Questions and Answers: Water Baptism; The Ten Lost Tribes

EDITORS TABLE. 717

weight of glory; for these angels did not abide my law, therefore they cannot be enlarged, but remain separate and single without exalta- tion in their saved condition to all eternity, and from henceforth are not Gods, but angels of God for ever and ever. Now every young person throughout the Church should under- stand this very thoroughly. The Church authorities and the teachers of our associations should inculcate the sacredness, and teach the duty, of marriage, as it has been revealed in the latter days to us. There should be a reform in the Church in this regard, and a sentiment created in favor of honorable marriage, and that would prevent any young man, or any young woman, who is a mem- ber of the Church, from marrying except by that authority which issanctioned of God. And no man holding the Priesthood who is worthy and of age should remain unmarried. They should also teach that the law of chastity is one of nrost vital importance, both to children, and to men, and to women. It is a vitally important principle to the children of God in all their lives,

from the cradle to the grave. God has fixed dreadful penalties against the transgression of his law of chastity, of virtue, of purity. When the law of God shall be in force among men, they will be cut off who are not absolutely pure and unsoiled and spotless —both men and women. We expect the women to be pure, we expect them to be spotless and without a blemish, and it is as necessary and important for man to be pure and virtuous as for woman; indeed, no woman would ever be other than pure if men were so. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the law of love, and love of God with the whole heart and mind is tne greatest commandment, and the next is like unto it, love thy neighbor as thyself. This also should be remem- bered in the marriage relation, for, while it is said that the desires of the woman shall be to her husband, and he shall rule over her, it is intended that that rule shall be in love and not in tyranny. God never rules tyrannically, except when men so corrupt them- selves that they are unfit to live. Then, and under such conditions, it is the story of all his dealings with mankind, that he sends judg- ments upon them and wipes them out and destroys them. To such an end would the doctrine of Tolstoi lead the individuals and the nations that put them into practice. On the contrary, it is mar- riage, sanctified and God-sanctioned, upon which glorified home is

718 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

founded— that blesses, happifies, exalts, and leads at length to com- panionship with our Heavenly parents, and to eternal, united life, and increase. Joseph F. Smith.

THOMAS HULL.

The portrait of Thomas Hull, general secretary of the Y. M. M. I. A. and assistant manager of the Era is presented in this number of our magazine. Elder Hull was born in London, Eng- land, December 27, 1855, his parents being members of the Church. He came to Utah in 1875, and from that time on has been a constant and zealous worker in the mutual improvement cause., having filled two local missions therein, first in 1875-6, and

later in 1891. On June 18, 1876, he was ordained a seventy, and in 1893 was chosen one of the presidents in the second quorum, a position he is now filling. He married Margaret C. Swan, April 28, 1877. To his energy, enthusiasm, and splendid executive and clerical was chosen in abilities as General Secretary, to which position he

1897, are due much of the life of our associations and of their recent progress an advancement.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

Object of Water Baptism Among: the Israelites,

What was the object of water baptism among the Israelites after the death of Moses when the authority for the baptism of the spirit was wanting? (See Lesson 18, 1901-2 Manual).

Answer by Prof. Willard Done: Our evidence that baptism was practiced among the Jews before the time of John the Bap- tist, is almost entirely indirect: First, since baptism was instituted in the first, or Adamic,

dispensation, it is to be inferred that it would be a fundamental principle of later dispensations.

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Second, we know that baptism was practiced among the Nephites (Mosiah 18; II Nephi 9:23, 24), and was commanded as a rite absolutely essential to salvation. Since the Nephite dispensa- tion grew out of the Jewish, long after the time of Moses, the doctrine of baptism must have been known among the Jews at that time. Lastly, the testimony of writers on the customs of the Jews seems to be that when converts or proselytes, were made to the Jewish faith, they were admitted as "proselytes of the gate" by water baptism, and as "proselytes of the temple" by circumcision. (See Bagster's Bible Helps, art. "Proselytes.") Now, as to the purpose of baptism among the Jews, and the incompleteness of the ordinance on account of the absence of authority to confer the Holy Ghost, but little can be said. It must

be understood that a complete gospel dispensation was not then given to the Jews they possessed the Aaronic priesthood which holds ;

the right of water baptism; hence, their rites and ceremonies could scarcely have the full meaning that they possess in this dispensation. If baptism was practiced, and we think it was, it must have been merely waier baptism administered for one of its present objects, viz.: admission of converts — to Judaism then, as to the Church of Christ now. Remission of sins seems to have been sought by other means, as, for example, by the sin offering, the peace offering, etc. Therefore, when John the Baptist came, he did not introduce a ceremony strange and unknown to the Jews. He merely gave to an old and familiar ordinance a new, or at least a more complete, meaning and efficacy; promising remission of sins through baptism of water and of the Spirit. The completion of the ordinance of baptism was reserved until the coming of Christ, at which time the Holy Ghost was conferred. (See Matthew 3).

The Ten Lost Tribes. Which of the twelve tribes were the two and one-half tribes that settled on the east side of the river Jordan; and were the nine and one- half tribes remaining the same people commonly called the Ten Lost Tribes?

Answer by Prof. Willard Done: The two and a-half tribes that settled on the east side of the Jordan were Reuben, Gad. and