The recording is of the general meeting held at Short Creek, Utah on July 3, 1960. This meeting was conducted by President Leroy S. Johnson, and there were about 338 people in attendance. My clock says that time has arrived to commence this meeting. We need all the minutes we have allotted to it. It's a wonderful sight, my brothers and sisters, to look into the faces of this audience.

my heart rejoices in the fact that many of our people can gather in this place i trust that the spirit of god will be here in abundance this afternoon and to commence these services by singing number 131 those days can you see by the dawn's early light of life and truth and we submit ourselves to you father for this purpose that presides over it. And we pray that your spirit will be with us, each and every one of us, that we have a time of refreshing. We're grateful, Father, for this opportunity of having all of the brethren together to instruct your people. We pray that you'll truly inspire them as you have done in times past. Continue with them, Father, that we may be truly fed. And help us to center our minds upon the things that we're taught.

And may they sink deep into our hearts and be stored in our memories. We can grow in wisdom and true knowledge. We dedicate, Father, this meeting unto you with gratitude in our hearts for the faithful brethren who have stood in the gap faithfully. Be in this our dispensation and kept the truth alive for the sake of your children and live accordingly. Things we thank you for, Father, and ask for in the name of Jesus.

thy beloved son our brother and savior jesus christ amen 95 was this broadbent was one of you know that i ever saw the man representative of that great man we'll call lauren rodman tribute to me is be called a representative of this patient and his work there's anything that i'd like to live up to it's that i didn't know him too well myself in about four and a half years old when he died but been held up as an ideal to carry on aspirations and dreams that he had for his family we all find ourselves in some strange circumstances and sometimes the teachings that we've been given testimonies that we feel that we've been born with are tested by sets of circumstances that we never anticipated we always visualize carrying on in pretty much the same way

The work has been conducted in the past, and the work of the Lord, while constant in its overall purposes, adapts. Some of us are given jobs to do that take us to circumstances that we may or may not be prepared for to enact roles in the world and in society that, while other than we anticipated, may not be too much to our disliking.

starts out to be a role, a job to do, a little excursion, might become quite compatible with the way we visualize ourselves at that time. It's not a bit hard to take pride in one's ability to live that role and get out and play their silly game. There's always the danger that it gets to be no longer a game. It goes wide enough to know.

There's just no repose. There's no real satisfaction in nothing but playing their silly game. I guess, at least I've reconciled myself to the idea that it was necessary, and I still feel that we should be able to live in different dimensions. But in my particular work, it's been necessary to develop a pretty keen attitude of what I call, maybe it's a euphemism, but benevolent skepticism.

And I don't mean to say that this is out of place or that it's wrong, because many of the accomplishments that we enjoy in a physical sense in this day and age are the result of many dedicated persons' hard work with that attitude of benevolent skepticism, which, in other words, is merely the attitude of turning and questioning one's basic premises, many assumptions through the dark ages.

dispelled many thoughts ideas were only dispelled because people had the courage in the face of orthodoxy to turn in a powerful attitude of skepticism upon upon those basic premises that's all well and good there's a place for that sort of thing to be tough-minded and not general in every every time we approach our daily work to to generalize these The real nub of the thing out the window. And that's what we do too much. Sometimes we have to really get down to basic facts. I say there's a place for that sort of thing, but there's no repose in it if that's one's entire life. Point. In order to gain any peace of mind, any satisfaction, you have to accept certain basics. That's the truth. It's merely as a matter of, well, this is personally satisfying to me, so...

and i don't have the time to investigate further i just don't care to hear any conflicting ideas well that's one kind of basic premise that some people take in order to have some uh to avoid the eternal conflict and internal eternal uh attempt trying to reconcile contradictions in this work we've been told and i believe it's true that certain people are blessed with a testimony of the divine mission of joseph smith and that he reveals the fullness of the gospel in these the latter days if we have that testimony that belief then it necessarily follows that that authority has been perpetuated and it's effective in the earth today and that there are those who have the same right and authority to dispense truth and knowledge which is not in the realm of our individual ability

to debate criticize or disprove or even wonder about along those lines if we've made that basic assumption if we have that testimony that joseph smith was a prophet of god and that he has his representatives here then it follows from the inherent nature of that authority that there's no more room debate now some may say what about the contradictions i go to one of the brethren and i get one story and i go to another and i get another story what about the contradictions well i think it's fairly obvious anybody who thinks about it the reason there's a contradiction is or an apparent contradiction is because somebody wasn't satisfied and didn't care to accept what was said first without debate you just weren't converted to it initially it's an old story not satisfied with the first answer get another one you say well now what if the

first answer was wrong after all there may have been another one that was contradictory wrong schmong we had the capability of accepting the direction say circumstances changed later and and it was appropriate for a different approach to be taken we're in that channel i i believe that we'd certainly be given the appropriate direction at that time it's possible to isolate certain verbal propositions and recognize contradictions What do we do with the idea that everybody has this free agency? Everybody eventually has the opportunity of choosing for himself whether he really accepts the gospel or whether he won't. Nobody gets there on what his parents did. Everybody has to do it for himself. Every tub will sit on its own bottom. That proposition versus the proposition that we as parents are responsible for our children. And if we don't teach them right...

and say they may go astray we're responsible to see and we we make a determined effort while they're young while they're on their mother's knees it's the most essential time to influence them so now if we can truly influence them at that tender age then uh and if we have any any crucial any deciding influence over whether they will ultimately accept or reject the gospel then isn't that a little bit contradictory with saying that they will have their free agency well you can't isolate these things that's the trouble with trying to be eternally skeptical and objective in areas that that don't that don't lend themselves to that sort of analysis and they're not appropriate there are aspects of human nature of of spirituality that that just don't lend themselves to certain verbal

and if we try to analyze all the contradictions in those terms, we'll never find repose. We'll just never find repose. I, for one, can be willing to have the courage to merely make that basic assumption, which I feel is right, and the further and more important courage to carry it on through, to accept the teachings of the Lord's present-day authorities as the truth without debate.

