Category: 2026 Essay

1 April 1977
Chauncey C. Riddle

The opportunity to speak or to write to others is a sacred trust. I hope that I may speak truly and to the edification of each of my hearers.

One good place to begin in any scholarly discussion is with the things we say in our daily conversations. It is commonplace to distinguish at least two types of statements. One type concerns the “whatness” of the world. Utterances such as “today is Wednesday,” “apples are red,” “diamonds scratch steel,” and “E=MC2” are examples of this type. We speak of this type of utterance as having truth value, and we assign values to such statements under the aegis of our favorite theory of truth. Even if the truth value is unknown, we usually assume there is one.

The second type of utterance we deal with here we call value statements. Examples of these are “tamales are delicious,” “honesty is the best policy,” and “leisure time is a great good.” Admittedly there are problematic cases that make a precise division between truth statements and value statements very difficult. But we can in the vast majority of cases make an adequate division between these two types. Since the metaphysics of the truth type of utterance is better known and more well-established than that of value statements, let us analyze the first further, then see if we can use the structure of the first type as a map for value situations.

Truth-type statements or sentences are themselves but representations. As with all linguistic formulation, no symbol has any inherent meaning. When any person utters a sentence such as “it is dark,” there is in the mind of the speaker or writer a certain combination of ideas which he attempts to express using the words, “it,” “is,” and “dark.” That combination of ideas, the meaning of his sentence, is a function of the entire noetic frame, or the mindset of the speaker. We sometimes call the combination of ideas which the speaker has in his mind a proposition. Propositions are judgments about some aspect of the nature of the universe. When one wishes to have others share his ideas, he projects perturbations of the physical world such as body movements, written symbols, vocal and audible sounds. He hopes that these signs or symbols will stimulate in the minds of others the proposition he intends. Others, upon perceiving whatever the speaker has done, try to imagine what-on-earth might have been the intent that caused the communicator to make the expression he did. This second-guessing is for some strange reason called “communication.” It is always a game of charades in which we can never be quite sure that we really understand or are understood. It is not our business here to elaborate further on the problems of communication, great, pervasive and urgent though they be. We must rest content with the distinction between sentences and propositions, which is the distinction between symbols and meaning.

When we analyze meanings, especially those conjoined into propositions, we find that each proposition is a judgment. Judgments are made possible by the happy conjunction of experience—that raw material arising out of the stream of consciousness—and the programmed nature of our minds. Without arguing the case for naturism or the Kantian synthetic a priori, I simply take it as well established that every human being, taken as he is, has a mind somewhat analogous to a computer. Roughly speaking, experience is the data fed into the computer-like mind. The mind is programmed to process the data of experience and does so, producing the judgments which we have called propositions. Though it is plain that experience can affect some of the mind’s programming, it is also plain that there is some mental programming which is and remains independent of experience. Hume and Kant cannot be laughed away even though they did perhaps make mistakes.

Out of this hasty sketch we might now identify eight basic elements. First, the stream of consciousness, the basic stuff we experience as mental life. Second, a self, the “I” that emerges out of the stream of consciousness consisting of the body, mind, desires, etc. Thirdly, the external world, which we come to construct as a happy marriage of conception and sensation. Fourth, the data of sensation of which we become conscious when we begin to contrast the real universe from our solipsistic construct of it. Fifth, the programming of our minds, of which we become aware as we attempt to distinguish truth from error. Sixth, the propositions we form as self-conscious conclusions about the universe. Seventh, the statements we make to express our propositions. Eighth, the basic desires which we finally realize are irreducibly important to all of our judgments about prepositions.

In order to be clearer as to what I intend in distinguishing these eight elements, I give the following items and examples.

• Item: the stream of consciousness, Example: these are moment-to- moment flow of sensations, thoughts, reactions, judgments, etc., that constitute our living.
• Item: the self, Example: to each person, his body, mind, desires.
• Item: the external world, Example: Other people, the earth, the heavens, the events observed in daily life.
• Item: the data of sensation, Example: noises, sights, tastes, touches, smells which we come to realize are our unique contact with the external world.
• Item: the noetic frame, Example: the grammar, symbols, mathematics, logic, and concept of the universe which we discover ourselves to use in creating an external world out of data of sensation.
• Item: propositions, Example: consciously formed hypotheses which we form in an attempt to characterize some aspect of what we hope to be the true nature of the external world, such as: the cost of energy will be double in the next five years.
• Item: statements, Example: symbolic expression of propositions in gestures, words, writing, etc. All sentences are examples.
• Item: desires, Example: personal propensities which we come to recognize as our prejudices. These color all judgment, making objectivity only a relative thing, never absolute.

Some important things to note about this scheme are:

1. It is a dynamic process of the self interacting with the external world through time.
2. It is an adaptive process as the self reacts to the external world to adjust to reality, then attempts to affect that reality.
3. The adaptive process involves a heightening of self-consciousness and tentativity. Judgments become less categorical and actions become less impulsive as one learns by experience.
4. The more refined our understanding of these matters becomes, the more alone we become. To put it another way, the more we understand about the universe, the more free we become from the trammels of other peoples opinions and ideas.
5. There is the possibility that the irreducible “self” is a collection of desires and that these desires pattern to form a personality. Perhaps we know ourselves only as we can observe our own desires shaping and guiding our actions and ideas as we become intellectually acute.
6. If the self is a pattern of desire, that would explain why we have such a difficult time agreeing with each other about the nature of the universe. Desires seem to shape inquiry and to mold conclusions.
7. Of one thing we are sure, no finite set of data about the universe uniquely determines what hypothesis is necessary to explain it. This is to say, no set of observations ever uniquely constrains its own interpretation. In fact, any finite set of data has an infinite number of hypotheses logically available as potential self-consistent devices for explanation.

Perhaps it is our desires that save us from the absurd relativity of an infinite explainability. While they may do so, they apparently also create the illusion of objectivity, which leads to dogmatism, which leads to orthodoxy, which in turn often leads to inhumane treatment of other people. But that is another story also. Let us turn now to the consideration of value statements.

Value statements such as “pie is good,” all have something very simple in common. Every genuine value statement is a reflection of a value judgment. The essence of each of these valuations is the judgment that the object in question will satisfy some desire of the self. Thus when I say “pie is good,” I am saying that I expect that the normal case will be that if I eat pie, it will satisfy my desire to sweetly titillate my palate as the pressure increases inside my stomach and I get that nice “full” feeling. The simple thing that all value judgments have in common is that they are judgments that the thing valued will satisfy or has satisfied some personal desire.

Some value statements relate to the future and may be called “anticipatory” value judgments or statements. Others are a recognition of satisfactions already achieved and may be called “reflexive” value judgments or statements. Anticipatory value statements are always guesses, for they are at best inductions. Reflective value statements represent the knowledge of hindsight, the value of accomplished fact. These two are usually sufficiently distinguished by grammar. For example, the categorical statement, “honey on hot bread is delicious,” may indeed be based on reflection of past experience, but the intention of the utterance is for future use as a guide to action; this example is an anticipatory judgment. When a purely reflective judgment is made, the utterance is usually more restricted, e.g., “The sweetness of honey has in the past enhanced the eating of hot bread for me.” Reflective statements are less presumptive. They stick to the known facts (all known facts are of past time) and do not arrogate omniscience or unerring induction as do the utterance of categorical statements.

I take it to be an important truth statement to note that we human beings are sufficiently limited in mental capacity that while we can judge many things to be good with a high degree of accuracy, we always need to allow the possibility of having made a mistake. We can say fairly surely “that x was good,” but not “that x is good” as an anticipatory statement, meaning “that x will satisfy my desire,” for surely each of us has eaten and has remained unsatisfied. More important even is our necessity to note that we human beings cannot ever rationally assert that “x is best,” that is the most satisfying of all things relative to a given desire.

One might ask about the statement “John is good.” Is this also but anticipated satisfaction of desire? The answer is “yes,” unequivocally. To say that John is good is to presume to know enough about John to anticipate that he will act in such a way as to satisfy at least one desire I have.

All of this brings us to a definition of value. Value is the property we ascribe to something when we think it will satisfy a desire we have. Categorical ascriptions of value are anticipatory. The value of something increases as desire for satisfaction increases and as we see the object being valued as the supposed means to that desired satisfaction. Value is thus instrumental. It is the worth we ascribe to something as a potential satisfier of desire.

It is plain from what has been said that value statements are expressions of value judgments. Value judgments are the result of the careful intertwining of propositions or judgments about the truth of the external world, of the desires of the self, and of understandings of how things I the external world can satisfy the desires of the self. Error is of course possible at each point. We may misjudge our own desire. We may only guess that an object or event in the external world will be instrumental in satisfying us. We may possess or control something we value but may be unable to apply it to our desire, as the person who has always wanted to fly an airplane suddenly discovers that his pilot companion has just had a heart attack, and that he is now flying an airplane even though he does not know how to control it.

It is important at this point to distinguish two things which have usually been confused in the history of value discussions. This is the difference between “good” and “right.” Good is the proper domain of value judgments. Goods, values, are subjective, related to the desires of some real, existent self. It is here assumed that different persons have different desires and that these different persons therefore value things differently.

The term “right,” on the other hand, is not a value term as has so often been supposed. “Right” is a truth-type term. To use it correctly is to make a judgment about the world which is not dependent upon the desires of the self which is doing the judging. The term “right” concerns that which will bring about the happiness of other persons. Doing what is right is not necessarily doing that which those others think will satisfy their basic desires. To be concrete: if my neighbor is starving it is right for me to take nourishment to him.

But suppose my neighbor is not starving but it seems good to him to steal my food. If I wish to be righteous, I have the opportunity to do that which will help to meet his need. One of the ideas which I believe is that wickedness, such as stealing, never was and never will be happiness. So if I tempt my neighbor to steal, I may increase the good of stealing in his eyes, but it will not make him happy in the long run. So I must not tempt him to steal. If I am prompted by the Holy Spirit to share with him before he is tempted to steal, perhaps he will see the happiness and satisfaction that comes from sharing and will avoid the empty satisfaction of stealing.

The point of this discussion of right is that right is truth-related, not value-related. It is objective, not subjective. It is absolute, not relative. To find what is good I must know my own desire and what will satisfy it. To find what is right I must know what is my neighbor’s need and how to satisfy it.

The same difficulty that attaches to my discovery of good also attaches to my discovery of right. If I have difficulty in discerning my own true desires and in knowing what will satisfy them, an even greater difficulty attaches to discerning what my neighbor needs and what will satisfy him. Even as I cannot maximize my own decision as to what is my best good, I indeed cannot maximize my decision as to how best to help my neighbor.

But even if I cannot find my specific good or a particular right, I can understand the general nature of what they are. My mind is sufficient at least to compare my inadequacy with my ideal. And my mind is sufficient that I can place a high value on doing what is right. To make this clear, let us now return to the analysis of truth statements and relate the analysis of value statements to it.

Very possibly it is the functioning of desire in the stream of consciousness that makes possible the concept of self. Desire gives rise to action, as when a baby cries out of hunger. Action leads to reaction, and an external world begins to take form in the mind of the child. Frustration of desire through inappropriate action leads to refinement of the concept of the external world, separating data from construct. This separation enables constructs of the mind to come to consciousness, and noetic systems are refined. Refined noetic systems coupled with carefully gathered data make possible responsible value judgments. Value judgments about the world lead to our actions; for example, if I desire nourishment and perceive oranges hanging on a tree, and if I know that the oranges are good inside even though they taste nasty on the outside, I will value what I see and perhaps pick and eat. But it is important that I be able to judge this act of mine to be right or wrong. If I have to steal the orange, my initial valuation of good may be overridden by my desire to do what is right. Perhaps I err in choosing good and right, but I am often very successful in recognizing that certain acts are wrong.

What may we conclude from all of this, about ideas and values and their relationship? Perhaps the following: 1) Values are ideas. They are notions of instrumental worth, attributed to objects or events by individuals. Values are real to the extent some persons hold them. They are unreal for persons who do not hold them. 2) Some value attributions are correct, some are incorrect. Reflective value is always the judge of anticipatory valuing. 3) Values can be partly correct, as when the holding of values is temporarily socially satisfying but ephemerally so. An example would be walking a tightrope to show bravery, then living as a cripple ever after from falling. Time and perspective are all important in assessing the correctness of any assumption of anticipatory value. We can also be satisfied at a given moment, only to discover that a new vista of truth has uncovered in us a latent desire that surpasses or conflicts with the desire which has just been satisfied, as when someone discovers that the pleasure of accomplishment exceeds that of indolence. 4) Our understanding of the processes that operate in the universe is critical to our judgments of anticipatory value. Satisfaction is a function then of the truth we know about the universe. The more we know, the more correctly we can value things. Correct values make possible correct action to gain satisfactions. 5) We might conclude then that our beliefs about truth and our judgments about values are all relative to our desires and our desires are relative to the passage of time. In a real sense, we do not know what is true or good; we only feel what appears to us now.

Now some general further conclusions to all of this:

1. We can rightfully judge no man, including ourselves. We perforce will judge some men to be good, but we must in all humility forebear to judge the righteousness of any man.
2. To be able to judge every man is necessary before we can be righteous beings. We are righteous only when we can righteously judge everyone around us and so act as to maximize the happiness of each and every one. Since attainment of that lofty goal is impossible for any unaided human being, no man can of himself be righteous.
3. The only kind of being that could be righteous would be one that was omniscient and omnipotent, and whose only desire was to do what is right. A clear perception of truth coupled with unlimited power to do the good things the omniscient mind has shown would lead to the happiness of others, would make a righteous being. Only gods could be righteous beings.
4. Happiness comes only in doing good for others. Happiness is a function of righteousness. Only a righteous being can truly be happy.
5. Unaided human beings cannot become truly happy.

Let us turn now to the analogy which stimulated the title of this paper. We might liken the human being to a tree. The roots of the tree are the desires of an individual. The roots of a tree provide the drive, the pressure for growth and accomplishment, as desires drive a person. I remember cutting down a young Box Elder tree one spring. Sap swelled up and flowed copiously from the sawed trunk drenching the ground around the base of the stump. So do desires well up within us.

The trunk and scaffold of the tree we might liken to the noetic frame a person has, which is his understanding of the universe. A great and strong understanding can support a great weight of activity and accomplishment, just as a strong trunk and scaffold can support much fruit. I suppose we all have seen fruit trees broken down by the weight of their own growing product, just as we have seen people broken by the tasks for which they were not prepared in understanding and ability.

The branches and twigs of the tree are like the values a person has. Ideas and understandings are translated into particular choices through valuations, even as the trunk and scaffold of the tree transmit the drive and nourishment of the roots to the twigs.

The leaves of the tree we might liken unto our sensory capacity. Through our senses we observe the world and generate and gather strength for our understanding. By this means we receive words and other symbols from other people which also build our understanding, even as the leaves of the tree receive sunlight and carbon dioxide and manufacture the cellulose which accrues to the structure of the tree in its annual growth.

The fruit of the tree would be our actions, our words and deeds. A good tree brings forth good fruit, an evil tree, evil fruit. The kind of fruit may be determined by genetics, but the quality and quantity of the fruit are determined by the individual tree. The spread of its roots, the strength and shape of the trunk and scaffold, the spacing and direction of the limbs and twigs, all of these factors determine how much and how well the tree will bear fruit, be it good or evil.

As the strength of the roots of the tree are always transported through the trunk and branches, even so in human beings desires are always translated through beliefs (understandings) in the creation of values, and all action is a reflection of values. The power of our actions is a function of the strength, the power, of our desires. But desire not given a pattern and outlet by understanding is as sap that spills onto the ground. Desire comes to fruition only through ideas and values.

There are three basic morals to this analogy. First, desires, however good and noble, if filtered through error in the process of creating values, will produce poor fruit and will not yield satisfaction of desire. Second, we can see that evil desires, when translated through truth or error into values, will produce evil fruit. Third, we see that only as good desires are translated through truth can correct values be formed and thus good fruit is born. Perhaps an example would clarify each of these three.

First, an example of a good desire translated through false ideas to produce bad values and evil fruits. One basic human desire is to help other people who are ill. But not long since, the medical profession entertained the false understanding that bleeding a patient would improve his health. Bleeding was therefore a valued therapy. But the resulting fruit was unfortunate, as when the good doctors bled George Washington and doubtless contributed to his demise.

Second, an example of evil desire and good understanding. We might take Adolph Hitler as a prime case. He seemed to be driven by the desire for power and dominion, which I take to be an evil drive. But he and his collaborators knew a good deal about the world. They were sufficiently understanding of psychology and power to dominate the politics of their country. They understood social organizations sufficiently to build and awesome social mechanism for both internal control and external aggression. They understood science and technology sufficiently to equip their armies, navies and air force formidably. They understood economics enough to avoid internal insolvency. They understood almost enough to conquer the whole world. The values those desires and understandings produced were predictable: loss of personal freedom, demand of total loyalty to the state, inhumane ability to cause suffering in others in behalf of their cause, etc. The fruits were war, destruction of the Jews, untold suffering.

