Sacrament, by definition is: “an
outward ceremony of the church, ordained as a visible sign of an inward and
spiritual grace.” We may say logically, then, that the partaker of the
Sacrament makes a vow to devote his life to sacred service—service to God.
Before his neighbors he makes a vow, in the presence of God he makes a covenant
to perform his part of the Covenant which, in turn, brings the Savior’s
guarantee of the constant guidance of His Spirit. He who so covenants cannot be
sincere in making a promise to God whom he has never seen, if he hates a
brother with whom he daily associates. Bear in mind that the Priesthood is operative
in this, as in all other observances in the Gospel, for God makes no covenants
with His children but through His own agents.
The people who lived before Christ,
and during His lifetime made their sacred vows, by the Sacrifice—the prophetic
sacrifice of a lamb, the first and best lamb of the flock. Its purpose was to
keep each generation of ancients aware of a future event—the Sacrifice of the
Lamb of God for the sins of all men.
As with the ancients, so with modern
saints, Sacrifice and Sacrament produce living faith in all promises God has
made to man. Improperly performed, or with insincerity, no such blessing
results. In sacrificial ordinances the Lord designs to teach His children
atonement for sin—that sin is a debt incurred that must be repaid by him who
broke a law. Repentance is the only coin by which this debt can be paid, thus a
condemnation appeased. (Alonzo Laker Cook, A Study of the Gospel of Our
Savior, 3 vols. [Independence, Miss.: Zion’s Printing and Publishing
Company, 1946], 1:39-40)
Men can be so purified in this life as
to become like our Savior: “Beloved (brethren), now are we the sons of God, and
it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear we
shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, and every man that hath
this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” (I John 3:2,
3.)
At our Savior’s first coming in the
Meridian of Time, men could associate with Him, but at his second coming, those
who are not purified can not endure His presence:
“For, behold, the day cometh that
shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall
be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of
hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” (Mal. 4:1.)
The Lord has told this generation that
those who are tithed, and therefore possessing of faith unto purification, shall
not be burned: “Now it is called today until the coming of the Son of Man, and
verily it is a day of sacrifice, and a day of tithing of my people, for he that
is tithed shall not be burned at His coming—for verily I say, tomorrow all the
proud and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble; and I will burn them up .
. . for I will not spare any that remain in Babylon.” (D.C. 64:23-25.)
For him who is laboring toward these
high stages of purification is no point at which he may relax his vigilant
fight against sin. In very exact language the Lord has shown the danger of
losing salvation:
“Therefore, thou son of man ,say unto
the children of thy people, the righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver
him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, he
shall not fall thereby in the days that he turneth from his wickedness; neither
shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he
sinneth.
“When the righteous turneth from his righteousness,
and committeth iniquity, he shall even die hereby, but if the wicked turn from
his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.”
(Ezek. 33:12, 1819.)
To the same effect the Lord has warned
us today: “Go your way and sin no more, but unto that soul who sinneth shall
the former sins return, saith the Lord your God.” (D.C. 82:7.) Which is
equivalent to telling us that the effort to overcome, for him who returns to
his evil ways, is the sum total of all previous efforts to repent. (Alonzo Laker
Cook, A Study of the Gospel of Our Savior, 3 vols. [Independence, Miss.:
Zion’s Printing and Publishing Company, 1946], 1:185-86)
Some types of faith are given to man
without his own effort; those which urge him on in bringing about God’s plans,
such as dictators’ staging of war and political upheavals to humble men and nations,
to scientific discoveries, etc.
The faith that drives scientists, forward
in quest of hidden truths of the cosmos, which, when applied in mechanical
developments shorten the world’s work in preparation for God’s future plans—this
type of faith is “a gift of God” to apt men in these fields of discovery; but
the faith we must possess unto sublimating human instincts, leading toward
moral perfection must be acquired by man, himself, aided, of course, by the
power wrought out by our Savior on Calvary.
Faith as the moving cause of
repentance is truly a blessing, and a Divine gift, “and when we obtain any
blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated”
(D.C. 130:21).
Living faith in God comes to living
beings as they, through free agency reach out for proofs of the traditions they
have heard, and from the urge of the Spirit of Christ which is a birthright to
every living being. “For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So
then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing, by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17),
as preached by His oracles and saints, and accepted by the individual and
studied out by him.
If faith were a free gift to all,
surely a just God, a Father of all, would give equally to all his children, but
this is not so, “for all men have not faith,” as Paul says, speaking of “being
delivered from unreasonable and wicked men” (2nd. Thes. 3:2).
The same is literally true in our down
day; no need of scriptural proofs, we need only look about us among living people,
for we see all grads and degrees of natures, ranging from the profligate person
who feels and boasts, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow”
(Rev. 18:7), (having no faith that reveals future punishment for sin); thus faith
ranges through all attitudes from such wicked persons ranges through all
attitudes from such wicked persons up to that of prophets and oracles who guard
against every shade of sinfulness, realizing a future day of judgment when all
shall be called to account for conduct in earth probation.
Again, if faith were a free gift to
all, independent of our own works God could not be displeased with any, no
matter how little faith they had, “but without faith it is impossible to please
Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is said, and that He is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).
In our own generation the Lord warns, “Remember
that without faith you can do nothing, therefore ask in faith. . . . and
according to your faith shall it be done unto you” (D.C. 8:10-11), clearly placing
upon us, his weak ones, the responsibility of acquiring faith as the means of salvation.
(Alonzo Laker Cook, A Study of the Gospel of Our Savior, 3 vols. [Salt
Lake City: N.P., 1950], 2:83-85)
From its organization in 1830 to the
present, the Church has felt an evolution of thought—an increased understanding
of the doctrines of the Priesthood. Whereas, for a time, it was through that re-baptism
was necessary after a period of human folly, it is now known that full
repentance makes the original baptism completely effective for future acquisition
of godliness. Once tithing was counted as a donation to operate the Church, now
it is recognized in its dual function of sustaining the Church, and, of primary
importance to the individual, the fulfilling of a fundamental law by which
living faith in God is produced. With this evolution of through grows a proportional
capacity to live in unity, killing penury, and burying it cause, selfishness
and sin. (Alonzo Laker Cook, A Study of the Gospel of Our Savior, 3
vols. [Salt Lake City: N.P., 1950], 2:328)
SPIRITUAL HEALING pertains to God
alone by the imposition of hands of His elders, and through His ordinances as
natural man repents, empowered by the ever active uplift of our Savior. He having
effected a power of evolution of mortal man from his sinful condition to
re-birth, fixing him in a condition in which he “cannot do that which he (in
his natural self) would.” (Alonzo Laker Cook, A Study of the Gospel of Our
Savior, 3 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1955], 3:220)
To Support this Blog: