“This Terrible War,” chapter 12 of Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, Volume 3, Boldly, Nobly, and Independent, 1893–1955 (2022)
Chapter 12: “This Terrible War”
Chapter 12
This Terrible War
The Scandinavian and its passengers arrived safely in Montreal in late September 1915. Hyrum M. Smith then suspended Atlantic crossings for Church members while he and the First Presidency determined the safest way to transport missionaries and emigrants. After the German government agreed to stop attacking British ocean liners, Hyrum resumed sending Saints on British ships until the spring of 1916, when he felt impressed to place Saints only on ships from neutral nations.
“The risk of their traveling on belligerent ships is too great,” he wrote in his journal, “and I cannot afford to longer carry the responsibility of taking such risks.”1
In Liège, Belgium, meanwhile, Arthur Horbach and his fellow Saints labored to keep their small branch together. Chaos had enveloped Belgium as German troops stormed the country. They killed civilians, tormented prisoners, pillaged and burned homes and towns, and punished all forms of resistance. Night and day, drunken soldiers terrorized the cities. No one was safe from violence.
For the first ten months of the German occupation, the Liège Branch hardly dared to meet for worship. But in the spring of 1915, after months of lying low, Arthur and the branch’s two other priesthood holders, Hubert Huysecom and Charles Devignez, decided to try holding regular meetings again.
Marie Momont, an older woman in the branch, opened her home to the Saints. After a few weeks, the meetings moved to the home of Hubert and his wife, Augustine. Their house was larger and situated halfway between Liège and its neighbor Seraing, making it an ideal gathering place for Saints from both cities. As a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood, Hubert held the highest priesthood office in the city, and he took charge of the branch. He also served as president of the Sunday School.2
Arthur was appointed branch secretary and treasurer, making him responsible for maintaining the records and accounts. He and a Church member from Seraing also assisted Charles Devignez in teaching Sunday School classes. Three women in the branch, Juliette Jeuris-Belleflamme, Jeanne Roubinet, and Guillemine Collard, oversaw the Primary. The branch also started a small library.
Soon the Liège members made contact with a Latter-day Saint elder and priest living in Villers-le-Bouillet, a little town over twenty miles away. The two men visited the branch once a month, giving the Liège Saints a chance to partake of the sacrament and receive priesthood blessings.
Suffering hunger, misery, and privation, some Saints in Liège grew discouraged and lashed out against others in the branch. Then, that summer, the European Mission office began sending funds to relieve the poor and needy. Despite the hardships, most Saints in the branch paid their tithing, and as the dark days persisted, they leaned on the restored gospel, the Spirit of the Lord, and one another.
They also continued to share the gospel with their neighbors, some of whom were baptized amid the chaos. Still, the branch missed the stability they had enjoyed before the invasion.3
“During this terrible war we have seen the power of the Almighty manifested many times,” Arthur reported. “The branches are in good condition, but we long for the return of the missionaries.”4
On April 6, 1916, the first day of the Church’s annual general conference in Salt Lake City, President Charles W. Penrose spoke about the Godhead. He and the other members of the First Presidency often received letters about doctrinal disputes among Church members, most of which were easily resolved. But lately the presidency had become troubled by questions about the identity of God the Father.
