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our day of trial; living our religion; we shall be judged out of our own mouths (Brigham Young)


We must have our day of trial—an opportunity to become acquainted with the bitter and the sweet. We are so organized as to be able to choose or to refuse. We can take the downward road that leads to destruction, or the road that leads to life. We can constantly act upon the principles that tend to death, or refuse them and act upon the principles that pertain to life and salvation. This is a day of trial; our faith and patience can now be tried: now is the time for your fortitude and integrity to be tried. Let the trials come; for if we should be so unspeakably happy as to obtain a crown of eternal life, we shall be like gold tried seven times in the fire. Let the fiery furnace burn, and the afflictions come, and the temptations be presented;—if we wish to be crowned with crowns of glory and exalted to dwell with our elder brother Jesus Christ, we must choose the good and refuse the evil.
According to our faith, we must strive to live our religion when in the kanyons getting wood and lumber, when labouring in our fields, and wherever we may be. We have to learn and practise eternal principles, to obtain eternal life; and they are the principles of the holy Priesthood. God has given man an agency, and it behoves us to understand and practise the principles of life—to live our religion and walk humbly with our God, living according to the laws and regulations of the holy Priesthood so far as it is revealed.
The principles of eternal life that are set before us are calculated to exalt us to power and preserve us from decay. If we choose to take the opposite course and to imbibe and practise the principles that tend to death, the fault is with ourselves. If we fail to obtain the salvation we are seeking for, we shall acknowledge that we have secured to ourselves every reward that is due to us by our acts, and that we have acted in accordance with the independent agency given us, and we shall be judged out of our own mouths whether we are justified or condemned.

Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 7:203-04
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