and fall, dispensed with a singing. Sincerely trust, brethren and sisters, that we'll exert our faith on behalf of the speakers and of all who take part here, that we may find the answers to any questions or inquiries we have in our minds, if there be any, and that we may together have a time of rejoicing, giving praise to the Lord for His many blessings and acknowledging His hand in all things.

Dockstader, will you offer the opening prayer? Which art in heaven. With a deep sense of gratitude, we gather here these premises under the shade of these trees and under this peaceful influence. We pray thee, our Heavenly Father, that you will bless us at this time with thy Holy Spirit, that you will sharpen the minds of those who address us.

that we may be blessed at this time with the bread of life that is needful at this hour. We are thankful, Heavenly Father, to be in the earth in this dispensation and to be privileged to come forth at this time when you've seen fit to send forth the eternal gospel. And we are grateful that we have a part in this dispensation of the fullness of times. We acknowledge our weaknesses, Heavenly Father, and at this time we ask Thee to not let them stand between us and Thee, that we may be blessed. We rededicate ourselves unto Thee and this service, asking these blessings in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

from these services, and we'd like to hear from him at this time. Out of it, that's good. Welcome home. Really good to be here again. Check me and whatever I might say. I guess I'm about one of the happiest people here today. Very long ago, sitting down there in the Army, I wondered how long it would be before I could come back home. It's really blessed me, delivered me from the Army. Real good experience, and I'm thankful for it.

There's a lot of things I learned, and you're right that there were. If we don't learn something every day, we're failing. If we don't learn the lessons that are given us to apply them and apply the teachings that have been given, then we're failing. I got off when I found I had to go in the Army. Well, it brought a lot of thoughts and a lot of deep thinking. It's been even more so when I found out I was going to get out. In a way, I about broke my neck to get home. I guess I could have come home a little slower way, but I got home as fast as I could.

Even the next day I was home. There's something for me to do. Happen tomorrow or all to do. I pray that we can all be ready. Be able to do the things that are required of us honorably. Be here. A lot of teachings we hear that seem different than the way they used to live. The way people used to do. Just because people used to do things doesn't mean it was right. I pray that we can become converted to the doctrines of the priesthood of the gospel. And to live.

I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. You're fortunate, Brother Ronald, in having something to do now you're home. I didn't have much for me to do when I got home from England in 1932. I feel like we ought to have Sister Leona bear her testimony. I pray the Lord will bless me with his spirit. I know since I stood before you, and I'm very grateful for the blessings of the Lord to me, for he has indeed blessed me.

First of all, I want to say that I know this is the priesthood of God. I have a testimony of it. The Lord has answered my prayers in many ways, fast and in trade, and he has answered me. And I pray that he will continue to bless me and guide me. I pray that he will guide us all through all the walks of life. I've been away for quite a long time, and it's wonderful to be in your midst again.

I'm so grateful for the guidance of the priesthood, and I know that they have been inspired. I'm grateful for the privilege that the Lord has given me to be amongst you people. Though far away, at times I've felt unearned, and I've felt the answer to prayers on my behalf. I'm grateful for the life of my dear brother, and my uncle, and all these dear brothers.

because they have been inspiration to me. I'm grateful for my parents who instilled in me a desire for the gospel and the priesthood. And my great desire is that I might be able to dwell with them when I leave this spirit, that I might be counted worthy to be among them, that I might do my part while here in keeping the commandments and standing faithful and true. May the Lord bless us all that we may.

ever be true to him and to the priesthood and to his gospel. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. The sight of this congregation is in itself quite a source of inspiration. I hope and trust that it may be by the grace of God that I can fill this appointment for a few moments, my dear brethren and sisters. It seems that it's very seldom within the providence of a good Lord to permit us to use the crucibles by which we are...

tested and tried. I suppose if we could choose the things that we would like, we'd choose those things that would try us least. Brother Ronald's experience made me think of an occasion on the comic strip when Mutt hit Jeff on the head with a hammer. I mean, that's how it felt. It felt damn good when it could hurt. Doesn't seem like it requires a lot of time. Some pretty severe hurts make us appreciate how good Some other things are. In other words, we learn all that we know, it seems like, by contrast. If it wasn't for the bitter, we wouldn't appreciate the sweet. If it wasn't for the contact that we have with adverse influences, how much would we really and truly appreciate the felicities that we have with those who stand for the truth, unadulterated, plain and pure and simple, as it has been given by revelation.

for our benefit and blessing in this day and time in which we live. We have to acknowledge, after all, that the Lord's wise enough to know what's better for us than we know. And so we are subjected to those things oftentimes that serve us best, really, in developing in us those traits of character that are necessary to be developed if we would ever attain to the blessings that God has in store for the faithful. So might we not, humbly and on our knees, Thank the Lord for the experiences that come to us, bitter as they may oftentimes be, just for the lessons that they teach us. How could we learn many of the things that we do learn except for these things? If we have any trust in the justice, the judgment, and the mercy, and the graces that exist in perfection in him whom we worship, we wouldn't need to worry too much about it.

we could resolve that what he permits to come to us, insofar as it is at least beyond our control, is for our blessing if only we take it in the proper spirit, resolve in our hearts and minds to make the best possible use of the circumstances and the conditions which we find surrounding us. Simple little lessons of life, oft times we should learn by observation. Who is there of us indeed?

is capable of learning by observation all the things that we ought to know. Sometimes it seems necessary that we get some real experience. It reminds me of an occasion which occurred in my own little bit of experience some years ago when it fell to my lot to play a very dear companion. A neighbor and friend who I was very close to at the time remarked to me, well, Brother Jessop, he says, what can't be cured must be endured.

And how much of life is like that? The things that we're subjected to by circumstances and conditions beyond our control, or at least our ability to manipulate, are the things that prove what we are. Shall we say they're the things that make us what we are? I'm not quite so sure of that. But certainly they do prove what we are. So might we not pray today?

that the Lord will continue by his providence to direct our course, to send to us, with or without our control, those experiences that are calculated in his wisdom to qualify us to receive the blessings of the celestial exaltation. I am content to believe, and I do firmly and fully believe with all my heart that it's my privilege now in this life.

from day to day has been for many years to live and associate with the choices people there are upon the earth influence that they shed upon me i hope that in some measure i may be able by the grace of god to reciprocate certainly we have cause to rejoice and blessings that are shared upon us from day to day and from moment to moment to our whole course of life so far beyond our ability, may I say, to fully and completely appreciate and value. We may sometimes need more severe experiences than we have to meet in order to sharpen us. If you had an instrument made of steel, for instance, that you needed sharpened, you would submit that instrument to a grinding process that would cut it down to a pretty fine edge. Without that kind of treatment, what should you make out of it?

certainly not an instrument that would fill the need that you had for it. And so I believe that our wise Father in Heaven deals with us, and oftentimes subjects us to some of those things that should serve to sharpen us, and they would, and they do, to the degree that our metal is capable of enduring. I'm grateful today. I believe more than I ever have been in my life.

