The Celestial Kingdom and Faithfulness to the Full Gospel

(President of the Northwestern States Mission.) ¶

I observe unrest in the world, among the most learned men who themselves are nevertheless deeply concerned in trying to find out God and his ways. It is illustrated in some publications that have appeared during the present year, and that are attracting wide attention, such books as God, the Invisible King, written by Mr. H. G. Wells, ¶

one of England's foremost writers, a book attacking the old sectarian notions of God, and seeking to find out a new kind of being, arguing in favor of a personal God, and yet eliminating from the godhead both God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. When I observe this unrest and witness such exhibitions on the part of learned men, my heart swells with deep gratitude for the testimony that I have of the true and living God and the knowledge that I have concerning his ways and his requirements. And when I look at this pathetic scene, I feel more thankful for this testimony than for anything else in the world. To me it is above all price. I realize that I must exhibit a sympathy towards men and women of this character who have not been as fortunate as I have, and I am sure that God will extend to them mercy if they are honest in their searches for truth. All who seek in earnestness for truth will ultimately be led to discover it. ¶

I find not only in the world, but to quite an extent among us Latter-day Saints, a disposition to live only in part the teachings of the wonderful system which we thoroughly believe to be true. We have not the courage nor faith to adopt all, but live up to that part of the gospel which pleases us, or that part which we adopt. We have an idea that if we are faithful in one or two of the principles of the gospel it will suffice. Frequently it is said that all roads lead to heaven, and whether you are a good Methodist, or a good "Mormon" or a good Jew, it makes little difference, but as long as you do good you are along that road, and that ultimately all these roads lead to the same goal. ¶

Now it is true that every man who does good, so far he is led towards the kingdom of God ; but the difficulty is that some of us will only be able to get about a third of the way there, some will only get half way, and a great many will only get two-thirds. How many will get all the way to the kingdom of God? For whosoever enters in will have come up by the straight and narrow way, and they will be those who come up to the complete requirements of the law and comply with that law in its fullest extent, for they, and they alone will enter in; for, as I say, "straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to eternal life, and few there be that find it." The gospel is, nevertheless, very broad in its provisions, for it can care for all of those several classes. Even those who go a part of the distance will be provided for. You Latter-day Saints will recall Paul's description of the kingdoms that the Father hath provided for all his children of various grades ; and in that wonderful vision to the Prophet Joseph Smith the Lord has made it plain to us just what are those great divisions about which Paul speaks. The Latter-day Saints will recall that there is one glorious place, the highest of all, to which all souls may possibly attain, the celestial kingdom, where God and Christ live, whose glory Paul has said was like unto the glory of the sun. Now we are informed in the revelations of the Lord todav that whosoever shall attain unto this glory must keep all the commandments of God. You remember the advice which Peter gave concerning what, in addition to repentance, baptism and the laying on of hands, should be necessary ; that men ¶

should add unto their faith virtue and godliness, and brotherly kindness, and charity, and so on. All these requirements were essential, It does not mean that a man who is baptized into this Church has any sure guaranty that he is going to the celestial kingdom of God. Not at all. ¶

A man who is honest with his neighbor and with the Lord and with his fellows, has done well so far ; and yet his honesty will not take him all the way. Likewise a man who has been baptized and has repented of his sins, and is dishonest, after he has repented ; he will never come into the kingdom of God until he is honest to the very core, heart and soul. A man who goes to meeting and says long prayers and yet returns home to lose his temper and abuse his wife and berate his loved ones will never get into the kingdom of God until he learns to control his unruly temper. The very best of us will need a probationary state to finish the work of preparation to go into the presence of the Father. If we do not do it here, just as sure as we live we will have to do it hereafter, and many of us may lose the chance and the opportunity of doing it hereafter. I don't interpret the parable of the Savior to mean that the men who came in the eleventh hour was to get the identical privileges and blessings with the man who came the first hour, only provided that he who appeared at the eleventh hour was accepting his first chance, his first opportunity. He did not come around the first hour, and go away, and say, I will come back after a while and see if there is still a job for me. No, when he appeared at the eleventh hour, it was his first opportunity, and he seized it, and the Lord could not other than give him the privileges that the man who came the first hour received. And yet, the man who went in at the first hour would be a more experienced gardener than the man who went in at the eleventh hour. The man who goes in at the eleventh hour would have a disadvantage so far as opportunities are concerned over the man who from childhood had kept the commandments and grown up to the opportunities of the gospel all his life. He will stand far in the lead of those who are so unfortunate as not to find the door until they are old. And yet, the way is open to them to come, even in old age, and attain unto all the privileges of the gospel. They must follow in the wake of those who preceded them. I don't understand that the "Mormon" doctrine, announced by President Lorenzo Snow, and so often quoted by us : "As God is man may become, and as man is God once was," means that all men are going to become what God is, not by any manner of means. It is possible they may become ; yes, when men keep and obey the fulness of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. ¶

