When I learned that you bring your scriptures to devotionals, the promise of the Lord came to mind that by studying the scriptures “you can testify that you have heard my voice, and know my words.”[1]
He also said, “What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken . . . Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.”[2]
Do we realize what marvelous blessings only we enjoy? No one else in all the world can claim the blessing of hearing the voice of the Risen Lord through the scriptures of the Restoration and from the lips of His living prophets.
When we accept and live the gospel, we have a great desire to change and improve our character. We want to be like the Master, and love that which the Lord loves. The Lord loves the scriptures and he loves His prophets. His earthly ministry was scripturally-based in two wonderful ways. He taught from the recorded word of God and He was the Word of God and the greatest of all the prophets.
John Taylor’s inspired statement after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum emphasized the importance of the scriptures of the Restoration to the work of this final dispensation: “The reader in every nation will be reminded that the Book of Mormon, and this book of Doctrine and Covenants of the church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world.”[3] I suggest you read President Boyd K. Packer’s Conference addresses in the November 1982, and May 1990 Ensigns to see the Lord’s hand in bringing forth the new Latter-day Saint Edition of the scriptures.
May we study, listen, and hear the voice of the Good Shepherd “who giveth his life for his sheep” and who said “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”[4] We do hear His voice by the Spirit as we study and ponder the scriptures and as we heed the counsel of the living prophets. I pray that the scriptures may bring us closer to Him and increase our capacity to love one another as He has loved us.
I will speak today about charity which “is the pure love of Christ.”[5] The charity about which I speak is not restricted to helping the needy or being kind. The charity of which I speak is a divine love which fills the heart and soul and moves one to obey and act and serve and love as Jesus did. Having charity means we love those things which the Lord loves with a pure and perfect love. I will rely on the scriptures and the words of the prophets to help us understand what charity is, and how we can develop it in our own lives.
Love is a divine attribute of God. Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus testified that “my Father is greater than I”[6] and that He did the things He saw His Father do. Consequently, Jesus developed His pure love through the loving example and tutelage of Heavenly Father.
As the Father loved me, so have I loved you. . .
If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.[7]
We are commanded to do the same because God loves all His children and desires their eternal happiness.
The gospel of Jesus Christ empowers us, by ordinances, gifts, and obedience, to become perfect in character and holy as the Father and the Son are holy. This process is sometimes called the “power of godliness”. Possessing charity and having it possess us is an essential attribute of the divine nature. It is a spiritual gift, a heavenly endowment. The essence of the Father’s plan of salvation and eternal happiness is the development of a godly character in His children. To understand what that means we must first consider the Father’s divine love.
When Phillip asked the Lord to “shew us the Father” Jesus said “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”[8] The Beloved Son’s perfect life and ministry among men revealed God’s divine nature, holy character and His perfect love to the Israelites and to us. Jesus said, “I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”[9]
As God is endless and eternal so “God is love.”[10] His eternal plan is an expression of the perfect love of Heavenly Father for His children. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”[11]
We learn from the scriptures that the love of parents for their children is sometimes like a two-edged sword which brings both great joy and intense sorrow. That is especially true when agency is involved. We see evidence of that in Father Lehi’s family. We also see the evidence of God’s love for His children as His plan unfolded in mortality. Enoch beheld the loving God of heaven weeping because of the wickedness and rebellion of His wayward children.[12]
Elder Melvin J. Ballard helped us to understand the personal anguish and great love of God as He watched His Beloved Son suffer and atone:
Father looked on with great grief and agony over His Beloved Son, until there seems to have come a moment when even our Savior cried out in despair: 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ In that hour I think I can see our dear Father behind the veil looking upon these dying struggles until even He could not endure it any longer; and . . . so He bowed His head and hid in some part of His universe, His great heart almost breaking for the love that He had for His Son. Oh, in that moment when He might have saved His Son, I thank Him and praise Him that He did not fail us, for He had not only the love of His Son in mind, but He also had love for us. I rejoice that He did not interfere, and that His love for us made it possible for Him to endure to look upon the sufferings of His Son and give Him finally to us, our Saviour and our Redeemer.[13]
Some say that love is the most powerful force in the universe. The love manifested by both the Father and the Son during the atoning sacrifice is evidence of that truth. Now that we have considered the perfect love of God, as reflected in His great plan, and in the life and sacrifice of His Beloved Son, let us turn our attention to Jesus Christ.
