Study Guide to C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity PDF Free Download
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Study Guide
to
C. S. Lewis’s
Mere Christianity
With an excerpt of
Henry Drummond’s
The Greatest Thing in the World
Book 5
Gospel Study Series
GAIL BARKLEY
This book is not an ocial publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. The views and opinions expressed are the authors solely. This guide is not
intended to be a replacement for reading the books referenced but an overview of
their principles. While every eort has been made to ensure accuracy, mistakes may
occur.
Editions:
Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. New York: MacMillan, 1952.
Drummond, Henry. The Greatest Thing in the World. London: Collins Clear
Type, 1870.
Copyright © 2022 Gail Barkley
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-8366056786
Other Books in the Gospel Study Series:
Learn, Come, and Follow Me
Parade of Principles (in the Book of Mormon)
James E. Talmage Jesus the Christ Study Guide
LeGrand Richards Marvelous Work and a Wonder Study Guide
James E. Talmage The Great Apostasy Study Guide
How Our Scriptures Came to Be
New Testament Study Guide
Spencer W. Kimball Miracle of Forgiveness Study Guide /
The Parables of Jesus
History of God’s People / Between the Testaments
Learning from Ancient Israel
Exploring the Scriptures
YOU CAN’T GO BACK AND CHANGE THE BEGINNING,
BUT YOU CAN START WHERE YOU ARE
AND CHANGE THE ENDING.
C. S. LEWIS
Table of Contents
FOREWORD ....................................................................................ix
ABOUT MERE CHRISTIANITY .................................................. xi
BOOK ONE: RIGHT AND WRONG AS A CLUE TO THE
MEANING OF THE UNIVERSE ......................................................1
1 THE LAW OF HUMAN NATURE ..............................................3
2 SOME OBJECTIONS ..................................................................7
3 THE REALITY OF THE LAW ..................................................11
4 WHAT LIES BEHIND THE LAW ............................................13
5 WE HAVE CAUSE TO BE UNEASY .......................................17
BOOK TWO: WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE .............................21
1 THE RIVAL CONCEPTIONS OF GOD .................................... 23
2 THE INVASION .........................................................................29
3 THE SHOCKING ALTERNATIVE ...........................................33
4 THE PERFECT PENITENT ....................................................... 37
5 THE PRACTICAL CONCLUSION ...........................................41
BOOK THREE: CHRISTIAN BEHAVIOR ..................................... 47
1 THE THREE PARTS OF MORALITY ......................................49
2 THE CARDINAL VIRTUES ......................................................53
3 SOCIAL MORALITY ..............................................................57
4 MORALITY AND PSYCHHOANALYSIS .........................59
5 CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE ....................................................... 63
6 FORGIVENESS .......................................................................67
7 THE GREAT SIN ......................................................................71
8 CHARITY .................................................................................77
9 HOPE ........................................................................................81
10 FAITH .......................................................................................85
BOOK FOUR: BEYOND PERSONALITY: OR FIRST STEPS
IN THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY ......................................... 91
1 MAKING AND BEGETTING .................................................93
2 THE THREE-PERSONAL GOD .............................................97
3 TIME AND BEYOND TIME .................................................101
4 GOOD INFECTION ............................................................... 103
5 THE OBSTINATE TOY SOLDIER .......................................107
6 TWO NOTES ..........................................................................109
7 LET’S PRETEND ................................................................... 113
8 IS CHRISTIANITY HARD OR EASY .................................. 115
9 COUNTING THE COST ........................................................119
10 NICE PEOPLE OR NEW MEN .............................................123
11 THE NEW MEN .....................................................................127
QUOTES BY C. S. LEWIS ..........................................................129
THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD ................................. 132
THE SUPREME GOOD .................................................................133
THE CONTRAST ........................................................................... 135
THE ANALYSIS .............................................................................137
THE DEFENSE ............................................................................. 141
ABOUT THE AUTHOR ...............................................................147
ix
Foreword
I have preserved C. S. Lewis’s original headings, and under each I
summarize his views on the subject. Following that are my thoughts,
under the title Gospel Truth, which reect my understanding of the
teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
After reading C. S. Lewis’s beliefs, ask yourself, does he make sense?
Does the passage raise questions? Do you agree or disagree? Then ask
yourself these same questions after reading the statements that reect
teachings of the restored Church. Were any of your previous questions
answered? What further questions do you have? This can spur your
gospel study.
In The Greatest Thing in the World, by Henry Drummond, I have
given an overview of Part I of his book. I hope this preview will spark
an interest in reading the entire book. It is life changing.
These two books were instrumental in my conversion to the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They validated my Christian belief
in a Savior and taught me how to earnestly seek the will of the Lord
in my life.
xi
About Mere Christianity
C. S. LEWIS BELONGED TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
HIS MATERIAL FOR HIS BOOK MERE CHRISTIANITY,
PUBLISHED IN 1952, CAME FROM A SERIES OF HIS
RADIO TALKS. ALTHOUGH HE WAS RAISED CHRISTIAN,
AT AGE FIFTEEN HE ABANDONED HIS RELIGION AND
BECAME AN ATHEIST. HE STATES HIS UNBELIEF CAME
FROM “BEING ANGRY AT GOD FOR NOT EXISTING.” AT
THE AGE OF THIRTY-TWO HE RETURNED TO HIS FAITH,
AS HE COULD NO LONGER DENY THE EXISTENCE OF
GOD. THIS CHANGE OF HEART SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN
INFLUENCED BY A FRIEND AND FELLOW COLLEAGUE
AT OXFORD, J. R. R. TOLKIEN, AND ANOTHER AUTHOR,
G. K. CHESTERSON, WHO WROTE THE EVERLASTING MAN.
OF HIS CONVERSION, C. S. LEWIS WROTE:
YOU MUST PICTURE ME ALONE IN THAT ROOM
IN MAGDALEN [OXFORD COLLEGE], NIGHT
AFTER NIGHT, FEELING, WHENEVER MY MIND
LIFTED EVEN FOR A SECOND FROM MY WORK,
THE STEADY, UNNRELENTING APPROACH OF
HIM WHOM I SO EARNESTLY DESIRED NOT
TO MEET, THAT WHICH I GREATLY FEARED
HAD AT LAST COME UPON ME. I GAVE IN, AND
ADMITTED THAT GOD WAS GOD, AND KNELT
AND PRAYED: PERHAPS, THAT NIGHT, THE
MOST DEJECTED AND RELUCTANT CONVERT
IN ALL ENGLAND. I DID NOT THEN SEE WHAT
IS NOW THE MOST SHINING AND OBVIOUS
STUDY GUIDE TO C. S. LEWIS’S MERE CHRISTIANITY
xii
THING; THE DIVINE HUMILITY WHICH WILL
ACCEPT SUCH A CONVERT EVEN ON SUCH
TERMS.
HIS SERIES OF BROADCASTS, FROM WHICH MERE
CHRISTIANITY WAS WRITTEN, PROVIDED INSPIRATION
TO MANY CHRISTIANS DURING WORLD WAR II.
xiii
I hope no reader will suppose that “mere” Christianity
is here put forward as an alternative to the
creeds of the existing communions. . . .
It is more like a hall out of which doors
open into several rooms.
If I can bring anyone into that hall
I shall have done what I attempted.
But it is in the rooms, not in the hall,
that there are res and chairs and meals.
C. S. LEWIS
1
BOOK ONE: RIGHT AND WRONG
AS A CLUE TO THE MEANING
OF THE UNIVERSE
3
1
THE LAW OF HUMAN NATURE
C. S. Lewis: Deep inside each of us, from birth, is the sense of what is
right and what is wrong. It is universal, in that it applies to everyone.
Because of this we can refer to it as a principle and a law. Principle
meaning it is a fundamental truth. Law meaning that under certain
circumstances something will always occur. There are many laws of
nature, such as gravity. Try as we might, we cannot change this fact. It
cannot be disobeyed. This can be said for humans as well: the Law of
Human Nature has embedded within us a sense of fairness—what is
fair is right and what is unfair is wrong.
There seems to be no argument against this principle among sane
individuals. It crosses civilizations and cultures. Lewis observed that
though we know and feel this, we do not often practice it ourselves.
And when we fail to do that which is right and fair, we make excuses.
These excuses are proof of the law. We understand it, and we expect it
to be followed by others, even if we fail to follow it ourselves. Lewis
makes two points:
(1) Human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they
ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it: and
(2) they do not always behave in that way. They know the Law
of Human Nature, but they break it anyway. These two facts are
STUDY GUIDE TO C. S. LEWIS’S MERE CHRISTIANITY
4
the foundation of all clear thinking about us and the universe we
live in.
Gospel Truth:
Each of us born into this world has the Light of Christ within us. The
Bible Dictionary states this Light of Christ is a divine energy, power,
or inuence that comes from God through Christ. It gives life and light
to all things. It helps people understand truth. It presents itself as our
conscience, helping us to know between right and wrong. People who
are sensitive to the Light of Christ, the inner yearnings of the soul, are
led to the gospel.
Moroni, an ancient prophet in the Book of Mormon, describes this
light: “Ye know the light by which ye may judge, which light is the
light of Christ, see that ye do not judge wrongfully; for with that same
judgment which ye judge ye shall also be judged. Wherefore, I beseech
of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ
that ye may know good from evil” (Moroni 7:18-19).
In a revelation to the prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord said, “He that
ascended up on high, as also he descended below all things, in that he
comprehended all things, that he might be in all and through all things,
the light of truth; Which truth shineth. This is the light of Christ”
(D&C 88:6-7).
In another revelation, the Lord told Joseph Smith, “For the word of the
Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light
is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (D&C 84:45).
Within us is light, life, and a measure of intelligence. The purpose of
this light is to enable us to distinguish truth from error and to guide
GAIL BARKLEY
5
us upward to reach for more light, to things that are holy and true.
More light will be added as we progress until we are led back into the
presence of our Heavenly Father. He is the source of all light.
The light can grow brighter and brighter as we make righteous
choices. It can also grow dim and perhaps, even extinguish through
wrongdoing: “And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and
truth, through disobedience” (D&C 93:39). To avoid this, we keep the
commandments and follow our conscience. We stay on the “straight
and narrow path.”
This Law of Human Nature is a telestial law. It is how the “natural
man” acts under our current telestial conditions. But we have been
given a bit of divinity—a light or a moral compass. This light propels
us to think higher thoughts and reect upon higher things. By being
sensitive to it, we will ultimately be led to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
7
2
SOME OBJECTIONS
C. S. Lewis: How do we judge a man? By his character. What
constitutes his behavior? His actions. How do we judge his actions?
By a moral code of what is deemed good in a society. The mere fact
that we judge by a code of ethics that nearly all agree upon leads to the
idea that there is a universally understood morality. There is, in this
world, truth and falsehood, right and wrong. Some would argue that
it is all relative, but these same people would expect you to follow a
code of decency and fairness.
We can explain why so-and-so did this or that based on their level
of ignorance or their level of understanding, but such reasoning only
excuses their behavior and does not argue in favor of there not being
an absolute right or wrong. What separates us from lower life forms
who operate on instinct? We have instinctive impulses as well, but we
also have a mind that can reason against our impulses. This permits us
to determine what action to follow.
Gospel Truth:
There is within us a sense of fairness and what is good or right.
Following that sense of fairness and doing the right thing is good,
but that is only a start. More is expected of us. The challenge in
STUDY GUIDE TO C. S. LEWIS’S MERE CHRISTIANITY
8
“choosing the right” comes from the concept of the “natural man,”
which the scriptures say is “an enemy to God.” It seeks self-interest,
self-promotion, and personal satisfaction at whatever cost. It is base.
It does not seek to improve. It does not seek the will of the Lord. It is
only concerned with what it wants.
“For the natural man is an enemy go God, and has been from the fall
of Adam . . . unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and
putteth o the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement
of Christ” (Mosiah 3:19).
The Light of Christ gives us a foundation upon which to build. It begs
us to follow a higher law and increase in light, but the choice is ours.
David O. McKay (1873-1970), past president of the Church, has
written, “Next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to direct that
life is God’s greatest gift to man. . . . Freedom of choice is more to
be treasured than any possession earth can give. It is inherent in the
spirit of man. It is a divine gift to every normal being . . . Everyone
has this most precious of all life’s endowments–the gift of free agency;
man’s inherited and inalienable right.” (Improvement Era, February
1962, 86)
There are necessary conditions upon which moral agency operates.
First, there must be the ability to choose—agency is not present where
no choice exists. Second, there must be opposition. There must be
opposing things to choose from. When these two conditions are met,
we can exercise our free agency. To make a good decision, we must
have knowledge of what is right and its opposite—what is wrong. This
formula applies to all.
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9
When one becomes a Christian and takes upon them the name of Jesus
Christ, there is laid before him a higher law. It is God’s law, and there
are blessings and consequences for obeying or disobeying it. We obey
God’s law by keeping the commandments and following the standards
the Lord Himself taught while He lived on the earth. This is how we
become a disciple of Christ. We know and understand that His ways
are higher than the natural man’s. We reach higher because He has
asked us to.
11
3
THE REALITY OF THE LAW
C. S. Lewis: The Law of Human Nature tells us what humans ought
to do but sometimes don’t. Facts and laws are reliable. They don’t
change with circumstances. Human beings, on the other hand, know
better but do not always choose the right course. Other times, we do
make the right choice, such as being honest and doing the honorable
thing even when no one is looking—when it would have been easy to
get away with doing wrong. Why is this so? Lewis states that “human
beings . . . have some sense; they see that you cannot have real safety
or happiness except in a society where everyone plays fair, and it is
because they see this that they try to behave decently.”
