Fields White for the Harvest

I sincerely trust, my brethren, that what I say shall not in any way detract from the lovely spirit of this conference. We have all been built up in our faith, and may we go home from here strengthened in our desires to serve more faithfully than we have in the past. It is a great thing for men to come together such as we do on these occasions, and as we yesterday observed this vast body of Priesthood we could not help but feel the power and the strength that is here. ¶

Standards for the Priesthood ¶

In the very beginning of this work the Lord said to the father of the Prophet Joseph, through His prophet: Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men. ¶

Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day. (D. & C. 4:1, 2) ¶

Then He goes on to point out that the field is white, ready for the harvest, that he that thrusts in his sickle may reap. Then He adds: Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence. (D. & C. 4:6) ¶

It seems to me the Lord has here set forth the standards by which we should operate in this great Priesthood work, and thinking of the fields as referred to in the revelation and trying to apply them to our own everyday work, I have thought that they might be classified in five divisions. ¶

Importance of Aaronic Priesthood Work ¶

First, we have our duty to our boys — the Aaronic Priesthood. Our boys today are standing at a crossroad. You will recall, you brethren who are working in the Aaronic Priesthood, that bit of verse that appears in your Handbook (page 55), pointing out to us the boy who stands at the crossroads knowing not which way to go. The road stretches east and the road stretches west, and the boy not knowing which road is best, strolls on the road that leads him down, and he loses the race and the victor's crown. And then, we are told, at the selfsame road another boy stands with high hopes and ambitions, but someone is there to show him the road and he wins the race and the victor's crown. ¶

We have here, my brethren, suggested to us our responsibilities in this great work of the Aaronic Priesthood. There is a great inspiration that is going out from the Presiding Bishop's office to all who are interested in the boys' work of the Church, and this work is being followed up. I join with Bishop Richards in commending the bishops and their committees for the fine work they are doing. But there is so much to be done. Our boys need every ounce of energy that we can give, all the interest and direction, and if we but can stand at the crossroads with our boys, in ten years from now we shall have solved the problem of the adult Aaronic Priesthood. And so we have that field. ¶

Then we come into the field of the adult Aaronic Priesthood, another field that is white, ready for the sickle, ready for harvest, thousands and thousands of our brethren in this Church, our own flesh and blood whom we have somewhere neglected. We are not altogether responsible, of course, for their misdeeds, for their shortcomings. Every man must assume his own responsibility, there is no question about that; but there has been failure somewhere along the line; someone has failed in his responsibility in this great work or we would not have the high percentage of men we do have who are for all intents and purposes outside the pale of the Church. In most of the stakes of Zion you will find that half of the men who hold the Aaronic Priesthood are in that adult class; young men who were ordained deacons, perhaps teachers, then were lost as far as the influence of the Church is concerned. Today many of them find themselves out of the Church and its activities. That is another field that demands our attention, our earnest effort. I am only suggesting it here today. You brethren in the stakes and wards are conscious of this, I am sure. ¶

Elders and Seventies ¶

Another field that we are concerned about is the field of the elders, and that might apply also to the seventies, not so much to the high priests. But in our elders' quorums we find that seventy-five percent and over of the membership is inactive — just think of it, seventy-five out of every hundred of the men in this Church that should be active are indifferent to the opportunities and blessings that come through service in the Church. This is another field that is ripe, ready for the sickle, and it is a challenge to us and commands the attention of every thinking man who is interested and feels the responsibility of this work. ¶

Our Duty to Strangers ¶

Then we come to another field that we have not been made conscious of until recently. We are having thousands of strangers come into our midst, men and women who come with prejudices, men and women of the type of which President Taylor spoke a few minutes ago. Many of them are cultured and refined, who have not heard of the virtues of Mormonism, only the negative things. They are coming here to make their homes. We have been sending our elders out in the world to preach the gospel. Now men and women are coming here where we may preach to them, and I commend to you, my brethren in the stakes and wards, this field. I know that a lot of interest is being taken, and, as was suggested here yesterday, what an opportunity for our missionaries, our stake missionaries, the greatest opportunity that they have ever had to bring to our friends who come here the message of peace, that they may know that the Latter-day Saints are in very deed saints of the living God, because of their standards of living, because of their devotion, their friendliness and their kindliness. ¶

