Ordinances that are received worthily and remembered continually open the heavenly channels through which the power of godliness can flow into our lives. We do not come to the temple to hide from or escape the evils of the world. Rather, we come to the temple to conquer the world of evil. As we invite into our lives the “power of godliness”19 by receiving priesthood ordinances and making and keeping sacred covenants, we are blessed with strength beyond our own20 to overcome the temptations and challenges of mortality and to do and become good.
If so much work is done, so much time and energy expended and so much care bestowed upon the salvation of the dead, how much more should we help and support and love the living. The living must always be man's first concern.
In order that absolute fairness may prevail and eternal justice may be satisfied, all men to attain the fitness of their joy must accept these earthly ordinances. There is no water baptism in the next estate, nor any conferring of the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of earthly hands. The equivalents of these ordinances prevail no doubt in every estate, but only as they are given on this earth can they be made to aid, in their onward progress, those who have dwelt on earth.
Only when this is done, will the curtain be rolled up, and the vision of he complete existence given to man.
Meanwhile, no external power will come to man's aid, until he has used his own efforts, and therefore it becomes necessary for men to search out existing genealogies of the human race.
Suppose schools were operated on that philosophy, with each discipline a separate path leading to the same diploma. No matter whether you study or not, pass the tests or not, all would be given the same diploma — the one of their choice. Without qualifying, one could choose the diploma of an attorney, an engineer, a medical doctor. Surely you would not submit yourself to surgery under the hands of a graduate of that kind of school! But it does not work that way. It cannot work that way — not in education, not in spiritual matters. There are essential ordinances just as there are required courses. There are prescribed standards of worthiness. If we resist them, avoid them, or fail them, we will not enter in with those who complete the course.
Knowing that laws govern all that we do in this temporal world, can we not suppose that laws in like manner govern all that happens in the eternal world? Can there be existence of any kind if there are no laws? And if such laws exist, can we suppose that we may lay claim to the blessings of heaven while we disregard the laws of heaven?
We can also hear Him in the temple. The house of the Lord is a house of learning. There the Lord teaches in His own way. There each ordinance teaches about the Savior. There we learn how to part the veil and communicate more clearly with heaven. There we learn how to rebuke the adversary and draw upon the Lord’s priesthood power to strengthen us and those we love. How eager each of us should be to seek refuge there.