So why do we believe that men ought to be unselsh and fair? Not
because we like it, or because it personally benets us, but because it’s
an idea that we can’t get rid of, that we nd pressing on us. It is not
something we made up, but something outside ourselves. It’s a Law
of Human Nature.
Gospel Truth:
This idea of something that was not created by us but which we follow
as a moral code because we feel it is right speaks to some sort of
conscience we all have inside us. We came into this world with a
STUDY GUIDE TO C. S. LEWIS’S MERE CHRISTIANITY
12
conscience; an inner moral compass that points toward the truth and,
what is right and fair. It is what causes us to feel compassion and
sympathy. It causes us to act unselshly and to forget our own comfort
and convenience at times to assist another. It causes us to stretch when
we feel inclined to stay put and not push ourselves. It is a moving force
within us so that we can accomplish our purpose on this earth. This
inner director shows us how we ought to behave in any circumstance.
To fully understand this, one needs to know where this inner director
came from. We need to learn about who and where we were before we
came to earth. We need the knowledge of a pre-existence.
We existed as spirits, the spirit ospring of heavenly parents, with free
will to think, decide, and act. We exercised this free will to develop
intellectually and spiritually there, in our rst home, to varying degrees.
Though we do not have any recollection of what transpired before
we came to earth, we did bring our inner-most desires for growth and
development. Perhaps the extent that we aspire to them here reects
the extent to which we sought them prior.
We came “trailing clouds of glory,” as Wordsworth put it, but at
diering levels of development, according to our own eorts and
choice. These dierences inuence our choices here. The plan for
our earth-life experiences we worked out with God in the premortal
existence. He has a plan for each of us. To the degree that we seek His
assistance, and His will for us, we tap into greater power to accomplish
this plan. We do this until we have no more desire to do that which is
contrary to the will of the Lord. We do this at the sacrice of personal
worldly ambition and worldly fame because those things steer us away
from our mission. They distract us from what is truly important. As we
seek to do the Lord’s will, we increase in righteousness.
13
4
WHAT LIES BEHIND THE LAW
C. S. Lewis: The chapter begins with a recap of what has been
expressed, namely that there is a real law, which man did not invent,
that we know we ought to obey. This should give us a clue about the
universe we live in. Man has always wondered where he came from
and how he got here. This is another universal concept. There are a
few possible answers that men have arrived at.
1. Matter just happened to behave in a certain way that resulted in
all life forms. It is an unexplained event or theory of evolution.
2. The religious view. Something behind the universe that is
conscious or aware has a purpose and prefers one thing or
another. It made the universe to produce “creatures” like itself
(having minds).
Science cannot give us all the answers to life. The question Lewis
puts forth is: Did the universe just happen for no reason, or is there a
power behind it that makes it what it is? How does this power reveal
itself to us?
The only way in which we could expect this power to show itself
would be inside ourselves, as an inuence or a command, trying to get
us to behave a certain way. And that is just what we nd. When we
STUDY GUIDE TO C. S. LEWIS’S MERE CHRISTIANITY
14
look within, we nd that we feel compelled to do right, as if we were
under a law to do so. If I do not do right, I feel responsible and my
conscience bothers me. If there is a mind, a consciousness, bringing
life into existence and leading it to perfection, that is God. If it is not
a mind, we must wonder where the intelligence to create all of this
came from.
Gospel Truth:
Joseph Smith revealed many truths about the nature of God, including
this decisive answer to the question posed by C. S. Lewis: “We admit
that God . . . is perfect intelligence, and that His wisdom is alone
sucient to govern and regulate the mighty creations and worlds
which shine and blaze with such magnicence and splendor over our
heads . . . And a moment’s reection is sucient to teach every man
of common intelligence, that all these are not the mere productions
of chance, nor could they be supported by any power less than an
Almighty hand” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith,
p. 44).
Doctrine and Covenants 93:29 tells us that “man was also in the
beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created
or made, neither indeed can be.” We knew God very well before we
came to earth. We lived with Him as His sons and daughters.
Other truths are revealed in Joseph Smith’s experience with what is
known as “The First Vision.” When our Father in Heaven and His Son,
Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith, they were separate beings and
were in the likeness and image of man. In Doctrine and Covenants
130:22 it reads, “The Father has a body of esh and bone as tangible
as man’s; the Son also. . . . ”
GAIL BARKLEY
15
In the King Follett Sermon, Joseph Smith oered more detail:
“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted
man. . . . I am going to tell you how God came to be God.
We have imagined and supposed that God was God from
all eternity. I will refute that idea. . . . He was once a man
like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt
on an earth.” (Ensign, April 1971) That is a very strange
concept that many in the world are not ready to hear.
The Bible Dictionary states that God created all things and is the
ruler of the universe, being omnipotent (all powerful) omniscient (all
knowing) and omnipresent (everywhere). God can only be known
through personal revelation. He must be revealed to each of us.
God, who hears and answers prayers, is concerned for the welfare of
mankind.
Knowledge is the only thing that can chase away error.
17
5
WE HAVE CAUSE TO BE UNEASY
C. S. Lewis: We ended the last chapter with the argument in favor of
there being somebody or something from beyond the universe that is
exerting its inuence on us. Lewis points out that, up to this point, our
attempts at trying to understand this concept have not proven fruitful.
In “going back to the drawing board,” so to speak, we give ourselves
another chance to get it right. “Progress,” Lewis says, “means getting
nearer to the place where you want to be.” And if where we want to be
is having an increased understanding of the universe, who created it
and why, and what our purpose is in it, we may need to have a course
correction and start back at the beginning.
We have two bits of evidence, he says, about this “somebody” who
is in control of all things. One is the universe itself. The other is the
moral law which he has put into our hearts and into our minds. If
there is a God behind creation and the moral law, we can deduct that
he is interested in our behavior and would have us behave rightly.
If this God is impersonal, a thing rather than an intelligent being,
than why should he care? If it is a personal, intelligent being, then
he cares about us and our behavior and wants us to choose a good
course in life.
STUDY GUIDE TO C. S. LEWIS’S MERE CHRISTIANITY
18
“Christianity simply does not make sense until you have faced the sort of
facts I have been describing,” Lewis writes. Christianity tells people to
repent and promises them forgiveness. For people to repent, they must be
aware of the moral law. They cannot be held accountable for a wrong if
they are not aware they have broken a law. Once aware, what can we do
to repair the oense? The Christian religion oers the answer. God sent
His Son to earth to pay the price of sin. He covered a debt we could not
pay ourselves. This debt was paid by the Son of God, even Jesus Christ.
Gospel Truth:
In the Book of Mormon there was a man named Korihor. He preached
that there would be no Christ and called the people foolish for
believing the prophets. He posed the question, “How do ye know of
[the prophecies’] surety? Behold, ye cannot know of things which ye
do not see” (Alma 30:15). He mocked, “O ye that are bound down
under a foolish and a vain hope. . . . No man can know of anything that
is to come” (Alma 30:13).
Korihor was able to lead many away from the truth with philosophical
arguments that are as old as time. It is hard to prove there is a God.
And God oers no witness of His reality till after a person has
exercised faith in Him, for a testimony operates on the principles of
faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Holy
Ghost will tell you the truth of all things. Those who will not exercise
faith in God and will not “seek rst the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew
6:33) will not receive a witness. Korihor asked Alma, a high priest and
prophet in the Book of Mormon, for a sign that there is a God. Alma
responded by saying, “The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all
things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are
upon the face of it, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which
GAIL BARKLEY
19
move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator”
(Alma 30:44).
In speaking of the universe, the Lord said, “Unto what shall I liken
[the heavens, earth, and all the planets], that ye may understand?
Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or the
least of these hath seen God moving in his majesty and power” (D&C
88:46-47). As Lewis said, the universe itself is evidence for God.
As to the moral law, we know that “it is impossible for a man to be saved in
ignorance” (D&C 131:6). One must have a knowledge of the law in order
to be judged by the law. Regarding the gospel of Jesus Christ, one must
have rst been taught the commandments and the laws of God, and then
made a choice as to whether to follow them. (see also 2 Nephi 9:25, 27)
But we do not keep the laws perfectly. In our fallen state we are
learning and make mistakes. Perfect obedience is not possible in this
life. Yet, we cannot return in our imperfect state to dwell with God,
“no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom” (3 Nephi 27:19). Who
then can be saved, and how?
There needed to be an Atonement. One perfect being would pay the
price for our sins. Finishing the scripture in 3 Nephi 27:19: “Therefore
nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their
garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all
their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end.”
Put another way: “Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the
Holy Messiah. For he is full of grace and truth. Behold, he oereth
himself a sacrice for sin, to answer the ends of the law . . . and unto
none else can the ends of the law be answered” (2 Nephi 2:6-7).
21
BOOK TWO:
WHAT CHRISTIANS
BELIEVE
23
1
THE RIVAL CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
C. S. Lewis: The rst big division among men is the belief in a God,
and the atheist view that there is none. If one were to take the atheists’
view, one must conclude that men throughout the centuries, even
millennia, have been wrong. This view is very restrictive and oers
no answers as to why we are here, or how everything came into being,
other than theories that beg more questions. The religious view of a
belief in a God is in the majority. But there are many religious views
that dier from one another. The interesting element to them all is that
there are some threads of commonality. An element of some form of
truth lies in each. Lewis states that it is a matter of some being closer
to the truth than others. And who is qualied to judge which religion
has more truth than another?
The next big division is the sort of God we all believe in. Two dierent
ideas are 1) God is beyond good and evil—what is good or bad is
simply one’s point of view; and 2) God is good, or righteous, loves
the good and hates the bad, and wants us to behave in a good way. But
there is bad in this world. If God created the world, and everything
in it, why is there evil? Is He a part of evil? Does He turn a blind eye
to evil?
STUDY GUIDE TO C. S. LEWIS’S MERE CHRISTIANITY
24
There are people who see the world and its cruelty and unfairness and
want to blame God or use this to justify their belief in there being no
God. And if God doesn’t exist, there is no meaning to life. But, Lewis
asks, If the universe has no meaning, where did the moral law within
us, our sense of justice, come from? Why do we search for meaning if
there is no answer to be found?
Gospel Truth:
When Joseph Smith went into the Sacred Grove to pray, his purpose
was to ask God which religion was correct. He was confused by the
many ministers of his day preaching diering beliefs. The appearance
of God (Heavenly Father) and Jesus Christ, and their counsel to the
young boy, was a revelation sorely needed by mankind. It solved the
question once and for all, “Which religion is true?”
In Joseph’s own words he states, “I was answered that I must join none
of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed
me said that all their creeds [beliefs, doctrine] were an abomination
in his sight. . . . They teach for doctrines the commandments of men,
having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof” (Joseph
Smith—History 1:19). Other religions are wrong because they do not
teach the full truth. They are mixed with the philosophies and ideas of
man. God cannot look upon them with favor if they contain errors and
are not full of truth.
As Lewis has pointed out, there are some religions that contain more
truth than others. All have elements of truth. But in 1820 there was no
church that had all the truth. The church that Christ had established
when He was on the earth had fallen into apostasy, lost its authority, and
become polluted with the doctrines of men. What was needed was a
GAIL BARKLEY
25
restoration to truth. Lewis mentioned that when you nd you are on
the wrong path, the progressive thing to do is to go back and begin
again. Sometimes to progress we need to have a fresh start, even if
that appears to be regressing (going back to a previous place or state;
returning). Jesus Christ needed to re-establish His Church to restore
what was lost.
The second division Lewis addresses is the supreme question: If
God created the world, and He cares about us, why is there so much
injustice and evil? Why doesn’t He x it? Does He not care? Is He
indierent? Is He a God without passion, as the Nicene Creed states?
God created the world through His Son, Jesus Christ. It was made for
the purpose of our progression. In the Pearl of Great Price, Abraham
is speaking to God face to face, as one man speaks to another. God
revealed the purpose of our existence and why the earth was created
for us:
“And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things
whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abraham 3:25).
If we are to be proven, we must have the ability to make choices, and
there must exist opposing forces to choose from, good and bad, right
and wrong.
The prophet Lehi supports this idea as well, “Men are free according to
the esh; and all things are given them which are expedient (for their
advantage) unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal
life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity
and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for
he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2
Nephi 2:27).
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Here we introduce the cause of all the evil. Just as there is a God in
heaven, there is a devil who has power over this world. This devil,
Satan, can tempt man to make bad choices, thus acting as opposition
we need in order to have the true freedom to choose. When we exercise
our freedom and choose the right, we show God that our desires are
for good.
There is meaning to life, and this world is a great laboratory for us
to experiment with making choices. The human experience allows
us to gain control over our bodies, learn about ourselves, and make
decisions that provide consequences so we can grow. It is God’s desire
that we learn to rise above this world, forsake its harmful ways, and
aim for a higher purpose. That is why He provides prophets to show us
the higher way of living. That is why He continually asks us to seek,
knock, and pray, to nd this higher level of being and interacting within
our world. In the New Testament, Paul counsels, “Be not conformed to
this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that
ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of
God” (Romans 12:2).
Gospel teachings makes it clear that we must live in this world in order
to achieve our eternal destination. We must be tried and tested and
found worthy of a greater kingdom. When we join the Lord’s Church,
we are expected to forsake many of the ways of the world and live a
life that bets a disciple of Christ. We are to separate from all that is
vain and impure in the world.
Satan scores a major victory when people blame God instead of the
devil for the evils in the world. Evil exists because there must be
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opposition for us to exercise choice. But what men do with their free
agency is up to man, and not God. God will not interfere with our
freedom to choose, for good or bad. The devil would have us ignore
our conscience and choose the bad, but the Light of Christ inuences
us for good so that we can live worthy of divine guidance, “to act for
ourselves and not to be acted upon” (2 Nephi 2:26).