“There still remains,” President Penrose noted in his talk, “an idea among some of the people that Adam was and is the Almighty and Eternal God.”5
Such a belief stemmed from some statements Brigham Young had made during the nineteenth century.6 Critics of the Church, in fact, had seized on President Young’s statements to claim that Latter-day Saints worshipped Adam.7
Recently, the First Presidency had tried to clarify the doctrine about the Godhead, Adam, and the origins of humankind. In 1909, they published a statement drafted by apostle Orson F. Whitney on “The Origin of Man,” which affirmed truths about the relationship between God and His children. “All men and women,” they declared, “are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother, and are literally the sons and daughters of Deity.” It also stated that Adam was a “preexistent spirit” before receiving a mortal body on earth and becoming the first man and the “great progenitor” of the human family.8
They had likewise commissioned Church leaders and scholars to publish new doctrinal books for use in Sunday School classes and priesthood quorum meetings. Two of these works, John Widtsoe’s Rational Theology and apostle James E. Talmage’s Jesus the Christ, presented the Church’s official teachings on God the Father, Jesus Christ, and Adam. Both books clearly distinguished God the Father from Adam while also emphasizing how the Atonement of Jesus Christ overcame the negative effects of Adam’s Fall.9
Now, as President Penrose addressed the Saints in general conference, he identified several verses of ancient and modern-day scripture to show that God the Father and Adam were not the same being. “God help us to see and understand the truth and to avoid error!” he implored at the conclusion of his words. “And don’t let us be too strong in our feelings in regard to our opinions of matters. Let us try to be right.”10
Shortly after the conference, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles agreed that the Saints needed a definitive statement on Deity. That summer, Elder Talmage helped them draft “The Father and the Son,” a doctrinal exposition on the nature, mission, and relationship of God the Father and Jesus Christ.11
In the statement, they testified that God the Father was Elohim, the spirit parent of all humanity. They declared that Jesus Christ was Jehovah, the firstborn of the Father and the elder brother of all women and men. Since He had carried out His Father’s plan for Creation, Jesus was also the Father of heaven and earth. For this reason, the scriptures often referred to Him by the title of Father to describe His unique relationship to the world and its people.
The First Presidency also explained how Jesus was a spiritual father to those who were born again through His gospel. “If it be proper to speak of those who accept and abide in the gospel as Christ’s sons and daughters,” they declared, “it is consistently proper to speak of Jesus Christ as the Father of the righteous.”
Finally, they articulated how Jesus Christ acted on behalf of the Father in serving as a representative of Elohim. “So far as power, authority, and Godship are concerned,” they stated, “His words and acts were and are those of the Father.”12
On July 1, “The Father and the Son” appeared in the Deseret Evening News. That same day, Joseph F. Smith wrote to his son Hyrum M. Smith in Liverpool, eager for him to share the new statement with the Saints abroad. “This is the first time this task has been undertaken,” he noted. “I hope you will approve of it and will have it very carefully printed.”13
That summer, in northeastern France, the German and French armies were locked in another bloody stalemate, this time outside the heavily fortified town of Verdun. Hoping to break the resolve of the French, the German army had bombarded the town’s defenses and attacked with hundreds of thousands of troops. The French met them with heavy resistance, and months of futile trench warfare followed.14
Among the German infantrymen fighting at Verdun was forty-year-old Paul Schwarz. A bill collector and sewing machine salesman from western Germany, Paul had been drafted into the army the previous year. At the time, he was serving as president of a small branch of the Church in a town called Barmen, where he lived with his wife, Helene, and their five young children. Paul was a calm, peace-loving man, yet he believed it was his duty to serve his country. Another Melchizedek Priesthood holder had been called to take his place in the branch, and before long, Paul was at the battlefront.15
At Verdun, the terrors were constant. Early in the battle, the Germans assailed the French lines with artillery before sending troops with flamethrowers to clear the way for the advancing infantry column. But the French were stronger than the Germans expected, and casualties on both sides numbered in the hundreds of thousands.16 In March 1916, soon after Paul’s regiment arrived at Verdun, their commander was killed in action. Paul remained unscathed. Later, while transporting grenades, barbed wire, and other war materials to the front, he felt inspired to move to the head of his company. He quickly hurried up the line, just before a plane dropped bombs on the spot where he had been marching.17
Other Latter-day Saint soldiers he knew were not so fortunate, a reminder that God did not always spare the faithful. The previous year, the Church’s German-language magazine, Der Stern, reported that eighteen-year-old Hermann Seydel had been killed on the war’s eastern front. Hermann was from Paul’s branch. “He was an exemplary young man and a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ, whose memory shall live on in all who knew him,” his obituary read.18
Before the war, Paul had always been eager to share the gospel. Both he and his wife had gained testimonies of the Restoration after reading missionary pamphlets. Now Helene sent him Latter-day Saint tracts, which he passed out to the men in his unit. The soldiers would often read the tracts to pass the time before the next attack. It even inspired some of the men to pray.19
The battle at Verdun—and countless battles on other fronts of the war—carried on through 1916. Troops huddled in the dark, filthy trenches, fighting battle after hellish battle across the mud and wire of “No Man’s Land,” the desolate killing ground between the armies. Paul and other Latter-day Saint soldiers on both sides of the conflict clung to their faith, finding hope in the restored gospel as they prayed for an end to the strife.20
As war raged throughout Europe, the revolution in Mexico continued unabated. In San Marcos, the Zapatista troops who had occupied the town one year earlier were gone. Yet the memory of their violence still scarred the Monroy family and their Church branch.
