The Mission Of Brigham Young University

President McDonald:

Obedient to the practice followed on occasions such as this, I now fulfill my duty and take advantage of an honored and valued privilege, to deliver to you, upon behalf of the Board of Trustees and of the First Presidency of the Church, the formal charge which is an essential part of these inauguration ceremonies.

Behind this institution of learning is a background that in some respects is unique in the field of education. I shall call some of that background into view.

It should be in mind that this Last Dispensation of the Fullness of Time was ushered in with a motif that stirred to action the young fourteen-year-old boy, Joseph Smith, earnestly seeking for truth. It was the motif of that intimately personal message of James: "If any of you"--not someone afar off, not merely the rich and the powerful, not only those in high places, but the humblest and the least of us,--

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

"But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

"For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

"A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." (James 1:5-8.)

So was the motif voiced. To these great truths, James added this further one:

"Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." (James 2:17.)

So by eternal decree, faith and work must walk hand in hand as we advance toward the goal of eternal life. For as the Lord said to Oliver Cowdery seeking power to translate:

"Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

"But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind." (D&C 9:7-8.)

If we would gain knowledge in this world, we must "study it out in our minds." Work, and the Lord adds inspiration.

As the Lord's work unfolds with the years, this motif, these principles, become the theme of this Last Dispensation.

Moving forward in his plan, framed before the world was (Abraham 3:24 ff), the Lord more than a year before the Church was organized, in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph, put knowledge, all true knowledge, for he made no qualification, alongside the Christian principles and virtues of faith, temperance, virtue, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humanity, and diligence. He revealed again the key to knowledge he had given to the multitude on the mount in Palestine:

This great promise, in measure a command, has been repeated, over and over again, by the Lord to us of this day. He has never permitted us to forget it. It is basic to the whole plan of the restored gospel. It means that God still speaks to men in pulpits, before altars, in laboratories, in workshops, in plowed fields, in the bowels of the earth, on the mountain heights, in our secret chambers of prayer--wherever men move and work and search, there he speaks and reveals to them the eternal truths of the universe, the mysteries of God. (pp. 228-229, 230)

But the Lord has been very specific about the search for knowledge. As early as December 1832, two years and a half after the Church was organized, in the great revelation known as the Olive Leaf, the Lord gave these instructions to his Church:

"Ask, and ye shall receive: knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (D&C 4:6-7.)

"And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith." (D&C 88:118.)

Earlier in that same great revelation, the Lord had commanded:

"Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;

"Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms." (D&C 88:78-79.)

To these commandments the Lord a few months later added this further direction:

" . . . study and learn, and become acquainted with all good books, and with languages, tongues, and people." (D&C 90:15.)

But the Lord was even still more specific. A little over a year after the Church was organized, now more than 115 years ago, he instructed the Prophet Joseph to ordain Oliver Cowdery "to do the work of printing, and of selecting and writing books for schools in this Church, that little children also may receive instruction before me as is pleasing unto me." (D&C 55:4.) When a school was set up in Zion--Missouri--with Parley P. Pratt at its head, the Lord declared himself pleased, and gave instructions regarding the matter. (D&C 97:3-6.)

"Schools of the Prophet" were established in Missouri and Kirtland, Ohio. The life of the Prophet Joseph shows that he himself constantly sought after knowledge, and that the search therefor was a great preoccupation of his mind. In 1829 the Lord told Joseph, almost in impatience, that the "puny arm" of man could not hinder the Almighty "from pouring down knowledge from heaven" and added that pure knowledge "greatly enlarges the soul." (D&C 121:33, 42.)

Out of Joseph's own widely embracing knowledge came these two great inspired utterances, filled with divine wisdom and embodying eternal principles of salvation and exaltation:

"It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance" (D&C 131:6);

and this further one:

"A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge." (DHC IV, 588.)

Thus from the very earliest days of the Church, its members have been told by the Lord to seek and obtain knowledge in its widest meaning.

The early history of Utah is a record of how well this people heeded these commandments and principles. In 1850, three years after the first pioneers reached these valleys after the drivings and mobbings at Nauvoo, the people established the University of Deseret, now the University of Utah.

