Elder Bernard P. Brockbank, and Another Stab at John Ruskin on Reverence

What are the odds there would be two talks about the Ten Commandments nearly back to back with each other in the same Conference session?

Pretty high, I'd wager...but it happened.

Elder Bernard P. Brockbank came along nearly right after Elder Evans, with his talk entitled "The Ten Commandments" in the same session. Not only that, but he read them out in his talk, with lots of commentary. 

Part of that commentary included a quote by John Ruskin as well - a very quoted writer. Referring to the first commandment to have no other Gods before God, he said:

 

The Quote

"Ruskin wrote, 

“Reverence is the noblest state 

in which a man can live in the world. 

Reverence is one of the signs of strength; 

irreverence one of the surest indications of weakness. 

No man will rise high who jeers at sacred things. …” 

 

Are we going to find this quote, I wonder? 

Looks like...not! I'm having a deja vu! From yesterday!

But once again, Ruskin has come up with a similar quote to the missing one above, so it is possible that he said something like this, because he said something like this.

It's found in The Stones of Venice, Volume 2, and it's an interesting thought. Ruskin is talking about work that ennobles and work that degrades, voluntary servitude versus slavery:

 

"To yield reverence to another, 

to hold ourselves and our lives at his disposal, 

is not slavery; 

often, it is the noblest state in which a man can live in this world. 

There is, indeed, 

a reverence which is servile,

that is to say, irrational or selfish: 

but there is also noble reverence, 

that is to say, reasonable and loving; 

and a man is never so noble as when he is reverent in this kind; 

nay, even if the feeling pass the bounds of mere reason, 

so that it be loving, 

a man is raised by it."

 

This is not an easy state to come to, because those being reverenced have to create trust in those who choose to follow them.

If he did say the first quote, that would tie into the choice of those who follow - cynicism in the face of something that should be sacred, something special - isn't really a strength in a person. But it often comes from past experiences of distrust, and once someone has been hurt, it can be hard to trust again.

I think it also applies to trusting God as well as people - in the scriptures, the Lord asks us to trust Him that He will do what he says, if we do what he says. 

Think of John 7:17. 

Think of His promise regarding tithing in Malachi 3:10. 

Think of that magnificent sermon regarding the planting of a seed (meaning faith) in Alma 32.

I can say from loads of personal experience that taking that step out into the darkness - deciding to trust God and do what He asks, whether it be the Ten Commandments or anything else - has been among the smartest things I've ever done with my life. 

Elder Richard L. Evans, Part Four: John Ruskin, Sort of

  For Part One, Part Two, or Part Three, choose your link.

 

The final reference from the talk by Elder Richard L. Evans from his talk, "Should the Commandments Be Rewritten?", he talks about what a mistake it is for us to let our pride get in the way of necessary change.

 

The Quote (with Context)

"Anyone is mistaken 

if what he is doing 

would lead him down physically, mentally, or morally, 

if it would destroy his peace, 

or estrange him from his Father in heaven, 

or impair his everlasting life.

“Pride,” said John Ruskin, “is at the bottom of all great mistakes.”"

 

We've met John Ruskin before in this talk in the last Conference. Where does this current reference come from?

At first, I was sure it was in his philosophical work Sesame and Lillies - 

But no.

I expanded my search to his art criticism, his political essays, and his other various essays - no luck.

I can't claim a thorough exhaustive search - the guy wrote a lot. So he might still have said it, but I haven't been able to find it so far.

The closest approximation I could find of a quote approaching this same idea came from his book, entitled Modern Painters, Volume 3:

 

"I believe the first test 

of a truly great man 

is his humility. 

I do not mean, by humility, 

doubt of his own power, 

or hesitation in speaking of his opinions; 

but a right understanding 

of the relation between what he can do and say, 

and the rest of the world's sayings and doings." 

 

Sometimes quotes get muddied over time, taken out of primary sources for quote anthology books or Internet memes, and then we start playing historical telephone tag.  

So it's good to know that sometimes a quote isn't always said by who it's said. History is a very long conversation.