I understand, my brethren and sisters, this great scheme of our Father contemplates that the privilege of gaining celestial glory has been extended to nearly all of his children. There are a very few in the world who are barred from all the privileges. Evidently according to the revelations of the Lord, those races and divisions existing among us now, existed before we came into this world, and some had failed to carry out the will of God and to conform to his plans in their former life to prove themselves worthy to receive the highest ¶

of privileges, namely, salvation in the celestial kingdom of our God. But the great majority of our Father's children have yet reserved unto them the right, if they live the principles, to gain an exaltation, with its glories and privileges. But I am satisfied of the fact that those only who gain a celestial glory will ever become what God is, for there are privileges that belong to that glory and exaltation that do not belong to any other. We are advised that there are those who, failing to reach the celestial kingdom, will find themselves only fitted and qualified and prepared to enter into the terrestrial glory, which glory Paul has described as like unto the moon ; and then still others who, failing in that, those who lie, and steal, and who commit adultery, and who repent not of it in this life and who fail to fulfil their privileges in this life — even they in the world to come, through repentance, may find a place in the telestial glory, which is likened unto the glory of the stars. And only a few indeed, the sons of perdition, shall be lost and be without some kingdom of God, and be turned over to go out with the devil and his angels. When the Lord wanted to punish Cain, he put a mark upon him, and said. Whosoever will look upon you will say, Here is the murderer of his brother. He would not shut him up in some den or cave of the earth, and shield him from the gaze of his fellows. And when Cain realized the torture of his sentence, he said, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." When the sons of perdition shall be turned over to the devil and his angels, to mingle with the billions of spirits, for there will be billions of them, what a distinguishing mark for those who are ¶

participators in that punishment, to go out among the devil and his angels, with resurrected bodies, to be a laughing stock and byword in that realm of the damned. Talk about hell, the meanest punishment imaginable will be that which will come to them who will have to bear the shame and the contempt which will be heaped upon them. ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, what is your aim ? To which place do you desire to go? How earnest are you in this struggle? How much are you willing to live of this precious gospel ? Is your mark fixed for the celestial glory, or the telestial glory, the lowest place ? Is that your ambition ? Do you imagine that by living a terrestrial law you will attain the celestial glory? Some of my brethren and sisters find it very difficult to understand the words of the prophet, wherein he said that those who gain a lower place of glory than a celestial kingdom cannot come where those who gain the highest, dwell, worlds without end. And there is an imagination on the part of some of us that we could do our work over again, that we could catch up, and finally get into the celestial kingdom. Now to help you to see it. I ask you if three men were started on an endless race, and one given a handicap of a mile and still another of two miles, and each man could run as fast as the other, would one ever catch the other? No. But there is a big difference here. Those who live the laws and attain unto the glory of the celestial shall have a body whose very fineness and texture, the composition of it, the quality of flesh shall be superior, for the Lord has said, "there is a celestial body, and celestial flesh, and there shall be telestial ¶

