OF HUMBLE BIRTH

"Though heaven was his habitation and earth his footstool, He chose to lie as an infant in a manger, surrounded by horses and camels and mules. Though He laid the foundations of the earth, and worlds without number had rolled into orbit at his word, He chose to come into mortality among the beasts of the field. Though He had worn a kingly crown in the eternal courts on high, He chose to breathe as his first mortal breath the stench of a stable. Though He would one day come forth with all power in heaven and on earth, for now, as the helpless child of a peasant girl, He chose to begin the days of probation as none of Adam's race had ever done before. And there, even in such a birth, He was rejected by his people, symbolically at least, for none in the recesses and rooms of the inn had seen fit to make room for a weary woman great with child....."

- Bruce R. McConkie, "The Mortal Messiah" Book 1, p 345

THE MEDIATOR

"Each of us, lives on a kind of spiritual credit. One day the account will be closed, a settlement demanded. However casually we may view it now, when that day comes and the foreclosure is imminent, we will look around in restless agony for someone, anyone, to help us.........

Unless there is a mediator, unless we have a friend, the full weight of justice untempered, unsympathetic, must, positively must, fall on us. The full recompense for every transgression, however minor or however deep, will be exacted from us to the uttermost farthing.

But know this: Truth, glorious truth, proclaims there is such a Mediator: 'For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus' (1 Timothy 2:5). Through Him mercy can be fully extended to each of us without offending the eternal law of justice. This truth is the very root of Christian doctrine."

- Boyd K. Packer

LEAN ON MY AMPLE ARM

Lean on my ample arm

O thou depressed!

And I will bid the storm

Cease in thy breast.

Whate'er thy lot may be 

On life's complaining sea,

If thou wilt come to me,

Thou shalt have rest.

Lift up thy tearful eyes

Sad heart, to me;

I am the sacrifice offered for thee.

In me thy pain shall cease,

In me is thy release,

In me thou shalt have peace,

Eternally.

- Theodore E. Curtis

THE MOTHER THE HARBOUR

These little boats

Came by currents

I may never know,

From oceans I cannot see

Even from my highest hill.

I cherish the cargo,

Bless the sea,

And thank the eternal itinerary

That harboured them awhile

In me.

- Carol Lynn Pearson

THE NIGHT

Grief
Is a narrow thing,
Tight against
My breath -
Begging an answer
To unanswerable
Death.

I'm remembering
A sunrise.
I saw the bright
Quick streams of light
Sing gold across
The Sky.
And it came to me then
How essential
Is the night:
For only from dark
Do we know dawn
At all.

The memory lets
One small solace in.
If we must
Endure an end
To know the endless -
Oh, gladly
I will let you go:
That when I see you
Standing at the door
To that more
Permanent place,

How quickly
I'll recognize
The eternal
In your embrace.

- Carol Lynn Pearson

HEREDITY

I am the family face;

Flesh perishes, I live on,

Projecting trait and trace

Through time to times anon,

And leaping from place to place

Over oblivion.

The years - heired feature that can

In curve and voice and eye

Despise the human span

Of durance - that is I;

The eternal thing in man,

That heeds no call to die.

-  Thomas Hardy