A third example, this one of good desires coupled with correct understanding, might come from the founding fathers of this nation. Their desire was to bless others. They understood that liberty was one of the greatest human needs, and that it could be attained only through a limited republican government of checks and balances. Thus they valued limited sovereignty for the government, with the remainder accruing to the people. The fruit they bore was the constitution of the United States of America.

I take it that it is not necessary to give an example of bad desires coupled with bad ideas. Prototypes of this variation abound everywhere, and we can be grateful that they seldom come to fruition. I suppose further that we all agree that good desires coupled with truth yield good values and fruits. But the question might be asked, “Which is worse: good desires coupled with false understanding or evil desires coupled with correct understanding?” This question results of course in a value judgment, but I suggest that the most troublesome of the world’s problems come from good desires coupled with error rather that from evil desires coupled with truth. As a case in point I would like to contrast Hitler’s socialism with communist socialism.

I again take Hitler’s socialism to be based on an evil desire, the domination of the world by the Aryan race, but applied with much skill and realism as to how to make things work in this world. Hitler possibly was finally contained and destroyed because so many persons of differing persuasions recognized the evil desire of his group. He forged his own opposition by the obvious malappropriateness of his intent. No outsider was surprised that his regime bore evil fruit of suffering and repression; these were expected as the natural consequence of a recognized evil desire.

A contrasting case is that of the communist movement of the twentieth century. I include in this many flavors, such as both British socialism and Russian socialism. Here we have a political movement with obviously good intent: the focus is on freeing mankind from economic want. It is difficult to find anyone who seriously agrees to the contrary of that desire, who believes that economic deprivation and differentiation are good. A little reflection shows, however, that the good desire of the communist or socialist approach is filtered through an unreal romantic notion of the reality of this world. For example, the supposition that forced cooperation is superior to voluntary cooperation as an efficient and effective means of producing the goods by which to relieve want has been shown to be untrue again and again. The supposition that people prefer economic security to personal liberty has been found wanting, necessitating iron and bamboo curtains.

Filtering the good intention of communism through such bad ideas about the world, has produced incorrect, unfortunate valuations which in turn have led to massive evil. Soviet communism has produced chambers of horrors equally as bad, if not much worse, than those of Nazi Germany. But the world looks on communism with some indulgence because the intent, the desire, seems defensible. I maintain that evil is evil, regardless of intent, and that only good intent coupled with truth about the nature of man and the universe can produce a good society. Only then will values be correct and appropriate to good desires. I further maintain that most human beings have good desires, and that the evils of our world are the flower and fruit of untruth more than of evil desire. The conclusion I reach then is that while we must not lose sight of the goodness of desire, our main concern to make a better world must be the beliefs we hold which give rise to our values.

It is plain that what the world needs is a new mode of gaining truth. Tradition is obviously inadequate. Science, the successor to tradition as a source of truth has done well, but is also obviously insufficient, for it can only deal with questions which have an empirical testability. Before this age sinks completely back into the morass of astrology, soothsaying and priestcraft, perhaps it will listen to the profound conclusion of David Hume:

“A person, seasoned with a just sense of the imperfections of natural reason, will fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity: … To be a philosophical Skeptic is, in a man of letters, the first and most essential step towards being a sound, believing Christian; …” (Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion).

I would like now to be specific about some of the values of our culture and the beliefs that create them. One obvious desire of American civilization is “the good life.” Perceived values of “the good life” are financial security, elimination of physical labor, elimination of pain, prolongation of life, high consumption of energy and goods, and social esteem. This partial list of values accounts for a vast bulk of the verbal and physical acts of persons in our society, such as the desire for publicity and degrees, fashion consciousness, demands for health care, the stifling of every discomfort with pills, proliferation of labor-saving devices or systematizing some form of slave labor, and the willingness to do almost anything that is financially profitable.

The acts mentioned clearly arise from the values mentioned as those values clearly arise from the desire for “the good life.” But the desire for this good life is transmitted through a set of beliefs, a set of ideas about the nature of people and the universe. In the case mentioned, the functional beliefs of the typical American are that man is only a physical body, that one does not exist after death in at least anything like the present situation, and that one has obligations only to himself. Now I admit that some of these typical Americans say, when asked theological questions, that they believe otherwise. But it has long since been shown that in many typical American religions theology is not correlated with religion, i.e., theory has little effect on practice. The functional belief is that selfishness, the concern for the comforts of the self, is the appropriate means to the good life. Selfishness may be itself a basic desire for some persons. But I assume there are many persons who would not be so selfish if they had true beliefs.

It is possible, for instance, to assume that the true nature of our situation is that the true person of each human being is his spirit, not his physical body, that we human beings will continue to exist forever with social and environmental concerns very much like the present, and that we are obliged to account to everyone whom our lives affect and to every physical thing around us which we use or abuse. I assume, of course, that all of us live on eternally, even after what we call death. None of these fundamental ideas I here mention as the true nature of our situation is susceptible of scientific proof or disproof. Nevertheless, every intelligent human being has some belief on each topic, which beliefs are the translating mechanism by which desires pass into values and become acts.

Should a person believe this second set of ideas, and have a desire for the good life, he would substitute a desire for anonymity in place of the honors of men, so that all men may have their fair share of esteem. Fashion consciousness would be replaced with the desire to help all persons be neatly and comfortably clad. Demand for personal health care would be replaced with concern for proper hygiene for all persons in order that disease might be prevented. Pain would often be endured as part of needed learning experience rather than treated as an evil. Personal physical labor would be seen as a valued contribution to the well-being of society and nature, replacing the obverse high consumption demands upon society and nature. The drive for amassing money would be replaced with the hunger to give service with as little thought for reward as possible.

What is the real difference between these two frames of mind? The one I have labeled as typical American assumes that the strong might as well take all they can, for life is soon over and ended, and if I am rude to someone, they probably cannot get back at me. The contrasting frame of mind assumes that we are on an eternal trip together; the weak will eventually become strong and all will be equal. We therefore would need to learn to cooperate and to treat everyone else as we would like to be treated, that rudeness will come home to haunt every selfish person as he is eternally confronted by and must account to his ancestors, his neighbors, and his posterity.

I suppose that everyone here is convinced that values and valuations are important to our lives or you would not be here. It has been my attempt as the main thrust of this paper to demonstrate that considerations of truth must go hand-in-hand with considerations of value and that our ideas of what is true inevitably guide and shape our values. I conclude that we must be very concerned that our ideas about the universe be true in order that our valuations will be correct.

A second emphasis of this paper has been to show that unaided human ability, individual or collective, is not sufficient to know those truths about the unseen world which are essential to correct values, nor is it sufficient to be able to make correct anticipatory valuations. This thrust has not been here fully demonstrated. I assert it, but also have full confidence that complete demonstration of this point can be made by any of you, for I have seen this demonstration made many times. I conclude from this that men must look to their spiritual resources to discover those truths and values which will enable them to attain happiness.

I further suggest that the key to using spiritual resources is to honor our own best ideas and feelings and through them to find the prophet of God. When we get a consonance between what we feel and what the prophet of God says, we will then find those truths and values which will enable every one of us to find happiness.

Finally, I witness to you that there is a true and living God who does reveal truth and correct values to men. The name of that God is Jesus Christ. The name of his true living prophet is Spencer Woolley Kimball. Thank you.

Eyring Speaker Chauncey Riddle
March 23, 1977

Thank you, Pres. Clark. Let me assure you that having them is nothing to raising them. I always find it remarkable that people find it remarkable that we have thirteen children. That’s too bad. I wish that everyone could be so blessed, because that is a great blessing. I’m grateful to be with you tonight. I appreciate that beautiful music and the spoken words very much. I thought that was a wonderful prelude to what I wish to talk about.

My topic is, “As a Man Thinketh.” The thoughts we think are very important to our lives. Truth is a precious quantity. The truth is a stranger to the world in which we live. It’s an outcast, a fugitive. Indeed, there are some who prize it. But honestly, we must admit that people prize that truth they wish to prize and ask the other to get lost. But I take it we cannot be Latter-day Saints unless we can face all truth. Whatever is true we must be willing to accept that. I recognize that probably we can’t stand all truth at once, but we must be able to accept it as it comes to us and to grow with it, because wherever we cannot accept it, wherever we want it to be otherwise we turn the Lord off because He is the Spirit of Truth. There is a very good reason why Truth is so hard to come by in this world. There’s no mystery about it. It goes back to that story which is so fundamental for everything about our lives. That story we need to know backwards and forwards, inside and out, like we know nothing else, and that’s the story of Adam and Eve.

We know something about Adam and Eve—that they were begotten children to our Father in Heaven in the pre-mortal existence. They were blessed by our Father as were we; and there it became important, as He tried to share His blessings with us, that we grow and develop beyond that stage of existence. So a plan was devised to send us down to an earth where we could have a body of flesh and bones, even as He does. Only then could we rise to the fulness of His stature and being, and the purpose of our Father is to help us to become full heirs of all that He has and is.

And so the plan was prepared that Adam and Eve would come down—they did—into the Garden. But in the Garden they were very different beings from what we are. In the Garden they had Celestial bodies—they did not have blood in their veins, for instance; they had spirit matter in their veins. They would live forever. They were quite different.

Although they were very much like our Heavenly Father, they were quite different from us, even though we are in the same form. Let me ask you this question: How many eyes did Adam have when he was in the Garden? Do you know the answer to that question? The answer is not two. Let me ask you another question: How many bodies did he have? I think if you get the answer to that question, you might get the answer to the first one.

Well, he had two bodies in the Garden, did he not? He had a spirit body, and that was the body he received as he was born to our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother in the pre-mortal existence. That body was in the exact shape and form of his physical tabernacle, but Adam also had a physical tabernacle—a body of the materials of this earth.

So how many eyes did he have? Four. He had two eyes with which to see the spiritual existence of things around him, things of that order, and because he could see both the spirit world and the physical world, he had quite a bit of information at his disposal. Now we know, because we are told, not because we can see, but we know there is a spirit world all around this earth. There will come a day when the veil will be parted for all of us and all of us will see the spirit world. It is the place where people go when they die; it’s right around us, and if our eyes were opened, we could see these realms which are now unknown, unperceived, to us.

Some people perceive them, and they tell us about it, and that’s how we know. But Adam could see all that, and we’re also given to understand that it’s the spirit world that is the governing mechanism, essentially, for the physical world; and if we have questions and wonderings about why things happen the way they do, most of our questions would be answered if we could see the spirit world and see the causal connections, but of course we can’t so we don’t understand many things; we do not see many causal connections.

But Adam could see these things. Now he, however, was as a little child. He could probably see much that he did not really understand and probably understood very little of the importance of what he did see. But then came the fateful day when he was tempted and he and Eve partook of the fruit, the forbidden fruit, and fell. They had been promised that if they did so they would die, and they did immediately—that very day, and the death they suffered was the spiritual death.

That doesn’t mean their spirits died; they still had their spirit bodies, but it was as if their spirits had gone to sleep.

Supposing we went up here on the floor in back of the bench there and found somebody lying there sound asleep. Supposing you know them: you shake them and call them by name, and no response. You shake them a little harder and maybe pour some cold water on them, and no response. How do you describe that sleep? We have a phrase for that kind of sleep. We say they are dead to the world. Does that mean they’re dead? No, it just means they don’t respond; and similarly, when a person’s spirit is dead, as in the spiritual death that came upon Adam in the Fall. The spirit was still alive, but it no longer responded to the spiritual world around him. And so Adam could not see the spirit things anymore; he could not discern.

The most important thing he could no longer see was our Father in Heaven and our Savior. He had walked and talked with them before, but on that day a curse, which was actually a blessing as all curses are, was put on him in order that he might progress and grow, that he might have the chance, truly, to become like our Father in Heaven.

And so a veil came over his spiritual eyes and over his spiritual ears, and his sense of touch and smell and taste. This veil is a very important factor in the lives of all of us because all of us are heirs to Adam’s Fall, and when we are born, we are born spiritually dead, even as he was when he was cast out of the garden.

Because someone is spiritually dead does not mean they are bad; they’re not sinful, therefore. It just means that they cannot perceive with their spiritual senses, and this is the way we are born into this world, that we might be ignorant of those spiritual things by our own perceptions, that we might learn to live by faith.

To see is not to have faith. We have faith because we are told about these things that we do not see, and we substitute ideas that we are told, and if we can believe in the source, and the source happens to be a good source, a true source, then that is true faith.

But Adam and Eve then had this veil over their eyes and ears and could no longer perceive.

Do you know what the veil is? That’s a very useful piece of information. You might want to part it sometime. What is the veil? You have to know the answer to this; it’s pretty hard to guess. Anybody know? I’m going to tell you then. I take this from Brigham Young. He said that the veil is our physical body and when Adam fell, his physical body became corrupt, and because it was corrupt, his spirit could no longer perceive through it. And the obvious corollary to that is that should we ever desire to perceive spiritually, we had better get our body cleansed and perfected and purified.

And that is, of course, why we have many of the commandments we have in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are here with a tabernacle that is not ours. It is a gift or loan to us from our Savior who created it. We can claim it as our only if we use it correctly.

Apparently only some will get exactly the same body back in the resurrection. They are those who do prove faithful, who do prove that they can use this body as an instrument for doing good rather than as a means for self-gratification. There is nothing wrong with pleasure in a sense if we take it when we are supposed to and where we are supposed to. The thing that’s bad is when we make pleasure in this world an end in itself.

If the body runs us, we fail the test of this life. The test of this life is to see if we’ll hearken to the voice of God and through faith in Christ, faith in that voice, do the things we should do. If we restrain ourselves to work for the welfare and benefit of our brothers, to serve our Heavenly Father and be His witnesses and do what we should do; then indeed the time will come, we are told, when this body will be cleansed and purified and renewed. We will be different people. We can then have that same privilege that Adam had in the garden before he fell. He regained it again after he fell, and we may regain it also if we choose and are willing to make the sacrifices necessary.

When someone comes back to spiritual life and again can see with their spiritual eyes, they have a very special name that we call them. What is the name? What can they do? They can see, so what do you call them? You call them a see-er, or in other words, a seer. That’s the meaning of our word seer. A seer or a see-er is one whose spiritual eyes have been opened through his obedience to the Lord and who then can tell us of the things of that order of existence. That’s a little apart from our story, however. When Adam and Eve had fallen, they were out in the world, spiritually blind; and they could see only the physical world. Adam had been told to offer sacrifices, and so he did, and an angel came and asked him why, and he said, “I don’t know, I’m just doing what I’ve been told to do,” which was a great answer, one that we could all emulate. But then it was explained to him that he was doing that in commemoration, in anticipation of the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that if he would do everything he did as an act of faith in Jesus Christ, remembering who Christ was as the Savior of the world, putting his trust and his faith in the Savior, learning to live by faith and not by sight, that he would then be able to be redeemed and return to spiritual life, which he did.

And he taught this same principle to his children. He explained to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how they could also be redeemed also from that Fall.

The scripture tells us that most of them rejected what he said. Satan came among them saying, “Believe it not,” then they believed it not, and from that time forth men became carnal, sensual and devilish.

Sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it? It really isn’t that bad, but I think it’s important to understand what it does mean. When people are spiritually dead, they perforce must be carnal, sensual, and devilish, because for them there’s no other way to be.

What does carnal mean? Meat, flesh. A person who is carnal is simply a person who lives after the flesh. His spirit is dead, in a sense. It does not perceive, and therefore he has to live by the sight and the hearing of the flesh. He is carnal; he cannot help it. We mean to say that he is sensual simply because the only pleasures he knows are the pleasures of the body.

A person who is spiritually dead cannot know the pleasures of the spirit. The pleasures of the spirit are far better, far more desirable, but a person who has never tasted them is oblivious to them and must live for the pleasures of the body. But worst of all, the person who is spiritually dead is devilish, and this because when Adam fell, Satan not only gained power to cause his death, his physical death eventually, but gained power to tempt him. He was given so much power that he has power to lead mankind captive at his will. Satan has the power to lead every soul over eight years of age, captive at his will unless they do one thing. What’s that one thing? Unless they hearken to Jesus Christ.

So we have a world full of people who are carnal, sensual and devilish, most of them because they cannot help it. Because they have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they’ve never had the chance to become free and alive. That’s why it’s so great to do missionary work. We go out to the people of this world and give people that opportunity. A lot of them don’t want it, but then that may be as much our fault as theirs. We need to set a good example, too, so they’ll see something that is really worth wanting. But we’re working on that too, I hope.

But at any rate, there Adam was, subject to Satan; and all of his children were subject to Satan. Now it so happens that Satan is the father of lies. That’s his chief title, and lies are his chief weapon. By this means he captivates the souls of men and keeps them from knowing what they ought to do.

