Parable of the Bicycle, and more...

This devotional introduced two stories that had a strong impact on me as a young man. The first is Brother Robinson's parable of the bicycle. Although I was not yet a father when I first heard this, I imagined the efforts of a young father to provide for his children. Since becoming a dad, I appreciate so much more the love that a father has for his children, and can only imagine the magnification of love that our Heavenly Father has for us. I also think the parable is just about perfect, in that the father asks his daughter to give all she has, and then he will make up the rest. Jesus does the same.

The second story (though first in order in the devotional) is of Brother Robinson sending his son to his bedroom when he had done something wrong, as punishment. It has a more practical application to me, reminding me of my responsibility to love my children, and be patient with them. I have much to improve on in this area, but it is my ideal.

Believing Christ:
A Practical Approach to the Atonement

STEPHEN E. ROBINSON

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Stephen E. Robinson was a professor of ancient scripture at
BYU when this devotional address was given on 29 May 1990.

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The greatest dichotomy, the greatest problem in the entire universe, consists of two facts. The first we can read in Doctrine and Covenants 1:31: "For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance." That means he can't stand it, he can't tolerate it, he can't blink, or look the other way, or sweep it under the rug. He can't tolerate sin in the least degree. The other side of the dichotomy is very simply put: I sin, and so do you. If that were all there were to the equation, the conclusion would be inescapable that we, as sinful beings, cannot be tolerated in the presence of God.

But that is not all there is to the equation. This morning I would like to talk to you about the Atonement of Christ, that glorious plan by which this dichotomy can be resolved. I would like to share with you incidents from my own life that illustrate how the Atonement works in a practical, everyday setting.

Believing Christ

First is a story about my son, Michael, who did something wrong when he was six or seven years old. He's my only son, and I'm hard on him. I want him to be better than his dad was, even as a boy, and so I lean on him and expect a great deal. Well, he had done something I thought was incredibly vile, and I let him know how terrible it was. I sent him to his room with the instructions, "Don't you dare come out until I come and get you."

And then I forgot. It was some hours later, as I was watching television, that I heard his door open and heard the tentative footsteps coming down the hall. I said, "Oh, my gosh," and ran to my end of the hall to see him standing with swollen eyes and tears on his cheeks at the other end. He looked up at me--he wasn't quite sure he should have come out--and said, "Dad, can't we ever be friends again?" Well, I melted, ran to him, and hugged him. He's my boy, and I love him.

Like Michael, we all do things that disappoint our Father, that separate us from his presence and spirit. There are times when we get sent to our rooms spiritually. There are sins that maim; there are sins that wound our spirits. Some of you know what it is like to do something that makes you feel as if you just drank raw sewage. You can wash, but you can never get clean. When that happens, sometimes we ask the Lord as we lift up our eyes, "O Father, can't we ever be friends again?"

The answer that can be found in all the scriptures is a resounding "Yes, through the Atonement of Christ." I particularly like the way it is put in Isaiah 1:18.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

I like to paraphrase that for my students. What the Lord is saying is "I don't care what you did. It doesn't matter what you did. I can erase it. I can make you pure and worthy and innocent and celestial."

Brothers and sisters, to have faith in Jesus Christ is not merely to believe that he is who he says he is, to believe in Christ. Sometimes, to have faith in Christ is also to believe Christ. Both as a bishop and as a teacher in the Church, I have learned there are many that believe Jesus is the Son of God and that he is the Savior of the World, but that he cannot save them. They believe in his identity, but not in his power to cleanse and to purify and to save. To have faith in his identity is only half the process. To have faith in his ability, in his power to cleanse and to save, that is the other half. We must not only believe in Christ, we must believe Christ when he says, "I can cleanse you and make you celestial."

When I was a bishop, I used to hear several variations on a theme. Sometimes it was, "Bishop, I've punched my ticket wrong. I've just made mistakes that have gotten me off on the wrong track, and you can't get there from here." I've heard those who say, "Bishop, I've sinned too horribly. I can't have the full blessings of the gospel because I did this, or I did that. I'll come to Church, and I'll be active, and I'm hoping for a pretty good reward, but I couldn't receive the full blessings of exaltation in the celestial kingdom after what I've done." There are those members who say, "Bishop, I'm just an average Saint. I'm weak and imperfect, and I don't have all the talents that Sister So-and-So does, or Brother So-and-So does. I'll never be in the bishopric, or I'll never be the Relief Society president. I'm just average. I hope for a place a little further down." All of these are variations of the same theme: "I do not believe Christ can do what he claims. I have no faith in his ability to exalt me."

My favorite is a fellow who said to me once, "Bishop, I'm just not celestial material." Well, I'd had enough, so I said back to him, "Why don't you admit your problem? You're not celestial material? Welcome to the club. None of us are! None of us qualify on the terms of perfection required for the presence of God by ourselves. Why don't you just admit that you don't have faith in the ability of Christ to do what he says he can do?"

He got angry. He had always believed in Christ. He said, "I have a testimony of Jesus. I believe in Christ."

I said, "Yes, you believe in Christ. You simply do not believe Christ, because he says even though you are not celestial material, he can make you celestial material."

Why He Is Called the Savior

Sometimes the weight of the demand for perfection drives us to despair. Sometimes we fail to believe that most choice portion of the gospel that says he can change us and bring us into his kingdom. Let me share an experience that happened about ten years ago. My wife and I were living in Pennsylvania. Things were going pretty well; I'd been promoted. It was a good year for us, though a trying year for Janet. That year she had our fourth child, graduated from college, passed the CPA exam, and was made Relief Society president. We had temple recommends, we had family home evening. I was in the bishopric. I thought we were headed for "LDS yuppiehood." Then one night the lights went out. Something happened in my wife that I can only describe as "dying spiritually." She wouldn't talk about it; she wouldn't tell me what was wrong. That was the worst part. For a couple of weeks she did not wish to participate in spiritual things. She asked to be released from her callings, and she would not open up and tell me what was wrong.

Finally, after about two weeks, one night I made her mad and it came out. She said, "All right. You want to know what's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong. I can't do it anymore. I can't lift it. I can't get up at 5:30 in the morning and bake bread and sew clothes and help my kids with their homework and do my own homework and do my Relief Society stuff and get my genealogy done and write the congressman and go to the PTA meetings and write the missionaries . . ." And she just started naming one brick after another that had been laid on her, explaining all the things she could not do. She said, "I don't have the talent that Sister Morrell has. I can't do what Sister Childs does. I try not to yell at the kids, but I lose control, and I do. I'm just not perfect, and I'm not ever going to be perfect. I'm not going to make it to the celestial kingdom, and I've finally admitted that to myself. You and the kids can go, but I can't lift it. I'm not 'Molly Mormon,' and I'm not ever going to be perfect, so I've given up. Why break my back?"

Well, we started to talk, and it was a long night. I asked her, "Janet, do you have a testimony?"

She said, "Of course I do! That's what's so terrible. I know it's true. I just can't do it."

