I am reminded, while standing here at this west end of the tabernacle, that some fifty-four years ago I sat in the gallery of this house in the first seat just behind where the clock is now fastened. At that time I was an immigrant boy, just over from far-off Stockholm, Sweden, unable to speak the language. The only words of the language I knew were “yes” and “no.”
Remarkable as it may seem, those two words have been of considerable importance in my life. It is a matter of regret that I have not always been able to say No when that was the answer that may have been required, but I appreciate and am thankful to my Heavenly Father that I have been able to say No as often as I have done …
It is a matter of still greater appreciation that every time when I have been expected to say Yes I have been able to do so.
— John V. Bluth, President of the Canadian Mission, April 1931
Interesting. I’m guessing Bluth referred to saying “No” to temptations and to being expected by Church leaders to say “Yes” to callings. But that’s just a guess. Is there a context that would confirm or correct?
Some have had a problem failing to say “No” to callings or service requests that are inappropriate under the circumstances. I wonder how Bluth would have dealt with that concept.
JR, this is extracted from a Conference talk, here: https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1931a/page/n99
Perhaps he was invoking the sentiments of the song “Have Courage, My Boy, To Say No,” which certainly would have been better known in 1931 than now. The song was common enough that it was sung at a stake conference in Salt Lake in 1955, as referenced by Thomas S. Monson in another conference talk in 1986: Courage Counts