Am I correct in assuming that Phoenix is somewhere up that way? Supposing that as a little child you had been told by someone you loved very dearly that Phoenix was that way. And they told you, “Be very careful now. People will tell you it’s that way, but don’t you believe it. It’s really down that way, and if you ever want to get to Phoenix, you go that way.” Now, if that young child were told that often enough, and really believed it, he or she would invent all kinds of explanations for why you said it was that way, why the map said it was that way, just like people make explanations why the Bible says certain things even though it doesn’t say that, and so forth. When people are taught something by somebody they love, they tend to respect it. And when people are taught false things about the nature of God and the nature of salvation, they tend to believe it. And just as you couldn’t get to Phoenix very well by going that wrong way, so many people cannot find spiritual life because they have false ideas; and Satan just loves to put these false ideas on them.

Now the Lord is in the world, too. The Savior’s mission is to spread light and truth so that people will know how to do the thing that is necessary. He tells people everything they need to know, not all at once, but line upon line, precept upon precept. He is willing to give this basic instruction to everyone. That’s the good news of the Gospel.

Beyond the good news of the Gospel, He tells us, there are things often called mysteries. The mysteries of God are those special things we need to know and can know once we have accepted the basis of the Gospel, and are able to perceive all the way back to spiritual life.

Zeezrom was asking Alma about these things in the Book of Mormon, and Alma began to expound these things to him saying this in Alma 12:9–10, “It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God.” The word mystery is very interesting. The world thinks it means things that are not known, such as when you go to a murder mystery or something and it’s unknown as to who did it. That isn’t what the word means in the scriptures. The word in the scriptures comes from the Greek, well it all comes from the same root, the scriptural meaning is this, it comes from the Greek word, muo, which means to shut the mouth. Mysteries are those things we are supposed to keep our mouth shut about, and if you know some mysteries you probably already have been told not to talk about them.

And so it is that those special things beyond the basics of the Gospel are so precious that they are not to be known by those who will not accept the fundamentals. And so Alma says to Zeezrom, “It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God, nevertheless, they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him. And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.”

That is our heritage. There is no mystery we cannot discover the answer to. We can know all things, if we will seek them through faith in Christ. And to them that harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries.

When people reject the word of God, Satan comes in and fills their minds with answers to replace the truths of the Gospel, and these false ideas are like the idea that Phoenix is that way, and then people cannot find either Phoenix or happiness or salvation. If Satan feeds them lies and they believe it, they condemn themselves to lives of misery and damnation.

That’s the nature of the world we live in. They that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion until they know nothing concerning his mysteries, then they are taken captive by the devil and led by his will down to destruction.

Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell. The chains of hell are the lies that Satan perpetrates in the world and gets people to believe, and these lies are the creeds of the fathers, the scripture says, which are riveted on the hearts of the children and become the source of Satan’s power in this earth.

However, here we are. We live in the world. The world is full of people who are fallen, who are spiritually dead, and who have succumbed to the temptations of Satan and to his false ideas. And thus it is that he who would be the god of this world, which is Satan, governs and controls through lies; and it’s not surprising that so much that goes on is evil and perverse and mistaken.

Don’t you get exasperated reading the newspapers, seeing all the crazy things people do? Why do they do it? It’s because they’re in hell. Hell is the kingdom of Satan. It’s where he rules, and part of his kingdom is right here on this earth among those who are in the flesh, and it’s purposeful, it is designed that we come into hell, into his kingdom, that we might have opposition. He does a good job of that, doesn’t he? He provides a very stout opposition. But that’s necessary. You cannot gain great heights, we cannot gain great goodness without great opposition to that goodness, and the reason this world is so terribly evil is so that you and I can have the opportunity to work against the evil, and struggle and struggle until we gain the strength that we can stand to be exalted.

And were it not for the opposition Satan provides we could never get ourselves to that point where we could stand to be exalted, so he does us a great service even though he’s our enemy. Of course he doesn’t do it because he’s serving us, he’s doing it because he gets a kingdom out of this. He gets some people to be permanent converts to his domain, and they will be with him forever, so that is what he’s after, but in the process he tempts all of us and gives all of us the opportunity to become his servants. So in the process of spreading lies, he does a magnificent job of keeping people from the truth, the truth of many, many things.

I’d like to explore with you some categories of evil, some categories of lies he perpetuates upon us. The first category I would call the category of romantic notions. The thing that distinguishes the romantic notions of the world is that it is an untrue picture of the way the world really is. Often it’s a belief in magic or luck or something of that sort to solve one’s problems. People think that one of these days, luck is going to come along and change their fortunes and make them a different person, you see, so that they will be happy ever after. That’s a very romantic notion; the world is not like that.

The perfect example of the romantic dream is the story of Cinderella. Now most people are born and bred on Cinderella. It’s no wonder they grow up and do such strange things. Cinderella is the poor benighted stepdaughter, and that’s not bad and it’s sometimes good to have that kind of opposition. But how does she escape from it? She escapes by the fairy godmother coming. You see, there’s the supernatural intrusion of something into the world. It isn’t her responsibility that changes her life, it’s some stroke of good fortune that changes her life. The fairy godmother fits her out in a beautiful gown and sends her out in a coach. That, of course, is the epitome of good luck to most people to thus have their material situation changed. And she goes to the ball, and there the second version of the romantic notion takes over, and the prince takes one look at her and falls madly in love. That’s the romantic notion of love. The romantic notion of love is basically that if he’s rich and she’s beautiful and they happen to fall for each other they will live happily ever after, and it’s hard to imagine a more perverse doctrine because that isn’t the way happiness happens in this world.

Love is not something that might be true. Someone might see someone for the first time and be told spiritually that’s whom they are to marry, but love does not come that way. Love is a thing that grows out of friendship and admiration and esteem, and unless the proper foundations are made for love, love can gain no permanent root, and it withers and dies when problems come. Many people who are rich are poor marriage risks. Many women who are beautiful think that is all they need as a ticket to success and develop nothing else in their lives, and they’re very poor marriage risks.

We simply need to face the fact that if we’re going to be happy in marriage, we hadn’t better follow the Cinderella story. I suppose that’s one reason why a third of our marriages in our country break up in divorce, because people have assumed that one of these days a great overpowering irrational urge will come upon them, and they’ll think that’s love and they’ll marry that person. But I don’t think that’s in accordance to what we understand in the Gospel. But that is how many people marry, nevertheless.

Well, there are many versions of the romantic story. Peter Pan is another good example, a belief in fairies, if you really believe in them, they will live and they will help you, and so forth. We need to be a little more realistic than that and to work according to those principles that bring success in life. Another version of the romantic doctrine is the poem, Invictus. “Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul.” That’s a bit of arrogance, that’s romantic. Nobody’s unconquerable. If we don’t have enough humility to know that we can be overcome by many things in this world we aren’t going to be very successful, and if we suppose that we are the masters of our fates and the captains of our souls, we’re missing the point of this world.

Orson F. Whitney wrote a reply to the poem Invictus. I hope you have read that poem. He points out that the master of our fate and the captain of our soul is one, Jesus Christ. We would do well to hearken to him.

This idea of Invictus is behind most of the success books. Have you read one of the success books, Think and Grow Rich, or something like that? They have a common principle. The common principle is simply the power of positive thinking, that if you set your goal and fasten your mind upon it and let nothing stop you in attaining it, you will attain your goal. It does work for some few people, but for the majority, it doesn’t work. But everybody likes to believe in the romantic dream like that, so many people buy the success books, and that’s of course the success, selling success books.

But you see, many people go into business with this Prometheus or Invictus type attitude that they’re just going to go out and conquer the world. There are some very hard, real facts about the world that it would be better to substitute for this idea that you can do anything you think you can do.

For instance, it pays to know that most businesses fail for two reasons: Number one, that they are undercapitalized and number two, they don’t keep sufficient books, they don’t have enough records. If you know those two things in advance, if you know your business; that is to say if you know your service that you are performing and you can solve those other two problems, you’re likely to succeed in business. That’s certainly a better basis than supposing that just by the power of positive thinking you can go and do it.

Another kind of romantic idea that many people don’t like to think of as romantic because it’s near and dear to them is the Social Security Program. Our government has engaged in a very interesting attempt to help people in their old age, but it’s romantic. It is a very ill-founded, unrealistic program that is obviously doomed to ultimate failure. If any insurance company went that wild in setting up an insurance program, it would be broke almost immediately. Why isn’t the Social Security Program broke? Because they can just keep raising our taxes. If the insurance company could raise your premium every time it wanted to, would you buy their insurance? No, you’d be smarter than that. But, you see, you’re hooked because the government can force you to whether you want to or not.

When the Social Security Program started out, the anticipation was that we would have an ever-expanding population so that the people down at the end of the line would be more than the people getting benefits would be paying into the system, and would be paying for the few people who would be getting benefits. Now, it’s over two in five. Soon it will be three in five. How much are your social security taxes? Now they’re something like eleven and a half percent. Don’t suppose that the 5.85 that your employer contributes comes out of his salary; it comes out of your salary; you pay for it. And it’s going to go to 15 percent, it’s going to go to 20 percent; it’s going to go to 30 percent. This is inevitable. The present obligations without taking anybody else into the work force of the Social Security Program are over a trillion dollars, which is getting pretty close to the total assets of the United States. The handwriting is on the wall. Either we’re going to be taxed to death through this system, or it will be repudiated. Those are the only two alternatives, so it’s a romantic system. And even though we might like it, it is very important to face the fact that it’s ill-founded; it does not meet the realities of the world in which we live as so many other things in our political situation do not.

I suppose that you are aware that you have to talk a romantic line to get elected at the national level. Think back over the last few presidential elections and see if it isn’t the case that the person got elected who is just a little more romantic than the other, unless he was too romantic. Now when people get too romantic people know they’re wild, but if they’re just a little more romantic than the other candidate they will usually win, and so the politicians talk a romantic line. When they are running for election, they say things like, “We’re going to balance the budget and have a fifty billion dollar surplus in the next eighteen months.” That’s absurd, you see; and when the person who says that gets in, does he do it? No, it’s impossible, that was just the way to get elected, so another thing is approached then and so we see people saying things before they get elected because the bulk of the people of our country, the bulk of the voters are romantic, they want to believe in pie in the sky and Never-never land. Don’t they?

A desire for the romantic is why people keep looking at all these programs on television, like the Bionic Woman and so forth. These are all romantic tales, they are unrealistic. Most of the police shows are very unrealistic. But people just love to see those unrealistic things, they just love to believe that’s the way things are. That’s the kind of world they could live in, and if they can’t live in a real world like that, they will go sit in front of a TV and live in an imaginary world like that. That is how strong the romantic mindset has a grip on our people.

Most of the novels we read, most of the books are based on a romantic image of the universe, but it just won’t fly. To come down to a very personal level, most people have a very romantic notion about eating, for instance. They believe if they just eat what pleases their taste, they will have sufficient nutrition. Now I ask you, don’t most people eat that way? There are very few people who rationally calculate what they should eat. No farmer would dare feed his cows what he felt like feeding them, because he knows he would go out of business soon. He feeds them what he knows they need to have to get good gain or good milk production. But he feeds his children by what he feels like feeding them, and they don’t grow up nearly so healthy. We have one of the most overly-fed, undernourished populations on the face of the earth. That’s one of the reasons we have to have more doctors than most other populations. It’s interesting that we would continue to perpetuate such a strange, romantic notion, but we do.

Well, one more on this vein. One of the classic romantic notions is the idea that educated people will not sin, or that educating a person will help a person so that he will no longer be sinful. There is just no foundation for that, but it is strange how deeply embedded this is in our society. If you came from a little town of five thousand people and supposing the local dentist and local plumber were accused of some heinous crime, most people would assume which one did it. The plumber, of course. Because he didn’t have the education the dentist did. Now that is crazy. There is no evidence to support that notion whatsoever, but our whole civilization is built on it.

What is the thing you are supposed to do for people who live in the ghetto when they are headed for a life of crime? Educate them. Because then they will be decent, respectful citizens. Now it is true that it’s good to educate them, but for other reasons. Educating people does not help them be more moral. In fact, there is some evidence that goes the other way. During the Watergate scandal many people were shocked, “You mean those people deliberately lied? They’re lawyers,” as if people with that much higher education and professional opportunity would not lie. That does not stop them one bit.

Have you heard the saying that education doesn’t make devils into angels, it just makes clever devils. And there is a very real truth to that.

Now you see, it is dangerous to talk about all these things. My wife tells me if I make this list long enough, I’m sure to offend everybody. But we live in a romantic society. I admit I have been romantic much of my life and that is one of the reasons I can understand romanticism, I suppose all of us are romantic at times. But it doesn’t pay to be romantic, for it doesn’t pave the way to success or happiness.

There is another kind of error which we will call cynicism. It is the opposite of the romantic notion. The cynic is the person who does see the world as it really is, in a sense, he sees it much more clearly than the romantic. But he also sees the way to get ahead in this world, for yourself, is to take advantage of the romantics. And so he takes all these people, there’s a Barnam statement, there’s a fool born every minute and two to take him, or I think it’s the other way around. There are two fools born every minute and a cynic to take him because the majority are apparently romantic. But the cynic is the person who acts without scruples to take advantage of the people who have some kind of romantic notion.

For instance, it’s a romantic notion to think that some physical object, such as a piece of the cross, will somehow save us, or help us. It is estimated in this world that there are three to four shiploads of fragments of the cross on which Christ was crucified. Because the cynics have gone into business selling fragments of the cross to romantics. This is what the cynics do.

As you heard, I grew up in Las Vegas, which is the happy meeting ground for cynics and romantics. The romantics are the people who fled into town every weekend thinking they are going to make a killing. Occasionally someone does and they herald that to high heaven. They never make headlines when somebody loses every cent they’ve got, but they are certain to publicize the ones that go away with more than they came with. The cynics set up the tables knowing there is no way those people can win in the long run. In fact, the people who go there usually know that to start with, they think they are going to beat the odds, that luck, you see, will save them. Good fortune is going to intervene in the system, and they will come out ahead. I know men who get themselves in hock to the club and every payday they go down and spend their whole check hoping they will strike it rich so they can pay all of their debts and take care of their family. Year after year they go on totally in debt to the club, which then gives them back a little money so they can feed their family and pay their rent for the next month so they get another paycheck and come and try to break the bank again. That is absurd, that is insanity. Yet many people are caught up in that romantic notion.

The cynic is the person who marries for money or position, not for love, and usually they get the money and position they want, and they profit from it. They don’t have any happiness, but that doesn’t bother them because they don’t think there is any happiness. Anyway, to the cynic there is really only one thing that counts, money. He thinks you can buy anything with money and anything you can’t buy with money is not worth having. And so he operates that way.

Sometimes, I suppose all of us tend to be a little cynical. When you have ideals and someone lets you down, it’s hard not to be a little cynical and suppose maybe there’s no point in having ideals. But if our ideals have been romantic, that is to say unreal, not realized in the real world, we probably deserve to be let down. But the cure is not cynicism. The tendency that we have is when Satan finds us way over here and suddenly awake to find the world isn’t romantic, we swing all the way to the other side and become cynical and want to burn the whole thing down. That’s just as bad, just as great an error.

The place where we belong, of course, is in between, on the straight and narrow, to believe the things the Lord tells us. But suppose we try to get on the straight and narrow. We have to be careful in the Church too, because sometimes false ideas are taught in the Church.

Let me rehearse two or three for you and hope I don’t offend anybody unduly. But there are some of these ideas that I think are very important. I’ve heard many little children told as they came out of the waters of baptism that now their sins were washed away. I think that is just a plain falsehood. I don’t think water washes away any sins, ever, and I think there is ample scripture justification for that, then somebody will say, “But doesn’t it say that baptism is for the remission of sins?” Well, certainly that is a necessary condition, but it isn’t sufficient. We have to be baptized before we can be forgiven of our sins, but it takes more than that.

The scriptures tell us that the time we are actually forgiven of our sins is when we receive the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. The water is merely the preparation, the making of a covenant and we must actually go beyond that and obey the commandment we receive, that we are given, “to receive the Holy Ghost.” If we obey that commandment, then our sins will be forgiven. But what a terrible thing to cause people to suppose that merely by being dipped in water their sins can be washed away. Do you see that is just not consistent?

Another idea is that it is impossible to become perfect. Now, I admit it is impossible to become perfect in every sense that God is perfect, but it is possible to become perfect in one sense, and I think that is what the scripture intends, and that sense is that we should stop sinning. We can stop sinning by devoting ourselves completely, and that is what the word perfect means. A synonym for the word perfect is complete, if we become completely servants of Jesus Christ, if we serve him with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. If we have the spirit with us as a constant companion and following the Savior’s example, if we do nothing but that which he tells us to do, even as he did nothing but that which His Father told Him to do, then we are perfect.

Now you see, if someone says to me, it’s impossible to be perfect, to me they are saying it is impossible to repent or, in other words, it is impossible for Jesus Christ to save anyone because He has said plainly that He will not save anybody who does not stop their sinning. He will not save people in their sins. He will save them from their sins once they have stopped sinning. So if it is impossible to become perfect, the Gospel has no meaning. I think it is possible to become perfect. I think the scriptures also testify that very few do it in this world. Straight is the way and narrow is the gate that leadeth unto life and to become perfect is the key to eternal life. That is to say, to give ourselves wholly and completely unto the Lord, to be His humble, faithful servant in all things. That is the test. Those that are able and willing to do that will find life. I believe that with all my heart.

