The Worth of Souls

I feel very much, my brethren and sisters, the need of your sustaining faith and the blessings of the Lord, to the end that our time may be occupied profitably during the time that I may stand before you this afternoon. ¶

I thought, while President Smith was talking, of an expressive remark in the Doctrine and Covenants, a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith : "Remember, the worth of souls is great in the sight of God ;" and it occurred to me that this truth is interwoven with the very fabric of "Mormonism," that it is one of the corner stones of the Gospel, that it is a part of the very genius of socalled "Mormonism." For many years the thought was prevalent that man was created for the principal purpose of giving praise to His Maker, that the purpose of the Lord in the creation of man was that he might render praise unto His Maker. While that is a very pleasing and profitable occupation for mankind, yet we are given to understand in modern revelation, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, that praise and prayer are not the chief purposes in the creation of man. We are told, by the Lord : "Behold, this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." We learn in modern revelation of the dignity of the human soul, of its immortality ; also that intelligence, an attribute of spirit, "was not created, neither indeed can be," to use the language ¶

as recorded in the ninety-third section of the Doctrine and Covenants. We learn that we are the spiritual children of God the Eternal Father. Jesus makes this plain in His answer to Mary, who was first at the sepulchre, when He said, "Touch Me not for I have not yet ascended to My Father, but go to My brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Fafher, to My God and your God." He proclaims there, the Master does, the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God ; that we are the children, the 'spiritual children of our Heavenly Father, just as He was the spiritual Son of the Eternal Father. We are told in Psalms that He was the first-born of every creature, meaning, of course, the first-born spiritually, because it would not be true that He was the first-born in the flesh of all the children of our Father, or of all creatures. As He was the spiritual Son of the Eternal Father, so are we the spiritual children of the Eternal Father. We had a birth before coming to this earth-life. Element is now added to spirit, and we are told that "spirit and element inseparably connected receiveth a fulness of joy," and this is one of the purposes of our earth-life, that we might have joy. "Adam fell that man might be, and man is that he might have joy," and that he might eventually have immortality and eternal life. There was no lack of appreciation in the value of human life or in the value of a human soul in that the Savior was permitted, as a part of the divine program, to lay down His life for the redemption of mankind. Some — not of our church and who have not partaken of the light of modern revelation— discuss the question of ¶

whether that divine sacrifice might have been dispensed with, and whether it might not have been so ordered by the Father that the earth life of the Son would not have to be sacrificed. But it was necessary to have the Son lay down His life for the redemption of mankind, to bring about a restoration from the fall that came through Adam. There is significance in the expression of the Savior, "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me." It was necessary, no doubt, that He should suffer just as intensely as He did suffer, that His agony should be such that He sweat great drops of blood. That was an unusual occurrence. There are only a few recorded instances in the annals of history of men so suffering that they actually sweat blood ; but there are a few such instances in addition to that of the Savior where that phenomenon has occurred — men actually sweating blood. Those who hold that it might have been possible, that it might have been just as well for some other program to have been carried out for the redemption of mankind, fail to recognize the fact that God is a God of law and justice. They think because the Father is all-powerful, having the element of omnipotence, that therefore at His will He could have dispensed with the necessity of an atonement ; but we must take into account the fact that the Lord is a Lord of justice, of order and of law, as well as a God of mercy, and that mercy can not rob justice. It is necessary to recognize the harmonies in the attributes of deity. It was by reason of these harmonies existing in the attributes of Deity that it became necessary for the atonement to be made. We realize, as I said a moment ago, how men were drawn to the Savior by reason of that sacrifice, just as the people have been drawn to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and to the testimony for which his blood was shed. It was through no lack of appreciation of the value of life that the Prophet Joseph laid down his life, but it was a necessary and an important event in the development and growth of this work that he should seal his testimony with his blood. He did it cheerfully, and drew men unto him and unto his testimony by that act. The reason for the introduction of the gospel in this dispensation was because of the love the Father has for His children, the fact that their souls are very precious in His sight. The organization, teachings and doctrines of the Church, are to the end that these precious souls, these sparks of divinity, may be brought up aright and saved. ¶

The auxiliary organizations and the various efforts put forth through them recognize the great worth of souls. Our missionaries realize the truth of the revelation to the Prophet Joseph, that "if it so be that you should labor all your clays in crying repentence unto this people and bring save it be one soul unto Me, how great shall be your joy with Him in the kingdom of our Father." If such great joy come by bringing one person only unto Christ, how much greater will be the joy where many souls are brought unto Him. Recognizing the truth of that principle, we are spending each year in our foreign missionary work hundreds of thousands of dollars, — I believe it runs into the millions, counting the value of the time of these two thousand or more missionaries who are abroad proclaiming the truth. ¶

Our Church school system and our work in the temples, recognize the great worth of the human soul, the necessity for its growth, and its progress along right lines. When you consider what it has meant in the Church to convert but one single soul, when we consider the life's work of some of these single converts to the Church, and the great stream of posterity that is ever widening as the years come and go, to be traced to one of those single converts, we realize then how very precious to mankind is a human soul, and how important it is for him to be taught the gospel — faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance from evil, turning away from all sin and entering the Church by baptism and the laying on of hands by one who has authority, that his sins may be wiped out, and that he may become a member of God's Church. I feel, my brethren and sisters, that this work of salvation both at home and abroad is a work that is worthy of the best efforts of all of us. Our temple work, I might add, is based upon the same great truth that the soul is of great worth. Although the person has departed this life, this temple work recognizes the glorious truth that there will be a resurrection, a reuniting of the spirit with the body, and an opportunity given for repentence hereafter. ¶

May the Lord bless us, my brethren and sisters, and enable use to be zealous in this work of saving souls ; may we realize the truth of the revelation to the Prophet that souls are of great worth in the sight of God, and that the thing which will be of most worth unto us will be to declare repentence unto this generation that we may bring souls unto Christ that we may have rest with ¶

them in the kingdom of our Father. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