Continuing from a previous post The Wrong Side IV, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote:
My beloved friends, especially my young friends, can you see why personal purity is such a serious matter? Can you understand why the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles would issue a proclamation declaring that “the means by which mortal life is created [is] divinely appointed” and that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife”?15 Don’t be deceived and don’t be destroyed. Unless such powers are controlled and commandments kept, your future may be burned; your world could go up in flames. Penalty may not come on the precise day of transgression, but it comes surely and certainly enough. And unless there is true repentance and obedience to a merciful God, then someday and somewhere, the morally cavalier and unclean will pry like the rich man who wished Lazarus to “dip . . . his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”16
I have declared here the solemn word of revelation that the spirit and the body constitute the soul of man, and that through the Atonement of Christ the body shall rise from the grave to unite with the spirit in an eternal existence. That body therefore is something to be kept pure and holy. Do not be afraid of soiling its hands in honest labor. Do not be afraid of scars that come in defending the truth or fighting for the right, but beware of scars that spiritually disfigure, that come to you in activities that disfigure, that come to you in activities you should have not undertaken, that befall you in places you should not have gone. Beware the wounds of any battle in which you have been fighting on the wrong side.17
If some few of you are carrying such wounds—and I know that you are—to you is extended the peace and renewal of repentance available through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In such serious matters the path of repentance is not easily begun nor painlessly traveled. But the Savior of the world will walk that essential journey with you. He will strengthen you when you waver. He will be you light when it seems most dark. He will take your hand and be your hope seems all you have left. His compassion and mercy, with all their cleansing and healing power, are freely given to all who wish complete forgiveness and will take the steps that lead to it.
I bear witness of the great plan of life, of the powers of godliness of mercy and forgiveness and the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ—all of which have profound meaning in matters of moral cleanliness. I testify that we are to glorify God in our body and in our spirit. I thank heaven for the legions of the young who are doing just that and helping others to do the same. I thank heaven for the homes where this is taught. That lives of personal purity may be reverenced by all, I pray in the name of purity Himself, even the Lord Jesus Christ. ~Elder Jeffrey R. Holland,. . . .For the first post of this series, click ‘The Wrong Side’.
