[Footnote A: Matt. 5:5.]
How very plain it is when we once learn about our future heaven. We do not have to pray, according to the Methodists, for the Lord to take us to a land beyond time and space, the Saints' secure abode. How inconsistent to look for a heaven beyond space! The heaven of the Saints is something we can look forward to in the confident hope of realizing our inheritances and enjoying them forever, when the earth becomes sanctified and made new. And there, as here, we will spread forth, and multiply our children. How long? For eternity. What, resurrected Saints have children? Yes, the same as our God, who is the Father of our spirits; so you, if you are faithful to the end, will become fathers to your sons and daughters, who will be as innumerable as the sands upon the sea shore; they will be your children, and you will be their heavenly fathers, the same as our heavenly Father is Father to us, and they will belong to your kingdoms through all the vast ages of eternity, the same as we will belong to our father's kingdom.
He that receiveth my father, says the Savior, receiveth my Father's kingdom, wherefore all that my father hath shall be given to him. It is a kind of joint stock inheritance, we are to become joint heirs with Jesus Christ to all the inheritances and to all the worlds that are made. We shall have the power of locomotion; and like Jesus, after his resurrection, we shall be able to mount up and pass from one world to another. We shall not be confined to our native earth. There are many worlds inhabited by people who are glorified, for heaven is not one place, but many, heaven is not one world but many. "In my Father's house are many mansions." In other words—In my Father's house there are many worlds, which in their turn will be made glorified heavens, the inheritance of the redeemed from all the worlds, who, having been prepared through similar experience to our own, will inhabit them; and each one in its turn will be exalted through the revelations and laws of the Most High God, and they will continue to multiply their offspring through all eternity, and new worlds will be made for their progeny. Amen.
CHAPTER VIII.
"I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES."[A]
President Joseph F. Smith on the "Mormon" Doctrine of Deity.
[Footnote A: This discourse was delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, March 16,1902, and by the kind permission of President Smith I am allowed to reproduce it here.]
My beloved brethren and sisters, while listening to the singing of the last hymn, my mind reverted to a revelation contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and I feel impressed to read a portion of it, and then make a few remarks concerning it, if I am led to do so. This revelation was given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, at Kirtland, in May, 1833:
Verily, thus saith the Lord, it shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am.