---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Smith, Joseph F.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 21
number: 4
published: 1918-02
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: "Joseph F. Smith, “Editors' Table: Faith and the Resurrection,” *Improvement Era* 21, no. 4 (February 1918): 353–361."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2104unse
  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: improvementera2104unse
start_page: 353
end_page: 361
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-02)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2104unse
  publication_year: 1918
  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 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Editors' Table: Faith and the Resurrection

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Faith and the Resurrection*

I could scarcely justify myself in attempting to occupy very

much time when there are so many others present who would be

pleased to have the opportunity of expressing their appreciation

and their love for the man whose life and virtues we have met

this afternoon to commemorate. It has been said by some one

— I could not say who is the author of the saying — that "an

honest man is the noblest work of God;" and yet perfect hon-

esty does not constitute the entire standard of nobility that we

attribute to the life and character of the good man whose re-

mains lie before us. He was not only honest but he had a pure

desire, a forceful will and determination and a steadfast, un-

changing devotion toward that which is right. It takes all

these things and a great deal more — faith, charity, patience,

long-suffering, forgiveness, repentance, and all the other things

that are really essential to fill up and constitute the great stand-

ard of God's nobility, to make men what they ought to be and

what this man has come as nearly being as he was capacitated

intellectually and physically to be. This is my testimony with

reference to Brother Joseph Hyrum Grant.

Incidents of Healing by the Power of God

The year after he was born I started on my first mission,

and I have been engaged in the mission business ever since. I

have regarded him, all along through the years of my acquaint-

ance with him, which has been from his youth, as a most worthy

and reliable man. Some time after the death of President John

Hess, Brother Joseph was taken very ill, and remained very

seriously ill for some time. When the inquiry was made by

one of my folks, "Who are you going to place in the presi-

dency of the Davis stake to succeed Brother John Hess?" I re-

plied: "We are waiting for Brother Joseph Hyrum Grant to

get well in order to make him president of that stake." Sister

Smith chanced to meet Brother Grant after that, when he was

about the color of an Indian. Some conversation ensued be-

tween them, and he inquired: "What is the intention of the

*A discourse at the funeral services of President Joseph H. Grant, liehl

in East Bountiful, Nov. 11, 1917, ami reported hy F. W. Otterstrom.

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354 IMPROVEMENT ERA

President with reference to the presidency of this stake of Zion?"

She replied: "President Smith is waiting, Brother Grant, for

you to get well, in order for you to take charge of the stake."

A smile, a radiance of light, seemed to pass over his countenance

and from that moment, say what else you please, he began to

mend; and he has served as president of this stake of Zion for

lo these many years since that sickness which was supposed to

be fatal.

By way of reminiscence, another instance occurs to me just

now, which it may not be amiss for me to relate. Some seven-

teen or eighteen years ago the word came to me by a good

brother of our present Governor, our dear little friend Isadore

Morris. He said: "Mr. Smith, our friend John R. Barnes is

dying. The doctors say he cannot possibly live more than a few

days; they have given him up." Isadore was a very dear friend

of Brother John R. Barnes, also a very dear friend to me and

to many others of the Latter-day Saints. I took the word to

President John Taylor. Now, I am going to tell you something

about our custom of doing things, sometimes. He said to me:

"You take a couple of the brethren, go up to Kaysville, and

wash and anoint John R. Barnes and bless him." Brother Fran-

cis M. Lyman, Brother George Teasdale and I went up on that

mission. We found that Brother Barnes had to be lifted from

his bed to an easy chair, and was scarcely able to lift his hand

to his mouth. Certainly he was in a very critical condition. We

washed him with clean, pure water; we anointed him with holy

oil; we laid our hands upon him and blessed him. I need not

tell you what the result has been. For at least seventeen years

since he was destined to die, by the decree of the physicians, he

has been one of the most active business and ecclesiastical men

in Davis county and in the Church. Now, I do not attribute

this wonderful blessing to my associate brethren, nor to me,

but I do attribute it to the divinity and purity of the purpose

we had in view. The Lord, Almighty and All-good, had respect

to our administration, and raised him up and healed him, just as

the Lord healed and raised up Brother Joseph H. Grant, by his

receiving the message that I was waiting for him to get well

to take the presidency of this stake of Zion. I suppose scientists

and philosophers would attempt to account for such incidents

as these in a very different way from what I account for them,

and would attribute them to an entirely different cause.

