Doctrine and Covenants 60-64

1. Doctrine and Covenants 60-64

2. Have you ever been asked to share your talent, but the fear of man kept you from accepting the invitation? Why? Was it the fear of failure? Doctrine and Covenants 60:2-3, 13

3. Doctrine and Covenants 60:13 “Thou shalt not idle away thy time” “The Lord cannot steer a parked car!” We are guided as we are going about the Lord’s business. “I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do, Nevertheless I went forth” (1 Nephi 4:6-7).

4. Doctrine and Covenants 60:14 “Thou shalt speedily return,… not in haste.” Get up and move, but do not move so quickly that you are too busy to teach people the gospel.

5. Doctrine and Covenants 60:15 “Dusting off of feet” “The cleansing of their feet either by washing or wiping off the dust, would be recorded in heaven as a testimony against the wicked. The act, however, was not to be performed in the presence of the offenders. ‘Lest thou provoke them, but in secret, and wash thy feet, as a testimony against them in the day of judgment.’ The missionaries of the Church who faithfully perform their duty are under the obligation of leaving their testimony with all with whom they come in contact in their work. This testimony will stand as a witness against those who reject the message, at the judgment” (C.H. & M.R. 1:223).

6. D&C 61 The canoe in which the Prophet and Sidney were riding ran into a log and they were bobbing in the river. The canoe capsized and the occupants almost drowned. With this near tragedy, the party of eleven decided to … encamp (Cook, Revelations, 96). Brother Phelps, in open vision by daylight, saw the destroyer in his most horrible power, ride upon the face of the waters; others heard the noise, but did not see the vision.

7. “It Mattereth Not Unto Me” D&C 61:22 “No answer is likely to come to a person who seeks guidance in choosing between two alternatives that are equally acceptable to the Lord,” explained Elder Dallin H. Oaks. “Thus, there are times when we can serve productively in two different fields of labor. Either answer is right. Similarly, the Spirit of the Lord is not likely to give us revelations on matters that are trivial. Such as should we construct canoes or purchase them for their return to Ohio.

8. I once heard a young woman in a testimony meeting praise the spirituality of her husband, indicating that he submitted every question to the Lord. She told how he accompanied her shopping and would not even choose between different brands of canned vegetables without making his selection a matter of prayer. That strikes me as improper. I believe the Lord expects us to use the intelligence and experience He has given us to make these kind of choices. When a member asked the Prophet Joseph Smith for advice on a particular matter, the Prophet stated: “It is a great thing to inquire at the hands of God, or to come into His presence: and we feel fearful to approach Him on subjects that are of little or no consequence” (HC, 1: 339, D&C 61:22).

9. Doctrine and Covenants 61:27 “Power to Command the Waters” LeGrand Richards shared an example of one in the latter days who had power given to him over the waters: “You will recall that in the early days of the gathering of the Saints it was considered as good as an insurance policy when a company of Latter-day Saints embarked on a vessel crossing the Atlantic.

10. I recall reading in my Grandfather’s diary of a time when the boat upon which he was sailing was in great jeopardy, so much that the captain of the boat came to him and pleaded with him to intercede with the Lord in behalf of the boat and her passengers; and Grandfather, remembering that he had been promised that he should have power over the elements, walked out on the deck of the boat and raise his hands to high heaven and rebuked the sea and the waves, and they were immediately calmed, and the appreciation of the captain of the boat was so great that he offered him the use of his private quarters during the balance of the journey” (C.R., April 1941, 84). In all of these instances the priesthood bearer followed the Master, who “rebuked the wind and the sea” (Matthew 8:26).

11. Doctrine and Covenants 61:34 “They Shall Rid Their Garments” The sins of the wicked symbolically stain the garment of the priesthood bearer who does not warn the wicked to repent (Ezekiel 3: 16-21). President John Taylor Emphasized to the elders that they must serve with all their heart, might, mind and strength or “God will hold you responsible for those whom you might have saved had you done your duty. And it is for us to attend to these things, that we may secure the smiles and approbation of God” (JD, 2: 23).

12. Doctrine and Covenants 61:36 “I Have Not Forsaken You” Tribulation is not evidence that the Lord has abandoned his people! Doctrine and Covenants 61:38-39 Anyone who tries to give an exact date is a false teacher (HC, 6:254).

13. Doctrine and Covenants 62:1 The Savior knows our weaknesses and how to help us overcome them! Doctrine and Covenants 62:3 The ministry on earth has it’s effect beyond the veil as well as on the other side. Effective missionary work has a redemptive effect for the missionary as well as the convert (James 5:20, D&C 4).

