Doctrine & Covenants 138

Doctrine & Covenants 138 President Joseph F. Smith’s vision in 1918 offered comfort to a grieving world and gives us greater understanding of the plan of salvation. My soul is rent asunder. My heart is broken, and flutters for life! O my sweet son, my joy, my hope!...O God, help me!”

So President Joseph F. Smith wrote in his journal upon the death of his eldest son, Hyrum Mack Smith, the 45-year-old Apostle who succumbed in January 1918 to a ruptured appendix. Eight months later, on September 24, Hyrum’s widow, Ida Bowman Smith, died of heart failure just a week after giving birth to a baby boy. The couple left behind five children. At the time, the First World War, which began in 1914 while Hyrum was presiding over the European Mission, was still raging. It ended with the Armistice on November 11, 1918.

Death and the war were certainly on President Smith’s mind that year Death and the war were certainly on President Smith’s mind that year. On October 3, 1918, less than two weeks after the death of his daughter-in-law, he sat in his room “pondering over the scriptures; and reflecting upon the great atoning sacrifice that was made by the Son of God, for the redemption of the world; and the great and wonderful love made manifest by the Father and the Son” (Doctrine & Covenants 138:1-3).

No Stranger to Loss It was not President Smith’s first experience with the death of loved ones. He was just five when his father, the Patriarch Hyrum Smith, was slain with the Prophet Joseph Smith in Carthage Jail. His mother, Mary, died when he was 13. In 1915 his wife Sarah Richards died, followed later that year by his 25-year-old daughter, Zina Smith Greenwell. By 1918 only one of his siblings had survived. Of his 44 children, 13 had died, many in their childhood.

Doctrine & Covenants 138: 1-2 The more we study, pray, and ponder the awesome Atonement, the more we are willing to acknowledge that we are in His and the Father’s hands. Let us ponder, therefore, these final things.

Doctrine & Covenants 138:15-19, 50 “All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not” (Joseph Smith, Teachings, 181). Doctrine & Covenants 138:27-37, 57 President Wilford Woodruff said that in the work of the ministry in the spirit world “every Apostle, every Seventy, every Elder, etc., who has died in the faith, as soon as he passes to the other side of the veil, enters into the work of the ministry, and there is a thousand times more to preach to there than is here… They have work on the other side of the veil; and they want men, and they call them” (Journal of Discourses, 22:334).

On the other side of the veil, there are perhaps seventy billion people. They need the same gospel, and releases here to aid the Lord’s work there. Each release of a righteous individual from this life is also a call to new labors. Those who have true hope understand this. Therefore, though we miss the departed righteous so much here, hundreds may feel their touch their. One day, those hundreds will thank the bereaved for gracefully forgoing the extended association with choice individuals here, in order that they could help hundreds there. In God’s ecology, talent and love are never wasted. The hopeful understand this, too (Neal A. Maxwell, Not Withstanding My Weakness, 55).

“The spirits of the just are… not far from us, and know and understand our thoughts, feelings, and motions, and are often pained therewith” (Joseph Smith, Teachings, 325).

Elder Russell M. Nelson wrote of an experience his grandfather Andrew C. Nelson had when his father returned from the spirit world (Heart to Heart: An Autobiography, 1979, 16-18). If you could talk to a “spirit” in the “Spirit World,” what would you ask them? “On the night of April 6th, 1891, I had a strange dream or vision in which I saw and conversed with my father who died January 27th, 1891. I felt so impressed after it that I desired to write it for my own benefit and the benefit of my family and friends.

To corroborate my testimony of the possibility of such a visitation I quote the following: Spirits can appear to men when permitted; but not having a fleshy tabernacle can not hide their glory (Key to Theology, 120). I was in bed when father came and sat on the side of the bed. I could plainly see my wife and children in bed too. “When father came to the bed, he first said: ‘Well, my son, being you were not there (at Redmond) when I died, so that I did not get to see you, and as I had a few spare minutes, I received permission to come and see you.’ “I am very glad to see you father. How do you do?” ‘I am feeling well my son, and have had very much to do since I died.’

Question #1 What have you been doing since you died father? My son I have been traveling together with Apostle Erastus Snow ever since I died; that is, since three days after I died; then I received my commission to preach the Gospel. You cannot imagine, my son how many spirits there are in the Spirit world that have not yet received the gospel; but many are receiving it, and a great work is being accomplished. Many are anxiously looking forward to their friends, who are still living, to administer for them in the Temples. I have been very busy in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Question #2 Will all the spirits believe you, father, when you teach them the Gospel? No, they will not. Question #3 Father can you see us at all times, and do you know what we are doing? No, my son, I can not. I have something else to do. I can not go when and where I please. There is just as much, and much more, order here in the Spirit world than in the other world. I have been assigned work and that must be performed.

Question #4 Question #5 How do you feel at all times, father? Oh, I feel splendid, and enjoy my labors, still, I must admit that at times I get a little lonesome to see my family; but it is only a short time till we will again see each other. Question #5 Father, is it unnatural to do die? Or does it seem natural? It is just as natural to die, as it is to be born. The first thing I could see was a number of spirits in the Spirit world.

Question #6 Father, is the principle and the doctrine of the resurrection as taught us true? True, yes, my son, as true as can be.

Question #7 Father is the gospel as taught by this Church true? My son, do you see that picture? (pointing to a picture of the First Presidency of the Church hanging on the wall) Yes, I see it. Well, just as sure as you see that picture, just so sure is the Gospel true. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has within it the power of saving every man and woman that will obey it, and in no other way can they ever obtain a salvation in the Kingdom of God. My son always cling to the gospel. Be humble, be prayerful, be submissive to the Priesthood, be true, be faithful to the covenants you have made with God. Never do anything that will displease God. Oh, what a blessing is the Gospel! My son, be a good boy. Good bye!

“I then saw him leave the room “I then saw him leave the room. He was neatly dressed in a suit of light gray clothes, which I had never seen him wear when alive” (in From Heart to Heart: An Autobiography (Salt Lake City: Quality Press, 1979) 16-18).