I am entirely dependent this morning upon the Spirit of the Lord to
guide and direct me in what I may say upon this painful occasion.
Those who have assembled here—Brother and Sister Wheeler, and their friends who mourn with them, are dependent upon the same source
for comfort in their serious bereavement; and in fact we are all
dependent upon the blessing and Spirit of the Lord in all the labors
of life, and I hope that, in our services this morning, a large
measure of that Spirit will be imparted unto us.
I feel disposed to read the first chapter of Job as a preliminary to
any remarks I may make. [The speaker read the first chapter of the
Book of Job.] We also see in reading the history of Job that the devil
did not finish with him there, as it seems the devil had another
conversation with the Lord on this subject, in which he informed the
Lord that a man would give anything for his life and that if he, the
devil, touched Job's flesh, he would certainly curse God. And it seems
from reading this history that the Lord put Job into the hands of the
devil, to do as he pleased with him, only to spare his life. Of course
the history is familiar to you all who have read the Bible, and you
are aware that the devil smote Job, and he was covered with boils from
the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, so that he was in
great distress, trouble and tribulation, yet in the midst of it all he
did not sin, but acknowledged the hand of the Lord.
I may say with regard to the case which has brought us together this
morning, it is a little similar to that of Job. We meet with some
strange things in the history of our lives in the dispensations and
dealings of God with men. In the case before us we are called to mourn
the loss of two children taken from Brother and Sister Wheeler, we may
say as suddenly and, in one sense of the word, as miraculously, as
were the sons and daughters of Job. His affliction consisted not only
in the loss of two children, but of all his children and also of all
the possessions that he had, yet still, under all this he said—"Naked
came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither; the
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the
Lord."
I know very well it is hard for any person to be called to pass
through the scenes that we sometimes are called to pass through in
this life, it is so in the case before us this morning. The loss of
these little children, taken away as they were, is certainly painful,
not only to the parents, but to every person who reflects; and it is a
very hard matter for any of us to enter into and appreciate the depth
of sorrow which parents feel on occasions like this, it is difficult
to bring the matter home to our own hearts unless we have been called
to pass through similar affliction and sorrow. At the same time there
is no doubt that we all sympathize with our friends when called to
pass through trials and bereavement. And I will here say to Brother
and Sister Wheeler, and to all my friends, there are a great many
worse things in this world than the case we are now called to mourn.
Our children are taken away from us in infancy and childhood, and they
are taken away as Job's were, in one sense of the word, through the
dispensations of Providence, causing us severe trials. This we will
acknowledge; but, as I have already said, there are many things in
this world that are far more painful and afflicting than to have our
children burned to death. My friends may ask—"What is Brother Woodruff
driving at in this remark?" I will tell you. I have lived in these
valleys twenty-seven years, since the pioneers came here. I have seen
a whole generation of men and women grow up in these valleys of
the mountains, and they have become parents. I have seen some, I will
not say a great many, but I have seen some young men, I say nothing
about maidens, who have met with untimely deaths and who have gone to
the grave disgraced, and a dishonor to themselves and to their
parents. Circumstances of this kind are far more painful to any parent
in the world than it is for their children to meet with sudden death
by accident or any other way. I do not make these remarks to apply to
Brother and Sister Wheeler, for none of us know what course our
children will take. We set good examples before them, and we strive to
teach them righteous principles, but when they come to years of
accountability they have their agency and they act for themselves.
Many things are transpiring in the earth today which we should regard
as great calamities and as grievous to be borne if we had to pass
through them. Think of these late earthquakes in South America, eight
thousand people out of ten thousand in one city sunk in the earth in a
few moments. And then, the tremendous floods that are sweeping over
France and other parts of the earth, causing the death of hundreds and
thousands of men, women and children. All these things are in
fulfillment of the revelations of God, and of the judgments which he
has promised should come upon the earth in the last days. One of the
purposes which the Lord has in view in gathering his Saints to the
valleys of the mountains is that they may not share in the sins or
partake of the plagues of Babylon; therefore we have reason to rejoice
before the Lord because of his mercies and blessings unto us. And with
regard to a case like this before us this morning—the loss of those
children—I want to say a few words for the consolation of those who
are sorrowing. In the first place these children are innocent before
the Lord; as to their death and the cause thereof, that is in the
hands of God, and we should not complain of the Lord or his
dispensations any more than Job did. These children have been taken
away very suddenly, and in such a manner as to cause great sorrow and
distress to their parents, but there is this consolation connected
with the matter—they are innocent, they are not in transgression. They
have paid the law of death which God passed on Adam and all his
posterity; but when their spirits left their bodies and got into the
spirit world their trouble and affliction were over. Their death was a
very painful one, but their suffering is now over, and in a few years
from now they will come forth out of their graves in the morning of
the resurrection, not marred by fire or any element, but clothed with
glory, immortality and eternal life, in eternal beauty and bloom, and
they will be given into the hands of their parents, and they will
receive them in the family organization of the celestial world, and
their parents will have them forever. They will live as long as their
God lives. This, to Latter-day Saints, who believe in the
resurrection, should be a source of comfort and consolation.
