"Why Do Birds Sing?"

By Ruth H. Barrus

Honors Lecture given before Ricks College Faculty

March 19, 1976

I appreciate your kindness in allowing me to represent you in an honors lecture tonight. There are many of you who are more worthy of this position than I, but I thank you nevertheless. This will not be a traditional Honors Lecture, but I am compelled to say what is in my heart tonight. This honor must be shared with some very important people in my life, and may I talk about them for just a moment. First, my mother, Retta Hale Hammond, who was ever a guide, friend and example to me. She radiated and practiced a living faith. We were privileged to have her in our home the last twenty years of her life, and children and grandchildren learned from her great lessons in patience, love, and unselfishness. She exemplified the sublime virtue of "enduring to the end."

This honor tonight must be equally shared with my husband, LaMar, for if I have ever done anything of worth at Ricks College it is because of his encouragement, support and blessing. How I honor him! Especially I honor him for his example as head of his family and for his quiet and inconspicuous performance of his many important church assignments and civic duties. I knew I loved LaMar when we were married forty-two years ago, but this love has increased immeasurably during these years, and we welcome eternity together.

Then there is our family. Of the five children we were blessed with, we have been privileged to rear three of them, and we are working to earn a reunion with our two sons who were taken from us so early in their lives. From our three living children we now have become a family of twenty-three. All twenty-three of us, devoted husbands and wives and fifteen beautiful grandchildren, spent three days together last summer on the northern shores of Lake Superior. In our special meetings together, the story of our heritage was revealed and we all felt bound to the past with strong ties of faith, courage, and sacrifice; and we inwardly dedicated ourselves to the future, knowing we must cling to those same ties of faith, courage, and sacrifice. We felt a witness of a glorious eternity for us all if we would follow the counsel of the Lord.

Tonight, though, I would like to talk about another family, one that is also very dear to me and one that I am very proud of. The heads of this family have all been specially chosen, and each in his time has contributed uniquely to this family. I am thankful to have known many of them You know by now that I am talking about the great Ricks College family. We all treasure and enjoy membership in this family.

I came to Ricks College as a junior in high school when President George S. Romney was here, father of President Marion G. Romney. He was a strong man, undeviating in his dedication to principles and integrity. Then came President Hyrum Manwaring. I was his part-time private secretary. It was a critical time in our family history - a time of depression, and the church felt it could no longer maintain its junior college program. As his secretary, the agony and trials of keeping Ricks College alive became painfully manifest. I can still hear his final, prayerful, eloquent plea to the brethren for the continuation of this school. We can thank President Manwaring and those who stood with him for their perseverance and faith. It is because of that family that we still have a Ricks College.

This same faith and perseverance marks President Clarke's twenty-five years as President of Ricks College. As a result of him and the stalwarts around him we are still a Ricks College and in Rexburg, Idaho. President Clarke has generated such a strong feeling of love and solidity that we were consolidated into the great Ricks College family. The genuine concern, love, and personal interest he has shown each member of his Ricks College family is treasured by us all.

And now we have a new head of our family, President Henry B. Eyring - - young, brilliant, humble, full of faith, ever seeking to do the Lords will, and ever struggling to extend a vision of the role of Ricks College in his particular generation with its own unique critical problems.

No age, period or generation is without its trials, its tests, its conflicts; and they require the same principles of faith, courage and sacrifice to meet them. Our leaders have always demonstrated these qualities, and I have faith in the destiny of Ricks College. AND IT HAS A DESTINY! As marvelous as has been its contribution in the past, I think we are just catching a glimmer of its future destiny. It will play a significant role in preparing the way for the Second Coming of our Lord. I believe the Lord has preserved Ricks College through its dark hours that it might fulfill this destiny. I believe that our prophets are aware of that destiny and are calling special people to help shape it. I believe that from the beginning there has been a great preparation for it - the hour of tremendous need of leadership, integrity, obedience and devotion to the Lord to combat the flood of evil that is threatening to engulf us. The Prophet Joseph Smith talked about this critical hour in our history.

The Kingdom of heaven is raising its head in the last days in the majesty of its God, even the Church of the Latter-day Saints, like an impenetrable, immovable rock in the midst of the mighty deep, exposed to the storms and tempests of Satan, with his pitchfork of lies.

