Verse 45 Our Savior teaches, by the preceding instructions, that a heart of kindness and compassion, and a sincere regard for the welfare and happiness of others, totally diverse from the spirit of unfeeling selfishness which reigns generally in the world, is necessary to prepare us for heaven. By what means past sins were to be remitted, and the human heart formed into the new image which he thus describes, was more fully explained by his apostles, after he had risen. In fact, in all our Savior's conversation and instructions, it seems to have been his design simply to bring this image of moral excellence to view, and to give it a permanent and conspicuous position before mankind. This was a necessary preliminary step. The way was afterwards revealed, through the writings and preaching of the apostles, by which this new spiritual condition was to be attained,--viz., by reliance upon the death of Christ, as an expiation for past sins, and upon the power of the Divine Spirit to work the great change in the desires and tendencies of the soul.