True Doctrine Understood

True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior. Preoccupation with unworthy behavior can lead to unworthy behavior. That is why we stress so forcefully the study of the doctrines of the gospel.

Boyd K. Packer, Conference Report, October 1986

Digital Detachment and Personal Revelation

There is a wonderful article in this months Ensign by Elder Scott D. Whiting that I felt spoke right to me who sometimes gets carried away with technology as the source of all things that need to be known and done. Regardless of whether or not you own an iPhone, Blackberry or plug into the internet on a daily basis there are a few warnings to consider as laid out by Elder Whiting:

"We carry wireless telephones that can store hundreds of numbers, are able to take both moving and still pictures, and can access never-ending streams of information from an unseen source. We can play thousands of songs from a device no larger than a credit card. We can surf the Internet at any time of the day or night and quickly move across the intellectual and physical globe in images and information.

Out of such technological advancement come both good and bad. Modern technology, when purely and judiciously used, can help us hasten the work of the Lord and spread the gospel.1 But an overreliance on technology can also create boredom with lower-tech activities, an attitude that may extend to how we worship God, our Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. We cannot simply point and click on or download a personal, revelatory relationship with our Heavenly Father.2 This kind of relationship is built on quiet principles of faith, repentance, and obedience.

For this reason it is vitally important to recognize the risks of digital attachment. Being constantly “plugged in” can drown out the quiet whisperings and subtle impressions of the Holy Spirit, breaking our personal connection with God and making it difficult, if not impossible, to receive personal revelation."

"While modern technological advancements can enhance the work of the Lord and bless us and our families, we must be careful not to fall victim to their destructive side. We must not only avoid the base and degrading content some sources contain, but we must also recognize when electronic distractions keep us from quieter, more significant uses of our time. We must guard against becoming so attached to digital devices that we become detached from God.

Sometimes the most productive “point and click” application is that of pointing our finger at the power button and clicking our digital devices off."

Digital Distraction & Personal Revelation - Ensign March 2010 link

Anger, Negativity and the Spirit

"Whenever you get red in the face, whenever you raise your voice, whenever you get 'hot under the collar' or angry, rebellious, or negative in spirit, then know that the Spirit of God is leaving you and the spirit of Satan is beginning to take over."

--Theodore Burton

(Conference Report, Oct. 1974 p.77) or Ensign Nov. 1974 pg.

Final Testimony of President Hinckley to the people of England

One more that I found. President Hinckley's final testimony given to the people of the British Isles on May 25, 2005

President Gordon B. Hinckley's Final Testimony

Today marks two years since the death of our beloved prophet Gordon B. Hinckley. Here is the final testimony he gave at the October 2007 General Conference.

Sunday Notes: Work

In our Sunday School class today something in Moses 4:23 was pointed out that I had not seen before. In the verse God is explaining to Adam the new consequences of his fallen state and says:

"cursed shall be the ground for thy sake"

When I see the words "for thy sake" I realize that this was for Adam and for my benefit. The fact that he and all of us have to toil and labor and work is a good thing. In this past conference President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said the following:

Work is an antidote for anxiety, an ointment for sorrow, and a doorway to possibility. Whatever our circumstances in life, my dear brethren, let us do the best we can and cultivate a reputation for excellence in all that we do. Let us set our minds and bodies to the glorious opportunity for work that each new day presents.

When our wagon gets stuck in the mud, God is much more likely to assist the man who gets out to push than the man who merely raises his voice in prayer—no matter how eloquent the oration. President Thomas S. Monson put it this way: “It is not enough to want to make the effort and to say we’ll make the effort. … It’s in the doing, not just the thinking, that we accomplish our goals. If we constantly put our goals off, we will never see them fulfilled.”

