“ If the unselfish work to which Niels has devoted such a large part of his life had no other beneficial effect than to sweeten the lives and render lovable the characters of those who engage therein; to develop in them genuine love for their fellows and true charity—a willingness to benefit others without hope of reward therefor—and to make them cheerful, and hopeful and buoyant when otherwise they might be despondent and gloomy, surely that work is not in vain. ”

“ He has been heard to remark that he has found no good and safe place to stop at, as any lessening of his efforts in the voluntary work for the good of others that he has undertaken, results in a perceptible diminution in the good spirit that he has enjoyed in recent years, and in his growing worldly-minded in a corresponding degree. His is a nature that is not satisfied with anything mediocre. He craves the best, and is naturally thorough and whole-hearted in that which he does, and has a keen sense of both enjoyment and suffering. ”

“ Though she is now past eighty years of age, and has always been used to hard work, she is well preserved and active, and, though not mirthful, she is ever good natured, patient and contented. As in the case of many others who are active in Temple work, that labor has doubtless added years to her life, and rendered her declining days in mortality about the happiest she has ever spent. The consciousness of being a savior of others has brought her more joy than the possession of wealth or worldly honors ever could. ”

“ In common with all the Saints in Scandinavia at that period, Niels had a strong desire to migrate to Zion, and was as ready as any of his countrymen to accomplish that end by rigid economy and self denial; but how he was ever going to obtain the price of his fare was a problem for which he could see no solution. His income from charity and his own earnings had been so meagre and precarious for years that it had been his habit from necessity to test how little it required to sustain life. To accumulate anything honestly had practically been out of the question. ”

“ The real test of their constancy and endurance comes to the mechanical derelicts when storms beset them and breakers loom up before them, and to their human prototypes when obstacles are encountered that only a strong mind can cope with, and when no friendly support is at hand, to lean upon. ”

“ When Niels was confirmed, the priest proceeded to say: "The Lord has laid a heavy hand upon you in your youth, which will be a hard cross for you to bear through life; but it was for a wise purpose—to prepare you for a great work that you do not understand now. After you have traveled thousands of miles to a strange land you know not, you will there eventually have a chance to go into the sanctuary of the Lord to do a work for your father's family and your ancestors that they did not understand or know anything about." ”

“ Many of the more conspicuous financial failures are made by persons who fairly bristle with purposes. They are like the ambitious but unwise blacksmith who had so many irons in the fire at once that he either had to slight his work on all or allow some to become overheated and spoiled. ”

“ Lacking a purpose—either innate or acquired—people are apt to drift aimlessly through life, like an abandoned boat upon the ocean, subject to every wind that blows and every current that flows. With conditions favorable, they may float on indefinitely, even as derelicts at sea have been known to do for years without meeting with any serious obstruction. ”

“ When Mary Alice was about 11 years of age, an event occurred that was destined to change the whole current of the family life. If there is any truth in the theory of heredity, it was well for the Cannon family that their ancestors, for generations, had been hardy sea-faring men—some of them captains, conspicuous for their courage and adventurous disposition. It was well that their ancestral home was in the Isle of Man, where the inhabitants, largely fishermen, are inured to hardship and used to battling with the waves and braving the tempest. ”

“ She has done this as a labor of love, and found great joy and satisfaction in so doing—in fact, feeling repaid as she has proceeded by the enjoyment the work has afforded her, for all the labor and sacrifice it has involved. While her earnings have never been munificent, she has maintained a decent, respectable appearance, keeping house in from one to three rented rooms, and honestly paid her way and done her duty as a church member—all from her own earnings. ”

“ He, too, appreciated the Gospel, and his love for his fellows would have enabled him to find joy in laboring as a missionary, but, alas! he could never hope to engage in that labor because of his physical disabilities. But here was a labor which had for its object the same purpose, in which in point of ability he measured up to the full stature of the best of his fellows; and who should say that the work done in behalf of the dead is not just as important as that done for the living? ”

“ Most men object strongly to being deprived of ample and regular hours of rest and sleep, and many persons would rather make a financial sacrifice than forego the sleep and rest they feel that they require.
If they had to work all night they would feel that any kind of service during the day, to which they would have to give strict attention for several successive hours, would be absolutely out of the question. ”

“ She says it is the most glorious work she ever engaged in, and she has felt the presence of her husband's spirit upon many occasions.
There is one special class to whom the vicarious work in the Salt Lake Temple must be a very great boon. The blind, of whom there are quite a number of both sexes, in daily attendance, seem to find special comfort in the work. The opportunities people have of making themselves useful to their fellows, after being deprived of the priceless gift of sight, are extremely limited. People of independent minds dislike to be always treated as objects of charity. ”

“ If benefits to the many constitute the true standard by which success should be gauged, the life of Niels has certainly been a successful one; and the record herein set forth of the adverse conditions which have surrounded him, and his wonderful accomplishments in view thereof, should be an inspiration to every person who feels that his life's burden is heavy, and who is privileged to read this simple recital. ”

“ To him not less than to her do they feel indebted, and forever shall be though they become the best and most dutiful of sons and daughters, for he was a model father, as loving, kind, self-sacrificing, honest, industrious and faithful as mortal father ever was. ”

“ Whatever the causes that led to the compiling and publishing of genealogical works, it is easy for Latter-day Saints to believe that men so actuated were inspired of the Lord, whether they realized it or not, and that the grand and ultimate purpose of the Lord was that the living believers in that doctrine might do a vicarious work for the salvation of individual dead, and thus connect the present generation with those of the past. ”

