Behold, I am saying to you, were it not for the transgressions of my people, speaking concerning the church and not individuals, they might have been redeemed even now. But behold, they have not learned to be obedient. These are things which I have required at their hands. I want you to take this a little more personally than just a common reading of Scripture. Apply to yourselves. We're still in the same position. We're still trying to redeem Zion, and we're still trying to redeem ourselves. The principle of taking gladly the things that the Lord has given to the people. And so I'm trying now to let you see what you need to do and just how we stand and have stood all these many years.

The reason that I'm reading this is because Orson Pratt preached a sermon on this in 1874. And if I could have just got a little woozy, why, I could have supposed that I was sitting in a meeting right here and he's preaching to this people. They haven't changed. We're in the banks of the Missouri River because we had to. And we're just exactly like the people were when the Brigham Young gathered them together up here on Temple Grounds and started to build a bowery. Can't see any particular difference in it.

There still were things that people didn't have their endowments in. They didn't have a temple. There had only been a few of the people that received any substantial amount of blessings. Many of them weren't even sealed husband and wives and had all that yet to do. Behold, they have not learned to be obedient to the things which are required at their hands. They are not of evil and do not impart of their substance as become a saint to the poor and afflicted among them.

They are not united, but into a union required of the law of the celestial kingdom. And they aren't. And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles and laws of the celestial kingdom. Otherwise, I cannot receive her to myself. God just revealed me a condition. I suppose he'd be willing if he could, because of his... But he says he cannot receive her to himself unless she's built up that way.

And so he's making it plain to us. Unless we can get ourselves where we can build up Zion, build up the people according to the laws of the celestial kingdom, he will not receive of our labors. People must needs be chastened until they learn to be obedient. If it must needs be by the things that they suffer, it's not concerning those who are appointed to lead my people.

Who are the first elders of my church? For they are not all under this condemnation. But I speak concerning my church abroad. There are many who will say, where is their God? Behold, he will deliver them in time of trouble. Otherwise, we will not go up to Zion and we'll keep our money. I can remember how good we were. When the law moved in on the priesthood.

I'll tell you, a $5 bill in the middle of the Bay of Johnson was as rare as rare as rare. And these words followed in many of our mouths, but these very words, the people were saying, well, where is their God? Let him defend them. Blessings of my people. It is experienced in me that my elders should wait for the redemption of Zion.

that they may themselves be prepared and that my people may be taught more perfectly and have experience and know more perfectly concerning their duty and the things which I have required at their hands. And this cannot be brought to pass until my elders are endowed with power from on high. This is speaking of the Kirkland Temple. But behold, I have prepared a great endowment and blessing to be poured out upon them inasmuch as they are faithful and continue in humility before me.

Therefore it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion. For behold, I do not require their hands to fight the battles of Zion. For as I said in the former commandment, even so will I fulfill. I will fight their battles. The destroyer I have sent forth to destroy and lay waste my enemies. And not many years hence they shall not perish.

shall not be left to pollute my heritage and to blaspheme my name upon the land which I have consecrated for the gathering of my saints. Behold, I have commanded my servant Joseph Smith Jr. to say unto the strength of my house, even to my warriors, my young men, and middle-aged, to gather together for the redemption of my people, and tear down the towers of my enemies and scatter their watchmen. If that call hasn't been to life, I don't know what ever was.

Whatever the call has ever been in the past, I can't see of a more pointed call that's been made to this people. But the strength of my house have not hearkened unto my word. Where are the men that Lauren tried to prepare? Where are the men that Leslie tried to prepare? Where are the men that professed by all as holy and true that they would stand by Joseph and John to the very last? Where are they? If there's any in this room, I'd like to have them raise their hands.