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Two Principles for Any Economy,” Ensign, Nov 2009, 55–58

Daniel W. Jones and the Enabling Power of the Atonement

One additional story told in David A. Bednar's talk entitled 'In the Strength of the Lord' is that of one of the rescuers of the Willie and Martin handcart companies who were stranded in the snow of Wyoming. Brother Jones who was a convert of only 5 years as of this experience understood the true enabling power of the atonement:

"Examples of the enabling power are not found only in the scriptures. Daniel W. Jones was born in 1830 in Missouri, and he joined the Church in California in 1851. In 1856 he participated in the rescue of handcart companies that were stranded in Wyoming by severe storms. After the rescue party found the suffering Saints, provided what immediate comfort they could, and made arrangements for the sick and the feeble to be transported to Salt Lake City, Daniel and several other young men volunteered to remain with and safeguard the company's possessions. The food and supplies left with Daniel and his colleagues were, to say the least, meager and were rapidly expended. I will now quote from Daniel Jones' personal journal and his description of the events that followed:

"Game soon became so scarce that we could kill nothing. We ate all the poor meat; one would get hungry eating it. Finally that was all gone, nothing now but hides were left. We made a trial of them. A lot was cooked and eaten without any seasoning and it made the whole company sick. Many were so turned against the stuff that it made them sick to think of it. . . .

"Things looked dark, for nothing remained but the poor raw hides taken from starved cattle. We asked the Lord to direct us what to do. The brethren did not murmur, but felt to trust in God. We had cooked the hide, after soaking and scraping the hair off until it was soft and then ate it, glue and all. This made it rather inclined to stay with us longer than we desired. Finally I was impressed how to fix the stuff and gave the company advice, telling them how to cook it; for them to scorch and scrape the hair off; this had a tendency to kill and purify the bad taste that scalding gave it. After scraping, boil one hour in plenty of water, throwing the water away which had extracted all the glue, then wash and scrape the hide thoroughly, washing in cold water, then boil to a jelly and let it get cold, and then eat with a little sugar sprinkled on it. This was considerable trouble, but we had little else to do and it was better than starving" (Daniel W. Jones, Forty Years Among the Indians [Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1890], 81).

All that I have read thus far is a preparation for the next line from Daniel W. Jones' journal. It illustrates how those pioneer Saints may have known something about the enabling power of the Atonement that we, in our prosperity and ease, are not as quick to understand:

"We asked the Lord to bless our stomachs and adapt them to this food" (Jones, Forty Years, 81; emphasis added).

My dear brothers and sisters, I know what I would have prayed for in those circumstances. I would have prayed for something else to eat. "Heavenly Father, please send me a quail or a buffalo." It never would have occurred to me to pray that my stomach would be strengthened and adapted to what we already had. What did Daniel W. Jones know? He knew about the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He did not pray that his circumstances would be changed. He prayed that he would be strengthened to deal with his circumstances. Just as Nephi, Amulek, and Alma and his people were strengthened, Daniel W. Jones had the spiritual insight to know what to ask for in that prayer.

"We hadn't the faith to ask him to bless the raw-hide, for it was 'hard stock.' On eating now all seemed to relish the feast. We were three days without eating before this second attempt was made. We enjoyed this sumptuous fare for about six weeks" (Jones, Forty Years, 81–82).

The enabling power of the Atonement of Christ strengthens us to do things we could never do on our own. Sometimes I wonder if in our latter-day world of ease--in our world of microwave ovens and cell phones and air-conditioned cars and comfortable homes--I wonder if we ever learn to acknowledge our daily dependence upon the enabling power of the Atonement."

Sunday Notes: The Enabling and Redemptive Powers of the Atonement

In sacrament meeting today our Stake Patriarch spoke and gave his wonderful testimony of the hours surrounding the physical acts of the atonement that Christ endured. He spoke without notes, yet quoted prophets and scripture as though they were part of him. My thoughts as I listened were that this is not the kind of talk you write and prepare. Although anyone could probably memorize those words you can feel when a man of that stature gives them that it has come through years of study, years of fasting, years of prayer and revelation.