"Have you kept the covenants you made when you were baptized?"

She said, "I've tried and I've tried, but I cannot keep all the commandments all the time."

Then I rejoiced because I knew what was wrong, and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. It wasn't any of those horrible things I thought it might be. Who would have thought after eight years of marriage, after all the lessons we'd given and heard, and after all we had read and done in the Church, who would have thought that Janet did not know the gospel of Jesus Christ? You see, she was trying to save herself. She knew why Jesus is a coach, a cheerleader, an advisor, a teacher. She knew why he is an example, the head of the Church, the Elder Brother, or even God. She knew all of that, but she did not understand why he is called the Savior.

Janet was trying to save herself with Jesus as an advisor. Brothers and sisters, we can't. No one can. No one is perfect--not even the Brethren. Please turn to Ether 3:2. This is about one of the greatest prophets that ever lived, the brother of Jared. His faith is so great that he is about to pierce the veil and see the spiritual body of Christ. As he begins to pray, he says,

Now behold, O Lord, and do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness before thee; [One of the greatest prophets who ever lived, and he starts his prayer with an apology as an imperfect being for approaching a perfect God.] for we know that thou art holy and dwellest in the heavens, and that we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually; nevertheless, O Lord, thou hast given us a commandment that we must call upon thee, that from thee we may receive according to our desires.

Of course we fail at the celestial level. That's why we need a savior, and we are commanded to approach God and to call upon him so we may receive according to our desires. In the New Testament the Savior says, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6). We misinterpret that frequently. We think that means blessed are the righteous. It does not. When are you hungry? When are you thirsty? When you don't have the object of your desire. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after the righteousness that God has, after the righteousness of the celestial kingdom, because as that is the desire of their heart, they can achieve it--they will be filled. We may receive "according to our desires."

Becoming One

Perfection comes through the Atonement of Christ. We become one with him, with a perfect being. And as we become one, there is a merger. Some of my students are studying business, and they understand it better if I talk in business terms. You take a small bankrupt firm that's about ready to go under and merge it with a corporate giant. What happens? Their assets and liabilities flow together, and the new entity that is created is solvent.

It's like when Janet and I got married. I was overdrawn; Janet had money in the bank. By virtue of making that commitment, of entering into that covenant relationship of marriage with my wife, we became a joint account. No longer was there an I, and no longer a she--now it was we. My liabilities and her assets flowed into each other, and for the first time in months I was in the black.

Spiritually, this is what happens when we enter into the covenant relationship with our Savior. We have liabilities, he has assets. He proposes to us a covenant relationship. I use the word "propose" on purpose because it is a marriage of a spiritual sort that is being proposed. That is why he is called the Bridegroom. This covenant relationship is so intimate that it can be described as a marriage. I become one with Christ, and as partners we work together for my salvation and my exaltation. My liabilities and his assets flow into each other. I do all that I can do, and he does what I cannot yet do. The two of us together are perfect.

This is why the Savior says in Matthew 11:28, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." What heavier load is there than the demand for perfection, that you must do it all, that you must make yourself perfect in this life before you can have any hope in the next? What heavier burden is there than that? That is the yoke of the law.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

[Matthew 11:28­30]

"Trust Me"

Turn, if you will, to 2 Nephi 4:17­19. You know the prophet Nephi. He was one of the great prophets, yet he had a sense of his need for the Savior and his reliance upon the Savior. He says,

O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.

I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me.

And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins.

Did Nephi have an appreciation for his mortal condition, for his need of the Savior to be saved from his sins? Oh yes, and the key is what comes next, "nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted." All right, I'm imperfect. My sins bother me. I'm not celestial yet, but I know in whom I have trusted. Nephi trusted in the power of Jesus Christ to cleanse him of his sins and to bring him into the kingdom of God.

I had a friend who used to say quite frequently, "Well, I figure my life is half over, and I'm halfway to the celestial kingdom, so I'm right on schedule."

One day I asked her, "Judy, what happens if you die tomorrow?" It was the first time that thought had ever occurred to her.

"Let's see, halfway to the celestial kingdom is . . . mid-terrestrial! That's not good enough!"

We need to know that in this covenant relationship we have with the Savior, if we should die tomorrow, we have hope of the celestial kingdom. That hope is one of the promised blessings of the covenant relationship. Yet many of us do not understand it or take advantage of it.

When our twin daughters were small, we decided to take them to the public pool and teach them how to swim. I remember starting with Rebekah. As I went down into the water with Rebekah, I thought, "I'm going to teach her how to swim." But as we went down into the water, in her mind was the thought, "My dad is going to drown me. I'm going to die!" The water was only three and a half feet deep, but Becky was only three feet deep. She was so petrified that she began to scream and cry and kick and scratch and was unteachable.

Finally, I just had to grab her. I threw my arms around her, and I just held her, and I said, "Becky, I've got you. I'm your dad. I love you. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you. Now relax." Bless her heart, she trusted me. She relaxed, and I put my arms under her and said, "Okay, now kick your legs." And we began to learn how to swim.

Spiritually there are some of us who are similarly petrified by the questions "Am I celestial? Am I going to make it? Was I good enough today?" We're so terrified of whether we're going to live or die, or whether we've made it to the kingdom or not, that we cannot make any progress. It's at those times when the Savior grabs us and throws his arms around us and says, "I've got you. I love you. I'm not going to let you die. Now relax and trust me." If we can relax and trust him and believe him, as well as believe in him, then together we can begin to learn to live the gospel. Then he puts his arms under us and says, "Okay, now pay tithing. Very good. Now pay a full tithing." And so we begin to make progress.

Turn to Alma 34:14­16.

And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law, every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal.

And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.

And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety.

"The arms of safety"--that is my favorite phrase from the Book of Mormon.

Brothers and sisters, do Mormons believe in being saved? If I ask my classes that question with just the right twang in my voice, "Do we believe in being saved?" I can generally get about a third of my students to shake their heads and say, "Oh no, no! Those other guys believe in that." What a tragedy! Brothers and sisters, we believe in being saved. That's why Jesus is called the Savior. What good is it to have a savior if no one is saved? It's like having a lifeguard that won't get out of the chair. "There goes another one down. Try the backstroke! Oh, too bad, he didn't make it." We have a savior who can save us from ourselves, from what we lack, from our imperfections, from the carnal individual within us.

Turn to Doctrine and Covenants 76:68­69. In Joseph's vision of the celestial kingdom, he describes those who are there in these terms:

These are they whose names are written in heaven, where God and Christ are the judge of all.

These are they who are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.

Just men and women, good men and women, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, made perfect through Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.

Give Him All That We Have

As my wife and I talked about her feeling of inadequacy and her feeling that she couldn't do it and that she couldn't make it, I had a hard time reaching her until finally I hit upon something that had happened in our family just a couple of months earlier. In our home it is now called the parable of the bicycle.

After I had come home from school one day, I was sitting in a chair reading the newspaper. My daughter Sarah, who was seven years old, came in and said, "Dad, can I have a bike? I'm the only kid on the block who doesn't have a bike."

