This address will attempt to “survey the wondrous
cross” by focusing on the Christology in the book of Mosiah, using not only the words of King
Benjamin, Mosiah, Abinadi, and Alma the Younger, but scriptures that lie in the suburbs
of Mosiah and other related scriptures. The final focus will be on the requirements
for our becoming what King Benjamin called “the children of Christ,” which is my text.
Left unexplored are other possibilities, such as some our LDS scholars are reconnoitering.
For instance, the biblical term mosiah was probably a political designation;
it also is an honorific title in Hebrew meaning savior or rescue. Not bad for a
bright but unschooled Joseph Smith who, while translating early on, reportedly wondered aloud
to Emma if there were walls around Jerusalem.
There is so much more in the Book of
Mormon than we have yet discovered. The book’s divine architecture and rich
furnishings will increasingly unfold to our view, further qualifying it as “a marvelous work and
a wonder”. As I noted from this pulpit in 1986, “The Book of Mormon is like a vast mansion
with gardens, towers, courtyards, and wings. All the rooms in this mansion need to be explored,
whether by valued traditional scholars or by those at the cutting edge. Each plays a role, and
one LDS scholar cannot say to the other, “I have no need of thee”.
Professor Hugh Nibley has reconnoitered much of that mansion, showing how our new
dispensation links with the old world. There is not only that Nibley nexus, but also one between
him and several generations of LDS scholars.
The book of Mosiah begins with a father
instructing his sons, just as was done in ancient Israel. Alma the Younger remembered a
critical Christ-centered prophecy of his father, you’ll recall. The book of Mosiah ends as the
successor son approaches death, having sought to “do according to that which his father [King
Benjamin] had done in all things.” As a result, Mosiah’s people “did esteem him more than
any other man”. So did the Mulekites, who accepted him as their next king,
though he was an immigrant among them.
Within the book’s sixty-plus printed pages
occur not only family and political drama, but some stunning verses of Christology
concerning the role, mission, and deeds of Jesus Christ. The Christology of the Restoration,
brothers and sisters, restructures our understanding of so many fundamental realities.
A significant portion of King Benjamin’s towering sermon was given to him by an angel, and
angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost. At its center is the masterful sermon
about the exclusive means of salvation:
There shall be no other name given nor any other
way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through
the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.
It is not only the divinity but also the
specificity of King Benjamin’s sermon that marks it. Hence Father Helaman, in sending his two sons,
Lehi and Nephi, on a mission to the land of Nephi, exhorted them to “Remember, remember, my sons, the
words which King Benjamin spake unto his people”.
In Restoration scriptures, not only is salvation
specific, but so also is the identity of the Savior as various scriptures foretell. A savior
was to be provided in the meridian of time. His name was to be Jesus Christ. Christ volunteered
for that mission premortally. He was to be born of Mary, a Nazarene, but in Bethlehem—a fact over
which some stumbled in the meridian of time.
And then we learn from the holy scriptures of the
sacrifice of the Father’s Firstborn premortally; his Only Begotten Son in the flesh was the
sacrifice of a Creator-God. The Atoner was the Lord God Omnipotent, who created this
and many other planets. Therefore, unlike the sacrifice of a mortal, Christ’s was an “infinite
atonement” made possible, declared King Benjamin, by the infinite goodness and mercy of God.
Ironically, the Mortal Messiah would be disregarded and crucified,
said Benjamin and Nephi:
And lo, he cometh unto his own, that
salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after
all this they shall consider him a man, . . . and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him.
And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught;
wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it.
Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his
long-suffering towards the children of men.
This pattern of denigrating Jesus that
existed in the meridian of time has continued in our time as noted in this next quotation:
The sweetly-attractive human Jesus is a product of 19th-century skepticism, produced by people
who were ceasing to believe in Jesus’ divinity but wanted to keep as much
Christianity as they could.
However mortals regard him, there is no
other saving and atoning name under heaven!
O remember, remember, . . . that there is no
other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ,
who shall come; yea, remember that he cometh to redeem the world.
All other gods, brothers and sisters, fail and fall, including
the gods of this world. Currently we are seeing Caesars come and go—“an hour
of pomp, an hour of show.”