As the years and the days go by, our bit of experience and observation increases. We can see more values in the program of things as overruled and, shall we say, conducted by our Father in Heaven. So we oftentimes encounter the power and the influence of the adversary, and by that are subjected to a whole lot of these disagreeable and undesirable experiences. Yet, if we make the best of our circumstances, how important that is how much more vital it is that we incorrect proper incorrect and true and proper attitudes toward our circumstances and the conditions that surround us how much more vital is that we know are the circumstances themselves i don't know that it matters too much to us in one way how we come to the end of our journey in life succumb to an attack of smallpox or some other malady

whether we meet with an accident on a highway, whether we might be slain by an assassin's bullet, whatever might be our particular lot or circumstance at the time, the important thing is how we live until the end comes. We know that we all have a change to make from this sphere of action to the next, and that, like many other things, we don't have exactly a choice as to just how that crucible may be applied.

or indeed what it is. So, my dear brothers and sisters, let's try as we go along to open our minds, see if we can't catch a little bit more by the power of our observation the value of the blessings that the Lord has extended to us, and train ourselves that it might be less necessary for us to go through those severe adverse conditions and learn by heart experience.

many of the things that we might learn by observation if we just do a little grinding on our own head, sharpen our own inclination. Might we not sum up our whole outlook in life that by the grace of God we may be able to eliminate from our characters while we live our faulty inclination. This be our object and we work at it every day and every hour that we live, whatever.

Other circumstances or conditions may prevail. Surely it will be well with us in the end. I pray that the blessings of heaven will lead a lot to each and every one of you, and for us all, that we might attain to the things that we presume to be striving for, an exaltation in our Father's presence in the end. I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. I stand before you, brethren and sisters, in humility this afternoon, and pray for your...

Faith on my behalf that we can call upon us the Spirit of the Lord, that we shall not detract from the proceedings thus far. I'd like to say to Leona, I'm sure that I speak for this entire congregation to welcome you here and kill me. You belong to us, you always have, and we haven't been concerned about it. From this to the realization of knowing that this is the work of God, times is overwhelming.

because of these weaknesses that we have to endure and for those that we allow ourselves to continue. The luxury of experiencing. I don't know why we continue to allow ourselves these luxuries. The poet says life is real, life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal. I believe he spoke the truth.

time for this folder all that we allow ourselves to indulge in in the form of luxury i'm thinking this morning that requirements of life and of the lord are sometimes rather dull uninteresting and that there's a certain amount of endurance that has to be experienced but like brother jessup has told us we allow too much of our lives to be taken up in endurance and not enough in the zest and joy of living we're entitled to if we will just exert ourselves but nevertheless no matter how we exert ourselves the spirit and the mind or the mind rather and the body grows weary under the labors of the day and i believe this is what the savior had in mind when he stressed so much endurance to the end enduring the common, ordinary things of life. But when we get the proper perspective of life, then we will find that joy dwells in the ordinary. Joy dwells in the love and association of friends. Joy dwells in the exertions of ourselves in our labors from day to day. Joy dwells in a good meal that is properly...

prepared after we've earned the right to us. Joy dwells in a good bed and rest after our labors are finished. And if all these things, in all these things, we can take the Lord into our lives and our conscience to such an extent that he can take us into his conscience and truly will be the joy of everyday living. And when I see people that are resting Listen, the irritable and complaining in these everyday activities of life, I can't help but feel sorry for them because life is good. And our great creator said that it is good. All these things that have been created for our benefit are good. We will be good only by applying good principles in our lives and eliminating the evil. The Lord has provided us with his spirit.

determined for ourselves what is good and what is evil. And I have never in my life found a person unhappy in doing good. That is the greatest testimony of good that I know of. The saints and declare it aloud and even the devils in hell shout it to the sky. That joy dwells in doing good. And God is the author of it. And you and I don't have a coin in it, brothers and sisters.

He is willing that all flesh shall come and partake of his bounties and his blessings. But the world does not want the ordinary and the good. And that is the difference between the world and the saints. I learned recently about a brother that got his affairs in order so completely. Left his family so well situated. Got the wills all made out. There wasn't anything left in life to do except lay down and die. So he laid down and died.

can do the same thing if we want to our missions are completed why that's a good thing to do if they're not completed it's an evil thing to do and if we have not won our salvation so that we're sure we're ready for the presence of the priesthood that has gone before us on the other side then i would say we better labor on we better forget our wills we'd better leave our house in confusion our houses and our lands and our barns in confusion and just look to ourselves and get ourselves ready to die before we before the day comes i know how ronald feels and i know how these young men feel that are in our midst but this is home and they don't want to dwell outside of home but if they have to go out in the service of uncle sam or any other service they're willing to go

with a prayer in their hearts that they will do their job as is required of them by their brethren, and then return back in a condition that they can be used. There's nothing quite so satisfying as having to go on a mission and to return home in honor and dignity and virtue. Most of our young men have to go through this experience.

of leaving their homes and going out into the world and contracting the elements of the world. And I pray to God that he will bless our young men that are called out into the world when they have to go, that they can maintain their dignity and their virtue and their integrity. The men that are in school, the young ladies that are in school, the Lord expects the same of you. You should be a credit to the house of God, a credit to the house of Israel.

And if I may say so, a credit to the house of Leroy S. Johnson. We're all of that house. Hammond has been given a house. We speak of the house of Israel. There's a house of Johnson. There's a house of Hammond. And there's a house of Musser. And there's honor in those houses. There are presidents. And there's honor in the house of these or other presidents. I call on all of you who belong to these houses to honor those houses.

For God and the head of those houses will spew you out of their mouths. The priesthood is in our midst. God expects us to own it. He expects us to magnify it. He expects you women to magnify the priesthood as he expects the brethren who hold it to magnify it. They're nonexistent. I heard a sermon on only a deacon years ago in the church, and I've never forgotten it. Only a deacon.

asking a young man what priesthood he had. He said, I am only a deacon. He developed the theme of holding the priesthood of God, son of Aaron, the rights of that priesthood, the honor and the dignity of that priesthood. It was nine years before the Lord allowed Joseph Smith, Jr. to hold that priesthood. After he personally visited him, he told him that none of the sects of the day were right.