Why our children are taken from us it is not for me to say, for God
never revealed it unto me. We are all burying them. I have buried
one-third of the children that have been given unto me. I have had
some thirty children born to me, and ten of them are buried, all of
them young. The question may arise with me and with you—"Why has the
Lord taken away my children?" But that is not for me to tell, because
I do not know; it is in the hands of the Lord, and it has been
so from the creation of the world all the way down. Children are taken
away in their infancy, and they go to the spirit world. They come here
and fulfill the object of their coming, that is, they tabernacle in
the flesh. They come to receive a probation and an inheritance on the
earth; they obtain a body or tabernacle, and that tabernacle will be
preserved for them, and in the morning of the resurrection the spirits
and bodies will be reunited, and as here we find children of various
ages in a family, from the infant at the mother's breast to manhood,
so will it be in the family organization in the celestial world. Our
children will be restored to us as they are laid down if we, their
parents, keep the faith and prove ourselves worthy to obtain eternal
life; and if we do not so prove ourselves our children will still be
preserved, and will inherit celestial glory. This is my view in regard
to all infants who die, whether they are born to Jew or Gentile,
righteous or wicked. They come from their eternal Father and their
eternal Mother unto whom they were born in the eternal world, and they
will be restored to their eternal parentage; and all parents who have
received children here according to the order of God and the holy
priesthood, no matter in what age they may have lived, will claim
those children in the morning of the resurrection, and they will be
given unto them and they will grace their family organizations in the
celestial world.
With regard to the future state of those who die in infancy I do not
feel authorized to say much. There has been a great deal of theory,
and many views have been expressed on this subject, but there are many
things connected with it which the Lord has probably never revealed to
any of the Prophets or patriarchs who ever ap peared on the earth.
There are some things which have not been revealed to man, but are
held in the bosom of God our Father, and it may be that the condition
after death of those who die in infancy is among the things which God
has never revealed; but it is sufficient for me to know that our
children are saved, and that if we ourselves keep the faith and do our
duty before the Lord, if we keep the celestial law, we shall be
preserved by that law, and our children will be given unto us there,
as they have been given here in this world of sorrow, affliction, pain
and distress. It has no doubt been a marvel many times, in the minds
of men and women, why God ever placed men and women in such a world as
this, why he causes his children to pass through sorrow and affliction
here in the body. The Lord has revealed something to us concerning
this matter, and we have learned enough about it to know that this
thing is necessary. We know that we are created in the image of God,
both male and female; and whoever goes back into the presence of God
our eternal Father, will find that he is a noble man, a noble God,
tabernacled in a form similar to ours, for we are created after his
own image; they will also learn that he has placed us here that we may
pass through a state of probation and experience, the same as he
himself did in his day of mortality. And time and again it has been
revealed in the revelations of God given in our day, as well as in the
Bible and Book of Mormon, that these things are necessary in order to
enable us to comprehend good and evil, and to be prepared for glory
and blessings when we receive them. As the Apostle argues very
strongly in the Book of Mormon—"If we never taste the bitter how will
we know how to comprehend the sweet? If we never partake of
pain how can we prize ease? And if we never pass through affliction,
how can we comprehend glory, exaltation and eternal blessings?"
