tonight that we are willing to direct our hearts and our thoughts toward heaven a great outpouring of revelation and inspiration to improve our lives to unite ourselves more solidly behind the servants of the lord among us brother orville johnson to open the meeting our father in heaven we're thankful to you for the privilege and blessing that we have gathering together to under the direction of your servants to learn of thee and thy works. We pray that you'll help us to draw in the wanderings of our minds and center them upon the establishment of your priesthood and kingdom here in the earth. Bless those who speak that they might present your gospel to us. Bless our ears that we might hear and our understandings that they might be opened up. We might know and realize what is required of us.

purify our lives and to prepare ourselves might be of use in your work. Now we dedicate this meeting unto you, asking that your will be done and not ours. This blessing we pray for and thank you for in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Every now and then we have some of our genuine friends come among us from the Canadian area. We're very pleased to welcome them. I believe to start with tonight we'll hear from Sister Gwen Blackmore.

My dear brothers and sisters, this is an honor I didn't expect, but I feel it a privilege to stand before you and to express my gratitude for the many blessings that have come to me in this life. It's a long way from Canada to here, but it's very much worth the traveling. We have a sweet little girl up in Canada, several of them, but this little special one came running to me one day and she said, I love everybody, and everybody loves me. And I put my arm around her, and I said, that's a wonderful feeling, Brenda. It's when we all should cultivate to love everybody, and if we would, everybody would love us. It's very, very hard for a person to hate someone who loves them. I don't think it's possible for them to hold out very long. We seem to radiate happiness.

love and friendship or else we radiate annoyance and disgust and drive people from us. Since I'm not very well acquainted with some of you, I will just review a little where I've been. I was raised in southern Idaho. I'm Jerry Williams' sister. Some of you know him. Our mother died when we were small and we We were living in Rexburg, Idaho. After that, father took us back to the farm and we were raised on the sand dunes of Mud Lake, Idaho. And we grew to maturity there. We helped in the hay field. We cooked our own meals. We rode horses to school. Did the janitor work when we got there. The things we learned out of school were far more valuable to our lives than what we learned in school. We went on through school and I babysat.

worked in many, many homes. In fact, I had a blessing once that said, your influence shall be felt in the homes of many. And I've thought about it a great deal because even yet, I go in the homes of many in some calling or another. When I was in Rigby, Idaho, I was very confused in my young days to know where I should marry or to whom I should marry.

And the more I worried about it, the more confusing it became. And my sister and brother Jerry said, why don't you go on a mission? And I said, they don't go on missions without pressure strips anymore. And they said, well, we'll spend a little money, and Dad maybe can spare a little. So I believe we could finance it. I talked to Bishop Jensen one day and explained this to him, and he said, we appreciate your attitude, and he said, where do you think you'd like to go? I said, I'd like to go, I don't really care where I go, but I believe if I went to the southern states, I might be able to find some of my mother's people. And yet when the call came, which was about three weeks from then, they sent me, it said, to Canada, eastern Canada. And that is where I labored for about 22 months.

It was at the end of that term that I met Harold Blackmore and my life has worked out for me and my life since then has been secure and happy and to say the least busy. I have been very busy. We have a good family of children for which I'm very thankful. I've been married to Harold about five years when one day his father came to our home and brought a little pamphlet called Ballard Jensen correspondence. Grandpa said, son, I believe you better read this to yourself and think it over. He said, it may stir up the feelings of Gwynny. And Harold said, what I read, I read with Gwynny. So we settled down differently and began to read this. Now, I'll agree that I was just a little bit apologetic over her.

rural marriage in the mission field when people would say that talk to me about it i acted awfully dumb and i was it was no act and i had not been taught much about this principle and i felt a little bit concerned when harold was getting into this thing and i could see that it was taking hold with him and i said i think it's it's hell for a woman to find a good man like you and just begin to learn to love him and understand him and then have a bombshell like this thrown at him. And my feelings were stirred up and I was a little bit worried. And one day he could see I was a little scurry, so he said, I can't, he says, do you imagine that I would love you less because you gave me another woman, another mate?

You know, I got thinking about that a little bit, and I thought, well, now the Prophet Joseph Smith lived that, and Brigham Young lived it. And if the Lord couldn't use people like me, who had never been rich, never owned much, and had been almost the scum of the earth as far as my possessions were concerned, He couldn't use humble people like me. Who could He use?

And I began to wonder, could he use my friends, certain ones I could think of there in school? And I thought, no, they'd rather die than to accept it. And I felt quite concerned over this thing, and I did a lot of praying about it. One day I said, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just get flowing? And the good Lord must have felt, known how I felt, because of it.

Things have worked out beautifully for us. And he's blessed me. So I'm quite a fighter for this principle. And I understand it a lot better than I did. I also know some of the things that cause trouble in this principle. I know if we're jealous, it's no good. I know if we're envious, it's no good. I know if we're lazy, it won't work. But if we will just live the golden rule, simple as all of that.

I can't see why nearly anyone couldn't be happy and responsible. I don't like to see sisters that think they love one another live miles apart. Lots of times one of them is sick and they need a little help. The many times I've leaned on my darling sister during the years of having these babies and tending them night and day in sickness and in health. I can't accept these people.

But she has taught me the value and the beauty and the joy of having a glorious sister to lean on. And to come home tired at night and to know that things are in order and the children are tended. And to know that things are all okay. And I don't know how any woman could not appreciate that kind of a blessing.

I'm very thankful for my health and strength, and I'm thankful for the privilege of seeing you people. Some of you I want to know a lot better than I do, for your lives will help me a lot. I desire to know more about the gospel, that I might lead my children, and I desire to magnify myself in this work, that I might be an honor to my husband, for he's been kind and good and patient with me.

I desire to be a better neighbor, but I find that when I'm home, if I do even half the things I should do, I'm the busiest woman, a very busy woman. I'll put it that way. I'm told we should have a place for everything and everything in its place. I've never seen one day like that. So I don't know that I can arrive to these things.

If I were an old spinster living off all alone, I believe I could. But I can't under the circumstances pull it just yet. But I'm working on it. And the things I have to have, like my paring knife and the scissors and my needle, and a few things that I have to have, I hide. Because if I don't, when I reach for it quickly, one of these children have been using it, and then my time is wasted.

Now, I'm sure you women have arrived to a higher understanding of how to manage than that. But I find my life worth living, and I'm not discouraged. I'm thankful for this good sister that comes up and helps to teach us. And heaven knows she's been a blessing to us every time she's come. And we welcome any of the rest of you, and come and see as long as you like, because we need you. May the Lord bless you.

in this wonderful work. And may he strengthen us all that we might be honors to the priesthood, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, now that's a refreshing outlook, isn't it? Maybe we better take another look at this thing, brothers and sisters. There are some values to live for and to rejoice in after all, aren't there? We'll now hear from President Timpson. Thank you, Sister Blackmore. I earnestly pray, my brothers and sisters, The Lord will bless me while I stand before you, and that I can have the faith and prayers of each of you. Sister Gwen spoke about gratitude, her gratitude in the gospel, and I'd like to continue along that line. I believe a grateful people is a humble people. A grateful people is a God-hearing people, and a grateful people is a submissive.

