thieves, one of whom derided him, insulting his dying agonies. The
other, being penitent, prayed: "Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom." To him the Savior said: "Today shalt thou be with
me in paradise." [7] Because of this utterance--which Joseph Smith
declared to be a mistranslation, maintaining that "paradise" should
read "world of spirits" [8]--uninspired minds have drawn the conclusion
that the penitent thief was promised immediate heavenly exaltation, for
repenting at the last moment and professing faith in the Redeemer. This
notion is still entertained. The criminal who has forfeited his life
and is under sentence of death, because unfit to dwell among his fallen
fellow creatures, is made to believe that by confessing Christ, even on
the scaffold, he is fitted at once for the society of Gods and angels,
and will be wafted to never-ending bliss.
A False Doctrine.--Jesus never taught such a doctrine, nor did any
authorized servant of the Lord. It is a man-made theory, based upon
faulty inference and misinterpretation. The Scriptures plainly teach
that men will be judged according to their works, [9] and receive
rewards as varied as their deeds. [10] It was best for the thief,
of course, to repent even at the eleventh hour; but he could not be
exalted until prepared for it, if it took a thousand years. When Christ
said: "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may
be also," [11] he was not speaking to murderers and malefactors, but
to his pure-minded, right-living disciples, those only to whom such a
promise could consistently be given.
What Goes on There.--Jesus Christ and the thief both went to the world
of spirits, a place of rest for the righteous, a place of correction
for the wicked. "But," as the Apostle Parley goes on to say, "the one
was there in all the intelligence, happiness, benevolence and charity
which characterize a teacher, a messenger anointed to preach glad
tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to comfort those
who mourned, to preach deliverance to the captive, and open the prison
to those who were bound; or, in other words, to preach the Gospel to
the spirits in prison, that they might be judged according to men in
the flesh; while the other was there as a thief, who had expired on
the cross for crime, and who was guilty, ignorant, uncultivated, and
unprepared for resurrection, having need of remission of sins and to be
instructed in the science of salvation."
Thus is told in part what goes on in the spirit world. "It is a place,"
continues our Apostle, "where the Gospel is preached, where faith,
repentance and charity may be exercised, a place of waiting for the
resurrection or redemption of the body; while to those who deserve it,
it is a place of punishment, a purgatory or hell, where spirits are
buffeted until the day of redemption."
Alma's Teaching.--To the foregoing should be added the testimony of
Alma the Nephite, upon the same subject:
"Now concerning the state of the soul between death and the
resurrection--Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that
the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal
body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are
taken home to that God who gave them life.
"And then shall it come to pass that the spirits of those who are
righteous, are received into a state of happiness, which is called
paradise; a state of rest; a state of peace, where they shall rest from
all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.
"And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the wicked,
yea, who are evil--for behold, they have no part nor portion of the
Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than
good; therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take
possession of their house--and these shall be cast out into outer
darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth;
and this because of their own iniquity; being led captive by the will
of the devil.
"Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness,
and a state of awful, fearful, looking for the fiery indignation of the
wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the
righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection." [12]
A Vision of Redemption.--President Joseph F. Smith, only a short while
before his death, saw in a "vision of the redemption of the dead,"
the Savior's visit to the world of spirits, as recorded in the first
epistle of Peter. [13] The President's account of what he beheld
follows:
"I saw the hosts of the dead, both small and great, and there were
gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of
the just ... They were filled with joy and gladness, and were rejoicing
together because the day of their deliverance was at hand... The Son of
God appeared, and preached to them the everlasting gospel.
"I perceived that the Lord went not in person among the wicked and
disobedient who had rejected the truth, to teach them; but behold from
among the righteous he organized his forces and appointed messengers,
clothed with power and authority, and commissioned them to go forth and
carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness, even to
all the spirits of men.
