President Boyd K. Packer: 'Cleansing the inner temple'

To be entrusted with the power to create life carries with it the greatest joys — and most dangerous temptations, said President Boyd K. Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve.

"The gift of mortal life and the capacity to kindle other lives is a supernal blessing," he said Sunday morning. "Through the righteous exercise of this power, as in nothing else, we may come close to our Father in Heaven and experience a fullness of joy. This power is not an incidental part of the plan of happiness. It is the key — the very key."

Whether this power is used as the eternal laws require will forever determine who one will become. It is liberating when an individual determines his or her own free will to be obedient to the Father. "When we obey, we can enjoy these powers in the covenant of marriage. From our fountains of life will spring our children, our family. Love between husband and wife can be constant and bring fulfillment and contentment all the days of our lives."

The Church leader added if one is denied such blessings in mortality, the promise is that they will be provided for in the world to come.

Pure love presupposes that only after a pledge of eternal fidelity — a legal and lawful ceremony — and ideally after the sealing ordinance of the temple, are those life-giving powers released for the full expression of love.

"It is to be shared only and solely between man and woman, husband and wife, with that one who is our companion forever. On this the gospel is very plain," he said.

President Packer compared the "dreadful influence" of pornography to a plague sweeping across the world, infecting one here and one there and relentlessly trying to invade every home. The effects can be spiritually fatal.

"Pornography will always repel the Spirit of Christ and will interrupt the communications between our Heavenly Father and His children and disrupt the tender relationship between husband and wife."

The priesthood, he assured, can protect one from the plague of pornography. "If one is obedient, the priesthood can show how to break a habit and even erase an addiction. Holders of the priesthood have that authority and should employ it to cast out evil influences."