My dear brothers and sisters, like "those who haye preceded me today, I feel ! h,' :t' very much the necessit~ of the support of your faith and prayers to adequately • I . '

answer the call that is made . to me to cidd to .•..y~ur .,..well-being \. . this . afternoon. I have been very much pleased in the ' main 'with'Wh-Bt I have listened to. I feel like in the first place I need to confess before you my unworthiness of -H"iElO3'e attributes that Brother Dockstader kindly directed towards me. I can say this much, however, that I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and I know if you want to fi;ld satisfaction in your life; if you want to find that premise upon which you can know for yourself that the Lord is pleased with the ~ourse of life you arB living, there is a way to get it. And the way to get that satisfaction' is laid out plain by the words of the prophets of this dispensation. Brother Lynn touched e key in his reference to having subjected himself until he wants and wants only the will of the Lord. Never mind instructing the Lord on what to do for you, about you and to you, just report for duty. I don't know who the author of those words was, but they certainly wrapped up a volume of truth in those few remarks. Brothers and sisters, if you want satisfaction deep and lasting into the depths of your soul. report for duty ana let that duty take a precedent over everything else under heaven. When WEi! get to the point we want the Lord's will in anything we do, there comes a sere'ne ser,se of satisfaction, more than you can get in anything else you follow. No matter where you turn or what you attempt will bring to your ,;soul that sense of ~oyful satisfaction that comes to your soul through following in that course. It means nothing more or less than the sacrifice of all earthly thi~gs. When a person makes that sacrifice and obtains that testimony, that can only be done through that sacrifice, that the course of life which you are following ~s pleasing in the sight, of God, you will get something that just can't be described,in E~glish. If all of this people--150 or so here--altogether I

were possessed of that influenca, that all reworted (or duty and had nothing else in mind to do other than what might be in accord with the will of heavan, take upon themselves the Spirit of Christ wherein He says, "I came not to do My will, but the will of Him that sent Me," the imperfeations we see in each other. those personal failings we manifest ourselves, will shortly be overcome. I am as sati~fied today as I want to be that the sun will arise tomorrow, that by this very hour, since the Priesthood began to exert itself here some sixteen years ago this month, that this flat in here could have been a literal paradise, we could have had everything a man could desire to make his heart glad and joyful if all those that had participated to that extent that they were willing to

seA 5-20-51

report for duty instead of telling the Lord what to do. That is my testimony to you. I am as satisfied of it as I am that the sun will rise tomorrow. By this very day, May 20, 1951, tn~~l:Ild e been plen~y of fine homes, equipped wi tf"l the best of convenlence.s." .. and pleasant things that the heart could desire, plenty of everything- .. vlneY';:n:ds, flowers,orcl;lards--all to please .the heart could have been a fact this day if.1 t hadn't been for, tha ·.contentl·(j·ns and -si;ri fe of those who are striving in their w~akness to serve God and keep His commandments. They have had, maybe, just a little above that desire, an inclination to want to do things their own way. How much I might be responsible for that myself, I may be as bad as anybody, but that doesn't make any difference to the truth of the matter. I have listened often in these sixteen years, particularly since those ~10 presided over us in the Priesthood have sponsored an effort to prepare a people to live the Economic Order of Heaven, have I listened to people on how. the why's and the wherefores, for the success that Enoch achieved. I have heard men voice their desires to know how Enoch did it. If they could just have a look-in and see how he proceeded. I sought after the privilege myself, earnestly and prayerfully. wi th the desire to understand for the good I might do i f I understood how he did it.

My dear brothers and sisters, the key to the success that Enoch achieved until he, with his colony of people, were taken from the earth, can be wrapped up in just two words--ETERNAL VIGILANCE. Oh, if you could see, if you could see the heart-breaking discouragements that presented themselve~ to that people until they got that far. I don't think there is a person in the house but what \Llould shed tears to see it; to see the trials that those people went through. And that man Enoch, a Servant of God, under·Gad's cor~nd, by the Holy Ghost Whispering to him the plans, procedures and modes by which he should continue to strive, would break the heart of a stone. Yes, some twelve years ago, after there had been as many as about fifty men with their families to participate in that effort, sponsored by the Almighty to prepare to live the United Order, and after about three years of experience it feU to pieces. I know just a little bit, because of my close and , irrrr.ediate association with President John Y. Barlow, of the anxiety he carried in his heart. I S2,) his countenance as he went from man to man, discussing with each man individually the plans and the procedures dnd the problems, and tr.e desires and the aspirations that actuated the minds of men~ I saw some of his brethren get into a contention a half-block up tI,e street, and because of the things they ~

said to each other ·he turned heartsick. He walked up the street not able to speak.