Another thing that I think is sometimes taught falsely is the concept of eternal progression. Sometimes it is taught as if we would go on repenting and learning and getting better and better forever. But I don’t think the scriptures bear out that interpretation. The scriptures tell us that there is such a thing as progress, they tell us there is such a thing as eternal increase, but nowhere are the words eternal progression to be found in the scriptures.

The true concept of progress is that whatever we are when we die, if we have indeed given all that we have to the Savior, He will allow us then to grow and develop to become as He is. But once we become as He is, there is no progress then because He does not progress. He knows all, He is perfect, He has no need of repentance. But His kingdom grows, and that is eternal increase. He grows in glory because His glory is His righteous posterity and that increases. That is a fully scriptural concept. But I think that the other notion has been planted in the Church by the adversary to get people to think they don’t need to repent now, to wait till they die and then they can repent.

Sometimes we get the idea that repentance and living the Gospel is some nasty pill we have to take so we get our blessings in the next life, but we have to give up all the good things in this life. That is another false notion. That just isn’t the way it is. The Gospel is the way for happiness and every good thing in this world. Those who will live the Gospel fully will find that they are blessed beyond their wildest expectations. We cannot really sacrifice because the Lord makes it up to us so much for everything that we sacrifice that it’s as if we had given up nothing, almost.

Now, it is hard to see that when we are in the process of sacrificing sometimes, sometimes we hurt, sometimes we are abused by others, sometimes we give up our fortune, our name or something. But you see He rewards us so richly, that still should we give our lives, we have given very little in comparison to what we gain from Him.

This is one of the things that is involved in having a testimony, it is to come to a real light, it is to come to realize that, to see that the blessings are so great. And thus to know the glory and the majesty and the goodness of God. But it is hard to live the Gospel completely. It is easy to be a romantic or a cynic, it is difficult to be on the straight and narrow.

My wife and I were married some thirty odd years ago. Before we were married, we went through the Doctrine and Covenants very carefully and we wrote down every commandment. We said we were going to live by every one of those words, we are really going to try to be perfect. I still think that was a great thing to have done, but thirty years later, we are a little more impressed with how long it takes.

The great difficulty there is that it is one thing to want to give ourselves to the Lord completely, and it is another thing to be able to deliver ourselves to the Lord because the world has such great ties on us, so many bad habits, so many false notions, so many things that we have inherited that just don’t fit. So we have to go through our lives idea by idea, emotional pattern by emotional pattern, desire by desire and just get rid of all the faults. But it is a slow, painful process.

The other day we were talking about it, my wife was writing and said, “You know, maybe if I stop writing with my left hand and start writing with my right, that would be enough of a change that I could start living more of the Gospel.” We laughed, because that is a romantic idea. That isn’t the kind of change that is going to help us live the Gospel. The kind of change we need is just a little more self-discipline to do more what we know we should do. It is the pattern of our daily lives, the things we allow ourselves to think and to desire and to work on each day. That is where we are going to find perfection, is just by perfecting each day, each hour, each minute, until we can just someday deliver a perfect day to the Lord, and we can say, “Lord, I gave you everything I had today, I didn’t do anything that was just my idea. I did thy will.” When we get to the point that where we can say that, I think that is a real achievement and that is facing up to reality. But I think we have to recognize that is hard to do. It isn’t hard because serving the Lord is hard, His yoke is light. What’s hard is getting rid of the yoke of the world, getting rid of all the ideas that have gotten into our minds through advertising, and through false education, and so forth. If we could just throw that yoke off, living the Gospel would be simpler, more beautiful, easier. But it is hard to wear two yokes, and I guess most of us find ourselves in that position of struggling between two masters, which is a very difficult thing.

Well, I’ve said enough about error. I think it is sometimes necessary to talk about error, but it isn’t a very pleasant thing to do. It is a lot more fun to talk about truth, so let’s talk about truth for a few minutes.

As we go through our lives and find errors and get rid of them, we ought also at the same time to be looking for precious truths. I think we ought to have a jewel box where we collect specially important truths and ideas. Because it is awfully easy to get a good idea and then forget it.

The Savior pointed this out when He said sometimes the seed falls upon the beaten path and the birds come and pick it up and carry it away. That’s as if the Lord gave us a precious truth that we did not make much fruit from, and we do not care for and treasure it, and Satan comes and takes it away. So we need to write down the precious revelations that we gain. Where would you write that down? There is a special place to put those precious things the Lord reveals to us. What is the scriptural name for it? A Book of Remembrance. And that is where the original Book of remembrance came from. It was Adam’s record of God’s revelations to him. He did not wish to lose any of those precious words because the word of God is the basis for our faith, and that is the only possibility for our having faith. But we should write those things down.

May I take a few minutes and share with you some of the precious ideas that I have, they’re special to me.

Now, there are some truths that are like the phone book. You find an awful lot of truths in the phone book, but most of the ideas there are hardly world shaking. However, there are some ideas that are world shaking, and I would like to express a few of them. The first one comes from Ether 12:28. The basic idea there is this, that Jesus Christ is the fountain of all righteousness. This is found in several places in the scriptures. To me this is a powerful idea, it is seminal, it affects so many things in our lives. I guess the ramifications touch about everything. Jesus Christ is the fountain of all righteousness.

That says some very important things to me. Number one, I take righteousness as the acts of blessing others, not the desires, not the theory, but the actual acts of blessing people. Now, I take it that to be fully righteous the act should be as effective as possible. The question of our lives is, are we going to spend the rest of our lives pleasing ourselves, or are we going to spend our lives blessing others as much as possible?

I find it delightful to worship our Savior because I understand Him, I have the witness that He is a God of righteousness, that He does nothing except it is to bless His children. That is why I say I don’t think there are any curses that are really curses, they are really blessings. Everything He does is perfectly calculated to bring as much blessing as possible to the children of men.

And believing that, I also recognize what the scriptures say, He is the fountain of this righteousness. There is no other source, there is no other place I can go in this world to know what to do to be optimally effective in my actions. Let me unpack that a little bit. This goes back to a fundamental principle, in secular terms we could say it this way, there is no way that any human being can maximize his decisions. That may not be very meaningful, so let me say it another way. Nobody by his own wisdom or by collective human wisdom can be sure that anything he proposes to do is the best thing to do in any given circumstance.

Suppose you were worried about whom you should marry. Suppose you wanted to make a rational decision, and the best possible decision. What would you have to know? Well, you would have to know all about yourself, all about your potential, your proclivities, inclinations, and so forth, —everything about yourself.

Next, you would have to know every possible partner you could have in this universe, and you would have to know as much about them as you know about yourself, all about them. And then you’d have to know what would be the consequences of the next million years or so of marrying each one of these persons. Not only that, you would have to decide which set of consequences would be the best for both of you. Do you see, there is not even a fraction of human ability to answer that question. But that isn’t so remarkable because you can show, very simply, that exactly the same problems attach to deciding the simplest kind of action. Is it best to go to the store now, or at 4:00 in the afternoon? The same kinds of problems attend that kind of decision as well, and we have no more human ability to make that decision and make sure we are doing the best thing possible on our own than we do the other.

This is the thing most people do not want to face. Humanity in general is committed to the proposition that human beings can act intelligently and correctly on their own. But it is just not so, that is a great falsehood. When men act on their own, they are stumbling in the dark, hoping only. There is no rational way for them to know in advance that what they propose to do is the best thing to do. You don’t have to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to figure that out. Socrates figured it out a long time ago. That’s what made him so unpopular in Athens. He went around asking all these people why they were doing what they were doing. He was seeking wisdom. He figured out that he didn’t know how to be wise, so he went around to all these people who said they were wise and knew what to do and asked them how they know what they should do. None of them could tell him, but they still insisted that they could. He finally concluded that he was wiser than they all because he knew he couldn’t do it, and they thought they could. But he was very discomfiting to them, you see.

Supposing you went to the local head politician to ask him why he was doing what he was doing, and you could show that he had no idea that what he was doing was best for the community. That would make him rather unpopular, wouldn’t it? Well, that’s what he did with the leaders of Athens, so they gave him the hemlock. So be careful how you use that idea, if you subscribe to it, because they might give you the hemlock, too.

This is where the world stands. The world says, “I can do it on my own,” but the scriptures say that unless you come unto Christ, you cannot be righteous, and that’s a very powerful, fundamental idea. He is the source of all righteousness. There is no other source besides Him, and we can get all of it from Him.

Secondly, there is a law upon which all blessings are predicated. This is D&C 132:20–21. There is a law upon which all blessings are predicated, and when you receive any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. How many laws? How many laws are there by which we get our blessings? Let’s try the scripture again. There is a law upon which all blessings are predicated, and when we receive any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. How many? One. There is only one law by which blessings are received, and that’s why the law of the Gospel is singular.

Now, when you want to get down on the Law of Moses’ level, there are lots of laws. The Ten Commandments are an example. But you see, we have to remember the Ten Commandments do not bring about eternal blessings. They are stepping stones to prepare people for the law; but like the Savior told the Jews, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, unless you can do something better than the Law of Moses, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The eternal blessings we hope for through God are predicated upon one law, and one law only. What’s the name of that law? I’ll tell you what I think it is. I think the name of that law is Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the only way we can get anything that will prove to be a blessing to us is to have faith in Him.

We can get lots of things in this world. Lots of people think that when they get rich, for instance, they’re being blessed, don’t they. Like the old preacher who said, “Lord, you’ve tempted me with everything else, now please tempt me with money.” But riches usually are not a blessing. Most of the people who are rich will not go to the Celestial Kingdom. The Savior said that in no uncertain terms, simply because they do not learn to use it correctly, and it proves to be a millstone that drags them down instead of a help. They use it for themselves instead of for others.

But if a person, the scriptures say, will put his faith and trust in Christ and obtain a hope in Christ, then if he seeks riches, he will get riches because he will seek riches for the opportunity of blessing the poor, of clothing the naked, and so forth. And that’s the proper use of wealth. But there is a law, and the law comes down to the word of Christ. His word is His law. We have faith only through His word, which means to say we cannot have faith until we receive a revelation from Him.

The word of Christ is probably the most precious thing we could have. That’s why the Gift of the Holy Ghost is the Pearl of Great Price. It is the thing that is our connection with Christ. It brings us His word, and when we receive His word, we may then believe and may act upon it. To receive the word, to believe and to act is faith in Christ. That’s the definition of faith, and without all three of those there is no faith; and all blessings are received through faith in Christ.

Idea number three: Whatsoever is not of faith, meaning faith in Christ, is sin. Now that’s a powerful idea. It hits people right between the eyes. That means anything we do on our own, we’re sinning because the only way to be righteous is to get it from the Savior; and if we get it from Him, if we get instruction from Him and do it, then we’re being righteous, everything else is sin; and that’s what humanity has to repent of, is doing everything else.

We can be saved only as much as we turn to the Savior (this is Romans 14:23): Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. The Prophet Joseph makes a very pointed point of this in the introduction of the second volume of the Documentary History of the Church, pointing out that only as we come to Christ and serve Him can we escape sin.

Idea number four: From Romans 8:28: All things work together for the good of those that love the Lord. Again, you see, this is a powerful idea. What does that tell us? If we just love the Lord and serve Him, there’s nothing that will happen to us except it’s for our good, for our eternal welfare. If we’ll just put ourselves in His hands and as King Benjamin said, be meek, patient, submissive, full of love, willing to submit to all things the Savior sees fit to inflict upon us, He will see to it that we will get those experiences, those trials, those tribulations and those blessings that will enable us to grow till we become like Him.

It might be that he will have to do it through sickness, it may be that He will do it through health, He may do it through poverty, He may do it through wealth, He may do it through ignorance, that is to say, by being denied the kind of education you’d like to have. He may do it through education, but it doesn’t matter, because if we are His children and subject to His will, He will see to it. His love and His mercy are great enough that He will see to it that everything that happens to us is for our good.

And that leads to the next idea, which is almost the same thing, but I like it so much, I just have to make a separate one out of it: from Romans 8:38–39: Paul says that he is persuaded that nothing, neither principalities nor powers, nor life nor death, nor things above nor things beneath, nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus Christ. There is no circumstance so difficult that He cannot help us, no problem so difficult that He cannot solve it, no situation in which we can get where we’re beyond the power of His blessings. In other words, there’s nothing to be afraid of. All we have to do is be His humble children, rejoice in the opportunity to live life each day, to do His will and be grateful, acknowledge His hand in all things in our lives because He does control and govern all things in our lives.

Idea number six: This is found in D&C 50:26–30. I’ll read this one. Here we are told one of the great promises concerning those who are faithful. “He that is ordained of God and sent forth, the same is appointed to be the greatest, notwithstanding he is the least and the servant of all. Wherefore, he is possessor of all things; for all things are subject unto him, both in heaven and on the earth, the life and the light, the Spirit and the power, sent forth by the will of the Father through Jesus Christ, his Son. But no man is possessor of all things except he be purified and cleansed from all sin. And if ye are purified and cleansed from all sin, ye shall ask whatsoever you will in the name of Jesus and it shall be done.” Now I’ve never heard the wildest fairy tale that’s had that great a promise or hope. And this isn’t a fairy tale; this is reality. Have you ever heard of a greater promise than that you can have anything that you desire in righteousness, if only you’re cleansed and purified from all sin? If we have hungered to do good things in this world, there’s a great shortcut, there’s a great secret to being able to accomplish good and that is to come unto Jesus as a little child and be cleansed and purified from all sin through His atoning power. Then, you see, we can have anything we ask for.

We’d better read the next verse though, just to put it in context: “But know this, it shall be given you what you shall ask.” Now, to many people that sounds like a contradiction. We can only have anything we ask for, as long as we ask for only what we’re told to ask for? Is that bad? No, that’s the way it has to be, because we don’t know what’s right to ask for until He tells us. We cannot pray correctly except we are instructed as to what to ask for. And so if we come to Him as little children and say, “Tell us what to ask for,” then if we are purified and cleansed from all sin, we can have whatever we are told to ask for. That may sound circular, but I don’t think it is. That is the principle of salvation, if we can just live by it.

I have shared now with you some of my ideas. Let me put this all together now. I’m sure you are aware that when people accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ and truly are servants of the Lord, they are called different things by different people in the world. Someone who believes in Christ is looked upon as a romantic by all cynics because they have ideals. Those who believe in Christ, we who do, hope for things that are not seen, but which are true. We know they are true because we trust the Spirit of the Lord. On the other hand, those who are true servants of Jesus Christ are called cynics by romantics because we are more realistic than the romantics. We see the world the way it is, and we believe in doing things so they will get done. But we have to struggle with both of those extremes. We have to struggle with ourselves. The real struggle to conquer is in our heart. If we can ever get the struggle within our own breast, within our own mind settled in favor of the Lord Jesus Christ, that solves, really, all other problems. You see, that’s what the cynic calls a romantic idea. But you be the judge; it’s your life, it’s your future.

I commend to you the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it is true, I don’t just believe it. I’ve lived too long. I’ve seen too many things. I have seen the manifestations of the spirit. I have seen the power of the Priesthood in so many ways that were I to deny, I know that I would be denying that the sun shines. I know this is the true work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know this is the way of happiness, the way of light, the way of truth and that the only intelligent thing for any of us to do who know about the Gospel is just to live it completely. I think we all know that when we go against our conscience, against what we think is best, the result is disastrous. I think if we have any kind of testimony, we also know that when we follow that still small voice through our conscience, it goes well with us.

My hope and prayer is that we will seize upon this great key to eternal life, and let our lives be filled with truth and then they will be filled with righteousness. They will be filled with the Savior, and by the Savior in order that we might do much good for our fellowmen. But that’s the real question, you see, do we wish to do much good for our fellowmen. The scripture says, blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost. I pray that that might be our hunger, that our lives will be as nothing to us except as we can bless others through our Savior. And I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

6 March 1975

Dear Church Member:

Thanks for your letter; it was good to hear that things are going well with you. You said you wonder about persecution. May I give you my thinking on that topic? First, some background.

I believe that the first and foremost thing for us to remember is that our beloved Master is in charge. In him we live and move and have our being. But he also controls the course of the heavens, the forces and events of nature, the course of nations, and the life of every human being. He grants each of us on this earth enough agency to show our true nature, but never enough to destroy his own purposes. Because men have agency, there is evil. But that evil always has bounds. Two passages from Paul delight my soul as they drive this point home: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. …” (Romans 8:28). “For I am persecuted that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39).

The acknowledgment that the Savior’s work is only to bless and that his hand is in all things is the foundation of faith in Christ. When this eternal perspective is surely planted in our souls by the ministrations of the Holy Spirit, we can have that hope, born of faith, which “maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which maketh them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works. …” (Ether 12:4). We all need that security. Persecution brings insecurity to those who are weak and ungrounded. But the faithful can look on persecution with equanimity, knowing that their security is spiritual. No persecution can rob them of anything essential.

