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"Ye
Shall See the Salvation of God!"
A revelation through Apostle
Joseph Luff*
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Apostle
Joseph Luff
Quorum of Twelve
1887–1909 |
UNTO THOSE WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR:
Your zeal for my cause is pleasing unto me and
your present travail for my Church shall bring forth according
to my pleasure, for wheresoever my law is
in honor and my ordinances are held as a sacred thing, even as
they were delivered unto you from the beginning, behold there
is my Church; and he that imagineth change in them hath not known
me, for I change not, and my ordinances are my witness.
Whoso laboreth to maintain the
integrity of these among my people confesseth me as his Lord;
but he that varieth therefrom, seeketh not to build up my Kingdom,
but his own.
I called forth a people from the world in these
last days and entrusted them with treasures from heaven, that
they might be agents unto me—that through them I might achieve
in my own way, and that the glory of my purpose might appear;
but I have not been trusted, nor have my provisions been accounted
sufficient, and my people have returned to the world for their
equipment and to make effective their instruments of accomplishment.
They have mingled my sacred things with their
carnal selections. They have made of my house a resort for pleasure.
They have employed the revenues of my Church to promote pursuits
that are secular and interests for which no provision is made
in my law. They have sought to embellish my provisions and the
creations of my will with the inventions of their own imagination,
until I am nowhere to be found amid the spectacles of their performance
in the separateness of my own attire, and I have no longer a peculiar
people on the earth who are content with me as I am and as I have
revealed myself. My covenant with many has been counted insufficient,
and for purposes outside of my gospel’s intent, they have
adopted the vows of other shrines and pledged themselves in secret
places where I cannot be found.
I have heard your cries unto me and it is my
will to deliver. My means are available and sufficient; but who
will be content therewith and permit me to glorify myself in them
after the manner of my preference? Ye have prayed that my Kingdom
may come and my will be done among you as it is done in heaven,
and in this ye do well; but who shall be your instructor in these
things? Who hath knowledge of things as they are done in heaven,
or who, better than your Heavenly Father, can perform on earth
what He hath accomplished in heaven? If His law and ordinances
are sufficient in heaven, shall they prove insufficient if honored
on earth?
Ye would be loyal to me and therefore have arisen against usurpation
by man in my Church. Blessed are ye in so doing, and if ye will
be consistent in this my favor shall attend you, for ye have had
great occasion. But remember, ye are but reaping today what ye
sowed on yesterday, for had ye been as zealous of my house and
mine ordinances heretofore, then the ears of those entering my
house would not have been saluted (by your consent) with sounds
of revelry and mirth and human dogmas and philosophy, nor their
eyes with spectacles of carnal display which seek but to entertain;
but rather with those things which I delivered unto my Church
from heaven, to be used for my glory—those things which
voice only holiness unto the Lord and wherein your discipleship
to me is revealed. Such is my gospel purpose, for therein have
I revealed myself, as I wish men to behold me, and as I wish to
be revealed in them—and this for my glory in their sanctification.
If unto one belongs the right to lessen the sacredness of any
of my institutions, then belongs it also unto another to pervert
the purposes of my law as his inclinations or ambitions may lead.
For if ye consent that the soil be corrupted to grow the weed
of your selection, then be not surprised if the thistle and thorn
of your discomfort shall later appear.
Know ye not that the field is mine and the seed given for your
sowing is from heaven? If therefore ye desire God’s Kingdom,
as it is in heaven, among you, plant only the seed wherein alone
the desired fruit is found. If ye desire celestial harvest, purge
yourselves of terrestrial longings and set your affections on
things above.
The policies and assumptions against which you proclaim shall
not prevail, for I am jealous of my law. And whom I shall permit
to occupy must minister as a servant, even as did your Lord, for
I alone am supreme; and if my people shall be agreed in holding
my word and ordinances in honor and shall keep themselves pure
before me, and preserve my tabernacles in the holiness unto which
they have by formality dedicated them, ye shall see the salvation
of God and that speedily (Concerning Our
Whereabouts, pp.10–11; italics added).

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