On Faith: Message in stone has inspired thousands to service for Him

Alfred Gunn

On Faith

In the days following the horrendous attack on our country in September 2001, I wondered, like many others, what I could do for my country. Perhaps some of you had the same feeling.

Too old to return to my prior government service, I still had a civilian retirement job in support of national security, so I resolved to apply myself there — to work longer and harder and do the job better.

What more could I do?

I remembered the experience of a homesick farm boy from Huntsville, Utah, who was serving as a Mormon missionary in Scotland in 1898. He said, “I saw an unfinished building standing back from the sidewalk several yards. Over the front door was a stone arch. There was an inscription chiseled in that arch. When I approached near enough, this message came to me, not only in stone, but as if it came from One in whose service we were engaged: ‘What E’er Thou Art, Act Well Thy Part.’ ”

“That was a message to me that morning,” he later said, “to act my part well as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

To the young disciple, the message was as the Savior’s declaration, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

Young Elder David O. McKay would take the message to heart, live it and later share it with later generations of missionaries as an Apostle and eventually as the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Above all others, the perfect example of accomplishing a mission was Jesus Christ. Every person who comes to earth depends on Christ to fulfill the promise He made in heaven to be our Savior. He did so at infinite cost.

Scriptures testify that he “came into the world ... to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness; that through him all might be saved” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:41-42).

The great sacrifice Christ made to pay for our sins and overcome death is called the Atonement. It is the most important event that has ever occurred in the history of mankind, and Christ the Redeemer accomplished it perfectly.

No wonder we place our faith in Him as the first principle of the gospel.

That is the message that our missionaries — historically more than a million of them now — have carried to 160 countries throughout the world.

President McKay was the prophet and church president who extended a mission call to me when I was a young man. I took personal satisfaction in knowing that my pioneer great-great grandmother had been the medical practitioner who brought David O. McKay and most of his siblings into the world in Huntsville, Utah. She acted well her part.

I hope I have acted well my part in the opportunities life has given me to serve others in the mission field and since, including after 9/11.

As to the stone which young Elder McKay had seen in 1898 with its inspiring message, through the efforts of alert missionaries at Stirling, Scotland, the archway stone was acquired by the church in 1965 when the building was being torn down.

Today it is preserved in the Church Museum of History and Art, and a replica is in the lobby of the Missionary Training Center at Provo, Utah, where thousands of young Mormon missionaries continue to view its timeless message as they depart to serve all over the world.

On Faith columnist Alfred Gunn is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Gig Harbor. He can be reached by e-mail at alf.gunn@juno.com. For more information, visit www.lds.com.