I will make a few remarks upon the portion of Scripture quoted by
brother Hyde in the discourse he has just delivered as follows—"Jesus
said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die."
In all such sayings, and in every part and portion of the revelations
of God as given to the children of men, or to any individual in heaven
or on earth, to properly understand them, a man needs the Spirit by
which they were given—the Spirit that reveals such matters to the
understanding, and makes them familiar to the mind.
In the Scripture above quoted, the death spoken of is a death that the
intelligent being undergoes, and never recovers from: it is an eternal
death. For the body to decay, like a kernel of wheat that is cast into
the ground, is not considered a death. Brother Hyde observed—"If the
germ of corn is not good, it all dies." That is true: but if it is
good, the corn does not die; it is placed in the ground to yield an
increase. It is commonly termed death to have the spirit and body
separated; but literally that is not death only to those who are sons
of perdition.
This earth is brought together and organized from native elements as
we now behold it, our tabernacles in cluded. The matter of which all
animate and inanimate existence is formed is from all eternity, and it
must remain to all eternity, without beginning and without end. There
are certain portions of this native element that will be refined and
prepared to enter into the celestial kingdom—into the celestial family
of the celestial world. If the spirit honors the body and the body
honors the spirit while they are here united, the particles of matter
that compose the mortal tabernacle will be resurrected and brought
forth to immortality and eternal life; but it cannot be brought forth
and made immortal, except it undergoes a change, for "dust thou art,
and unto dust thou shalt return." What for? To prepare the body to be
made immortal and fitted to dwell in the presence of the Gods.
The death that Jesus referred to had no reference to these bodies
going into the grave. He is the life and the light. He is the
resurrection; he is the power; and "if you believe in me," says Jesus,
"you shall live forever—you shall be prepared to dwell with me in my
Father's kingdom." If the question had then been asked him, "Will not
this body be placed in the grave and return to its mother earth?" his
answer would have been, "Yes, for otherwise you cannot be prepared for
that eternal life of which I have been speaking—to live
forever."
Had the question been asked the Savior, when he uttered those words,
"Do you say that the decree that the Lord gave to Adam is now
removed?" he would have told them, "No;" for they could not be
quickened, made immortal, and prepared for life everlasting, without
going through these ordeals.
What can you know, except by its opposite? Who could number the days,
if there were no nights to divide the day from the night? Angels could
not enjoy the blessings of light eternal, were there no darkness. All
that are exalted and all that will be exalted, will be exalted upon
this principle. If I do not taste the pangs of death in my mortal
body, I never shall know the enjoyment of eternal life. If I do not
know pain, I cannot enjoy ease. If I am not acquainted with the dark,
the gloomy, the sorrowful, I cannot enjoy the light, the joyous, the
felicitous that are ordained for man. No person, either in heaven or
upon earth, can enjoy and understand these things upon any other
principle.
"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on
such the second death hath no power." The death that is spoken of here
is the death that is opposite to the eternal life the Savior spoke
of. If you dishonor that body—transgress the natural laws pertaining
to it, you are not worthy, in your sphere, to possess this body in an
immortal state. What will become of it? It will return to its native
element. That is the death that never dies. That is endless death. In
this Jesus had no allusion to the changing or putting off of this
mortality.
The very particles that compose our bodies will be brought forth in
the morning of the resurrection, and our spirits will then have
tabernacles to be clothed with, as they have now, only they will be
immortal tabernacles—spiritual tabernacles.
When death is spoken of as in the words quoted, it is spoken of as
death in reality. In many places in the Scriptures, the separation of
the body and spirit is called death; but that is not death in the
strict sense of the term; that is only a change. We are naturally
inclined to cling to our mother earth; our bodies love to live here,
to see, to hear, to breathe, and to enjoy themselves, because we are
of the earth, earthy. But probably, in most cases, the change from
mortal to immortality is no greater, comparatively speaking, than when
a child emerges into this world. We shall suffer no more in putting
off this flesh and leaving the spirit houseless than the child, in its
capacity, does in its first efforts to breathe the breath of this
mortal life.