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2
THE INVASION
C. S. Lewis: Atheism is a cop-out. No explanations, no answers, no
eort. Atheists essentially say, “Prove it and I’ll believe it.” This view
requires nothing on our part. It sees life as nothing more than what
it appears to be on the surface. But there is another imsy view that
also requires no eort. It is the belief that there is a God, and all is
well. Lewis calls it a “simple religion.” It is religion from a child’s
viewpoint. It is comforting and answers simple questions. But it will
not do in the long run. One matures, and so should one’s understanding
of Deity. Lewis states that some people want a simple-to-understand
religion, as if understanding God, the universe, and our place and
purpose in it should be simple. Reality, Lewis says, is something
you could not have guessed or made up. It has order, but it is not
consistent.
So we are left with a universe that has a lot of bad in it. And we know
it’s bad. The Christian view is that it is a good world gone bad.
The other view is what he calls dualism. This is the belief that there
are two opposing forces, one good and one bad, who are warring it
out, and this world is their battleeld. One of these powers is right and
the other wrong. It is right to be good, and it is wrong to be bad. But
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where did the standards of what is good and what is bad come from?
Who made the standard?
Gospel Truth:
Lewis introduces two basic belief systems, one being Christianity and
the other dualism. In some senses, they are both right.
In the beginning God created the world and it was good. In time,
evil was introduced, and there were some who chose to rebel against
goodness. As in dualism, the inuences for good and evil come from
two separate and opposed forces, but as Christians, we understand
that the good comes from God, and the inuence to rebel against that
which is good comes from the devil.
Lewis suggests that this devil was once good but became spoiled.
This is also true to an extent. As we read in Moses, God created the
world and everything in it and it was good. When God put forth His
plan for us to leave our home in heaven and go to earth to continue
our progression, it was necessary that there be a Savior who would
redeem us from our fallen nature. This is referred to as the plan of
salvation. Our progression ultimately is designed for us to become
like our heavenly parents and live in eternal happiness with a fullness
of joy. But Satan wanted godhood without the eort and promised a
plan wherein people had no choice but to be saved and to worship him:
“Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man,
which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give
unto mine own power. . . . I caused that he should be cast down; And
he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive
and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as
would not hearken unto my voice” (Moses 3:3-4).
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Satan wanted us to be forever beneath him as his subjects without
free will. His plan went against the eternal law of free agency and
God’s plan of knowledge and growth. He had no regard for us, our free
agency, our righteous desires, or our happiness and eternal welfare.
His plan only served his vain ambition for power at our expense—it
was full of lies and false promises.
Satan was cast down to this earth. This is why Lewis has said the
earth we live on is “enemy occupied territory.” Satan provides the
opposition that we need in order to learn to make good choices. And it
is through our choices that we will learn to withstand evil and cling to
that which is good. It is by our choices that we will be judged.
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3
THE SHOCKING ALTERNATIVE
C. S. Lewis: “God created things which have free will,” Lewis
writes. This means we can choose right or wrong. If we are to be truly
free, we need to have the ability to be bad. But where does that bad
inuence come from? What made things bad? Free will makes evil
possible. People may ask why God would create a creature that can go
so wrong. It is a risk He is willing to take so that man can experience
opposition. If we have the ability in us to choose to be bad, we also
have that same ability to be good. There are blessings for choosing
good and consequences for choosing bad. And choosing good, which
is following God’s laws and commandments, or living in harmony
with His teachings, makes us happy.
Where Satan went wrong is obvious in those who lust for power in
this life. They can’t get enough. They will get it at any cost. Much of
humanity is trying to nd the road to happiness outside of living the
commandments. The commandments are seen as too restrictive and
irrelevant. This is the lie that Satan whispers in our ears.
When we do not follow the commandments that God has given us, we
are out of harmony with not only God’s laws but the universe. This
world was created for our progression. Progression is dependent on
us following the plan of salvation whereby we do things that better us
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and help us to advance in knowledge and understanding. To not follow
these “life instructions” is to live in vain and not attain the reward, our
intended purpose for being here.
Lewis states that “God designed the human machine to run on Himself.
He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn on, or the food
our spirits were designed to feed on. . . . It is just no good asking God
to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because
it is not there (emphasis mine). Civilizations have come and gone,
and been built up and ruined, by man trying to live outside the laws of
heaven and God. They are trying to run on the wrong juice.”
God has continually reminded us through prophets, scriptures, even
sending His Son, Jesus, to show us the right way. But we think we
know better.
Finally there is the subject Lewis approaches about the nature of who
Jesus really is. He came among men and forgave them their sins. What
kind of man can do this? Only the Son of God, who has been given
the power to judge and to forgive. And that is who He claimed to
be. When we demote (lower) this authority and call Him a prophet,
or a good teacher, we need to be careful. His works, teachings, and
statements leave no other option than to admit He is either who He
says He is or is a madman. And if he is a madman, we cannot call Him
a good teacher, for only nonsense comes out of madness.
Gospel Truth:
The reason we exercised our free agency in the premortal existence,
by voting to come to this earth to continue our progression, is because
of Jesus Christ. We were told it would be a rough journey and not all
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of us would make it back. There would be trials, suering, confusion,
pain, and sorrow. We were willing to take that risk because there was
one who said that He would show us the way and pay for our mistakes
if we listened to Him.
We knew our very salvation and eternal state depended on this man,
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We had absolute faith in His power to
redeem us. We had absolute trust and faith in His mission. He is the
only reason we had faith to leave our heavenly home. And now we
nd ourselves here, our former memory gone for a time. This place
feels very dierent from what our spirits were used to.
We are foreigners here, living in a telestial state, among all the
distractions that would take our minds o the more important eternal
things. We are trying to stay focused and stay grounded as to what
is most important. And that is why we have been given knowledge.
And we are told that once we receive this knowledge, we should share
it with others. We should not keep this knowledge to ourselves, for
the information is meant for all. But where is this information to be
found? The scriptures.
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall nd; knock, and it
shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7).
“And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another
words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best book’s words of wisdom;
seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118).
Men who choose not to seek out God will by default come under the
inuence of the adversary. He will not steer any into ways of truth or
happiness. “They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but
every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own
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god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance
is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even
Babylon the great, which shall fall” (D&C 1:16).
We need God in our lives for He is the source of life and our happiness.
We can run on our own “juice” by relying on our own intellect,
craft, and talents alone. But in the end, we will not be as improved
as if we had asked God into our lives. His “will” for us has eternal
consequences. He sees not only the present but the future. He will
stretch and lift us higher than anything we can accomplish on our own.
Faith. Trust. Growth. Happiness.
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4
THE PERFECT PENITENT
C. S. Lewis: In this chapter Lewis reveals that he belongs to the
Church of England. He is Catholic. Catholics believe in the Holy
Trinity, where Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are
one being. He makes valid points regarding our need for repentance
due to our fallen nature. He states that God came to earth to pay the
price for our sins, and He was able to do this because He was both
God, and on earth, a man. “We are told that Christ was killed for us,
that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled
death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. This is what has
to be believed. Any theories we build up as to how Christ’s death did
all this are, in my view, quite secondary.” The fact is that “Christ’s
death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start.”
Gospel Truth:
We are grateful that the heavens shone again upon earth and we have
been taken out of the dark ages regarding the knowledge of truth. God
has, in our time, spoken again to man and has raised up a prophet.
This does not discount the brave men and women and many Christians
throughout the centuries who not only kept Christianity alive but
suered to do so. We owe them a debt of gratitude for their attempts
to keep the word of God alive, translate it, and spread it among the
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people. But revelation was needed to restore truth that was lost. What
we learned in The First Vision is that Heavenly Father and His Son,
Jesus Christ, are two distinct and separate persons. And we have
modern revelation that gives us the bigger picture of the life, mission,
and Atonement of Jesus Christ.
In the preexistence Heavenly Father called a great assembly of His
spirit children where He presented the plan of salvation. Without
knowledge of the premortal existence and what transpired there, one
cannot fully grasp the divine role of Jesus Christ. The plan needed
a Savior. Someone who had obtained perfection and demonstrated
perfect obedience to our Heavenly Father. One stepped forward and
said, “Here am I; send me” (2 Nephi 16: 8). This was Jesus.
On this earth He taught others and showed by example the way back
home. He gave commandments (life instructions) while establishing
His Church. His Church held the keys, power, and authority to
perform saving ordinances for us on earth. This authority He gave to
His apostles. He was not killed, as Lewis mentions. He surrendered
His life. He was in control. He exercised great restraint to not prevent
that which was necessary for Him to do. He willingly died to provide
victory over death so that all will be resurrected, and to pay the price
of sin for His followers and His disciples.
The victory over death applies to all. Everyone who has lived on
earth, by His grace, will have eternal life. But to be able to apply the
Atonement in our lives, we need to accept Him. This requires that we
recognize His gift, repent, and oer our lives as a sacrice. How do we
oer our lives as a sacrice? We turn our will and our selsh desires
over to God and seek His will for us.
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There are many things we won’t fully understand in this life regarding
the Atonement. It stands as the most important event in all human
history. We exercised faith in Christ before we came to earth. We had
faith that He would do all that He said He would do. Jesus surrendered
His will to Heavenly Father: “Not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke
22:42). We surrender our will to God, also, when we believe in His
Son and make the choice to follow Him. He will lead us back to God
to live with Him forever in the mansions that have been prepared for
us. There we will receive a fullness of joy as we live in a state of
perfection. All this was made possible because one perfect life was
willing to submit fully to the Father. Can we do likewise?
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5
THE PRACTICAL CONCLUSION
C. S. Lewis: We share in the humility and suering of Christ when
we enter a new life in Christ. We share also in His conquest of death
and nd a new life after we have died. We are to become perfect and
perfectly happy creatures. We enter this new life through baptism,
belief, and Communion.
Evolutionists ask, “When will men evolve into something else?”
Lewis suggests that when man becomes a “new creature in Christ,”
he has evolved, for the better. And with this new life, God makes us
good. It doesn’t come from within ourselves, but from this “life force”
inside of us. This life force he calls “Christ-life.” He further says that
only those who know Christ can be saved through Him. He cannot
speak about those who do not know Christ, or whom he refers to as
“the people outside.” But he does suggest that this should not stop us
from being a Christian. We should not remain outside with them over
this matter.
Lewis also addresses the question as to why Christ came to this earth
in such an obscure manner. Why not, if He is God, come in all His
glory? He will come again one day in His glory, but that day is put
o so that we have time to repent. That day will be both beautiful
and terrible depending on which side you are on: “Now, today, this
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moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to
give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.”
Gospel Truth:
In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Alma echoed the same sentiment:
“For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea,
behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. . . . Do
not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this
day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not
improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness
wherein there can be no labor performed” (Alma 34:32-33).
The cry of many, “I didn’t ask to be born” has been brought to task
with modern revelation. We not only asked to be born, but we also
“shouted for joy” at the opportunity presented to us. (Job 38:7) We
voted in favor of the “plan” and were ready to proceed forth to take the
next step in our progression. Lewis mentions three things that spread
“Christ-life” to us, which I suppose to mean three ways we become
Christ-like or that we “come unto Christ.”
1. Baptism
2. Belief
3. Lord’s Supper or the sacrament
In reading the Book of Mormon, we are favored to know more
regarding the steps one takes toward becoming a disciple of Christ.
The rst step is Faith.
Alma says, “If ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart,
behold, if it be a true seed or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by
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your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will
begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling
motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be
that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth
to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding,
yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me. Now behold, would not this
increase your faith? I say unto you, Yea” (Alma 32:28-29).
The second step is Repentance. We simply cannot come unto Christ
and remain the same. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We leave the world and its pull toward
popularity, fame, and fortune and seek to be “in this world but not of
this world.” It requires a shifting of priorities. We seek to live better.
We exist on a higher plane of thought, duty, devotion, and service. We
emulate Christ. Repentance is a continuing action that can shape us
and improve us.
The third step is Baptism. We are baptized because Christ was
baptized. He did this to fulll the law. Christ said to His apostles,
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew
28:19-20). When we are baptized, our sins are forgiven. It symbolizes
Christ’s death and resurrection, and also the death of our old selves
and our coming forth as members of His Church. We become part of
His fold and one of His disciples. It is a covenant we enter into with
Christ. It is essential to our salvation. It is a commandment.
The fourth step is receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. No baptism is
complete without receiving this gift. “If ye will enter in by the way,
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and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye
should do” (2 Nephi 32:5).
Lewis talks about why the Lord came in disguise to this earth and
started a secret society. It is a clever analogy. But the truth is that He
did not come unannounced. Jesus is the God of the Old Testament
who is called Jehovah. He spoke to His prophets, who wrote down the
prophecies of His birth, life, and mission. The Jews missed the mark
by ignoring and/or misinterpreting these prophecies.
John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way. Christ came and
organized His apostles to preach the message, the good news of His
gospel throughout the earth. It was not, nor was it intended to be, a
secret society. Quite the opposite. But He did not come in glory at His
birth. All His followers, even down till today, need to exercise faith in
Him. If He had come in His glory, what need would we have for faith?
And to exercise faith is important. Faith is a principle of power. We
will use this power in the eternities.
As far as His delay in coming again, Lewis is quite right. The gospel
needs to be preached to all. Certain prophecies need to be fullled
before His return. We are now, in this dispensation, preparing and
organizing His earthly kingdom in preparation for His return and reign
during the Millennium. Now is the time to make a choice. Will we
be a part of this great work of building up His kingdom, or will we
concentrate our eorts on building our own castle, which in time will
crumble?
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth
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corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Likewise, Joshua of old declared, “Choose you this day whom ye will
serve. . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua
24:15).
