We ought to be careful and not lay down our
Priesthood. The brethren and sisters ought to hold fast to their covenants, and
walk in that way, in that path, which is pointed out by the Gospel. Shall we
love the world? In one sense, we should. Should we love it with a divine love?
Not yet. Should we love the world and the things of the world according to the
nature of the world? We should. We are commanded in this Bible not to love the
world and the things of the world; and then you read a little further in the
same book, and you are commanded to love the world and the things of the world.
How shall we understand these things? With the divinity that is within us we
should, love divine things. Our spirits are born of our Parents in heaven,
divine, heavenly, angelic. Shall these spirits condescend to love an earthly
object, to worship it? If they do, they become inferior to their calling and
station before God. The body is framed for the tabernacle or house in which the
spirit has to dwell. This tabernacle is formed expressly to hold its spirit and
shield it. Should we love this tabernacle? Yes, enough to nourish it, cherish
it, and treat it kindly, and foster and nourish and cherish it by the power of
the spirit, and make this body divine. The spirit must overcome the body in the
flesh, and the flesh become subject to the spirit in all things; then we will
love the world as it ought to be loved,—not with a divine love, but with a
human love, a moral love, loving all things according to their worth and capacity.
(JOD 9:139| July 28,
1861)