After the spirit leaves the body, it remains without a tabernacle in
the spirit world until the Lord, by his law that he has ordained,
brings to pass the resurrection of the dead. When the angel who holds
the keys of the resurrection shall sound his trumpet, then the
peculiar fundamental particles that organized our bodies here, if we
do honor to them, though they be deposited in the depths of the sea,
and though one particle is in the north, another in the south, another
in the east, and another in the west, will be brought together again
in the twinkling of an eye, and our spirits will take possession of
them. We shall then be prepared to dwell with the Father and the Son,
and we never can be prepared to dwell with them until then. Spirits,
when they leave their bodies, do not dwell with the Father and the
Son, but live in the spirit world, where there are places prepared for
them. Those who do honor to their tabernacles, who love and believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, must put off this mortality, or they cannot
put on immortality. This body must be changed, else it cannot be
prepared to dwell in the glory of the Father. To me all these
things are plain and easy. All we want is to understand the very
subject Jesus was talking about, the nature of our organizations, the
world we occupy, the laws by which we are, and by which we continue to
exist.
Brother Hyde says, "Take the world, and what do they know pertaining
to the things of God?" Do they know their right hands from their left,
figuratively speaking? No. All that brother Hyde has said concerning
our important position is true. It is beyond the power of man to fully
unfold it, though a portion has been beautifully portrayed, and it
seems that the people should see things that are so plain. Were it
possible for the nations to gain power to destroy this kingdom on the
earth, by so doing they would seal their eternal damnation. That is as
true as it is that Jesus died for the sins of the world; as true as it
is that there is a heaven, a God, and that the world exists, and the
children of men dwell upon it.
When the wicked seek to destroy this kingdom, I can endure it
tolerably well; but when I see those who profess to be Latter-day
Saints taking a course to destroy themselves, and to prove themselves
children of folly, children of darkness, it is a great source of grief
and regret to me.
All mankind have the principles of eternal life implanted within them.
Much has been taught in regard to this and to the agency of the
children of men. God has organized the spirit and placed it in a
tabernacle—has given it certain capacity and certain laws, and it is
as independent in its sphere of action as are the angels and the Gods
in the heavenly worlds. It is for us to act upon that intelligence
that is ours in every sense of the word; and if we do honor to our
tabernacles and to the spirits God has given us, we have the promise
of eternal life, which is the gift of God. This promise is made to
every son and daughter of Adam, if they obey the conditions laid down;
and their names have been written in the Lamb's book of life from the
beginning, before we came into the world, and they will remain there
to all eternity, unless we blot them out through a wicked course.
Try to understand the position you occupy, and then you will
understand the sayings of the Apostles and Prophets. Thanks be to the
Lord our God for the understanding he has already given us, for the
spirit of revelation he has bestowed upon us, and for the holy
Priesthood and the keys thereof, by which the heavens are opened, and
by which men are enabled to understand things as they are. God be
thanked for the intelligence there is with this people.
A week from next Friday it will be thirty years since this Church was
organized with six members. The kingdom of God has thirty years growth
on the earth, and does it not seem that we should be far advanced in
the things of God? It does. At a glance we should know and understand
many things that some are still in more or less dubiety about. One
Elder will say that he knows nothing about God. "I believe in the
Father and the Son, and in the revelations given through Joseph Smith;
but to really say that I positively know anything of the true
character of God, our Father in heaven, I do not know that I can." A
few moments' reflection and the Spirit upon the vision of the mind,
and that same Elder would say that he does know. Such statements arise
from a want of the vision of the mind being opened to see things as
they are for a few minutes.
The whole Scriptures plainly teach us that we are the children of that
God who framed the world. Let us look round and see whether we
can find a father and son in this congregation. Do we see one an
elephant, and the other a hen? No. Does a father that looks like a
human being have a son like an ape, going on all fours? No; the son
looks like his father. There is an endless variety of distinction in
the few features that compose the human face, yet children have in
their countenances and general expression of figure and temperament a
greater or less likeness of their parents. You do not see brutes
spring from human beings. Every species is true to its kind. The
children of men are featured alike and walk erect.
The Bible clearly teaches us that we are the children of the very
Being who framed this earth and peopled it. Such teachings may be
found in hundreds of places in the Scriptures, and yet we do not know
anything about our Father! Is it not astonishing? I frequently think
that truly the things of God are spiritually discerned, when man, in
his reflections, thoughts, words, and acts, as a finite being, knows
nothing of God. But when he meditates and acts from the intelligence
of the spirit God has placed within him, the visions of eternity are
opened to him; heaven and eternity are before him.
