Page 34 - Berg_Mortuary_Bishops_Guide

34 BISHOP’S GUIDE

Mourning for the righteous dead springs from the ignorance and weakness that are planted
within the mortal tabernacle, the organization of this house for the spirit to dwell in. No matter
what pain we suffer, no matter what we pass through, we cling to our mother earth, and dislike

t have any of her children leave us. We love to keep together the social family relation that we
bear one to another, and do not like to part with each other (DBY, 370).
It is true it is grievous to part with our friends. We are creatures of passion, of sympathy, of
love, and it is painful for us to part with our friends. We would keep them in the mortal house,
though they should suffer pain. Are we not selfish in this? Should we not rather rejoice at the
departure of those whose lives have been devoted to doing good, to a good old age?
(DBY, 371).

But could we have knowledge and see into eternity, if we were perfectly free from the weak-
ness, blindness and lethargy with which we are clothed in the flesh, we should have no disposi-
tion to weep or mourn (DBY, 370).

So live that when you wake in the spirit-world you can truthfully say, “I could not better my
mortal life, were I to live it over again.” I exhort you, for the sake of the house of Israel, for the
sake of Zion which we are to build up, to so live, from this time, henceforth, and forever, that
your characters may with pleasure be scrutinized by holy beings. Live godly lives, which you
cannot do without living moral lives (DBY ,370).
At death the spirit separates from the body, the body returns to the earth, and the spirit
enters the spirit world.

Every person possessing the principle of eternal life should look upon his body as of the earth
earthy. Our bodies must return to their mother earth. True, to most people it is a wretched
thought that our spirits must, for a longer or shorter period, be separated from our bodies, and
thousands and millions have been subject to this affliction throughout their lives. If they under-
stood the design of this probation and the true principles of eternal life, it is but a small matter

for the body to suffer and die (DBY, 368).
The Lord has pleased to organize tabernacles here, and put spirits into them, and they then
become intelligent beings. By and by, sooner or later, the body, this that is tangible to you, that
you can feel, see, handle, etc, return to its mother dust. Is the spirit dead? No… The spirit still
exists, when this body has crumbled into the earth again, and the spirit that God puts into the
tabernacle goes into the world of spirits (DBY, 368).

Our bodies are composed of visible, tangible matter, as you all understand; you also know
that they are born into this world. They then begin to partake of the elements adapted to their
organization and growth, increase to manhood [or womanhood], become old, decay, and pass
again into the dust. Now in the first place, though I have explained this many times, what we