And we have heard much about this subject, and still I feel impressed that we need to hear more about it. I've known Sister Gwen for a good many years now. I appear to look as old as she is. These myths that she has lived like she talks, she believes and means what she says. I'm married to a good man that's trying to do these things himself. We're grateful to have her.

them in our midst tonight. As I sat here by this window, feeling the breezes come through, I didn't know whether they were hot or cold, I was reminded of a few words of Shakespeare. I think we find it in As You Like It. It's taken from a little song they sang around the bonfire when they were warming themselves out in the forest. Blow, blow, thou wintry wind, Thou art not so unkind as man's ingratitude. Although thy breath be rude, although thy breath be rude, thou art not so unkind as man's ingratitude. We're in the midst of a heated contention for office in various political positions in the state and throughout the nation. There has been very little of this spirit of gratitude expressed in what I have read and what I have heard, which has been too much. I wish I had read and heard less, because it smacks of anything but gratitude. I was thinking of all the boastings about what I can do, speaking of the first person in these debates. What I can do. I am a very self-confident man.

And I have been led to believe, my dear brothers and sisters, that faith and self-confidence are two different things. Faith in God and self-confidence are two different things. And the world is full of self-confidence, and it seems that the men who possess it the most are those who seem to get the most and lord it over their fellows the most. Whereas faith in God is a spirit of submission, a spirit of gratitude, a spirit of willingness to follow the leadership of those who have been designated for our following. That is the contrast of the saints in the world. That is the contrast of the spirit of the priesthood and the spirit of the world. And it is difficult for us to cultivate the spirit of the priesthood and still be involved in the institution.

of the world. It's very difficult to do it. On the other hand, it isn't impossible. We've been told that it isn't impossible, that we can develop our faith in God and still associate to some degree in the institutions of the world. And I would invite you, my brethren, to follow me and my sisters in the thoughts that As we withdraw ourselves from this spirit of self-confidence and call upon God to assist us in all of our daily duties and activities, regardless of what our position and situation may be, we will be more successful in our undertaking. When a man is placed in the position, as was George Washington, he had not much self-confidence.

Although he was trained in military schools and had a great deal of the learning of this world, he knew that he as president and leader of this great colonial empire must depend on someone else except himself. And his greatness was in direct proportion to his ability to call upon and receive the will and mind of God. And that is why George Washington, the father of our country, One of the greatest rebels that was ever known in English history has become the father of our country and to whom we pay homage. And one of those who appeared in the St. George Temple requesting of President Wilford Woodruff his endowments. It appears that when men are put in a position where they can't fall on somebody else,

we call gratitude this thing we call humility submission to god that is why we have such a great leader among us today a man who has known no other will except the will of god and the priesthood of god as he has understood it from the beginning of his days the days that he was born in this he submitted himself to priest as he understood it and I can't help but relate to you what he told me on one occasion, and that is when the Lord gave him a testimony of the mission and calling of President John Y. Barlow, he immediately went to President Barlow and said, I am your man. I have come here to assist you. I know that you hold the keys of the priesthood, and I am here to work with you and to uphold you.

to the very best of my ability. And that has been characteristic of President Johnson since he learned about this work. And when President Barlow died, he went to President Musser and told him the same thing, or words to that effect. And when President Musser died, he went to President Zitti and submitted himself. Now, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the way Christ lived when he was on the earth.

There was no mortal man to fall upon, to receive counsel from, after he grew up to the position where he knew that his stepfather Joseph had not much to give him. He learned in his early years, at the age of 12 and probably earlier, his absolute dependence upon God, and he submitted himself to God. And in his submission, he had gained the ascendancy, of thrones, dominions, and powers to which we can't even contemplate or dream about, can only be shown through visions of the Almighty, the power, the majesty, and the honor to which our elder brother, Jesus Christ, has ascended to submission. He's right there at his side. He says, I've learned of your power and your authority, that you're my great president, and I'm your man.

And I promise to uphold you in all my life. And I am willing to lay down my life for you and for your cause and for my brothers and sisters. This is the spirit of humility. This is the spirit of faith. This is the spirit of the priesthood. Some people think that the only godhood that they can be contemplated is to have other people submit to me. My godship.

resolves itself in having other people over the world. They want dominion over other people. And they want freedom, independence to do their own thinking, their own acting, and all other people that they're interested in to be submissive to them. That's the dominion of the world. The dominion of priesthood is the dominion of following.

the leader of doing not my will but thine finding one's legitimate authority and following now sisters if you are going to be one with anybody if you are ever going to be one with anybody believe me you will be one with your husband i don't think you're going to be one with jesus christ i don't think any of you here are going to be one with jesus christ isn't your husband These Catholic sisters think that they are going to be one of them, but they're not. I don't think you can use them. The Brides of Christ has long reverted the universal Catholic Church. There are many brides, many women who have become one with Him. You cannot become one with Him. That's strong language. It's mistaken. I want to be corrected. You will become one with your husband. I'm trying to make a direct connection. I don't do it. Your prayers. Father.

He's a kind elder brother. If you help what you don't get, he is doing it vicariously for a period and receive it. Now, Heber C. Kimball taught this doctrine very clearly. You, brethren, will receive the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, through the apostles here, through your husbands. All your brothers, your legitimate authority, a woman will receive it from her father until she's taken and adopted out of his kingdom into another kingdom.

But it comes from the priesthood, and the girl should be one with her father. Above all, my dear brethren and sisters, a girl should be one with her father until she becomes married to a man holding a priesthood. Is that too much to ask? Is this a strange doctrine? Why not one with her mother, the Holy Ghost's new mother? She shares in this wonderful blessing with her mother through her father that beholds the priesthood.

is unfortunate enough to have a man as a father or a brother who holds the priesthood, and she has to depend vicariously upon the priesthood that's appointed over her. And in this day and age, we don't have much of a church organization, so she comes directly under the council. Now, brethren, point it out time and time again where you receive your blessings. The blessings come in submission to the presides over you.

in the priesthood issue where Brigham Young made the statement, I am an apostle of Joseph Smith. His blessings, his ordinations to Joseph Smith Jr. could truthfully say, I am an apostle of Joseph Smith. He's an apostle of Jesus Christ. If we don't know that, we should know it. See, this blessing is direct from Jesus Christ. His hands laid upon him. He received his apostleship today. Is there any wonder that Brigham Young understood the doctrines of the kingdom of God, understood the doctrines of the priesthood, as of any wonder that men who rebelled against him and set up their own doctrines and ideas fell into apostasy. And not long after, my dear brothers and sisters, not long after, did men set themselves up for expediency in their own ideas and gave to the church false doctrines. They could not endure sound doctrine.

as Paul predicted would be the case in the latter days. They shall not endure sound doctrine, but shall heap unto themselves doctrines of their own, the commandments of men, and have a form of godliness, but deny the power. The whole trouble with this church today, the whole trouble with this church today, this church which bears the name of deity, is that it will not submit.

It will not bow the knee to the priesthood of God. A rank, a rank path of apostasy. There's hardly one doctrine being taught in the church today or one ordinance, or one ordinance that hasn't been perverted beyond description. And as far as being any vitality, I can assure you there isn't any vitality of salvation except through the priesthood that God has designated.

through whom this vitality and power of salvation can come. It comes by submission, by faith and confidence in that priesthood. Now, my dear brethren and sisters, let's have enough confidence in ourselves, enough self-confidence to accept the priesthood of God and have faith and confidence in it. Let's have just that much confidence.

that we will do the things which God Almighty has called us to do through his priesthood. I humbly pray for Jesus Christ. President Hammond will be our next speaker. Grateful brothers and sisters to be here. Pray for the Spirit of the Lord to bless me that I might be able to bless assignment. I've been pleased with the things that I've heard. Sister Blackform left the pulpit in a good condition for Brother Timpson.