Brother Hyde compared the departure of the spirit from the body to
going into another room, and referred to a statement made by Andrew
Jackson Davis. He placed himself in a clairvoyant state beside the bed
of a sick person and observed the spirit of a lady leave her body. He
saw the spirit ascend from the head of the mortal tenement—saw it walk
out into the open air in company with another spirit that came to
escort her away. They appeared to him to ascend an inclined plane, and
continued to walk away until they were out of his sight. Do you not
believe that your spirit will be in existence after it leaves the
body? I care not whether it goes out from the head or from some other
portion. Mr. Davis says that after the spirit was fully out of the
body, he saw as it were an umbilical cord that yet retained the spirit
to the body; and that when that was separated, the spirit was free,
and the body was consigned to dissolution. Whether this be true or
not, it is as certain that the spirit leaves the body as it is that it
enters it. When it leaves the body, it dwells in the spirit world
until the body is raised up by the power of God; and when it is raised
up, do you not think that we shall look like our Father? If any of us
could now see the God we are striving to serve—if we could see our
Father who dwells in the heavens, we should learn that we are as well
acquainted with him as we are with our earthly father; and he would be
as familiar to us in the expression of his countenance, and we should
be ready to embrace him and fall upon his neck and kiss him, if we had
the privilege. And still we, unless the vision of the Spirit is opened
to us, know nothing about God. You know much about him, if you did but
realize it. And there is no other one item that will so much astound
you, when your eyes are opened in eternity, as to think that you were
so stupid in the body.
Be very careful that you do not so conduct yourselves that when your
bodies die, you will not receive them in an immortal state. Be careful
that your lives are such that you be not deprived entirely of these
bodies which have borne so much affliction and pain. There is a great
design in the formation of the body.
The people cannot comprehend the deep mystery of the design of the
Almighty in bringing so many people into this human world, shall I
say? This is a world of pain, of darkness, sorrow, affliction,
and death. The Almighty has his objects and plans all laid, and we are
to pass through all these afflictions and to endure all that he calls
us to endure, to give us knowledge, wisdom, and experience; for we
cannot receive them upon any other principle. His design is to exalt
the human family, and to bring them back to the presence of the Father
and the Son. The heir of the family died to take away our sins. He has
suffered, that we may live. He has offered himself up for the sins of
the world. Why? Because he is the heir of the family. The Father and
the Son are now doing all they can to save his children, and all the
heavenly hosts are exerting their powers to accomplish the same great
end. "But," says the Father, "do not infringe on the agency of
mankind; for my children, to be brought into my presence to enjoy with
me the fulness of my glory, must pass through the same ordeals I have
passed through. They cannot inherit eternal life upon any other
principle."
How far does our agency extend? There are certain bounds to it. What
we have witnessed in thirty years' experience teaches us that man can
appoint but God can disappoint. Man can load his gun to shoot his
neighbor, but he cannot make the ball hit him, if the Lord Almighty
sees fit to turn it away. He can draw the sword to hew down his
fellow man; but instead of that, he may fall upon it himself. Paul
says, "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So
then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth;
but God that giveth the increase." You may plead with the people and
beseech them to embrace the truth; but unless God touches the heart
your labors are vain. The Lord will bring about the results, and
mankind cannot pre vent it. The wicked may design an evil against the
righteous, and he causes it to result in good. That is making the
wrath of man praise him. He has not granted to man to bring out the
result of his works, but he has given him the ability to work as he
pleases—to go here or there—to do this or that—to obey the Gospel or
disobey it. He has not committed the keys of the results of the acts
of the nations of the earth to any man on the earth; but that power he
retains to himself.
I can discern the hand of the Lord in preserving and leading this
people. A great many do not discern this, because they have not eyes
to see, nor ears to hear; for, if they had, they would discern the
footprints of the Almighty and hear his voice, and would understand
that he leads this people by the right hand of his wisdom and power,
and that no power can prevent it. Anoint your eyes and pour oil in
your ears, and pray that your hearts may be softened and your minds
quickened to understand.
God will overrule the acts of the children of men in this kingdom as
well as among the nations. After the children of Israel had traveled
thirty years in the wilderness, they thought that they had prospered
tolerably well, though they were still traveling. In their travels
they crossed their tracks many times, whereas we, in our travels, have
done so but a few times. How many times we may have to do so, I do not
know.
Strive to prepare your hearts as fully as possible to enjoy a great
portion of the Spirit of the Lord at our Conference; strive to enjoy
that Spirit above all things. Let us prepare our hearts to receive the
Holy Ghost to be our constant companion.
May the Lord God of Israel bless you! Amen.