Mexico weekly ledger., 1889-02-07
Obedience the Gate of Admission
Into Heaven.
Ry Elder Samuel Masee.

; iiSa anu toiilifneu Dy the WofuS OF
our Lord; 'If any man will do
his will, he shall know of the doc
trine. whether it be of God" John
! 4: Ia. Thus person sincerely de-
sirous of knowing the divine will
in relation to any matter, either of
doctrine or Of life, has only to ap-
proach the Lord in his word. Let
him then inquire of the Lord by
reading the scriptures for the ex-
press purpose of knowing and do
ing his will; taking care that no
improper prejudice or bias of the
mind, induced either by education
or habits of vice, be suffered to in
terpose its influence. A genuine
love for the Lord will induce obedi-
enee to his will, and because of this
love-love enlightened and guided
by heavenly truth, is to form the
anlmating principal, yea, the very
life of the Observation-Disclosures will
inspire all his activities, shape all
his worship, pervade all his re-
ligion.
Micah, speaking of the teachers
who cause Gods people to err,
says: "Therefore night shall be
unto you, and We shall! not have a
vision; and it shall be dark unto
you, and We shall not divine; and
the sun shall go down over the
prophets, and the day shall be
dark over them" Truth is the
spiritual light. When 1t is absent
from mems minds, or when the
churches on earth, under the blind
Ing influence of the love of self, in
vent and confirm themselves in
various talsities which shut out the
Sunshine of heaven and obscure the
glory of the Lord, then 1t is night
with the soul. 1t is precisely such
a night as this-a state of spiritual
darkness, of ignorance and of dis.
obedience-that the prophet Micah
refers to in the language quoted.
The Lord refers to the same state oi
error when he says: 'sIf, there.
fore, the light that Is in thee be
darkness, how great is that dark
ness" But in the minds of those
who acknowledge the Lord Jesus
Christ and humbly seek to do his
will, there is no such darkness;
''no night there" They who walk
in the light have no need of human
creeds; no need of dogmas; 10 need
of plans or schemes of mems con.
triving; no need of the dim. sickly,
fiicking light of self-derived intel
llgence. They take delight in the
performance of the will of the
of the Lord from love to the Lord.
tits only the faithful doers of the
truth, who have the answer to a
good conscience, their hearts cleans
ed from seifishness and sin, ard are
thus fitted for admission into the
New Jerusalem. Christ himself has
declared: Not every one that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but that doeth the will of my father
which is in heaven" None can
enter heaven without keeping the
commandments, without stunning
all known evil or error as sin.
BLESSED are they that do his COM
mandments, they they may have
right TO the tree of life, and may
enter IN through the gates into the
city" None but the faithful doers
Of theword can have an abiding in
the city of Mansions beyond the
skies. But all who confess the
name of the Lord and acknowledge
his majesty and humbly strive to
obey his preeepis are confessed
and acknowledged in the realms
above as belonging To the Lord
Beyond the skies, IN "yonder's
world" all the obedient are to be
crowned kings; all are to sit upon
thrones; for all are to reign spirit.
ually But 10 reign in this sense is
not to exercise sovereignty ovei
any outward kingdom, but ovei
that empire within which is each
ones own by divine right-the
empire of the soul. This is to be
crowned, aud to reign with Him
who is "king of Kings and Lord ot
Lords. !" We prepare for this in
this world through the obedience
of faith. By the word We are
taught to wisely regulate and con-
troll all the passions, appetites
thoughts and feelings, and to thor.
oughly subject the incl,nations oi
the natural man to the laws of the
heavenly lite and this is to reign in
the highest and best sense. They
love to obey aud their love Of obe.
dienee becomes strengthened by
exercise.
j, is plain, therefore, why 1t is
taught that obedience is the gate
into heaven. True it is that error
must first be cast out before good
can be received and enjoyed. bu,
the rejection can only he effected
through obedience. we must first
taste and see that the Lord il
good" before We can know what
error is, and refuse and reject il
Hence Then Peter said unit,
them: repent, and be baptized
every one Of you in the name ot