Certainty of the resurrection — Easter an improper

In presenting myself before you, and attempting to speak to you, I ask your faith and prayers in my ¶

behalf. With you I have listened with much interest and pleasure to the remarks of our President. He has given us the keynote of love and good will to one another, and asked us to perform the duties that devolve upon us, and I believe that we all feel to respond to this exhortation. ¶

The song that we have just listened to, "He is Risen," was very appropriate, as this is Easter Sunday, which we celebrate in memory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was a happy message that came to the world through this event, the resurrection, that Jesus had conquered death and had come forth out of the grave. ¶

The resurrection, the central fact of our faith, has been doubted by a great many, and yet He was seen by His apostles and some of His disciples, and by as many as five hundred at one time. To us there is no doubt about the resurrection. We feel grateful to believe and know that Christ did rise from the dead, that He laid down His life, of Himself, and was able to take it again, and thereby give us the hope, the assurance, that resurrection will come to all of us. ¶

Last Thursday night was celebrated in memory of His instituting the Holy Sacrament ; Friday we commemorated His crucifixion, and today, the first day of the week, we celebrate His resurrection. He rose from the grave, the crowning act of redemption, and thus finished the great mission given Him by His Heavenly Father. It was at the Jewish Passover that this great event occurred. Here in America, and in England, we call it Easter: in German v they call it Ostem. Both the English and the Germans have named this sacred festival after a heathen goddess. How much better ¶

it would have been to have kept the old name, or a derivation of it, as in other lands, for instance in Scandinavia, where it is called Paaske, instead of a name that has no foundation upon holiness. Easter is one of the variable feasts. Among Christian nations it has been thought best to celebrate it at a time when the feast would include Thursday. Friday and Sunday. In the early days the Christians, like the Jews, celebrated it on a certain day of the month, but this has been changed to the present custom. ¶

I consider that this day brings to us more joy than the commemoration of any other event that has happened in the world. The Passover was instituted to remember that a number of the children of Israel were saved from death by obeying a certain command of God. namely, that of sprinkling the blood on the door posts ; then the angel of death passed over, and the first-born in the families of the Israelites was spared, while among the Egyptians, and those who did not obey this command, the first-born was stricken with death. The Passover that we commemorate today is of much greater importance. While the old Passover commemorated the saving of a few. our Passover commemorates the victory over death, the bringing of life unto the w hole human race. Every son or daughter of Adam is benefited by this great event, because the resurrection will come to all. Jesus voluntarily gave His life for us. and by doing so redeemed us from the effects of the fall. How grateful and thankful we ought to be to Him. ¶

Tn the morning of the day that He rose from the dead. He was seen bv some of the faithful women that believed in ITim. and by some of the apostles. On the same day He joined two disciples going to Emmaus, who were very much concerned about what had taken place. Then, ''beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them" the scriptures concerning Himself, proving that Christ should suffer and rise again. Afterwards, in telling about His speaking to them, they said that their hearts burned within them. They had not understood the great mission that He was to perform. That evening His apostles had gathered in a room with closed doors, and as they were talking He appeared in their midst. All but Thomas were present ; ten of them saw Him, felt of Him, and rejoiced that the Master was again with them. Next Sunday, Thomas, the doubter, seeing Jesus, was convinced that He had risen. After this Jesus met with the Apostles at Lake Gennesaret. They received instructions from Him there, and Peter was called to be the shepherd over His flock. ¶

While His body lay in the grave we are told that He went to the spirits in prison, and preached unto them. Luther in his little catechism said that Jesus went down to hell, and on the third day rose from the dead. Peter informs us of what He did during the time that He was in the spirit-world. The word "hell," as it occurs in the New Testament, has been translated from three different words : Gehenna, Hades, and Tartarus. Whenever the word "Gehenna" is used it always means a place of torture, conveying the real meaning of the word "hell" to us. The other word is "Llades," which could have been translated better perhaps by the compound word "spirit-world." The Greeks understood the word to mean the realm of ¶

