Mormon Musings

Morituri Salutamus ...In mediaeval Rome, I know not where,  There stood an image with its arm in air,  And on its lifted finger, shining clear,  A golden ring with the device, "Strike here!"  Greatly the people wondered, though none guessed  The meaning that these words but half expressed,  Until a learned clerk, who at noonday With downcast eyes was passing on his way,  Paused, and observed the spot, and marked it well,  Whereon the shadow of the finger fell;  And, coming back at midnight, delved, and found  A secret stairway leading underground.  Down this he passed into a spacious hall,  Lit by a flaming jewel on the wall;  And opposite, in threatening attitude,  With bow and shaft a brazen statue stood.  Upon its forehead, like a coronet,  Were these mysterious words of menace set:  "That which I am, I am; my fatal aim  None can escape, not even yon luminous flame!" Midway the hall was a fair table placed,  With cloth of gold, and golden cups enchased  With r

"The cares of the world that, on occasion, can rob us of cheerfulness are certainly real cares, but they are not lasting cares; they pass with the passing of this world.  Like the pleasures of the world, the cares of this world are fleeting.   Someday, when we look back on mortality, we will see that so many of the things that seemed to have mattered so much at the moment will be seen not to have mattered at all.  And the eternal things will be seen to have mattered even more than the most faithful of Saints imagined ." (emphasis added) Neal A. Maxwell, " Even As I Am "(Deseret Book Company, 1982), page 104