“ Of course the majority of human derelicts are unwilling to admit that their failure to succeed is due to any fault of theirs. They prefer to believe that they are the victims of chance, or ill-luck, or lack of opportunity. Many of them have no desire to work, and others, if not really lazy, have no pride or interest in the work they do, and are therefore very indifferent workmen, and seldom retain a job long after getting it. ”

“ Without it, he could have had no desire to live; and, failing to find relief in death, his bodily suffering would probably have made of him a raving maniac or a driveling imbecile. As already mentioned, he was converted to the Gospel some time before he was baptized. He has never since entertained a doubt as to its truth. One might as well try to convince him that the sun does not shine, as that the Gospel is not true. Since his baptism he has been unwavering in his devotion to his religion. He has doubtless got more out of his religion than most adherents do. ”

“ People without a purpose abound on every hand, with nothing in appearance to distinguish them from their fellows except a kind of mental or physical inertia or a fickleness of disposition, causing them to flit about from one pursuit to another, as a butterfly does from flower to flower. ”

“ He has learned what many others fail to learn: that happiness depends less upon what we receive than what we give, less upon what we have than upon what we do; less upon what others do for us than upon what we do for them ”

“ In the fall of 1856, when he was twenty years of age, Niels left home and went to live among relatives in Aalborg, where he had a checkered experience, often being made to feel that he was in the way and that his welcome was worn out, but occasionally encouraged by real kindness and genuine charity. One lady in particular took a great interest in him, and, finding that he had some skill in needle work, encouraged him to practice a kind that was much in vogue among ladies, and through her kindly efforts he obtained considerable profitable work from many aristocratic women. ”

“ The glorious principle of salvation for the dead, as revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, has awakened a desire in the hearts of thousands of earnest seekers after truth to do a vicarious work for the benefit of their dead relatives and friends, that they may share in all the blessings and privileges of the Gospel. ”

“ He has few confidants, and lives as it were in a world of his own, being reticent to a marked degree, but confident and self-reliant as to his course in life. Though diffident about admitting it, his spiritual impressions have largely controlled his actions throughout his life. When only ten years old the premonition of impending disaster was so strong within him, that just prior to the dreadful accident which left him maimed for life, he plead with his parents not to send him for the cow, and when they persisted in doing so, warned them that they would be sorry for if all their lives. ”

“ It was not sufficient that man should seek to benefit or bring happiness alone to those they loved. Even that He evidently regarded as a species of selfishness, as implied by the saying: "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?" "For sinners do even the same." His exhortation was: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." ”

“ Yet, when the Lambert wagon was being taken across, although the precaution had been resorted to of taking the team over first and drawing the wagon over from a distance with a rope, the ice gave way. There, in that bleak March weather, six weeks before her son George was born, Mother Lambert stood upon the bank of the Missouri river, with her child in her arms and her two young brothers and younger sister clinging to her skirts, and saw the wagon containing all the family's earthly substance sink through the ice to the bottom of the stream. ”

“ As an indication of the devotion of Mother Lambert and her family to the cause of truth, it may be said that the missionary work performed by herself and direct progeny (including the general work in the Temple, by direct call of the Church authorities) amounts in the aggregate to more than fifty-eight years.
Hers has been an unusually busy and useful life, and, according to her opinion, a rather happy one. She feels that she has had more real joy during her eighty-five and a half years upon earth than usually falls to the lot of mortals. ”

“ The only social enjoyment the family found was in mingling with members of the church, and the desire soon grew strong to go where the majority of the members could be found. The mother especially revolted at the thought of her children growing up in an atmosphere of unbelief, and, although she was in delicate health, and had a premonition that amounted almost if not quite to an absolute fore-knowledge that she would not live to reach America, she insisted upon going, and was impatient to start. ”

“ He realized which of the rewards he had selected, and understood that such a reward was only to be gained by mortal suffering—that, in fact, he must be a cripple and endure severe physical pain, privation and ignominy. ”

“ Then came a short and vigorous sermon from the blind Temple worker, that has since proven to be the moving cause in my life in the matter of Temple work. Brother Jenkinson in plainness and earnestness said: 'I am impressed with the feeling that your wife wants her Temple work done, and I always act on my impressions. If her Temple work is done she will have more happiness and greater freedom, can progress faster and further, and can accomplish much more for herself and for others, and for you right here on earth. But you can do what you want. ”

“ In a land of plenty, surrounded by people who were amply able to help him, and who would willingly have shared with him their last meal, he lived almost like a recluse, and sometimes actually suffered for want of food. ”

“ Even age seems to sit lightly upon him. Few who see him ever suspect his advanced age. The peevish, crabbed disposition that so frequently characterizes old age is never manifested by him. Instead, he wears the patient, serene expression of one who lives for a noble purpose, and indulges only in clean and wholesome thoughts. ”

“ Mother Lambert was very nervous about riding over bad places, preferring to walk when allowed to do so. The fact that the team animals, which consisted of two yoke of steers and one yoke of cows, were not well broken—in fact, quite wild when they left Nauvoo—rendered her more chary about riding. When approaching Soap Creek, which she had learned was a difficult stream to cross, she alighted from the wagon, and soon afterwards, by some accident, fell in front of the wagon wheel, and, before the team could be stopped, two wheels had passed over the small of her back. ”

“ Perhaps only the All-seeing Father or recording angels know all of the heroism involved in the nightly toil and rigid self-denial with which many, possibly most, of the sisters patiently and uncomplainingly serve in the Temple for the benefit of those who are powerless to repay them in this life. It would be difficult to find a more devoted and truly charitable class of women than those laboring in the Salt Lake Temple.
The women in attendance at the Temple almost invariably far outnumber the men—sometimes two to one. ”