No Man Is An Island

(Image courtesy creative commons license flickr.com by postbear)

John Donne's Meditation no. 17 from "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions" (1624):

No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man
is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a
Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse,
as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor
of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death
diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And
therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

Star Wars and Death

(Image courtesy Wookieepedia)

"Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is."

-Yoda (From Star Wars Episode III)

Death of a Teenager

This article from the Jan. 1992 Ensign is an experience one Latter Day Saint woman had when her 18 year old son died.

Jesus Carrying A Lost Lamb, Gospel Art Book

“With Great Mercies Will I Gather Thee”

By Margie Holmes

When Brian died, I felt forsaken. Even the scriptures failed to console me until one day the Book of Mormon spoke to my heart.

I grew up with the Book of Mormon. Forty Latter-day Saint families lived in our small community nestled under the Teton Peaks. In the basement of the little stone chapel on the hill above our log home, I learned Book of Mormon stories in my Primary classes. We recited the Book of Mormon scripture theme every week at MIA. I read the entire Book of Mormon for the first time in seminary. I vividly remember walking home from Book of Mormon classes during my undergraduate years at Brigham Young University, quickened by a heightening of the senses that I came to identify as the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Several factors contributed to a decline in my knowledge of and enthusiasm for the Book of Mormon during subsequent years. I married, and as our family grew, my Church callings were often in Cub Scouts and Primary. I tried to compensate for removal from adult gospel discussion by participating in a small study group. We took turns leading a discussion on the subject of our choice. This group and a short-lived Book of Mormon reading group formed by the wives in our neighborhood eventually succumbed to demands of Church, family, and community work, as well as a Ph.D. program I was completing slowly but steadily. Although I still used scriptures to support points in talks and lessons, the Book of Mormon was not a regular part of my life, and I listened wistfully to those who expressed love for the scriptures and were able to feel the Spirit through them. At intervals I made renewed efforts to read and study, but when few dividends resulted, I gave up.

The strongest deterrent to my enjoyment of the Book of Mormon arose at the death of my oldest son. Brian was a strong-willed, brilliant, creative, affectionate boy whose interests and temperament were different enough from those around him to make it difficult for him to be accepted. Age sixteen was a turning point in his young life. He seemed to reject most of the values we held dear. He stopped attending church, his grades dropped, and his appearance changed as he found new friends. He was angry much of the time, and there was a great deal of conflict in our home. We knew he was drinking alcoholic beverages, and we suspected he was using other drugs as well, but when confronted, he always convinced us he was not involved. Much later, we learned that he had been using both alcohol and other drugs.

Sessions with a family therapist helped us make it though two difficult years, but our family was in turmoil, and I was frightened, bewildered, and confused as my efforts to help Brian appeared futile. Shortly after graduating from high school, he moved out of our home rather than conform to the rules of the household and endure the continuing conflict. He had no job and no plans for further education, and he spent his time with people of questionable character.

A month after Brian’s eighteenth birthday, the police called me at work to say that he was dead. After drinking late into the night with friends, he had taken some sleeping pills and had finally gone to bed at about 5:00 A.M. Early the next afternoon, the people he was staying with had tried to wake him and had found him dead.

I had always hoped that time and experience would soften Brian’s heart and help him return to productive and happy living. I had always kept a prayer in my heart that his father and I—or the bishop, or someone, anyone—would be inspired to know how to help him. There was much about Brian to love—our last words to each other were “I love you”—and I felt that his goodness would eventually quiet the rebellion in his soul.

Never had I thought that he would not have the chance to turn his life around.

Now it was all over here, and the phrase “everlastingly too late” (Hel. 13:38) pulsed through my brain again and again. Gone was the son with whom I had been closely connected for eighteen years, the child who had led us into each new stage of our life cycle, the one who had carried our hopes for the future. Our separation from him was extremely painful for me, as if a million invisible bonds between us had been severed and each one throbbed with pain.

Equal to the suffering of separation was the weight of guilt I bore. I continually berated myself for failing to prevent Brian’s death. Why had I not been more honest with our counselor about our family problems so we could get at the root of them and defuse Brian’s anger? Why had I not found a more skillful therapist? Why had I not recognized signs of depression in Brian? Why had I let him talk me out of admitting him to the adolescent unit of the hospital for treatment? How could I have failed so badly in teaching him to avoid destructive substances and companions? How could I have failed to love him enough to protect him from feelings of rejection and low self-esteem? Why had we not had home evening every week, family prayer every day and night, read the scriptures more times together? The list went on and on.

