--- 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: 23 number: 4 published: 1920-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Prophecies and Promises of the Lord," *Improvement Era* 23, no. 4 (February 1920): 336–341.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2304unse 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: improvementera2304unse start_page: 336 end_page: 341 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1920-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2304unse publication_year: 1920 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 1920, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Prophecies and Promises of the Lord Prophecies and Promises of the Lord As Recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants Study Course for Joint Advanced Senior M. I. A. Classes, 1919-20 LESSON XV—ETERNAL DOMESTICITY Part I — Husbandhood and Wifehood The Lord says, "I say unto you, that whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God, unto man." Section 49:15. Accepting this declaration as the word of the Lord, settles the question as to the authority of any priesthood that holds to the doo trine of celibacy as essential to salvation or exaltation. Section 132:2-21, first, makes definite promises that no contract can Smith concerning the relationship of marriage and eternal increase of posterity. This authoritative utterance promises celestial glory, or exaltation, through obedience to a celestial law; it also places a bar against eternal parenthood, as a penalty for rejecting the law upon which such exaltation is predicated. A warning to marry right, or be deprived of the joy of rearing children in the world to come, may be lightly heeded by the thoughtless couple; but when a new life comes, by which each of theirs is quickened to new hope, new aspirations, new love, and new determinations, then they come in many cases to the temple of the Lord, on foot if need be, carrying their little ones to have them sealed to them, and secure the promise of an endless parental joy, and this very coming is a confession of having done wrong; happily, it is a repentance. Section 132:2-21; first, makes definite promises that no contract can be made of any effect, beyond earth life, that is not made or ratified by divine authority; second, teaches that even divinely ratified contracts are subject to conditions, one of which is that the parties to the covenant shall abide in the covenant. From a study of paragraph 18 it would appear that there would be attempts made to extend the validity of human contracts or covenants over into the realms of divinity, or to carry mortal pledges over into immortality, regardless of whether these pledges were sealed by divine authority or not. It is clearly set forth that any such attempt would be frustrated by divine officials, set to guard against intrusion, whose entrance into a state of eternal family companionship would not only cause social confusion in high heaven, but would make null and void the word of God, the law of the Celestial Kingdom. See especially paragraph 4. Paragraph 19 promises more blessings than can be comprehended by mortals; only those who partake of these blessings can know what they are. One thing is certain, no mortal community without children can be considered complete, and the comprehension of a heaven, a place of perfect joy, without little ones is impossible. These things seem evident, that there is a divine quorum, consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that in the Deity there are both husband and wife. Marriage We shall consider this topic under three heads: The Motives for Marriage, Making Marriage a Success, and Mistakes in Married Life. PROPHECIES AND PROMISES OF THE LORD 337 From the many motives for marriage, we shall select two for consideration: Yearning for companionship and desire for offspring. The other and minor motives, such as duty, need of support, wealth, position, we merely mention. The yearning for companionship is innate. When the Creator said, "It is not good that the man should be alone," behind the utterance was experience. Vainly Adam sought among all the creatures for a "help meet." They, the Gods, gratified his yearning by creating and bringing to him a companion for whom he would leave father and mother. When the yearning for companionship is supplemented by the thought of eternal union, and that thought is added unto by the assurance of the seal of eternal authority, psychic eternal life has begun. When a man can say of his wife in spirit and in truth, "mine forever," and the woman can say of her husband "forever his," and he "forever mine," not only the expectation but the condition of eternal domesticity are with them both. As the permanent is always superior to the temporary, the ability to comprehend, believe in, and apply to life any doctrine of eternity through the acceptance of ordinances reaching out to endlessness of that which is joy-giving, is