What is the new and everlasting covenant? I regret to say that there are some members of the Church who are misled and misinformed in regard to what the new and everlasting covenant really is. The new and everlasting covenant is the sum total of all gospel covenants and obligations... marriage is not the new and everlasting covenant. - President Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:156
Keeping covenants is a measure of those outside of the Church as well as those inside. Occasionally we find an individual who is seeking to hold high office in business, in education, or in government. Such a person may claim to be worthy of trust, may insist that he or she would not cheat the public, or misrepresent them, or mislead them, or break faith with them. In assessing the sincerity of these expressions, the integrity of the person concerned, we may ask ourselves, What does that individual do with a private trust? A good measure is to determine how he keeps covenants relating to his family. - Elder Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple, 167
The ordinances of the endowment embody certain obligations on the part of the individual, such as covenant and promise to observe the law of strict virtue and chastity, to be charitable, benevolent, tolerant and pure; to devote both talent and material means to the spread of truth and the uplifting of the race; to maintain devotion to the cause of truth; and to seek in every way to contribute to the great preparation that the earth may be made ready to receive her King, -- the Lord Jesus Christ. With the taking of each covenant and the assuming of each obligation a promised blessing is pronounced, contingent upon the faithful observance of the conditions. - Elder James E. Talmage, The House of the Lord, 100
Cool quotations. I had read the first before, and have to remind myself of that from time to time. I really liked what Elder Packer says about covenant keeping and the ability to earn trust.
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