Show delivered iy ay bishop J E booth THE PRE EXISTENCE OF SPIRITS and the lion of lucifer against the plans of god tho usual sabbath services of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints wore held in the meetinghouse meeting house on sunday afternoon at 2 tho choir sans ill praise while ive breath and when my voice is lost in death prayer was offered by elder jos B keeler the choir sang i behold the great redeemer die A broken law to satisfy tho sacrament was administered by the bishopric of the third ward BISHOP J JE bjorr prefaced his remarks by reading the following passage from job then the lord answered job out of the whirlwind and said who is this that dar keneth counsel by works without knowledge gird up now thy loins like a man for I 1 will demand of thee and answer thou me where wast thou when I 1 laid the foundation of tha earth declare if eliou hast understanding who hath laid the measures thereof if thou kno west or who hath clied alie line upon it whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened or who laid the corner stone hereof when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of god shouted for joy my brethren and sisters I 1 may say truthfully that I 1 am pleased to have the opportunity of behag here this afternoon not because of the privilege I 1 havo of speaking but because I 1 am with my friends and because I 1 realize I 1 am among those who believe as I 1 do if I 1 should happen to bo blessed this afternoon with tho holy spirit and you who may liffon might not be similarly blessed it would avail but little therefore I 1 pray that the spirit of god may rest upon us all 1 prefer speaking to the people rather than to empty benches for I 1 havo tried both waye nearly every older will testify to the truth of this fact I 1 cannot say that it is unexpected to mo to be called upon this afternoon io speak for I 1 expected that if I 1 attended meeting this j afternoon that I 1 would bo asked to address the saints it is necessary that we study the principles of tho gospel so that we may intelligently speak upon them when placed in this position hence I 1 have reading our hearing the first portion of the chapter of job I 1 dont expect to talk to you upon the mysteries of the kingdom for jin the first place I 1 dont know anything about them and in tho second place I 1 am not hunting them very much I 1 prefer rather to talk upon the plain principles of the gospel principles that all can subject of pre existence of spirits as laid down in have read to you is of great importance to us contrary to the general opinion of mankind we do not believe that this is our first existence we have been taught that we lived before we came here and that wo will have an existence hereafter when we como to understand the gospel then it opens up a subject that is of great interest to us why did the sons of god shout together for joy we find in the chapter of something concerning this bead the ath to the verses and there was war in heaven mich ael and his angels fought against the dragon and alie dragon fought and his andola and prevailed not neither was their place found any more in heaven and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called tho devil and satan which the whole world he atas cast out into the earth and his were cast out aitu him and I 1 heard a loud voice saying in herven now is come salvation end strength and the kingdom of our god and alie power of his christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down aich them before our god day and night it appears from abis then that there djs a war in heaven now they did not go to war there without a cause any more than the nations of the earth do abero was some reason for it as we shall shortly see now I 1 believe that we helped in the shout of joy referred to by job on peeking peeing that those who opposed the father ware overcome the scriptures tell us that adam fell chatman might be that man is tabt he might have joy when the lord told adam that in the day he ate of the fruit he should surely die he also was very careful to place an angel at the gates of the garden of eden with a flaming sword that adam might not return and partake of the fruit of the tree that ho might live for ever now mankind generally regard death as the greatest curse that could be placed upon them but the troth ie outside of life it ia the greatest blessing no to go back to oar subject we find that when the of matter redemption came up before the council of the gods in beavon we find that lucifer wont before them and said that he would save all mankind in their sins how will you do it was asked by the father why I 1 will take away from them their freo acenoy and all iny pay is your glory now jesus came along and proffered prof ered to go and perform this work of re demotion demp tion telling the father that he would even ge BO far as to sacrifice his life forthe bins of the corid and that when he returned to his father 1 he would giva him the glory on the page of the book of mormon we road and he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice for behold he ereth the pains of all men yea the pains of every living creature both men women and children who belong to the family of adam NOW here we nod tho on which jesus proposed saving manking in the ath chapter of john we find the following what and if ye shall eee the son of man ascend up where he was before this indicates that ha must have been there and that ho must have had a certain glory there as yoa will find by reading the ath verse of the chapter of john aud ow 0 father glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I 1 biad with thee before the world was yes says one we will accept of the fact the savior had an existence before the world was but did anybody elso why yes read what the prophet jeremiah gabys before I 1 formed thee in the belly I 1 knew theland thee and before thou earnest forth out of the womb 1 sanctified thee and foreordained fore ordained thee a prophet anlo the nations then he must have had an eliat ence the disciples also understood this principle as yon will find by reading the Oth chapter of john