Amasa Lyman

“ When we have been obedient to every requirement—made every possible attainment that can be made, what is our condition? We are saved from the bondage of sin and darkness, the consequences of ignorance. Well, then, it will be profitable for us to think of what we experienced—to think of the experience through which we have passed. Has it been a varied scenery, embracing an almost countless variety of changes and of circumstances, involving a good deal of comfort, pleasure, and happiness, with a corresponding amount of sorrow, affliction, and wretchedness? ”

“ He has got to take up the truth where he thought he had left it, be obedient to its requirements, live to it, and put it on like a garment; he has got to shake off the shackles of darkness, and emerge into the light and liberty that the Gospel brings. ”

“ We do not think that we are to control ourselves, that this is our business upon the earth, that we came here to learn our Father and the principles which influence him—to learn how he has put on power, and how he has surrounded himself with glory and strength, come off victorious, and never become subject to evil.
Well, are we learning it when our passions are running away with us like a wild, untrained team with the carriages that they are attached to? "Why," says one, "we shall do as the Spirit dictates us." ”

“ Why, by a knowledge of the truth; and when we know the truth in relation to the work of God, shall we cherish a desire to depart from it? Does a man ever apostatize when he knows the work is true and that God is working for his own glory, and when he all the time sees this? No, never. You never see a man apostatize that in the days of his apostacy ever knew this or appreciated it. ”

“ To live your religion; and to live your religion is to have every principle pertaining to the building up of the kingdom of God, to its perpetuity and perfection, developed in you; and what will be the result? Why, then, when you are adjusted in the Temple of God and assigned your position, you will not run away, but you will remain and become as a pillar here. What is a pillar? It is a fixture. You know they are put in a building to remain there while the building stands. If the building is designed to be an eternal place—a dwelling-place for God, then they are to remain there for ever. ”

“ Because the days, the times that are around us require that we should be firm in our purpose, and not only that we should put up our hands or raise our voices to high heaven to sustain the kingdom, but that we should be prepared with every feeling that is within us to devote ourselves to the truth, knowing that it is all in all, and that there is nothing. ”

“ There can be nothing wrong to the man who is swallowed up in the truth—whose whole affections are swallowed up in the beauty and excellency of that truth which he has learned. There is no feeling in him to apostatize—there is no room for such a feeling, and consequently he will not apostatize.
Such a man would not apostatize at seeing the little plans our enemies are forming for our destruction. But when we have endured all the sufferings that our enemies can bring upon us, let us so live that we may come from the battle-field unscathed, unharmed, and be victorious ”

“ I know of no other blessing, or glory, or wealth accruing from our living and our labours in the world, but that which we learn of the truth, that will bless us and make us free from the dominion and influence of error. ”

“ It has been his design to develop a people to do his own work—to move them until they should find the place where his kingdom should be built up in strength and in power.
Well, cannot we see it is idle for us to gather around us hopes that we can be saved and redeemed, or that God will redeem and save us any farther than the principles of truth are developed within us? If we do see it, it leaves hope to us and an inducement to live better ”

“ Why, contentment that will be unbroken; it will be a feast to our souls; it will be the banquet of happiness for our minds to feast upon; and then, however difficult our circumstances may be considered, we shall have an inward joy, a peace, a satisfaction, and resignation to the will of our Father, that we could not have while we were bound down by the chains of ignorance and error. ”

“ But what is the spirit of the Gospel to that man that comprehends it? It is that which comprehends all truth and all good; and there is no truth, neither is there any good outside of it; and there is, consequently, no chance for the individual that views the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this light to adopt those kinds of conclusions that lead men away from the truth and that cause them to apostatize. ”

“ Have we profited from it all? When we have supposed that the hand of chastisement was upon us, and we have been afflicted, has that affliction been to us a source of knowledge to benefit and to perfect us in our sphere of action? ”

“ Then to see and to comprehend, by the light that dwells within us, that God is with us, and that he is round about us, and that he is fulfilling his purposes all the time, however varied our circumstances may be—however they may change from time to time, if we can but know that God is in it, what will be the result? ”

“ Until they understand this, they are in danger, because there are agencies in the world, throughout the world, and a train of corrupt influences that are in lively exercise among men and that have gained power in consequence of the ignorance of mankind; so that until there is as much of the knowledge of the truth within the people that constitute the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as will sustain them till there is no disposition to look after anything else, until they consider nothing outside the kingdom of any value, they will be in danger of stepping aside and doing wrong. ”

“ Then, if we can see the hand of God in all these changes and trials, and if we can see to the extent that the relationship is perfect in our comprehension, between the purpose of God and its accomplishment, then we are settled upon a basis from which we cannot be moved, and we are then standing upon a rock which cannot be shaken; and while the Spirit of God is upon us, we will not become wretched; but so long as that Spirit can find a place in us, we cannot become alienated from the things of God. ”