The devil will use his greatest effort to trap the Saints. Every man who is afraid, covetous will be taken in a snare. The time is soon coming when no man will have any place but in Zion and her Stakes.

I saw men hunting the lives of their own sons, and brother murdering brother, women killing their own daughters, and daughters seeking the lives of their mothers - - I saw blood, desolation, fires . . . . These things are at our doors. They will follow the Saints of God from city to city. Satan will rage, and the spirit of the devil is now enraged. I know not how soon these things will take place; but with a view of them, shall I cry peace? No; I will lift up my voice and testify of them. How long will you have good crops, and the famine to keep off, I do not know; when the fig tree leaves, know then that the summer is nigh at hand.

I believe that each of you, members of this great Ricks College family, were prepared and called by the Lord to come here to be a pillar in the church that it might become the "immovable rock in the midst of the mighty deep" as talked about by the Prophet Joseph Smith. May I talk about the quality of your preparation. Most of your roots run deeply into the rich soil of rural communities and you are a strong product of that soil, for you have been tempered by the cold and blizzards of long winters and the heat and dryness of short summers. You have learned that you cannot postpone your labors a day, or even an hour, or your harvest would be lost. You have learned that you can do back-breaking work day after day, and often late into the night, and come forth the stronger for it. You have learned the importance of sharing responsibilities and blessings with others, for most of you have enjoyed being reared in large families. You have lived with the vision of clear blue skies, breathed clean fresh air, and drunk from clear, sparkling streams. In the formative years of your life you have escaped the pollution and false sophistication of the world. You have experienced broad horizons; been awakened by the radiant light of the morning sun, energized by its noon day rays, and awed by its final burst of beauty in the evening. You are holding fast to the hands of faith extended you by your parents and grandparents, who stood solidly before you on this fertile soil; and their examples of courage and sacrifice shine bright before you. And you are extending the hand of faith to your children that they too may walk by the sure light of the Gospel and "become a rock in the mighty deep".

Most of you came in your youth to Ricks College filled with the good things of the earth and possessing gifts uniquely your own. A special gift in you stirred and caught fire here, and you knew you had to develop that gift - but first a mission, then marriage, then great sacrifice and devotion to pursue that gift in universities throughout the land; and then came the driving urge to come back to the source of your vision, Ricks College, that you may give others what you have received. And what a diversity of gifts you have brought this family, and all with the same spirit. Paul talks about this:

There are diversities of operation, but it is the same God, which worketh all in all.

But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem more feeble, are necessary.

And those members of the body, which we think less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.

For comely parts have no need; but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lack.

That there should be so schism in the body; but that members should have the same care one for another.

And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

1 Cor. 12:6, 20:26

I don't know what Paul is telling you in 1 Corinthians, but he is telling me how important each of you is in this Ricks College family. Just because I may think humanities more comely, I cannot say to Brother Burton and his excellent welding program, "I have no need of you". Nor can I say this to Brother David Allen and his workers in the agriculture program, nor to Brother Huber in math and Brother Winkel in chemistry. I need to give more abundant honor to those members, for it is in those areas that I lack and am weak. Their strengths balance my weakness. If they suffer, I suffer; and if they succeed, I rejoice and am blessed, for they are a part of the whole and I am also a part of that whole.

I marvel at your gifts. They have not been spoilt by "philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world" (Col. 2:8) which Paul warns us of. You have developed your gifts on the rock of Christ. We must ever work to harmonize these gifts and extend the vision of how best to use them.

I have talked much about families tonight, and I want to say more this time about "families-to-be" and how we can use our gifts to insure them, preserve them, and magnify them - to become "the immovable rock in the midst of the mighty deep." That deep is now upon us. Satan is raging in the hearts of men today to seek to destroy the family which is the body of eternal life. Satan's success is horribly manifest. Every member of that body is being attacked. Nations, governments and individuals are desperately and determinedly trying to prevent the very conception of life. If they fail there, they council for murderous abortion and provide facilities to encourage it. The media - newspapers, films, books, TV, theaters, agencies, and even universities - are boldly and loudly proclaiming the trials and difficulties of marriage and the heartbreak of rearing a family. In the heat of such persuasive dictates and propaganda, it will take a brave young man or woman to even consider marriage. Satan is also providing every temptation to persuade them of the delights and pleasures of immorality and debasement. The very foundation of eternal life, the family, is being attacked as never before in the history of our world.

