44. More Joy in His Service

A talk I gave in a Missionary Department devotional on Tuesday morning, March 14, 1978, on the 12th floor of the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City, Utah. I worked in the Presiding Bishopric’s Office from April 1974 until November 1976, when I transferred to the Missionary Department. Just before I spoke, we sang the hymn “More Holiness Give Me” (number 114 in the 1948 hymnal in use at that time; number 131 in the 1985 hymnbook). The story I told about my great-grandparents, Charles and Eliza Batt, can be found in chapter 2 of Batt & Lee Ancestors.

There is a line in the hymn we just sang that I want to use as my theme this morning:

More joy in his service,
More purpose in prayer.

One hundred and thirty-six years ago this Friday the Prophet Joseph Smith founded the Relief Society organization. One of its stated purposes—both then and now—was to render compassionate service. “This is a charitable society,” taught the Prophet, “and according to your natures; it is natural for females to have feelings of charity and benevolence. You are now placed in a situation in which you can act according to those sympathies which God has planted in your bosoms” (Teachings, 226).

I want to talk a minute this morning about compassionate service by first relating two stories—both of them true—and then reading a scripture, and then making a few comments.

The first story comes from the history of my great-grandparents, Charles and Eliza Batt. As a young couple in England they heard the gospel, were baptized, and within a month left to come to America. This was in the 1880s. They had been married just a few years and had one small child when they came.

As soon as they arrived in Utah, they went to the Cache Valley, and after only three days my great-grandfather left his wife and baby alone in a strange new land without any friends and went away for the rest of the summer to help put railroad tracks and telephone lines into the Cache Valley. He was gone all summer, and the record states that “by the time he had paid for his board and room, he had only five dollars to take home to his family.”

Well, Charles tried farming and wasn’t very successful at it. In England he had been a gardener, a landscaper, and had been employed on the estate of the poet Shelley, evidently one of the most beautiful estates in all of England at that time. But he wasn’t a very good farmer—as I wouldn’t be if I were a farmer—and the family got poorer and poorer. They also kept having babies, which didn’t seem to help matters.

I mention all of this just to set the scene for the incident I want to read from their history; let me quote from a few places here:

“Charles wasn’t a good farmer, and the land was sandy and rough. . . . Charles and Eliza worked hard, but the crops didn’t do well. Eliza helped pick up potatoes to help Charles. She also did washing for a lady in Lewiston in order to get a tub, a washboard, and soap so she could do her own wash.

“Another baby was on the way. The family was so poor that they finally had to ask for help. Sister Kemp went with Eliza to the president of the Relief Society to ask for clothes for the new baby.”

One year, according to the record, the potatoes were so small that they couldn’t peel them, and evidently that was one of the main things they had to eat. Then comes this classic statement:

“The longer Charles tried to farm the poorer they got. Farming in Utah was so different from the farming in England.”

After a time, Charles went into Logan to see if he could find more suitable work there. Through a series of experiences and acquaintances, he finally obtained a job at the then Utah Agricultural College—now Utah State University—which was just then being built in Logan. He was hired initially as a handyman, a sort of jack-of-all-trades I guess, and then later as a gardener. And now I’m to the incident I wanted to relate:

“Sickness struck shortly after their move to Logan. All three children became desperately ill. The baby Ernest wasn’t quite 15 months old when he passed away October 21, 1890. Doll and Bill were still very sick children at the time their little brother died. Charles and Eliza were saddened and had a great decision to make. Where were they going to get the money to bury their little son? Charles had not received his first paycheck from the college, and they didn’t know anyone who could loan them the money. Charles decided to go see the undertaker and see what could be arranged. Eliza got on her knees and offered a humble prayer that things would work out.

“Charles went to the Lindquist Mortuary and told Mr. Lindquist of his troubles. He said he would sign a bank note or anything Mr. Lindquist thought best. After hearing Charles’s story of joining the Church in England and coming to America for the gospel, Mr. Lindquist told Charles he would not have to sign a note or anything else. He would take Charles at his word and knew he would pay him when he could. Mr. Lindquist had been a convert himself and had come to America too and knew how Charles felt.

