Mormon Musings

The knowledge of our former state has fled from us...The veil is drawn between us and our former habitation.  This is for our trial.  If we could see things of eternity, and comprehend ourselves as we are; if we could penetrate the mists and clouds that shut out eternal realities from our gaze, the fleeting things of time would be no trial to us, and one of the great objects of our earthly probation or testing would be lost.  But the past has gone from our memory, the future is shut out from our vision and we are living here in time, to learn little by little, line upon line, precept upon precept.  Here, in the darkness, in the sorrow, in the trial, in the pain, in the adversity, we have to learn what is right and distinguish it from what is wrong, and lay hold of right and truth and learn to live it."  President Charles W. Penrose, Journal of Discourses 26:28

How often have you and I really pondered just what it is...that will rise with us in the resurrection? Our intelligence will rise with us, meaning not simply our I.Q., but our capacity to receive and to apply truth. Our talents, attributes, and skills will rise with us, certainly also our capacity to learn, our degree of self-discipline, and our capacity to work. Note that I said "our capacity to work" because the precise form of our work here may have not counterpart there, but the capacity to work will never be obsolete. To be sure, we cannot, while here, entirely avoid contact with the obsolescent and the irrelevant. It is all around us. But one can be around irrelevancy without becoming attached to it, and certainly we should not become preoccupied with obsolete things. Elder Neal A. Maxwell, BYU Devotional, September 1981

" Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.  And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come." D&C 130:18-19

"When the Latter-day Saints make up their minds to endure, for the Kingdom of God’s sake, whatsoever shall come, whether poverty or riches, whether sickness or to be driven by mobs, they will say 'it is all right' and will honor the hand of the Lord in it, and in all things, and serve Him to the end of their lives, according to the best of their ability…If you have not made up your minds for this, the quicker you do so the better." Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 1:338

"Brethren [and sisters], shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free .   Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness. Let the woods and all the trees of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever! And again I say, ...

It was Marcel Proust who wrote insightfully of pre-mortality as follows:  “All that can be said is that everything in our life happens as though we entered upon it with a load of obligations contracted in a previous existence. There is no reason arising from the conditions of our life on this earth for us to consider ourselves obliged to do good, to be tactful, even to be polite. … All these obl igations whose sanction is not of this present life, seem to belong to a different world, founded on kindness, scruples, sacrifices, a world entirely different from this one, a world whence we emerge to be born on this earth, before returning thither, perhaps to live under the empire of those unknown laws we have obeyed because we bore their teaching within us without knowing who had taught us.” (Marcel Proust, La Prisonniere, as quoted in Homo Viator by Gabriel Marcel.)

“I know that I am. I know that another is who knows more than I, who takes an interest in me, whose creature, and yet whose kindred in one sense, am I. I know that the enterprise is worthy. I know that things work well. I have heard no bad news.” Henry David Thoreau

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.” C.S. Lewis

The kingdoms that God has prepared are innumerable. Each and every intelligent being will be judged according to the deeds done in the body, according to his works, faith, desires, and honesty or dishonesty before God; every trait of his character will receive its just merit or demerit, and he will be judged according to the law of heaven as revealed; and God has prepared places suited to every class. The Savior said to his disciples—"In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." How many kingdoms there are has not been told to us: they are innumerable. The disciples of Jesus were to dwell with him. Where will the rest go? Into kingdoms prepared for them, where they will live and endure. Jesus will bring forth, by his own redemption, every son and daughter of Adam, except the ...

Can you discern and understand the dealings of the Lord with this people from the beginning? If we can understand this, it is indeed a matter of great rejoicing to us. All intelligent beings who are crowned with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives must pass through every ordeal appointed for intelligent beings to pass through, to gain their glory and exaltation. Every calamity that can come upon mortal beings will be suffered to come upon the few, to prepare them to enjoy the presence of the Lord. If we obtain the glory that Abraham obtained, we must do so by the same means that he did. If we are ever prepared to enjoy the society of Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or of their faithful children, and of the faithful Prophets and Apostles, we must pass through the same experience, and gain the knowledge, intelligence, and endowments that will prepare us to enter into the celestial kingdom of our Father and God. How many of the Latter-day Saints will e...

Our duty is to make the best of our present position. We have the Gospel of life and salvation, to make bad men good and good men better. We are to preach, exhort, expound, continue in our duty, be fervent in spirit, bearing and forbearing with our brethren, being filled with love and kindness; and we will yet, perhaps, get some of our froward connections into heaven. Jesus said, when the woman caught in adultery was brought to him, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." We are all sinners, and it is our duty to cast sin from us when we learn what it is. If we are a little good, become a little better; if we have a little light, get a little more; if we have a little faith, add to it; and by-and-by we shall be prepared to build up and beautify Zion, and to be exalted to reign in immortality and be crowned with the Gods. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:130

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1987/10/yet-thou-art-there?lang=eng

