Blinded by the gold of the pharaohs and the mighty ruins of Babylon, Book of Mormon students have declared themselves "not interested" in the drab and commonplace remains of our lowly (North American) Indians. But in all the Book of Mormon we look in vain for anything that promises majestic ruins.
There are a number of structures of earth and stone scattered throughout (the) state (of Ohio)...All such earthworks are, of course, placed on summits of high hills, or on plateaus overlooking river valleys. At fort Miami, it seems as if blockhouses or bastions of wood had been burned down when once protecting the gateway. This is not only an excellent description of the Book of Mormon strong places, but it also suits exactly the picture of the standard fortified places of the Old World.
In the Book of Mormon we talk about these strong places and it can be demonstrated that the forts of the Ohio do fit the description given in the book of Alma.
By doing the work in the mounds we find there are post molds left behind, and that will give us the size of the log and the size of the Bastions that stood in the earth banks. Post molds. Not only do you get that, but you also get carbon dating, and the dating goes from approximately 30 A.D. on the average to a high of 430 A.D. Right in the Book of Mormon timeline. That's how accurate the post-molds are for Ohio forts.
[The law of consecration], the consummation of the laws of obedience and sacrifice, is the threshold of the celestial kingdom, the last and hardest requirement made of men in this life—much harder to keep than the rules of chastity and sobriety, for those temptations subside with advancing age, while desire for security and status of wealth only increase and grow through the years.
But exactly what are the things of the world? An easy and infallible test has been given us in the well-known maxim "You can have anything in this world for money." If a thing is of this world, you can have it for money; if you cannot have it for money, it does not belong to this world.
There comes a time when the general defilement of a society becomes so great that the rising generation is put under undue pressure and cannot be said to have a fair choice between the way of light and the way of darkness. When such a point is reached the cup of iniquity is full, and the established order that has passed the point of no return and neither can nor will change its ways must be removed physically and forcibly if necessary from the earth, whether by war, plague, famine, or upheavals of nature.
“No matter how wicked and ferocious and depraved the Lamanites might be (and they were that!), no matter how much they outnumbered the Nephites, darkly closing in on all sides, no matter how insidiously they spied and intrigued and infiltrated and hatched their diabolical plots and breathed their bloody threats and pushed their formidable preparations for all-out war, they were not the Nephite problem. They were merely kept there to remind the Nephites of their real problem, which was to walk uprightly before the Lord”
"The philosopher William James defines intelligence as the “ability to react to an absent stimulus.”
“The up-road and the down-road are one”; which one depends on the way we are facing.
I certainly pray that we may fill our hearts with the desire to fulfill the Lord’s purposes on the earth. Some of us are good at administrating the things of the earth. ‘Some of us’—–I use that very flatteringly, because there never was a worse one than myself for bungling with things like that, so I can very well talk sour grapes. But notice the spirit in which it’s to be done....The things of the world have got to be administered; they must be taken care of, they are to be considered. We have to keep things clean, and in order. That’s required of us. This is a test by which we are being proven. This is the way by which we prepare, always showing that these things will never captivate our hearts, that they will never become our principal concern. That takes a bit of doing, and that is why we have the formula “with an eye single to his glory” (Mormon 8:15). Keep first your eye on the star, then on all the other considerations of the ship. You will have all sorts of problems on the ship, but unless you steer by the star, forget the ship. Sink it. You won’t go anywhere.”
If every choice I make expresses a preference, if the world I build up is the world I really love and want, then with every choice I am judging myself, proclaiming all the day long to God, angels, and my fellowmen where my real values lie, where my treasure is, the things to which I give supreme importance. Hence, in this life every moment provides a perfect and foolproof test of your real character, making this life a time of testing and probation.
A central feature of Egyptian religion was an attempt to deal with what [Hugh] Nibley calls “the terrible questions,” questions that have always troubled mankind and continue to do so now. Where did this world come from? What is the purpose of life? What happens after death? These are also questions that the Book of Abraham and the facsimiles deal with in a unique and satisfying manner.
The wide difference, amounting to complete antithesis, between men’s ways and God’s ways should always be kept in mind. If we would remember that fact, it would save us from a pitfall that constantly lies before us....Nothing is easier than to identify one’s own favorite political, economic, historical, and moral convictions with the gospel. That gives one a neat, convenient, but altogether too easy advantage over one’s fellows. If my ideas are the true ones–and I certainly will not entertain them if I suspect for a moment that they are false!–then, all truth being one, they are also the gospel, and to oppose them is to play the role of Satan. This is simply insisting that our way is God’s way and, therefore, the only way. It is the height of impertinence....God certainly does not subscribe to our political creeds.
Blinded by the gold of the pharaohs and the mighty ruins of Babylon, Book of Mormon students have declared themselves "not interested" in the drab and commonplace remains of our lowly (North American) Indians. But in all the Book of Mormon we look in vain for anything that promises majestic ruins.