There's not one. Hallelujah. There's one. And he's in the council of the priesthood. If I'd asked for the woman, I should have put up her hand. All news can be almost when it comes to old friends. You have to meet a whole set of new ones. expedient in me that they shall be brought thus far for a trial of their faith. And now, Lord, I say unto you a commandment I give unto you, that as many as have come up hither that can stay in the region round about, let them stay. And those that cannot stay here at home as in the east, let them carry for a little fee, and as much as my servant Joseph shall appoint unto them. For I will counsel him concerning this matter.

And all things whatsoever he shall appoint unto them shall be fulfilled. He didn't say, pray unto me and I'll give you a testimony and all this stuff. He said, you submit to my servant Joseph and I will tell him how to counsel you. And let all my people who dwell in the region round about be very faithful and prayerful and humble before me and reveal not the things which I have revealed unto them.

until there is wisdom in me that they should be revealed. Not of judgment, neither boast of faith, nor of mighty works, but together as much in one region as can be consistently with the feelings of the people. Behold, I will give unto you favor and grace in your eyes that you may rest in peace and safety while you are saying unto the people. Give judgment and justice for us according to law.

and redresses for our wrongs. Now behold, I say unto you, my friends, in this way you may find favor in the eyes of the people and to the army until the army of Israel becomes very great. Talk about subterfuge to me. Rubble them up and make them think that you're our good friend. And in the meantime, build up the kingdom of God with all your might.

what have we done we've gone around why we've got this and we've got this and we've tried with all our might to convert the whole church and kingdom of god haven't we revealed every secret every principle everything that could be revealed and fought battle after battle and bankrupt this people time and time again trying to convert a word and no good generation that do not want this work by their own declaration. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, three or four times since 1890, has put out written statements denouncing and sinking this work into oblivion and asked the people to sustain them, and they have done it. And they have even sustained the general authorities in my day and time in voting the tithes of the people to persecute the priesthood.

And yet what have we done year after year and year after year as long and long and long that we could bring them to our bosom and reveal every secret and every possibility that we could and done everything to impose this work upon them when the word of God has always been for the faithful to walk humbly and humbly and humbly that they might gain strength until God could redeem his house.

And instead of us wanting to redeem God's house, we're trying to redeem all our neighbors, all our relatives, and every bishop and stake present in Zion. And if Joseph Musser was here, he has the evidence. I furnished him books out of the presiding bishop's office, where he could furnish the truth magazine to every bishop, his counselors, Sunday school superintendents, and all the high council and stake presidency in every stake in Zion. Waste.

The only reason that Joseph did it was to satisfy Marian Handel. He knew damn well that they wouldn't read it. There wasn't a soul, not a soul of them, that ever came in as a result of it. We gathered up money especially that an extra issue of truth could be put out and put to every man that held any responsible position in the church. We didn't send it to all the school superintendents, but we could have done. But every state president in these houses had them, and most all the bishops. And there wasn't a man to come in.

Has this church ever in its history, from that day to now, taken a course where they've gone along quietly and sued for peace and redress from their enemies and quietly built up the kingdom of God? I'd like to be able to read about it. I'd like to be able to read about it. I haven't found it in the annals of the histories of this church. Notice, please, where the people have ever done once what the brethren asked them to do.

They have never received the doctrine. There's been a spirit of contention in them. Big and Young told the Lord and the brethren when they had their last meeting, I think someplace along the Pioneer Trail, that he prayed to God that they should never meet again until they could meet in peace. And it was 30-odd years before the Council of Priesthood has ever called together in one body. William, my dear people, are we going to go along this way?

I think that there may be some. Well, it's all due to ignorance. But we might have found a little more sectarian notions and inability to receive and understand the doctrines of the brethren in the early days because of lack of communications and whatever you might ask for. But I haven't found any excuses in my day. God hasn't planted one excuse in my heart for not doing.

as I have been counseled to do. I haven't got one excuse. I never have had one. If I look at my own character and try to be studied as delay that has occurred in my life, it's only because I wasn't quite willing, like the women folks aren't quite willing, to yield myself to the support of my brethren. Lacking intelligence and capacity and forbidding them to ever approach me so that I could learn. And it's so.

