--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 6 number: 11 published: 1903-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "In Lighter Mood", *Improvement Era* 6, no. 11 (September 1903): 863.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0611unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0611unse start_page: 863 end_page: 863 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0611unse publication_year: 1903 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1903, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # In Lighter Mood ' EDITOR'S TABLE. 861 kingdom are not to live again "until the thousand years are ended, neither again until the end of the earth." Also, that there shall even then be found among them those who shall remain filthy still. There being still another eternal dwelling place for mankind, be- sides the spheres where the degress of glory of God exist, those who "are filthy still" are relegated to a sphere in which there is no glory. He who cannot abide the law of a telestial kingdom, cannot abide a telestial glory; therefore he is not mete for a kingdom of glory; there- fore he must abide a kingdom that is not a kingdom of glory. (Doc. and Cov., sec. 88: 24.) It is evident that baptism is one of the qualfications for en- trance into the celestial kingdom. So far as relates to the foregoing, there is no revealed direct statement to the same effect in relation to the terrestrial king- dom. There is, however, a probable indication in that direction, from the fact that Christ, as a ministering spirit, preached the Gospel "to the spirits in prison, that they might be judged ac- cording to men in the flesh, who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it." Baptism is a con- spicuous ordinance of the Gospel, which was performed vicariously in the days of Christ and his disciples. There is not, within the knowledge of the writer, any revealed proof in support of baptism being a requirement necessary to admittance into the telestial glory. They must, however, have passed through some cleansing process, otherwise they could not have been distinguished from those who remain "filthy still." In relation to the unclean — those who are to be assigned to a kingdom where there no glory— there can be no doubt that is their entrance to that sphere is not preceded by the sacred ordi- nance of baptism. In treating upon the principles and conditions of the Gospel, regard to them should be it is important that the ground taken in In the absence of pos- unmistakeably based upon revealed truth. itive evidence, it is advisable to suspend judgment and await dis- covery by the operation of divine light. John Nicholson.