Mormon Musings

What a narrow measure it is to try and judge and calculate the infinite by the little our finite minds know. A story is told of Lincoln, who was supposed to be a great skeptic in his younger life. When he was down at Richmond as the war was drawing to a close one of his early companions—I think it was General Reynolds—suddenly came around the corner of the tent where the President was living and found him reading the Bible. The General began to twit him about reading the Bible, basing the raillery on the early life, as he understood it, of Lincoln. Then Lincoln said: "Well, I have grown older and wiser. I now read the Bible. I believe all I can and I take the rest on faith." And that is about where all of us are when it comes to the infinities that are involved in our spiritual welfare. J. Reuben Clark, April 1950 General Conference

Those intent on persecuting the Church of God today would do well to remember wise counsel given anciently:   34  Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named  a Gamaliel , a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;   35  And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men...   38  And now I say unto you,  Refrain  from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of   men , it will come to nought:   39  But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it;  lest  haply ye be found even to  fight  against God. Acts 5:34-39 (emphasis added)

Christ  said, “I am the true vine, and … ye are the branches.”   2   “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.”   3 “Abide in me” is an understandable and beautiful enough concept in the elegant English of the King James  Bible , but “abide” is not a word we use much anymore. So I gained even more appreciation for this admonition from the Lord when I was introduced to the translation of this passage in another language. In Spanish that familiar phrase is rendered “permaneced en mi.”  Like the English verb “abide,”  permanecer  means “to remain, to stay,” but even gringos like me can hear the root cognate there of “permanence.” The sense of this then is “stay—but stay  forever. ” That is the call of the gospel message to Chileans and everyone else in the world. Come, but come to remain. Come with conviction and endurance. Come permanently, for your sake and the sake of all the generation

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace .  In the world  ye shall have tribulation : but be of good cheer ; I have overcome  the world. John 16:33