“While Charles was in Mr. Lindquist’s office, a Mr. H. G. Hayball came in. Mr. Lindquist introduced them, telling Mr. Hayball that Charles was one of his countrymen and also a convert to the Church. Mr. Hayball and his brother owned a grocery store in Logan. Mr. Lindquist told Mr. Hayball that the Batt family needed some food. Mr. Hayball invited Charles to come with him and take home some groceries. Charles could pay him anytime.

“Charles was so overcome by the kindness of these two men that he couldn’t talk. Mr. Hayball asked Charles what part of town he lived in. When he found out, he told Charles to go see Mrs. Ross Neil-son and to tell her that H. G. Hayball said to let him have some fresh milk for the sick children and that he’d make it good to her.

“Charles took the groceries and went home. He found Doll feeling a little better, but Bill [he was my grandfather] was still burning with fever and was a very sick little boy.

“Charles took a small bucket and went in search of Mrs. Neilson. He told her who had sent him and why he wanted the milk. After hearing his story, Sister Neilson put a shawl over her, took a larger bucket, and got some milk. She also got some eggs and went home with him. Sister Neilson was not a woman of many words, nor very easy to get acquainted with, but she was a good Latter-day Saint who reached out her helping hand. After she talked to Eliza . . . and gave [her] some words of faith and comfort, she left. A short while later, she returned with her daughter and some material to make the burial clothes for [the baby].”

I’m always moved by this story, perhaps because it happened to my people, but also I think because it is a good example of a need and a heartfelt prayer and Christian service in response.

The second story was told by President Harold B. Lee in a Relief Society conference in the Tabernacle:

“Another matter of importance we call compassionate service. My Aunt Jeanette McMurrin told me this interesting story. She was widowed and living with her daughter. One morning her daughter came to her and said, ‘Mother, we don’t have anything to eat in the house. My husband, as you know, has been out of work. I am sorry, Mother.’

“Aunt Jeanette said that she dressed and worked around the house, then closed the door, knelt down, and said, ‘Heavenly Father, I have tried all my life to keep the commandments; I have paid my tithing; I have given service in the Church. We have no food in our house today. Father, touch the heart of somebody so we won’t have to go hungry.’ She said she went about with a feeling of gladness, thinking all would be right.

“There came a knock at the door in a few hours, and there was a little neighbor girl with food in her arms. Choking back the tears, the widow brought the child into the kitchen and said, ‘Set them here, and tell your mother that this came today as an answer to our prayers. We didn’t have any food in our house.’

“Needless to say, the little girl went back and carried that message, and in a little while she returned with still a larger armload. As she brought the bags to the kitchen table, she asked, ‘Did I come this time as an answer to your prayers?’

“My Aunt Jeanette replied, ‘No, my darling, this time you came as a fulfillment of a promise. Fifty years ago when your grandmother was expecting a little child, she didn’t have anything to eat and she was lacking in strength and nourishment. I was the little girl who carried food into her house so that she would have the strength to bring her little baby—your mother—into the world.’ Then she said, ‘The Lord said, “Cast your bread upon the waters, and after many days it shall return again.” This time you have been carrying back to me the foodstuff that I carried into the home of your grandmother so you mother could be born into the world.’ Compassionate service” (Ensign, Feb. 1972, 55–56).

Notice the common threads running through these two stories: a need, earnest prayer, and compassionate service. As we sang a few moments ago,

More joy in his service,
More purpose in prayer.

Now, if I understand the scriptures at all, we have to serve others if we desire an inheritance in the celestial kingdom. Service is that fundamental. In the fourth chapter of Mosiah we read:

“And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visit-ing the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants” (Mosiah 4:26; emphasis added).

And then it continues with this interesting instruction:

“And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order” (Mosiah 4:27).

All things must be done in order. That is why, I think, the Lord in His mercy allowed the Relief Society to be raised up—so that the sisters in an organized way could render compassionate service to the Church, the same as the priesthood quorums for the brethren, and the welfare services program, and everything that helps us to do it in the Lord’s own way (see D&C 104:14–18).

I bear you my own witness that these things are true. Service is essential to our salvation. May we be involved not only in rendering compassionate service but also in living close enough to the Spirit so that when those who need our help pray for such help we may recognize the promptings and go and serve. And if we do, miracles like the ones we’ve mentioned in these stories will happen in our lives. May such be the case, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.