The Value of Knowing the Scriptures in your Youth
The text of an address given by President J. Reuben Clark at a youth fireside
Dear brothers and sisters, the youth of the Church: I have been honored in being asked to talk for a few minutes to you at your fireside meeting. I have been asked to speak on: 1) should young people read scripture? 2) What is the value of knowing the scriptures in your youth? Referring to the first question, all people, both pagan and Christian, have scriptures. The Christian people primarily have the Holy Bible, composed of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The pagan peoples have their scriptures as well. But we of the Latter-day Saints have our own scriptures. We have the scriptures which the Christian sects use, namely the Bible, including the Old and New Testaments, but we also have the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and the living oracles of the Church.
In our day the Lord has said, “For you shall live by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” I am reading from the 84th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the 44th verse. I urge upon you to read the following verses to that of the 44th, which will give you great rules of conduct and principles of life and living. God’s intention in giving us these instructions ws expressed as follow, and I read from Moses 1:39 –“For behold, this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” In the Great Prayer in the Garden, at the time He was praying there just as He approached the hour of His betrayal, Jesus said: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” We come to know God and Jesus Christ by reading and obeying the commandments they have given us all, to lead us to these ends which have been expressed in the verses I have read and those to which I have referred. Thus we should read the scriptures that we might know what the Lord has told us to do and what conduct we should follow. Otherwise, we do not know by what means we shall enter into the presence of our Heavenly Father hereafter and have the glory and the exaltation which He has destined us to possess.
Now the second point — the value of knowing the scriptures in our youth. Perhaps unique among the existing scriptures of the whole earth, are those set out in the Book of Abraham, which tell us the reasons for our being here. Some great churches tell us that our spirits came into the existence at the time of our mortal births. This is not true. The Lord has made known unto us through His revelations to Abraham, that our spirits existed before our births, that we came together in a great conclave of spirits we call the Grand Council in Heaven, that we there debated the future of these spirits, that it was there decided that these spirits should have a mortal existence, and to that end a world was made ‘whereon these may dwell.’ The record adds: “And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them…” And continuing: “And they who keep their second estate (mortality) shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever.” (Abraham 3:21) This is the great destiny which the Lord has marked out to us, the greatest destiny that we find in any scripture, indeed greater than we find in any other scriptures, pagan or Christian, in the world.
Then there is a great principle that I try to have always in mind, namely, that the sins or transgressions that we do not begin, we will never have to stop. I would like to urge that principle upon the minds of all of the young people of the Church, and if they learn the scriptures when they are young, they can begin to apply these scriptures from the first time, at any rate, that they reach the age of accountability, the age of distinguishing right from wrong. Learn the commandments, therefore, early in life. Learned then, they are best remembered and are most easily followed. Read the instructions of the loving Father to His children, and of the Lord, our elder Brother. The purpose I have already state — it is that we may have an existence that is eternal, and have glory added upon our heads for ever and ever. By reading our scriptures you will read the English language of some of the master craftsmen in English literature. That in itself will be of great value to you. It will lead to your own improvement in matters of good English. It will give you a better appreciation of English. It will enable you to discard so much of what is taught and read today which is not English of the first grade. It will give you an ability to express your thoughts in that pure English which everyone will understand. Get the improvement thus to be given to you by reading the scriptures early in your life. Get the wisdom, the inspiration, the knowledge of the eternal truths recorded for timeless ages.
These truths never need be forgotten. They will never change. On the contrary, no ‘truths’ so called of science, which change with man’s progress and knowledge, are equal to the eternal truths that never change. They are not the truths that will be remembered eternally except in part, though man’s concept of these truths of science which accord with the eternal truths, will last forever. We never need to forget them. It is perfectly true that our concept of these eternal truths enlarges as we gain further knowledge of the eternities that are to come and of our lives therein, so far as they have been revealed, and of our destinies which the Lord has provided for us. But the truths have never changed and never will change. Though, as the Lord has said, worlds may pass away and this world likewise, His truths will never change, and no word of His will ever be unfulfilled. (see Doctrine and Covenants 1:38) In this connection, I should like you to remember what the Savior said time and time again: “I am the way, the truth, the life, and the light.” You look to Him, we look to Him, we must look to Him, and to His great teachings in order to be sure that we have “the way, the truth, the life, and the light.” We then will be able to live in such a manner and think in such a manner and to believe the things which will lead us into the life eternal that shall have glory added upon us for ever and ever.
Please remember to beware of the so-called ‘intellectuals’, the pseudo-philosophers, pigmies in spiritual truths compared with the inspired prophets of God. Why waste time reading foolish fiction when we may read the eternal truth. Remember that Paul gave us a guide. He said: “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” Let us not tie our faith to the things which men say and teach as being everlasting guides. For Paul said, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:11, 14) I cannot impress upon the youth of the Church too much the importance of reading the scriptures and of trying to learn their meaning. They are told to us in clear enough language so that we can always be reasonably certain when we are in the true paths. Remember again the true and great simple principle I have given, that the things which we do not begin, we do not have to stop. Of course, we do not wish to stop those that are righteous. But whenever we are in transgression, or about to fall into transgression, we should try so to live that we will not fall into that transgression, therefore we will never have to stop it. Then again I would like to warn all of you youth to beware of those who cast doubt, the ‘doubt-casters’, as I term them. They will lead you tot the perdition of doubt, the abyss of destruction. They know not the truth. They think they know it. They try to persuade you that you should follow them. But do not follow them in their expressions of doubt, nor accept what they say to you in making known to you those teachings. They are also false, I repeat.
And so, my dear young people, read the scriptures when you are young. They will thus enable you in your youth so to shape your lives that you will not fall into transgressions in your maturing years; and I repeat again, not falling into transgressions, you do not have to stop those transgressions. Therefore, you are that much closer always to our Heavenly Father than though you did fall into those transgressions. Then later, after you have found out that they are wrong, then have to abandon them. Do not put yourself in the position of Peter of old when the Savior went down to the shores of Galilee to call Peter, John and James from their nets, and Jesus performed the miracle of the draught of fishes. Peter said: “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” But Jesus replied, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They believed and followed. At that time Peter made up his mind to forsake his transgressions. The record shows that strong as he was he had great difficulty, as recorded in the New Testament, all through his life in forsaking the things which he had learned earlier in his youth. So I say to you — beware of the ‘doubt-sowers’. Again I say, they will lead you to the perdition of doubt, the abyss of destruction. God be with you always, be with you in your firesides, be with you in your homes, be with you in your activities in life, be with you in your school days, and permit nothing to enter and find lodgment in your minds that would lead you to doubt the great truths which you will have learned from your early reading of the scriptures, and which you will increasingly know as you live on in your life if you do not transgress but if you live as God would have you live. Read only good books. Shun as deadly poison the ‘sexy’ books. They only befoul your minds, lead to base and foul thoughts, and if persisted in, lead to sin and shame.
May our Heavenly Father bless you, bless you during your lives, and lead you in the paths which you should take. Read your scriptures, read them early and read them late, read them in your youth and do not abandon them when you get older. You will find nothing in the world, no literature, no teachings, no instruction, nothing in the scriptures that will lead you astray from the great paths of truth and righteousness laid down by Christ Himself when He said: “I am the way, the truth, the life, and the light.” Such a course, so followed and lived, will lead you to have glory added upon glory forever and ever. God grant this blessing to you, is my humble prayer, in the name of His Son. Amen.