Doctrine and Covenants 59:9

Elder Dallin H. Oaks:

“We live in the perilous times prophesied by the Apostle Paul (see 2 Timothy 3:1). Those who try to walk the straight and narrow path see inviting detours on every hand. We can be distracted, degraded, downhearted, or depressed. How can we have the Spirit of the Lord to guide our choices and keep us on the path?

“In modern revelation the Lord gave the answer in this commandment:

“‘And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;

“‘For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High’ (D&C 59:9–10).

“This is a commandment with a promise. By participating weekly and appropriately in the ordinance of the sacrament we qualify for the promise that we will ‘always have his Spirit to be with [us]’ (D&C 20:77). That Spirit is the foundation of our testimony. It testifies of the Father and the Son, brings all things to our remembrance, and leads us into truth. It is the compass to guide us on our path. This gift of the Holy Ghost, President Wilford Woodruff taught, ‘is the greatest gift that can be bestowed upon man’ (Deseret Weekly, Apr. 6, 1889, 451). …

“How can we have the Spirit of the Lord to guide our choices so that we will remain ‘unspotted from the world’ (D&C 59:9) and on the safe path through mortality? We need to qualify for the cleansing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We do this by keeping His commandment to come to Him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit and in that wonderful weekly meeting partake of the emblems of the sacrament and make the covenants that qualify us for the precious promise that we will always have His Spirit to be with us (see D&C 20:77)” (“Sacrament Meeting and the Sacrament,” Ensignor Liahona, Nov. 2008, 17, 20).

Elder Mark E. Petersen:

“Our observance or nonobservance of the sabbath is an unerring measure of our attitude toward the Lord personally and toward his suffering in Gethsemane, his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead” (“The Sabbath Day,” Ensign,May 1975, 49.).

Doctrine and Covenants 61:5–19

The Lord’s words in Doctrine and Covenants 61:5–19 do not prohibit Latter-day Saints from traveling on or swimming in the water. In describing the curse on the waters in the last days, the Lord may have been referring to passages in the book of Revelation in which the Apostle John describes destruction that will occur in the waters prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (see Revelation 8:8–11; 16:2–6). In Doctrine and Covenants 61, the Lord refers specifically to the danger of “these waters,” meaning the Missouri River (see D&C 61:5, 18). President Joseph Fielding Smith explained some of the damage that has been caused by the Missouri River:

“In regard to the Missouri-Mississippi waters, we have seen year by year great destruction upon them, and coming from them. Millions upon millions of dollars almost annually are lost by this great stream overflowing its banks. Many have lost their lives in these floods as they sweep over the land, and even upon this apparently tranquil or sluggish stream there can arise storms that bring destruction. Verily the word of the Lord has been, and is being, fulfilled in relation to those waters” (Church History and Modern Revelation, 2 vols. [1953], 1:224).

Doctrine and Covenants 62

While Joseph Smith and others were traveling east to Ohio, they encountered four elders traveling west to Independence, Missouri. One of these elders, John Murdock, had become ill while preaching the gospel during the journey from Ohio. John and his companion, Hyrum Smith, were lodging at Chariton, Missouri, waiting for John’s illness to pass. There they met two other elders, David Whitmer and Harvey Whitlock, who had also been faithful to the commandment to preach the gospel on the way to Missouri. After these four elders met Joseph Smith at Chariton and received the Lord’s instructions that are recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 62, they combined their money and bought a horse, which allowed John Murdock to travel with greater ease to Zion.