You can just worm around. I know that we need experience to learn and I know that days are getting better year after year and that everything is improving with us. But I know that the priesthood has had instructions in this group. I know it. It would permit them to become a united people and they've had it before them for the past 10 years. And many of them had it for the 10 years preceding that. It hasn't occurred. I believe that we are approaching the day when we'll be able to gather some men together that will dedicate themselves to the proposition that they'll not become disunited, that they'll stand by their fire leader and let them mediate their case and part out the way that the Lord wants them to go. I think that day is close, real close, but it isn't here now. We've got men here that we could stand up and they'd give their lives just as fast as we could present the hangman.

but they won't consecrate their feelings nor dedicate themselves to the proposition of becoming united to their fine leader. This doctrine, not because it comes from God especially or it's in the Doctrine and Covenants, but it appeals to my nature. I'm going to read these last two verses again. And behold, I will give you favor and grace in their eyes, meaning the Gentiles or the people around about you, that you may rest in peace and safety while you are so under the people.

execute judgment and justice for us according to law and redress us of our wrongs. Now behold, I say unto you, my friends, this is the way that you may find favor in the eyes of the people until the army of Israel becomes very great. And I will soften the hearts of the people as I did the hearts of Pharaoh from time to time until my servant Joseph Smith Jr. and Mine orders whom I have appointed shall have time to gather up the strength of my house and to set wise men to fulfill that which I have commanded concerning the purchasing of the lands in Jackson County that can be purchased and in the adjoining counties round about. I don't suppose you see in it what I like. You see something else. But I like the disposition of our Father to rule these people to sleep that want to sleep. That's what I like.

God forbid awaking any man that likes to sleep. I'm like Brother Sitting, let him wake naturally. It is my will that these lands should be purchased. If we make a great big flare in any area, down here in our southern community, if we act like a retail dollar for any of that land, the price goes up to two dollars immediately. We've paid prices down there in the past year for land that's nothing but gully.

paid as high as up to a hundred dollars in nature for us to get our friends out of our midst united in our purposes 10 years ago 15 years ago 25 years ago i stayed united and dedicated ourselves to the proposition that we would we got our lands and had them you know how we're doing in in share creek today we're buying back the land that was once given to the priesthood that's what we're doing and because of brother borrowers magnanimity and generosity he signed deeds back to it and we're paying now times and times and times again what it's worth i think i think the price ought to be doubled again the only thing i regret that the people don't have to buy it that this there wasn't this united with brother borrow that's all i regret i wish his pals had to buy it back that's just exactly what's going on and will go on in the camps of this hill through time and all eternity

We're going to pay double and triple for our foolishness. To keep our counsel and to keep the things of God from the enemies of God, we're going to have to pay. One time we may have to pay $15 an acre for land that's only worth $5. The next time we might have to pay in person or we may have to pay in starvation and famine and pestilence or something else. But it will be a pain and pain and pain, just as the Lord says in this revelation.

that it needs to be that his people don't obedience if they have to suffer our family the new jerusalem are becoming instruments in the hands of god and sitting under the house of god until we become qualified to receive the burden from the other side there's got to be a a continuous flow of revelation from the priesthood in heaven to the priesthood on earth until before the will of god can be done And we've got to become subject to it, instantaneously, characteristically, by weeping and mourning and great sacrifices. But by regressing, where are we from? I don't think we're very far. I think that some of the lives of this people is moving right to where it can be done. But others, I think, are days and days and years and years away. Because until we begin to think and respond in this way, how will we ever be actuated?