unmistakable evidence of a higher order of intelligence than that which prefers to be content with the transitory. The acceptance of marriage for time, when an opportunity for eternal wedlock is at hand, has behind it some thoughtlessness or a lack of faith in the everlastingness of the love that has brought about conditions where there are, "Two souls with but a single thought, Two hearts that beat as one." Besides the mating affinity, or love of companionship, there must be spiritual companionship. Husband and wife must be able, sincerely and joyously to approach the Throne of Grace together. The marriage of the believer with the unbeliever is an unequal yoking that bars ideal wedlock. The felicity of married life requires intellectual companionship of husband and wife: they read to each other, they tell each other the news, they discuss events, and converse on principle; they are intellectually companionable. Without moral companionship husband or wife, or both, are not only unhappy but miserable. Neither can be untrue and not be unhappy in the companionship of the other. It is a condition in which "the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Marriage without the desire for offspring is a union scarcely on the level with mating among the lower creatures, which, following instinct, (a blind impulse leading to wise ends), fill the measure of their creation. They do not refuse to compensate nature for their existence, nor will they die in debt to the universe. Making Marriage a Success Making marriage a success from the standpoint of husbandhood and wifehood depends upon four things. Neither husbandhood nor wifehood may expect signal success without implicit confidence, the comradeship of counsel, the agreeable disagreement of compromise, and ^the perpetuity of courtship. A husband must not lie to his wife, though "all men are liars," and he is a man; a wife must not deceive her husband, though "all women are deceivers," and she is a woman. Confidence is fed by reciprocity. No true husband or wife will have haunts or associates of which they would not tell each other. A knowledge of each 338 IMPROVEMENT ERA other's comings and goings must be given without the asking. The confidence tree can not grow under camouflage, much less bear fruit in a climate of distrust. A woman in wedlock is not only a companion, a "help meet;" she is a complement of her husband. She must be friend, and more; it is her right to be a counselor. Cupid has thrown his darts wildly when he drives the heart where the head cannot go. In the midst of counsel there is safety —even for domestic bliss. It may not be demonstration of love to ask for one's opinion or a submit one's judgment, but it is a high compliment to his or her intellect. It is both cause and effect of appreciation. In life's partnership, neither should expect to yield, or be yielded to, disproportionately. "She stoops to conquer" is not a good household motto. It should be replaced by "They stoop to conquer." In the absence of compromise, we have servile subjugation on one side, and arrogant domination on the other, or there is constant contention, a kingdom divided against itself. Courtship consists in courteous attention, expressions of tender solicitude, declarations of appreciation and devotion, love-letter correspondence, and other tokens of endearment, a genuine devotion to serve rather than be served, a paramount yearning to please, an enjoyment of the personal presence of the object of affection. The husband who ceases to court his wife is a dead lover, though he may be a live provider; a wife who finds no joy in the courtship attention of a good husband has her "wifehood face toward the site of the Dead Sea." "Husbands, love your wives; wives, love your husbands," and as courtship is not only a manifestation of love, but the activity through which love is fostered, can we escape the necessity for constant courtship as an avenue of success in married life? Mistakes in Marriage First, marriage without a desire for companionship contemplating and offspring; second, the contemplation of substituting a civil marriage for a temple marriage, and thus robbing early offspring of being born in the covenant; third, marrying without love, be there ever so much respect and honor; marrying for Jove alone, regardless of respect and honor; fourth, permitting father-in-law interference, and mother-in-law meddlesomeness, to come between husband and wife; fifth, talking about each other in matters that should be talked to each other only; sixth, whining about things that can't be helped, and grumbling about things that can — be helped, by united effort; seventh, marrying in haste strangers should never marry; eighth, marrying from courtship carried solely through an exchange of letters and photographs; ninth, married people should not nurse the nagging habit. Perhaps no one habit is more universally destructive of domestic felicity than this one; tenth, trying to get happiness out of pouting, or refusing to speak; eleventh, expecting happiness from the marriage of a believer to an unbeliever; twelfth, expecting faultlessness either in husband or wife; thirteenth, not counting each other as fifty-fifty partners in financial affairs. Questions and Problems 1. In the light of section 49:15, what becomes of the doctrine of Celibacy? 