AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE

Besides the written word found in the scriptures and the words of the living Apostles and Prophets of the Lord Jesus the Christ, there have been very few moments of my life when I have not surrounded myself with the written words of those whom I am grateful to have enjoyed as my mortal mentors.

One of those mentors, Hugh Nibley, I was first introduced to shortly after returning from serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Northern half of Mexico during the last part of the 1950’s and the first part of the 1960’s. The year after my return from that mission, the Church had chosen Nibley’s book, ‘An Approach to the Book of Mormon’, as the text for Melchizedek Priesthood quorum members and since I had been called to be one of the instructors for that year it meant I faithfully read the lessons during the entire year. Like so many who had read or heard him speak previously, I continually found myself mentally exclaiming, ‘I have never heard that before’! His response when confronted with this exclamation was always, ‘If you had heard it before, you would have no need to be reading or hearing my words.’

Even today I have an extensive file of his writings which someday our children will have to decide whether to discard or retain, because I will not be able to discard them myself. As I was reading the final two chapters of the book of Mosiah in The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ, one of his essays came flooding back into my mind. It was titled ‘There is no Free Lunch’. The one point of Mosiah’s final words which prompted this memory was his belief that there is no economic system under which mortals are restrained which was ordained of God. I hope I don’t lose too many readers at this point, but along with Socialism, Communism, Fascism and many other isms, he included Capitalism. His main point was than none of them are the financial system which the Lord has ordained for the care of His children during mortality which was called by Joseph Smith, The United Order.

What caused me to take this avenue in my ponderings as I prepared to write this Thought for this week, was that since all four sons of King Mosiah II had rejected his offer to follow him as the king of the Nephites, and fearing lest they might change their minds and cause unrest in the nation later on, he instituted a new system of government where the voice of the people would elect their Chief Judge.

Mosiah 29

6 Now I declare unto you that he to whom the kingdom doth rightly belong has declined, and will not take upon him the kingdom.

10 And now let us be wise and look forward to these things, and do that which will make for the peace of this people.

11 Therefore I will be your king the remainder of my days; nevertheless, let us appoint judges, to judge this people according to our law; and we will newly arrange the affairs of this people, for we will appoint wise men to be judges, that will judge this people according to the commandments of God.

12 Now it is better that a man should be judged of God than of man, for the judgments of God are always just, but the judgments of man are not always just.

13 Therefore, if it were possible that you could have just men to be your kings, who would establish the laws of God, and judge this people according to his commandments, yea, if ye could have men for your kings who would do even as my father Benjamin did for this people—I say unto you, if this could always be the case then it would be expedient that ye should always have kings to rule over you.

16 Now I say unto you, that because all men are not just it is not expedient that ye should have a king or kings to rule over you.

21 And behold, now I say unto you, ye cannot dethrone an iniquitous king save it be through much contention, and the shedding of much blood.

25 Therefore, choose you by the voice of this people, judges, that ye may be judged according to the laws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord.

26 Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.

27 And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.

38 Therefore they relinquished their desires for a king, and became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal chance throughout all the land; yea, and every man expressed a willingness to answer for his own sins.

41 And it came to pass that they did appoint judges to rule over them, or to judge them according to the law; and this they did throughout all the land.

42 And it came to pass that Alma was appointed to be the first chief judge, he being also the high priest, his father having conferred the office upon him, and having given him the charge concerning all the affairs of the church.

43 And now it came to pass that Alma did walk in the ways of the Lord, and he did keep his commandments, and he did judge righteous judgments; and there was continual peace through the land.

46 And it came to pass that Mosiah died also, in the thirty and third year of his reign, being sixty and three years old; making in the whole, five hundred and nine years from the time Lehi left Jerusalem.

47 And thus ended the reign of the kings over the people of Nephi; and thus ended the days of Alma, who was the founder of their church.

Although Brother Nibley was speaking specifically about economic systems, I have strongly felt that what he said about there not being a financial system currently employed by man which was ordained of God, Nibley, by inference, included all systems of governments among those which will fall short of a Theocracy in looking after the welfare of the people. In the words of Mosiah, if righteous men govern, the populaces will enjoy peace, prosperity, happiness, and security and that nation will progress. But if the wicked reign…!

As witnessed in the Book of Alma, which we will be entering starting with next week’s Thought, the voice of the people do not always elect good people let alone righteous people to govern their lives. Sadly, either as a motivation to govern or as a result of having too much authority after having the powers of governing placed upon them, leaders often govern in a way which will facilitate their own prosperity and honor at the detriment and suffering of the governed.

As I enter my 9th decade of mortality my father, Frederick William Riley, takes more and more space in my memory as one of the marvelous mentors of my life. As I was about to write something which ended this Thought with something about ‘going to eat worms’, his counsel to ‘worry and concern myself about those things I am able to control’ suddenly filled my mind.

I can try to be a good and righteous husband

I can try to be a good and righteous father

I can try to be a good and righteous neighbor

I can try to be a good and righteous community member

I can try to be a good and righteous citizen

I can try to surround myself with those who are attempting to be good and righteous

I can try to elect those who are attempting to govern as good and righteous leaders

There was a period of my life when I spent a great deal of thought desiring to be upon the earth when the economies of the world would become a United Order and the Governments of the world would yield to the Theocracy headed by Jesus the Christ. I have come to realize that my life, will surely end before this comes to pass. Therefore, I will follow the counsel of another mentor, Joshua, and strive to attempt to choose to follow the Lord.


THOUGHTS FOR A SABBATH DAY – WILLIAM L. RILEY

EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY