What is it That Makes a Pioneer? – Sunday, July 25, 1943
The week now closing has seen commemorated once again the entrance of the Pioneers of 1847 into the Basin of the Great Salt Lake and the valleys of the West. And in thinking upon their achievements, and upon the accomplishments of the vanguards and trailblazers of every generation, one is lead to ask the question: What is it that makes a pioneer? Of course, in many instances, the thing that causes men to leave established communities and old countries is economic pressure—the difficulty of making a living where they are and the promise of making an easier living some place else. But this is not the kind of pioneering we are thinking of.
When we speak of pioneers, we have in mind those who leave relatively secure ways of life for the unknown, who face hardship and rigor for the sake of a principle, who sacrifice the present to lay foundations upon which generations to come may build. The kind of pioneers we have in mind also include those who, in their thinking, are prepared to forsake traditional error, however well entrenched it may be, and to seek always to discover unknown truth, and to accept it wherever they find it, regardless of the consequences. The pioneers of whom we speak are such as have learned to know that the world doesn’t owe them a living unless they meet the world more than half way and demonstrate that they are willing to earn a living. They are such as have learned to know that there is no satisfaction in eating unearned bread.
Of course, there are and always have been those who would add to the other freedoms—freedom from work; but the pioneers knew that they had to subdue the earth to make it yield. They knew that the Lord God meant it when He said men should eat bread by the sweat of toil, and they didn’t cherish any schemes that would relieve a man from doing just that. They didn’t expect someone else to assume their worries, to carry all their burdens, to provide all their wants, and yet, in the words of Isaiah: “They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.”(Isaiah 1:6) So run our thoughts concerning the pioneers of all times—and to the young people of a generation that has sometimes had difficulty in telling the difference between the real and the unreal world, we say—look to the lesson of the pioneers and learn to hold principle above convenience, and truth above popular favor; learn to know that there are no bargains where fundamentals are concerned, but that there are some things that are worth any price you have to pay for them—things without which life would be intolerable for us, just as it was for our pioneer and pilgrim fathers.
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, July 25, 1943, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1943.
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July 25, 1943
Broadcast Number 0,727