The Lord has said concerning Jesus, that he descended below all things
that he might rise above all things, and comprehend all things. No man
descended lower than the Savior of the world. Born in a stable,
cradled in a manger, he traveled from there to the cross through
suffering, mingled with blood, to a throne of grace; and in all his
life there was nothing of an earthly nature that seemed to be worth
possessing. His whole life was passed in poverty, suffering, pain,
affliction, labor, prayer, mourning and sorrow, until he gave up the
ghost on the cross. Still he was God's firstborn son and the Redeemer
of the world. The question might be asked why the Lord suffered his
Son to come here and to live and die as he did. When we get into the
spirit world, and the veil is withdrawn, we shall then perhaps
understand the whys and wherefores of all these things. In the
dispensations and providences of God to man it seems that we are born
to suffer pain, affliction, sorrows and trials; this is what God has
decreed that the human family shall pass through; and if we make a
right use of this probation, the experience it brings will eventually
prove a great blessing to us, and when we receive immortality and
eternal life, exaltation, kingdoms, thrones, principalities and powers
with all the blessings of the fulness of the Gospel of Christ, we
shall understand and comprehend why we were called to pass through a
continual warfare during the few years we spent in the flesh.
It certainly does require a good deal of the Spirit of the Lord to
give comfort and consolation to a father and mother mourning for the
loss of their children; and without the Gospel of Christ the
separation by death is one of the most gloomy subjects it is possible
to contemplate; but just as soon as we obtain the Gospel and learn the
principle of the resurrection, the gloom, sorrow and suffering
occasioned by death are, in a great measure, taken away. I have often
thought that, to see a dead body, and to see that body laid in the
grave and covered with earth, is one of the most gloomy things on
earth; without the Gospel it is like taking a leap in the dark. But as
quick as we obtain the Gospel, as soon as the spirit of man is
enlightened by the inspiration of the Almighty, he can exclaim with
one of old—"Oh grave, where is thy victory, Oh death, where is thy
sting? The sting of death is sin, and the gift of God is eternal life,
through our Lord Jesus Christ." The resurrection of the dead presents
itself before the enlightened mind of man, and he has a foundation for
his spirit to rest upon. That is the position of the Latter-day Saints
today. We do know for ourselves, we are not in the dark with regard to
this matter; God has revealed it to us, and we do understand the
principle of the resurrection of the dead, and that the Gospel brings
life and immortality to light. We have received the Gospel, and if we
are true to the principles of that Gospel as long as we live, we shall
be made partakers of immortality, exaltation and glory.
I know very well that the loss of their children in this terrible
manner is a sad affliction to brother and sister Wheeler. It was a sad
affliction for Job when his children and possessions were taken
from him in an hour, but yet he had sense or knowledge enough to
understand and say that when he came into the world he possessed
neither children, houses, lands, horses, oxen, camels nor asses, but
that all his wealth had been given to him by the Lord, and that the
Lord had taken them away and blessed be his holy name. I will say to
our mourning friends, your children are taken away and you cannot
help it, we cannot any of us help it; there is no censure to be given
to parents when they do the best they can. A mother should not be
censured because she cannot save her sick child, and we have to leave
these things in the hands of God. It will be but a little time until
they will be restored to us; in a little time brother and sister
Wheeler will again have the children whose loss they now mourn.
With regard to the growth, glory, or exaltation of children in the
life to come, God has not revealed anything on that subject to me,
either about your children, mine or anybody else's, any further than
we know they are saved. And I feel that we have to put our trust in
the Lord in these afflictions, we have to lean upon his arm and to
look to him for comfort and consolation. We do not mourn under these
afflictions as those who have no hope; we do not mourn the loss of our
children as though we were never going to see them again, because we
know better. The Lord has taught us better, and so has the Gospel; the
revelations of Jesus Christ have shown us that they will be restored
to us in the resurrection of the just. And I will here say with regard
to the Gospel of Christ, that it is one of the greatest mysteries
under the heavens to me why there are so few of the human family,
whether in the Christian, Pagan or Jewish world, who take any interest
in eternal things, in the state of man after death. If we read the
Bible we learn that Noah, filled with revelation, and with the Gospel
in his hand, although he labored a hundred and twenty years, could not
get a solitary soul except his own family to go with him for salvation.
