And promise the Lord, if we intend to dwell in his works, if he'll send us the abundance that he knows we need, we'll do the best we can with it. As a true God child, we'll open our meeting. Our eternal Father in heaven, we are most grateful unto thee that we are permitted to meet under favorable circumstances to hear thy word from thy servants, the priesthood here upon the earth. Amen.

Ask thee to help us that we may concentrate our efforts upon learning and incorporating in our character the blessings of thy word which we will receive here this day. We ask thee to give us a period of time in which we can progress and correct our character so we might become more like thee. We ask thee to watch over thy servants.

protect them from all of the vicissitudes and plans of the adversary, and prolong their lives, that they may be with us to help us along our way for many years. Now, we ask you to let thy spirit be here in abundance, and we dedicate this meeting into thy care and keeping in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Did I see Sister Dorothy Mason? Will you come and bear your testimony, please?

My dear brothers and sisters, it is indeed a privilege to be here today to see such a tremendous group of people gathered together for the same purposes that we are here. It is an opportunity that we realize as we meet together and we miss the association of our loved ones and we are separated. Certainly my firm belief and understanding is gospel is true. We appreciate that we have chosen to follow are the true representatives of God on earth. I ask that we can all be mindful of this, be able to apply the things that we learn for our lives. We may accomplish those things we set out to do. I ask him to help us in all that we endeavor to do, as long as we are applying ourselves in his works. We no more at this time. It would be a privilege for us to be here. Amen.

After the acceptance on a staff, I don't know if he was correct. My brother from Canada, Brother Harold Blackmore. My progress through this work is required at any given time. There are so many directions in which one can exert his effort. Our lives, so many distracting influences that we often become confused in what the Lord really requires all this difficult to realize that one can be doing the will of the lord and apparently doing nothing at any given time sometimes there has to be a period of waiting other times as a period of great activity it would seem to me that reviewing all of these circumstances that we individually find ourselves in that we bear close to the Lord in our feelings, in our spirit, be able to fit the thing that we should be putting our efforts to. We hear a great deal about obedience, and we observe many people's interpretation of this obedience. I find that many times in some of the old fables, we have portrayed some of the deeper truths of the gospel.

The principle of obedience should be an intelligent thing, not just blind running around. I like to think of a little story about Pandemon, a little native boy who was sent to his grandmother's. Grandmother had some freshly baked bread. She said, now Pandemon, you take that home to your mother. She's a busy woman, and I'm sure she'll be glad to have it.

Oh, Pangamon, he was eager to do just right, so he clutched this bread closely to him, and it had just been baked. When Pangamon got home, the mother said, What have you there? Why, there's bread from grandmother. Oh, Pangamon, look at the mess you have. Eagerness to be obedient and to serve had made this bread totally unfit to eat. Grandmother sent you with something.

You be careful. Handle it gently. Now, you should have placed it on your head and walked carefully and directly home, and then the bread would have arrived here nicely. All right, Mother, I'll be careful to do that. So, shortly, Mother sent Pangamon again to Grandmother. As he was about to leave, Grandmother said, Here, Pangamon, take this nice butter home to your mother.

Pangimon says, oh, I'll gladly do that, Grandmother, because I know she would like it. Well, Pangimon thought, well, I'm going to be careful and obey my mother this time. So he promptly set this butter on his head. And, oh, it was a hot, sunny day. And Pangimon walked directly through the forest in the hot, boiling sun with this butter on his head. And he got there.

There were streaks of oil all down his face and his back and all he was in there. The mother said, Tanyamon, what have you done? But, mother, I've done exactly what you told me to do. But, Tanyamon, you shouldn't have put the butter on your head. But, mother, I was obeying you. Oh, Tanyamon. So, she said, now look, Tanyamon, the next time you have a job like this to do, You should have taken it, gone down to the creek, and placed it in the cool water, and wrapped it in a nice, big, green leaf. All right, mother, I'll do that. And he felt very badly because he had not pleased his mother. Sometime later, family morning, went to grandmother's again, and she had a little puppy there, and said, Pandemon, I think that your mother would be glad to have this little puppy. Would you like to take it home? Oh, yes, said Pandemon. No, I must obey my mother. So he went down to the creek and immersed the little puppy in the cold, cool water. Then, after he thought it was sufficiently cooled off, he wrapped it carefully in a large, thin leaf. Well, Pandemon, what in the world have you got there now?