14. It is not unusual to have a missionary say, “How can I bear testimony until I get one? How can I testify that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, and that the gospel is true? If I do not have such a testimony, would that not be dishonest?” (Elder Boyd K. Packer, The Candles of the Lord, address given at a seminar for new mission presidents, 25 June 1982).

15. Oh if I could teach you this one principle. A testimony is to be found in the bearing of it! Somewhere in your quest for spiritual knowledge, there is that “leap of faith,” as the philosophers call it (Elder Boyd K. Packer, The Candle of the Lord, address given at a seminar for new mission presidents, 25 June 1982).

16. It is the moment when you have gone to the edge of the light and stepped into the darkness to discover that the way is lighted ahead for just a footstep or two. “The spirit of man,” is as the scripture says, “indeed the candle of the Lord” (Proverbs 20:27) It is one thing to receive a witness from what you have read or what another has said; and that is a necessary beginning. It is quite another to have the Spirit confirm to you in your bosom that what you have testified is true (Elder Boyd K. Packer, The Candle of the Lord, address given at a seminar for new mission presidents, 25 June 1982).

17. Can you not see that it will be supplied as you share it? As you give that which you have, there is a replacement, with increase (Elder Packer). At your meeting you should begin at the top of the roll and call upon as many members as there is time for to bear their testimonies and at the next meeting begin where you left off and call upon others, so that all shall take part and get into the practice of standing up and saying something (Junius F. Wells, Historic Sketch, June 1925, 715).

18. Many may think they haven’t any testimony to bear, but get them to stand up and they will find the Lord will give them utterance to many truths they had not thought of before. More people have obtained a testimony while standing up trying to bear it than down on their knees praying for it (Junius F. Wells, Historic Sketch, June 1925, 715)

19. Doctrine and Covenants 63 Wilford Woodruff recounted that in April 1834, Joseph Smith told a group of priesthood leaders, you don’t know more concerning the destiny of this church and Kingdom than a babe upon it’s mother’s lap. You don’t comprehend it… It’s only a little handful of priesthood here tonight, but this church will fill North and South America, it will fill the world (C.R., April, 1898, 57).

20. George A. Smith said, “You could see persons rise up and ask, ‘What sign will you show us that we may be made to believe?’ I recollect a Cambellite preacher who came to Joseph Smith, I think his name was Hayden. He came in and made himself known to Joseph, and said that he had come a considerable distance to be convinced of the truth. “Why,” said he, ‘Mr. Smith, I want to know the truth, and when I am convinced, I will spend all my talents and time in defending and spreading the doctrines of your religion, and I will give you to understand that to convince me is equivalent to convincing all my society, amounting to several hundreds.’

21. Well, Joseph commenced laying before him the coming forth of the work, and the first principles of the Gospel, when Mr. Hayden exclaimed, ‘O this is not the evidence I want, the evidence that I wish to have is a notable miracle; I want to see some powerful manifestation of the power of God, I want to see a notable miracle performed; and if you perform such a one, then I will believe with all my heart and soul, and will exert all my power and all my extensive influence to convince others; and if you will not perform a miracle of this kind, then I am your worst and bitterest enemy.’

22. ‘Well,’ said Joseph,. ‘what will you have done? Will you be struck blind, or dumb? Will you be paralyzed, or will you have one hand withered? Take your choice, choose which you please, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ it shall be done.’ ‘That is not the kind of miracle I want,’ said the preacher. ‘Then sir,’ replied Joseph, ‘I can perform none, I am not going to bring any trouble upon any body else, sir, to convince you.

23. I will tell you what you make me think of – the very first person who asked a sign of the Savior, for it is written, in the New Testament, that Satan came to the Savior in the desert, when he was hungry with forty days’ fasting, and said, ‘If you be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread.’ And now,’ said Joseph, ‘the children of the devil and his servants have been asking for signs ever since; and when the people in that day continued asking him for signs to prove the truth of the Gospel which he preached, the Savior replied, ‘it is a wicked and an adulterous generation that seeketh a sign’ (JD, 2:326-27).

24. Doctrine and Covenants 63:7-11 We will find what we seek! “He that seeketh a sign is an adulterous person, and that principle is eternal, undeviating, and firm as the pillars of heaven; for whenever you see a man seeking after a sign, you may set it down that he is an adulterous man” (Teachings, 155-57).