"I beheld that the faithful Elders of this dispensation, when they
depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the
gospel.... among those who are in darkness and under bondage of sin in
the great world of the spirits of the dead." [14]
Personal and Proxy Ministrations.--The new light here thrown upon the
subject proceeds from the declaration that when the Savior visited the
inhabitants of the spirit world, it was by proxy, and not in person,
so far as the wicked were concerned. He ministered to the righteous
directly, and to the unrighteous indirectly, sending to the latter
his servants, bearing the authority of the Priesthood, and duly
commissioned to speak and act for him. President Smith's pronouncement
modifies the view commonly taken, that the Savior's personal ministry
was to both classes of spirits. [15]
A Temporary Abode.--Thus we see that the Spirit World is not Heaven,
except in a relative sense, and then only in part. It is a temporary
abode for God's children, while undergoing processes of purification
and development, as a preparation for better things beyond. Heaven, on
the other hand--heaven in the highest degree--is the permanent home of
the perfected and glorified.
Footnotes
1. Key to Theology. Chapt. 14.
2. Gen. 2:4, 5.
3. Moses 3:5, 7.
4. D. & C. 88:15; Moses 3:9.
5. Hist. Ch. Vol. 6, p. 52.
6. Ib. Vol. 5, p. 425.
7. Luke 23:43.
8. Hist. Ch. Vol. 5, pp. 424, 425.
9. Rev. 20:12, 13.
10. D. & C. 76.
11. John 14:2, 3.
12. Alma 40:11-14.
13. 1 Peter 3:18-20.
14. Gospel Doctrine, pp. 596-601.
15. Compare 3 Nephi 15:21-24; D. & C. 76:112.
ARTICLE THIRTY-EIGHT.
Spirit Promptings
Spirit Memories.--Writing one day upon the subject of spirit memories,
and the influence exerted upon the affairs of this life by the awakened
recollections of a former experience, I found myself indulging in the
following reflections:
Why are we drawn toward certain persons, and they toward us,
independently of any known previous acquaintance? Is it a fact, or
only a fancy, that we and they were mutually acquainted and mutually
attracted in some earlier period of our eternal existence? Is there
something, after all, in that much abused term "affinity," and is
this the basis of its claim? More than once, after meeting someone
whom I had never met before on earth, I have wondered why his or her
face seemed so familiar. Many times, upon hearing a noble sentiment
expressed, though unable to recall having heard it until then, I have
been thrilled by it, and felt as if I had always known it. The same is
true of music, some strains of which are like echoes from afar, sounds
falling from celestial heights, notes struck from the vibrant harps of
eternity. I do not assert pre-acquaintance in all such cases, but as
one thought suggests another, these queries arise in the mind.
The Shepherd's Voice.--When it comes to the Gospel, I feel more
positive. Why did the Savior say: "My sheep know my voice?" Can a
sheep know the voice of its shepherd, if it has never heard that voice
before? They who love Truth, and to whom it appeals most powerfully,
were they not its best friends in a previous state of existence? I
think so. I believe that we knew the Gospel before we came here, and it
is this knowledge, this acquaintance, that gives to it a familiar sound.
Very much in the same vein, I once wrote to President Joseph F.
Smith--he at the time in Utah, and I on a mission in Europe. Here is
his reply:
President Smith's View.--"I heartily endorse your sentiments respecting
congeniality of spirits. Our knowledge of persons and things before we
came here, combined with the divinity awakened within our souls through
obedience to the gospel, powerfully affects, in my opinion, all our
likes and dislikes, and guides our preferences in the course of this
life, provided we give careful heed to the admonitions of the Spirit.
"All those salient truths which come so forcibly to the head and heart
seem but the awakening of the memories of the spirit. Can we know
anything here that we did not know before we came? Are not the means
of knowledge in the first estate equal those of this? I think that the
spirit, before and after this probation, possesses greater facilities,
aye, manifold greater, for the acquisition of knowledge, than while
manacled and shut up in the prison-house of mortality. I believe that
our Savior possessed a foreknowledge of all the vicissitudes through
which he would have to pass in the mortal tabernacle.
"If Christ knew beforehand, so did we. But in coming here, we forgot
all, that our agency might be free indeed, to choose good or evil, that
we might merit the reward of our own choice and conduct. But by the
power of the Spirit, in the redemption of Christ, through obedience, we
often catch a spark from the awakened memories of the immortal soul,
which lights up our whole being as with the glory of our former home."