What's a puppy from grandmother? Well, let us see it. And of course, when he unwrapped the little creature, it was dead. Oh, look what you've done. But mother, I obeyed you implicitly. Oh, Tanimon, you are going to be the death of me. But mother, I tried so hard to please you. Well, I'm going out now. But Tanimon.

Do be careful how you step on those freshly made pies. Animal sat there in meditation for a while and his mother was gone. And he got up carefully. And it is greatest to care that exactly in the center of every one of those freshly made pies. I have become convinced in many of my observations that some of us obey the priesthood.

Just that way. It seems to me that there should be a more diligent and intelligent obedience rendered by people who are supposed to be motivated by the Spirit of God and by revelation. Interpret our own situations. Deal with things in the light of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. The prophet Joseph said that what is sin under one set of circumstances is not necessarily sin under another. But these things must be approached with a spirit of devotion, intelligence, genius, revelation. I greatly appreciate the privilege I have of associating with you people and this great work that we are engaged in. And I pray that the Lord will bless us with determination, courage, and wisdom to be worthy servants in time.

I ask these blessings on you and I do it in the name of Jesus Christ. Now I'll hear from Pastor Jeff. God bless you. I plead to raise in our hearts the commandments of God, authority, and the priesthood of Almighty God upon the earth. This year could become the mightiest force, or potentially the mightiest power upon the face of the earth. We would indeed be faithful, turn that faith to the ancient saints.

And others have obtained, seeking the blessings of God and the approbations of heaven. We are not humble enough, grateful enough for the things that we have. I am sure this thing, and the thing that Brother Johnson calls what I think so often, the thing that still rests upon the people of God as a whole, is not full about the things of God as they should be.

Many saints of God are not progressing as they should, and I am sure that this is the best people on earth, the brethren of God, to have the necessary faith. In this story, we have obtained... The blessing that he desired for the benefit of the saints then, and also for his own great given benefit. He took 16 small stones, white and clear, and carried them in his hands upon the top of the mount, and cried unto the Lord, saying, This is a looking crowd. Mark that our common Christian inclination is to have our eyes on the start, looking where we're going. He wanted this heart. The bishop tried to induce him to sell to him the heart.

to sell him pretty carefully looked good enough to him insisted that he have the horse he concluded he had told him the truth of the matter and didn't want to deceive him horse didn't look good he didn't want to let him go another man insisted and paid the price took the horse away and after a few days he came back quite a serious complaint neighbor of mine he says that he tells me a blind horse his neighbor i told you that horse didn't look good my own case and many of you just where we're looking No matter how good we may look from other people's viewpoints, are we looking as good as we should at our own course and where we're going? I very much have enjoyed the remarks of Brother Jeff and his very splendid and timely admonitions. Speak my faith to see the course that we should pursue. And in Brother Blackmore's reference to obedience to priesthood, I thought of this, that prophet who presides over this dispensation.

was not able to look sufficiently with his naked natural eyes to affect the work that had been assigned to him to accomplish. He required the use of other instruments, and it is so with us today. I think there's none of us that are capable of looking entirely with our own powers.

sufficiently good, if you please, to know just exactly where we're going without the use of the instruments that the Almighty has set to be our coaches, our guides, our directors. In order to meet the requirements of obedience that's made of us, we need to use some horse sense. It's often times expressed that we're admonished to keep our ears aground, our eyes on the stars, and our hand on the throttle to see where we're going, but there's better home observed the off times of their eyes on the stars, find our course in tradition. Maybe it isn't the right star we're looking for. I feel very grateful, and I, with Brother Jeff, feel humble today. The great responsibilities that we bear, having made the claims that we have to each other and to the world, we know by the grace of the Spirit of God and by its power and influence the course that we are presuming to pursue. We shouldn't like to blunder that...

oftentimes many of us make. There is not sufficient excuse for it to get by in the course that we have sometimes followed. We have pretend a knowledge burning within our own beings as to the truthfulness and genuineness of the premise upon which we stand and of the direction that we presume to be traveling. And I believe we are traveling in that direction.