Charity is a word which represents the love of the Son of God. Mormon defined charity as the “pure love of Christ”. He also referred to charity as “perfect love” and “everlasting love.”[14] Alma referred to it as “redeeming love.”[15]
It is this perfect love which actuated the ministry, suffering, death and resurrection of the Holy Messiah. Because of His love for the Father, Jesus was perfectly obedient to His will and said, “I do always those things that please Him.”[16] It was the Son’s love for His Father and for mankind which moved Him in the heavenly council to say “Here am I, send me”[17] and ages later in the agony of Gethsemane to utter “nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.”[18]
Moroni defined this love as charity when he said to the Lord:
I remember that thou hast said that thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world. . .
And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity.[19]
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel of love and He and His Father are the personification of love. If we are to become like them, pure love must possess us. The Lord commanded us to “Love one another as I have loved you.”[20] President Ezra Taft Benson instructed us: “If we would truly seek to be more like our Savior and Master, then learning to love as He loves should be our highest goal.”[21]
President David O. McKay said that we radiate to others what we really are. In the scriptures, we get a sense of the power of the divine love which radiated from the Savior. In the Book of Mormon, it was not fear but love which moved the saints to fall “down at the feet of the Resurrected Jesus and worship Him.”[22] They had been touched by the pure love of the Divine Redeemer. A similar thing occurred when the Lord appeared to the valiant saints in the Spirit World while His body was in the tomb. They rejoiced in His presence and in their redemption and “Their countenances shone, and the radiance from the presence of the Lord rested upon them.”[23]
President George F. Richards of the Quorum of the Twelve was touched by the Lord’s love in a dream:
The Lord has revealed to me, by dreams, something more than I ever understood or felt before about the love for God and the love for fellow men . . . I had a dream, which I am sure was from the Lord. In this dream I was in the presence of my Savior as he stood in mid-air. He spoke no word to me, but my love for him was such that I have not words to explain. I know that no mortal man can love the Lord as I experienced that love for the Savior unless God reveals it unto him. . . . As a result of that dream I had this feeling, that no matter what might be required at my hands . . I would do what I should be asked to do, even to the laying down of my life . . . If only I can be with my Savior and have that same sense of love that I had in that dream, it will be the goal of my existence, the desire of my life.[24]
The effect of these supernal personal experiences with the Son of God, and the pure love of Christ which they felt, was overwhelming to them. Could dwelling in His presence be a partial realization of Paul’s statement that “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him?”[25]
Understanding the wonder of this pure love, we may ask how one develops charity. The gospel is the process and power by which the saints may obtain a Christlike character and “dwell in the presence of God and His Christ forever and ever.”[26] Mormon taught the importance of God’s assistance in becoming like Jesus Christ:
Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.[27]
We learn from that scripture that charity is a gift which God bestows on members of the Church of Jesus Christ that they may become like Him. The Doctrine and Covenants is very clear about the necessity and power of priesthood ordinances which aid us in our quest to obtain eternal life and become perfect “even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.”[28]
That process of perfection is implied in this scripture:
And this greater [Melchizedek] priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God.
Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest.
And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh;
For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live.[29]
Thus we realize that to develop a divine character we need to receive the bestowed aid of the Father including the exalting ordinances of the gospel. The Lord said He gave those who received his gospel “power to become my sons.”[30]
In addition to the ordinances, we must also live a life of self-mastery and continual repentance which moves us toward perfection by “denying yourselves of all ungodliness” and loving “God with all your might, mind and strength.”[31] By doing these things we are truly converted and are filled with the pure love of Christ.
There is a relationship between love and joy. The Spirit taught Nephi that the love of God was “most desirable above all things . . . and the most joyous to the soul.”[32] The Risen Lord taught the same principle as He promised the Three Nephites that “your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father.”[33]
The Christlike attributes listed in Preach My Gospel are faith, hope, charity and love, virtue, knowledge, patience, humility, diligence, and obedience. They are all to become a part of our nature, of our eternal character. The acquisition of all of them seems to be part of the process of enduring to the end. Yet, as the prophets have taught, acquiring the attribute of charity or pure or perfect love is a key to that process. It enables us to develop the other attributes. With that perspective, Paul wrote that if he spoke with the tongues of angels and had the gift of prophesy and had faith to move mountains “and have not charity, I am nothing.”[34]
The attributes of the Savior comprise his divine character with charity being its central feature. “The reason charity is greater than even the most significant acts of goodness . . . is that charity, ‘the pure love of Christ’ is not an act but a condition or state of being” wrote Elder Dallin H. Oaks. “Charity is attained through a succession of acts that result in conversion. Charity is something one becomes.”[35]
We have now been reminded that God is love and that Jesus Christ possesses that same pure and perfect love. His gospel has the atonement as its central feature – which sacrifice was the single greatest act of love in the history of mankind. We know that the Father’s plan and the Son’s atonement, which are great evidences of their love for us, are primarily focused on bringing immortality and eternal life to all men and women. We also know that the perfection of man and his acquisition of the divine character including attributes of godliness are bestowed, by the grace of God, through gospel ordinances and righteous living. Let us now consider some of the evidences of charity to be seen in the lives of the faithful saints.