Clearly 2 Corinthians 3: 2-3 applies to my good friend, our Stake Patriarch:

2 Ye are our ^aepistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, ^awritten not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in ^btables of stone, but in ^cfleshy tables of the ^dheart.

In his remarks he referenced a talke given in October 2001 by the then President of BYU-Idaho David A. Bednar called 'In the Strength of the Lord.' In the opening lines of this talk President Bednar states, "I have considered what might be the most important message I could share with you. My objective this morning is to describe and discuss both the redeeming and enabling powers of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. And I hope to place particular emphasis upon the enabling power of the Atonement."

I myself have always placed so much emphasis on the redeeming power and although I understood the principles of the enabling power I had not heard them so well described as does President Bednar do in this talk.

"I suspect that you and I are much more familiar with the nature of the redeeming power of the Atonement than we are with the enabling power of the Atonement. It is one thing to know that Jesus Christ came to earth to die for us. That is fundamental and foundational to the doctrine of Christ. But we also need to appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost, to live in us--not only to direct us but also to empower us. I think most of us know that when we do things wrong, when we need help to overcome the effects of sin in our lives, the Savior has paid the price and made it possible for us to be made clean through His redeeming power. Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not so sure, however, that we know and understand that the Atonement is also for saints--for good men and women who are obedient and worthy and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully. I frankly do not think many of us "get it" concerning this enabling and strengthening aspect of the Atonement, and I wonder if we mistakenly believe we must make the journey from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our obviously limited capacities.

Brothers and sisters, the gospel of the Savior is not simply about avoiding bad in our lives; it also is essentially about doing and becoming good. And the Atonement provides help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good. There is help from the Savior for the entire journey of life--from bad to good to better and to change our very nature."

President Bednar then goes on to explain the relationship between the correct definition of grace and enabling power:

"In the Bible Dictionary in our scriptures we learn that the word grace frequently is used in the scriptures to connote enabling power. On page 697, under the word grace, we read:

""A word that occurs frequently in the New Testament, especially in the writings of Paul. The main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ (emphasis added).

"It is through the grace of the Lord Jesus, made possible by his atoning sacrifice, that mankind will be raised in immortality, every person receiving his body from the grave in a condition of everlasting life.""

Please note these next sentences:

""It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts"" (emphasis added).

That is, grace represents that divine assistance or heavenly help each of us will desperately need to qualify for the celestial kingdom. Thus the enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do and be good and serve beyond our own individual desire and natural capacity."

In Elder Bednars own personal scriptures he notes that he has made it a habit to write enabling power whenever he encounters the word grace.

"Consider, for example, this verse with which we are all familiar: "For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23).

Let's review this verse one more time: "For we know that it is by grace [the enabling and strengthening power of the Atonement of Christ] that we are saved, after all we can do."

He concludes by expounding on a scripture in Alma 7 that I used to use all the time as a missionary to explain Christ's atonement:

"In Alma 7 we learn how and why the Savior is able to provide the enabling power, beginning with verse 11: "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people" (emphasis added).

Thus the Savior has suffered not just for our iniquities but also for the inequality, the unfairness, the pain, the anguish, and the emotional distress that so frequently beset us. Additional detail is described in verse 12:

"And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities" (emphasis added).

There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, "No one understands. No one knows." No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, and succor--literally run to us--and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying only upon our own power."

Sunday Notes - The Importance of Keeping Notes and Records

Today I thought I would begin a new section of this blog entitled 'Sunday Notes.' In an effort to pay greater attention to what is being said in talks and lessons I have begun to bring a notepad and pen with me to write down some of the more interesting thoughts presented. At the end of the October 1975 General Conference President Spencer W. Kimball made the following remarks:

We hope that the leaders and the members of the Church who have attended and listened to the conference have been inspired and uplifted. We hope you have made copious notes of the thoughts that have come to your mind as the Brethren have addressed you. Many suggestions have been given that will help you as leaders in the perfection of your work. Many helpful thoughts have been given for the perfection of our own lives, and that, of course, is the basic reason for our coming.