without question. I've certainly done my share of trying to qualify the principles of the gospel and their application in my life and justify versions which I really know are not really the spirit of those principles. But as I started out by saying, you find yourself living a role, living a certain attitude on the shores where humans will begin to really be that person, that role.

will really be the qualified, the modified, abrogated application of the principles of the gospel in our lives, and it just won't work. That's all there is to it. A role, a work to do within the confines and under the direction of the priesthood, so we can bring ourselves to it. And we'll be able to, it's my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

This is one of the grandest sights that I've been privileged to witness. If I came into this work or any other time, I was overwhelmed with the look into your faces here this afternoon. It would be a grander sight to see many of you in the house of the Lord. Be endowed and blessed there. It arises in our minds, the Lord, brethren and sisters, I'd like to preparation this afternoon.

of the Doctrine and Covenants. for all have gone out of the way. And now verily I say unto you, I will not lay any sin to your charge, and sin no more. But unto that soul who sinneth shall the former sins return, saith the Lord your God. And again I say unto you, I give unto you a new commandment, that you may understand my will concerning you. Here is the crux of the whole matter. Or in other words, I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn to you, your salvation. I am bound. I do not what I say. Ye have no promise. A challenge for us that I think of little of, brethren and sisters. We want certain blessings. We'd like to see certain things accomplished, like the redemption of Zion, receive our endowment, and find ourselves growing by leaps and bounds in the sight of God. Now, in order to get hold of these blessings, and the Lord tells us in section 101,

There is a law irrevocably decreed in the heavens before the foundations of the world, upon which all blessings are predicated, and we cannot receive them unless we obey the law upon which they are predicated. I think that's good law, isn't it, Lauren? Being given unto us, brethren and sisters, every day of our lives, counsel and laws of the Holy Priest, of the Son of God. If obeyed and...

complied with fully, will bring us back into the presence of God. And I take it that's where we all want to go. What are these laws upon which this blessing is predicated? The various laws given us, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and of course preceding this and running through the entire fabric of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the principle of faith and repentance. Our and the law of faith of God, we can lay hold on all of these other blessings.

or economic law of heaven which we call one of the better terms sometimes the united order the law of the priesthood generally now brethren and sisters what i'm trying to get this people growing nearer to the character and the life the example that was set by our great prototype the lord jesus christ and more recently in this day and time by the prophet joseph smith And there have been other characters who have lived, as they have, without blemish, paid to their charge. Now, we have the principle of repentance. We have the sacrament and other ordinances to enable us, if we will sin no more, to grow into that condition, brethren and sisters. As the Lecture 5 tells us, he showed that we could live, that man can live without sin. And yet we are told that all sin and fall short.

that the only perfect being who has lived upon the earth was Jesus Christ. And we should add, of course, from our own knowledge, Father Adam, would you find a sin any real to the charge of such men as Joseph Smith that shows that it can be done, brethren and sisters? Now, if we're to become that people that the Lord is going to use to set in order the house of God, and accomplish the redemption of Zion and all of the other great events that are to take place in the latter day, I say we're going to have to get this. Certainly we're going to have the ten tribes and the other remnants of Jacob assist in this great work. But they are going to have to come to the feet of Abraham, or rather of Ephraim, in order to receive the blessings of the priesthood and the power to accomplish these things and the keys of the priesthood.

That is where they're going to have to come for these blessings, brethren and sisters. Now we claim to be supporting the man who holds the keys of priesthood in the earth. How often do we thank the Lord that we have this understanding and this association, this knowledge, the knowledge of the character and the personality of God himself and of his priesthood, the correct order of priesthood. And when I look at this large audience here today, I...

and then forced to compare that with the great numbers in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I'm numbering now a million and a quarter against all others who profess the name of Jesus Christ. How few there are, and how far are we falling short of the charge, the covenants that have been laid upon us. ...of God and to go forward as one man of God to accomplish the object in view.

The redemption of Zion, the setting in order of the whole house of God. And to get such a people that one man can put to flight a thousand and two ten thousand. Do you think the Lord is going to grant these blessings to us until we do what he says? We have the faith to accomplish these things unless we know that our course of life is pleasing to God. And by that I mean is our character approaching or being assimilated into that of...

the lord jesus christ who is one of his thoughts should be the sole aim and object of our lives and if we will give service to that proposition with our whole heart might mind and strength god and his righteousness and the kingdom of god then all other things will be granted unto us and added i should be absorbed into that one all-absorbing proposition And then all of these other blessings will be added. I could recall a statement of one writer who put it in a very beautiful language to that effect. And this means then, very simply, for the counsels of those that God has appointed, President Johnson, his associates in this higher authority of the priesthood, and as to our families, to the priesthood which bears rule over you. And I think, brethren and sisters, that if we would...

more consciously, day by day, feel that we are rendering obedience to priesthood in our husbands and brethren, to the priesthood over us, and we to the priesthood of God in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord. I think we would begin to become one. We would begin to see things happen in behalf of this people and the work of God. And believe me, brethren and sisters, this is the life and labors of...

President Johnson and his brethren. You don't know how they love you and those who are striving to keep the commandments of God and what they wouldn't do to help you along the way. There have never been more dedicated men of God. We're grateful for these things. To think more of them in our daily lives instead of just when we're meeting together on occasions like this. Going to meetings isn't going to save us unless we go home and do something about it. We're so anxious.

to come to meetings sometimes and not anxious enough to carry out the instructions that are given at these meetings. When we say at the end of any given period of time that we have assimilated more of the character of God into ours, are we more like God at the end of this year than we were at the end of last year? Here's the challenge, brethren and sisters. When we begin to do what the Lord says through His servants, then He will be bound.

and no power on the face of the earth. Satan and all of his armies and navies and all of his money and his politicians and all of the rest of them cannot stop the progress of this people because God has promised that these principles, these laws of the holy priesthood would fail triumphant over all the prejudice and hate that can be mustered against us. Are we ready now to take a stand?

for these things, brethren and sisters. If we are, then let us manifest it in our daily lives of our own free will to do much good and not have to be told and commanded to do all things. Seek to accomplish righteous objectives that we know we don't have to be told to do them, as the revelation tells us. I pray that we will see progress along these lines, that we will get behind the leadership of our...

beloved Brother Johnson, the man that has lived. And that's what the Lord will love and honor in all of us, which I hope and pray we may do in the name of Jesus. Amen. Heads drop on one side and the other. We would like you to hear from President Musk. It was the best time of the day to sleep. The other day, what? He got sleepy. Everybody gets sleepy after lunch. What happens to you when you get sleepy?

