Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (deceased), spoke years ago of the Relief Society: “The Relief Society might be likened to a refuge—the place of safety and protection, the sanctuary of ancient times. You will be safe within it. It encircles each sister like a protecting wall.
We turn to the Old Testament for a lesson. When the Israelites returned from their long captivity in Babylon, they found their city in ruins. The protecting walls of Jerusalem lay in rubble. Their enemies moved among them with great influence, and the Israelites were subject to them.
Then came Nehemiah the prophet, known now as “the wall builder.” He rallied the Israelites to their own defense. At first their enemies ridiculed them. Tobiah, the Ammonite, mocked them, saying, “Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall” (Nehemiah 4:3).
But Nehemiah consoled his people and set to work. The enemy was everywhere. “Nevertheless, ” he recorded, we made a prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them” (Nehemiah 4:9).
The day came when their enemies saw that the wall was completed. It encircled the city. No breach was left , save it were the place for the gates. What their enemies had ridiculed was nearly done. The wall now stood. No longer could their enemies threaten nor destroy. When their enemies saw that the Israelites grew strong, they worried, and they turned to other tactics.
And here is the lesson. It is a type, it is symbolic, it is a warning! In it is a message for every sister in Relief Society; for the general presidency and their board; for the stake and ward officers and teachers; indeed for every member. Consider it very, very carefully,
Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem sent for Nehemiah. “Come,”they enticed, “let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono.” They endeavored to draw him away from his work on the wall. But the prophet new their hearts and said, “They thought to do me mischief.” (Nehemiah 6:2)
Five times they sent for him to come out to them. Their importuning came then just as it comes now to us: “Come, parley with us, come join our cause, come do things our way. Come out into the world and be part with us.”
His counsel to them holds counsel for every sister in Relief Society. It is a message as well to the brethren of the priesthood. “I sent messengers unto them,” Nehemiah recorded, “saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3.)
Sisters, You have a great work to do. Build Relief Society! Strengthen its organization! Do not be enticed to leave it and go down to the plains of Ono. Do not allow yourselves to be organized under another banner. Do not run to and fro seeking some cause to fulfill your needs. Your cause stands under the authority of the priesthood of Almighty God; that is the consummate, the ultimate, power extant upon this earth!. . .
Oh, how powerful the tender, temperate teachings and the disarming wisdom of our sisters can be. I found the spirit of Relief Society—the whole of it—in the quiet reply of one sister…. Someone ridiculed her determination to gather her years supply. She had stored enough for herself and her husband, with some to spare for her young married children who were without the means or the space to provide much for themselves. She told him she did it because the prophets had counseled us to do it. He chided her: “In the crunch you won’t have it anyway. What if your leaders call everything in? You’d have to share it with those who didn’t prepare. What will you think then?”
“If that should happen,” she said, ” at least I will have something to bring,” God Bless you sisters of the Relief Society who bring so much.