They were all wrong and an abomination in his sight. And many other things he told me which I do not know, which I am not permitted to write. And yet he let him go nine years before he gave him and allowed John the Baptist to give him the Aaronic Priesthood. He wanted Joseph Smith, Jr. to dignify the office of the Aaronic Priesthood. After a short season, he allowed him to have the Melchizedek Priesthood.

to the order of the Son of God. These are the sons of Moses, the sons of Aaron, the sons of Enoch, the sons of Jesus Christ. God, help us to honor this priesthood in our midst and to hold ourselves in subservience to it, to dignify these high and holy callings. I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Fire in my mind, add something to our intelligence.

relating to the creation of this great work. Paul said, struck me, in that the people used to be taught differently. This is something that I have heard all my life, that the people used to be taught differently. The Lord has never taught the truth differently. By force of the frailties and the desires of the people, there have been times when he has had to give them the law of Moses, or a lesser law.

And this people has not been accepted. I've known my father longer than anybody here, I presume. Because of the agitation of the people having dreams and wanting to get started on chopping a tree down or something else, it would influence me that I might be not going as fast as I should, so I'd go to his office and bother him.

So one day I was talking to him about making progress in the work of God. He was a great God guy. What's wrong with you? Do you want to get into trouble? Because I'm working with the president. I'm in harmony with him. And we're prepared to lead and direct you and the rest of the people the way you should go. Now, if you want to get into trouble and have a hard time getting out of it, keep pressing it.

about trying to get me into things. Well, that was a good enough answer for me. I thought that way all the time. I heard him talk like that when Brother Willie used to come into our home when I was a small boy. People of God are given what they want. That's the tragedy, sisters. That's that we walk out of the world. Instead of saying, Father, I want what you want, we say, Father...

I want what I want. He was just as much a God and a father to ancient Israel when they wandered in the wilderness back and forth over the same sand for 40 years. His prophets represented him just as faithfully as the prophet Joseph Smith represented him. He gave perhaps a thousand more revelations to Moses to the children of Israel.

than he gave before or since. And yet all they had administered to them was laws that helped them live here upon the earth, that with death they would part with. The law of carnal commandment, of how to treat each other when they got up in the morning, of how to punish each other when they spit on each other.

of what a woman should do while she was carrying her baby, and what she should do after she had her baby, of how they should keep their tent, of how they should do this. In other words, he revealed to them a law of carnal order so that they could live in some kind of order while he let them wander day and night, back and forth.

for 40 years, having their babies, bearing their babies. He even brought manna from heaven. That's more than he's done for any of our people. I've heard of our people dying of hunger. He even brought water from the rock. I've heard of some of the saints dying of thirst. And yet when the presidency looked over to the promised land, Father said, none of them are worthy.

So the priesthood has never taught anything else but the truth. But because of the pressure, the desires, and the fairies of the people, they have had to administer to them laws of a lesser degree in many instances. Also, they've had to administer to them after their desires and give the people what they wanted. But they have always, the prophets have always stood ready.

to teach the people the word of God that the people wanted to receive. So there's no such a thing, technically speaking, that the doctrine has been seen. There's no such a thing. We've just got to admit that man, in his frail condition, has developed ideas and circumstances and institutions which they have got the priesthood to endorse in order to keep themselves alive.

And that's just about the length we've left of it. My dear children, the thing that I'd like to dwell upon today for a few minutes is what do we think is the most important thing? And what do we want to do? As I was thinking about my own humanity and weaknesses last evening, what the Lord has done for us, is doing for us. The greatest concern, my dear people, It's not whether I have a certain type of food in my house to eat, or a certain type of house to live in, or a certain type of car to drive, or a certain type of woman to live with. My greatest concern is whether I'm expressing to my father and the brethren associated with him on the other side, and to my...

Brethren, hear whether I'm expressing vocally and in my labors an intense, sufficient gratitude and proving it for what they have accomplished in my behalf as a child of Israel. That's my greatest concern. And it humiliates me and embarrasses me. The only sadness that I ever had, I ever had, is when...

I realize that I am not expressing sufficient gratitude to my laborer, mine taint, the father, for what he has accomplished through the sacrifice of his only begotten son, the present brethren. For my sake, the principles of gospel, they are to my sadness, and I am brought low into humility, and I am embarrassed. My associates might say, Why are you sad? It's not because of what anyone has done. It's not because of any pain. It's because I have discovered my carelessness, accused my father, his brother. This is my joy, Dogen insisted, that before the foundations of the earth, a plan was laid for my redemption. And I am supported by this word.

When the sun of the morning went among the people to lead them astray, there was a council in session in the spirit world, and that council was formulating the plan for the redemption of the house of Israel from the beginning to the end. They realized many of the things that would take place here among the children of men.

They realized there would be restoration and apostatized all these things. And they made preparations and certain men were set apart and assigned to come to the earth at certain times because of their relationship to that council in the spirit world and because of their intelligence and capacity.

and because they would be able to stand without giving in and these men were allotted their time on the earth and were designated and there's still some designated who are coming who will come in the future so the father knew that down to the last second of time his power and authority and his ways would be represented among his children. Even that should fill our hearts with such gratitude that we would be unable to express it with the language we have in our control. Most all of us here are sons of Jacob and daughters of Jacob. What happened? What terrible thing took place?

and what other things took place that could fill our hearts with gratitude. Nine, the Lord came to Wilford Woodruff and said in substance, in answer to your question, I don't want you or the rest of my brothers to make any further compromises with the enemy, because the enemy is setting a trap to destroy my people. Now I'll fight your battles if you'll let me, incidentally.

Perhaps you know the history of how that little revelation was obtained. Another indication of how this council is working things out. My grandfather, when he was church historian, assistant historian, brought Brother Woodruff's journal to my father. And at that particular time, I don't suppose it ever entered into either one of those men's minds.

how that revelation would be used. The grandfather said, Joseph, I want you to take down this revelation word by word in the circumstances under which Brother Woodruff received it. Because someday you'll have to use it. Think of that. And so we have that wonderful revelation. A few months after the Lord spoke to Brother Woodruff, he said to Brother Smith, what will I do with this?

Manifesto. Brother Smith said, why don't you put it before the people? And they'll vote the damn thing down. So Brother Woodruff put it before the people. And instead of voting it down, they voted it up. And then comes the great thing. The children of Israel misinterpreted. Brother Joseph F. Smith says, this is a revelation to me. It was a revelation to him.

to think that Israel would sustain it. Brother Woodruff shakingly signed his name to it, and he turned to Brother Smith and says, My God, what have I done? What you've done, Sergeant Woodruff, he says, you have signed an agreement, a covenant with death, an agreement with hell. That's what you have done.

through the great plan of the evil one. This was a trap. And with that covenant with death and agreement with hell went every covenant born child of Israel, born and unborn. And I was one of the unborn ones. My mother sold me, traded me to the world with a covenant. and promised that he would teach me, bring me up, honor the world and its institutions, and to sustain that. That's what happened. The destructive unknown by those faithful brethren. With that agreement, you went and I went. Mother may have bowed her head and said, well, I really didn't intend my children.

