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Pearl of Great Price (J. Smith)
Joseph Fielding Smith
Remarks by Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, at a Meeting of the High Priests Quorum of the Salt Lake Stake, Sunday, October 20, 1920, in the Seventeenth Ward Meetinghouse
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
"Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."-Matthew 13:44–46.
A great many of the members of the Church evidently do not realize the importance of the blessings we receive in the Temples of the Lord. I wish we all loved the Gospel to the extent that we would be willing to do anything the Lord asks of us irrespective of what the world thinks or does. Why can not the Latter-day Saints uphold the standards and the regulations of the Church with united effort notwithstanding what the world might do or think? With some of us it is the custom to do very much as the world does. We dress as the world does. We seek its pleasures; we follow its customs; and there is no question in my mind that these things do bring us somewhat in conflict with things the Lord has taught and commanded us to do.
Blessings Come Through Obedience to Law
The Lord says that when we obtain any blessing it is based upon obedience to the law upon which that blessing is predicated. We cannot get a blessing from him in any other way and this is according to that which was "decreed in heaven before the foundation of this world." I wonder if we have thought of this seriously?
The Lord, when speaking to some of the elders of the Church in the beginning, said: "And they who remain"-when rewards are given and men are assigned to the place where they belong-"shall be quickened; nevertheless they shall return again to their own place, to enjoy that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received."
He has revealed to us things pertaining to the Celestial Kingdom, the Terrestrial Kingdom and the Telestial Kingdom, and how those who inherit these kingdoms will come forth in the resurrection to receive their rewards; then he says, "And they who remain shall also be quickened"-those who do not belong to any of these kingdoms-"to enjoy that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received. For what doth it profit a man if a gift be bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift."
Heirs of the Kingdom
The Lord offers us what? A place in his kingdom, where we can be heirs, in other words sons and daughters, possessing and receiving the fulness of that kingdom, through obedience to the principles and ordinances of the Gospel as we are required to take that obedience upon us in the Temple of the Lord. If we will not receive these blessings then we do not rejoice in them, neither in the Giver of this great gift.