It was similar in the days of the Patriarchs and Prophets, and if we
come down to the days of Christ, we find that his testimony was
rejected by the rabbis, high priests and the great mass of the people,
and he chose for his Apostles twelve poor fishermen, and they and very
few of the people, comparatively speaking, were all that received the
teachings of Jesus and followed him through the regeneration; while
the whole Jewish nation, with these few exceptions, were ready to put
their Shiloh to death, and he was the person upon whom the salvation
of the whole house of Israel depended. It is just so today. The great
majority of the people reject the words of life and salvation which
are proclaimed unto them. God, in these last days revealed the Gospel
of Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith by the teachings of angels out of
heaven, and its principles are made known to the world, and there has
never been a congregation of Gentiles, from that day to this, to whom
the Elders of Israel have borne record of these things, but what the
Spirit of God has also borne record of the truth of their testimony;
and herein lies the condemnation of this generation, for "light has
come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light, because
their deeds are evil." I ask, in the name of God and humanity, why is
it that intelligent beings, made in the image of God, take no
interest in their condition after death? They know they are going to
die, and, if they have any sense or reflection, they know they will
live after the death of their mortal bodies; still men will sell their
eternal interest for money, for a few hundred or a few thousand
dollars they will sell all the interest they have in the eternal
world; in fact, they take no interest in their eternal welfare. Their
cry is—"Give me gold, silver and honors the few years I spend here,
and eternal life may go where it pleases, I have no interest in that."
I ask again, why is it that the human family take no interest in these
things? We have preached over forty years. I have been engaged in that
work over that time, and have proclaimed the words of eternal life to
millions of people, and have traveled more than a hundred thousand
miles in so doing, and, as the Prophet has said, I have found one of a
family and two of a city who have had eyes to see, ears to hear, and
hearts to understand, and they have been gathered up from the various
nations of the earth into the mountains of Israel, and here today we
have a little handful of people, out of the twelve hundred millions
who dwell upon the earth, who feel an interest in building up the Zion
and kingdom of God upon the earth, and who are desirous of being saved
in that kingdom.
Now I would rather be poor all the days of my life, I would rather go
through poverty and affliction, it matters not how severe, even to the
sacrifice of my own life, than lose salvation and eternal life,
because I have faith in it and always had. I always have had faith in
the Bible and in the revelations of God since I was a boy like these
sitting on these seats, eight or ten years old, when I went to the
Presbyterian Sunday school and read about Jesus Christ. I believed
then that he was the Savior of the world; I believed that the Old and
New Testament was true. I believe it today. What would it profit a
man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What will a man
give in exchange for his soul? When he comes into the presence of God
he can't buy it. This is the position of the world. There is none of
us going to live but a little while; we shall all pass away soon, and
our eternal destiny depends upon the few days, weeks, months or years
that we spend here in the flesh. Do you not think it will pay a man or
a woman to keep the commandments of God? It will, and when we enjoy
the Holy Spirit, when we are trying to live our religion here on the
earth, we are the happiest people on God's footstool, no matter what
our circumstances may be. I do not care whether we are rich or poor,
whether in happiness or affliction, if a man is living his religion
and enjoys the favor and Spirit of God, it makes no difference to him
what takes place on the earth. There may be earthquakes, war, fire or
sword in the land, but he feels that it is all right with him. That is
the way I feel today.
With regard to the Gospel of Christ, it is a thing that we should all
labor to maintain the few years that we spend here. When I get through
with this life and go into the spirit world, I do not want to miss
what I have in anticipation. I have always desired to see the Savior,
Father Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and those old Prophets we
read about in the Bible. I desired this before I heard this Gospel, I
desire it today; and I do not wish to miss this, for nothing in this
world would pay me for such a sacrifice. But I know that it requires
constant warfare, labor and faithfulness before the Lord in
order for us to keep in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and to live
in such a manner that we may obtain these blessings. Jesus
says—"Strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to eternal
lives, and few there are who find it, while broad is the way that
leads to death, and many there be who go in thereat." The road to
death is broad enough to catch the whole world, and they do not like
to walk in the strait and narrow one, they do not like to keep the
celestial law. I have met with professed ministers of the Gospel, in
my travels, at whose tables I have eaten and drank, and I have given
them the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and
have talked to and labored with them, and I have known some of them
spend days and days in this warfare, trying to decide which to do,
whether to receive the Gospel of Christ and take the reproach of the
world, or reject it; and I may say that in nine cases out of ten they
have come to the conclusion to reject it. When I visited Fox Island
the first time, I went to the house of Mr. Newton, a Baptist minister;
and I stayed with him. But first I went to his church and heard him
preach, and when he got through I wanted to bear record of the Gospel,
for I had a message to that people, and I appointed a meeting for four
o'clock in the afternoon, and I preached the Gospel to them, and Mr.