By way of further reminiscence there is another instance

that occurs to my mind, which it may not be amiss to mention

here.

We are talking to the living; and God is not the God of the

dead, but of the living. While the remains of our beloved

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EDITORS' TABLE 355

brother lie here, lifeless, inanimate, he is not dead. There is no

such thing as death here. Here is an instance of a faithful, just,

diligent and useful man having finished his work, having ac-

complished his mission and laid down his talents for this world,

and who has returned to Him from whom he came.

But the other instance. About a year and a half ago,

Brother George Romney was given up by his physicians as a

dying man. At the close of the annual conference, I spoke to

Brother Charles W. Nibley and asked him if he would accom-

pany me to visit Brother George Romney. He said he would

gladly do so. In company with the Bishop and two of my wives

who sit here, we called upon Brother Romney. He was lying

in his bed, pale as death, and in every way appearing to be on

the eve of his departure. The family were weeping; they were

very sad; and he himself seemed to have given up all hope.

I asked him if he desired to have us administer to him. He

feebly said: "Yes; I always love to have the administrations of

the elders." We anointed him with holy oil, as the scriptures

direct, and laid our hands upon him — both the Bishop and

myself, one of his sons who was present, and my wives. We all

laid our hands upon him and prayed for him; and the spirit

that pervaded that occasion, openly and directly and positively

declared that he would not die, that he would get well. You

may judge the result, for he still lives, and is in possession of

his faculties and of his strength of body and of mind today, as

fully as he had been for years and years before that day.

Who did it? Was it I? Was it the Bishop? Was it any

one there administering to that good man, praying and exercis-

ing our faith for his recovery? Was it the wisdom, the judg-

ment or the knowledge of the person who was mouth in prayer,

that pronounced the promise and the decree that he should live

and not die? Or was it through another Power, the Power of

truth, an Influence that was of truth, and that foretold the truth,

and was of sufficient power to execute the truth; was it such a

Power that gave the word that he should live? The Latter-day

Saints can judge. It needs no argument to them. They under-

stand these things; but there are men who do not understand

them, and you cannot make them understand them, for they

will not permit them to penetrate their minds and their hearts,

because they are of the world, and they know not the things of

God.

Now, I could repeat many instances of this kind. Let me

emphasize one truth in this connection — the distinction, the ab-

solute distinction between the claims that we make and the ef-

fects that follow our administrations, and the claims that are

made by other men and that which follows their doings, though

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356 IMPROVEMENT ERA

perhaps in some instances the same results may accrue. We

give to God the honor — to him the glory. We ascribe to him

the power, the majesty, the goodness, the love, while others

ascribe it to themselves and claim the honor. It is true that

men, under certain influences and in certain instances, may ex-

ercise the power of will to accomplish good for themselves and

to fulfil promises that are humanly made to them. It would be

far better if men knew enough to ascribe the honor and the

glory to God, the Giver of all good, rather than to human be-

ings.

Life Eternal

There is no necessity for me to laud the life and character

of this man, my associate and brother in the bond of the New

and the Everlasting Covenant which is stronger than the bond

of death, stronger than the bond of kindred ties; because the

bond of the New Covenant, which God has instituted for the sal-

vation of the human family, reaches beyond time into eternity.

It endures forever, while the bonds that are made by the hu-

man ties of brotherhood and birth — and the bonds that exist

between parents — may perish; they may cease and not continue

beyond the grave! So, this was my boy. I knew his parents

before he was born. I was a child and a boy long before he was

born.

From our human point of view what a pity that he should

not have lived in years at least as long as I have lived! We

would naturally suppose how much good he could have done in

the years that might have come to him, to have made him even

as old as I am today, if he had been permitted to live; but do

not forget that there is more to do beyond this veil of tears,

and beyond this power of the grave, than can be done in mortal

life. Among all the children of God, down through the ages

of time, there are comparatively few who have known and

lived the truth, and acquired for themselves inheritances in the

Kingdom of God, through obedience to his laws of righteous-

ness, for the vast majority of the human family have taken their

own way down the broad road to death. Where are they? Have

they perished? Have they ceased to be? Have they been an-

nihilated? No, no! We have the example of the Son of God to

prove these thoughts untrue. We have the consciousness of sen-

sible and intelligent men and women to believe that the Designer

of man's life and existence in this mortal sphere is too great,

glorious and majestic to have his greatest handiwork confined to

this mortal, mundane sphere. We know that there is a here-

after. We know that the soul of man is immortal, will live on

and not die; that man cannot and will not be annihilated.

