Wilford Woodruff
I
believe the eyes of the heavenly hosts are over this people; I believe
they are watching the elders of Israel, the prophets and apostles and
men who are called to bear off this kingdom. I believe they watch over
us all with great interest…. I have had many interviews with Brother
Joseph until the last fifteen or twenty years of my life; I have not
seen him for that length of time. But during my travels in the southern
country last winter I had many interviews with President Young, and with
Heber C. Kimball, and George A. Smith, and Jedediah M. Grant, and many
others who are dead. They attended our conference, they attended our
meetings. And on one occasion, I saw Brother Brigham and Brother Heber
ride in carriage ahead of the carriage in which I rode when I was on my
way to attend conference; and they were dressed in the most priestly
robes. When we arrived at our destination I asked President Young if he
would preach to us. He said, “No, I have finished my testimony in the
flesh. I shall not talk to this people any more.” “But, said he, “I have
come to see you; I have come to watch over you, and to see what the
people are doing.” Then, said he, “I want you to teach the people—and I
want you to follow this counsel yourself—that they must labor and so
live as to obtain the Holy Spirit, for without this you cannot build up
the kingdom; without the spirit of God you are in danger of walking in
the dark, and in danger of failing to accomplish your calling as
apostles and as elders in the church and kingdom of God.” And, said he,
“Brother Joseph taught me this principle.” And I will here say, I have
heard him refer to that while he was living. But what I was going to say
is this: the thought came to me that Brother Joseph had left the work
of watching over this Church and kingdom to others, and that he had gone
ahead, and that he had left this work to men who have lived and labored
with us since he left us. This idea manifested itself to me, that such
men advance in the spirit world. And I believe myself that these men who
have died and gone into the spirit world had this mission left with
them; that is, a certain portion of them, to watch over the Latter-day
Saints. (The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p.290)
Joseph F. Smith
I
feel sure that the Prophet Joseph Smith and his associates, who, under
the guidance and inspiration of the Almighty, and by His power, began
this latter-day work, would rejoice and do rejoice.--I was going to say
if they were permitted to look down upon the scene that I behold in this
tabernacle, but I believe they do have the privilege of looking down
upon us just as the all-seeing eye of God beholds every part of His
handiwork. For I believe that those who have been chosen in this
dispensation and in former dispensations, to lay the foundation of God’s
work in the midst of the children of men, for their salvation and
exaltation, will not be deprived in the spirit world from looking down
upon the results of their own labors, efforts and mission assigned them
by the wisdom and purpose of God, to help to redeem and to reclaim the
children of the Father from their sins. So I feel quite confident that
the eye of Joseph, the Prophet, and of the martyrs of this dispensation,
and of Brigham and John and Wilford, and those faithful men who were
associated with them in their ministry upon the earth, are carefully
guarding the interests of the Kingdom of God in which they labored and
for which they strove during their mortal lives. I believe they are as
deeply interested in our welfare today, if not with greater capacity,
with far more interest behind the veil, than they were in the flesh. I
believe they know more; I believe their minds have expanded beyond their
comprehension in mortal life, and their interests are enlarged and
expanded in the work of the Lord to which they gave their lives and
their best service. Although some may feel and think that it is a little
extreme to take this view, yet I believe that it is true; and I have a
feeling in my heart that I stand in the presence not only of the Father
and of the Son, but in the presence of those whom God commissioned,
raised up and inspired to lay the foundations of the work in which we
are engaged. Accompanying that sense or feeling, I am impressed with the
thought that I would not this moment say or do one thing that would be
taken as unwise or imprudent, or that would give offense to any of my
former associates and co-laborers in the work of the Lord.
I
would not like to say one thing, or express a thought that would grieve
the heart of Joseph, or of Brigham, or of John, or of Wilford, or
Lorenzo, or any of their faithful associates in the ministry. Sometimes
the Lord expands our vision from this point of view and this side of the
veil, that we feel and seem to realize that we can look beyond the thin
veil which separates us from that other sphere. If we can see by the
enlightening influence of the Spirit of God and through the words that
have been spoken by the holy prophets of God, beyond the veil that
separates us from the spirit world, surely those who have passed beyond,
can see more clearly through the veil back here to us than it is
possible for us to see to them from our sphere of action. I believe we
move and have our being in the presence of heavenly messengers and of
heavenly beings. We are not separate from them. We begin to realize more
and more fully, as we become acquainted with the principles of the
Gospel, as they have been revealed anew in this dispensation, that we
are closely related to our kindred, to our ancestors, to our friends and
associates and co-laborers who have preceded us into the spirit world.
We cannot forget them; we do not cease to love them; we always hold them
in our hearts, in memory, and thus we are associated and united to them
by ties that we can not break, that we can not dissolve or free
ourselves from. If this is the case with us in our finite condition,
surrounded by our mortal weaknesses, shortsightedness, lack of
inspiration and wisdom from time to time, how much more certain it is
and reasonable and consistent to believe that those who have been
faithful, who have gone beyond and are still engaged in the work for the
salvation of the souls of men, the opening of the prison doors to them
that are bound and proclaiming liberty to the captives who can see us
better than we can see them; that they know us better than we know them.
They have advanced; we are advancing; we are growing as they have
grown; we are reaching the goal that they have attained unto; and
therefore, I claim that we live in their presence, they see us, they are
solicitous for our welfare, they love us now more than ever. For now
they see the dangers that beset us; they can comprehend better than ever
before, the weaknesses that are liable to mislead us into dark and
forbidden paths. They see the temptations and the evils that beset us in
life and the proneness of mortal beings to yield to temptation and to
wrong doing; hence their solicitude for us and their love for us and
their desire for our well being must be greater than that which we feel
for ourselves. I thank God for the feeling that I possess and enjoy and
for the realization that I have, that I stand, not only in the presence
of Almighty God, my Maker and Father, but in the presence of His Only
Begotten Son in the flesh, the Savior of the world; and I stand in the
presence of Peter and James, (and perhaps the eyes of John are also upon
us and we know it not); and that I stand also in the presence of Joseph
and Hyrum and Brigham and John, and those who have been valiant in the
testimony of Jesus Christ and faithful to their mission in the world,
who have gone before. When I go I want to have the privilege of meeting
them with the consciousness that I have followed their example, that I
have carried out the mission in which they were engaged as they would
have it carried out; that I have been as faithful in the discharge of
duty committed to me and required at my hand as they were faithful in
their time, and that when I meet them I shall meet them as I met them
here, in love, in harmony, in unison and in perfect confidence that I
have done my duty as they have done theirs. (Conference Report, April
1916, pp. 2-3)
Heber J. Grant
As
I rode along alone, I seemed to see a council in heaven. The Savior was
there; the Prophet Joseph was there; my father and others that I knew
were there. In this council it seemed that they decided that a mistake
had been made in not filling the vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve,
and conference had adjourned. The chances were the Brethren would wait
another six months, and the way to remedy the situation was to send a
revelation naming the men who should fill the vacancies. (Conference
Report, October 1942, p.26)
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