The Abundant Life by Hugh B. Brown

The Abundant Life Reviews

• 
  Mark

  My thoughts and some favorite quotations from the book.
  
  1. Come to know the powerful personality and teachings of president Hugh B. Brown.
  2. Come to know his testimony and the emphasis he placed in his teachings.
  3. Appreciate the context of the 1960s, where the Church faced problems unique to their era.
  
  "One day you may find that your house of life has collapsed, but in the wreckage you may find the gold which cannot be destroyed, not by the worst disaster, for the gold of life is imperishable and immortal. Search for it in the wreckage, for out of it you can mint new coins. Out of defeat arises the gold of life." p. 146
  
  "A man is saved only as he gains knowledge. But mere accumulation of facts, though they be encyclopedic, will not save a man if he lacks wisdom.
  
  "It is not measured by knowledge or intellect alone, but will be reflected in your search for learning, in the scientist's search for facts, the philosopher's search for understanding, and in every man's search for truth and the freedom which comes of it. Learn to stretch your minds by constant preparation, enrich your spirits by constant prayer, increase your stature by companionship with great people and great books. Thus may your potential God-like status become real and actual through ever-increasing intelligence, which is the glory of God." (Hugh B. Brown, The Abundant Life, p. 53-54).
  
  Quoting J. Golden Kimball, "The Lord himself must like a joke or he wouldn't have made some of you people." (Hugh B. Brown, The Abundant Life, p. 50).
  
  "There have been times when progress was halted by thought control. Tolerance and truth demand that all be heard and that competing ideas be tested against each other so that the best, which might not always be your own, can prevail. Knowledge is most complete and dependable when all points of view are heard." (Hugh B. Brown, The Abundant Life, p. 51).
  
  "Passionate lust is the most poisonous and debasing of all of Satan's false allurements. Young men and young women, as you associate together let all your thoughts, words, and actions be so clean and pure that their publication to the world would cause you no embarrassment." (P.46).
  
  "All of you know that every landing field is also a runway for a new takeoff. We must resist the temptation to abide upon arriving at an intermediate goal. There can be no loitering on life's airfield. One must get on the plane or be left behind." (Hugh B. Brown, The Abundant Life, p. 43-44).
  
  Let down your buckets.
  
  "I am reminded of what happened to a captain of a ship down in the South Atlantic. He had run out of fresh water. His crew were a thirst. Another ship hove in sight and he signaled, 'Send us water,' and the signal came back, 'Let down your buckets, there's fresh water all around you. You are in the Amazon.' They let down their buckets and found it was true. They had not realized that the stream of the mighty Amazon, driven into the briny deep, had maintained its freshness. They were able to save themselves by that which was all around them yet they did not know it.
  
  "Brethren, there is available to you wherever you are, the blessings, the opportunities, the privileges of teaching the gospel of Christ, if you will fill your buckets with the Holy Spirit which is everywhere." (P. 38).
  
  My thoughts, we don't have to have a General Authority with us. We don't have to read all the good books ever written. We are floating in the mighty Restoration, where the Holy Ghost resides in is in purity. Let down your buckets. God has restored the gospel. Put yourself in a position mentally and surround yourself with the many resources of the Spirit available to you. Then, regardless of the briny water of the world, you can let down your buckets and be refreshed with the pure truth of the gospel of Christ.
  
  ***
  A man who was in the military came to president Brown, president of the England mission, and said, I'm going to write an exposé of the Mormons in a magazine. I thought I should give you the chance to respond before I wrote it. Asking him, what do you know about our church? The man said, I know nothing. Really! President Brown responded. If I was writing such a piece I would spend 30 days reading all I could about the subject so I would be well informed. The man said that was a good suggestion. Then president Brown said, "I thought it only fair to warn him that if he spent thirty days in that library reading on Mormonism he would ask for baptism. When I told him that he said a lot of things I couldn't repeat here tonight. 'Why,' he said, 'the idea that I would become a Mormon is preposterous!'
  
  "I said, 'I thought it only right to tell you that's what is going to happen to you if you are honest and open-minded. When you come out you will ask for baptism.'
  
  "He went into the library; he read and studied; and, as he afterwards told me, he prayed, because in his reading he had read in the Book of Mormon, that anyone who wants to know can ask of God and he will reveal the truth of it unto him.
  
  "I went home in the meantime and was teaching at the Brigham Young University when I received the cable--less than thirty days after our interview. The cable was brief but to the point. It said, 'I think you will be interested to know that I am being baptized next Friday.'" (p. 31-32).
  
  Finally, president Brown commented on the state of America and how we ought not to fear. He said:
  
  "More than any other people, members of this church, having the prophecies of God before them, ought to know that America is not going to fail, that the God of heaven will not permit it, if her people will but serve the God of this land. She has a great destiny yet to fulfill. Imperfect though she may be, she is, nevertheless, the hope of the world. Men of faint heart and blurred vision may from time to time lose sight of this fact. The fact itself, however, is immutable. ...
  
  "Surely, as we face the future, there is reason for concern, but there is no reason for despair. Let us find reason to lift, to build and to uphold. Let us shrink from those whose only contribution is to complain, to condemn and to destroy. To win the future will require men [and I add women also] of faith, of courage and of purpose. The Lord God of heaven will prosper and gloriously support such men [and women]. He will, however, find little reason to consider the activities of those who are barren and unproductive, who simply criticize, complain and deplore. America needs leaders who have eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to understand. In their hands she will be preserved." pp. 351-352.