Interesting Tidbits: Part 1

A selection of quotes from Volume 1 We've finished Volume 1; only 25 more to go! During the course of Volume 1 there were many interesting tidbits that didn't fit within the concept of a post. Rather than overlooking them, the next few days I'll throw them all together in a mish-mash of quotes so you don't miss out on the little things. Judge not, and see that ye mind your business:

What a delightful aspect would this community present if all men and women, old and young, were disposed to leave off their own sins and follies, and overlook those of their neighbors; if they would cease watching their neighbors for iniquity, and watch that they themselves might be free from it!... I find that I have enough to do to watch myself. It is as much as I can do to get right, deal right, and act right. If we all should do this, there would be no difficulty, but in every man's mouth would be ‘May the Lord bless you' (Brigham Young, 1:1).

Judge not, that ye become a celestial society:

I consider it is a disgrace to the community, and in the eyes of the Lord, and of Angels…when a community will descend to the low, degraded state of contention with each other; this little bickering, jarring, fault-finding, ‘somebody's abused me’; why do you not say: ‘if you have a mind to abuse, abuse away’? Suppose every heart should say, 'if my neighbor does wrong to me, I will not complain, the Lord will take care of him...I will not be cruel to my fellow-creature, but I will do all the good I can, and as little evil as possible.' Now, where would be the wrong of taking this course? This is the way to approximate toward a celestial state (ibid).

You might not see dead people, but dead people might see you:

No, they never cease. They live move, think, act, converse, feel, love, hate, believe, doubt, hope, and desire…[they] are in every way interested, in our relationships, kindred ties, sympathies, affections, and hopes, as if we had continued to live, but had stepped aside, and were experiencing the loneliness of absence for a season (Parley P. Pratt, 1:6).

John Taylor on translating the Book of Mormon into French:

We found many difficulties to combat, for it is not an easy thing to go into France and learn to talk French well; but at the same time, if a man sets to work in good earnest, he can do it. I have scratched the word "can't" out of my vocabulary long since; and I have not got it in my French one (John Taylor, 1:16).

Two witnesses establish the truth:

No man can say that this book [laying his hand on the Bible] is true…and at the same time say, that the Book of Mormon is untrue; if he has had the privilege of reading it, or of hearing it read, and learning its doctrines. There is not that person on the face of the earth who has had the privilege of learning the Gospel of Jesus Christ from these two books, that can say that one is true, and the other is false. No Latter-day Saint, no man or woman, can say the Book of Mormon is true, and at the same time say that the Bible is untrue. If one be true, both are; and if one be false, both are false (Brigham Young 1:37).

Enjoy music and recreation:

In the first place, some wise being organized my system, and gave me my capacity, put into my heart and brain something that delights, charms, and fills me with rapture at the sound of sweet music. I did not put it there; it was some other being. As one of the modern writers has said, "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast." …It was the Lord, our Heavenly Father, who gave the capacity to enjoy these sounds, and which we ought to do in His name, and to His glory (Brigham Young, 1:46).

Temporal blessings are sacred:

If God our heavenly Father has given us temporal blessings in the due course and order of nature, we ought to hold them sacred, and be as prudent and economical of them as we are of a precious truth revealed from heaven…I know not which to prize the most, the blessings of the earth which pertain to the sustenance of these bodies, or the blessings of heaven that give food to the mind; for they are all the blessings of heaven to me and to you (Orson Hyde, 1:171).

Brigham says the gospel is 'happifying':

It is one of the most happifying subjects that can be named, for a person, or people, to have the privilege of gaining wisdom enough while in their mortal tabernacle, to be able to look through the whys and wherefores of the existence of man…and understand the design of the Great Maker of this beautiful creation. Let the people do this, and their hearts will be weaned from the world (BY 1:103). …get so much of the spirit of truth that you may become filled with it, so that you can shout aloud with all your might to the praise of God, and feel your hearts clear as the noon-day sun. Then you can dance, and glorify God; and as you shall abide in the truth, God will raise you up… (Brigham Young, 1:112).

The veil may be lifted at death:

How is it that we do not recollect anything now that took place before we took upon us these bodies? When we lay them off we shall remember everything, the scenes of those early times will be as fresh in our view as the sun was this morning when he rose over the mountains (Orson Hyde, 1:121).

May may become like God...or the devil:

A man never knew how to be wicked, until light and truth were first made manifest to him. Then is the time for men to make their decision, and if they turn away from the Lord, it prepares them to become devils (Brigham Young, 1:136).

Don't love the things of the world:

Brethren and sisters, cast from you the love of the world, and let it have no dominion over you...say to the fields, the flocks, and the herds, to the gold and the silver, to the goods and chattels, to the tenements and the possessions, and to all the world- Stand aside, get away from my thoughts, for I am going up to worship the Lord (Brigham Young, 1:198).

Coming tomorrow: Part 2!