Elder Marion D. Hanks and Matthew Arnold on Peace

I went through about four more talks - all of them excellent, and some of them still relevant. Not all these older talks age well, but that's the point of General Conference - those talks are for the time that they're given in. Ongoing revelation adjusts us as a church for changing times. All those four will full of scripture - we have so many scriptures to pull from, all of them wonderful.

I was suprised in Elder Marion D. Hanks' talk, "Practicing What We Preach" when he quoted Matthew Arnold, someone I was already familiar with from my exposure to Arthur Henry King's work when I was young, around eleven years old. 

I included a little bit of the talk itself for context:

 

The Quote 

"Our ties with God and each other are everlasting. 

Our homes are sanctuaries from the things and cares of this world. 

Our family is the heart of our eternal hopes. 

Our love is the tender thread that ties us to an endless, creative, increasing union. 

These are the things we believe and preach. 

Can we do more to enjoy the blessings of such concepts in our lives, 

in our homes,

in our families? 

Can we do better while there is time at practicing what we preach?

Matthew Arnold wrote, in Empedocles on Etna:

“We would have inward peace

But will not look within.”

This quote speaks to regular repentance and turning toward Christ and asking His help in our lives. 

Matthew Arnold was a professor and poet (and maybe a wolfman, judging from his picture on Wikipedia) who did frequent commentary on social issues of the day. He is also the first atheist quoted to my knowledge. Conference quotes can come from anyone and everyone.

The story Empedocles on Etna sounds like a real downer, to be honest. It should probably come with a trigger warning, since Empedocles does eventually have an incredibly dramatic death, throwing himself in the volcano - Mount Etna in Sicily. Consider yourself warned, and despite knowing the ending, he was a pretty good poet you could enjoy along the way.

I found the quote - here's the wider thought from the original source. It rings true to the context of Elder Hanks' talk:

The world's course proves the terms
On which man wins content;
Reason the proof confirms —
We spurn it, and invent
A false course for the world, and for ourselves, false powers.

Riches we wish to get,
Yet remain spendthrifts still;
We would have health, and yet
Still use our bodies ill;
Bafflers of our own prayers, from youth to life's last scenes.

We would have inward peace,
Yet will not look within;
We would have misery cease,
Yet will not cease from sin;
We want all pleasant ends, but will use no harsh means;

We do not what we ought,
What we ought not, we do,
And lean upon the thought
That chance will bring us through;
But our own acts, for good or ill, are mightier powers.

Maybe if Empedocles went to the trouble to take his own advice, he could have skipped the volcano. In my experience, anything good in my life comes from constant work and deliberate effort, while everything bad is always the easiest thing to do in the moment, but it eventually circles me down the drain.