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dishonesty and lying; forming character here and now (Heber C. Kimball)


Now, there are a great many people, even to this day…who make a practice of telling lies…They make a practice of it. They cannot transact business except they must lie a little.
How long, do you suppose, it will take that man to get to heaven and to enter into celestial glory, where lies or anything that is impure cannot exist? It will take him as many millions of years as there will be millions of years to come.
Perhaps some people may think that if we do lie and are dishonest, and so forth and so on, when we die, the death that comes upon us and the change that comes upon us will change and take away those lies, and we shall find ourselves basking in truth. No such thing. I may tell a lie to you—I may be dishonest to my neighbors and ungodly, then I may get up and go out of doors; and I want to know what better am I when I go through that door than I was this side of it? Has it changed my nature? No—not one particle…Well, our change from this state of existence does not change our character. The character must be made and formed before it goes through the vail, if he is going to continue with the servants of God, the Prophets.
Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 6:30-31

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