Quoting the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson's Sir Galahad, "My strength is as the strength of ten, Because my heart is pure," President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke in the priesthood session of the April 1996 general conference about cleanliness.
"Everything looks better when there is cleanliness," President Hinckley said. He described an annual ritual, spring cleaning, when he was a boy. When the weather warmed up after a long winter, a week or so was designated as a time to clean homes. Soot from coal stoves was washed from walls, curtains were laundered, windows were washed, carpets were taken up and dragged out to the backyard, where they were hung over the clothesline, one by one, and dust was beaten from them."We detested that work. But when all of it was done and everything was back in place, the result was wonderful. The house was clean, our spirits renewed. The whole world looked better," President Hinckley said.
"This is what some of us need to do with our lives. Isaiah said:
" `Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
" `Learn to do well. . . .
" `Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' (Isa. 1:16-18.)
" `Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.' (D&C 133:5.) Thus has He spoken to us in modern revelation. Be clean in body. Be clean in mind. Be clean in language. Be clean in dress and manner."