Well, I didn't have enough money to buy her a bike, so I stalled her and said, "Sure, Sarah."

She said, "How? When?"

I said, "You save all your pennies, and pretty soon you'll have enough for a bike." And she went away.

A couple of weeks later as I was sitting in the same chair, I was aware of Sarah doing something for her mother and getting paid. She went into the other room and I heard "clink, clink." I asked, "Sarah, what are you doing?"

She came out and she had a little jar all cleaned up with a slit cut in the lid and a bunch of pennies in the bottom. She looked at me and said, "You promised me that if I saved all my pennies, pretty soon I'd have enough for a bike. And, Daddy, I've saved every single one of them."

She's my daughter, and I love her. My heart melted. She was doing everything in her power to follow my instructions. I hadn't actually lied to her. If she saved all of her pennies she would eventually have enough for a bike, but by then she would want a car. But her needs weren't being met. Because I love her, I said, "Let's go downtown and look at bikes."

We went to every store in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Finally we found it--the perfect bicycle, the one she knew in the premortal existence. She got up on that bike; she was thrilled. She then saw the price tag, reached down, and turned it over. When she saw how much it cost, her face fell and she started to cry. She said, "Oh Dad, I'll never have enough for a bicycle."

So I said, "Sarah, how much do you have?"

She answered, "Sixty-one cents."

"I'll tell you what. You give me everything you've got and a hug and a kiss, and the bike is yours." Well, she's never been stupid. She gave me a hug and a kiss. She gave me the sixty-one cents. Then I had to drive home very slowly because she wouldn't get off the bike. She rode home on the sidewalk, and as I drove along slowly beside her it occurred to me that this was a parable for the Atonement of Christ.

We all want something desperately--it isn't a bicycle. We want the celestial kingdom. We want to be with our Father in Heaven. And no matter how hard we try, we come up short. At some point we realize, "I can't do this!" That was the point my wife had reached. It is at that point that the sweetness of the gospel covenant comes to our taste as the Savior proposes, "I'll tell you what. All right, you're not perfect. How much do you have? What can you do? Where are you now? Give me all you've got, and I'll pay the rest. Give me a hug and a kiss; enter into a personal relationship with me, and I will do what remains undone."

There is good news and bad news here. The bad news is that he still requires our best effort. We must try, we must work--we must do all that we can. But the good news is that having done all we can, it is enough--for now. Together we'll make progress in the eternities, and eventually we will become perfect--but in the meantime, we are perfect only in a partnership, in a covenant relationship with him. Only by tapping his perfection can we hope to qualify.

When I explained to Janet how it worked, finally I broke through and she understood. She bloomed. I remember her saying through her tears, "I've always believed he is the Son of God. I have always believed that he suffered and died for me. But now I know that he can save me from myself, from my sins, from my weakness, inadequacy, and lack of talent."

Oh, brothers and sisters, how many of us forget the words of 2 Nephi 2:8:

There is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah.

There is no other way. Many of us are trying to save ourselves, holding the Atonement of Jesus Christ at arm's distance and saying, "When I've done it, when I've perfected myself, when I've made myself worthy, then I'll be worthy of the Atonement. Then I will allow him in." We cannot do it. That's like saying, "When I am well, I'll take the medicine. I'll be worthy of it then." That's not how it was designed to work.

There is a hymn--it is one of my favorites--that says, "Dearly, dearly has he loved! And we must love him too, And trust in his redeeming blood, And try his works to do" ("There Is a Green Hill Far Away," Hymns, 1985, no. 194). I think one of the reasons why I love that hymn so much is because it expresses both sides of that covenant relationship. We must try his works to do with all that is in us. We must do all that we can, and having done all, then we must trust in his redeeming blood and in his ability to do for us what we cannot yet do.

Elder McConkie used to call this being in the gospel harness. When we are in the gospel harness, when we are pulling for the kingdom with our eyes on that goal, although we are not yet there, we can have confidence that just as that is our goal in life, so it will be our goal in eternity. Through the Atonement of Christ we can have hope of achieving and an expectation of receiving that goal.

I bear testimony to you that this is true. I have learned this lesson in my life. My family has learned this lesson in our collective life. I bear testimony that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he is the Savior of the World, that he is our individual Savior, if we will only enter into that glorious covenant relationship with him and give him all that we have. Whether it be sixty-one cents or a dollar and a half or two cents, hold nothing back, give it all, and then have faith and trust in his ability to do for us what we cannot yet accomplish, to make up what we yet lack of perfection.

I bear testimony of him. I love him. I love his gospel dearly, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

I was not present for this talk, although I did attend other JRCLS Devotionals. I listened to it later, and so appreciated President Packer's insights. While it is very easy to presume that we are self-made, the reality is that we truly are standing on the shoulders of giants, and we bear the names of those who have gone before us.

On the Shoulder of Giants

by President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law Society Devotional – Saturday, 28 February 2004, 6:00 p.m.

In my hand is a two-pound English coin. Around the edge is inscribed the words “Stood on the shoulders of giants.”

Sir Isaac Newton invented calculus and the reflective telescope, defined the laws of motion, and an astonishing list of other things. Asked how he was able to do it all, he answered: “I stood on the shoulders of giants.”1

We stand on the shoulders of a giant: President J. Reuben Clark.

Less than a month after my 37th birthday, I was sustained as a General Authority. On October 6, 1961, I was set apart in the council room by the First Presidency, and later that same day I received word, “President Clark just passed away.” His ministry closed the same day that mine began.

The mention of his name polishes the windows of my memory. I see clearly and feel deeply the memory of this great man. Now you must not assume that I suppose that I compare in stature with him. I am, with you, one of many who stood on his shoulders.

My close personal contacts with President Clark were very few. I heard him speak many times. I stood in awe of him.

I was in his office once and remember very clearly how he looked and what he said. I sat next to him at the dinner when he gave his address entitled “Reflective Speculation.”2 And there were other times.

The Question

Now I have a question for you of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society. I quote President George Albert Smith, the second of the three Presidents to whom J. Reuben Clark served as a counselor.

President Smith said:

A number of years ago I was seriously ill, in fact, I think everyone gave me up but my wife. With my family I went to St. George, Utah, to see if it would improve my health. We went as far as we could by train, and then continued the journey in a wagon, in the bottom of which a bed had been made for me.

In St. George we arranged for a tent for my health and comfort, with a built-in floor raised about a foot above the ground, and we could roll up the south side of the tent to make the sunshine and fresh air available. I became so weak as to be scarcely able to move. It was a slow and exhausting effort for me even to turn over in bed.

One day, under these conditions, I lost consciousness of my surroundings and thought I had passed to the Other Side. I found myself standing with my back to a large and beautiful lake, facing a great forest of trees. There was no one in sight, and there was no boat upon the lake or any other visible means to indicate how I might have arrived there. I realized, or seemed to realize, that I had finished my work in mortality and had gone home. I began to look around, to see if I could not find someone. There was no evidence of anyone living there, just those great, beautiful trees in front of me and the wonderful lake behind me.

