George D. Grant and True Religion

As I read The Fire of the Covenant to my children last night, I was moved by the story of one of the rescuers, George D. Grant.  In 1856 he was returned home from a two year mission to Scotland.  He served as a church agent in Iowa helping to outfit the handcart companies in Iowa City and send them on their way.  After they sent the Martin and Willie handcart companies, far too late in the season, he raced ahead with Elder Franklin D. Richards and a few others to inform those in Salt Lake that there were still handcart companies coming.  After traveling as fast as they could in wagons across the country, they arrived in Salt Lake City on Saturday October 4th and immediately informed Brigham Young that two handcart companies were still coming and would be in desperate need of help.  The very next day Brigham Young gave his famous speech at a church conference calling upon the Saints in the valley to rescue those on the plains: "They must be brought here; we must send assistance to them. That is my religion. That is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess. It is to save the people. Your faith, religion, and profession of religion will never save one soul of you in the celestial kingdom of our God unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains.”  The Saints remarkably equipped 20 relief wagons and fifty men left the valley just two days later headed back east to find those Saints.  What is most amazing is that George D. Grant was among them—he spent less than three days in the valley with his family after a two-year mission before turning back around to go and try to save the Saints.  One of the members of the handcart companies, John Chislett, later wrote, "Among the brethren who came to our succor were Elders W. H. Kimball and G. D. Grant. They had remained but a few days in the Valley before starting back to meet us. May God ever bless them for their generous, unselfish kindness and their manly fortitude. They felt that they had, in great measure, contributed to our sad position; but how nobly, how faithfully, how bravely they worked to bring us safely to the Valley, to the Zion of our hopes!"

               President Young taught those rescuers that the essence of their religion was to go and save the dying handcart companies, and they indeed showed what “true religion” looked like as they risked their lives to bring them in.  King Benjamin also taught that this kind of service is key for our own spiritual well-being.  He declared, “And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants” (Mosiah 4:26).  In other words, if we want to be forgiven of our sins, if we want to stand guiltless before God, we must impart of what we have to come to the relief spiritually and temporally of those in need.  The Savior taught this masterfully in the parable of the man who owed his master ten thousand talents.  When he couldn’t pay the enormous sum, he pled for mercy, and “the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.”  But then he turned around and failed to help another in similar hard times.  His lord gave him this piercing question, “Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?” (Matt. 18:24-33)  If we fail to help those the Lord places in our path we may find that we too must answer that same question.  Those handcart rescuers showed in word and deed that they did have compassion on their fellow suffering Saints, and their names will ever be hallowed in our history for their selfless actions.