Show SERMON by elder P P pratt before the Con conference ferente april m ath 1853 after reading his oration delivered on the north east corner stone elder P P pratt as aa follows I 1 was led to reflection on this subject not only by my acquaintance with the th present s tate state of the world and the movements and powers which seem new to many but because this text written by isaiah so many centuries since and copied by nephi ages before the birth of jesus christ seemed as appropriate and as directly adapted to the present state of things as if briten but yesterday or a year since should not a people seek unto their god for the living to hear from the dead is a question by the prophet and at a time when they shall invite you to seek unto those familiar with spirits ta and to wizards etc or in other words to magnetizers magnetize rs rappers clairvoyants writing mediums etc when they shall say these things unto you then is the time to consider the question ques tiou of that ancient prophet should not a people seek unto their god for the living to hear from the dead we hear much of late about visions trances clairvoyance mediums of communication with the spirit world writing mediums etc jay which the I 1 I 1 world of sprits is said to have found means to communicate I 1 muni nuni cate with spirits in the flesh the world is agitated on these subjects they are not work working ing in a corner religious ministers ars said to preach editors to write and print judges etc by this kind of inspiration it is brought into requisition I 1 to develop the sciences to detect crime and in short to mingle in all the interests oi of life in the first place F lace what are we talking about when we touch the question of the living hearing from the dead it is a saying that dead men tell 40 tales tajes inthis if this is not in the bible itis name mome where elea el seand nl if is is true it is jt a as good as if it were in the bible the sadducees in the time of there w was as no such tiling thing as angels angela or spirits or existence in in ano another ther sphere that nhep an individual was dead it was the fin final alend end of the workings his intellectual tel being that the elements are dissolved and mingled with ith the great fountain from which they emanated emanate tl which was the end of individuality or con congious conci cious oua existence jesus in reply to them took up the argument from the scriptures or history odthe of the ancient lathers 1 venerated by reason of antiquity in hopes by this s to influence th sadducees or at least the pharisees Pharis ees and others by means so powerful and so well adapted to the end in view said he god has declared himself the god of abraham isaac and jacob now god is not the god odthe of the dead but the god of the living as much as to say that abraham isaac and jacob were not dead but ii living vi ng that they had bad never been dead at all but had always been living that they never did die in the sense of the word that I 1 I 1 these sadducees supposed I 1 but were absolutely alive now if intelligent beings who once inhabited flesh such as our fathers mothers wives children 7 e bic e have really died and are now dead in the sense of the word as understood by the ancient sadducees or modern athirst At hiest then it is in vain lo 10 0 o t talk alk of converse with the dead all controversy in that case is at an end on the subject of correspondence pon dence with the dead because an intelligence must mist exist bei vire ore it can communicate it these individuals are dead in the sense that the human body dies then there is no communication from them this we know because olour of our own observation and experience behave we have seen many dead bodies but have never known of a single instance of any intelligence communicated Jesus ln his argument with the sadducees lin handled did the subject according to the strictest principles of ancient and modern theology and true philosophy he conveyed the idea in the clearest terms that an aft individual intelligence or identity could never die the outward tabernacle inhabited by a spirit re turns to the element from which iti emanated but the thinking being the them individual active agent or identity that inhabited that acele never ceased to exist to think act live move or have a being never eased cased to exercise those sympathies affections hopes and aspirations which are founded in the very nature of being the inherent and invaluable principles of their eternal existence no they never cease they live move think act eon converse verse feel love hate hale believe doubt hope and desire asire I 1 but what ara are they if they are not flesh and bones what are they if they are not tangible to our gross organs of sense of what are they composed that we can neither see hear nor handle them except we are quickened or our organs touched by the principles of ision clairvoyance or spiritual sight what whal are they why they are organized what are they made of they are made oatha of the element which we call spirit which is as much an element of ma aeria erial istance existence ex as earth air electricity or any other tangible substance recognized by man but so shuttle ut tle so refined is its nature nature that it is not tangible to our gross organs it is invisible to us unless we