[1]
"A Glance Behind the Curtain."--Closely akin to these reflections,
are some pointed and telling lines in which the poet Lowell expresses
his conviction regarding the influence of the unseen world upon the
world visible. The action of the poem from which the lines are taken
deals with Oliver Cromwell and John Hampden, English patriots, who
are represented as about to flee from the tyranny of King Charles
the First, and seek a new home overseas, joining the little band of
Puritans who have already found a haven on western Atlantic shores.
Hampden urges flight, but Cromwell hesitates. Something within tells
him not to go--tells him that Freedom has a work for him to go--tells
him that Freedom has a work for him to do, not in America, but in
his own land, where he afterwards overthrew the royal tyrant, became
Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, and broadened and deepened the
foundations of English liberty. The opening verses of the poem contain
the crux of the whole matter under discussion:
We see but half the causes of our deeds,
Seeking them wholly in the outer life,
And heedless of the encircling spirit world,
Which, though unseen, is felt, and sows in us
All germs of pure and world-wide purposes.
The fate of England and of freedom once
Seemed wavering in the heart of one plain man.
One step of his, and the great dial-hand
That marks the destined progress of the world
In the eternal round from wisdom on
To higher wisdom, had been made to pause
A hundred years.
That step he did not take--
He knew not why, nor we, but only God,
And lived to make his simple oaken chair
More terrible and grandly beautiful,
More full of majesty than any throne,
Before or after, of a British king. [2]
A Well Warranted Conviction.--How much of fact and how much of fiction,
are here interwoven, matters not for the purpose of this argument. It
was the poet's belief that such things could be, a belief shared by
myriads of Christian men and women, and confirmed by a multiplicity of
experiences.
Columbus and "The Voice."--In another poem--"Columbus"--Lowell sets
forth the same idea, that of whisperings or suggestions from beyond
the "veil" hiding the spirit world from this world of flesh and
blood. The great mariner is supposed to be standing on the deck of
his ocean-tossed vessel, soliloquizing over the situation surrounding
him: A yet undiscovered country ahead, a mutinous and grumbling crew
behind, threatening to put him in irons and turn the ship's prow toward
Spain, if sight of the promised shore of India--for which Columus set
sail--came not with the break of dawn. A world of care weighs him down,
a sense of solitude and utter loneliness, but his soul hears "the voice
that errs not," and is patient and trustful to the hour of complete
triumph. [3]
Nephi and the Spirit.--That it was indeed "the voice that errs
not" which inspired Columbus, upholding and urging him on to the
consummation of the great enterprise he had undertaken, we have sacred
and indisputable evidence. Long before Columbus crossed the ocean, an
American prophet and seer, Nephi by name, looking down the vista of
twenty centuries, forecast the career of that man of destiny, telling
how "the Spirit of God" would impel him to cross "the many waters" to
this "promised land;" and how the same Spirit, moving upon others,
would induce them to follow in the wake of the mighty explorer. That
prophet beheld in vision the war for American Independence, the
successful struggle of the oppressed colonies against the mother
country, and the founding here of a free government, a heaven-favored
nation, destined to foster and give protection to the growing work of
God in after days. And this revealing Spirit--so Nephi affirms--was
more than an inward monitor: "I spake unto him as a man speaketh, for I
beheld that he was in the form of man; yet, nevertheless, I knew that
it was the Spirit of the Lord! and he spake unto me as a man speaketh
with another." [4]
The Holy Ghost.--Evidently it was the Holy Ghost who communed with
Nephi, though he is here spoken of as "the Spirit of God, and 'the
Spirit of the Lord." "The Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit," [5]
and though not in a tabernacle like the Father or the Son, he is
nevertheless in human form, and Nephi beheld him and conversed with him.