So fundamental is this gathering of knowledge that the Lord saw fit to direct us as to the kind of place in which knowledge should be gained. In that same great revelation, the Olive Leaf, the Lord said:

"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of glory, a house of God;"

"That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High." (D&C 88:119-120.)

Thus God made clear that the gaining of knowledge is not to be like the commonplace work of earning a living. He who invades the domain of knowledge must approach it as Moses came to the burning bush; he stands on holy ground; he would acquire things sacred; he seeks to make his own the attributes of Deity, the truth which Christ declared he was (John 14:6), and which shall make us free (John 8:32), free of the shackles of time and space, which shall be no more. We must come to this quest of truth--in all regions of human knowledge whatsoever--not only in reverence, but with a spirit of worship.

In all his promises and commandments about gaining knowledge, the Lord has never withheld from our quest any field of truth. Our knowledge is to be coterminous with the universe and is to reach out and to comprehend the laws and the workings of the deeps of the eternities. All domains of all knowledge belong to us. In no other way could the great law of eternal progression be satisfied.

We have established this university here, we have set up our whole Church educational system, we have encouraged and assisted in the establishment and maintenance of purely secular schools, all to the end that all knowledge--true knowledge--might be gained by us, by our posterity, and by all men, for knowledge is salvation.

All this makes the far background of this school and it fills in the full horizon of known truth, which, as someone has said, widens and pushes further back into the realm of the infinite unknown with each new vision of revealed truth, and only by God's mercy and revelation does man find any truth.

Thus we come to understand in a measure that great pronouncement of the Lord to us of this day, set out in that glorious revelation that tells us of the origin of man and glimpses his destiny.

The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth." (D&C 93:36.)

But, while the Lord has told the people that to him all things are spiritual, that he has never at any time given a law which is temporal, nor a commandment, for to him all things are spiritual (D&C 29:34-35); and while the Prophet himself announced that "all spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure" (D&C 131:7) (a statement that no one can glibly call fantastic in view of these days' discoveries of the constitution of the atom and different vibratory fields), yet for us mortals there are two domains of knowledge. As Paul put it, "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15:44); and as he further observed: "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." (1 Cor. 2:11.)

So we speak today of things secular--worldly things --as distinguished from things religious--spiritual things.

In the secular field Brigham Young University has a great past. Its graduates, in as large proportion as that of any other school in the country, hold positions of trust and distinction in the fields of secular knowledge and endeavor. We feel humble pride in this, both for the school and for its graduates. It shows that the field of learning occupied by this school embraces all demonstrated secular knowledge. We charge you, President McDonald, to abate no effort to maintain this proud achievement. We view the future of the school, under your direction, with every confidence that more honor and more respect and more usefulness shall come to us in this secular field, as the years go by. This is the heritage of the school.

But these are the worldly things, dealing with the world and our success or failure therein as gauged by the calipers man has made to appraise himself.

But there is another measure of achievement. Jesus, teaching his disciples of his crucifixion and resurrection, and the meaning thereof, urged them to take up cross and follow him, declaring:

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt. 16:26.)

On another occasion, speaking of the doctrines he taught, he said:

"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." (John 7:17.)

This is a fuller measure, a new aim and purpose, another supreme value as against things worldly,--the salvation of man's soul. It brings us back to the beatitudes, with their beauty and eternal wisdom and their everlasting promises and blessings: Blessed are the poor, and the meek, and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and the merciful, and the pure in heart, and the peacemakers. (Matt. 6:3-9.) It brings us to the Lord's promise in our day:

"But blessed are the poor who are pure in heart, whose hearts are broken, and whose spirits are contrite, for they shall see the kingdom of God coming in power and great glory unto their deliverance; for the fatness of the earth shall be theirs.

"For behold, the Lord shall come, and his recompense shall be with him, and he shall reward every man, and the poor shall rejoice.

"And their generations shall inherit the earth from generation to generation, forever and ever." (D&C 56:18-20.)

Thus we deal here in these school precincts with the mind and the body not only, but with the soul also, the immortal man, that which endures forever, in peace or in trouble as his days on the earth demand. We are now concerned for the just and the unjust. We are now mindful of goodness and righteousness. We come to Paul's wisdom: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. 15:22.) We must know the way of Christ, that we shall live in happiness, for God has made known in our day that "men are, that they might have joy." (2 Nephi 2:25.)