25. Doctrine and Covenants 63:16 “They… Shall Deny the Faith” The most bitter opponents of the Church and the Gospel many times have been proved to be immoral and leading unclean lives” (Smith, Church History and Modern Revelation, 1:230). Doctrine and Covenants 63:17 “Whosoever Loveth and Maketh a Lie” “Some sins cannot be separated,” declared Elder Bruce R. McConkie; “they are inseparably welded together. There never was a sign seeker who was not an adulterer, just as there never was an adulterer who was not also a liar(DNTC, 1:277).

26. Doctrine and Covenants 63:34 All flesh is subject to suffer, many of the righteous shall fall to prey to disease and yet be saved. Doctrine and Covenants 63:49-51 Doctrine and Covenants 63:54 “Until That Hour There Will Be Foolish Virgins Among the Wise” The Church will have members numbered among both the righteous and the wicked until the Lord returns in glory.

27. Doctrine and Covenants 63:57 “In Meekness, To Warn Sinners to Repentance” “Avoid contentions and vain disputes with men of corrupt minds, who do not desire to know the truth. Remember that ‘it is a day of warning, and not a day of many words.’ If they receive not your testimony in one place, flee to another, remembering to cast no reflections, nor throw out any bitter sayings. If you do your duty, it will be just as well with you, as though all men embraced the gospel” (Teachings, 43). Doctrine and Covenants 63:61-64 Power of His name!

28. Doctrine and Covenants 64 Ezra Booth returned from his mission to Missouri, discontented with imperfections he had observed in the conduct of the Prophet Joseph Smith during their sojourn together in the land of Zion. Booth accused the Prophet of “lightness and levity,” a “proneness to jesting and joking,” and a “temper easily irritated” (Roberts, Comprehensive HC, 1:266). In July 1833, when a mob destroyed the printing press in Missouri to prevent the publication of the Book of Commandments, a few copies of what had been printed were salvaged. They included this section down to the verse that reads, “For, verily I say that the rebellious are not of the blood of Ephraim” (D&C 64:36).

29. Doctrine and Covenants 64:6 “I will give you one of the Keys of the mysteries of the Kingdom,” said the Prophet Joseph Smith. “It is an eternal principle, that has existed with God from all eternity: That a man who rises up to condemn others, finding fault with the Church, saying that they are out of the way, while he himself is righteous, then know assuredly, that that man is in the high road to apostasy; and if he does not repent, will apostatize, as God lives” (Teachings, 156-57).

30. Doctrine and Covenants 64:7 “Sinned Unto Death” It appears that there are some special circumstances under which adultery, in this sense, is also a sin unto death, as witness the prophet’s declaration: “If a man commit adultery, he cannot receive the celestial kingdom of God. Even if he is saved in any kingdom, it cannot be the Celestial Kingdom” (Smith, HC, 6:81).

31. Doctrine and Covenants 64:8-9 “Leave it Alone John” President Boyd K. Packer use the following illustration: “There are spiritual disorders and spiritual diseases that can cause intense suffering. “If you suffer from worry, from grief or shame or jealousy or disappointment or envy, from self-recrimination or self-justification, consider this lesson taught to me many years ago by a patriarch. He was as saintly a man as I have ever known. He was steady and serene, with a deep spiritual strength than many drew upon.

32. “He knew just how to minister to others who were suffering. On a number of occasions I was present when he gave blessings to those who were sick or who were otherwise afflicted. His was a life of service, both to the Church and to his community… “He grew up in a little community with a desire to make something of himself. He struggled to get an education. “He married his sweetheart, and presently everything was just right. He was well employed, with a bright future. They were deeply in love, and she was expecting their first child.

33. “The night the baby was to be born, there were complications. The only doctor was somewhere in the countryside tending to the sick. “After many hours of labor, the condition of the mother-to-be became desperate. “Finally the doctor was located. In the emergency, he acted quickly and soon had things in order. The baby was born and the crisis, it appeared, was over. “Some days later, the young mother died from the very infection that the doctor had been treating at another home that night… Everything was not right now; everything was all wrong. He had lost his wife. He had no way to tend both the baby and his work.

34. “As the weeks wore on, his grief festered. ‘That doctor should not be allowed to practice,’ he would say. ‘He brought that infection to my wife. If he had been careful, she would be alive today.’ “He thought of little else, and in his bitterness, he became threatening. Today, no doubt, he would have been pressed by many others to file a malpractice suit. And there are lawyers who would see in his pitiable condition only one ingredient – money! “But that was another day, and one night a knock came at his door. A little girl said simply, ‘Daddy wants you to come over. He wants to talk to you.”

