The Missionary of the Second Century

ELDER STEPHEN L. RICHARDS ¶

I thank God, my Heavenly Father, for this glorious occasion. My heart has been touched by the inspiration of the great messages which have come to us and by the contemplation of the century of achievement through which the Church has passed. ¶

I humbly invoke the blessings of the Lord upon the words which I shall utter, that they may be in some measure worthy. ¶

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO ¶

The scene was set one hundred years ago. America was newer then than now. The Alleghanies were in the west. Illinois and Missouri were the extreme frontier. Roads were trails and communication was difficult. Life in the villages and even in the cities was highly provincial, as it ever must be without adequate transportation facilities. Agriculture was the chief occupation of the people. The machine age and industrial era had not yet come. The nation was in the making, very young — still an experiment. A union had been formed but not understood by all the contracting parties. It had not then been subjected to ¶

the terrible test of blood and battle through which its real birth came. Pioneering — the subjugation of the soil — was the vocation of the people. Religion and politics were their avocations. Education was very limited. Lands must be reclaimed before schools and colleges can be built. But there were churches and creeds, and high partizanship and intense prejudices. Amusements were not so common as now. People were serious — very serious — and religion occupied much of their time and more of their thought. ¶

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH PROJECTED ¶

Onto such a scene the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was dramatically projected. It was not viewed with indifference as it might have been in the day of tolerance in which we live. The circumstances leading to it — the heavenly vision of the young prophet, the miraculous discovery and translation of the gold plates, the bestowal of divine authority — were a challenge to the professors of religion which they could not and were not disposed to ignore. The circumstances undermined the fundamentals of their creeds. The vision revised the prevalent conception of the personality of God and the doctrine that revelation had closed; the Book of Mormon upset existing archaeological theories and gave a new interpretation of the Gospel; and if divine authority had been conferred by heavenly messengers, why then men theretofore had not held it. ¶

INTOLERANCE AND BITTERNESS ENCOUNTERED ¶

These things the religionists sensed, even if they did not express them. So they were not tolerant, they were not indifferent. They were aroused, they were resentful and with bitterness and persecution they made the way of the young prophet and the new church hard indeed. We believe that the spirit of opposition was engendered by the adversary of light and truth. Even so it was surely intensified by a consciousness, though only partially understood, of the far-reaching effect of the new establishment on the creeds and institutions of the time. ¶

A NEW KINGDOM ¶

And the fears and apprehensions were well founded, although the bitterness and persecution were not. In no land other than America could the young Church have taken root sufficiently to stand. Even in the liberty of our country its early years were in great hazard. A new dispensation of the Gospel was ushered in, new interpretations were given irreconcilable with those being taught, and a new kingdom was set up, a kingdom that was spiritual in nature but one which so permeated every fiber and tissue of living that it came to be construed by many as of temporal jurisdiction. So vital was this new kingdom to its adherents and so completely did it command their affection, their energies and devotion, that those who came in contact with it and were not of it became violently jealous of its influence and its power. They saw the masterful leadership of its authorities; they saw a man loved and ¶

revered as if he were indeed a prophet, they saw a unity and cohesion among the members incomparable to any they had known; and they saw progress and achievement that strangely galled like wormwood their envious hearts. ¶

THAT WHICH PROMPTED OPPOSITION ¶

I have tried diligently and sincerely to discover the factors which prompted the bitter and violent opposition to the Church in its early rise, and I reach the conclusion from the recorded facts which I know that it is ascribable chiefly to simple, unadulterated jealousy of its superb cooperation, unity, and control, and a fear that such worthy qualities would make it unassailable and triumphant. I am sure that this has been so in politics and business. I believe it has been true in the ecclesiastical field. No other reason could well exist. The leaders taught only good principles and the acknowledged virtues. The Priesthood ruled by kindness and persuasion and not by force. The cooperative objectives of the people were worthy. They were loyal citizens of the governments under which they lived, and their lives were unusually pure and upright. I grant that the doctrine of plural marriage contravened established custom, but the enmity came before the announcement of that doctrine and has long since survived the abandonment of its practice. I cannot find any instance where the Church, acting under official guidance, has ever brought to any person, community, state or nation anything but moral and civic righteousness, high idealism, and worthy accomplishment. ¶

When I speak of those who have violently opposed the establishment and work of the Church I mean to limit the number to those who have had contact with it and opportunity to observe its people and its ways. I do not include many thousands who have traduced us because they have never known us and have unconsciously been the victims of false and malignant reports. ¶

