I have heard people say, "I would have willingly endured persecution and trials if I might have lived in the early years of the Church when there was such a flow of revelation published as scripture. Why is that not happening now?"

The revelations that came through the Prophet Joseph Smith, printed as scripture, laid the permanent foundation of the Church through which the gospel of Jesus Christ could go forth to "every nation" (2 Nephi 26:13).

The scriptures define the office of the Prophet and President and his Counselors, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, quorums of the Seventy, the Presiding Bishopric, and the stakes and wards and branches. They define the offices of the Melchizedek and Aaronic Priesthoods. They establish the channels through which inspiration and revelation can flow to the leaders and teachers and parents and to individuals.

The opposition and trials are different now. If anything, they are more intense, more dangerous than in those early days, aimed not so much at the Church as at us as individuals. The early revelations, published as scriptures for the permanent guidance of the Church, define the ordinances and covenants and are still in force.

One of those scriptures promises, "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear" (D&C 38:30).

Let me tell you what has been done to prepare us. Perhaps you will then understand why I do not fear the future, why I have such positive feelings of confidence.

I cannot possibly describe in detail or even list all that has been put in place by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in recent years. In them you will see continuing revelation, open to the Church and to each individual member.

The world is spiraling downward at an ever-quickening pace. I am sorry to tell you it will not get better.... I know of nothing in the history of the church or in the history of the world to compare with our present circumstances. Nothing happened in Sodom and Gomorrah which exceeds the wickedness and depravity which surrounds us now....

Service, of course, is the essence of what the Savior and his restored Church teach. That is the model Christ gave us. It is noteworthy that one of the greatest ways for people to have a sense of their own worth and potential, their own identity, comes from their being important to other people in meeting their needs and in serving their temporal and spiritual welfare. What a contrast this is from the popular psychology, that the best way to build self-esteem is to get people to think positively about themselves!

With numerous others, I am greatly disturbed at the rapid move of our government to socialism and what seems to be an approach toward dictatorship; with a controlled Supreme Court, the administration continues to impose more and more demands upon the people...Taxes are becoming back-breaking, expenditure and waste are alarming. The Church must remain independent and furnish its own funds for all its own adventures and projects. The government seems too anxious to give, give, give to the poor, to the aged, to the schools, to everyone, and blinded people feel they are getting something, whereas they pay it to the government so that the government can after great overhead expense return a part of it to the people. And every time a gift returns to the people--a so-called gift--it comes with fetters binding and tying and enslaving. For every block of funds given to the people, they lose a bigger block of liberty.

We should remember that the Lord has given his restored Church a unique mission not given to others. The Church must concentrate its primary efforts on those activities that can only be accomplished with priesthood authority, such as preaching the gospel and redeeming the dead.

[W]e cannot, neither should we, attempt to provide secular education for all members of the Church worldwide....The Church must concentrate on moral and spiritual education; we may encourage secular education but not necessarily provide it.

Quickly forgotten by those who are offended is the fact that the Church is “for the perfecting of the saints” (Eph. 4:12); it is not a well-provisioned rest home for the already perfected.

I remind you that the Church is not a monastery for the isolation of perfect people. It is more like a hospital provided for those who wish to get well.

There appears to me to be a trend to shift responsibility for life and its processes from the individual to the state. In this shift there is a basic violation of the law of the harvest, or the law of justice. The attitude of "something for nothing" is encouraged. The government is often looked to as the source of wealth. There is a feeling that the government should step in and take care of one's needs, one's emergencies, and one's future. Just as my friend actually became a slave to his own ignorance and bad habits by refusing to accept the responsibility for his own education and moral growth, so, also, can an entire people be imperceptibly transferred from individuals, families, and communities to the federal government.

...what is the real cause of this trend toward the welfare state, toward more socialism? In the last analysis, in my judgment, it is personal unrighteousness. When people do not use their freedoms responsibly and righteously, they will gradually lose these freedoms.

If man will not recognize the inequalities around him and voluntarily, through the gospel plan, come to the aid of his brother, he will find that through 'a democratic process' he will be forced to come to the aid of his brother. The government will take from the 'haves' and give to the 'have nots.' Both have lost their freedom. Those who 'have,' lost their freedom to give voluntarily of their own free will and in the way they desire. Those who 'have not,' lost their freedom because they did not earn what they received. They got 'something for nothing,' and they will neither appreciate the gift nor the giver of the gift.

Under this climate, people gradually become blind to what has happened and to the vital freedoms which they have lost.