I feel quite delighted, my darling and sisters, in the privilege of associating with you once more in the capacity of worship. Another trial's reference to some of my remarks brings me again to the remark that the knowledge and conviction that I have of the truthfulness of genuine divinity And the way from which we are engaged is about the dearest thing on the earth to me. Without I have that, and the grace of God to go along with it, to help me to live up to its requirements, what else in life is worth the effort? And I think of the observation that one of the ancient apostles made, if in this life we have hope only, we would be of all men most miserable.

And I stop and think of the incidents that surrounded the lives of the ancient servants of God, the disciples of Christ, and the outlook in life that they had. And how the end of their journey of life came to each and all of them seems a pretty bad picture. And it seems that every single one met death at the hands of their fellow men in the most hard and terrible fashion.

humanity under the ingenuity of Satan could invent, stand to death, crucified, slayed alive, and everything they could imagine to touch the human kind was the lot of those faithful individuals. In pursuit of the book of the martyrs by thought some years ago, I observed that there were hundreds and thousands upon thousands of individuals who were honest in heart because they had the courage of their conviction and dared to voice their sentiments against the terrors that mankind perpetuated against their fellow men, had their tongues cut from their mouths, put on stretches and their bodies pulled apart, buried alive, and treated in every horrible fashion that Satan could invent. And I compare that with

The promises of the Lord to our day in this temptation. When he said, if you will obey my law, I'll fight the battle. I have to acknowledge that in the process, I don't hear that he ever said that we would not be beaten and beat and killed in the process. We may have a lot of things to endure, but I believe my brethren and sisters and friends.

The greatest torment that we have to endure will be the result of our own folly. I think if we bring ourselves into a Christ-like spirit and feeling and maintain that in our lives and extend that feeling in the spirit that the Christ manifested among his fellow men and they kicked him and cuffed him and shoved him about and mowed him with the palm of their hands and spit in his face and everything that they could do to him.

He revived not, and even bearing the pains of the crucifixion, crying out for their forgiveness, they know not what they do. We believe that our folly, our resentment, hatred born of our own weaknesses, are the things that bring to us the greatest adversity that we have to meet. And in carrying the thought a little further that Brother Carl suggested, do we have too much Christianity advocated to us?

in our secret circle, let me just suggest one more question. Can we attain unto too much salvation? Can we be too thoroughly exempt in the cause of wrongdoing? Can we be too near correct in the position that we take with reference to the plan of eternal life and exaltation? Jesus is magic. Man is sorrow sometimes called because of his serious demeanor.

probably smiling very seldom, was one a good peer, was not liked, constantly devoted, esteemed every moment of his life. He strictly adhered to the counseling direction of his father, whose will he turned to be. And I'm simple-minded enough to believe that the closer we can adhere to the counseling direction of these humble men who sit here behind me, The most serene and perfect will be our joy and satisfaction, both in life and after this journey of life is through. I believe that will be the case. I believe that it is another impossibility for any individual in mortal life to become any more merely perfect and right in the position that they assume and occupy in reference to the plan of life and salvation.

and an offense to keeping the commandments and the counsels of God and his servants. I believe the greatest mission in life that we have been sent here to fulfill is to just see how mere and exactly right and correct we can become. Man cannot be perfect. I think we're taking just a little jump away from the truth. I think that if we're determined enough, devoted enough, sincere enough, one of us can be perfect in our sphere, according to the knowledge and information and understanding that we have. And can we not believe every one of us who are assembled here tonight, and as we attain to perfection in the understanding that we have, that our understanding will increase, and therefore our perfection can increase until we can become Christ-like in our very nature, and our hearts and minds are actuated by the same power and influence?

that moved his life all the way from the cradle to the cross. I think there's no other people on the earth who have as great opportunity and therefore as great a responsibility to bring themselves into that condition as those of us who are assembled here tonight. Because of the fact that we have the closest contact with the servants of God and to them with God himself than the people living on the earth.

I hope that we can concentrate more on these things and bring ourselves into the condition where our lives will be filled with joy and satisfaction in being right and correct, even in the face of any adversity that the good Lord may see fit to try us while we sojourn in this mortal existence. These few thoughts I give way, praying God to bless us each and all in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.