Remarkably, it is often the wicked who are the most self-righteous. The Savior had the same problem that Samuel did. His rebuke was as follows,
’Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,
And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers (in consenting to the crucifixion of Christ).
Ye serpents, ye genteration of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?’ (Matt 23:29-33).
Spencer W. Kimball
“…many are prone to garnish the sepulchers of yesterday’s prophets and mentally stone the living ones.” (Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p. 391)
Bruce R. McConkie
"There is, of course, no salvation in believing in a dead prophet and stopping there. A living prophet must be found, first, to interpret God’s word in terms of today, and, then, to serve as the legal administrator who can perform God’s ordinances so as to make them binding on earth and in heaven.
"Nothing ever happens on earth as important as the sending of prophets among men. Their messages involve the very purpose of life and creation. And there is nothing more important in the lives of mortals than to determine whether those claiming to represent Deity do in fact hold divine authority and have a legal commission to speak for him.
“What pure, unadulterated hypocrisy it is for those who reject the living prophets to say: ’If we had lived in former days, we would have accepted the prophets whom others rejected.’ Prophets are prophets, truth is truth, and rebellion is rebellion. The spirit which leads men to fight God in one age is the same that operates in every age. Those who reject the Lord’s anointed today would have done so anciently. Compare Luke 16:27-31.” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, p. 621-2)
Spencer W. Kimball
“You folk in the Church and out of the Church heard a prophet of God bear testimony that this was the only true and living Church upon the earth. Did you listen, or do you also build sepulchres for the dead prophets and tombs for those who have passed away long ago and disregard the living ones? I bear witness to you that the Prophet of God who bore testimony to you on Friday morning is the recognized head of God’s kingdom here upon this earth, and you would do well to listen and to accept it in your hearts.” (Conference Report, Oct. 1949, p. 123)