Saints of God

“ To be a Saint of God is to occupy a high position before God, angels and men. The light of truth, the revelations of Jehovah, and the holy priesthood, which the Saints of God enjoy, are the greatest boons that Heaven can bestow upon mortals. In this respect we stand alone in the midst of the nations of the earth; and in this respect we approach nearer to the object of our creation and the designs of our being than any other people that exist, at the present day, on the face of the whole earth. ”

“ Shall we, the Saints of the Most High God, who have been the special recipients of the oracles of life and salvation, to this generation, to all generations to come, to even those who have preceded us—shall we, through supineness and neglect, permit a foundation to be laid in our midst, for the ultimate triumph of wickedness, apostacy, and every abomination which maketh desolate? I tell you, if we do, we need go no farther in the progress of this work, for we shall most probably share the fate of those Gadiantons and their children. ”

“ OUR DEBT TO THE DEAD. CARDINAL MANNING The Saints, by their intercession and their patronage, unite us with God. They watch over us; they pray for us; they obtain graces for us. Our guardian angels are round about us: they watch over and protect us. ”

“ We adore God for His own sake. We honor the saints for the gifts and prerogatives with which God endowed them.
Therefore there is a difference between the prayer to God and the invocation of the saints. We pray to God asking Him to help us by His omnipotence: we pray to the saints to help us by their intercession with God.
Our veneration of the saints should consist, primarily, in the imitation of their virtues. It is truly profitable only when we are intent upon following their example; for only by imitating their virtues shall we share their eternal bliss in heaven. ”

“ The Latter-day Saints—and they alone, as far as I have seen—feel today as the people of God in days of old felt, when men were blessed with visions and visitations of angels, and often held communion with God Himself. ”

“ The eminent saints among the primitive disciples of Jesus Christ, were entirely animated by his spirit, and being dead to the world and themselves, they appeared like angels among men. Free from the secret mixture of the sinister views of all passions, to a degree which was a miracle of grace, they had in all things only God, his will and honor, before their eyes, equally aspiring to him through honor and infamy. ”

“ Will you try to be Saints in very deed? I do not pray the Lord that you may, but my prayer is offered to you, and I pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God, and serve Him with an undivided heart, to the end of your lives. ”

“ I pray the people—Saints and sinners upon the face of the whole earth—to hearken to the truth. Open your hearts to the conviction of the Holy Spirit upon you. I pray that you who have received the truth may live in it and abide by it, that you may enjoy the blessings of it and be prepared for the fullness of the glory of God, that will yet be revealed. ”

“ Doubtless, if, in the providences of God, I am again called to preach the Gospel to the world, I shall have as fervent a desire for them as I have ever had for the Saints. But I now feel to strengthen and comfort the Saints, inasmuch as I have the ability, and the Spirit bearing witness with yours that we should live our religion and be Saints indeed, and feel that affinity one to another that becomes the Saints of the living God. ”

“ The Saints were all at once driven from heaven; and senses, thought and heart were turned from a divine mother with a tender child, to the grown man doing good and suffering evil, who was later transfigured into a being half-divine in its nature, and then recognized and honored as God himself. ”

“ The Saints pray their Father in heaven to hasten His work, and roll it forth with mighty power.
Do you not know that the heavens are ready to drop with blessings in store for the faithful Saints, if they were ready and able to receive them? The Almighty God is ready to establish His kingdom upon the earth, in power and majesty, if His people were ready to receive, were prepared to administer therein in holiness, purity, and wisdom. ”

“ They understood that the Gospel of the Son of God, proclaimed and taught by the proper officers, had been brought unto them, and that the sceptre of life had been held out to them. And may we not, as Saints of God, rejoice that we have found and received the truth, that we have tasted of its sweetness, and that it has made us happy. ”

“ And the greater the Saint, that is, the nearer the Saint approaches the perfection of God, to which he is called--Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect--the more influential he must be; that is the more perfectly he will show the divine likeness and transmit the divine influence. When we think of the power of the saints as intercessors that is what actually we are thinking of,--the perfection of their understanding of the mind of Christ. ”

“ We behold before us, in these interior wilds of North America, a great people called the Latter-day Saints—a people whose faith and doctrine are one, who believe in the same God, and in the same great plan of salvation; who believe that God has established His kingdom on the earth for the last time. ”

