The Gospel is the Power of God that saves (Amasa Lyman)

The Gospel, then, as preached unto us, is the power of God that saves. What does it do? It enlightens that which is dark; it gives us power where all is weakness before; it endows us with capacity where before there was no capacity, and where there was no strength.

This is what the Gospel does for us: it is that which saves and fills our minds with that which we need not be ashamed of; and it is the simple fact that we should carry to our home, to our firesides, to correct the evils that exist between man and man, between parents and children, husbands and wives: but it is, nevertheless, the power of God that saves. It is that which tranquilizes the power of the soul that is not wholly under the principles of truth. It is not like the empty proclamation of enthusiasm, but it is deliverance to the captives; it is freedom to the sick soul—to the soul that is in the dark, that knows not the truth, that has no hope that reaches into the vast future, and opens up prospects for the immortality and the salvation of the souls of men. This is the way that the Gospel opens to us in regard to the salvation of the soul: it will make everything in the soul tranquil as the blest in heaven. It is that which must abide constantly within us; it is that which must be developed in our homes.

Amasa Lyman

7:301-302

to live for our religion

As I said when I arose, I do not feel like preaching; but I would simply ask you, as a part of Father’s family, Does our courage increase? Does our valor increase, so that we can live for the truth—for our religion? It is a common thing with the world for them to be complimented for their bravery. And this matter of dying for the truth —dying for a man’s opinions—is a common thing. Men have died for their opinions when those opinions were erroneous; but if it is truth that men die for, it is all the better. But it occurs to me that it is better for us to live our religion, and let the dying take care of itself; for I find that it is a very easy matter for an individual to die. Men can with much less faith and less trouble of life place themselves in a position to get killed than to so purify themselves, their actions, and by regulating themselves by the truth and actually to live their religion in the legitimate spirit of the Gospel.

Amasa Lyman

5:81

temptations, resisting the devil, the Holy Ghost

I want you to look at this; I want you to remember that whenever there is a diminution of evil in the community, it is because the people do less wrong than they did; they are more faithful, more truthful, more righteous, more holy, and are making greater progression and advancement towards the consummation of the work of God. It is by the development in them of the principles of righteousness and the establishment of those principles in them to the exclusion of every other principle and feeling. When this is effected, our salvation and redemption are secure. When we do right exclusively, and no wrong, we have nothing to fear. When this becomes the case with the people, will the kingdom of God be built up? Yes, in the hearts of the Saints.

Says one, “Won’t it be built up externally too? Yes; but it is a simple matter to build up the kingdom so far as houses, palaces, and thrones are concerned, only get the principles of the kingdom of God built up and established within yourselves. Then you will simply have arrived at the point that you will live your religion; that is, the light that is in you will be the spirit of your religion operating upon you, and in you, and through you, and over you, and round about you, that your whole being and everything pertaining to your existence will be under its sacred and hallowed influences. Do not settle down and think you are living your religion because you have done a few good things, because you are a. little more faithful than you were last year, and because the Lord is blessing us this year with plenty. Remember, and keep it constantly in view, that there is much improvement to make, much to gain, and much to learn.

You want to have your religion established within you—a living fountain from which the principles of eternal life and truth will flow out and pervade your active being, regulating your actions and conduct in such a way that everything connected with your life shall be in perfect harmony with the truth; then you will live your religion, then you wont need to be waked up in the night, and somebody come along with borrowed light to place it in your habitation; you would have one there all the time, so far as the light of truth and of your religion is concerned: it would be in you all the time, always trimmed, always burning.

If an evil spirit comes to us to tempt us to do evil—if we resist that spirit, what will be the result? The Devil will go away. When he comes, again, and only meets with the same treatment, with the same success, and finds that he cannot get us to say an evil thing or do an evil deed, how long will he tempt us? He would soon come to the rational conclusion not to go there again; he would find it a speculation that would be of no profit to him, while his defeat is our victory.

Whenever evil things, evil thoughts have possession of our bosoms, and we have not spoken a word—not given the thought shape, form, and signification to those around us, who knows of it? Nobody. Who is injured? Nobody. There is no harm done, no stealing, no murder committed, no slander perpetrated, no falsehood told. What has been done? The spirit that would instigate evil has been subdued within us, and we have died a death unto sin, and have individually become alive unto righteousness. One of the best things I ever heard in my life was a simple thing that President Young taught here some time past, which was, that it is not always right to speak the things we think. It is just as necessary that you should be able to think and not speak as to think and speak; the one is just as necessary as the other to your salvation. “But,” says one, “is it not just as bad to think it as to speak it?” Why, thinking never killed anybody. Suppose a man had a thought in his mind that he would kill me, if he did not do it, you know, as far as I am concerned, I would live. But suppose, acting on the old adage, that it is no worse to do it than to think it, and he had laid wait for me by the road side and taken away my life, what would have been the consequence? Then the sin of murder would have been on his soul.