Pluto, or the place for the shades of departed ones, and in the latter sense it is used in the scriptures. We read in the Bible that "death and hell" should give up their dead, and in the Book of Mormon we read a similar statement. Hell does not mean the place of torture to which the wicked will be assigned at the great judgment, though those who have been wicked, and transgressed the law here, are not apt to be very happy in the spirit-world. ¶

Many people deny that the spirit lives, and can think and act between death and the resurrection. They who hold this opinion quote what the preacher says in the Book of Ecclesiastes, that "the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything ;" and in another verse in the same chapter he says, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do. do with all thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." And so they conclude that spirit and body sleep in the grave untij the day of resurrection. Not long ago I read a tract upon this subject in which the author ridiculed the idea of the spirits going to the spirit-world, and he declared that there is no such thing as a human spirit. Now, what did the preacher mean? Did he mean that the spirit and the body lay in the grave slumbering, and hence there is "no knowledge, no wisdom, in the grave" and that "the dead knownot anything?" No, I firmly believe that he alluded o'nly to the body : the body is laid in the grave and it does not know anything, for the part of man that knows, thinks and wills, has left. And that this was really his meaning I take from another of his sayings : "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the ¶

spirit shall return unto God that gave it." Now, this is said by the same man who wrote the above quotations, which are used so often against the doctrine of an intermediate state between death and the resurrection. He declares that the spirit shall return to God who gave it ; consequently, he could not have included the spirit in his statement that "the dead know not anything;" he alluded to that part only that was laid in the grave. ¶

Alma is very plain on the subject of an intermediate state. He tells us that the spirits of the righteous go to a place in the spirit-world called Paradise, a place of joy and happiness ; and that the wicked go to a place by themselves also, where thev are suffering in the knowledge of the judgment that is coming. Now, when Jesus' spirit left His body, it went to Hades, but I believe it went to Paradise first, for He said to the repentant thief upon the cross, "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise." No doubt He went there, and first of all informed those who had served God and been righteous, and whose day of resurrection perhaps was near, of what he had been able to accomplish, that He had fulfilled His mission, had overcome death, and thereby brought the hope to all that they should be resurrected. After this, He went on the glorious mission to preach to the spirits in prison, those who at one time were disobedient, and had rejected the gospel preached by Noah. His mission was to proclaim liberty to the captives, open the prison doors to them that were bound. He read from the scroll handed to Him in the synagogue at Nazareth — the first verses of the 61st chapter of Isaiah — and they describe His own mission, and allude to the work He was to perform. He brought joy to thousands who had so long been confined, and had suffered for their rejection of the gospel. ¶

When He was resurrected, Mary discovered that He was the Master, and wanted to worship Him, but He told her not to touch Him for He had not yet been with the Father. We understand where He had been and the work He had done, for His. mission was not only to the few that heard Him on earth, but to all both living and dead ; He said Himself, "the hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall hear His voice." His mission was for all that should come upon the earth, and to all of them He brought release from the bands of death, and He bestowed on all the precious blessing of the resurrection. But the resurrection will not be the same to all. for they who have done good will come forth unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil will come forth unto the resurrection of damnation. This we are told in the words of the Savior Himself. ¶

Now, we rejoice here today in dwelling upon this great event. We feel that it was true, what the Prophet Joseph received by revelation and gave to us concerning the resurrection and salvation for the dead. This doctrine gives a satisfactory explanation of the justice of God. If it be true, what many in the world believe, that only the few that hear the doctrine of Christ and receive it should be saved, and that all the other myriads who come upon the earth should be condemned, because they had not heard His name, then it looks very unjust. But when we remember what Peter says, that the dead should hear the Gospel, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, we begin to understand the justice of God. The Gospel will be preached to all ; every one shall hear of the Mission of Christ, and shall have a chance either to receive or reject, whether living upon the earth or whether they have departed. How broad is the platform of salvation ! The Lord is just to all, and no one coming before His judgment seat shall be able to say that he has not been dealt with justly. ¶

Now. brethren and sisters, I see the time allotted is past. I rejoice to be with you ; I rejoice in the Gospel as preached to us; I rejoice in the restoration of the Gospel and in knowing that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. May the Lord bless us all, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