On the night of the Zapatistas’ invasion of San Marcos, Jesusita de Monroy had been on her way to speak with a rebel leader, hopeful that he could help her free her imprisoned children, when she heard the fateful gunshots. Hurrying back to the prison, she found her son Rafael and fellow Latter-day Saint Vicente Morales dead, victims of the rebel bullets.
In anguish, she shouted into the night, her cries loud enough for her daughters to hear in the room where they were being held.
Nearby, someone said, “What a brave man!”
“But what did they find in his house?” someone else asked.
Jesusita could have answered that question. Zapatistas had searched for weapons on her son’s property, and they had found nothing. Rafael and Vicente had been innocent.
The next morning, she and Rafael’s wife, Guadalupe, persuaded the rebel commander to release her three daughters, Natalia, Jovita, and Lupe. The women then went to retrieve the remains of Rafael and Vicente. The Zapatistas had left the bodies outside, and a large crowd of townspeople had formed around them. Since no one seemed willing to help carry the bodies back to the Monroy house, Jesusita and her daughters enlisted the few men who worked on Rafael’s ranch to assist them.
Casimiro Gutierrez, whom Rafael had ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood, conducted a funeral service at the house. Afterward some women from town, including some who had spoken out against the Saints, appeared guiltily at the door and offered their condolences. The Monroys found no comfort in their words.21
Jesusita had struggled to know what to do next. For a time, she contemplated moving away from San Marcos. Some of her relatives invited the family to live with them, but she declined their offer. “I cannot resolve to do so,” she told mission president Rey L. Pratt in a letter. “We will not be well looked upon for the present, as in these little towns there is no tolerance nor freedom of religion.”22
Jesusita herself wanted to move to the United States, perhaps to the border state of Texas. Yet President Pratt, who was overseeing the Mexican Mission from his home in Manassa, Colorado, cautioned her against moving to a place where the Church was not well established. If she found it necessary to move, he further counseled her, she should find a place among the Saints with a good climate and a chance to earn a living.
President Pratt also encouraged her to remain strong. “Your faith,” he wrote, “has been one of the greatest inspirations of my life.”23
Now, a year after her son’s death, Jesusita was still living in San Marcos. Casimiro Gutierrez was the president of the branch. He was a sincere man who wanted to do what was best for the branch, but he struggled at times to live the gospel and lacked Rafael’s talent for leading people. Fortunately, other Saints in the branch and the surrounding area ensured that the Church remained strong in San Marcos.24
On the first Sunday in July 1916, the Saints held a testimony meeting, and each member of the branch bore witness of the gospel and the hope it gave them. Then, on July 17, the anniversary of the killings, they met together again to remember the martyrs. They sang a hymn about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and Casimiro read a chapter from the New Testament. Another branch member compared Rafael and Vicente to the martyr Stephen, who died for his testimony of Christ.25
Guadalupe Monroy also spoke. After the Zapatistas had been driven from the region, one of the rival Carrancista captains had promised her that he would seek revenge on the man who was responsible for her husband’s execution. “No!” she had told him. “I do not want another unfortunate woman to cry in loneliness as I do.” She believed that God would serve justice in His own time.26
Now, on the anniversary of her husband’s death, she testified that the Lord had given her strength to endure her pain. “My heart feels joy and hope in the beautiful words of the gospel for those who die faithful in keeping its laws and commandments,” she said.27
Jesusita likewise remained a pillar of faith for her family. “Our sorrows have been grievous,” she assured President Pratt, “but our faith is strong, and we will never forsake this religion.”28
Back in Europe, meanwhile, apostle George F. Richards replaced Hyrum M. Smith as the president of the European Mission.29 Before Ida Smith returned with her husband to the United States, she wrote a grateful farewell to her Relief Society sisters in Europe.