While sitting here, I have made up my mind that when I go home from this conference this night there are many, many areas in my life that I can perfect. I have made a mental list of them, and I expect to go to work as soon as we get through with conference.

President Spencer W. Kimball [CR, October 1975, p. 164; also, Ensign, November 1975, p. 111]

Similarly the Prophet Joseph Smith taught the following to the twelve in his day:

If you assemble from time to time, and proceed to discuss important questions, and pass decisions upon the same, and fail to note them down, by and by you will be driven to straits from which you will not be able to extricate yourselves, because you may be in a situation not to bring your faith to bear with sufficient perfection or power to obtain the desired information; or, perhaps, for neglecting to write these things when God had revealed them, not esteeming them of sufficient worth, the Spirit may withdraw and God may be angry; and there is, or was, a vast knowledge, of infinite importance, which is now lost.

[From minutes of instruction to the Council of the Twelve, February 27, 1835; HC 2:198­99]

Finally, in our modern times Richard G. Scott has given this counsel:

Knowledge carefully recorded is knowledge available in time of need. Spiritually sensitive information should be kept in a sacred place that communicates to the Lord how it is treasured. That practice enhances the likelihood of receiving further light. Powerful spiritual direction in our lives can be overcome or be forced into the background unless we provide a way to remember it.

Elder Richard G. Scott - Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge - BYU Devotional 17 Aug 1993

Write down in a secure place the important things you learn from the Spirit. You will find that as you record a precious impression, often others will come that you would not have otherwise received. Also, the spiritual knowledge you gain will be available throughout your life. Always, day or night, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, seek to recognize and respond to the direction of the Spirit. Have available a piece of paper or a card to record such guidance.

Elder Richard G. Scott - To Learn and Teach More Effectively - Campus Education Week 2007

Choose This Day

There is a danger in the word someday when what it means is “not this day.” “Someday I will repent.” “Someday I will forgive him.” “Someday I will speak to my friend about the Church.” “Someday I will start to pay tithing.” “Someday I will return to the temple.” “Someday …”

The scriptures make the danger of delay clear. It is that we may discover that we have run out of time. The God who gives us each day as a treasure will require an accounting. We will weep, and He will weep, if we have intended to repent and to serve Him in tomorrows which never came or have dreamt of yesterdays where the opportunity to act was past. This day is a precious gift of God. The thought “Someday I will” can be a thief of the opportunities of time and the blessings of eternity.

That is as true of a day as it is of a life. A morning prayer and an early search in the scriptures to know what we should do for the Lord can set the course of a day. We can know which task, of all those we might choose, matters most to God and therefore to us. I have learned such a prayer is always answered if we ask and ponder with childlike submission, ready to act without delay to perform even the most humble service.

On many days, doing what matters most will not be easy. It is not supposed to be. God’s purpose in creation was to let us prove ourselves. The plan was explained to us in the spirit world before we were born. We were valiant enough there to qualify for the opportunity to choose against temptation here to prepare for eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God. We rejoiced to know the test would be one of faithful obedience even when it would not be easy: “And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.”6

All of us will need His help to avoid the tragedy of procrastinating what we must do here and now to have eternal life. For most of us the temptation to delay will come from one or both of two feelings. They are polar opposites: one is to be complacent about what we have already done, and the other is to feel overwhelmed by the need to do more.

Complacency is a danger for us all. It can come to naive youth who feel that there will be plenty of time in the future for spiritual things. They might think that they have already done enough, considering the brief time they have lived. I know from experience how the Lord can help such a youth to see that he or she is in the midst of spiritual things, now. He can help you see that classmates are watching you. He can help you see that their eternal future is shaped by what they observe you do or not do. Your simple thanks for their influence for good on you can lift them more than you imagine. When you ask God, He can and will reveal to you the opportunities to lift others for Him, which He has placed around you from your infancy.

