There is a crucial gospel principle that repeatedly appears in the book of Alma. We will discuss it here, where it first occurs. Answer the following four simple questions from these scriptures:
• Alma 7:5—Joy comes after what?
• Alma 17:5, 11—Saving souls comes after what?
• Alma 26:27—Success comes after what?
• Doctrine and Covenants 58:4—Blessings come after what?
There seems to be a clear pattern in these teachings. The eternal principle operating through this scriptural counsel is that the things we want most—joy, success, blessings, and exaltation—come after affliction, sorrow, long-suffering, tribulation, and adversity. Jesus is our example in all things, and Jesus’ crown of glory came after his crown of thorns.
When confronted with interminable trials, the Prophet Joseph Smith asked not “why?” but “how long?” He understood why. The Lord told him to “endure it well.” (We too will endure it, so we might as well endure it well.
President Brigham Young taught that “all intelligent beings who are crowned with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives must pass through every ordeal appointed for intelligent beings to pass through, to gain their glory and exaltation. Every calamity that can come upon mortal beings will be suffered to come upon the few, to prepare them to enjoy the presence of the Lord. If we obtain the glory that Abraham obtained, we must do so by the same means that he did. If we are ever prepared to enjoy the society of Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or of their faithful children, and of the faithful Prophets and Apostles, we must pass through the same experience, and gain the knowledge, intelligence, and endowments that will prepare us to enter into the celestial kingdom of our Father and God… . Every trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation.” 6
President John Taylor quoted Joseph Smith as saying: “You will have all kinds of trials to pass through. And it is quite as necessary that you be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God, and … God will feel after you, and He will take hold of you and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God.” 7
President George Q. Cannon confirmed the same heavenly principle: “Every Latter-day Saint who gains a celestial glory will be tried to the very uttermost. If there is a point in our character that is weak and tender, you may depend upon it that the Lord will reach after that, and we will be tried at that spot for the Lord will test us to the utmost before we can get through and receive that glory and exaltation which He has in store for us.” 8
President Spencer W. Kimball wrote: “Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors upon sorrow and distress, we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery.” 9