First, we must have charity to keep the two great commandments and to love God with all our hearts and souls and minds as the Savior did. President Gordon B. Hinckley provided this wonderful insight into why loving God first is so important to keeping all other commandments:
Love of God is basic. It is the very foundation of true worship . . . It leads to obedience to the second great commandment, love of neighbor . . . [Love] is of the very essence of our faith . . . To love the Lord is not just counsel. It is the first and great commandment incumbent upon each of us because love of God is the root from which spring all other types of love; love of God is the root of all virtue, of all goodness, of all strength of character, of all fidelity to do right.[36]
Second, to have charity is to love Jesus Christ so profoundly that we become like Him. Those who have charity and are converted become “partakers of the divine nature”[37] so that “Christ liveth in [them]”. This means that “Christ [is] formed in you”[38] and that one attains “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”[39] The Lord outlined the path to a Christlike character clearly for the Nephites saying, “Ye know the things ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do.”[40]
Elder Melvin J. Ballard recounted a manifestation in this regard where he was embraced by the Savior and felt his love grow:
He put His arms around me and kissed me, as He took me into His bosom, and He blessed me until my whole being was thrilled . . . with deep joy swelling through my whole being, I felt that I was in heaven indeed. The feeling that came to my heart then was: Oh if I could live worthy . . . so that in the end when I have finished I could go into His presence and receive the feeling that I then had in His presence, I would give everything that I am and ever hope to be.[41]
Third, those who have charity love the Lord’s anointed servants, the First Presidency and the Twelve, and “give heed unto the words of these twelve whom I have chosen from among you to minister unto you, and to be your servants.”[42] They know that “he that receiveth my servants receiveth me”[43] Those with charity pray for the Brethren for they know that they are to be “upheld by the confidence, faith, and prayer of the church.”[44]
If we have charity we love the Prophet Joseph Smith “who has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it.”[45] Charity moves us to love the Prophet Joseph of whom Brigham Young said, “Jesus Christ excepted, no better man ever lived or does live upon this earth.”[46]
Fourth, those who have charity love their neighbor. Charity is to realize that the all-seeing Lord truly considers our acts of neighborly service and love as demonstrations of our personal love for Him. Elder Bruce R. McConkie told this story:
My grandmother Emma McConkie was a widow at the time she was president of the Moab Relief Society. A nonmember who opposed the Church had married a Mormon girl. They had several children . . . and a new baby. They were very poor and Mother was going day by day to care for the child and to take them baskets of food. Mother herself was ill. One day she returned home especially tired and weary. She slept in her chair. She dreamed she was bathing a baby which she discovered was the Christ Child. She thought, ‘Oh what a great honor to thus serve the very Christ!’ As she held the baby in her lap she was all but overcome . . . Unspeakable joy filled her whole being . . . Her joy was so great it awakened her . . . and these words were spoken to her, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Now I think the Lord first tried her faith. When she had proved worthy by manifesting that charity which never faileth, he gave her a glimpse within the veil.[47]
Fifth, if we have have charity we love our husband or wife in perfect fidelity and purity and “with all thy heart, and . . . cleave unto her and none else.”[48] We make any sacrifice necessary that we might enter into “the new and everlasting covenant of marriage.”[49] Those with charity multiply and replenish the earth through the sacred and godly power of procreation in spite of worldly intolerance and opposition.
