"The Meeting" and the "Songs of Zion"

On November 11, 1988, I attended a conference at which Elder Gene R. Cooke of the Seventy, who was on a mission tour, was the main speaker.  It was an incredible meeting.  When a general authority visits a mission, he shakes hands with each missionary who gives his name and his home stake.  When I said that I was from the Bountiful Central Stake, Elder Cooke said that this was where he was now living.

Jump ahead about 18 months, after I had returned home; at the homecoming of a friend in the Central Stake, Elder Cooke was sitting on the stand.  I had the opportunity to shake his hand after the meeting and he asked me where I had served, and when I said where he responded with "I thought you looked familiar", or something like that.  How cool was that!

Anyway, back to the mission tour.  Elder Cooke talked about many things, but two really stood out to me at the time.  First he talked about what he called "the meeting."  He counseled us that whenever we were in a meeting or a class and someone was giving a talk or teaching a lesson, that we should be praying that both the speaker and ourselves would be filled with the Spirit.  That is "the meeting" within the meeting or class that we should also be having.  We should pray that the speaker or teacher will be inspired to say the things that the Lord wanted us, the listeners, to hear.  We should also pray that we will be taught by the Spirit those things that the Lord wanted us to learn.  It we have this "meeting", then we will truly be edified.

The second thing Elder Cooke discussed that made an impression on me was about the hymns found in the LDS hymnbook.  He referred to Doctrine and Covenants 25:11, in which Emma Smith is called "to make a selection of sacred hymns, as it shall be given thee, which is pleasing unto me, to be had in my church."  He then said that, since Emma was called by revelation, and then inspired by the Spirit in selecting the hymns, and because a similar process of inspiration was involved in subsequent collections of hymns, we could therefore consider the hymns in the LDS hymnbook to be scripture.  He encouraged us to become familiar with the hymns and even to quote them as scripture.


Several years after returning from my mission, at a time when I was facing some difficulties, I felt inspired to read through the sacrament hymns in the hymnbook (#169-#197).  As I did so I found comfort in the lyrics.  I also found something else, something rather surprising; many lines within these hymns contained important truths about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

As now we take the sacrament, 
Our thoughts are turned to thee,
Thou Son of God, who lived for us,
Then Died on Calvary.
We contemplate they lasting grace,
They boundless charity;
To us the gift of life was given
For all eternity.


Help me remember, I implore,
Thou gav'st life on Calvary,
That I might live forever more
And grow dear Lord to be like thee.


For us the blood of Christ was shed;
For us on Calvary's cross he bled,
And thus dispelled the awful gloom,
The else were this creation's doom.


How infinite that wisdom,
The plan of holiness,
That made salvation perfect
And veiled the Lord in flesh,
To walk upon his foot-stool
And be like man, almost,
In his exalted station,
And die, or all was lost.


For Jesus died on Calvary!
That all through him might ransomed be.

I also found beautiful expressions that I hope never to forget:

Let me not forget, O Savior,
Thou didst bleed and die for me
When thy heart was stilled and broken
On the cross at Calvary.


Oh that our faith may never move
But stand unshaken as thy love,
Sure evidence of things unseen;
Now let it pass the years between
And view thee bleeding on the tree:
My Lord, my God, who dies for me.

Each Sunday, as the sacrament is administered, I read through these hymns and contemplate the sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ.  And over the years I have become more and more familiar with the words and ideas that they convey.  These hymns teach and testify of Christ, and they are another witness to add to many others I have received.  I know the Jesus is the Christ and that he died for me that I might live again with Him.

There are more beautiful hymns, and more truths to be found in the rest of the hymnbook.


Hymns:

169: As Now We Take the Sacrament
171: With Humbler Heart
172: In Humility, Our Savior
173: While of These Emblems We Partake
175: O God, the Eternal Father
176: 'Tis Sweet to Sing the Matchless Love
189: O Thou, Before the World Began.