“Leadeth Them Away Carefully”

Church Educational System
“Now, I want you to note that: ‘And thus the devil cheateth their souls and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.’ And that is the way he does it, that’s exactly the way he does it. He does not come and grab you bodily and take you into his territory, but he whispers, ‘Do this little evil, ’ and when he succeeds in that, another little evil and another, and, to use the expression quoted, ‘He cheateth their souls.’ That’s what he does. He makes you believe that you are gaining something when you are losing. So it is every time we fail to observe a law of God or keep a commandment, we are being cheated, because there is no gain in this world or in the world to come but by obedience to the law of our heavenly Father. Then again, that peculiar suggestion, ‘And he leadeth them carefully away down to hell’ is significant, that is his method. Men and women in the world today are subject to that influence, and they are being drawn here and there, and that whispering is going on and they do not understand what the Lord desires them to do, but they continue in the territory of the evil one, subject to his power where the Spirit of the Lord will not go.

(George Albert Smith, Conference Report, Apr. 1918, p. 40)

Book of Mormon Student Manual (1996 Edition)

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