“Every day each of us faces a test. It is the test of our lifetimes: will
we choose to believe in Him and allow the light of His gospel to grow
within us, or will we refuse to believe and insist on traveling alone
in the dark?” (L. Whitney Clayton, “Choose to Believe” Ensign,
May 2015)
The Savior provides His gospel as a light to guide those who choose
to believe in and follow Him.
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BOOK THREE:
CHRISTIAN BEHAVIOR
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1
THE THREE PARTS OF MORALITY
C. S. Lewis: In this chapter, Lewis examines the way we think of
the word “morality.” Lewis states that morality is instructions for
“running the human machine. Every moral rule is there to prevent a
breakdown or strain” on that machine. Another point he makes is that
the instructions are constantly interfering with our natural inclinations.
There are two ways in which the human machine goes wrong: One is
when a person strays causing damage to others. The other is when we
go astray within ourselves.
Morality is concerned with three things:
1. Fair play and harmony between people
2. Harmony within ourselves
3. The purpose of life itself; what man was made for
A morality problem exists in our society because people are more
concerned with the rst while ignoring the other two. If what we
do doesn’t hurt anyone else, we can say we are moral. But in truth,
society does not improve and get better without good people. That
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is why we must face the second thing: morality within ourselves.
And we can not address the morality we personally subscribe to
without looking at the third. If a person is going to live seventy
years, they might not bother with self-improvement. But what if
they were told they were going to live forever? Then improving our
character would be necessary, for it will have long-term benets.
So we cannot think about morality without seeing it in a dierent
light. We ought to be concerned about how we treat others, our own
self-improvement, and the reason we are given instructions on how
to behave morally.
Gospel Truth:
Without knowing our purpose here on earth, or the plan of salvation,
man is kept in the dark. In the dark he sees only what will personally
benet himself. It is the law of the jungle. It is the natural man. There
are many good people who do not hold religious views but realize
that being a good person is good for everyone. These people are
enlightened. But without a moral compass, they too can falter when
put to a challenge.
Jesus Christ gave us two commandments:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the rst and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”
(Matthew 22:37-40).
When we learn that the character that we have attained in this life,
like the knowledge we gain, remains with us into the next life, we
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will have a paradigm shift. Suddenly, we see things from an eternal
perspective. We are not temporary.
The Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that “Whatever principle of
intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the
resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence
in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he
will have so much the advantage in the world to come” (D&C
130:18-19).
This knowledge should spark in us the desire to improve; to be mindful
of our weaknesses so we can work to overcome or lessen them. Our
weaknesses are not a sign of being awed. They are evidence that
we live in a fallen world with its inherent weakness. We also inherit
some weaknesses from our ancestorial line. Our life, at times, can
seem like an obstacle course as we navigate our way through this
telestial maze. Having the faith to call upon the Lord to empower
us will accelerate our progress and draw us closer to Him. Ours is a
working relationship.
The prophet Moroni, concerned about his weakness in writing and
fearing the Gentiles will mock his words, was reassured and comforted
by the Lord. He was given this counsel:
“If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give
unto men weakness that they may be humble. . . . for it they humble
themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak
things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:27).
Yes, our weaknesses and shortcomings can become our strengths when
we let the Savior into our lives.
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Partner with the Savior in all your doings. His inuence and
assistance has an elevating eect. All that is required of us is humility,
perseverance, and obedience.
What is it that we are asked to be obedient and diligent about?
Moral laws. The commandments. These are necessary to lead a
Christ-centered life.
Morality need not be thought of as restrictions to living, but instructions
for living to the fullest.
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2
THE CARDINAL VIRTUES
C. S. Lewis: There are four cardinal virtues. The word cardinal comes
from a Latin word meaning the hinge of a door. They are pivotal. They
are: Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Fortitude.
Prudence means practical common sense.
Temperance means moderation in all things. (Indulging in something
to the exclusion of other necessary things is not using temperance.)
Justice is farness, honesty, truthfulness.
Fortitude is courage—sticking to something even when it gets hard.
Lewis makes the point that we can act in ways that exemplify these
virtues. But the goal is to repeatedly behave virtuously so that they
become a part of us and we can be relied on to practice these virtues
at any given time. “A man who perseveres in doing just actions gets
in the end a certain quality of character.” And it is that quality that
remains with a man. That is virtue.
We must also distinguish intention from action. We can do the right
things for the wrong reasons. We think that when we obey God, we’re
following a good moral code and it pleases Him. But there is more.
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God wants us to be virtuous because it provides us greater happiness
as well.
Gospel Truth:
No one can argue with the value of the four cardinal virtues. They are
very positive character traits. But we can go further. The four virtues
Lewis mentions are just a start. We can be wise, moderate, fair, and
strong. But the Savior has asked us to do more, be more. He has given
us a pattern for happiness in this life, and eternal bliss and joy in the
next. We can come unto Christ by following the outline of behavior
that is supreme in His eyes. This formula is found in the Beatitudes.
“And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for
they shall be lled with the Holy Ghost.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children
of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and
shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
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Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for
so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. . . .
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a
candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments,
and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom
of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:1-12).
Elder Robert Wells said, “The Beatitudes give us the formula for
coming unto Christ. We can use them as a foundation as we seek for a
Christ-centered life.” (“The Beatitudes” Ensign, Dec. 1987)
In the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin gave us this formula in
a dierent text. “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has
been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he
yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth o the natural
man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the
Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient,
full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth
t to inict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father”
(Mosiah 3:19).
Put another way, in D&C 121:45: “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts
unceasingly; then shall thy condence wax strong in the presence of
God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as
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the dews from heaven.” Here we have the reason for being virtuous:
to have condence. To not shrink in the presence of God when the
day comes when we will make an accounting of our time spent
here on earth. We live virtuously so that the Holy Ghost can be
our constant companion, our moral compass, in this life of shifting
values.
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SOCIAL MORALITY
C. S. Lewis: This chapter is about charity. Lewis suggests that if there
were such a thing as a Christian society, it would feel socialist. He goes
on about borrowing and lending with interest, etc. I will skip that part
and move on to his assertion that we are to labor for our own needs.
We are also to impart of our substance to the poor. In this we nd
agreement. He writes, “Some people nowadays say that charity ought
to be unnecessary and that instead of giving to the poor we ought to be
producing a society in which there were no poor to give to.”
Regarding charity, he states that no one can settle on how much to
give. If we live in comfort, we are probably not giving enough. “If our
charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too
small.” He brings up the point that we do not give more for the fear of
insecurity (I would add, nancial insecurity). That is a genuine fear.
Let’s see what the Lord has said on this subject.
Gospel Truth:
In a free society, there will always be various stages of wealth. Rich
and poor alike. If it were not so, society and its income would be
state controlled, which is socialism. In a free society, there will be
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dierences. So to maintain freedom, we accept dierences and we
encourage charity.
The Lord has a law that is meant to take care of the poor. It is called
the law of tithing. It was practiced in the Old Testament (Abraham
paid tithes to the high priest Melchizedek in Genesis 14:20), and it
is practiced in the Lord’s Church today. We assume it was practiced
during Christ’s mortal ministry. The scriptures speak of the Apostle
Paul collecting funds during his missionary travels to give to the poor
in Jerusalem.
“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein
have we robbed thee? In tithes and oerings. Ye are cursed with a
curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the
tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and
prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open the
windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not
be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:8-10).
This is the Lord’s plan for our nancial security. We give, and all are
blessed. It is also one way of fullling the commandment to love your
neighbor as yourself. The law of tithing is fair; every person pays
10 percent. If we practice this commandment, we will always have
enough for our needs.
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4
MORALITY AND
PSYCHHOANALYSIS
C. S. Lewis: Christian morality is a technique for putting the human
machine right. It is a formula for good behavior that will benet the
individual and others.
Psychoanalysis makes the same claim. There are similarities between
the two, and there are dierences. A person making a choice involves
the act of choosing. That person’s feelings and impulses arise from his
psychological makeup. These feelings and impulses can be common
to all, or they are unnatural feelings due to abnormal psychology. The
rst is natural and the second would be a perversion, or abnormal.
Psychoanalysis attempts to remove the abnormal feelings by addressing
the source of maladaptation, while morality is just concerned with one’s
choice of action. To sum up what Lewis is getting at: psychoanalysis
can correct wrong thinking but cannot make a man behave in a moral
fashion. That is up to the individual. They are free to choose how to
act. Wrong thinking is not a sin, Lewis adds—it is a disease (mental
illness) that needs to be cured. People judge others by what they see on
the outside, but God judges them by their moral choices. God judges
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60
man on what he does with what he has been given. This takes into
consideration our varying abilities and struggles.
Now Lewis gets to the good stu. He states that the general public
thinks of God’s commandments as following an “If we obey God’s
rules, He will bless us” pattern. The act of doing something solely for
the reward. What Lewis suggests is this:
Every time you make a choice you are turning the central
part of you. . . . into something a little dierent from what
it was before. . . . You are slowly turning this central thing
either into a heavenly creature. . . . that is in harmony
with God. . . . or else into one that is in a state of war
and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and
with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that
is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be
the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence,
and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is
progressing to the one state or the other.
And then Lewis ends with a gem of an insight: “When a man is getting
better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left
in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness
less and less.”
Gospel Truth:
President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008), past president of the
Church said, “The most satisfying experience I have is to see what
this gospel does for people. It gives them a new outlook on life. It
gives them a perspective that they have never felt before. It raises their
sights to things noble and divine. Something happens to them that is
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miraculous to behold. They look to Christ and come alive.” (“Every
Convert is Precious,” Liahona, February 1999)
Similarly, President Ezra T. Benson (1899-1994), past president of the
Church said:
“Some may ask why we as a people and church quietly and consistently
seek to change individuals while there are such large problems about
us. . . . But decaying cities are simply a delayed reection of decaying
individuals. . . . The commandments of God give emphasis to
improvement of the individual as the only real way to bring about the
real improvement of society.” (A Plea for America, Salt Lake City:
Deseret Bok Co., 1975, p.18)
Benson also stated, “The Lord works from the inside out. The world
works from the outside in. The world would take people out of
the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take
themselves out of the slums. . . . Christ changes men, who then change
their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ
can change human nature.” (“Born of God,” Ensign, July 1989)
Psychotherapy has its place in altering abnormal behavior arising
from wrong thinking, but a higher way can change the individual
through the healing power of Christ. This is one way the power of the
Atonement can work in us.
And let us go back to the Light of Christ. We are growing in light each
time we make a good moral choice. We can diminish that light when
we sin or make a bad choice. The light can even go out with continued
disobedience to God’s laws. Even if we don’t know God’s laws, we
have an inner moral compass that tells us what is right and wrong,
unless we no longer can distinguish this due to mental illness.
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As far as doing something for the reward, that is not necessarily a bad
thing. We obey many laws for the reward promised, or to avoid bad
consequences. That is a smart thing to do. The drawback is when that
becomes our only focus, as it is with those who obey out of fear. God
would rather have us get to the point where we obey out of love.
The higher way of living is to be obedient because we love the Lord
and want to please Him. We want Him to be able to use us for His
divine purposes. There is no greater feeling than knowing the Lord
is working through you to bless others. There is no greater intrinsic
reward than knowing that the Lord nds you worthy of receiving
greater light and knowledge.
This process also helps us form and nourish a relationship with God.
It is easier to surrender our will when they see how God can do more
with us than we could do on our own.
If we continue on this path, we will one day hear the Lord remark,
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful
over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou
into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21).
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CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE
C. S. Lewis: “The Christian idea of marriage is based on Christ’s words
that a man and wife are to be regarded as a single organism—for that
is what the words “one esh” would be in modern English.” Lewis
states that when Christ said this, He was not expressing a sentiment,
but a fact. Look at the examples of a lock and a key, or a violin and
a bow. One is useless without the other. Combined, they make up the
whole instrument. Even though some religions forbid divorce, and
some accept it in extreme circumstances, all agree that marriage is
meant to last for life. What they reject is the view that it is a “simple
readjustment of partners, to be made whenever people feel they are no
longer in love with one another, or when either of them falls in love
with someone else.”
Returning to the cardinal virtues, Lewis points out that Justice
involves keeping promises, and a marriage is a promise between two
people to stick together. We keep our appetites and indulgences in
check because of that promise. The breaking of this promise doesn’t
fall under breaking a vow of chastity, but under justice. They either
made promises they never intended to keep, or they broke an oath they
made, which means they are dishonest. One should not make vows
they don’t intend to keep.
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On the subject of love: “Being in love is a good thing, but it is not
the best thing. . . . You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It
is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be
relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge
can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and
go.” The strong feelings that initially brought two people together
cannot last in the same intensity. It is an unrealistic expectation. But
ceasing to “be in love” doesn’t mean ceasing to love. “Being in love
rst moved them to promise delity: this quieter love enables them
to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage
is run.”
We next run into the subject of who is the head of the house. It is a
touchy subject, but it needn’t be. If we are to understand husbands and
wives primary roles, we can be content. Lewis’s defense of the man
ruling reects the era he lived in and his understanding of the scriptures
and the words of the apostle Paul. We have modern revelation, by
modern prophets who speak for our day, to show what the proper
relationship should be. To them, I defer.
Gospel Truth:
“For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave
to his wife: and they twain shall be one esh? Wherefore they are no
more twain, but one esh. What therefore God hath joined together, let
no man put asunder” (Matthew 19:5-6).
This, to the Christian, is the purpose of life. We grow up, nd a
mate, raise a family, and work towards forming uplifting and loving
relationships with them. When we take an eternal perspective on
marriage and family, this makes sense.
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Though some of Paul’s writings are controversial, we must remember
to look at them in their entire context. Paul starts out with the statement
that couples should be “submitting yourselves one to another in the
fear of God” (Ephesians 5:21). Thus, submitting goes both ways.
