A talk given by 13-year-old Camilla in the same sacrament meeting in which Michael reported his mission in the Bountiful Twentieth Ward on Sunday, August 21, 1994. Her talk was printed in the August 29, 1994, Family Journal. Camilla at the time was just about to begin the seventh grade at Mueller Park Junior High School.
We all can be missionaries no matter how old we are. And all the little things that we do can change a person’s life. Here are some things that you can do to help your nonmember friends learn the gospel.
You should study the gospel so you are ready to teach anybody who wants to hear, and be a good friend to your nonmember friends, and help them and invite them over, and take them to any Church activities or meetings, and just be really nice to them, and try to bear your testimony to them, and ask if they want to hear the discussions from the missionaries, and just be a good example, and don't ever give up.
It's really a good feeling when you see your friend get baptized.
In Alma 29:1–2 it says, "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!
"Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth."
When my sister [Rachael] goes to college she has some friends, and they ask her about the Church, and two of them already got baptized. She says it is really, really neat when they get baptized.
I hope that we can all be missionaries, and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
74. Death Is an Eternal Milestone
Concluding remarks by Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Council of the Twelve Apostles at the funeral services for Barbara Jean Fraughton Lange on Monday, February 28, 1994, in the Mueller Park Ninth Ward in Bountiful, Utah. This talk was transcribed from a recording of the funeral and published in the March 7, 1994, issue of the Family Journal. Elder Oaks’s wife, June Dixon Oaks, was Barbara Lange’s first cousin.
Marvin and David and Claudia and other members of the family and my brothers and sisters: I feel privileged to be invited to take a few moments to speak at the conclusion of this beautiful service. I complement Bishop Clegg and Brother Cleverly for the wonderful spiritual banquet that they have given us.
As I listened to what they had to say, I couldn't help contrasting that with the last funeral service I attended in another place and under a different presiding authority. It was a suitable tribute to a life well lived, but I went away spiritually undernourished because there was no testimony, there was no doctrinal comfort, there was no tribute to the Lord Jesus Christ, who makes it all possible. There was no note taken of the fact that love is immortal and marriage properly entered and covenants properly observed can be eternal, and that life has a purpose and that death is only a transition from one phase of eternal life to another.
We've had all those assurances in this service, and they're true. And I thank Bishop Clegg and Brother Cleverly for the beautiful assurances that they've given, which I affirm.
Like many of you, I've felt the warmth of Barbara's hospitality and I've taken strength from the brilliance of her example. Hers was a life well lived, hers an example appropriately followed, hers was a faith strong and bright, hers an influence that will perpetuate itself through the generations to come—as is evident from the expressions that I've observed on the faces of those who are her descendants, her companion, her friends.
Death is an eternal milestone. And a funeral, which commemorates a death, is not a time for trivial things. That's a truth forgotten in many Latter-day Saint funerals. But it wasn't forgotten here. The things spoken of here have been things important, not things trivial. And so this service has been a comforting one and an appropriate one, and all of us in tune with the Spirit that has activated what has been said and done here have recognized the benediction of approval from our Heavenly Father whose daughter Barbara is and who takes joy, as has been noted, in the death of His saints, a life well lived, a new horizon opening, for additional joy.
And when there is a sad parting here, there is a joyous reunion there. And I'm sure that joy is warmly felt by many for whom we have ties of love and affection, because our families, in every case, are on both sides of the veil. And when we have that vision, a funeral has a different meaning and death has a different significance.
I testify of Jesus Christ, who made it all possible, of the truth of His gospel, and of the authority of the holy priesthood, which makes possible the fulfillment of the promises given, contingent upon the covenants made.
I testify to you of these things and invoke His blessings upon the family to comfort and strengthen them, and especially upon our brother Marvin, who has a difficult season of adjustment despite the sweet assurances that have been given.
And I say these things and invoke these blessings, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Marvin and David and Claudia and other members of the family and my brothers and sisters: I feel privileged to be invited to take a few moments to speak at the conclusion of this beautiful service. I complement Bishop Clegg and Brother Cleverly for the wonderful spiritual banquet that they have given us.
As I listened to what they had to say, I couldn't help contrasting that with the last funeral service I attended in another place and under a different presiding authority. It was a suitable tribute to a life well lived, but I went away spiritually undernourished because there was no testimony, there was no doctrinal comfort, there was no tribute to the Lord Jesus Christ, who makes it all possible. There was no note taken of the fact that love is immortal and marriage properly entered and covenants properly observed can be eternal, and that life has a purpose and that death is only a transition from one phase of eternal life to another.
We've had all those assurances in this service, and they're true. And I thank Bishop Clegg and Brother Cleverly for the beautiful assurances that they've given, which I affirm.
Like many of you, I've felt the warmth of Barbara's hospitality and I've taken strength from the brilliance of her example. Hers was a life well lived, hers an example appropriately followed, hers was a faith strong and bright, hers an influence that will perpetuate itself through the generations to come—as is evident from the expressions that I've observed on the faces of those who are her descendants, her companion, her friends.
Death is an eternal milestone. And a funeral, which commemorates a death, is not a time for trivial things. That's a truth forgotten in many Latter-day Saint funerals. But it wasn't forgotten here. The things spoken of here have been things important, not things trivial. And so this service has been a comforting one and an appropriate one, and all of us in tune with the Spirit that has activated what has been said and done here have recognized the benediction of approval from our Heavenly Father whose daughter Barbara is and who takes joy, as has been noted, in the death of His saints, a life well lived, a new horizon opening, for additional joy.
And when there is a sad parting here, there is a joyous reunion there. And I'm sure that joy is warmly felt by many for whom we have ties of love and affection, because our families, in every case, are on both sides of the veil. And when we have that vision, a funeral has a different meaning and death has a different significance.
I testify of Jesus Christ, who made it all possible, of the truth of His gospel, and of the authority of the holy priesthood, which makes possible the fulfillment of the promises given, contingent upon the covenants made.
I testify to you of these things and invoke His blessings upon the family to comfort and strengthen them, and especially upon our brother Marvin, who has a difficult season of adjustment despite the sweet assurances that have been given.
And I say these things and invoke these blessings, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
73. The Bluebird of Happiness
Remarks I gave at the funeral service for Barbara Jean Fraughton Lange (1928–1994) held on Monday, February 28, 1994, in the Mueller Park Ninth Ward, Bountiful Utah Mueller Park Stake. Grandma Lange had passed away the previous Thursday, February 24, at the age of 65. This talk was transcribed from a recording of the funeral and published in the March 7, 1994, issue of the Family Journal. Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife were present at the funeral. June Dixon Oaks was Barbara Lange’s first cousin.
And no matter what you have,
Don't envy those you meet.
It's all the same; it's in the game:
The bitter and the sweet.
And if things don't look so cheerful,
Just show a little fight.
For every bit of darkness,
There is a little bit of light;
For every bit of hatred,
There's a little bit of love;
For every cloudy morning
There's a midnight moon above.
So don't you forget, you must search
Until you find the Bluebird.
You will find peace and contentment forever
If you will be like I,
Hold your head up high
Till you see a ray of light and cheer,
And so remember this:
Life is no abyss;
Somewhere there's a Bluebird of Happiness.
Those words fit Grandma. Whoever wrote that song must have known her because her life was filled with usefulness and purpose. She loved people. She loved doing things for them. I think she was the Bluebird of Happiness.
Most of you probably won't be able to see these if you're past about the second row, but if you've ever been in her home in the last couple of years you've seen on the mantle these little blue birds, which I think are a fitting symbol of the kind of life that she led.
She received a patriarchal blessing in March 1949. That was just a few months before she married Marvin. And the patriarch promised her, "Your counsel will be sought after by your associates and your influence will always be for good." I think this roomful of people—and many others who would be here if they could have been—is evidence that that promise was fulfilled. Her influence has always been for good. Last night at the viewing someone (I don’t remember who) talked about the good memories that people will have of Barbara Lange, the good memories that she leaves in the minds and the hearts and the lives of everyone who knew her. And I don't know of anyone who will have bad memories of her, but the memories will be sweet and hallowed and precious.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell once wrote, "The very usefulness of our lives depends upon our willingness to serve others" (Even As I Am, 62).
By that standard, the life of Barbara Jean Fraughton Lange was preeminently useful. And if we are to learn anything from her life, and the example she’s left, and the counsel she's given, we will go and do the same. We will have a willingness to serve others and bless their lives and cheer their days and soothe their hurts and encourage their best efforts. Her grandchildren, in whose lives she most delighted, knew that she was their greatest benefactor, their greatest sponsor, their best friend.
She had a fourth-great-grandfather by the name of Charles Dixon who was born in England in 1730. He immigrated to the new world in 1772. That was four years before the beginning of the American Revolution. And he lived until 1817, which was three years before Joseph Smith went into the grove of trees near Palmyra, New York, and had the First Vision. And sometime between when he came to New Brunswick, Canada, in 1772, sometime between then and his death in 1817, he wrote a letter to his son Charles. And among the things that were in it, he wrote a bit of what I think is very profound counsel to his son, and by extension to his posterity clear down to this day—200 years later.
And this is the quote: "Be thou not high minded, but remember the rock from whence thou wast hewn, and in future times, when I and thy mother shall be called home, and rest in the silent grave, you may remember, that for your sakes we crossed the ocean. See that you outstrip us in purity of heart and holiness of life. . . . Acquaint yourselves with God and be at peace—at peace with yourselves and with all men, and may the God of Peace be with you evermore."
What a sermon in just a few short sentences! That would be the wish of every righteous parent for their children and their grandchildren: See that you outstrip us in purity of heart and holiness of life. Acquaint yourselves with God. Be at peace with all men. And may the God of Peace be with you evermore.
Nearly 21 years ago Barbara Lange became a grandmother with the birth of our oldest son, Michael, who of all of her posterity is the only one not with us here today. He is serving a mission in Brazil.
And being a grandmother seemed to suit her well. (I’m not at that phase of life quite yet, but I understand that grandchildren are much more delightful than children.) But she was always involved in their lives, doing things for them, supporting them, attending their games and activities, baking lasagna for them for their birthdays if they wanted it, showering them with generous Christmas gifts, spoiling them in ways that parents can't and aren't supposed to but grandmothers can—and can get away with.
For many years, while they still lived in California, she was fortunate to be close to David and Janice and their children. And these past six or seven years, we've been delighted to have them here close to us since they moved back to Utah.
And though she never actually lived in our ward, the other night, Thursday night, when I told our bishop that she had died, because she had been there so many times when the children gave talks in church or had Primary activities or other things going on, and she was always there, our bishop said, "That’s like losing a member of our ward." (And many of them would have been here today, but we had a neighbor die in our ward the very same day, and his funeral is happening at this very same hour.)
I mentioned that her oldest grandson isn’t here today. But in a manner of speaking, he is. We aren’t even sure if he knows yet that his grandmother has died. But on Saturday, last Saturday his dear friend Shauna shared with us a letter that he had written earlier this month. And I'd like to quote just a couple paragraphs from that letter. This was written on the fifth of February, one day before he was transferred to his present assignment, which is about a thousand miles from his mission headquarters in the Amazon jungle of Brazil.
"Today I attended my first (and hopefully only) Brazilian funeral. One of the two stake presidents [here] died suddenly early Friday morning." And then he goes on and gives some details about that.
"This morning was the funeral. Elder Fails and I went with President and Sister Francesconi. The chapel was pretty much filled to capacity. I was surprised at how fast news travels. In Brazil they have to bury the body within 24 to 36 hours. . . . The service was very nice. President spoke, the bishop spoke, and his wife was the last speaker. I think that would take a lot of courage and strength to speak at your spouse’s funeral. Especially when it was such a surprise. She’s probably 37. They’d been married [only] 7 years or so. They have two children, ages 5 and 4.
"The closing hymn was 'Families Can Be Together Forever.'" And then he quotes the words of that song, all in Portuguese, but I'll translate them for you:
I have a family here on earth.
They are so good to me.
I want to share my life with them
Through all eternity.
Families can be together forever
Through Heavenly Father’s plan.
I always want to be with my own family,
And the Lord has shown me how I can.
The Lord has shown me how I can.
While I am in my early years,
I'll prepare most carefully,
So I can marry in God's temple
For eternity.
Families can be together forever
Through Heavenly Father's plan.
I always want to be with my own family,
And the Lord has shown me how I can.
The Lord has shown me how I can.
And after quoting that, he says: "And it was strange. Sitting there at the funeral singing the song. Many people singing with tears in their eyes. In a chapel in Brazil. Then we went to the cemetery. The funeral procession consisted of a VW-Van thingy with the coffin and three busses that had been rented to help take the people who didn't own a car."
And then he says, "To back track momentarily, the closing song." [And I should mention, well it's been announced already, the grandchildren are going to sing this as part of the closing song] "As it was being sung I had wave after wave of tingling-shivers come over me. It was as if even here when a friend and a leader had passed on to the other side of the veil, and though all were saddened I just seemed to realize even more that yes, families can be forever. And most everyone else there knew that. And that brought a comfort that the vast majority of people don't know. And I also realized how important it was to live a life correctly so that we can be worthy to qualify for those blessings. That's why the ordinances and covenants of the gospel are so vital and important. And therein lies the profoundness of the simplicity of the gospel."
And then he talks about the experience of going to the cemetery and watching the burial: "And both Elder Fails and I felt as if we were caught up in some weird whirlwind time-warp. As if everything was happening in a film, and we were there watching it all happen, but as if we weren't at the same time, and as if no one else could see us. It was a very strange sensation that I don't know if I'd ever be able to accurately put into words.
"It’s funny how our lives weave patterns into the lives of so many others in ways often so deep and profound that we aren't even aware of the influence we have (for good or bad). The whole funeral was one of those quiet moments when the vastness of eternity seemed to distill on my soul. And it made me realize how ungrateful we really are as people, and how we really should treasure life, even the small simple daily things. I have been so richly blessed and I feel so undeserving and as if I am so ungrateful."
We are so amazingly blessed that I sometimes wonder if we don't take for granted what we've been given. Certainly we do in our relationships with each other. And often we do it with the marvelous insights and blessings and knowledge the Lord has revealed to us.
One of the great blessings we enjoy as Latter-day Saints is the knowledge we receive from the Holy Ghost that God really lives. Much of the world does not know that He lives. And even those who believe in God do not know much about Him or what He is like. And yet we read in the holy scriptures where Jesus the night before He was crucified prayed to His Father and said, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3).
Back in January 1988, a little over six years ago, I asked my three youngest children, then six-year-old Camilla, four-year-old Eliza, and three-year-old Mary what they knew about Heavenly Father and Jesus. And with a little prompting, they came up with these answers:
"Heavenly Father loves children.
"He's a friend of us.
"He gives us good food. And our house.
"Jesus was born on Christmas in Bethlehem.
"Mary was the mother of Jesus.
"Heavenly Father was the father of Jesus.
"Heavenly Father is kind.
"He made the world.
"He is the father of our spirits.
"We lived with Him before we were born.
"We lived with both Heavenly Father and Jesus.
"We can become like Them.
"They want us to be happy.
"We can be happy by keeping God's commandments.
"They like us a lot.
"He wants us for a sunbeam. To shine for Him each day.
"And be good."
Now let's talk for a moment about the timing of her passing. To us it seemed so unexpected; it caught us off guard. Just last Wednesday, the evening before she died, Grandma had prepared dinner and brought it to our house, and we had a lovely meal and visit together. And that was so like Grandma. And then the next evening she was gone.
But death, sooner or later, comes to each of us. And in her case, as the bishop intimated and as I firmly believe, I think she did have a feeling, perhaps not consciously, but an intimation that she was leaving us.
Another interesting promise from her patriarchal blessing: "You will fill your mission upon the earth and will live until it is fully accomplished, and you will find great joy and satisfaction in it."
She did find joy and satisfaction in blessing the lives of other people. Surely that was much of what her mission was all about, and she lived until she accomplished it fully. She had done all that was required of her. She had passed the test. She had finished the race. There was no more to be done.