The Christology of Restoration scriptures
constitutes the answer to what Amulek called “the great question,” which is: Will
there really be a redeeming Christ?
If, as Abinadi declared, Christ were not risen as
the first fruits with all mortals to follow, then life would end in hopelessness. But he is risen,
and life has profound purpose and rich meaning! One day, said King Benjamin, such
knowledge of the Savior would spread:
The time shall come when the knowledge of a
Savior shall spread throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
This spreading is happening in our day at an accelerated rate,
brothers and sisters. At a later day, divine disclosure will be total and remarkable:
And the day cometh that . . . all things shall be revealed unto the children of men which
ever have been among the children of men, and which ever will be even
unto the end of the earth.
There will be so much to disclose that we don’t
now have. All the prophets have testified of the coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Lord
of all the prophets, even called them all “my holy prophets”. How could he, as some
aver, merely be one of them? Worse still, some consider Jesus only as another “moral
teacher.” Pronouncements such as Abinadi’s underscore Jesus’ transcending triumph:
And thus God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death;
giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men—
Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled
with compassion towards the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken
the bands of death, taking upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed
them, and satisfied the demands of justice.
It is very significant, brothers
and sisters, that leaders and founders of other world religions made no such
declarative claims of divinity for themselves, though millions venerate these leaders.
No wonder the Book of Mormon was urgently needed for “the convincing of the Jew and
Gentile that Jesus is the Christ”. Such testifying is the purpose of all
scripture. The Apostle John stated:
But these are written, that ye might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye
might have life through his name.
Of the Christ-centered plan
of salvation, Nephi declared, “How great the importance to make these things
known unto the inhabitants of the earth”.
Jesus is even described as the Father, because he
is the Father-Creator of this and other worlds. Furthermore, he is the Father of all who
are born again spiritually. When we take upon ourselves his name and covenant to keep
his commandments, we then become his sons and daughters, “the children of Christ”.
In addition, since he and the Father are one in attributes and in purpose, Jesus acts
for the Father through divine investiture, sometimes speaking as the Father.
The world desperately needs such divine declarations and instructions concerning why
we are here and how we should live—concerning what is right and what is wrong, what is
true and what is false. Much needed, too, is the Restoration’s verification of the
reality of the Resurrection. Much needed, too, is the Restoration’s clarification as to the
nature of God and man. Likewise, much needed is the Restoration’s enunciation of the divinely
determined purposes of this mortal existence.
The millions who have lived on this planet
in the midst of the famine foreseen by Amos, one of hearing the word of God, have
never known the taste and nourishment of whole-grain gospel. Instead, they have
subsisted on the fast foods of philosophy. When Jesus spoke of himself as the bread of
life, it caused some to walk no more with him. No wonder Jesus said, “Blessed is he,
whosoever shall not be offended in me”. To which I add, “Blessed is he who
is not offended by the Restoration!”
The pages of Restoration scriptures ripple
and resound with so many essential truths! For example, through correct Christology we
learn about Christ’s premortal pinnacle as the Creator-God and how, even so, only later
did he receive a fulness. The Lord has told us how important it is to understand not only
“what” we worship, but also “how” to worship.
After all, real adoration of the Father
and Jesus results in the emulation of them! How shall we become more like them if we do
not know about their character and nature?
Said King Benjamin, “How knoweth a
man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far
from the thoughts and intents of his heart?”
Furthermore, unless we understand
how the schoolmaster law of Moses was a preparing and a foretelling type,
we will not understand dispensationalism, including the place of meridian Christianity
in the stream of religious history.
It is expedient that ye should
keep the law of Moses as yet; but I say unto you, that the time shall come
when it shall no more be expedient. . . .
For God himself should come
down among the children of men, and take upon him the form of man, and go forth
in mighty power upon the face of the earth.
For modernity, brothers and sisters, the relevancy
of the message in Mosiah is especially real. For instance, we are clearly indebted to our English
ancestors for our precious King James Version. Yet, that nation subsequently
suffered from a wave of irreligion. Your academic vice president, Stan L.