In my guilt and grief, I sought comfort from God. My need to understand life and death, justice and mercy, was desperate. My prayers were anguished, and my worship at church and at the temple was exceedingly sorrowful. I felt that I had failed in a monumental way in the most important task of my life and that God had abandoned me at the time of my greatest need. I directed much of my energy to reaching God, seeking comfort and understanding. I wanted to know what Brian’s death meant to my relationship with God, my son, and my fellow human beings.

Scripture study was one of the means through which I sought solace and insight. I often turned to the Book of Mormon—both because of President Ezra Taft Benson’s emphasis and because my professional work as a research associate at BYU focused on missionaries’ use of the Book of Mormon. Rather than finding solace, however, I found judgment and condemnation. I needed a forgiving Father who loved me regardless of my failure and who responded to my pleas for healing and mercy. Although I tried to focus on the numerous passages that portray God in this way, my guilt would not allow me to transcend the condemnatory messages with which they were interspersed. I read, for example, that he who “remaineth and dieth in his sins … receiveth … an everlasting punishment” (Mosiah 2:33) which “doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire” (Mosiah 2:38). My mind filled with pictures of Brian suffering eternally, and my own contribution to that suffering seemed unforgivable. In spite of the pain it caused me, I continued reading the Book of Mormon regularly, hoping to receive revelation.

If God had his arm around me during this period, and I believe he did, it was manifest most plainly through the kindness of my friends and neighbors. They listened to me sort through my confused feelings, held me as I wept, gave me blessings, and showered me with food, cards, gifts, and love.

Meanwhile my work brought me into contact with the Book of Mormon in a way that I had not experienced before. Our task as researchers was to develop and evaluate ways for missionaries to help investigators have a spiritual moment with the Book of Mormon. As we conceived it, the plan required missionaries to stop every few verses to express their feelings and personal experiences. They were to follow these expressions with questions to encourage investigators to consider and articulate their own feelings regarding the passages.

We traveled to several locations in the United States where trainers demonstrated these skills and coached the missionaries as they learned. I played the role of investigator while missionaries practiced the new skills, and I accompanied them to their teaching appointments where they tried their skills with real investigators.

All who were involved in the project heard and shared many touching experiences. We found ourselves reading the Book of Mormon in a new way—one that opened our hearts to its teachings. We reflected on experiences that helped us relate personally to the events in the Book of Mormon. For example, we imagined how it would have felt to touch Christ’s wounded hands, to kiss his feet as Nephi did, to have our minds and bodies healed by Him.

I had read the Book of Mormon many times for its doctrinal and historical content, but now I was reading it in a manner that allowed it to speak to me in a very personal way. As time passed, studying the Book of Mormon became pleasurable to me rather than painful.

It was not a sudden development, however. Once, in the early months of the project—about two years after Brian’s death—we were reading aloud from Mosiah chapter 4. The chapter tells us that King Benjamin’s powerful words brought the Nephites to a realization of their need for a Savior. When they cried for mercy, the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they experienced great joy and peace of conscience because their sins were forgiven. Rather than bringing joy and peace to me, however, King Benjamin’s words reduced me to “less than the dust of the earth” (Mosiah 4:2) and engulfed me in guilt and sorrow. I had to leave the room in order to pull myself together.

Several months later, I sat on the edge of my bed reading 3 Nephi. When I reached chapter 22, it was as if I were reading it for the first time. The resurrected Christ was quoting Isaiah as he said to the Nephites, “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud.” (3 Ne. 22:1.) When I read these words, it was as though the Lord was speaking to me: though I am a mother of six children, I am in a sense barren, because the fruit of my womb has been taken from me.

“Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame; for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy youth.” (3 Ne. 22:4.) In my youth—or, more correctly, in my inexperience—I was indeed ashamed and reproached, in my eyes if not in the eyes of others. It seemed impossible that the sorrow, guilt, and shame could ever be forgotten.

“For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.” (3 Ne. 22:6–7.) Truly, I was grieved in spirit and forsaken, or so it seemed. Yet at this moment the Lord spoke to my heart, spoke of gathering me with great mercy.

“In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. … O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted! Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.” (3 Ne. 22:8, 11–12.) In his great love and mercy, the Lord is preparing a beautiful place, one of his many mansions, for me.

Even in this lovely place with my shame and sorrow forgotten, how could I find joy knowing that my beloved son is suffering? As if the Lord were reading my mind, the words of the Savior continued: “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established; thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear, and from terror for it shall not come near thee. … This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” (3 Ne. 22:13–14, 17.)

All of my children will be taught of the Lord—and great shall be their peace. Brian will be taught of the Lord, and great shall be his peace. I need not be oppressed by fear and terror! Perhaps these blessings will not be realized until a much later time, or perhaps they have already occurred. But they will be a reality because the Lord has promised it. Truly the Lord, who has descended below all things, knows how to comfort us.