I began to explore, and soon I found a trail through the woods which seemed to have been used very little, and which was almost obscured by grass. I followed this trail, and after I had walked for some time and had traveled a considerable distance through the forest, I saw a man coming towards me. I became aware that he was a very large man, and I hurried my steps to reach him, because I recognized him as my grandfather. In mortality he weighed over three hundred pounds, so you may know he was a large man. I remember how happy I was to see him coming. I had been given his name [George Albert Smith] and had always been proud of it.

When Grandfather came within a few feet of me, he stopped. His stopping was an invitation for me to stop. Then ... he looked at me very earnestly and said:

“I would like to know what you have done with my name?”

Everything I had ever done passed before me as though it were a flying picture on a screen—everything I had done. Quickly this vivid retrospect came down to the very time I was standing there. My whole life had passed before me. I smiled and looked at my grandfather and said:

“I have never done anything with your name of which you need be ashamed.”

He stepped forward and took me in his arms, and as he did so, I became conscious again of my earthly surroundings. My pillow was as wet as though water had been poured on it—wet with tears of gratitude that I could answer unashamed.3

The question is: What are you doing with the name of President J. Reuben Clark?

President J. Reuben Clark

President Clark’s service was divided into two equal parts: twenty-eight years in law and government and twenty-eight years as counselor in the First Presidency.
President Clark grew up as a farm boy in tiny Grantsville. At age eleven he could plow with a team of horses. If the weather was too cold for others to go, he would walk to the evening sacrament meeting alone.

In a large family he learned to work. He had a father and a mother of pioneer virtue and integrity. His father wrote in his journal, “I went down between the barley and wheat in the old ditch, and knelt down and prayed and dedicated the grain that we have sown and asked the blessings of the Lord upon it; this I do every year with everything that I plant.”4

Another local boy, Heber J. Grant, knew him well. These two farm boys would meet again.

With an elementary school education and at the urging of his father, President Clark moved to Salt Lake City to go to college. Dr. James E. Talmage was his mentor. When he went east to school, Dr. Talmage said, “He possessed the brightest mind ever to leave Utah.”5

He married Luacine Savage. They became parents of three daughters and one son. From 1898 to 1903 he was teacher and administrator in Heber and in Cedar City.
Before leaving to study law, he called on President Joseph F. Smith. President Smith cautioned him about the field of law and set him apart on a mission to be an exemplary Latter-day Saint.

Years earlier another young man wanted to go east to study law. James Henry Moyle, father of President Henry D. Moyle, met with President John Taylor. President Taylor said he was “opposed to any of our young men going away to study law. It is a dangerous profession.”

His counselor George Q. Cannon persuaded President Taylor that “Brother Joseph had to engage lawyers. So [did] Brother Brigham.”

President Taylor agreed then that it would be all right for Brother Moyle to go, and then he spoke of “the pitfalls into which the young man might slip unless he [was] careful.” He gave him a blessing, from which I quote:

As thou hast had in thine heart a desire to go forth to study law..., we say unto thee that this is a dangerous profession, one that leads many people down to destruction; ...abstain from corruption and bribery and covetousness, and from arguing falsely and on false principles, maintaining only the things that can be honorably sustained by honorable men;...

We set thee apart ... to go forth as thou hast desired to study and become acquainted with all the principles of law and equity; [then there is a big "if" in the blessing] if thou wilt abstain from chicanery and from fraud and from covetousness, and [another "if"] if thou wilt cleave to the truth, God will bless thee.

He was promised by President Taylor that if he would do these things, he would “grow up in virtue, in intelligence, power and wisdom, and stand as a mighty man among the House of Israel, and be a defender of the rights and liberties and immunities of the people of God.”

And this promise: “But if thou doest not these things, thou wilt go down and wither away.”6

In 1903 President Clark took his family to New York City to attend the Columbia University School of Law. In 1906 he graduated head of his class with an LL.B. degree. Shortly after he was appointed as Department of State Assistant Solicitor, and he published his classic “Memorandum on the Right to Protect Citizens in Foreign Countries by Landing Forces.” (Does that not sound familiar today?)

While living in Washington, D.C., he was appointed as an assistant professor of law at George Washington University.

He opened law offices in Washington, D.C., in New York City, and in Salt Lake City, where he specialized in international and municipal law.

A staunch Republican, he became influential in both Utah and national politics.

They tried more than once to draft him to run for the United States Senate. There was also an effort made to draft him as a candidate for the presidency of the United States until he firmly refused.

During World War I President Clark served as a major on duty with the U.S. Attorney General’s office. He helped prepare the original Selective Service regulations. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

President Calvin Coolidge appointed him as Under Secretary of State in 1928. He then published his “Memorandum on the Monroe Doctrine.” Even his critics praised it as a “monument of erudition,” a “masterly treatise.”7

The title of your society’s semiannual publication is The Clark Memorandum.

Call to the First Presidency

In 1930 J. Reuben Clark was named as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. Two and a half years later he was called by letter as second counselor to President Heber J. Grant.

General conference had come and gone, and a vacancy in the First Presidency was not filled. A senior Apostle told me that two members of the Twelve waited upon President Grant and said, “We see you did not fill the vacancy in the Presidency.”

President Grant replied, “I know the man the Lord wants me to have, and he is not ready yet.” Pointing his cane at each of them, he said, “I know that feeling when it comes. I had it when I called you! And I had it when I called you!”

“When that cane pointed at me,” one of them told me, “I felt as if I had been electrocuted.”

It was nearly a year before President Clark was able to come to Church headquarters. During the first fifteen months he was away for five months in Washington, D.C., or abroad on-call for the President of the United States.

In October 1933 J. Reuben Clark Jr. was honored at a dinner in Beverly Hills, California. Telegrams of tribute arrived—also one letter from Will Rogers, philosopher and humorist, perhaps the best-known American of his time. Will Rogers apologized for the letter but said, “I have more to say than I am able to pay for [in a telegram].”

John Nance Garner, the Vice President of the United States, was there, of whom Rogers said in his letter, “He ... deserves [better work] than he’s got.”

Rogers then spoke in admiration of J. Reuben Clark and closed, “So, God Bless Reuben Clark, and make him a Democrat, or Republican as necessity demands! [signed] Will.”8

President Clark came to the First Presidency virtually unknown in the Church. He had held no administrative positions, even on the local level.

He kept things very plain and simple. The president of Equitable Life once sent him a speech. President Clark replied, “A lot of it was over my head [trying to understand it], but I sort of held my breath and struggled to the top.... I accept your conclusions whether or not I fully understand the reasons, and I congratulate you on another fine speech.”9

I can imagine President Clark in his library with words scattered about on his desk. I see him discarding the longer ones and then picking up a word and fitting it into a sentence and then replacing it with one easier to understand. From words he made sentences, often very long ones, fastening them together into paragraphs and bundling them together into his inspired sermons.

