The standard of truth has been erected; No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done.
Prophet Joseph Smith, " The Standard of Truth", History of the Church, Vol. 4
We are beginning to see in today's world the frequency of all of those negative forces, that Joseph Smith mentions, increase. Unhallowed hands are everywhere we look. Unhallowed means lacking reverance, irreligious, and even evil. I'm certain that unhallowed can be seen in any direction.
We see persecutions, we definitely see mobs. We may not be invaded by assembling armies in this country, but we will. And there will be people to defend us, both temporally and spiritually.
And then there's calumny. What is calumny? Calumny is "misrepresentations maliciously calculated to harm another's reputation". Can that be seen in the world?
Most definitely. Especially in today's elevated social temperature of not wanting to offend someone to such an extreme, that an assumption is automatically made that the supposed "offending" party is completely guilty, and thereby ruining that person's reputation, even if it is later discovered that the claims were false. The damage has already been done.
Even with all of this negativity happening everywhere one turns his or her gaze, that will not stop the work, the truth, or the power of God from penetrating every single gap in this world. It is so comforting to know that our Heavenly Father has no rival equal in majesty, in love, in peace, in power that can thwart Him or His work. Nobody or nothing can stop Him. The truth of His gospel, His plan, will absolutely happen as we are told it will.
The only question that each of us needs to ask ourselves is, where will we be standing when the Great Jehovah says, "The work is done!"?