We are made intelligent, and are heirs of the everlasting kingdom. Unless we forfeit that heirship, we are heirs to the glory and power of worlds to come; but we must take a course to maintain the position that we occupy. We are the children of our Father in heaven; and unless we do that which will cause our names to be blotted out, and our right to the blessings of the kingdom cut off, all will be well. Let us take a course to save all who will hearken to our counsel; let us be kind and charitable to all people, doing unto others as we would they should do unto us in like circumstances, and the blessings of our Father will be multiplied unto us. Brigham Young Journal of Discourses 8:73-74

What do we live for? To get dollars and cents? Those are very useful; the comforts of life are very agreeable; it is very convenient to have money to purchase what we need; and even if we sacrifice the comforts of this life to secure the blessings of that which is to come, we have then gained our point; we have gained everything. And remember that he and she and all who do the will of our Father who is in heaven will reap the reward of the faithful, for Jesus says, “Whosoever doeth the will of my Father in heaven, the same is my mother, my sister, my brother.” Again: There is another scripture which says something like this—”He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.” Hence, all that the Father hath promised unto the obedient shall be given unto him. Now, if all that the Father hath promised shall be given unto him that is faithful—to him that receives the kingdom as a little child, do you not see that by our unwavering ste[a]dfastness w...

Sailors and mariners become wise, useful, and qualified for their stations only by experience. Storms, tempests, and hurricanes have to occur in order to give them that experience. If all was calm, and storms never arose at sea, where would the mariner get the experience that is necessary for him to have, that when storms do occur and difficulties arise, when the ship sails out upon the ocean, he shall be prepared to manage and guide his his vessel safely into port. If there are individuals on board that have never experienced storms, or perhaps have never ventured away from land before, when storms arise, you see that trepidation of spirit that you do not witness in those that have had experience. So it is with ourselves in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we have to learn by the things that take place around us and act in the stations assigned us by the circumstances that transpire and the experience we gain. President Lorenzo Snow, Journal of Discourses 5:322

Can we appreciate this and realize our position? Can we really appreciate our blessings? Do we really feel as we ought to in relation to these matters? Why, we begin to experience, in part, the riches of eternity. They begin to be unfolded before we can fully appreciate them. We are favored at the present time, but we cannot comprehend our blessings fully: we can only see in part, comprehend in part, and shall not fully comprehend until the fulness of the blessings of God shall be revealed; then we shall be able to appreciate our position, our relationship to God, and the great blessings we enjoy, as servants of the Most High. We are only little children now. This is the way I feel. I feel as a little child, and I pray to God, O God, expand my mind that I may understand and comprehend the things of God, and not act the fool, but be a wise man, and be able to comprehend the blessings that are around me. John Taylor 5:264

"If any of us could now see the God we are striving to serve—if we could see our Father who dwells in the heavens, we should learn that we are as well acquainted with him as we are with our earthly father; and he would be as familiar to us in the expression of his countenance, and we should be ready to embrace him and fall upon his neck and kiss him, if we had the privilege. And still we, unless the vision of the Spirit is opened to us, know nothing about God. You know much about him, if you did but realize it. And there is no other one item that will so much astound you, when your eyes are opened in eternity, as to think that you were so stupid in the body." President Brigham Young J.D. 8:30

There are many things that seem to us trials and difficulties, that perplex, annoy, and harass our spirits; yet these very things, as one justly observed, are blessings in disguise, so many helps to us to develop our weaknesses and infirmities, and lead us to put our trust in God, and rely upon Him to give us a knowledge of ourselves, of our neighbors, and of the work of God; they have a tendency to develop principles of worth to our minds, and thus they serve as schoolmasters, helps, and instructors, and are to us as many blessings in disguise. In fact all things that we have to do with in the world, whether they are adversity or prosperity, whether they relate to ourselves or to others, if rightly appreciated and understood, may teach us a lesson that will be to our joy, probably not only in time, but in all eternity. We must know ourselves, learn what is in our nature − our weakness, our strength, our wisdom, our folly, and the like things that dwell in others, that we may lea...

I should like, if I may, to share with you on this point the fine writing of your own A. Lester Allen, a dean and scientist on this campus. This is what I have come to call the "Allen Analogy" about time. Let me read you these lines, if I may. Their application will be obvious. Dean Allen writes: Suppose, for instance, that we imagine a "being" moving onto our earth whose entire life-span is only 1/100 of a second. Ten thousand "years" for him, generation after generation, would be only one second of our time. Suppose this imaginary being comes up to a quiet pond in the forest where you are seated. You have just tossed in a rock and are watching the ripples. A leaf is fluttering from the sky and a bird is swooping over the water. He would find everything absolutely motionless. Looking at you, he would say: "In all recorded history nothing has changed. My father and his father before him have seen that everything is absolutely still. This creatur...

For now, though we can mercifully see something of our eventual possibilities, you and I are aware of our present limitations. Tolkien wrote wisely: It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.  [Gandalf in J. R. R. Tolkien,  The Return of the King  (New York: Ballantine Books, 1965), p. 190] Hence we desperately need the gospel's wisdom not only for eternity, but also "for the succour of those years wherein we are set," in order "to do what is in us." Enoch obtained revelation and reassurance and gratefully exclaimed of God, "Yet thou art there" (Moses 7:30). This is what you and I want to know of him: Does he know me, love me, and care for me? We can have the same reassurance given to Enoch. How in...