He's left it in a good condition for me. I hope when I get through with it, it'll be fit for someone else to stand in. I rejoice in the privilege of meeting with you people, being numbered among you, and being considered of our Heavenly Father that I've been brought to the knowledge of the truth and placed in the custody of the priest of God. We learn many things in our lives by comparison.

and I only have to reflect on my past to appreciate the present. Paul spoke of the awful condition that he was in. Of course, he was a persecutor of the saints, which I hope I've never been, but I have certainly been in conditions where I marvel now that God ever was able to find me and bring me to the Society of the Saints. I recognize when I look back on my life that I've been a marked man and I'm grateful for this knowledge because the present would be difficult to endure if I thought that I hadn't been under the observation of the priesthood on the other side from my boyhood on. When I visit with my brethren and I hear them contemplate on their lives and they recite to me the experiences of their youth, I find that they were marked men and that

For all points of discussion and argument, we had no place among the society in which we lived. I often think of Brother Jeffs and Brother Guy and Brother Johnson, Brother Musser, Brother Barlow, and all the men that we've known. Every man that's had to bear the responsibility of the priesthood in the earth has been watched over by the Lord and moved around in various circumstances that they could.

finally be gathered up. I think of the many opportunities that I had to be led away by my relatives, by the circumstances of life, the enticements of labor and money, and how the overruling hand of providence guided me into this work. Discussing the blessings of God with one of my brethren one day, we were very quickly and readily agreed upon the fact that language can't tell. Now the tongue express the blessings that are associated with the saints of God. No one can tell a thing of this kind until no one can know of these blessings until they've been experienced. And the tongue is incompetent to pass the information along. They used to wonder in the early pioneer days what made the Mormons the way they were. And I suppose they never found out.

And this is one of the reasons. They praised God for their persecution, and they praised God for their days of prosperity. Their enemies couldn't understand why. Many of us didn't know why, I guess, until we began to experience some of the blessings that were reaped by our predecessors. When I think of what's been done for me in my lifetime to make my life and blessings possible at this time, I feel very humble. When I think of the great labor and time expended by Joseph W. Musser to gather up a little handful of people in Idaho, I'm appalled. I've had occasion recently to reflect upon those days, and those reflections led to more reflections. And I wonder who I was, and who Brother Cook was, and our families, and a few of our friends.

that merited the attention of so great a man we think these are things of a small moment and maybe at those in those days they were small moments to us because of our smallness we had no capacity to appreciate because we had no eyes to see nor ears to hear nor feelings to feel it is now we've survived his life and labors we look back in retrospect and see the hours that he toiled The days that he worked and the sacrifices that he made to perpetuate this work and feel that we were numbered among his protégés. We feel deeply moved to think that God was so kind as to his attention. These days and these privileges that we have of mingling with each other and reaping and drinking in so deeply and bounteously in the knowledge of the gospel are days that we'll look back upon and relish and cherish.

as long as time lasts and into eternity. And I join with Brother Timpson, Sister Blackmore, in the spirit of gratitude. I'm grateful for the integrity of Brother Johnson. It's made this day possible. And his integrity isn't something that he was particularly born with. Integrity is something that we develop through our work and our labors and the way that we handle the experiences that come. It's something that can be bartered away or wasted or lost.

in a single act and so when we find a man's head going gray he's filled with integrity and we begin to understand what's brought it about for his integrity i'm grateful i suppose if i could be grateful for more things in his integrity i'm grateful for his example of obedience the fruits of his labors has brought us a marvelous heart and we've not only heard with our Here is what we've seen with our eyes, the fruits of this principle. This man's obedience has weathered some of the fiercest storms that's blown in this dispensation. It's brought him to a condition in life where he's revered and honored and he's respected. And not only that, but it's made him useful in the kingdom of God, in my children, and many of you who are here today, in another 20 years, look back upon his life and his labors.

and you'll bow your heads in gratitude. If there's one principle in this life that'll draw us together, it's this one. And if it could be, by the grace of God, that this people could become grateful enough for their blessings, they might get to the place where they'd take better care of them. This would be a lonely field of labor if we were alone. I so very often think of The word of the Lord to the prophet Joseph Smith when he was in Liberty Jail. He was so stirred in his feelings because of the fierce hardships that was placed upon him because of the dungeon, the filth and corruption that was being heaped about him continually. And the Lord reminded him that his friends hadn't forsaken him. And so I think of the tremendous blessings that I reap through my association with my brethren.

Do the vicissitudes of life appear to be tried to show some exasperation from time to time because of our brethren's weaknesses? But God forbid that I ever let them show enough in my life that they overshadow the sense of gratitude I feel for the nearness of my brethren. I'm reaching a stage in my life where this sense of gratitude is teaching me to try and revere And respect not only my blessings, but theirs. And if I can do that, then I can begin to respect the life and labors of the saints of God who've gone on before us and made this day possible. I loathe with a fierce intensity my shabbiness. And I loathe with a fierce intensity the shabbiness of this people. And I don't want the spirit of contentment to permeate my bosom.

As long as my character is unfit to be ushered into the presence of God, and as long as there is a spirit of ingratitude, the blessings of my brethren and sisters in this work, I am sure that my character will never be God-like. And it would be a happy day if the camps of Israel, if there could come very quickly into the lives of this people a respect and a sense of devotion for all the blessings that God heaps upon us.

not just our own. We had occasion to review some of our financial affairs last Saturday, yesterday, and I had a feeling in my heart that led me to make this remark, that let's hope and pray and praise God and be thankful for every dollar that comes into the hands of the people who are trying to build up the kingdom. Brother Pimpsons has suddenly get a few thousand in his hands, or Brother Johnson, or Brother anybody who's got the kingdom of God at heart, someone would prosper, and this kingdom would be given in impetus. And I believe that we would rejoice more sweetly and respectfully over a blessing of that kind than we rejoice when an addition is made to one of our brethren's families, for there seems to be a lack, a downright shabbiness.

And about 85 to 90% of this people. When it comes to respecting the blessings that are placed around the saints of God. We pray to the Lord so fervently that he will shelter us and shield us. Preserve us and protect us. Prosper us this way and that. Shabby and stinky. And trying to protect somebody else in the self same circle. Now this is not the earmarks of saints. Nothing whatsoever. And if I can't rejoice in...

show gratitude enough for my brethren's blessings, then I'm certainly not on the way that I want to go. Because we're not going to be exalted alone. There'll be no exaltation, as the Prophet Joseph said, for him or me or Brother Johnson or Brother anybody to be exalted above the saints. My hope and aspiration is to be exalted with the saints. And in such a condition, I've got to learn to revere, respect that surround my brethren. I've said this before, and I had no intentions. I had some things outlined I was going to talk about, but I snared it. It was like the Lord took me at my word, and he's putting things into my mind, and I think I'll try to carry out his wishes. You women are cherished and loved, I suppose, above all the women of the earth. And yet I suppose that you're living way below part, way below half.

of what you might enjoy. If you would change your ways and your conditions of your integrity and your minds, that the brethren might begin to honor you and respect you as they do themselves. I could just, just as quick as I can, fast as I can talk, and you know how fast I can talk when I start, I could just name names of brethren that I can see who I have the utmost respect for, their integrity for their everything.

