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Show met? 4b.- "v S m tV fiv cuts ' zxri Published Weekly of Solt Lake City Utah, o x the Officio! N ewipopo of the Church of Jesus Christ of Saints Latter-da- y Quartette N preparation for an fnfor-- 1 mat social gathering of the members ' of thil General Aur thorities and their wives , the five junior members of the Council of the Twelve rehearse several songs at the Lion House. When the picture was snap' ped they decorously sang, "Teach Me To Pray, although I they prepared numerous en- cores of songs in lighter vein, which according to reports made a hit with their audience. - - -- . Reading left to rtght are, Mark E. Petersen, oass; Matthew Cowley, baritone Spencer W. Kimball, tenor, and Ezra Taft Benson, first tenor. Harold B. Lee is the accompanist at the piano. In spite of demands for repeat performances of this aggregation future appearances must be considerably delayed since Elder Benson leaves Jan. 30 for headquarters of the European Mission to assume his duties as president of that mission, i The Sower's Choice went forth to sow. Some seed fell In fertile soil, some A SOWER fell by the wayside, some among thorns and some in poor soil. Microfilming of 12,000,000 Pages of . Genealogical - Records'-Authorize- d over a period of eight years. In By Archibald F. Bennett 1938 Mr. Arthur G. Hasso, an exSecretary Genealogical Society That which was sown in good soil brought forth an abundant MOMENTOUS decision has perienced photographer with yield. That sown among thorns was overcome, that sown in dry,' just been reached by' the some millions of pages of microstony soil soon withered and died, and that which fell by the' First Presidency and by- - the filming to his credit copied the wayside was devoured by birds. board of directors of The Gene- registers of one whole parish in t This parable provides one of the great lessons of scripture.' alogical Society to embark upon Copenhagen. This has been in In considering it, however, we should also remember that other a gigantic project. This is to be' the library of the Society since lesson of the sower giyen by the same Great Teacher. In this no less than the copying of all that date. In 1939 President Jo other pronouncement the Savior said As ye sow, so shall ye also parish registers of Denmark from seph Fielding Smith of The their beginning down' to about Society, then presiding con' If the sower In the parable had been careful in his sowing tiie year 1860, and a vast number over the European Mission, records ,pf genealogical ferred with Mr. Hasso in Denmark of other he wouldhave reaped far more abundantly than he did. Had value. ' , as to the possibility of filming He taken care, little of his seed need have gone unproductive. . These original manuscript recfurther Danish parish registers. consumed to be iNone need have fallen by the wayside by birds; ords are housed in four archives Following Pres. Smiths return to none need have fallen among thorhs. Surely he must have been a or record centers in Denmark, America and by the spring of ' careless sower. He could hardly have valued his seed highly. and, being accessible to the pub- 1940, decision bad been reached Soil in seed that he good been Had placed wise, and knowing lic and in frequent use, are rap- by the board to copy a select brings forth as much as an hundred fold, he never would have idly deteriorating. Added to this number of other parish registers, sown so carelessly and wastefully. He might have known that is the recurrent danger of total but the letter informing Mr. Hasas he sowed, so also should he reap,, and that casting seed to destruction through war. In an so of this decision never reached birds brings the farmer no harvest He might have known that no age of atom bombing one well-plac- him, because by that time Denbomb could totally ob- mark had been Invaded and ocprudent farmer would sow seeds among thorns. Rather he would uproot the thorns and bum them, and then cultivate the soil literate one whole archive with cupied. Last fall, however, anwhere once they grew to provide a field in which' good seeds its records accumulated over a other letter came through from would grow and produce much fruit. period of centuries. These dangers Mr. Hasso in Denmark with a probably explain the willing- query as to the possibility of reThe sower had his choice In the entire matter. He could choose in the first place whether the seed and its potential harvest ness of government officials in suming the project. An exchange were important to him. The result of that choice would determine Denmark to permit all these rec- of letters followed resulting in an whether he would take the trouble to select and prepare the soil ords to be copied, and particular- agreement as to the essential feaevtures of the project which has wisely, or whether in carelessness he would allow a portion of ly since one positive copy of record microfilmed be now been officially authorized. will himself ery choose for He could that seed to be lost.' delivered free of charge to the These records will be microtherefore, and in advance, whether he would reap abundantly ' Danish archives. ' filmed on 35 mm unperforated . or sparingly. . Negotiations for the copying of film at the rate of 6,000 exposAll men are like the sower in that we all have our freedom of these records have continued ures or 12,000 pages per day. It choice in life. We call it free agency. In giving us this agency use or that sow we agency, as he reminds us throughout that ' a blessing if they obeyed the law of progress, a curse if they ' even, so shall we reap. . ; . , it r . opposed without seed sow our regard as to choose If the sower we Choose serve. Joshua this whom will said, ye ye day in results keepfor the consequences, we shall have to expect Jesus said, Ye cannot serve two masters, and Where your ing with such a policy. But If we choose to observe the known .treasure is there will your heart be also. When he faced Peter laws of conduct which lead to success, we may have every rea- among his boats and nets, the Lord asked Peter to make his " son to expect satisfactory results. choice; Lovest thou me more than these? We are all well acquainted with life and what it has to offer. This law which says as ye sow so shall ye also reap, clearly We may freely choose how we shall live and we may know in adindicates two things that in considerable degree we mortals may vance much of what each way will bring to us. know the end of our lives from the beginning, and that also in What is it we wish to get out of life? If it is true joy and large degree, we can control the processes of life which may bring us joy or sorrow. '" happiness, then let us wisely select the seed from which to reap such a harvest and with equal wisdom let us carefully sow, not This has been taught by the Lord from earliest times. In the where there is little likelihood of growth, but In the richest of Garden of Eden, Adam was allowed to chart his own course, and fields the Kingdom of God where our seed will indeed bring was told in advance what he could expect from his choice. forth an hundred fold. . . i Moses set before the children of Israel a blessing and a curse A , Gen-ealogi- cal -- ed I life-givi- ng , iff A i is proposed that a minimum of 300,000 pages of these vital records be delivered to the Genealogical Society each month. The "total project should thus be completed In. about 40 months or 3 t 13 years. This photographing will be done at a cost to the So- -, ciety of slightly over one cent per page. Every scholarly person will recognize immediately the value of having exact reproductions of the original records rather than handwritten copies of the same, for handwritten copies are often Interspersed with errors. It is estimated that these parish records down to the yesr 1869 will comprise about six million pages. In addition to these, authorization has also been given to lyicrofilm the census records, military levying rolls and probate records of Denmsrk, down to about 1860. According to those experienced In genealogical research In Denmark, with all these records available In the library of Genealogical Society it wilt be possible to guarantee an effi- eiency of approximately 90 per cent In tracing family lines ' back to the yesr 1787. when the first census record begins. . , .(Continued on Page Six) Page Editorial I f Melchizedek Priesthood 2 Section Presiding Bishopric's Page.. 3 Church News ,4, S, 6, 7 Mission News ....... 3 : Servicemen's Page 9 Radio Address Dr. West... 10 Exodus to Greatness...,,... 21 ' |