and go this far just like when we're trying to get a half a million dollars from the bank and the banker says this includes all of your property doesn't it mr muscle holy covenant children today they were taken into bondage those who are alive in 1890 went into bondage and their children and children and children children after them have been born into bonding The trap has sprung. If it hadn't been for the preparations of that great council, the faithfulness of the people that they appointed to do certain things, we would be in the dark today. There wouldn't be one vestige of light for us to cling to. The records of our fathers would be burned and buried in the musty archives.

locked up. We would not have them. We would not know the history of our fathers. All that we would know is the history of those who controlled them. But Isaiah saw this, and he predicted it. He said, because ye have said we have made a covenant with death and with hell, we are at agreement. When the overflowing good shall pass through it shall not come to us we have made a covenant with you old world now you protect for we have made lies our refuge and under falsehood therefore thus saith the lord god after they have said this therefore saith the lord god i lay In thine eighth foundation is stone, pride stone, precious stone, your foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste. Now what has he promised? And this is our redemption. And this fills my heart with strength. For every noble man and woman who has been sent here.

disannull this covenant. That's what they're doing. My prophet did not build cities and redeem the earth, but he disannulled the covenant and the agreement. They were willing to worship him next to my father. For that act, the Lord has said, judgment also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet.

truth sweep away the refuge of life and the waters shall overflow the hiding place and your covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement shall not stand and be released from bondage that he will disannul the covenant my mother made and the agreement shall not stand overflowing gird shall pass over, disagreement and covenant shall be trodden down with those who make it. It shall be so terrible that it'll be vexatious just to hear the report of it. For the bed is shorter than the man can set himself on, and the covering narrower than he can wrap himself in it. A lot of people say, sure, it's a record of the 1886.

meeting. Why should it be so secret? Why should it be so secret? Because it was a meeting that was calculated and set up by God to start the process of annulling the covenant with death and the agreement with hell. How could it be done if it had been done in any other way? All the sons and daughters were in bondage.

There hasn't been a prophet or a faithful man or woman who has lived since that day, who has taken part in disannulling this day, that hasn't felt the hand of Babylon have laid upon them, have barely escaped. They have given up all, disannull this covenant. And if it had not been for them, still with the awful chains of superstition and ignorance and bondage. I can't give enough praise to those my brothers, beginning with my father. I can't thank him enough. And when I find myself complaining, even mentally, I am humiliated to think of the little that I have done.

in my redemption from the pits of darkness to their noble labor. And I say, thank you, O God. My mind includes all those noble prophets in my Lord. God took this noble stand and who is willing to prepare themselves and come here. There's no doubt that my father knew when he came upon the earth.

It was reviewed to him many times, the many things he might have to suffer and go through. No doubt he forgot those things, but he was willing to do it, as was President Taylor. Although President Taylor stood high off to the floor when he was telling the people of the preparation the council was making to disannul the covenant, And the agreement, he said, this covenant and agreement will be made when I die. But these are steps that will disannul it. And although he rejoiced and felt good to stand there with the prophet Joseph, I'm sure his heart was bleeding for Israel and for the picture he saw of a whole nation born and unborn.

being taken into bondage. The thought that the work of father could be destroyed. But how ingenious is the power of God. Every step was prepared before him. Every angle followed by our father's faithful... Every emergency could be met, perpetuate the truth. And yet, we... have had more of these sons and daughters arise try to interpret the truth keeping with their circumstances and needs and who have stayed true and all that has been done sometimes no doubt just as i used to hear father say and brother barlow i wish we had left the damn fools in the church no doubt they sometimes This is what I'm grateful for. This is what Jacob can happen in any other place but with my people. I cannot be satisfied with any other blessing except those promised to my father Abraham. How wonderful, how wonderful it is that at last I am out of prison, that I can mingle freely with my brothers and sisters.

who I work with in the spirit world, that I can labor freely with the rest of the faithful sons and daughters of Abraham in this great redeeming work. This fills my heart with gratitude, and I know that the covenant has been disannulled and the agreement has not stood in the heavens.

is now shorter than the man who lies upon it, and the covering will not cover him. And it is only a matter of a short time when the overflowing sky will pass over those who have agreed to recover. My father told me once, don't be too anxious to see it in your face. And your heart will be broken. Your old exasperation. Will it be. But President Woolley said. If I remember right. That there won't be anyone. Who agreed. The covenant. With death. And the agreement with hell. To give him any blessing. In the work of God. Unless they repent. Who will work with. Is the generation.

That comes after them who did not participate in that agreement. My brother and sister, I relate these sentiments and express my own gratitude for what we have. I try to get you to see what this work is about. To quit holding on to the foolish institutions and desires that surround us. Because we are a people that's in preparation to finish The process of disannulling the covenant and establishing the last of your trials. I strive more every day. My father and I, the mother and myself, made a covenant with you. The earth, according to the will and plan, cannot find out what we have gone through except to be revealed to you in order to do it. I have failed to do it.

as every other faithful man. Your work as much as mine. We've got to disannul this covenant, brethren and sisters, and this agreement. We've got to have it set aside and we've got to covenant and lay our lives on the altar to establish the new and everlasting covenant of our Father and our God. That's what we've got to do.

We've got to work at it, don't we? Or we'll be caught with the overflowing stretch. It will not pass by. We cannot accept, expect to be well followed by Babel. We're escaping. Powers beyond their control have loosened the chains of bondage. Why shouldn't they hunt us and drive us and pillage us?

As they did our brethren before. Because we are not as they are. How can we expect? I was just speaking before. Why shouldn't we plan our attack? Why shouldn't we try to protect ourselves? Why shouldn't we realize who we are? And that we are such of the world. We are against us. Our brethren and our father. Bondi. You have agreed to the covenant. And the agreement.

you have no rights to the priesthood because they shall be cut off as well as to the ordinances of the house of God, the body of the Lord. What are we here to do? What our job is to begin to equip ourselves with the articles of battle and with the weapons of our warfare because before the final season. Be here and be in such circumstances that we can Look into your faces again. For truly you are an inspiration to us. As our hearts are to see you. For the things we've heard. Brought back to language that we used and heard in the spirit world. Was generated in me. Heart is one. That's our duty is to break this covenant of faith. The urgencies that get upon us at times are fearful. Lest we fail.

and we drive you people unmercifully we have a job to do and this world is painting such a scene of relaxation and vacationing and luxury that it makes us loves us into our carnal securities and makes us sleep away our lives we're interested in everything but what we ought to be i certainly would like to urge these people to get your affairs of life so that you can Carry on this work. You understand it as well as we do. And you ought to govern your affairs and not let them govern you. You ought to submit yourself to the peaceable things of the kingdom of God rather than send up this constant warfare in our midst over the principles of life and salvation. Our Sunday school this morning announced that we were going to take up the life of Joseph W. Musk. Well, that's timely.