How can we use our gifts to guarantee "families-to-be" and assure them joy in this life and throughout eternity? How can we touch the lives of the young people who have been called out of the world to come to Ricks College, who are the parents of "families-to-be" - how can we inspire them, strengthen them, nourish them, that the Lord might have servants who will labor with their might in His vineyard this last time, for the Lord tells us through Jacob 5:62: "For behold the end draweth nigh, and this is the last time I shall prune my vineyard."

How can we help these parents of "families-to-be" educate their children who will be the servants called to prune the Lord's vineyard for the last time before the end comes. The key is in the home. Children are educated in the home, not in the schools. Schools can only reinforce the education of the home, and if the philosophies of the school are antagonistic to principles and standards given us by the Lord, then the teachings and training in the home have to be that much stronger and more appealing. Training must start from infancy. A parent must have first-hand experience before he can succeed in training his child. We must give our young students, parents of "families-to-be", that experience at Ricks College. Our young people must learn that teaching isn't telling, it is sharing and experiencing together the good things that we have learned and are now learning. If we can help children start life with noble feeling, noble deeds, they will become noble human beings - true servants in the Lord's vineyard. Galileo said: "you cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself." Socrates says, "Learning is remembering." Our beautiful children come to us fresh from God, sensitive to His teachings and all good things. Parents are to help each child remember and find within himself the power and beauty he once knew - help him to remember. Each is a marvel, unique, sublime. Each shall become superior in a marvelous way. We must all work that this may come to pass.

A few weeks ago I saw a program on an education TV series called Nova. This program was entitled "Why Do Birds Sing?" I was introduced into a kind of Garden of Eden, and everywhere were the songs of birds - an ecstasy of melody piled on melody. Species of birds of every color and variety were melodists in their own dialect in their particular guarded area, each singing his own song of life and joy. The narrator, a famous ornithologist, whose special study was to try to learn what makes birds sing, talked about the results of his study. He took many nestlings (just emerging from their shell) of the same species and put each of them in an isolated chamber which was perfectly sound-proofed. To some chambers he piped a recording of the song of the parent or adult bird of that species, varying however, the period of time it was introduced. Some nestlings heard the song for a brief period at two weeks of age; others when four weeks of age; still others were six weeks of age before they heard the adult song; and some heard the adult song much later than that. Then there were the nestlings that grew in absolute silence except that sound which each made in his own isolation. Of this last group, each nestling did finely sing the song of his species, but it was a dull, flattened version, without sparkle, embellishment or joy. A later reunion of the adult family of his species did not change his song - it ever remained a kind of dull, mediocre song of life. On the other hand, experimentation with the first mentioned group who were introduced to the adult song at different periods of their isolation revealed that there was a critical time in the life of each nestling when he must hear the song of his parent species, and that time occurred when it was between six and seven weeks of age. If the nestling did not hear the adult song at that critical age, he never learned to imitate the high and low tessituras and joyful embellishments of the parent birds. This same scientist proposed a theory that each nestling is born with a kind of special plate upon which is faintly programmed a pattern of the song of his species. If the nestling comes meaningfully in contact with the song of his parent species at the critical time, the melody pattern deepens and develops; but if this is not the case, the pattern forever remains dull and lifeless. I hope by this analogy that you are hearing that education must begin at infancy. We must train the many "parents-to-be" who fill our classrooms to sing songs of righteousness, beauty, imagination, sensitivity to their nestlings in that critical age.

