---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Stanford, J. S.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 21
number: 9
published: 1918-07
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Stanford, J. S., "Sagebrush," *Improvement Era* 21, no. 9 (July 1918): 817.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2109unse
  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: improvementera2109unse
start_page: 817
end_page: 817
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-07)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2109unse
  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.
---

# Sagebrush

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ARE MEN CREATED EQUAL?                      819

and ordained before he was born to be a prophet unto the nations (Jer. 1:5);and a similar foreordination is indicated by
Isaiah (49:1,5). Abraham definitely avers that among the unembodied spirits there were differences, some were noble and
great and others less adapted to the duties of rulership "Now the
                                                        :

Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were
organized before the world was; and among all these there were
many of the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that
they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said:
These I will make my rulers" (Pearl of Great Price, p. 65-66).
      The God of spirits recognized particular qualifications in
some, and selected them to be leaders among men. Let us not
assume that the "rulers" thus divinely chosen are necessarily
those whom men would later elect to be their leaders. Many of
God's great ones have been and are counted among the despised
of earth. So it was with the Christ Himself, and so with many
of His prophets, apostles and revelators unto mankind.
      Born into the flesh with diverse capacities, subjected here
to varied environment, which may be favorable or opposed to
the development of inherent tendencies toward either good or
evil, we as a race are creatures of disparity, inequality, and heterogeneous circumstance. But all color of injustice disappears
in the light of assurance that, in the judgment of souls, every
condition shall be weighed in the accurate balances of Justice
and Mercy.
                                 —
     But what of the hereafter shall we not be made equal
there? Not in the sense that our individuality shall be subverted or radically changed. We shall find beyond more gradations in society than we have ever known on earth. But the
basis of classification will be essentially different. Here we are
                                  —
rated according to what we have of wealth, learning, political
or other influence due to circumstance; there we shall find our
place according to what we really are.
     Ponder the significance of our Lord's assurance of the
"many mansions" in the Father's kingdom (John 14:1-3), and
consider Paul's summary of varied glories (1 Cor. 15:40-41).
     Through later Scripture we are told of distinct kingdoms
or worlds of graded order, comparable to the sun, moon, and
stars respectively. There are the Celestial, the Terrestrial, and
the Telestial kingdoms, in which the souls of men shall abide
and serve as their attainments in righteousness or their disqualification through sin shall determine.     Concerning the inhabitants of the Telestial world, the lowest of the specified kingdoms of glory, we read: ''For they shall be judged according to
their works, and every man shall receive according to his own
works, his own dominion, in the mansions which are prepared."
(Doctrine and Covenants 76:111).