His Reverence for the Lord

One way or another his writing and his speaking had a common theme. It was there when he first spoke in church at age eleven. Like Nephi, “[he talked] of Christ, [he rejoiced] in Christ, [he preached] of Christ, [he prophesied] of Christ, and [he wrote] according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Nephi 25:26).

His classic books Our Lord of the Gospels10 and Behold the Lamb of God11 are examples.

His “The Charted Course of the Church in Education,”12 prepared by assignment from the First Presidency, is an enduring classic akin to scripture.

I give you two examples from his sermons. To the priesthood he spoke of the burden of debt:

Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours.... Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.13

From his classic address “They of the Last Wagon” given in 1947, the centennial of the arrival of the Pioneers:

Morning came when from out that last wagon floated the la-la of the newborn babe, and mother love made a shrine, and Father bowed in reverence before it. But the train must move on. So out into the dust and dirt the last wagon moved again, swaying and jolting, while Mother eased as best she could each pain-giving jolt so no harm might be done her, that she might be strong to feed the little one, bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh. Who will dare to say that angels did not cluster round and guard her and ease her rude bed, for she had given another choice spirit its mortal body that it might work out its God-given destiny?14

President Clark’s mother was one of those so born in 1848.

Criticism

To President Clark criticism seemed to be an inescapable accompaniment of the doing of righteousness. He once wrote:

It seems sometimes as if the darkness that surrounds us is all but impenetrable. I can see on all sides the signs of one great evil master mind working for the overturning of our civilization, the destruction of religion, the reduction of men to the status of animals. This mind is working here and there and everywhere.15

President Clark spoke of the Pioneer leaders and in so doing described himself:

Upright men they were, and fearless, unmindful of what men thought or said of them, if they were in their line of duty. Calumny, slander, derision, scorn left them unmoved, if they were treading the straight and narrow way. Uncaring they were of men’s blame and censure, if the Lord approved them. Unswayed they were by the praise of men, to wander from the path of truth. Endowed by the spirit of discernment, they [knew] when kind words were mere courtesy, and when they betokened honest interest. They moved neither to the right nor to the left from the path of truth to court the good favor of men.16

Intellectual Vision

President Harold B. Lee said of President Clark:

In the universal sweep of his great intellectual vision he had few equals and perhaps no superiors. He once said of his grandfather on his maternal line, Bishop Edwin D. Woolley: “He was so eloquent in political discourse that even his enemies came out to hear him.” So it has been with this grandson of Bishop Woolley [referring to President Clark]. Even those who violently disagree with his views [and there were many] are intrigued by his eloquence, his forthrightness, pure logic, and penetrating insight into the center and core of whatever subjects he undertakes to expound.17

It was said of Bishop Woolley that if he should drown in a river, they would look upstream for the body.

President Spencer Woolley Kimball was a cousin of President Clark. When President Kimball would be very resolute (a kinder word than stubborn), one of the Brethren would say, “Well, he’s a Woolley.”

A young university student of political science once spoke to Elder Lee about the student’s vigorous disagreement with President Clark’s lecture “Our Dwindling Sovereignty” at the University of Utah. Elder Lee’s response was, “Yes, I suppose it would be difficult for a pigmy to get the viewpoint of a giant. When I go to hear world authority..., I go to learn and not to criticize.”18

Other Giants

There are other giants of the law upon whose shoulders I have stood—Presidents Marion G. Romney, Henry D. Moyle, Howard W. Hunter, and James E. Faust.

The saintly Abraham Lincoln said that “lawyers should discourage litigation. Persuade [your] clients to compromise. The lawyer who is a peacemaker can become a good man. There will be business enough.... Never stir up litigation. If you do, a worse man can scarcely be found.”19

John K. Edmunds had a distinguished legal career. He served as a stake president in Chicago. David M. Kennedy, later Secretary of the Treasury, was his counselor. Brother Edmunds later served as president of the Salt Lake Temple.

He told me that a widow once came to him for help on a property matter. When he completed the papers and gave them to her, she asked, “How much do I owe you?”

He looked at her and said, “Why don’t you pay me what you think it’s worth.”

Relieved, she got out her coin purse and produced a quarter and put it in his hand.

He told me, “I looked at the quarter and looked at her. Then I got out my coin purse and gave her ten cents change.”

Only a wicked lawyer would take advantage of a widow or orphans or anyone else.

In Liberty Jail Erastus Snow, who probably could not afford legal counsel, asked Joseph Smith what he should do:

Brother Joseph told him to plead his own case.

“But,” said Brother Snow, “I do not understand the law.”

Brother Joseph asked him if he did not understand justice; he thought he did.

“Well,” said Brother Joseph, “go and plead for justice as hard as you can, and quote Blackstone and other authors now and then, and they will take it all for law.”20

A Charge
Those giants I named, like you, had something that I do not have—a degree in law. With this credential comes obligation.

You who hold the priesthood must be exemplars above reproach.

And I charge each of you lawyers and judges and put you on alert: These are days of great spiritual danger for this people. The world is spiraling downward at an ever-quickening pace. I am sorry to tell you that it will not get better.

I know of nothing in the history of the Church or in the history of the world to compare with our present circumstances. Nothing happened in Sodom and Gomorrah which exceeds the wickedness and depravity which surrounds us now.

Satan uses every intrigue to disrupt the family. The sacred relationship between man and woman, husband and wife, through which mortal bodies are conceived and life is passed from one generation to the next generation, is being showered with filth.

Profanity, vulgarity, blasphemy, and pornography are broadcast into the homes and minds of the innocent. Unspeakable wickedness, perversion, and abuse—not even exempting little children—once hidden in dark places, now seeks protection from courts and judges.

The Lord needs you who are trained in the law. You can do for this people what others cannot do. We should not need to go beyond the members of the Church to find superior legal counsel.

A Caution

Now I caution you, as President John Taylor warned James Moyle and as Joseph Smith warned Stephen A. Douglas at the pinnacle of his political triumph, “If ever you turn your hand against ... the Latter-day Saints, you will feel the weight of the hand of Almighty upon you.”21

We must look to you for legal counsel. You have, or should have, the spirit of discernment. It was given you when you had conferred upon you the gift of the Holy Ghost.

You must locate where the snares are hidden and help guide our footsteps around them.

Morally Mixed-Up World

You face a much different world than did President Clark. The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were localized. They are now spread across the world, wherever the Church is. The first line of defense—the home—is crumbling. Surely you can see what the adversary is about.

The Prophets Have Warned

We are now exactly where the prophets warned we would be.

Paul prophesied word by word and phrase by phrase, describing things exactly as they are now. I will quote from Paul’s prophecy and check the words that fit our society:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves—Check!
covetous—Check!
boasters—Check!,
proud—Check!
blasphemers—Check!
disobedient to parents—Check! Check!
unthankful—Check!
unholy—Check!
Without natural affection—Check! Check!
trucebreakers—Check!
false accusers—Check!
incontinent—Check!
fierce—Check!
despisers of those that are good—Check!
Traitors—Check!
heady—Check!
highminded—Check!
lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God—Check! Check!
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 3:1–7; emphasis added).

