“Many of us have heard the statement made—and ascribed to either Joseph Smith or Brigham Young—to the effect that if a person could see the glory of the telestial kingdom he would commit suicide to get there. If only we could get the fundamental doctrines across to Church members as rapidly as we get across rumors, everyone would be saved. Am I saying that’s a rumor? Well, I am saying this, that over a period of many years I have combed everything Joseph Smith said and wrote, and I can’t find it. Hugh Nibley has done the same with Brigham Young’s words, and he can’t find it. It is hard to prove a negative, of course. What I can say is that we have found a statement from Joseph via Wilford Woodruff that says something else that is close, and I suspect it is the origin of the alleged statement (see Diary of Charles C. Walker, August 1837, in Church Historical Department). Elder Woodruff said the Prophet taught this, roughly: that if we could see what is beyond the veil we couldn’t stand to stay here in mortality for five minutes. And I suggest from the context that he was not talking about the telestial kingdom. He was talking about what it was like to be in the presence of God and the family.”
Along with forgiveness, there is something we must do that is even harder. The word is sacrifice …That has costs. Some things have to be given up. Some things have to be postponed. So the focus is sacrifice.
The freedom thesis undercuts the causal dogmas of behaviorists, mechanists, fatalists, and predestinationists. John Wisdom has lately argued that one can only justify a belief in free agency by a belief in preexistence. The identification of freedom with primal intelligence does just that.
Long before mortality, in a process of actual transmission, there were forged into man’s spirit the embryonic traits, attributes, and powers of God Himself! And in the surroundings of that realm man was nurtured in the Divine image.
My wife and I were interviewed some time ago by the very man who interviewed President Hinckley, Mike Wallace. We were at the open house of the Manhattan Temple. At some point in our chat with him by the way, he had great regard for President Hinckley), he said something like this, looking at my wife “Why are Mormon women so lovely?” We learned later that he has not had a happy married life; he’s had four wives: not simultaneously Before Ann could answer, I thought of Parley P. Pratt, and I said, “It’s the best—kept beauty secret in the world. It is the Spirit of God.” Parley P. Pratt taught that the Spirit “develops beauty of person, form and features.” Then Mike Wallace turned to Ann, and she said, “It’s fidelity.” That’s a great answer. She had in mind fidelity in the sense of honoring and keeping our covenants with Christ, but also honoring our covenants with each other: fidelity in marriage. And she also meant faithfulness in marking and walking the path that Christ has laid out for us. That does make a difference, even in our physical appearance. I testify that that is so. I believe that in the Church itself not everyone is aware of how conspicuous that beauty and that light is in the eyes and faces of the faithful, but those who have the same spirit recognize it.
My testimony to you is that you have come literally “trialing clouds of glory.” No amount of mortal abuse can quench the divine spark. If you only knew who you are and what you did and how you earned the privileges of mortality, and not just mortality but of this time, this place, this dispensation, and the associates that have been meant to cross and intertwine with your lives; if you knew now the vision you had then of what this trial, this probation (what in my bitter moments I call this spook alley) of mortality could produce, would produce; if you knew the latent infinite power that is locked up and hidden for your own good now—if you knew these things you would never again yield to any of the putdowns that are a dime a dozen in our culture today.
We once dwelt in the scintillating presence of the Eternal Father. So rich, so exquisite was our condition there though it was not without conflict), that we can hardly endure remembering. Wilford Woodruff heard the Prophet Joseph Smith remark that were it not for the strong biological urge in us to survive, to hold on to the slipping rope even when we are in pain and suffering, and, in addition, were it not for the veil of forgetfulness we could not stand this world. Our mortal amnesia is the Lord’s anesthesia. We must stay in this condition to work out our possibilities, undergo the stress and distress that lead to perfection.