Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Today's Maxwell Quote

From Time to Choose (1972), 24-25:
The disciple must signal anchorless souls drifting on the "gulf of misery and woe," even though the signal may not be seen. It was in this spirit that our ancestors flashed us the experiential distillation of their discipleship, ". . . writing upon plates diligently." They were probably as busy as we, but were "willing to communicate."

Engraving on the plates was difficult. One can imagine the countless ways in which this arduous, meticulous, regular task of writing for an unborn audience could have been easily set aside to give attention to other pressing tasks. Since only a small degree of knowledge could be transmitted, it is sobering to note what they chose to place upon the plates: genealogy, exhortations about chastity, prophecies about Christ, and testimonies about the reality of resurrection and judgment—all simple, unvarnished Gospel truths! Although they were city builders, there were few details about cities or urban-planning, probably because these people who lived in perishable places had their eyes on a continuing city, ". . . a city . . . whose builder and maker is God." (Hebrews 11:10.)