I think we better take up the life of every good man who stood in the gap in our day and time and began to understand their labors. These sentiments of gratitude have gone through me time and time again for the labors of our brethren who have gone on. I tried to take a moment and express them this morning. I tell you, brothers and sisters, we haven't risen yet to our might and power and to the grandeur.

for which we were sent. And we can't do it as long as there's bickering and strife in the midst of this peace, finding some peace in the priesthood. But until the priesthood can find peace in their lives and in their homes, we're not going to be brought up and blessed like we ought to be. And I urge you to begin to listen to the things that's been taught to you and try to apply these things to your lives. So many of us are so mighty and big in our...

of our lives. I've watched men rise and just work within this congregation today. I've seen some of them leave the zenith of their power, and they start to go back. We hunger and thirst like the Babylonians for recognition, blessings of power and dominion over our fellow men. And I'll tell you, it can't come until we're actuated by the principles of eternal life.

I was thinking not long ago of the 121st section of the Doctrine and Covenants, where no power can be maintained except by love. You women, folks, will never exert any influence in the kingdom of God and in the kingdom of your husband until it's motivated by love, by a love for your husband, by the love for the work of God and the love for the servants of God. If you try to maintain it on any other principle, you'll lose out in the end.

you'll find yourself worthless and useless in the hands of your husband. The same thing is going to be true of you, brother. The days I get to feel warm about this congregation, you're the only friends we have. We learn to get this going. When I see the damn despicable way that you live and try to go on year after year, I get so discouraged. What a plight of people with bright intelligence.

children, the death we've had, and yet you don't seem to rise and bless the work of God like you ought to. Why is it that this agitation continues in the midst of this people? It's the thought of the things that have been reviewed before us. I feel like this has been a fine thing by the muscle. I don't know the sermon you've preached for many, many days, months, years.

It's going to have the effect on the people that you have. It's a review for us. The reasons why we're here. Why did you come? You figures, you eschews, you people, name yourselves. Why did you come to this world? Why did you answer the call of John and Joseph? And Lauren, those few of you who are left. It wasn't to accomplish this very thing that's been reviewed before our eyes. And yet you go so weary and you stumble along.

When we get men coming along, and first thing you know, we've lost them, and they peter out just like the water in the sands of church. We go up there, and the mountains are really fresh by the sight. You see the water running over the rocks, and by the time we get home, we see it sink into the sand. That's about the way of the labors of this people. You can't hardly get one of you brethren to mature to where your hair can turn gray in this work. Might and power comes upon you, and you start to experience it.

I don't know how your feelings are entirely. I know what your hopes and aspirations are, but I wonder how far you feel to dedicate your life. But I know that mine's dedicated to this proposition, that while I sojourn and live upon the earth, that I'll never be left until I accept my sustaining upholding life.

I know brothers and sisters that we're the people of God. There springs in the lives of this people a love for freedom. I know that. I know it manifests in the lives of my brethren and sisters. And we long and hope and yearn for the day when we can enjoy this most priceless gift where we're truly in bondage. But it's going to come with a price, a high price. I don't think it's an impossible thing. It's just lingering in the world and clinging on to its institute. I don't know where all our places are yet, but I tell you we've got to get away from it as much as we can and get our vocations and so forth in such a manner that we can.

Spend as little time with him as possible and as much as we can spend our time in the work of God. I think today is past when we ought to yearn and labor over great quantities of money. I don't think the Lord is impressed. He may have had his time in the days of our poverty, but those days are gone. There's not a poor family left in this world. You're all rich. When I get out of the atmosphere that we live in here and I get in...

in the land of the south and i see how little it takes to make me happy then i begin to understand that dictates the spirit of god and i begin to understand the life of brother john and the life of the brethren who've gone on who accomplished such phenomenal things in their lifetime with so little to work simply because they they had to dictate the spirit of god and they were buoyed up and carried on and they didn't waste and spend their energy hungering and thirsting after the things of this world. And I know you can't get it. I know you can't get it to keep your religion. The last time I spoke, I made some remarks that I thought that I ought to try to correct, but I can't temper it very much when I was talking about working for pensions. I don't want to discourage any man for taking a pension. I wish you were all on one. The thing that I wanted to impress upon your minds is that you sacrifice your religion.

and the things of your life to get a pension, you'll apostatize and you will. If you can get it in conjunction with your life and set yourself free from financial worry, then that's a blessing to you. But to forsake your religion, to cling to an institution that will give you a pension someday will cost you your life in the kingdom of God. You've got to have free men. You've got to have able and intelligent men. A rounding corner here.

This morning, going back to my home after being defended, these very sentiments went right into my mind. How we ought to thank God for the lives and labors of these men who have established this thing in our hands. There's no sense of gratitude that can spring up in the human bosom. It's too great to show up on a man who has finished his labors and established the cause. I feel like I could worship him.

dictates the spirit of God, I could worship him. All that Brother Hammond had, or ever had, or ever will have, has come to him through the priesthood of God. I know that. I know that as firmly as I know anything in this life. But all my blessings have come through the priesthood of God, and outside of it there aren't any blessings. Only curses, and heartaches, and sadness, and sorrow. Every association that I look back upon in this Things called our youth that you young people, some of you old people, yearn over. And suppose we're so great, now as I look back on it, there's still nothing to say. I might have been carried away at some party or some school dance or some church function and thought that I had a good time. And momentarily, I probably did. But now when I look back at the panorama, there's nothing to say. My life is empty.

Because I hadn't found my brethren. The day that my eyes fell on Joseph Musser and I took him by the hand, then something said to me, he is the first man of God he's ever met. Now, let's not lose sight of these things, brethren. Let's not lose sight of this course. We've been pushed and pushed and pushed trying to get us to renovate our lives. And I cling to the thought yet that there must come into our lives some inspiration.

to cause us to desire these things and want to make them before we'll ever pay the price and make this happen. Maybe this is it. Maybe this refreshing that we've had today over this most savory and sweet subject will be the thing that will cause us to make another effort to revitalize our strength whereby we might move forward, might cause the big elders in our group to humble themselves.

and to do the work that's at hand, and not lay charges against their fire leaders. This work and this priesthood comes from the bosom of God. We know, we know who paid the price for our priesthood. He might have been called up, but we know that our elder brother Jesus Christ is the man that bought our priesthood and paid for it. And we got it from him, through God Almighty. He owned it and possessed it in his own bosom.

And our elder brother Jesus Christ, through his labors and sacrifices and atonements, has bought us and paid for us, and bestowed it upon his brethren, and we're to literally do it, for he's bought us with a price. And he senses the magnitude and grace in the eyes of such suffering and sacrifices as he's done. He's heard about his sacrifices upon this earth, and our children get it from their mother's knees. But there wasn't.

