Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-01-15

The Fathers desire is that they shnl
necomc immortal souls, urd to DO thi'
tney must have an opportunity e
choose between good and evil by Twins
~ torn of existence IN mortal bodies
10 bring this about the race OF mort li'
on the earth IL established with In
| a,ructions TO Increase. To eRch morth
enid there comes spirit child froin
the heavenly Father to run the saunt-
iet OF this life, know the evil and ohoos..
the good, II II can. At death the spirli
returns to its Father to await the resur-
| rection of the body. II the spirit has
chosen the good in this life its mortal
body will rise with the Saints, spirit
ana body will be united and become
an immortal soul. II II has choses the
evll the chances are that 1t Is lost Tor
ever.
] see in this n beautiful theory, at
least, though l cannot say that know
IL TO be true. But for my argument
VIII assume II to be true. My first
claim IL that the heavenly Father oi
these spirit children must desire that
they shall all choose the good In mortal
NE and become immortal souls IN tne
resurrection. Any other supposition
would he Inconsistent with the chhr-
acter OF the Father. II must follow,
then. that He will equally desire that
every mortal child shall I've bred. borne,
born and reared under those conditions
that VIII give " WV thS
least power to lead His children astray,
TO lead them to reject the good and
choose the evil. Any Other supposition
would, again, be Inconsistent with the
character OF the Father. Thus 1t fol-
lows. also, that the procreation ana
nurturing of children to be the taber-
nacles of heavenly spirits must be
duty In regard to which the Father
would require the most scrupulous
care. l repeat that any other 5upposi-
ton would he Inconsistent with the
character of the heavenly Father. Such
being the case, Insist that there are
too many children born. whenever and
wherever there are those born who can
not be reared in the innocence and
purity that should be the home of
spirit children. from the heavenly
rather. l have seen many children In
Salt Lake who are mean and bad. If
they are the tabernacles of spirits from
heaven those spirits stand all chances
OF being lost. and 1t seems to me logi-
cal to believe that the Father must
mold the parents of such children re-
sponsible for the loss of His own spirit
children. Hence the great duty of
making parents understand this sub
what responsibilities they are under to
the heavenly Father
To my mind there Is nothing In this
world as lovable as a beautiful, inno-
cent, trusting child. Near my home
there are many of them. They know
me. Their generous hello! Mr."
is mama to my solitary life. They
keep me young. I would not miss their
greeting for a throne. They are the
love of my human world, as flowers
are the love of the physical world.
They are God-with-us. are sweet, inno-
cent children with their free, wild
laughter and happy unconcern.
Nothing so clearly shows to me the
great manly heart OF Jesus as His love
for children. Suffer them. permit them.
to come to me, He said. 1t seems as
though He saw in them the spirits of
children who were His brothers and
sisters in the long ago. The children,
too saw in Him brother and crowded
upon Him. The hypocrites who sought
to condemn Him held them back They
even the children to hate Him.
But He drew them. They were balm
to His -burdened life. They
brought peace and joy and sunshine to
Him. and He said they We're the king
dom of heaven.
If the Kingdom of heaven, say I, be
only half as charming as some of the
dear tots ! have known l hope to get
there myself. But unto all good children
everywhere I send my hearts wish that
they may grow to maturity and never
ose or forget the innocence and sweet
ness of their childhood.
CHARLES ELLIS.