Faith in Troublous Times

The Lord says concerning the missionaries and all those who are engaged in his service : ¶

"Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness ; for the power is in them." ¶

We cannot sufficiently appreciate the tremendous importance of this declaration. What power is in them ? It is the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, by which the missionaries work. "For when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost, the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men." ¶

The missionaries are fellow servants with angels — they are workers together with God and Christ for the salvation of souls. "So nigh is grandeur to our dust, so near is God to man." ¶

Three or four years ago I received a letter from a man who with his family has written his name high on the roll of Church workers at home and abroad. I quote from his letter : ¶

"The Southern people are my people. I know them. I am of them. As a family we can never repay the Church for the two weeks labor Elder John K. Lemon performed in our community, in the autumn of 1898. From this small beginning twelve of our family became members of the Church — I am referring to my father's family only — and three of his sons have been honored with approximately ten years of missionary service in the Southern states. The members who have associated themselves with the Church through their efforts, I have no record of, but in my weak way, and handicapped to a great extent, one hundred and five people have received baptism at my hands. There is no way for me to know the number brought into the Church through the missionary labors of my two brothers. The only reason I refer to this is to call your attention to the apparently endless chain system set in operation through the presentation of Mormonism to one family. The thought never occurred to Elder Lemon that such a body of recruits could be assembled in thirty years, counting those I know to have embraced the Gospel directly through my father's and mother's family. All of the ten children are parents of from two to eleven, and the majority of the children are Latter-day Saints. Elder Lemon went hungry in our community, but thirty years later the brief review above shows that hundreds have been fed the bread of life on account of the seed of truth planted deeply in my father's heart. I wish it were possible to have every young man see, as I do, the far-reaching influence and probable results of one man's labors. ¶

"I am happy in the knowledge that my father and mother have been able to leave this sphere of existence with a testimony of the truth. May God bless the missionaries of the South, that they may find hundreds looking for the Gospel, as Elder Lemon found us." ¶

"The power is in them." Oh, how these words ring in my ears ! They echo in my heart. They sound like a trumpet. As I associate with those fine young missionaries I have unbounded confidence in them, for the word of the Lord cannot fail. These devoted young men and young women are a credit to their homes, the Church and the nation. The following lines, with the substitution of two words, apply to the Church : ¶

"Mother of men grown strong in giving — Honor to him thy lights have led : Rich in the toil of thousands living, Proud of the deeds of thousands dead. We who have felt thy power and known thee, We in whose lives thy lights avail, High, in our hearts enshrined, enthrone thee, Mother of men," the Church ! ¶

May God help us in the Sunday School, in all the auxiliary organizations and in Church educational institutions, to develop in the youth this power and light with which God has fortified his disciples, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