It is hard to know when we have done enough for the Atonement to change our natures and so qualify us for eternal life. And we don’t know how many days we will have to give the service necessary for that mighty change to come. But we know that we will have days enough if only we don’t waste them.

For those who are discouraged by their circumstances and are therefore tempted to feel they cannot serve the Lord this day, I make you two promises. Hard as things seem today, they will be better in the next day if you choose to serve the Lord this day with your whole heart. Your circumstances may not be improved in all the ways which you desire. But you will have been given new strength to carry your burdens and new confidence that when your burdens become too heavy, the Lord, whom you have served, will carry what you cannot. He knows how. He prepared long ago. He suffered your infirmities and your sorrows when He was in the flesh so that He would know how to succor you.

Henry B. Eyring, “This Day,” Ensign, May 2007, 89–91

Joseph Smith & the Book of Mormon - An Apostle's Testimony

This past General Conference one of the most powerful witnesses of the veracity of the Book of Mormon was given by the apostle Jeffrey R. Holland. The closest thing I can relate it to is the final testimony given by Elder Bruce R. McConkie days before his death of the Savior Jesus Christ (view here).



To these words let me add my own. If this book is of God, and I testify that it is, then there is nothing more important to read, nothing more important to understand, and nothing more important to act upon in these latter days. Because it is of God then Joseph Smith was Gods prophet and instrument in bringing this ancient record to light. As in days of old God continues to speak to his children through His mouthpiece the prophet. The prophetic line did not end with Joseph - it continues on today through Thomas S. Monson.

"Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth..."

2 Nephi 2: 8

Religious Freedom is Being Threatened - Elder Dallin H. Oaks

On October 13th, 2009, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, gave an incredible sermon on Religious Freedom in America at BYU-Idaho. What follows are but a few excerpts from that talk.



"Noted author and legal commentator Hugh Hewitt described the current circumstance this way:

'There is a growing anti-religious bigotry in the United States. . . .

'For three decades people of faith have watched a systematic and very effective effort waged in the courts and the media to drive them from the public square and to delegitimize their participation in politics as somehow threatening.'

For example, a prominent gay-rights spokesman gave this explanation for his objection to our Churchs position on Californias Proposition 8:

'Im not intending it to harm the religion. I think they do wonderful things. Nicest people. . . . My single goal is to get them out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims.'

Aside from the obvious fact that this objection would deny free speech as well as religious freedom to members of our Church and its coalition partners, there are other reasons why the public square must be open to religious ideas and religious persons."

-Elder Dallin H. Oaks

The full transcript of the talk can be viewed here:
http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/religious-freedom

Learning Should Never Stop

"No service that matters can be given over a lifetime by those who stop learning. A great teacher is always studying. A nurse never stops facing the challenge of dealing with something new, be it equipment or procedure. And the workplace in every industry is changing so rapidly that what we know today will not be enough for tomorrow.

Our education must never stop. If it ends at the door of the classroom on graduation day, we will fail. And since what we will need to know is hard to discern, we need the help of heaven to know which of the myriad things we could study we would most wisely learn. It also means that we cannot waste time entertaining ourselves when we have the chance to read or to listen to whatever will help us learn what is true and useful. Insatiable curiosity will be our hallmark.

For many of us, the feeling bears down on us that we must choose between spiritual and secular learning. That is a false conflict for most of us, particularly for the young. Before we have families, there is leisure time even in what is our busiest day. Too often we use many hours for fun and pleasure, clothed in the euphemism “I’m recharging my batteries.” Those hours could be spent reading and studying to gain knowledge, skills, and culture."