May I give you another example. You may think of me as a musician, but I almost became a botanist. (Fortunately for botany, I didn't.) I was introduced to that exciting world when I was a student at Utah State University. They were depression years and in order to go to school I held several jobs. One was secretary to three men - a bio-chemist, a plant pathologist and a botanist. I took classes in these areas to help me function better as a secretary. My duties were varied in the department, from washing petri dishes and test tubes to typing long government reports; but as months went by I found myself more and more intrigued by my work in the herbarium where I typed labels and mounted many and varied dried species of plants. My botany professor, Dr. Bassett Maguire, noted my fascination, and invited me to teach a botany lab. Before long I found myself taking groups of students around the campus, listening to their identification of living plant specimens, and observing and directing lab procedures and techniques. How I labored with the Latin genus and species names, memorizing and rememorizing classification and structure. It was near Christmas of my junior year that Dr. Maguire invited me to go with him and his family the next summer on a botanical expedition into southeast Utah. I was elated with the opportunity, and preparation of the experience began at once. In my striving to become a good botanist on this expedition, I soon learned that I had to know more than classification and structure of plant species - I also had to learn something about geography, geology, and meteorology. These exciting new worlds began to come into relationship with botany, and I was challenged to learn to speak their languages also. A consciousness about this part of Utah began to take shape within me. Not only was a picture emerging of its contours and colors, but I felt excitingly the powers and forces below and above the earth which gave it shape and color. I sensed there was meaningful relationship between plant species and their environment, and I sensed deeply a parallel in this study; the meaningful relationship between children and their environment. Soil, air, temperature, water supply, altitude, exposure - all were in relationship and affected the kind and quality of plants they nourished.

Well, we finally arrived in southern Utah in a Model A Ford, the back seat of which was piled almost to the ceiling with camping equipment and botanical supplies. There was just room for me and the two Maguire children to lie on top of it all. We went first to Bluff, Utah near the chasm of the Colorado, Zane Grey's country, and later we pushed into the San Juan Mountains which towered high above this colorful monumental valley. Every morning we would strap a vasculum on each of our backs, filled with wet newspapers that would later be carefully wrapped around plant specimens to keep them fresh and pliable for shaping in the drying process. We were camped 300 feet below the mesa on a wide valley floor, which had been cut and shaped by centuries of flash floods. We explored at many levels and found in some places lush tropical species of plants nurtured by the seepage from above. We found ancient cliff dwellings and exciting remains of a bygone age. We found tiny, stubborn, leathery plants defying the heat of desert sand and sun. And later the San Juan Mountains, we found the most delicate of species clinging to life under the protection of protruding shale rock. What an infinite variety there is in the flora world, and how greatly are they affected by their environment.

Talk on our hikes led to the possibility of my becoming a botanist and working in the herbarium at Cornell University - Dr. Maguire's school to which he would return after his work was completed in Utah. It was a great vision of becoming, and I struggled to learn the song of botany. It was a new song for me, unnatural to all I had learned in the past. I soon found what a novice I was as I observed the Maguire children, ages five and six. They were the best collectors and scientists in the group, easily and naturally using the language of botany and entomology as they collected their plants and insects. I can still hear young Bassett saying to his little sister upon discovery of an interesting moth: "Gracie, hurry and get the cyanide bottle, I've got a noctuid here."

I found, too, that these children were also learning to sing naturally the songs of other worlds as we came out of the vast darkness of night into the warm circle of campfire light. The children were supposed to be asleep in their sleeping bags, but the eyes in their propped-up heads shown brightly, reflecting the joy of other worlds that emerged through the conversation - the songs of their parents. My eyes shown too, for these were also my songs - taught me from childhood. Dr. Maguire's mother had been a concert pianist, and he had as a youth traveled much with her throughout the world. He was speaking the language of music, using familiar names of Chopin, Beethoven and Bach; and he was coloring that language with intimate experiences in areas sacred to music and musicians. He sang the songs of art, and in our imaginations we went with him into many galleries viewing the great masterpieces. And he sang the songs of literature. Even though one of my majors was English Literature and I had been thirstily reading since childhood, often averaging a book a day, our conversation led to authors and books I never dreamed existed - great French and German writers whose language was also his. What songs his children were learning to sing! By day I struggled with the new world of botany and its relationships, but by night I reveled in the world of humanities which this great professor, a botanist, expanded for me. When we returned to Logan and I immersed myself again in the language of my youth, taught to me at my mother's knee and carefully nurtured throughout my life - the language of music - I knew I could never be a great botanist. I had to sing the song of my childhood. It was a part of my heart, my bone, my sinew. It was a natural, familiar song, and I wanted now to sing it joyfully for all to hear. But I shall always rejoice in my experiences in the world of botany, for it has woven itself into the fabric of my familiar world, coloring and magnifying it; and I hunger to explore other worlds, for I know all can find lodgment in my familiar world - the world of music and humanities.

