Joseph the Seer, after gazing upon the glories of eternity, outlining the ultimate destiny of the human race, had another vision in which he "beheld that all children who die before they arrive at the years of accountability, are saved in the Celestial Kingdom". He also saw his father, his mother, and his brother Alvin in that Kingdom. His parents had received the Gospel; but Alvin died before it came. He was a good man, however, and had faith in what the Prophet told him. He simply had not been baptized. Nevertheless, Joseph beheld him in celestial glory, the highest glory of all, and it caused him to marvel. Then fell this word from Heaven:
"All who have died without a knowledge of this Gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the Celestial Kingdom of God; also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that Kingdom, for I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts." (Joseph Smith's Teachings, p. 19; Church History, Vol. 2, pp. 380-318).
Could justice, mercy, magnanimity, go further? And yet there are people who imagine "Mormonism" to be something small, narrow and illiberal. By the contrary, it is broad, generous and charitable, as all its teachings testify.
The Source of Its Strength.
"Mormonism's" strength is not in the number of its adherents, who are comparatively few; nor in the sagacity of its leading men, who are only mortals. Rather does it reside in the fact that every worthy man and woman connected with it is entitled to and receives a personal, direct testimony of its truth. The Church of Christ is founded upon this rock—the Rock of Revelation—against which the waves of sophistry, the billows of bigotry, the breakers of persecution, beat and dash in vain. All who fight the truth are fordoomed to defeat. The Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it. "Mormonism" is strong because God is its Author—the Engineer directing its course; and all the might of Omnipotence is behind it, impelling it on to its destiny. It is the Everlasting Gospel, the saving, glorifying power of God, the power by which He carries on His mighty and marvelous work, bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
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