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.

 

Elder James A. Cullimore and Henry Watterson - What to Compromise and What Not

The next quote I came across was in a talk on marriage by Elder James A. Cullimore. He talks at one point about the importance of compromise in a marriage, and the quote speaks to this:

 

The Quote 

Henry Watterson has said: 

“I would compromise war. 

I would compromise glory. 

I would compromise everything at that point where hate comes in, 

where misery comes in, 

where love ceases to be love, 

and life begins its descent into the valley of the shadow of death. 

But I would not compromise Truth. 

I would not compromise the right.”

 

Henry Watterson was a regional journalist and one of the first syndicated columnists in the United States. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and won a Nobel Peace prize for columns encouraging America to enter World War I. Mildly ironic, but okay.

He wrote under the pen name of Marse Henry.

The full quote comes from The Compromises of Life, published in the early 1900s. The full quote is worth including here - he had a gift for imagery:

 I would compromise war. 

I would compromise glory. 

I would compromise everything at that point where hate comes in, 

where misery comes in, 

where love ceases to be love 

and life begins its descent in the shadow of the valley of death.

I would not compromise Truth. 

I would not compromise the Right. 

I would not compromise conscience and conviction 

in any matter of pith and moment involving real duty. 

There are times when one must stand and fight, 

when one must fight and die. 

But such times are exceptional; they are most exceptional; 

one cannot without making himself ridiculous 

be always wrapping the flag around him and marching down to the foot-lights, 

to display his extraordinary valor and virtue. 

And, in the long intervals, 

how often the best of us are mistaken as to what is Truth, 

as to what is Right, 

as to what is Duty. 

Too often they are what we would have them to be. 

Too often that which we want to do becomes that which we ought to do.

 

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.