It is the same with every wrong thought and evil suggestion that may occur to your minds. What will be done if you act on this principle? The Father at home, if he thinks a wrong thing, won’t say it. The wife and mother will do the same; and what will be the result? Harmony in the domestic circle will never be destroyed by evil speaking. What then? If harmony be there, the Spirit of God will be there. Why? Because it delights to dwell in a quiet place; it does not love contention; it is no friend to strife; it is not fond of bickering or saying hard things. The Spirit of God will come and take his abode with us, if we prepare our minds for its reception, and make it welcome, and study to cultivate a feeling that is congenial with its own nature.

It is with the Holy Spirit as it is with us. When we seek to gratify ourselves in the associations around us, for whom do we seek in such a time? We seek individuals whose tastes and feelings are congenial to our own, whose “Mormonism” is like ours, whose regard for truth is like our own. Then what do we enjoy? A free, frank, unrestrained feeling. and sentiment: we pour out the feelings of our souls; there is a principle of reciprocity existing between the parties.

So it is with the Holy Spirit of truth. Where it finds a mind so regulated that there is an affinity and congeniality between that mind and itself, there is the place where it will dwell; and when that mind becomes so trained in the truth as to be completely and perfectly subject to its influence, it will remain there constantly and unceasingly; it will not pay a casual visit, but take up its constant abode with that individual, and then its light is there, revelation is there, inspiration is there; it is there to increase in intensity, extent, and in power; it is there to continually pour out upon that soul the unceasing, unbroken tide of life. Then the fountain of life becomes established in the soul; that fountain is flowing continually and unceasingly. Even as the blood passes through the heart to the extremities of our physical system at every pulsation, so also the Spirit of truth pervades our being.

Amasa Lyman

5:38-39

to be happy continually, religion is a practical matter, daily discipleship

My religion has become convenient to me, from the fact that I have found it adapted to every day use. The happiness that it imparts—I do not care what part of man’s existence or being you may talk about, or apply it to—the happiness it imparts it can impart every day. The bliss that can happify one hour of a man’s being as a Saint, from a knowledge of the truth, and from the influence that truth will exert over him, will, upon the same principle, happify every hour of his life. That light of truth that will enable him at one time to testify of the truth of the work of God, of the manifestation of His hand and His power in the establishment of His kingdom, and the revelation of the Gospel to man in the last days, will shine upon his path unceasingly, if he is constantly and unceasingly faithful.

This leads me to be happy continually; for it does away with a great many of the probabilities of a man’s doing wrong, or being decoyed from the path of rectitude and virtue, and after having preached salvation to others, himself becoming a castaway, because the light that would save them once will save them all the time. They have only to be diligent, faithful, true, and obedient to the requisitions of the truth, to secure its presence with them continually.

This has led me to entertain vastly different notions and ideas of salvation from those I once entertained, whether of my own or that of the Saints universally. It has resolved itself in my mind into very simple truth, and yet a very extended and important one. I find that all the notions I used to entertain, years ago, about salvation and its greatness are comprised in knowing the right and then doing it,—not in matters that are foreign from ourselves and from what we have to do, but in the every day occurrences that fill up the history of our lives here.

There is no way that I know of or have ever heard of, believed, or entertained any conception of, that will enable you any better to love God than to love man who is made in the image and likeness of God. Do you want to honour Him? Then honour man that is made in the likeness of God. “But,” says one, “some men are not good:” then honour those that are good, who are his ministers, in whom he is represented on the earth. We cannot go away to his far off dwelling-place to pay our respects and obeisance to him there—to present our offerings before Him, or to tell how much we love Him. What can we do? We can find here, in close proximity with ourselves, the individual in whom we can learn His will, receive the declaration of His truth, the order of His institutions and requirements. They are in our midst. This led one in ancient times to say, “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and He has commanded us that we should love one another.”

This makes our religion wholly a practical matter. Let people who can live by theorizing, theorize away until doomsday; and, if we will be saved, we want practical virtue—practical truth exemplified in our actions, in our words, and thoughts; we want to live together as a holy people—as a people who fear and honour God. How? By getting down on our knees and saying our prayers, by singing graciously and putting on a long face, by going to meeting on the Sabbath, or by wearing an amiable smile, that when contemplating it you would not think we ever frowned in the world? Is this the way we are to honour God and live right? No; it is something else besides this. To pray is good, to smile is good, to be pleasant is good; but to be holy and acceptable in the sight of God is to be good all the time, in all places, under all circumstances, and with all people.

We want to learn to get along comfortably with the little duties of life that we meet with every day—that make up the labour of every day. We want to learn to do those things right. You want to learn to be as holy at home by your firesides as you are when you go to church. You want to feel well, to enjoy the Spirit of God in every condition and relation of life.

Amasa Lyman

5:34