But I'm sure there are many of us who are not making the advancements that we should be making with the opportunities that have been afforded us. As has so often been stated, particularly by President Johnson, we have not concerned ourselves enough about the condemnation that we are under. We take these things too lightly. The Latter-day Saints have done all down through these many years.

and treated lightly the things that they have received. And I think it would be a splendid thing for most of us to just take a personal application of that matter and note wherein we individually are treating lightly the gifts and blessings that the good Lord has extended to us for our advancement, for our exaltation. We want to be content with a mere...

or the merest measure of salvation that can be extended by the grace of God, we might sometime be used for something. And in the language of President Barlow, so often expressed in my hearing, we might be good people, but we'll never be good enough until we think more deeply, more keenly, and resolve more determinedly to look more carefully, if you please, the course that we're following.

use that we make of the privileges and opportunities that are afforded us. One of the tragedies of all time is my way of thinking that our blessed Mormon people, my progenitors and yours, my kindred by the hundreds, are going along feeding lightly the things that they have received, ignoring the counsels of heaven, and are wandering off into oblivion.

and the blessings of the gospel having been extended to them by the hand of their leaders in the priesthood from the beginning of this dispensation to now. Still going on in indifference, carelessness, seeking lightly these cases and blessed things. But in the sisters I hope and pray that the grace of God will be to us sufficiently, which I know it will, inasmuch and only.

inasmuch as we concern ourselves, as we should be, about these things that up to the present time so many of us have been treating all too lightly. May the grace of God be unto us in sufficient measure to be induced, by some means, whatever means it might require, to awaken us and arouse us and to stir us into greater devotion to the principles of everlasting life.

This is my humble prayer for each and all of us, my dear brethren and sisters in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. We will now hear from Pastor Timson. I am grateful for the opportunity of being with you, all on each and every one of you to unite the faith with us and by calling upon the Lord to give us understanding. I've had a very happy cycle here lately. I've been able to open up these books to you.

chapter in the section that I want. My text today is section 76, and I do pray that you will give it the attention and call on the Lord to give us some understanding, a little more understanding on this important subject. The blind words that are incorporated in this section are so beautiful, it's impossible for us to describe them, for me to talk.

And I can read the word of the Lord through his entire prophet Joseph Smith would be following. A vision given to Joseph Smith Jr. and Sidney Rigdon at Hiram, Portage County, Ohio, February 16, 1832. If any of you people are so sleepy that you can't stay awake, I want you to come up here and read for a couple of minutes because this is a long section. Hear, O ye heavens!

And give ear, O earth, and rejoice, ye inhabitants whereof. For the Lord is God, and beside him there is no savior. Jesus Christ is our savior. There is no salvation without him. Great is his wisdom, marvelous are his ways, and the extent of his doings none can find out. His purposes fail not, neither are there any who can stay his hand.

From eternity to eternity he is the same, and his years never fail. For thus saith the Lord, I the Lord am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end. Great shall be their reward, and eternal shall be their glory.

And to them will I reveal all mysteries, yea, all the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages to come will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom. Yea, even the wonders of eternity shall they know, and things to come will I show them, even the things of many generations.

And their wisdom shall be great, and their understanding reached to heaven. And before them the wisdom of the wise shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall come to naught. I was reading Fr. Brigham Young this morning, and he said to young men in our congregation, he was speaking a hundred years ago, he said, The young men in our congregation, 25 years of age, have more knowledge.

of national government and problems than the Congress of the United States, including the President. For by my spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will. Yea, even those things which I have not seen or heard nor yet entered into the heart of man.

Being in the Spirit on the 15th of February in the year of our Lord, 1832, by the power of the Spirit of our eyes, by the power of the Spirit, our eyes were opened and our understandings were enlightened so as to see and understand the things of God, even those things which were from the beginning before the world was, which were ordained of the Father through his only begotten Son.

who is in the bosom of the Father even from the beginning, of whom we bear record, and the record which we bear is the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the Son, whom we saw and with whom we conversed in the heavenly vision. For while we were doing the work of translation which the Lord had appointed unto us, we came to the twenty-ninth verse of the fifth chapter of John which was given as follows.