“ Saints here and saints who have passed through the valley into the unseen must surely hold many beliefs in common. Both alike believe the promises of God, and anticipate the glorious consummation for which they wait and watch, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of the living God. They believe in the resurrection of the body and in its reunion with the soul for ever. ”

“ And who can they be, except those who out of all nations are deemed worthy of purity and holiness, among whom God is wonderful, giving to them power and strength?" Thus in perfect accordance with the language of this writer, the Saints, from whose prayers and intercessions he desires to derive spiritual benefits, may be the Saints of God on earth—in the same state with those saints still living in the flesh, whose prayers St. ”

“ If we have set out to obtain Celestial glory, the precious and inestimable gift of eternal lives, there is no trial necessary for our purification and perfection as Saints of God that we will not have to meet, contend with and overcome. ”

“ I feel first rate, brethren and sisters, and I feel to bless you, and my daily prayer is that the Saints of God may be blessed with wisdom, with knowledge, and with all spiritual blessings, as well as with temporal prosperity, and I say they shall be blessed, and they shall be comforted. ”

“ The Latter-day Saints feel as though they occupy a peculiar position in the world—that God has selected them from among the nations of the earth and gathered them together that he might place his name among them ”

“ My desire is that the Saints should understand—that they should be wise, having eyes that see, ears that hear, and hearts that understand as God understands us, that they may not be ignorant of the providences that attend them. ”

“ It is expected from God's saints on earth that they praise him; who should, if they do not? Let every saint praise him, but especially the congregation of saints; when they come together, let them join in praising God. The more the better; it is the more like heaven. ”

“ You might talk about principle to a great many men until your heads turned gray and your tongues cleave to the roofs of your mouths, and it would make no difference—they are not prepared to receive it. But the Latter-day Saints are to a very great extent. ”

“ And when we look at the blessings we enjoy, as Saints of the Most High, from the stand point from which the Latter-day Saints should view this work, how can we limit the feelings which should animate our hearts continually with praise to our Father and God? ”

“ The saints in heaven, since they are blessed, have no lack of bliss, save that of the body's glory, and for this they pray. But they pray for us who lack the ultimate perfection of bliss: and their prayers are efficacious in impetrating through their previous merits and through God's acceptance. ”

“ Place ourselves back ten centuries, read the prophecies, and behold by prophetic vision what the Lord was going to do in the latter days. "The time is coming when the Saints are to be called, and they will assemble themselves together." ”

“ To this class belong also many false, hypocritical saints in the company of Christians who have the Gospel; they, too, hear the Gospel and attend upon the Holy Supper, but they remain in darkness, without the least experience of the wisdom and understanding that knows the divine will. But they who exercise themselves in these spiritual graces by faith, love and patience in temptation, and perceive the wonderful grace and blessing God imparts through the Gospel—these honorably may be called the saints, destined, even appointed, to eternal light and joy in God's kingdom. ”

“ A great many of the Saints know that I have preached long and loud for over thirty-two years, and that I have labored incessantly to spread the truth, and have urged mankind to receive the principles of eternal life which we have embraced, and to obey them in their lives. ”

“ Paul had before declared that "there is none righteous, and that the Scripture hath concluded all under sin."
In what sense then are the saints perfect? And wherein consists the excellence of their character?
1. The saints are perfect in Christ. "In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." His righteousness is made theirs. "They are complete in him. He is made of God unto them wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption." In this view every good man is a perfect man.
The saints before the gospel day were but very partially instructed respecting the way of salvation. ”

“ According to Holy Scripture and the doctrine of the Church, there are in heaven various grades of glory and bliss, according to the rank and merit of the saints. They probably attain this higher grade of glory and bliss by the increase of their ability to enjoy the happiness of heaven. Their intellect is enabled to contemplate more profoundly the incomprehensible essence of God; their power of perception is augmented so that they may more readily recognize and admire the splendor of the angels, saints, and heavenly mansions; their will is enabled to be united, in a higher degree, with God. ”

“ So when St Paul or St John talked to these heathens about grace, or Charis (as the Testament calls it) , they knew quite well what the apostles meant.
Did the apostles, then, believe in these three goddesses? Heaven forbid. They came to teach these heathens to turn from those very vanities, and worship the living-God. And so they told them,—You are quite right in thinking that grace comes from heaven, and is God’s gift; that it is God who makes people amiable, cheerful, lovely, and honourable; that it is God who gives happiness and all the joys of life: but which god? ”