Gazing into Heaven

My favorite passage of scripture that is not versified, but is between the covers of the triple... is Oliver Cowdery's description of the experience he and Joseph Smith had with John the Baptist. I love it and it helps me so much to get my mind off the world and onto things eternal. You'll find it after Joseph Smith History and before the Articles of Faith. I guess it is just a footnote to verse 71 of JS-History.

I'll just highlight the parts that really hit me:

"But, dear brother, think, further think for a moment...I shall not attempt to paint to you the feelings of this heart, nor the majestic beauty and glory which surrounded us on this occasion; but you will believe me when I say, that earth, nor men, with the eloquence of time, cannot begin to clothe language in as interesting and sublime a manner as this holy personage. No; nor has this earth power to give the joy, to bestow the peace, or comprehend the wisdom which was contained in each sentence as they were delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Man may deceive his fellow-men, deception may follow deception, and the children of the wicked one may have power to seduce the foolish and untaught to naught but fiction feeds the many, and the fruit of falsehood carries in its current the giddy to the grave; but one touch with the finger of His love, yes one ray of glory from the upper world, or one word from the mouth of the Savior, from the bosom of eterenity, strikes it all into insignificance, and blots it forever from the mind."

I love this. Anything in life can truly be struck into insignificance and blotted forever from the mind. Anything! But it must truly be a ray of glory from the upper world or a real word from the mouth of the Savior. When we come in contact with this ray of glory from the upper world, nothing else matters. When we hear the voice of God, nothing else really matters.

I'll end with the statement by Joseph Smith (who was qualified to say this):

"Could you gaze into heaven five minutes, you would know more than you would be reading all that was ever written on the subject." (HC 6:50-51)