He says, I just keep cutting hair. Your feet, a client goes to sleep while I go to sleep. Her eyes close. I rejoice in my opportunity. And I think outside of some of our funerals, the largest audience of saints I have gathered in one place of one blood. Those naturally gathered people of different bloods. The one blood, I think this is the largest group I've... And the largest part of the group is...

has been born in this work. Those that haven't been born in it have been adopted, which makes your place in it just as valid. If you're born of the priesthood or adopted by the priesthood, the Lord will recognize you. Rejoice full heart at what the Lord has allowed us at this particular time. But I tremble at the trials we must face, both as individuals and as a group before the race is won. For the final scenes of battle, before the Lord will give us our full strength and allow us to do what our preparation will train us to do, the devil will make a full effort to annul our faith. These temptations and trials and tribulations will come in different ways and at different times upon us.

None of us are able to choose the crucible in which we will be placed to be tried. We must allow our Father to make this selection. We must all have these trials so that we become pure elements in his hands. Although it's necessary to be tried 70 times 7, the dross must be burned from these characters and we must become pure elements.

to the Spirit of the Lord might dwell in us as the holy mind of our Heavenly Father. Now this makes it necessary for the Lord to teach us and train us and bless us and then try us to teach us to train us and bless us and try us. Each time we come out of the crucible we are pure and becoming more pure.

element each time. So one trial isn't enough. If a man or woman could say, well, I think I could stand one trial in this life, if that's all that I have to stand. But we don't know what we will be called upon to face, my dear brethren and sisters. I remember Father called on me one day, and he says, I want you to go and see a certain party and do a certain thing. I flopped my arms down in my accountant's cell. I said, can't you send someone else? I went the last time. Send somebody else. He looked at me, tired. I said, no, I'm not tired. I'm frightened. Me to death. And I figured that I barely got out last time. I was grateful when I did. I figured that if I could succeed that time, that I'd never have to do it again.

thing to me that this is the very attitude that many of the spirits had in the spirit world said they had put up such a fight against the powers of darkness and although they had been successful and won the fight they knew what a terrible battle it was and that they requested that they that they would never have to go against satan again and although they had been able to win once They didn't figure that they could do it again. So great was the battle. Now, it says there are many spirits in that position, and they're not getting the blessings of the Lord, although they did put up a good fight in the first instance. And I say, you go and the same principle that you used before in the accomplishment of this work, you succeed. It says, I have faith that you can do it, and I'll go on and do it.

which I did, and I used the same principles, and I come out victor again with her. So, brethren and sisters, we cannot set the stage for our trial. The Lord knows the weaknesses of our nature, many of the characteristics we have inherited. He knows what will try us and what won't try us. And because he has made a covenant with us to do all in his power, to help bring us back into his presence, he will try us. The revelation says he will have a try. These trials will come in many different ways. They will come by persecution. They will come by the way of wealth. They will come by the way of poverty. They will come by the way of us mistreating.

One another they will come by the way of temptation to abandon Certain principles there are so many methods that the Lord Will use to try it that it's necessary to at all times Be on our guard so that we don't fall and fail in this work and that brings me to elaborate a little upon what brother Jeff, about this assimilation into the likeness of the character of our father. Now that's a high-sounding and it may not be understood by all sisters here today. They're glad that they're here, but they're thinking of the homes they have to go back to and the problems that are going to face them. About the baby crying in the morning, and six other children having to be dressed about this and about that and about the other thing. And it appears an ambiguous and impossible thing to act God-like under all conditions. You brethren are thinking about the same thing, about your work in this life. And it seems like that it's an improper phrase, an impossibility.

to act godlike in every condition that you find yourselves in. But here's a key that you can use. It's simple, it's useful, and the lowest of it, and that's this, that all you're entitled to live is the moment that the Lord gives you. Yesterday has fled. Tomorrow does not belong to you.

Even tonight does not belong to you. The only time that you actually have to work out your probation is the moment in which you are living. That's all that you have to do, is to live the moment that you're breathing and living. That's the moment of your probation. I myself have personally made the mistake of wasting a great deal of strength in worrying about things that would come on me in the future. I have also worried about what I would say to people under certain circumstances and what they might say to me to make me feel bad under certain circumstances. And I have found that it's all foolishness and vanity and a lack of faith that the only period I have for my probation is the direct period in which I am living, this very moment. For the counsel tonight might call me to report to them in another sphere of action. Now, taking this as a truth, then all each and every one of you have to do that.

sitting here tonight is to find out what you're supposed to do and do it in that moment or keep your covenant. Every woman here, all she has to do when she gets up in the morning to start this assimilating process to work is to start keeping her covenant with her husband and her God.

That's all that she has to do. Regardless of the crying of the baby or the dressing of the ten children or the preparation of the breakfast, the flying of the flies around and the dust sifting in, those things are going to happen regardless of what time you have. So all you have to do is, when you awaken in the morning, start keeping your covenant.

that's all you have to do start keeping your covenant now the first covenant that you have made is to report to your father in heaven and offer your gratitude to him and to ask him for strength and his power to survive the cares and temptations and the labors that are ahead of you the simple problem so all you have to do is roll out of bed And before you get occupied with a million and one things, make your report or pray. Start your life out by making this report. There'll be a million things to stop you. You'll have to go in the bathroom. That's a natural thing. And when you get in there, you'll start reading the paper. And then your mind will start expanding over the cares that are presently ahead of you.

And you'll wonder whether Johnny's wet the bed or not or whether you should get him up right away or what you're going to do. And before you know it, 10 or 15 minutes have passed and you've forgot to report. You've forgot to report. You've started the day out wrong. And if you're not careful and bring yourself right back to the point of covenant keeping, why, it'll go on. One thing will go on to another and it's 9 o'clock.

