Stop this! Stop!
Are you all right?
Thank you.
Come on, let’s go.
Beloved ...
this day I am weighed down with much more
desire and anxiety for the welfare of your souls
than I have hitherto been.
Yea, it grieveth my soul
and causeth me to shrink with shame
before the presence of my Maker,
that I must testify unto you
concerning the wickedness of your hearts.
And also it grieveth me
that I must use so much boldness of speech concerning you,
before your wives and your children,
many of whose feelings are exceedingly tender
and chaste and delicate before God,
which thing is pleasing unto God.
Wherefore, it burdeneth my soul
that I should be constrained,
because of the strict commandment which I have received from God,
to admonish you according to your crimes,
to enlarge the wounds of those who are already wounded,
instead of consoling and healing their wounds.
But I must do according
to the strict commands of God,
and tell you concerning your wickedness
and abominations.
And this is the word which I declare:
many of you have begun to search for gold,
and for silver,
and for all manner of precious ores,
in the which this land doth abound most plentifully.
And because some of you have obtained
more abundantly than that of your brethren
ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts,
and wear stiff necks and high heads
because of the costliness of your apparel,
and persecute your brethren because
ye suppose ye are better than they.
Do ye suppose that God
justifieth you in this thing? Nay.
He condemneth you,
and if ye persist in these things
His judgments must speedily come unto you.
O that ye would listen unto the word of His commands,
and let not this pride of your hearts
destroy your souls!
Think of your brethren like unto yourselves,
and be free with your substance,
that they may be rich like unto you.
But before ye seek for riches,
seek ye for the kingdom of God.
And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ
ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them;
and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—
to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry,
and to liberate the captive,
and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.
One being is as precious in His sight as the other.