That, of course, raises the question as to what is essential. I count as essential the opportunity to be obedient to my Savior, to have the covenants and the priesthood, to have my dear wife and our wonderful children in eternity. I count as non-essential my job, my reputation, my home, my farm, my health, my life. Now don’t mistake me. I enjoy and desire all of those things. But if I ever had to choose between my enjoyment of them in this world and partaking of the Savior’s love through the Spirit, I would not hesitate. The Lord has so blessed me and answered my prayers that I trust his promise of the blessings of the next world as being far greater than any temporary enjoyment of this world.

I can hear you say, “Brave words. What about deeds?” I know that it is what one does under stress that really counts. But I also know I can’t guarantee anything about the future. As I look at my friends who have thrown in the towel and have given over to Satan, I can only say, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” My hope is in that grace, God being willing, I will meet the tests. All I am sure of is that this moment I have a burning desire to do all that the Savior would have me do. I hunger to bring souls unto him, that they may share my joy in the sweetness of the companionship of his Spirit and in the opportunity to bless others.

But on to persecution!

The word “persecution” itself means to pursue. Thus persecution is pursuit to do harm. Its opposite I to bless, to help. Its contrary is to live and let live. Though this subject does not readily yield itself to neat subdivision, some broad types are obvious. We could mention physical, social and intellectual persecution.

Last Sunday I saw again the film, “And Should We Die.” That brought vividly to mind the importance of being spiritually ready for physical persecution. Raphael Para and his companion were ready to meet death for their testimony, senseless and fortuitous though the circumstances might have been. President Bentley was able to lead the people of the colonies in their narrow escape through fasting and prayer. But, while we all hope to escape, we know not all will. Raphael and his companion had to join the Prophet Joseph, his brother Hyrum, Parley P. Pratt, the Savior, John the Baptist, Abinadi, Abel, and countless others in the death of deliberate persecution. Looking at the burning and bombing and the hate murders of our own time, it seems likely that some of us and perhaps many of the rising generation must face death for our Master. Whether we, as individuals, will face it or not is not the point. I think the point is, we must be ready to do so.

Now if each of us had several days to decide whether or not to die for the Savior, most of us would do well. But is not the real test what we would do under immediate attack? I remember the words of Joseph F. Smith at the campfire in California when challenged by horsemen intent on killing Mormons. I hope I can always reply in his spirit: “Yes sir, I am a Mormon, true blue, through and through.” Many of us might not mind dying gloriously, with much fanfare and publicity. But to die for chastity when accosted on a freeway? To die for honesty in a prison camp? To die for belief in God at the hands of a mob? If our testimony means enough to us that we prepare each morning either to live for the Savior or to die for him that day, we will always be prepared.

But perhaps we will not be murdered; just robbed, looted, burned, driven. Kirtland, Independence, Far West, Nauvoo, should always be in our minds. Those persecutions are our heritage. We must again be ready should they need to become our legacy. The Lectures on Faith make it clear where we must stand: “An actual knowledge to any person, that the course of life which he pursues is according to the will of God, is essentially necessary to enable him to have that confidence in God without which no person can obtain eternal life. It was this that enabled the ancient saints to endure all their afflictions and persecutions, and to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing (not believing merely), that they had a more enduring substance. Having the assurance that they were pursuing a course which was agreeable to the will of God, they were enabled to take, not only the spoiling of their goods, and the wasting of their substance, joyfully, but also to suffer death in its most horrid forms; knowing (not merely believing) that when this earthy house of their tabernacle was dissolved, they had a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (Lecture Sixth, 2–3). Only that faith nurtured in the privacy of peace will weather the turmoil of trial.

When I think of social persecution, two classic examples come to mind. One is the story of the Welch family, beautifully told in the article entitled “Persecution: 1924” in the Ensign of January 1975. That remarkable father led his family ten miles to church over mountain and dale, through rain and mud when that was necessary. And when confrontation was the right thing to do, he had the courage to do it.

Persecution for his family was the hammer and anvil by which they all acquired the temper which makes saints out of faint hearts and well-wishers.

The other example is connected with the controversy over the laws of the Utah Territory and federal law two centuries ago. I honor the memory of George Reynolds, who, loyal to both his people and to his government, stood trial and suffered imprisonment so that the laws could be clarified. This man, secretary to four First Presidencies, General Authority, legislator, businessman, and editor, willingly absorbed the attack of the enemies of the Church so that others might not need to suffer in that way, To cap it off, he used his time in prison to produce our concordance to the Book of Mormon. Perhaps you know the brief account of his life and sufferings found in the foreword of that work.

Recent commendation of the Church and some of its members is a pleasant change for our peculiar people. The changed climate has helped us to bear testimony, to gain the ear of some who otherwise would not have heard. While we rejoice in that change, we must remember that it is not universal. Throughout the world there is as yet ostracism, discrimination, defamation and harassment. What a challenge both to be humble under praise and steady under persecution, not really knowing which will come next! Our path is to be constant, in season and out of season, bearing our witness as the Holy Spirit directs, come what may. When I think of the “come what may,” I am comforted by the saying of Elder Boyd K. Packer: “The truth doesn’t make enemies. It uncovers them.” We are sent to perform a task which includes the uncovering of the enemies along with the joy of finding the lost sheep of our Master. If we fear His enemies, we are not likely to find His sheep.

Bad as physical and social persecution can be, I think that intellectual persecution is the most devastating. The former are by nature opposition from outside, and as such they serve actually to strengthen the Church. But the intellectual attack also works within the Church. It divides and dilutes us when it comes from members. Let me give you two examples of ideas for which we are persecuted at various times and places.

The first example is personal revelation. To me, personal revelation is one of the great glories of the Restoration, especially in the promise that “every man might speak in the name of God, the Lord, even the Savior of the world.” (D&C 1:20) Personal revelation makes ever man and woman a prophet or prophetess, to know the voice of the Lord and to bear witness of him, not needing to depend upon the arm of flesh. Oh how personal revelation pulls down intellectual tyranny, priestcraft, and private interpretation of scripture! How it assuages the confused mind, the aching heart, the yearning soul! How it clothes with a mantle of charity, the pure love of Christ!

Forgive me. I know I do not need to sing the praises of personal communication with the Savior to you. But I can’t help being excited when I ponder all the blessings which come to mankind by it. Perhaps its strength is the very reason why it becomes a focus for persecution.

I once heard a professor of mine boast that he had broken more priests, rabbis and Bible readers than anyone else in the business. With that boast he warned any who wished to continue to believe in revelation to depart. I stayed. Then he lowered the boom and went through all of the reasons why belief in revelation was irrational. He showed how the people who claimed revelation were inconsistent, both within their own individual writings and among themselves. He pointed out the great abuses that religion had wrought in the world, from inquisitions to caste systems, to human sacrifice. He mocked the Bible, pointing out what he took to be obvious internal contradictions. Then he went on to show how everything good in human progress had consisted in rejection of religious beliefs in favor of scientific, empirical evidence.

Well. I was devastated by that onslaught. There I was, a graduate student, well-schooled in LDS theology, happily a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all of my life, a defender of the faith and successful sufferer of physical and social persecution –but devastated. He had made me realize that I did not have a personal testimony of revelation. All I had was an intellectual awareness of what others said about our religion. That realization shook me, for I fully realized that I might be wrong.

During the next few weeks, I went through an experience for which I can think of only one word which fully represents it: hell. I was assailed by doubt, by fear, by loneliness. I began to wonder if I were sane. Through this time I kept two promises I had made to myself: I would continue to attend church and continue to read ten pages of scripture each night. But those two things also became an agony to me. And I prayed. Oh how I prayed to know for myself if there were such a thing as personal revelation.

Then—thanks be to our good Master—it came. I began to feel something special in my breast. I began to recognize certain ideas that appeared in my mind as being different from my own thoughts. These new ideas told me how to interpret passages of scripture, how to understand things formerly incomprehensible to me, even to know the future. But I could tell the difference. Here was the iron rod. I had hold of it. The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ really was and is true!

Since then I have had stumblings. I have been burned, and through these negative experiences I have learned two things: without Him I am nothing, and I must be ever careful not to be confused as to who it is that is speaking to me.

Now a full quarter-century has passed. That slender thread of personal revelation has brought me to everything I now hold dear. It has brought me a flood of knowledge and understanding—and a glimpse of how far I have yet to go. I now know that there is power in the priesthood of this Church, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed the head of this Church. Now as I see the Church touching the lives of others, my heart overflows with gratitude to the Lord for this pearl of great price which each of us can have. My greatest sorrow, except for my own sins, is that some persons who I know cannot seem to get a testimony. But I have hope for them. Looking back I know that I must have had personal revelation before that trial. The problem was that I had not become acute at recognizing it.

So personal revelation becomes a great watershed, in the Church and out. Those who have it are drawn into a unity of faith in Christ. Many of those who don’t have it think those who have it are deluded or demented. I suspect that some fear that it might really exist—so they persecute those who teach and proclaim its reality. They don’t want it for fear they might have to give up some sin. And they don’t want anyone else to have it because that too convicts them of sin.

So we are persecuted for personal revelation in a world that prides itself on “hard” evidence, and on the strength of consensus. As a philosopher of human knowledge, I can only shake my head. For I know and can prove that there is no such thing as evidence apart from a matrix of presuppositions, that objectivity is at best a consensus, and that consensus is often but a public relations job. Every scientific system begins with un\proved postulates. Every person founds his life on articles of faith. But what a blessing to be able to ground our faith upon a rock—on personal revelation from our Savior.

I promise to be more brief on the next idea. We are also persecuted for our belief in uniqueness, for the idea that there is but one true church, one true priesthood, one narrow path to salvation, one chosen people, one fountain for all righteousness. Many people of my acquaintance are willing to see good in the Church, especially as a social system. But for us to claim that no one but members of our Church can become celestial raises hackles. That does not fit the permissive, egalitarian, ecumenical age we live in. It is taken as a sign of snobbery, of racism, of hypocrisy, of almost anything bad. One of the reasons my soul so hungers and yearns to see the establishment of Zion is so that we won’t have to say anything about uniqueness then. We will just be content to be unique. How unique would it be to get a least half the Church members to be of one heart and one mind, to dwell in righteousness, and have no poor person among them. I think that we would then see the fulfillment of that promise and challenge: “That the kingdoms of this world may be constrained to acknowledge that the kingdom of God is in very deed the kingdom of God and of his Christ.” (D&C 105:32)

Meanwhile, we are subject to persecution for our claim to be the true Church, and are dismissed with others who make the same claim. Is it possible that we deserve persecution on this point? If we claim to be the one true church and are not significantly better, perhaps we have earned trouble. Oh for Zion!

Three more observations on persecution and I will stop these ramblings lest I wear you out. (My egotism presumes you are yet with me.)

The first concerns the story of Stephen in Acts 6 and 7. I reread it recently and was forcefully impressed with an idea. Stephen has always come across to me as a good man, well-suited to minister to widow’s need, “full of the Holy Ghost,” a powerful servant of Christ. But it has always struck me that he spoke to the Sanhedrin rather forthrightly, surely provocatively. His speech would hardly win any Dale Carnegie awards. I have wondered: Did he have a martyr complex? Was he trying to die?

My feeling now is that he enjoyed life as much as you or I, and was doubtless very happy because of the good he was able to do for others. But he had a mission to perform. For some reason the Sanhedrin needed another witness of the great tragedy in which they were principals. The promised Messiah had come and had fulfilled all things while some of those who desired to be His servants carefully engineered His death. This was a tragic flaw, a damming fate, indeed. His own people largely rejected Him as would no other nation or people –or planet. Could Stephen have supposed that he could convert them when the Savior himself had failed to do so?

But Stephen was true to his mission. He bore testimony of Christ and of their sin. The flood of anger and hate that carried him outside of the walls to die, stone by stone, was the necessary consequence of his commission. He sealed his testimony (and probably their reward) with his blood. The moral I draw from this story is that we should not be needlessly offensive in this world. We should never seek to be persecuted. But we should seek to fulfill our personal missions, wending our way among the hate and persecutions that will come, but never trying to offend. But should our commission call us to an unsavory task where we cannot help but offend, then we should bear the task off manfully, with great humility, and with a firm grasp on the iron rod. I honor Stephen in his great example.

My second thought relates to Saul, afterwards known as Paul, also of Acts. Saul persecuted the Saints with great zeal and ability. Then the Lord’s mercy allowed him to repent and to become Paul. Then he was persecuted by the Jews and others, even as he had persecuted. I think all of us should see ourselves in this story. We should ask ourselves: “Am I yet Saul or am I now Paul? Am I still persecuting the Saints and the Savior or have I repented of my sins to serve and suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ? Do I persecute others in my zeal to do God a favor (as if He needed my hate or scorn to further His cause), or do I humbly and patiently “submit to all things that my God seeth fit to inflict upon me, even as a child doth submit to his father.”

One final point: As we look at the “big picture” of things, I see persecution taking a special significance. All of us who have become accountable have sinned. Having sinned we justly merit retribution from the world. We cannot claim that being persecuted is wholly unwarranted. But there is One whose life and perfection has swallowed up our debt for sin. In His atonement, our Savior paid the debt of justice for every human sin that had been or would be committed. Having paid that debt, all sin focuses on him. When any of us sin we are persecuting Christ, for we are adding to his burden of suffering for sin.

The work of our Savior is to bless everyone and everything. We who are not omniscient know not how to bless perfectly, as He does. But as we act on our Savior’s instructions, He guides us through his priesthood and the Holy Spirit in the blessing of others. Our wiling obedience to Him constitutes faith in Jesus Christ. But when we do not bless, we hurt, either by commission or omission. Thus all sinning is really persecution. It is persecution both of the person or persons we do not bless, and it is persecution of the great and good God of this earth, Jesus Christ. It helps me to have perspective to see that murder, adultery, lying, hypocrisy, anger, hate, stealing, etc., are all persecution of Christ. I sorrow for all who are hurt by sin. But I all grieve for our Master, who, I believe, feels every sin more keenly than any of us do when we are sinned against. Every war, every riot, every pillage, all raping, all priestcraft, all sinning, are personal attacks on the Savior. I imagine His grief when we set guilty murderers free, despising the lives of those whom they have murdered, then legally condemning to death millions of innocent unborn (and some born) babies.

Knowing all this doesn’t make me perfect. I wish it did. But it does make me ache to stop sinning. If I could only stop, every last whit, then I would no longer be persecuting my loved ones and my Savior. The real point is that I am a persecutor. Any persecution inflicted upon me does not begin to compare in importance with fact that I, until I fully repent, am pursuing others to do them harm. I know that it is possible to stop sinning, but only through the laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lavina, you have been kind to wade through all of this, I inflict this on you only in the hope that our souls will so hunger after Him who we love that we will make every sacrifice necessary to become as He is. That is the greatest thing we can do about persecution. “Let us here observe, that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation; for, from the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things. It was through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life; and it is through this medium of the sacrifice of all earthly things that men do actually know that they are doing the things that are well pleasing in the sight of God. When a man has offered in sacrifice all that he has for the truth’s sake, not even withholding his life, and believing before God that he has been called to make this sacrifice because he seeks to do His will, he does know, most assuredly, that God does and will accept his sacrifice and offering, and that he has not, nor will seek His face in vain. Under these circumstances, then, he can obtain the faith necessary for him to lay hold on eternal life.” (Lectures on Faith, Lecture Sixth: 7)

(Written in about 1975)

Each of us files a daily report as to how we feel about the Church in our actions. Silently we acclaim or protest through our support or non-support of what we see and hear. This is an unsolicited verbal report filed for any and all who might be interested. As you might guess, what is said below is the perspective of a single individual. You are also a single individual. May we compare notes?

The first thing I must do to give you my reactions is to separate some things out. The most important of these are the Savior, the Gospel, the Church, and the people of the Church.

I think of the Savior as my friend and companion. That sounds presumptuous, but I am willing to say it because I think of myself as His friend and servant. And I say it because I know the sweet peace of His spirit.

Feeling His spirit is the sweetest, most desirable experience in my life. Sometimes it gives me an overwhelming spiritual shock, as when I read Micah 6:8, or D&C 121:45–46, or Matthew 25:40. That shock shakes the very core of my being; I cannot deny what is said, for I know it is true. I know, because of such experiences that the Lord loves righteousness, and, therefore, He loves me. I know also that I love righteousness, and, therefore, I love Him. That’s why I think of Him as my friend. We both desire the same goals, and delight in the same things, especially to do justly, and to have mercy.

But, to be frank, the Lord scares me at the same time I feel His friendship. He is perfect in righteousness, and I am far from it. Though I think less of myself for it, I do yet yield to the flesh, filling its desires when I should not. Or sometimes anger or pride well up within me to defy the humility of the Holy Spirit. I know well what Nephi was talking about when he lamented because of his flesh in 2 Nephi 4. But Nephi is small comfort on that point. I see clearly that I will go on being scared until I have fully repented. I think that is what it means to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.

Sometimes I wonder about the whole business. The thought comes to me: You are just telestial material; no matter how hard you try you can never be like the Savior. But as I cry out in desperation to the Lord through hot tears, the sweet peace of the Spirit reaches to me like a cool breath to a fevered brow. It says: God is just, so do not worry about where you will be in eternity. There is much to be done now, for the sheep are scattered. Let the love of the lost sheep cause you to hunger to see them blessed. That hunger will enable you to overcome the flesh through the Savior; then you can do great good in this world.