“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the
Lord” (Ephesians 5:22). This comparison speaks of delity, sincerity,
and faithfulness. A woman typically does not have a dicult time
submitting to a righteous man who has their family’s best interest at
heart, and who loves the Lord and is worthy to receive inspiration on
their family’s behalf. The woman also receives inspiration regarding
her family. It is foremost a partnership.
The husband is the head of the family, but in what sense? To dominate?
No. To be held responsible for its welfare, security, and happiness. And
this is also a shared responsibility. The husband will be accountable
for how he protected and served his family. Though the husband is
the head of the family, we understand through the counsel we receive
from living prophets today that this system is dierent from the Jewish
culture that Paul was raised in, which viewed women as second-class
citizens. For husbands are to “love your wives, even as Christ also
loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Ephesians 5:25).
What did Christ do for His Church? What husbands are supposed to
do for their families: teach, respect, encourage, forgive, uplift, lead,
protect, and ultimately sacrice all other things for it. No competing
interests. Can there be a greater display of devotion and love than what
Christ did for His disciples? Can there be any better calling and duty
for a man than to serve his family righteously?
Genesis 3:16 states that Adam is to “rule over” Eve. This doesn’t make
Adam a dictator. Being a ruler is not so much a privilege of power as it
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is an obligation to practice what one preaches. Also, “rule over” uses
the Hebrew bet, which means ruling with, not ruling over. If a man
does exercise “dominion—in any degree of unrighteousness,” God
terminates that man’s authority. (D&C 121:37)
Perhaps because false teachings had twisted original scriptural
meanings, President Spencer W. Kimball preferred “preside” rather
than “rule.” He said, “No woman has ever been asked by the Church
authorities to follow her husband into an evil pit. She is to follow him
[only] as he follows and obeys the Savior of the world, but in deciding
[whether he is obeying Christ] she should always be sure she is fair.”
In this way, Kimball saw marriage as “a full partnership” stating, “We
do not want our LDS women to be silent partners or limited partners”
but rather “a contributing and full partner.” (“The Blessings and
Responsibilities of Womanhood” Ensign, March 1976)
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FORGIVENESS
C. S. Lewis: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Our neighbor
includes our enemies, and this is the great challenge. “Everyone says
forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.”
Lewis writes. The scriptures state, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive
those that sin against us.” We are oered forgiveness on these terms.
And herein lies our dilemma. It can be extremely hard to do. But Lewis
says we can make it easier if we learn to forgive by starting with easier
things to forgive.
Loving our enemies does not mean you have to like them, or even
think they are nice. That would not qualify them as an enemy. But
we can learn to look at them and, while not necessarily approving of
some of the things they do, still appreciate the good things they do.
Christianity does not want us to look upon sin and love it. But it would
have us perhaps separate the unfortunate things our enemies do from
their humanity, which we can still love.
Loving our enemies also does not mean we want them to go unpunished
for their crimes. It means we stop hating. “We must not hate and enjoy
hating,” Lewis said. What the Bible means by loving our enemies is
that we wish them good.
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Gospel Truth:
When we forgive, we give a gift to the oender, and to ourselves. We
release the right to cast eternal judgment on the person who we see as
our enemy and leave that part up to the Lord. What we do instead is
release the emotions caused by the oense. It is not an easy thing to
do. It may take some time to accomplish it. You may think you have
forgiven, only to have those feelings arise within you again. But you
get nearer to the real thing the more you practice forgiveness.
Lewis makes a connection between God loving us because we exist.
But the gospel takes this a bit further. God loves us because we are His
children, His literal ospring. As parents, we don’t always love the
things our children do, but we will always love them. So what do the
scriptures tell us to do?
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy
neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of you Father which is in
heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on
the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye”
(Matthew 5:43-48).
“Jesus is teaching the gospel law of love. To those subject to the Mosaic
standard, it was a new doctrine. Never had they been required to love
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their foes; indeed, they had grown to look upon Israel’s enemies as
God’s enemies. But now the gospel of love was to extend to all men,
not just to those of the chosen seed” (DNTC 1:230 Daniel Ludlow).
This is a recipe for perfection. This is the character of Deity. This is
what we aim to attain. This is perfect love. God loves so perfectly that
the scriptures say simply, “God is Love” (1 John 4:8).
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7
THE GREAT SIN
C. S. Lewis: What is the great sin no man in the world is free of, that
everyone loathes when they see it in others but seldom admit to having
it themselves? Pride. Its opposite is Humility. “According to Christian
teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride. . . . It was through
Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other
vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” Pride is essentially
competitive. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out
of having more of it than the next man. It is the comparison that makes
you proud, the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element
of competition is gone, pride is gone. Nearly all those evils in the
world that people put down to greed or selshness are really the results
of pride. If you are proud, you cannot know God. Pride is spiritual
cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even
common sense.
Lewis then clears up some confusion. Pleasure in being praised is
not pride. Admiration is not pride. Pride is in the seeking of applause
and attention more than personal development. It is concerned with
outward appearance.
Lewis suggests that the rst step to acquire humility is to realize that
one is proud.
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Gospel Truth:
In terms of gospel values, some manifestations of pride are acceptable.
Dallin Oaks has said that self-respect is an acceptable form of pride. It
comes from measuring ourselves against an objective standard. There
is nothing wrong with a man who takes “pride” in his work. As Elder
Marvin J. Ashton has observed, “Appropriate personal pride prohibits
shabby performance” (What is Your Destination? Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book Co., 1978, p. 105).
The commendable performance of a dicult task is a proper source of
pride. Elder Stephen L. Richards declared: “That pride in a man which
makes him cherish his own good name and gives him the courage to
work to sustain it. . . . that pride which keeps his head high, even in
poverty, conscious that he has always been honorable, and has given
the best that was in him, that pride I admire. I think, too, it is essential
for the preservation of some of the best things within our civilization.
Self-respect, self-reliance, and the pride of achievement I look upon as
highly prominent factors in our economic welfare, and in our spiritual as
well” (Where is Wisdom? Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1955, 412).
That kind of pride that Elder Richards speaks of builds people and
communities.
The scriptures abound with condemnation and cautions about pride.
“Be not proud,” the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed (Jeremiah 13:15).
The author of Proverbs declares that “pride goeth before destruction,
and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Alma told his
son Shiblon: “See that ye are not lifted up unto pride; yea, see that
ye do not boast in your own wisdom, nor or your much strength”
(Alma 38:11).
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Many scriptures declare that in the last day all they that “do wickedly”
and all the “proud” shall be burned as stubble. It is signicant that
this important prophecy includes both those who do wickedly and
those who think wickedly: the proud. The pride of comparison may
grow out of comparing riches, homes, cars, positions, degrees, or other
attainments, or appearance, talent, knowledge, or any other natural or
acquired attribute or possession.
This was a favorite subject of Elder George Q. Cannon. In 1872 he
told an audience in the Tabernacle:
I should deplore the increase of wealth in our midst if
it created class distinctions, if it should create a feeling
that, “I am better than thou, because I wear a ner coat,
dwell in a better house, ride in a ner carriage and
have ner horses, or because my children are better
schooled and better dressed than yours. There is no sin
in industry or in ne houses or ne farms or attractive
apparel, he explained. But there is sin in being “lifted
up in pride because God has bestowed them upon us,”
and in thinking we are better than others. “But this is the
great diculty and has been from the beginning. When
wealth multiplies, the people get lifted up in the pride of
their hearts, and they look down on their poor brethren
and despise them, because they are better educated, have
better manners, and speak better language—in a word,
because they have advantages which their poor brethren
and sisters have not. There is sin in this, and God is
angry with a people who take this course. (Journal of
Discourses 15:156)
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There is a parable that paints a picture of the conceited form of pride:
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the
other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,
God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust,
adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give
tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar o, would
not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast,
saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:10-13).
We should note that the Pharisee was proud because he compared
himself to other men. In so doing he lifted himself above others. In
contrast, the publican measured himself against the commandments of
God, saw his sinful state, and cried out for mercy. The Savior concluded
the parable with this teaching about the publican: “I tell you, this man
went down to his house justied rather than the other: for every one
that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted” (Luke 18:14).
Pride must be a special challenge in this dispensation, because the
Book of Mormon, which was written for our day, contains repetitive
teachings about the evils of pride. It identies pride as the cause of the
downfall of the people of God. Moroni saw our day, and he said this
about us:
Behold, I speak to you as if ye were present, and yet ye
are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me,
and I know your doing. And I know that ye do walk in the
pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only
who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts,
unto the wearing of very ne apparel, unto envying, and
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strifes, and malice, and persecutions, and all manner of
iniquities; and your churches, yea, even every one, have
become polluted because of the pride of your hearts. For
behold, ye do love your money, and your substance, and
your ne apparel, and the adorning of your churches,
more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the
aicted (Moroni 8:35-37).
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CHARITY
C. S. Lewis: Charity means love in the Christian sense. It is not an
emotion. Lewis calls it a “state of the will.” It is not about manufacturing
aectionate feelings. It is about doing. “Do not waste time bothering
whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do
this, we nd one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you
loved someone, you will presently come to love him.” Lewis goes
on, “The dierence between a Christian and a worldly man is not that
the worldly man has only aections or ‘likings’ and the Christian has
only charity. The worldly man treats certain people kindly because
he ‘likes’ them: the Christian, trying to treat everyone kindly, nds
himself liking more and more people as he goes on—including people
he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning.”
Lewis calls this a spiritual law. We can act our way into a new way of
thinking faster than we can think our way into a new way of acting.
And then we come down to the commandment: to love God. Though
our feelings can wax and wane, God’s love for us never wavers.
Gospel Truths:
Charity is a gift we can pray for and develop. It is the ability to love
everyone everywhere in a Christlike, tender way. Charity—the pure
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love of Christ—is the greatest force on this earth, and the only thing
powerful enough to change all the trouble in the world.
In her book, Love is a Verb, Mary Ellen Edmunds stated:
“Charity is not only the act, the doing, but that which compels us to act
and to do—the tender, compassionate feeling in our soul that won’t let
us ignore someone who needs us. Charity is a condition of the heart
and a conditioning of the heart. There are many ways we can develop
and recognize charity in ourselves and others. We can consciously do
things that bring more compassion and gentleness into our hearts and
our actions.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a
tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand
all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all
faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not
charity, I am nothing. . . .
Charity suereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not;
charity vaunteth not itself, is not pued up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is
not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things. (1 Corinthians 13)
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May God bless us with His Spirit and with the gift of charity, that it
may be well with us when we see Him again. Charity never faileth.
It never fails to move one soul to reach out to another. It never fails
to come back and comfort and bless the one who has given. It never
fails to give us the assurance that God lives, and Christ is our Savior
and that their love for us is unconditional. No matter what, they will
always love us. That pure love—charity—truly never fails.” (Deseret
Book Co., 1993, p. 127)
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and
everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because
that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that
we might live through him.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved
us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one
another. . . .
We love him because he rst loved us. (1 John 4:7-11, 19)
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9
HOPE
C. S. Lewis: “Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in”: aim
at earth and you will get neither.” Most of our education seems to be
xed on this world. Most people would admit that they want more
than this world can oer them. And those things we achieve never
quite ll us up. We still long for something more. The thrills of this life
are temporary, and this can lead to discouragement. The fool’s way is
to continually chase the “next thing.” The sensible man learns not to
expect too much and represses the longing for something more.
Lewis asks the question, “Supposing innite happiness really is there,
waiting for us? Supposing one really can reach the rainbow’s end?
In that case it would be a pity to nd out too late (a moment after
death) that by our ‘supposed common sense’ we had stied [stunted]
in ourselves the faculty of enjoying it.” He also makes the point that
creatures are not born with desires that cannot be fullled. “If I nd in
myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most
probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Gospel Truth:
Where would we be without hope. It permeates every facet of our
lives. We hope for things that are material and temporary. Faith and
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hope can be intertwined. You can have hope, or the desire, for things
to go a certain way. Adding faith to the equation adds weight and
substance to your desires.
“Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ,
having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.
Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ,
and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have
eternal life” (2 Nephi 31:20). This is faith and hope working together.
In her book Perfect Brightness of Hope, Anita Caneld writes:
“Hope, then, is a principle of power. Some people think they must fast
and pray so that everything will be okay now. They do it, and then
when everything doesn’t turn out okay, they think they don’t have
enough faith or that God doesn’t care. Everything is not always going
to be okay now. Fasting and praying are to strengthen our faith and
hope.” (Deseret Book Co., 1991, p. 3)
The prophet Moroni wrote, “And if ye have no hope ye must needs be
in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity” (Moroni 10:22).
When we lose hope, there is nothing left but despair. Gone is our faith
and then our reason for charity. The three attributes—faith, hope,
and charity—become stronger because of their association with each
other. Where one lacks, you will nd a decit in the others as well.
And it is hard to have one without exhibiting the other two. They are
intertwined.
What is it that we hope for? A fullness of joy, eternal life, to be with our
loved ones again, perfection, eternal happiness. All this is promised to
those who are faithful, keep the commandments and endure to the end.
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Scriptures on hope:
We have hope through patience and the scriptures. (Romans 15:4)
Every man that hath this hope purieth himself. (1 John 3:2-3)
If ye have faith, ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.
(Alma 32:21).
Hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men.
(Ether 12:4).
The Holy Ghost lls you with hope. (Moroni 8:26)
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10
FAITH
C. S. Lewis: Lewis argues in the beginning of this chapter that there is
a battle between having faith and reason on one side, and emotion and
imagination on the other. His premise is that one can reason that there
is enough evidence to support the idea of a God and so develops faith
in Christianity. But at some point, that faith will be challenged as that
person faces an obstacle or has a mood swing and loses faith. Faith, he
says, “is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted,
in spite of your changing moods.” To prevent this swinging back and
forth, he suggests once must “train the habit of Faith.”