Each of you here tonight represents an exciting, wonderful world of discovery, and you are helping students explore and thrill with the marvelous relationships in your world. I have long admired you for your gifts and use of them. Yet something more needs to be added. Brother Richard Clark, you must continue to unfold the wonders of botany to your students, parents of families-to-be, and also add other dimensions; challenge them to explore other worlds and show them how to unfold the wonders of all those worlds to their children. Brother Lyle Lowder, you must also teach your students how to help their children know what a marvel their body is - how unique, how perfect! It is a body capable of many and varied skills - help them see the challenge of those worlds also. Brother Berkley, you do a great job of teaching your students how to hold and swing a tennis racket, hit the ball, and follow through. Now show them how to pass these same skills and the excitement of other skills on to their children. Sometimes our own excellence intimidates and discourages a child. A way must be found to bring out the excellence that is already within the child. How fundamental are your areas, Sister Helen Lamprecht and Brother Hal Ferguson, to the families-to-be. Continue to expand their vision of how important the areas of good music, art, literature, and all good gifts are to the environment of that home.

I am sure we all realize that the most important influence in our lives is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel contains this important challenge as revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith: "Study and learn and become acquainted with all good books, and with language, tongues and people." (D&C 90:15) I praise our great teachers of religion for the marvelous manner in which they are revealing the plan of salvation, but are we saying all we should in our classes to challenge our parents-to-be to fulfill themselves in the areas of good books, language and history of people that these too might become the songs of children-to-be?

Brother Powell, your division is a critical area because your people speak the language of emotion. Satan is using the power of emotion in the arts with every subtlety and devise. We are flooded with his works. In the name of art, sensuality, violence and despair have become the themes of painters, sculptors, writers and composers. They glare, blare, haunt, stalk, and prey upon the old and young, and darken the world with their increasing presence. We are subjected to Satan's insidious influence daily - every time we turn on TV or radio, or open a book, or read a newspaper, or go to a theatre. Because sensuality in art has such strong emotional appeal, it is visualized, oralized, and dramatized by the most talented and highly trained artists and technicians in their fields; thus Satan is subtly wearing away all resistance to evil. He is deviously using art to tempt man to partake of the forbidden fruit and thus bring to pass the misery of all mankind.

I believe with all my heart, Brother Powell, that your people have been specially prepared and called to come to Ricks College, removed from the false sophistication and complication of the world, to do a great work. They will not only preserve the integrity of their fields by holding up that which is of great worth to their students, but they will also create with a fresh, vital, new voice the true art of the future. The creative process is the vital process of life. If we are to stem Satan's flood of sensuality that threatens us in the name of art, we must use art in the true sense to dam him off. We must involve ourselves, our students, and the children-to-be in a creative process that will glorify our existence, plant faith and courage in our hearts, and vision and hope in eternal life. We must create our own songs with work, sacrifice, discipline, and finally joyous fulfillment. We were all born to do it, and many of you are already doing it in a marvelous way. Brother Arlo, it gives me great pride and joy to direct my students to your art galleries to enjoy and learn from the creations of the fine artists in your department. Each has his own unique style and message. I am anxious to view what you have been quietly working on the past year, Brother Bird - art works commissioned for our bicentennial. President McKay has said that great art are affirmations of the Gospel. He would be pleased with your creations.

Darwin and LaMar, I rejoice in your creations. We are looking forward to your latest, Darwin, the Oratorio LAND OF JOSEPH commissioned for our bicentennial year. I challenge you and others in the Music Department that your labors have just begun. You must continue to push back the voices of evil with exciting new voices relevant to our time and our eternal purposes; and these voices must become a part of the lives of all the students who come to Ricks College. Those who are not drawn to the voices of renewal and joy that are compatible with Gospel principles will be caught in the net of Satan's voice that is coming through loud and clear in songs of sensuality and debasement.

Donnell, how I have enjoyed sharing with you your beautiful poetry. We are more and more becoming aware of the creative excellence of so many of your department. Your art has a capability of expressing the good gifts of us all, and all can be colored by your brush and mirrored into significance. How important it is the you challenge awareness of all the good gifts and their interpretations in your students, that they in turn might generate interpretation and creativity in their children.