GROWTH IN SPITE OF OPPOSITION ¶

In spite of opposition the Church grew. Every year brought an increase; no year a decrease. It met successfully every difficulty. Enemies within and without could not stay it. It survived, not without unspeakable sorrow but without retardation, its severest calamity — the martyrdom of its president, prophet and revelator. It endured mobbings, drivings, devastations, privations and inexpressible cruelties but it never faltered. It went on and on in its destined course until it is what you acclaim it today, your pride and mine, a benefactor to mankind, and I think I may say with assurance a marvel in the eyes of thoughtful observers. ¶

THE CAUSE QF ITS GROWTH ¶

Why has it grown? Because it has ever had within it the seeds and essence of life. It is vital to its members and to the world. It so intimately touches every phase of living that it means everything or ¶

nothing. It is authoritative. The authority is real, not symbolic, to those who accept it. Its ordinances are efficacious and its faith is a living, moving faith founded on individual conviction and testimony, the witness of the Divine Spirit to the spirit of man. ¶

Individual testimony brings a sense of personal responsibility. Every man who has received has felt a duty to give,, and that sense has prompted him to, respond to the direction of the priesthood. (We have been criticized because of our proclivities for proselyting. We would be untrue to the genius of our faith if we failed to share the gifts of the Gospel with others. So long as we conceive ourselves to be custodians of the truth we must disseminate it. I would like to pay tribute to those who have carried the message. ¶

THE OUTSTANDING ACCOMPLISHMENT ¶

Comparisons are odious. They are often erroneous and lead to difficulty, but if I were asked to name the outstanding, distinctive organized accomplishment of the Church of Christ in the last century I would, without much hesitation, set forth its phenomenal missionary labors and system. Nothing more truly characterizes the altruism of the Gospel that it teaches. Nothing more deeply signifies the devotion and. sincerity of its members. ¶

It would be interesting to know the number of missionaries who have been sent forth and the money value of their maintenance and time since the organization of the Church. These figures are not available in full detail, but from such investigation as I have been able to make I give you the following estimates. There have been approximately sixty thousand missionaries in the Church. The average length of a mission is twenty months, or six hundred days. Thirty-six million days of missionary service have been contributed at an average expense outlay of one dollar per day. This money has been taken out of Latterday Saint communities and spent away from home. If the reasonable value of a missionary's productive time may be set at three dollars per day there may be added to the expense item one hundred eight millions, making the grand total of money cost of the missionary service something like one hundred forty-four millions of dollars, a sum nearly equal to the estimated cost of the Boulder dam, the largest project of its kind the United States government has ever undertaken. ¶

The enormous cost of the service has been widely distributed — shared by nearly every family in the Church. Many families have sent forth more than one missionary and not infrequently has a home kept one or more missionaries in the field continuously, for ten or a dozen years, and sometimes for a quarter of a century. ¶

I know of no way of securing comparable data from other religious bodies, but I venture the assertion that no other church at any period in history for a century of time has ever given to missionary service such a proportion of its membership and its available resources. ¶

TWO GREAT ARMIES. ¶

For a hundred years there have been two armies constantly on the ¶

march — an'army of missionaries outbound from Zion, carrying the banner of Gospel peace and liberty; an inbound army of freed and happy people, faith and hope shining in every face, seeking the shelter, the inspiration and the glorious opportunities of a fair land and a divinely appointed society. Contingents of these armies have passed on almost every highway of the world; in the states; from the Americas, North and South; up and down the devious waters of the Mississippi where missionaries of the early days, like Brigham, and Heber, and Willard, and Parley, and Erastus, went on flatboats to embark on slow sailing vessels on their long tedious voyages to their fields in Britain, Scandinavia and the Continent; across Europe to the lands of the Arab and the Turk and on into far off India; over the broad expanse of the Pacific to and from Hawaii and the distant isles of the South Seas. As the missionaries have passed the immigrants in these great countermarches of the century, whether in their ships at sea or as they paused to clasp hands in their weary trek across the prairie, one can fancy their salutation, not always spoken perhaps, but ever in their hearts. The missionary says "We go to carry the Gospel." "Thank God we have it!" the convert replies and then adds: "We will follow you later." And so, indeed, they have, in one heroic round. Missionary to convert then convert to missionary. Great has been their gift. Generously have they given. ¶

VITAL GIFTS ¶

What has been given ? Why, to. every man what he needed. To the poor, they who are so many, the gospel of thrift; to the rich, who are so few, the gospel of giving; to the intemperate, the gospel of self-control; to the indolent the gospel of work; to the downcast the gospel of hope; to the militant the gospel of peace; to the ignorant freedom from superstition; to the cynical and the wavering a vital, satisfying philosophy; to the sinner the gospel of repentance; and to all faith, purity idealism, happiness and exaltation. ¶

