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| Gordon B. Hinckley |
Salt of the Earth by Gordon B. Hinckley
THE CHURCH NEWS, SEPTEMBER 15, 1948 Salt of the Earth: Fruits of Bitterness, Hate Are Eternal Salvation for Many By Gordon B. Hinckley It is a remarkable thing that in the case of Adolph Merz the fruits of bitterness and hate have become eternal salvation for scores now living and for thousands of the dead. For this quiet, inconspicuous man was, as a child, torn from his mother so that he might not become a Mormon; yet he not only became a member of the Church but he has done missionary work, both for the living and the dead, that is almost without parallel in our time. He was born seventy-nine years ago in Zurich, Switzerland, where hatred for the Mormons knew few bounds. With the death of his father, the Merz family became the victims of that cruel bitterness. The mother needed a little assistance, and the community answered with an order that her two eldest children should be placed in an orphanage lest they grow up to become Mormons. Adolph was nine, his sister eight. There was no recourse. When the mother was afforded an opportunity to go to America and requested that her children be permitted to go with her, the official replied, “You are a Mormon. You can go, but you will have to leave your children.” It is easy to imagine that in that dark hour she must have known something of the heaviness of Abraham’s heart when he was commanded to offer up as a sacrifice his son, Isaac. But she left in the faith that somehow in the providence of the Almighty the family would again be reunited. It goes without saying that those were hard days for the orphaned boy. The impress of those years probably accounts for the quiet manner of the man today. He was apprenticed to learn the marble cutting trade, but always care was taken to see that he was kept away from members of the Church. But as he grew he came more and more to appreciate the quality of his mother’s sacrifice, and when he was released from the jurisdiction of the orphanage he determined to find out for himself the truth of the philosophy for which his mother had paid so heavily. The result was that he became active in the Church, and at the age of nineteen, while he was yet a priest, he was called to serve a full-time mission. When the authorities learned of what he was doing they were infuriated. Seven years in the orphanage had been in vain so far as indoctrinating him away from Mormonism. He was arrested and tried, but without avail. When released from his mission, he was penniless and threadbare. Then to his room one day came an aged woman, a member of the Church. “For twenty years I have tried to go to America,” she said, “but I have never been quite able to make up my mind. Now I am old. Here is the money I have saved for the trip. You take it and go to Zion.” Tears and rejoicing were unrestrained when the boy’s mother again put her arms around him after eleven years of absence. When he had been taken from her he was a child. Now he was a man, but her prayers had been answered. And through his efforts, his sister was able to come to America. To this reunited family the valleys of the mountains were verily Zion. In the spring of 1890, Adolph Merz married Ida Rutishauser. They had lived within thirty miles of one another in Switzerland, but had never met before coming to America. A few years following their marriage he was called to a second mission which lasted from 1897 until 1900. Eight years later he returned again to Switzerland and Germany, and remained there until 1910. During both of these missions, his wife worked at home to sustain him. In the course of these missions, he was banished from Germany on three different occasions, under severe penalty not to return. But each time he risked imprisonment to preach the gospel. While serving as president of the Frankfurt-on-Main conference, he took two new missionaries to police headquarters for registration. The police commissioner called him into a private office. With fear in his heart that he was detected, Elder Merz expected the worst. The man reached in his desk drawer, and to the Elder’s surprise took from it a copy of the Book of Mormon. “I have read part of it,” he said, “and I know it is the truth.” “Then why don’t you join the Church?” the Elder countered. The man then explained that he could not afford to lose all that he had and become a Mormon. He then went on to explain that he knew who Elder Merz was and of the banishment decree against him, but told him that neither he nor the other missionaries had anything to fear in that district. Following his return to Mount Pleasant, Utah, Elder Merz was sustained as bishop, and shortly thereafter as president of the North Sanpete Stake, a position he filled with honor for eight years. But by nature, he is not robust, and his health broke under the heavy responsibilities. He was asked by the General Authorities to fill a mission at the Salt Lake Temple. That was twenty-five years ago, and he has been there ever since, for several years as supervisor of the archives. This work was confined largely to his daytime hours, and for more than seventeen years, he served also as president of the Liberty Stake Mission. It has been said that for nearly every year during that period, the missionaries under his direction brought more people into the Church than were converted in any of the full-time missions. That example gave great impetus to local missionary work in the Church. Not satisfied with their labor among the living, this man and wife have never rested in their work for the dead. Since their marriage fifty-eight years ago, they have labored continuously at genealogical and temple activity. Assisted by good friends, they have completed the record of fifty thousand of their kin and have completed work in the temple for them. They have never computed the cost in time and hard-earned dollars, but they know that in the aggregate it has been tremendous. The years have now come upon them. At best they cannot be very far from the other side. And in talking with them about this magnificent labor of love, one feels that when they pass over to the other side, there will be a tremendous welcome awaiting this quiet man and woman, while thousands of others who sought instead this world’s honors are largely forgotten and disregarded.
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