To Those Who Grieve for Their Dead – Sunday, May 31, 1942
“Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad … Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison.” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:22) “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.” (Malachi 4:6) “For neither can they nor we be made perfect without those who have died.” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:18)
In a day when millions face sudden death, such messages as this make the present bearable and understandable for those who would otherwise see only futility in life and who would live their days in bitterness and sorrow. How desolate and empty and meaningless the present would be if we couldn’t interpret it in terms of the past and if we couldn’t temper it with hope for the future!
No single moment of a man’s life has any particular significance except as it ties into something that has gone before and something that is yet to come. Whatever this moment now means to us, it has that meaning because of all the experiences and associations which have led up to it. And if for us this were the last moment of existence, it would mean little or nothing, because nothing that cannot be projected into the future has much meaning. And so it is with life itself. If it were only for the present, it would have lost its deepest significance.
To breathe for a few brief years, to be born, to live, to die—these have no meaning really, except in terms of immortality, and life is dear to us now only because it will always be dear to us, as it always has been, and those whom we cherish who have preceded us in death, yet live, and await us—yea, even all those who have walked the earth, back as far as the days of time are numbered, shall join with us in those scenes which we are yet to behold—mothers, children, families, friends—to renew again all the sweetness of life together.
To the mothers whose sons have gone forth, to those who grieve for the departed, to those who face death, which is all of us—this is the message of things to come which gives meaning to the present and brings understanding out of confusion, and assurance out of sorrow.
LET SAINTS ON EARTH IN CONCERT SING
By Charles Wesley (1707-1778)
Let Saints on earth in concert sing With those whose work is done;
For all the servants of our King In earth and heav’n are one.
One family we dwell in Him, One Church, above, beneath,
Though now divided by the stream, The narrow stream of death.
One army of the living God, To His command we bow;
Part of His host have crossed the flood, And part are crossing now.
E’en now to their eternal home There pass some spirits blest
While others to the margin come, Waiting their call to rest.
Jesu, Jesu, be Thou our constant guide, Then when the word is giv’n,
Bid Jordan’s narrow stream divide, And bring us safe to heav’n.
The words of this hymn constitute the theme around which this sermonette was built.
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, May 31, 1942.
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May 31, 1942
Broadcast Number 0,667