Students should search out such passages and make them their own.

3. The Best Manner of Studying the Revelations: The student will find it most profitable to read the revelations of the Doctrine and Covenants in connection with the circumstances under which they were given. This can be done by securing Vol. I of the History of the Church, in which volume 101 out of a possible 134 revelations, are to be found published in there historical association. Some of the revelations, or parts of them, can only be understood by reading them in the manner here suggested. For example the revelation in section 46 opens in this manner:

"Hearken, O ye people of my Church, for verily I say unto you, that these things were spoken unto you for your profit and learning; But notwithstanding those things which are written, it always has been given to the Elders of my Church from the beginning, and ever shall be to conduct all meetings as they are directed and guided by the Holy Spirit; nevertheless ye are commanded never to cast any one out from your public meetings, which are held before the world," etc., etc. (History of the Church, Vol. 1, p. 163-4.)

Now, reading this revelation in the Doctrine & Covenants no understanding can be had from it as to what "things" are referred to in this opening paragraph, that are "spoken for your profit and learning," but when we learn, as we do from the footnote (p. 163, Vol. 1, Church History) that "in the beginning of the Church, while yet in her infancy, the disciples used to exclude unbelievers, which caused some to marvel and converse of this matter because of the things written in the Book of Mormon" (III Nephi xvii: 22-34); wherein it is learned that the Nephite church was forbidden to exclude unbelievers from their Church gatherings, and sacramental meetings, whereupon it was thought and urged by some that the practice of the Saints in Kirtland was contrary to the revealed will of the Lord respecting this matter; therefore the Saints took the passages from the Book of Mormon to the Prophet and desired to know the will of the Lord respecting this custom. "Therefore the Lord deigned to speak on this subject, that his people might come to understanding, and said that he had always given to his Elders to conduct all meetings as they were led by the Spirit." (History of the Church, note, p. 163.) Knowing these circumstances the whole matter becomes perfectly plain. We know what is meant when the revelation starts out by saying, "These things were spoken unto you for your profit and learning," etc. As it is in this case so it is in many others, the clear understanding of the revelation depends on knowing the circumstances which called forth the revelation.

Footnotes

[1]. Some of the great Doctrinal Revelations have already been designated. A more complete list would be sections 19, 20, 21, 42, 76, 84, 88, 89, 93, 127, 128, 129, 130, 132. Of course in all the revelations there is more or less of doctrine; even in those that may be esteemed the least some great principle is present, if not by direct announcement, then in application or illustration. But the foregoing are designated, because they are pre-eminently doctrinal in character, and by grouping them, as in the analysis, they may be the more readily consulted. It should be remembered that we are not in this lesson to attempt any treatise upon these great doctrines as such, we are merely calling attention to them now—locating them for the student, merely calling attention to their existence in our modern revelations that they may be read. Thorough consideration of them will come later in the Seventy's course in Theology.

LESSON IV.

SCRIPTURE READING EXERCISE.

SPECIAL LESSON—TWO SUBJECTS.

SUBJECT.REFERENCES.
I. The Law of the Lord as Expressed in Tithing and Fast-Offerings--Applied to Poverty Problems, Local and National. Law of Tithing, Doc. & Cov., Sec. cxix. Among the Ancients: Gen. xiv: 17-20. Heb. vii: 5-9. Numbers, xviii: 25-32. Deut., xii: also chap. xiv; also Chap. xxvi: 12-16; II Chronicles, xxxi; Neb., xii: 44; also Chap. xiii: 5-12, and Chap. x: 37, 38. Matt., xxiii: 23; Luke, xi: 42; also Chap. xvii: 9-14; especially Malachi iii--whole chapter.
II. The Law of the Lord as Expressed in the Doctrine of Consecration and Stewardship--Applied to the World's Industrial Problems. Doc. & Cov., Sec. xlii: 29-39. Sec. lxx; lxxii. Sec. civ. New Witness for God Chap. xxvii.