Show j REMARKS frigham YOUNG tabernacle march 25 23 1860 REPORTED BY 0 D I 1 WATT awill I 1 will make a few remarks upon the portion of of scripture quoted by brother hyde in the discourse he has hag just delivered as follows jesus said unto her I 1 am the res resurrection and the life he that believeth beli eveth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth beli eveth in me shall never die J in all such sayings and in every part pait and portion oe of the ons of god has given to the children of men or to any individual in heaven or on earth to properly understand them a man needs the spirit by which they were vere given the spirit that reveals such matters to the understanding 0 and makes them familiar to the mind in the scripture above quoted the death spoke of is a death that the intelligent being undergoes and never recovers from it is an eternal death for the body to decay like a kernel of wheat that is cast into the ground is not considered a death br 11 hyde de observed if the germ of corn is not good it all biesly dies that is true but if it is good the te corn does not die it is placed in the ground to yield an increase it is commonly termed death to have the spirit and body separated but literally that is as not death only to those who are sons of perdition this earth is brought together and organized from native elements as we now behold it our tabernacles included the matter of which all animate and inanimate existence ia Is formed is from all eternity and it must remain to all eternity without beginning and without end there are arc certain portions of this native element that will be refined and prepared to enter into the celestial kingdom in orn into the celestial family of the celestial celestia world if the spirit honors the body and the body honors the spirit while they are here united the particles of matter that comp compose ose the mortal tabernacle will be resurrected a and nd brought forth to immortality and ana eternal life but it cannot be brought forth and made immortal except it under undergoes a change for dust thou art and unto return what for to prepare to be made immortal and fitted to awe dwell dwelt t in the presence of the gods the death ehat that jesus referred to had no reference to these thess bodies going into the grave ile he is the life abathe light ile he is the resurrection lon ion he ire is the bower power and if it vou you believe in ia ine me ly says jesus you shall live lle forever you shall shail be prepared to dwell with me in my vaut fathers be r i kingdom it the question had then been asked him will not this body be placed in the grave and return to its mother earth bis his answer would have been yes for otherwise you cannot be prepared for tor that eterna eternal I 1 life of which I 1 have been speaking to live forever 21 had the question been asked the savior when he uttered those words do you vou say that the decree that the lord gave to adain adam is now removed dr ved be would have told them no for thi el g mid vid not be quickened made immortal an pared for life everlasting without go ehg mh 0 these ordeals what can you know except b by its opposite afy who could nii nil number hiber niber the days i there were no nights iii ili lits to divide the day from the night anis could not enjoy the blessings of light ight eternal nal nai were there no 0 darkness all that are exalted and all that will be exalted will be exalted upon this principle if I 1 do not taste the pangs of death in my mortal bodyl never will know know the enjoyment of eternal life if I 1 do not know pain 1 I 1 cannot enjoy ease if I 1 am not acquainted with the dark the gloomy the sorrowful I 1 cannot enjoy the light the joyous the felicitous that are ordained for man no per eer person on either in heaven or upon earthman eart hcan enjoy and and understand these things upon any other principle blessed and holy is be he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power the death that is spoken of here is the death that is appo opposite sit e to the eternal life the savior spoke of if you dishonor hat that body transi transgress ress the natu natural ral rai laws per aaning to it you are not worthy in your arg sphere to possess this body in an immortal state what will become of it it will return to its native element that is the death that never dies that is endless death in this jesus had no allusion to the changing or putting off offos of this mortality th the e very particles that compose our bodies will be brought forth in the morning of the resurrection I 1 and our spirits will then have tabernacles to be clothed with as they have now only they will be immortal tabernacles spiritual tabernacles when death is spoken of as in the words quoted it is spoken of as death in reality in mitri places in the scriptures the separation 0 of t the body and spirit is called death but that is not death in the strict sense of the term that is only a change we are naturally inci inclined ined to cling to our mother earth our bodies love to live here to see to hear to breathe and to enjoy themselves because we are of the earth earthy but probably in most cases the change from mortal to immortality is no greater comparatively ively speaking than when a child emerges into this world we shall suffer