1. Doctrine & Covenants 68-75

2. Doctrine & Covenants 68 Scripture is the will, mind, word, voice and power of God unto Salvation.

3. Doctrine & Covenants 68:1 “From people to people, and from land to land” “The prophecy in this verse was literally fulfilled. Orson Hyde proclaimed the gospel from people to people, from land to land.’ In 1832, he and Samuel H. Smith traveled in the States of New York, Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island --- two thousand miles --- on foot. In 1835 he was ordained an Apostle, and in 1837 he went on a mission to England. In 1840 he was sent on a mission to Jerusalem. He crossed the ocean, travelled through Cairo, and Alexandria, and finally, reached the Holy City. On October 24 th, 1841, he went up on the Mount of Olives and offered a prayer, dedicating Palestine for the gathering of the Jews” (Smith and Sjodahl, Commentary, 409).

4. Doctrine & Covenants 68:2-4 President J. Reuben Clark Jr. said we can tell when the speakers are moved upon by the Holy Ghost only when we are, ourselves, are moved upon by the Holy Ghost. In a way, this completely shifts the responsibility from them to us. The very words of the revelation recognize that the Brethren may speak when they are not “moved upon by the Holy Ghost,” yet only when they do speak, as so “moved upon” is what they say Scripture. No exceptions are given to this rule or principle. It is universal in its application.

5. “I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by Him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken that influence they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way. Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not” (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 9, 150). Joseph Smith said, a prophet is not always a prophet, but is a prophet only when acting as such, and that this means that not always may the words of a prophet be taken as prophecy or revelation, but only when he, too, is speaking as “moved upon by the Holy Ghost” (History of the Church, Vol. 5, 265).

6. Doctrine & Covenants 68:25-30 “ 8 things parents should teach their children !” President Kimball has stated: “No true Latter-day Saint, while physically or emotionally able, will voluntarily shift the burden of his own or his family’s well-being to someone else” (Conference Report Oct., 1978, 86).

7. 1. Faith in Jesus Christ 2. Repentance (it cannot be taught without teaching the Atonement) 3. Baptism 4. Gift of the Holy Ghost 5. To Pray 6. To walk uprightly (to be honest) 7. To observe the Sabbath Day 8. To remember their labors (teach them to work)

8. Teach them to work : In 1939, near the end of the Great Depression, Channing Pollock wrote “The Adventures of a Happy Man: Work Is Its Own Reward. In it he explained that the unhappiest people are those who are lazy and fight boredom, while the happiest are those who learn to work. He also pointed out that the best work is never done for a paycheck. It gets done by those who believe in what they are doing.

9. If…we truly want the best for our sons and daughters, we would want for them --- not status --- but more meekness, mercy, love, patience, and submissiveness (Neal A. Maxwell, Even As I Am, 62).

10. Doctrine & Covenants 75:3 “The Idler shall not have place in the church” President David O. McKay has said, “Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that the power to work is a blessing, and the power of love of work is success.”

11. President Benson’s talk “What I hope you will teach your children about the Temple.”talk Doctrine & Covenants 68:30 President Heber J. Grant said, “I have little or no fear for the boy or girl, the young man or the young woman, who honestly and conscientiously supplicate God twice a day for the guidance of His Spirit. I am sure that when temptation comes they will have the strength to overcome it by the inspiration that shall be given to them” (Gospel Standards, Salt Lake City: The Improvement Era, 1969, 26).

12. Paul Harvey Wrote: We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I’d like better. I’d really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would.

13. I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated. I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car. And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.

14. It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep. I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in. I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it’s all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he’s scared, I hope you let him. When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you’ll let him/her.

15. I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely. On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don’t ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won’t be seen riding with someone as un-cool as your Mom. If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.

16. I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books. When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head. I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy/girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

17. May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole. I don’t care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don’t like it. And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend. I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle. May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

18. I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor’s window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Hanukah/Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand. These things I wish for you – though times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it’s the only way to appreciate life. Written with a pen. Sealed with a kiss. I’m here for you. And if I die before you do, I’ll go to heaven and wait for you.

