A LEGACY OF SACRIFICE

 

I stand in awe of the early priesthood leaders who strengthened the Church through their missionary labours by leaving their families to further the cause of Zion and to gather Israel. Some sacrifices they made are unfathomable for us in this day and age.

Besides Joseph, my favourite person in all of Church history is the Apostle Orson Hyde. I will attempt here to summarise one particular mission of his that embodies such emotion of feeling that my efforts could not do his achievements justice.

“Sometime in 1832, the Prophet Joseph Smith laid his hands upon the head of a new convert by the name of Orson Hyde and told him, “In due time thou shalt go to Jerusalem, the land of thy fathers, and be a watchman unto the house of Israel; and by thy hands shall the Most High do a great work, which shall prepare the way and greatly facilitate the gathering together of that people.” (Daniel C. Peterson, “Abraham Divided”, Prologue/xv)

Until 1840, Elder Hyde spent most of his missionary labours among the Gentiles but in March of that year, a vision opened to him showing him in succession the cities of London, Amsterdam, Constantinople and Jerusalem. A voice said to him: “Here are many of the children of Abraham whom I will gather to the land that I gave to their fathers; and here also is the field of your labours…..” (Prologue/xvi)

In the April conference of that year, the vote for Elder Hyde’s mission to the Jewish people was approved by a unanimous vote. Elder Hyde and Elder John E. Page departed for Jerusalem on 15^th April 1840.

I can’t explain to you what Elder Hyde went through to reach Jerusalem. This was the age before automobiles, steamships and aircraft. The journey entailed different forms of transport. Elder Page lost interest in Pennsylvania and Elder Hyde had to proceed on his own. In Pennsylvania a total stranger approached him with a purse of gold to finance his passage across the Atlantic to Europe where he became the first Church missionary to travel across the continent of Europe and Asia Minor to proclaim the gospel.

From there he travelled by sea and was reduced to eating snails gathered from the coastal rocks due to shortage of food on the vessel. Once arriving in Jaffa, he had to pass through a lawless area where people were often killed or robbed by marauding Bedouins.

It took more than a year and a half in total to reach Jerusalem.

Before dawn on the morning of Sunday, 24 October 1841, Elder Hyde arose from sleep and “went out of the city as soon as the gates were opened, crossed the brook Kedron, and went upon the Mount of Olives, and there in solemn silence, with pen, ink, and paper, just as he saw in the vision, offered up a prayer to HIM WHO LIVES FOREVER AND EVER”. (Prologue/xxi)

The dedicatory prayer of the land of Jerusalem for the gathering of the Jews that Elder Hyde offered is three full pages long in small print in the History of the Church by Joseph Smith. Today, a garden of five and a quarter acres commemorates Orson Hyde’s visit to the Near East in late 1841. The garden houses a large brass plaque with passages from Elder Hyde’s dedicatory prayer in both English and Hebrew. The garden was dedicated by the Prophet Spencer W. Kimball on 24 October, 1979.

Jerusalem housed 20,000 inhabitants when Orson Hyde arrived. Now it has a population of 7.7 million Jewish residents.

It took Elder Hyde three years in total to accomplish his mission to carry Jehovah’s message to His people Israel which He gave him himself: “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished – that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord’s hand doubly for all her sins.”  (Prologue/xvii)

Glory be to the Holy One who pardons and forgives and gathers His people Israel……

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Orson Hyde Dedicates the Holy Land by Clark Kelley Price)

DESIRES OF THE HEART

 

Is there a more poetic scripture in the Book of Mormon than this: “O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance to every people!” (Alma 29:1). In my last post I wrote about joy. In this chapter, Alma mentions joy six times. He hungers to be an instrument in God’s hands that he might bring some soul to repentance for, says he, this would be his joy (v 9).