Earth life is a school. We can understand that. Elder Orson F. Whitney, who was a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles at the first part of this century, taught, "This earth was made for God's children, his spirit sons and daughters, who take bodies and pass through the experiences of joy and sorrow for their development and education, and to demonstrate through time's vicissitudes that they will be true to God and do all that he requires at their hands.
"When we have done the things that we were sent to do, when we have gained all the experience that this life affords, then is the best time to depart. School being out, why not go home? The mission ended, why not return? That is what death means to a Latter-day Saint. The only sad thing about it is parting with the loved ones who go, . . . but it is simply a passing into the spirit world, to await the resurrection, when our bodies and spirits will be reunited—the righteous to enjoy the presence of God. . . .
"If we can be patient and resigned, and by God's help do his holy will, all will come out well. Trials purify us, educate us, develop us." And I might say parenthetically Grandma had her share of those with the health challenges she experienced.
"Trials purify us, educate us, develop us. The great reason why [we were] placed upon the earth was that [we] might become like [our] Father and [our] God. That is why we are here, children at school. What matters it when school is out and the time comes to go back home?" (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, 9–11).
There's a revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants that has been referred to as the Law of the Mourner. Prefacing it the Lord talks about if there any who are sick, we are to call for the elders of the Church, and they are to come and administer to them, and if they're not appointed unto death then they'll be healed, but He says if they die they die unto Me, and if they live they live unto Me (see D&C 42:44).
And this is the part I wanted to read particularly, "Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die [and so the Lord sanctions that, commands it I think—thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die], and more especially for those that have not hope of a glorious resurrection.
"And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them" (D&C 42:45–46).
I think Grandma, Barbara Lange, has died in the Lord. Her death, her passing was certainly sweet. It was peaceful. And though it's hard, it was right, and we can all feel that. Her time had come.
The Apostle John in the book of Revelation uses this same phrase: Blessed are they that die in me, that "die in the Lord," for "they . . . rest from their labours; and their works do follow them" (Revelation 14:13).
What do we mean? What does that expression mean—they who die in the Lord?
Elder Bruce R. McConkie speaking at a funeral once made these comments. He quoted first from the Psalms, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15). Now, that's an interesting way of putting it: precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.
"Now does that do something to death in the eternal perspective of things? Precious unto the Lord is the death of his saints! Not something that brings sorrow and anguish and anxiety into the soul, but something that announces a reward and a triumph and the beginning of a day of glory and peace and reward. Something that indicates that a soul has come from the presence of God and passed through a mortal probation and ended dying in the Lord. Or, in other words, ended life having kept the faith.
"Now the people that die in the Lord are the people that keep the faith but are not [yet] perfect. They are not perfect many of them by any manner of means. There was only one perfect being and that was the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you had to be perfect in this life to gain salvation there would only be one saved person. Now, yes, they become perfect eventually in eternity, but as pertaining to this life they die in the faith, in the Lord” (Bruce R. McConkie, funeral sermon for Wilford Payne, Dec. 6, 1982).
And I'm skipping some of what Elder McConkie said. He quotes Paul writing to Timothy, and he says that this applies to every righteous person that goes out of this life:
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:7–8).
"Now that is the benediction spoken or unspoken that in thought content is in the heart and the mind and the soul of every person who departs this life in the faith, who dies in the Lord.
"What we do in this life is to chart a course leading to eternal life. That means we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are baptized for the remission of sins. We receive by the laying on of hands the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is the right to the constant companionship of that member of the Godhead based on faithfulness, and then we struggle and labor and strive to endure to the end, to keep the commandments after baptism" (Payne funeral sermon).
As Nephi said, we "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men" (2 Nephi 31:20). And we feast upon the words of Christ. Then He gave a glorious promise to those who so do: "Thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life" (2 Nephi 31:20).
"Now this is what is expected of us: to chart a course leading to eternal life. And then if we are on the course and in the path and struggling and striving and trying to do what we best can [as Barbara Lange was clearly doing], if we are trying to utilize the talents that the Lord has given us [as she was clearly doing], and we depart this life still on the path, having died in the faith, it is as though at that moment our calling and election is made sure, because no one departs from the path after this life if he died in the Lord.
"Now I am not saying that all people are equal in the eternal worlds," Elder McConkie continues, "neither in the spirit world, nor in the resurrection. The Prophet told us that 'whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection' (D&C 130:18), that if a man [or a woman] 'gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come' (D&C 130:19).
"But what I am saying is that if we believe the gospel and if we enter into the eternal covenants, chiefly and primarily marriage, and if we strive and struggle and keep the faith and are doing the best we can, though we haven't attained the perfection that ultimately is our potential, if we go forward and die in the Lord, we filled the measure of our creation, and what more can we ask" (Payne funeral sermon).
I think that’s exactly where we are with Grandma.
In behalf of the family, I would express appreciation to any and all who have helped during these last five days. And to many who will yet help in countless ways in future days. The Lord will bless your quiet, kindly deeds.
We quoted earlier from Elder Orson F. Whitney. He said, "A funeral sermon is not for the benefit of the departed; rather it is for the good of those who remain. The dead, as we call them—though they are no more dead than we are, and are as much alive now as ever—are [simply] beyond our reach, just as they are beyond our vision. We cannot add to anything that they have done, nor can we take anything away. They have made their record and are in the keeping of a higher Power. But we can do something to comfort those who mourn, and by acts of kindness lessen human suffering. [And have you ever known anyone who by acts of kindness lessened human suffering more than Barbara Lange did?] Our Father in heaven expects this at our hands" (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, 3).
Well, Grandma has made her record. She is in the keeping of a higher Power, even the Father of us all.
President Ezra Taft Benson has taught that nothing will startle us more when we pass through the veil, as Grandma has now done, to realize how well we know our Heavenly Father and how familiar His face will be to us.
So we don't mourn for her; we mourn for us. And it's all right that we do so: for as we quoted earlier, the Lord has commanded that we are to "weep for the loss of them that die" (D&C 42:45).
There is something sanctifying about a funeral, especially the funeral of a faithful person, like Grandma, because (as Elder McConkie taught on a similar occasion), "it is an occasion for us to be reminded of the eternal things that are involved in life and how thin the veil is and of how gracious and wondrous it is that a noble soul has gone on and, as a consequence, for us to make the determinations that we need to make so that we can be as they were" (Payne funeral sermon).
The words of a hymn express the thoughts of all of us:
Each life that touches ours for good
Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;
Thou sendest blessings from above
Thru words and deeds of those who love.
What greater gift dost thou bestow,
What greater goodness can we know
Than Christlike friends, whose gentle ways
Strengthen our faith, enrich our days.
When such a friend from us departs,
We hold forever in our hearts
A sweet and hallowed memory,
Bringing us nearer, Lord, to thee.
For worthy friends whose lives proclaim
Devotion to the Savior’s name,
Who bless our days with peace and love,
We praise thy goodness, Lord above.
(Karen Lynn Davidson, Hymns [1985], 293)
God lives. As Elder Marion D. Hanks taught so eloquently in his final address in general conference as a General Authority, "To believe in God is to know that all the rules will be fair and there will be wonderful surprises" (Ensign, Nov. 1992, 65).
And to us, with our understanding, this may not seem like a wonderful surprise—a surprise, but maybe not wonderful. But try to imagine the wonderful surprise it's been for her in meeting again her parents, her sister, and many, many loved ones who have gone on before her. All the rules will be fair and there will be wonderful surprises.
God lives. He’s given us a plan for our happiness. He sent His Son to make it all effective by working out the atoning sacrifice. And He has so graciously and kindly revealed it to us all in this day, together with all the ordinances and everything that makes it possible.
We can be grateful that we have known and been touched by and influenced by the life of Barbara Lange. We will miss her deeply. It’s appropriate that we should. But she would want us to go on and live our lives by the example she gave us.
In fact, I don't know if it's appropriate in a funeral sermon to give you an assignment, but I'm going to give you an assignment, because she would want you to do this: Before this day is over I want each of you who is here to go out and hug someone and to tell them you love them and to be nice to people and to be the kind of Christian, gentle, wonderful folk that she was, that we should be, and that our Heavenly Father expects of us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
And no matter what you have,
Don't envy those you meet.
It's all the same; it's in the game:
The bitter and the sweet.
And if things don't look so cheerful,
Just show a little fight.
For every bit of darkness,
There is a little bit of light;
For every bit of hatred,
There's a little bit of love;
For every cloudy morning
There's a midnight moon above.
So don't you forget, you must search
Until you find the Bluebird.
You will find peace and contentment forever
If you will be like I,
Hold your head up high
Till you see a ray of light and cheer,
And so remember this:
Life is no abyss;
Somewhere there's a Bluebird of Happiness.
Those words fit Grandma. Whoever wrote that song must have known her because her life was filled with usefulness and purpose. She loved people. She loved doing things for them. I think she was the Bluebird of Happiness.
Most of you probably won't be able to see these if you're past about the second row, but if you've ever been in her home in the last couple of years you've seen on the mantle these little blue birds, which I think are a fitting symbol of the kind of life that she led.
She received a patriarchal blessing in March 1949. That was just a few months before she married Marvin. And the patriarch promised her, "Your counsel will be sought after by your associates and your influence will always be for good." I think this roomful of people—and many others who would be here if they could have been—is evidence that that promise was fulfilled. Her influence has always been for good. Last night at the viewing someone (I don’t remember who) talked about the good memories that people will have of Barbara Lange, the good memories that she leaves in the minds and the hearts and the lives of everyone who knew her. And I don't know of anyone who will have bad memories of her, but the memories will be sweet and hallowed and precious.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell once wrote, "The very usefulness of our lives depends upon our willingness to serve others" (Even As I Am, 62).
By that standard, the life of Barbara Jean Fraughton Lange was preeminently useful. And if we are to learn anything from her life, and the example she’s left, and the counsel she's given, we will go and do the same. We will have a willingness to serve others and bless their lives and cheer their days and soothe their hurts and encourage their best efforts. Her grandchildren, in whose lives she most delighted, knew that she was their greatest benefactor, their greatest sponsor, their best friend.
She had a fourth-great-grandfather by the name of Charles Dixon who was born in England in 1730. He immigrated to the new world in 1772. That was four years before the beginning of the American Revolution. And he lived until 1817, which was three years before Joseph Smith went into the grove of trees near Palmyra, New York, and had the First Vision. And sometime between when he came to New Brunswick, Canada, in 1772, sometime between then and his death in 1817, he wrote a letter to his son Charles. And among the things that were in it, he wrote a bit of what I think is very profound counsel to his son, and by extension to his posterity clear down to this day—200 years later.
And this is the quote: "Be thou not high minded, but remember the rock from whence thou wast hewn, and in future times, when I and thy mother shall be called home, and rest in the silent grave, you may remember, that for your sakes we crossed the ocean. See that you outstrip us in purity of heart and holiness of life. . . . Acquaint yourselves with God and be at peace—at peace with yourselves and with all men, and may the God of Peace be with you evermore."
What a sermon in just a few short sentences! That would be the wish of every righteous parent for their children and their grandchildren: See that you outstrip us in purity of heart and holiness of life. Acquaint yourselves with God. Be at peace with all men. And may the God of Peace be with you evermore.
Nearly 21 years ago Barbara Lange became a grandmother with the birth of our oldest son, Michael, who of all of her posterity is the only one not with us here today. He is serving a mission in Brazil.
And being a grandmother seemed to suit her well. (I’m not at that phase of life quite yet, but I understand that grandchildren are much more delightful than children.) But she was always involved in their lives, doing things for them, supporting them, attending their games and activities, baking lasagna for them for their birthdays if they wanted it, showering them with generous Christmas gifts, spoiling them in ways that parents can't and aren't supposed to but grandmothers can—and can get away with.
For many years, while they still lived in California, she was fortunate to be close to David and Janice and their children. And these past six or seven years, we've been delighted to have them here close to us since they moved back to Utah.
And though she never actually lived in our ward, the other night, Thursday night, when I told our bishop that she had died, because she had been there so many times when the children gave talks in church or had Primary activities or other things going on, and she was always there, our bishop said, "That’s like losing a member of our ward." (And many of them would have been here today, but we had a neighbor die in our ward the very same day, and his funeral is happening at this very same hour.)
I mentioned that her oldest grandson isn’t here today. But in a manner of speaking, he is. We aren’t even sure if he knows yet that his grandmother has died. But on Saturday, last Saturday his dear friend Shauna shared with us a letter that he had written earlier this month. And I'd like to quote just a couple paragraphs from that letter. This was written on the fifth of February, one day before he was transferred to his present assignment, which is about a thousand miles from his mission headquarters in the Amazon jungle of Brazil.
"Today I attended my first (and hopefully only) Brazilian funeral. One of the two stake presidents [here] died suddenly early Friday morning." And then he goes on and gives some details about that.
"This morning was the funeral. Elder Fails and I went with President and Sister Francesconi. The chapel was pretty much filled to capacity. I was surprised at how fast news travels. In Brazil they have to bury the body within 24 to 36 hours. . . . The service was very nice. President spoke, the bishop spoke, and his wife was the last speaker. I think that would take a lot of courage and strength to speak at your spouse’s funeral. Especially when it was such a surprise. She’s probably 37. They’d been married [only] 7 years or so. They have two children, ages 5 and 4.
"The closing hymn was 'Families Can Be Together Forever.'" And then he quotes the words of that song, all in Portuguese, but I'll translate them for you:
I have a family here on earth.
They are so good to me.
I want to share my life with them
Through all eternity.
Families can be together forever
Through Heavenly Father’s plan.
I always want to be with my own family,
And the Lord has shown me how I can.
The Lord has shown me how I can.
While I am in my early years,
I'll prepare most carefully,
So I can marry in God's temple
For eternity.
Families can be together forever
Through Heavenly Father's plan.
I always want to be with my own family,
And the Lord has shown me how I can.
The Lord has shown me how I can.
And after quoting that, he says: "And it was strange. Sitting there at the funeral singing the song. Many people singing with tears in their eyes. In a chapel in Brazil. Then we went to the cemetery. The funeral procession consisted of a VW-Van thingy with the coffin and three busses that had been rented to help take the people who didn't own a car."
And then he says, "To back track momentarily, the closing song." [And I should mention, well it's been announced already, the grandchildren are going to sing this as part of the closing song] "As it was being sung I had wave after wave of tingling-shivers come over me. It was as if even here when a friend and a leader had passed on to the other side of the veil, and though all were saddened I just seemed to realize even more that yes, families can be forever. And most everyone else there knew that. And that brought a comfort that the vast majority of people don't know. And I also realized how important it was to live a life correctly so that we can be worthy to qualify for those blessings. That's why the ordinances and covenants of the gospel are so vital and important. And therein lies the profoundness of the simplicity of the gospel."
And then he talks about the experience of going to the cemetery and watching the burial: "And both Elder Fails and I felt as if we were caught up in some weird whirlwind time-warp. As if everything was happening in a film, and we were there watching it all happen, but as if we weren't at the same time, and as if no one else could see us. It was a very strange sensation that I don't know if I'd ever be able to accurately put into words.
"It’s funny how our lives weave patterns into the lives of so many others in ways often so deep and profound that we aren't even aware of the influence we have (for good or bad). The whole funeral was one of those quiet moments when the vastness of eternity seemed to distill on my soul. And it made me realize how ungrateful we really are as people, and how we really should treasure life, even the small simple daily things. I have been so richly blessed and I feel so undeserving and as if I am so ungrateful."
We are so amazingly blessed that I sometimes wonder if we don't take for granted what we've been given. Certainly we do in our relationships with each other. And often we do it with the marvelous insights and blessings and knowledge the Lord has revealed to us.
One of the great blessings we enjoy as Latter-day Saints is the knowledge we receive from the Holy Ghost that God really lives. Much of the world does not know that He lives. And even those who believe in God do not know much about Him or what He is like. And yet we read in the holy scriptures where Jesus the night before He was crucified prayed to His Father and said, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3).
