We have the spirits of the ancients, also, administering to the Saints:
"Who have you now in your midst? Have you Abraham and Isaac and the Apostles Peter, James and John? Yes, you have them right in your midst—they are talking to you all the time." * * * *
"Who are you to be subject to? You say you are willing to be subject to God—to Jesus Christ. You are willing if Peter came along, to listen to him. Well, Peter is here, John is here, Elias is here, Elijah is here, Jesus is here, and the Father is here. What! in person? If not in person, their authority is here, with all the power that ever was or ever will be, to seal men and women up to everlasting."
Of the imperishable part of man and of the resurrection, he says:
"So far as we are concerned, we were taken from the earth, and we may expect to return to it again; and that portion of me which is pure, after the dross of this mortality is separated from it, I expect will be Brother Heber. It is that which will be resurrected; but all that is not pure will remain; that is it will not go back into my body again; and if there are ten parts out of the hundred which are dross and corruption they will remain in the earth; I do not expect to take that up again, but I expect to take up the purified element that will endure forever; still the dross is beneficial in its place."
* * * * * *
"Now, will you go and pollute yourselves, and lose the right and title to a resurrection, to dwell with the Saints, and with God the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ, who is my brother?"
Of the departed Willard Richards and the labors of the Elders of
Israel in the spirit world, he gives quite a broad glimpse:
"He (Willard) has gone; and it will not be long before Brother Brigham and Brother Heber follow after. He has gone to the world of spirits to engage in a work he could not do if he had remained in the flesh. I do not believe he could have done as much work for the general good of the cause of God, had he remained in the flesh, as he can accomplish now in the spirit; for there is a work to do there—the Gospel to preach, Israel to gather, that they may purify themselves, and become united in one heart and mind.
"What! in the spirit world? Have I not told you often that the separation of body and spirit makes no difference in the moral and intellectual condition of the spirit? When a person, who has always been good and faithful to his God, lays down his body in the dust, his spirit will remain the same in the spirit world. It is not the body that has control of the spirit, as to its disposition, but it is the spirit that controls the body. When the spirit leaves the body the body becomes lifeless. The spirit has not changed one single particle of itself by leaving the body. Were I to fall into a mud-hole I should strive to extricate myself; but I do not suppose I should be any better, any more righteous, any more just and holy when I got out of it than when I was in it.