Newton took me to his home and I gave him the Book of Mormon and the
Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and for ten days that man walked about
his room until midnight trying to decide what he should do. The Spirit
of the Lord bore record to him that my testimony was true, and he felt
that if he obeyed the Gospel which I had proclaimed unto him he would
lose his good name and honor among men, but that if he did not receive
it, he would be damned. Finally he rejected it, and the consequence
was that he became a vagabond, and a miserable outcast. I baptized all
his flock who owned any portion of the meetinghouse, and if he had
embraced the Gospel and been gathered with them he would have been
here and saved in the kingdom of God, instead of the vagabond that he
has since become. I merely mention this to show how the minds of some
men are acted upon by the tidings of the Gospel. Some of them feel
that it would be a great reproach to obey that Gospel and to keep the
commandments of God. Bless your souls, we who obey the Gospel of
Christ are all in good company. Whenever you are persecuted for
righteousness sake, said Jesus, rejoice and be exceeding glad for so
persecuted they the Prophets and Apostles which were before you.
I will say to all, whether in the church or in the world, it will pay
you to keep the commandments of God. Here is a man who has a wife that
he thinks a great deal of; they have lovely children, and the ties of
affection bind them closely. Now should not such a man have respect
enough for God to keep his commandments and so secure to himself his
wife and his children in the celestial world after the resurrection?
But you cannot get worldlings to believe in such a principle; the
people, as I said before, have not interest enough in the things of
the kingdom of God to be willing to keep the commandments of God.
I say to the Latter-day Saints, we should be faithful to our God. We
are blessed above all the people that breathe the breath of life upon
the earth, and we are blessed above all other dispensations and
generations of men, for the Lord has put into our hands the
power to build up his Zion upon the earth, never more to be thrown
down, and this is what no other generation has ever been called to do.
But although this is the mission of the Latter-day Saints, we have a
continual warfare to wage—a warfare with the powers of darkness, and a
warfare with ourselves. The ancients had a similar experience to pass
through—they had their day of trials, troubles and tribulations. Enoch
labored three hundred and sixty-five years in building up Zion, and he
had the opposition of the whole world. But the Lord blessed him so
that he maintained his ground for that length of time, and gathered
together a few out of the nations of the earth, and they were
sanctified before the Lord, and he had to take them away, and the
saying went forth—"Zion is fled." So you may trace down all the
Prophets. Read the history of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah and others,
and you will find that it was a warfare with them all the way through.
And so with Jesus and the Apostles. But all those dispensations have
passed and gone into the spirit world, and they have their eyes upon
us, and in fact God our heavenly Father and all under him—the whole
heavenly host, have their eyes turned towards the Latter-day Saints,
because this is the great dispensation of which Adam, Enoch and all
the ancient patriarchs and Prophets have spoken, in which shall take
place the final redemption of the House of Israel, the restoration of
their kingdom, the rebuilding of their city and Temple, the
restoration of their oracles and Priesthood, of the Urim and Thummim,
and the preparation for the final winding up scene in the last days;
all these things will take place in the dispensation in which we are
permitted to live.
Let us, then, try and fulfill and perform our duties as good
Latter-day Saints. Let us bear with each other's faults, and bear the
yoke of Christ, live our religion and keep the commandments of God.
Let us try and bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord. Let us set them good examples and teach them good principles
while they are young. They are given to us by our heavenly Father;
they are our kingdom, they are the foundation of our exaltation and
glory; they are plants of renown, and we should strive to bear them up
before the Lord, and teach them to pray to, and to have faith in, the
Lord as far as we can, that when we are passed and gone and they
succeed us on this stage of action, they may bear off the great
latter-day work and kingdom of God upon the earth. I do not believe
that the day is very far distant when the revelations which God has
given concerning the last days will have their fulfillment. I believe
there are many children now living in the mountains of Israel who will
never taste of death, that is, they will dwell on the earth at the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will acknowledge that there is a
great deal to be done, and the Lord has not revealed to man the day or
the hour, but he has revealed the generation; and the fig trees are
now putting forth their leaves in the eyes of all the nations,
indicating the near approach of the second coming of the Son of Man.