Alma’s affirmed that God grants unto men according to their desire (v 4). Consider the process of fulfilment of desires and how they affect our personal development and eventually determine our eternal blessings:

“Desires….become real determinants, even when, with pitiful naivete, we do not really want the consequences of our desires…..therefore, what we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity….Righteous desires need to be relentless, therefore, because, said President Brigham Young, ‘the men and women, who desire to obtain seats in the celestial kingdom, will find that they must battle every day’ (in Journal of Discourses, 11:14). Therefore, true Christian soldiers are more than weekend warriors…..

“President Joseph F. Smith declared that, ‘the education of our desires is one of far-reaching importance to our happiness in life’ (Gospel Doctrine, 5^th ed. [1939], 297). Such education can lead to sanctification until, said President Brigham Young, ‘holy desires produce corresponding outward works’(in Journal of Discourses, 6:170). Only by educating and training our desires can they become our allies instead of our enemies!” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1996, 26-28, or Ensign, Nov 1996, 21-22). In other words, be careful what you desire.

It is clear that educating and cultivating your righteous desire means doing everything possible that is our part in its fulfilment. The cultivation of Alma’s desire evolved into relentless missionary service so much so that ‘he could not rest’ when his sons went to preach ‘and he also went forth’ (Alma 43:1). I am also certain that his personal spiritual preparation was such that the time came for him to be given to speak with the tongue of angels (2 Nephi 32:2).

His desire to be an angel preaching repentance was no doubt realised past his natural mortal life. We are told that Alma was translated, even like Moses ‘to be a ministering angel unto many planets’ until the time of resurrection (Alma 45:18,19; Deuteronomy 34:5,6; Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 4:210)

Alma achieved something incredibly significant through his righteous desire. We are told that he sorrowed greatly and continually for the sins of the people (Alma 7:5; 8:10,14; 31:1,2,30,31; 35:15). Sorrowing for others is a Christ-like attribute. In all his yearning, Alma didn’t only work for the salvation of others but he became like the Master he served. This should be the outcome of every desire of our hearts.

ODE TO ALMA:

He stood between you

And the gaping jaws of hell,

He cherished your soul

And snatched you from everlasting

Misery of the damned.

He planted the seed of faith

In your willing heart

But you, you tilled the ground

And nurtured the tree of faith

Growing the fruit, so exquisite and sweet.

So heavy in your overflowing arms

You sought to feed the spiritually maimed.

He who stood at the gates of Hell

Your soul to save

Gathered the fruit,

Your path to His throne to pave. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art by Briana Shawcraft)

THE REALITIES OF MISSIONARY SERVICE

 

Every time I study the Book of Mormon, I come across evidences that Joseph Smith could never have written this book. I am amazed by its historical complexities, its prophecies, its textual correctness, its overwhelming spirit. I save these discoveries not to prove to me that the Book of Mormon is true, because I know that with every fibre of my being, but because it reminds me of so many truths: that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that this book is indeed the second witness of Christ and that we are so blessed to have additional scripture that enhances the Bible and makes clear so many points of Christ’s doctrine.  

Take special note in the last paragraph of how Elder F. Burton Howard of the Seventy became convinced of the validity of the Book of Mormon:

“I was reading again the twenty-sixth chapter of Alma and the story of Ammon’s mission, I read out loud, as I sometimes do, trying to put myself in the position of the characters in the book, imagining that I was saying or hearing the words, that I was there. Once more I went over the report, and, with a clarity which cannot be described and which would be difficult to comprehend by one who has not experienced it. The Spirit spoke to my soul, saying, Did you notice? Everything that happened to Ammon happened to you?

“It was a totally unexpected sentiment. It was startling in its scope; it was a thought that had never occurred to me before. I quickly reread the story. Yes, there were time when my heart had been depressed and I had thought about going home. I too had gone to a foreign land to teach the gospel to the Lamanites. I had gone forth among them, had suffered hardships, had slept on the floor, endured the cold, gone without eating. I too had traveled from house to house, knocking on doors for months at a time without being invited in, relying on the mercies of God.