Albrecht, wrote of that wave of irreligion:
The pattern of downturn in religious
activity in British society . . . made “agnosticism respectable if not universal
by the turn of the century.” . . . By the early 1900s Arnold Bennett could say,
“. . . The intelligentsia has sat back, shrugged its shoulders, given a sigh of relief,
and decreed tacitly or by plain statement: ‘The affair is over and done with.’”
. . . By the 1970s only about 5 percent of the adult population in the Church of England
even attended Easter religious services, and the percentage continues to decline.
This next mid-twentieth century expression is from a candid dean of Saint
Paul’s Cathedral in London:
All my life I have struggled to find the purpose
of living. I have tried to answer three questions which always seemed to be fundamental:
the problem of eternity; the problem of human personality; and the problem of evil.
I have failed. I have solved none of them and I know no more than when I started. And
I believe no one will ever solve them.
I know as much about the
after-life as you—NOTHING. I don’t even know that there is one—in the same
sense in which the Church teaches it. I have no vision of Heaven or of a welcoming God. I do not
know what I shall find. I must wait and see.
I marvel with you at how the Restoration
scriptures are repetitively able to inform us and inspire us; they enthrall us again and
again. Ordinary books contain comparative crumbs, whereas the bread of life provides a feast!
Through those scriptures we learn that salvation
is specific, not vague; it includes individual resurrection and triumph over death. We
each will stand before God as individuals, kneeling and confessing. The faithful will even
sit down, as individuals, with the spiritual notables of ages past, for God has said he will
land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to
sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.
Thus we will not be merged into some unremembering molecular mass. Nor will we be mere
droplets in an ocean of consciousness.
In one way or another, sooner or
later, all mortals will plead, as Alma did at his turning point, “O Jesus,
thou Son of God, have mercy on me”. Thus we are blessed with enlarged perspectives
because “through the infinite goodness of God, and the manifestations of his Spirit, [we]
have great views of that which is to come”.
Many in the world today are like
some among the Book of Mormon peoples who believed “when a man was dead, that was
the end thereof”. For others, there are certain existential “givens” as now quoted: “There is
no built-in scheme of meaning in the world”. “No deity will save us; we must save ourselves”.
No wonder the Restoration is so relevant and so urgent, having come, as the Lord said, so
“that faith also might increase in the earth”.
Compared to the great, divine declarations
being noted this evening, which are central to real faith, what else really matters?
Illustratively, two Book of Mormon prophets in referring to a lesser concern, death, used the
phrases “it mattereth not” or “it matters not”. Happily, the reality of the Atonement does not
depend upon either our awareness of it or our acceptance of it! Immortality is a free gift to
all, including to the presently unappreciative.
Meanwhile, however, even the spiritually
sensitive feel less than full joy because, said C. S. Lewis:
We have a lifelong nostalgia, a longing to be reunited with something in
the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which
we have always seen from the outside, this is . . . the truest
index of our real situation.
In that sense, brothers and sisters, we are
all prodigals! We, too, must come to ourselves, having determined, “I will arise and go to
my father”. This reunion and reconciliation is actually possible. Because of the
Atonement, we are not irrevocably cut off.
The book of Mosiah has so many jewels, including
what seem to me, as a political scientist, to be some marvelous principles of politics
and leadership. As more and more people on this planet are currently reaching out for a
greater voice in their affairs, how relevant and instructive are the words of King Mosiah:
Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right;
but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore
this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.
However, a democracy devoid of spiritual purpose may remain only a process, one
within which citizens are merely part of a “lonely crowd,” feeling separated
from the past including their ancestors.
In contrast, King Mosiah’s people
had spiritual purpose; they deeply admired his profound political leadership.
And they did wax strong in love towards Mosiah; yea, they did esteem him more than any other
man . . . exceedingly, beyond measure.
Laboring with his own hands, he
was a man of peace and freedom. He wanted the children of Christ
to esteem neighbors as themselves. King Mosiah was deeply anxious that
all the people have an “equal chance”. Yet there would be no free rides, because
“every man [would] bear his [own] part”.
King Benjamin wanted his people
to be filled with the love of God, to grow in the knowledge of that which is just
and true, to have no mind to injure another, to live peaceably, to teach their
children to love and serve one another, and to succor the needy, including beggars.