As a man's thinking is so easy. If we think after the manners of the Gentiles, how are we going to live after the manner of the saints? It's a woman. To lay aside the fashions of the world. All right, it's fashions of the women. But it's vain ambitions in the men. They cling on to this old Babylonian system with all their might. Not after the manner of God here. To keep their brethren asleep while they're shrinking the house of Israel. But they love to have it so. We love to dip in.

or have loved, into the ways of the world. And we haven't been united after the order of the celestial kingdom. What's the unity after the order of the celestial kingdom? Well, it's the united order. That's what it is. The proposition is that a man shall have his just wants and needs and his self-losses will be laid in the hands of the priesthood. That's the unity after the order of the celestial kingdom. And when he gets the place where he puts his money in there, you can...

rest assured that that's where his heart will be. And that's where his heart has been because his heart will precede his money. And we won't have this family living beyond their means and this family living under their means. I think that there's got to be a loving from the top and the bottom. We have people that all hell and heaven can't get them to improve their circumstances if you'd pay them for money. We've got other people that you can't stop no matter what you do.

They go on and on and on. I tell some of the brethren, some of the priests of the priesthood, I'll tell you sisters one of them. A man living after the celestial order will never have means and wealth as long as he tells his women folk how much he's got. It's true, Guinevere. It's true as any gospel was ever preached. And I'd like to see the face of the man in this congregation that can come up to that standard.

It doesn't look behind me, but I can look into your faces. You haven't got it. You haven't got the moral courage to keep that from your wives come hell and high water. And I haven't had up to date, but I'm working on it. After these lands are purchased, I will hold the armies of Israel guiltless. After these lands are purchased.

I will hold the armies of Israel given in taking possession of their own land, which they have previously purchased of their money and of throwing down the towers of mine enemies that may be upon them and scatter their watchmen and avenge me of mine enemies unto the third and fourth generation. But first let my army become very great and let it be sanctified before me that it may become as fair as the sun and clear as the moon, and that her banners may be terrible unto all nations. That the kingdom of this world may be constrained to acknowledge that the kingdom of Zion is indeed the kingdom of our God and his Christ, therefore let us become subject unto her law. Verily I say unto you, it is expedient in me that the first elders of my church

should receive their endowments from on high in my house, which I have commanded to be built in my name in the land of Kirkland. And I think it's the will of God that the servants of God be endowed in the house of the Lord before we ever go to Jackson County. I'm sure of that. I'm sure there's an endowment being prepared for this people by the priesthood on the other side at this very time who are willing to serve him and keep his commandments.

And I think that they're going to go forth in the name of Israel's God. And that's the way we want to go forth. That's the way I want to go forth. And let the commandments which I have given concerning Zion and her laws be executed and fulfilled after her redemption. There has been a day of calling, but the time has come for a day of choosing. And let those be chosen that are worthy.

And it shall be manifest unto my servant by the voice of my Spirit, those that are chosen, and they shall be sanctified. And inasmuch as they follow the counsel which they receive, they shall have power after many days to accomplish all things pertaining to Zion. And again I say unto you, sue for peace, not only to the people that have smitten you, but also to all people. And lift up an ensign of peace, and make a proclamation of peace.

and to the ends of the earth and make proposal for peace unto those who have smitten you according to the voice of the spirit which is in you and all things shall work together for your good. Therefore be faithful and behold I am with you even so to the end. Amen. Now to me I think that's as good a word of God as we can merit. These principles are still true and we've got to review our thinking, review our feelings, study our own attributes of character and see how they are causing us to react. We issue lip service. Do we want the kingdom of God to prosper and we want all these things? We ought to investigate ourselves from time to time and see if we are trying to incorporate into the kingdom of God all the things that Babylon has that seems to be so pleasing.

