I say, all the revelations of God teach simply this—son, daughter, you are the workmanship of mine hands: walk and live before me in righteousness, let your conversations be chaste; let your daily deportment be according to my law; let your dealings with one another be in justice and equity; let my character be sacred in your mouth and do not profane my holy name and trample upon mine authority; do not despise any of my sayings for I will not be disgraced. I wish to send one of my servants to visit you. What for? That you may see and know as others have—that you may see as you are seen—that you may understand those principles pertaining more particularly to the kingdom you are in. You have descended below all things. I have, in my wisdom, reduced you; I have caused that you should drink of the dregs of the bitter cup. I have placed you in the depths of ignorance and have surrounded you with weakness, to prove you. I have subjected you to all misery that can be endured. I have caused you to come upon this earth where misery and darkness and every species of unbelief and wickedness reign to prove you, that you may understand and know the good from evil and be capable of judging between these with a righteous judgment. I have caused all this to be done; and now, son and daughter, the inhabitants of the whole earth that have lived from the days of Adam until now, the first and the last—the grand aim of all that I, the Lord, have revealed is to instruct you to live so that I can come and visit you, or send my angels, that they can enter into your habitations, walk and converse with you and they not be disgraced. By so doing you shall be made partakers of all knowledge and wisdom, power and glory that the sanctified or glorified beings enjoy. And this is, first of all, what the Lord wishes of the people. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 6:284–285)
[P. 376 in Lundwall, N.B., ed. 1960. Temples of the Most High. Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft, Inc.]
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