speaking of the resurrection of the dead concerning those who shall hear the voice of the son of man and shall come forth they who have done good in the resurrection of the just and they who have done evil in the resurrection of the unjust now this caused us to marvel for it was given unto us of the spirit and while we meditated upon these things The Lord touched the eyes of our understandings, and they were opened, and the glory of the Lord shone round about. And we beheld the glory of the Son on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fullness. This vision was given twelve years after Joseph saw the Father and the Son in the original vision, and saw the holy angels, and they who had sanctified before his throne.

worshiping God and the Lamb who worshiped him forever and ever. And now after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony last of all, which we give of him, that he lived. For we saw him on the right hand of God, and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the only begotten of the Father, that by him and through him and of him the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God. And this we also saw, and bear record, that an angel of God, who was in authority in the presence of God, who rebelled against the only begotten son, whom the Father loved, and who was in the bosom of the Father, was thrust gowns in the presence of God and the sun, and was called to vision, for the heavens wept over him. He was Lucifer, a son of the morning, and we beheld him, lo, he is fallen, is fallen, even a son of the morning. And while we were yet in the spirit, the Lord commanded us that we should write the vision, for we beheld Satan, that old serpent, even the devil.

who rebelled against God and sought to take the kingdom of our God and his Christ. Wherefore he maketh war with the saints of God and encompasseth them round about. And we saw a vision of the sufferings of those with whom he made war and overcame. For thus came the voice of the Lord unto us. Thus saith the Lord concerning all those who know my power.

and have been made partakers thereof, and suffered themselves through the power of the devil to be overcome, and deny the truth, defy my power. They are they who are the sons of perdition, of whom I say that it had been better for them never to have been born, for they are vessels of wrath, doomed to suffer the wrath of God with the devil and his angels in eternity.

concerning whom I have said there is no forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come, having denied the Holy Spirit after having received it, and having denied the only begotten Son of the Father, having crucified him unto themselves and put him to an open shame. These are they who shall go away into the lake of fire and brimstone with the devil and his angels, and the only one.

on whom the second death shall have any power. Yea, verily the only one who shall not be redeemed in the due time of the Lord after the sufferings of his wrath. For all the rest shall be brought forth by the resurrection of the dead through the triumph of the glory and the glory of the Lamb. He was slain.

who was in the bosom of the Father before the worlds were made. And this is the gospel, the glad tidings which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us, that he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world and to bear the sins of the world and to sanctify the world and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness, that through him all might be saved.

whom the Father hath put into his power, and made by him, who glorifies the Father, and saves all the works of his sons of his homes, except those sons of perdition, who deny the Son after the Father hath revealed them. Wherefore he saves all except them. They shall go away into everlasting punishment, which is endless punishment, which is eternal punishment, the reign of the devil and his angels in eternity, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched, which is their torment. And the end thereof, neither the place thereof, nor their torment, no man knows. Neither was it revealed, neither is, neither will be revealed unto man except.

to them who are made partakers thereof. Nevertheless, I the Lord show it by vision unto many, but straightway set it up again. Wherefore the end, the width, the height, the depth, and the misery thereof, they understand not, neither any man except them who are ordained unto this condemnation.

And we heard the voice saying, Write the vision, for know this is the end of the vision of the sufferings of the ungodly. And Apollo used to instruct us that in order to become ungodly, you must first be godly. And again we bear record, for we saw and heard, and this is the testimony of the gospel of Christ concerning them who come forth in the resurrection of the just. Again I invite you to pay great attention to these words, because they're true.

faithful and powerful. They are they who received the testimony of Jesus and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner of his burial, being buried in the water in his name and this according to the commandment which he has given, that by keeping the commandment they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins and receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands of him who is ordained and sealed unto this power, and who overcome by faith. And the brethren have told us what it means to overcome by faith. There's no other way to overcome. Our enemies, our sins, or anything else than by faith. This is the principle by which God has given us these secrets. It's the principle of power. And in order to overcome, we must overcome.

by a power, and who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just in truth. They are they who are the church of the firstborn, and be liars, but let God be true. They are they who are the church of the firstborn.

They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things. You want the Lord's definition? Here it is. They are they who are priests and kings, who have received of his fullness and of his glory. And are priests of the Most High after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the only begotten Son.

They are gods, even the sons of God. Wherefore, all things are theirs, whether life or death, things present or things to come. All are theirs, and they are Christ, and Christ is God. And they shall overcome all things. Wherefore, let no man glory in man, but rather let him glory in God, who shall subdue all enemies.