President Packer and the Pioneers: Founded in Revelation

In honor of President Packer and the fact that today is the 4^th of July, this morning I reread one of his talks that relates to patriotism.  In April 2008 he gave an intriguing talk entitled “The Test” that teaches powerful and thought-provoking principles.  He told the story of the Saints July 24, 1849 celebration after having been in the valley two years.  After all of the persecutions they had endured, and the unanswered petitions from all levels of government for redress and help, they had finally been driven out of the United States completely and forced to travel over a thousand miles to rebuild once again.  On this two year anniversary of their arrival in the valley, President Packer said, “It may seem puzzling, incredible almost beyond belief, that for the theme of this first celebration they chose patriotism and loyalty to that same government which had rejected and failed to assist them. What could they have been thinking of? If you can understand why, you will understand the power of the teachings of Christ.” 

He continued to describe the events of that day, particularly how the young men carried copies of the Declaration of Independence, how the young women each carried a Bible and Book of Mormon, and how 24 aged men carrying flags were honored in the celebration.  President Packer made this intriguing statement about these events: “Three things about that 1849 commemoration were both symbolic and prophetic: first, that the young men carried the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence; next, that each young woman carried the Bible and the Book of Mormon; and finally, that the old men—the Silver Greys—were honored in the parade.”  So how were these three things symbolic and prophetic? 

The first seems to suggest to me that it is the duty of the men of the Church to honor and protect the principles of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.  We have several references in our history that the Constitution and this nation would be saved by this people.  For example, James Burgess related that Joseph Smith addressed the Nauvoo Legion with these words, “The time would come when the constitution and government would hang by a brittle thread and would be ready to fall into other hands but this people the latter-day saints will step forth and save it” (see June 1976 Ensign).  Orson Hyde recalled similarly that the Prophet predicted that “if the constitution be saved at all, it will be by the Elders of this Church” (Journal of Discourses, 6:150, see the same Ensign article).  So perhaps that is what President Packer meant by suggesting that these men carrying the Constitution was symbolic and prophetic.

What did the young women carrying the Bible and Book of Mormon symbolize?  He doesn’t seem to give any suggestions in the talk itself.  Perhaps they represented how in the last days the women of the Church would guard and protect the principles of gospel found in the scriptures, something that fewer and fewer women of the world seem willing to do.  It is largely the women of the Church who nurture and teach children the scriptures and protect them against the awful influences of wickedness in the world.  Children of faithful mothers in Zion grow up saying as the stripling warriors, “We do not doubt our mothers knew it” (Alma 56:48).  Young women in Zion in the last day are to be “guardians of virtue” and will do so as they cling to the principles of the gospel found in the Bible and Book of Mormon.        

The third symbolic event of the day, as President Packer viewed it, was the honoring of the old men in the parade.  I think he alluded to why he thought this was symbolic in the talk.  He said, “These men were a symbol of the priesthood, which was ‘from the beginning before the world was’ and had been restored in this dispensation.”  Later on in the talk he also said, “The senior leaders of the Church will virtually always be seasoned by decades of preparation.”  So it seems that these “Silver Greys” in the parade represented both the Priesthood and the fact that the “prophets, seers, and revelators” who guide us in the last days are generally old.  And perhaps it is prophetic in the sense that our only hope of making it through the tribulations ahead is to honor and uphold the Priesthood and leaders of the Church who will guide us through “perilous times.” 

President Packer summarized this pioneer celebration with these words, “If you can understand a people so long-suffering, so tolerant, so forgiving, so Christian after what they had suffered, you will have unlocked the key to what a Latter-day Saint is. Rather than being consumed with revenge, they were anchored to revelation.”  The invitation for us then is that no matter what suffering we may face or what persecutions will come to us in the future because of our religion—and it will surely come—we must hold fast to the principles found in the scriptures, the Constitution, and the words of the living prophets.  We must be founded in the revelations and have the kind of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that these early pioneers—and as he now joins their ranks, Elder Packer as well—showed and left behind as their legacy.