Back in January 1988, a little over six years ago, I asked my three youngest children, then six-year-old Camilla, four-year-old Eliza, and three-year-old Mary what they knew about Heavenly Father and Jesus. And with a little prompting, they came up with these answers:
"Heavenly Father loves children.
"He's a friend of us.
"He gives us good food. And our house.
"Jesus was born on Christmas in Bethlehem.
"Mary was the mother of Jesus.
"Heavenly Father was the father of Jesus.
"Heavenly Father is kind.
"He made the world.
"He is the father of our spirits.
"We lived with Him before we were born.
"We lived with both Heavenly Father and Jesus.
"We can become like Them.
"They want us to be happy.
"We can be happy by keeping God's commandments.
"They like us a lot.
"He wants us for a sunbeam. To shine for Him each day.
"And be good."
Now let's talk for a moment about the timing of her passing. To us it seemed so unexpected; it caught us off guard. Just last Wednesday, the evening before she died, Grandma had prepared dinner and brought it to our house, and we had a lovely meal and visit together. And that was so like Grandma. And then the next evening she was gone.
But death, sooner or later, comes to each of us. And in her case, as the bishop intimated and as I firmly believe, I think she did have a feeling, perhaps not consciously, but an intimation that she was leaving us.
Another interesting promise from her patriarchal blessing: "You will fill your mission upon the earth and will live until it is fully accomplished, and you will find great joy and satisfaction in it."
She did find joy and satisfaction in blessing the lives of other people. Surely that was much of what her mission was all about, and she lived until she accomplished it fully. She had done all that was required of her. She had passed the test. She had finished the race. There was no more to be done.
Earth life is a school. We can understand that. Elder Orson F. Whitney, who was a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles at the first part of this century, taught, "This earth was made for God's children, his spirit sons and daughters, who take bodies and pass through the experiences of joy and sorrow for their development and education, and to demonstrate through time's vicissitudes that they will be true to God and do all that he requires at their hands.
"When we have done the things that we were sent to do, when we have gained all the experience that this life affords, then is the best time to depart. School being out, why not go home? The mission ended, why not return? That is what death means to a Latter-day Saint. The only sad thing about it is parting with the loved ones who go, . . . but it is simply a passing into the spirit world, to await the resurrection, when our bodies and spirits will be reunited—the righteous to enjoy the presence of God. . . .
"If we can be patient and resigned, and by God's help do his holy will, all will come out well. Trials purify us, educate us, develop us." And I might say parenthetically Grandma had her share of those with the health challenges she experienced.
"Trials purify us, educate us, develop us. The great reason why [we were] placed upon the earth was that [we] might become like [our] Father and [our] God. That is why we are here, children at school. What matters it when school is out and the time comes to go back home?" (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, 9–11).
There's a revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants that has been referred to as the Law of the Mourner. Prefacing it the Lord talks about if there any who are sick, we are to call for the elders of the Church, and they are to come and administer to them, and if they're not appointed unto death then they'll be healed, but He says if they die they die unto Me, and if they live they live unto Me (see D&C 42:44).
And this is the part I wanted to read particularly, "Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die [and so the Lord sanctions that, commands it I think—thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die], and more especially for those that have not hope of a glorious resurrection.
"And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them" (D&C 42:45–46).
I think Grandma, Barbara Lange, has died in the Lord. Her death, her passing was certainly sweet. It was peaceful. And though it's hard, it was right, and we can all feel that. Her time had come.
The Apostle John in the book of Revelation uses this same phrase: Blessed are they that die in me, that "die in the Lord," for "they . . . rest from their labours; and their works do follow them" (Revelation 14:13).
What do we mean? What does that expression mean—they who die in the Lord?
Elder Bruce R. McConkie speaking at a funeral once made these comments. He quoted first from the Psalms, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15). Now, that's an interesting way of putting it: precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.
"Now does that do something to death in the eternal perspective of things? Precious unto the Lord is the death of his saints! Not something that brings sorrow and anguish and anxiety into the soul, but something that announces a reward and a triumph and the beginning of a day of glory and peace and reward. Something that indicates that a soul has come from the presence of God and passed through a mortal probation and ended dying in the Lord. Or, in other words, ended life having kept the faith.
"Now the people that die in the Lord are the people that keep the faith but are not [yet] perfect. They are not perfect many of them by any manner of means. There was only one perfect being and that was the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you had to be perfect in this life to gain salvation there would only be one saved person. Now, yes, they become perfect eventually in eternity, but as pertaining to this life they die in the faith, in the Lord” (Bruce R. McConkie, funeral sermon for Wilford Payne, Dec. 6, 1982).
And I'm skipping some of what Elder McConkie said. He quotes Paul writing to Timothy, and he says that this applies to every righteous person that goes out of this life:
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:7–8).
"Now that is the benediction spoken or unspoken that in thought content is in the heart and the mind and the soul of every person who departs this life in the faith, who dies in the Lord.
"What we do in this life is to chart a course leading to eternal life. That means we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are baptized for the remission of sins. We receive by the laying on of hands the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is the right to the constant companionship of that member of the Godhead based on faithfulness, and then we struggle and labor and strive to endure to the end, to keep the commandments after baptism" (Payne funeral sermon).
As Nephi said, we "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men" (2 Nephi 31:20). And we feast upon the words of Christ. Then He gave a glorious promise to those who so do: "Thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life" (2 Nephi 31:20).
"Now this is what is expected of us: to chart a course leading to eternal life. And then if we are on the course and in the path and struggling and striving and trying to do what we best can [as Barbara Lange was clearly doing], if we are trying to utilize the talents that the Lord has given us [as she was clearly doing], and we depart this life still on the path, having died in the faith, it is as though at that moment our calling and election is made sure, because no one departs from the path after this life if he died in the Lord.
"Now I am not saying that all people are equal in the eternal worlds," Elder McConkie continues, "neither in the spirit world, nor in the resurrection. The Prophet told us that 'whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection' (D&C 130:18), that if a man [or a woman] 'gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come' (D&C 130:19).
"But what I am saying is that if we believe the gospel and if we enter into the eternal covenants, chiefly and primarily marriage, and if we strive and struggle and keep the faith and are doing the best we can, though we haven't attained the perfection that ultimately is our potential, if we go forward and die in the Lord, we filled the measure of our creation, and what more can we ask" (Payne funeral sermon).
I think that’s exactly where we are with Grandma.
In behalf of the family, I would express appreciation to any and all who have helped during these last five days. And to many who will yet help in countless ways in future days. The Lord will bless your quiet, kindly deeds.
We quoted earlier from Elder Orson F. Whitney. He said, "A funeral sermon is not for the benefit of the departed; rather it is for the good of those who remain. The dead, as we call them—though they are no more dead than we are, and are as much alive now as ever—are [simply] beyond our reach, just as they are beyond our vision. We cannot add to anything that they have done, nor can we take anything away. They have made their record and are in the keeping of a higher Power. But we can do something to comfort those who mourn, and by acts of kindness lessen human suffering. [And have you ever known anyone who by acts of kindness lessened human suffering more than Barbara Lange did?] Our Father in heaven expects this at our hands" (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, 3).
Well, Grandma has made her record. She is in the keeping of a higher Power, even the Father of us all.
President Ezra Taft Benson has taught that nothing will startle us more when we pass through the veil, as Grandma has now done, to realize how well we know our Heavenly Father and how familiar His face will be to us.
So we don't mourn for her; we mourn for us. And it's all right that we do so: for as we quoted earlier, the Lord has commanded that we are to "weep for the loss of them that die" (D&C 42:45).
There is something sanctifying about a funeral, especially the funeral of a faithful person, like Grandma, because (as Elder McConkie taught on a similar occasion), "it is an occasion for us to be reminded of the eternal things that are involved in life and how thin the veil is and of how gracious and wondrous it is that a noble soul has gone on and, as a consequence, for us to make the determinations that we need to make so that we can be as they were" (Payne funeral sermon).
The words of a hymn express the thoughts of all of us:
Each life that touches ours for good
Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;
Thou sendest blessings from above
Thru words and deeds of those who love.
What greater gift dost thou bestow,
What greater goodness can we know
Than Christlike friends, whose gentle ways
Strengthen our faith, enrich our days.
When such a friend from us departs,
We hold forever in our hearts
A sweet and hallowed memory,
Bringing us nearer, Lord, to thee.
For worthy friends whose lives proclaim
Devotion to the Savior’s name,
Who bless our days with peace and love,
We praise thy goodness, Lord above.
(Karen Lynn Davidson, Hymns [1985], 293)
God lives. As Elder Marion D. Hanks taught so eloquently in his final address in general conference as a General Authority, "To believe in God is to know that all the rules will be fair and there will be wonderful surprises" (Ensign, Nov. 1992, 65).
And to us, with our understanding, this may not seem like a wonderful surprise—a surprise, but maybe not wonderful. But try to imagine the wonderful surprise it's been for her in meeting again her parents, her sister, and many, many loved ones who have gone on before her. All the rules will be fair and there will be wonderful surprises.
God lives. He’s given us a plan for our happiness. He sent His Son to make it all effective by working out the atoning sacrifice. And He has so graciously and kindly revealed it to us all in this day, together with all the ordinances and everything that makes it possible.
We can be grateful that we have known and been touched by and influenced by the life of Barbara Lange. We will miss her deeply. It’s appropriate that we should. But she would want us to go on and live our lives by the example she gave us.
In fact, I don't know if it's appropriate in a funeral sermon to give you an assignment, but I'm going to give you an assignment, because she would want you to do this: Before this day is over I want each of you who is here to go out and hug someone and to tell them you love them and to be nice to people and to be the kind of Christian, gentle, wonderful folk that she was, that we should be, and that our Heavenly Father expects of us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
72. A Temporary Loss
Claudia’s mother, Barbara Jean Fraughton Lange (1928–1994), was born April 27, 1928, in Salt Lake City, Utah, the older of two daughters born to Lowell Dee Fraughton and Bernice Dixon. She married John Marvin Lange on June 15, 1949, and they were the parents of two children: Claudia and David. Grandma Lange died on February 24, 1994, in Bountiful, Utah, at the age of 65 from causes incident to kidney disease. Bishop Richard R. Clegg, bishop of the Mueller Park Ninth Ward, conducted Grandma’s funeral on Monday, February 28, 1994, read the obituary, and offered brief remarks. His comments were published a month later in the March 28, 1994, issue of the Family Journal.
Brothers, sisters, and friends, we are here today as an expression of our love and respect for Barbara Lange, who passed away last Thursday evening, February 24, here in Bountiful.
These services are under the direction of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I am Bishop Richard R. Clegg of the Mueller Park Ninth Ward, whom the family has asked to conduct these services. I wish to extend to Marvin, Claudia, and David my deepest sympathy and love on this sacred occasion as we honor and pay tribute to their mother and sweetheart.
Seated on the stand with me is Alan Collier, who is a counselor in the Ninth ward bishopric and who will be conducting the grave-side services.
We want to thank Nan Knoles for the music provided in these services. As part of these services, the family prayer was offered by J. Marvin Lange. The opening song will be "I Am a Child of God," sung by Barbara’s grandchildren. The invocation will be offered by a neighbor and friend, John Harmer.
OBITUARY
"Barbara Jean Fraughton Lange, 65, died February 24, 1994, in Bountiful.
"Born April 27, 1928, in Salt Lake City, the daughter of Lowell Dee Fraughton and Bernice Dixon. Married John Marvin Lange on June 15, 1949, in the Salt Lake LDS temple.
"Attended school in Provo and Salt Lake City, where she graduated from East High School in 1945 and the University of Utah in 1949. She taught first grade at Wasatch Elementary [for one year] before moving in 1954 to San Gabriel, California. In 1987 she returned with her husband to Bountiful.
"Active in the LDS Church, she held many positions in the Sunday School, Primary, and Relief Society. She delighted in her family, especially her grandchildren who loved her dearly. She spent her life serving others and being a generous friend and neighbor. She had a special gift of bringing family and friends together and loved to host them in her home.
"Survived by her husband, Marvin; daughter, Claudia (and Dean) Cleverly, Bountiful; son, David (and Janice) Lange, La Crescenta, California; and 14 grandchildren. Preceded in death by her parents and her only sister, Patricia Fraughton Smedley Hunter."
REMARKS
Prior to the foundations of this world, in heavenly council with our spiritual parents, brothers, and sisters, the plan of mortal life was presented to us all. We were to receive a mortal body and be guided through trials and tests by earthly parents. This transition from spiritual preexistence to mortal existence is called birth.
We have all made this transition. Even our Savior, Jesus Christ, was required to enter this earthly realm the same way.
Even as birth was the way we arrived to begin our test here, death will be the means by which we will pass from this earth back to a spiritual existence, to await the reuniting of our resurrected body and spirit, having been tried and tested, never to die physically again, exalted and glorified through our faithfulness while in this proba-tionary state.
Our Savior was released from these earthly bonds this same way as well.
We mourn today, not the death of Barbara Lange, but we mourn our temporary loss. I emphasize our loss as well as temporary, for we believe, as did this faithful woman, that death was as I described—a welcome return to a limitless coexistence with Deity, even eternal life. What a glorious promise!
Who would not look forward to such a promise? To rise with a perfected, resurrected body and continue to serve man and God as one has served on earth, but without the earthly restrictions and imperfections of the natural man.
I emphasize our loss because we have been separated from a wife, mother, grandmother, and friend. This will create an admitted and understandable void in our lives.
I also emphasize temporary because we too, at some future time, must pass from here to there by means of death, at which time we will have the opportunity to see those waiting for us to return.
Barbara Lange understood and accepted these eternal principles and would admonish us to continue in the paths of righteousness.
As the Lord disclosed to His apostles the certainty of His approaching death and resurrection, He gave them a blessing, which may appropriately be extended to each of us here today. "Peace I leave with you," He said, "my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).
Permit me a brief quote from the late President Harold B. Lee: "Having gone through some similar experiences in losing loved ones in death, I speak from personal experience when I say to you who mourn, do not try to live too many days ahead. The all-important thing is not that tragedies and sorrows come into our lives, but what we do with them. Death of a loved one is the most severe test that you will ever face, and if you can rise above your griefs and if you will trust in God, then you will be able to surmount any other difficulty with which you may be faced" (Teachings of Harold B. Lee, 53).
I bear solemn witness of the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know by the powers of inspiration and revelation that God lives, that the Lord will come again to the earth in power and bring with Him those who have been faithful. I further testify that the faithful, whose bodies yet lie in their graves, will be resurrected and caught up to meet Him in glory.
I fervently pray that our lives may be so ordered that on that day, at the appointed signal, we may be ushered into the presence of loved ones once again, and that we may merit their never-ending association, for this is the plan. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Brothers, sisters, and friends, we are here today as an expression of our love and respect for Barbara Lange, who passed away last Thursday evening, February 24, here in Bountiful.
These services are under the direction of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I am Bishop Richard R. Clegg of the Mueller Park Ninth Ward, whom the family has asked to conduct these services. I wish to extend to Marvin, Claudia, and David my deepest sympathy and love on this sacred occasion as we honor and pay tribute to their mother and sweetheart.
Seated on the stand with me is Alan Collier, who is a counselor in the Ninth ward bishopric and who will be conducting the grave-side services.
We want to thank Nan Knoles for the music provided in these services. As part of these services, the family prayer was offered by J. Marvin Lange. The opening song will be "I Am a Child of God," sung by Barbara’s grandchildren. The invocation will be offered by a neighbor and friend, John Harmer.
OBITUARY
"Barbara Jean Fraughton Lange, 65, died February 24, 1994, in Bountiful.
"Born April 27, 1928, in Salt Lake City, the daughter of Lowell Dee Fraughton and Bernice Dixon. Married John Marvin Lange on June 15, 1949, in the Salt Lake LDS temple.
"Attended school in Provo and Salt Lake City, where she graduated from East High School in 1945 and the University of Utah in 1949. She taught first grade at Wasatch Elementary [for one year] before moving in 1954 to San Gabriel, California. In 1987 she returned with her husband to Bountiful.