35. “Daddy’ was the stake president. A grieving heartbroken young man went to see his spiritual leader. “This spiritual shepherded had been watching his flock and had something to say to him. “The counsel from that wise servant was simply, ‘John, leave it alone. Nothing you do about it will bring her back. Anything you do will make it worse. John, leave it alone.” “My friend told me then that this had been his trial – his Gethsemane. How could he leave it alone? Right was right! A terrible wrong had been committed and somebody must pay for it. It was a clear case.

36. “But he struggled in agony to get hold of himself. And finally, he determined that whatever else the issue were, he should be obedient. “Obedience is powerful spiritual medicine. It comes to being a cure-all. “He determined to follow the counsel of that wise spiritual leader. He would leave it alone. “Then he told me, ‘I was an old man before I understood! It was not until I was an old man that I could finally see a poor country doctor – overworked, underpaid, run ragged from patient to patient, with little medicine, no hospital, few instruments, struggling to save lives, and succeeding for the most part.

37. “He had come in a moment of crisis, when two lives hung in the balance, and had acted without delay. “I was an old man,’ he repeated, ‘before I finally understood! I would have ruined my life,’ he said, ‘and the lives of others.’ “Many times he had thanked the Lord on his knees for a wise spiritual leader who counseled simply, ‘John, leave it alone” (Balm of Gilead, 17-18).

38. Doctrine and Covenants 64:9-11 “But not only our eternal salvation depends upon our willingness and capacity to forgive wrongs committed against us. Our joy and satisfaction in this life, and our true freedom, depend upon our doing so. When Christ bade us turn the other check, walk the second mile, give our cloak to him who takes our coat, was it to be chiefly out of consideration for the bully, the brute, the thief? Or was it to relieve the one aggrieved of the destructive burden that resentment and anger lay upon us? “Paul wrote to the Romans that nothing ‘shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39) (Marion G. Hanks, C.R. Oct, 1973).

39. The Necessity of Forgiving President Heber J. Grant was ordained an Apostle when he was twenty-six years old. While he was still quite a young man, a very prominent man who had been excommunicated many years before was asking to be reinstated in the Church. John Taylor was President of the Church then, and he referred the matter to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

40. After hearing all the testimonies, five voted in favor of reinstatement and seven against. The next year the matter came up again, and eight voted in favor and four against. The next year all but Elder Grant voted in favor of reinstatement. When President Taylor asked him about it. Elder Grant said he knew the man had lied to Apostles in the first place, and he had voted according to his convictions. President Taylor told Elder Grant to stay with his convictions as long as he felt that way.

41. Elder Grant went home for lunch, and when he opened the scriptures to read, the book fell open to this passage: “Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. “I, the Lord, will forgive who I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men” (D&C 64:9-11).

42. As he closed the book Elder Grant said, “If the devil applies for baptism and claims that he has repented, I will baptize him.” President Taylor was very pleased when Elder Grant told him that he had changed his mind. He asked the young Apostle how he felt then in comparison to how he had felt when he left the office an hour before. Elder Grant replied that he felt much happier and that he really hoped the Lord would forgive the man. President Taylor pointed out that the difference in his feelings was the difference between the spirit of bitterness and the spirit of forgiveness.

43. Doctrine and Covenants 64:23 “A day for the tithing of my people” This is what it means, if I read it correctly: a man who ignores the express command of the Lord, by failing to pay his tithing, it means that the Spirit of the Lord will withdraw from him; it means that the power of the priesthood will withdraw from that man, if he continues in the spirit of neglect to do his duty. He will drift away into darkness, gradually but surely, until finally (mark you) he will lift up his eyes among the wicked. That is where he will finally land; and then when the destruction comes and when the burning comes he will be among the wicked and will be destroyed; while those who observe the law will be found among the righteous, and they will be preserved. There is a God in heaven, and He had promised to shield and protect them. I tell you there is a day of burning, a day of destruction coming upon the wicked. And where will we be? Will we be with the wicked, or with the righteous? (Elder Rudger Clawson, C.R. Oct. 1931, 59).

44. The first reference to tithing in the revelations of the Restoration does not carry the same meaning we have given that principle in our day. This revelation was given while the Church was living the law of consecration and thus is being used in the broad and general sense of giving liberally, of sacrificing without counting the cost. The Law of tithing as practiced today wasn’t given until 1838.

45. The Law of Tithing is the law of inheritance. It leads to it. No man may hope or expect to have an inheritance on this celestial globe who has failed to pay his tithing. By the payment of his honest tithing he is establishing a right and a title to this inheritance, and he cannot secure it upon any other terms but by complying with this and other just requirements; and this is one of the very essential things (Melvin J. Ballard, C.R. October, 1928, 50-51).