no more in putting off this flesh and leaving the spirit houseless than the child in its capacity does in its ita first efforts to breathe the breath of this mortal life after the spirit leaves the body it remains without a tabernacle in the spirit world until the lord by his law jaw that he be has ordained brings to pass the resurrection of the dead when the angel who holds the keys of the resurrection shall sound his trumpet then the peculiar fundamental particles that organized our bodies here if we do honor to them tho thol they be deposited ill in the depths of the sea and though one particle is in the north another in the south another in the east and another jn in the e wes twill wi be e brought together owe oge er again again in the e twinkling twin twinkling klin kiin 0 of an eye and our nr spirits will take possession of f t them em W we will then be prepared to dwell with the father and the son and we never can be prepared to dwell with them until then spirits when they leave their bodies do not dwell with the father and the son but live in the spirit world where there are places prepared for them those who do honor to their tabernacle who love and believe in the lord jesus Christ must put off this mortality or they cannot put on immortality this body must be changed else it cannot be prepared to dwell in the glory of the father to to me all these things are plain and easy all we want is to understand the very subject jesus was talking about the nature of our organizations the world we occupy the laws by which we are and by which we continue to exist I 1 brother hyde llyde says take the world and what do they know pertaining to the things of goda god do they know their right hands from their left figuratively speaking 0 no all that brother hyde has said concertin concerning our important position is true itis beyond the power of man to fully unfold it though a portion portio has been beautifully portrayed ort rayed and I 1 it t seems that the people shou should d see things that are so plain were it possible for the nations to gain tower dower power to destroy this kingdom on the earth by y so doing they would seal their eternal damnation that is as true as it is that jesus died for the sins of the world as true as it is that there is a heaven a god and that the world exists and the children of men dwell upon it when the wicked seek to destroy this kingdom I 1 can endure it tolerably well but when I 1 see those who profess prof ers ess to be latter day saints taking a course to destroy themselves and to prove themselves children of folly children of darkness it is a great source of grief and regret to me all mankind have the principles of eternal life implanted within them much has been taught in regard to this and to the agency of the children of men god has organized the spirit and placed it in a tabernacle has given iven it certain capacity and certain laws anait and it is as independent in its ita sphere of action as are the angels and the gods in the heavenly worlds it ia Is fr fir us to act upon that intelligence that Is ours in every sense of the word and if we do honor to our tabernacles and to the spirits god h has as given u oswe awe have the promise of eternal life ilfe which is the gift of god this promise is made to every son and daughter of adam inthey if they obey the conditions laid down and their names have nave been written in the lambs book of life from the beginning before we came into the world and they will remain there to all eternity unless we blot them out through a wicked course try to understand the position you occupy and then you will understand the sayings of the apostles and ana prophets thanks be to the lord our god for the understanding he has already read given us for the spirit of revelation he has bestowed upon us and for the holy priesthood and the keys thereof by which the heavens are opened and by which men are enabled to understand things as they are god be thanked for the intelli intelligence 0 ence there is with this people A week from next friday it will be thirty years since this church was organized with six six members the kingdom of god has thirty years growth on the earth and does it not seem that we should be far advanced in the things of god it does at a glance we should know and understand many things that some bome in a are arc still till in more or less leaa dubiety about one elder will say that hs he knows nothing about god 1 I believe in the father and the son and in the revelations given through joseph smith but to really say that I 1 positively positive gor got know anything of tl the true character of god our father in heaven ea en I 1 do not know that I 1 can A few moments reflection and the spirit upon the vision of the mind and that same elder would say that he does know such statements arise from a want of the vision of the mind being opened to see things as they are for a few minutes the whole scriptures plainly teach us that I 1 we are the children of that god who framed the world let us look round and see whether we can find a father and son in this conre con congregation re do we see one an elephant and the other a lion no does a father that looks like a human being have a son like an ing on all fours no the son looks like his father there is an