President Boyd K. Packer said of marital love:
Participation in the mating process offers an experience like nothing else in life. When entered into worthily, it combines the most exquisite and exalted physical, emotional, and spiritual feelings associated with the word love . . . That part of life has no equal, no counterpart, in all human experience. It will, when covenants are made and kept, last eternally.[50]
President Spencer W. Kimball gave these two examples of marital love:
For many years, I saw a strong man carry his tiny, emaciated, arthritic wife to meetings and wherever she could go. There could be no sexual expression. Here was selfless indication of affection. I think that is pure love. I saw a kindly woman wait on her husband for many years as he deteriorated with muscular dystrophy. She waited on him hand and foot, night and day, when all he could do was blink his eyes in thanks. I believe that was love.[51]
Sixth, if we have have charity we lead our families in love so that “the Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.”[52]
Those who have charity do what the Savior did for the human family when for their sakes He sanctified himself that “they also might be sanctified through the truth.”[53]
Next, if we have have charity we are pure in heart and to “be purified even as Christ is pure.” (Moroni 7: 48, emphasis added). For “the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart” (1 Timothy 1: 5). Charity is to “ascend unto the hill of the Lord” and “to stand in his holy place” (Psalms 24:3) for “all the pure in heart that shall come into [the temple] shall see God” (Doctrine and Covenants 97:16).
Eighth, those possessed with charity are saviors on Mount Zion for their deceased relatives. The work of salvation for the dead is one of the greatest evidences of God’s love for all of His children. President Gordon B. Hinckley recognized temple work as a labor of love:
Most of the work done in this sacred house is performed vicariously in behalf of those who have passed beyond the veil of death. I know of no other work to compare with it. It more nearly approaches the vicarious sacrifice of the Son of God in behalf of all mankind than any other work of which I am aware (Ensign, March 1993).
Next, those who have charity obey the Savior’s command to “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:43-45). A wonderful example of this is the missionary work of the sons of Mosiah among the Lamanites who had “an eternal hatred towards the children of Nephi” (Mosiah 10:17). The sons of Mosiah labored,
That perhaps they might bring them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and convince them of the iniquity of their fathers; and that perhaps they might cure them of their hatred towards the Nephites, that they might also be brought to rejoice in the Lord their God, that they might become friendly to one another (Mosiah 28:1-2).
In 1946 President George F. Richards of the Twelve recounted a dream in which he and other brethren were surrounded by armed German soldiers led by Adolph Hitler who seemed to be preparing to execute them. Then, the circumstances quickly changed and the Germans were surrounded by the brethren. President Richards approached Hitler and said, “I am your brother. You are my brother. In our heavenly home we lived together in love and peace. Why can we not so live here on the earth?” He felt a brotherly love for Hitler that the German dictator reciprocated. They embraced. President Richards said, “I think the Lord gave me that dream. Why should I dream of this man, one of the greatest enemies of mankind, and one of the wickedest, but that the Lord should teach me that I must love my enemies, and I must love the wicked as well as the good?” (Conference Report, October 1946).
We should love service as did He who was the greatest among us and the Servant of all. Elder Dallin H. Oaks explained the connection between service and charity:
Even the most extreme acts of service — such as giving all of our goods to feed the poor — profit us nothing unless our service is motivated by the pure love of Christ. If our service is to be most efficacious, it must be accomplished for the love of God and the love of his children (Ensign, November, 1984).
President Marion G. Romney said: “Service is not something we endure on this earth so we can earn the right to live in the celestial kingdom. Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom is made. . . Service is what godhood is all about” (Ensign, June 1984, p.3). When we serve as the Master did, we do so less as a duty and more as a joyous opportunity to serve and help others.
Loving truth as the Lord does means that we will love the principle of repentance,
For behold, the Lord your Redeemer . . . suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him . . . And he hath risen from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance. And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth! (Doctrine and Covenants 18:11-13).
How understandable it is that the Lord, who paid an infinite and eternal and incomprehensible price to rescue the sinner, would have joy when one embraces His sacrifice by repentance. The parable of the Prodigal Son portrays that truth in such a personal and beautiful way.
Again, if we have have charity we love those things mentioned in the 13th Article of Faith: “We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men . . . If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things” (Articles of Faith:13).
The Latter-day Saints are to be pure as the Lord is pure and love virtue, and righteousness and truth and goodness as the Lord does. He instructed, that “Zion must increase in beauty, and in holiness . . . yea, verily I say unto you, Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments” (Doctrine and Covenants 82:14).
Also, if we have charity we have “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) and “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). Charity is to “Sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:68, emphasis added). We obtain the mind of Christ by personal revelation and as it is declared by the living prophets and the scriptures.
Those with charity will be numbered among the people of Zion who “were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness” (Moses 7:18). Having charity is to realize the prayer of the Master that the saints “may all be one; as thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21).
