“Sue for Peace . . . to All People”
Doctrine and Covenants 105:38–40
38 And again I say unto you, sue for peace, not only to the people that have smitten you, but also to all people;
39 And lift up an ensign of peace, and make a proclamation of peace unto the ends of the earth;
40 And make proposals for peace unto those who have smitten you, according to the voice of the Spirit which is in you, and all things shall work together for your good.
Elder B. H. Roberts said:
“The spirit of contention is not the spirit of Christ, and . . . it [is] our duty . . . to preach the Gospel of Peace. That remind[s] me of a passage in one of the revelations given to the Church shortly after the expulsion of the Saints from Jackson County, Missouri. I have no doubt in my own mind but what the instruction seemed very difficult to carry out by the Saints of that period. I will read to you the passage: [D&C 105:38–40.]
“I say that this instruction under the circumstances was doubtless regarded as difficult to carry out. The Saints, at that time, were smarting under the sense of the heavy wrongs inflicted upon them. They had been whipped and maltreated. Their houses had been burned. They had been expelled from land which they had purchased from the government. They were exiles from their homes; and to be told, under these circumstances, to sue for peace, even at the hands of those who had smitten them—and to raise an ensign of peace unto the world, that, I say, was a hard task for people in their condition. It ought to be, and I think it is easier for us to carry out the spirit of this instruction than it was for the Saints in those days. When our circumstances are much more pleasant, and when such opposition as we have endured of late years has not ended so disastrously to us, it ought to be comparatively easy for us to follow the admonition . . . to preach the Gospel of Peace.”
(In Conference Report, Apr. 1908, 103.)
