Suppose you are a Saint in green and merry England.  You crab into steerage on a cheap ship, push through a dirty, noisy New York, and find your way along the hot and humid rivers until you finally see Nauvoo.  The white temple gleams on a hill.  It feels like you are finally getting somewhere.  But then you are told that this is just another stop on the journey, that progress and betterment for you means stepping out onto the weary plains.  So you do.  Finally you come to mountains, peak after peak.  At last, you are getting somewhere!  Until finally you come to the highest point of all, and what you see below you is a barren desert.  Then they tell you that’s your destination.  Your prosperity and happiness are out there in the dust.  And the funny thing is, they really were.

That was real life, but its a little bit like poetry and metaphor too.  The soul’s journey can end up in deserts that we need to make green.  Our journey as a people seems to have brought us to a desert these days.  We are in a social wasteland.

Elder McConkie was stern and doctrinaire, but he had poetry and metaphor in his soul too.
Here are excerpts from his talk in the Sunday afternoon session of the April 1980 General Conference.  I am grateful for the whole thing.

Above us, stretching crest on crest, are yet greater and grander peaks. Each one is rimmed with rivers and forests and cliffs and crags. There are deep canyons and steep precipices.

Along the way we shall yet climb, hidden in the underbrush, is the lair of the lion and the hole of the asp. Venomous serpents are coiled on ledges beside the path and jackals lurk in dark caves by the wayside.

Our onward course will not be easy. The way ahead will be blocked by a landslide of lasciviousness; an avalanche of evil will bury the trail.

As we trudge forward, sharp rocks will cut our feet; rivers of lava will melt the soles of our sandals; and we shall be hungry and thirsty and faint. The way ahead will be hard and the path rugged.

But far in the distance—its heights hidden in the clouds, the divine Shechinah resting upon its summit—far in the distance stands Mount Zion . . .

Amid tears of sorrow—our hearts heavy with forebodings—we see evil and crime and carnality covering the earth. Liars and thieves and adulterers and homosexuals and murderers scarcely seek to hide their abominations from our view. Iniquity abounds. There is no peace on earth.

We see evil forces everywhere uniting to destroy the family, to ridicule morality and decency, to glorify all that is lewd and base. We see wars and plagues and pestilence. Nations rise and fall. Blood and carnage and death are everywhere. Gadianton robbers fill the judgment seats in many nations. An evil power seeks to overthrow the freedom of all nations and countries. Satan reigns in the hearts of men; it is the great day of his power.

But amid it all, the work of the Lord rolls on.

Other Posts from the Saturday afternoon session of the April 1980 General Conference

• To Be of Full Strength Until the Lord Comes by Jan Tolman