Mosiah was certainly not without his personal trials, for Mosiah went through that special
suffering known only to the parents of disobedient children. The wickedness of his sons, along
with Alma the Younger, created much trouble. Only after “wading through much tribulation”
did they finally do much good and repair much of the damage they had done. Even later,
however, after his sons had repented, before they were to have an enlarged missionary
role, Mosiah first consulted with the Lord.
Mosiah also faced the challenges of leading
a multigroup society: Nephites, Zoramites, Mulekites, Nehorites, Limhites (in Gideon),
as well as those covenanters in Alma’s group. How varied these interest groups were, and
yet how united in love of their leader!
Ponder this indicator of how Mosiah was
an open, disclosing, and teaching leader:
And many more things did king Mosiah write unto
them, unfolding unto them all the trials and troubles of a righteous king, yea, all
the travails of soul for their people, and also all the murmurings of the people to
their king; and he explained it all unto them.
The political leader as a teacher of his people:
King Benjamin and King Mosiah are examples of the leader-servant; they followed the pattern of
their master, Jesus. Prophets and leaders like Benjamin and Mosiah were charged to “regulate
all the affairs of the Church.” They did so both with style and with substance. There was
love, but also admonishing discipline—with the repentant numbered among the Church and the
unrepentant having their names blotted out. Missionary work went well; many were
received into the Church by baptism.
So it was that their people became the
children of Christ. The children of Christ in any dispensation willingly make the sacrifice
of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The children of Christ are meek and malleable—their
hearts can be broken, changed, or made anew. The child of Christ can eventually mature to
become the woman or man of Christ to whom the Lord promises that he will lead “in a strait and narrow
course across that everlasting gulf of misery”.
The children of Christ are described by King
Benjamin as being submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, and—then the sobering
line—“willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [them], even as a
child doth submit to his father”. Significantly, twice in the ensuing book of Alma the very same
recitation of these important qualities is made with several added: to be gentle, temperate,
easily entreated, and longsuffering.
These virtues are cardinal, portable, and
eternal. They reflect in us the seriousness of our discipleship. After all, true disciples
will continue to grow spiritually because they have “faith unto repentance”. These qualities
will finally rise with us in the Resurrection. Interesting, isn’t it, in contemplating each of
the qualities in this cluster, how they remind us of the need to tame our egos? Blessed is the
person who is progressing in the taming of his or her egoistic self. King Benjamin, for example, had
not the least desire to boast of himself. He was unconcerned with projecting his political image
because he had Christ’s image in his countenance.
We are instructed not only in what we are
to become, but also in what we are to avoid. Abinadi noted how Jesus suffered temptation
but yielded not. Unlike many of us, Christ gave no heed to temptations. This is yet
another instructive example to us, his children, for even if we evict temptations
we often entertain them first.
The development of these cardinal virtues is
central to God’s plan for us. Lack of perspective about God’s plans is part of the
failure of Laman and Lemuel:
And thus Laman and Lemuel, . . .
did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them.
Illustratively, we are advised that on occasion God will chasten his people and will try our
patience and faith. Is not the question “Why, O Lord?” one that goes to the heart of the further
development of faith amid tutoring? Similarly, the question “How long, O Lord?” is one that
goes to the very heart of developing patience. Thus we see how interactive all of these things
are in the developmental dimensions of God’s plan of salvation that culminates in eternal life.
Immortality comes to all by God’s grace—it is unearned “after all we can do”. Full salvation,
eternal life, is God’s greatest gift. However, unlike the blessing of immortality, eternal life
is conditional. Eternal life, said King Benjamin, is more than endless existence; it is endless
happiness! It was this that was promised to Alma the Younger: “Thou art my servant; and I covenant
with thee that thou shalt have eternal life”.
Eternal life will feature the joys of
always rejoicing and being filled with love, of growing in the knowledge of God’s glory,
of being in his presence, of being in eternal families and friendships forever.
Eternal life also brings the full bestowal of all the specific promises made in connection
with the temple’s initiatory ordinances, the holy endowment, and temple sealings—thereby
God “may seal you his”. In addition, all other blessings promised upon the keeping of
God’s commandments will likewise flow in the abundant Malachi measure, so
many “there shall not be room enough to receive [them]”! John declared that
the faithful shall “inherit all things”. Modern scriptures confirm that the faithful will
eventually receive “all that [the] Father hath”. Meanwhile, how much of that promised
birthright will some of us sell and for what mess of pottage?