19. Gospel Quote Sheet The following is a Statement by President David O. McKay given in June 1965 in President McKay’s Hotel Utah apartment to a group of brethren in the Physical Facilities Department of the Church. While engaged in explaining to them the importance of the work they were engaged in, he paused and told them the following: “Let me assure you, Brethren, that some day you will have a personal Priesthood interview with the Savior, Himself. If you are interested, I will tell you the order in which He will ask you to account for your earthly responsibilities.

20. First : He will request an accountability report about your relationship with your wife. Have you actively been engaged in making her happy and ensuring that her needs have been met as an individual? Second : He will want an accountability report about each of your children individually. He will not attempt to have this for simply a family stewardship but will request information about your relationship to each and every child.

21. Third : He will want to know what you personally have done with the talents you were given in the pre-existence.

22. Fourth : He will want a summary of your activity in your Church assignments. He will not be necessarily interested in what assignments you have had, for in his eyes the home teacher and a mission president are probably equal, but He will request a summary of how you have been of service to your fellowman in your Church assignments.

23. Fifth : He will have no interest in how you earned your living, but if you were honest in all your dealings. Sixth : He will ask for an accountability on what you have done to contribute in a positive manner to your community, estate, country, and the world” (From notes of Fred A. Baker, Managing Director, Department of Physical Facilities).

24. Doctrine & Covenants 69 Instructions to preserve historical records Doctrine & Covenants 69:2-3 John Whitmer = 1 st Church Historian Oliver Cowdery was at risk to travel alone in such country while carrying money, not because he was untrustworthy. I wish we could all sense how often our little pebble of poor performance helps to start, or to sustain, an avalanche (Neal A. Maxwell, Deposition of a Disciple, 90).

25. Doctrine & Covenants 70 “The Lord Stewards” Doctrine & Covenants 70:3-4 Six brethren, to be stewards over the revelations and commandments – became known as the “ Literary Firm ” (History of the Church 2:482-83). Stewardship is management with a responsibility to account to the owner or master. Time is a stewardship, and my goal is not to waste any of it (Dallin Oaks).

26. “The Literary Firm” This firm concerned itself with the printing of official Church literature. Comprising of Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, John Whitmer, and Martin Harris. They had claim on the Church for recompense. Profits from the sale of the Church publications benefited the individual members as well as the Church at large. Publications included the J.S.T., the Church hymnal, and the Church newspaper (Cook, Revelations, 112-13).

27. Doctrine & Covenants 70:12 “Claim on the Church for recompense” Of the labor here involved Joseph Smith observed: “Brother Oliver has labored with me from the beginning in writing, etc. Brother Martin has labored with me from the beginning and Brother John Whitmer and Sidney Rigdon also for a considerable time, and as these sacred writings are now going to the Church for its benefit, that we may have claim on the Church for recompense – if this conference think these things worth prizing to be had on record to show hereafter – I feel that I will be according to the mind of the Spirit, for by it these things were put into my heart which I know to be the spirit of truth” (History of the Church, 1:236). This revelation recognized that those who devoted themselves to bringing forth God’s revelations for both the edification and salvation of the Saints had claim upon the Church for their temporal sustenance.

28. Doctrine & Covenants 71 Ezra Booth = “first apostate to take up the pen” If any man lift his voice against you! Elsa Johnson, Ben Johnson’s wife partially paralyzed arm is healed. Ezra Booth (a former Methodist minister) challenged Joseph to heal her arm and show that he was a prophet. Ezra joined the church because of different miracles that he witnessed. Some have said if a man or woman joins this church because of a miracle, it will be a miracle if they stay in it !

29. Doctrine & Covenants 71:1-4 “The most effective way to defend the gospel is to declare it” No single doctrine poses a greater threat to priest-craft or false religion in any of its form than the announcement that God has chosen a new Sinai on the American frontier and a modern Moses by the name of Joseph Smith.

30. Doctrine & Covenants 71:6 “Confound Your Enemies” In some situations a confrontation may be unavoidable. The circumstances which called forth this revelation were one such instance. The directions given in these verses were understood to be confined to such instances and are not the standard way of presenting the gospel.

