The Sacrifice and Service of the Pioneers

I have enjoyed very much, and I have no doubt you have also, the timely instructions of this conference, and I trust that we appreciate the importance of the many valuable things already given unto us. Yesterday, at one of the overflow meetings, I made the assertion without argument that we had in our missionary system one of the best sustained efforts of altruism upon a large scale, considering the number of people that the world in all its history has ever seen. I thank ¶

Brother Roberts for making the argument supporting today, the statement thus made yesterday. ¶

Some one has said that the kingdom of heaven is not for the most learned but for the best, and that the best is the most unselfish; that loving, constant, continuous and voluntary self-sacrifice for the good of others is the glory of man. ¶

We might emphasize for a moment another phase of that splendid chapter of service that was so ably reviewed today by Elder B. H. Roberts, and that is the effect which that service has had upon the individuals participating therein, and also upon their posterity as well as upon those whom they served. The result of the efforts of the brethren in making that sacrifice in going from Kirtland to Missouri in Zion's camp but enabled them and others to perform in a better way that other sacrifice, that other great journey which they were to make from Missouri to Illionis ; and their experience in making that migration enabled them to perform in a better way the higher sacrifice which they were to later make in moving from Illinois to the Rocky Mountains. And the experiences of the brethren in making that journey across the wilderness of a thousand miles enabled them to perform in a splendid way that service of colonization which was so well performed up and down this chain of mountain valleys, and which has made of the "Mormon" people, the world's foremost colonizers. In looking over the audience today and seeing here and there individuals whom I know have made a sublime sacrifice for the good of the Church and for the good of others, I felt how insignificant is anything that I have performed for the Church. The Lord, in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, said: "Wherefore be not weary in well doing, for you are laying the foundation of a great work; and behold, from things that are small proceedeth that which is great." I am a great believer in the truth that none of these acts of loving service and sacrifice can be performed without there being a permanent reward, permanent results left. ¶

In enumerating today, the effort put forth in driving the oxen, I thought also of that other service where men really performed the part of oxen in hitching themselves to the hand-carts and making the same journey across the plains. Perhaps they thought in making that -wonderful sacrifice that there would be no results except their passage to the mountains and yet an impress has been left upon their children and upon their children's children that time will not efface. I have heard strong men and strong women say that when they contemplated the grand sacrifice of their father or mother, in making that hand-cart journey across the plains, they felt that there was no sacrifice too great for them to make for the Church; that if they were to live many years, and be able to crowd into each day a hundred times more good than they were now accomplishing that still they would be unworthy of that father and mother who had the faith and the courage to perform that wonderful work. Many of these acts of heroism, the fruitage of this wonderful service for others, have never been written. Occasionally we hear of some of these instances. I was with our state superintendent of schools, who was recently called home, in the last journey that he made to St. ¶

George, and heard his last speech and testimony. He told of his father, a convert from that same Scandinavian country to which Brother Erastus Snow was called, indeed his people were converts of the preaching of brother Erastus Snow. Superintendent Nelson told the story of how his father waded the Sevier river during high water, having for his protection a rope tied about his body, and held for his protection by one of his sons upon the shore ; in order to carry a letter containing the money for the education of his son to the postoffice. upon the other side of the river, ¶

I was impressed as a boy in reading of how Leonidas, at the pass of Thermopolae with his little band of Spartans, had withstood a whole army and how he probably would have succeeded permanently had it not been for a traitor in showing the enemy a secret pass around the one guarded. I was likewise impressed with the legendary hero Horatius who, at the bridge, kept back the Etruscan hordes; but I have been more thrilled in reading of some of the heroic services of our own boys in connection with this pioneer work, of the sublime service performed by those three boys who carried across the Sweetwater those same hand-cart people who were too emaciated, who were too much enfeebled by starvation and who were too poorly clad to venture into the ice cold water. Those boys carried, one by one, that large company of hand-cart people across that freezing river with its ice floes. There are only a few of these heroic acts that have been put into print. Many of the things performed by the pioneer fathers and by their pioneer children have not yet been written ; but an impress Ua ¶

has been left upon the world by these services of self-sacrifice, and from thing's which are small proceedeth that which is great. It has been particularly true in this missionary service. The tracts, in the wrecked vessel, have not been permanently destroyed, but they have been washed upon the shore to dry, and have been read by the inhabitants of the land, preparing them for other Gospel messages to come. The text announced before the meeting was broken up, the chance text announced has found root and has borne fruitage. The scrap. of paper, containing a portion of a sermon, rolling upon the desert, has been picked up and converts made to the Church. The missionaries have not been able to reap the harvest in the evening of their morning's planting, and generally they have not expected it. We should not be impatient of results nor expect to find, at once, the fruitage, of our labors. If we had the history of those who have been converted to the Church, we would have in almost each instance a sublime story reading almost like a romance, of how a single word struck home and brought them into the Church, and of the sacrifices they made in order to live their religion and to gather to Zion. Those examples in the lives of the people have been impressed upon their children and will be upon their children's children. ¶

May the Lord bless us and help us to appreciate the importance of serving in this cause, of realizing, with the revelation, that indeed we are laying the foundation of a great work, and that it is an honor to take part in this work, and that from things that are small proceedeth that which is great, or as the great ¶

poet has expressed it, "Behold, on what a slender thread hang everlasting things." That has been true with the Gospel in the past, and no doubt will be in the future. These examples of patience and endurance and of devotion for the good of others will not be lost to the world by any means. I have heard great men testify as to the impression that a very small but faithful act had upon them. The constant offering of the fast day donation, a very small offering taken to the fast meeting yet the constancy of some faithful devoted brother in making, in his poverty, the simple offering, not once or twice but each succeeding fast day, year after year, has left an impression upon strong men. ¶

May the Lord bless us and help us in our work of devoting our time, our lives if necessary, for the welfare and good of others, I pray in the names of Jesus. Amen. ¶