If an people in all the wide world have reason to be humble- to know whence their blessings come and in whom they must trust for salvation- it is the Saints. In fact, one who is afflicted severely with pride is not, in the truest sense, a Saint. It is thus ironic and tragic that pride should exist among those who know better, among those called out of the world into the marvelous light of Christ (see 1 Peter 2:9).
“A Great Stumbling–block”
Whenever Christians fail to live up to their covenants, whenever those called to be pure in heart are instead as salt which has been tainted through mixture and contamination, whenever those commissioned to be the light of the world do no more than provide a faint Ricker to a darkened world-when these conditions obtain, the Church has failed in fulfilling its mission to make a difference for good.
Whenever members of the Church begin to proselyte others to partake of their sins and thereby share their guilt, to that extent the Church becomes a hindrance, a stumbling block to those who so desperately need its righteous influence.
“A Great Stumbling–block”
In describing the reasons for the fall of the Nephite nation, Mormon got to the heart of the matter. “Behold,” he wrote to his son Moroni, “the pride of this nation, or the people of the Nephites, hath proven their destruction except they should repent” (Moroni 8:27). Of course, they did not repent. And they fell. It was of this fall that the Lord spoke in a modern revelation.
“And if ye seek the riches which it is the will of the Father to give unto you, ye shall be the richest of all people, for ye shall have the riches of eternity; and it must needs be that the riches of the earth are mine to give; but beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old” (D&C 38:39 italics added.) President Ezra Taft Benson called pride “the universal sin, the great vice.” Further, he said, pride is “the great stumbling block to Zion.”