“If the Lord be God, follow him” seems obvious, doesn’t it? We assume we have the answers to the questions behind this statement. We assume we know whether the Lord is God or not, and we assume that what we are doing is following the Lord. Yet it’s so easy to be wrong on these counts. Knowing if the Lord is God requires a testimony. And getting a testimony is not necessarily a trivial thing. It requires work. Meanwhile, following the Lord isn’t easy, nor is it supposed to be. If we are to become like our Heavenly Parents, the process can’t be easy. It’s like walking over a rocky path in bare feet.

So what kind of people do we need to become? What do we need to do to follow Him? Several of the sections of this lesson address elements of what we need to do. And the others talk about the idea of following the Lord.

 

Christlike leaders serve the people they lead.

Service for the benefit of others is certainly an element of what we need to become. While serving others is something we all do, it is the basic nature of Christlike leaders. A call to lead is a call to serve.

Many of Eliza R. Snow’s poems are long explications of gospel principles, or discourses to a particular audience. In this case, Snow’s instructions are about the duties of the priesthood, especially the relationship of those duties to the gospel plan. Since these teachings are directed to the priesthood, they include how leaders should proceed “To benefit and bless their fellow race.”

 

The sun was set, and twilight’s shady mood

Spread a brown halo, ting’d with solitude.

As day’s last glimmer flitted down the west

Life’s stirring scenes demurely sunk to rest—

Soft silence lent its contemplative charm,

And all conspir’d the mental pulse to warm—

From world to world imagination wander’d

While thought, the present, past, and future ponder’d.

As I was musing with desire intense

That some kind guardian angel might dispense

Instruction: lo! a seraph form appear’d—

His look—his voice my anxious spirit cheer’d.

It was the Priesthood—that which held the key

T’ unlock the portals of eternity:

And with o’erflowing heart I took my seat

An enter’d student at th’ Instructor’s feet.

“What wouldst thou me?” the seraph gently said:

“Tell me—and wherefore hast thou sought my aid?”

I then replied, long, long I’ve wished to know

What is the cause of suff’ring here below—

What the result of human life will be—

Its ultimatum in eternity.

With firm, attentive mind—with list’ning ear

I watch’d and waited ev’ry word to hear,

As thus he said: “Tis not for you to pry

Into the secrets of the worlds on high—

To understand the first, the moving cause—

Councils, decrees, organizations, laws,

Form’d by the Gods pertaining to this earth

Ere your great Father from their courts came forth,

The routine of his ancestors to tread—

Of this new world to stand the royal head.

But then the more immediate cause of this

World’s degradation, and its wretchedness,

Is disobedience: sorrow, toil and pain,

With their associates follow in its train.

This life’s an ordeal, and design’d to prove

Fraternal kindness and parental love.

This earth’s your Father’s workshop: what is done—

All that’s attain’d, and what achievements won

Is for the parents—all things are their own—

The children now hold nothing but by loan.

Whatever some may claim in proud pretence;

No one has yet obtain’d inheritance—

E’en Abraham has no possession gained

Of what, in promise, he thro’ faith obtain’d;

And all that greedy hands accumulate

Is yet the Father’s, not the child’s estate.

Then shame, O shame on all the strife you see

Here, in the cradle of life’s nursery—

The green-eyed jealousies—the frosty hate

Which carnal, avaricious thoughts create!

How vain that phantom of mortality—

Th’ untimely form of human dignity!

’Tis soon enough for infant lips to talk

Of pow’r and greatness, when they’ve strength to walk—

’Tis soon enough for children to be great,

When they can boast of self-possess’d estate.

It will not matter whatsoever’s gain’d

Or what on earth, may seem to be obtain’d;

But ’tis important that each one prepare

To be with Christ a joint—an equal heir:

Faith and obedience and integrity

Will the grand test of future heirship be.

It matters not what station here, you fill,

If true and faithful to the Father’s will:

As you prepare yourself on earth, will be

Your place—your portion in eternity.

As disobedience fill’d the world with pain,

Obedience will restore it back again.

The base perversions of my pow’rs produce

All the strong engines, satan has in use,

And qualify the sons of men to dwell

With his dark majesty, the prince of hell.

All that obey the pow’rs of darkness, go

With those they follow, to the world below.

Then list to me—my precepts all obey;

The Gods have sent me in this latter day

Fully commission’d upward all to lead

Who will my counsels and instructions heed—

Who seek in ev’ry circumstance and place

To benefit and bless their fellow race—

Who seek their Father’s interests to enhance;

His glorious cause upon the earth advance:

Whether below, they much or little claim;

If they exalt and magnify His name,

And in His service labor faithfully,

They’ll have a fulness of his legacy.

Each faithful saint is an acknowledg’d heir,

And as his diligence, will be his share

When God, a patrimony shall bestow

Upon his sons and daughters here below.

Adam, your God, like you on earth has been

Subject to sorrow in a world of sin:

Thro’ long gradation he arose to be

Cloth’d with the Godhead’s might and majesty.