We look back on the old pagan days of the days of Christ and look what horror, what horror, at what the church permitted to creep in and the things that they permitted to be done that polluted the holy church of God. But I wonder if we haven't got a lot of pagan notions that we're clinging on to today. The season is approaching when the priesthood is going to go into a period of mourning and sorrow. Oh, yes, Christmas.

the women and children are going to pray upon their brethren now pretty soon another couple of weeks till they'll all be have bowed heads and go about broken hearts because of the pagan notions of the world the world has got us by the throat we can't hardly escape our little children come home from school with all this in their hearts and in their feelings and the mothers haven't any courage to face the situation and so father has to step up with an empty pocketbook and try to bestow upon all these things of the world. And it goes on time after time and year after year, either financially or spiritually, that we have to face this onslaught of pagan ideas in the minds and hearts of the people who are trying to prepare for God. Now, you women, you rock the cradle. Why don't you prepare the child for the priesthood? And you, priesthood, you prepare the mother. Why don't you teach her?

And why don't we take these things to heart, that we might move around here in such a way that we can sustain Brother Johnson in a manner that the Lord will say, oh now, this man has a people, and I'll begin to magnify him in the eyes, in the eyes of these people, in the eyes of the world. And I'll make of him a prophet indeed, and to all the honest in heart, that we have to struggle and strain.

to even have him to be a prophet to many of you. That's exactly what we have to do. Roy Johnson's influence is very, very short when it comes to actually the influence that he can wield. A little group of people here that meet here and in the South, Mexico and so forth, are the few people that hail him as a servant of God. And yet we talk in our might and in our anxiety and our hopes and dreams about having the kingdom of God established.

on all the nations of the earth who shall see her glory and be willing to bow to her. And yet we can barely get a man to establish a prophet in the eyes of our own people. God's got to fight the battles of his people. He's got to establish his priesthood and might upon the earth. But we've got to justify him in manifesting his hand. What father is there that would come and fight the battles of a spoiled child among his brothers and sisters?

men of big families, please tell me if you've got a favored son, if you have favored, I know you don't dare admit it, but then if you have a favored son, how dare you fight these battles in the midst of your family until he's tried and true, until he won't turn around and embarrass you, kick up his heels and go through all kinds of escapades and flaunt himself before his brothers and sisters and say, well, hell, dad takes care of me. He fights my battle.

Why you dare not raise your hand for fear that you will spoil the time? And you can't manifest yourself on his behalf until he's tried and true. God can't manifest himself on our behalf in the midst of this church and all the people that profess his name until he's justified. They bring up their complaints to the Lord and say, here, why are you letting those polygamists do this and so on? You're humiliating us and we're being cursed with sickness and death.

And the neighbors that I have are thus way and so, and all the complaints from the Lord to the earth. It's true. You can't do it. We've got to be a sanctified people and justify our Father in fighting our battle. Because there's a war to fight. There is a thing that has attracted the attention of the prophets from the days of Father Adam until the last man closed his eyes in sleep of his transition.

but the kingdom of God being a poor, lowly affair to the might, mighty for power and place that it should hold among the nations of the earth. That transition has got to take place. God has never been justified. The section of this dense confession until now has shown his hands only in just a little way. Oh yes, he takes care of the persecutors of the saints to a marked degree. And the end.

The judgments move upon those that hurt the saints. But generally speaking, he hasn't been able to open the way whereby we can perform the work that he wants performed. Now I want you to think about this. You go and receive your instructions from your priesthood classes and so forth. And you ought to begin to magnify them in the eyes of your family and in your own life. And try to subscribe to the things that you hear. There's only one way.

There's only one way that we can accomplish this work, and that's become obedient. And we'll only become obedient. And even after we become obedient, in order to make it useful in our lives, it's got to be dictated by the Spirit of God. We might say, well, I'll do all things that Brother Johnson tells me to do. And I'll do things just like he does. And I'll become like him in as many respects as I can to sustain and uphold him.

