“Each of us is a son or daughter of God and has a responsibility to measure up to a perfect, Christlike life of self-mastery, finally returning to God with our virtue. (CR, October 1979, p. 6.)”
“Chastity and Virtue”
“These virtues cannot be purchased with money, but may be enjoyed by all people, even those of humble birth and humble circumstances as well as the rich, as much by the high school student, as by those who are the professors of the universities. Everyone may enjoy these great blessings by living for them.”
“That Which Was Most Dear and Precious Above All Things, Which is Chastity and Virtue”
In the context of describing the awful abominations of the Nephites, Mormon explains that chastity and virtue are most dear and precious. This brief but profound phrase reflects the truths taught by earlier Nephite prophets concerning the premium the Lord attaches to virtue and morality. The Lord had declared to Jacob: “For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me.” (Jacob 2:28; see also Commentary 2:21-22.) In counseling and reproving his own son who had transgressed the Lord’s law of chastity, Alma taught that sexual impurity and immorality “are an abomination in the sight of the Lord; yea, most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost” (Alma 39:5; see also Commentary 3:289-90).