The Kingdom of God or Dissolution?; I Pray for Our Enemies to Decrease; The People of God Have Direct Communication With the Lord; Word of Wisdom; Cannot Hold the Priesthood if Fighting Against Priesthood Laws How can we stamp out an eternal principle? This law was not in the Church. This was the law of the holy Priesthood. How can men stand up and claim to be Apostles of Jesus Christ, and defy the laws of the holy Priesthood? How inconsistent it would be. We want the Kingdom of God or nothing. We might put it a little different??the Kingdom of God or dissolution?. President Young said, ?Life and death is set before us and we can choose as we please.? If we choose life, we will keep the laws of God. If we do not keep it, then what is going to be the result? If we do not live up to the measures of our creation, we will be thrown back into the mill to be ground again. What does it mean? It means if we do not keep the commandments of God, we have failed on this earth, we will be thrown back, and it may be trillions of years before we get another chance. God will not destroy our intelligence, but He will destroy the body. They say they are going to stamp it out [Celestial Marriage]. President Kimball said, ?You might as well try to stop the sun from shining, or the moon, as to do away with plural marriage. It cannot be done.? They may put us in jail. Though we go to jail, God will not change the law of Celestial Marriage. We may be persecuted, driven?what the other Prophets have had to do. One of the old philosophers said the reason Jesus was persecuted so bad, was because He had so many wives. Some of our dear sisters and others have been put in the penitentiary for a year, for singing a song and bearing their testimony in meeting. A lady was sent for a year to prison. Brother Rulon Jeffs was sent to prison for singing a song. You read the 59th chapter of Isaiah. He tells it in very plain words what happened and what is going to happen. I do not know how the rest of you feel about it, but I know how I feel about it. I am like President Kimball. He said, ?Yes, I pray for my enemies. If they want increase, I pray that God will dry them up so they cannot increase.? God bless you, amen. ********* What does it mean to be called Latter-day Saints? What kind of life should we live to be called saints? We have heard some very fine instructions this afternoon. I have been thinking a great deal lately, ?He that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.? The same cause always produces the same effect. When persecution ceases in the Church of Christ, that is when the Priesthood ceases to function. There is a principle that is handed down from generation to generation; whenever there was a people of God on earth, they had direct communication from our Father in heaven. Whenever this Church ceases to get revelation from God, just that quick it is like a ship that has lost its rudder. The Prophet Jeremiah says: Jeremiah 5 31. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? Every one of us have got some brothers and sisters who sit down in secret and let men determine whether a thing is right or wrong. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love it better than anything on earth. I know it is true. I do not believe it, I know it. I know our Savior lives, and I know that everyone here, if he keeps the commandments of God, he will be like the Savior said: ?Though ye are dead, yet shall ye live.? I remember, not long ago, through a dream, I guess, I went on the other side and there I saw people congregating like we are. Some men were preaching and teaching things. I especially remember one man teaching the Word of Wisdom. He said the Word of Wisdom did not only mean tea or coffee. We take into our bodies the poisons, the things that poison it, that stop the growth, that drives the Spirit of God from us. We justify ourselves sometimes because some of the other Prophets used these things. I would like everyone, if you could, to read the sermon that Patriarch Hyrum Smith taught on the Word of Wisdom. It is the greatest thing we have ever seen. He told us there that the Lord has given that. People say, ?Why, that is not a revelation, it is counsel.? Anyway, if God gives you counsel in things, they will save you and bring you back where we once were; where we can live to the age of a tree, by keeping laws and commandments. It would not make much difference to me whether it was revelation or counsel. We often hear it said that if we live the fullness of the Gospel, we will live every law that God has given in this last dispensation; for God has said every blessing is predicated upon a law, and when we get a blessing, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. I know brethren in our group who have taken one woman, and another, and another, and yet they are getting farther away from the Gospel all the time. We have been brought down here for the Gospel?s sake. Would any of us stay here if it were not for the Gospel, that we might bring our children up in holiness, that we might bring them up to serve God and keep His commandments? If we can teach them to be Latter-day Saints, that is enough for me. When it comes to finances, I do not care for money nor anything else; but what I am after is to save my soul, and my wives, and my children, etc.; that when I go on the other side I may hear, ?Well done, My good and faithful servant.? One man said, ?Well, we have got the Priesthood.? I said, ?I do not know whether you have the Priesthood or not.? ?Then why do we baptize our children, etc.?? ?You have been ordained to an office and not to the Priesthood. If you have not got that commission, what good does it do you to be baptized?? There are lots of things that are going to be changed. It is not far distant when Joseph Smith will come back and set things in order, and he will start at the Priesthood first. The wicked are fighting the laws of God. It is not us they are fighting. If we would give up that law, they would take us right into their arms. While I was on my mission, they found out I had another wife. Brother ____ said to me, ?Brother Barlow, if you will give up your wives, then you can go on.? I would rather go to jail for keeping the laws of God, than go to jail for not keeping them. We must call on the Lord in mighty prayer. If we keep humble and prayerful, God will open a door and let us through. But if we do not do it, we will be driven until we do. Whenever we have a condition that we do not know anything about, if we would understand the power of faith, we could remove walls and oceans, etc. They have sixty names, and they said that if we can convict you fellows, we will get them and stamp out polygamy. Why? Because it is a law of the holy Priesthood. Can a man hold the holy Priesthood and yet fight the laws of it? No. Short Creek, Arizona, October 2, 1944 , Reported by Marjorie Holm, Strengthened Through Tests and Trials I think we have had a feast this evening, brothers and sisters. How many heard it? How many heard it with their head? How many heard it with their heart? ?If it goes into the head we have ears on both sides, and it will go clear through. If we can get it into the heart we will remember it. The man whose life is spent in ease and refinement can never appreciate the position of the man who is having a terrific struggle. The man whose heart who has never been torn by a great grief can never understand the value or depth of his own happiness. The man whose whole moral nature has not been swept by some mighty surge of a great temptation can never feel the moral security of one who fought the fight and won. Great and terrific temptations are necessary to strengthen two strong and p