Elder Thomas S. Monson, Part One - Sacrifice and John McCrae

For Part Two or Part Three, click your link of choice.

I so love this next speaker - Elder Thomas S. Monson. No one quoted so widely and extensively as he did, particularly poetry. Here's the first of many quotes from his first talk of April 1971, entitled "Lost Battalions".

 

 The Quote

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

“We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.”

—John McCrae

 

Of course, this is a famous poem about World War I, called "In Flanders Fields". John McCrae was a soldier and physician and poet who passed away near the end of the war himself. 

Elder Monson talked about memory and watching out for those in our lives who might be forgotten - enough people to make a battalion themselves, like the battalions from World War I who left home and were lost, who ended up in Flanders Fields. We need to take the time to seek out those who are lost, like Christ said for his people to do.

The third verse of the poem encourages us to do the same - to sacrifice for others as they did - we may not be required to die, but to live a decent life requires some sacrifice of comfort in order to help others:

 

"Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

    The torch; be yours to hold it high.

    If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

        In Flanders fields.