What the Book of Mormon Means to Me

WHAT THE BOOK OF MORMON MEANS TO ME1

Elder George H. Bailey.

As the oasis rises upon the horizon of the barren desert and beckons the weary traveler to come and take rest and refresh­ment, and to receive strength to renew his perilous journey across the sandy wastes, so does the Book of Mormon rise upon the horizon of mortality and beckon me to come and partake of the eternal truths contained therein, so that I may be fortified against the evils besetting my journey through life and be safely led to the goal eternal.

I have perused the pages of the book and find it to be a new witness of Jesus Christ. Six hundred years before His birth, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, holy men spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Spirit and testified of His coming and of the purpose of His mission, and exhorted the people to repentance that they might reap the blessings of His atoning sacrifice: they predicted that signs would be given them both of His advent into and exit out of mortality.

My soul is thrilled when I read how those predictions were ful­filled, as Christ came into the world, a light to outshine darkness; and in that distant land [the American Continent] the light on the night of His coming outshone the darkness. With the passage of time came the sacrifice at Calvary and a sign to those people; yea, a sign of horror—the warnings of the prophets had been unheeded, the wrath of God incurred and judgment carried out. Mighty convulsions of the earth caused death and devastation, followed by three days of intense darkness, accompanied by a voice crying: “Wo unto the inhabitants of the whole earth except they shall repent.” Then darkness was dispersed, and a voice again was heard, saying: “Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him.” Then the resurrected Christ appeared, thus fulfilling His own prophetic utterance: “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”

It was He whose mighty work among the Nephite people on the American Continent—performing miracles, establishing His Church and teaching His doctrines exactly as He had taught them throughout Judea—has strengthened my faith in God. My relationship with Him is made plain, unto the filling of my soul with joy; for I know that at the last day I shall stand before Him in the flesh, knowing full well that, if I have lived according to the word as it is written in the Book of Mormon, I shall have life eternal. Its teachings serve as a guide in unfolding many of the precious truths contained in the Bible which I have otherwise found difficult to understand; each book is a witness of the divine origin of the other.

I have learned from its pages the power of obedience. Witness the case of Nephi obtaining the plates from Laban. In spite of the murmurings of his brethren he uttered these immortal words: “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” God had spoken; the faithful youth obeyed; the object was achieved.

Through that one act of obedience there has sprung up amid the sands of apostasy, which have these many years made this earth a desert barren of the word of God, an oasis yielding forth a fulness of the everlasting Gospel, feeding truth to the soul that hungers for truth and marking the way through this desert of mystical doubt back home to the Eternal Father.

This, in brief, is what a fuller knowledge of the Book of Mormon means to me; and yet, I feel that a mighty ocean of truth is before me; the surface I have just skimmed to gain these precious truths that have impregnated themselves upon my soul—there is yet the mighty deep to explore.

• 1. Delivered at the inter-branch competition of the Sheffield District Mutual Improvement Associations, held at Sheffield, Easter Monday, April 9th, 1928.