Status of Children in the Resurrection

Improvement Era Vol. XXI MAY, 1918 No. 7

Status of Children in the Resurrection'

By President Joseph F. Smith

I wish especially to emphasize the remarks of President Penrose: When we think we see failings, weaknesses or faults, whether they be real or imaginary, in our brethren and sisters, instead of blurting it abroad and pouring it into the ears of friends and neighbors, wherever we meet them, if we will use sufficient charity, and friendship — about which Brother Heber — — has been giving us a poetic lesson friendship which is an offspring of love, we will go to our friends who suffer our displeasure, or our belief of their defects, and tell them how we feel and what we think, and do it in the spirit of helping them to overcome their weaknesses, and we will thus do ourselves, as well as them, much good. We will not go to them in the spirit of condemnation and complaint, and hurt their feelings and fill their hearts with enmity.

Love and Devotion to God

We all need love in our souls, all the time: first, for God — our heavenly Father, who is the giver of all good love which encompasses our souls, our thoughts, our hearts, our minds, our strength, insomuch that we would willingly, if he required, give our lives as well as our time, talents, and substance in this world to the service of the living God who gives us all that we have. Then, if we can only have that love in our hearts, so much that we will love God more than business, more than money, more than earthly pleasures; that is, enjoy greater pleasure in the worship and love of God than we have in any other thing in the world, then we will be able to go to our neighbors or friends, when we think they have done something not just right, when *Remarks at the February, 1918, Temple fast meting.

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we think they ought to be corrected, and we are the persons to correct them, we will go to them and help them to correct their errors and mistakes, and do it in the spirit of friendship and love. That is the duty of Latter-day Saints.

The Example of Our Lord and Master Speaking of the experience that our Lord and Master passed through; about all the indignities that were ever inflicted upon mortal man were thrust upon him. He was spat upon, scorned, derided, crowned with thorns, crucified. His works of — righteousness the healing, the saving power, the enlightening and uplifting power manifested by the Son of God while he was in the world—were attributed, by those who heard and saw to the power of Beelzebub, the prince of devils, instead of giv- ing honor to the Master, the Lord, our Savior, who loved fallen humanity so much that he gave his own life for their ransom and salvation. Why did he bear our sorrows? That he might know all our suffering. He passed through all the persecutions inflicted upon the Saints, and suffered the hatred, and enmity of those who know not the Truth; he endured all these things, and more, and therefore he has sympathy for us.

Charity and Sympathy for Others

I am reminded of one of my good brethren who sought to comfort me, in the death of my son. He said he hoped the Lord would so touch my soul that I would be able to exercise love charity and sympathy for others. I felt grateful, of course, for the admonition, for I presume it was needed; but it led me to a tram of thought that was inevitable. I ought certainly to have charity for others who suffer and who are tried; for I lost my father when I was but a child; I lost my mother, the sweetest soul that ever lived, when I was only a little boy; I have buried one of the loveliest wives that ever blessed the lot of man, and 1 have buried thirteen of my more than forty children that the Lord gave me. And it has seemed to me that the most prom- ising, the most hopeful, and, if possible, the sweetest and purest and the best have been the earliest called to rest. Surely I have been touched and humbled with all these things and others —the death of my kindred, brothers and sisters, the passing away of men that I loved with all my soul, men like President Young Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, George A. Smith, franklin D. Richards, and scores of others who have gone beyond and whom I learned to love as I loved my father, because of their integrity and love of the Truth. Yet they are gone; and 1 will meet them when I go, as they have gone, for I am deter-

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mined, with all the power that I possess, and with the help of God, that I will follow in the path they trod; I will walk in their footsteps; the course they took I will take, and I hope I will abide faithful so that I may be worthy to be associated with them. By mentioning the names of those brethren I do not wish to have it thought that I would slight others that I have not mentioned. I was associated, most intimately, with Presidents John Taylor, and Wilford Woodruff, with George Q. Cannon, and others whom I learned to know to the very core; I could swear by them, if it were necessary. I knew them, and I learned to love them because they loved the Truth. They loved Joseph the Prophet; they loved my father. They loved the Lord and the Master who gave his life for the salvation of the world. I loved them, and I love them still. Friendship is born of love. It is a small child of the parent love. I would advise that we learn to love each other, and then friendship will be true and sweet. It has been said by one, that "we may give without loving, but we cannot love without giving." So we want to love one another, and as the Lord said to Peter, we should feed his sheep, strengthen each other. We should uphold and sustain each other, not destroy, nor pull down, not dwell upon the weaknesses of our neighbors or our brethren, or upon the defects we see in mankind, but rather if we can see a virtue let us magnify it, and, if possible, fan it into a living flame that will give light

