Disdain Returned

faith and repentance preached to him. He already had the strongest faith in Christ and his mission and he had repented and confessed his wrong-doing. In the second place this prison does not agree with our conceptions of paradise nor with the description given of it in Holy Writ. Alma (who, we must remember, lived before the advent of the Savior, and consequently his description directly applies to the righteous then dead) says:

The spirits of those who are righteous, are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise; a state of rest; a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow, &c. (Alma 40: 12).

Nephi also speaks in the same strain, (II. Nephi 9: 13). In neither of these passages can we draw the slightest inference that any but the righteous inhabited paradise, or that it in the least degree resembled a prison where the spirits of the wicked were confined.

But it is possible we have a strained translation of the original Greek word, given us as paradise, and that to be absolutely correct all the Savior's promise to the thief amounted to was that that day he should be with Him in the spirit world. Let this be so and we are still justified in believing that the Savior took the penitent malefactor to that part of the world beyond mortality for which, according to the condition of his mind and heart, he was, at the time of his death, most fitted.

DISDAIN RETURNED.

He that loves a rosy cheek,

Or a coral lip admires, Or from star-like eyes doth seek

Fuel to maintain his fires; As Old Time makes these decay,

So his flame must waste away.

But a smooth and steadfast mind, Gentle thoughts and calm desires,

Hearts with equal love combined, Kindle never-dying fires.

Where these are not, I despise Lovely cheeks, or lips or eyes.

Anon.