Yes, I know this work. this effort towards the United Order will never cease.

seA 5-20-51 3

This is no joke to me. It is 35 years since I went into that sacred temple up there, and before high heaven made those signs and tokens that indicated to God, angels and witnesses that r would live the Law of Consecration. And r am determined, my dear brothers and sisters, that if God will give me the necessary strength, let it take my life if need be; let it take everything; let it take my family, tny parents, brothers, wives and children, and life itself, if necessary, I am converted to the principles of eternal life. I might attempt to hang to these other things in spite of all. and let the word of God go unnoticed, and when my little journey of life is through, what have I to hold to? Nothing! That little reference I tried to make in Sunday School, Brother Dockstader, is life to me. I want 'the will of God to be done. Brother Lynn, I am trying to show that my report is for duty--to meet the requirements that the Almighty will make of me, so that He can sanctify to me these other blessed privileges He has extended to me: The parentage of my venerable father and my sainted mother: the association of brothers and sisters, like Vergel, Fred and Fawn, wives an9 ch~ldren. I want thef;e thif'gs to endure. The Lord knows, I hope end pray that 'when "my little journey of life is through, that these things are not all brought to en end. If they must be sacrificed now in my Efe in order for me to establish my claim on them. let it be so. Let everything else in life come seco:ldary. That is the way I understand th~ requirements of the Gospel. I understand further "that any man that puts anything else ahead of that report for I" ,;" service will find himself destroyed. FOr there is nothing on earth, in heaven or hell you can depend on that will guaranteH to you the things you want and desire mas t after you leave this sphere of action if it isn't sancti fled to you by the Holy Priesthood. I t is the PriesthOOd of God that validates and sancti fies the ordinance. Those ordinances are instituted for our solvation and our exaltation in God's Kingdom. All of you people who come here from various directions, up and down the country, you might have a lot of fine things of the world; you might have modern homes, the best of conveniences, and all the nice things the earth affords that may be pleasant while they last, but if that is the thing you devote your first and greatest interest t.c9 H that is t"he thing you are devoted to above all other things, and you acq}Jire that, then "you have got"your reward for your life's effort, but what about your soul? What" profiteth it a man H he gain the whole r~orld and yet loses his own soul? How aptly Brother Ootkstader referred to a fool seeking everything else "there is on the earth to gratify his desires for the possession of material things, until the Lord jogged his memory. Foolish man, now your soul is required of you. In other words, this is the end of your life; what

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are you going to do from here on? You have nothing to your credit. You have reaped the harv~st of all you have sown. There is nothing more for you. You haven't paid the price of more. Brothers and sisters, what do you want out of life? Merely the gratification of the possession of a few of these fading things--bubbles that burst? If that is what we want, we can have it and pay the price, but after we have got our little bubble and it bursts. where are we? Is the United Order, that business that is sponsored by the Priesthood of the Almighty and been sponsored by the Priesthood I

for the last sixteen years, of any value to our well being? Most of this people today acknowledge that one of the greatest responsibilities laid to our doors today is to establish the Priesthood of Almighty God in the earth. What do you do about establishing the Priesthood of God unless you follow their direction? And they offer to you the privilege of participating in this economic order. the privilege of doing things to establish the Priesthood, qnd the opportunity of living these I

principles that are calculated to save our lives or bring us our salvation, both temporally and spiritually. You cannot gain your salvation and ignore these things. Are we esb,blishing the Priesthood of God in the earth? Between you and me, everyone of us , brothers and sisters, I wouldr,'t dare to fool with a thing i

! like this for fear, I ~'Ould lose the spirit and wuu1dn't be able to get it again. I

I wouldn't dare trifle with it. We might say, I could do it i f I wanted to. I could easily kid myself into believing I c()uld let my responsibill ties go and grab . after the material things of the earth, and add to my present convenience J and comfort, and think I could come back and partake of these other things. But I have no assurance that'the Almighty would let me have His spirit in sufficient measure that I could gE;!t· ':i.J;....a~l!ti:n, or whether He would let His spiri t withdraw so far from me that I wo'uldj'1.' t be able to catch the vision of it. I f there are any of us, brothers and sisters, that are ,chafed under the cir~umstances in which we • I " .

live, if we can just catch the vision of this~hing ai~bgether, and everybody serve with all their might one objective, it wouldn't need to be six months until \

our condi tions could be so completely revolutionized that we, ourselves, would wonder how it was done.

