Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. Smith

by Joseph F. Smith

It is a good thing for us not to attempt to advance new doctrine, or new and advanced thought in relation to principles and doctrines pertaining to, or presumed to pertain to, the gospel of Jesus Christ, without weighing it carefully, with the experience of years, before we attempt to make a doctrinal test and to advance it to the people of the Lord. There is so much simple truth, necessary to be understood, that has been revealed to us in the gospel that it is extreme folly in us to attempt to go beyond the truth that has been revealed, until we have mastered and can comprehend the truth that we have. There is a great deal within our reach that we have not yet mastered.—Improvement Era, Vol. 21, May, 1918, pp. 567-573.

ADDRESS AT FUNERAL SERVICES OF MARY A. FREEZE. There does not seem to be much left to be said. I endorse heartily and fully every kindly sentiment that I have heard expressed here this afternoon with reference to our departed sister. I have known her, as a worker in the Church, for a goodly number of years, and have had the pleasure of frequently meeting her in the various capacities in which she has labored in the Church, and in every instance I have been more and more impressed with the pure character and spirit of the woman. There was a calmness about her appearance, her conversation, and her conduct that seemed to indicate a well-matured character and a well-established principle of life. Nothing that I have ever perceived in her has appeared flighty, unsettled, or unstable, but in everything, her life indicated a life of stability, of reliability and fidelity to the Lord and to his covenants.

After hearing the many good things that have been said (yet, as Brother Joseph E. Taylor has remarked, "not half has been told") in relation to the good life and labors of our dear sister, it makes my mind revert to the blessed hopes that are inspired in our souls by and through our faith in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ—the hope that that gospel inspired in our souls that we are following in the footsteps of our Redeemer and that every man and woman following in his footsteps will become like him, will enjoy the blessed privileges which he enjoyed, will pass through the varied ordeals through which he passed, and will eventually land at the same goal and will be blessed with the same privileges, and power and glory, and exaltation that he, himself, vindicated, proved and fulfilled in his life and death and resurrection from death to life again. I cannot conceive of any more desirable thing than is vouchsafed to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ—that though we die, yet we shall live again, and though we die and dissolve into the native elements of which our tabernacles are composed, yet these elements will again be restored to each other and be reorganized, and we will become again living souls just as the Savior did before us; and his having done so has made it possible for all the rest of us. What can there be more joyous to think of than the fact that Brother Freeze, who loved his wife and whom she loved, to whom he was true and who was true to him all her days of association with him as wife and mother, will have the privilege of coming up on the morning of the first resurrection clothed with immortality and eternal life, and resume the relationship that existed between them in this life, the relationship of husband and wife, father and mother, parents to their children, having laid the foundation for eternal glory and eternal exaltation in the kingdom of God! Life without this hope would seem to me in vain. And yet there is nothing that I have ever discovered in the world, except the gospel of Jesus Christ, that gives this assurance. Nothing has ever pointed it out in a tangible way except the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has laid this foundation, has taught this principle and this truth, and has uttered that memorable sentiment that, "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." (John 11:25, 26.)

Now, to me this explains the sentiment expressed by Brother Joseph E. Taylor, when he said he did not feel the presence of death when he went to visit her. Do you feel the presence of death here? He did not feel it then. Just prior to the departure of her spirit, there was no element of death there. The element of dissolution—the separation of the spiritual from the temporal, of the immortal from the mortal was visible, but in the presence of the Spirit of the Lord, and with the hope inspired in the gospel of the Son of God, that "he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die," and in the knowledge of the fact that every provision the Lord has given by which we may be prepared to enjoy the fulness of these blessings has been observed and entered into, believed and followed by this good woman, what reason could there be, under such circumstances, for thoughts of death? It was not death, but a change from mortality to immortality, from death, in fact, to life everlasting.

Now, I believe that if ever a soul in the world is entitled to the enjoyment or realization of that saying, of the Son of God this good woman is entitled to it; for I believe, according to her knowledge, she was true to every principle by which she might fulfil the intent of it and by which she may receive the verification of it in the world to come.

I do not feel that it would be proper or necessary for me to occupy very much time, but while the brethren and sisters were speaking, the thought naturally passed through my mind—what will be her occupation in the world to come? What will she do there? We are told that she will not be idle. She could not be idle. In God's plans, there is no such thing as idleness. God is not pleased with the thought of idleness. He is not idle, and there is no such thing as inertia in the providences and in the purposes of God. We are either growing and advancing, or are retrograding. We are not stationary. We must grow. The principles of everlasting growth and development tend to glory, to exaltation, to happiness, and to a fulness of joy. What has she been doing? She has been working in the temple, among other things. She has been working, also, as a minister of life among young women of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has labored diligently and earnestly in trying to persuade the daughters of Zion to come to a knowledge of the truth as she possessed it. She seemed to be thoroughly established in it. I have never discovered the least symptom of any dubiety in her mind in reference to the gospel of Jesus Christ. She has been laboring to bring others of the daughters of Zion to the same standard of knowledge, faith and understanding of the principles of the gospel of Christ that she herself possessed, a ministering angel and a mother in Israel, seeking the salvation of other daughters and other mothers in Israel. What can you conceive of grander than a calling like that? Then, as I said, she has been at work in the temple. What for? Administering ordinances that God has revealed are essential to the salvation of the living and their preparation for greater exaltation and glory here and hereafter, and also for the redemption of the dead. What can you think of greater than this? To my mind, there isn't anything so great and so glorious in this world as to labor for the salvation of the living and for the redemption of the dead. We read of the Savior going to preach the gospel to the spirits in prison, when his body lay in the tomb. That was a part of the great mission he had to perform. He was sent not only to preach the gospel to those dwelling in mortality, but he was foreordained and anointed of God to open the doors of the prison house to those in bondage and to proclaim his gospel to them.