It is my faith that hundreds and thousands of the children that have
been given to us will be alive in the flesh when Christ comes in the
clouds of heaven in power and great glory. The Lord will not
disappoint the inhabitants of the earth in these last days in regard
to his second coming, any more than he has with regard to other great
events and dispensations.
We live in a very important age and generation; we live in the day and
time when God has set his hand to fulfill a measure of prophecy and
revelation to man, in the great dispensation of all dispensations. As
an individual I do not believe that many more years will roll over the
heads of the inhabitants of the earth before the resurrection will be
upon them, and then these children, which we are called to bury
today, will come forth from their graves, clothed with glory,
immortality and eternal life. You may ask why I believe this. I
believe it because the revelations of God say so. I read the
Scriptures, and I believe that the revelations and prophecies therein
contained mean what they say, and I also believe that the saying of
every Prophet or Apostle spoken under the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost will have its fulfillment, and, as Paul said, no prophecy of
Scripture hath any private interpretation, but holy men of old spake
as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. They spake the mind and
word of the Lord, and none of their sayings will fail to be fulfilled,
for the Lord has said—"Though the heavens and the earth pass away, my
word shall not fail, but shall be fulfilled." That is the way I read
prophecy and revelation.
The Jews will be moved upon by and by, and they will return to the
land of their fathers, and they will rebuild Jerusalem. These
Lamanites here will receive the Gospel of Christ in fulfillment of the
revelations of God. The Prophets which have been shut up in the north
country with the nine and a half tribes led away by Shalmaneser, King
of Assyria, thousands of years ago, will come in remembrance before
God; they will smite the rocks and mountains of ice will flow down
before them, and those long lost tribes will come forth in your day
and mine, if we live a few years longer, and they will be crowned
under the hands of the children of Ephraim—the Elders of Israel who
dwell in the land of Zion. And by and by the testimony of the Gospel
will be sealed among the Gentiles, and the Gospel will turn to the
whole house of Israel, and the judgments of God will back up the
testimony of the Elders of this Church, and the Lord will send
messengers who will go forth and reap down the earth. The unbeliever
may say that what we term judgments have always prevailed more or less
among the nations, and that God has nothing to do with them, they are
all natural. Well, if they have always prevailed, they will prevail to
a greater extent in these last days than ever before, until everything
that God has spoken shall have come to pass. Judgments await the
world, and they await this nation, and the day is at hand when the
Lord will sweep the earth as with a besom of destruction. In the
vision which the Lord gave to Enoch, he saw the heavens weeping over
the earth because of the fall of man; and when Enoch asked the
Lord—"When will the earth rest from under the curse of sin?" the Lord
told him that in the last days the earth should rest, for then it
should be redeemed from the sin, wickedness and abominations that were
upon it. The earth is now pretty near ripe, and when ripened the Lord
will cut them off. These things are before the Latter-day Saints, but
the world do not believe in them any more than they believed in the
message of Noah or Lot.
Brethren and sisters, let us read the revelations of God for
ourselves, and when we read them, let us believe them, and try to live
in such a way that we may be ready for whatever dispensation
the Lord may have in store for us, and so that we can acknowledge his
hand as Job did, and not find any fault with him because of his
providences toward us. If we cannot comprehend them now, we shall be
able to do so in a little while. The Lord may have purposes in view in
his dealings with us that we do not understand; I presume he has. In
fact, the whole of the dealings of God to man are a mystery. There is
a veil over the world, and it is ordained of God that it should be so,
for if it were not so, and if men could comprehend eternal things, as
God comprehends them, there is no man on the earth, no matter how
wicked he may be, but what would be willing to keep the commandments
of God, and to pass through anything that God ordained, for therein he
would see there was salvation and eternal life. But God has an order
in these matters, as he revealed unto Joseph Smith. He said unto
Joseph—"I will prove you whether you will abide in my covenant; if you
are not willing to abide in my covenant even unto death, you are not
worthy of me." And it is so with the Saints. If they are not willing
to abide in the covenants they have made with God, even unto death if
necessary, they are not worthy of him. Jesus laid down his life to
redeem the world, and passed through suffering and affliction all his
life in order that he might fulfill the mission which was given him.
