Page 38 - Berg_Mortuary_Bishops_Guide

38 BISHOP’S GUIDE

away [I have had only two) there was in my home at that time a peaceful influence, a comfort
and a joy that is beyond the comprehension of those who know nothing of the Gospel and of
the peace that it brings into our hearts.”

TEACHINGS OF HEBERJ. GRANT

ETERNAL TRUTHS CAN COMFORT US WHEN LOVED ONES DIE.

How bitter must be the suffering and grief of those who see nothing beyond the grave except
the beginning of eternal night and oblivion. For them that thus believe, death hath its sting and
the grave its victory. To them, even the glory of this earth is but the last flickering of a candle in
unending blackness.
But, to the man of faith, death is but the taking up again of the life he broke off when he
came to this earth. I can never think of my loved ones, my dear mother and those who have

passed away, as being in the grave. I rejoice in the associations they are enjoying and in the plea-
sure they are having in meeting with their loved ones on the other side. We are of course never
quite prepared for death no matter when it comes. I know that in my own case I had made up
my mind that inasmuch as my mother had such splendid health she would live to be at least a
hundred years of age, and it was a great shock when she died Twelve years earlier than that.

I am always grateful for the Gospel of Jesus ChrisT, the plan of life and salvation, but I am
never so grateful for the truth as I am upon occasions of this kind [funerals]. The perfect and
absolute knowledge that we as Latter-day Saints have of the divinity of the work in which we are
engaged, the absolute assurance that when life ends, if we have been faithful we are to have The
pleasure and the privilege of going back into The presence of Those whom we have loved and who
have gone on before, and that we shall be associated with our Heavenly Father, our Redeemer, the
Prophet Joseph Smith, the Patriarch Hyrum and all of the great men and women who have de-
voted their lives to this cause, brings a peace and a happiness upon occasions of this kind into our
hearts, which I am sure no language that I possess or that anybody else possesses can fully explain.

To a Latter-day Saint, while death brings sorrow into our homes and our hearts, that sorrow
is more or less of the same nature that we feel when we are temporarily called upon to part with
our dear ones who are going out into the mission field or who are moving away for some time.
That awful anguish that I have seen exhibited by those who know not the truth, I believe never
comes into the heart of a true Latter-day Saint.

I regret oft’times, in the times of distress and trouble that come to those whom we admire
and love, that we are not able to lift from their shoulders the sorrow into which they are
plunged, when they are called upon to part with those they cherish.
But we realize that our Father in heaven can bind up broken hearts and that He can dispel