Lesson Summary:
Jan Wimmer gave the lesson from chapter # 8, "Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart."
In Dec. 15 1899 Pres. Lorenzo Snow spoke at a funeral of Pres. Franklin D. Richards. President Snow he ask the Lord of Israel to bless the Latter-day Saints, that we may be prepared for the events of the near future, with our hearts right before the Lord. Illustrating the need to keep "Our hearts right before the Lord," Pres. Snow told of an experience he and Pres. Richards shared in the 1850s, when they were new Apostles.
"When President Brigham Young called upon the people to repent and reform, and renew their commitment to righteous living. He talked very strongly as to what ought to be done with some people--that their Priesthood ought to be taken from them, because of their failure to magnify it as they should have done. Well, it touched Brother Franklin's heart, and it touched mine also; and we talked the matter over to ourselves. We concluded we would go to President Young and offer him our Priesthood. If he felt in the name of the Lord that we had not magnified our Priesthood, we would resign it. We went to him, saw him alone , and told him this. There were tears in his eyes when he said, " Brother Lorenzo, Brother Franklin, you have magnified your Priesthood satisfactorily to the Lord. God bless you."
If we have established a proper character, we can confidently invite God to search our hearts. There are those among us who are recognized as members of this Church who take a vast amount of pains to be favorably known by those around them, but whose real character, or the inwardness so to speak, of such people, is veiled or disguised.
"..... Now this prayer that I [refer] to is very significant: 'Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.' - [Psalm 139:23-24]. It was a prayer that David in the principal course of his live could conscientiously and with a degree of confidence offer up to the Lord. But there were times when David would feel the faltering sensation of weakness in offering up a prayer of this kind."
"I have reason to believe that many of the Latter-day Saints, during a great portion of their lives, could approach the Lord in all confidence and make this same prayer. But if we, as a people, could live so as to be able at all times to bow before the Lord and offer up a prayer like this, what a delightful thing it would be."
. . . . We must be true men and true women; we must have faith largely developed, and we must be worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost to aid us in the work of rightesness all the day long, to enable us to sacrifice our own will to the will of the Father, to battle against our fallen nature, and to do right for the love of doing right, keeping our eye single to the honor and glory of God.
It is important that we, as Latter-day Saints, should understand that the idea is not to do good because of the praise of men; but to do good because in doing good we develop godliness within us, and this being the case we shall become allied to godliness, which will in time become part and portion of our being.
As we preserve our righteous character, we draw nearer to the Lord. Our character, as Latter-day Saints, should be preserved, at whatever cost or sacrifice. Character, approved of God is worth securing, even at the expense of a life-time of constant self-denial. While thus living we may look forward with full assurance that we shall be crowned with the sons and daughters of God, and possess the wealth and glory of a Celestial Kingdom.
We want to thank Jan wonderful lesson.
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