"Active in the LDS Church, she held many positions in the Sunday School, Primary, and Relief Society. She delighted in her family, especially her grandchildren who loved her dearly. She spent her life serving others and being a generous friend and neighbor. She had a special gift of bringing family and friends together and loved to host them in her home.
"Survived by her husband, Marvin; daughter, Claudia (and Dean) Cleverly, Bountiful; son, David (and Janice) Lange, La Crescenta, California; and 14 grandchildren. Preceded in death by her parents and her only sister, Patricia Fraughton Smedley Hunter."
REMARKS
Prior to the foundations of this world, in heavenly council with our spiritual parents, brothers, and sisters, the plan of mortal life was presented to us all. We were to receive a mortal body and be guided through trials and tests by earthly parents. This transition from spiritual preexistence to mortal existence is called birth.
We have all made this transition. Even our Savior, Jesus Christ, was required to enter this earthly realm the same way.
Even as birth was the way we arrived to begin our test here, death will be the means by which we will pass from this earth back to a spiritual existence, to await the reuniting of our resurrected body and spirit, having been tried and tested, never to die physically again, exalted and glorified through our faithfulness while in this proba-tionary state.
Our Savior was released from these earthly bonds this same way as well.
We mourn today, not the death of Barbara Lange, but we mourn our temporary loss. I emphasize our loss as well as temporary, for we believe, as did this faithful woman, that death was as I described—a welcome return to a limitless coexistence with Deity, even eternal life. What a glorious promise!
Who would not look forward to such a promise? To rise with a perfected, resurrected body and continue to serve man and God as one has served on earth, but without the earthly restrictions and imperfections of the natural man.
I emphasize our loss because we have been separated from a wife, mother, grandmother, and friend. This will create an admitted and understandable void in our lives.
I also emphasize temporary because we too, at some future time, must pass from here to there by means of death, at which time we will have the opportunity to see those waiting for us to return.
Barbara Lange understood and accepted these eternal principles and would admonish us to continue in the paths of righteousness.
As the Lord disclosed to His apostles the certainty of His approaching death and resurrection, He gave them a blessing, which may appropriately be extended to each of us here today. "Peace I leave with you," He said, "my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).
Permit me a brief quote from the late President Harold B. Lee: "Having gone through some similar experiences in losing loved ones in death, I speak from personal experience when I say to you who mourn, do not try to live too many days ahead. The all-important thing is not that tragedies and sorrows come into our lives, but what we do with them. Death of a loved one is the most severe test that you will ever face, and if you can rise above your griefs and if you will trust in God, then you will be able to surmount any other difficulty with which you may be faced" (Teachings of Harold B. Lee, 53).
I bear solemn witness of the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know by the powers of inspiration and revelation that God lives, that the Lord will come again to the earth in power and bring with Him those who have been faithful. I further testify that the faithful, whose bodies yet lie in their graves, will be resurrected and caught up to meet Him in glory.
I fervently pray that our lives may be so ordered that on that day, at the appointed signal, we may be ushered into the presence of loved ones once again, and that we may merit their never-ending association, for this is the plan. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
71. Angels and Ministers of Grace
A funeral sermon I preached on Tuesday, December 28, 1993, at the funeral of my grandmother, Hazel Jane Lee Batt Pledger (1894–1993), who at her death on Christmas Eve in 1993 was in her 100th year of life. The talk was published in the Family Journal on November 20, 1995, the 101st anniversary of her birth. This talk is also found in chapter 26 of Batt & Lee Ancestors.
Last Friday morning, after learning that Hazel had passed away, I told our children that Grandma had died. Our ten-year-old Eliza, with wisdom far beyond her years, asked, "Is that good or bad?"
"Good," I replied. Very good, indeed. In fact, as I reflected further upon it, I could not think of a single reason why we would consider it bad. Grandma had gone home for Christmas.
Hazel Jane Lee was born November 20, 1894, in Milo, Bonneville County, Idaho, the sixth of eleven children born to Orrin Strong Lee Jr. and Martha Jane White. At the time Milo was known as Leorin, so named after her father or grandfather, both of whom were named Orrin Lee; before that the area was also known as Willow Creek.
Ten years earlier, in 1884, her parents, who had been married not quite two years, came in late November to eastern Idaho, still six years away from statehood. The young couple arrived in Eagle Rock (now Idaho Falls), having traveled for 11 days by wagon in cold, bleak weather. They spent the winter with Martha’s sister and her husband in the Willow Creek area.
The next spring they drove around the valley looking for suitable land and finally filed a homestead claim on 160 acres covered with heavy sagebrush growing in excellent soil. That first year they cleared only an acre and a half, on which they planted wheat and alfalfa. The first crop of wheat yielded sixty bushels to the acre.
Their first home was a one-room log cabin, which Orrin built with cottonwood logs he cut on the island east of Menan. As the family grew, Orrin added two rooms to their home. Later, the original log room was taken down and a two-story frame building added on to the two rooms. It was into this home that Hazel was born on November 20, 1894.
In 1906, at a cost of $7,000, the home was completely modernized, including a pressure water system and a telephone, one of the finest homes in the valley. Eighteen months later, on April 27, 1908, when Hazel was fourteen, a fire destroyed the home. I can remember Grandma's telling me about seeing the flames in the distance as she was returning home from school.
That summer Orrin's hair turned white. Discouraged, the family moved their few remaining belongings into the apple cellar and set about rebuilding the house.
Hazel’s mother did a lot of sewing for the neighbors because she had the only sewing machine in the area. She was an artist with a needle, crochet hook, and knitting needle. She was a master gardener and took much pride in her flowers and gardens. The Lee homestead had a fruit orchard, beautiful trees, shrubs, big lawns, flowers everywhere, and always a big vegetable garden whose produce was freely shared by all. From 1892 until 1910 she operated the Leorin post office out of their home. She was long involved in the work of Relief Society. For six years she served as a trustee of the local school district.
Is it any wonder Dorothy and Ruth and Bill and Berniece remember the things they do about their mother, as we've heard in these earlier tributes: her industry, her thrift, her insistence on a job well done, her devotion to duty.
In the years right before World War I, Hazel left the pastoral scenes of her childhood in eastern Idaho and went off to school to attend the Utah Agricultural College in Logan. There she met, became acquainted with, and fell in love with one of the stars of the football team, William B. Batt. They were married in the Logan Temple on October 8, 1914. The next year Dorothy was born, and only weeks later they were off to Idaho, where they would live in various locations throughout southeastern Idaho and northern Utah while Grandpa taught school. Ruth came the following year, 1916. Bill was born in 1921. And Berniece in 1923.
Jackie, as she read Dorothy's tribute, summarized in fine fashion the middle years of Grandma’s life—her severe illness during World War II that nearly cost her her life, her finishing her college degree, her teaching school in Idaho, her mission to New England, Grandpa’s death in the mission field on February 4, 1959, and the lonely years that followed after that.
And then Harry Pledger came into her life. On March 1, 1973, Hazel and Harry were married for time only in the Ogden Temple. Grandma had been a widow for fourteen years. She was 78 years old. They had a good decade of wonderful time together before their advancing years started to catch up with them and their health started to fail them. After the floods in the spring of 1983, which forced them to evacuate their Farmington home, Harry declined until his death on January 13, 1985.
For a second time she buried a husband. A little over two years earlier she had buried her oldest daughter, Dorothy, my mother. She never thought she would live to see the day one of her children would go before she did.
She is survived by three of her four children: Ruth Tovey of Bountiful, Bill Batt of Spokane, and Berniece Palmer of Tooele. And, according to our best calculation, by 26 grandchildren, 104 great-grandchildren, 60 great-great-grandchildren, and one great-great-great-granddaughter. She is also survived by one brother, Perry Lee of Butte, Montana.
There is in the revelations what has been called the "law of the mourner." In it the Lord says, "Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, and more especially for those that have not hope of a glorious resurrection" (D&C 42:45).
That much of the revelation does not apply in this particular case, but the next verse does: "And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them" (D&C 42:46).
And that does apply to Grandma. She is one who, from everything I understand about the scriptures, qualifies as one who has, to use the Lord’s terminology, "died in me." She has been faithful. She has endured to the end. She has hope of a glorious resurrection. She has died in the Lord. And that is why there is really no sadness, but rather rejoicing, on this occasion.
Grandma turned 99 on November 20 of this year. She was in her 100th year. Imagine the incredible things she witnessed during the century that she lived—from the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk to men walking on the moon, from the days of horse and buggy to modern means of rapid travel and nearly instant communication.
In November 1894, when she was born, Wilford Woodruff was the President of the Church and would be for another four years. The Salt Lake Temple had been dedicated just a year and a half earlier. The Manifesto, which announced the end of plural marriage in the Church, was only four years past. She would be four and a half years old when Lorenzo Snow, the next President of the Church, traveled to St. George, in southern Utah, to receive the revelation on tithing that was depicted in the Church movie The Windows of Heaven. She would be nearly seven years old when President Snow died and Joseph F. Smith became the next President of the Church. She has lived during the administrations of 10 of the 13 Prophets who have presided over the Church.
In November 1894, when she was born, Idaho had been a state less than five years. Statehood for Utah was still a year in the future. Grover Cleveland was the president of the United States (his second time around). William McKinley would be elected in 1896, just before her second birthday, and would lead the country through the Spanish–American War. President McKinley would be assassinated in 1901, just shortly into his second term and during Hazel’s seventh year.
She lived to see the beginning of the fulfillment of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s prophecy on Christmas Day 1832 that "the time will come that war will be poured out upon all nations" (D&C 87:2). World War I—that war to end all wars—was raging in Europe during the years Hazel was marrying and beginning her family. A generation later, as World War II erupted, she would see her only son Bill in the uniform of his country. And she lived to witness the incredible world events that all of us have seen, as prophesied by President Spencer W. Kimball, in these closing years of the twentieth century.
A personal note before I close. I inherited from both my grandmother and my mother a love for reading. In one of Shakespeare’s immortal plays, Hamlet wisely implored, "Angels and ministers of grace defend us!" (Hamlet, act 1, scene 4, line 39). Angels and ministers of grace! All of us, I am convinced, both need and in fact receive far more help in our daily lives than we realize from the angels and ministers of grace who surround us—on both sides of the veil.
Grandma was just such an angel and minister of grace in my young life. Our family moved from Oregon to Idaho in the early spring of 1959, just shortly after Grandpa Batt died in the mission field. I was nine years old. And shy. And probably having a difficult time with leaving the people and surroundings that I had been used to. That was the first time I had ever moved, and when we went to church in the old Nampa Second Ward I was put in the wrong Sunday School class. Well, a week or so later, after I discovered that error, I was so embarrassed that I decided I could never go back to church again.
And somehow, it seems incredible to me now, my parents let me persist in my inactivity for several weeks or months, and I shudder to think how different my life could have been had that continued. But then Grandma came to visit. Sunday morning came, and to Grandma it was unthinkable that a nine-year-old grandson of hers would not be in church on Sunday, and so I went and have been ever since. Angels and ministers of grace!
A few years later, when I was 11 and 12, we would go visit Grandma, who then lived next door to the Palmers in Grantsville. I loved to hear Grandma tell of her experiences in the mission field in New England. And to hear her talk about the gospel. She fired in me what has become a life-long love affair with the holy scriptures. It was probably she, more than any other person, who got me to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover when I was only twelve. And how that marvelous book has changed my life. All our lives. Angels and ministers of grace!
Well, in conclusion. Grandma has gone home. I can only imagine how sweet the reunions have been on the other side. What a neat Christmas present!
Elder Orson F. Whitney, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve earlier in this century, once said: "A funeral sermon is not for the benefit of the departed; rather it is for the good of those who remain. The dead, as we call them—though they are no more dead than we are, and are as much alive now as ever—are beyond our reach, just as they are beyond our vision. We cannot add to any¬thing that they have done, nor can we take anything away. They have made their record and are in the keeping of a higher Power. But we can do something to comfort those who mourn, and by acts of kindness lessen human suffering. Our Father in heaven expects this at our hands" (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, 3).
Hazel has now gone into the spirit world. "And where is this spirit world?" asked Elder Whitney in a funeral sermon he delivered in 1918, when Grandma was a young mother only 24 years old. "Is it off in some distant part of the universe? Do we sail away into space millions of miles in order to get there? No. The spirit world, according to Joseph Smith, is right around us. Our dead friends, as we call them—our departed loved ones—are very near us, so near, the Prophet says, that they are often grieved by what we do and say. To get into the spirit world, we have only to pass out of the body.
"The spirit world, as I understand it, is the spirit of this planet. When God made the earth he made it twice. When he made man he made him twice. When he made the animals, the fishes, and the fowls, he made them twice. When he made the beautiful flowers, such as you see here today, he made them twice. First as spirits and then as bodies, and when the spirits entered their bodies they became souls. This is the teaching of modern revelation; the teaching of Joseph Smith. God made the earth first as a spirit and then gave it a body, and what we call the spirit world is simply the spiritual half of the sphere we dwell in" (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, 8).
Earth life is a school. "This earth was made for God’s children, his spirit sons and daughters, who take bodies and pass through experiences of joy and sorrow for their development and education, and to demonstrate through time’s vicissitudes that they will be true to God and do all that he requires at their hands.
"When we have done the things that we were sent to do," continued Elder Whitney, "when we have gained all the experience that this life affords, then is the best time to depart. School being out, why not go home? The mission ended, why not return? That is what death means to a Latter-day Saint. The only sad thing about it is parting with the loved ones who go, . . . but it is simply a passing into the spirit world, to await the resurrection, when our bodies and spirits will be reunited—the righteous to enjoy the presence of God.
"If we can be patient and resigned, and by God’s help do his holy will, all will come out well. Trials purify us, educate us, develop us. The great reason why man was placed upon the earth was that he might become more like his Father and God. That is why we are here, children at school. What matters it when school is out and the time comes to go back home?" (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, 9–11).
We have paid tributes to Hazel today, but the ultimate tribute is the way we live our lives in quiet devotion to the cause of the Master whom she loved and followed. On her 80th birthday, back in 1974, at my invitation Grandma wrote a birthday greeting to all her family. I close with the words that she wrote on that occasion nearly two decades ago:
"As our eightieth year has arrived, there are many lessons we have learned and many, many things we have neglected to do. It is of these procrastinations I would warn you.
"I have had many people ask me, 'When do you think one should start to train a child?' And my answer has always been, 'Before they are born.' We cannot wait until a child is half past seven, depending on the Church to prepare them for baptism.
"All the beauty, value, and wonder of this great privilege should fall upon the parents. The same is true of celestial marriage, a mission, living a clean life, just to mention a few. This should be the very atmosphere of their lives from infancy—not preached or forced upon them, just lived day by day.
"So once again," she continues to write, "do not put off until tomorrow learning the things the Lord would have us do and, in turn, passing this knowledge on to your children, relatives, friends, and 'the stranger within your gates.'
"Pay your tithes and offerings in full. Be diligent in your prayers, and from long experience, I can guarantee that the Lord will bless and guide you beyond your wildest dreams.
"If I have influenced or helped any of you through the years, I am humbly grateful. We love you and pray for you." Signed Grandma Hazel.
God lives. His Son, whose birth we've just celebrated, lives. They send angels and ministers of grace into our lives to bless us everlastingly. Such has been the life of Hazel Jane Lee Batt Pledger. May we, like her, be as the Book of Mormon writer described, "instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer. And how blessed are they! For they did publish peace; they did publish good tidings of good" (Mosiah 27:36–37).
May we go and do likewise, I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Last Friday morning, after learning that Hazel had passed away, I told our children that Grandma had died. Our ten-year-old Eliza, with wisdom far beyond her years, asked, "Is that good or bad?"
"Good," I replied. Very good, indeed. In fact, as I reflected further upon it, I could not think of a single reason why we would consider it bad. Grandma had gone home for Christmas.