But you can't do the same thing that he does or sustain the same work that he does until you're actuated by the same spirit that he is. Which responsibility did you have to do? That's my responsibility. I've got to be actuated by the same spirit that he does before I can sustain him and uphold him. Meaning that it's knowing how to sustain and uphold him. Now, if this is the issue, If this is what's holding us back, it looks like we ought to go to work at it. I told you years ago, and it's still my feeling, that he's the man of the hour. His nature is so mild and disposition is such a temperament that there's hardly a man, and there isn't any that I know, that can't get up to him and be warmed and made to feel congenial by his spirit.

And I say that we ought to use this opportunity while it's here and available. While we can influence it and teach it and train it and show how to go. We ought to do it. And we ought to become proficient in the unity of the celestial kingdom. The unity of the celestial kingdom is to have the priesthood united with their five leaders. And their five leaders united with the priesthood on the other side. And then all the women folks.

united with our husbands. And we're going to be running encircled and have hardships year after year and decade after decade until this work is accomplished. Because as I just read to you, God cannot receive Zion to himself until she becomes in such a condition. And so it's a labor of self-preservation, isn't it? It's a labor of self-preservation. It's a combination of our hopes and our dreams. If we get this work, build up to where we have ever so many delightful experiences. And the Spirit of God is poured out upon us in a great measure and abundance. That still doesn't mean that our calling and election has been made sure. Man and woman's ability to get the Spirit of God is not sufficient for that day. And man may get the Spirit of God and still be damned at last because his character

And his life has got to be brought in complete conjunction with God. The Spirit of God can only act as a tutor or a schoolmaster in these things. This is the law of submission. We've just come back from our Mexican saint. The Spirit that permeated Brother Hammond and his discussions and feelings with him. That they should submit. I didn't tell them so much, but I felt that they should. Why? Their skins were dark. They were poor and lowly.

into any year. Planetary faith, well, the reason is obvious. They've lived in rebellion since the days of Father Lehi. That's the whole reason, isn't it? And any schoolgirl would say, why here? You ought to be there in order to get out of this condition. But what if they do get out of it? And they come up and be just as well off as we are? We still haven't got to make heaven. This people has not accepted of the Lord.

pillar of fire and the cloud has not arrived for the protection of this people. And so we assume that the day is yet to come when God will manifest his power sufficiently to own and bless it. Now I don't think this is an impossibility. I have no conception of it in that way. I regard this thing as being holy within the scope and capacity of this group of people. I think it's great.

to a great degree a matter of willingness. Going over the scriptures, I had some other things in times past I thought I'd like to read. But the thing that the Lord accuses the people of sinning mostly is walking in darkness at noonday and refusing to recognize his hand in all things. That's the big thing. And that's still implied. It's still a matter, in my estimation, of walking in darkness.

and loving darkness more than light. And I can conceive in my mind that this isn't a matter of just supposing that one day it's going to happen, that it's a matter of tutoring and training on my part. If I were to begin with my little meager understanding of accounting and studying and wanted to become a CPA as Brother Jeff is, there's only one way for me to do it, and that's work at it.

What would be one of my biggest problems along the way? Oh, you'd say accomplishing or comprehending the principles of accounting. Well, it wouldn't be. It would be converting myself day after day and month after month that I should become an accountant because I couldn't do anything. But what I'm faced with is periodically worse discouragement. Dorothy, you got awful close to that, and that's about so, isn't it?

It's a matter of convincing ourselves that this is what we want to do. All right, then it's the same thing as making Latter-day Saints of ourselves. We just have to sit right down and talk to ourselves and say, well, now this is what I want to do. The woman says, well, if that's what I want to do, then I'm going to do all I can to bless my husband. The man says, this is what I want to do. No matter what else, I'll sacrifice my feelings.

to be guided by the holy priesthood, because that's the science of my life. Prevail here and hereafter, and my exaltation is going to depend on my becoming proficient in the arts and science functioning in the priesthood. What we've got to do is work at it. The chief science of the holy priesthood is becoming united with it. We might be actuated by the same spirit that it is. We might be governed and directed.