For a moment, sitting on my bed, I felt that I was one of his righteous servants, worthy of his love, his mercy, and his blessings. Overcome by emotion, I lay on my bed and wept. At last God had spoken to me in an intimate way through his scriptures.

The fifth anniversary of Brian’s death has just passed. I still have times when I am brought down by sorrow, loneliness, and guilt, but not as frequently as in the past. I often turn to 3 Nephi 22 to remind myself of God’s goodness to me and my family. Many other passages teach me of his love, and I am usually able to interpret in a hopeful way the verses that speak of condemnation. I believe that he always has his arms extended to gather us “with great mercies,” although his respect for our agency requires that he wait until we are ready to turn to him. Time’s healing influence, the precious experiences I had while working on the Book of Mormon project, and particularly the personal insight I received as I read 3 Nephi 22 have made the Book of Mormon a valuable part of my life once more. [3 Ne. 22]

What happens when a child dies? May your soul recieve peace with these words.

The Salvation of Little Children

By Bruce R. McConkie

Of the Council of the Twelve

Among all the glorious gospel verities given of God to his people there is scarcely a doctrine so sweet, so soul satisfying, and so soul sanctifying, as the one which proclaims—Little children shall be saved. They are alive in Christ and shall have eternal life. For them the family unit will continue, and the fulness of exaltation is theirs. No blessing shall be withheld. They shall rise in immortal glory, grow to full maturity, and live forever in the highest heaven of the celestial kingdom—all through the merits and mercy and grace of the Holy Messiah, all because of the atoning sacrifice of Him who died that we might live.

One of the great benefits of the recent addition to the Pearl of Great Price of Joseph Smith’s Vision of the Celestial Kingdom is the opportunity it affords to study anew the doctrine relative to the salvation of children. There are many valid questions which confront us in this field which are deserving of sound scriptural answers.

Two scenes showing the infinite love, tenderness, and compassion of the Lord Jesus set the stage for our consideration of the various matters involved in the salvation of children.

The first scene is set in “the coasts of Judea beyond Jordan.” Great multitudes are before him; the Pharisees are querulous, seeking to entrap; he has just preached about marriage and divorce and the family unit. “Then were there brought unto him little children,” Matthew records, “that he should put his hands on them and pray. And the disciples rebuked them, saying, There is no need, for Jesus hath said, Such shall be saved.

“But Jesus said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

“And he laid hands on them, and departed thence.” (JST, Matt. 19:13–15; italics added.)

The second scene is portrayed on the American continent. That same Jesus, the Compassionate One, risen and glorified, is ministering among his Nephite kinsmen. He has just prayed as none other had ever done before. “No tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak,” the Nephite historian records. (3 Ne. 17:17.)

Then Jesus wept, and said: “Behold your little ones. …

“And they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them.” (3 Ne. 17:23–24.)

Jesus loves and blesses children. They are the companions of angels. They shall be saved. Of such is the kingdom of heaven.

Now let us record brief answers to the more commonly asked questions about the salvation of children.

What is a child and who are children?

A child is an adult spirit in a newly born body, a body capable of growing and maturing according to the providences of Him whose spirit children we all are. Children are the sons and daughters of God. They lived and dwelt with him for ages and eons before their mortal birth. They are adults before birth; they are adults at death. Christ himself, the Firstborn of the Father, rose to a state of glory and exaltation before he was ever suckled at Mary’s breast.

What is mortal birth?

It is the process by which mature, sentient, intelligent beings pass from preexistence into a mortal sphere. It is the process by which we bring from premortality to mortality the traits and talents acquired and developed in our long years of spirit existence. It is the process by which a mortal body is created from the dust of the earth to house an eternal spirit offspring of the Father of us all. Mortality is fully upon us when we first breathe the breath of life.

Why are we born upon this earth?

We come here to gain bodies, bodies of flesh and blood, bodies which—following the natural death—we will receive back again in immortality. Those of us who arrive at the years of accountability are here to develop and to be tried and tested, to see if we can so live as to regain the state of innocence and purity which we enjoyed as children, and thereby be qualified to go where God and Christ are.

What is original sin?

This is the false doctrine that the sin of Adam passes upon all men and that, therefore, all men—infants included—must be baptized to be saved. It is, however, a fundamental principle of true religion “that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.” (A of F 1:2)

Are children tainted with original sin?