Is it difficult, then, to discover the urge which has made possible this remarkable missionary achievement? I think it is not. Such gifts, such faith, such vital endowments, are highly esteemed by man. They enrich his life, they enlarge his heart and fill him with gratitude. He thanks God and seeks to express his gratitude in terms of devotion and service. He sees no service comparable to that of giving to others the boon that he enjoys, and so he goes forth, not grudgingly, not merely out of a painful sense of duty, but cheerfully, eagerly, to requite the supreme blessing of his life and derive new and surpassing joy in the sharing of his joy. ¶

INTEREST IN MISSIONARY SERVICE NOT DIMINISHED ¶

I thank the Lord that the ardor for the service has not dulled with the passing of time. On every hand I see evidences which convince me that the members of the Church love to proclaim the Gospel. If men cannot go themselves they send their sons and daughters. Widows toil ¶

and scrimp to keep a missionary. Girls work to provide expense for brothers and young husbands. Quorums, wards and societies contribute, and occasionally a rich man opens up a generous heart and maintains a half dozen in the field. ¶

Those who go are blessed and the homes and communities which send them also. Crude country boys from the farm and the range have been exposed to the education and culture of extensive travel and metropolitan life in the great cities. Young men from the city have been subjected to the rigors of the most primitive rural life. The knowledge, the tolerance, the adventure, the polish and the experience which world-wide travel brings have been during the whole history of the Church, a product of our missionary system. I feel sure that in no other communities on the earth is the percentage of those who have "seen the world" so large as in the villages, towns and cities of the Latter-day Saints. ¶

RESULTS MORE VITAL ¶

Such benefits, however, while important, are but incidental. The more vital results are deeper than enlarged information and polish. The fundamental character of our manhood and womanhood has been improved. Sacrifice has taught self-control; giving has made for generosity as it always does; teaching the virtues has brought them into application, and high spirituality has ingrained testimony and soul development. The general uplift in all standards of living which the Church has brought to its adherents is in no small measure directly attributable to its missionary system. How it has blessed the home ! Fathers who have paid and prayed, mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts who have been anxious and worried and true, little tots whose first lisped prayers have been, "Please God, keep our missionary !" have made the home a sanctuary indeed, the foundation of our religions life. ¶

BY HUMBLE MEN AND WOMEN ¶

This remarkable missionary work has been accomplished by humble men and women. Their equipment, in the main, has not been the training of schools. It has been the influence and discipline of good homes, church organization, and individual testimony. The influence of their testimonies and their lives has been more potential than their preaching. The only eloquence they have required to deliver their message is the eloquence of the message itself, portrayed in the devotion and purity of their lives. They have never had to rant and yell, nor chant and sigh, to make a convert. They have carried the natural, simple, joyous message of the Christ in a natural, cheerful way. Was that not the Savior's way? Did he not ever suit the lesson to the people, their language and understanding? Have we any evidence that he employed rituals, ministerial garb, and sonorous phrases to make it impressive ? I think we have not and I advance as a worthy argument for the divine authenticity of the Gospel we bear the manner of its presentation by the missionaries of our Church. ¶

What these ambassadors of the Lord have done for individuals, ¶

families, communities and nations would fill books. A half million hearts today swell in gratitude for their blessed service. A man contemplates his home, the loving family which surround him, his prosperous business, the esteem of his fellow men, the fraternity of his brethren in the priesthood, his faith, his contentment, his glorious hopes; and from the depths of his soul he cries: "God bless the missionary who brought me this !" ¶

AFTER A HUNDRED YEARS ¶

Well the scene is set again, a hundred years later. The world is older than it was, not so provincial, better educated, more tolerant, perhaps more indifferent to the uses of religion, certainly more free from superstition, and infinitely better equipped to carry on the work of the world. Many things have passed into history and the great beyond. Hardships and cruelties, thank the Lord, have lost their sting and the resentment they once provoked. Men have died, but they have not died in vain. Joseph is not here but his successor is here. The power that sustained him is here. Here and now are the people and the truth, the needs and the opportunities. I am grateful that the message has not changed. It has stood the test of a century. It has not changed because it is true. Truth endures. ¶

A REDEDI CATION TO A WORTHY CAUSE ¶

For these things we celebrate. Our hearts cry out praises to God. We are subdued in the presence of marvelous accomplishment — his accomplishment, not ours. But the triumph is not an end, it is a beginning. The only celebration worthy of the cause is a rededication to it. Its progress has been made by service. It never required service so much as now. If the Prophet Joseph were here, and I cannot think he is far away, he would speak as does our President, charging us to prepare to go forth into a new century of enlarged opportunity and carry the glad tidings of great joy to a new generation of God's children. ¶

So it is the missionary who is to serve the next century as he has the old. God provide him and God keep him, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