“Contents,” Ensign, June 1984, 1
Ensign
June 1984
Volume 14 Number 6
On the cover: Photography by Michael Schoenfeld.
Inside front cover: Main Street ca. 1900, by Ken Baxter, 32″ by 48″, oil on canvas, 1983. Courtesy of Wally Rose.
The northwest corner of Main Street and South Temple is depicted here at about 1900. To the left is Cyrus Dallin’s Brigham Young monument, which was displayed at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, then brought to Salt Lake City. The Deseret News Building, seen on the right, was finished in 1851. It was originally the tithing storehouse and was also used as the Presiding Bishop’s office and the headquarters of various publications. It housed the Deseret News from 1861–1901.
Inside back cover: Anti-Nephi Lehites Bury Their Swords, by Del Parson, 22″ by 28″, oil on canvas, 1983.
One of the great stories in the Book of Mormon is that of the converted Lamanites who accepted the gospel from the missionary labors of the sons of Mosiah: “They became a righteous people” who “did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more, neither against any of their brethren.” (Alma 23:7.) Opposition to their conversion soon developed and war was imminent. But rather than return to their old warlike ways, “they took their swords, and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth.
“And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God … that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives.” (Alma 24:15–18.)
In time, these people joined the Nephites for safety. When war once again threatened, they called upon their “many sons, who had not entered into a covenant that they would not take their weapons of war to defend themselves against their enemies. …
“And they entered into a covenant to fight for the liberty of the Nephites, yea, to protect the land unto the laying down of their lives.” (Alma 53:16–17.) These sons, 2,060 of them, were the famous young stripling warriors of Helaman who entered into battle after battle, yet “to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish.” (Alma 57:25.)