Virtue
The moral purity that invites the Spirit, builds confidence before God, and prepares the soul to see His face.
Moral Excellence and Purity
Virtue is moral excellence — the cleanliness of a soul whose thoughts, desires, and conduct are pure. In its fullest sense virtue is the strength of one who keeps the heart and mind clean, who reverences chastity, and who refuses the defilements of an unholy world. It is not merely the absence of sin but the active beauty of righteousness: a purity that radiates outward from the inner life into every word and deed.
Because virtue begins in the heart, the Lord teaches that purity of thought is its root. What a person cherishes inwardly determines what that person becomes. The Savior taught that defilement does not come merely from outward things but from within, “out of the heart of men.” Virtue, then, is the clean heart from which clean living flows.
This purity of mind and heart is precisely what the Lord requires of those who would draw near to Him. And to those who guard it, He attaches a promise of remarkable power.
Confidence Before God and the Constant Companionship of the Spirit
The Lord ties virtue directly to two of the greatest blessings a disciple can receive: confidence in His presence and the unbroken companionship of the Holy Ghost. In a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, He commands the saint to keep the inner life clean and then unfolds the promise that follows.
“Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth.”
Notice the sequence: virtue must garnish the thoughts unceasingly. This is no occasional discipline but a constant adornment of the mind. And the reward is proportionate — a confidence that “wax[es] strong in the presence of God.” Sin makes a soul shrink and hide, as Adam hid in the garden; virtue lets a soul stand unashamed before its Maker.
The second promise is even more astonishing: the Holy Ghost as a constant companion. The Spirit dwells with the clean. A virtuous mind becomes a fit temple, and the same purity that gives confidence before God also keeps the channel of revelation open day and night.
The Pure in Heart Shall See God
Above every other reward of virtue stands the greatest: those who are pure in heart shall behold God Himself. In the Beatitudes, the Savior declared this with unmistakable clarity.
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
The Psalmist asked the same question that every disciple must ask — who is worthy to ascend into the presence of the Lord? — and the answer he received names virtue as the qualification.
“Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”
Clean hands and a pure heart — outward conduct and inward desire made holy together — are the price of admission to God’s holy place. Virtue is therefore not a peripheral grace but the very condition of beholding the face of the Lord.
We Are to Seek After Virtue
Virtue does not arrive by accident; it must be sought, chosen, and cultivated. The thirteenth Article of Faith makes this pursuit a defining mark of the Latter-day Saint.
“If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”
This language reaches back to the Apostle Paul, who taught the Philippians to fill their minds with whatsoever things are pure — for the mind that dwells on virtue becomes virtuous.
“Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Peter likewise placed virtue near the foundation of a maturing faith, the first quality to be added once a disciple has believed.
“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge.”
To “add” virtue “with all diligence” is to make it a deliberate labor of the soul. We do not drift into purity; we pursue it — guarding the eyes, disciplining the thoughts, and choosing again and again whatsoever things are pure.
The Worth of Virtue Above Rubies
Scripture esteems virtue as a treasure beyond all earthly riches. In describing the woman of noble character, the Proverbs measure her worth not in gold but in the rare strength of her virtue.
“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.”
How precious virtue truly is may be measured by the grief of those who have witnessed its loss. The prophet Mormon, writing to his son Moroni amid the moral ruin of their people, mourned that the destruction of virtue was the gravest of all the sorrows that had befallen them.
“That which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue.”
Spoken in sorrow, the words still proclaim a truth: chastity and virtue are “most dear and precious above all things.” What a prophet grieved to see destroyed, we are called to cherish and protect — for it is a treasure heaven itself esteems above rubies.
The Purity That Prepares Us to See His Face
Gather the witnesses and a single, shining doctrine emerges. Virtue is the moral purity of a clean heart and a chaste mind. It is something we are commanded to seek with all diligence, to add to our faith, and to think upon continually. It is a treasure more precious than rubies — so precious that a prophet wept to see it lost.
And its rewards are nothing less than the presence of God. To the virtuous, the Lord promises confidence that waxes strong before Him and the Holy Ghost as a constant companion. To the pure in heart, He promises clean hands and a pure heart that may ascend His holy hill. And to those who keep their souls clean, He gives the crowning assurance of all scripture: they shall see God.
Let virtue therefore garnish our thoughts unceasingly. It is the purity that invites the Spirit, the confidence that lets us stand unashamed before our Maker, and the clean heart that prepares us, at the last, to look upon His face and not shrink away.