By Elder Clifford E. Young (1883–1958)

Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles


One of the great contributions of pioneer life and of pioneer colonizing was the fact that the Latter-day Saints did not turn back.

This is a great year, an anniversary year, and I think we may reflect on some of the things that have gone before, and they may give us inspiration for the future.

I am thinking this morning of a little log cabin that stands down in Liberty Park [in Salt Lake City, Utah], built by my grandfather Riter. It was transported there from one of our pioneer lots by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and others who are interested in preserving shrines that they may be a source of inspiration to the people.

This little log cabin is no different from many that were built in 1847. It was originally a one-room log cabin and built in that year. Later on, a partition was placed in it so that there were two rooms. The mother who lived in that little log cabin was a convert to the Church from Pennsylvania. She, her sisters, her mother, and her husband were caught in the "gospel net" (see Matthew 13:47). … They too were pioneers. They came out of the world. The physical hardships may not have been quite so severe when they came, but they pioneered nevertheless. They left their homes, their kindred, and many times their own parents for an unpopular faith because they had in their souls a testimony of the divinity of this work.