Members are a light, a standard to the nations
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On July 26, 1847, their third day in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young, members of the Twelve and others climbed what is now known as Ensign Peak. There, tying Heber C. Kimball's yellow bandana to Willard Richards' walking stick, they waved "an ensign to the nations."
Speaking Sunday afternoon, President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve, related this event and said: "A revelation, written nine years earlier, directed them to: 'Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations; And that the gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth' (Doctrine and Covenants 115:5-6).
"They were to be the 'light,' the 'standard,"' President Packer added.
"The standard, established by revelation, is contained in the scriptures through the doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The principles of the gospel we follow are based on doctrine, and the standards accord with the principles. We are bound to the standards by covenant, as administered through the ordinances of the gospel by those who have received priesthood authority."
Those Brethren, he said, understood that stakes were to be "a defense and a refuge," and that their mission was to establish stakes of Zion in every nation on earth.
"Now the stakes of Zion number in the thousands and are all over the world. The members number in the millions and growing. Neither of these can be held back, for this is the work of the Lord. Now members live in 160 nations and speak over 200 languages."
Speaking of a world growing darker in morality and spirituality, President Packer counseled: "If we gather into the Church, live the simple principles of the gospel, live moral lives, keep the Word of Wisdom, tend to our priesthood and other duties, then we need not live in fear."
Further, he added, "There has been no end to opposition," including misrepresentations and misinterpretations and even the claim that Latter-day Saints are not Christians. In addition, "some suppose that our high standards will repel growth. It is just the opposite. High standards are a magnet. We are all children of God, drawn to the truth and to good."
Referring to the challenge of raising families in a world of darkening clouds of wickedness, President Packer said there is no town or nation where one can go to escape. "The defense and the refuge is where our members now live.... Those who come out of the world into the Church, keep the commandments, honor the priesthood and enter into activity have found the refuge."
Activity in the Church centers in the family, President Packer continued. "Wherever members are in the world, they should establish a family where children are welcome and treasured as 'an heritage of the Lord' (Psalm 127:3). A worthy Latter-day Saint family is a standard to the world.
"Not only are we to maintain the highest of standards, but each of us is to be a standard, a defense, a refuge.... We are as much a part of this work as were those few men who untied that yellow bandana from Willard Richards' walking stick and descended from Ensign Peak. That bandana, waved aloft, signaled the great gathering which had been prophesied in ancient and modern scriptures."
President Packer declared, "The ensign to which all of us are to rally is Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father, whose Church this is and whose name we bear and whose authority we carry."