2. Discuss the joys of rearing children. 3. "What failure is confessed in not desiring everlasting wedlock? 4. What is the difference between the blessing of eternal life and the blessing of eternal lives? PROPHECIES AND PROMISES OF THE LORD 339 5. Discuss the problem: The order of the kingdom of heaven would be less than that of the kingdoms of the earth, if contracts without authority were permitted to carry over into eternity. 6. What evidence have we that there are attempts in the world beyond to override authority and seek unmerited positions? (Doc. and Cov. 132:18.) 7. On what ground can a human being hope for heaven, who refuses to obey the first command ever given to man? 8. What kind of marriage certificate will be rejected at the door of the hereafter? 9. Where, and where only, may a marriage contract be entered into the validity of which may be one of the passports into the celestial kingdom, where the personal presence of God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and eternal increase are enjoyed? 10. How do you account for the anxiety of neglectful parents to have their children sealed to them? 11. What do Church statistics show concerning the social value of temple marriages as compared with other marriages? 12. How does constant courtship keep people young? 13. Wherein is failure on the part of husband and wife to counsel with each other a form of neglect and a cause for estrangement? 14. Discuss this problem: Counsel cultivates companionship. 15. Why is compromise indispensable to domestic happiness? Collateral References Note —The word divorce has not been found in the Doctrine and Covenants. While a number of splendid references might be given to help both teacher and student in the expression of the subject, of the lesson, you are cited to Gospel Doctrine, President Joseph F. Smith, chapter 16, and especially pages 341-351. The remainder of the chapter is splendid matter as preview for our next lesson. LESSON XVI—ETERNAL DOMESTICITY Part II—Parenthood From our last lesson we have certainly secured evidence that eternal life means, in its fulness, more than eternal existence; that in its highest form it consists of eternal lives, or family continuance, not only the continuance of family relation but family increase. The ideal homes of the hereafter will have children in them; high heaven without children does not exist. Of all the promises made to the Father of the Faithful, that of posterity was the one to which he most tenaciously clung; and well he might, for did not the psychic sacrifice of Isaac, put the patriarch to test in preparation for Godhood? Through Isaac the patriarch was put to the test by which he showed his worthiness of a parenthood akin to that of the Eternal Father. For spiritual parenthood see Gospel Doctrine, President Joseph F. Smith, page 85. Section 68:25 contains a penalty promise for the neglect of proper of teaching of children. Section 68:27, 28 points out four specific duties parents. . , Paragraph 31 indicates an inevitable calamity, growing out of parental carelessness, spiritual neglect and covetousness. It virtually promises the growing up in wickedness of the children of neglectful parents. There is an unescapable self-punishment for the unfaithful parent, a punishment through which, however, cannot be inflicted upon the faithful parent even 340 IMPROVEMENT ERA the waywardness of offspring. Adam had his Cain, Noah his Ham, Lehi his Laman and Lemuel, and the Greatest of All had his Lucifer. All of these great parents could say, "Not through our neglect, but through their misuse of the fullest measure of agency, these, our children have failed to reach the tree of life and partake of its fruit." Special attention called to the penalty promise, paragraph 25. is It is thought by some that this promise covers only the accountability for the sin committed by the child before such time as it may be baptized, but it covers more; it includes the sin of disobeying one of the laws of God, as well as the consequences of any habit the child may have formed, and all losses to the child through the neglect of teaching. The child should be so taught that it looks forward to the day of its — baptism as a new free-agency, spiritual birthday a day on which it may stand clean before the Lord, with all its sins washed away and its name recorded on earth as a member of the Church, and in heaven in the Lamb's Book of Life. It should know that this new birthday is announced in the heavens. It may be thought by some that children of eight years of age are too young to comprehend the ordinance of baptism; such a