Hazel Jane Lee was born November 20, 1894, in Milo, Bonneville County, Idaho, the sixth of eleven children born to Orrin Strong Lee Jr. and Martha Jane White. At the time Milo was known as Leorin, so named after her father or grandfather, both of whom were named Orrin Lee; before that the area was also known as Willow Creek.
Ten years earlier, in 1884, her parents, who had been married not quite two years, came in late November to eastern Idaho, still six years away from statehood. The young couple arrived in Eagle Rock (now Idaho Falls), having traveled for 11 days by wagon in cold, bleak weather. They spent the winter with Martha’s sister and her husband in the Willow Creek area.
The next spring they drove around the valley looking for suitable land and finally filed a homestead claim on 160 acres covered with heavy sagebrush growing in excellent soil. That first year they cleared only an acre and a half, on which they planted wheat and alfalfa. The first crop of wheat yielded sixty bushels to the acre.
Their first home was a one-room log cabin, which Orrin built with cottonwood logs he cut on the island east of Menan. As the family grew, Orrin added two rooms to their home. Later, the original log room was taken down and a two-story frame building added on to the two rooms. It was into this home that Hazel was born on November 20, 1894.
In 1906, at a cost of $7,000, the home was completely modernized, including a pressure water system and a telephone, one of the finest homes in the valley. Eighteen months later, on April 27, 1908, when Hazel was fourteen, a fire destroyed the home. I can remember Grandma's telling me about seeing the flames in the distance as she was returning home from school.
That summer Orrin's hair turned white. Discouraged, the family moved their few remaining belongings into the apple cellar and set about rebuilding the house.
Hazel’s mother did a lot of sewing for the neighbors because she had the only sewing machine in the area. She was an artist with a needle, crochet hook, and knitting needle. She was a master gardener and took much pride in her flowers and gardens. The Lee homestead had a fruit orchard, beautiful trees, shrubs, big lawns, flowers everywhere, and always a big vegetable garden whose produce was freely shared by all. From 1892 until 1910 she operated the Leorin post office out of their home. She was long involved in the work of Relief Society. For six years she served as a trustee of the local school district.
Is it any wonder Dorothy and Ruth and Bill and Berniece remember the things they do about their mother, as we've heard in these earlier tributes: her industry, her thrift, her insistence on a job well done, her devotion to duty.
In the years right before World War I, Hazel left the pastoral scenes of her childhood in eastern Idaho and went off to school to attend the Utah Agricultural College in Logan. There she met, became acquainted with, and fell in love with one of the stars of the football team, William B. Batt. They were married in the Logan Temple on October 8, 1914. The next year Dorothy was born, and only weeks later they were off to Idaho, where they would live in various locations throughout southeastern Idaho and northern Utah while Grandpa taught school. Ruth came the following year, 1916. Bill was born in 1921. And Berniece in 1923.
Jackie, as she read Dorothy's tribute, summarized in fine fashion the middle years of Grandma’s life—her severe illness during World War II that nearly cost her her life, her finishing her college degree, her teaching school in Idaho, her mission to New England, Grandpa’s death in the mission field on February 4, 1959, and the lonely years that followed after that.
And then Harry Pledger came into her life. On March 1, 1973, Hazel and Harry were married for time only in the Ogden Temple. Grandma had been a widow for fourteen years. She was 78 years old. They had a good decade of wonderful time together before their advancing years started to catch up with them and their health started to fail them. After the floods in the spring of 1983, which forced them to evacuate their Farmington home, Harry declined until his death on January 13, 1985.
For a second time she buried a husband. A little over two years earlier she had buried her oldest daughter, Dorothy, my mother. She never thought she would live to see the day one of her children would go before she did.
She is survived by three of her four children: Ruth Tovey of Bountiful, Bill Batt of Spokane, and Berniece Palmer of Tooele. And, according to our best calculation, by 26 grandchildren, 104 great-grandchildren, 60 great-great-grandchildren, and one great-great-great-granddaughter. She is also survived by one brother, Perry Lee of Butte, Montana.
There is in the revelations what has been called the "law of the mourner." In it the Lord says, "Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, and more especially for those that have not hope of a glorious resurrection" (D&C 42:45).
That much of the revelation does not apply in this particular case, but the next verse does: "And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them" (D&C 42:46).
And that does apply to Grandma. She is one who, from everything I understand about the scriptures, qualifies as one who has, to use the Lord’s terminology, "died in me." She has been faithful. She has endured to the end. She has hope of a glorious resurrection. She has died in the Lord. And that is why there is really no sadness, but rather rejoicing, on this occasion.
Grandma turned 99 on November 20 of this year. She was in her 100th year. Imagine the incredible things she witnessed during the century that she lived—from the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk to men walking on the moon, from the days of horse and buggy to modern means of rapid travel and nearly instant communication.
In November 1894, when she was born, Wilford Woodruff was the President of the Church and would be for another four years. The Salt Lake Temple had been dedicated just a year and a half earlier. The Manifesto, which announced the end of plural marriage in the Church, was only four years past. She would be four and a half years old when Lorenzo Snow, the next President of the Church, traveled to St. George, in southern Utah, to receive the revelation on tithing that was depicted in the Church movie The Windows of Heaven. She would be nearly seven years old when President Snow died and Joseph F. Smith became the next President of the Church. She has lived during the administrations of 10 of the 13 Prophets who have presided over the Church.
In November 1894, when she was born, Idaho had been a state less than five years. Statehood for Utah was still a year in the future. Grover Cleveland was the president of the United States (his second time around). William McKinley would be elected in 1896, just before her second birthday, and would lead the country through the Spanish–American War. President McKinley would be assassinated in 1901, just shortly into his second term and during Hazel’s seventh year.
She lived to see the beginning of the fulfillment of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s prophecy on Christmas Day 1832 that "the time will come that war will be poured out upon all nations" (D&C 87:2). World War I—that war to end all wars—was raging in Europe during the years Hazel was marrying and beginning her family. A generation later, as World War II erupted, she would see her only son Bill in the uniform of his country. And she lived to witness the incredible world events that all of us have seen, as prophesied by President Spencer W. Kimball, in these closing years of the twentieth century.
A personal note before I close. I inherited from both my grandmother and my mother a love for reading. In one of Shakespeare’s immortal plays, Hamlet wisely implored, "Angels and ministers of grace defend us!" (Hamlet, act 1, scene 4, line 39). Angels and ministers of grace! All of us, I am convinced, both need and in fact receive far more help in our daily lives than we realize from the angels and ministers of grace who surround us—on both sides of the veil.
Grandma was just such an angel and minister of grace in my young life. Our family moved from Oregon to Idaho in the early spring of 1959, just shortly after Grandpa Batt died in the mission field. I was nine years old. And shy. And probably having a difficult time with leaving the people and surroundings that I had been used to. That was the first time I had ever moved, and when we went to church in the old Nampa Second Ward I was put in the wrong Sunday School class. Well, a week or so later, after I discovered that error, I was so embarrassed that I decided I could never go back to church again.
And somehow, it seems incredible to me now, my parents let me persist in my inactivity for several weeks or months, and I shudder to think how different my life could have been had that continued. But then Grandma came to visit. Sunday morning came, and to Grandma it was unthinkable that a nine-year-old grandson of hers would not be in church on Sunday, and so I went and have been ever since. Angels and ministers of grace!
A few years later, when I was 11 and 12, we would go visit Grandma, who then lived next door to the Palmers in Grantsville. I loved to hear Grandma tell of her experiences in the mission field in New England. And to hear her talk about the gospel. She fired in me what has become a life-long love affair with the holy scriptures. It was probably she, more than any other person, who got me to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover when I was only twelve. And how that marvelous book has changed my life. All our lives. Angels and ministers of grace!
Well, in conclusion. Grandma has gone home. I can only imagine how sweet the reunions have been on the other side. What a neat Christmas present!
Elder Orson F. Whitney, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve earlier in this century, once said: "A funeral sermon is not for the benefit of the departed; rather it is for the good of those who remain. The dead, as we call them—though they are no more dead than we are, and are as much alive now as ever—are beyond our reach, just as they are beyond our vision. We cannot add to any¬thing that they have done, nor can we take anything away. They have made their record and are in the keeping of a higher Power. But we can do something to comfort those who mourn, and by acts of kindness lessen human suffering. Our Father in heaven expects this at our hands" (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, 3).
Hazel has now gone into the spirit world. "And where is this spirit world?" asked Elder Whitney in a funeral sermon he delivered in 1918, when Grandma was a young mother only 24 years old. "Is it off in some distant part of the universe? Do we sail away into space millions of miles in order to get there? No. The spirit world, according to Joseph Smith, is right around us. Our dead friends, as we call them—our departed loved ones—are very near us, so near, the Prophet says, that they are often grieved by what we do and say. To get into the spirit world, we have only to pass out of the body.
"The spirit world, as I understand it, is the spirit of this planet. When God made the earth he made it twice. When he made man he made him twice. When he made the animals, the fishes, and the fowls, he made them twice. When he made the beautiful flowers, such as you see here today, he made them twice. First as spirits and then as bodies, and when the spirits entered their bodies they became souls. This is the teaching of modern revelation; the teaching of Joseph Smith. God made the earth first as a spirit and then gave it a body, and what we call the spirit world is simply the spiritual half of the sphere we dwell in" (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, 8).
Earth life is a school. "This earth was made for God’s children, his spirit sons and daughters, who take bodies and pass through experiences of joy and sorrow for their development and education, and to demonstrate through time’s vicissitudes that they will be true to God and do all that he requires at their hands.
"When we have done the things that we were sent to do," continued Elder Whitney, "when we have gained all the experience that this life affords, then is the best time to depart. School being out, why not go home? The mission ended, why not return? That is what death means to a Latter-day Saint. The only sad thing about it is parting with the loved ones who go, . . . but it is simply a passing into the spirit world, to await the resurrection, when our bodies and spirits will be reunited—the righteous to enjoy the presence of God.
"If we can be patient and resigned, and by God’s help do his holy will, all will come out well. Trials purify us, educate us, develop us. The great reason why man was placed upon the earth was that he might become more like his Father and God. That is why we are here, children at school. What matters it when school is out and the time comes to go back home?" (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, 9–11).
We have paid tributes to Hazel today, but the ultimate tribute is the way we live our lives in quiet devotion to the cause of the Master whom she loved and followed. On her 80th birthday, back in 1974, at my invitation Grandma wrote a birthday greeting to all her family. I close with the words that she wrote on that occasion nearly two decades ago:
"As our eightieth year has arrived, there are many lessons we have learned and many, many things we have neglected to do. It is of these procrastinations I would warn you.
"I have had many people ask me, 'When do you think one should start to train a child?' And my answer has always been, 'Before they are born.' We cannot wait until a child is half past seven, depending on the Church to prepare them for baptism.
"All the beauty, value, and wonder of this great privilege should fall upon the parents. The same is true of celestial marriage, a mission, living a clean life, just to mention a few. This should be the very atmosphere of their lives from infancy—not preached or forced upon them, just lived day by day.
"So once again," she continues to write, "do not put off until tomorrow learning the things the Lord would have us do and, in turn, passing this knowledge on to your children, relatives, friends, and 'the stranger within your gates.'
"Pay your tithes and offerings in full. Be diligent in your prayers, and from long experience, I can guarantee that the Lord will bless and guide you beyond your wildest dreams.
"If I have influenced or helped any of you through the years, I am humbly grateful. We love you and pray for you." Signed Grandma Hazel.
God lives. His Son, whose birth we've just celebrated, lives. They send angels and ministers of grace into our lives to bless us everlastingly. Such has been the life of Hazel Jane Lee Batt Pledger. May we, like her, be as the Book of Mormon writer described, "instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer. And how blessed are they! For they did publish peace; they did publish good tidings of good" (Mosiah 27:36–37).
May we go and do likewise, I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
70. We Are Bought with a Price
On Sunday morning, December 19, 1993, in a special high council meeting, President F. Michael Watson put aside all regular agenda items and invited the members of the stake presidency and high council to share their thoughts and some favorite scriptures about either the Lord Jesus Christ or the Prophet Joseph Smith. In essence, the following represents a summary of the testimony I shared on that occasion. I was serving at the time as the stake executive secretary.
It is amazing how much buying and selling are a part of the celebration of Christmas in our culture. Indeed, the very health of our national economy is measured largely on how much we buy during the holiday season.
Interestingly, the holy scriptures employ monetary terminology in discussing the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the very heart and soul of our religion. Jesus came to “redeem” us, which means to “pay a price for” us. Peter speaks of the Lord’s people as being “a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9), which in the original Greek meant “a purchased people.”
I think often we do not appreciate the cost of the Savior’s gift, the price He paid for us, for as the scriptures affirm, we “are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23; see also 2 Peter 2:1), the price being His own “precious blood” (1 Peter 1:19).
Jacob, the brother of Nephi, taught that “he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam” (2 Nephi 9:21). That appears to include everyone. If we could somehow remember all the pain and suffering and hurt we have ever experienced personally—mentally or physically or spiritually—and times that by the billions of people that now live or have ever lived on this planet, that might begin to give us an inkling of the price He paid for us. That is a lot of pain!
President John Taylor testified that “in a manner to us incomprehensible and inexplicable, he bore the weight of the sins of the whole world” (Mediation and Atonement, ch. 21). I don’t think we can begin to understand the magnitude of what He went through for us, although the revelations give us glimpses.
Mark records an interesting little detail, not mentioned by the other gospel writers, about the suffering Jesus faced in Gethsemane: “And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy” (Mark 14:33). Sore amazed. The Greek renders this passage as “amazed, awestruck, astonished.” Here was the Savior of the world, knowing full well what He had to face, the cup He had to drink, and yet even He was amazed, awestruck, astonished at the weight of it all, of how terrible it was, of how exquisite it would be.
Some 1,800 years later He would talk of that experience: “Therefore, I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, how hard to bear you know not.
“For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
“But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
“Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
“Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men” (D&C 19:15–19).
That was the price He paid for us, just as similarly the Prophet Joseph Smith gave his life to seal his witness of the reality of the Father and the Son and all that they communicated through him as the Prophet of the Restoration, which “cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world” (D&C 135:6). There is mention again of the cost.
I am grateful beyond all ability to express for the price that has been paid—not only by the Prophet Joseph Smith, but by all the faithful Saints who have gone before in this dispensation who have made possible what we enjoy here today. I thank the Father and His beloved Son for Their priceless gift, the pearl of great price, that opens the gate to our everlasting salvation in Their presence.
It is amazing how much buying and selling are a part of the celebration of Christmas in our culture. Indeed, the very health of our national economy is measured largely on how much we buy during the holiday season.
Interestingly, the holy scriptures employ monetary terminology in discussing the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the very heart and soul of our religion. Jesus came to “redeem” us, which means to “pay a price for” us. Peter speaks of the Lord’s people as being “a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9), which in the original Greek meant “a purchased people.”
I think often we do not appreciate the cost of the Savior’s gift, the price He paid for us, for as the scriptures affirm, we “are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23; see also 2 Peter 2:1), the price being His own “precious blood” (1 Peter 1:19).
Jacob, the brother of Nephi, taught that “he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam” (2 Nephi 9:21). That appears to include everyone. If we could somehow remember all the pain and suffering and hurt we have ever experienced personally—mentally or physically or spiritually—and times that by the billions of people that now live or have ever lived on this planet, that might begin to give us an inkling of the price He paid for us. That is a lot of pain!
President John Taylor testified that “in a manner to us incomprehensible and inexplicable, he bore the weight of the sins of the whole world” (Mediation and Atonement, ch. 21). I don’t think we can begin to understand the magnitude of what He went through for us, although the revelations give us glimpses.
Mark records an interesting little detail, not mentioned by the other gospel writers, about the suffering Jesus faced in Gethsemane: “And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy” (Mark 14:33). Sore amazed. The Greek renders this passage as “amazed, awestruck, astonished.” Here was the Savior of the world, knowing full well what He had to face, the cup He had to drink, and yet even He was amazed, awestruck, astonished at the weight of it all, of how terrible it was, of how exquisite it would be.