Man will be held responsible in the life to come for the

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EDITORS' TABLE 357

deeds that he has done in this life, and will have to answer for

the stewardiships entrusted to his care here, before the Judge of

the quick and the dead, the Father of our spirits, and of our

Lord and Master. That is in the design of God, a part of His

great purpose. We are not here to live a few months or years, to

eat, drink and sleep, then to die, pass away and perish. The

Lord Almighty never designed man to be so ephemeral, use

less, and imperfect as this. I would pity the being who had such

a conception as this of the Creator of the starry heavens, the

planets, and the world on which we dwell, poor as it is in glory

in comparison to the many others created. Is it conceivable that

one possessing such power, majesty, intelligence, light and

knowledge would create a world like this and people it with

beings in his own image and likeness only to live and grovel

through a short, miserable existence, then die and perish? No

such thing! There is no death here, but there is life!

God is the God of the living, and not of the dead. He is

the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of the ancient proph-

ets. They live ! They live not only in the words they spoke, the

predictions they made, and in the promises handed down from

generation to generation to the children of men; they live not

only in the record they made, in the doctrines that they taught,

and in the hope that they held out for redemption, atonement,

and salvation, but they live in spirit, in entity, as they lived

here. They are prophets, as they were prophets here, the chosen

of God; patriarchs, as they were here; possessing the same iden-

tity, the same entity; and, by and by, if not already, they will

possess the same bodies they possessed while journeying in

mortality. Those bodies will become purified, cleansed, and

made perfect; and the spirit and the body will be reunited,

never more to be separated, never again to taste of death. This

is the law and the promise of God, and the words spoken to his

ancient prophets, come down to us through the generations that

have followed.

The Resurrection

I wish to read a little familiar scripture to you, a revela-

tion:

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given

unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness

of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast,

neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or

in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were

finished. This is the first resurrection.

Blesed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such

the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of

Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

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358 IMPROVEMENT ERA

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of

his prison,

And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters

of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number

of whom is as the sand of the sea.

And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp

of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God

out of heaven, and devoured them.

Critics and scientists cannot think such a thing as this can

be. It requires some faith in the short-sighted intelligence of

men to believe such things.

Let me digress just a moment. Not long after the great

Chicago fire I passed through that desolated city. I saw living

witnesses, present on the ground, who testified to me that they

saw balls of fire floating through the heavens in different parts

of the city, lighting upon the city, and wherever they lit they

started a blaze. The blaze of that fire was so intense that many

of the houses were entirely consumed. Not only the wood, but

the stone of which they were built, was destroyed. Nothing was

left of the foundation, only the hole in the ground. I saw

the stumps of iron lamp-posts, along the streets of the city of

Chicago, that had been absolutely consumed and blown away.

Will you tell me that that was mere human burning, human

power; that that was nothing more than what human intelli-

gence, human genius and ingenuity might accomplish? Or will

you admit that there is something beyond the power of man,

greater than he can conceive in his finite condition, and that

God Almighty controls the elements? By and by, the elements

of the earth, according to the word of God, shall melt with fer-

vent heat, and the wicked shall be destroyed. The apostle of

Jesus Christ continues:

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose

face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for

them.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books

were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and

the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books,

according to their works.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell

delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man

according to their works.

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second

death.

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into

the lake of fire.

My brethren and sisters, men may believe what they will

believe. They are free to believe as they choose. God has given

to every soul the free agency to choose the good or the evil, and

his children have been given a knowledge of good and evil. No

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EDITORS' TABLE 359

man ever came to a state of perfection without the knowledge

and love of God, and the love of his neighbor; nor can man

reach that state without charity, forgiveness, and repentance, for

without repentance there is no remission of sins.

Witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ

I hope you will pardon me for preaching what I believe to

be principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ. I don't care who disbelieves him, I believe

him, because his word proves him to be beyond the intelligence,

greatness, and grasp of mortal man. No man ever had the

power to speak as the Son of God spoke. No man ever had the

power of life in himself, except the Son of God and God him-

self. No man ever possessed the power to quench death, to

destroy the victory of the tomb, and to show forth the immor-

tality of the soul as did the Son of God.