and life, energy and encouragement to all those who see it, and particularly to those who are in error and darkness, that they may be brought to the light. I love this gospel; it is true, and I thank God that he has put it into my heart to love the truth and to despise that which is not true. I thank the Lord that he has made it possible for me to love virtue more than hist or vice, and I thank my Father in heaven that through all the meanderings of my youth and boyhood, and during all my life, up to this moment, I can look into the faces of all those with whom I have associated, and they know I have not done them any wrong. I have not deceived, injured nor hurt my fellow man, nor woman, girl nor child in all the associations or experiences of my life. I thank the Lord for that. I don't claim the credit for it. The Lord helped me through, or I could not have gotten through as I have. The Lord permitted me, in my boyhood, at the age of fifteen, to pass through the ordinances of his House, in which the covenants I made were imprinted upon my soul. They were engraved into my mind and upon my heart; so that when I went as a boy out into the world subject to every kind of temptation, I was prepared to resist them, as also was every other faithful young man

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with whom I was associated. The Lord helped us boys, kept us clean, and delivered us from the temptations that beset us.

Give God the Glory I thank the Lord for these things. I do not take that credit to myself. The Lord be praised, for to him belongs the honor, that he has kept me at least undented from deadly sin, up to this moment. Now, will any say that is egotism? Will you say that is self-praise? I am not praising myself; I am not the one worthy of praise. I am praising the Lord; I am giving him the credit; the credit belongs to him. Let us get that spirit; let us teach it to our children. This is the principle that I have been trying to inculcate in my children; and I know how thankful I am that the Lord has blessed and has kept them in the right way — to love their parents, to love the Lord, to love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to love truth and virtue, and with a desire to be true to the end; the men to be true to their wives and children, the wives to be true to their husbands and children. O how I have been honored of the Lord in the good behavior and love and upright conduct of my children! One of the most beautiful women in this world, to my mind, was my daughter who was suddenly called and left five little children, and went away like her brother Hyrum. Nobody could be better or purer than she was. No one could be a better mother or a truer wife than my daughter was. Then another beautiful daughter was called away, leaving her husband and a little child. She was pure and good. O how I have been blessed with these children, and how happy I shall be to meet them on the other side! I hope I may be able to keep myself pure and unspotted from the world, that I may be worthy of them when I go away and all the little ones that have been taken away in their purity.

Status of the Spirits of Children Who Die

The spirits of our children are immortal before they come to us, and their spirits after bodily death are like they were before they came. They are as they would have appeared if they had lived in the flesh, to grow to maturity, or to develop their physical bodies to the full stature of their spirits. If you see one of your children that has passed away it may appear to you in the form in which you would recognize it, the form of childhood; but if it came to you as a messenger bearing some important truth, it would perhaps come as the spirit of Bishop Edward Hunter's son (who died when a little child) came to him in the stature of full-grown manhood, and revealed himself to his father, and said: "I am your son."

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Bishop Hunter did not understand it. He went to my father and said: "Hyrum, what does that mean? I buried my son when only a little boy, but he has come to me as a full-grown — man a noble, glorious young man, and declared himself my son. What does it mean?" Father [Hyrum Smith, the Patriarch] told him that the spirit of Jesus Christ was full grown before he was born into the world; and so our children were full grown and possessed their full stature in the spirit, before they entered mortality, the same stature that they will possess after they have passed away from mortality, and as they will also appear after the resurrection, when they shall have completed their mission. Joseph Smith taught the doctrine that the infant child that was laid away in death would come up in the resurrection as a child; and, pointing to the mother of a lifeless child, he said to her: "You will have the joy, the pleasure and satisfaction of nurturing this child, after its resurrection, until it reaches the full stature of its spirit." There is restitution, there is growth, there is development after the resurrection from death. I love this truth. It speaks volumes of happiness, of joy and gratitude to my soul. Thank the Lord he has revealed these principles to us.