“ Brethren and sisters, may God bless you with wisdom, faith, prudence, humility, and every grace that is necessary to strengthen you, that you may take hold of this work and carry it home with you! The most of it is to be done at home, where you wash dishes and attend to the duties of domestic life: this is the sanctuary that is to be made pure and holy. ”

“ We shall see that God has a hand in all things—that he designs to build up his work and to establish it with us, but not until there is a sufficiency of the light and manifestations of the Spirit of truth in us that we could not be separated from it. ”

“ Why, simply as lessons—as admonitions imparted to us for our benefit, for our profit, and for our learning, and that we might increase in knowledge, and this might produce an increase of the legitimate principles of happiness: and it was simply a conscientiousness that we were free from sin that led us to persevere in the pursuit of further happiness, by endeavouring to obtain a more extensive knowledge of the truth. ”

“ Why, that it may stir up the spirit of peace within you, that the spirit of peace may be, not a casual visitor, but a constant attendant,—that he may take up his abode with you; and when an individual takes up his abode with you, then you do not consider him a transient visitor, but there is his home—there is where he lodges, where he stays, where he imparts blessings,—if he is a minister of blessings, where he imparts good, if he has any good to impart. ”

“ Now, the fact of a man's being gathered with the Church and with the Saints does not constitute his salvation in the kingdom when the kingdom shall triumph; for men will apostatize and go away from the Church, until they know that it is worth everything else, that it is everything that is good, and that it is all that can bestow permanent happiness upon man. ”

“ It is required of us not so much to read and comprehend the future which is not revealed, but like the schoolboy that is rapidly passing over lessons given by his preceptor, and who glances over them without seeing their importance, but simply commits the words to memory and passes rapidly along to something else. ”

“ Under this view of the matter, should we to-day really conclude that we have really been made sufferers, and that we have in reality been afflicted, and that we have really been made to participate in some wretchedness and misery, we cannot conclude that we have passed through these things for any other purpose than that we should have been brought to a comprehension of the truth by them. ”

“ Men may go round the world, and they cannot get away from the truth. It is simply because we do not understand the Gospel as a system of truth that we are subject to doubts and fears. If we did understand it in that light, we would not be carried away, for the best of all reasons, that we would not have any inclination to. go away from the truth. ”

“ If we realize this, then we are secure, and we are prepared for any contingency that may arise; and if God does not build up his kingdom with us and with the people that are gathered together to the place that he has appointed, there is but one reason: why he does not do it, and that is, they do not understand enough of the principles of salvation; therefore, his kingdom cannot be built up entirely and completely. ”

“ I never have heard of anything greater or more glorious, or more to be esteemed, than our being saved. It is simply for this that we are being taught and that we are learning: it is for this that we are required to be obedient: it is for this that we are obedient. ”

“ Why, in that very place where a long time ago you closed your eyes against the light and the truth. You may apostatize, go away, and stay as long as you please; but you must get a good deal of money, or you will not have enough to get through with. I have never seen an individual that could get enough that would last him through. ”

“ We get angry, we get out of humour, "out of sorts," as the printers term it; hence we do not have that equanimity of thought which it is desirable that we should possess. Our passions rule us, and we do not rule them ”

“ We will have to do a great deal more in "Mormonism" than to join the Church and make a journey of some ten thousand miles. Men have been journeying all the time, but very few have journeyed so as to be saved in the kingdom of God ”

“ If we can triumph over our feelings, our affections, so that our whole souls can become subject to the principles of heaven, then we shall easily conquer the other foes. These are the things to be conquered ”

“ He has been making requirements of us continually: requirement after requirement has been made of us. He has required us to accomplish a work to-day, and something else the next day; and each succeeding day, from the beginning to the present time, has brought some change in his requirements. He has required us to travel in one direction, for instance, to-day; and then the accomplishment of the same work which he has to do requires us to take a directly opposite course to what we were pursuing. ”

“ When this is the case, where will wickedness find a place to be nestled and nourished? Where there is no evil in the heart, there is no evil committed. Let us strive for this with all our energies, and let us take the word, with us to our homes ”

“ And if you open a door that this Spirit will take up his abode with you, then that fountain which will be opened up will become very plenteous in its supplies; it will become so to you because you welcome the Holy Spirit there, and you study to cultivate within you such a feeling that the Spirit will love to tarry with you day by day ”

“ Apostates are found as we pass through the country, and they will say, "I knew the work to be true, twenty years ago, when you, brother Lyman, or somebody else, came through our section of country and preached the Gospel ”

“ It saves our backs from the rod—it secures to us the protection of our Father; and if we fail to do right, he will do with us as he has been doing. He has led us through all the meanderings of our course ”