Some 1,800 years later He would talk of that experience: “Therefore, I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, how hard to bear you know not.
“For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
“But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
“Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
“Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men” (D&C 19:15–19).
That was the price He paid for us, just as similarly the Prophet Joseph Smith gave his life to seal his witness of the reality of the Father and the Son and all that they communicated through him as the Prophet of the Restoration, which “cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world” (D&C 135:6). There is mention again of the cost.
I am grateful beyond all ability to express for the price that has been paid—not only by the Prophet Joseph Smith, but by all the faithful Saints who have gone before in this dispensation who have made possible what we enjoy here today. I thank the Father and His beloved Son for Their priceless gift, the pearl of great price, that opens the gate to our everlasting salvation in Their presence.
69. Seeing with an Eye of Faith
A talk I gave in the Bountiful Twentieth Ward at Michael’s missionary farewell on Sunday, August 30, 1992, before he began his mission to the Brazil Manaus Mission. Concerning the writing of the talk I recorded the following in my journal that same day: “Last Thursday about 4:30 in the morning I awoke with some thoughts running through my head about seeing with an eye of faith and felt the distinct impression that I was to get up right then, as opposed to waiting until a more reasonable hour, to look up some scriptures and start writing a talk for sacrament meeting. Between 4:30 and 6:30 that morning I wrote the following talk and was exhausted the rest of the day and the next day. After writing it, I didn't look at or even think about the talk until last night when I read it to Michael to see if it still sounded as good by the light of day as it did at 4:30 in the morning. It did, and I read it today in sacrament meeting, the first time I've ever read an entire talk in church. This is the talk. . . . Tonight as I was telling Claudia the circumstances of coming to write the talk, and the obvious inspiration involved, she was touched deeply by what I said about her efforts during the nineteen years Michael has been growing up and took it, I think rightly so, as evidence of the Lord's love and acceptance of her efforts. That’s a nice feeling to have.”
I am thrilled beyond measure that Michael has been called to Brazil, where I served twenty-plus years ago, to a land and among a people that I love dearly. I want all of you here today to know that it has been a great privilege and blessing in my life these past nineteen years to be honored to be the father of Michael Adam Cleverly. He is a covenant child, prayed here by his mother, who like Hannah of old promised him to the Lord and His service.
The Book of Mormon contains an imagery, an insight into faith that, as far as I can tell, is unique in all of our scriptures. In three places it refers to seeing “with an eye of faith.” As far as I can find, that phrase occurs nowhere else in the scriptures.
Alma, speaking to the Saints in Zarahemla, asked these penetrating questions, which are well for each of us to ask ourselves: “Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?” (Alma 5:15; emphasis added).
And then, about a decade later, this same Alma, preaching among what the record calls “the poor class of people” (Alma 32:2), compares the word to a seed and invites the people to experiment upon it, and says—“And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life” (Alma 32:40; emphasis added).
And finally, nearly five centuries later, as Moroni abridges the record of the Jaredites, he writes this inspired summary: “And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad” (Ether 12:19; emphasis added).
Looking forward with an eye of faith. Seeing with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith.
Let me give two simple illustrations of this principle: In the opening chapters of the Book of Mormon, we read how after traipsing through the desert for some eight years, Lehi and his and his often-less-than-enthusiastic family come to the borders of the sea (to a land, by the way, which they called Bountiful), and little brother Nephi is commanded to build a ship. Nephi knows nothing about building ships. Surviving in the desert, perhaps yes; but building ships, nothing. I don’t know about you, but if I were to build a ship and had that huge ocean staring me in the face, it would take a remarkable leap of faith to want to get in the thing after it was finished and worry about whether it was going to make it.
But Nephi doesn’t hesitate for a minute. Earlier he had seen a panoramic vision of the future of his people upon the promised land, and so he moves forward with what the Lord has commanded him. He has seen with an eye of faith. If his descendants are on the promised land, they apparently have to get there somehow, so he knows the ship won’t spring a leak fifty miles out from shore and everyone drown in the depths of the sea. He has seen with an eye of faith.
A second illustration: Nineteen years ago this Wednesday, Claudia lay in a hospital bed in Provo with her firstborn son in her arms, just hours old, counting his fingers and toes (as I suppose new mothers do), but even more importantly thinking ahead, among other things, to this very day. She was planning in her mind the future course of his life, envisioning his serving a mission, looking forward with an eye of faith. And so what does she spend the next nineteen years doing? The kinds of things the Lord’s prophets have told parents to do to get their sons ready and worthy to serve missions. She has acted in faith, seeing with her eyes the things which she had beheld with the eye of faith.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that faith was a principle of action and a principle of power. It is the Lord’s intent to save us. That’s what His work is all about. That’s what He’s promised to do. And He has sufficient power to do what He says He will do.
The only thing, as I understand it, that can prevent His saving us is our own selves, because He’s granted us our agency and we’re busy choosing every moment of our lives whether we want Him on the one hand or the things of the world on the other. We can’t have both. They’re mutually exclusive.
And that is another principal message of the Book of Mormon: we can set our hearts on the Lord, or we can set our hearts on the world and its riches and fine apparel and spacious buildings and the lusts of the flesh and on and on. But we can’t have both. We have to face one direction or the other.
Elder Boyd K. Packer, in an address some years ago to priesthood leaders, asked the question: “Which way do you face?” We can’t face both directions.
So, what do we see with our eye of faith? Do we envision, as Alma taught, “Can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day; Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?” (Alma 5:16).
Can we look forward with an eye of faith and imagine ourselves saved in the celestial kingdom of God? I suspect that if we can’t, we may not in fact be there. Because, if there is any message at all I get from the Book of Mormon, it’s that the Lord will give each one of us exactly what we desire.
And that brings us down to the precise reason Michael is going off to Brazil to preach the gospel. In the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord says that “the weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones” (D&C 1:19), and He’s talking of course about missionaries just like Michael, and one of the reasons is “that faith also might increase in the earth” (D&C 1:21).
And the reason that the Lord wants faith to increase in the earth is so that more of His children will come unto Christ and be saved. Faith leads to repentance, and repentance leads to the ordinances of the gospel—starting with baptism—and that’s how a person comes unto Christ.
The doctrinal basis of missionary work is contained in the Savior’s statement to Nicodemus: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). The kingdom of God referred to here is the celestial kingdom.
Let me quote here from a talk Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave earlier this summer to new missionaries and mission presidents at the MTC:
“We do not preach and teach in order to ‘bring people into the Church’ or to increase the membership of the Church. We do not preach and teach just to persuade people to live better lives. We honor and appreciate the many ministers and others who are involved in the kind of ministry that makes bad men good and good men better. That is important, but we offer something more. You can qualify for the terrestrial kingdom instead of the telestial kingdom without the aid of this Church. We are concerned with a higher destination.
“The purpose of our missionary work is to help the children of God fulfill a condition prescribed by our Savior and Redeemer. We preach and teach in order to baptize the children of God so that they can be saved in the celestial kingdom instead of being damned in a lesser kingdom. We do missionary work in order to baptize. That is the doctrinal basis of missionary work” (“Baptism, the Atonement, and the Doctrinal Basis of Missionary Work,” MTC devotional message, June 23, 1992, 2).
Let me digress here for a moment. The eleventh chapter of 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon records the initial message the resurrected Savior gave when appeared to the Nephites. Just think what the Nephites had been through: cataclysmic destructions had just rearranged the entire landscape (I think that was to get their attention), and now the Savior is there and speaking.
We don’t have the time today to read it, but 13 times in that eleventh chapter the Savior uses the word baptism. For 600 years the Nephites had been looking forward to this moment: their prophets taught about it in their conferences, the faithful Nephite parents had mentioned it in their family home evenings, and here He is (the very God of the universe), and He talks to them over and over and over about baptism:
“And whosoever believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God” (3 Nephi 11:33).
And so to continue quoting from Elder Oaks:
“Our preaching and teaching is unto baptism. . . . Our missionary work and our baptisms are designed to offer all mankind the means of overcoming what we call spiritual death.
“. . . Baptism is a requirement, but why? Why is it necessary to be baptized in this way and by one holding authority? I do not know. But what I do know is that the remission of sins is only made possible by the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that he has prescribed that condition, again and again. His sacrifice paid the price for my sins, and he has prescribed the conditions upon which I can be saved by his payment. That is reason enough for me.
“. . . As the prophets of this dispensation have told us, the missionaries’ purpose of being in the mission field ‘is to save souls, to baptize converts,’ which is to open the doors of the celestial kingdom to the sons and daughters of God.
“No one else can do this.
“Other churches cannot do it.
“Good Christian living cannot do it.
“Good faith, good desires, and good reasoning cannot do it.
“Only the priesthood of God can administer a baptism that will satisfy the divine decree that ‘Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God’ (John 3:5).
“The doctrinal basis of missionary work is the word of God, revealed in every age, that man cannot be saved in the celestial kingdom without the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and that the only way to lay claim to the merits of that atonement is to follow the command of its author: ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you’ (Acts 2:38).” (“Baptism, the Atonement, and the Doctrinal Basis of Missionary Work,” MTC devotional message, June 23, 1992, 3, 8).
Now, let me conclude with this instruction from the Lord, given through the Prophet Joseph Smith in June 1829, nearly a year before the Church was organized: “And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father” (D&C 15:6; 16:6).
That applies to all of us. And may that be our happy lot is my humble prayer. I want all of you here today to know, as I think you do, that I love the Lord Jesus Christ, I love His gospel, I love His servants, and I delight in His word. I close with just one verse of a hymn that I have come to love very much:
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin,
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee,
How great thou art! How great thou art!
(Stuart K. Hine, Hymns [1985], 86)
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I am thrilled beyond measure that Michael has been called to Brazil, where I served twenty-plus years ago, to a land and among a people that I love dearly. I want all of you here today to know that it has been a great privilege and blessing in my life these past nineteen years to be honored to be the father of Michael Adam Cleverly. He is a covenant child, prayed here by his mother, who like Hannah of old promised him to the Lord and His service.
The Book of Mormon contains an imagery, an insight into faith that, as far as I can tell, is unique in all of our scriptures. In three places it refers to seeing “with an eye of faith.” As far as I can find, that phrase occurs nowhere else in the scriptures.
Alma, speaking to the Saints in Zarahemla, asked these penetrating questions, which are well for each of us to ask ourselves: “Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?” (Alma 5:15; emphasis added).
And then, about a decade later, this same Alma, preaching among what the record calls “the poor class of people” (Alma 32:2), compares the word to a seed and invites the people to experiment upon it, and says—“And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life” (Alma 32:40; emphasis added).
And finally, nearly five centuries later, as Moroni abridges the record of the Jaredites, he writes this inspired summary: “And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad” (Ether 12:19; emphasis added).
Looking forward with an eye of faith. Seeing with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith.
Let me give two simple illustrations of this principle: In the opening chapters of the Book of Mormon, we read how after traipsing through the desert for some eight years, Lehi and his and his often-less-than-enthusiastic family come to the borders of the sea (to a land, by the way, which they called Bountiful), and little brother Nephi is commanded to build a ship. Nephi knows nothing about building ships. Surviving in the desert, perhaps yes; but building ships, nothing. I don’t know about you, but if I were to build a ship and had that huge ocean staring me in the face, it would take a remarkable leap of faith to want to get in the thing after it was finished and worry about whether it was going to make it.
But Nephi doesn’t hesitate for a minute. Earlier he had seen a panoramic vision of the future of his people upon the promised land, and so he moves forward with what the Lord has commanded him. He has seen with an eye of faith. If his descendants are on the promised land, they apparently have to get there somehow, so he knows the ship won’t spring a leak fifty miles out from shore and everyone drown in the depths of the sea. He has seen with an eye of faith.
A second illustration: Nineteen years ago this Wednesday, Claudia lay in a hospital bed in Provo with her firstborn son in her arms, just hours old, counting his fingers and toes (as I suppose new mothers do), but even more importantly thinking ahead, among other things, to this very day. She was planning in her mind the future course of his life, envisioning his serving a mission, looking forward with an eye of faith. And so what does she spend the next nineteen years doing? The kinds of things the Lord’s prophets have told parents to do to get their sons ready and worthy to serve missions. She has acted in faith, seeing with her eyes the things which she had beheld with the eye of faith.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that faith was a principle of action and a principle of power. It is the Lord’s intent to save us. That’s what His work is all about. That’s what He’s promised to do. And He has sufficient power to do what He says He will do.
The only thing, as I understand it, that can prevent His saving us is our own selves, because He’s granted us our agency and we’re busy choosing every moment of our lives whether we want Him on the one hand or the things of the world on the other. We can’t have both. They’re mutually exclusive.
And that is another principal message of the Book of Mormon: we can set our hearts on the Lord, or we can set our hearts on the world and its riches and fine apparel and spacious buildings and the lusts of the flesh and on and on. But we can’t have both. We have to face one direction or the other.
Elder Boyd K. Packer, in an address some years ago to priesthood leaders, asked the question: “Which way do you face?” We can’t face both directions.
So, what do we see with our eye of faith? Do we envision, as Alma taught, “Can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day; Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?” (Alma 5:16).
Can we look forward with an eye of faith and imagine ourselves saved in the celestial kingdom of God? I suspect that if we can’t, we may not in fact be there. Because, if there is any message at all I get from the Book of Mormon, it’s that the Lord will give each one of us exactly what we desire.
And that brings us down to the precise reason Michael is going off to Brazil to preach the gospel. In the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord says that “the weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones” (D&C 1:19), and He’s talking of course about missionaries just like Michael, and one of the reasons is “that faith also might increase in the earth” (D&C 1:21).
And the reason that the Lord wants faith to increase in the earth is so that more of His children will come unto Christ and be saved. Faith leads to repentance, and repentance leads to the ordinances of the gospel—starting with baptism—and that’s how a person comes unto Christ.
The doctrinal basis of missionary work is contained in the Savior’s statement to Nicodemus: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). The kingdom of God referred to here is the celestial kingdom.
Let me quote here from a talk Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave earlier this summer to new missionaries and mission presidents at the MTC:
“We do not preach and teach in order to ‘bring people into the Church’ or to increase the membership of the Church. We do not preach and teach just to persuade people to live better lives. We honor and appreciate the many ministers and others who are involved in the kind of ministry that makes bad men good and good men better. That is important, but we offer something more. You can qualify for the terrestrial kingdom instead of the telestial kingdom without the aid of this Church. We are concerned with a higher destination.
“The purpose of our missionary work is to help the children of God fulfill a condition prescribed by our Savior and Redeemer. We preach and teach in order to baptize the children of God so that they can be saved in the celestial kingdom instead of being damned in a lesser kingdom. We do missionary work in order to baptize. That is the doctrinal basis of missionary work” (“Baptism, the Atonement, and the Doctrinal Basis of Missionary Work,” MTC devotional message, June 23, 1992, 2).
Let me digress here for a moment. The eleventh chapter of 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon records the initial message the resurrected Savior gave when appeared to the Nephites. Just think what the Nephites had been through: cataclysmic destructions had just rearranged the entire landscape (I think that was to get their attention), and now the Savior is there and speaking.
We don’t have the time today to read it, but 13 times in that eleventh chapter the Savior uses the word baptism. For 600 years the Nephites had been looking forward to this moment: their prophets taught about it in their conferences, the faithful Nephite parents had mentioned it in their family home evenings, and here He is (the very God of the universe), and He talks to them over and over and over about baptism:
“And whosoever believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God” (3 Nephi 11:33).
And so to continue quoting from Elder Oaks:
“Our preaching and teaching is unto baptism. . . . Our missionary work and our baptisms are designed to offer all mankind the means of overcoming what we call spiritual death.
“. . . Baptism is a requirement, but why? Why is it necessary to be baptized in this way and by one holding authority? I do not know. But what I do know is that the remission of sins is only made possible by the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that he has prescribed that condition, again and again. His sacrifice paid the price for my sins, and he has prescribed the conditions upon which I can be saved by his payment. That is reason enough for me.