These everlasting principles bring realization that life in eternity is now involved, and since eternity is infinitely greater than time, we cease to think primarily of time and regard only eternity as finally essential.

Thus the university has a dual function, a dual aim and purpose--secular learning, the lesser value, and spiritual development, the greater. These two values must be always together, neither would be perfect without the other, but the spiritual values, being basic and eternal, must always prevail, for the spiritual values are built upon absolute truth.

The philosopher, in his worldly way, may speak of relative truth in the field of ethics and worldly knowledge, a concept that today and here may be truth, but that tomorrow and there may be error, a truth based upon man's development, his learning, his ethics, his concepts, his hopes, his aspirations, his environment, his economics, his society, his government, and therefore varying as these constituent elements vary.

But this, President McDonald, is not the truth we learn here. We here deal with absolute truth, rarely the whole, the complete truth, for that we may not comprehend, but that part of it which we can understand, and which never ceases to be truth even when the full measure is finally revealed. Man has his limitations, the limitations of the finite mind and intellect which obviously cannot encompass the infinite. Quarrel has been raised with the account of this creation as given in Genesis. But I wonder if man can yet grasp much more than that account, even with our great progress in knowledge. If, responsive to the well known maxim that in the face of three variables man's mental powers and equipment are helpless, if under this principle man cannot develop a formula that will embrace the inter-relationship of three heavenly bodies, what could he do with a formula covering the inter-relationship of the members of our solar system, and then with the inter-relationship of that system to our universe, and then to the inter-relationship of that universe to others dimly glimpsed in the far reaches of the mighty deeps. We are likewise limited in the domain of chemical and physical formulas, and in the secrets of biology, and indeed in the mysteries of life itself. Well did the Lord declare to Job:

"Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? . . .
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? . . .
Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clouds cleave fast together? . . .
Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacock? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?" (Job 38:2-7, 31-33, 36-38; 39:13.)

And so on through the long list of incomprehensibles to Job. Surely Job spoke in wisdom when he answered God, declaring his own littleness, which is the inherent incapacity of man for the infinite. As our knowledge has widened we, to Job's incomprehensibles, have added almost a universe of unknown physical phenomena. Others come daily, and so it shall be to the end.

But we here, President McDonald, have at our hands, unchanging, ultimate truths which God has vouchsafed to us for our guidance, salvation, and exaltation. They are our shields against temptation, and our redemption from sin. They give us light for our feet; they guide us on our way. They draw aside for us the curtains of heaven, that like Stephen of old we may see the "glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." (Acts 7:55.)

They are the rocks upon which we build our house that the winds and storms wash not away.

They are the bridge connecting time with eternity, mortality with immortality; over it we walk from worldliness into salvation.

God has revealed to us that he is the Father of all, and that he loves and cares for the righteous everywhere, and seeks ever to bring back the wayward to his ways.

He has made known that Jesus is the Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father, the Redeemer of the World, the First Fruits of the Resurrection.

He has shown to us that as Jesus died, lay in the tomb, and was resurrected, so shall it be with every son and daughter of God.

He has manifested to us that he is a person, that Christ is another person, and that the Holy Ghost is a third person, and that these make the Trinity of the Godhead.

He has taught us the immortality of the human soul, itself a trinity of intelligence, of spiritual body, and of mortal body, and that after the resurrection, our trinity reunited, we become perfected beings.

He has given to us the knowledge that our spirits existed in the spirit world before they came to the earth and took a body; that they live here on the earth in our bodies; that they will live hereafter through the eternities, finally being reunited with bodies after the resurrection.

He has again restored to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith his Holy Priesthood which he had taken from the earth because of the wickedness of men, and we now enjoy the blessings of that Priesthood, we exercise its powers, we partake of its privileges, and with the Priesthood has come the fullness of the restored gospel to lead us to eternal life.

He has reassured us that the great truths of the Decalogue, given at Sinai, still stand as the guardians of Society, as the foundation of government, and as the measure of the righteous life that leads to salvation.

He has declared to us that the Heavens are not shut, that he can and will still speak to his children, that he will from time to time declare to them his purposes, that he will counsel, admonish, advise, reprove, reward, and punish, as our acts shall merit or require, and as his wisdom shall direct.

He has shown us both his love and his mercy, and that his justice knows no rank or favor.