Comparing the magnitude of this and all the great gifts given to us of God and our
meager service to him, no wonder, said King Benjamin, we are beggars
and unprofitable servants.
As we accept Christ and become his children, there
begins to be a change—even a “mighty change” in us. As we earnestly strive to become one with
him and his purposes, we come to resemble him. Christ who has saved us thus becomes the
Father of our Salvation, and we become the “children of Christ,” having his image
increasingly in our countenances and conduct.
The children of Christ understand the
importance of feasting regularly on sacred records that testify of Jesus. Without
such records, belief in him and in the glorious resurrection can quickly wane:
And at the time that Mosiah discovered them, . . . they had brought no records with them;
and they denied the being of their Creator.
There were many of the rising generation that
could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time
he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers.
They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they
believe concerning the coming of Christ.
For those either untaught or unheeding
of the essential gospel truths, the lapse of faith in Christ
is but one generation away!
So many scriptures point to the reality that
Jesus really is to be the specific example for the children of Christ. We really are to emulate
him in our lives. Consider these examples:
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Therefore I would that ye
should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.
Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.
Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.
Be ye therefore merciful, as
your Father also is merciful.
For I have given you an example, that
ye should do as I have done to you.
Jesus Christ [shows] forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting.
Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an
example, that ye should follow his steps.
And again, it showeth unto the children of men
the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter,
he having set the example before them.
Ye know the things that ye must do in my
church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which
ye have seen me do even that shall ye do.
Behold I am the light; I have
set an example for you.
No wonder, in view of these and many other
scriptures, that Joseph Smith taught, “If you wish to go where God is, you must be like
God, . . . drawing towards God in principle”.
The loving kindness of the Lord that Nephi
spoke about is likewise noted in Exodus.
And the Lord passed by before him, and
proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth.
In this soaring scriptural declaration, mercy
and justice both make their rightful claims, but even so, mercy “overpowereth justice”.
Since his qualities are to be emulated by his children, as the Prophet Joseph
Smith taught us, it is vital for us to comprehend the character and personality
of God if we are to comprehend ourselves. However, as we truly emulate Jesus’ example, we
will thereby encounter the costs of discipleship through our own micro-experiences. We will come
to know what it is to suffer and to be reproached for taking upon ourselves the name of Christ. Therefore, our fiery trials, said Peter, should
not be thought of as “some strange thing”.
As the believing and trusting children of Christ
become more Christlike, it will be evident in their daily lives, whether in the treatment of the
poor or in the management of their civic affairs. Ammon taught, for instance, of how those who
become the children of Christ will truly be “a great benefit to [their] fellow beings”.
Alma, Mosiah’s successor, learned from the Lord how the illuminated individual can actually
evoke faith in other people by “words alone”.
With his highly developed sense
of proportion, King Benjamin said, “Even so I would that ye should . . . always
retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his
goodness and long-suffering towards you”. We who have the Restoration scriptures
have further reasons to feel overwhelmed by the greatness of God. We are told that
there is no space in which there is no kingdom. God’s works are without end, and he has
created worlds “innumerable . . . unto man”. The very heavens and planets do witness
that there is a Supreme Creator.
Mortal astrophysics confirm the
awesome nature of the universe. Astronomers recently indicated they
have discovered a collection of galaxies “so extensive that it defies explanation by
any present theory.” Dubbed “the great wall,” these “galaxies form a sheet . . . 3,000
billion billion miles.” One scientist said, “We keep being surprised that we keep seeing
something bigger as we go out farther”.
And as one earth shall pass away, and the
heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works.
At the Judgment Day, declared Mosiah’s successor, everyone at that
assemblage will “confess that [God] is God.” When one considers history’s disbelieving notables
who will be there, these lines are subduing:
Then shall they confess, who live without God in
the world, that the judgment of an everlasting punishment is just upon them; and they shall
quake, and tremble, and shrink beneath the glance of his all-searching eye.
