(D&C 45:9; refer in this text to 2 Ne. 15:26–30)
What that Statue of Liberty has symbolized to the oppressed and downtrodden of Europe, the gospel of Jesus Christ is to the world.
The restored gospel, the Church, has reared an ensign to the nations … and invites the world to peace, to rest, to contentment.
(David O. McKay, Conference Report, Apr. 1963, 97.)
This Church is the standard which Isaiah said the Lord would set up for the people in the latter days… . This Church is the ensign on the mountain spoken of by the Old Testament prophets.
(Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, Apr. 1961, 119.)
“Rising above the Salt Lake Valley is a dome-shaped peak. Brigham Young saw it in a vision before the Saints left Nauvoo. He saw an ensign descend upon the hill and heard the voice of Joseph Smith say, “Build under [that] point … and you will prosper and have peace” (quoted by George A. Smith, in Deseret News [semiweekly], 29 June 1869, 3).
When Brigham Young first arrived in the valley, he immediately recognized the peak. On the morning of July 26, 1847, the men who would eventually comprise the new First Presidency, along with several members of the Twelve, climbed its slopes.
This small group of priesthood leaders gazed out upon the valley below. “This is whereon we will plant the soles of our feet,” President Young said, “and where the Lord will place his name among his people” (quoted by Erastus Snow, in Deseret News, 22 Oct. 1873, 5).
As I now stand at Ensign Peak and see the valley below, I marvel at the foresight of that little group. These prophets, dressed in old, travel-worn clothes, standing in boots they had worn for more than a thousand miles, spoke of a millennial vision. It was both bold and audacious. It was almost unbelievable.
Here they were, almost a thousand miles from the nearest settlement to the east and almost eight hundred miles from the Pacific coast. They were in an untried climate. They had never raised a crop here. They had not built a structure of any kind.
They were exiles, driven from their fair city on the Mississippi into this desert region of the West. But they were possessed of a vision drawn from the scriptures and words of revelation: “And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isa. 11:12).
(Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, May 1997, 63.)