“There had been other times when we had entered houses and talked to people. We had taught them on their streets and on their hills. We had even preached in other churches. I remembered the time I had been spit upon. I remembered the time when I, as a young district leader assigned by the mission president to open up a new town, had entered, with three other elders, the main square of a city that had never had missionaries before. We went into the park, sang a hymn and a crowd gathered.

“Then the lot fell on me, as district leader, to preach. I stood upon a stone bench and spoke to the people. I told the story of the restoration of the gospel, of the boy Joseph going in to the grove and the appearance of the Father and the Son to him. I remembered well a group of teenage boys, in the evening shadows, throwing rocks at us. I remembered the concern about being hit or injured by those who did not want to hear the message.

“I remembered spending time in jail while my legal right to be a missionary in a certain country was decided by the police authorities. I didn’t spend enough time in prison to compare myself to Ammon, but I still remember the feeling I had when the door was closed and I was far away from home, alone, with only the mercies of the Lord to rely on for deliverance. I remembered enduring these things with a hope that ‘we might be the means of saving some soul’ (Alma 26:30).

“And then one day as I read, the Spirit testified to me again, and the words remain with me even today: No one but a missionary could have written this story. Joseph Smith could never have known what it was like to be a missionary to the Lamanites, for no one he knew had ever done such a thing before” (“Ammon: Reflections on Faith and Testimony,” in Heroes From the Book of Mormon [1995], 124, 125)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Ammon Before Lamoni, Artist Unknown)

THE NOBILITY OF SACRIFICE

 

In finishing the book of Mosiah this year, I have come to take notice of something about the sons of Mosiah than I had noticed before. Their desire to preach and live with the Lamanites has always impressed me but this year I saw the anguish of their father with whom they pleaded for allowance of such a mission for many days (Mosiah 28:5). The anguish must have been great for Mosiah to approach the Lord for assurance that they would be spared and granted success, which was given (Mosiah 28:6-8). What is interesting is that Mormon mentions the sons’ departure in verse 9 and shortly thereafter he records Mosiah’s death (Mosiah 29:46) suggesting that he never saw his sons again. The nobility of sacrifice……

The sons of Mosiah spent 14 years with the Lamanites. Such sacrifice reminds me of the men of the early pioneers who left their families and travelled far and wide to spread the gospel and ensure the growth of the Church that we enjoy today. As with the sons of Mosiah, they had no mission home, no mission president, no companions even. Many of them travelled and preached alone…..relying on people they didn’t know to feed them and give them shelter to sleep. I stand in awe of such sacrifices as I sit in my air-conditioned chapel and padded seats of the temple enjoying the fruits of their labours. Such nobility of sacrifice…..

When I was waiting for my mission call in 1979, I hoped to go somewhere exotic, in fact, anywhere but Australia, where I lived. I am of Croatian descent and speak the language perfectly so I had hoped that Europe would be my destination. Imagine my disappointed when I was called to Western Australia…..where the only hardship I suffered was the heat! I had a loving Mission President who somehow understood my distress over losing my femininity on a bike in the rain….I had wonderful missionary companions, one of which is one of my dearest friends today. I was surrounded by members who liked me, I taught many people and had a good number of baptisms. Above all, my strict mission taught me the imperative importance of obedience. It was a time in my life I remember with fondness. A small sacrifice really of just 18 months of my life. Nevertheless, I was a new convert to the Church and would like to think there was some nobility in my sacrifice.

Not much of us is expected today in comparison to the people that have gone before us. We are asked to attend Church, fulfill callings, keep the commandments. All this requires ground work however. Sometimes even regular scripture study requires sacrifice. I understand the pressures of modern-day life. I see it in young families and feel grateful I am at the tail end of my life and not at the beginning. Our sacrifices are different and tailored for this day and age, nevertheless, they are needful. From the person who understands the most what sacrifice is: “A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things, never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation” (Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith, Lecture 6:7). And this is why:

“You are on the pathway to eternal fame and immortal glory” - Joseph Smith 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Gift by Annie Henrie Nader) 

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