For Part One, Part Three, or Part Four, choose your link.
Elder Richard L. Evans's talk, "Should the Commandments Be Rewritten" came at a time of history when everything new was being celebrated, and everything old was suspect. While trying new things and new ways can often bring improvements, some truth is not subjective. God's truth is absolute, and we can only hurt ourselves in trying to avoid obedience.
Today's quote is a long one, from an even longer essay by the transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson:
The (Substantial) Quote
"Many years ago Emerson wrote an essay, “Compensation,” in which he said:
“The world looks like a multiplication-table,
or a mathematical equation,
which, turn it how you will, balances itself. …
Every secret is told, every crime is punished,
every virtue rewarded, every wrong redressed,
in silence and certainty. …
“Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed;
for the effect already blooms in the cause, …
the fruit in the seed. …
“What will you have? quoth God; pay for it and take it. …
Thou shalt be paid exactly for what thou hast done, no more, no less. …
“A man cannot speak but he judges himself. …
Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. …
“You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong. …
“The thief steals from himself. The swindler swindles himself. …
“… it is impossible to get anything without its price. …
“Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground,
such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge and fox and squirrel and mole.
You cannot recall the spoken word,
you cannot wipe out the foot-track,
you cannot draw up the ladder, so as to leave no inlet or clew.
“… we gain the strength of the temptation we resist. …
“Men suffer all their life long under the foolish superstition
that they can be cheated.
But it is … impossible for a man to be cheated
by anyone but himself. …”"
Excellent stuff! And the full essay has more goodies along the same lines, and is surprisingly readable for its age. Highly recommended.
Balancing Justice with Mercy
Sin isn't a popular word today. It comes with a lot of baggage in people's minds. Pictures of Bible-pounding preachers trying to scare people into coming to God. Trying to do better and failing miserably, and then feeling bad about yourself, so why bother?
In the sense I'm talking about, sin isn't any different than dirt. If we get dirty, we take a bath to get clean. I don't know about you, but I don't tend to beat myself up if I need a shower - I just do it. It's just something I do every day.
So the same with repentance - if I make mistakes, the Lord gives me the capability to turn things around, as many times as I need to. The important thing is to always try and never give up trying. It's the trying that trains us into the person we need to become.
Despite what certain cute little Jedi masters may say - there IS try.
Try until I do. And keep trying. My babies tried to walk until they did, and it took awhile. And that was okay. So it is with us.
I am a child of God, and I'm still trying to walk the walk, and Jesus Christ helps me with great mercy.