are quick ned by a portion ot ol the same element and like electricity and several other substances it is only li known or made manifest to our senses by its effects for instance electricity is not always visible to lo us ua but its existence is made manifest by its operations upon the wire wire I 1 or upon n the nerves we cannot see the air air but we feel its effects and without it we c cannot breathe ifa if a wire were extended in connection with the equator ial line olour of our globe in one entire circle of 25 miles miles in extent the electric fluid would convey a token from one intelli intelligence genoe to another the length of the entire circle in a very small portion of a second or we will say in the twinkling of an eye y e this then proves that the spiritual fluid or element called electricity electric ty is an actual physical and tangible power and is as much a reat real and tangible substance as the ponderous rocks which were laid on yesterday in the foundation of our contemplated temple it it ie true that this subtle fluid or spiritual element is endowed with the powers of locomotion in a far greater degree than the more gross or solid elements of nature that its refined particles penetrate amid the other elements with greater ease and meet with less resistance from the air or other substances than would the more gross elements hence its speed or superior powers of motion I 1 now let us apply this thia philosophy to all the degrees of spiritual element from electricity which may be assumed to he be one of the lowest or more gross elements oi of spiritual matter up through all the 1 j gradations of the invisible fluids till we ard arrive ye at ta a auba lanci so bo holy lillyw pure so no intellectual in te liec tuil attributes and I 1 that it be I 1 said to he be on a par or level in its attributes with man leta let a given quantity of this element thus endowed or capacitated be organized in the size and form of man let every organ be developed develd ped formed land and endowed pre precisely bisely after the pattern or model of mans outward or fleshly tabernacle what would we call this individual organized portion it t w the spiritual element we would call it a spiritual body an individual intelligence I 1 telli gence an agent endowed with life with a degree of independence or inherent will with the powers of motion of thought and with the attributes of amoral moral intellectual and sympathetic affections and emotions we would conceive of it as possessing eyes to see ea ears to hear hands to handle a as s in possession of the organ oren of taste of smelling an and d of speech such buch beings are we when we have laid off this outward tabernacle of flesh we are in every way interested in our relationships kindred ties sympathies affections and hopes as if we had continued to live but had stepped asade and were experiencing the loneliness of absence for a sea season our anc ancestors estorg our posterity po S to the remos test ages agea of antiquity or of future time are all brought within the circle of our sphere of joys sorrows interests or ex expectations I 1 each forms a link in the great chain of life and in the science of mutual salvation Improvement and exaltation al through jhb blood of the lamb our prospects hopes faith charity enlightenment improvement in short all our interests are blended and more or less influenced by the acts of each Is this the kind of being that departs from our sight when its earthly tabernacle is laid off of and the yell veil of eternity r n t y is lowered between us yes verily where then e n d does 0 e a it go to heaven says one to the eternal world of glo glory ry says another to the celestial kingdom to inherit thrones and crowns in all the full fullness nes of the presence of the father and oi of jesus christ says a third now my dear hearers these things are not so nothing of the kind thrones kingdoms crowns principalities and powers in the celestial and eternal world sand the fullness of the presence presen eg of the father and of his son jesus christ are reserved for resurrected beings who dwell in immortal flesh the world of resurrected beings and the world of spirits are two distinct spheres arts much so as aur own sphere is distinct from that of the spirit world where then does the spirit go on its departure from its earthly tabernacle it passes to the next sphere of human existence called the world of spirits A veil being drawn between us in the flesh and that world of spirits well says one is there no more than one place in the spirit world yes there are many ph phi i ces and degrees in that world adin as HI this jesus christ when absent from his flesh did not ascend to the father to be crowned and enthroned in power why because he had not yet a resurrected body and had therefore a mission to perform ati n another sphere whre where then did he go td world wold of spirits to wicked sinful spirits who died in their sins being swept off by the flood of noah the thief on the cross who died at the same time lime also went to the same world arid and to the same particular place in the same world for ho he was a sinner and would of course go to the prison of the condemned there to await the ministry of that gospel which had failed to reach his bis case while on the earth how many other