary lines. The
school and all its surroundings should be object lessons, teaching
the ways of improvement, and appealing to the people for reform,
so that taste, industry, and refinement may take the place of
coarseness, uncleanness, disorder, ignorance, and sin. Even the
poorest can improve their surroundings by rising early and working
diligently. By our lives and example we can help others to discern
that which is repulsive in their character or about their premises,
and with Christian courtesy we may encourage improvement.
The question will often arise: What can
be done where poverty prevails and is to be contended with at
every step? Under these circumstances how can we impress minds
with correct ideas of improvement? Certainly the work is difficult;
and unless the teachers, the thinking men, and the men who have
means will exercise their talents and will lift just as Christ
would lift were He in their place, an important work will be
left undone. The necessary reformation will never be made unless
men and women are helped by a power outside of themselves. Those
who have talents and capabilities must use these gifts to bless
their fellow men, laboring to place them upon a footing where
they can help themselves. It is thus that the education gained
at our schools should be put to the very best use.
God's entrusted talents are not to be hid
under a bushel or under a bed. "Ye are the light of the
world," Christ said. Matthew 5:14. As you see families living
in hovels, with scant furniture
and clothing, without tools, without books or other marks of
refinement about their homes, will you become interested in them,
and endeavor to teach them how to put their energies to the very
best use, that there may be improvement, and that their work
may move forward? It is by diligent labor, by putting to the
wisest use every capability, by learning to waste no time, that
they will become successful in improving their premises and cultivating
their land.
Physical effort and moral power are to
be united in our endeavors to regenerate and reform. We are to
seek to gain knowledge in both temporal and spiritual lines,
that we may communicate it to others. We are to seek to live
out the gospel in all its bearings, that its temporal and spiritual
blessings may be felt all around us.