Desire for Immortality Natural

With all my heart I endorse the principles laid down by President Clark in his splendid statesmanlike address. ¶

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Psalms 8:4.) ¶

Desire for Immortality Natural

The divinity in man makes him desire and long for immortality. ¶

Benjamin Franklin was one of America's greatest men and one of the world's most versatile geniuses. He believed in the resurrection. The epitaph which he composed to be placed on his grave was as follows: ¶

Like the cover of an old book, Its contents torn out And stripped of its lettering and gilding, Lies here food for worms. But the work shall not be lost, For it will -- as he believes -- appear once more In a new and more elegant edition, Revised and corrected by the Author. ¶

For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death. (Doc. & Cov. 58:2.) ¶

In the wonderful and heavenly philosophy of the Mormon religion, heaven and earth meet. This life merges into the life beyond. All is eternity with God. There is a land of life beyond the grave; we call it the intermediate state, the spirit world. It is a scene of life, a community. ¶

Heavenly Messengers Bear Witness of Another World

According to the holy scriptures there is an invisible world whose inhabitants may become visible, not to gratify the curiosity of men, but as messengers of the Lord to declare his word to his chosen vessels. ¶

Moses, Peter, James and John, also John the Baptist, appeared unto the Prophet Joseph Smith, by the word of God's command, with messages essential to the salvation of the children of men. There is a permanent personality here and hereafter, a continued and active existence of the inhabitants in that "mysterious country." Joseph Smith spoke the truth when he said "there are no angels who minister to this earth but those who do belong or have belonged to it." ¶

We see but half the causes of our deeds, Seeking them wholly in the outer life, And heedless of the encircling spirit world, Which though unseen is felt and sows in us All germs of pure and world-wide purpose. ¶

A School-Boy's Faith

A noted lawyer from Alabama visited Salt Lake City a few years ago. In the course of an address, made to a graduating class in his home state he eulogized the idealism of the Mormon people and particularly their remarkable idealism and views concerning the other world. "I heard the story," he said, "of a Mormon school boy who had lost his blind father, to whom he was deeply devoted. The boy was a pitcher on his High School baseball team, and the father had always gone with the boy to the games, although unable to share in the sport except by what he heard. Justifiable delight filled the blind father's heart as his son was pitching, when the umpire called 'three strikes and out.' ¶

"The father died. The day after the father's funeral had been set for a match game with another High School, and to the surprise of all the boy expressed a desire to pitch the game. ¶

"He pitched better than he had ever pitched before, and his team won. When his friends crowded about him to congratulate him he said, 'Yes, it was the first game father ever saw me pitch, and I did my best for him.' " ¶

The Brother of Jared's Experience

What is the form of the spirit? The brother of Jared saw the preexistent spirit of the Lord Jesus; he saw the finger of the Lord and it was as the finger of a man like unto flesh and blood. The fear-stricken man said, "I knew not that the Lord had flesh and blood." The Lord showed himself unto him and said: ¶

Behold, this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and man have I created after the body of my spirit; and even as I appear unto thee to be in the spirit will I appear unto my people in the flesh. (Ether 3:16.) ¶

What a wonderful contribution this is to the divine authenticity of the book of Genesis, wherein we are told: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." The Book of Mormon is a witness to the truth of the Bible. ¶

We believe that there is consciousness of the spirit in the life hereafter, between death and the resurrection. Men live and move and have their being in the intermediate state. They pray, talk, hope, and work not only for themselves but also for those who are upon the earth. Death does not congeal the lips of those who go before us; they are not far from us and they help us more than we know. ¶

Experiences with the Dying

In the course of a somewhat lengthy ministry I have been with some who were crossing the threshold into eternity. For example, a young girl was called to the world beyond. Just before she passed away her face gleamed with glad recognition and she said, "Oh mother, dear mother!" The mother had gone on years before. Fresh in my memory are instances of business men, who, when their end was approaching, have heard voices which mortals could not hear. They have seen faces not of this earth for these men have said: "Mother, my son, they are with me." Then they have departed with a smile upon their faces. ¶

John saw under the altar the souls of those who were slain for the testimony of Jesus. "And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on those that dwell on the earth." (Rev. 6.) And they were told they should rest for a little season. These spirits had power to reflect, anticipate, speak and think. ¶

I have been with Elders who died in the discharge of their duty, and a moment or two before they departed this life their faces have been overspread with a gleam of recognition of beings not of this world; they have uttered the names of loved ones long since gone and then have gently gone to their rest. ¶

In the 16th chapter of St. Luke we read of a certain rich man in hell and in torments. When he made a certain request, Abraham said: "Son, remember." Dr. Lyman Abbott said that those are two of the most awful words in scripture. The rich man's recollection extended back to mortality and covered the whole period of his mortal life. The wrongs that he did lived in his memory; that was his punishment. ¶

Knowledge Gained to Continue After Death

The Prophet Joseph Smith said: "Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another he will have so much the advantage in the world to come." What knowledge? The pure knowledge that greatly enlarges the soul, that makes us more like God by giving more understanding of his glorious purposes. What a noble incentive and stimulus to educators and also to laymen to gain all the knowledge they can in this life, for we shall always exist as independent, permanent personalities learning forever. ¶

The works of Gods continue, And worlds and lives abound; Improvement and progression Hath one eternal round. ¶

Dr. John A. Widtsoe quotes the following verse composed by a minister: ¶

We serve no God whose work is done, Who rests amidst his firmament. Our God, his labors but begun, Toils evermore with powers unspent. ¶

Jesus says, in the Book of Mormon: "For my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever." As we all know his work and his glory is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." ¶

Cecil Rhodes, the great English statesman, lay dying at the early age of forty-nine. He had nobly worked in the spirit of achievement. To his friend Jameson, by his bedside, he said: "Jameson, the great trouble with life is that it is too short. You no sooner become acquainted with the game and learn how to play it, than you have to give it up." ¶

The British empire builder did not have the vision, the knowledge of the beautiful philosophy of the Gospel concerning the life hereafter, particularly of eternal progression, for in that life the great intellects, scholars, painters, engineers and others shall go on progressing and working for the benefit of their fellow creatures on the earth or wherever the sons and daughters of God are found. He who stops learning and working is neither wise nor happy. ¶

One thing that menaces this country is the growing disinclination to perform manual labor. Too many want to pick their jobs. It is a threat to our permanent stability and prosperity. Henry Ward Beecher once said that the darkest hour in a young man's life was when he tried to devise a way to make a livelihood without working. ¶

"There is more of heaven to be seen in the sweat-bedewed face of the faithful toiler" working for his family than in any canvas with its clouds of cherubs, painted by the masters, in the art galleries of the world. ¶

Elijah's Mission

We believe in the doctrine of salvation for the dead. Elijah came from that invisible world to the Prophet Joseph Smith in fulfillment of the glorious promise, to which, however, is attached a solemn warning in Malachi 4:5, 6: ¶

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: ¶

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. ¶

Elijah feared God but he knew no other fear. His dominating and persistent personality was a power in the period in which he lived; it is a powerful influence in the present dispensation. The wonderful truth he revealed is sufficient proof that there is consciousness beyond the grave. ¶

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: ¶

By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah. (I Peter 3:18-20.) ¶

In the following chapter are these comforting words: ¶

For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. ¶

In the spirit world, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brethren are preaching those glorious principles, faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the truth of the Bible, the truth of the Book of Mormon. And we here will preach the same Gospel until every knee shall bend and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ. This is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, Amen. ¶