The Unerring Guide.--The experience of Columbus differed from that of
Nephi, notably in this particular: Nephi "beheld," while Columbus was
moved upon--yet it was the same Spirit in each instance. It was of the
Holy Ghost that the Savior was speaking, when he said to his disciples:
"He will guide you into all truth." [6] The mission of the Holy Ghost
is to make manifest the things of God, past, present and future,
explaining the purpose of this mortal life, revealing to man his
eternal origin and destiny, and answering the otherwise unanswerable
questions--whence? whither? and why?
Wordsworth's "Intimation."--It was this Spirit that inspired the
poet Wordsworth, bringing the forgotten past to his remembrance, and
prompting the utterance of the noble thoughts embodied in these lofty
lines:
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God who is our home. [7]
Truth and Bigotry.--The big thought was too broad for the narrow, rigid
orthodoxy of Wordsworth's time, which could allow for the pre-existence
of the Son of God, but not for that of the race in general. "And now,
O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I
had with thee before the world was." [8] This wonderful prayer from
the lips of the Savior was too plain to be misunderstood. It was clear
that Jesus Christ, "the Word" that was "in the beginning with God,"
and "was God," before he "was made flesh," [9] had lived before this
life. But man, "mere man," was an earth-worm, made out of nothing, and
consequently had no pre-existence. So Christian orthodoxy maintained;
and Wordsworth had to recant or half-way deny that his heaven-inspired
"intimation" meant as much as his bigoted censors seemed to fear.
Nevertheless,
"Got but the truth once uttered, and 'tis like
A star new-born, that drops into its place,
And which, once circling in its placid round,
Not all the tumult of the earth can shake."
The truth uttered by the great "poet of nature" touching the previous
life, was probably accepted by thousands of advanced thinkers; and
their acceptance helped to prepare the way for a more positive and more
complete presentation of the great doctrine of man's pre-existence. In
this connection the subjoined verses from the pen of a "Mormon" poet,
tell their own eloquent story:
O my Father, thou that dwellest
In the high and glorious place!
When shall I regain thy presence,
And again behold thy face?
In thy holy habitation
Did my spirit once reside;
In my first primeval childhood
Was I nurtured near thy side.
For a wise and glorious purpose
Thou hast placed me here on earth,
And withheld the recollection
Of my former friends and birth.
Yet, ofttimes a secret something
Whispered, "You're a stranger here,"
And I felt that I had wandered
From a more exalted sphere.
I had learned to call thee Father,
Through thy Spirit from on high;
But until the Key of Knowledge
Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heavens are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason-truth eternal
Tells me I've a Mother there.
When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
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. [10]
How wonderfully clear and comprehensive!--past, present and future
circumscribed in brief compass, the mystery of the former life
unfolded, the meaning of all existence made plain.
Maeterlinck and "The Bluebird."--Maeterlinck, the Belgian poet, author
of "The Bluebird," in that section of his dramatic masterpiece entitled
"The Kingdom of the Future," deals with the pre-mortal life, and with
the spirits of little children waiting to be brought down to earth
to be born here. Old Father Time is there with his barge, gathering
in the tiny passengers, holding back some whose turn is not yet, and
permitting others whose birth-hour is about to strike. The barge
being filled, he sails away, and mingling with the sweet strains of
children's voices, hailing the distant planet that is to be their new
abode, rises from below the song of the mothers coming out to meet
them. When the poet's inspired mind conceived this beautiful creation,
had he heard of Eliza R. Snow and her invocation to the Eternal Father
and Mother?
The Same Note.--I do not impute plagiarism in such cases. There is
no monopoly of Truth. It reveals itself to whomsoever it will, and
sometimes it tells to several persons, at different times and places,
the same thing. Suffice it, that Eliza R. Snow, when she sang of the
"first primeval childhood," sounded the identical note subsequently
struck by Maurice Maeterlinck, when portraying so tenderly and so
tellingly the heavenly origin and earthly advent of the spirits that
tabernacle in mortality.