To reinforce one’s faith, one must think of main doctrine every day.
This is done through prayer and religious readings and going to church.
These are all parts of the Christian life. It must be fed.
Next, he tackles humility. One should try to practice the Christian
virtues. The eort should be sustained for a matter of six weeks. This
is long enough for one to see how bad one is, to see how one faces
temptation. What he says is true: only a person who resists temptation
knows how strong temptation is. What we learn from practicing
Christian virtue is that we fail. He states that we realize our dependence
on God in a roundabout way. We need to realize we can give Him
nothing, for everything we have has been given to us by Him. When a
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man makes these discoveries, that is when God can really get to work.
The man is awake now.
“There are a great many things that cannot be understood until after
you have gone a certain distance along the Christian road. . . . They
are directions for dealing with particular cross-roads and obstacles on
the journey and they do not make sense until a man has reached those
places.” Again, Lewis talks about our relationship to God and how
we are bankrupt before him. We owe Him everything. We discover
our failures by trying hard to keep God’s laws. “The road back to
God is a road of moral eort, of trying harder and harder. . . . All this
trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say,
‘You must do this. I can’t.’” It is at this point that a Christian puts
his trust in Christ when He says He will make the man more like
himself. “The whole Christian life consists in accepting that very
remarkable oer.”
When you turn your life over to Christ it follows that you will obey him.
Thus, faith leads to good actions as you work out your salvation with
fear and trembling’. . . . ‘for it is God who worketh in you. . . . Though
Christianity seems at rst to be all about morality, all about duties
and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into
something beyond.” Into goodness and light.
Gospel Truth:
The Bible Dictionary states that: faith is to hope for things which are
not seen but which are true. Faith must be centered in Jesus Christ
to produce salvation. It is having condence in Christ. Miracles do
not produce strong faith, but they conrm the strong faith one has
developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Faith is a principle of action and of power. All true faith must be based
upon correct knowledge. Faith in Jesus Christ is the rst principle of
the gospel and is more than belief because it moves one to action. A
lack of faith leads one to despair.
Although faith is a gift, it must be sought after and nourished. The
eects of true faith in Jesus Christ include:
1. A knowledge that the course of one’s life is acceptable
2. The ability to receive the blessings available to us in this life
3. An assurance of personal salvation in the world to come
All these things involve a personal testimony, guidance,
revelation, and spiritual knowledge. Where there is true
faith, there are miracles, visions, dreams, healings, and
all the gifts of God that He gives to the Saints (Bible
Dictionary).
One cannot arrive at a place of exercising faith by reason alone. To
start, you must be ready to give faith a try, or exercise a particle of
faith. The prophet Alma likened this exercise of experimenting with
faith to planting a seed. He explains what faith is to a group of people
called the Zoramites. They have become suciently humbled by their
circumstances and are ready to receive the words of Christ, through
Alma, who teaches them.
Alma was having no success among the prideful upper class of
Zoramites, who would not let the laborers into their synagogues due to
their poor status which they equated with lthiness. They approached
Alma asking what they should do since they had been cast out? How
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can they worship? “And now when Alma heard this, he turned him
about, his face immediately towards him, and he beheld with great joy;
for he beheld that their aictions had truly humbled them, and that
they were in a preparation to hear the word” (Alma 32:6).
“Yea, there are many who do say: If thou wilt show us a
sign from heaven, then we shall know of a surety; then we
shall believe. Now I ask, is this faith? Behold, I say unto
you, Nay; if a man knoweth a thing he hath no cause to
believe, for he knoweth it.
And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a
perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye
hope for things which are not seen, which are true” (Alma
32:17-18, 21). Alma then teaches them concerning faith,
which he likened to a seed.
The experiment: Alma 32:27-43:
But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties,
even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a
particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire
to believe, let this desire work in you, until ye believe in a
manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.
Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if
ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart,
behold if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye behold,
it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you
feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within
yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or
that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul;
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yea, it beginneth my understanding, yea, it beginneth to
be delicious to me.
Now behold, would not this increase your faith? I say unto
you, Yea; nevertheless it hath not grown up to a perfect
knowledge.
But behold, as the seed swelleth, and sprouteth, and
beginneth to grow. . . . will not this strengthen your
faith? Yea, it will strengthen your faith; for ye will say I
know that this is a good seed; for behold it sprouteth and
beginneth to grow.
Therefore, if a seed growth it is good, but if it growth not,
behold it is not good, therefore it is cast away.
O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it
is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is
discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good…
And behold, as the tree beginneth to grow, ye shall say:
Let us nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that
it may grow up, and bring forth fruit unto us. And now
behold, if ye nourish it with much care it will get root, and
grow up, and bring forth fruit.
Nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith
with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward
to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be
a tree springing unto everlasting life.
It is human nature that people will not change until they are compelled
by unfortunate circumstances. We like comfort and ease. We also like
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90
a challenge if it is one we have orchestrated. Trials thrust upon us are
an unwanted nuisance, unless we have a heart open to growth. Trials
can create a measure of anxiety and an attitude of disappointment.
Through exercising faith, we can replace our discouragement with
a sense of opportunity. An opportunity to learn, develop, exercise
patience, humility, and ultimately, growth.
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BOOK FOUR: BEYOND PERSONALITY:
OR FIRST STEPS IN THE
DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY
93
1
MAKING AND BEGETTING
C. S. Lewis: Theology is the science of God. Some people have no
use for doctrine and dogma. It weighs them down, and they don’t like
to think about it. Lewis says, “Doctrines are not God; they are only a
kind of map. But that map is based on the experience of hundreds of
people who really were in touch with God—experiences compared
with which any thrills or pious feelings you and I are likely to get on
our own are very elementary and very confused. And secondly, if you
want to get any further, you must use the map.”
He continues, “A vague religion—all about feeling God in nature, and
so on—is so attractive. It is all thrills and no work: like watching the
waves from the beach.”
The idea Lewis sets forth here is that Christianity is more than a good
and uplifting way to live. Christ was more than a good moral teacher
whose advice we should follow. One cannot know God without
knowing doctrine. Learning about God is important. We already have
life; what we need is a spiritual life—the higher and dierent sort of
life that exists in God. It is this change that is what Christianity is all
about. “This world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues and
there is a rumor going around the shop that some of us are someday
going to come to life.”
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Gospel Truths:
There are levels to our spirituality. These levels have everything to do
with our desires and putting them into action. If one wants to exist on
the lowest level, one thinks of God as a great mysterious being who
created the earth and is somehow watching over us and cares about
us. But on the whole, religion is confusing, and it is best not to dig too
deep. These people are content with leaving the great questions of the
universe, and our purpose in it, to some future time (after death) when
the answers will be known. . . . Why bother with what can’t be known
for certainty now? They enjoy the sense of a security net without any
obligation on their part, except to be as good as they can be, relatively
speaking.
Then there are those who go to church and are happy with the
message they receive and the social contacts they make. They feel
they are right with God for they try to lead a good life. They have
no interest in seeking for more because they are content being
fed weekly and pacied, with no desire to extend themselves into
uncomfortable territory. One does not want to become some kind
of religious fanatic. A life of spiritual mediocrity is good enough
for them.
Then there are those who desire to know more. They ask tough
questions and are not content with traditional answers. Those answers
do not satisfy the hunger for spiritual knowledge. They crave the truth.
They sense their emptiness without the knowledge of where they came
from, why they are here, and where they will go after this life. When
they learn of Christ, they want to be obedient, to become a disciple,
to surrender their life to serve Him. They get the big picture. They are
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no longer strangers here, but fellow citizens with the Saints. They nd
truth because they did as Christ asked them to do.
“But seek ye rst the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all
these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall nd; knock, and it
shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and
he that seeketh ndeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened”
(Matthew 7:7-8).
Knowing God is so important that the Savior said, “This is life eternal,
that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
The more we know God, the more we love Him and desire to keep
His commandments. By keeping his commandments, we can become
more like Him.
Brigham Young (1801-1877), past president of the Church stated,
“When you. . . . see our Father, you will see a being with whom you
have long been acquainted, and He will receive you into His arms, and
you will be ready to fall into His embrace and kiss Him. . . . You will
be so glad and joyful. . . . When you are qualied and puried. . . . you
can endure the glory of eternity” (JD 4:54-55).
As Lewis belonged to the Church of England, he didn’t have
knowledge of the restored gospel. Though well-educated and
spiritually sensitive, his insight was limited. He was an honest
thinker. He scratched more than the surface when it came to spiritual
thought and belief. His writings are inspirational and profound. He
can be commended for all that he has taught us about spirituality.
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But he had a mistaken idea of who God was and our relationship
to Him. He understood much about the changed life and becoming
a new creature in Christ, and he exemplied the Christian life. But
there was more to be understood. There was darkness to dispel.
Enlightenment came with modern revelation and the restoration of
the Lord’s Church. The restored gospel has given us more knowledge
and the ordinances necessary for salvation. It is available to all who
seek after truth.
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2
THE THREE-PERSONAL GOD
C. S. Lewis: Lewis states, “The whole purpose for which we exist is
to be thus taken into the life of God. . . . In God’s dimension. . . . you
nd a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being.” He
states that when we pray in our attempt to get in touch with God, what
is prompting our prayer is also God: God, inside us. Our “knowledge
of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God—that Christ
is . . . helping him to pray, praying for him.” In other words, “He is
being pulled into God, by God, while still remaining himself.”
Lewis says that coming to know God is dependent on God revealing
Himself to us. It is out of our control. He says, “Nothing you can do will
enable you to nd Him. . . . It is impossible for Him to show Himself
to a man whose mind and character are in the wrong condition.” God
shows Himself to “men who are united together in a body, loving one
another, helping one another. . . . like players in a band, or organs in
one body.”
Gospel Truth:
Lewis is trying to explain the concept known as the Holy Trinity. This
belief was solidied in Christendom with the Nicene Creed, which
states:
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“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and
earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus
Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all
worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten,
not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things
were made.”
This is one of the big misconceptions of mainstream Christianity—that
God is immaterial and can be everywhere and nowhere. That God is
Heavenly Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, all rolled
up into one being.
Joseph Smith said that true religion is to know the true nature of
God and that “there are but a very few beings in the world who
understand rightly the character of God.” The majority of people do
not comprehend God, unless they are given divine inspiration on the
topic. “My rst object,” Joseph Smith said, “is to nd out the character
of the only wise and true God, and what kind of being he is.”
And Joseph Smith followed through on his search for that truth,
teaching us:
God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted
man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the
great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God
who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all
worlds and all things by His power, was to make Himself
visible,—I say, if you were to see Him today, you would
see Him like a man in form—like yourselves in all
the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam
was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of
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God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked
and conversed with Him, as one man talks and communes
with another. . . .
Having a knowledge of God, we begin to know how to
approach Him, and how to ask so as to receive an answer.
When we understand the character of God, and know how
to come to Him, He begins to unfold the heavens to us,
and to tell us about it. When we are ready to come to Him,
He is ready to come to us. (Joseph Smith, Jr. The King
Follett Sermon, Ensign, April 1971)
Joseph Smith taught the following in April 1843, later recorded in
D&C 130:22: “The Father has a body of esh and bones as tangible
as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of esh
and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost
could not dwell in us.”
There is much said about God and the Godhead. Many Christian sects
teach that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is
God, and they are all in one body and one God. Jesus prayed that those
that the Father had given Him out of the world might be made one
in them, as they are one (John 17:11). We are not one and the same
body as God and Jesus Christ. We are one in purpose, but we remain
separate beings.
God is the father of our spirits. We also have a Mother in Heaven who
is the mother of our spirits. This knowledge was once known but has
been lost. Jesus Christ was their rst spirit ospring. The Holy Ghost
is a spirit who testies of what is true. These three, Heavenly Father,
Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, make up the Godhead. We pray to
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Heavenly Father. We do so in the name of Jesus Christ, who atoned for
our sins. We know these things are true, for the Holy Ghost witnesses
inside us that they are.
We can know God individually. We do not need to reach a certain
level of righteousness before we can call on God. He will reach out to
us where we are. It does not take a congregation or community. But
being a part of the congregation helps us to practice Christian living.
We teach, and we serve, and we learn together. We lift one another up,
inspire and encourage. Therefore, we come together to fellowship and
to partake of the Lord’s sacrament.
Note:
Chapters 3-7 are all based on the Holy Trinity. I’ve given a quotation
from each of Lewis’s chapters that reects that chapter’s focus.
Because of the redundancy of the information presented, I believe a
brief summary suces.
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3
TIME AND BEYOND TIME
C. S. Lewis: “God is not in Time. His life does not consist of moments
following one another. . . . You cannot t Christ’s earthly life in
Palestine into any time-relations with His life as God beyond all space
and time. . . . God has no history. He is too completely and utterly real
to have one.
Gospel Truth:
With God, all time is present before Him, and His time is measured
dierently. But time is real. God has a history. Joseph Smith tells
us that God was once as we are now. He lived in a mortal state and
progressed to celestial glory and eternal life. This is the same course
we are on. We go from one small degree to another, and from a small
capacity to a great one; from grace to grace.
Christ came down to earth at a certain time. We call it the meridian
of time, which means in the middle of the earth’s given time. We are
responsible to use our time here wisely. We are given this opportunity
to show our Heavenly Father what we can accomplish by faith. We
are also proving our worthiness to return to Him having fullled our
purpose here. Then we will be rewarded with life eternal and living as
He does, with a fullness of joy and everlasting happiness.
