“Answering the Sins of the People If We Did Not Teach Them the Word of God”

(Mosiah 2:27-29; Journal of Discourses 20:23; D&C 88:81-82; 93:39; 1 Tim. 5:8; Ezek. 33:6; 3:17-19; Ether 12:37; Ensign, Apr. 1992, pp. 60-61; refer in this text to 2 Ne. 4:5-6)

“If you do not magnify your calling, God will hold you responsible for those whom you might have saved had you done your duty. And who of us can afford to be responsible for the delay of eternal life of a human soul? If great joy is the reward of saving one soul, then how terrible must be the remorse of those whose timid efforts have allowed a child of God to go unwarned or unaided …” (John Taylor, quoted by Thomas S. Monson, Ensign, May 1992, p. 48)

“President John Taylor said on one occasion, speaking to the brethren of the priesthood: ‘If you do not magnify your callings, God will hold you responsible for those you might have saved, had you done your duty.’ This is a challenging statement. If I by reason of sins of commission or omission lose what I might have had in the hereafter, I myself must suffer and, doubtless, my loved ones with me. But if I fail in my assignment as a bishop, a stake president, a mission president, or one of the General Authorities of the Church—if any of us fail to teach, lead, direct, and help to save those under our direction and within our jurisdiction, then the Lord will hold us responsible if they are lost as the result of our failure.” (Hugh B. Brown, Conference Report, Oct. 1962, p. 84)

“Our youth are not children spiritually; they are well on towards the normal spiritual maturity … You do not need to disguise religious truths with a cloak of worldly things; you can bring these truths to them openly, in their natural guise… . There is no need for gradual approaches, for ‘bed-time’ stories, for coddling, for patronizing, or for any of the other childish devices used in efforts to reach those spiritually inexperienced and all but spiritually dead.” (J. Reuben Clark, Jr., The Charted Course of the Church in Education)