A Temple-Motivated PeopleLet us be a temple-attending and a temple-loving people. Let us hasten to the temple as frequently as time and means and personal circumstances allow. Let us go not only for our kindred dead, but let us also go for the personal blessing of temple worship, for the sanctity and safety which is provided within those hallowed and consecrated walls.
A History of TemplesThe essential idea of a temple is and ever has been that of a place specially set apart for service regarded as sacred; in a more restricted sense, a temple is a building constructed for and exclusively devoted to sacred rites and ceremonies. …
… Temples have never been regarded as places of ordinary public assembly but as sacred enclosures consecrated to the most solemn ceremonials of that particular system of worship.
What Did the Pioneers Bring?To understand the pioneers and their accomplishments, we must examine their motives. … They came for freedom and peace, as others have done. They came to make homes for themselves, as others have done. They came to worship God and practice their religion to the satisfaction of their consciences, as others have done; but here is one thing they came for which, so far as I know, has no counterpart in any other pioneer movement: they came with the avowed purpose of establishing a society so that they would be able to take back to the civilization from which they had fled, yes, even to their persecutors, the principles of life and conduct which were the source of their own inspiration, cohesion, success, and happiness. …
Built upon the RockIn 1847 the Latter-day Saints, under the leadership of President Brigham Young, … [were commanded] to organize themselves into companies of hundreds, fifties, and tens, preparatory to the long and wearisome ox-team journey to the Salt Lake Valley.
The Certainty of the ResurrectionOne Christmastime some years ago, we walked the paths that Jesus walked. We spent some precious hours in what is said to be the Garden of Gethsemane and tried to imagine the sufferings through which He moved in anticipation of His Crucifixion and Resurrection. We were near the places where He prayed, where He was taken prisoner, where He was tried and condemned.
The Law of the FastThe law of the fast is a perfect law, and we cannot begin to approach perfection until we decide to make it a part of our lives.
Looking toward the TempleThe temple is a house or home of the Lord. Should the Lord visit the earth, He would come to His temple. We are of the Lord’s family. We are His children begotten in our preexistent [premortal] life. Hence, as the earthly father and mother and their family gather in the family home, so the worthy members of the Lord’s family may gather as we do in the house of the Lord.
- The Parable of the Treasure Vault
What is the worth of a soul? It’s priceless and must be kept safe.
Solving Emotional Problems in the Lord’s Own WayOur bishops face increasing calls to counsel members with problems that have more to do with emotional needs than with the need for food or clothing or shelter.
Blessings of the TempleThe temple endowment blessings are as essential for each of us as was our baptism. For this reason we are to prepare ourselves that we may be clean to enter the temple of God.