“. . . As the prophets of this dispensation have told us, the missionaries’ purpose of being in the mission field ‘is to save souls, to baptize converts,’ which is to open the doors of the celestial kingdom to the sons and daughters of God.
“No one else can do this.
“Other churches cannot do it.
“Good Christian living cannot do it.
“Good faith, good desires, and good reasoning cannot do it.
“Only the priesthood of God can administer a baptism that will satisfy the divine decree that ‘Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God’ (John 3:5).
“The doctrinal basis of missionary work is the word of God, revealed in every age, that man cannot be saved in the celestial kingdom without the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and that the only way to lay claim to the merits of that atonement is to follow the command of its author: ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you’ (Acts 2:38).” (“Baptism, the Atonement, and the Doctrinal Basis of Missionary Work,” MTC devotional message, June 23, 1992, 3, 8).
Now, let me conclude with this instruction from the Lord, given through the Prophet Joseph Smith in June 1829, nearly a year before the Church was organized: “And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father” (D&C 15:6; 16:6).
That applies to all of us. And may that be our happy lot is my humble prayer. I want all of you here today to know, as I think you do, that I love the Lord Jesus Christ, I love His gospel, I love His servants, and I delight in His word. I close with just one verse of a hymn that I have come to love very much:
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin,
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee,
How great thou art! How great thou art!
(Stuart K. Hine, Hymns [1985], 86)
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
68. Our Country's Birthday
A short talk given by five-year-old Mary in the Primary of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward on Sunday morning, July 1, 1990, and published in the Family Journal on Monday, July 16, 1990. Our country was celebrating its 214th birthday on July 4, 1990. In another two months Mary would begin Kindergarten.
This Wednesday is the Fourth of July, our country’s birthday. In the Book of Mormon it tells us how Heavenly Father has blessed this land and made it a special place.
It says: “Behold, this is a choice land and it shall be free from all other nations if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ.”
I hope we can celebrate our country’s birthday, not only with fun and fireworks but also by following Jesus and keeping His commandments.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
This Wednesday is the Fourth of July, our country’s birthday. In the Book of Mormon it tells us how Heavenly Father has blessed this land and made it a special place.
It says: “Behold, this is a choice land and it shall be free from all other nations if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ.”
I hope we can celebrate our country’s birthday, not only with fun and fireworks but also by following Jesus and keeping His commandments.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
67. Because of Jesus, We Will Live Again
A short talk given by seven-year-old Eliza on Sunday morning, May 20, 1990, in the Primary of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward. The talk was printed in the May 21, 1990, Family Journal. Eliza at the time was just about to finish her Kindergarten year in school.
Last Monday my dad’s brother [Ray] died. I went to see him. It looked like he was asleep. His spirit went up to the spirit world. The spirit makes you run and jump and play.
Because of Jesus our spirits will come back. Each of us will die, and because of Jesus we will get resurrected.
I’m thankful for Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Last Monday my dad’s brother [Ray] died. I went to see him. It looked like he was asleep. His spirit went up to the spirit world. The spirit makes you run and jump and play.
Because of Jesus our spirits will come back. Each of us will die, and because of Jesus we will get resurrected.
I’m thankful for Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
66. Easter
A talk given by eight-year-old Camilla in the Primary of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward on the morning of Easter Sunday, April 15, 1990. The talk was printed on the cover of the Family Journal on Monday, April 16, 1990. Camilla at the time was a second grader at Bountiful Elementary.
When Jesus was being crucified in Jerusalem, there were many things happening in America. There were floods and earthquakes and storms, and it was dark for three whole days. The people could not see the sun or light candles, and they were scared.
After three days the darkness was gone, and then they could see. They looked around and saw that many people had died.
Then they heard a voice. It was Heavenly Father. He said, “Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him” (3 Nephi 11:7).
And then they looked up and saw a bright light and saw a man coming down from the light. He said:
“Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.
“And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning” (3 Nephi 11:10–11).
He showed the people his hands and his feet. He taught them many things. And he blessed the children. It was a very happy time.
I know that Jesus lives and loves us and wants us to keep His commandments. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
When Jesus was being crucified in Jerusalem, there were many things happening in America. There were floods and earthquakes and storms, and it was dark for three whole days. The people could not see the sun or light candles, and they were scared.
After three days the darkness was gone, and then they could see. They looked around and saw that many people had died.
Then they heard a voice. It was Heavenly Father. He said, “Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him” (3 Nephi 11:7).
And then they looked up and saw a bright light and saw a man coming down from the light. He said:
“Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.
“And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning” (3 Nephi 11:10–11).
He showed the people his hands and his feet. He taught them many things. And he blessed the children. It was a very happy time.
I know that Jesus lives and loves us and wants us to keep His commandments. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
65. Jesus
A talk by six-year-old Eliza Cleverly given on Sunday morning, December 3, 1989, in the Primary of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward, Bountiful Utah South Stake. During her talk she showed pictures from events in the life of the Savior. The same afternoon Eliza also bore her testimony in fast and testimony meeting. At the time she was in Kindergarten.
I’m going to talk about Jesus. The angels came to tell the shepherds the baby Jesus was born so they could come and worship Him.
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, and He wants us all to get baptized.
Here is Jesus teaching the people the gospel and telling them about the commandments.
Here is Jesus healing the blind.
Here is Jesus in a boat during the storm when He said, “Peace, be calm.”
Here is Jesus praying in the Garden before He got crucified.
Here is Jesus after He got resurrected, and Mary was the first one to see Him.
Jesus was showing His disciples His hands and His feet.
He took His disciples out of Jerusalem and told them to teach the gospel to all the people. He said, “I'll be back some day.”
Here’s Jesus coming back.
Jesus wants us to obey the commandments. Since it’s almost Christmas, I want you to always remember Jesus and when He was crucified for us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I’m going to talk about Jesus. The angels came to tell the shepherds the baby Jesus was born so they could come and worship Him.
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, and He wants us all to get baptized.
Here is Jesus teaching the people the gospel and telling them about the commandments.
Here is Jesus healing the blind.
Here is Jesus in a boat during the storm when He said, “Peace, be calm.”
Here is Jesus praying in the Garden before He got crucified.
Here is Jesus after He got resurrected, and Mary was the first one to see Him.
Jesus was showing His disciples His hands and His feet.
He took His disciples out of Jerusalem and told them to teach the gospel to all the people. He said, “I'll be back some day.”
Here’s Jesus coming back.
Jesus wants us to obey the commandments. Since it’s almost Christmas, I want you to always remember Jesus and when He was crucified for us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
64. Atonement, Crucifixion, and Resurrection
An edited version of a talk I gave as a high councilor in the sacrament meeting of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward, Bountiful Utah South Stake, on Sunday, November 12, 1989. I had been called to serve on the high council in March 1987, after serving for about twenty months as second counselor in the bishopric of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward.
Today I want to speak to the young people who are here, those who do not yet know for themselves—independent of their parents or others—that Jesus was the Savior and that His gospel has been restored in our day and that this work is true. And I speak to any others who are still searching, still wondering, still trying to figure out what the gospel is all about. The rest of you can listen if you want.
By assignment, I have been asked to speak today on the atonement and crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is an awesome responsibility.
The Prophet Joseph Smith once declared, “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it” (Teachings, 121).
All other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it. All other things. These events—the Last Supper, the introduction of the sacrament, the Savior’s ordeal in the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal, the trial, the humiliation, the suffering, his hanging on the cross, his death and glorious resurrection—are the crowning events of Christ’s mortal ministry. They are at the center, the heart, the core of what our religion is all about.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie has said that “nothing in the entire plan of salvation compares in any way in importance with that most transcendent of all events, the atoning sacrifice of our Lord. It is the most important single thing that has ever occurred in the entire history of created things; it is the rock foundation upon which the gospel and all other things rest” (Mormon Doctrine [1966], 60; quoted by David B. Haight in Ensign, Nov. 1989, 60).
In 1935 the First Presidency of the Church—consisting then of Presidents Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., and David O. McKay—declared, “Two great truths must be accepted by mankind if they shall save themselves; first, that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Only Begotten, the very Son of God, whose atoning blood and resurrection save us from the physical and spiritual death brought to us by the Fall; and next, that God has again restored to the earth, in these last days, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, His holy Priesthood with the fulness of the everlasting gospel, for the salvation of all men on the earth. Without these truths man may not hope for the riches of the life hereafter” (Improvement Era, Apr. 1935, 194–95).
Hugh B. Brown, who for many years was a member of the Council of the Twelve and for some years a counselor in the First Presidency to President David O. McKay, had perhaps as profound an influence on my young life as any General Authority of that generation. I introduce my remarks today with a story that Elder Brown once told:
“I had a companion,” said Elder Brown, “a fellow officer, who was a very rich man, highly educated. He was a lawyer, had great power, was self-sufficient and he said to me as we often talked of religion (because he knew who I was), ‘There is nothing in life that I would not like to have that I cannot buy with money.’
“Shortly thereafter, he and I with two other officers were assigned to go to the city of Arras, France, which was under siege. It had been evacuated, and upon arrival there we thought there was no one in the city. We noted that the fire of the enemy was concentrated on the cathedral. We made our way to that cathedral and went in. There we found a little woman kneeling at the altar. We paused, respecting her devotion. Then shortly she arose, wrapped her little shawl around her frail shoulders, and came tottering down the aisle. The man among us who could speak better French said, ‘Are you in trouble?’
“She straightened her shoulders, pulled in her chin, and said, ‘No, I’m not in trouble. I was in trouble when I came in here, but I’ve left it at the altar.’
“‘And what was your trouble?’
“She said, ‘I received word this morning that my fifth son has given his life for France. Their father was first, and then one by one all of them have gone. But,’ straightening again, ‘I have no trouble; I’ve left it there because I believe in the im¬mortality of the soul. I believe that men will live again after death. I know that I shall meet my loved ones again.’
“When the little soul went out, there were tears in the eyes of the men who were there, and the one who had said to me that he could purchase anything with money turned to me and said, ‘You and I have seen men in battle display courage and valor that is admirable, but in all my life I have never seen anything to compare with the faith, the fortitude, and the courage of that little woman.’
“Then he said, ‘I would give all the money I have if I could have something of what she has.’”
I would give all the money I have if I could have something of what she has. A Book of Mormon king expressed the same thing in different words: “I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day” (Alma 22:18). And, of course, that is precisely what He does require—that we give away all our sins to know Him and to be saved at the last day.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam introduced death into the world—first, a temporal or physical death, the separation of our spirits from our bodies, and second, a spiritual death, which is a separation or an alienation of our spirits from God.
We are in a fallen state, the Book of Mormon teaches us, and without the Savior’s atoning sacrifice to lift us out of that fallen condition, we would be hopelessly, eternally lost. In and of ourselves, we could never overcome the effects of the temporal death or the spiritual death. When our bodies die and are placed in the grave, they would remain there forever, and there would never be a resurrection. And we would be banished eternally from the presence of our Heavenly Father, for no unclean thing can dwell in His presence, and all of us who have reached the age of accountability have sinned and have fallen short and have become unclean.
Elder Boyd K. Packer some years ago, in what he called the most important message he had ever delivered, spoke of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how He stands as the Mediator between us in our sinful, fallen state and the demands of the eternal law of justice.
It is as though we, in our youthful foolishness, had contracted a great debt quite literally beyond our ability to repay. We knew someday the contract would fall due and we would have to pay, but that day seemed so distant, so far in the future, that we would worry about it later.
Well, as it always happens, the day of accounting arrived, and the contract was due. And our creditor arrived to demand payment. We could not pay; he insisted that we pay.
“Will you show me no mercy?” we pleaded.
“Ah, but mercy is always so one-sided,” he replied.
And there we stood facing each other, neither party wanting to give, our creditor demanding that which he claimed was justly his, we the debtor begging for mercy. It seemed that both could not be satisfied.
And then a Mediator steps forward. He says to the creditor, “I will pay you. It will be just. You can ask for no more.” And turning to us, the debtor, He says, “I will extend mercy to you, but on my own terms.”
And what are those terms? Simply stated, that we have faith in Him, that we repent of our sins, that we express a public willingness to humble ourselves and follow Him into the waters of baptism as a witness that we desire to take His name upon us and follow Him always, that we receive His Holy Spirit to purge out all the uncleanliness within us, that we endure in faith to the end of our lives.
A small price to pay on our part considering what it cost on His part.
Well, His atonement, worked out in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, paid the price. He gave His life for us—for you, for me.
Some lines from one of the great hymns of Christianity, now in our hymnbook, express better than I ever could the overwhelming love and awe and wonder I feel:
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin.
(Stuart K. Hine, Hymns [1985], 86)
Elder McConkie, in the April 1985 general conference, just days before his death delivered a powerful witness of the Lord Jesus Christ:
“His atonement is the most transcendent event that ever has or will ever occur from Creation’s dawn through all ages of a never-ending eternity.
“It is the supreme act of goodness and grace that only a God could perform. . . .
“As pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person.
“I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears.
“But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way” (Ensign, May 1985, 11).
No one who heard Elder McConkie bear that powerful testimony will ever forget it. I have thought about that witness often since I heard it, and I have concluded I can say the same thing: I am one of His witnesses, and in a coming day I too shall wet His feet with my tears, and I shall not know any better then than I know now that He is God’s Almighty Son and that salvation comes in and through His atoning blood and in no other way. The Holy Ghost has revealed that knowledge to my soul.
“How do you prove spiritual truths?” asked Elder McConkie. “How do you prove the resurrection? How do you prove that the Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith? Or that any of the angelic ministrants came who gave him keys and powers and authorities as this was established? Well, as pertaining to Jesus’ day: If Jesus rose from the dead, he is the Son of God! If he is the Son of God, his gospel is true! If his gospel is true, men must believe and obey at their peril! They must accept his truths and be baptized and live the law, or they will be damned! Now what this comes down to is that if the apostles in that day had the power and ability to convince men that Jesus rose from the dead, then they had established the truth and divinity of the Work! And how do you prove the resurrection? As we are going to see, you prove it by testimony” (“The Life of Christ,” address given at the seminar for new mission presidents and wives, June 22, 1979, 2).
Then Elder McConkie proceeds to recount some of the scriptural witnesses of the Savior’s resurrection as recorded in the New Testament. The first was Mary Magdalene, the first mortal to see a resurrected person. She became the first witness of the resurrection. And then there were appearances to other women who had followed Him and to Peter, who was to be the president of the Church.
Later, in the afternoon of that first Easter day, the resurrected Lord appeared to two disciples on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a village apparently seven or eight miles from Jerusalem, about the distance from Bountiful to Salt Lake City. As the two disciples walked along, a stranger joined them and asked them what they were talking about. What? Are you a stranger here? Don’t you know what’s going on? Don’t you listen to the news? (see Luke 24:18–21).
Then He said to them, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25), and He proceeded for the next couple of hours as they walked along to unfold the ancient scriptures concerning Himself. As they arrived at Emmaus, Jesus made as though He would go on, but they insisted that He stop and eat with them. Abide with us, they said, ’tis eventide (see Luke 24:29). So He accepted their invitation, and as He was blessing and breaking the bread the eyes of their understanding were opened and they recognized the resurrected Jesus, and then He disappeared out of their sight.
“Did not our hearts burn within us?” they said to each other as they hurried back to Jerusalem to join an assembly of other disciples who were gathered together that first Easter evening. And as they brought the joyful tale that Jesus was indeed risen, the resurrected Lord appeared again and showed them his hands and his feet and ate in their presence.
There were various other appearances, some of which are recorded in the New Testament record and also in Third Nephi in the Book of Mormon—all affirming that Jesus was indeed the risen Lord, the resurrected Savior, the very Son of God, who died to save us from the temporal and spiritual death that had been introduced into the world.
There is one other witness I want to mention. Elder David B. Haight, in the recent general conference just a month ago, shared a deeply personal and sacred experience he had last spring when he was unconscious after he had had his heart attack. Elder Haight said:
“During the hours and days that followed, there was impressed again and again upon my mind the eternal mission and exalted position of the Son of Man. I witness to you that He is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, Savior to all, Redeemer of all mankind, Bestower of infinite love, mercy, and forgiveness, the Light and Life of the world” (Ensign, Nov. 1989, 59).