And all at once it occurs to you, my gosh, I haven't prayed this morning. That's just exactly what you say. And you start thinking, well, I'd better do it. But I'll turn the gas off of this or do this before I do it. And then I'll go in and do it. And then the telephone rings. Or somebody comes. Or something else happens. And you find that you have lived half a day without even keeping the first covenant that you've made.

which would only require a few seconds' time, actually, a physical approach. And so you've got off on the wrong foot. So you feel discouraged. You lack faith because you know that you haven't kept your covenant. And you feel that Father is ashamed of you. And so your faith begins to run out of you, like the fan out of a building. So that's a simple problem.

Just begin to keep your cover. What you've been told to do. If your husband has asked you to do a certain thing, just start doing it. If your memories need to be jogged, why don't you say, Daddy, I wish you would write down the things you want me to do with these children and with myself, because I have a poor memory. And I don't want to excuse myself because of my memory.

I want to live as though you're sitting in this kitchen all the time. And I know what I'll do as you're sitting in this kitchen all the time. I know exactly how I'll live, what my expression will be, how I'll clothe my body, how I'll talk to you, how I'll talk to the children. I know exactly what I'll, how I'll act. Well, now that's the way to do it. How simple could it be made?

How simpler could the Lord ask us to live for the woman to get up in the morning and start keeping her covenant minute after minute, minute after minute, minute after minute. That's all that we're asked to do. You can't go wrong doing that. And it isn't too big of a burden because the job you have to do that minute isn't so big that it's going to destroy you.

The job that you might have to accomplish over a 30-day period might be big. But the job that you have to do that minute isn't so big that it will destroy you. You can do it. So that's all that you have to do is that job. When you accomplish that, then keep your covenant for the next minute and the next minute. And finally, you have learned how to keep your covenant. Keep your covenant, you gain.

spirit and power of god and you begin the process of assimilation into the likeness of your brother same process is active upon your character that's all that you have to do is learn how to live each minute keeping your covenant by doing that doing that hour after hour death today month after month you habituate yourself and then it becomes a habit to pure covenant not to break them it becomes a habit to follow a certain process of right living and the habit will become so strong on you that you would have to break the habit to do wrong just like brother johnson would have to exert himself and break his habit of clothing his body to not close it has become such a habit and a principle with him to close his body

that he would actually feel naked without his clothing on. He would have to break that habit. Now, this is a simple way of starting this assimilation into the likeness of the character of God, and that's all that these children have to do. All they have to do is keep their covenants with their parents. Mother, what did Father say for me to do this morning?

He said for you to do a certain thing. Then do it, children. That's the simple. That's all that you have to do. I don't know how the Lord could make it any simpler or easier for us. The reason why Father has to keep us in trial and tribulation is to keep us doing these very things. I have found from my own experience that if I'm not careful, I forget to do what I'm supposed to do.

I have said many times that if the Lord didn't keep us peeled, in six months we would forget to pray. Now just think about it. That we weren't faced with such intense problems every day that we needed help from the Lord to solve, to soon get out of the habit of praying. It's necessary for the Lord to place us in a position where we need his help. Then we become...

humble and we want it all the time we're cheerful we're humble we're submissive let a child get sick in the house tomorrow morning this little girl falls down breaks her arm and loses her breath and she can't get her breath what happens really humble ourselves and go to the lord we start keeping our covenants we start making covenants why we start working so hard Well, you know what you do as well as I do. But let us go for a week without any financial trouble, without any sickness, without any pain, without the children having any trouble. And all at once we find ourselves jumping up in the morning and forgetting many important things. Now the Lord wants a people that can draw near to him and stay near to him.

in time of in good times as well as important lots of people who come around the brother johnson might say well i wonder what's wrong i wonder what's happened to him or her i wonder what they need just about it the only time that they come around is when they are in need to make any report and this is very embarrassing and so it's the only time that we make any report to him or draw near to him is when we need him most when no nothing else can help us then we go to him and tell him how much we love him and what we want to do with him and for him and against him and what we want to what we're willing to do if he'll just give us this this one just give it to me this one father and you'll never have any more problems with me

That's exactly what we say. Now, Father, being an exalted man, you can see how he feels. How would you feel about your child approaching you like that? How would you brethren feel about your wife coming like that? You know how you feel, so just consider what the tender feelings of our Father in Heaven are in regard to these things. So, brethren and sisters, if you want to learn how to get and keep this, spirit of the lord simply start this very minute keeping your covenant with the lord with your husband priesthood with one another and if you lose the spirit of the lord through the day stop and say to yourself i wonder what i did to feel like i'm feeling and go over the last hour of your life and find out

what you have done, because the Spirit of the Lord isn't that fickle that it comes and goes like a bumblebee just for fun. If you're pure element, it stays with you constantly. So if you have lost it, you have broken a covenant, either physically or mentally. And it's just as easy to drive the Spirit of the Lord away through a mental act as a physical act. So what have you been thinking about the last hour that has caused you to lose this wonderful spirit of peace? You've thought about and you'll find out what the problem is. Maybe you have criticized something. Maybe you have imagined evil things. Maybe you have desired evil. Whatever it might be, whether it's a physical or a mental breaking of your covenant. Go back and find out what it is and repair it. Repair it quickly. The sooner you repair it, the more peaceful you'll be. Or you can go on for 12, 24, 36, and 48 hours losing sleep, hour after hour of sleep and time, and not being able to do your work properly because you've lost the Spirit of the Lord.

And you know you've got to repair it sooner or later. You've got to regain it. You've got to get it back so that you can have the peace that you need. So why not do it quickly? Because the longer that you're without it, the greater will become the sore that has to be healed up. If a woman is at variance with her wife, with her husband, the longer, the more hours that she goes.

at variance with him, the greater will be the sore that has to be healed. If the brethren are at variance with one another or with the priesthood, the longer it goes, the greater will be the depth and the pain of the sore that has to be healed up. So correct it instantly. Don't live without the Spirit of the Lord. Don't permit yourself to live without the Spirit of the Lord.