I believe in him with all my soul, and with every atom of

my being; and this I say more, that every son and daughter of

Adam will have to believe and obey, or they never will come

into his kingdom and into the kingdom of his Father and our

Father, his God and our God. He is indeed the God of Abra-

ham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the just and the good of all

ages of the world. I said I believe in him because of the words

which he spake, which are incomparable with anything that man

ever uttered. I believe in him because of the principles which

he enunciated, which are incomparable with anything that man

ever set forth. "Love your enemies!" Who ever else taught it?

Who will do it? Who ever has done it as he will do it when he

knows as the Master knows and comprehends, who gave the com-

mandment? Who ever has reached the glorious height of char-

acter enabling him to return good for evil to those who smite,

mistreat, and bear false witness against him, who accuse him

falsely, seek his injury, his hurt, and his death? Where is the

human being who has attained to a perfect acceptance of that

glorious principle? Yet your common intelligence teaches you

that it would be possible for man to attain to that height of

understanding, so that hatred, jealousy and evil would cease,

and righteousness would cover the earth as the waters cover the

mighty deep.

Not only so, but there are many other things. We have the

testimony of those living witnesses who were with the Master,

who saw, lived and dwelt with him, who received instructions

from him before his death, who buried him, met him again

after his resurrection from death to life; then conversed with

him, and received authority and a commission from him to

preach his gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and people

throughout the known world, with the promise that those who

would believe should be saved, and those who would not be-

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360 IMPROVEMENT ERA

lieve should be condemned. These witnesses have borne their

testimony that he was the Son of God, the Savior of the world.

Not only that, but Jesus has appeared again in our day, and time.

He has opened his mouth and again in our day declared himself

and his mission to the world, before witnesses whom we have

known, whose testimony has never been impeached and cannot

be impeached, because they told and have held to the truth to

the day of their death.

I believe not only in the testimony of those who lived in

the day of the Messiah and bore record of his work, his mis-

sion, his birth, death and resurrection, but I believe in the testi-

mony of the witnesses who saw him in my own day! For their

testimony is in force in all the world. It has been said that in

the mouth of two or three witnesses all things shall be estab-

lished. But I have not only the testimony of the witnesses who

have borne record according to their own knowledge, to the sight

of their own eyes, to the hearing of their own ears, and the intel-

ligence which they themselves possessed, but according to the

words and principles enunciated, the promises made, and the

fulfilment of the promise in the life, death and resurrection of

the Master himself.

Tribute to the People of Davis County

God bless you, and the Lord bless this family. We are of

kindred. I want to tell you we are brothers in the Covenant of

the gospel. We are brothers in the bond of humanity, and we

are brothers by ties that are indissoluble, and that cannot and

will not cease, unless we prove ourselves unworthy of them.

God bless this congregation. How many times I have stood here,

in this hall, at this stand, and in all the other meeting houses in

Davis county, and have borne my testimony over and over

again as I have borne it here this day, and declared these prin-

ciples to the people of this stake!

I once had the honor of presiding here for a couple of years,

in the days of William R. Smith, Christopher Layton, John Hess,

Brother John Barnes, and others, prominent men then, and

prominent ever since. Among them were two of the best men

that I ever met in all my life — Brother Ellison, the father of

this boy here; and another good brother, Robert Bodily — two

simple-hearted, honest, plodding, faithful, true men: men who

loved their neighbors, who loved the stranger within their gates,

men who contributed to the well-being of their neighbors and

associates in life, fathers in Israel, well worthy of their sons

and daughters who have followed them in the covenant of the

gospel. I meet boys in the Bodily family almost wherever I go

— as bishops, or counselors, or presidents of stakes or counsel-

ors, Why? They had a good beginning. They had good teach-

ings. They were sired well, and they are good boys. You have

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EDITORS' TABLE 361

them here in the same degree in the family of Brother Ellison.

They were not the only ones; there were many others, too; but

these two, in my experience and in my association in Davis

county, stood out just a little higher and a little above any other

persons in the stake.

I feel that I have really trespassed upon your time. I bear

my testimony to the truth of these things that have been men-

tioned. The Lord have mercy upon us, forgive us our sins, par-

don our imperfections and shortcomings, and bear record of the

truth we speak and feel in our hearts, making it fruitful. May

the truth not only take root, but may it grow in fertile soil

in our hearts and souls and, eventually, bear fruit to the honor

and glory of God and to our eternal salvation, is my prayer, in

the name of Jesus. Amen.