This is while the faithful “shall stand before him”
and “see his face with pleasure”. His piercing eyes will likewise emanate
perfect, overwhelming love, a love, which, alas, few will have reciprocated. The sense
of undeservingness will be deep and profound! And thus we have a sense of the rendezvous
that lies ahead. There is no end to his works.
Furthermore, Benjamin, Abinadi, Mosiah, and
Moroni will be present at the Day of Judgment, and out of their words we will be judged. At the judgment, we will not only have the
prophesied “bright recollection” and “perfect remembrance” of misdeeds, but of happy things as
well. The joyous things will be preserved, too.
Most of you are too young to appreciate
how those of us who are older feel as the sense of memory slips away. I
can safely hide my own Easter eggs now.
Among “all things . . . restored” will be our
memories, including eventually our premortal memories. What a flood of feeling and fact will
come to us then, as a loving God deems wise, increasing our gratefulness for God’s
long-suffering love and Jesus’ atonement. What joy upon being connected again with the
memories of both the first and second estates!
Meanwhile, during this life, we will continue
to experience the unwelcome sense “of having ended a chapter. One more portion of
one’s self slipping away into the past”.
Mary Warnock wrote about how “Anything that is
over . . . is a lost possession. . . . The past is a paradise from which we are necessarily
excluded”. And speaking about one writer reflecting on his memories, Warnock said he
realized past experiences once shared “are now his alone. . . . The past continually comes to him;
but he knows that he can never go back to it”. But one day it will all come back!
The children of Christ know now whose they are, whence they came, why they are here, and what
manner of men and women they are to become. Still, the children of Christ, like Alma, will
“long to be there” in the royal courts on high. It is the only destination that really
matters. Resplendent reunion awaits us! What is more natural and more
wonderful than children going home? Especially to a home where the past,
the present, and the future form an everlasting and eternal now!
Let us do as King Benjamin urged us to:
Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he
created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and
all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all
the things which the Lord can comprehend.
Meanwhile, how can there be refining fires
without heat? Or greater patience without some instructive waiting? How can we develop empathy
without first bearing one another’s burdens? Not only that burdens may be lightened, but
that we may thereby be enlightened by developing greater empathy. How can we increase individual
faith without some customized uncertainty? How can we learn to live in cheerful
security without some insecurity?
How can there be later magnification without some
present deprivation? Except we are thus tutored, how else shall we grow spiritually to
become the men and women of Christ? In this brief mortality, therefore, reveries are often rudely elbowed aside by tutoring
adversities! Meanwhile, as faithful children, the challenge is: Will we prove ourselves, in
King Benjamin’s phrase, “willing to submit?”
Finally, I should like to leave my own
witness. In my life, whichever way I turn, brothers and sisters, there looms Jesus, name of
wondrous love. He is our fully atoning and fully comprehending Savior, and in the words of
scripture, “There is none like unto him.”
Whether taught in the holy scriptures or in
the holy temples, his gospel is remarkable. Whether it concerns the nature of God, the nature
of man, the nature of the universe, the nature of this mortal experience, it is remarkable. His
gospel is stunning as to its interior consistency. It is breathtaking as to its exterior
expansiveness. Rather than existing without the gospel in a mortal maze, instead I stand
all amazed at the wonders of that gospel that we should be privileged to be his children.
Whatever my experiences, the spiritual facts that have emerged from these
experiences encompass me. They encompass me and echo the testifying words of King Benjamin as
follows, “The goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and
his long-suffering towards the children of men”. Everyone of those virtues of God I have counted
on, I count on now, I will count on again—whether it is his long-suffering, his matchless
power, or his goodness. And so do you! Those are the very virtues that must come in a
measure to be ours, my brothers and sisters.
This constitutes the journey of discipleship.
We must, like the prodigal son, arise and go to our father and be prepared for that resplendent
reunion. We can hasten the journey only insofar as we hasten the process of becoming like him, as the
children of Christ going home of which I testify. For his help in my personal journey
I plead and for his help for you.
You are the leaven for mankind. And all the winds
of political freedom that blow intrinsically carry within them the added prospects that the children
of Christ will reach out more expeditiously to their brothers and sisters on this planet
with this wondrous message. As we “survey the wondrous cross,” as his children, may it be so,
I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
