I think before we commence to let our heads drop on one side and the other, we would like you to hear from President Musk. According to the first Americans, this is the best time of the day to sleep. I asked the barber the other day what happens when he got sleepy. Most everybody gets sleepy after lunch. What happens to you when you get sleepy? He says, I just keep cutting hair.

I said, have you learned to sleep on your feet? He says, when the client goes to sleep, why, I go to sleep. With the weather and the period of the day upon us, it may be necessary to learn how to listen with our eyes closed. And I rejoice, my dear people, in this opportunity. And I think outside of some of our funerals, I think this is the largest audience of saints I have seen.

gathered in one place of one blood naturally gather people of different blood the one blood i think this is the largest group i've seen 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 they're adopted by the priesthood the lord will recognize you So I 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. The final scenes of battle, before the Lord will give us our full strength, 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. It's necessary to be tried 70 times 7. The dross must be burned from these characters and we must become pure elements that the Spirit of the Lord might dwell in us as a 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 it to teach us, to train us, and bless us, and try it. Each time we come out of the crucible, we are pure and becoming more pure elements each time. So one trial isn't enough. If a man or woman could say, well, now 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 there with her. I flopped my arms down and my accountants fell. I said, can't you send someone else? When's the last time?

Why don't you send somebody else? He looked at me. Tired? I said, no, I'm not tired. I'm frightened. He scares me to death. And I figured that I barely got out last time. I was grateful when I did. And I figured that if I could succeed that time, that I'd never have to do it again. And then he revealed a wonderful thing to me. He said, this is the very attitude that many of the spirits had in the spirit world.

He 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 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, I say, 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 use the same principles that you used before in the accomplishment of this work, and you'll succeed. He 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 us. So, brethren and sisters, we cannot set the stage for our trial in any way. 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 tried people. 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 us 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 talked about, about this assimilation into the likeness of the character of our father. Now that's a high-sounding phrase, and it may not be understood by all of us. There are many sisters sitting 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. Some of 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 us can use 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's 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. 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. Now that's a 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 will be a million things to stop you. You'll have to go in the bathroom, and 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 forgot to report. You 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 nine 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 then you start thinking, well, I'd better do it.

turn the gas off of this or do this before i do it and then i'll 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 so you've got off on the wrong foot so to speak 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 the building so that's a simple problem so just begin to keep your covenant do 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 if 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 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? And 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. As you keep your covenant, you gain the spirit and power of God and you begin the process of assimilation into the likeness of your character. Dear sisters, my brothers, The 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 as you have been counseled. That's all that you have to do. And by doing that, consistently doing that, hour after hour, day after day, month after month, you habituate yourself. And then it becomes a habit.

keep your 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 closing his body to not close it. 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. And 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 than that. 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. We would soon get out of the habit of praying. So 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? Why, we immediately 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 good times as well as important. Lots of people who come around. Brother Johnson might say, well, I wonder what's wrong. I wonder what's happened to him or her. I wonder what they need. And that's just about it.

The only time that they come around is when they are in need. When they're not in need, they never make any report. And this is very embarrassing. And so it's with the Lord. The only time that we make any report to him or draw near to him is when we need him most. When 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. To 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 once. Just give it to me this once, 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 the Spirit of the Lord, simply start this very minute keeping your covenant with the Lord, with your husbands, with the 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. Go over the things that 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 things. 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, as 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 covenants 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 six thousand 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 covenants 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 become are becoming more god-like and people will say well she's becoming more god-like or he's becoming more god-like or they are assimilating themselves into the likeness of the character of god this is a simple thing but it starts with this process of doing what's right. And the only thing that is right is to keep the covenants 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 persecution 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.

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. Brothers and sisters, we cannot help.

We cannot hope to think that the Lord will raise persecution from our heads. 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 Muscle, and they had told their daughter that if they saw Joe Muscle 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 follow. He 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 Barlow, 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.

So 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. It's a 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. We can 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 their 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 it. And 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 sought 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. You can do this simply by learning how to keep your covenant. One day you'll be missing from the scene and you'll be out in the world working for the powers of darkness. Just like Brother Jessup said, Brother Broadbent said, and it's...

a truer principle in these few words couldn't be expressed that everybody must take direction from some 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 potentate 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. That's the important thing. Because it could be the priesthood of the devil that you're being directed by. Now may the Lord strengthen us and see in us sufficient faithfulness.

endeavor and work to keep this wonderful door open his blessing 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. Not to do it, but go home and start working, and start working on this problem, and you'll begin to see the benefits in place of the truth.

And I say that God will bless you, and teach you, and reward you, and that he will help us all to become your mountain, and find the principle, the only principle, to which he can bless us. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.