On Disregarding What We Know – Sunday, March 20, 1949
We often feel that we would avoid making mistakes if we only knew more about the future. Certainly this is sometimes so, but certainly it isn’t always so, as evidence of which we need only remind ourselves how often we ignore what we do know—both about the present and the future—and how often we ignore those things which the past has taught us about the future. We already know the future in principle. Causes which have once produced specific effects may again be expected to produce the same effects. This is the process of law.
But the fact that the future may in some degree be judged by the past does not prevent our repeating the mistakes of the past and disregarding its lessons. Even when the prophets have forewarned their people concerning future consequences, they have been rejected more often than not. Furthermore, we often repeat our own mistakes, knowing full well that they are mistakes; and much of what we know with certainty, even about the present, we often ignore in practice.
We know many of the rules of health, but often fail to observe them. We know many of the rules of happiness, but often fail to live by them. We know that if we disregard law, we shall pay the consequences—but still there are many who disregard the law. It would seem, then, that knowledge alone, of the past, the present, or the future, does not keep us from making mistakes, because we disregard so much of what we do know.
This admission leads to the conclusion that greater knowledge of the future is not our most urgent need. It is more important to know correct principles and to observe them, than it is to know more facts about the future. Observing correct principles will save us materially and spiritually, but merely knowing the future and then ignoring correct principles will never save anyone. To know the commandments and to keep them, to know the rules of life and to live them will lead to the certainty of a Glorious future whether or not we now know all we would like to know about it.
Revised.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, March 20, 1949, 11:30 to 12:00 noon, EST Copyright 1949.
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March 20, 1949
Broadcast Number 1,022