endless variety of distinction in the few features that compose the I 1 human face yet children have in their coun I 1 tenancies ten ances and general expression of figure and I 1 temperaments temper amenta greater reater or less likeness of their parents you go do not see brutes spring from h human buman b beings every species is true to its k kind in d R the children of men are featured alike and walk erect the bible clearly teaches us that we are the children of the very being who framed this earth and peopled it such teachings may nay be found in hundreds of places in the scriptures and yet we do not know anything about our eatherl Is it i not astonishing I 1 frequently think that tru truly ll 11 the things of god are spiritually di discerned scerne when man in his reflections thou thoughts ats worl words and acts as a finite being knows nothing of god but when lie he meditates and acts from the intelligence of the spirit god has placed within him the visions of eternity are opened to him heaven and eternity are before him brother hyde llyde compared the departure of the spirit from the body to going into another ro omand referred to a statement made by andrew andrev jackson davis ile he placed himself in a clairvoyant state beside the bed of a sick eick person perron and observed the spirit of a lady leave ee her er body ile he saw the spirit ascend from the head of the mortal tenement saw it walk out into the open air in company with another spirit that came to escort her away they appeared to him to ascend an inclined plain and continued to walk away until they were out of his sight do you dot flot believe that your spirit will be in existence after it leaves the body I 1 care not whether it goes out from the head lead or from some other portion dirda vis says that after the spirit spirl was full fuli fully out or of f the body he saw as it were an i umbilical imbi lical cord that yet retained the spirit to the body and that when that was separated the spirit was freehand free and the body was consigned to dissolution whether this be true or not it is as certain that the spirit leaves the body as it is that it enters it when it leaves the body it dwells dwelis ells elis in the spirit world until the body is raised up by the power of god and when it ia h raised up do you not think that we shall look like our father if any of us could now see the god we are striving to serve if we could see our father who dwells in the heavens we would learn that we are as well ac him as we are with our earthly father and he be would be as familiar to us in the expression of his countenance and we would be ready to embrace him and fall upon his neck and kiss him it if we had the privilege and still we unless the vision of the spirit is opened to us know nothing about god you know much about himic you yon did but realize it and there ia is no other one item that will so much astound you ou when your eyes are opened in eternity as to 0 o think that you were so stupid in the body be very careful that tou ton you do not so conduct j yours yourselves elTes that when your your bodies dilyou wilp not receive them in an Jm morta moita state be careful that your lives am ary stith that you ie be not d deprived d entirely of these bodies which have borne so much ild iid pain there is a great design in the formation of 0 the body the people cannot comprehend the deep mystery of 0 the design dt cil the alm aim almighty bt Y in bringing so many people into this T human uman world shall I 1 say this is al world of pain of darkness sorrow affliction and death the almighty has his ob objects t and plans lans ians all laid til tie tierrah roth roah afee and we are to pass through all these afflictions and to endure all that he calls us to endure to give us knowledge wis domand experience for we cannot receive them upon any other principle his design is to exalt the human famil yand to bring them back to the presence of the father and the son the heir of the family died to take away our sins he has suffered that we may live ile he has offered ered himself up for the sins sing of the world why because ut he e is the heir of the fan family aily the father and the son are now doing all they can to save his children and all the heavenly hosts are exerting their powers to accomplish the same great end but says the father do not infringe on the agency of manki for my childen children to be brou brought ht into my presence to enjoy with methe me the fuff faff fullness ness of my glory must pass pabs s s through the same ordeals I 1 have past t through rough a they cannot inherit eternal life upon any other principle how far does our agency extend there are certain bounds to it what we have wit hessed in thirty years experience learns us that man can appoint but god can disappoint man can load his gun to shoot his neighbor but he cannot make the ball hit him if the lord almighty sees fit to turn it away he can draw the sword to hew down his fel fei fellow I 1 ow man but instead of that he may fall upon it himself paul says 1 I have planted apollos watered but god gave the increase so then thin neither is he that plan teth anything neither he that wat ereth but god that the increase you may plead with the people and aud beseech them to embrace the truth but |