places jesus might have visited while in the spirit world is not for me to say but there was a moment in which the poor uncultivated ignorant thief was with him in that world and as he commenced though late to repent while on the earth we have reason to hope that that moment was improved by our savior in ministering to him that gos pol pel which he be had no opportunity to teach to him while expiring on the cross this day choki be b with me in paradise said jesus or in other words this day shall thou be with me in the next nest sphere 0 of f existence the world of spirits now mark tho the difference jesus was there ad a preacher of righteousness as one holding the keys of apostleship or priesthood anointed to preach glad tidings to the meek to bind up the broken hearted to preach liberty to the captive and the bopf opening aning 0 of f the prison to them that were bound what did the thief go there for he went there in a state of ignorance and sin being uncultivated unimproved and unprepared for salvation he went event there to be taught and to complete that repentance which in a dying he ha commenced on tho the earth pie he had beheld jesus expire on tile the cross and he had implored him to remember him when he should come into possession of his kingdom the savior under these extreme circumstances did not then teach him tho the gospel but referred him to the next opportunity when th sy y should meet in a the spirit world vor ld if the thief thus favored continued to improve lie he is no doubt waiting in hope for the signal to be given at the sound of the next tri trump kilip for him to leave the spirit world and to re euter the fleshly tabernacle and to ascend to a highel degree of felicity jesus christ on the other hund hand departed 1 from the spirit world on tho the third thim day aud and reentered entered re his fleshly tabernacle in which lie ascended and was crowned at the right fight hand band of tho father jesus jesua christ then and the thief odthe cross h have ave not dwelt de together in the same kingdom or place for a alis eighteen hundred years ii T lim ws proof that they have seen each eacle other during that dial tf time 1 to say that jasus acs us christ dwells in the world of fit spirits with those whose bodies are arc dead would not be the truth he is rot not there he only staid there till the third day he then returned to his tabernacle and ministered among the sons of earth for forty days where he eat drank talked preached reasoned out of the scriptures commissioned commanded why did ho he do this because he had ascended on high and been crowned with all power in heaven and on earth therefore he had authority to do all these thing so much then for that wonderful won darful question that ihal has been asked amed by our chT christian istian neighbors so many thousand times in the abundance of df their charit charity for pr those who like tho the thief on tho the cross die in ther their sins sing or without baptism and the other gospel ordinances na ne es the question naturally arises do all lie people who die without tho the gospel hear it is as soon aa they y arrive in the world of spirits to illustrate this let us look at the deal of god with the people in this world what can we ive reason it but from what we ve knoff we knowland kno wand understand the things bilings of this world in some degree because they are visible and we are daily conversant on with them do all the people in this world immediately hear the gospel as soon as they are capable of understanding standing no indeed but very few in comparison have heard it at all ask the poor alamani Lama who have wl wih h their fathers fathera I 1 before them inhabited thesa mountains for a thou sand years a cheth whether r they hwe have ever heard the gospel i I 1 and they will tell ll 11 you nay but why not Is it not 1 preached on the earth yea verily veri y but tho earth is wide and circumstances differ very greatly arre atly among adiong is different inhabitants tho the jews once aice had bad the gospel with its apostleship powers and blessings offered unto them but the thoy rejected it as a people aud and for this reason it was from them and thus many generations of them have been born and have lived and died without it so with tho the gentiles and so with the Lama god has seen proper to offer offar I 1 tho the gospel with its priesthood and powers in different j ages and countries but it has been as often rejected ted I 1 I 1 and therefore withdrawn from the earth the couse conse quence was that tho generations of men have for farj man many 7 ages come arid gone in ignorance of its principles ples and tile the glorious hopes they inspire now these blessings would have continued on the earth and would have been enjoyed in all the ages aes and nations of man but for the agency of the people they chose their on forms of government laws institutions religions rulers ewe and k priests instead of yielding to the influence and gai guidance dance of the choson chosen vessels of tho the lord who were appointed to instruct and govern them now how are they situate I 1 in the spirit world if we reason from analogy we would at conclude that things existed there after the same pattern I 1 have not the least doubt bu but t there are spirits I 1 hero who have dwelt there a |