And what to him in his probative sphere,

Whether a bishop, deacon, priest, or seer?

Whether his offices and callings were,

He magnified them with assiduous care;

And by obedience he obtain’d the place

Of God and father of this human race.

Obedience will the same bright garland weave

As it has done for your great mother, Eve,

For all her daughters on the earth, who will

All my requirements sacredly fulfil.

And what to Eve, tho’ in her mortal life

She’d been the first, the tenth, or fiftieth wife?

What did she care when in her lowest state,

Whether by fools, consider’d small or great?

’Twas all the same to her—she prov’d her worth—

She’s now the Goddess and the queen of earth.

Life’s ultimatum unto those that live

As saints of God, and all my pow’rs receive,

Is still the onward, upward course to tread—

To stand as Adam and as Eve, the head

Of an inheritance, a new-formed earth,

And to a spirit race give mortal birth—

Give them experience in a world like this,

Then lead them forth to everlasting bliss,

Cloth’d with salvation and eternal joy,

Where high perfection dwells without alloy.”

Thus said the seraph:—Sacred in my heart

I cherish all his precious words impart;

And humbly pray I ever may, as now,

With holy def’rence in his presence bow.

The field of thought, he open’d to my view,

My wonder rous’d and admiration too:

I marvel’d at the silly childishness

Of saints, the heirs of everlasting bliss—

The candidates for Godheads and for worlds

As time on time eternities unfurls.

I felt my littleness, and thought, henceforth

I’ll be, myself, the humblest saint on earth;

And all that God shall to my care assign

I’ll recognize and use as his, not mine,

Wherever he assigns to me a place

That will I seek with diligence to grace;

And for my parents, wheresoe’er my lot,

To work with all my might, and murmur not,

I’ll seek their highest int’rest, till they come

And as a faithful daughter, take me home.

As thus I mused, the lovely queen of night

’Neath heav’n’s blue canopy, diffus’d her light;

Still brighter beams o’er earth’s horizon play—

A cheering prelude to approaching day,

When truth’s full glory will o’erspread the skies

And the bright “Sun of Righteousness arise.”

1856

 

An invitation to sacrifice is an opportunity to exercise my faith in Jesus Christ.

We all know that sacrifice is required of us — not for the sake of sacrifice itself, but to actually help others. It’s not pleasant, of course—if you enjoy it, it’s probably not sacrifice. And, it’s also not always clear that the sacrifice will actually improve things—we need faith in Christ to believe that our sacrifice will actually be for the better.

I like this poem, which plays on the hymn we know so well to show how our everyday can be sacrifice. I like the statement that “love was sweet and lightened the load.” May we find that love.

 

“It may not be on the mountain’s height,

Nor over the stormy sea,”

But oh, ’twas’ a woman that sang it now

With many babes at her knee.

And the manifold burdens of mother and wife

Were bringing the lines of care;

And the way seemed longer, the day less bright,

And the cross was harder to bear.

But love was sweet and lightened the load,

Though the flower of sacrifice bloomed by the road,

So still she sang, “Though the way be hard,

I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord.”

1960

 

“If the Lord be God, follow him.”

With these practices, we can figure out how to follow the Lord. And by putting them in practice, we can develop a testimony of the Lord, and His role in our lives. While its not easy to get a testimony of Christ, it is possible by simply following what the Lord teaches.

In this poem we find a testimony of Christ, one that has come from a lifetime of experience.

 

Jesus Christ, Redeemer, too,

I would leave all and follow you.

Thou art the light upon the hill;

A beacon guiding me until

My time upon this earth is past.

And, kneeling at thy feet at last,

I hear thy sweet commanding voice

Say, “Come to me. Rejoice, rejoice.”

1962

 

The Lord often speaks in quiet, simple ways.

Hearing the Lord is always an issue for his children here on earth. If we are going to follow Him, need to be able to hear him, to listen to what he teaches us. Hearing him is crucial to following Him.

In the following poem, Annie Palmer gives us a program for what to do as we hear the Lord and seek to follow Him.

 

Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,

And heareth but to obey—

Be this the prayer that shall rule my life

Till I rest for the judgment day.

Lord, speak through thy chosen prophet

The message I wait to hear,

Or speak by thy Spirit’s prompting

And make thy purpose clear.

 

Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,

And dark though the way may be,

And all unknown the journey

Thy wisdom has planned for me;

Though often my feet grow weary,

Though sometimes my strength be spent,

Yet speak to me, gracious Master,

Unfolding thy wise intent.

 

Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,

And of my earthly store

Would render to thee thy measure

Pressed full and running o’er;

Whatever of mine, kind Master,

May be thy kingdom’s need,

It is thine if thou speak, for surely

Should my faith have outgrown my greed.

 

Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,

And what thou would have me do

If it need the power of my busy brain,

Or the labors my hands pursue;

Be my calling the work of a lifetime,

Or the task of a passing day,

Yet speak, for thy servant heareth,

And heareth but to obey.

1915