31. Doctrine & Covenants 71:7 Do we ever confound our enemies? Almost always a debate entrenches each contestant and his sympathizers more firmly in the views already held. Except under very unusual circumstances, debates play no part in the approved system of the Gospel. Ezra Booth’s anti-literature required action. The spirit of the Lord directed those brethren to go forth and confound their enemies in which they proceeded immediately to do. Their enemies were unable to substantiate their falsehoods and were surprised by this sudden challenge so boldly given. It was successful.

32. “Many of the benefits and blessings that have come to me have come through that man who gave his life for the gospel of Jesus Christ. There have been some who have belittled him, but I would like to say that those who have done so will be forgotten and their remains will go back to mother earth, if they have not already gone, and the odor of their infamy will never die, while the glory and honor and majesty and courage and fidelity manifested by the Prophet Joseph Smith will attach to his name forever (Conference Report, April 1946, 181- 82).

33. Elder Harold B. Lee, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was so impressed with this statement that he kept a clipping of it in his wallet and quoted it often, desiring that President Smith’s words “could be heard to all the ends of the earth” (Conference Report, Oct. 1947, 67).

34. Doctrine & Covenants 72 “Duties of a Bishop” This was the last revelation received in 1831. 1831 was the year in which more revelations in the Doctrine & Covenants were received than any other. Doctrine & Covenants 72 combines two separate revelations from the “Kirtland Revelation Book” – verses 1-8, which includes the call of Newel K. Whitney to serve as bishop, and verses 9-26, which described the duties associated with that office. Doctrine & Covenants 72:3-4 “Render an account of our stewardship”

35. Doctrine & Covenants 73 “The J.S.T.” Doctrine & Covenants 73:3-4 It was expedient to continue the work of translation until it was finished. Joseph never did finish all the revising of the Bible the way he wanted to. Why the J.S.T.? To restore the correctness of the scriptures by the power of the spirit!

36. Doctrine & Covenants 74:1 “Unbelieving husband” This refers to a non-Christian or nonmember spouse. Doctrine & Covenants 74:7 “Little Children are Holy!”

37. Doctrine & Covenants 75 This was the conference that Joseph Smith was sustained and ordained President of the High Priesthood. Doctrine & Covenants 75:3 “Neither be idle, but labor with your might!”

38. Doctrine & Covenants 75:3 “The Idler shall not have place in the church” President David O. McKay has said, “Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that the power to work is a blessing, and the power of love of work is success.”

39. Doctrine and Covenants 75:4 “Proclaiming the Truth” It is offensive to the Spirit when missionaries seek refuge and respectability in the Bible rather than declaring the message the Lord gave for our day. We profess ourselves to be Bible Christians in the true sense of the term. “Bible Christians were those who believe in having apostles and inspired prophets among them,” Brigham Young explained. “Bible Christians could receive more revelation and add more books to the Bible; Bible Christians could converse with the Lord, and oftentimes beheld the face of Jesus; they could commune with holy angels; they had authority from God to lay hands upon those whom they baptized, for the reception or baptism of the Holy Ghost” (Journal of Discourses, 14:347).

40. Doctrine & Covenants 75:5 “Laden with many sheaves” To see a person or animal “laden with many sheaves” was proof that the person had reaped an abundant harvest and would now enjoy the fruits of his labor. Those who gain exaltation in the highest heaven of the Celestial World shall wear crowns!

41. Doctrine & Covenants 75:17 Major Noble Ashley In the early 1800’s parents often named their sons ennobling, honorific titles. Major was such a title and does not signify military status. Little is known of Major’s early years as he grew to manhood in Massachusetts. By 1831 he had joined the church and been ordained a high priest. His greatest fear was for those weak in the faith. Although his testimony was meant for the backslider, it proved to be a precursor of his own weak conviction. He denied the faith after the expulsion of the Saints from Jackson County.

42. Doctrine & Covenants 75:20-22 “Shake off the dust of your feet” 1. Brother Dubois 2. Samuel Smith