I came across this excerpt today from a talk by Rulon S. Wells in October 1922, a former authority in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which I found profound and I am placing this here without comment:

“Education means development and growth. We are the children of God, and have inherited from him all of his divine attributes. The difference between him and us is this: he is educated, we are not, but having his attributes we are susceptible to receiving an education which means the development in us of his divine attributes. The injunction: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect,” is reasonable and within the limit of possibility, which would not be the case if we had not inherited all his attributes. These attributes though perfect in him are very imperfect in us, and are capable of being perverted or distorted and counterfeited and thus changed from virtue into vice. The development of the divine attributes and the rejection of the distorted and counterfeited ones is only another phase of repentance.

“For example: Economy is a godlike attribute and in the economy of God there is no waste. What an abundant supply of water there is in the creation of this earth; three-fourths of its entire surface is covered with this element. It comes trickling down the mountain sides, springing forth from the canyons into the mountain streams, and thence into the rivers. It is often diverted onto arid lands, and causes them to bring forth rich harvests; and sometimes harnessed, lighting our cities with electric rays, setting in motion the machinery of the world, and again finding its way into the river beds and on out into the great ocean where it is caught up into the clouds through evaporation and wafted by the winds back into the mountains to begin anew its useful course. And yet, not a single drop is wasted. In the economy of God there is no waste. Yet how liberally and abundantly it is used. Contrast this divine attribute with the devil’s counterfeit—stinginess. Some people think they are economical when in reality they are merely stingy. How I despise a stingy man. Generosity is a noble attribute. The Lord loves a liberal giver. Its counterfeit is wastefulness and prodigality. Acquisitiveness is the power of accumulating and acquiring wealth. See what the Lord hath acquired, the earth is his and the fulness thereof, and the devil has his counterfeit of this noble attribute, we call it avarice ; it is one of the great causes of human suffering, it is the love of money, the root of all evil, thus we might continue the long list and show how praise becomes flattery, wisdom pedantry, pride, vanity; admiration is changed to envy and self esteem, a proper regard for one’s self, becomes egotism. How despicable ! The big I and the little you. Always, talking about oneself, and only interested in others when they are talking about him. The greatest of all attributes is love, the biggest thing in the world, the all including attribute; the love of God and our fellow man is the fulfilment of the law and the prophets. This is truly alone the complete remedy for all the evils of our day. And then, think of the devil’s counterfeit, lust, licentiousness. The holier the divine attribute the more contemptible its counterfeit.”