and us jesus passed by he saw a man which was blind from his birth i and liis disciples asked him saying master who did sin this man or his parents that he was born baiad jesus answered neither hath this man sinned nor hia parents but that the work of god should be made manifest iu liim now here is a case where it shows us that we not only had an existence before we were born ant we also had an agency and that there have been sin the question asked by the disciples would indicate that ho could have committed sin before birth now let ns see if we can find any cause for the war that occurred in heaven after the proposition of lucifer had been rejected he said to uso the words of milton in bis paradise lost 1 I would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven and be rebelled and was cast out and that was the cause of the war parley P pratt in his key to theology beautifully describes abo different classes of beings in existence he sway there are beings who have not yet been born those who have been born and ire yet living on the earth those who have died and are not resurrected those who have died and haye been resurrected and those who never will have the privilege of being on tho earth and having a body now who are those last referred to they are the ones who rebelled against the father and were cast out of heaven through their disobedience and their treason they were punished with the greatest curse that ever was inflict i on any being then they are the ones that will never be resurrected that is tee reason that the devil is so anxious to get into other peoples bodies aud he often gets there hence the frequency of the apostles in the days of the savior being called upon to cast out devils the greatest offenses known are treason and murder treason being the greater murder is treason against the individual the other treason against the organized government which consists of all individuals all governments pass the most stringent laws and severest penalties against treason tle life of the nation depends upon keeping treason down treason against gods government was therefore punished a became tho magnitude of the offense the devils in the days of jesus knew hia power and trembled at hia presence lucifer knew then and will never forget the whippings he received one third of the hosts of heaven followed lucifer one third followed jeans and the other third stood neutral now who are theat we are led to believe that they are the descendants of ham who while they have the privilege of being baptized are not entitled to the priesthood now if our condition hera depended upon our condition heretofore certainly our condition hereafter will depend on our present condition how often we sing these verses and yet without a proper understanding of their importance for a wise and glorious purpose tho a hast placed me here on earth and with held the recollection of my former friends and birth ye t oft a secret something whispers conre a stranger here and I 1 felt that I 1 nave wandered from a more exalted sphere have learned to call thee father through thy spirit from on high but until the key of knowledge was restored I 1 knew not why n the are parents yo the thought makes reason stay I 1 truth ia reason truth eternal tells me ive a mother there now do we comprehend the beautiful words fu that hymn when w are ginging it why there is hardly one soul in the church but what hai duog that hymn but how many have comprehended its true meaning we had mothers there there if aja did not bow is it we have changed our sex anever yet have been able to comprehend that it we had ft father there that we hadnot had not mothers there aleo paul in the of hebrews and the jtb verse cays furthermore we have had fathers of our aleh which corrected us aud aej gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of shirts and live then to all of na firsta wo have authority that jeans had a pre existence then we find jeremiah hadaa pro existence then the blind man and now paul says that all the hebrew sainta to addressed himself in this epistle had parents there I 1 believe that wo had the choice of our parents and exercised that choice and when we get back there we will recognize them as the ones whom we agreed to acknowledge as our parents on the earth some however say god is unjust that to one he has blessed with wealth jand another with poverty to one a position and another without bat such is not so the speaker here made a beautiful illustration in contradiction of tha assertion and said that the justice of god coald be accounted for on the theory of pre ex and not without and it is possible our conditions in this world did not all originate in this life probably some of us were more valiant in that great fight I 1 have alluded to and probably the saints were commissioned officers in that struggle for liberty the greatest reward that can be conferred upon man is that of eternal life the subject of our existence here follows the subject of pre existence then follows the redemption demp tion of the human family everybody may be saved by this standard ef the gospel everybody has the privilege of getting back to the place that they left if they will only live for it which is not the heaven believed in by the christian world who sing of it as located beyond the bounds of time and space where fiuman minds can never trace now the nearest heaven wo will ever know on the face of this earth is around our happy fi resides with father and mother wives and children etc and this the best part of heaven the christian world want to rob us of because there they say we will have no wives we will have no fathers no mothers nothing that savor of happiness rather never die than be deprived of these blessings id rather stay on this earth and make my own heaven I 1 tell you the sons of god had every reason to shout together for joy and we have every reason now to about together for joy that we have got along as far as we have let us continue to rejoice and lot us ever be reminded of the eternal things of god the choir sang the anthem glory to god in the highest benediction was pronounced by elder aleck wilkins |