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4
GOOD INFECTION
C. S. Lewis: “God is a Being which contains three Persons while
remaining one Being, just as a cube contains six squares while
remaining one body. . . . In Christianity, God is not a static thing—not
even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind
of drama. . . . The union between the Father and the Son is such a live
concrete thing that this union itself is also a Person. . . . What grows
out of the joint life of the Father and the Son is a real person, is in fact
the Third of the three persons who are God.”
Gospel Truth:
Jesus taught His disciples: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him;
but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. . . . But
the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:15-17, 26).
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There are a few fundamental truths we learn from these passages of
scripture:
1. That Jesus, His Father, and the Holy Ghost are three distinct,
separate beings, and that their oneness referred to in scripture
is oneness of purpose and desire. Why else would Jesus pray
unto His Father and promise that the Father would send
another Comforter if they were one in the same? There cannot
be “another” Comforter unless there is already one. Jesus is the
rst Comforter, and surely He would not pray unto Himself,
asking that He send Himself as “another Comforter.”
2. The Holy Ghost is a male personage. Note how often Jesus
refers to the Holy Ghost as “he” and “him” in the above
scripture from John.
Jesus, praying to Heavenly Father, said:
“I have gloried thee on earth: I have nished the work which
thou gavest me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with
the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John
17:4-5).
Before the world was, Jesus was with the Father and shared
in a portion of His glory as a God. He had attained godhood
through perfect obedience and other ways we don’t remember
here in mortality. But He was a spirit. He needed a mortal
experience to gain a body just as we did. It was while He was
still a spirit that He created this earth under the direction of
the Father. (John 1:1-14) Likewise, the Holy Ghost has a spirit
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body. His assignment, as a third member of the Godhead, is to
be a comforter and a testier of all that is true.
It is important to understand Deity and what makes up the
Godhead. Each member of the Godhead works independently,
but for the same purpose. “And this is life eternal, that they
might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
One can see how they work in unison to fulll Heavenly
Father’s purpose.
“For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass
the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).
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5
THE OBSTINATE TOY SOLDIER
C. S. Lewis: “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become
sons of God. We do not know . . . how things would have worked if
the human race had never rebelled against God and joined the enemy.”
Gospel Truth:
The following is from Following Christ: The Parable of the Divers
and More Good News by Stephen E. Robinson:
It stands to reason that if we are fallen, then we must
have fallen from someplace. We did not begin in a world,
like the one we now live in, nor is this natural world our
proper setting. As spirit children of God, we rst lived
with heavenly parents in a glory to which we now hope
to return to. In a sense, we are fallen from those celestial
spheres on high and are looking up for our way back home.
The Fall was not some horrible mistake that humanity
has been paying for ever since. We are not born into this
world in a sinful state. The Fall was intended to occur. The
very instructions to bring it about were given to Adam
and Eve, by way of warning of what the result would be,
but given to them, nonetheless. The Fall was meant to
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happen or God’s plans for us would have been frustrated.
We could not have come to earth if Adam and Eve had
remained forever in the Garden.
The Fall was a necessary step in the eternal progress of
man. We had reached the point in our premortal growth
where it was time to meet the challenges and opposition
in a mortal setting, to encounter the evil and negative
elements of existence, and to be sorted according to our
response to that opposition. Mortality is the sorting place.
Here some of us will pursue light most of the time no
matter what the cost; some will pursue light some of the
time if it doesn’t cost too much; and others will prefer
darkness. Unfortunately, our real preferences can be fairly
tested only on a level playing oor, that is, in a place
where light and darkness, good and evil, are both readily
available to us equally, “for it must needs be, that there
is an opposition in all things” (2 Nephi 2:11). Mortality
is designed to oer those conditions. (Deseret Book Co.,
1995, p. 47)
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6
TWO NOTES
C. S. Lewis: “The process of being turned from a creature into a son
would not have been dicult or painful if the human race had not
turned away from God centuries ago. They were able to do this because
He gave them free will. . . . I nd a diculty about the very idea of the
Father begetting many sons from all eternity. In order to be many they
would have to be somehow dierent from one another. . . . Christianity
thinks of human individuals not as mere members of a group . . . but
as organs in a body—dierent from one another and each contributing
what no other could.”
Gospel Truth:
George Q. Cannon wrote this about our purpose:
Now, if a man can only know whence he came, why he
is here, and that which awaits him after this life, it seems
to me that he has abundant causes of happiness within
his grasp. . . . If we are the children of our God, then God
our Eternal Father has had an object, a great object to
accomplish in placing us here on the earth. . . . This earth
has been created for a purpose. Man is here for a purpose.
Death is in the world for a purpose, just as much as
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life, and all these are a part of the Divine plan connected
with man’s existence in the past, at the present and for
the future.” (George Q. Cannon Journal of Discourses
26:184, 187)
In another discourse, Cannon also said:
God in His innite mercy has revealed to us a great
truth. It is a truth that, when understood by us, gives
a new light to our existence, and inspires us with the
most exalted hopes. That truth is that God is our Father,
and we are His children. What a tender relationship!
What a feeling of nearness it creates within us! What?
God my Father? Am I indeed His son? Am I indeed
His daughter? Do I belong to the family of God? Is this
literally true? The answer is, Yes. God has revealed it,
that we are literally His children, His ospring; that we
are just as much His children as our ospring are our
children. . . . How our hearts should be inspired with
great hopes and anticipations to think that the Being
under whose direction this earth was organized, who
governs the planets and controls the universe, who
causes the rotation of the seasons and makes this earth
so beautiful and such a delight place of habitation,
is our Father, and that we are His children.” (Gospel
Truth: Discourses and Writings of President George
Q. Cannon by Jerreld L. Newquist, George Q. Cannon)
We are the sons and daughters of heavenly parents. We did not come
into this existence by chance. It is not by chance that we are here.
We prepared for it, anticipated our time in it, and knew its purpose is
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advancing us and giving us the needed experience to develop, grow,
and progress. There are dierences between each of us. We are not one
organism. We gained dierent levels of knowledge and spiritual anity
(sensitivity) before we came down to earth. Abraham was shown the
intelligences before the world was. There were many great and noble
spirits, but not all applied themselves to learning and preparation.
The turning away from God that Lewis mentions was also necessary
and part of the plan. Christ was born among the only people that
would have crucied Him; other people would have believed. It was
necessary that He have the enemies He had, or the great work of the
Atonement would not have taken place.
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7
LET’S PRETEND
C. S. Lewis: “When you say your prayers, you are “putting yourself
in the place of a son of God. . . . You are dressing up as Christ. . . . You
are pretending. Because, of course, the moment you realize what the
words mean [the words to the Lord’s Prayer] you realize that you are
not a son of God. You are not being like the Son of God, whose will
and interests are at one with those of the Father. . . . Now, the moment
you realize ‘Here I am, dressing up as Christ,’ it is extremely likely
that you will see at once some way in which at that very moment the
pretense could be made less of a pretense and more of a reality. . . . The
Christ Himself, the Son of God, who is a man (just like you) and God
(just like His Father) is actually at your side and is already at that
moment beginning to turn your pretense into a reality.”
Gospel Truth:
“Once we dwelt in our Father’s presence, saw his face, and knew
his will. We spoke to him, heard his voice, and received counsel
and direction from him. Such was our status as spirit children in the
pre-earth life. We then walked by sight. Now we are far removed from
the divine presence; we no longer see his face and hear his voice as we
did then. We now walk by faith. But we need his counsel and direction
as much as, or more, than we needed it when we mingled with all
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the seraphic [angelic] hosts of heaven before the world was. In his
innite wisdom, knowing our needs, a gracious Father has provided
prayer as the means of continuing to communicate with him. (Mormon
Doctrine, 2nd Ed. p. 581)
We do not need to pretend to be anyone other than who we are. The
most honest thing we should ever do is communicate with sincere
transparency to our Father in Heaven. He knows us perfectly, and we
cannot hide anything from Him. We only attempt to hide the truth
from God when we cannot face the truth within ourselves. But this
is exactly what God requires us to acknowledge: our need for His
assistance and guidance and healing power. We seek the guidance of
the Holy Spirit in our prayers. We pray to God with reverence. We
seek for wisdom greater than our own. We watch, wait, and listen for
His answer. We should be our most honest self in prayer.
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8
IS CHRISTIANITY HARD OR EASY
C. S. Lewis: “Christ” says ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of
your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I
want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it.
No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut o a branch here
and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. . . . Hand
over the whole natural self. . . . I will give you a new self instead.’
Christ Himself sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard,
sometimes as very easy. He says, ‘Take up your cross’. . . . Next minute
he says, ‘My yoke is easy and my burden light.’
The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your
whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ.” But it is
easier, Lewis says, than what we are doing now, which is trying to
stay “ourselves,” and aiming at our own personal happiness while also
trying to be “good.”
Gospel Truth:
Neal Maxwell stated this in a talk:
The submission of one’s will is really the only unique
personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. It is a
hard doctrine, but it is true. The many other things we
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give to God, however nice that may be of us, are actually
things He has already give us, and He has loaned them to
us. But when we begin to submit ourselves by letting our
wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really
giving something to Him. And that hard doctrine lies at
the center of discipleship. There is a part of us that is
ultimately sovereign [independent], the mind and heart,
where we really do decide which way to go and what to
do. And when we submit to His will, then we’ve really
given Him the one nal thing He asks of us. (“Swallowed
Up in the Will of the Father,” Ensign, November 1995)
Joseph Smith said, “A religion that down not require the sacrice of
all things never has the power sucient to produce faith necessary to
lead unto life and salvation.”
This quote from Neal A. Maxwell probably says it best:
“Real, personal sacrice never was placing an animal on
the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us
upon the altar and letting it be consumed.” (April General
Conference, 1995)
That is the animal we sacrice today—the natural man. To give this
up is not easy, even though we all know it makes us better people.
Paradoxically, we all cling to those shortcomings, that poison, rather
than enrich our lives. It isn’t as if what God wants us to give up is
something we need—he only asks us to part with that which isn’t
helping us anyway. How ironic that we nd it so very dicult to do.
Again, Neal Maxwell addressed this beautifully in the April Conference
of 2004 when he said, “As you submit your wills to God, you are
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giving him the only things you can actually give him that is really
yours to give.”
Jesus does want the whole tree, or, all of us. Our ambition, goals,
desires, talents, devotion, consecration . . . . all these things He would
have us direct toward Himself. Why? For His own benet? No. Nothing
we can do will add to His divinity. He has His glory. It is for us. For
our eternal glory. If we place Him before all worldly desires, He will
show us the way back home. And that is where we want to be. He is
the way. And for this, He would have us lay ourselves on the altar,
sacricing all the selsh things man desires to have in this mortal life,
to have life eternal with Jesus. His goal is to improve us. He knows us
perfectly, and so He knows perfectly how to accomplish this.
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9
COUNTING THE COST
C. S. Lewis: This chapter is about God’s plans to make us perfect.
Lewis writes, “We may be content to remain what we call ‘ordinary
people’: but He is determined to carry out a quite dierent plan. . . . If
we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He will make the
feeblest and lthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant,
immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy
and wisdom and love as we cannot imagine, a bright stainless mirror
which reects back to God perfectly. . . . The process will be long and
in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He
meant what He said.”
Gospel Truth:
The original Greek word for perfect is teleios, which means whole or
nished. When we have a sincere hunger and thirst for righteousness,
and a burning desire to become more like the pure example of our
Savior, then we make daily progress toward perfection until we
become a nished product.
The commandment that we be perfect may seem dicult, but through
the purifying inuence of the Holy Ghost, it is a goal that is not only
attainable but necessary to our salvation. Elder Bruce R. McConkie
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has given comfort and encouragement to those who try to become
perfect in an imperfect world:
We have to become perfect to be saved in the celestial
kingdom. But nobody becomes perfect in this life. Only
the Lord Jesus attained that state, and he had an advantage
that none of us has. He was the Son of God. . . . He lived
a perfect life, and he set an ideal example. . . . As it is with
being born again, and as it is with sanctifying our souls,
so becoming perfect in Christ is a process.
We begin to keep the commandments today, and we
keep more of them tomorrow, and we go from grace to
grace, up the steps of the ladder, and we thus improve and
perfect our souls. We can become perfect in some minor
things. We can be perfect in the payment of our tithing. If
we pay one-tenth of our interest annually into the tithing
funds of the Church, if we do it year in and year out, and
desire to do it, and have no intent to withhold, and if we
would do it regardless of what arose in our lives, then in
that thing we are perfect. . . .
As members of the Church. . . . if we chart a course of
sanctifying our souls, and degree by degree are going
in that direction; and if we chart a course of becoming
perfect, and, step by step and phase by phase, are
perfecting our souls by overcoming the world, then it is
absolutely guaranteed—there is no question whatever
about it—we shall gain eternal life. Even though we have
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spiritual rebirth ahead of us, perfection ahead of us, the
full degree of sanctication ahead of us, if we chart a
course and follow it to the best of our ability in this life,
then when we go out of this life, we’ll continue in exactly
that same course. (BYU Speeches of the Year, 1976,
pp. 399-401)
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10
NICE PEOPLE OR NEW MEN
C. S. Lewis: “Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in ‘religion’
mean nothing unless they make our actual behavior better.” A tree
is known by its fruit. Lewis goes on, “Mere improvement is not
redemption. . . . God became man to turn creatures into sons: not
simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new
kind of man. . . .
Niceness—wholesome, integrated personality—is an excellent
thing. . . . But we must not suppose that even if we succeeded in
making everyone nice, we should have saved their souls. A world of
nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned
away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a
miserable world.”
Gospel Truth:
It is a truth that our goal in this life is to improve. We came with so
much preparation. It would be a shame to drop the ball of our progress
at this point. Jesus stands ready, actually knocking on the door of our
heart, eager to assist us in our growth and development to reach our
potential. Yes, we are to become new creatures in Christ. “Therefore if
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any man (or woman) be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things become new” (2 Corinthians 5: 17).