A Consoling Testimony on the Subject In 1854, I met with my aunt, the wife of my uncle, Don Carlos Smith, who was the mother of that little girl that Joseph Smith, the Prophet, was speaking about, when he told the mother that she should have the joy, the pleasure, and the satisfaction of rearing that child, after the resurrection, until it reached the full stature of its spirit; and that it would be a far greater joy than she could possibly have in mortality, because she would be free from the sorrow and fear and disabilities of mortal life, and she would know more than she could know in this life. I met that widow, the mother of that child, and she told me this circumstance and bore testimony to me that this was what the Prophet Joseph Smith said when he was speaking at the funeral of her little daughter. Well, I thought it was almost too good. I have read Joseph's discourse at the death of King Follett, as at first published, and I did not believe, never did believe that he was correctly reported or that those who died in infancy would remain as little children after the resurrection. Never had it entered my soul as a possibility that such could be the case; yet, I did not have the courage to say so, although I had been told this circumstance. I really did not care to mention it, because I knew the strong opinions that some people had in regard to little children being resur-

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rected and, everlastingly and forever after to remain as little children. I did not believe it, and this testimony of my aunt was a consolation to me that was unspeakable, because I could believe that was true. Confirmations of the Testimony

One day I was conversing with a brother-in-law of mine, Lorin Walker, who married my oldest sister. In the course of the conversation he happened to mention that he was present at the funeral of my cousin Sophronia, and that he heard the Prophet Joseph Smith declare the very words that Aunt Agnes had told me. I said to him, "Lorin, what did the Prophet say?" and he repeated, as nearly as he could remember, what the Prophet Joseph said in relation to little children. The body remains undeveloped in the grave, but the spirit returns to God who gave it. Afterwards, in the resurrection, the spirit and body will be reunited; the body will develop and grow to the full stature of the spirit, and the resurrected soul will go on to perfection. So I had the statement of two witnesses who heard this doctrine announced by the Prophet Joseph Smith, the source of intelligence; and I felt strengthened, but even then I did not feel that it would be well for me, only a boy, to say much about this principle. I ventured to say some few things, but I was very cautious for a number of years. Eventually I was in conversation with Sister M. Isabella Home. She began to relate to me the circumstance of her being present at the funeral that I refer to, when Joseph spoke of the death of little children, their resurrection as little children, and of the glory, and honor, and joy, and happiness the mother would have in rearing her little children in the resurrection to the full stature of their spirits. "Well," she said, "I heard Joseph say that. I was at that funeral." Sister Isabella Home told me this. Then I said to her: "Why haven't you spoken about it before? How is it you have kept it to yourself all these long years? Why haven't you let the Church know something about this declaration of the Prophet?" She replied: "I did not know whether it was my duty to do so, or whether it would be proper or not." I said: "Who else was there?" "My husband was there." "Does he remember it?" "Yes, he remembers it." "Well, will you and Brother Home give me an affidavit in writing stating the fact, and let it be sworn to?" She said, "With the greatest of pleasure."

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So I have the testimony in affidavit form of Brother and Sister Home, in addition to the testimony of myaunt, and the testimony of my brother-in-law, in relation to the Prophet Joseph's remarks at that funeral. my Just a little while later, to joy and satisfaction, the first man I ever heard mention it in public was Franklin D. Richards and when he spoke of it, I felt in my soul the truth has ; :

come out. The truth will prevail. It is mighty, and it will live; for there is no power that can destroy it. Presidents Woodruff and Cannon approved of the doctrine and after that I preached it. My brethren and sisters, the Lord bless you. If any of you have any fault to find with me, come to me and tell me about it. If you do not find me just humble enough, and willing to be corrected and bow to that which is good and right, you may set me down as not living up to my doctrine; for I believe in that doctrine. If I had anything against any of you that I felt was worth while saying something to you about, and that would probably help you to rectify a mistake, I would go to you and help you to correct it.

Doctrine to be Weighed Carefully

It is a good thing for us not to attempt to advance new doctrine, or new and advanced thought in relation to principles and doctrines pertaining to, or presumed to pertain to the gospel of Jesus Christ, without weighing it carefully, with the experience of years, before you attempt to make a doctrinal test and to advance it to the people of the Lord. There is so much simple truth, necessary to be understood, that has been revealed to us in the gospel that it is extreme folly in us to attempt to go beyond the truth that has been revealed, until we have mastered and can comprehend the truth that we have. There is a great deal within our reach that we have not yet mastered.

Leave Judgment to the Lord I confess it is hard for me to love my enemies — the enemies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as I love— my friends. It is a hard task for me to do. I confess I do not fully do it; it is hard for me; and yet, at times, the Spirit of the Lord will touch and soften my soul so much that I can readily say: I leave judgment in the hands of the Lord. He is the Judge, and will reward men according to their works. He will pass judgment and mete out to them the rewards they merit." When I can get that Spirit, I say to myself: What have I to do with murderers? What have I to do with the murderers of the Son of God? What have I to do with judgment, with merits or