So I have this testimony of the Lord. He speaks to me often through His spirit. He shows me the vision of righteousness and of Zion. He tells me how to read the scriptures. He has given me every good idea I have used in my professional and family life for many years. He reproves me when I am wayward, showing me the better way. When I am ill, His spirit heals me when I have learned my lesson, and He always teaches me some precious lesson that way. Do you see why I call Him my friend and companion? I have no mortal friend who compares with Him, save my wife. For Him I would gladly die, anytime, anywhere, even though I have never seen Him. But I also feel that I will die if I can never be faithful enough to see Him.

I love the Gospel because it teaches me of the Savior. I understand it to be those simple but marvelous ideas expressed in a few verses within 3 Nephi 27. It seems to be a formula for receiving the companionship of the Lord through His Holy Spirit. I know the Gospel is true because I have applied the formula and know that it works.

It took me a long time to learn the Gospel. The greatest obstacle was unlearning much of what I had been taught as a youngster in the Church. Until I seriously sought to dig out for myself the true meaning and application of faith and repentance, they were baffling because the cliches I heard didn’t fit the scriptures. With the help of some very spiritual people of the Church and the help of the Holy Spirit itself I have learned what I think are the essentials of the Gospel. My hesitation stems from the fact that every now and then I get a new and clearer glimpse of the first principles that makes me wonder if I ever really understood them before.

The scriptures seem to be the intellectual battleground where one struggles with ideas to get a clear and true idea of the Gospel formula. When we know the formula, our minds and bodies become the battleground for self control so that we might gain the companionship of the Holy Spirit. When one has the Holy Spirit, the world seems to be the battleground where one struggles to do good in the midst of great evil. As one succeeds in doing some good, the mysteries of heaven begin to unfold, a glimpse of celestial order and celestial kingdoms. If one is wise enough not to talk of them, knowledge of the mysteries becomes a great anchor to the soul. But there is no anchor to compare with the more sure word.

The Church, to me, is the priesthood organization extending from the Savior through the president of the Church down to each member. I like to think of the priesthood as a harness; it gives us a specific place to work, a specific relationship to other workers, a real opportunity to move along the work of God, which is the work of righteousness and salvation. If I can learn to fill my role, to do my priesthood assignments well, the Church can move forward. If we all pull together as the Savior directs, we together can do good things for this suffering world which could not be done by us alone or in any other way. It is both a great thrill and an awesome responsibility to be in the harness.

There have been times when I have aspired to high office in the Church. I dreamed once of becoming a general authority. I can see the adversary laughing gleefully when he has gotten me to think of desiring high office. The Lord in His kindness has let me have enough office to discover two most precious things. He has taught me first that there is no greater priesthood calling than father and mother; nothing is more challenging or more worthwhile than the firm establishment of a celestial family. Secondly, He has shown me that office in the Church is something I cannot refuse, but I must see Church office as an added burden which may destroy my primary family responsibility. If I am doing well in my family, I will have power to do well in my Church calling, and the better I then do in my Church calling, the more help I will have with my family. But if I am not doing well in my family, I will have little to offer to the Church; as I fail in my Church assignment, I destroy the possibility of ever having an eternal family. There is no way out but up. My love of the Lord must become so consuming that it will burn the dross out of me. Then I can be the father and the high priest that I want to be. Then I am fully on the Savior’s team and can do great eternal good. But oh the deceitfulness of the temptation to desire that which we do not have!

When I think of the priesthood order of the Church, I think particularly of the General Authorities, my Stake President, and my Bishop. I love to attend conference or any meeting where I am instructed and encouraged by those over me in authority. When any one of my file leaders speak, my soul resonates to the message, and their voice seems like the voice of my Father. Sometimes I am out of tune with them; I still get the message that they are right, but I am jarred by it. When I am most in tune, I can often anticipate what they will say and do. Needless to say, when I am in tune, sustaining them is a joy, for it is the Savior that I and they are unitedly sustaining.

The Brethren scare me, too, as does the Savior. I feel uncomfortable around them because I know that what they say is right and I am not yet doing all I could do. When, oh when, I keep wondering, will I ever get on the ball so that my confidence will wax strong in the presence of the Lord? Even though they burn me and scare me, I am proud of the Brethren and so grateful to have them to help me find the way of the Savior. I know many of them personally and can testify that they are great and godly men.

Sometimes I hear people criticize the Brethren. I hurt inside for the criticizer, for I know that he does not enjoy that great and uplifting gift of spiritual unity with them. The Holy Spirit has taught me to listen first to them, out of all the voices in this world, on any and every subject, at any time and place. When I talk with them, I perceive they are highly intelligent men. They have seen more of the world and know more of what is critical and urgent than any other group I have ever read or listened to. I marvel at the power and precision of the programs they bring out; the programs are not always final, but they are marvelously suited to the needs of the Church.

I see the Correlation work of the Church as the great struggle to convert all members of the Church to become servants of Jesus Christ. Church membership makes us nominal servants; the work of the program of correlation will bring our heart, might, mind and strength under that head, culminating in the establishment of the full patriarchal order. But the patriarchal order is simply the rule of Jesus Christ through His priesthood, the kind of rule that can be established only when people are fully faithful.

Home teaching (now Ministering) is the key to all Church work, as I see it. If it succeeds, the patriarchal order will be established; if it fails, I presume the Lord will simply wait for a new generation of children or converts who will be faithful. I have never glimpsed a greater organized power to raise souls to perfection than the Home Teaching Program (now the Ministering Program).

The genealogy program is another facet of the patriarchal system. I understand our greatest responsibility to be to seek after our kindred dead. Living or dead, we cannot serve Christ fully without honoring all our righteous fathers and blessing our children.

 The missionary program is exciting to behold. As the great net sweeps the seas the harvest of souls almost breaks it. What a hope to know that there are kindred spirits in every nation, tongue and people! And what a joy to find them and to bring them unto Christ.

The welfare program is sort of the “proof of the pudding.” If the other programs “take” on us, then we feel a fierce urgency to do something for the poor. And that something will be to consecrate all we have to the Lord and His work, that His children might not lack blessing. The size of our souls is measured by the size of our ability to help others spiritually and temporally. For the whole Gospel, spiritually and temporally, in time and in eternity, for the saviors and those who save, is one great welfare program.

How does it look from the bottom? It looks great. The ship is sound and is on course. There are no better shipmates to be found anywhere. The officers know where they are going and are steering a correct course. I know that because my private receiver lets me listen in on their instructions. They are following the Master indeed.

Are there no troubles, no breaches, no lapses, you say? Indeed, there are problems. False doctrine is taught by some of us. Some of us in authority have little love. Some of us just relax in the harness and let the leaders pull us along. But the problems are the problems of the people of the Church, not problems of the Church, or the Gospel, or the Lord.

For this is my testimony, too: “Stick to the old ship.”

Written in about 1975

The traditional training for the ministry in Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism has been basically sophic. It has been a rational approach which emphasizes scholarship as the basic approach. Scholarship is taken as the key because it is to the basic written sources that each of these religions goes for its direction and justification.

It is interesting to note, however, that the basic written sources of those religions are not sophic in origin but are mantic. They are the eye-witness accounts of persons who knew God as a person. The sophic or scholarly approach is the basis of those religions only because the mantic element is gone: revelation has admittedly ceased. But revelation is yet venerated in the scholarly investigation of its written remnants.

Training for the ministry in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is basically mantic and only secondarily sophic. First and foremost the Elder must recognize and live by his own personal revelation from God. By this means he is able to identify those who are truly given presiding authority by God, to make correct interpretations of doctrine, and to order properly the affairs of the Kingdom which are placed in his charge. Only secondarily does he need and use the sophic approach, but he definitely and necessarily needs it. But his interpretations of the written records are always guided by revelation even when maximally enriched by the fruits of sophic scholarship.

Thus the training of an LDS Elder is of necessity mostly a field training. It involves substantial schooling after the manner of other religions, but depends principally upon the ability of the Elder to discern and live by the personal revelations he receives in the daily course of working within the Church in his assigned stewardship and in his contacts with the world.

20 April 1973

Much publicity has been given recently to an alleged “glut” in graduate education. Let us examine this situation for a moment by asking and answering some important questions.

Question: Why is graduate education valued so highly in our culture?

Answer: In part the answer is tradition. The ideal man in western civilization has been “a gentleman and a scholar.” To be a scholar enables one to be a “knower.” Knowledge is liberating and exhilarating. Many also seek to engage in intellectual pursuits because they give a person a station in life above the menial. Many persons in our culture think that it is degrading to earn a livelihood in a way that dirties one’s hands.

Another reason why graduate education is highly valued is that ofttimes it enables a person to achieve a technical competence that is needed by society. Engineers and scientists particularly, including both physical and social engineers and scientists, have been much sought after in recent times. Accountants and information specialists are in demand.

In sum: Graduate education has great social and often great vocational value.

Question: Why has there been such a marked increase in persons receiving higher degrees?

Answer: The reason for the increase is again twofold. Because of the great cultural value placed on graduate degrees, great masses of people see them as their personal key to joining the elite of our society. Every underprivileged (that is to say non-elite) parent would like to see his children join the higher ranks, to become elite. So in this age of social egalitarianism, education has come to be seen as an inherent political “right” by which minorities and repressed persons are to be given their fair share of the civilization’s glory. It is dimly recognized that if everyone had a Ph.D. then the Ph.D. would be of no value to anyone. But since relatively few persons do, there is still great advantage in being called “Doctor” even though the value is diminishing.

The second main reason for the increase in persons with higher degrees is money. The Federal Government, being persuaded of a national emergency, has poured billions of dollars into degree production.

In sum: The increase in graduate degrees is due to social and political pressures.

Question: Is there a real glut?

Answer: There is an oversupply in some fields. Fields that are directly oriented to vocational needs of society other than teaching are faring much better.

Question: Will the oversupply continue?

Answer: The desire for upward social movement with its attendant political pressure will assure continuing oversupply, supposing economic stability. Private universities have cut back but state institutions continue to increase in all fields. Only the lack of funds prevents increasing oversupply.

Question: What are the results of oversupply?

Answer: An oversupply creates a buyers’ market, which means that quality of product becomes very important. Business and industry will tend to profit from some oversupply in that they can pick and choose more. But the oversupply is least in the areas needed by business and industry.

Under the free market, universities would also profit from the oversupply, for it is in the fields that lead to university teaching that we have the greatest oversupply. But we do not have a free market. The system of tenure assures that year of being hired, not competence, is the criterion for continuing university employment. Able graduates in the humanities and social sciences may have to be jobless or under-hired and to be content with their increased social status.

Question: What is the best strategy for a person to pursue in a buyers’ market?

Answer: Be good. To be good in your field means mostly to be well-disciplined and hard-working. It is your continuing production, not your past laurels which count.

Question: Can a “good” person really break into the tight market?

Answer: The oversupply is strictly in “ordinary” graduates. Extraordinary people are always in demand.

Every day I see inquiries from search committees, ads in papers, requests from friends for extraordinary people.

Question: What are the characteristics of this extraordinary type of person?

Answer: The answer is three-fold:

1. It is to be good in your field, as mentioned before. Have you published? Have you done an outstanding piece of research? Do you know the frontiers of your field? Do you have a “magnificent obsession” that makes you work on even if you are not being paid for it?
2. Are you a good person? Are you steady, resilient, resourceful? Do you have your passions and appetites in control? Is your family life happy and stable? Are you cheerful, gracious, grateful?
3. Are you a good leader? Do you have a keen sense of right and wrong, and do you openly stand for what is right? Do you have vision, so that you are able to plan wisely and fulfill those plans? Are you able to enlist the support of others through persuasion and information? Do you help everyone on your team to achieve every satisfaction you achieve?

For all of our social and material glory, our great need today is for intelligent, righteous leadership. How sad to see men and women poorly trained, or self-indulgers, or unable to muster backbone, or blind to possibilities, or unable to change, or unwilling to follow, or unable to share; cynics, backbiters, given to lucre, faint of heart.

Question: Doesn’t all this begin to smack of religion?

Answer: Indeed it does. Religion is the ordering of life. No man can every rise above the personal religion he espouses. (A person’s personal religion and his church may be two different things.) Every personal and social problem can be shown to be a problem of religion. Poverty, ignorance, war, are all functions of religion as are plenty, intelligence, and peace. The real solution to the world’s problems is in religion. If men could and would repent, that is to say, to exchange their false beliefs for true ones and their evil desires and poor habits for good desires and good habits, then we could solve every problem, including all of yours and mine.

But how can the world repent? Most people don’t even believe that what we call repentance is possible. The only hope the world has is to see true repentance. Then they will know it is possible. This is where you come in.

You who graduate from Brigham Young University know of the true and restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you live that Gospel, you will come to exemplify every good thing I have mentioned today. Brigham Young University certifies to the world today that you have basic competence in your chosen field. But it is up to you to be and to demonstrate to the world that you are also a good person and a good leader.

The world has mistakenly thought that academic training was sufficient to provide the leadership the world needs. Operating on that principle has caused us to go round and round, from war to war, from tax to tax, from program to program with little real change in our human situation. What the world needs is not just you, but a repentant you made over in the image of our Lord and master, Jesus Christ.

In the midst of all else that transpires today, I hope you will remember that today is the occasion set aside annually to commemorate that greatest of all events of history, the atonement of our Savior. In that sacrifice on the cross, our Master fulfilled His perfect example to us. There is nothing fine which we could ever hope to attain wherein He has not set the example of perfection in that already. We say we believe in seeking after those things that are virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy. Of all things or persons, Jesus Christ is the most virtuous, lovely, of good report and praiseworthy. We can do no better than to become exactly as He is.

We send you forth today as graduates, to do good among men. Our Savior sends us all forth as His children, to be the salt of the earth, to bring full and true salvation within the grasp of every nation, kindred, tongue and people. It is our hope that you go forth to serve, not to be served; to love purely, to sacrifice, to establish Zion. May you be giants of strength among fearful companions. May you be islands of righteousness in a sea of instability. May you desire and lay hold of every good thing. May we all honor our Master as He has honored us. This is my hope and prayer for you and for all of us.

May 1972 Commencement Remarks

As many of you have come to the climax of your formal education, it is appropriate to ask what you have learned. Likely you have learned in two areas, acting and thinking. Training is the educational approach which has taught you how to act: how to write a history, how to run a titration, how to conduct a survey, how to analyze a business, how to produce a play. Hopefully each of you is well-trained in the business of your specialty, and that this training will be the basis of a solid contribution which you will now make to society. Knowing the people and the programs under which you have been trained, I have confidence in the future of your contribution.

But I am more concerned with your thinking than with your acting. Learning to act skillfully in the work of the world is crucial, but it is in thinking well that the real power of man lies. Training is basically the process of stimulating imitation. You have served with and under masters who have led you to emulate themselves and thus to be successful producers. But learning to think is never a matter of imitating. Thinking is a process of challenge, it is the unique assertion of individuality wherein you establish your identity as a person. You cannot really be trained to think, but you can be challenged to think. If you can think, you can better meet any challenge, you thrive on difference, you delight in problems. For if you can think, you can rise to meet the exigencies of new occasions, you can bring unity out of difference, you turn problems into progress.

Do not confuse thinking and the challenge to think with iconoclasm, for the latter is an oft seen counterfeit of the former. Every person comes to the university with a worldview, a set of values, a heart full of desires, all more or less naïvely held. The iconoclast is the person who cleverly invades that naïvety, demolishes the appertaining mindset of the naïve and substitutes his own prejudices and opinions in place of that which he destroys. Iconoclasm thus does not teach a person to think; it merely trains him to parrot the responses of the current academic vogues.

The challenge to think, by contrast, is administered effectively only be persons who think. A person who thinks may well have a worldview, values and desires, but each is subject to constant scrutiny and to possible change. He who truly thinks values the freedom and power that thinking brings, knowing that it is his personal access to individuality and increased ability. Treasuring that individuality and power for himself he cannot righteously deny that freedom to another. Thus he will not indulge in iconoclasm, no matter how superior to those of his contemporaries he perceives his ideas to be.

How then does one person challenge another to think? It is done by throwing a person back into his own naïve mind and asking him to justify what he thinks and says. In other words, it is to challenge the person to substitute his own personal deliberate basis for accepting what he believes in place of the happenstances of upbringing and formal training which have produced his naïve initial approach. Whether a person changes anything he believes, values or desires in this process of thinking is incidental. The change is that what he thinks are now his thoughts, a reflection of his personality, and the emergence of a true individual. He who thinks is no longer the creature of his social environment. In one sense he has now become a threat and a challenge to it, for he is no longer subject to it, and now has the power to change it. Any indication of such independence or move to change makes the non-thinkers, especially the iconoclasts, most uncomfortable. I suppose that discomfort is the source of the fear that drives some men to try to dominate others, classic examples of which we see in the auto da fe

of the inquisition, the witchcraft trials of Salem, the liquidation and incarceration of political opposition in communist nations, which are in turn but repetitions of the answers of fear administered to Socrates, to John the Baptist, to Jesus the Messiah, and to Joseph the Prophet.