thought questions the wisdom of Divinity, and puts one's judgment up against that of the Creator. The untaught child is too young, but the properly taught child of normal intelligence is fully capable of sufficiently understanding the import of the ordinance to pass through it, and for a parent to defer the time of baptism wilfully means putting parental judgment against Divine wisdom, acknowledging neglect in teaching the child, or estimating the child as subnormal. Referring once again to the penalty promise, the parent who neglects to teach the child properly, and has the child baptized without the necessary instruction, will not escape all of the consequences which may follow the baptism of the ignorantly unworthy. In the Kirtland temple, April 3, 1836, the promise of Abraham was renewed upon the Latter-day Saints. Section 110, paragraphs 12-15, contains a record of the fulfilment of a most marvelous promise recorded in Section 2. The messenger, Elijah, brought the keys of the sealing ordinance by which the whole human race may be linked together spiritually, as one great family under the ties of eternal domesticity, without which there would be nothing worth saving on the earth, at the coming of Christ. It is safe to say that husbandhood and wifehood without a willingness for parenthood is a very unfortunate and wholly unnatural condition; it is a condition of mental moral depravity. The would-be childless pair are deaf to the pleadings of Him who said, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." The doctrine of birth-control or making the avenues of life conform to convenience is not a doctrine of Deity. Birth-control based on the financial ability to care for and educate children is in direct opposition to the tested truth, that adversity faced courageously makes for the highest manhood and womanhood. See especially page 349, Gospel Doctrine, President Joseph F. Smith. I Some Special Spiritual Obligations of Parenthood First, tranditionating through nursery rhymes, songs, and stories, the child into a belief in God as its Father, a belief in Jesus Christ as its Savior, a belief in Joseph Smith and his successors as prophets of God. Second, traditionating the child into a desire for baptism, a patriarchal blessing, marriage in a temple, missionary service. PROPHECIES AND PROMISES OF THE LORD 341 Third, training the child into habits of prayer, reverence for the name of God, his Anointed, tithe-paying, Sabbath observance. Some Temporal Obligations of Parents Insisting with intensive perseverance upon obedience to parents. The habit in children of following their own whims and notions in opposition to parental authority fits them for anarchy. Insisting on the exercise of self-denial in eating, drinking, spending, recreation, etc., results in the formation of habit, without which there can be no sturdiness of character. Self-denial is at the base of self-control. Furnishing children everything they want is a sure way to build for them a greedy character; and put them in a permanent attitude against appreciation and gratitude. They will grow up incapable of gratefully receiving or sympathetically giving, not only willing to accept the unearned, but demanding it. With early formed habits of industry, work becomes a pleasure and idleness a pain. Without the habit of industry, labor is met as a calamity, and indolence made the object of existence. The individual becomes the captive of the error that, "the world owes me a living." Questions and Problems 1. What is the difference between parenthood and mere progenitorship? 2. What is the four specific requirements made by the Lord concerning the teaching of children? 3. What is the penalty promised for neglecting these divine requirements? 4. What is meant by the dreadful day of the coming of the Lord? Sec. 2. 5. What is meant by traditionating a young person into a desire? 6. Name some of the desires in which parents should traditionate their children. 7. How are children trained to pray? 8. When can a child be said to be trained to keep the Sabbath day holy? 9. Explain inevitable, self-inflicted punishment. 10. How can parents escape the torture of self-reproach for the wickedness of their children? 11. Discuss the following: Through the work for the dead in our temples, many spirits are daily being released from prison in the spirit world. Satan is much wrought up over the invasion of his kingdom of captivity, consequently he is making a special campaign to carry away the souls of our children on the earth. This he can not do by blotting out their lives on earth, but it may be accomplished by the pollution of their bodies and the corrupting of their minds. It is for the parents to stand between the devil and their offspring, and say as Michael said, "The Lord rebuke thee!" References See articles on "First Commandment," Era Sept., Oct., Dec, 1919, by Dr. C. L. Olsen. . See Gospel Doctrine, President Joseph F. Smith, pages 79-101; also pages 364 to 386.