Can you become angry and have the Spirit of the Lord? Of course you can. He's a God of anger. Can you love and have the Spirit of the Lord? Of course you can. He's a God of love. Can you chastise and have the Spirit of the Lord? Of course you can. He's a God of chastisement. Can you sit in the judgment seat and have the Spirit of God? Of course you can. He's a God of judgment.

So it doesn't mean that you can't live. There's no use of you saying, well, it sounds like all we can do is sit down and not do anything. Because if we do anything, we'll lose the Spirit of God. That's not right. But if you lose the Spirit of God, you have committed a crime, a sin, either physically or mentally. You have committed a sin. You who are accountable, if you've lost the Spirit of God.

Now, whether that sin is a very slight one or a very great one, you have lost it. You have committed it and you have lost the Spirit. So why not live each minute learning how to keep your covenant? And if you'll keep your covenant, the Spirit of the Lord will dwell with you. Because it's a covenant-keeping spirit, not a covenant-breaking spirit. So just try this. Try it out.

Joseph Smith says the world has tried for 6,000 years and failed. Now, why don't they try the Lord's way once? Now, we're simple people, very simple people. So let's try this method of getting and keeping the Spirit of the Lord by keeping our covenant each minute that we live. If you don't know what your covenants are, find out from those who are directing you, and then keep them regardless of the sacrifice, and you'll win the battle, dear brethren and sisters. And this will keep the Spirit of the Lord flowing to you. And as you accomplish this, you will find that you are becoming more God-like. And people will say, well, she's becoming more God-like.

where he's becoming more God-like, where they are assimilating themselves into the likeness of the character of God. Simple thing. It starts with this process of doing what's right. And the only thing that is right is to keep the covenant we have made. Now, brethren and sisters, persecution is a heritage of the faithful, and we're going to be tried and persecuted, as I said, until we are pure elements.

Sometimes the civil authorities persecute us. Sometimes our relatives persecute us. Sometimes we persecute one another. But whatever it is, it's persecution. And sometimes the nature of our character is persecuted more than anything else. And this is persecution. Some people would rather have one type of persecution than another. Some people would rather go to jail and suffer that type of persecution. Other people don't care if they get it from their kinfolk.

And other people don't care if they get it from one another. But whatever it is, the saints are going to suffer persecution. And as long as they're living in a celestial world and trying to become godlike, they're going to suffer persecution. And they will be persecuted until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our gods. And a celestial condition reigns among us. We'll be persecuted so we cannot...

avoid it, brethren and sisters. We cannot help, we cannot hope to think that the Lord will raise persecution from our head, because the more God-like we live, the more we will be persecuted, one way or another. It was said this morning, it was said about Brother Woolley. I've heard that so many times, and I haven't only heard it about Brother Woolley.

I've heard it about Brother Barlow, that he was the biggest liar in the state of Utah. Why, the tales I used to be told about my own father would curdle your blood. My relatives used to tell me that a woman wasn't safe on the same street with Joe Mussel, and they had told their daughter that if they saw Joe Mussel coming down one side of the street, they had better get near a policeman or get on the other side of the street.

We went out one night to the old Bateman farm to talk about selling it or leasing it. And the minute poor old brother Barlow walked on the place, slowly looking around, wondering what to do with the thing, the man there, all he started talking about was that that old fellow was trying to put over a deal and cheat him. He walked up to father, said, the old man's trying to cheat me. He's cooking up a deal.

And that's the first thing that entered the man's mind about Brother Bartlett, that he was just there to try to cheat him out of something. And so I don't know of a man of God, whether he's in a high position or just a family man, that the devil doesn't try to persecute one way or another, and that he's spoken evilly of, that he's lied against. I don't like to dwell upon what people say about me.

My father told me once, don't try to find out what the people are saying about you, or it'll break your heart. Don't ask people about those things, because it'll surprise you. And it is quite surprising when somebody comes in and tells me about what some of the people say. It's quite surprising. But as Brother Barlow used to say, I don't care as long as they don't tell the things that I'm guilty of.

That gives us consolation, as long as we know that they're lying. When they start telling the truth about us, then that's going to be a different proposition. This is the problem we have, and you can't expect to escape it. The nearer you draw to God, the more of a nut you're going to be in society, and the more evil you're going to appear in the eyes of the world. So the becoming more godlike isn't going to remove from you This act of persecution is the heritage of the faithful. The more faithful you become, the greater will be the degree of persecution in one form or another. So just make up your minds for that. Do away with lots of the persecution that we unnecessarily bring upon ourselves. There's no doubt about that. People will try to cling on to their relatives and tell them certain secrets.

And then the relatives will persecute them. We try to cling to the natures of our character and try to harmonize them with the principles of the gospel. And we receive great persecution from our own nature. These things sadden us more than what people say easily about us. They sadden me more than what people can say about me. The very fact that my nature persecutes me.

Now, brethren and sisters, we're living in a great day, in my estimation. The prophets have looked forward and saw it and prophesied of it, and we live in it. We have seen the Holy Church of God become apostate in every fiber and turn against its own. We have seen the nations crumble and decay, and the stage is being set for the burning of the fields.

and the redemption of the faithful. We're living in this great day, and we should be grateful for our lives that we have been reserved to come at this particular time and period to the earth. But I warn you that with the great revelations that Father has and is going to give to his faithful saints, the devil is going to make a two-fold effort.

to destroy us, to lead us astray, to lead us into temptation. Father has already warned that so great will be his power that if the elect could be deceived, they would be deceived. Now think of that, brethren and sisters, so that this day isn't a day of slothfulness. We have come here to do battle and to help the Lord out in this great work.

But let us be aware of the devil, for he has singled every person out seated here to destroy, to destroy your faith. And he will do it through one means or another if you don't learn how to get and keep the Spirit of the Lord by learning how to keep your covenant. One day you'll be missing. You'll be out in the world, hours of darkness.