Let us use an example to show the contrast between the approach to a problem as exhibited by a fearful non-thinker on the one hand and a genuine thinker on the other. I deliberately choose an example which is current.

It is popular among the iconoclasts of our day to speak sneeringly of the “Protestant work ethic.” For their purposes this is a happy collocation of concepts already on the run, and derogating them in unison makes “rhetorical hay” most efficiently.

Protestantism is on the run. A hundred years of iconoclastic attack on the Bible has so withered its foundations that to be a believer is virtually synonymous with being non-rational or non-educated. The original protest has sunk from the noble purpose of affirming God’s revealed word to the support of communist aggression in Indo-China. So it is easy and profitable to kick Protestantism.

“Work” as a concept and an action is similarly on the run. In a day when labor-saving devices are seen by many as the real fruit of scientific endeavor, it is seemingly a mark of progress and intelligence to work as little as possible. Labor unions, whose stock in trade might reasonably seem to be work, are saying, “Workers of the world unite and we will see that you do as little work as possible.” When welfare is perceived as a right, when the criminal is favored over his victim, when men would far prefer to fight than work, it becomes a delightful populist technique to kick work.

The term “ethic” is another rhetorical pushover. In a day that defies restraints both legal and moral, the connotations of the word “ethic” seem like relics of the dark ages. As permissiveness abounds, so do restraints, rules, regulations, and laws, of any sort, become horrendous. The good life is seen to be as one floating in the sea of impulse, washed by the waves of desire, mindless in a wallow of gratification. “Ethic”?: a thing of derision.

But we as Latter-day Saints should know better. We should know that for all of its problems, Protestantism has been beneficial to mankind, nurturing in a sustained way both political freedom and scientific thought as no other culture has ever done. And it laid the foundations necessary for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in these latter days. Work we know to be the basis of all good things, both in time and in eternity, a commandment of God to men, and a sanctifying activity to all who know when, where and how to apply their strength. We know that ethics is what makes man more than beast, and that as the world sinks in our day into the miasma of sub-bestial permissive irregularity, we know that it is only by wholehearted adoption of the true ethic, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that there will be anything saved or worth saving when the cataclysm of the Second Coming comes. Hopefully we as Latter-day Saints and as educated people will not mindlessly sneer against the “Protestant work ethic” with the iconoclasts.

Perhaps we do perceive, however, that the Protestant work ethic has some defects. What will the thinker then do? Rather than sneer and destroy, he will go to his own mind and will attempt to conceive a cure for the ills of mankind. Relentlessly he will ask himself why? wherefore? Does it work for me? Will it work for others? Out of the best thinking he can muster will come a hypothesis, an idea he is willing to sacrifice to experiment upon, something worth testing. If his test proves affirmative, he will bear witness of his hypothesis and the experiment he has performed, but without any attempt to coerce any hearer. He will patiently hear others who have sacrificed to perform their own experiments, hoping that perhaps someone has come closer to the answers than he. But above all he will respect the sanctity of the individuality of his fellow human beings. Being true to thinking, he will never try to damn the progress of humanity by attempting to prevent or to inhibit their thinking. And in so acting he will serve his God, the greatest good which he knows.

It is my hope that each of us will think, and think, and think until we become thinkers. Then our education will not have been merely training. Then our lives will not be lived simply as animals. Then we will not mindlessly parrot the cliches of our times. Then we can truly serve our God.

28 May 1971

There are more free people in the world today than ever before. There are also more slaves. Technology has given us historically unprecedented power. We as a race do not know how to use that power responsibly. Pollution threatens to engulf us. Yet never before have we been so little at the mercy of our natural environment. The world seems awfully full of people, especially in some places. But human happiness is bound up in being with and serving people. More people of more nations are educated than ever before. Yet magic, witchcraft, sorcery, priestcraft and astrology are exploding in popularity. We as a world are as materialistic as any previous age. But many grasp for something better.

It this a bad world? I say no. Is this a good world? I say no. For the world simply is. Whether the world is good or bad is not what matters. What does count is what you and I do about it. We can contribute to its woes or heal its wounds, or both. I believe that you and I think of the world as good or bad depending upon how we act. If we delight to assuage the suffering of others, life will be good. If we are conscious only of our own suffering, we will call it evil.

Our challenge and opportunity then is to enter into the processes of this world with zest, influencing it for good as much as we can.

But how shall we know to do good? It is obvious that many persons of sincere intent energetically strive to do good but succeed in making the world demonstrably worse. Can you and I do better?

Fortunately for us, the way to do good is simple, and it lies in a straight path before us. It is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart, might, mind, and strength. But how do we do that? Again, the answer is simple: Follow the Brethren. Our greatest blessing is to have a God who lives and who hears and answers us. Our next greatest blessing is the priesthood authority on this earth which guides us to our God.

I submit to you my witness that the way to do good in this world is to follow the Brethren in every way. I believe that we should hang on every word they say, making their words our thoughts. What they are concerned about, we can be concerned about. What they like, we can like. We can dress and groom ourselves to be like them. We can serve as they serve, obey as they obey. This is not slavish imitation: it is rather the delighted response of an intelligent child who is grateful to have noble fathers. I know of no better way for us who have the covenants to come unto the Savior.

Our academic training has given all of us great power in this world. I pray that each of us will see this world as a great opportunity to do good, and that our good will not be self-righteousness, but rather the humble obedience of the servants of Christ. Then our academic training will not have been in vain.

Dr. Chauncey Riddle
Salt Lake Institute of Religion—Forum
May 9, 1969

I appreciate the opportunity to treat this topic today because I thoroughly believe in being conservative. I take it that the meaning of the word conservative is simply one who conserves. I believe in the admonition of Paul who said to “test all things, probe all things; and hold fast to that which is good.” I believe this is basically what a conservative does. There are things that are good, that are tried and true and he hangs on these. There is such a thing as changing for changing’s sake and this is what the conservative desires to avoid. He’s not against change. He is for doing well in all things and that’s why he hangs on to what he has that really works, because sometimes change is retrogression.

I would translate this term, this idea of being a conservative in the church, into very simple terms. To me, to be a conservative simply means to support the brethren; to follow the prophets of God. I don’t take it that this is anything very different from what some people who call themselves liberals do. But, nevertheless, I think this is the conservative position in the sense that through the centuries those who have followed the prophets of God have found for themselves blessings, rewards, opportunities which accrued to no one else. Now, it is especially important to follow the prophets when one considers the alternative. Everybody has to have faith and trust in something, and so there are various alternatives. Some people find their trust in preachers of religion, meaning other churches; some in scientists; some in politicians; some in philosophers; some find it in the majority; some find it right in themselves. I suppose everyone has a right to put his faith and trust in what he wants to. We find people of all different kinds and varieties in this world. That is what makes it such an interesting place. Some people find themselves able to put their trust in the prophets of God and other people would rather put their trust in something else. I’ve often pondered what makes the difference. It’s just obvious that some people can trust prophets and others can’t. I relate this to the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God moves upon certain people, and they are able to receive it, to accept the prophets and to delight in their counsel, and to work with them in the building of the Kingdom of God. Other people for some reason find themselves unable to accept this counsel and find they would rather put their trust in one of these other sources; and so they do. And they reap their reward. I suppose that’s why we’re here, to make our choice; to reap whatever reward we really want. It’s safe to say that a person has to be a prophet to tell a prophet, so the only people who like prophets are prophets. We might define conservatism, then, as the association of prophets in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose who are able to have the spirit of the Lord, to have unity of the faith, to support the cause of Jesus Christ through his spirit and in accordance with the directions and suggestions given by those who preside.

Why do this? What’s the point in doing this particular thing? To me this is the same as asking, what’s the point in living the gospel of Jesus Christ? The point of living the gospel of Jesus Christ is to gain eternal life. There are many definitions of eternal life. I don’t which to quarrel with the principal ones that are taught. I’d like to give you one that is a little different that I think is quite compatible with the usual definitions. In the scriptures the word eternal means “god”. Eternal marriage is God’s marriage; eternal life is God’s life. And it seems to me that the purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to teach a person to live a godly life; a life in which he thinks, acts, feels, and does what he does as a God would do. The purpose of the gospel is to change us, to convert us. When we are converted over from the beings that we start as, we will arrive at the station of godhood and spend the rest of our eternity doing godly things. But this time of mortal life is the time for change. This is the time for repentance, for initiating and making possible this total conversion process, where we are changed from the worldly, selfish, impotent persons that we are into persons who can do the work of gods. So eternal life is to begin to live the life of a god. This is a matter of degree. My conception is that everyone in every kingdom of glory in the hereafter will have some degree of eternal life. That is to say, they will be doing some work, some good. They will spend the rest of eternity working out some portion of the work of the gods, in harmony with the gods. Not all will be gods, but all will be doing some portion of God’s work. Only those who succeed in obtaining to the fullness, in other words, those who are exalted or become gods in their own right, are they who are able to eliminated every difficulty, every barrier, everything that would cause the necessity of any kind of damnation. These are people who can be turned absolutely free in the universe because they desire no evil; and desiring no evil, it is possible for the gods that be to share with them all power and all knowledge, and they will spend all the rest of their eternity, then, doing good with this power.

Living the Gospel, then, in this world, is very much like and apprenticeship. If you wish to be, to learn to be, a good plumber, the first thing you would want to do would be to find a good plumber who already knows what he is doing, then you would make some kind of formal arrangement with him, for he would not likely take you without some formal agreement. So you would sign some kind of contract, and he would agree to teach you the skills of the trade if you would agree to follow and learn faithfully, and work with him for a certain period of time. At the end of this time you would then be called upon to pass an examination, showing that your work had indeed been profitable, that you did know how to do the work of plumbing. Then you would be a certified journeyman and be able to go forth on your own to do the work of a plumber. I take it that this is a pattern for learning almost anything that is good to do in this world. And learning to be a godly person follows exactly the same pattern and format. It is the purpose of the ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to introduce us to this apprenticeship, to make a formal arrangement with God, to give us association with godly persons that we might grow and develop strength and skill in righteousness as far as we wish to go.

For instance, the purpose of baptism is to make a covenant. There isn’t much point in being baptized unless we are assured that the person we are covenanting with is what and who we wish to emulate. In this world there are many forces, many ideas, many claimants to be saviors of mankind. But there is one special person, Jesus Christ, with whom we may associate ourselves. The Savior invites all mankind, every man, woman and child, to come unto him, to be fed and nourished by him in all the ways of godliness. We have a sample of what it means to be godly as we read of the life and words of the Savior. And we read of the lives and doings of the prophets of God who have been his servants. The scriptures give us this wonderful opportunity to see for ourselves what an apprenticeship to Christ would entail. And if we find that this way of life is enticing to us, it becomes a real option for our future. If we somehow find the work the Savior did is repulsive to us, if we don’t want to relate to our neighbors as he admonished, then we could see that this apprenticeship is very burdensome. If so, we will turn to the world and find some other apprenticeship that is more attractive and apprentice ourselves to that manner of life. Not everyone wants to be saved from sin and sinning. Not everyone wants to be saved from ignorance and impotence. It is a rare bird that wants to be saved from unrighteousness, judging be the actions of most persons. But there are a few humble and faithful persons who recognize in the message of Jesus Christ the thing that they have a burning desire to achieve. This desire burns so brightly within them that it is more important to them than life itself or the honors of men. So they are able to come unto Christ and submit themselves as little children to Him, to be apprenticed, to learn the trade. And so they take the covenant of baptism. They promise that they will take upon themselves His name, that they will never be ashamed of Him or of His works or of His ways; that they will be pleased to witness for Him. If any other person they meet is interested also in this apprenticeship, they will be pleased to tell them about it, to explain this great opportunity to become as Christ.

The second thing this person would do in entering this agreement would be to obey all the instructions of the Master. Obviously, one wouldn’t learn all they should and could if they did not obey the Master. So the Lord has us promise that we will obey all of his commandments. Fortunately, he is a very wise Master and does not just give us some generalizations. He is interested in us as individuals, therefore He takes the time and trouble to tailor-make an apprenticeship program exactly suited to our needs, our character, our challenges, so that there is no possibility that our apprenticeship will misfire.

Our program is exactly tailored by the knowledge of an omniscient and omnipotent being to the needs that we have to become godly.

The third thing we promise is that we will never forget that we are apprentice servants of Christ. We will always remember Him. For this apprenticeship in a real way the abandonment of our old self. In a sense, it is committing suicide. It is saying: This is what I am now, but I wish to die and become a new creature, a new person made in the image of Christ. I wish to be remade completely, born again, with a new heart, a new mind, a new countenance, with new associations with people. Now it is true that many people do not want to be remade. They are quite satisfied with themselves the way they are, so this new covenant is not very attractive to them. So the New Covenant is not for everyone, though everyone is invited to make it. Those who see in themselves things they would like to be rid of and that they would like to fashion themselves in the image of Jesus Christ find it delightful to enter into this covenant. The do this officially by going down into the waters of baptism, a symbol of the death and resurrection of Christ and also of the death of their old self and their rebirth as a new creature, reborn unto eternal life. This begins their journey to become godly, even as Christ is.

Having embarked on a new path with the help of an authorized servant of Jesus Christ, they are given an official right to communicate with their new Master. Hands are laid upon their heads, and they are given the right to the enjoy the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the unseen messenger of Jesus Christ, a personal companion and guide for their new life.

Christ is the Master, and the things that the Savior wishes to teach us are not so much of the physical world as they are of the heart and mind. These are the controlling factors of our lives, so it is important to Him to send the Holy Ghost as His messenger. The Holy Ghost does not speak for himself, but for the Son and the Father. He speaks what he hears, and therefore is a perfect messenger. He is able to help us shape our heart and mind to be more and more like the heart and mind of the Savior. As we begin to think and see as the Savior does, we can begin to act as the Savior would.

But there is more than one unseen messenger who affects us. Satan is always present with us, giving us the opportunity to be selfish and to ignore the whisperings of the Holy Spirit, It is possible that even though we might be very anxious to enter into this apprenticeship to Christ, that we might become confused and listen to the wrong voice. So the Lord Jesus Christ has given us two safeguards that are extremely important and to help us to know when we have the right spirit and are following the right master. These two safeguards are His written scriptures and words of His prophets and those who preside over us in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those two sources give us counsel in a general way. They do not give us all the specifics, because they are not the Master. It is not the prophets that we are trying to pattern our lives after, though trying to do so would be good. But they are sent to give us warnings, to help us know what things are both within and without the boundaries of the righteousness of Christ. They also warn us that there are some spirits we should not follow, so that we need not stray off the narrow path that leads to the Tree of Life.

Receiving the Holy Priesthood is another of these opportunities. Receiving the priesthood is another covenant we make with Christ to use this power to bless others and to learn to be a bit more godly.

We all have physical power to do certain things, and this is the way we get much of the work of this world done. But priesthood is a special power. We must push something in this physical world to do our work in the world. But priesthood is pull power. It is the power to achieve things in this world without compulsory means. If I have an automobile, I must do certain things with my body to start it and control it. But if I want to accomplish things in the social realm, push power is possible and usable, but it ignores the agency of the other people one is dealing with, and does not produce excellence. It is never possible to use push-power to create a godly person. So to help other people, we must do it by persuasion. We help other by persuading them to use their own power to change, to repent and to serve Christ. This persuasion preserves them as an independent agent and builds them instead of controlling them. It gives them the possibility of themselves growing towards godhood. But those who use push-power on other human beings are saying “I am content to pretend to be god myself, but I don’t want anyone else to have that opportunity. I want to manipulate everyone around me. They will do what I want them to do because they can’t help it.” That is quite different from the way God would operate. The point of the ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to bring us into the way of living a godly life.

Let us now say a few words about the principles of the Gospel, some things we do and why we do them, and how they fit into this apprenticeship program. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is not a matter of consulting occasionally with the Savior. The scriptures are blunt. They say: Whatsoever act a man performs that is not an act of faith in Christ is sin. That is pretty strong doctrine. The point is, a godly being is not one who is one kind of person at one moment, then changes in the next moment. A godly being is one that is constant. One of the greatest things we know about our God is that He is always there and will never let us down. He tells us that He is without variableness or shadow of turning, which means that we can absolutely depend upon Him. The only things in this world that are that dependable are the laws of nature. But the laws of nature are the handiwork of that same dependable God. So to have someone we can go to day or night, summer or winter, rain or shine, someone we can trust and depend on, as a great anchor to our souls, a great blessing and opportunity. If we are to learn to be godly ourselves, we must learn to be constantly obedient. So, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is simply obeying our Master in all things so that we may learn to be constant as He is.

There is no faith in Christ except we first receive revelation from Christ, then obey him with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. As we so act he enlarges our knowledge and ability. He comforts us, strengthens us as we act through his Holy Spirit in faithful obedience.

