Reading 1 - Elder Bruce R.
McConkie said that [King Benjamin’s sermon]
contained ‘what well may be the greatest sermon ever delivered on the
atonement of Christ the Lord.’ (John W. Welch, King Benjamin’s Speech: Made
Simple, pp. 51, 58)
Reading 2 – Jack Welch has
written, “With the exception of the words of Christ himself, no speech in
sacred literature, in our opinion, surpasses that of King Benjamin. Delivered
at the temple in the city of Zarahemla around 124 BC, this text is a treasure
trove in inspiration, wisdom, eloquence, and profound spiritual experience and
insight. Little wonder that Mormon saw fit to include this speech as he
complied the most significant Nephite records into the Book of Mormon…That
oration was a landmark in its own day, and it still stands as a shining beacon
of truth and goodness in our day.” (John W. Welch, and Stephen D. Ricks, King
Benjamin’s Speech: Made Simple, p. vii)
Reading 3 – Mosiah 1:10-12
Reading 4 – Mosiah 2:20-22
Reading 5 – Mosiah 2:23-25
Hugh Nibley has written,
"Only those who are aware of their lost and fallen state can take the
mission of the Savior seriously, and before one can embrace it in terms of the
eternities it must be grasped on the level of common, everyday reality ... For
behold, are we not all beggars? ... The essence of Benjamin's preaching is to
purge the people, if possible, of their flattering self-image as good
guys." (Hugh Nibley, The Prophetic Book of Mormon. (Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book, 1986) pp. 484-485)
Reading 6 – Brigham Young has
said, “The animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms abide the law of their
Creator; the whole earth and all things pertaining to it, except man, abide the
law of their creation….We tame the animals and make them do our drudgery and
administer to our wants in many ways, yet
man alone is not tamed—he is not subject to his Great Creator. Our
ignorant animals are faithful to us, and will do our bidding as long as they
have any strength; yet man who is the
offspring of the Gods, will not become subject to the most reasonable and
self-exalting principles.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 9, pp. 246-7 as
taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas
Bassett, p. 205)
Mosiah 2:33
Reading 7 – Mosiah 2:37-38
John Taylor said, “God has made
each man a register within himself, and each man can read his own register, so
far as he enjoys his perfect faculties. This can be easily comprehended.
“…Let your memories run
back, and you can remember the time when you did a good action, you can remember
the time when you did a bad action; the thing is printed there, and you can
bring it out and gaze upon it whenever you please.
“…Man sleeps the sleep of death, but the spirit lives where the record of his deeds is kept--that does
not die--man cannot kill it; there is no decay associated with it, and it still
retains in all its vividness the remembrance of that which transpired before
the separation by death of the body and the ever-living spirit. Man sleeps for
a time in the grave, and by-and-by he rises again from the dead and goes to
judgment; and then the secret thoughts
of all men are revealed before Him with whom we have to do; we cannot hide them;
it would be in vain for a man to say then, I did not do so-and-so; the command would be, Unravel and read the record
which he has made of himself, and let it testify in relation to these things,
and all could gaze upon it. If a man has acted fraudulently against his
neighbor--has committed murder, or adultery, or any thing else, and wants to
cover it up, that record will stare him
in the face, he tells the story himself, and bears witness against himself.
It is written that Jesus will judge not after the sight of the eye, or after
the hearing of the ear, but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove
with equity the meek of the earth. It is not because somebody has seen things,
or heard anything by which a man will be judged and condemned, but it is
because that record that is written by
the man himself in the tablets of his own mind--that record that cannot
lie--will in that day be unfolded before God and angels, and those who shall
sit as judges.” (Journal of Discourses, pp. 77-9)
Reading 8 –
Mosiah 3:5-8
Reading 9 – Mosiah 3:9-12
Reading 10 – Mosiah 3:16-18
Mosiah 3:19 - 19 For the natural man
is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever
and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off
the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord,
and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love,
willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him,
even as a child doth submit to his father
Reading 11 - Elder Robert D.
Hales said: “What we must remember about the Savior is that He and He alone had
the power to lay down His life and take it up again. He had the ability to die
from His mortal mother, Mary, and the ability to overcome death from His
immortal Father. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, went willingly and deliberately to
His death, having told His followers that this would happen. Why? one might
ask. The answer: to give immortality to all mankind and the promise of eternal
life to those who believed in Him (see John 3:15), to give His own life for a
ransom for others (see Matthew 20:28), to overcome Satan’s power, and to make
it possible for sins to be forgiven. Without Jesus’ Atonement, there would be
an impassable barrier between God and mortal men and women. When we comprehend
the Atonement, we remember Him with awe and gratitude” (in Conference Report,
Oct. 1997, 34; or Ensign, Nov. 1997, 26).
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