But when I look at the women folks that surround them, I back off and stand aghast and wonder if I'm in the society of friends or enemies. But God's true. Maybe Brother Hammond isn't too sound. You can look at me the way you want to. But that's a fear that takes possession of my bosom when I look at the women folks that surround my friends. I'm not talking about individuals. I'm talking about a collective group. And if you don't look at me, much the same way, why then you're not on the ball. I don't believe all the people that surround me respect your blessings like I do. Now, what's the matter? One day, you and you and you and all of you are going to be in the temple with us. We're going to go there and take our covenants together, the self-same covenants. We're going to be endowed together. We're going to make the same covenants and promises, be endowed with the same life and knowledge. Now, how are we going to treat it?

and what they're going to use it for. I look at you women individually, and I can't find fault with you. How can a man find fault with his own? I look at my wife, and all that springs up in my bosom is a sense of gratitude. It's all that I can get to come up in my heart. But what lacks? What lacks? Why is it that I can trust this man, and this, and this, and all the rest, and Brother Johnson can trust me?

and yet we have to be apprehensive of our women, folks. Don't try to answer now, but I wish you'd answer the Lord when you get home. And try to tell him what's the matter with you, and then try to get him to overcome it, because you are not trustworthy when it comes to the secrets of the men who hold the keys to your blessings. Someday, some of the brethren here are going to manage and direct and preside over kingdoms of which you'll be a part, if my judgment serves me right.

You'll never reach that stage until you manifest the same kind of integrity that your husband does. We have a Blackmore family before us tonight, so they ought to be using the example. If Sister Gwen doesn't reach the place where she can button her lip and regard her husband's affairs and his contacts and the circumstances that comes in the purview of his mind with the same sanctity and integrity that he does, she'll never stand quite beside him. She'll just be a little bit lower.

It can't be any other way. He might be glad to have her. I'm not saying anything about that. I'm not trying to pass judgment on the black smarts. I'm just trying to illustrate to us that that's the place that this society has got to come to. We're praying for God to set the church in order and everything, but here's part of the setting in order, and we're so irresponsive to these pleas. Brother Barlow and Brother Musser could trust each other as implicitly as any two men I ever knew.

When I was called into the council of the priesthood, I was made aware of Brother Barlow's circumstances. And Brother Musser says, now, Mary, and he says, you're taking an important part in this work, and I want you to know some things. From that day to this, the things that he told me has never passed my lips. Thank God I've got a shelf back in here someplace that I lay some of those things on. I've dusted it off well. I've left them lay there. Now, isn't there a shelf in the mind of a woman?

You've got the same cranial capacities where things can be laid and left in regard to the sanctity and sacredness. If there isn't, then how in the world can you ever be brought into the house of God and have all the secrets of the kingdom laid before you? There's mighty few secrets left in the kingdom of God, I'll tell you this much, after you've had all the doctrines of the kingdom laid before you.

You all have the power of deduction. And if you're going to have the doctrines, you can certainly comprehend the blessings. And what is there left? The doctrine of blood atonement, the doctrine of everything. Adoption and all that pertains to the priesthood have to be laid before the women because it involves the lives of their husbands and their relationship to one another and the people that they're associated with. So for women who stand up high in the ranks of the kingdom of God, There's very little that they won't know. How come that Eliza R. Snow can write such things as she's written? Could write such things as she's written? How come that she could reveal such doctrines as she revealed if she wasn't in the confidence of her husband? We so boastfully and cheerfully review before the saints that Eliza R. Snow said this because she was taught it by the prophet Joseph Smith. Why, I wouldn't hesitate to teach a faithful woman.

Any doctrine that I know, any doctrine that I know, I might be reticent and certainly very careful about revealing all the blessings around my brethren. And if she was a woman of God, she'd be just as careful as I would be. I don't mind saying that Gladys has got secrets locked up in her heart that I know nothing about. Father, the only way I could find them out is to call for them in the name of God, which she means to you.

But that kind of integrity standing by me makes me glow. And I would to God that I could have the same respect for all the women I know in this group as I have. I wish that my brethren's secrets were just as safe in every woman's heart as they are in her. Brother Barlow could seal Aunt Susie's lips here just as tight as he could seal Joseph W. Musser's lips. Says Susie, this is a secret of the priesthood.

It would never find utterance. Is it possible? Is it possible that there's only three or four women in this whole society with such... There's only one Susie and only one Margaret and only one... Is that possible? What a pitiful condition these brethren are in. There's only one Edna Zitting in this group. Cardinal, he said, give me twelve men and I'll shake this state of Utah to its very foundations. You know, if I had the courage, I don't have it.

if I had the courage to challenge you, I'd say, Lauren, their women would defeat you. It would cost you your life and you'd win or lose the race because the women surrounding those 12 men would undo you. Is there a woman that dare challenge that statement? Show me if you dare challenge that statement that you women can't destroy this work. And will do. Don't seal your lips and develop more integrity than I see around the women I associate.

I wouldn't say that I knew Joseph Musser like his son Guy. But I'll tell you, there's very few men living outside of Guy that knew him much better than I did. And he come damn near being like Henry C. Kimball, going into the celestial kingdom, wifeless and childless, and preceded him. Not that they didn't button their lip. I don't have any recollection of any of them telling me much. Joseph devoted his life and labors to the building up of the kingdom of God.

And I saw the women dropping away just like that. Now, they were they, and you are you. You'd say, well, his women were thus and so. Maybe he'd cuff my ears if he was here for talking about his affairs. But I'll tell you, it's a damn poor commentary when a man like him didn't get more support and comfort and blessings out of the women. How high can he exalt him? Just as high as any man that I know of.

I didn't know Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. I know very little of their life. But all the men that's ever passed the purview of my mind, there's none of them could exalt a woman higher than Joseph W. Musser. Now, what are you women going to do with this work? Are you just tagging along behind the men because the men are determined to have another wife and try to work themselves out a salad? Exaltation, is that all? The knowledge and understanding?

that you possess from relative to this thing is the only ambition that fires you to stand beside your husband is because you don't want to lose him haven't you any more light and knowledge and intelligence pertaining to the celestial kingdom than that for all the preaching and preaching and preaching it's gone on has it ever been any different we've had women but i think this percentage is deplorably low in this dispensation of women So it's upheld the priesthood like they ought to. We've had some damn rascals for men. I grant that. But I look into this society of people with pretty knowing eyes. There's hardly a man that I don't know that's moving along in this work. And I know the women that are sure. And I've got a lot of confidence. A lot of confidence in the men I know. I would to God that I could find a few women standing around them that I could have the same kind of confidence in. Now, you know.

You know as well as you know anything that I'm not being unjust or unfair. You know it as well as I'm. You're standing here and that I'm. You're sitting here and I'm standing. This is a true picture of this little body of people that's trying to make saints of themselves. Now, if you know your faults, let's start correcting them. Maybe we better start with our children in the hope that the next generation that comes along will begin to show some of these very, very remedial qualities.

and the lives of the saints of the Most High God. I think I'll take a few more minutes and perpetuate this thought. We've had a lot of talk here in our day and time about the Church of the Firstborn. Do you know who members of the Church of the Firstborn are? Are the men bearing the priesthood of God who are qualified in the law of celestial marriage and their wives? Do you think that I talk about the brethren going places where you don't have the right to go? It's true, we hold a few council meetings.

and priesthood meetings, but when we start to exalting ourselves, we administer every right and ordinance to the women that we administer to ourselves. When we're ready and anxious and able to share our confidence with you, pertaining to the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, if you'll just show some inclination and desires of wanting it, and after getting it, hold it in as sacred and as dignified a manner as you expect your husbands to hold it.