The concept of repentance fits right in in the same way. Repentance is changing, turning. In repentance we change from not acting on faith in Christ to consistently acting in faith in Christ. One of our troubles in this world is that we sometimes act for the wrong reasons and thus do the wrong things. Repentance means doing it differently, acting in righteousness instead of sinning. The Greek word for repentance is “metanoia.” which literally means “change your mind.” Our big trouble is the way we think. But if a person can get his thinking straightened out, and begin to think as God thinks, he can then begin to act in godly ways. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” So to think in godly ways, we must repent. We must take the Holy Spirit for our guide, for it brings to us the words of Christ, and thus as we obey, we are acting on faith in Jesus Christ.

A person who repents thus strains everything he thinks and feels through the Holy Spirit, be it the sayings of some man, the words of the scriptures or the teachings of the prophets of God. There is a great temptation in this world to take the revelations of God and to measure them by the teachings of men. That is the reverse of what an apprentice servant of Christ must do. Those who are genuine apprentices are so because they know that Christ is our God and they trust in Him, not the world. The wise person thus uses the word of God to measure everything in this world. And that is what repentance enables one to do. It is changing our mind so that we put our trust in God, not in men.

Why pray? Prayer is the opportunity to draw close to our Master. It is one thing to receive instruction from the Master, but it is another thing to have a close association with Him, and we will not learn to think and feel as He does unless we draw close to Him in constant prayer. I believe God does not just want servants. So he invites us to draw near to him in prayer. I am sure that you have all been in the presence of someone who is powerful and dynamic, and it is very easy when you are in their immediate presence to acquire their mannerisms and habits, to become like them. I remember when I was in the U. S. Army just after World War II. I was 18 years old and impressionable. I came to my first hearing of the Articles of War by an officer from our post. He read the Articles and then discussed them with us. I only saw that man for an hour that day, but he so impressed me that I tried to talk and act as he did for the rest of my life. The manner he had, the way he talked, the way he handled questions left such a powerful impression on me that I wanted to be like that also. I think we see the same phenomenon in the prophets of God as we experience them. And we may have the same experience with our Savior as we constantly pray to the Father in His name and experience the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. Thus we may come to think as he does, to pray as He does, to act as He does. Being changed, we can go about our daily work doing it like He would do it.

Why do we fast? We fast because a godly person is not controlled by his or her body. A godly person would rather die than submit to the pressures of the flesh. He would rather give it up and go to the next world rather than sin by breaking the commandments. The next world is a better place, anyway, so there is really nothing lost. As long as he or she is in this life, he or she is pleased to do whatever as long as the spirit is boss and the body is subject to the spirit. So a person who is learning to be a god will fast consistently and often so that he or she can perfect oneself in this process of bringing the physical tabernacle under compete submission to the spirit. Then he or she will never have the unhappy circumstance of being directed to do something and not be able to do it.

I irrigated all night a couple of nights ago and about four o’clock in the morning I had the strange sensation of saying to myself: “Okay, go down and do such and such,” and my body just wouldn’t respond. One can get so tired and so numb that the body becomes very recalcitrant. When we get into physical extremes of tiredness, of hunger, of emotion, of lust, it becomes nigh impossible to control this physical tabernacle. That is why the Savior gives us some very good rules. E.g., stay out of such circumstances, or if you must be in them, be sure that the Spirit of the Lord is with you so that you won’t be overcome. It’s just a sheer matter of who is boss. A godly person must never be controlled by his or her environment. What kind of god would be controlled by the environment? That person would be no god at all, just part of the machine. A godly person has to be independent of the machine, of all the forces that play upon the physical tabernacle, free of the advertising, of the speeches of others of the personal pressures to sin. The only influence that such a one can accept is influence that is not of this world but rather from God.

Why pay tithing? Tithing is a schooling in becoming unselfish. As a person pays tithing and learns to give joyfully because it is the right thing to do and because it gives blessing to other people, he is enlarging his soul. He is learning that it is not important what we have, so far as the material things of this world go. What is important is what we do with what we have in the blessing of others. And tithing is the very beginning of this principle. Consecration would be another step that one may go. If he can learn to give 10% gladly, this would be a real help in learning to give 100%. When he has mastered tithing, then consecration comes into line nicely. I think that it is obvious that he would never have much success in giving his all if he could not start with giving 10%. We must be disconnected from our physical possessions. We must not covet our own money, our own time, anything of this world. The Lord gives us the opportunity to give our possessions away, to use them in his service, to learn to be completely disconnected from anything material.

The Lord would have us practice sacrifice, where we do not just use things for the service of the Lord as we do in consecration, but actually give up something that is very important. That thing might be our life, maybe our reputation, our honor among men, our wife and children. If any of these things are more important to us than righteousness, than doing the will of God to bless others, we are in difficulty.

Sacrifice is different from consecration. To consecrate a 100-dollar bill, we give it to the Church. To sacrifice it, we would take a match to it and burn it up. The Lord requires both sacrifice and consecration from his faithful servants, even as Christ himself consecrated his mortal life to blessing the children of men, but later sacrificed his mortal life to make possible the resurrection of all mankind.

The principle of mystery is another thing very important in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The word “mystery” in the Greek comes from the word myein, which means to shut the mouth. A mystery is simply something about which we should keep our mouths shut. It is not something we cannot know or should not know, but something we know that we should not talk about. A godly person has to be able to know things he or she will not share, so part of the apprenticeship training is to receive very important truths and to be told not to share them with anyone, anywhere, anytime, unless instructed by the Holy Spirit to do so. An example of a sacred mystery is certain things about the temple ceremonies. Another example would be certain revelations from the Savior given through the Holy Spirit which should not be shared. If one can be faithful with a few important mysteries, then he has the opportunity to receive more mysteries until he knows them in full. But all mysteries are given only to persons who have through their faith in Christ become godly persons.

The final triumph of all the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the principle of mercy. This principle is to forgive others their trespasses against us. It is the role of a god to be just, but no person can wield omnipotence justly without learning to be first merciful, and being merciful is harder than being just. As we deal with our brothers and sisters in this world, our God wants us to forgive, and we must forgive others to receive any forgiveness from Him. We accountable mortals have all sinned, and so come under condemnation ourselves. We should be willing to suffer for each sin we have committed to satisfy the demands of God’s justice. But Christ has suffered for our sins and is willing to forgive the necessity of our suffering if we will forgive others all of their trespasses against us. Our hearts should go out in mercy; forgiveness should be the rule of our lives. This is part of the charity of which the scripture speak. When we come to the bar of justice in our final judgment to see if we have passed our apprenticeship test, there will be only one question asked, as I read the scriptures. No one will ask how much theology we know; no one will ask what fine things we did with our priesthood, how many books we wrote nor how many things we discovered scientifically. The scriptures tell us plainly: If you do not have charity, you are nothing. You may have learned to speak with the tongue of angels, or to move mountains with your priesthood power; you may have made great sacrifices for the Kingdom of God, but the scriptures say rather pointedly: all these things will fail you when you stand before the bar of justice. If you desire to be godly, the one thing we must learn above all else is to have mercy, to forgive. This is godliness. As the scriptures say we should do, we should clothe ourselves with charity, as with a mantle. Charity should become our way of life. There is nothing so wonderful about the Lord Jesus Christ as that he is merciful unto all who have fought against him, who have despised him, who have sinned against him. He gives everyone the opportunity to repent, the chance to do better, to become like himself, to overcome this world and every evil influence in it. So, if you desire to fulfill your apprenticeship, you need to make sure that you have fully in mind what the final test will be, to see if we have learned to forgive, to be able to suffer ourselves but not require that others suffer. The Savior passed this test in the Atonement. He who did no wrong, ever, suffered for the sins of all mankind. This was the supreme act of mercy that we know about.

Let us now bring this discussion to a conclusion. In this apprenticeship I think there are three fundamental factors that the Gospel will bring every day of our lives. And if we realize as apprentices that these are to be our partners, it would be very helpful. Number One: We must have communion with our Master. We cannot grow in our apprenticeship without constant prayer, frequent fasting, and careful meditation. I believe that our day ought to begin with a solemn and joyous period of prayer and meditation, I hope you are aware that President McKay gets up at 4:00 in the morning because the most important thing in his life is to meet the Savior, to be with him for a few minutes. I don’t mean that the Savior is necessarily there in person, physically, but President McKay communes with Him to get his instructions for the day, to know what the Savior would have him work on, what his assignment is, his commission for that day. Interspersed throughout the day there ought to be prayer so that our apprenticeship is guided moment to moment, so that we will not lapse into the ways of this world. He will not need to fail and fall into the path of sin, the way of error, but can know what is right and be blessed to do what is right.

Secondly, I think that every day we would want production, to accomplish some good work, something of real worth in this world. I think that there is something noble about doing physical labor. When the Lord told Adam that he should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, I think that was a blessing to Adam, not a curse. That gave Adam the opportunity to grapple with and subdue part of this earth, to cause it to bring forth its fruits. This is part of the training of a godly being. I think that every person should strive to know how to do something well in relation to subduing the earth. Contributions are many and varied, but if each of us gives heart and mind, we will know what our assignment is, what we should produce.

That producing is for the sake of the third activity that ought to be in our lives every day, which is sharing what we have with others. We may share with others the good things we have produced. If we produce food on a farm, to share it with others can be a great delight. If we search and produce knowledge, to share that knowledge with others is again a delight. If we produce systems of order for society that ennoble men, such as new mathematics, we can greatly bless others. In all of this we are but doing the work of the gods, for the work of a god is to bless others. The gods are as one god: they work is perfect harmony to bless others, each having his or her own tasks. And as we mortals meditate daily we will know how our labors may fit into the work of the gods. Their task is to create a universe full of good things with which to bless their children. And as we mortals share with each other, we get to participate in that great work of the gods to bless others. This is part of mercy and is charity, the pure love of Christ. We also may share and buoy others up, even as Christ does.

My conception of this world is that it is a rather evil place. To put it bluntly, I see this world as a hell. Hell is a place where Satan largely rules, where things are not nearly as good as they could be, where there is much suffering and ignorance. Into this hell comes the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which gives men the opportunity to be good, even godly, even in the midst of hell. The apprenticeship for being a god is to do godly works in a hell, and to rescue other souls in that hell unto righteousness, godliness. It is to go to the ignorant and unfortunate, to the miserable, and to bless them, to share with them, to lift them, to ennoble them. Because we are in a hell there is no shortage of opportunities to do good. And there is no danger of one person usurping all the opportunities to do good. The field is white and ready for the harvest, but the laborers are few. There are few who are willing to undertake the godly pattern of making hell into a heaven. I believe that eternal life is for now, not just for the next world. If eternal life is meaningful to anyone of us, it will be because we labor now, we cannot really sleep well at night because there is so much around us that needs to be done. And yet we have the wisdom to know that this world can be truly helped only in a godly way, only in and though the power of Jesus Christ.

This is what I think it means to be conservative. It means to hang on to that which is good, and that which is good is the work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I bear you my testimony that I know that these things are a reality. This gospel of Jesus Christ is not a mythology, something one person tries to foist off onto another. If you want to fight the Brethren, go ahead, but remember it is in your own personal experimentation that the Lord Jesus Christ will come to you or not come to you. The words of the Brethren are enticements for you to enter into the apprenticeship. You must work out the apprenticeship yourself. They aren’t the masters. They only point the way. They give you a sense of opportunity. But when you see the opportunity and through the Holy Spirit are able to humble yourselves as little children, oh how great it is to be in the presence of men and women who are in the path of godly lives, who themselves are learning to have eternal lives. That is the greatest enticement I know of that this world affords.

I bear you my testimony that the Lord is real, that his Holy Spirit is real and is precious. The Holy Spirit is sweet: you can almost taste it. When you are filled with the Holy Ghost it just tastes good. This is real life, to have that Spirit and to be in the path of godliness, growing to become better, to be more Christ-like each day. I bear testimony that these things are true in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

15 November 1968

God created man to be free—to act, and not to be always acted upon. The work of Satan is to thwart the work of God; Satan thus strives to make men captive, to be always acted upon rather than being free to act for themselves. Satan’s work seems to prosper, for most men are not free. They are subject to and controlled by physical and psychological forces.

The mission of the servants of Christ in this world is to set these captives free. Any human being who is of age and of normal mentality who comes in contact with the Witness of the Holy Ghost is momentarily set free from whatever hereditary, physical, mental, emotional, and social forces that have fettered his spirit through his flesh. In that moment of freedom, every child of God, every human being, may choose to become permanently and eternally free by accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and being born again. Being born again, the new son or daughter of Christ has the opportunity to proceed consciously, deliberately, and freely, to replace each bad habit with a good one, each weakness with a strength, each false notion with truth, each emotional knot with peace and charity. No person born again must make any particular change. He is simply free to mold and shape his own nature and character as he wishes, to progress to that degree of being Christ-like, which is his desire. The real end result for those who love the Lord with a pure love is that they become exactly like Him, with a new mind, a purified heart, an enlightened countenance, and a renewed physical body. Then nothing need bar them from inheriting all that the Savior has, to become joint heirs with Him.

But Satan does not want any joint heirs. His goal is to rule all, as when he sought to take the glory of the Father to himself in the council in heaven. The opposition between Satan and Christ can thus be designated: force and compulsion versus freedom and individual integrity; concentration of power versus equal sharing of power; rule by someone else versus the rule of self; to be acted upon versus acting.

The struggle between Satan and the Lord reflects itself clearly in the problems of teaching, and especially in teaching the Gospel. Thus there are two basic ways of teaching and learning.

Satan’s mode of teaching is to operate through force and pressure, physical and psychological and intellectual, both positive and negative. The following chart depicts the basic alternatives of the Adversary:

	Physical	Psychological	Intellectual
Positive:	Rewards	Kindness	Part Truth
Negative:	Punishments	Fear	Lies

The essence of Satan’s plan is that the person is acted upon: he does not act for himself. The person is manipulated by someone else without regard to his own desires. One great key in detecting Satan’s work is that the principal concern is with ends, not means: “It doesn’t matter what happens to the people involved. Let’s get the job done.”

Many people are fooled at this point because they think Satan must be wholly negative, that he manifests himself only in brute force, in fear, and in lies. They do not understand that he can damn people just as effectively, and preferably, with rewards, kindness, joviality and part truth. Any person will remain confused until he looks for the basic factor: Does a given program set men free or is it simply a more clever and scientific way of controlling them? Only as men are set free in Christ can they grow to be able to become joint heirs. Always to be acted upon is to remain stunted and damned. Thus any program that sets out to produce good ends without building great people in Satan’s program. Satan would have “saved” everyone, through force and compulsion; and thereby no one but him would have had any growth.

There is then only one godly pattern in education. It is to introduce each person to the opportunity of having the Holy Ghost as his constant companion and guide. That holy spirit does not compel men. It only invites and entices everyone to come unto Christ, who is the fountain of all truth and all righteousness. In that still, small voice men are warned and instructed, but they must assert themselves and must choose according to their own desires in either accepting or rejecting. In this necessary choice of accepting or rejecting the way of Christ, men are free, and being free, each accepting choice builds and strengthens their character.

The Holy Ghost will manifest to each person the truth of any or all things at the exact time and circumstances where appropriate. The Holy Ghost will impart gifts that will allow the person to become full of truth, pure in heart, strong in the path of righteousness, powerful in the ways of godliness, full of charity, grateful to serve in the stewardship order of the Holy Priesthood. The Holy Ghost has the perfect tutoring program and ability. The person must struggle, grow, and apply what he is given, or his tutor leaves him. As he struggles and applies, he grows. And he grows to be Christ-like, for the Holy Ghost is the unseen messenger of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. At the end of his life he will not be judged simply for what he has done. He will be judged for what he has become through what he has done. Those who serve Christ through the Holy Spirit will be like Christ. They will see as they are seen and know as they are known. But he who rejected the Holy Spirit will have it said to him when he protests his good works, “Depart from me ye that work iniquity. You never knew me.”

The conclusion of the matter is plain. To teach or to work upon people, even in kindness, benevolence and great service, in such a way that we manipulate them and do not make sure that they understand and taste of the powers of the Holy Spirit is to become a tyrant. It is to try to make them captive to our will. It is to pretend that we of ourselves know what to teach them and how. It is to assert that we can be free to control them, but they must not be free. It is to be as Satan, to perpetuate the captivity and spiritual degradation of men.

On the other hand, to be as a little child to Christ, then under the influence of His Spirit to teach men to come unto him and to partake of his Holy Spirit is to introduce them to the greatest of all wealth and gifts: eternal life. For Christ is God and from Him and in Him come all good things to men. But the Savior does not force men to follow. He sets them free; they choose; they reap the consequences. The Savior does not insist on saving everyone.

For those who are covenant servants of Jesus Christ and who teach covenant servants of Jesus Christ, the choice is simple. We either invite, persuade and entice those whom we teach to learn and know through the gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost, or we may proceed to instruct them ourselves. We either lead them to the source from which they may learn all truth, or we thrust our own ideas upon them as truth. We either set them free or we enchain them in the opinions of men. We either serve Christ or Satan.