Mormon Musings

Let us do these things, and remain prayerful and humble before the Lord, and see if he will not pour out a blessing greater than we have ever yet enjoyed. But when the blessing comes, there is the danger. Let us remember that we are always dependent on the great God, the giver of all good. Do the world realize this? He will make this people know it, and make them understand that they are, whether he does the world or not. If the past will not suffice, we shall be chastened until we do understand that we are dependent on Him, and that we have to walk by faith. Can we walk by faith? He is trying some of us, I think. Do you feel afraid that you will not have plenty to eat? I never do. I recollect a circumstance that took place with myself in 1849. I was living in a family of twelve persons, and we were out of provisions. A neighbour, whose family was sick, informed me that he had not anything in the house to eat. I told him to call and I would give him some flour. I went out to get som

In the accounts kept by recording angels, figured according to the arithmetic of Heaven, entries are made in terms of quality rather than quantity, and values are determined on the basis of capability and intent.  The rich [ in the story of the widow's mite, see Mark 12:41-44 ] gave much yet kept back more; the widow's gift was her all.  It was not the smallness of her offering that made it especially acceptable, but the spirit of sacrifice and devout intent with which she gave.  On the books of heavenly accountants, that widow's contribution was entered as a munificent gift, surpassing in worth the largess of kings. James E. Talmage, Jesus The Christ pp. 561-62

It is well to know that prayer is not compound of words, words that may fail to express what one desires to say, words that so often cloak inconsistencies, words that may have no deeper source that the physical organs of speech, words that may be spoken to impress mortal ears.  The dumb may pray, and that too with the eloquence that prevails in Heaven.  Prayer is made up of heart throbs and the righteous yearnings of the soul, of supplication based on the realization of need, of contrition and pure desire.  If there lives a man who has never really prayed, that man is a being apart from the order of divine human nature, a stranger in the family of God's children.  Prayer is for the uplifting of the suppliant.  God without our prayers would be God; but we without prayer cannot be admitted to the Kingdom of God. James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ , p. 238

Search the revelations of God; study the prophecies and rejoice that God grants unto the world Seers and Prophets.  They are they who say the mysteries of godliness;...they saw the glory of the Lord when  he showed the transfiguration of the earth on the mount;...they saw the day of judgment when all men received according to their works, and they saw the heaven and earth flee away to make room for the city of God, when the righteous receive an inheritance in eternity...Fellow sojourners upon the earth, it is your privilege to purify yourselves and come to the same glory, and see for yourselves and know for yourselves. Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith , pp 12-13

M. J. Sobran wrote: The Framers of the Constitution . . . forbade the Congress to make any law "respecting" the establishment of religion, thus leaving the states free to do so (as several of them did); and they explicitly forbade the Congress to abridge "the free exercise" of religion, thus giving actual religious observance a rhetorical emphasis that fully accords with the special concern we know they had for religion. It takes a special ingenuity to wring out of this a governmental indifference to religion, let alone an aggressive secularism. Yet there are those who insist that the First Amendment actually proscribes governmental partiality not only to any single religion, but to religion as such; so that tax exemption for churches is now thought to be unconstitutional. It is startling  [she continues]  to consider that a clause clearly protecting religion can be construed as requiring that it be denied a status routinely granted to educational and charitab

http://jdquotes.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/preparing-to-teach-the-principles-of-eternal-truth-orson-pratt/

http://jdquotes.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/purified-by-fire-john-taylor/