Joseph F. Smith’s extemporaneous address at a Sunday School convention in 1904 began as a standard “this is what we should teach children” talk … and then he got passionate about something he had seen earlier in the day.

I do not desire to occupy very much time. I am delighted always to have the privilege of meeting with that class of our people who are so deeply interested in teaching the children and in taking part in the work of the Sabbath Schools, and I sincerely hope that we shall succeed in impressing upon the minds of the rising generation a sincere regard, not only for themselves, to keep themselves pure and unspotted from the world, but a sincere regard for the rights and privileges of others. Our children should be taught to respect not only their fathers and their mothers, and their brothers and sisters, but they should be taught to respect all mankind, and especially should they be instructed and taught and brought up to honor the aged and infirm, the unfortunate and the poor, the needy and those who need the sympathies of mankind.

We too frequently see a disposition on the part of our children to make fun of the unfortunate. A poor cripple, or a poor, weak-minded person comes along, and the boys will poke fun at him, and make unbecoming remarks about him. This is entirely wrong, and such a spirit as this should never be witnessed among the children of the Latter-day Saints. They ought to be taught better at home. They should be thoroughly taught better than this in our Sunday Schools, and in all the schools, as far as that is concerned, that our children attend. Our children should be taught to venerate that which is holy, that which is sacred. They should venerate the name of God. They should hold in sacred veneration the name of the Son of God. They should not take Their holy names in vain; and they should also be taught to respect and venerate the temples of God, the places of worship of their fathers and mothers. Our children should be taught also that they have rights in the house of the Lord equal to their parents and equal to their neighbors or anybody else.

It always pains me to see our little ones disturbed in this right. I witnessed a little circumstance in our meeting this afternoon. The house was crowded in every part. A person was standing in the aisle, and a little child was sitting by its mother on a seat. Somebody came along and took the little child off its seat, and took the seat himself, leaving the child to stand. I want to say to you, my brethren and sisters, that that act sent a pang to my heart. I would not, for anything in the shape of remuneration of a worldly character, grieve the heart of a little child in the house of God, lest an impression should be left upon its mind that wold make the house of worship distasteful place, and it wold prefer not to come within its walls, than to come and be offended.

I once witnessed a circumstance of the kind in one of our most popular meeting houses, I may say. A little child had come in, in good season, and taken a seat. By and by a lady came in. The seats seemed to be all occupied. She took the child by the arm, jerked it off the seat, and sat down upon it herself, leaving the child to stand. I had all I could do to hold my tongue and my temper when I witnessed the circumstance. I had half a mind to get up and ask that lady to get up off that seat and let that child sit there. It had more right to sit there than she had, for it came and had it first, and was in the house of the Lord. The child was made to feel that it had no right there. It was made to feel that that person that came in later had a better claim to the seat than the child itself. That is wrong. Our children have just as much right to come into the house of God as any person has, and we should respect them in that right ourselves, and in turn the children will respect us. But when we cease to respect the rights of little children, it is a lesson to them which we inculcate in their minds, that they are not bound to respect us. But when we respect them, treat them as intelligent beings, treat them as our successors in life, they will grow up to respect us and hold us in reverence, and respect our rights just as we respect theirs.

I desire that we will inculcate this principle of esteem I the hearts of our children for their parents, for their brothers and sisters, for their neighbors and their associates, and especially for those whom the Lord has called and clothed with authority to administer in the midst of the people. I think our children should be taught these principles, that they should be instilled into their hearts, and, as we have been hearing tonight from Brother Morton, it should be a part of their nature to love one another and respect one another, to respect that which is sacred, that which has been consecrated to the worship of the Lord or to sacred purposes.

Our children should be made and taught to respect these things in the Sunday Schools. There is where you can teach them, and in our religion class work they can be taught these principles, more especially in these organizations; and also in the Primary Associations, better perhaps than they can be anywhere else, because they are taken in these associations at the ages when they are most impressionable, and when these things can be made permanent in their minds. The things that are impressed upon the minds of children take stronger hold than in after or later life.

Well, now, my brethren and sisters, let us respect one another. Let us respect that which is sacred. Let us honor the name of the Father and of the Son. Let us speak kindly of one another. Speak no ill of any man, no matter if such men are not what they should be; it does not good for us to promulgate and publish abroad and keep alive in our memories or in the memories of others the imperfections, the sins and the wrong doings of others. We had better strive to amend and improve that which is not good. Always seek that which is better, and that which will purify the heart and ennoble the mind, and that will lead men to higher thoughts, higher aspirations and better and purer work in the world, that they may become more and more like the Son of God.

May the Lord bless all those who work in the Sunday Schools, and help them in the performance of their duties, and bless the children of Zion, that what has been said tonight, and what was said today, may indeed be true of them, that they are not ashamed of their parents, that they are not ashamed of their religion, that they are not ashamed of the work their parents have done in the land, but that they are proud of these things, and that they venerate their parents because of their fidelity, and because they have been firm and true and steadfast in the midst of persecutions and in the midst of hatred that has been made manifest against them by the world.

God bless you, and bless our children, and all Israel, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.