Conclusion to 1 Nephi 8

[HoosierGuy]

1 Nephi 8

Got hath not revealed anything to Joseph, but what He will make known unto the twelve, and even the least saint may know all things as fast as he is able to hear them.
TPJS, p. 149

There is an opposition to the Lord having on the earth a people, called by his name and doing his will. It has been so from the beginning. The Lord never had a people who were received with open arms by the world, admired, cherished and respected; on the contrary they have been persecuted or totally destroyed from off the earth….The Latter-day Saints have had the same experience to pass through, and when a time of comparative peace has come around, as it has sometimes, they are apt to ask, “What is the matter? Have we lost our faith, that the Adversary should thus let us alone?” There will come a time, however, in the history of the Saints, when they will be tried with peace, prosperity, popularity and riches.
Daniel H. Wells in JD, 19:367. Italics added.

We are tested, we are tried, we are going through some of the severest tests today and we don’t realize perhaps the severity of the tests that we are going through. In those days there were murderings, there were mobbings, there were drivings. They were driven out into the desert, they were starving and they were unclad, they were cold. They came here to this favored land. We are the inheritors of what they gave to us. But what are we doing with it? Today we are basking in the lap of luxury, the like of which we’ve never seen before in the history of the world. It would seem that probably this is the most severe test of any test that we’ve ever had in the history of this Church.
Harold B. Lee, Christmas address to Church employees, 13 Dec. 1973, pp. 4-5

Life has its share of some fear and some failure. Sometimes things fall short, don’t quite measure up.
Sometimes in both personal and public life, we are seemingly left without strength to go on. Sometimes people fail us, or economics and circumstance fail us, and life with its hardship and heartache can leave us feeling very alone.
But when such difficult moments come to us, I testify that there is one thing which will never, ever fail us. One thing alone will stand the test of all time, of all tribulation, all trouble, and all transgression. One thing only never faileth—and that is the pure love of Christ….
Only the pure love of Christ will see us through. It is Christ’s love which suffereth long, and is kind. It is Christ’s love which is not puffed up nor easily provoked. Only his pure love enables him—and us—to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things. (Moroni 7:45.)…

I testify that having loved us who are in the world, Christ loves us to the end. His pure love never fails us. Not now. Not ever. Not ever.
Jeffrey R. Holland, “He Loved Them Unto the End,” Ensign, November 1989, p. 26

Part of that testing here is to have so many seemingly interesting things to do that we can forget the main purposes for being here. Satan works very hard so that the essential things won’t happen. The plan is really very simple when considered in its essence. The Lord has told us that we are here to bee tried—to be proven, to see whether we will be valiant and be obedient to His teachings. You among all of the people on earth have the beset possibility of doing that because you have access to the fullness of the restored gospel and the teachings of the Savior. In quiet moments when you think about it, you recognize what is critically important in life and what isn’t. Be wise and don’t let good things crowd out those that are essential…Whether you intend to or not, when you live as though the Savior and His teachings are only one of many other important priorities in your life you are clearly on the road to disappointment and likely on the path to tragedy.
Richard G. Scott, Ensign, May 1997, pp. 53-54

If we spend our mortal days in accumulating secular knowledge to the exclusion of the spiritual then we are in a dead-end street, for this is the time for man to prepare to meet God; this is the time for faith to be built, for baptism to be effected, for the Holy Ghost to be received, for the ordinances to be performed. Contemporary with this program can come and the secular knowledge for even in the spirit world after death our spirits can go on learning the more secular things to help us create worlds and become their masters….
Would you fill your mind with knowledge which has only temporary use, knowledge that can provide only a living knowledge that could have a limitation or a termination of use at death; or, would you take with you spiritual knowledge and training which can carry over into the next life?...
Youth, beloved youth, can you see why we must let spiritual training take first place?—Why we must pray with faith, and perfect our own lives like the Savior’s? Can you see that the spiritual knowledge may be complemented with the secular in this life and on for eternities but that the secular without the foundation of the spiritual is but like the foam upon the milk, the fleeting shadow?

Do not be deceived! One need not choose between the two but only as to the sequence, for there is opportunity for one to get both simultaneously; but can you see that the seminary courses should be given even preferential attention over the high school subjects; the institute over the college course; the study of the scriptures ahead of the study of the man-written texts; the association with the Church more important than clubs, fraternities, and sororities; the payment of tithing more important than paying tuitions and fees?
Can you see that the ordinances of the temple are more important than the Ph.D. or any and all other academic degrees?
Have you, like many of your fellows, become obsessed with the acquisition of secular knowledge at the expense of the spiritual knowledge and performance?

We pay tribute to numerous highly trained people who have followed precisely the admonition of the Lord, “…seek ye first the kingdom of God….” These have advanced far in their spiritual and secular life, and have compromised not one whit with their faith. The gospel and the Church are first to them and are complemented with their scientific achievement and their superior secular knowledge and performance.
And so, beloved youth, when the temporal kingdoms of men topple, the kingdom of God stands firm and unshaken—when the earthly influence of the worldly-wise is silenced by death, the glory and progress of the faithful and valiant who have lived all requirements live on in majesty and power.

The continuously righteous life with all the sacred ordinances culminating in eternal marriage guarantees eternal life. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY. This I know.
Spencer W. Kimball, “Beloved Youth, Study and Learn,” cited in Life’s Directions, pp. 180-83, 190-91
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[Hemidakota]

God hath not revealed anything to Joseph, but what He will make known unto the twelve, and even the least saint may know all things as fast as he is able to hear them.

TPJS, p. 149

When we begin the journey of perfection, our life becomes in unison with the Godhead, it is then our spiritual hearing increases and instructions is easier to understand at that point. Things that are hidden from the world becomes knowledge unto that devoted individual.