Blessings from the Tragedies of Life

Blessings from (he Tragedies of Life

BY ORSON F. WHITNEY, OF THE COUNCIL OF THETWELVE

Out of the tragedies of life issue our greatestblessings. There is compensation for every ca-lamity. Not more surely does day follow night,than does joy succeed sorrow, and blessing followblighting. The whole history of our race provesthis to be true. Events that man considers hisgreatest misfortunes, turn to good, and producebenefits in the Lord's due time.

What could have been more calamitous, froma human point of view, than the fall of our firstparents, Adam and Eve? It brought death intothe world. There was no death upon this planettill then, no pain, no sorrow. By the fall, thesemisfortunes—if we may call them so—came uponthe human family. But was it an unmixed evil?Did anything else result but sorrow, pain andtrouble? The natural man would answer, No,nothing else. We are not dependent upon man,however, when we face this solemn problem.

There has been an enlightenment from onHigh. Our heavenly Father has sent knowledgeinto the world, explaining away the misfortune,the calamity, and has made plain to those whobelieve in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the fallof man was necessary ; that by means of it thehuman race took a mighty stride forward—adownward step, yet a step upward, in the greatmarch toward the goal of eternal life. Adam

himself recognized this fact; Eve, his wife, rec-ognized it, and it has crystalized into a doctrinewhich the Latter-day Saints accept as divine:"Adam fell that man might be, and man is thathe might have joy."

Just as the thorn and the rose spring from thesame stem, so joy and sorrow blend in mortal life ;the bitter and the sweet are both essential to com-plete the round of human experience. Death hasits mission, as well as life, and it is by contrastthat we learn to appreciate. If there were nonight, we could not appreciate the day; if therewere no death, we would not know the value northe significance of life eternal.

The fall of Adam and Eve was a terribletragedy, but a wonderful blessing came from it;spirits became souls with opportunities for end-less advancement.

Then followed the tragedy of the crucifixion,a calamity so awful that the Savior's own disci-ples turned away hopeless, saying: "We trustedthat it was He who would redeem Israel," andthey went back to their nets sad and disconsolate.But in that very hour, when it seemed as if Christhad been defeated, there was achieved the great-est victory the world has ever known. What anote of triumph rings through the announcementof the risen Savior to his commissioned Apostles :"All power is given me in heaven and on earth.Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizingthem in the name of the Father, and of the Son,and of the Holy Ghost." "And lo, I am withyou alway, even unto the end of the world!"