He has promised us that for our good deeds he will reward us, and that for our evil deeds there will follow their own punishments.

He has made us to know that the rules and principles by which our lives shall be guided, are contained in the Holy Scriptures he has given us; and that whether we hearken thereto or disobey, is for us to determine, in the exercise of the free agency with which he blessed us in the beginning.

He has revealed the great law of eternal progression, and that he who waits to grow and progress until he passes to the other side will sorrow in a delay he can never retrieve.

He has declared that he will pour out knowledge upon men in never ending streams, to men's salvation and exaltation.

President McDonald: These are some of the ultimate truths, not relative truths, which God has revealed to us. These truths endure; they are the same in all lands, and among all people, and at all times. They are changeless. They are the truths which must take precedence over all contrary theories, dogmas, hypotheses, or relative truths from whatever source or by whomsoever brought. These ultimate truths may not be questioned. All secular truths will, must, finally conform to these ultimate truths.

He wounds, maims, and cripples a soul who raises doubts about or destroys faith in the ultimate truths. God will hold such a one strictly accountable; and who can measure the depths to which one shall fall who willfully shatters in another the opportunity for celestial glory. These ultimate truths are royal truths to which all human wisdom and knowledge are subject. These truths point the way to celestial glory.

In the indenture creating the trust in accordance with the terms of which this institution was founded, the donor, Brigham Young, after setting forth the secular subjects that the educational standards of the times required to be taught, had this to say about the spiritual training and teaching that should be carried on in this school:

"The Old and New Testaments, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, shall be the standard text books, and shall be read and their doctrines inculcated in the Academy, and further no book shall be used therein that misrepresents, or speaks lightly of, the Divine mission of our Savior, or of the prophet Joseph Smith, or in any manner advances ideas antagonistic to the principles of the Gospel.

These, President McDonald, are your navigating orders. They are not sealed, they are open to the world. The world will expect you to follow them.

We shall expect you to build into the minds and hearts of the youth and of the mature who come here, all the Christian virtues. We shall expect you to teach the students to follow the commandments of God for God never demands obedience to error.

We shall expect you to recognize that science and worldly knowledge must question every demonstration, every experiment, every conclusion, every phenomenon that seems a fact, for only by this method may the truths of the natural law become known to us, save by specific revelation.

But we shall also expect you to know that in matters pertaining to our spiritual lives God's revealed will, his laws, his commandments, declared not only directly by himself, but by and through his servants, must be taken unquestioned, because they are the ultimate truths that shape and control our destinies.

I know, President McDonald, that in all this I already have your assent, because I have declared only that which makes the warp and woof of our restored gospel.

We look confidently forward to an increased spirituality in this school, for spiritually we move onward or we recede, we never stand still. We must go forward every day, becoming a little stronger, a little more certain, a little nearer perfection. No truth is more deeply bedded in the restored gospel than that of eternal progression. That progression began in the life before this, is here on this earth and now, and will be with us throughout the eternities. It need not and does not wait for eternity for a beginning.

We expect you to make Latter-day Saints of those who come to you here, that they shall live observant of the Christian virtues, that they shall gain testimonies of the truths of the restored gospel, and having this they shall, obedient thereto, live as righteous members of the Church and as upright, patriotic citizens of the republic, dedicated to the support and preservation of our divinely inspired constitution and the government of free institutions set up by the Fathers under it, that they shall so live that all may secure the celestial bodies of which Paul spoke (1 Cor. 95:40) and enter the celestial glory of which God has spoken in the revelations of our own time. (D&C 76.)

May God give you health and strength and power, inspiration and wisdom and humility, may the incomings and outgoings of yourself, of your faculty and of your students be in the name of the Lord, and may you make your salutations, not in the long, pious faces of the hypocrites, but in the frank and open countenances of men and women whose hearts are filled with the joy to which our Heavenly Father has declared they were entitled, all as the Lord commanded, I humbly pray.

1945--November 14--Pamphlet, Brigham Young University Archives, Provo, Utah; also in Improvement Era 49:14-15, 60-63, January, 1946.

Rather extensive notes have been written elsewhere in this volume on two other documents containing messages of the First Presidency which together with this document form a triumvirate of statement defining the educational philosophy of the Church and its application within the Church educational system.