Recently Judge Robert H. Bork said:

Judicial invention of new and previously unheard-of rights accelerated over the past half-century and has now reached warp speed. It is not just Grutter’s permission to discriminate against white males and Lawrence’s creation of a right to homosexual sodomy. The Court has created rights to televised sexual acts and computer-simulated child pornography and, in direct contradiction of the historical evidence, has continued its almost frenzied hostility to religion....

In these and other judgements, the Court is shrinking the area of self-government without any legitimate authority to do so, in the Constitution or elsewhere. In the process it is revising the moral and cultural life of the nation.22

Once with other members of a city council, we met in the office of the city attorney. He pointed to a wall with law books and said, “Gentlemen, they are just like a violin. I can play any tune on them you are willing to pay for.” I thought there was something not right about that.

The Lord Himself, strongly condemning the lawyers, scribes, and Pharisees, said: “Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers” (Luke 11:46).

From the writings of the Prophet Alma:

These lawyers were learned in all the arts and cunning of the people;...

[The lawyers] began to question Amulek, that thereby they might make him cross his words, or contradict the words which he should speak....

They knew not that Amulek could know of their designs.... He perceived their thoughts, and he said unto them: O ye wicked and perverse generation, ye lawyers and hypocrites, for ye are laying the foundations of the devil; for ye are laying traps and snares to catch the holy ones of God....

And now behold, I say unto you, that the foundation of the destruction of this people is beginning to be laid by the unrighteousness of your lawyers and your judges (Alma 10:15–17, 27).

Nephi, son of Helaman, described what happened when the Gadiantons took over the lawyers and the judges: “Condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money” (Helaman 7:5).

You have heard of the courageous lawyer who, having been fined fifty dollars for contempt of court, replied, “It is an honest debt, Your Honor, and I shall gladly pay it.”

Lawyers and judges and even the sacred institution of the jury are being tarnished. When one considers some of the high-profile verdicts, one could believe this conversation:

Judge: “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached your verdict?”
Jury: “We have, Your Honor. We find the defendant innocent by reason of insanity.”
Judge: “What? All twelve of you?”

When Moroni was translating the twenty-four gold plates, he interrupted his narrative to speak directly to us in our day. He told of the Gadiantons and their bands (in our day we would call them gangs):

Wherefore, O ye Gentiles [that is us], it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you,...

[He then warned us in unmistakable plainness]: Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you;...

Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved (Ether 8:23–24, 26).

When the Saints in Missouri were suffering great persecutions, the Lord said that the Constitution of the United States was given

that every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him. [Notice that it does not say free agency, it says moral agency. The agency we have is a moral agency.]
...
For this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood (D&C 101:78, 80; emphasis added).

The present major political debate centers on values and morals and the Constitution.

There occurs from time to time reference to the Constitution hanging by a thread. President Brigham Young said:

The general Constitution of our country is good, and a wholesome government could be framed upon it; for it was dictated by the invisible operations of the Almighty....

Will the Constitution be destroyed? No. It will be held inviolate by this people; and as Joseph Smith said “the time will come when the destiny of this nation will hang upon a single thread, and at this critical juncture, this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction.” It will be so.23

I do not know when that day will come or how it will come to pass. I feel sure that when it does come to pass, among those who will step forward from among this people will be men who hold the Holy Priesthood and who carry as credentials a bachelor or doctor of law degree. And women, also, of honor. And there will be judges as well.

Others from the world outside the Church will come, as Colonel Thomas Kane did, and bring with them their knowledge of the law to protect this people.

We may one day stand alone, but we will not change or lower our standards or change our course.

What Will You Do with His Name?

Near the end of his life, President Clark spoke at a dinner at Brigham Young University. I sat next to him. We steadied him as he made his way slowly and laboriously down the steps to his car and drove away into the night. That was the last time I saw him.

The funeral of President J. Reuben Clark Jr. was the first General Authority funeral I attended. South Temple was blocked off between State Street and West Temple. The General Authorities assembled in front of the Church Administration Building. There were thirty-eight of us then. With measured steps, we followed the hearse down the center of the street.

The solemn procession moved through the south gate of Temple Square and around to the northwest door of the Tabernacle. There we formed an honor guard, half on each side of the door, and stood at attention while the casket bearing President Clark and his family passed between us.

I ask you who belong to the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, What will you do with his name? It is very certain that one day you will be accountable to President Clark.

And it is equally certain that you members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be accountable for what you have done with the Lord’s name.

I wonder if you who are now lawyers or you who are students of the law know how much you are needed as defenders of the faith. Be willing to give of your time and of your means and your expertise to the building up of the Church and the kingdom of God and the establishment of Zion, which we are under covenant to do—not just to the Church as an institution, but to members and ordinary people who need your professional protection.

Another Testimonial Dinner

I told you about the dinner honoring J. Reuben Clark in Beverly Hills, California. There was another dinner held at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. It was a tribute to President J. Reuben Clark on his retirement from the board of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Elder Harold B. Lee was there to succeed him on the board.

Elder Lee told me that prior to the event President Clark called him to his hotel room. He found President Clark sitting, leaning on his cane, pensive and unusually nervous. He wanted to inspect Brother Lee’s formal dress to see that his cummerbund was just right.

Imagine those assembled, the great men of the world—cabinet ministers, leaders in business and government—all of different faiths. President Clark and Elder Lee were the only two members of the Church present.

President Clark began his valedictory by addressing them as “my brethren.” He taught them about the Lord Jesus Christ and concluded with his fervent testimony.

I conclude with my fervent testimony and invoke a blessing upon you who are lawyers and judges and who have great power to defend this people.

I invoke the blessings of our Heavenly Father upon you in your studies, in your practice, and more particularly in your home and in your family, that the Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of righteousness will be with you.