Henry B. Eyring, “Education for Real Life,” Ensign, Oct 2002, 14

He who lives only unto himself withers and dies

It is not easy to give up our personal priorities and desires. Many years ago a new missionary in England was frustrated and discouraged. He wrote home saying he felt he was wasting his time. His wise father replied, “Forget yourself and go to work.” Young Elder Gordon B. Hinckley went to his knees and covenanted with the Lord that he would try to forget himself and lose himself in the Lord’s service. Years later, as a mature servant of the Lord, Elder Hinckley would say, “He who lives only unto himself withers and dies, while he who forgets himself in the service of others grows and blossoms in this life and in eternity.”

The Mesa Arizona Temple

It has been this temple where I have received all the essential blessings given to man on this earth the greatest of which has been the sealing ordinance of marriage to my lovely bride.

We Live Far Beneath our Privileges

"I will, in the commencement of my remarks, take up a subject upon which much has been said in the pulpit and in the chimney corner. It is regarding the Spirit of the Lord manifesting His will to His children. There is no doubt, if a person lives according to the revelations given to God's people, he may have the Spirit of the Lord to signify to him His will, and to guide and to direct him in the discharge of his duties, in his temporal as well as his spiritual exercises. I am satisfied, however, that in this respect, we live far beneath our privileges. If this is true, it is necessary that we become more fervent in the service of God—in living our religion—and more truthful and honest with one another, that we be not slack in the performance of any duty, but labor with a right good will for God and truth. If this people, called Latter-day Saints, live beneath their privileges in the holy gospel of the Son of God, are they justified in every respect before Him? They are not."

Brigham Young

Journal of Discourses/Volume 12/The Witness of the Spirit—Bishops Should Be Examples—The Saints not Ignorant

The Divine Companionship

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve, speaking to nearly 600 missionaries in the Provo Missionary Training Center, and another 100 mission presidents and their wives attending the 2009 New Mission Presidents Seminar, June 26 taught the following:

"I have entitled these remarks 'The Divine Companionship,' " he said.

"My point tonight is to stress that the Spirit must be with you and you must teach by it when you teach because that is the way the lesson ceases to be your lesson and becomes His, becomes under the power of the Spirit a vehicle for lifting your investigators out of the temporal world.

"We are charged with the responsibility of getting people out of their ruts and routines, out of their problems and their pain, out of their earthly little arguments and ignorance and sins, and take them to the Gods — to the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost — ultimately we are to take them toward their own Godhood. In short, we are to take them to the divine. And the Holy Ghost is the connecting link which the Godhead has agreed to give us here in mortality for that heavenly connection. …

"The Godhead will bear testimony of you and your companion — frail, little uncelestial souls that you are — when you have earnestly tried to become part of the Divine Order. You have prayed and studied and fasted appropriately, and have always exerted great faith. You have been obedient to the commandments, to the rules of the mission, and to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. You have kept yourself morally clean in thought, in word, in deed, and have helped your companion do the same. You have tried to develop Christlike attributes, have worked diligent hours and have tried to be a witness of God 'at all times and in all things and in all places' (Mosiah 18:9).

"If you try to live this way — try with all the best that is within you — the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost above you will smile and say, 'It is enough. We will let these missionaries and their investigators feel a portion of the power of heaven. We will let them feel the touch of our unity and our divinity. …'

"Welcome to the work of angels," he said in closing. "Welcome to the work of divinity."

source:http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/57544/Divine-companion-Teaching-by-the-Spirit.html

Divine companion: Teaching by the Spirit

Key to missionary work is the 'ultimate teacher'

By Shaun D. Stahle
Church News staff writer

Published: Saturday, July 4, 2009

John Adams to his posterity

It is the final words of John Adams as this comes to a close that haunt me as the posterity of the Founding Fathers of our nation living in these times:

“Posterity! you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”

~John Adams letter to his wife Abigail Adams, 26 April 1777.

The Declaration of Independance

...and for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.


From the HBO mini-series John Adams. If you haven't seen this great series yet, do yourselves a favor this weekend and watch it in its entirety.

A True History of the Signing of the Declaration of Independance by John Adams