Its not very spiritual, but its worth a good chuckle and shows that conference addresses for the Saints were sometimes quite entertaining (even when Brigham wasn't speaking). It also speaks to letting the "cares of the world" get in the way of the important stuff. Ok, perhaps I just like it because it has the "d" word. Somehow, I relate more to George A. Smith now that I know he used "colorful" language now and then:
"There are many here, as religious as this congregation looks, who have not got a good fence around their farms and yet will kneel down in the morning, perhaps, to offer a prayer. By the time they have got one knee to the floor, peradverture somebody thunders away at the door and cries out 'Neighbor, there are twenty head of cattle in your wheat; they have been there all night and are there now.' The man with no fence is roused up, and instead of praying he is apt to think, 'Damn it', and to start off to get the cattle out and put them into the stray pen...Thus you must see, some temporal arrangements are necessary to enable men to enjoy that quiet which would be desirable in attempting to worship our Heavenly Father."
George A. Smith, April 6, 1856 (Journal of Discourses Volume 3)
"There are many here, as religious as this congregation looks, who have not got a good fence around their farms and yet will kneel down in the morning, perhaps, to offer a prayer. By the time they have got one knee to the floor, peradverture somebody thunders away at the door and cries out 'Neighbor, there are twenty head of cattle in your wheat; they have been there all night and are there now.' The man with no fence is roused up, and instead of praying he is apt to think, 'Damn it', and to start off to get the cattle out and put them into the stray pen...Thus you must see, some temporal arrangements are necessary to enable men to enjoy that quiet which would be desirable in attempting to worship our Heavenly Father."
George A. Smith, April 6, 1856 (Journal of Discourses Volume 3)
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