_THE SPIRIT WORLD_
_All Go to the Spirit World_--When we get through this state of
being, to the next room, I may call it, we are not going to stop there.
We shall still go on, doing all the good we can, administering and
officiating for all whom we are permitted to administer and officiate
for, and then go on to the next, and to the next, until the Lord shall
crown all who have been faithful on this earth, and the work pertaining
to the earth is finished, and the Savior, whom we have been helping,
has completed his task, and the earth, with all things pertaining to
it, is presented to the Father. Then these faithful ones will receive
their blessings and crowns, and their inheritances will be set off
to them and be given to them, and they will then go on, worlds upon
worlds, increasing for ever and ever. 16:70.
No spirit of Saint or sinner, of the Prophet or him that kills the
Prophet, is prepared for their final state; all pass through the veil
from this state and go into the world of spirits; and there they dwell
waiting for their final destiny. 6:294.
_Where Is the Spirit World_--Is the spirit world here? It is not
beyond the sun, but is on this earth that was organized for the people
that have lived and that do and will live upon it. No other people can
have it, and we can have no other kingdom until we are prepared to
inhabit this eternally. 3:372.
When you lay down this tabernacle, where are you going? Into the
spiritual world. Are you going into Abraham's bosom? No, not anywhere
nigh there but {577} into the spirit world. Where is the spirit world?
It is right here. Do the good and evil spirits go together? Yes, they
do. Do they both inhabit one kingdom? Yes, they do. Do they go to the
sun? No. Do they go beyond the boundaries of the organized earth? No,
they do not. They are brought forth upon this earth, for the express
purpose of inhabiting it to all eternity. Where else are you going?
Nowhere else, only as you may be permitted. 3:369.
You are in the presence of God, and when your eyes are opened you will
understand it. Brother Grant's spirit is in the presence of God; and he
is with Joseph, when he is not required to be somewhere else. He is at
work for the benefit of Zion, for that is all the business that Joseph
and the Elders of this Church have on hand. 4:133.
It reads that the spirit goes to God who gave it. Let me render this
scripture a little plainer; when the spirits leave their bodies they
are in the presence of our Father and God, they are prepared then to
see, hear and understand spiritual things. But where is the spirit
world? It is incorporated within this celestial system. Can you see
it with your natural eyes? No. Can you see spirits in this room? No.
Suppose the Lord should touch your eyes that you might see, could you
then see the spirits? Yes, as plainly as you now see bodies, as did the
servant of Elijah. If the Lord would permit it, and it was his will
that it should be done, you could see the spirits that have departed
from this world, as plainly as you now see bodies with your natural
eyes. 3:368.
The Prophet lays down his body, he lays down his life, and his spirit
goes to the world of spirits; the persecutor of the Prophet dies, and
he goes to Hades; they both go to {578} one place, and they are not to
be separated yet. Now understand, that this is part of the great sermon
the Lord is preaching in his providence, the righteous and the wicked
are together in Hades.
If we go back to our mother country, the States, we find there the
righteous, and we there find the wicked; if we go to California, we
there find the righteous and the wicked; all dwelling together; and
when we go beyond this veil, and leave our bodies which were taken from
mother earth, and which must return, our spirits will pass beyond the
veil; we go where both Saints and sinners go; they all go to one place.
3:94.
If the wicked wish to escape from his presence, they must go where he
is not, where he does not live, where his influence does not preside.
To find such a place is impossible, except they go beyond the bounds of
time and space. 2:94.
_Labors in the Spirit World_--They must go into prison, both
Saints and sinners. The good and bad, the righteous and the unrighteous
must go to the house of prison, or Paradise, and Jesus went and opened
the doors of salvation to them. And unless they lost the keys of
salvation on account of transgression, as has been the case on this
earth, spirits clothed with the Priesthood have ministered to them from
that day to this. And if they lost the keys by transgression, some one
who had been in the flesh, Joseph, for instance, had to take those keys
to them. And he is calling one after another to his aid, as the Lord
sees he wants help. 4:285.
Compare those inhabitants on the earth who have heard the Gospel in
our day, with the millions who have never heard it, or had the keys of
salvation presented to them, and {579} you will conclude at once as
I do, that there is an almighty work to perform in the spirit world.
Joseph has not yet got through there. When he finishes his mission
in the spirit world, he will be resurrected, but he has not yet done
there. Reflect upon the millions and millions and millions of people
that have lived and died without hearing the Gospel on the earth,
without the keys of the Kingdom. They were not prepared for celestial
glory, and there was no power that could prepare them without the keys
of this Priesthood. 4:285.
Jesus was the first man that ever went to preach to the spirits in
prison, holding the keys of the Gospel of salvation to them. Those keys
were delivered to him in the day and hour that he went into the spirit
world, and with them he opened the door of salvation to the spirits in
prison. 3:370.
Father Smith and Carlos and Brother Partridge, yes, and every other
good Saint, are just as busy in the spirit world as you and I are here.
They can see us, but we cannot see them unless our eyes were opened.
What are they doing there? They are preaching, preaching all the time,
and preparing the way for us to hasten our work in building temples
here and elsewhere, and to go back to Jackson County and build the
great temple of the Lord. They are hurrying to get ready by the time we
are ready, and we are all hurrying to get ready by the time our Elder
Brother is ready. 3:369-370.
When men overcome as our faithful brethren have, and go where they see
Joseph, who will dictate them and be their head and Prophet all the
time, they have power over all disembodied evil spirits, for they have
overcome them. Those evil spirits are under the command and control of
every man that has had the Priesthood on him, and has {580} honored it
in the flesh, just as much as my hand is under my control. 4:132.
