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Select Quotations from Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee

The following quotes come from the book Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of Harold B. Lee from eleventh president Harold B. Lee that was originally published in 1975 by Deseret Book Company. This was an employee gift by the First Presidency in 1995. To visit the site with all of the books and quotes from these, go here.

Apostasy, Great

“Now the way to eternal life has fortunately been marked out just as plainly. I know a young woman who was about to fail in her faith because of a sudden sorrow that she was not quite prepared to bridge over after having been a convert of a few years. She had a dream in which she saw herself going back to the church of her previous acquaintance. As she drove along in her car, she came to a road that she took only to find that it was a road under construction, and after ten tortuous miles returning she found to her amazement that there were plain warning sings all along the way which, if she had observed, would have guided her along a safe detour road and past the shoals of difficulty” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 366).

Blacks

“We have found some who are asking, ‘How long is it going to be before the Church changes its policy with respect to the Negro?’ And I have said, ‘If you will just change a couple of words so that the question will be, ‘How long is it going to be before the Lord (not the Church) changes His (not its) policy,’ you will see how utterly silly your question is.’ When there is to be anything different from that which the Lord has told us already, He will reveal it to His prophet and no one else” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 159).

Celestial Kingdom

“Those who make themselves worthy and enter into the new and everlasting covenant of marriage in the temple for time and all eternity will be laying the first cornerstone for an eternal family home in the celestial kingdom that will last forever. Their reward is to have ‘glory added upon their heads forever and forever.’ These eternal truths, if you believe them with all your soul, will be as a girdle of armor about your loins to safeguard your virtue as you would protect your life” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 332).

Covenant

“By the laying on of hands we get the promise of power and authority, but it will not be ours–worlds without end–unless we keep our part of the covenant” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 52).

Criticism (of Leaders)

“President George Albert Smith was about to close one of our general conferences, which happened to be at the time of the furor caused by the book No Man Knows My History, one of the scurrilous things published against the Church, and there had been different speakers who had said something about these apostate writings with which the Church was being flooded. Just as President Smith was about to finish, he paused–and it was wholly unrelated to what he had been talking about–and he said: ‘Many have belittled Joseph Smith, but those who have will be forgotten in the remains of mother earth, and the odor of their infamy will ever be with them; but honor, majesty, and fidelity with God exemplified by Joseph Smith and attached to his name shall never die. (Conference Report, April 1946, p. 181.) I never heard a more profound statement from a prophet. . . .  Do not try to find fault with the management and affairs that pertain to Him alone and by revelation through His prophet–His living prophet, His seer, and His revelator” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 164. Ellipsis is mine).

General Conference

“If you want to know what the Lord has for this people at the present time, I would admonish you to get and read the discourses that are delivered at general conference; for what the Brethren speak by the power of the Holy Ghost is the mind of the Lord, the will of the Lord, the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee , p. 183. Also see Conference Reports, April 1973, p. 176)..

Lucifer

“Satan commands a mighty force comprising one-third of all God’s spirit children who were cast out with him-tangible and real although not always discernible by sight, and under whose masterful direction there goes forward constantly propaganda of lying and deceit” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 329)

Obedience

“The Lord will bless us to the degree to which we keep His commandments. Nephi put this principle in a tremendous orbit when he said: ‘For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.’ (2 Nephi 25:23.) The Savior’s blood, His atonement, will save us, but only after we have done all we can to save ourselves by keeping His commandments” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in the Holy Places, p. 246. See also Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Harold B. Lee, p. 24).

“It was John who said that Jesus was ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world’ (Revelation 13:8) or, in other words, Jesus was prepared for an atonement; His sacrifice was to be made as a ransom for all of those who would obey Him and keep His commandments” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 126).

“The miracle of forgiveness is available to all of those who turn from their evil doings and return no more, because the Lord has said in a revelation to us in our days: ‘. . . go your ways and sin no more; but unto that soul who sinneth [meaning again] shall the former sins return, saith the Lord your God.’ (D&C 82:7.) Have that in mind, all of you who may be troubled with a burden of sin” (Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, April 7, 1973, p. 185. Cited in The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, p. 120, and Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 185. Ellipsis in original).

“All we have to do in order to be prepared to enter the presence of the Lord is to forsake our sins, come unto Him, call on His name, obey His voice, and keep His commandments; then we shall be able to see His face and to know that He is” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 242).

“‘For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.’ (2 Nephi 25:23.) The Savior’s blood, His atonement, will save us, but only after we have done all we can to save ourselves by keeping His commandments. All of the principles of the gospel are principles of promise by which the plans of the Almighty are unfolded to us” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 246).

“When you think about it, there is so much promised in the gospel for so little required on our part. For example, the ordinance of baptism is given us for the remission of sins, for entrance into the kingdom–a new birth; the gift of the Holy Ghost gives us the right to companionship with one of the Godhead; administration to the sick qualified the individual with faith for a special blessing; by paying our tithing, the windows of heaven may be opened unto us; by fasting and by praying our fast offerings, we are told that then we might call on the Lord and He will hear our cry and our call; celestial marriage promises us that family life will exist beyond the grave. But all of these blessings are ours on one condition, and this is spoken of by Nephi, when he said: ‘For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, [but mark you this condition] after all we can do.’ (2 Nephi 25:23.) (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, pp. 366-367).

Prophet

“A prophet, then does not become a spiritual leader by studying books about religion, nor does he become one by attending a theological seminary. One becomes a prophet, a divinely called religious leader, by actual spiritual contacts. He gets his diploma, as it were, directly from God” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 175).

“Where else can you go for guidance? Where is there safety in the world today? Safety can’t be won by tanks and guns and the airplanes and atomic bombs. There is only one place of safety and that is within the realm of the power of Almighty God that He gives to those who keep His commandments and listen to His voice, as He speaks through the channels that He has ordained for that purpose” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 383).

Revelation

“If we will live worthy, then the Lord will guide us–by a personal appearance, or by His actual voice, or by His voice coming into our mind, or by impressions upon our heart and our soul” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 144).

Scripture

“We have the standard Church works. Why do we call them standard? If there is any teacher who teaches a doctrine that can’t be substantiated from the standard church works–and I make one qualification, and this unless that one be the President of the Church, who alone has the right to declare new doctrine–then you may know by that same token that such a teacher is but expressing his own opinion. If, on the other hand, you have someone teaching a doctrine that cannot be substantiated by the scriptures, and more than this, if it contradicts what is in the standard Church works, you may know that that person is teaching false doctrine, no matter what his position in this church may be. The President of the Church alone may declare the mind and will of God to His people” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, pp. 109-110).

Temple

“The only place on earth were we can receive the fulness of the blessings of the priesthood is in the holy temple. That is the only place where, through holy ordinances, we can receive that which will qualify us for exaltation in the celestial kingdom” (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places: Selected Sermons and Writings of President Harold B. Lee, p. 117).

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