Just like Brother Jessup said, Brother Broadbent said, and it's a truer principle. These few words couldn't be that everybody must take direction from. You're either going to take it from the priesthood of God or you're going to take it from the priesthood of Satan. The priesthood of Satan governs the earth, controls the armies, navies, popes, potentates, governments, and all the things of the world.

So you're going to take it from one source or the other. So you can truthfully say that you're a priesthood man or a priesthood woman. But my dear children, the important thing is what priesthood? The important thing could be the priesthood of the devil that you're being directed by. Now may the Lord strengthen sufficient faithfulness and endeavor and work this wonderful door open.

his blessings that we may be the people considered worthy enough to rise up and be the shining light and to assist the council to set this house of god in order as the spirits that will come in the future may come to a peaceful condition and begin to perform the work of god the vast work of bringing to pass an orderly condition in everything that has been done.

and that he will help us all become united upon the principle, the only principle, that to his people's death I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. A young lady some time ago, no district more, but she would like to live a life that would bring her the same honor that Lazarus Snow brought into her life. She wrote a song, It inspired this little, wake up and live, you see here on the wall. I'm going to change her words just a little. And we are now saying, wake up, you saints of God, wake up. People here, we still have more. I thought maybe a little levity wouldn't be out of order, especially when I tell a joke on myself. And I heard the doggone telling about what...

victims of habit we are reminded me of an experience that I had yesterday. My car went bad in my car. I picked up with some youth. I got on my horse, gathered up the street to take care of some duties that I felt that I could do. And I heard a strange noise coming up behind me. I didn't know whether it was a tractor or a pickup.

some worn-out outfit or what it was, and I looked up in my rearview mirror to see what was coming. I certainly pray for the Spirit of God to dictate my remarks a few times every few minutes that I occupy. I'm anxious to see this people in person inspired to begin to perform. I think so vividly when I look on this congregation with so many young people in it.

The day that I walked into the Lincoln Street house and found Brother Bono sitting at his table when he turned to me so earnestly and said, Brother Hammond, if we're going to have a people, we're going to have to hear one. I don't know if words had ever settled upon me of such solemnity, yes, and such despair in my life. The only reason that...

I was filled with despair because I was so young and inexperienced. I thought, what a pitiful condition. We got to wait till we were a people. But here they are. If they'll just give us 10 more years. That was about 14, maybe 14 or 15 years ago that we made that remark. If they'll just give us another 10 years, despair is going to be on the other side, in the other business, because this people is going to grow and multiply. I can see more.

Vividly, when I look into your faces and contemplate their lives and the circumstances surrounding this people, the work that lies before the people. I recognize to quite a marked degree that it doesn't lie within the purview of capacity of the people to take their children from their infancy to adulthood and marriage and provide for all their wants and needs. And it's lawfully, I presume, so I...

try to keep taking the burden as much as I can upon the people, much of it's going to fall upon the council of the people. And so I keep looking with favor and delight upon the prospect of us having our school. I've been somewhat discouraged the last 10 days or two weeks because of this intense heat. It seems to bear on me a little harder than usual. I've spent so many years away in the shelter of the shade.

It's pretty hard to face this, keeping to work. And having compassion for myself, I have it for my dead. But I pray now, earnestly, that the Spirit of God and the grace of God will be upon us and we'll have the zeal and the courage and fortitude to prosecute our work to its completion. I can't help but feel that there are more effective ways to do our work. Better speed and better backstory to Jeff King from New Mexico.

It's a growing story that a Mexican and two Husky boys put out over a thousand buildings in seven hours. We have a thousand boys and we put out... Anyway, I'd like to get the ratio a little better. I haven't met one sour note in all the bedding that I've dated with about using Adobe's car building material.

We've got to find a quicker way to make them. They're piling up, but not fast enough. I wonder if I'm not a bit fair sometimes when I think so much of our temporal condition and not draw more on our spiritual condition. But I've never seen a corrupt body possess a free spirit. And I can't conceive of a people that's in the doldrums of poverty enjoy the spiritual growth that they need. I'm confident. I'm honestly confident.

But our children need to grow up in more healthy and inspirational surroundings. We often go back to our pioneer leaders, both in the values of the mountains and in the nation at large, and bring our great men out of some large army. And God has certainly used some of his poorer servants to perform great work. But I don't recall ever finding any of them remaining in poverty.

I'm sure that Abraham was a poor boy. His father was a worshiper of idols. And because of his love for Abraham and spite of his religion, he sent him back to the paparazzi that they might kill him and wear him to manhood. And I suppose that's because of the pleadings of his mother. And he lived as an orphan in the family of Melchizedek and our great father Noah till he attained to manhood.

But I suppose that he died to one of the wealthiest men of the earth, undoubtedly one of the great princes of the earth. Joseph Smith is born and reared in hardship and poverty, but he died a wealthy and a great man. He is surrounded by people and influence and necessities of life. We find President Young coming out of hardship and splendor and grandeur and grandeur that is inspirational to the people.

And I don't want us to feel that we've got to remain in abject poverty in order to be saints of God. What we've got to do to be saints of God is get ourselves in the condition that we can bring ourselves a children up in good spiritual surroundings and provide them with things to work with that they can move on to greater heights and ambitions. It's an absolute necessity. I've often thought about my own poverty, and yet I can no longer.

consider myself a poor man. I fear that I have all the wealth that God can deftly bestow upon me. I have the understanding and the principle to return to life in my mind and in my business. I have some knowledge how to control the elements and use them to the building of my life and my death wants and needs. And that same condition dwells in the bosoms of my death. And consequently, there's nothing that can come from such conditions but wealth.

And we could prepare our minds to begin to acquire these things and use them for the building of the kingdom of God. I hear men and women deploring their lives around me for very often about the fact that they're growing old. And maybe they are. But I don't feel that I'm growing old. I wouldn't change the conditions that I live in today for any of the days of my youth. To me, they were the most despicable of all the years that ever surrounded me. I deplore ignorance.

and drunkenness and lack of understanding and all the things that go up around the people that are lacking in the forest the gospel of jesus christ and the paid knowledge that i have for any of this world's good would be one of the most ridiculous things that could cross my mind i would rather have my understanding and to have the continuation of my life upon this earth and so i feel that in conjunction with my brethren and many of you that I've found a soul of their kind and become a wealthy man. I've lived in this community under varying circumstances and never once did I ever feel that I was poor. I want us to begin to lay plans to improve our surroundings and our circumstances. You've heard me plead from this stand now for nearly a year to have to use the resources that are at our disposal. And I dare to say this now.