Again, if we have have charity we are submissive to the will of God. King Benjamin taught his people to become “a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, . . . full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19).
For true followers of the Lamb of God, The Savior’s words of submissive obedience ring loudly in our ears, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).
If we have charity we love virtue and are pure in thought and “Look unto me in every thought” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:36) and “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:45). Charity means that we “Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Those who have charity gladly receive correction and chastisement from the Lord and His servants and repent as Proverbs states: “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth” (Proverbs 3:11-12). Even at times of divine correction, how reassuring it is to know that our omniscient Heavenly Father cares enough to chastise and correct us out of his perfect love for us.
In conclusion, may our understanding of charity help us prepare for eternal life. Elder Neal A. Maxwell said:
The living Church helps us to do and to be that which is needed for admission to the upper realms of God’s celestial kingdom. Certain things are essential in order for us to obtain eternal life. Developing charity is clearly just as essential for admission to the upper realms of the celestial kingdom as is baptism! We are to be more than merely nice; rather, we are to be ‘full of love’ (If Thou Endure It Well:32-34).
May the words of Moroni ring in our ears: “And except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God” (Moroni 10:21). May we follow Mormon’s counsel to “pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love” (Moroni 7:48).
President David O. McKay related this dream which he had while in the Pacific Islands:
I then fell asleep, and beheld in vision something infinitely sublime. In the distance I beheld a beautiful white city . . . I then saw a great concourse of people approaching the city. Each one wore a white flowing robe, and a white headdress. Instantly my attention seemed centered upon their Leader, and though I could see only the profile of his features and his body, I recognized him at once as my Savior! The tint and radiance of his countenance were glorious to behold! There was a peace about him which seemed sublime – it was divine! The city, I understood, was his. It was the City Eternal; and the people following him were to abide there in peace and eternal happiness. But who were they? As if the Savior read my thoughts, he answered by pointing to a semicircle that then appeared above them, and on which were written in gold the words: ‘These Are They Who Have Overcome The World - Who Have Truly Been Born Again!’ (Cherished Experiences from the Writings of President David O. McKay, p. 102)
I pray that we may live to obtain charity and develop a Christlike character that when he appears we shall be like him and be filled with pure love and a fulness of joy (Moroni 7:48).
I thank the Living God for the flood of truth which is the restored gospel including His never failing love, patience, and for His Beloved Son who is the head of the Church. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Doctrine and Covenants 18:36
[2] Doctrine and Covenants 1:38
[3] Doctrine and Covenants 135:6
[4] John 10:11, 27
[5] Moroni 7:47
[6] John 14:28
[7] John 15:9-10
[8] John 14:8-9
[9] John 14:10
[10] 1 John 4:16
[11] John 3:16
[12] Moses 7:28, 37
[13] (Melvin J. Ballard, Crusader for Righteousness, pp. 135-37
[14] Moroni 8:17
[15] Alma 5:26
[16] John 14:29
[17] Abraham 3:27
[18] Luke 22:42
[19] Ether 12:33-34
[20] John 15:12
[21] Ensign, November 1986
[22] 3 Nephi 11:17
[23] Doctrine and Covenants 138:24
[24] Conference Report, October 1946
[25] 1 Corinthians 2:9
[26] Doctrine and Covenants 76:62
[27] Moroni 7:48
[28] 3 Nephi 12:48
[29] Doctrine and Covenants 84:19-22
[30] Doctrine and Covenants 39:4
[31] Moroni 10:32
[32] 1 Nephi 11:22-23
[33] 3 Nephi 28:10
[34] 1 Corinthians 13:2
[35] With Full Purpose of Heart, p. 42
[36] Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, 318-319
[37] 2 Peter 1:4
[38] Galatians 2-4
[39] Ephesians 4:13
[40] 3 Nephi 27:21
[41] Melvin J. Ballard, Crusader for Righteousness, p. 66
[42] 3 Nephi 12:1
[43] Doctrine and Covenants 84:36
[44] Doctrine and Covenants 107:22
[45] Doctrine and Covenants 135:3
[46] Discourses of Brigham Young, 459
[47] Sermons and Writings of Bruce R. McConkie, p. 388
[48] Doctrine and Covenants 42:22
[49] Doctrine and Covenants 131:2
[50] The Things of the Soul, p. 107
[51] The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 245
[52] Doctrine and Covenants 121:46
[53] John 17:19