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Show CWeWS EDITORIAL PAGE There is No Death! emorial Day brings millions of people to the gravesides of their loved ones. It brings back many recollections dear to the hearts of those who still live in mortality, and who long for a companionship now lost. Can it be that there will ever be a reunion with our loved ones? Is there in fact immortality? Is there truly a life after this? The life after this is as real as mortality. There we continue our personal, individual existence. There we may work and worship, learn and advance, even as here. We people for the reason that our prophets have both seen and talked with God. 1 e. God. . . But it is more significant that the Prophets declare his existence, because their knowledge is not by deduction, as may be the case with scientists and philosophers. Their knowledge V comes by experience with God. - I am the resurrection and the life. Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice AND SHALL COME FORTH. ; , ' ; And more than that, our prophets have seen and talked with and felt the hands of resurrected persons, people who have died and come back from the dead as physical persons, bearing testimony of the reality of life after . this. DID NOT MORONI come back from the dead? Did not John the Baptist? Did not Peter, James, and John? Did not Moses, Elijah and Elias and divers others to use the Prophet Joseph Smiths expression? - Each one came as a messenger from God. Each one in doing so manifested the fact of immortality. Each one gave evidence of the truthfulness of the mission of Christ. And what did Christ say on this point? : . - Saints have a more certain y Knowledge of immortality than any other living Any believer in God, deep in his heart, has the hope, if not the faith, that there is truly ' ' such a life. The vast majority of all peoples believe in God, and with that belief have a hope for an after-lifIt is most significant that atheists in the world number but a small fraction of the total population. IT SEEMS INBORN in every person as he into this world to believe in God. It is a natural endowment. That endowment is sometimes destroyed, but in very few cases, com- paratively speaking. The fact of the existence of God is the best established information wj have. It is refreshing that great scientists, great philosophers, and great leaders in Government believe in Latter-da- - - as in Adam all die even so in TRULY - v MANY OF TIIE PROPHETS have seen him. Many have received their knowledge by - Christ, shall all be made alive. sThere is a the revelation cf the Holy Ghost. BUT THEY resurrection of the body, but there is also a life ALL KNOW. God does live. Jesus Christ does between death and the resurrection, a life of . live. He came forth from the tomb, a resurrect- reality and recognition, a life of association with loved ones, a life in which we truly will ed Being, and as surely as he came forth, we come to an understanding of the great and dialso shall come forth from' our graves. We all vine purposes of God. shall live again! -- ' ; , Public Honesty ASSAULTS ON HONESTY in public office have shaken the nation again in recent months, and the end is not yet. , What may come in months and years ahead no one can tell, but this type of experience makes us aware as seldom before, of the necessity of maintaining integrity in both public and private life. Elder Albert E. Bowen of the Council of the Twelve from 1937 to 1953, an astute public servant and a humble apostle of the Lord, spoke out in firm language on this subject. It is so pertinent today that we reproduce below what he said: f ; , ! 1 j : ! ; I j Honesty embraces truth and requires fidel-- , to principle. In this realm lies what we ity might designate as honesty in public life. It requires that men in public office should not graft even within the law. FIDELITY HERE often calls for a high order of moral courage. One hears of legisla- 16 - CHURCH e WEEK ENDING MAY 26, 1973 - tors in state and nation who talk one way and ' vote another. Among friends and in confidence they condemn policies and the laws projected to effectuate them, yet officially they vote the passage of time laws merely because they fear the course of right as they see it might not be popular and to follow it might terminate them official careers. ,, They would rather violate their consciences than lose the glamor and power of official position. Such men constitute a far greater menace to our countrys safety than do all the propagandists of alien philosophies put together. WE NEED fear no invasion from without so long as we are sound to the core within. 1 Every act of our. lives, every concept of our intellects, every yearning of our souls, to be worthy must be impregnated with the qualithat quality which gives integty of honesty rity to the internal structure of a man and fits him for every trust. MISSION EXPERIENCES . Mission To. Hawaii V v f c v had been The passage in the clipper ship Vaguero unpleasant m the extreme, and as the vessel neared the harbor at Honolulu, it was met by many natives, some in their canoes and others swimming. .They cned greetings r . - to the ship. . On deck, Joseph F. Smith, 15, listened and wondered how he would ever learn to understand the strange lan- - guage. . , Ashore, he was immediately taken ill, but within a few weeks was nursed to good health by the wife of the district president. ' . , ' Determined to learn the Hawaiian language, he - . wrote: I felt resolved to stay there, master the language and warn the people of those islands, If I had to do it alone; for I felt that I could not do otherwise and be free from condemnation; the spirit of it was upon me. (Some of the missionaries believed they had been sent to work only with thought Joseph F. Smith ' I " otherwise.) Within 100 days he was conversant on any subject in the new tongue He and his com pamon, Reddick N Allred, labored on the island of Maui where they visited the organized branches, preached the gospel, blessed children, baptized and confirmed new members, and administered the sacrament, all in the Hawaiian language. . " Shortly thereaiter, Joseph was given a native companion, Pake, and the two were assigned the east side of the island. Together, with one horse between them, they made a regular circuit of the branches, holding meetings, performing ordinance work, baptizing, confirming, blessing and preaching all the while. Writing of these experiences as a boy of 15, Joseph said Of the many gifts of the spirit which were manifest through my administration, next to my acquirement of the language, the most prominent was perhaps the gift of healing . all without purse or During his term of service Elder Smith presided over various islands, disscnp tricts and conferences When he returned to Salt Lake City it was almost four years from the time he was called as a missionary by President Brigham Young at the April . General Conference m 1854. , - .. 120-mi- ... f Another in o senes) |