But many of you people a year from now will have well-established homes in this community. And your children will be growing and prospering, and their lives will be extended and enlarged to a very marked degree. I don't know how God is going to shelter us unless he is lulling our enemies into a condition of carnal security. I like this propaganda that they're coming out. I think it's wonderful. This article has come out in the Phoenix paper not long ago saying that Henry Highway went through such a...

It would mean the obliteration of the community. That the only way that this place could thrive was in isolation. And when that was done away, that we would gradually fade away. And I hope they follow the trail. I think it's wonderful. They'll just get a few more concoctions up like that and take it down while I'll be a happy man. And we'll ride on their highways while they're taking them. I can see more clearly than I've ever seen before in my life the necessity of this place.

And I plodded through this sand, and I seen the wind blow so damn hard that they covered up my tracks before I got my feet out. I wondered why I was here. I seen men's work blow away year after year and day after day. And they splattered sand in the sand and never make a mark. And I wondered why. I can't help but think of this man, Richard Jett. How this man is poor. Poor. I know that he wasn't calling for a place. He was calling for a principle.

to call just the same of both spiritual life but i can begin to see the necessity of the place now for this people this multitude of children that's coming into multitude is only started if they'll just give us 10 more years there'll be 10 000 people in this community we need a time but they don't know how we need the people to be managed i don't want to build up a time for the gentiles to come and direct and manage i told you this before it's just a diploma i think it's one of the most unjust things for us to contemplate building a city for the thanks of the most high god and then send it over to their chief officer's command and i think it's high time that we are making our influence felt and begin to organize the city here i don't know why in this county that they have got to take that pride in having the county managed by commissioners and so forth and most cities governments existing in the mojave county

But I think it's time for us to organize a city in this place where we might make some legal barrier and means whereby we might manage ourselves and establish our own offices and have our own laws whereby it will be necessary for them to send officers in here to manage their people. And I might just as we begin to live about the laws of this nation. As I went home today after a piece of meeting, I have that confidence.

And I think it's all right that we can do better. But just let it remind you every day that you ought to do better. That you ought to make such an impression upon the mind of our Heavenly Father that he will make it possible for us to manage our own affairs. That's what we want. And that in the most just and efficient manner possible.

I don't know why we have to rely upon the Egyptians and the Gentiles and all the other obstacles of the house of God to manage our civil government and to build our cities. Ancient Israel in the subsequent days of Moses lived in bondage with the Egyptians and built their cities. And I suppose if you hear that sermon, well, I suppose if they were living in mud huts and no opportunity, no capacity, no will to step forth and...

Well, it's not neat in the eyes of God that those conditions prevail today. But they're prevailing. Our people in Salt Lake City is being managed by the civil government there that's corrupt as hell. And our people in Salt Lake are being managed by a government that's corrupt as hell. And we're powerless to help ourselves. Either when we get up a little ways, we become autistic and get slapped down or something goes wrong.

Joseph Smith had this vision and this picture in Nauvoo. But our people couldn't remain humble enough. And I suppose that he said in his final words that it's not proper to reveal unto the Gentiles and to the outside people their weaknesses and to declare their rights. And so I'd be inclined to go along here carefully. I told you about that sleeping dog. Now let's let him lie. If we do any mapping, why, let's just...

map around our contemporaries and not impress them about our great ambitions. But we've got to have them. Brother Steve put on some demonstrations here last night that revealed to me something that's bubbling in his heart. Our activities and our expressions speak from the abundance of the heart. And when he dreams, dreams and has ambitions, it's only a result of the things that he can see.

And if this people refuse to dream and have ambition, then we're helpless and powerless in the hands of our enemies. And we can't be any better than we're doing. So we've got to dream dreams. And we've got to have hope. And we've got to lay a foundation. And we've got to build a character that's susceptible to the spirit and power of God to manage that itself in the lives of the people.

And I know, I know that the power of God is with us. That I know. But I know that we've got to develop these capacities and this integrity that's so vitally necessary for the development of this people. How many Brighams and Hebrews and John Taylors there are in this congregation, God hasn't shown me. But you must be there someplace. And I pray to God that you're preparing your lives well. That you might step forth in the hour of your days.

and lead and guide this people in their fulfillment of the dreams and ambitions that have been planned for the great millennium. Where, where, where does this expression come from? It's why the guy says that he strived to find the sword of Laban, the dead of Rigam, and Oliver Cobbler, and Jogeson, and I suppose Healy, and a few others, laying across that mighty, steepest field. But this sword shall never be used again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God.

His dream was actually for me, and it wasn't for me. It wasn't for me. It wasn't for me. It wasn't for me. It wasn't for me. It wasn't for me. It wasn't for me. It wasn't for me. It wasn't for me. and I think it would be impeccable to give his heart, his soul, to a girl of tears like this, an acquired God, and given us life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and a knowledge and understanding of eternal life. My heart swells and shudders. I am thankful for those men which deserve the truth, and pass on down to me in my day and time a correct knowledge and the understanding of the soul of my Father.

And that I know that he lives. I thank him. That I know that God lives. It is no longer a myth in the life of Brother Hammond. Yes, I have. I know that God lives. And that I know that we're here for the express purpose to testify of his character and his humility and his capacity to bless and prosper the lives of these children.

And to redeem us through the grace and power of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our elder brother. He has wrought out that atonement by the sacrifice of his children. Those are the things that I know. And those are the things that spring up and fill my soul with jealousy. And therefore, and this I found in men, that Christ has been called integrity. My old students went in my high school.

stood up before that congregation and said, I want you people to know that when you leave this life, if you can count your friends on one hand, it will be fortunate for you. Well, I'm certain that's made upon that. But what do we have in the work of God? A hundred and thirty-four thousand friends are the most sound and pleasant that can be produced from the bosom of God. Friends, we have the order of friends.