There are no end of things we need ttl correct among us--in our 01.,," homes. our ownselves, our; communal efforts, every job we undertake to do. We are given to understand by Brigham Young that we are on the same premise that God is--we can't rule perfectly without the fullness of cooperation of those who are to be " governed and controlled. For men to be sent in charge of a sawmill. like Brother Dod~stader was, would it be possible to make everything click wi th all of his

seA 5-20-51 5

crew while his main and general objective was in another direction? We have got to focus our efforts in one direction at a time and 'accomplish that. As long as we are Individuals.lf~ee , ' 8~tsp with Qur capacities as varied as our faces and our forms, our thoughts and our actions, it is an impossibility to establish a perfftct united order among men. But when we are all actuated by the same moti.ves; when we all 'report for duty and we want to d~ll first and foremost, last and all the tlme~! let the will of heaven under the direction of the Servants of God be the firstithingin the rendering of our devotions of l~fe. And I del clare to you that the material problems with which we are confronted from day to i day would' be solved In short order. I I Until we bring ourselves in line, until we want first God's will done and let our own will be'subject to that, we won't get very far. Y~s, it hits me in I the face as hard as anybody else, I presume. It may look like I have my own will. i It may be true, and maybe 'that iswheire I miss it. That doesn't make any differ!. '.; .' . ence to the truth of the matts~rlfall . this people, together would concentrate , , ,;' \ .

toward establishing the P~iesthood of Gad by placing that first and our own will second, there could be houses enough built in this community, in one year that there wouldn 1 t be a~ybody in need of' houses." :" 'r ".'~ .. ; "

. (:" ..... . We go along year by year, year by year, year by year, struggling and striving to get a little acco~lished, becaurie so far we haven't been able to bring \ I ' •

, ourselves into a complete unity •. We are· striving towards it. We .are making an I

effort. We are struggling along like Enoch did again and again, again and again. People undertake to do a thing and we get about around to first base and we are struck out. There are no home runs, no tally; it does~'t amount to much. Why 507 Simply because we'are not actuated by the same mind, and our objectives are a little bit different. One puts one thing first and foremost in his mind, and another in his. If Uncle Ray goes to Mexico. that gives someone an excuse (or they think it does) to say, 'We are going to do it our way.' First thing we know, we find where we have missed it same place. We haven't quite got confidence enough in the Almighty that He has directed His Priesthood by inspiration or revelation to do the thihg He wants done. We are so disposed at times that we want to tell Him how to do it. like the little child' 5 prayer, instead of telling the Lord your directions, report for duty. Never mind directing the Lard, report for duty.

Brothers and sisters, in so far as we can bring ourselves to that point, we shall have gone a long way towards solving the problems we are confronted with. both' spiri tual and temporal. Yes, I can take a good liberal dose of that. Loa.

seA 5-20-21 6 mean you and not me. I don T t I can take it along wi th the re st. I hope I am man enough to do it.

The fact that I 'might be placed up here where I feel more or less cO\1spicuDUS doesn't mean 1 am made of any better clay than you are. Brother Carl didn't place himself up in eminence·, either. The fact that he is there doesn't make the metal in which ?'Zl i.s composaU of any. better than you. If the Lord saw fit to place him up here whe~·he could look over you for your benefit and direction in the work of the Lord, it doesn't mean eispeciaHy.that the Lord thinks he is any better than. you are, nor is it any i.ndication that he is better than you; but if the Lord set him .there, and we are in the tall weeds p and we can scarcely see our way, and he directs us to turn to the right or the left to get through this confusion, we might decide, 'I know what I am doing, I want to go this way'. And we meet with pitfalls and snares that we wouldn't have to experience otherwlse.~e can't direct us perfectly unless we 'are willing to be directed. A man can't govern his families perfectly unless the members of that family or families are willing to concede to his rule. Nor the Lord can't govern you or me properly un,.. less we report for duty. We might tell Him what we want to do. and memb3!'S of our families might tell us what they want to do; a lot of children might tell their mother '",hat they want to do, but she can't govern her children rerfectly unless the children are willing to be governE~d.

The Lord can't direct His people i~ the course of perfection until they are willing to report for duty and do His bidding. Erase their own will entirely, if necessary, in the things they have aspired ~o. or at least let it take secondary consideration. Brothers and sisters, if you want satisfaction in your lives, if you want that contented and happy feeling that brings a serene satisfaction to your own soul that you can't explain, subject yourselves to the will of God through His Priesthood, and it is there for you when you are willing to pay the price; I declare to you, brothers and sisters, when you are willing to pay the price, in the r.ame of Jesus Christ, amen.·