Page 46 - Berg_Mortuary_Bishops_Guide

46 BISHOP’S GUIDE

ents, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse and utterly wasted at his coming.

If we live and turn away from the truth we will be separated throughout the countless ages
of eternity from the society of those we love. We will have no claim upon them, and they will
have no claim upon us. There will be an impassable gulf between us over which we can not
pass, one to the other. If we die in the faith, having lived righteous lives, we are Christ’s, we
have the assurance of eternal reward, being in possession of the principles of eternal truth and
shall be clothed with glory, immortality and eternal lives. While we sojourn in the flesh we pass
a great portion of our life in sorrow; death separates us for a short time, some of us pass behind
the vail, but the time will came when we will meet with those who have gone, and enjoy each
other’s society forever.

The separation is but for a moment as it were. No power can separate us then. God having
joined us together we have a claim upon each other-an undeniable claim-inasmuch as we have been
united by the power of the priesthood in the Gospel of Christ. Therefore it is better to be separated
in this life for a little season, although we have to pass through deprivation, sorrow, trouble, toil,
widowhood, orphanage and many other vicissitudes, than to be separated for all eternity.

We are begotten in the similitude of Christ himself. We dwelt with the Father and with the
San in the beginning, as the sons and daughters of God; and at the time appointed, we came to
this earth to take upon ourselves tabernacles, that we might become conformed to the likeness
and image of Jesus Christ and become like him; that we might have a tabernacle, that we might
pass through death as he has passed through death, that we might rise again from the dead as
he has risen from the dead….. The thought of meeting my children who have preceded me
beyond the veil, and of meeting my kindred and my friends, what happiness it affords! For I
know that I shall meet them there. God has shown me that this is true. He has made it clear to

me, in answer to my prayer and devotion, as he has made it clear to the understanding of all
men who have sought diligently to know him.
[To Elder Joseph H. Dean in Oahu, Hawaii, President Joseph F. Smith wrote:] I heard with
deep sympathy of the death of your baby at home. I knew how to sympathize, for I passed thro
the same kind of bitter experience myself while there. I would have written you, but I judged

you by myself and refrained from doing so. Under such circumstances I feel more like going
into some distant quiet, lonely retreat, where no eye but that of God beheld me, and there,
alone, feel and sense my grief, God only knowing it….. Time, and time only---that great healer
of wounds-can touch my soul, and l think you would no doubt feel the same. But when the
first poignant throes of grief are passed and the soul is calmed by time and fate, then a word
fitly spoken may touch the tender chord of fellowship flowing from heart to heart in kindred
sorrows. The Lord truly knows best and we know that the innocents who have been recalled
from earth, so soon after their coming untainted by the sordid elements of this fallen world