And we have the principles that make them. And how do we fall? Nibbling, depressed, and dumb, rotten. But these pockets get stuck within our hands and hearts of men who come to the limit of God or of us. And I get worried with you people when I see you doing that. And I want you to listen. I want you to enjoy. And I want you to enjoy.

I want you to dream dreams, and I want you women to plant dreams in the hearts of your sons and daughters. And I want to say that his life shall not have been in vain. And that noble blood is spilled upon the ground. I feel that bleed with brother Taylor and brother Brigham and brother Bieber. I've had the tears roll down my face like you and you and all the rest of you. And I've had the glories of their lives.

And in those moments, I could have gladly let my blood flow with it. And if a flood won't fall on a flow now, it's bringing day one day and morning another. They're not there to send it. That day was created in the presence of God Almighty. And it was all sent forth to turn this body up against. If our enemies are willing to sleep, God bless them. I hope they have a long night. I want this people to have ten years.

And I want you women to work with them, to feed them and store them in the bosom of their children, that they'll never depart. And quit idling away your time, fiddling and fuming and quarreling with your husband. For there's work to do, and your ladies will be in vain and make you perform them in conjunction with the creatures of Almighty God. When you go to gather up your jewels, you'll find they've lost their lesson.

unless you raise them to the glory of the peace of God. Please remember that. And if this attitude will begin to predominate in the lives of you women, this work is absurd. I've got faith in this time. You have to tell us, and God is going to hold you responsible just as much as you have just preached it for the spirit that's committed to your care. And if you can't receive the gift, you have promised it.

and you'll not be able to help yourself. And by so wide of a hazard to hazard, and that's the only stop that I have. And if you run and fall to death, that'll be your reward, and God Almighty can't stop it. So let's arise our slumbering minds and try to cast a vision of the work that's been begun in these last days to what's in the most sacred and holy.

through the time that this world has been able to dream about. That we might get ourselves a work done. That we might have our work done with the Lord Jesus Christ. Come and live with us. And dwell in our presence. And bless our children. And instill inside our hearts a love for God. That's why the devil's holding us down. Because if he knows we ever get our heads up, we've won the race. And we're playing right into his hands with this cloth.

and sleepy and indolent attitude that we live so let's wake up and live and build with a spirit of gratitude in our hearts and an eye to the glory of god and our labor shall not be in vain i pray in the name of jesus amen my brothers and sisters few thoughts that i would like to discuss before we dismiss i want to say first Amen to all that has been said here this afternoon, and especially to President Muskie and President Hammond's remarks. They're vital, my brothers and sisters, in our lives. After hearing what we have heard here this afternoon, what man is there among us? And I say that these men are trying to set themselves up as little skinned dogs to this people.

They're only putting before you the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the seriousness of its nature to the lives of this people, to the lives of all people. For the Lord said that this gospel is to all men, whether they dwell upon this land or upon the isles of the sea, or how they dwell. And he also says in the same revelation, But it matters not whether it be his voice or the voice of his servants. It's the same. Now if that isn't clear language, clear enough for this people, what more can we do? The prediction has been made that if this people will keep the commandments of God as they are instructed by the servants of God, that they need not fear their enemies in this place. Because God will fight the battle.

And it's as true as I'm speaking to you this afternoon. In 1953, the devil would have never got in here had it not been for the disunity among some of the brethren in this place. Are you going to let it happen again? Remember, it only takes one or two covenant breakers to bring down the indignation of a righteous dog upon the head.

We are here, my brothers and sisters, and the eyes of the world are upon us. We have chosen to defy the world by righteous living. Now let it be like this when I leave him. That we might bind the Lord in a day of meditation. Because he says, when you keep my commandments, then I am bound. But when you keep not my commandments, there is no promise. You should write those words and put them where every member of the family can read them. Every day. And then do what the other guy has said.

When you roll out in the morning, roll on your knees. Don't get on your feet until you have asked God to bless you through the day. And if you can't do that, lay in bed and tell the Lord to bless you before you roll out. But be sure that you ask him in faith, believing that you shall receive the blessing. And then God will begin to bless your feet. But we don't want any more covenant breakers in this place.

or anywhere among the saints of God. Some of these days you'll find yourself outside looking in and wondering how you could get back and do it honorably. Let's go away from this meeting once more with a determination in our hearts to keep the commandments of God and to keep to it that we stamp out sin wherever we can. Thank you.

that the Spirit of God might be in this place, and that we, each one of us, might get the Spirit and keep it. Here's the message of our Father in Heaven to this people. And I pray that we will receive it from the crown of our head to the throat of our feet. And I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I pray that in the name of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God might be in this place.

president johnson that i give unto him the revelations of thine holy mind and will so in this very hour and continue as you have done in the past and bless you Bless him with life and wealth and strength that he may continue to lead thy people as you would have them live. We ask you to bless his family and draw from life and obedience to his country. That they shall support him and give him the strength that he needs and bless all the priests that they shall support him with their might and their mind and their strength and with their means and devote themselves to thy people.

We ask thee to bless President Herman, who thou hast called, especially to live in this part of thy kingdom, and to take charge of the physical objects of thy kingdom. We ask thee to bless him, and give to his noble heart the peace and the joy and the satisfaction that he shall be very very worthy of. We ask thee to bless President Mitchell, bless him with life, with health and strength, and heal him up.

that he may complete his mission in order before thee, and give unto this people, and continue to give to this people, the richness of his mind and his energy. We ask you to bless those in gift, and all of the other members of the council, and bless their families, and give them a righteous desire to serve thee, and give them the power, Father, to lay out their sins and their wickedness and their abominations before him and we ask you to bless the priesthood the high priesthood after the audience of thy holy son and bless them in their families and give them strength and patience and give them the blessings that they stand in need of now our father we have asked thee for these blessings We commit ourselves unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ to forsake our sin and to put away our foolishness and wickedness and to devote ourselves to the upbuilding of thy kingdom forever and ever. Amen.