I pray that you can take justice and mercy and find a balance in them and fix them firmly with absolute integrity, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Notes:
1. Sir Isaac Newton, letter to Robert Hooke, Feb. 1676.
2. J. Reuben Clark Jr., “Reflective Speculation,” address given at Seminary and Institute Teachers Summer Session, 21 June 1954.
3. Sharing the Gospel with Others, Preston Nibley, comp. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1948], 110-12.
4. Journal of Joshua Clark, vol. 12, 25 Mar. 1886.
5. Harold B. Lee, “President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.: An Appreciation on His Ninetieth Birthday,” Improvement Era, Sept. 1961, 632.
6. Gordon B. Hinckley, James Henry Moyle: The Story of a Distinguished American and an Honored Churchman [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1951], 130–33.
7. David H. Yarn Jr., “Biographical Sketch of J. Reuben Clark, Jr.,” BYU Studies, 13 (spring 1973), 240.
8. Will Rogers to “Mr. Toastmaster,” 13 Oct. 1933.
9. J. Reuben Clark Jr. to Thomas I. Parkinson, 11 July 1947, fd 16, box 376, J. Reuben Clark Papers.
10. J. Reuben Clark Jr., Our Lord of the Gospels: A Harmony of the Gospels [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1954].
11. J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Behold the Lamb of God, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1991].
12. The Charted Course of the Church in Education, rev. ed. [pamphlet, 1994; item 32709].
13. J. Reuben Clark Jr. in Conference Report, Apr. 1938:103.
14. J. Reuben Clark Jr., “They of the Last Wagon,” Improvement Era, Nov. 1947, 705.
15. J. Reuben Clark Jr. in Conference Report, Oct. 1935, 92.
16. J. Reuben Clark Jr., “They of the Last Wagon,” Improvement Era, Nov. 1947, 747–48.
17. Harold B. Lee, “President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.: An Appreciation on His Ninetieth Birthday,” Improvement Era, Sept. 1961, 632.
18. Harold B. Lee, “President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.: An Appreciation on His Ninetieth Birthday,” Improvement Era, Sept. 1961, 632.
19. Abraham Lincoln, notes for a law lecture, 1 July 1850.
20. History of the Church, 3:258.
21. History of the Church, 5:394.
22. “Has the Supreme Court Gone Too Far?” Commentary, vol. 116, no. 3 [Oct. 2003], 25–48.
23. Brigham Young in Journal History, 4 July 1854.

Gather Together in One

 So, I read these chapters while sitting in the Celestial Room last night.  I love this story of Lachoneus, and how in the face of evil and war-mongering and threats of destruction, he gathers his people as one.  It was this story that led me to believe and to understand how important unity is.  I see Giddianhi and the Gadianton Robbers as the type and shadow of the world today.  They are doing everything in their power to destroy the righteous.  But Lachoneus is not swayed.  He draws the people together in one, and Giddianhi is not able to accomplish anything against them.

3 Nephi Chapter 3

1.

And now it came to pass that in the sixteenth year from the coming of Christ, Lachoneus, the governor of the land, received an epistle from the leader and the governor of this band of robbers; and these were the words which were written, saying:

2.

Lachoneus, most noble and chief governor of the land, behold, I write this epistle unto you, and do give unto you exceedingly great praise because of your firmness, and also the firmness of your people, in maintaining that which ye suppose to be your right and liberty; yea, ye do stand well, as if ye were supported by the hand of a god, in the defence of your liberty, and your property, and your country, or that which ye do call so.

3.

And it seemeth a pity unto me, most noble Lachoneus, that ye should be so foolish and vain as to suppose that ye can stand against so many brave men who are at my command, who do now at this time stand in their arms, and do await with great anxiety for the word--Go down upon the Nephites and destroy them.

4.

And I, knowing of their unconquerable spirit, having proved them in the field of battle, and knowing of their everlasting hatred towards you because of the many wrongs which ye have done unto them, therefore if they should come down against you they would visit you with utter destruction.

5.

Therefore I have written this epistle, sealing it with mine own hand, feeling for your welfare, because of your firmness in that which ye believe to be right, and your noble spirit in the field of battle.

6.

Therefore I write unto you, desiring that ye would yield up unto this my people, your cities, your lands, and your possessions, rather than that they should visit you with the sword and that destruction should come upon you.

7.

Or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us--not our slaves, but our brethren and partners of all our substance.

8.

And behold, I swear unto you, if ye will do this, with an oath, ye shall not be destroyed; but if ye will not do this, I swear unto you with an oath, that on the morrow month I will command that my armies shall come down against you, and they shall not stay their hand and shall spare not, but shall slay you, and shall let fall the sword upon you even until ye shall become extinct.

9.

And behold, I am Giddianhi; and I am the governor of this the secret society of Gadianton; which society and the works thereof I know to be good; and they are of ancient date and they have been handed down unto us.

10.

And I write this epistle unto you, Lachoneus, and I hope that ye will deliver up your lands and your possessions, without the shedding of blood, that this my people may recover their rights and government, who have dissented away from you because of your wickedness in retaining from them their rights of government, and except ye do this, I will avenge their wrongs. I am Giddianhi.

11.

And now it came to pass when Lachoneus received this epistle he was exceedingly astonished, because of the boldness of Giddianhi demanding the possession of the land of the Nephites, and also of threatening the people and avenging the wrongs of those that had received no wrong, save it were they had wronged themselves by dissenting away unto those wicked and abominable robbers.

12.

Now behold, this Lachoneus, the governor, was a just man, and could not be frightened by the demands and the threatenings of a robber; therefore he did not hearken to the epistle of Giddianhi, the governor of the robbers, but he did cause that his people should cry unto the Lord for strength against the time that the robbers should come down against them.

13.

Yea, he sent a proclamation among all the people, that they should gather together their women, and their children, their flocks and their herds, and all their substance, save it were their land, unto one place.

14.

And he caused that fortifications should be built round about them, and the strength thereof should be exceedingly great. And he caused that armies, both of the Nephites and of the Lamanites, or of all them who were numbered among the Nephites, should be placed as guards round about to watch them, and to guard them from the robbers day and night.

15.

Yea, he said unto them: As the Lord liveth, except ye repent of all your iniquities, and cry unto the Lord, ye will in no wise be delivered out of the hands of those Gadianton robbers.

16.

And so great and marvelous were the words and prophecies of Lachoneus that they did cause fear to come upon all the people; and they did exert themselves in their might to do according to the words of Lachoneus.

17.

And it came to pass that Lachoneus did appoint chief captains over all the armies of the Nephites, to command them at the time that the robbers should come down out of the wilderness against them.

18.

Now the chiefest among all the chief captains and the great commander of all the armies of the Nephites was appointed, and his name was Gidgiddoni.

19.

Now it was the custom among all the Nephites to appoint for their chief captains, (save it were in their times of wickedness) some one that had the spirit of revelation and also prophecy; therefore, this Gidgiddoni was a great prophet among them, as also was the chief judge.

20.

Now the people said unto Gidgiddoni: Pray unto the Lord, and let us go up upon the mountains and into the wilderness, that we may fall upon the robbers and destroy them in their own lands.

21.

But Gidgiddoni saith unto them: The Lord forbid; for if we should go up against them the Lord would deliver us into their hands; therefore we will prepare ourselves in the center of our lands, and we will gather all our armies together, and we will not go against them, but we will wait till they shall come against us; therefore as the Lord liveth, if we do this he will deliver them into our hands.

22.

And it came to pass in the seventeenth year, in the latter end of the year, the proclamation of Lachoneus had gone forth throughout all the face of the land, and they had taken their horses, and their chariots, and their cattle, and all their flocks, and their herds, and their grain, and all their substance, and did march forth by thousands and by tens of thousands, until they had all gone forth to the place which had been appointed that they should gather themselves together, to defend themselves against their enemies.

23.

And the land which was appointed was the land of Zarahemla, and the land which was between the land Zarahemla and the land Bountiful, yea, to the line which was between the land Bountiful and the land Desolation.

24.

