For Part Two, Part Three, Part Four or Part Five in this series, pick a link and go for it.
Looks like my days are numbered here on Blogger. I've so appreciated the ease of use and not having to think about all the tech aspects of running a blog, but the space limits here have me looking elsewhere for my creative home.
So that's the bad news.
In better news, today's talk, the final talk from the April 1971 General Conference with cultural references, is from Elder Delbert L. Stapley. His talk, "Honest and Integrity" has some real classic sources as quotes, which I love.
The Quote
"Robert Burns said: “An honest man’s the noblest work of God.”"
Those of you who've read this post will surely recognize the quote within the quote, since this snippet comes from that same poem by Robert Burns - "The Cotter's Saturday Night".
A cotter refers to someone who lives in a cottage, and the poem is about a poor family whose children come home for dinner and then everyone relaxes as Father reads the Bible aloud for entertainment on a Saturday night, and how blessed the family is for doing so.
Granted, that may not sound like a great load of fun for a Saturday night these days, but there are more modern versions of the same thing going on today. And it sounds much more romantic than it probably was when delivered with a light Scots accent. Oh, I could listen to it forever.
The quote comes in this stanza of the poem, about three up from the bottom, singing the praises of a simple, uncluttered life of faith in God and Jesus Christ:
From scenes like these, old Scotia's (Scotland's) grandeur springs
That makes her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad:
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,
'An honest man's the noblest work of God';
And certes (certain), in fair Virtue's heavenly road,
The cottage leaves the palace far behind;
What is a lordling's pomp? a cumbrous load,
Disguising oft the wretch of human kind,
Studied in arts of Hell, in wickedness refin'd!
