"The Lord Requireth the Heart and a Willing Mind"

Evan Stephens (American, born Wales 1854-1930)
Let the Mountains Shout for Joy (1924)
Victor recording September 17, 1923, Camden, New Jersey
Mixed vocal quartet, with Trinity Mixed Quartet
Library of Congress, American Jukebox

The first thing you’ll hear (turn up the volume) as you open the Library of Congress’ “National Jukebox” link to “Let the Mountain Shout for Joy” is a sound many people may no longer recognize: the hiss of an old record player. This rare vintage recording was made in the early days of American records. Evan Stephens, the director of the Tabernacle Choir and prolific composer of many LDS hymns, went to a commercial recording studio in Camden, New Jersey in order make the record. The Choir had made its first recording even earlier, on September 1, 1910. For the 1924 record, backed by the Trinity Mixed Quartet, a small group of vocalists sang the words, “Let the mountains shout for joy. Let the valleys sing and the hills rejoice.” The experience of listening to this recording today in our age of digital audio is like stepping into a room of the distant past. Nearing a century since that recording was made, think about how life is different today than it was back then, how technology has affected us, how the Church has grown, the desert has become a fruitful field, how the gospel has spread to the world. As the hymn states, “And be glad before the Lord.”

Discussion Questions

1. How can you “make known [Jesus’] wonderful works” to others (D&C 65:4)?

2. Jesus makes reference in this week’s reading to “songs of everlasting joy” (D&C 66:11). How does music bring joy into your life?

3. Jesus will help us identify where we need to repent (D&C 66:3). Have you ever felt His influence in this way?

For Children & Youth

Hi. The scripture study this week includes an unusual image: “…as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole earth” (D&C 65:2; also take a look at Daniel 2:31-45). In the days of the Old Testament, Daniel described a dream of King Nebuchadnezzar and a giant statue of the king made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay. In the dream a stone cut from the mountain without hands crashes down, smashes the sculpture, and turns it into powder that is blown by the wind. In 1834, Joseph Smith prophesied that the kingdom of God would grow until it filled the earth. In 2007, President Gordon B. Hinckley noted how the gospel continues to spread and fulfill the promise of these two scriptures.