Where the great price is paid in my opinion. I think the great price is paid in the spirit world. That's where he paid the price. There's where he rose prominently. And drank in his father's family. And earned the right and the privilege of becoming our savior. And there's where we learn to follow in his footsteps. And become associated with him. And learn to love and labor in this work. As I said at the outset.

strung in my mind, my brother Martha was taught. The feelings go through me that this is the language that I've heard before, that this is my duty while I sojourn here in this life, to be an instrument in the hands of the brethren and associates of us, breaking this situation, this yoke that's been placed upon us by our Gentile brethren and sisters who've embraced this work. While we...

I'd like to deny it, and I'm probably foremost among them, in denying that we're a Gentile people. Yet if it wasn't so, I would have been cursed long ago. If we were the pure blood of Israel, God would have had to spew us out of his mouth long, long ago because of our backsliding. But it would have Joseph Young and others have taught us because of our birthright and lack of...

Some natural information on the part of the people to respond to these things has merited the long suffering and patience of our fathers. But even they have gone far beyond any point of propriety. And I'm confident we're ready now for the scourge. Situations have turned amiss in this intermountain area. Certain influences of evil are swelling in around us and choking out that very life.

blood out of this people. And unless we rally forth and keep the commandments of God as Brother Johnson has dictated to us, we're going to be crushed. Just as sure as your drawing breath, we're going to be crushed. Unless we rise to these duties and responsibilities that's been placed upon our heads in this world. Just like this church has joined hands with the wicked, and the wicked's going to use them. The Mormon church is going to be an institution in their hands.

of the wicked to crack this work until they had enough to cry for mercy. I think I'll express a thought that came to my mind the other day. I hope the Lord will grant me a spirit to present it and enlarge upon it in such a manner that it will not be misunderstood. I was thinking of the remark that someone has...

I've been quoting around that Brother Johnson said that this people is going to need the faith of the Brother of Jared, which I heartily agree, and I don't want any misunderstanding. The Brother of Jared was the prophet of God. He was the mouthpiece of God. And I think it's a little bit far-fetched for this people to aspire to such a position when we have the office of the Brother of Jared with us. And it's in my heart, brethren, to aspire to the office of Jared, to be a doer of the Word.

and try to help carry on the work that's been placed upon our final leaders. And I think if we get that spirit in our heart, that we'll have a little more harmony among us. For the brother of Jared was a lawgiver to the people. He was the prophet. He was the one that went to the Lord and received the oracles of God and bestowed them upon the people. And that's why Jared went to him. What office Jared held hasn't been entirely revealed. I suppose that he was a prophet too.

But certainly his brother was his senior, and he went respectfully to the priesthood and received his instruction. And what else did he do after he performed the work of building the barge and so forth, but to go to his brother? They now hear the work he's done. Ask the Lord to prepare the life. Now, if this people will partake of that kind of a spirit, I think we'll have a better spirit. We truly have a prophet in our midst, one that's been carved out specifically.

to fit our needs he's able to get the spirit of god and able to get the revelations in the mind and will of god but if people just as often as they need it and just as often as they'll receive it if we feel like that we're lacking in revelation and lacking in stimulation by the dictates of the spirit of god all we need to do is repent of our stiff mechanism except for us and do because there's plenty to do i still hear i still hear drop conversation here and there. It indicates to me the nature of many of this people, and it's not pleasing in the eyes of God. It wasn't about me. Within the week, someone come to me and said a certain man said that he would be very glad to help the brethren and do anything they asked him to do. Well, I'll tell you that man's lab was flover in hell a long time before someone come and asked him to do something. He hasn't got energy enough and vitality enough.

and hope enough and investment enough and courage enough to step forth and try to find something to do, I don't think he needs a job. And I hope he never gets one. I'd be glad to see a house cleaned. And this work of some of these men that feel like they have to have a special revelation from God Almighty to find a work when there's so much to do. Too strong? I don't know how to temper it, but that's the way I feel. Because there's plenty to do.

as this thing that has been reviewed to our minds to do. That's what's to be done. Here's a multitude of young people that's coming up, depending on their elders, to find a way through this work, to map the course, to make way for them, that they might get a firm hold upon this thing and live their lives. I've often reviewed, I was called on one time when I was a priest, first counseling the priest for them, which meant that I...

I stood next to the bishop and I preached for him. They called on me to preach in St. Mark's Museum one night. I didn't think that I had it in me, but when I got up, I made a few remarks that even I haven't forgotten. I tried to remind the parents that while they were worrying about their kids going to hell, they ought to look to their own lives. We'd just then come to our little group of people, the people in Rexburg that had social parties going all winter long, and the men and women had been trading wives.

It was amply corroborated. Does that affect us? No, it doesn't affect you. Except that you're not preparing the way for your children and looking up and up and up and up. Expect your children to do well, but how well will you do? How far will you go in sustaining the work of God? You want your children to be good, but how good do you want them to be good? Do you want them to be good like Brother Lorenzo Snow said certain people were good? They were good, but what were they good for?

The only person that's good for anything in this work is the person that has the courage to step forward and perpetuate the laws of God under the direction of the Spirit of God and the service of God. That's the only person that can be good in this work. If you can't try to do that, then the only other person that's any good will try to sustain those who are trying to do that. That's what is good to be done. Some of you men have risen here and performed Herculean efforts and works.

performance that will bless you as long as you live. Now that's where you can do good. It doesn't seem to matter how thick your hair is or how you comb it or whether you wear glasses or anything else. It just seems to be how willing you are ready to put your hands where your heart is. As we used to say when we were so hard up here in this group, we used to judge a man whether he could get his hands on his purse, his mouth and his purse in the same place and that's how it is with us now.

is whether we can get our labors and our faith and our hearts in the same place. And all this goodness that we're talking about is fodder all, unless you bring it to an application, the release of this work, to talk about the character of God. I think I could do a few things about this character that are not written. He never obtained the Godhood by some hocus-pocus. He's faithful in the spirit world in which he was born.

And when he got to the earth upon which he worked out his probation, he put his hands and his heart in the same place. And that's the way he obtained the attributes of his father. He was diligently working at the things that he was trying to do. And I don't think it's possible for a man to acquire the attributes of God with one foot in the world and another foot in the work of God. I don't think he can acquire the attributes of God that way. Because God's attributes are not divided.

