Big Devils, Little Devils

The following fable was related by Elder George A. Smith, who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve:

"A man, traveling through the country, came to a large city, very rich and splendid; he looked at it and said to his guide, 'This must be a very righteous people, for I can only see but one little devil in this great city.' The guide replied, 'You do not understand, sir; this city is so perfectly given up to wickedness, corruption, degradation, and abomination of every kind that it only requires one devil to keep them all in subjection.'

"Traveling on a little further he came to a rugged path and saw an old man trying to get up the hill side, surrounded by seven great, big, coarse looking devils. 'Why,' says the traveller, 'this must be a tremendously wicked old man, only see how many devils there are around him!' 'This,' replied the guide, 'is the only righteous man in the country and there are seven of the biggest devils trying to turn him out of his path and they all cannot do it." (in Deseret News, 11 Nov. 1857, 7:287).

I dislike the search engine on LDS.org, and so it is easier for me to search this blog than find things on there. When I find good talks about Emergency Preparedness in the Ensign I am going to share them here.

Marvin K. Gardner, “When Disaster Strikes: Latter-day Saints Talk about Preparedness,” Ensign, Jan 1982, 67

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=c07eaeca0ea6b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD