Genuine Gold

James E. Talmage

“The present is an age of pleasure-seeking, and men are losing their sanity in the mad rush for sensations that do but excite and disappoint. In this day of counterfeits, adulterations, and base imitations, the devil is busier than he has ever been in the course of human history, in the manufacture of pleasures, both old and new; and these he offers for sale in most attractive fashion, falsely labeled, Happiness. In this soul-destroying craft he is without a peer; he has had centuries of experience and practice, and by his skill he controls the market. He has learned the tricks of the trade, and knows well how to catch the eye and arouse the desire of his customers. He puts up the stuff in bright-colored packages, tied with tinsel string and tassel; and crowds flock to his bargain counters, hustling and crushing one another in their frenzy to buy.

“Follow one of the purchasers as he goes off gloatingly with his gaudy packet, and watch him as he opens it. What finds he inside the gilded wrapping? He has expected fragrant happiness, but uncovers only an inferior brand of pleasure, the stench of which is nauseating.

“Happiness includes all that is really desirable and of true worth in pleasure, and much besides. Happiness is genuine gold, pleasure but guilded brass, which corrodes in the hand, and is soon converted into poisonous verdigris. Happiness is as the genuine diamond, which, rough or polished, shines with its own inimitable luster; pleasure is as the paste imitation that glows only when artificially embellished. Happiness is as the ruby, red as the heart’s blood, hard and enduring; pleasure, as stained glass, soft, brittle, and of but transitory beauty.

“Happiness is true food, wholesome, nutritious and sweet; it builds up the body and generates energy for action, physical, mental and spiritual; pleasure is but a deceiving stimulant which, like spiritous drink, makes one think he is strong when in reality enfeebled; makes him fancy he is well when in fact stricken with deadly malady.

“Happiness leaves no bad after-taste, it is followed by no depressing reaction; it calls for no repentance, brings no regret, entails no remorse; pleasure too often makes necessary repentance, contrition, and suffering; and, if indulged to the extreme, it brings degradation and destruction.

“True happiness is lived over and over again in memory, always with a renewal of the original good; a moment of unholy pleasure may leave a barbed sting, which, like a thorn in the flesh, is an ever-present source of anguish.

“Happiness is not akin with levity, nor is it one with light-minded mirth. It springs from the deeper fountains of the soul, and is not infrequently accompanied by tears. Have you never been so happy that you have had to weep? I have.”

- James E. Talmage, "Improvement Era," vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 172-73. (Also found in notes to chapter 17, Jesus the Christ, by James E. Talmage)

Knowing Who You Are

President Kevin J. Worthen

It is important to remember who you are.  Yesterday, BYU President Kevin J. Worthen gave an excellent BYU devotional address on the topic of "Knowing Who You Are."  I commend it to your attention.

True Greatness

Joseph F. Smith

"Those things which we call extraordinary, remarkable, or unusual may make history, but they do not make real life.

After all, to do well those things which God ordained to be the common lot of all mankind, is the truest greatness. To be a successful father or a successful mother is greater than to be a successful general or a successful statesman."

- President Joseph F. Smith ("Juvenile Instructor," 15 Dec. 1905, p. 752.)

A Pleasant Privilege

Russell M. Nelson

"Keeping the garden of marriage well cultivated and free from weeds of neglect requires the time and commitment of love. It is not only a pleasant privilege, it is a scriptural requirement with promise of eternal glory" - Russell M. Nelson (in Conference Report, Apr. 1991, 28; or Ensign, May 1991, 23).

The Land of Beginning Again

Louisa Fletcher

The Land of Beginning Again

I wish that there were some wonderful place

Called the land of Beginning Again,

Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches

And all of our poor selfish grief

Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door,

And never put on again.

I wish we could come on it all unaware,

Like the hunter who finds a lost trail;

And I wish that the one whom our blindness had done 

The greatest injustice of all

Could be at the gates like an old friend that waits

For the comrade he's gladdest to hail.

We would find all the things we intended to do

But forgot, and remembered too late,

Little praises unspoken, little promises broken,

And all of the thousand and one

Little duties neglected that might have perfected

The day for one less fortunate.

It wouldn't be possible not to be kind

In the land of Beginning Again;

And the ones we misjudged and the ones

Whom we grudged

The moments of victory here

Would find in the grasp of our loving handclasp

More than penitent lips could explain

For what had been hardest we'd know had been best

And what had seemed loss would be gain;

For there isn't a sting that will not take wing

When we've faced it and laughed it away;

And I think that the laughter is most what we're after

In the land of Beginning Again.

So I wish that there were some wonderful place

Called the land of Beginning Again,

Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches

And all of our poor selfish grief

Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door,

And never be put on again.

- Louisa Fletcher, in The Land of Beginning Again

The Super-Substantial Nourishment of Man

Jacques Maritain

“Poetry (like metaphysics) is spiritual nourishment; but of a savor which has been created and which is insufficient. There is but one eternal nourishment. Unhappy are you who think yourselves ambitious, and who whet your appetites for anything less than the [divinity] of Christ. It is a mortal error to expect from poetry the super-substantial nourishment of man.”

- Jacques Maritain, Frontiers of Poetry [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1962], p. 132.)

The Disciple-Scholar

Learning in the Light of Faith: The Compatibility of Scholarship and Discipleship

What is a disciple-scholar?  Elder Neal A. Maxwell exemplified both discipleship and scholarship in his life, and he explains the concept here.