Nec Aspera Terrent

When I was in college it was my privilege to take Latin from the great doctor Victor Davis Hansen. He took an old dead language and made it interesting for us. Under his tutelage, I gained a love for old Latin mottos. Latin mottos appear in many places such on a family’s coat of arms, government seals, money, school buildings, military emblems, and the logos of organizations. They can tell us a lot about the people who were there in the very beginnings of those groups and organizations as well as times they lived in.

One particular Latin motto that has caught my attention has particular relevance to our lives here in mortality as we struggle to live up to the ideals established by our Savior in His Gospel.

The motto is: Nec Aspera Terrent

Before I reveal the English translation of the motto I want to tell a little story to help illustrate its meaning.

Prior to the 19th century, military service was akin to a death sentence. Enlistments were typically for life in most countries, and the majority of deaths were not caused by bullet, blade, or cannon fire but by disease, exposure to the elements, and the rigors of service.

The rank and file troops often found themselves far from home in strange lands completely cut off from any contact with loved ones. They suffered horribly just traveling to their destination which was often in terrible conditions aboard ship. In one such trip a soldier despairingly jumped overboard and sank to the bottom of the sea, never to be heard from again. Such was the life of a soldier.

A group of about 2,400 soldiers made such a trip and found themselves on the field of battle. They wore the Latin motto, Nec Aspera Terrent, on their caps. At the end of the day approximately 1,150 would fall, nearly half their number.

Three times the men were ordered to charge a small hill into a hail of bullets. They did it each time without flinching or protest because they had their orders were loyal to their country and each other. The gunfire was incredibly intense that day. A few of the army units that made up the 2,400 that day would lose all but one or two men, making them effectively destroyed as combat units. Even after two failed assaults up the small hill they charged again eventually taking the blood soaked ground.

The battle was won but the war was not over. It would continue for several years. History remembers the battle not as a victory for the British who three times charged up Bunker Hill that day but as a great psychological victory for the colonists who would eventually gain their independence. But the British soldiers lived up to their motto that day and many days after that.

Nec Aspera Terrent translates as: Hardships Do Not Deter Us.

When I think of those who have faced great hardships and were not deterred, I am reminded of people like Joseph Smith, Moroni, Nephi, and countless others. They experienced great hardships but did not falter. The greatest hardships were faced by Him they served, even the Savior Jesus Christ whose birth we celebrate this time of year. He faced incredible hardship and trial such that he bled from every pore.

In Mathew 26:39 we read: “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

He accepted His Father’s will and was not deterred by the hardship he faced. His sacrificed saved us all. May we each follow the example of the Savior and make it our motto also that Hardships Will Not Deter Us.