I've never heard Aunt Susie complain about Uncle John. He and I had bread and butter with her many, many times. As the utmost regard for his intake, he had for her. I've ridden with him up and down between here and Shark Creek numerous times. I wouldn't be boastful, but many more times than I could numerate on my fingers and toes. Malcolm told me about Susie, how the Brethren could trust her. Now, do we want Susie to be exalted alone, or do we want to exalt some of the other women with her?

You think it's a long trail, but it isn't. It's just a long trail. It's a very, very short one. It's one that you could cross tonight in your sleep, make up your mind in your prayers tonight that things are going to be different, and tomorrow morning you're on the right track and you're there. If you begin to regard the secrets of this people, not the priesthood, but this people, with the same sanctity that your husbands regarded, this work would have just gone like that. It's over the top.

Because we've got men who will die standing in their own blood. How are you women going to spill it? Revealing to our enemies all our secrets and passing it along until it's caught in the wind and goes straight to the seat of our persecutors? You want Brother Johnson, you want Brother Guy, you want Brother Everybody to come and administer to your wants and preach to you and teach. But how far will you go to preserve their sanctity?

Oh, brother so-and-so, come and seal this in our daughter's heart, this man. Come and do this, and come and do that. We bow and scrape and praise God. He lays his life in your hands and goes away trembling. Now, this is an important phase of this work. It's one that's hard to talk about. Suppose only a brazen man like me has the audacity to approach it. It is something that has a crying need. There's a crying need for vitality.

integrity in the bosom of these. You'll bear children, you'll work, and you'll slave, scrimp, wash and iron, God knows what all you do. I don't. I've seen most of you doing it. You'll do everything but one thing, and that's preserve the integrity of this people. And I'd be happy to see that day, and I know Brother Johnson would, and I know the brothers would start to get in their boots on if they could see their women start to stepping up beside them.

and manifesting the integrity that they need to and say, well, here, I'm ready. I'm ready to take off. I'm ready to do this and so. Women are moving along as fast as I am. I had some pleasant reflections, and I don't know what's any more pleasant than this, to contemplate a people that's united. Oh, you want Roy and I. You want us to see eye to eye. If we should ever have a break of opinion, you'd hate one and love the other.

Sure as the world. But you can go along and on and on and on. Butchering. Cutting the hearts out of your husbands. Day in and day out. Expecting us to like them. But I don't like it. And I haven't very much confidence. Until we begin to show new signs. Confidence in what I consider a host of men. Considering our numbers. A host of us. That are taking on solemnity. And a disposition to try to serve God. That's very heartfelt and gratifying.

And it shows to me that God is ready to bless his people and that he's owning us. He hasn't spewed us out of his mouth. We're here and we continue to meet. We get instructions. We receive blessings week after week and year after year. There's this lack. There's this lack of confidence and ability to preserve this work into whose hands is it committed? Oh, you'd say it's committed to the hands of the priesthood. But with whom do we do our work?

And where does our secrets lie? If all we had to contend with was seven men, there'd be no problems. Just as quick as we start to work, who do we work with? Why, we work with this man and woman, and this man and woman, and this man, and this man, and this man. And we spread the secrets of the kingdom among the people. Or what stinking little secrets has Brother Johnson and I got between us that doesn't involve some other people? Why, they don't amount to that. Our secrets are with you.

and we fear and tremble. Well, I pray God that this spirit, the gratitude, the love, at home you will put the rest of the adjectives, will take possession of this people. And when I tell you that I believe that I have just as much regard for the blessings of my brethren, I believe that I'm telling you the truth as I have for my own. And I don't know why I can't permeate every other person in this group that's been through the same kind of experiences and hardships. I don't know why one...

My lessons won't teach a woman as well as they'll teach me. Margaret was carrying chicken to Guy and a little bit of eat so he wouldn't die. Up here in the county jail, it looks to me like Margaret would teach you the same lessons that taught him. I bet you that your heartache is as bad as it is his. I bet you shed tears in your prayers night and morning as quickly as he shed. So Margaret has been placed in a position of responsibility with the priesthood.

She's almost her secretary. Now, why hasn't the experience of other men going to prison and other men having to scatter their families and drive and drive and drive and travel from hell to breakfast looking after their people? Why hasn't it taught the rest of you to see your daughters whisked away and you didn't know when you'd see them again? And when they come back, they have grown families. Why hasn't it put integrity to everybody?

Brother Johnson visiting those women down there in Phoenix, in Mesa, Snowflake, and all over hell's creation. Why didn't that put integrity in the women the same as it put in Roy Johnson? We all have an algebra class here today. You women learn your algebra and the men learn your algebra. You walk in the other room and you can solve the same kind of problems. Why doesn't blood and tears teach us all the same lessons?

I wish you could answer me. I just... I wish God would tell me, somebody, why we have to go around in the midst of a people that we adore and love and give our lives blood for and we can't trust them as far as we can see them. I see some of you coming and I run. I stuff my wives and my kids in the closet for fear that you're going to tell all I... I don't want you to know. That's the best of you, not the worst. My wife and Shark Creek ducks and...

Dodges and locks the door and shuts the bedroom and sits as quiet as a mouse. So people will think that she's not at home because somebody's knocking at the door that she can't trust through into her kitchen. Don't tell me it wasn't me or isn't somebody close to us because I know just as well as I'm drawing breath who they are. What can you do about it? Why is it when a woman gets old and gray, her tongue gets loose at both ends?

And when she's young and frivolous, she has no respect. One of my sons would go out and blab some of the things that I hear young girls and women talking about. I'd take him out and thrash him with an inch of his life. I'd make him plead for his life. I'd make Joseph Smith plead for his life when he was disobedient. And I'd shake those boys till their teeth rattled. You can't touch a girl. You can't do this with her. You can't do that with her.

their privileged characters to rip and tear apart and desecrate the integrity of the priesthood. If you want to have any continuation of the love and confidence and the blessings of the men that are standing with you, you've got to change your ways. God bless you. Amen. President Muster will make the address. Pleased to be here tonight, brothers and sisters, and to rejoice with you in the blessings of the Lord.

Gratitude for his work, before we realize that all our blessings are a result of him and his work here upon the earth. Now we have constantly placed before you a proposition of getting and keeping the Spirit of the Lord. This, of course, would solve all our problems, would it not? This would solve everyone's problems.

It would make everyone trustworthy. Complete confidence could be imposed in every character. If we knew how or actually had the desire of getting and keeping the Spirit of the Lord. Now in my observations I have found that one reason we don't keep the Spirit of the Lord is because we have refused to actually receive as doctrine and truth the things that have been placed before us by the Lord and his servants. We have become so disposed in our lives and customs to treat what the Lord has said lightly that we find ourselves doing it unknowingly, and we hear a thing and we don't hear it.