So it is with us. The Lord says—"I am going to prove the children of
men." There are a few individuals in this dispensation who will
inherit celestial glory, and a few in other dispensations; but before
they receive their exaltation they will have to pass through and
submit to whatever dispensation God may decree. But for all this they
will receive their reward—they will become Gods, they will inherit
thrones, kingdoms, principalities and powers through the endless ages
of eternity, and to their increase there will be no end, and the heart
of man has never conceived of the glory that is in store for the sons
and daughters of God who keep the celestial law. And yet God has a
veil over all in regard to these things. The whole world will be
judged according to the deeds done in the body, and they will inherit
kingdoms according to the laws which they have kept, every man being
preserved by the law which he has observed, and all will be saved in
some glory, except the sons of perdition.
Now, brethren and sisters, the Gospel of Christ is before us. We are
all passing along, and it will only be a little time before a good
many of us will be on the other side of the veil. Our friends are
passing off every day, and we look in vain for many with whom we have
been familiar in years that are past. If I go into a congregation of
ten thousand and enquire for the Saints I knew in Kirtland, and
request them to lift up their hands, it will be like a standard bearer
on the mountains, there is only here and there one. You ask a
congregation how many of them knew Joseph Smith, and it is only here
and there one, they are passing away to the other side of the veil. It
is so with us all, we are hastening to the end of life's journey, and
a good many of us are on the downward grade. I ask that what little
time I live, I may keep the faith and have the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit and of the Saints of God, that when I get through I may be
satisfied with life, satisfied with my acts, that I may receive a
welcome into the Kingdom of God. That is all I ask and all I labor
for. As for riches and wealth, I do not want them if they will
damn me. I would like to have enough to clothe, shoe and feed my wives
and children, and to make them comfortable, if I can get it honestly
before the Lord; but I would rather myself and them all be in poverty
than to have wealth and be destroyed. Riches are dangerous unless we
can use them so as not to destroy us; if we cannot use them to the
glory of God and for the building up of his Kingdom, we are better
without them. I do not expect to live a great many years longer. The
young, the middle-aged and the old are dying off. For many years of my
life the gospel of Jesus Christ has been a consolation to me. I have
spent a good deal more than half of my life in laboring in this
Church. I labored to find this Church, I may say, from my childhood
up, and many a midnight hour have I pled with the Lord, in the
wilderness, in the woods, and in my mill, and under various
circumstances, that the Lord would let me find a people who contended
for the faith once delivered to the Saints. I desired this from
reading the Bible, and from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for in
the pages of that sacred book I learned that a people once lived upon
the earth who had communion with God, and they had power to command
the elements, and they obeyed them; they conversed with angels, and
had the gifts and graces of a religion which had power and salvation
in it. I could not find this on the face of the earth. I prayed to the
Lord to let me live to find such a people, and he promised that I
should, and I have lived to find them. I have seen the faces of
Prophets and inspired men, and it has been a great consolation to me.
I have my failings and imperfections, and I expect that we are all
subject to them, more or less. I want to overcome them, because I
desire to partake of eternal life. I also desire this for the Saints
of God and for the honest and meek of the earth everywhere.
I have labored many years, and traveled without purse and scrip,
preached without money and without price, for the purpose of saving my
fellow men. I labor on Mount Zion to try and save the dead; I spend a
good deal of time in this. It is a consolation to me, I pray God my
heavenly Father to bless you and all the Latter-day Saints, and that
he will give us enough of his Holy Spirit to keep us in the path of
duty and rectitude, virtue and righteousness, that we may be justified
before him. I pray my heavenly Father that he will bless Brother and
Sister Wheeler in their bereavement, and give them his Holy Spirit,
that, when they lie down at night and rise in the morning and miss
their children they may feel to commit themselves into the hands of
the Lord, and realize that their separation from their little ones is
not forever, but that in a little while they will be restored to
them. This applies to us all in the loss of our children. We lay them
away in the grave, but they will come forth in the morning of the
resurrection, and if we are faithful to the truth, we shall receive
them and rejoice with them; and when we have passed through the
sorrows of mortality and have the joy and glory of the celestial
kingdom conferred upon us we shall then know that the afflictions of
mortality have prepared us for and enabled us to appreciate the
blessings which God has in store for the faithful.
May God bless us, and give us his Spirit, for Jesus' sake, Amen.