(9/15/03)
"And thus shall Israel come: not a dark corner of the earth shall remain unexplored, nor an island of the seas be left without being visited; for as the Lord has removed them into all corners of the earth, he will cause his mercy to be as abundantly manifested in their gathering as his wrath in their dispersion, until they are gathered according to the covenant. He will, as he said by the prophet, [Jer. 16:16] send for many fishers and they shall fish them; and after send for many hunters, who shall hunt them; not as their enemies have to afflict, but with glad tidings of great joy, with a message of peace, and a call for their return." — "Messenger and Advocate," Volume 1, Number 7, given at Kirtland, Ohio, April 1835

(9/16/03)
"The God of Israel has set his hand to gather his elect and prepare the world for the sanctifying reign of righteousness. He will accomplish what he has undertaken, using for that purpose every means consistent and available. Christ died to save the souls of men, and save them he will—by mild measures whenever these will avail; but by stern methods if necessary, after the mild have proved ineffectual. First, the 'fishers,' with gentle, kind persuasion. Then the 'hunters'—war, commotion and destruction. Such is the divine program." — Orson F. Whitney, "Saturday Night Thoughts," p. 184

(9/17/03)
"We are indeed living in a troublous age, and many people in the Church, as well as millions in the world, are stirred with anxiety; hearts are heavy with feelings of foreboding. At the crucifixion of Christ, a little group of men faced a future that was just as threatening and foreboding to them as that which the world faces today. Their future, so far as Christ's triumph on earth was concerned seemed all but blighted. They had been called and set apart to be 'fishers' of men, and to Peter had been given the keys of the kingdom.

"Notwithstanding all this, in that hour of despondency, when the resurrected Christ said to Peter, the discouraged leader of the Twelve, who had turned to his old vocation of fishing: 'Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?' Peter answered, 'Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.' Said the Lord, 'Feed my sheep.' (John 21:15-16.) On that occasion Peter became conscious of his responsibility, not only as a fisher of men, but also as a shepherd of the flock. It was then that he sensed finally and completely the full meaning of the divine injunction, 'Follow me.' (John 21:19.) With that neverfailing light, those 12 humble men succeeded in changing the course of human relations." - David O. McKay, "General Conference Reports," April 1968, p. 9

(9/18/03)
"The great word of the Lord at all times has been given to the world through humble men. It has not been the policy of our Father to go into the schools of the learned, into the palaces of the mighty, to pick men to do his work, but at all times he has chosen men who were humble, who were unknown, and he has magnified them and made them mighty in the work which he had for them. We can look back into Old Testament times, and almost without exception the men who were called were humble, obscure men. We can come down to the day of the Savior, and we find that 'though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.' The Savior of the world, the Redeemer of mankind, the Son of the living God, came here and lived humbly, as a man among men. He moved with the humble; he lived with them; he ate with them; he slept with them; he was one of them; and until he began to come into prominence, he was unknown to the mighty of his day. And when the hour had come for him to commence his work in public and he needed helpers, he did not go into the higher schools nor into the palaces of the mighty, but he went down to the seashore and chose humble fisher folk, men of no importance in the eyes of the world. He said unto them, 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men;' and in that they did follow him, he did make them the fishers of men, and he magnified them that they grew to be most marvelous servants of the Lord. And while the men of their day who were mighty in the political, and influential in the commercial and the educational world, have in a large degree been forgotten, these humble fisher folk and tradesmen that the Lord called and magnified live in the hearts and in the lives of millions of men, and their names will go down through all time as the men who carried on the great work inaugurated by the Lord Jesus Christ." — Winslow F. Smith, "General Conference Reports," October 1922, p. 123