Every faithful man's labor will continue as long as the labor of Jesus,
until all things are redeemed that can be redeemed, and presented to
the Father. There is a great work before us. 13:77.
The spirits that dwell in these tabernacles on this earth, when they
leave them go directly into this world of spirits. What! A congregated
mass of inhabitants there in spirit, mingling with each other, as they
do here? Yes, brethren, they are there together, and if they associate
together, and collect together, in clans and in societies as they do
here, it is their privilege. No doubt they yet, more or less, see,
hear, converse and have to do with each other, both good and bad. If
the Elders of Israel in these latter times go and preach to the spirits
in prison, they associate with them, precisely as our Elders associate
with the wicked in the flesh, when they go to preach to them. 2:137.
If a person is baptized for the remission of sins, and dies a short
time thereafter, he is not prepared at once to enjoy a fulness of the
glory promised to the faithful in the Gospel; for he must be schooled,
while in the spirit, in the other departments of the house of God,
passing on from truth to truth, from intelligence to intelligence,
until he is prepared to again receive his body and to enter into the
presence of the Father and the Son. We cannot enter into celestial
glory in our present state of ignorance and mental darkness. 7:332.
Suppose, then, that a man is evil in his heart--wholly given up to
wickedness, and in that condition dies, his spirit will enter the
spirit world intent upon evil. On the other hand, if we are striving
with all the powers and faculties {581} God has given us to improve
upon our talents, to prepare ourselves to dwell in eternal life,
and the grave receives our bodies while we are thus engaged, with
what disposition will our spirits enter their next state? They will
be still striving to do the things of God, only in a much greater
degree--learning, increasing, growing in grace and in the knowledge of
the truth. 7:333.
If we are faithful to our religion, when we go into the spirit world,
the fallen spirits--Lucifer and the third part of the heavenly hosts
that came with him, and the spirits of wicked men who have dwelt upon
this earth, the whole of them combined will have no influence over our
spirits. Is not that an advantage? Yes. All the rest of the children of
men are more or less subject to them, and they are subject to them as
they were while here in the flesh. 7:240.
Spirits are just as familiar with spirits as bodies are with bodies,
though spirits are composed of matter so refined as not to be tangible
to this coarser organization. They walk, converse, and have their
meetings; and the spirits of good men like Joseph and the Elders, who
have left this Church on earth for a season to operate in another
sphere, are rallying all their powers and going from place to place
preaching the Gospel, and Joseph is directing them, saying, go ahead,
my brethren, and if they hedge up your way, walk up and command them to
disperse. You have the Priesthood and can disperse them, but if any of
them wish to hear the Gospel, preach to them.
Can they baptize them? No. What can they do? They can preach the
Gospel, and when we have the privilege of building up Zion, the time
will come for saviors to come up on Mount Zion. Some of those who
are not in mortality will come along and say, "Here are a thousand
names I wish you {582} to attend to in this temple, and when you
have got through with them I will give you another thousand;" and
the Elders of Israel and their wives will go forth to officiate for
their forefathers, the men for the men, and the women for the women.
3:371-372.
_Life in the Spirit World_--We have more friends behind the veil
than on this side, and they will hail us more joyfully than you were
ever welcomed by your parents and friends in this world; and you will
rejoice more when you meet them than you ever rejoiced to see a friend
in this life; and then we shall go on from step to step, from rejoicing
to rejoicing, and from one intelligence and power to another, our
happiness becoming more and more exquisite and sensible as we proceed
in the words and powers of life. 6:349.
When the breath leaves the body, your life has not become extinct;
your life is still in existence. And when you are in the spirit world,
everything there will appear as natural as things now do. Spirits
will be familiar with spirits in the spirit world--will converse,
behold, and exercise every variety of communication with one another as
familiarly and naturally as while here in tabernacles. There, as here,
all things will be natural, and you will understand them as you now
understand natural things. You will there see that those spirits we are
speaking of are active; they sleep not. And you will learn that they
are striving with all their might--laboring and toiling diligently as
any individual would to accomplish an act in this world--to destroy the
children of men. 7:239.
I can say with regard to parting with our friends, and going ourselves,
that I have been near enough to understand eternity so that I have had
to exercise a great deal {583} more faith to desire to live than I ever
exercised in my whole life to live. The brightness and glory of the
next apartment is inexpressible. It is not encumbered so that when we
advance in years we have to be stubbing along and be careful lest we
fall down. We see our youth, even, frequently stubbing their toes and
falling down. But yonder, how different! They move with ease and like
lightning. If we want to visit Jerusalem, or this, that, or the other
place--and I presume we will be permitted if we desire--there we are,
looking at its streets. If we want to behold Jerusalem as it was in the
days of the Savior; or if we want to see the Garden of Eden as it was
when created, there we are, and we see it as it existed spiritually,
for it was created first spiritually and then temporally, and
spiritually it still remains. And when there we may behold the earth as
at the dawn of creation, or we may visit any city we please that exists
upon its surface. If we wish to understand how they are living here on
these western islands, or in China, we are there; in fact, we are like
the light of the morning, or, I will not say the electric fluid, but
its operations on the wires. God has revealed some little things, with
regard to his movements and power, and the operation and motion of the
lightning furnish a fine illustration of the ability of the Almighty.
When we pass into the spirit world we shall possess a measure of this
power. Here, we are continually troubled with ills and ailments of
various kinds. In the spirit world we are free from all this and enjoy
life, glory, and intelligence; and we have the Father to speak to us,
Jesus to speak to us, and angels to speak to us, and we shall enjoy the
society of the just and the pure who are in the spirit world until the
resurrection. 14:231. {584}