Joseph Smith has made the second of four trips to Missouri. A conference is held there where he is sustained by the saints as the President of the Church in the same manner he had been sustained in Ohio by the saints there. In an intermission of the conference, Edward Partridge and Sidney Rigdon settled some differences they had had between themselves. In this revelation, the Lord uses this instance of forgiving to teach important principles concerning forgiveness and how he forgives. He first warns the saints that having received greater light, were they to sin, there would be greater condemnation. When the Lord gives us sacred knowledge, if we ignore it and sin against it, the sin is greater than someone who never knew and sinned in the same manner. The sobering thing about this is, when we seriously sin, we lose the benefits of baptism and all our former sins return that had previously been made clean. On the other hand, when a person repents, all the sins removed and the Lord promises he will never mention them to us. He says he will not lay any sin to our charge. This is something he is bound to by divine law.
The other principle taught here is something that was taught to the Ohio saints concerning the Law of Consecration and is made more clear here. He says he is doing this because he want them to be equal, "or in other words, you are to have equal claims on the properties... so that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents... " Talents in this case refers to wealth.
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