The Heavy Demands of the Light

I am currently reading The Dark is Rising to my children, a book I read in my youth and which portrays a continual struggle between the Light and the Dark. At one point a man named Hawkin was convinced to leave the side of the Light and join the Dark. He had been a faithful servant of the Light, but he had had to risk his life in a certain dangerous event, and that shook him up. A witch-girl took advantage of this and said to him, “They would have let you die, Hawkin. How could you be so stupid?... The Dark and the Rider are kinder masters than the Light.” As Merriman, one of the Old Ones on the side of the Light, watched he explained to the main character Will: “So it will go. He will have a sweet picture of the Dark to attract him, as men so often do, and beside it he will set all the demands of the Light, which are heavy and always will be. All the while he will be nursing his resentment of the way I might have had him give up his life without reward. You can be sure the Dark makes no sign of demanding any such thing—yet. Indeed its lords never risk demanding death, but only a black life.” As I read this passage I was struck by the relevance of this exchange to the real battle between good and evil of which we are a part. When we follow the Light, even Jesus Christ, He does indeed make demands “which are heavy and always will be.” In fact, He asks everything of us, even the “sacrifice of all things” as Joseph Smith put it. The way of discipleship is not without hard things and full devotion from us: He asks us to be like the apostles of old who “forsook all, and followed him” (Luke 5:11). Amaleki describe the requirement this way: “Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end” (Omni 1:26).

On the other hand, the adversary pretends to offer only pleasure and reward without demands upon us as Nephi described: “Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us…. And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well…. And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears” (2 Nephi 28:7, 21-22). Korihor similarly taught, “There could be no atonement made for the sins of men, but every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime. And thus he did preach unto them, leading away the hearts of many, causing them to lift up their heads in their wickedness, yea, leading away many women, and also men, to commit whoredoms—telling them that when a man was dead, that was the end thereof” (Alma 30:17-18). In other words, the devil seeks to tell us that we can do whatever we want and it is no sin, pretending that there is no consequence or better way than to follow always after carnal desires of the natural man.   

If viewed only by the immediate requirements before us, following the covenant path of the Light can seem more arduous and less rewarding than just sticking with the carnal pleasures of the Dark. But that is a myopic view, and when properly understood we see the glorious blessings that come from adhering to the “heavy” demands of the Savior. He revealed, “Learn that he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:23). King Benjamin wrote of the “blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God” who are “blessed in all things” (Mosiah 2:41). The Lord promised us, “And, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7). In fact, as we give our all, the Father will give us His all: “And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:38). The devil, on the other hand, has nothing really to offer as we see in the end of the story of Korihor who was a servant of the Dark and was eventually was left a beggar in the street and “was run upon and trodden down, even until he was dead.” Mormon commented, “And thus we see the end of him who perverteth the ways of the Lord; and thus we see that the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to hell” (Alma 30:59-60). Merriman said this about the man who turned from the Light to the Dark expecting no hard demands: “The doom that Hawkin has brough upon himself, by his act, is a dread matter, which will make him many times wish that he might die.” Though the demands on us may indeed feel heavy at times, there is no lasting happiness other than in seeking to follow the path that Jesus Christ has set before us.