Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. Smith. Joseph F. Smith

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СКАЧАТЬ the same; so it will be with us. We will progress and develop and grow in wisdom and understanding, but our identity can never change. We did not spring from spawn. Our spirits existed from the beginning, have existed always, and will continue forever. We did not pass through the ordeals of embodiment in the lesser animals in order to reach the perfection to which we have attained in manhood and womanhood, in the image and likeness of God. God was and is our Father, and his children were begotten in the flesh of his own image and likeness, male and female. There may have been times when they did not possess the same intelligence that they possessed at other times. There are periods in the history of the world when men have dwindled into ignorance and barbarism, and then there were other times when they have grown in intelligence, developed in understanding, enlarged in spirit and comprehension, approaching nearer to the condition and likeness of their Father and God, and then losing faith, losing the love of God, losing the light of the Spirit and returning again to semi-barbarism. Then again, they have been restored, by the power and operation of the Spirit of the Lord upon their minds, until they again reached a degree of intelligence. We have reached a degree of intelligence in our dispensation. Will this same degree of intelligence, that now exists throughout the world, continue to exist? Yes; if the world continue to abide in the light that has been shed abroad in the world by the Father of light, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. But let them deny God, let them deny truth, let them depart from righteousness, let them begin again to wallow in wickedness and transgression of the laws of God, and what will be the result? They will degenerate; they will again recede possibly into absolute barbarism, unless they repent, and the power of God will be again restored to them and they be again lifted up by that light which shines and is never dim, except to men who shut their hearts and eyes and ears against it and will not receive it.

       I did not expect to enter into any lengthy discourse. I thank God for my relationship and acquaintance with this noble, good mother. I expect to be associated with her throughout all the ages to come, if I can be as faithful as she has been. I desire to be, and that isn't all—with the help of God, I intend to be faithful, as she has been faithful, that in the end I may be worthy to dwell where she will dwell, with the Prophet Joseph Smith, with her husband with whom she was associated here in the flesh, with her son and her children, from generation to generation. I expect to be associated with them in the mansions that are prepared for the righteous, where God and Christ are, where those shall be who believe in his name, who receive his work and abide in his law! Oh! that I could be instrumental in the bands of the Lord in bringing every loved soul unto him, for there are souls that are still lacking, whom I love, and if it were possible, how I would love to be instrumental in the band of the Lord in bringing those loved souls to a knowledge of this truth, that they might receive of its glory, benefits and blessings, in this life and in the life to come. From my childhood, I have always tried to be a savior on Mount Zion, a savior among men. I have that desire in my heart. I may not have been very successful in my ambition to accomplish this work, but I have desired it, and I still desire that I may be instrumental in helping to spread this truth to the earth's remotest bounds and the testimony of it to the children of men in every land. I know it is true. It appeals to my judgment, to my desires, and to the aspirations of my soul; I want my family; I want those the Lord has given to me; I want them now; I want them forever! I want to be associated with them forever. I do not want them to change their identity. I do not want them to be somebody else. This idea of theosophy, which is gaining ground even among so-called Christians, in these latter days, is a fallacy of the deepest kind. It is absolutely repugnant to the very soul of man to think that a civilized, intelligent being might become a dog, a cow, a cat; that he might be transformed into another shape, another kind of being. It is absolutely repulsive and so opposed to the great truth of God, that has been revealed from the beginning, that he is from the beginning always the same, that he cannot change, and that his children cannot change. They may change from worse to better; they may change from evil to good, from unrighteousness to righteousness, from humanity to immortality, from death to life everlasting. They may progress in the manner in which God has progressed; they may grow and advance, but their identity can never be changed, worlds without end—remember that; God has revealed these principles, and I know they are true. They assert their truth upon the intelligent mind and soul of man. They embrace or embody that which the Lord has planted in our hearts and souls to desire, and to give it unto us. They put us in the way of receiving that which we most desire and most love, that which is most necessary and essential to our happiness and exaltation. They take of the things of God and give them to us, and they prepare us for the future, for exaltation and for eternal happiness, a reward which all the souls in the world desire, if they are correct in their lives and thoughts. It is only the vicious and the truly wicked who do not desire purity; they do not love purity and truth. I do not know whether it is possible for any soul to become so debased as to lose all regard for that which is pure and chaste, good and true and godlike. I believe that there still lingers in the heart of the most vicious and wicked, at times at least, a spark of that divinity that has been planted in the souls of all the sons of God. Men may become so corrupt that they do not have more than mere glimpses of that divine inspiration that strives to lead them toward and to love good; but I do not believe there is a soul in the world that has absolutely lost all conception and admiration of that which is good and pure, when he sees it. It is hard to believe that a human being may become so depraved that he has lost all desire that he might also be good and pure, if it were possible; but many people have abandoned themselves to evil and have come to the conclusion that there is no chance for them. While there is life there is hope, and while there is repentance there is a chance for forgiveness; and if there is forgiveness, there is a chance for growth and development until we acquire the full knowledge of these principles that will exalt and save us and prepare us to enter into the presence of God the Father, who is the Father of our spirits, and who is the Father in the flesh, of his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who joined divine immortality with the mortal, welded the link between God and man made it possible for mortal souls, on whom the sentence of death had been placed, to acquire eternal life, through obedience to his laws. Let us, therefore, seek the truth and walk in the light as Christ is in the light, that we may have fellowship with him, and with each other, that his blood may cleanse us from all sin.

      May the Lord comfort my brother Heber, and I know he will. Brother Heber does not feel that there is any death here. I don't think I could weep for sorrow. I could give way to tears just now, but they would not be tears of sorrow, of mourning, or of grief, for this good soul. They would only express the love I have for her; they would only indicate my feelings toward her, for the noble and pure example she set before me and all who have known her. I could weep for joy in the knowledge that I possess that she, in her spirit life and being, is and will be associated with all those who have been endeared to her by the persecutions, the experiences and the trials through which she has had to pass in this world. With them she is rejoicing today, as one born of death into life everlasting. She is not dead; she lives! What greater proof do you want of that fact than to see her lifeless form? Who is she? This is her casket. This is her mortal tenement; this is but the clay that enveloped the immortal, living Aunt Rachel, the living spirit. The spirit has fled. Her spirit, the immortal part, has departed from this tabernacle; hence, this tabernacle lies here lifeless and ready to return to mother earth from whence it came, but to be restored again, every element to be recalled and re-formed in its perfect frame, when Aunt Rachel will come and take possession of it and inherit it forever, just as Christ came and took up his body that was not suffered to see corruption, and inherited it in its immortal state, never to be separated again; so it will be with her.—Improvement Era, Vol. 12, p. 591, June, 1909. Speech at the funeral services of Rachel Grant, mother of President Heber J. Grant.

      NO NEW PRINCIPLES IN THE GOSPEL. We have no new principle to advocate; but we have come to preach the gospel of life and salvation, to testify to the divinity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and of the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, through whose instrumentality the truth was restored in this dispensation.—Improvement Era, Vol. 21, p. 98, December, 1917.

      FOUNDATION OF TRUTH. We hear frequently of men who throw discredit on the doctrine of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, because some of the principles, doctrines, and philosophy which he taught are said to have been spoken before his СКАЧАТЬ