The Vision Beautiful

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THE VISION BEAUTIFUL 543

It meant in civil, religious, social and finally, financial matters, the right of choice; it meant woman's free agency, the liberation of her long-chained will and purpose. She has erred in her judgment at times, since that day of prefigured release in the Grove at Palmyra. So has her husband, her son, and her brother. But, O! the wonder and joy of that Vision! Today, and since that day, in this Church and Kingdom, as was divinely ordained, together men and women stumble along, now climbing, and now slipping on the steep hillside. Joined by the clinging hands of their little children, both are facing the rising sun of the coming day of peace and power. When the key was turned in the opening portal of sky and earth to admit men once again in life's sacred courts, men were endowed with the power and majesty of the Holy Priesthood; and all its blessings, gifts, and powers are shared and shared alike by man and his true mate. He of right enters into his Priesthood heritage, while the Gate Beautiful opens wide to admit all of us women into the glories of the Court of the Women Nor are we there confined! Side by side, men and women climb the golden stairs, pass Solomon's Porch, the Altar of Sacrifice, the symbolic tables and glowing candle-branches, into the Holy Place; and as we go together into the Holy of Holies we voice the hymnal of our sex "When I leave this frail existence, When I lay this mortal by, Father, Mother, may I meet yon In your royal courts on high? Then, at length, when I've completed, All you sent me forth to do, With your mutual approbation, Let me come and dwell with you."