I speak of these things to show
how men are to be tried. I heard Joseph smith say—and I presume Brother Snow
heard him also—in preaching to the Twelve in Nauvoo, that the Lord would get
hold of their heart strings and wrench them, and that they would have to be
tried as Abraham was tried. Well; some of the Twelve could not stand it. They
faltered and fell by the way. It was not everybody that could stand what
Abraham stood. And Joseph said that if God had known any other way whereby he
could have touched Abraham's feelings more acutely and more keenly he would
have done so. It was not only bis parental feelings that were touched. There
was something else besides. He had the promise that in him and in his seed all
the nations of the earth should be blessed; that his seed should be multiplied
as the stars of the heaven and as the sand upon the sea shore. He had looked
forward through the vista of future ages and seen, by the spirit of revelation,
myriads of his people rise up through whom God would convey intelligence, light
and salvation to a world. But in being called upon to sacrifice his son it
seemed as though all his prospects pertaining to posterity were to come to
naught. But he had faith in God, and he fulfilled the thing that was required
of him. Yet we cannot conceive of
anything that could be more trying and more perplexing than the position in
which he was placed.
Source:
John Taylor, “Truth Always the Same—Duties of the
Saints—Officers Present—Where the Principles of the Gospel Originated—Character
of Abraham—How He Was Tried—His Progeny—Duties of the Priesthood—Trials of the
Saints—Charity Required— How Transgressors Should Be Dealt With— Exhortation to
Righteousness.,” June 24, 1883, Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool:
John Henry Smith, 1884), 24:264