bodies, and their flesh will not be so refined nor so pure, nor the body so capable of progress and enjoyment and exaltation which shall be enjoyed by those who gain a celestial body." So there will be a handicap. Those who gain the highest place provided shall have a very superior physical equipment, capable of more intense and rapid growth, they shall be associated with the very fountain head, and those who inherit a lesser degree of glory shall learn from those who attain unto the highest places, and so they will go on, and there will come knowledge and progress to them of an infinite character. Do we realize that all these advantages can be obtained through our willingness and faithfulness in this short life, in keeping the commandments of God ? That those who keep the celestial law are pursuing a path that leads on to where God is. and what God is now they may become? Latter-day Saints do not need to sing the "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere," and wonder where it is. for the Lord has revealed that this earth is keeping the celestial law, and that we expect to live in a sanctified and redeemed condition on this earth, and all of it is going to be celestial. There is not going to be one-third of it celestial and another third terrestrial, and another telestial, but it will be celestial, all of it, and it will shine as the sun. "No longer will it have need," as John said in his revelation, "to have sun to shine by day and stars by night," but it will be a creator of light itself, or out from it will go light, and it will "rise to its place" in that great gathering and galaxy of worlds that shine above, redeemed and sanctified. It shall shine resplendent in its place, a sun, a celestial orb, and only those who keep the celestial law will enter upon it, those who have bodies that are telestial will not be able to endure the glory and the majesty of the kingdom where our Father in heaven shall dwell. I presume that the Lord is preparing some other place, maybe Jupiter, a larger place, no doubt, than the world whereon we now live, for his other groups who are not going to find themselves worthy in the justice of God to go into the celestial kingdom. Now then how are we going to feel if we through our own selfishness and unworthiness to attain unto the highest find ourselves upon some terrestrial or telestial world, away distant from this earth? We could all say: "I was born there on that place, and entitled to all the blessings and privileges that are theirs ; I was entitled as a royal son to inherit a celestial glory, but I sold my right, I lost it, I frittered away the time during the chance I had, and I am debarred forever from that glorious privilege and place." We will realize the full meaning of those words of the poet Whittier, ¶

"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these, it might have been." ¶

My brethren and sisters, when the day comes that we will seek to justify ourselves for our neglect, our carelessness, our indifference, because we do not keep fully the commandments of the Lord, we will be ashamed of our excuses. On the other hand, the joy and the privileges of the righteous will be beyond the power of expression to tell you. It is not a myth. ¶

I know that these revelations of ¶

the Lord are true. I know the glory that awaits the redeemed and sanctified. The Lord in his great mercy and kindness has given me some little foretaste of that which is to come. ¶

I had an experience a few months ago, while laboring on the Indian reservation, in Northern Montana, among my Lamanite brethren and sisters, and we had some new problems, and calling upon the Lord and seeking him very earnestly to know if we were doing the right thing, and what to do, and desirous of receiving strength and light from him, I received to me a most glorious manifestation from the Lord. I was carried away in the dreams of the night to this glorious building that stands on this block, and received what fully satisfied my heart and soul in blessings and privileges that came to me there. And when I was about to leave I was informed that there was one other privilege which should be mine, and I was taken into the most splendid room in that building. Seated on a raised platform was one of the most beautiful and exalted beings I had ever beheld, and I was informed that I might be introduced to him, and I came forward, and as I did so he arose and descended to meet me, and the smile he extended towards me I shall never forget through all the ages that are to come, and as he took me in his arms and kissed me and hugged me to his bosom and gave me a blessing that made the marrow in my bones to melt, and as I kissed his feet. I saw the prints of the nails. The feeling that came to me then was one that I cannot describe other than to say that I felt unworthy of that privilege. I felt, oh, how little I have done to ¶

receive such distinguished privileges as these. If the day will ever come that I may have that privilege I would be willing to give all that I ever may and ever hope to be. If I can only obtain that which I have felt and know as the joy and the privilege of faithful Latter-day Saints. It is no myth. I know it as I live, and it is worth giving everything for. These days when your faith may be tried, waver not. be true and faithful towards the word of the Lord. I testify to you that it is true, and every promise and blessing that has been sealed upon your heads you will realize. When you do, it will be beyond anything you have contemplated in this life. ¶

God give us the strength to believe it, to live for it, and have burning in our hearts a desire to keep his commandments in the fullest sense, not in part, but in the fullest sense, and in the end obtain that glorious place and privilege which is reserved for the faithful, which may God grant, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶

Irene Folsom sang a solo. ¶