"There is an increase
in the attendance of the people at meetings. There is nothing that causes the
people to grow more in the Gospel than attending their meetings. There is
nothing that is more calculated to cause the spirit of the Gospel to dry up,
figuratively speaking, than to stay away from our meetings. When we are in a
meeting we partake of the spirit of that meeting. When we are absent from it
and somebody tells us of the wonderful spirit that was present and what was
accomplished by being there to partake of it, we cannot appreciate those
things. It is very much like the man who was hungry and someone told him of a fine
dinner, but he did not appreciate that dinner. We have to eat for ourselves, we
have to live for ourselves, we have to be in the line of our duty in order to
partake of the Spirit of the Lord, if the Spirit of the Lord is manifest.
I call to mind that a
brother who lost his standing as an apostle was a very, very poor attendant at
the meetings of the Council of the Twelve, other matters occupied his
attention. Francis M. Lyman had to come from Tooele the night before our
meeting and spend one night here and all day in order to be at the meetings of
the Presidency and Apostles which lasted two or three hours, but he never
missed one of them. I said to him one day: 'It is remarkable to me that
you are so prompt and always present at our meetings.' He said: 'I do not want to miss any inspiration from
the Lord; I do not want the Spirit of the Lord to come to me second hand. I
want to partake of it, and to feel it, and to realize it, and to know it for
myself'" (
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