Hyrum L. Andrus states this about our relationship with Christ:
“Man must obey the gospel to become a son of Christ.
A revelation explained this: “Verily I say unto you, all
those who receive my gospel are sons and daughters in
my kingdom.” This point was stressed by Abinadi (a
Book of Mormon prophet) in his commentary on Christ,
the suering servant prophesied of in Isaiah 53. “When
thou shalt make his soul an oering for sin, he shall
see his seed.” Having quoted this prophetic declaration
concerning Christ, Abinadi explained that those who had
given heed to the words of the prophets and believed
that the Lord would redeem his people and have looked
forward to that day for a remission of their sins. . . . are
his seed. They are “heirs of the kingdom of God,” the
Nephite prophet explained. (Hyrum L. Andrus, Principles
of Perfection, Deseret Book Co., 1970)
To enter into the kingdom of God we must become a new
creature in Christ.
“To Alma, the son of Alma, the Lord declared, “Marvel
not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations,
kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again;
yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen
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state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God,
becoming his sons and daughters; and thus they become
new creatures; and unless they do this they can in no wise
inherit the kingdom of God” (Mosiah 27:25-26).
It takes more than being a good person to be saved in the
highest kingdom.
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11
THE NEW MEN
“C. S. Lewis: “The more we get what we now call ‘ourselves’
out of the way and let Him take over, the more truly ourselves we
become. . . . The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the
more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and
surroundings and natural desires. . . . There must be a real giving up
of the self. . . . Give up your self, and you will nd your real self. Lose
your life and you will save it. . . . Look for Christ and you will nd
Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”
Gospel Truth:
There is no argument here. Ezra T. Benson said:
Yes, men and women who turn their lives over to God
will nd out that He can make a lot more out of their lives
than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their
vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles,
lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their
opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and
pour out peace. Whoever will lose his life in the service of
God will nd he has eternal life. (Ezra T. Benson, “Jesus
Christ—Gifts and Expectations,” Ensign, December 1988)
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What Lewis did not understand was what existed before we came to
this earth. What we were like before. What we had become over a very
long time in our premortal preparation. Our premortal self is more of
our true selves, our true nature. We, here, are inuenced by inherited
weaknesses and tendencies, environment, how we were raised, and
many more factors that are out of our control. One object in this life is
to rediscover those traits that are inherently in us, that we brought with
us—the residue of a former life expressed in desires, ambition, talents,
etc. It is through our relationship with God that we can discover, in
part, who we truly are. And He will help fashion us into who we have
always wanted to become.
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Quotes by C. S. Lewis
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream another dream.
Since it is so likely that [children] will meet cruel enemies, let them at
least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage.
Joy is the serious business of heaven.
Everything is good that looks to Him and bad if it turns from Him.
Jesus Christ did not say, “Go into the world and tell the world that it
is quite right.”
The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one
purpose only—and that is to support the ultimate career.
I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.
There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be
done,” and those to whom God says, “All right, then, have it your way.”
No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.
When we Christians behave badly, or fail to behave well, we are
making Christianity unbelievable to the outside world.
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It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the
pure in heart want to.
Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth.
God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself because
it is not there. There is no such thing.
You may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God.
Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar.
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Henry Drummond
1851-1897
THE GREATEST THING IN
THE WORLD
Study Guide to Part 1
Scottish Evangelist, Writer and Lecturer
Gospel Study Series
Gail Barkley
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THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
love*, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And
though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and
all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not love I am nothing. And though I bestow all
my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
and have not love, it proteth me nothing. Love suereth long, and is
kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself is not pued up, Doth
not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth
all things. Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they
shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be
knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy
in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in
part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I
understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man,
I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly; but
then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as
also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but
the greatest of these is Love. (1 Corinthians 13)
*KJV: charity has been changed to love
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THE SUPREME GOOD
“Above all things have fervent love among yourselves.
Above all things.”
Summum bonum: the highest good, especially as the ultimate
goal, according to which values and priorities are established in an
ethical system
What is summum bonum—the supreme good? Is it faith, hope or
charity? Paul makes it clear that it is love. He said, “Love is the fullling
of the law.” But how does live fulll the law? Drummond states that
Jesus showed us how. He showed us a simpler way, where if we did
just one thing, we would automatically keep all the commandments,
without even thinking about it.
“If you love, you will unconsciously fulll the whole law.”
Take any of the Ten Commandments:
1. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.
3. Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
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8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, wife, or possessions.
If you loved God and others, you would not do any of these things.
Love fullls all these laws. Love is the rule for fullling all rules, the
new commandment for keeping the old commandments.
Questions:
Which apostle said, “God is love?” How is this so?
Drummond calls this principle of keeping one law, and in so doing
fullling all the others, “Christ’s one secret of the Christian life.”
Explain how this one “secret” is the key to a Christian life.
What does “exercising” love mean?
Take one of the commandments listed above. How does exercising
love prevent us from breaking this commandment?
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THE CONTRAST
“[You] can take nothing greater to the heathen world
than the impress and reection of the Love of God upon
their own character.”
Contrast: the state of being strikingly dierent from something else
Paul contrasts love with eloquence. Eloquence is the ability to speak
persuasively [convincingly] and with eectiveness. As good as that
sounds, and as wonderful a gift as that would be, to speak as to raise
man’s thoughts to high and noble works, Paul says this is nothing
without love. If “I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and
have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”
Paul contrasts love with prophecy. Prophecy is the ability to predict
what the future holds. He contrasts love with faith, and with charity.
Love is better than both, for the sum is greater than its parts. Love is
greater than faith because the intent of faith is to connect the soul with
God, that it may become like God. Since God is love, faith is the way,
the road taken, the route to love. And charity, Drummond states, is
only a little bit of love. One can never have charity without love.
“It is a very easy thing to toss a copper [coin] to a beggar in the street;
it is generally an easier thing than not to do it. Yet Love is just as
often in the withholding. We purchase relief from the sympathetic
feelings roused by the spectacle of misery, at the copper’s cost. It is
too cheap—too cheap for us, and often too dear for the beggar. If we
really loved him we would either do more for him, or less.”
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Paul also contrasts love with sacrice and martyrdom. Though one
may sacrice his life, without love it prots nothing.
Love is the universal language. Go wherever you want and people who
do not speak your language will feel your love pour from your heart.
A missionary’s character is his message. Take love with you when you
do your labors and you will succeed. Every accomplishment, every
sacrice, let it be done with love. If you do it without love, even for
Christ’s sake, it will not prot you.
Questions:
Why does Drummond say that when it comes to tossing a coin to
a beggar on the street, it may be more charitable to withhold the
oering? Do you agree?
Can a person really serve others without feeling love for them?
Do you know someone who is an example of putting love rst when
they serve others, and does not expect a reward?
Explain how faith, hope and charity are the pathway to understanding
and comprehending love.
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THE ANALYSIS
“The greatest thing. . . . a man can do for his Heavenly
Father is to be kind to some of His other children.”
Analysis: the process of separating something into its constituent
elements.
What does love look like? What makes up this thing called love?
We know that if you pass a light beam through a prism, it will break
up into dierent colors. Paul passes “love” through the prism of his
inspired intellect, states Drummond, and it comes out on the other side
broken up into its elements. It is called by Drummond the “Spectrum
of Love.” This spectrum has nine elements:
Patience – “Love suereth long”
Kindness – “And is kind”
Generosity – “Love envieth not”
Humility – “Love vaunteth not itself, is not pued up”
Courtesy – “Doth not behave itself unseemly”
Unselshness – “Seeketh not her own”
Good Temper – “Is not easily provoked”
Guilelessness – “Thinketh no evil”
Sincerity – “Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness”
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These are the elements that constitute (make up) love, that make up
the supreme gift and the stature (characteristics) of the perfect man.
This is perfect love. This is godly love.
“Religion is not a strange or added thing, but. . . . the breathing of an
eternal spirit through this temporal world.”
Love is a meek and quiet spirit. Love understands, and therefore waits.
Christ spent much of His life doing kind things. How easy it is to be
kind, and how the world desperately needs it.
“Where love is God is. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.
Therefore love.”
“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore,
that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let
me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this
way again.”
“After you have been kind, after love has stolen forth into the world
and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and say
nothing about it.” Love is not pued up.
“The most obvious lesson in Christ’s teaching is that there is no
happiness in having and getting anything, but only in giving.”
“There is no greatness in things. Things cannot be great. The only
greatness is unselsh love.”
Drummond states that when Christ said to take His yoke upon us, it is
because it is easy. What is easy about it? Christ’s yoke is a way of life.
An easier way to live. “I repeat, there is no happiness in having or in
getting, but only in giving. Half the world is on the wrong scent in the
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pursuit of happiness. They think it consists in having and getting, and
in being served by others. It consists in giving, and in serving others.”
“To enter heaven, a man must take it with him.”
“Temper is signicant. It is not in what it is alone, but in what it
reveals.”
“We must go to the source, and change the inmost nature, and the
angry humors will die away of themselves.”
After the analysis of what makes up love, we need to think of how
we can t these things into our character. Drummond says it is the
supreme work to which we need to attend in this life. Life is full of
opportunities to learn love. What makes us better? Practice. Christ
learned and increased in wisdom and favor with God and man. How?
Through practice and obedience.
Do not complain about your circumstances, trials, and inconveniences.
These are the practices that the Lord has appointed you. Remember
the words of Goethe: “Talent develops itself in solitude; character in
the stream of life.”
“Do not grudge [complain about] the hand that is molding the still too
shapeless image within you. It is growing more beautiful, though you
see it not; and every touch of temptation may add to its perfection.”
Put a piece of iron near a magnetized body and that piece of iron, for
a time, will become magnetized. It is charged with an attractive force
by being in the presence of the original force. As long as you have the
two side by side, they are both magnetized alike. 1 John 4:19 says,
“We love him, because he rst loved us.” Love begets [promotes]
love. Remain side by side with Him who loves us, and you, too, will
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become an attractive force, drawing others to you, and you to them.
That is the eect of love. Drummond states, “There is no mystery
about it. We love others, we love everybody, we love our enemies,
because He rst loved us.”
Questions:
Why does Drummond say that it is dicult to give up ourselves?
What does this statement mean to you? “There is no greatness in
things.”
Why do you think a bad temper is one of the most destructive things
in people?
What do you think of this statement? “Will-power does not change
men. Time does not change men. Christ does.”
What does it mean to “rejoice in the truth?”
As long as you have a piece of iron next to an electried body, it will
behave like a magnet. How can this analogy apply to being yoked to
Christ?
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THE DEFENSE
“Love not the world therefore. Nothing that it contains
is worth the life and consecration of an immortal soul.
The immortal soul must give itself to something that
is immortal. And the only immortal things are these:
“Now abideth faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these
is love.”
Defense: the action of defending from or resisting attack
Love is the supreme possession because love lasts. “Love never faileth.”
It will outlast prophecies, for they will be fullled. Knowledge, also,
is always changing. What we know today will be replaced by greater
knowledge very soon. These things in themselves are not bad, but they
will not last. Even this world, with all its beauty, is not meant to last
forever in its present condition. It will someday fulll its purpose in
housing mortal men and women during their probationary state, and
then become new again and serve as the eternal abode for the Saints.
The one thing that is going to stand for all eternity is love.
“The Gospel oers a man life. Never oer a man a thimble of
Gospel. . . . tell them how Christ came to give men a more abundant
life . . . a life abundant in love, and therefore abundant in salvation for
themselves.”
To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever is to live
forever.
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Eternal life is to know God. “This is life eternal, that they might
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”
(John 17:3).
“The test of religion, the nal test of religion, is not religiousness,
but love. . . . not what I have done, not what I have believed, not
what I have achieved, but how I have discharged the common charities
of life.”
Everyone that loveth is born of God.
Questions:
Why is love the most important thing?
Read D&C 12:8. What does this scripture tell us?
Religion gives us guiding principles and commandments to help us
know how to live. But what is the goal? Is it not to become like Christ?
How does church membership give us opportunities to become like
Christ?
Why is it more important to pursue things that last, things that shape
our character and help us to become better?
What are some things you can do everyday that will have a lasting
eect?
The End.
GAIL BARKLEY
143
Scriptures on Love
Search the Topical Guide in your scriptures and make your own list of
favorite scriptures on love:
Scriptures:
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The Touch of the Master’s Hand
Myra Welch
‘Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile.
“What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,
“Who’ll start the bidding for me?”
“A dollar, a dollar, Then two! Only two?
Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?”
“Three dollars, once; three dollars twice;
Going for three . . . ”
But no,
From the room, far back. A gray-haired man
Came forward
And picked up the bow;
Then wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening
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145
The loosed strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet,
As a caroling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said: “What am I bid for the old violin?”
And he held it up with the bow.
“A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two?
Two thousand! And who’ll make it three?
Three thousand, once: three thousand, twice,
And going and gone,” said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
“We do not quite understand,
What changed its worth?” Swift came the reply”
“The touch of the Master’s hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
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Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd
Much like the old violin.
A “mess of pottage,” a glass of wine,
A game—and he travels on.
He is “going” once, and “going” twice,
He’s “going” and almost “gone.”
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that is wrought
By the touch of the Master’s hand.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gail is a wife, mother, and convert to the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. She wrote this study guide series to help her
children and grandchildren gain a strong foundation and strengthen
their testimonies of the restored church. Her desire is to help readers
understand how all this gospel knowledge comes together to unfold
the great plan for our eternal happiness; learning what went on before
helps us to grasp how our present day ts into the grand scheme of
things. She has made her study guides available to you in the hope that
your family may benet from them as well.
