"There are those who have made a casual, even an insincere effort to test the scriptures and have come away having received nothing, which is precisely what they have earned and what they deserve," said Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve in an address at the April 1974 general conference. "If you think it will yield to a casual inquiry, to idle curiosity, or even to well-intentioned but temporary searching, you are mistaken. It likewise will not yield to the overzealous or to the fanatic.
"It is when a lifetime is quietly committed with sincerity and humility that one can know for sure. Many elements of truth come only after a lifetime of preparation."A testimony of them, however, can come very quickly. Do not belittle the possibility that many humble folk, young and old, possess such a testimony. Many possess a testimony that transcends the knowledge to be gained in academic and scientific fields. When a humble man bears testimony based on spiritual inquiry and righteous living be careful before you repudiate his witness because he is otherwise unlearned.
"Many an academic giant is at once a spiritual pygmy and, if so, he is usually a moral weakling as well. Such a man may easily become a self-appointed member of a wrecking crew determined to destroy the works of God.
"Beware of the testimony of one who is intemperate, or irreverent, or immoral, who tears down and has nothing to put in its place.
"The prophet Nephi said, `Wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.' (1 Ne. 16:2.)
"This ancient prophet said that he was not `mighty in writing, like unto speaking; for when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.
" `But behold, there are many that harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit, that it hath no place in them; wherefore, they cast many things away which are written and esteem them as things of naught.' (2 Ne. 33:1-2.)
He further said that the words that he had written were to persuade men to do good and `speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him, and to endure to the end, which is life eternal.
" `And it speaketh harshly against sin, according to the plainness of the truth; wherefore, no man will be angry at the words which I have written save he shall be of the spirit of the devil.' " (2 Ne. 33:4-5.)