It passes before us like an airplane might in the sky, but we don't see it. We don't receive it into the nature of our characters as doctrine that must be put into practice every moment of our lives. And because of this, we become subject to adverse spirits. And it is when we are subject to adverse spirits that we become...

not dependable, and cannot be trusted, and are not fit for the society of one another, let alone the Lord. And it's upon this subject that I'd like to draw a few things to your attention. And if you will receive them, you'll never have to go without the Spirit of the Lord again. If you do find yourselves without it for a moment, you can immediately regain.

its influence in your life now the first instance one of the first things that the lord revealed to the prophet joseph smith in the restoration of all things was the fact that the work and glory of god is to destroy evil and to bring his children back into his presence So the work of God is to destroy Satan. Now what is the work of Satan? Destroy God. His work and his glory is to destroy the work and glory of God. So there are two powers placed here upon the earth. Two influences. God and Satan. And we are engaged in a natural warfare.

One could not conceive that if you were over in France on the battlefield, that every waking and sleeping hour of your life you would be alert, because you would know that the moment you made a mistake, your life might be taken, or you'd be taken prisoner and subjected to humility and other desperate measures.

And so you would be so trained and you would so govern your lives that there wouldn't be a waking or sleeping second that you wouldn't be alerted against your common enemy. Any soldier can tell you that that's the condition he has to arrive to in order to protect himself. Well, now our Father has said, Children, you are engaged in a great battle between good and evil. On one hand stands the heavenly host, myself, and an innumerable company of associates. On the other hand is arrayed Satan with his innumerable company of associates, and you are engaged.

in this great war to bring to pass the complete destruction of evil in your own life, in the lives of others, and in the earth, which means the destruction of the devil. The Lord revealed this to the prophet Joseph Smith in the very first instance for a purpose. Let me review this to you. You remember that he was poor As he approached the hill Cumorah and opened the hill and found the golden plates and the wealth, hid there that many thoughts run through his mind as to what this gold would do for his family and so forth. I won't read that. But at this instance, when these thoughts were going through his mind, He looked to the Lord in prayer, and as he prayed, darkness began to disperse from his mind, and his soul was lit up as it was the evening before, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And again did the Lord manifest his condescensions and mercy. The heavens were opened. Now here's the two pictures. Note.

the heavens were opened, and the glory of the Lord shone around about and rested upon him. While he thus stood gazing and admiring, the angel said, Look, and as he thus spake, he beheld the Prince of Darkness, the other side, surrounded by his innumerable train of associates. Think of that. All this passed before him, and the heavenly messenger said, All this is shown, the good and the evil, the holy and the pure, the impure, the glory of God and the power of darkness, that you know, Hereafter, the two powers and never be influenced or overcome by the wicked one. Now there's one of the first revelations as to the restoration that the Lord made in a very dramatic way. I assure you my glory and my power and my associates.

And I'll show you the wicked one, his power, and his associates. So that you will know that you are to be engaged in a great war. And that it will be your responsibility never to be overcome by the wicked one. Now how many of us have received that truth? Pure truth and a doctrine.

of the Lord as an actual reality in this life. The fact that we go skipping and jumping and singing along the length and breadth of the battlefield indicates that we don't know that a war is going on and thus we are caught unawares by the adverse powers and brought into a humiliating condition. And thus, when we are brought into this humiliating condition, is a time when we are not trustworthy, when the brethren have to call us down, when we commit many crimes that are very serious in the eyes of each other and in the eyes of the Lord.

Now another revelation that was given to us in regard to this. Joseph Smith was relating to the brethren how much trouble he had had and how some men had turned against him and some women. And he felt sad. And Brother Behunin stepped forward and said, O Joseph, my prophet, I promise you that if I should ever grow cold in this work, I'll never turn against you, but I'll take my body and I'll travel to a far corner of the earth and never molest you. Now, one of the most important revelations of this dispensation was then given by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said, Brother Behunin, you don't know what you would do.

Before men and women make their choice, the Lord allows them to be neutral. But after they have once made the choice of either serving God or the devil, they never, no never, can become neutral again. So if you desert the ranks of God, you immediately become subject to the adverse spirit, and you don't know what he will ask you to do. Knowing that his work is to destroy the work and glory of God naturally, the first thing he will ask you to do is to try to destroy God. Just like the first thing that our Father has asked, us to do is to destroy evil and the evil one can't you see that the prophet joseph smith once said that man might be influenced by one of three spirits either the spirit of god his own spirit or the spirit of the devil and once in a while a man or a woman will take satisfaction in the fact

that if they might lose the Spirit of the Lord, they'll be subject to their own spirit and won't become very mischievous. Now, I don't think there's one person in 10 million whose spirit is strong enough without the Spirit of God that they can be trusted with. And in view of the revelation to Brother Behunin, it would appear that the moment We lose the spirit of the Lord. We become subject to the adverse spirit and become his servant. You think, anyone, any one of you, myself included, from the smallest to the greatest crime that we have ever committed in our lives, you suppose that if we had thought that we would have committed it, we never would have.

what prompted us to. We were commanded to and instructed to and the way was open for us to accomplish it by our head, the devil. Just like we are commanded to, we're given strength to and the Lord opens up the way for us to accomplish whatever he commands us to do. And on one occasion, the Spirit of God said to Nephi, cut this man's head off. So when you and I begin to say or try to determine what either God or the devil will ask us to do, we don't know what we're talking about. We know that our Father in heaven will ask us to do everything necessary to purify us and prepare our character to go through the veil into his presence. We know he'll do that, even if it's to taking our and giving our life as a sacrifice. And we do know that the evil one will ask us to do everything that's possible to destroy the work and glory of God. And yet, we will deliberate

we will willfully cause ourselves to lose the spirit of God and become subject to the adverse spirit. And you cannot lose the spirit of God without becoming subject to some degree to the adverse spirit. How do we lose the spirit of God? What causes us to lose the spirit of God? This is a long subject that we might...

We might bring it down to the family relationship, the relationship of the brethren to their priesthood head. What causes us to lose the Spirit of the Lord? You know that you can lose, some people say that geographic conditions causes them to lose the Spirit of the Lord. This is one of the silliest things in the world.

Other people say, well, I have to go and mingle among these rascals, and they rob me of the Spirit of the Lord. Don't you know that you can lose the Spirit of the Lord sitting alone a thousand miles from anybody in the temple of the Lord? Don't you know that you can lose the Spirit of the Lord there? Is there anybody in the world that can actually rob you of the Spirit of the Lord?

Is there actually anybody here in this building that can force you to get a stomachache? And yet when you wake up in the morning with a stomachache, what is your reaction? You begin to blame one another. You begin to blame the wind. You begin to blame your bed. You begin to blame every conceivable element and force except your gluttonous.

and careless appetite, or because you forgot that certain things don't agree with you. Why turn over in the bed and blame me? Or why come over to my office and blame me that you've got to sleep? I've locked myself in the house, and I haven't done no harm to anybody. Every day that happens, a person will get the stomachache and begin to blame other people and other elements. Now, What happens when we lose the Spirit of the Lord? How is it lost? The Lord says, draw near to me, and I'll draw near to you. Resist me, and I'll resist you. The Lord does not have any other recourse, neither does a husband or a mother, regarding the wife and their children.

There's no other recourse but to resist. If I resist the Lord in order for him to give me my agency, there's only one thing for him to do, and that's to resist me by withdrawing himself from me. His spirit is mind and will. He still has to bless me with food, clothing. He has to speak to me kindly.