He then told of the panoramic view he had of the Savior’s earthly ministry: His baptism, His teaching, His healing the sick and lame, the mock trial, His crucifixion, His resurrection and ascension.
“There followed,” Elder Haight continued, “scenes of His earthly ministry to my mind in impressive detail, confirming scriptural eye-witness accounts. I was being taught, and the eyes of my understanding were opened by the Holy Spirit of God so as to behold many things.
“The first scene was of the Savior and His Apostles in the upper chamber on the eve of His betrayal. Following the Passover supper, He instructed and prepared the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper for His dearest friends as a remembrance of His coming sacrifice. It was so impressively portrayed to me—the overwhelming love of the Savior for each. I witnessed His thoughtful concern for significant details—the washing of the dusty feet of each Apostle, His breaking and blessing of the loaf of dark bread and blessing of the wine, then His dreadful disclosure that one would betray Him.
“He explained Judas’s departure and told the others of the events soon to take place.
“. . . My soul was taught over and over again the events of the betrayal, the mock trial, the scourging of the flesh of even on of the Godhead. I witnessed his struggling up the hill in His weakened condition carrying the cross and His being stretched upon it as it lay on the ground, that the crude spikes could be driven with a mallet into His hands and wrists and feet to secure His body as it hung on the cross for public display.
“Crucifixion—the horrible and painful death which He suffered—was chosen from the beginning. By that excruciating death, He descended below all things, as is recorded, that through His resurrection He would ascend above all things” (Ensign, Nov. 1989, 60).
Well, my young friends, what does all this mean? What does it have to do us here and now? What does it have to do with the way we view the world and understand the gospel? and how we treat others? and the way we live our lives?
At the beginning I shared a story told by Hugh B. Brown. When I was 18 years old, a freshman at Brigham Young University, I had one of the pivotal experiences of my life. President Brown, then a counselor in the First Presidency, spoke that fall at the October 1967 general conference. It was in the priesthood session, and President Brown said:
“O Father, help these young men who are listening tonight, when they go home to get on their knees and commit themselves to thee; and then they may know, and I promise them that they may know, that with thy help they need not fear the future” (Improvement Era, Dec. 1967, 92).
I went home that night, back to my room, and knelt down and offered my life to the Savior and committed everything I had—my time, my talents, my means, my energies—to the Lord for the building of His kingdom. I placed my life on the altar, just as the little woman we mentioned at the beginning placed her burdens on the altar. I have not always lived up to that commitment, but I have tried, and every time I have tried the Lord has blessed me with added blessings and understanding and knowledge and revelation.
So I urge you to go and do likewise. Get on your knees and plead with Heavenly Father to let you know these things are true, that Jesus really was and is all that has been said and written about Him, and that He really did do for us what we’ve talked about here today. Commit your lives to Him and His cause. Give Him everything you have.
That’s one thing we can do as a result of knowing these things. What’s another? Father Lehi—and this is in conclusion—Father Lehi taught his son Jacob: “Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.
“Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.
“Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth . . .” (2 Nephi 2:6–8).
How great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth! We have to be missionaries. We have to share these truths with all of our Father’s other children. We have to go out in the world and tell these things to every living creature.
“. . . Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.
“Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved” (2 Nephi 2:8–9).
Today I want to speak to the young people who are here, those who do not yet know for themselves—independent of their parents or others—that Jesus was the Savior and that His gospel has been restored in our day and that this work is true. And I speak to any others who are still searching, still wondering, still trying to figure out what the gospel is all about. The rest of you can listen if you want.
By assignment, I have been asked to speak today on the atonement and crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is an awesome responsibility.
The Prophet Joseph Smith once declared, “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it” (Teachings, 121).
All other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it. All other things. These events—the Last Supper, the introduction of the sacrament, the Savior’s ordeal in the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal, the trial, the humiliation, the suffering, his hanging on the cross, his death and glorious resurrection—are the crowning events of Christ’s mortal ministry. They are at the center, the heart, the core of what our religion is all about.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie has said that “nothing in the entire plan of salvation compares in any way in importance with that most transcendent of all events, the atoning sacrifice of our Lord. It is the most important single thing that has ever occurred in the entire history of created things; it is the rock foundation upon which the gospel and all other things rest” (Mormon Doctrine [1966], 60; quoted by David B. Haight in Ensign, Nov. 1989, 60).
In 1935 the First Presidency of the Church—consisting then of Presidents Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., and David O. McKay—declared, “Two great truths must be accepted by mankind if they shall save themselves; first, that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Only Begotten, the very Son of God, whose atoning blood and resurrection save us from the physical and spiritual death brought to us by the Fall; and next, that God has again restored to the earth, in these last days, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, His holy Priesthood with the fulness of the everlasting gospel, for the salvation of all men on the earth. Without these truths man may not hope for the riches of the life hereafter” (Improvement Era, Apr. 1935, 194–95).
Hugh B. Brown, who for many years was a member of the Council of the Twelve and for some years a counselor in the First Presidency to President David O. McKay, had perhaps as profound an influence on my young life as any General Authority of that generation. I introduce my remarks today with a story that Elder Brown once told:
“I had a companion,” said Elder Brown, “a fellow officer, who was a very rich man, highly educated. He was a lawyer, had great power, was self-sufficient and he said to me as we often talked of religion (because he knew who I was), ‘There is nothing in life that I would not like to have that I cannot buy with money.’
“Shortly thereafter, he and I with two other officers were assigned to go to the city of Arras, France, which was under siege. It had been evacuated, and upon arrival there we thought there was no one in the city. We noted that the fire of the enemy was concentrated on the cathedral. We made our way to that cathedral and went in. There we found a little woman kneeling at the altar. We paused, respecting her devotion. Then shortly she arose, wrapped her little shawl around her frail shoulders, and came tottering down the aisle. The man among us who could speak better French said, ‘Are you in trouble?’
“She straightened her shoulders, pulled in her chin, and said, ‘No, I’m not in trouble. I was in trouble when I came in here, but I’ve left it at the altar.’
“‘And what was your trouble?’
“She said, ‘I received word this morning that my fifth son has given his life for France. Their father was first, and then one by one all of them have gone. But,’ straightening again, ‘I have no trouble; I’ve left it there because I believe in the im¬mortality of the soul. I believe that men will live again after death. I know that I shall meet my loved ones again.’
“When the little soul went out, there were tears in the eyes of the men who were there, and the one who had said to me that he could purchase anything with money turned to me and said, ‘You and I have seen men in battle display courage and valor that is admirable, but in all my life I have never seen anything to compare with the faith, the fortitude, and the courage of that little woman.’
“Then he said, ‘I would give all the money I have if I could have something of what she has.’”
I would give all the money I have if I could have something of what she has. A Book of Mormon king expressed the same thing in different words: “I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day” (Alma 22:18). And, of course, that is precisely what He does require—that we give away all our sins to know Him and to be saved at the last day.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam introduced death into the world—first, a temporal or physical death, the separation of our spirits from our bodies, and second, a spiritual death, which is a separation or an alienation of our spirits from God.
We are in a fallen state, the Book of Mormon teaches us, and without the Savior’s atoning sacrifice to lift us out of that fallen condition, we would be hopelessly, eternally lost. In and of ourselves, we could never overcome the effects of the temporal death or the spiritual death. When our bodies die and are placed in the grave, they would remain there forever, and there would never be a resurrection. And we would be banished eternally from the presence of our Heavenly Father, for no unclean thing can dwell in His presence, and all of us who have reached the age of accountability have sinned and have fallen short and have become unclean.
Elder Boyd K. Packer some years ago, in what he called the most important message he had ever delivered, spoke of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how He stands as the Mediator between us in our sinful, fallen state and the demands of the eternal law of justice.
It is as though we, in our youthful foolishness, had contracted a great debt quite literally beyond our ability to repay. We knew someday the contract would fall due and we would have to pay, but that day seemed so distant, so far in the future, that we would worry about it later.
Well, as it always happens, the day of accounting arrived, and the contract was due. And our creditor arrived to demand payment. We could not pay; he insisted that we pay.
“Will you show me no mercy?” we pleaded.
“Ah, but mercy is always so one-sided,” he replied.
And there we stood facing each other, neither party wanting to give, our creditor demanding that which he claimed was justly his, we the debtor begging for mercy. It seemed that both could not be satisfied.
And then a Mediator steps forward. He says to the creditor, “I will pay you. It will be just. You can ask for no more.” And turning to us, the debtor, He says, “I will extend mercy to you, but on my own terms.”
And what are those terms? Simply stated, that we have faith in Him, that we repent of our sins, that we express a public willingness to humble ourselves and follow Him into the waters of baptism as a witness that we desire to take His name upon us and follow Him always, that we receive His Holy Spirit to purge out all the uncleanliness within us, that we endure in faith to the end of our lives.
A small price to pay on our part considering what it cost on His part.
Well, His atonement, worked out in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, paid the price. He gave His life for us—for you, for me.
Some lines from one of the great hymns of Christianity, now in our hymnbook, express better than I ever could the overwhelming love and awe and wonder I feel:
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin.
(Stuart K. Hine, Hymns [1985], 86)
Elder McConkie, in the April 1985 general conference, just days before his death delivered a powerful witness of the Lord Jesus Christ:
“His atonement is the most transcendent event that ever has or will ever occur from Creation’s dawn through all ages of a never-ending eternity.
“It is the supreme act of goodness and grace that only a God could perform. . . .
“As pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person.
“I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears.
“But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way” (Ensign, May 1985, 11).
No one who heard Elder McConkie bear that powerful testimony will ever forget it. I have thought about that witness often since I heard it, and I have concluded I can say the same thing: I am one of His witnesses, and in a coming day I too shall wet His feet with my tears, and I shall not know any better then than I know now that He is God’s Almighty Son and that salvation comes in and through His atoning blood and in no other way. The Holy Ghost has revealed that knowledge to my soul.
“How do you prove spiritual truths?” asked Elder McConkie. “How do you prove the resurrection? How do you prove that the Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith? Or that any of the angelic ministrants came who gave him keys and powers and authorities as this was established? Well, as pertaining to Jesus’ day: If Jesus rose from the dead, he is the Son of God! If he is the Son of God, his gospel is true! If his gospel is true, men must believe and obey at their peril! They must accept his truths and be baptized and live the law, or they will be damned! Now what this comes down to is that if the apostles in that day had the power and ability to convince men that Jesus rose from the dead, then they had established the truth and divinity of the Work! And how do you prove the resurrection? As we are going to see, you prove it by testimony” (“The Life of Christ,” address given at the seminar for new mission presidents and wives, June 22, 1979, 2).
Then Elder McConkie proceeds to recount some of the scriptural witnesses of the Savior’s resurrection as recorded in the New Testament. The first was Mary Magdalene, the first mortal to see a resurrected person. She became the first witness of the resurrection. And then there were appearances to other women who had followed Him and to Peter, who was to be the president of the Church.
Later, in the afternoon of that first Easter day, the resurrected Lord appeared to two disciples on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a village apparently seven or eight miles from Jerusalem, about the distance from Bountiful to Salt Lake City. As the two disciples walked along, a stranger joined them and asked them what they were talking about. What? Are you a stranger here? Don’t you know what’s going on? Don’t you listen to the news? (see Luke 24:18–21).
Then He said to them, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25), and He proceeded for the next couple of hours as they walked along to unfold the ancient scriptures concerning Himself. As they arrived at Emmaus, Jesus made as though He would go on, but they insisted that He stop and eat with them. Abide with us, they said, ’tis eventide (see Luke 24:29). So He accepted their invitation, and as He was blessing and breaking the bread the eyes of their understanding were opened and they recognized the resurrected Jesus, and then He disappeared out of their sight.
“Did not our hearts burn within us?” they said to each other as they hurried back to Jerusalem to join an assembly of other disciples who were gathered together that first Easter evening. And as they brought the joyful tale that Jesus was indeed risen, the resurrected Lord appeared again and showed them his hands and his feet and ate in their presence.
There were various other appearances, some of which are recorded in the New Testament record and also in Third Nephi in the Book of Mormon—all affirming that Jesus was indeed the risen Lord, the resurrected Savior, the very Son of God, who died to save us from the temporal and spiritual death that had been introduced into the world.
There is one other witness I want to mention. Elder David B. Haight, in the recent general conference just a month ago, shared a deeply personal and sacred experience he had last spring when he was unconscious after he had had his heart attack. Elder Haight said:
“During the hours and days that followed, there was impressed again and again upon my mind the eternal mission and exalted position of the Son of Man. I witness to you that He is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, Savior to all, Redeemer of all mankind, Bestower of infinite love, mercy, and forgiveness, the Light and Life of the world” (Ensign, Nov. 1989, 59).
He then told of the panoramic view he had of the Savior’s earthly ministry: His baptism, His teaching, His healing the sick and lame, the mock trial, His crucifixion, His resurrection and ascension.
“There followed,” Elder Haight continued, “scenes of His earthly ministry to my mind in impressive detail, confirming scriptural eye-witness accounts. I was being taught, and the eyes of my understanding were opened by the Holy Spirit of God so as to behold many things.
“The first scene was of the Savior and His Apostles in the upper chamber on the eve of His betrayal. Following the Passover supper, He instructed and prepared the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper for His dearest friends as a remembrance of His coming sacrifice. It was so impressively portrayed to me—the overwhelming love of the Savior for each. I witnessed His thoughtful concern for significant details—the washing of the dusty feet of each Apostle, His breaking and blessing of the loaf of dark bread and blessing of the wine, then His dreadful disclosure that one would betray Him.
“He explained Judas’s departure and told the others of the events soon to take place.
“. . . My soul was taught over and over again the events of the betrayal, the mock trial, the scourging of the flesh of even on of the Godhead. I witnessed his struggling up the hill in His weakened condition carrying the cross and His being stretched upon it as it lay on the ground, that the crude spikes could be driven with a mallet into His hands and wrists and feet to secure His body as it hung on the cross for public display.
“Crucifixion—the horrible and painful death which He suffered—was chosen from the beginning. By that excruciating death, He descended below all things, as is recorded, that through His resurrection He would ascend above all things” (Ensign, Nov. 1989, 60).
Well, my young friends, what does all this mean? What does it have to do us here and now? What does it have to do with the way we view the world and understand the gospel? and how we treat others? and the way we live our lives?
At the beginning I shared a story told by Hugh B. Brown. When I was 18 years old, a freshman at Brigham Young University, I had one of the pivotal experiences of my life. President Brown, then a counselor in the First Presidency, spoke that fall at the October 1967 general conference. It was in the priesthood session, and President Brown said:
“O Father, help these young men who are listening tonight, when they go home to get on their knees and commit themselves to thee; and then they may know, and I promise them that they may know, that with thy help they need not fear the future” (Improvement Era, Dec. 1967, 92).
I went home that night, back to my room, and knelt down and offered my life to the Savior and committed everything I had—my time, my talents, my means, my energies—to the Lord for the building of His kingdom. I placed my life on the altar, just as the little woman we mentioned at the beginning placed her burdens on the altar. I have not always lived up to that commitment, but I have tried, and every time I have tried the Lord has blessed me with added blessings and understanding and knowledge and revelation.
So I urge you to go and do likewise. Get on your knees and plead with Heavenly Father to let you know these things are true, that Jesus really was and is all that has been said and written about Him, and that He really did do for us what we’ve talked about here today. Commit your lives to Him and His cause. Give Him everything you have.
That’s one thing we can do as a result of knowing these things. What’s another? Father Lehi—and this is in conclusion—Father Lehi taught his son Jacob: “Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.
“Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.
“Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth . . .” (2 Nephi 2:6–8).
How great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth! We have to be missionaries. We have to share these truths with all of our Father’s other children. We have to go out in the world and tell these things to every living creature.
“. . . Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.
“Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved” (2 Nephi 2:8–9).
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