I'll tell you, we've got to bring ourselves to be more closely associated with this work and carry its burdens and share in its sorrows and labors. The Lord has blessed the brethren with a lot of ability and power to do them. It's in favor of the men here. But do you want them to get all the blessings? You don't. I know you don't. And so the thing for you to do, as I advise our southern people to do, is to get a touch of this work and call it your own.

and work at it. Whether it's here, there, or wherever it is, it's a work at it. Some might have been discouraged in thinking that we don't need a project in this work. Why, the life labors of the priesthood is a project. I've had one before me for 20 years in this work. Whether Jeff has had a project, Roy Johnson's had a project, Guy Mussert had a project, we've been working at it. And it isn't possible for a man to participate in the spiritual blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

and not put his hands and his heart and his feet into the work. Coming here and sitting for two hours every two weeks and being preached to, that isn't going to save you. That isn't going to renovate your character. And it's not saying that you can't live where you are and do what you ought to do. But you've got to have a piece of this work. If we find out that we're up against a stone wall and look like our labors are not appreciated, Well, maybe our labors are not just as they ought to be. And so we ought to change them just a little bit. Many men, and I have to be careful not to name things too close or someone will have their feelings hurt. But I constantly feel alert, just as Brother Bart on Brother Muster and these other brethren do, to the expressions that come from these people and the spirit that emanates from them. You see and feel and know just how you are. I'll tell you, I don't want to discourage you.

This is our labor. This is it. For people to be concerned. I don't know why I seem to thrive physically and personally in our southern atmosphere. I appreciate what I am privileged to do. I remember when I was down there before I moved out. I think it's five different homes. It gives people a place to live. I guess my folks felt like it was a little bit hard on them once in a while. It always felt good to me.

What does a house and all these temporal things we have around us really count in the work of a king? I like to be where I can clean up. When my family tries to prepare something to eat, if they can have a clean place to do it, so that it doesn't wear my teeth off trying to eat it, I often think of Isaiah. He's a man of a thought of something. Driven and driven and driven.

And finally, when they drove him to his last extremity, he crawled into a hollow log. And they had him, and they sawed the log in two. Now I'd like to know just what a howl all the pertinences pertaining to one meant to Isaiah when he was being hunted and despised by his enemies. I wonder what all this falter all meant to Brother Taylor when he was out there in center. Hardly lay his body down at night to sleep.

the fear that his enemies would break through somewhere and come upon him, carry him off and throw him into prison. I wonder how much impression it made upon his mind. I wonder how much it meant to Joseph Smith and Hyland when they mounted their horses and started for Carthage. I wonder if they were concerned whether they were going to have a nice house to go to, a clean bed to live in. I suppose Joseph's mind was dwelling upon such trivial matters.

He never entered his mind that he had the work of his father to do. I suppose that when Jesus was kneeling in the garden of Gethsemane, that he was concerned about all these messes. And I suppose that that's what caused him to cry out, My God, that's not what he said. The foxes have holes, and the birds have their nests, but the Son of God hath not a place to lay his head. I suppose that was the final cry. I suppose that Brother Johnson, spends his time continually worrying about these temple matters that people are barely able to get themselves over where they can get a handhold on the work that they're trying to cling to. And then he worries about our temple foundation. I don't worry about it. I'm put where I have to deal with it. But I'm concerned about the promotion of understanding and hope and desires and aspirations of this people.

That's what besets me. That's what besets my own life. I'm looking for the spirit of God and the inspiration and the energy and the vitality and the life and the love and the labor that will finally subdue this character and make of me a man of God. I'm not going to get it all done on my knees. I'm not going to get it all done by sitting in these knees. I have to go out and contend with the elements. I often think of the story that a guy told about his...

tells about his missionary life. How the Lord just let him have enough. We haven't had many brethren come in our day and time and tell us about laboring, about purchasing. All we get to do is read about it. And I'm thrilled with the remarks and the stories I've heard him tell. That's how the Lord is just providing enough. We all require some money. I think that there's many things that we need to do if these things are around us. We need to grace our lives.

and then our families and bring our children up enough comforts and graces that they feel the urgency to excel and have. And to let them be the things that we worship and long for and spend our life for is something far beyond what a Latter-day Saint ought to be doing. Thank you, brothers and sisters. Sustain this work and sustain one another. I'm anxious that you women sustain your husbands.

I make a few husbands get in such a position that you can be sustained. When I asked me not long ago, she said, Brother Hammond, how can a woman please a man? Possible. And let him please her. If I had to tip my weight one way to say which way the balance would go, I'd say that there's more women to please than there are men willing to be pleased. Knowing my own character, I want to be.

But I pray that you women, for the sake of this work, that no matter what discouragement that you face, that you ought to please your husbands. Because I have difficulty finding my Heavenly Father, is that a sign that I should cease striving? If I go to bed tonight brokenhearted because of the hardships of the day, and the discouragement that I face trying to retain the Spirit of God, or get some want and encouragement from the other side to give me...

I hope to carry on. Is that an indication why I should keep striving? A man comes in the house weary and tired and possibly brokenhearted, and he's a little bit hard to get along with. Is that ample reason and proof that you women shouldn't strive any further? When he's your Lord and Master and the priesthood of God to you, is that an indication that you shouldn't try to obtain his favor and soften his heart and mellow his disposition? It works for you women.

There's some responses that you better need to make and get off on your high horses because you haven't got a very high one actually to ride on. You ought to be very easy to please. It is a lowly manner in which you're living. You ought to be really easy. Cam is getting more easy to please all the time. I just feel a little clearer when I see him in the mirror. I'm beginning to forget a lot of the things that used to make me haughty and proud. I find out there was nothing but a stinking characteristic.

That I brought some generations of past and on and on and on. The only thing that will ever give me any right to reiterate with my head is when my father takes me by the hand and puts me down in the council of my brother. Then maybe I have some reason to rejoice over my personal labor. Until then, I am very humble and lowly. So if you better not remember that, if you feel a little cocky and proud, especially a young one.

just remember you're not dead yet you've got a long long ways to go just remember you dear women i know that you don't know always to know that josephine may here and some of these other women have been to the house of god they know very well if there comes a time when the man has to take the woman by the hand and put his approbation upon her there's no compulsion in the matter either that ought to be the question for most of you still reflect it further, if you can't forsake your husband, go wandering off among the goats, the Gentiles, muster yourselves up and then come back and expect to be given a good bath and brought in and set down with all the graces of the Queen of Israel. Because as a priest muster, earn haste, merit so must the Queen and Mary. So these things should be very sobering and encouraging.

But God's a just God. After we've earned these things, we'll be amply rewarded. I feel very good in this work. I've never felt any better. Strength is reviving year by year, and my health improves gradually, and I'm encouraged. I'm encouraged for the lives of my brethren. They're working to pay off that. Let's see you people work at yours. I'm encouraged with the dispositions of the young people in this work.

Looks like we're going to be able to bring them along and accomplish more with them than we can accomplish with the past. If that's fitting and proper, if I start a house on here and I get the foundation built, setting up and a roof on it, enough around for a windbreak and pass on, then let my son come and add his labors of the day and generation in which he lives to this structure. After he dies, let my grandchildren come.

and add their graces and duties to the lake. And that's the way it is not to do with the latter-day saints. The parents have got to lay some structure here and not think that because they took the hands of John and Joseph and said, yea, Lord, that they've got it wrong. Because we haven't got it wrong. What we need to do is get this work into our personal character as far as if we can get it. Because we will not be renovated. We will not have the character of God.