“In the past two years we have seen a great reawakening of interest in the Relief Society cause,” she wrote. “There is every reason to hope that the work will continue to increase and become more and more a power for good.”
Under her leadership, the Relief Society had grown to more than two thousand women across Europe. Many local units thrived as never before, combining their efforts with the Red Cross and other organizations to relieve the poverty and suffering of their neighbors during wartime. By the end of her mission, Ida had organized sixty-nine new Relief Societies.
Now she hoped they would extend their influence even further. “The field in which to labor is extensive,” she wrote, “and I hope that all the sisters will take advantage of every opportunity to make themselves known and their influence felt in as wide a circle as possible.” Knowing the war had deprived branches of missionaries and priesthood leaders, she specifically encouraged the women to find time to distribute missionary tracts.
“This has been done in a few instances with splendid effect,” she wrote. “Many doors have been opened for the preaching of the gospel in this way.”30
In the fall of 1916, President Richards supported the efforts of local women to serve as missionaries in the towns and cities where they lived. He instructed mission leaders to call “lady missionaries,” sustain them in conferences, set them apart, and give them missionary certificates. He also recommended giving women branch responsibilities, such as praying and speaking in sacrament meetings, that had been done by men prior to the war.31
In Glasgow, Scotland, more than a dozen women, including the branch Relief Society president, Isabella Blake, were called on local missions. Isabella had great respect for Ida Smith. Following her example, Isabella and her Relief Society had worked with other churches to provide clothing for soldiers and sailors. When they sent items to the front lines, they attached messages of sympathy and cheer for the troops. They also comforted the many grief-stricken women in Glasgow who had lost loved ones in the war, praying all the while for the end of the terrible conflict.32
Ida had once told Isabella, “Whatever you do, always keep alive the spiritual side.” Isabella tried to keep this advice in mind as she shouldered her responsibilities. All the new missionaries had day jobs, and some of them were wives and mothers. Isabella herself had five children and was expecting a sixth. What free time they had—on their weekly half day off from work or on Sundays—they spent distributing tracts, teaching the gospel, holding Relief Society meetings, or offering service such as visiting wounded soldiers in hospitals.33
Like other female missionaries before them, the women in Glasgow succeeded in reaching people who were suspicious of the American elders. The working-class neighborhoods of their city were a fruitful field for the gospel message. And as a local convert herself, Isabella could testify of her own experience with the gospel. As she spoke with the people of her city, Isabella found them to be kind and anxious to find the truth.
“We alone—a little handful of people in this densely populated world—have had this knowledge revealed to us, of the renewal of the family relation on the other side,” she testified. “We know that the Lord has opened up the way for us, that by complying with His requirements, the wife will be restored to her husband and the husband to his wife, and they will again be one in Christ Jesus.”34
The good spirit among the Glasgow Saints contributed to their success. Working together with the few men remaining in their branch, Isabella and her fellow missionaries brought back many people who had left the Church. The Relief Society also went from holding two meetings a month to four. Isabella especially appreciated their testimony meetings. “Some nights we feel loath to close them,” she reported.
The accomplishments of the Glasgow Branch and its newly called missionaries made Isabella wish the Church were better established in the city. “If we had a little church here of our own, that could be kept for the sole purpose of worshipping God in and performing baptisms,” she wrote mission headquarters, “I believe it would be the finest branch in the British Mission.”35