He has to give me the blessings I need and are entitled to. But the one thing that he can do under the law and that is automatic in its reaction when I resist him is that he withdraws his mind and will from me, which is his spirit. And although he continues his great physical blessings upon me, He has withdrawn his mind and will from me. And I am left to become subject to the adverse power. So what am I bound to do? Well, I'm bound to criticize. I'm bound to be mischievous. I'm bound to lie. I'm bound to cheat. I'm bound to sow discord. I'm bound to be a false witness.

All those elements are part of the character of the adverse spirit. And to the extent that he can use my character to do these things, he influences me. So nothing is right. When I lose the spirit of the Lord, my eyes are blind. The adverse spirit immediately takes hold of me and I can't see anything good.

in my brother. I can't see anything good in my wife. I can't see any blessings in my home. The car is old. The house is old. My clothes are old. I have the spirit of ingratitude. Why? Because I'm being influenced by the adverse spirit to bring to an end in my life and in the lives of those I influence the work and glory of God. Can't you see that? Why has it happened? Because I have resisted the Lord, either physically, spiritually, or mentally, and he has withdrawn his spirit, and I am left to be influenced by the adverse powers. I can sit in the temple, and I can begin to have suggestions.

an imagination made to me and I can begin to imagine evil things regarding my brother and my family or the Lord. And I can develop a critical attitude and begin to mentally criticize and find fault. What is the result? I am resisting the Lord and he immediately withdraws his spirit from me.

And if I don't hurry and get it back, I become subject to the power of the adverse spirits. Injury is added to insult, and I go on and on through the hours committing mental and physical crimes against the Lord. That's why I say you don't have to be in a certain place or among certain people to lose the spirit of the Lord.

Naturally, it might be easier to keep the Spirit of the Lord with being surrounded completely with people who do keep it and have it all the time. But to justify yourselves in saying, I lost the Spirit of the Lord because I went downtown, or because I don't live here or there, or because I have to put up with an old car, or I have to put up with this old house, clothes, the conditions that are surrounding me. I've lost the Spirit of the Lord because of these things, because of the excessive heat or the failure of my crop or the rain or the wind. These are all excuses manifested by the power, by the adverse power in our lives. We lose the Spirit of the Lord.

By resisting the Lord. That's how we lose it. By resisting him. Either by committing a sin physically, or spiritually, or mentally. And we can do it in the midst of the saints, or in private, just as well. And that's how we lose it. And the way we keep the Spirit of the Lord is to draw ourselves to him, and to receive.

with gratitude to everything that he gives us and he teaches us and does all things whatsoever he tells us to do. That's how we keep. And we lose his spirit or we lose the influence of his mind and will by resisting him, even though it's a soft resistance and merely a mental resistance.

Haven't you been going along feeling peaceful and happy in your automobile? And all at once, you begin thinking about certain things, and maybe in ten minutes, peace has left you. You are in a condition of confusion and agitation. You've lost the Spirit of the Lord. Why? Because you have committed this mental trespass. Begin to think of your hurts.

The evil one has suggested certain things to you and your imagination has begun to work and in ten minutes time you are mentally criticizing something or somebody relating to the work and the glory of the Lord. Even if it's the spirit of ingratitude, the spirit of ingratitude mentally expressed is resisting the Lord.

and he will withdraw his mind and will from you. And then you become subject to the adverse spirit, and it will unfold to you a great justification of why you should be ungrateful, and so forth. With a husband and a wife, it's against the law of God, man and the priesthood, for a man to beat a woman, or to starve her, or to make her go naked, or to drive her out of a home. There's only one recourse that he has a right to use, and that's the recourse that his Father in Heaven uses. The moment that she resists him in any way, it is automatic that he withdraws his mind and will. He continues to smile. He continues to be kind. He continues to provide.

and help her in a physical way. But his power and his mind and will has been withdrawn from her. What takes place immediately? The adverse spirit takes over the paradise of fun with her. What does he do? Well, the work and glory of God is to see to it that these two people become one.

so that they can dwell eternally in the presence of God. So what is the work of this adverse spirit? It is to bring disunity, discord, a lack of unity, to have her criticize, to have her lie, to have her say things that under normal conditions she would never dream that she would ever say.

He'll have her say things that it will take months for her husband to forget. In two hours' time, the influence of the adverse spirit, and that's just exactly what he wants. Because if he can drive the wedge in that union, and that wedge finally results in disunity, if it takes a year's time, he has won the battle.

battle that's important and if we can become one in the last battle before the lord he'll receive us and if we become disunited in the last battle he'll reject us and receive us and so it is the man with the lord why he can say enough he can offer enough criticism and expressions of ingratitude to the lord in a day's time that it will take months for the lord to watch him under strict scrutiny, wondering when he's going to throw up again all over to be watched and to prove himself, to get back into the grace of the Lord. And so it is with the women and children. Mothers, what do you do if your child expresses a spirit of ingratitude? The only thing the law allows you to do, and that's withdraw your spirit from that child.

your mind and will to continue to express it to fix its meal to continue to tuck it in bed but your mind is far from natural reaction and that's what the lord does so what's the situation when louis when you lose the spirit of the lord is it my fault is it the dog's fault is it the cow's fault is it the car's fault Do all those elements dispense the Spirit of the Lord? Why no? No one can come between you and the Spirit of the Lord, the mind of God, except yourself. So when he withdraws his mind from you and his spirit, no one is to blame but yourself. It's a controversy between you and him.

If a wife loses the spirit of the Lord, the controversy isn't between her and her husband. It's between her and the Lord. He is a dispenser of his own mind and his own will. Naturally, these things are obtained through the righteous lineage of priesthood head and government. So the thing that you have to worry about is how are you getting along with God? And if you husband, or on your toes and understood these things yourself, instead of reacting like the adverse spirit wants you to react when your wife or your child loses the spirit, you'll immediately suggest, well, how are you getting along with the Lord this morning? How do you feel towards him?

Well, what do you mean, how do I feel? He's all right. I feel all right towards him. Well, then why don't you have his spirit? How come that he has withdrawn his mind and his will from you? Simple thing, isn't it? So it is with the man. If the man has a bellyache because of what the priesthood is doing, where is his controversy? It isn't with me. It isn't with the president. It's with the Lord.

When you have his spirit, you have the spirit of peace. And everything is lovely. You understand everything. Everything is revealed to you and interpreted to you. And you have a condition of peace in your character. Now, if you have lost this condition of peace, where's the controversy? It's between you and the mind of God. First, why has he withdrawn his spirit from you?

and left you in a wretched condition to feel uneasy with the lack of peace in your soul. Why has he done that situation? That's where your controversy is. And why shouldn't you criticize me? Why shouldn't you criticize what God has done for you? Why shouldn't you be ungrateful? Why shouldn't you try to sow discord? Why shouldn't you try to give your sorrow to others like the measles and the mumps. Why, I would lose confidence in the devil if he didn't use you to the furthest extent that he could. Why, I would feel like complaining to the Lord that his servant was remiss of his duty. That's what I'd feel like doing. If he didn't do that, what else can we expect?

If we believe what the Lord has said, that there is no further neutrality for me in this life or the next, there's not one split second that I can be neutral again. Why, Satan would be remiss of his duty if he didn't take the opportunity the moment that that mind of God was withdrawn to act upon that person and cause it.

to commit further trespass and sin against the work and the glory of God. Just like the Lord would be remiss of his duty if he didn't use us, if we were capable of being used to destroy and put down evil. The picture of the problem, so that if we feel uneasy, instead of adding injury, to what we have done, an insult to what we have done, we should immediately say, Father, Father, pardon me. My thoughts have been in the wrong place. I've been imagining things. I've been criticizing you mentally and your work and your glory. I feel that I have the spirit of ingratitude and you have a right and you are perfectly justified.

in withdrawing your mind and will from me, but please, please forgive me and draw near to me again. The solution is simple, is it not? But if we go on for 24 hours or 24 days, the cancerous conditions become such it's nearly impossible to regain the proper attitude and spirit and upper place.

