what in the world is summum bonum?

Stayed in Doctrine and Covenants 128 today. Man. Tough reading. It's like trying to decipher the modern day version of Isaiah. The level of technical language had to have been very difficult for the 1840's converts to have been able to grasp - these are not college grads in english and law I'm sure. I expect that they are english peasant converts - blacksmiths and the like - who were converted to the Lord. This had to have been hard reading for them.

But the reading wasn't just for them. It contains 1000 shades of depth, to be understood at different levels by the learned and unlearned, by the prepared and unprepared, through generations and centuries. Also I never cease to marvel at the different writing styles. My stuff pretty much sounds the same no matter when I wrote it. I think that's the case for most if not all writers. Joe Smith however, took a hugely different style when he wrote the D&C. It's like a legal old-timer wrote this stuff. And it's not that his writing style changed over the decades - he died a young man. All of his writing took place in a few years.

To me, the last remaining explanation is that he didn't write it - the Lord did. At least the Lord guided Joseph to write the words in the D&C. Mormon, Moroni, Nephi et al wrote the Book of Mormon. Personally, I have to admit I prefer their writing style. Thanks to Joseph to keeping their style intact as he translated.

The summum bonum thing: where did that come from? That must be latin, and something that nobody I know has ever heard of. How did Joseph get the education to start learning latin? I thought he got only a few grades of education. Anyway Joseph - in the future please refrain from using latin on me.

So the summum bonum (just google it) of the whole thing consists of obtaining the powers of the preisthood. Actually it says Holy Priesthood. Why it's capitalized? I'm sure there's meaning in there but it's beyond me right now. Anyway, for whom the keys are given (is that the priesthood or the keys within it? - once again I don't know) there is no difficulty in obtaining a knowledge of facts in relation to the salvation of the children of men...

No difficulty? That's also a very interesting phrase. That tells me that it's not earned. Not through great study, not perhaps even from medium study. So what I'm gathering, and I might be grasping a bit because I'm sure I don't get anywhere near the full depth of this, is that when a person puts themselves in a place where the Lord trusts you to have deeper knowledge, it just comes. Like all other gifts, you didn't earn it, you don't deserve it, you are not and never will be entitled to anything, it's a gift. It comes for free from God. This makes it a "no difficulty" proposition.

This is way over my head. This is what I can gather from it for now, based on where I am. I'm hoping it provides some benefit to you.