I have always believed, and still do believe with all my soul, that such men as Peter and James and the twelve disciples chosen by the Savior in his time, have been engaged all the centuries that have passed since their martyrdom for the testimony of Jesus Christ, in proclaiming liberty to the captives in the spirit world and in opening their prison doors. I do not believe that they could be employed in any greater work. Their special calling and anointing of the Lord himself was to save the world, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison doors to those who were bound in chains of darkness, superstition, and ignorance. I believe that the disciples who have passed away in this dispensation—Joseph, the Prophet, and his brother Hyrum, and Brigham, and Heber, and Willard, and Daniel and John, and Wilford and all the rest of the prophets who have lived in this dispensation, and who have been intimately associated with the work of redemption and the other ordinances of the gospel of the Son of God in this world, are preaching that same gospel that they lived and preached here, to those who are in darkness in the spirit world and who had not the knowledge before they went. The gospel must be preached to them. We are not perfect without them—they cannot be perfect without us.

Now, among all these millions of spirits that have lived on the earth and have passed away, from generation to generation, since the beginning of the world, without the knowledge of the gospel—among them you may count that at least one-half are women. Who is going to preach the gospel to the women? Who is going to carry the testimony of Jesus Christ to the hearts of the women who have passed away without a knowledge of the gospel? Well, to my mind, it is a simple thing. These good sisters who have been set apart, ordained to the work, called to it, authorized by the authority of the holy priesthood to minister for their sex, in the House of God for the living and for the dead, will be fully authorized and empowered to preach the gospel and minister to the women while the elders and prophets are preaching it to the men. The things we experience here are typical of the things of God and the life beyond us. There is a great similarity between God's purposes as manifested here and his purposes as carried out in his presence and kingdom. Those who are authorized to preach the gospel here and are appointed here to do that work will not be idle after they have passed away, but will continue to exercise the rights that they obtained here under the priesthood of the Son of God to minister for the salvation of those who have died without a knowledge of the truth. Some of you will understand when I tell you that some of these good women who have passed beyond have actually been anointed queens and priestesses unto God and unto their husbands, to continue their work and to be the mothers of spirits in the world to come. The world does not understand this—they cannot receive it—they do not know what it means, and it is sometimes hard for those who ought to be thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the gospel—even for some of us, to comprehend, but it is true.

Now, may the Lord bless Brother Freeze. As Sister Martha Tingey has said, Sister Freeze could never have done the work she has done if it had not been for his seconding her in her efforts. He consented to her partially neglecting her home duties in order to labor in a broader field for the salvation of others. But just here let me my a word to you mothers. Oh, mothers, salvation, mercy, life ever-lasting begin at home. "What profiteth it a man, though he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" What would it profit me, though I should go out into the world and win strangers to the fold of God and lose my own children? Oh! God, let me not lose my own. I can not afford to lose mine, whom God has given to me and whom I am responsible for before the Lord, and who are dependent upon me for guidance, for instruction, for proper influence. Father, do not permit me to lose interest in my own, in trying to save others. Charity begins at home. Life everlasting should begin at home. I should feel very badly to be made to realize, by and by, that through my neglect of home, while trying to save others, I have lost my own. I do not want that. The Lord help me to save my own, so far as one can help another. I realize I cannot save anybody, but I can teach them how to be saved. I can set an example before my children how they can be saved, and it is my duty to do that first. I owe it more to them than to anybody else in the world. Then, when I have accomplished the work I should do in my own home circle, let me extend my power for good abroad just as far as I can.

My brethren and sisters, I know as I know I live that Joseph Smith was and is and ever will be the instrument chosen of God the eternal Father to lay the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and to establish the kingdom of God on earth, never more to be thrown down. I bear testimony to you. I know as I know I live that every doctrine that he taught is calculated to build up, to ennoble, to enlarge the soul, to establish peace and righteousness in the hearts of the children of men, and lead them up to God, and not away from him. I know it as I know I live. It is true, and I thank God that, like my dear sister here, whose earthly remains only now are with us, he has made me to believe it and to accept of it without recourse. I believe it with all my heart, just as I believe I live, and as I believe my own mother and father. Let us all strive for this belief, and if we will, we shall have joy and satisfaction, and we shall enter into God's rest, right here, in this world. For he that entereth in God's rest here will never more be disturbed by the hallucinations of sin and wickedness, and the enemies of truth will have no power over him.