You marvelous teachers in the dance area are involved in exciting and exhilarating dance creations. You are the forerunners of a new age of dance.

Those who witnessed the premiere of the dramatic musical THREADS OF GLORY realize that a new frontier of entertainment art is breaking forth, uniquely and beautifully LDS, yet appealing to young and old, members and non-members. Those who labored so hard with this production know that birth is a compound of agony and sublimity. The agony is soon forgotten; the sublime we take with us into eternity. You countless people who have been involved in the success of this great tribute to our God and nation have proven that you can do it! Never cease your labors! We are grateful that Lex DeAzavedo and Doug Stewart accepted the challenge of the church authorities to compose this great work and grateful that you could be involved in its creative process. These labors have proven how well you do it! Congratulations to all in the drama department who are laboring so hard that we might have entertainment that edifies - not destroys.

I would like to talk about each one of you here tonight and tell you how proud I am of your labors, but time won't allow that. Each member of this great family are just as important to the whole. Remember what Paul said: "There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all . . . and when one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it." We have so much to rejoice over at Ricks College in all our members. As great as these labors are, we all must challenge these parents-to-be to become increasingly aware of the whole of which we are all a part, that the children-to-be might be strengthened in that wholeness. Again, the area of the arts is the critical area because it has become the resource of Satan to attack and debase all mankind. Our people in drama, music, art, literature, dance and broadcast are dedicated to use this same resource of the arts, but as a tool of God to stop Satan in his trust. They are seeking and getting inspiration to create and mild an environment on our campus that will bring joy and rich fulfillment to us all and become a beacon to the world. Let us help our students follow that beacon and share it with their children-to-be.

Why must these dimensions be added to our teaching, and why right now? I mention again the prophecy of the Prophet Joseph Smith regarding the "enemy of righteousness, with his pitchfork of lies." The devil is enraged, and his "mountain waves of opposition, his storms and tempests are upon us and will follow the Saints of God from city to city." Right now he is defiling and debasing the sanctuaries which have preserved the good and eternal things of the past - churches, schools, homes. He is defiling the arts - music, art, dance, literature, theater. He is defiling the body, making it a repository of the carnal, ungodly and base, instead of a temple of God. And he is defiling the very foundation of our eternal life - the family. With such a whirlwind of debasement gathering its force to destroy us, the Saints of God must gather their strengths to save us - and that must be done right now! We must so use our good gifts that we can become the "immovable rock in the midst of the might deep." We must strive with all our might to preserve the rock of home and family, and in this setting guarantee that the children-to-be will forever be taught to sing and create songs of significance, righteousness and joy. These children must be taught to telescope their lives into the good things of the past, find security and thankfulness in the good things of the present, and create and sing the great and joyous songs of the future. We cannot wait until students come to Ricks College to do this, for by then Satan will already have done his work.

As the song of birds, these songs are within each child just waiting for parents to give them life and meaning. If training and sharing of good gifts start at infancy, and if the children-to-be can be kept singing songs of thankfulness and fulfillment, what giants can come forth in every area. We need not worry about who will be the leaders and creators of the future - they will be. The songs of these children-to-be will be glorious indeed, for they will reflect the significant wholeness of life, and they will be natural, familiar songs, learned at their mother's and father's knees, and rooted deeply in each heart, mind, bone and sinew. Who can dream the heights that can be built on such a foundation.

Each of you, members of a great Ricks College family, can importantly function as a link between the parents-to-be and the children-to-be. You are not only a bringer of good gifts to your students, but you can stimulate awareness of all good gifts and show them how to share these gifts with their children. You have been prepared to do this, called to do this, and the Lord will open the way that you can do it - and you better do it, or I"ll haunt you forever.

Now you have heard my song!

            Singing I will have to die,

            Singing they will have to bury me,

            And singing I will have to arrive at the feet of the Eternal Father;

            From the womb of my mother I came to this world to sing.

By Jose Hernandez, Argentine poet

Translated by Brother Brian Stanton

May we all join our songs together and become a mighty chorus in the great service we are destined to perform as the Lord prunes his vineyard for the last time, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.