King Benjamin

One of my very favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon is the one that I read this morning:  Mosiah chapter 4.   This is the second part of King Benjamin's famous address to the people of Nephi who had gathered together to be taught, and it contains so many wonderful words of wisdom; words that are a comfort to me:

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.   (verse 9)


And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due.  (verse 13)


And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked, or neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil . . . (verse 14)


But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another and to serve one another.  (verse 15)


 . . . I would that ye should impart of your substance unto the poor, every man according to that which he hath need, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.  (verse 26)


And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order, for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength . . . (verse 27) 


But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish.  And now O man, remember, and perish not.  (verse 30)


King Benjamin was a very wise man, and I'm grateful that his words were preserved so that I can read them and ponder them today.