And there were a great many thousand people who were called Nephites, who did gather themselves together in this land. Now Lachoneus did cause that they should gather themselves together in the land southward, because of the great curse which was upon the land northward.

25.

And they did fortify themselves against their enemies; and they did dwell in one land, and in one body, and they did fear the words which had been spoken by Lachoneus, insomuch that they did repent of all their sins; and they did put up their prayers unto the Lord their God, that he would deliver them in the time that their enemies should come down against them to battle.

26.

And they were exceedingly sorrowful because of their enemies. And Gidgiddoni did cause that they should make weapons of war of every kind, and they should be strong with armor, and with shields, and with bucklers, after the manner of his instruction.

Chapter 4:

1.

And it came to pass that in the latter end of the eighteenth year those armies of robbers had prepared for battle, and began to come down and to sally forth from the hills, and out of the mountains, and the wilderness, and their strongholds, and their secret places, and began to take possession of the lands, both which were in the land south and which were in the land north, and began to take possession of all the lands which had been deserted by the Nephites, and the cities which had been left desolate.

2.

But behold, there were no wild beasts nor game in those lands which had been deserted by the Nephites, and there was no game for the robbers save it were in the wilderness.

3.

And the robbers could not exist save it were in the wilderness, for the want of food; for the Nephites had left their lands desolate, and had gathered their flocks and their herds and all their substance, and they were in one body.

4.

Therefore, there was no chance for the robbers to plunder and to obtain food, save it were to come up in open battle against the Nephites; and the Nephites being in one body, and having so great a number, and having reserved for themselves provisions, and horses and cattle, and flocks of every kind, that they might subsist for the space of seven years, in the which time they did hope to destroy the robbers from off the face of the land; and thus the eighteenth year did pass away.

5.

And it came to pass that in the nineteenth year Giddianhi found that it was expedient that he should go up to battle against the Nephites, for there was no way that they could subsist save it were to plunder and rob and murder.

6.

And they durst not spread themselves upon the face of the land insomuch that they could raise grain, lest the Nephites should come upon them and slay them; therefore Giddianhi gave commandment unto his armies that in this year they should go up to battle against the Nephites.

7.

And it came to pass that they did come up to battle; and it was in the sixth month; and behold, great and terrible was the day that they did come up to battle; and they were girded about after the manner of robbers; and they had a lamb-skin about their loins, and they were dyed in blood, and their heads were shorn, and they had head-plates upon them; and great and terrible was the appearance of the armies of Giddianhi, because of their armor, and because of their being dyed in blood.

8.

And it came to pass that the armies of the Nephites, when they saw the appearance of the army of Giddianhi, had all fallen to the earth, and did lift their cries to the Lord their God, that he would spare them and deliver them out of the hands of their enemies.

9.

And it came to pass that when the armies of Giddianhi saw this they began to shout with a loud voice, because of their joy, for they had supposed that the Nephites had fallen with fear because of the terror of their armies.

10.

But in this thing they were disappointed, for the Nephites did not fear them; but they did fear their God and did supplicate him for protection; therefore, when the armies of Giddianhi did rush upon them they were prepared to meet them; yea, in the strength of the Lord they did receive them.

11.

And the battle commenced in this the sixth month; and great and terrible was the battle thereof, yea, great and terrible was the slaughter thereof, insomuch that there never was known so great a slaughter among all the people of Lehi since he left Jerusalem.

12.

And notwithstanding the threatenings and the oaths which Giddianhi had made, behold, the Nephites did beat them, insomuch that they did fall back from before them.

13.

And it came to pass that Gidgiddoni commanded that his armies should pursue them as far as the borders of the wilderness, and that they should not spare any that should fall into their hands by the way; and thus they did pursue them and did slay them, to the borders of the wilderness, even until they had fulfilled the commandment of Gidgiddoni.

14.

And it came to pass that Giddianhi, who had stood and fought with boldness, was pursued as he fled; and being weary because of his much fighting he was overtaken and slain. And thus was the end of Giddianhi the robber.

15.

And it came to pass that the armies of the Nephites did return again to their place of security. And it came to pass that this nineteenth year did pass away, and the robbers did not come again to battle; neither did they come again in the twentieth year.

16.

And in the twenty and first year they did not come up to battle, but they came up on all sides to lay siege round about the people of Nephi; for they did suppose that if they should cut off the people of Nephi from their lands, and should hem them in on every side, and if they should cut them off from all their outward privileges, that they could cause them to yield themselves up according to their wishes.

17.

Now they had appointed unto themselves another leader, whose name was Zemnarihah; therefore it was Zemnarihah that did cause that this siege should take place.

18.

But behold, this was an advantage to the Nephites; for it was impossible for the robbers to lay siege sufficiently long to have any effect upon the Nephites, because of their much provision which they had laid up in store,

19.

And because of the scantiness of provisions among the robbers; for behold, they had nothing save it were meat for their subsistence, which meat they did obtain in the wilderness;

20.

And it came to pass that the wild game became scarce in the wilderness insomuch that the robbers were about to perish with hunger.

21.

And the Nephites were continually marching out by day and by night, and falling upon their armies, and cutting them off by thousands and by tens of thousands.

22.

And thus it became the desire of the people of Zemnarihah to withdraw from their design, because of the great destruction which came upon them by night and by day.

23.

And it came to pass that Zemnarihah did give command unto his people that they should withdraw themselves from the siege, and march into the furthermost parts of the land northward.

24.

And now, Gidgiddoni being aware of their design, and knowing of their weakness because of the want of food, and the great slaughter which had been made among them, therefore he did send out his armies in the night-time, and did cut off the way of their retreat, and did place his armies in the way of their retreat.

25.

And this did they do in the night-time, and got on their march beyond the robbers, so that on the morrow, when the robbers began their march, they were met by the armies of the Nephites both in their front and in their rear.

26.

And the robbers who were on the south were also cut off in their places of retreat. And all these things were done by command of Gidgiddoni.

27.

And there were many thousands who did yield themselves up prisoners unto the Nephites, and the remainder of them were slain.

28.

And their leader, Zemnarihah, was taken and hanged upon a tree, yea, even upon the top thereof until he was dead. And when they had hanged him until he was dead they did fell the tree to the earth, and did cry with a loud voice, saying:

29.

May the Lord preserve his people in righteousness and in holiness of heart, that they may cause to be felled to the earth all who shall seek to slay them because of power and secret combinations, even as this man hath been felled to the earth.

30.

And they did rejoice and cry again with one voice, saying: May the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, protect this people in righteousness, so long as they shall call on the name of their God for protection.

31.

And it came to pass that they did break forth, all as one, in singing, and praising their God for the great thing which he had done for them, in preserving them from falling into the hands of their enemies.

32.

Yea, they did cry: Hosanna to the Most High God. And they did cry: Blessed be the name of the Lord God Almighty, the Most High God.

33.

And their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears, because of the great goodness of God in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; and they knew it was because of their repentance and their humility that they had been delivered from an everlasting destruction.