And our inclinations will be so that we will move in unison. The Spirit of God gives us a prompting. We have the faith and the capacity to follow. When I say give us a prompting, I mean give it one to our final leader. When we get that and start to move in that direction, then this people will begin to accomplish the things that we want to do. I'd like to do it. I'd like to do it. I'd like to see this people do it.

I'd like to see the Brevin take on the science of our lives, and we wouldn't have to go through these hard sessions that we so often do of being called down and called up and invited to improve some of the remedial things of the society of this people. I felt maybe last time I was here that I laid it on pretty hard. When I got out to thinking it over, I decided that I'd let it stand. I felt like that that's what the Lord impressed me to do.

to do and to say. I hope that you feel good about it. I hope that you women have seen your position, your relationship, and the life that you're trying to live, and dedicated yourself to strengthening your position with this body of priesthood. I hope that's been the case. I followed Brother Johnson around all these years, and I followed his predecessor. And he comes along and says, Oh, Brother Hammond, now you need to do this. And I ignore it, and still trying to accomplish Unity? Where's our intelligence? Where are you women at? If you refuse to respond to the call that we're making now, step up here beside us and share in the blessings of the new and everlasting God. I can't fathom this priesthood, this council of priesthood, nor the men that associate with it. If you can step up to the line and view of the light and knowledge and understanding that they have had, that tasted,

of the good fruit and i can't turn my back greater trial has got to come on me than i've ever had to make me say that i don't want the kingdom of god because i do want it i want it in blessings and judgments and all its ramifications i love the law even though i may not be able to subscribe to it i still love it i feel that it's not going to condemn me but it's eventually going to save me for i cannot be saved by any other principle The mercy of God is not sufficient, nor is justice no judgment. The only thing that will save me is the law, because I cannot endure until I become proficient. My father had it that right, my prayer brother, unless we really, really love it. If we will live so that the thing is warm in our feelings, and we scrub ourselves to it, there's nothing but blessing to follow this people. You women, you women, seen some good days, but you've seen lots of bitter days.

But I'll tell you, it has not entered your heart. The joy and rejoicing that will begin to permeate your feelings when you obtain the confidence of the priesthood. One thing that you've never tasted yet. You've never been bestowed upon. Once you women ever taste that fruit, never be satisfied with anything else. Now may God bless us, rejoice in our circumstances, in our blessings and not downing.

He'll see us through in all our trials and tribulations. The ups and downs that we seem to suffer are only for our good. I pray that he'll continue. I'd like to see us have our hard times in times of peace. Now when we can go and administer to each other. Now's when I'd like to see the judgments of God come upon this people. Not when our enemies are hounding us and we're driven far and wide and I see my brethren in distress and I'm powerless to lend a hand.

This is the time when I'd like to see God chasing his people and making them minister comfort to one another and encourage one another. That's the way I'd like to see God handle us and have to put ourselves into his hands with that confidence and not wait until the enemy is upon us and then have to go through hell and high water and be skinned and peeled. I'd like to be prepared to meet him the way I'd like to be.

And I know that we can be if we would be and want to be. If we'd dedicate ourselves to the proposition that God would teach us and train us and tour us and renovate us. And he would if we'd only ask him to. If we'd only let him. But he's got to have our permission and our consent before he can impose this situation upon us. God is not going to make a vessel of honor with me against my purpose.

But if I can say, well, here I am, I know that I'm a vessel of wrath in your hands, but take me and use me and manipulate me until this dross is burned out of my soul. Do you think he'd deny me if I'd go to him in times of peace and lay myself into his hands rather than have him turn me over to John Boyden or to this prison warden out here and let them change me and humiliate me?

and break me down and down and down till I haven't got a vestige of strength only to plead for mercy. Are we so lacking in confidence and courage that we can't step up to God in asking for this blessing? Are we so in love with our opinions and our feelings that we won't surrender? Let's commit ourselves to the hands of God that this work might be carried off.

I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.