Fame's Partiality.--Inspiration was kind to both poets, but fame has
been somewhat partial. Some day, when bigotry is dead and prejudice no
longer has power to blind men's eyes to the truth and pervert their
judgment, the just claims of all inspired teachers will be recognized,
if not recompensed. Meanwhile the world will go on glorifying one and
crying down another, as it always has done. It will continue "tossing
high its ready cap" in honor of Maeterlinck, the Belgian poet, for
the beautiful truths set forth in his sublime symbolic drama; little
realizing that the American prophet, Joseph Smith, and some who sat at
his feet learning wisdom from his lips, taught the same and greater
truths long before Maeterlinck was born.
Communications from the Departed.--Many instances might be given of
the action and influence of "the other world" upon this world The
experiences of the Latter-day Saints alone would fill volumes. I refer
particularly to those connected with the gathering up of genealogies
for use in temple work, and the work itself done vicariously for the
benefit of the departed. By dreams and visions, by voices and other
manifestations, spirits "behind the veil" have made known their wishes
to surviving relatives in the flesh, so that their left-over tasks
might be done for them, the records of their ancestors secured, and
they in like manner redeemed through sacred ordinances performed in
their behalf and necessary to their progress and happiness in spheres
beyond.
Footnotes
1. Gospel Doctrine, pp. 15, 16. "Columbus."
2. J. R. Lowell's Poems, "A Glance Behind the Curtain."
4. 1 Nephi 11:11; 13:10:19.
5. D. & C. 130:22.
6. John 16:13.
7. Wordsworth's Poems, "Intimations of Immortality," first published in
1807.
8. John 17:5.
9. Ib. 1:1-14.
10. Eliza R. Snow's "Invocation," L. D. S. Hymn Book.
ARTICLE THIRTY-NINE.
Do the Dead Return?
Hamlet and the Ghost.--I had always thought it strange that a great
Christian poet like Shakespeare, after portraying, as he does in
"Hamlet," an interview between the Prince of Denmark and his father's
ghost, should refer to the spirit world as "that undiscovered country
from whose bourne no traveler returns." Had not the ghost returned from
that very "country," for the special purpose of this interview?
While deeming it contradictory, my admiration and reverence for the
immortal bard induced me to minimize and even excuse the apparent
inconsistency. In his behalf I argued that it was Hamlet, not
Shakespeare, who interviewed the Ghost at Castle Elsinore; that
it was the prince and not the poet who soliloquized relative to
the non-returning "traveler." I took the ground that Shakespeare,
in writing the play of "Hamlet," was not presenting the author's
autobiography, and should not, therefore, be held responsible for the
idiosyncrasies of "the melancholy Dane;" he being mad, and mad people
having the right to say what they please, no matter how much they
contradict themselves or speak and act inconsistently.
A Better Defense.--But all the while there was a better defense for
both Shakespeare and Hamlet--it a certain hypothesis be well founded,
the supporters of which would have us believe that the famed soliloquy,
"To be or not be," wherein the allusion to the spirit "traveler"
occurs, originally had place nearer the beginning of the play and
before Hamlet had seen the Ghost. Not Shakespeare, therefore, nor
Hamlet, but some one who tampered with the poet's masterpiece after his
death--"a custom more honored in the breach than the observance"--is
to be held responsible for the incongruity. Such is the suggestion
put forth by one or more literary savants. Allowing it to be true,
Shakespeare and the Bible are thus reconciled, and Hamlet is no longer
in the attitude of disputing the sacred account of the risen Savior's
personal appearing to his disciples, after his return from the spirit
world. [1]
Belasco and "Peter Grimm."--That the creator of Hamlet and Macbeth
believed in spirits, and made plentiful use of them as part of his
"celestial machinery," is evident from the works of the master
dramatist; and that his talented disciple, David Belasco, likewise
favors such usage, is plainly shown in that intensely interesting book
and play, "The Return of Peter Grimm." Let me briefly review the story.
Peter Grimm, an honest, elderly Dutch-American, carrying on the
business of florist at Grimm Manor, a suburb of New York City, has a
friend and family physician in Alexander McPherson, who, I need not
say, is a Scotchman. He is also a spiritualist, deeply interested in
the laws of psychic phenomena, and exceedingly tenacious of his occult
views.