Without working at these matters, we'll have to have the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God will not strive with us unless we're striving to build up the kingdom as effectively as we possibly can. I pray the blessings of God upon us in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. I trust my brothers and sisters that the Spirit of God will rest upon me, that I may say nothing that discrees it today.

I've been very much interested in the remarks of the brethren, and I desire to enlarge upon them just a little bit. Living in a day when great tribulation lies near our door, it is said that my people shall be a tribe of people. And if you're ready for the Lord to place trials upon you, you're a pretty good people. When Brother Guy was...

went back to the days of the prophet Joseph. And I thought about the trials and tribulations that were placed upon the servants of God to establish this work. I remember the story of Heber and the lake that the Lord gave him in order to see whether he could trust him or not. I wonder how many of these people are ready for such trials. The coming crisis and how to meet it.

with all that the Lord would place ways and means in the hands of Satan to die the face of the people. So many of you have stopped to think just how great trials the Lord placed upon the prophet Joseph Smith. Call your attention to one trial upon the prophet Joseph far greater than anything that you have ever heard of. The Lord had warned the prophet.

and partly preside him to receive his child. He has also presided this people, or tried to, in order to meet the trials that are immediately coming upon them. First read, Section 122, and then often come. The word of the Lord to Joseph Smith, the prophet, while a prisoner in Liberty Jail, Missouri, March 1839.

The ends of the earth shall inquire after thy name, and fools shall have thee in derision, and hell shall rage against thee. While a pure in heart, and a wise, and a noble, and a virtuous, shall seek counsel and authority and blessings constantly from under thy hand. And thy people shall never be turned against thee by the testimony of traitors.

And although thy influence shall cast thee into trouble and into bars and walls, thou shalt be had in honor, and but for a small moment, and thy voice shall be more terrible in the midst of thine enemies than the fierce lion because of thy righteousness. And thy God shall stand by thee forever and ever.

If thou art called to pass through tribulation, if thou art in peril among false brethren, if thou art in peril among robbers, if thou art in peril by land or by sea, if thou art accused with all manner of false acquisition, if thine enemy shall fall upon thee, if... They tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brothers and sisters, and with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife and of thine offspring and thine eldest son, although but six years of age shall cling to thy garments.

and shall say, My father, my father, why can't you stay with us? O my father, what are the men going to do with you? And if then ye shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies howl round thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb, and if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and sentence of death pass upon thee, if thou be cast into the deep, if the billowing surges conspire against thee, if fierce winds become thine enemy, if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way, and above all, If the very jaws of hell shall gap open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all, art thou greater than he. Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood

shall remain with thee. For their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less. Therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with thee forever and ever. There's the warning that the Lord gave to the prophet Joseph. Now let's see what happened immediately after. We've all read the history and we know the story of the men who were responsible, mostly responsible for his assassination. Mark, the Lord, and the foxes. Now let's see what the Lord has done. What he said to them. Let my servant William Mark stay soft into the house as soon as he could.

for himself and his generation from generation to generation. And then he goes on to say to William Law, Let my servant William Law also receive the keys by which he may ask and receive blessings. Let him be humble before me and be without doubt. And he shall receive of my spirit even the comforter which shall manifest unto him the truth of all things, and shall give him in the very hour what he shall say. All these signs shall follow him. He shall heal the sick, he shall cast out devils, he shall be delivered from those who administer unto him deadly poison, and he shall be led in paths where the poisonous serpents cannot lay hold upon his heels, and he shall mount up in the imagination of his thoughts as upon evil's wings. And what if I will that he should raise the dead? Let him not withhold his voice. Therefore let my servant William cry aloud and spare not with joy and rejoicing and with hosanna to him.

that sitteth upon the throne forever and ever, saith the Lord your God. Behold, I say unto you, I have a mission in store for my servant William, and my servant Hiram, and for them alone, and let my servant Joseph carry at home, for he is needed. The remainder I will show unto you hereafter, even so, amen. A great trial being made before the prophet Joseph. He was called to hold the keys of the priesthood along the side of Joseph. And all the time the Lord knew what William Law was going to do. He knew that he was going to try the faith of Joseph. He did try.

Finally, Joseph rose before the council and told them something like this. If you want to carry this man any longer, he's on your shoulders. But I'm not carrying him any farther. I'm taking him off. What happened? William Lauer immediately began to lay plans for the destruction of Joseph. Joseph knew when he went to the slaughter.

the instigators of that great day. Was he tried? Did he flinch? I want to tell you, my brothers and sisters, the thing that Brother Guy told you today. The idea of disheveling that great lie that was laid before this people is greater than you or I. It's greater courage than you and I think to be able to stand and to face the music that Satan is tuning up for in the near future for this people. You and I, my brothers and sisters, will have to seek night and day for deliverance. The day is here when you should begin to cry night and day for deliverance, because you're soon going to be turned in. Satan is dancing deep.

May God bless you all. Amen. A project that has been laid upon this people is to get the attributes of God and learn to become like Him. We cannot do this without faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the great prototype that we are to follow and become like. And as Abraham and I say, show me your faith by your works. I've become God except through good works and obedience to the laws and commandments of God. And if we have faith in Him.

The Lord Jesus Christ will keep his commandments. If you love me, he said, keep my commandments. Now, the only way we're going to come off triumphant against the snares that are being laid is to have the character necessary to overcome it, as Joseph said, and the others. If we have the necessary preparation to becoming the characters that God would have us be, We'll have our endowments and all the other blessings we long for. All things will be added if we will be proficient in this great project. Get and keep the Spirit of God. And we'll have the attributes of God. And we will be able to work with Him and His servants. Which may we do, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Brother Holm, will you offer the closing prayer? We're grateful, our Father in Heaven, for...

the rich outpouring of information, truth, and advice spirit that you have given us. We are pleased that we have been sounded worthy to receive of these things. Now will you pick our hearts and our consciousness, that we may diligently apply the rules and the principles and the requirements given us, that we may absorb truly what we have been doing this day.

and that we may cease to procrastinate our progression and cease to hinder you from making us a united people. We know that the final result depends upon ourselves. Now let thy Holy Spirit go before us as we depart from this gathering. Reign those affairs in our lives that we may be valiant and true.

that we may be able to see the trust of the adversary, and avoid them, and to build hedges around them, that we may fortify those who have given us, that we may have every advantage to go forth towards eternal life. Now dismiss us with thy blessing, and make us alert, make us keen and receptive to these things and the other messages you have for us, Now these blessings together with all others of protection and health and strength and guidance in every way.

We pray for it, for it is good in our all to be, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.