Coming back to the statement recorded by the Prophet Joseph: "Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility and diligence." In that spirit, my brethren, must we attack this problem as we go into this field, that we may be in very deed ambassadors of the truth. We want to be friendly, we do not want to make the people who come here feel that we are contacting them in the spirit of warning, in the spirit of criticizing their failings and their shortcomings, but we do want in a positive way to point out the great virtues that lie in the Church of Christ, and in that way we will build up the kingdom. It is not a good policy and never has been to say unkind things about other faiths; we are not concerned about that. We are concerned about the faith of our own Church; we are concerned about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, with all of its virtues, with all of its strength, and in going forth in kindliness, and in charity, and with faith, we may preach the gospel in that spirit, and it seems to me that is the only way we shall be able to attack this problem, so I commend this field for your consideration. ¶

And then another activity, and I can only just suggest it, and that is the field of the boys who are in the armed service. A great deal of good is being done, we have had evidence of that, testimonies of what it means to the boys to be contacted by the people back home through letters and otherwise. As I have gone out into the stakes, some of the outlying stakes, I have found a vast amount of good that has come through the services of President Brown and others and through letters that have come from the stakes. In one of the stakes every boy who has gone into the service has received a letter every month without fail, and many of the responses to these letters have been encouraging and have demonstrated the fact that here is a field that must not be neglected. ¶

So, brethren, I am just suggesting these fields as they occur to me; they are very vital in this great work. ¶

Illustration from Life of Helen Keller ¶

And may I, in conclusion, point out another thing that seems to give us strength, that has given me strength. Sometime ago I had the pleasure of reading a book by Doctor William Dana Thompson who for many years was head of the Roosevelt Hospital in New York. He is now dead. His book is entitled Brain and Personality, and in it he describes two fields of the scientists, the field of the physical, which he calls the field of the brain, and the field of the spiritual, which he calls the field of the personality. In one of his chapters he refers to the life of Helen Keller. You who have read her life will recall that as a child at nineteen months she was stricken with a very serious malady which resulted in her losing her hearing, her sight and, of course, she was not able to speak. The whole world with all its loveliness was shut out of her life. When she was seven years old, her father was persuaded by Alexander Bell, the great telephone magnate, to take the child to an institute in Boston, which institute had adopted the method of lip reading for the deaf. It was here that Helen came in contact with that splendid woman, Miss Anne Sullivan, who was from then on to be Helen's tutor and companion. Doctor Thompson tells how difficult it was to penetrate the darkness in which this child lived. He tells how one day Miss Sullivan, taking the girl out to the pump, and placing a glass in the palm of her hand, she pumped water in it until it overflowed, and as the water trickled down the child's arm, and as the child felt the sensation of the water, Miss Sullivan had her place her hand on Miss Sullivan's lips as she repeated the word "water," and thus the child learned her first word. That was the beginning of light coming into her soul, and Doctor Thompson tells of the little girl's having a little pet pup and how in her ecstasy she takes it to the well and pumping on its little paw, tries to teach it the word "water," but the pup only wags its tail. Doctor Thompson then goes on to point out that the pup was an animal who could see and hear and after a fashion speak, and on the other hand, here was another of the animal kingdom who could neither see nor hear and up till this time could not speak, yet, one remained only a pup while the other was destined to become a great soul. The reason, says he, lies in the fact that the pup was just a dog while in this child there was an immortal spirit — personality he calls it — the offspring of God, the Creator. ¶

As I read that interesting part of Helen Keller's life, I thought what great potential powers do we have as men holding the Priesthood of the living God. We are not only the physical creation of Him, but we have within us that immortal spirit that has come from God, and with that consciousness that all of our brethren are the immortal offspring of our Heavenly Father, and furthermore being endowed with a power that enables us "to grow up unto Him who is the Head, even Christ," how great is our responsibility in that great field that is already white and ready for the harvest! ¶

God help us to appreciate our opportunities and our responsibilities. I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