Because the longer we go, the greater influence the adverse spirit will have upon us. And the more he will get us to complain and discomfort and discord. Until we're saying things that we would never dream of saying under normal. Until sometimes we become so humiliated, we dare not go back.

and ask forgiveness. And the devil then takes the glorious opportunity of saying, well, what's the use? What's the use of even trying? And if you even get the priesthood to forgive you and to forget this, you think that they can never forget it or that they'll ever have confidence in you again? He says to the woman, what's the use? You know that he doesn't love you.

and that he won't work with you? And what makes you think that he's going to forget what you said and the mean things that you said about him? So what's the use of even trying? And so at the moment that your Lord, this devil, needs, you need him the most, he deserts you. Foundation out from underneath it and lets you go. No more strength. He has a lot of strength.

While he's bringing it to that place. And that's just exactly how you feel. And so you continue to procrastinate the day of your repentance. On and on, month in and month out. Until finally you become a complete stranger. When someone asks you, where have you been? And why did you do this? Why should we think they can answer and give any just answer?

and pure excuse. The power of the adversary dictates what they say and what do they say? Well, the brethren don't teach good doctrine or the brethren do this or the brethren do that or the brethren don't treat me right and they weren't very kind to me. What else is he expected to say? Why, I wouldn't be such a fool as to ask him his excuse because I would have it memorized.

I wouldn't be that big of a fool to ask him what his excuse was. I know. Sisters, these are the secrets of getting, the keeping, the spirit of the Lord, and how we lose it, and what takes place. Name, blood, and position. No influence in regard to these things. The pure-blooded a person is, the more the power of the devil wants to get them.

The higher man or woman climbs, the greater effort the devil will use to influence. You can't say, I'm so-and-so, so I won't be subject to these like other people. No, sir. If you resist the Lord, he withdraws his mind from you, and you become subject to the adverse power, and you become its servant. Just remember it. Let us see to it that we learn how to live.

This is the way Brother Johnson lived. You wonder why. He can always be the same. He can always be dependent upon. You can meet him at any time. He can perform his work. Why? Because he has received these instructions from the Lord and is practicing them. And if he abuses the Lord, if he resists the Lord, it's only for a second. Just like Brigham Young said, It was only a second that I resisted the Lord. I resist the Lord, it's only a second, because he knows that the moment the Lord withdraws his mind and will from him, he becomes subject to the adverse spirits. And he doesn't know what those spirits will ask him, but he'll become their servant. Nature is that he has a terrific temper. They'll use that temper.

If his nature is that he can sow discord, they'll have him sowing discord. If he has certain secrets and his nature is in such a condition that they can use him to reveal secrets, they'll have him reveal enough secrets in 24 hours that he'll be a lifetime trying to patch up. Use us according to the nature of our character. Some men and women they can use.

more disastrous purposes than others because of the nature of our character. But this is it. This is a simple truth. And I plead with you, receive it. Oh, that we could get the people to realize that this is a bloody battlefield. The pure and the impure. God and the devil. And that we have taken our cross up and our service up with the Lord. And we have signed in.

and have become soldiers under the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have challenged the evil one and told him in uncertain terms that we are out to wipe him off of the face of this earth, that it might rise up to become a celestial earth filled with the paradisiacal glory. That's what we have done.

And if we could just realize that he and his innumerable train of experts are seeking everything they can, every means and method they can to destroy our faith. The only way that they can test us and try us and influence us is by the withdrawal of the Spirit of God. or his mind and will, either by him deliberately or because we have resisted him. The devil complained about Job. He says he has your spirit, won't withdraw it from him. In other words, he's hedged up against me. There's no conceivable way to be influenced by the adverse powers except the spirit of God is withdrawn from you. Remember that.

And it is only withdrawn either to test you by him or because you have resisted him physically, spiritually, and mentally. So get all the old Christian cobwebs out of your customs and traditions and minds and understandings regarding these things from this moment. Dear brethren and sisters, go forward.

With this idea. Of getting and keeping. The spirit of the Lord. If you'll put into practice these things. In a month from now. You'll become more alert. You'll be more proficient. In keeping the spirit of God. Although you may lose it. Ten times. For a moment. During the next thirty days. You will regain it. Through the process of a broken heart.

and a contrite spirit through fasting and praying. That's what you'll do. And the next month, maybe you'll only lose it five times until finally you get to the place where Brother Hammond can look at you and know that you have the strength, capacity, and the know-how to keep the Spirit of the Lord. And he knows that he can have perfect confidence in this.

spirit. God bless you. Amen. Now hear from President Johnson. Very thankful, my brothers and sisters, for the privilege of being here. Take of the spirit of this meeting. I'm thankful for the word of the Lord that has been delivered to you. For the Lord loves you very, very much. He has said that he chastens those whom he loves. Why does he chasten? That they might be better prepared to serve him and keep his commandments. I don't wish to detain you long, but I want to give you a little of the word of God to you. Instead of the righteous being bound tighter and tighter, they will continue to have more and more liberty. As we are more and more faithful and obtain more power with the heavens, and more of the power of God upon us, let us seek diligently unto the Lord, until we obtain the faith of Jesus in its fullness. For those who possess this are free indeed. Mormonism keeps men and women young and handsome, and when they are full of the Spirit of God,

There are none of them but what will have a glow upon their countenance, and that is what makes you and me young, for the Spirit of God is with us and within us. If the Lord had a people on the earth that he had perfect confidence in, There is not a blessing in the eternities of our God that they could bear in the flesh that he would not pour out upon them. Tongue cannot tell the blessings of the Lord, the blessings the Lord has for a people who have proved themselves before him. What a wonderful opportunity, my brothers and sisters, that you have.

You have been told of some of your faults tonight. You have also been told how to overcome them. Now it is up to you. There is enough faith within this room to shake this whole state. Until they'd wonder what had taken place. Put into practice things that you have been told tonight. You'll overcome that one thing. You'll find a great change. Attitude of this people.

and the blessings that God would shower down upon your head. I pray that the Spirit of God will settle upon us in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Brother Henry O'Rulian will listen to this. Our Father, which art in heaven, come before you at the close of this meeting with indeed grateful hearts for the blessings that we have received this night. We are grateful, Father, for thee.

men who have talked to us and counseled us and instructed us here this night. Help us, Father, that we as a people will be able to uphold them and receive the things that they have told us with gratitude in our hearts for their association and their love that they have shown us by calling us to repentance. We are grateful, Father, for being numbered among thy people. We are grateful for the lives of these brethren.

Bless them and prolong their lives that they may continue to give us those things that we need to bring us up unto salvation. We pray at this time, Father, that thy kingdom can be established and that the kingdoms of the world will become subject unto thee and that peace and righteousness will reign in the earth in thine own due time and place.

We are grateful, Father, for these blessings. Help us now and take us home to our places of abode and safety. And help us to remember the things that we have taught and put them to use in our lives. And we do it in the name of Thy Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.