TrendZion

Passages drawn from the sermons and published works that carry this theme forward.

1. 1921·Orson F. Whitney·Apostle
   In the Pit.--When Adam and Eve had transgressed the divine command by partaking of the forbidden fruit, it was as if the human race had fallen into a pit, from which they were powerless, by any act of their own, to emerge. They could not climb out, for they knew not how to climb; and even if they had known, there was no means by which to ascend. Human endeavor, unassisted, could accomplish nothing in the way of deliverance. Man in his mortal condition needed revelation, spiritual enlightenment, having forgotten all that he had previously known. He also needed a ladder.
2. 1933·Heber J. Grant·Prophet
   "Our President (Brigham Young) has frequently told us that we cannot separate the temporal from the spiritual, but they must go hand in hand together; and so it is, and so we must act in reference to building up the Church and Kingdom of God. We should foresee the evil, and then foreseeing it we should hide ourselves, and preserve ourselves in purity and holiness.
3. 1951·George Albert Smith·Prophet
   The loss of George Albert Smith takes from the American scene a man whose qualities of heart and mind and soul were ever enlisted for the betterment of all. This hard-working, humble, pious man, spiritual leader of a great faith through the years was an especial friend of children stricken by polio and other afflictions. He will indeed be mourned yet will be enshrined in the memories and remembered in the prayers of all who knew and loved him.
4. 1974·Bruce R. McConkie·Apostle
   We are either for the Church or we are against it. We either take its part or we take the consequences. We cannot survive spiritually with one foot in the Church and the other in the world. We must make the choice. It is either the Church or the world. There is no middle ground. And the Lord loves a courageous man who fights openly and boldly in his army.
5. 1976·Bruce R. McConkie·Apostle
   Born among mortals with the talents and spiritual capacity earned in preexistence, he was ready at the appointed time to perform the work to which he had been foreordained.
6. 1991·L. Tom Perry·Apostle
   Independence and self-reliance are critical to our spiritual and temporal growth. Whenever we get into situations which threaten our self-reliance, we will find our freedoms threatened as well. If we increase our dependence on anything or anyone except the Lord, we will find an immediate decrease in our freedom to act. As President Heber J. Grant declared, “Nothing destroys the individuality of a man, a woman, or a child as much as the failure to be self-reliant” (“Address,” Relief Society Magazine, Oct. 1937, p. 627).