Absolutely not. There is no such thing as original sin as such is defined in the creeds of Christendom. Such a concept denies the efficacy of the atonement. Our revelation says: “Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning”—meaning that spirits started out in a state of purity and innocence in preexistence—“and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God” (D&C 93:38)—meaning that all children start out their mortal probation in purity and innocence because of the atonement. Our revelations also say, “The Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world.” (Moses 6:54.)

Are children conceived in sin?

Since there is no such thing as original sin, as that expression is used in modern Christendom, it follows that children are not conceived in sin. They do not come into the world with any taint of impurity whatever. When our scriptures say that “children are conceived in sin,” they are using words in an entirely different way than when the same language is recited in the creeds of the world. The scriptural meaning is that they are born into a world of sin so that “when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good.” (Moses 6:55.)

What about infant baptism?

Few false doctrines have ever deserved and received such a vigorous and forceful denunciation as that heaped upon infant baptism by the prophet Mormon. When that inspired author inquired of the Lord concerning the baptism of little children, he was told: “Listen to the words of Christ, your Redeemer, your Lord and your God. Behold, I came into the world not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance; the whole need no physician, but they that are sick; wherefore, little children are whole, for they are not capable of committing sin; wherefore the curse of Adam is taken from them in me, that it hath no power over them.”

Thereupon Mormon, speaking by the power of the Holy Ghost, taught that “it is solemn mockery” to baptize little children; that they “are alive in Christ from the foundation of the world”; that it is awful wickedness to deny the pure mercies of Christ to them; that such a belief sets at naught the power of Christ’s redemption; that those who believe such a false concept are “in the bonds of iniquity” and if cut off while in the thought shall be thrust down to hell; and that those who humble themselves and repent and are baptized shall “be saved with their little children.” (Moro. 8:8–25.)

Are all little children saved automatically in the celestial kingdom?

To this question the answer is a thunderous yes, which echoes and re-echoes from one end of heaven to the other. Jesus taught it to his disciples. Mormon said it over and over again. Many of the prophets have spoken about it, and it is implicit in the whole plan of salvation. If it were not so the redemption would not be infinite in its application. And so, as we would expect, Joseph Smith’s Vision of the Celestial Kingdom contains this statement: “And I also beheld that all children who die before they arrive at the years of accountability are saved in the celestial kingdom of heaven.” (D&C 137:10)

It is sometimes asked if this applies to children of all races, and of course the answer is that when the revelation says all children it means all children. There is no restriction as to race, kindred, or tongue. Little children are little children and they are all alive in Christ, and all are saved by him, through and because of the atonement.

Speaking of the Prophet’s statement that all children are saved in the celestial kingdom, President Joseph Fielding Smith said: “This would mean the children of every race. All the spirits that come to this world come from the presence of God and, therefore, must have been in his kingdom. … Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and all who rebelled were cast out; therefore, all who remained are entitled to the blessings of the gospel.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:55.)

How and why are they saved?

They are saved through the atonement and because they are free from sin. They come from God in purity; no sin or taint attaches to them in this life; and they return in purity to their Maker. Accountable persons must become pure through repentance and baptism and obedience. Those who are not accountable for sins never fall spiritually and need not be redeemed from a spiritual fall which they never experienced. Hence the expression that little children are alive in Christ. “Little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten,” the Lord says. (D&C 29:46.)

Will they have eternal life?

Eternal life is life in the highest heaven of the celestial world; it is exaltation; it is the name of the kind of life God lives. It consists of a continuation of the family unit in eternity. We have quoted scriptures saying that children will be saved in the celestial kingdom, but now face the further query as to whether this includes the greatest of all the gifts of God—the gift of eternal life. And in the providences of Him who is infinitely wise, the answer is in the affirmative. Salvation means eternal life; the two terms are synonymous; they mean exactly the same thing. Joseph Smith said, “Salvation consists in the glory, authority, majesty, power and dominion which Jehovah possesses and in nothing else.” (Lectures on Faith, pp. 63–67.) We have come to speak of this salvation as exaltation—which it is—but all of the scriptures in all of the standard works call it salvation. I know of only three passages in all our scriptures which use salvation to mean something other and less than exaltation.

Abinadi said, “Little children also have eternal life.” (Mosiah 15:25.) Joseph Smith taught, “Children will be enthroned in the presence of God and the Lamb; … they will there enjoy the fulness of that light, glory, and intelligence, which is prepared in the celestial kingdom.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 200.) President Joseph Fielding Smith spoke very expressly on this point: “The Lord will grant unto these children the privilege of all the sealing blessings which pertain to the exaltation. We were all mature spirits before we were born, and the bodies of little children will grow after the resurrection to the full stature of the spirit, and all the blessings will be theirs through their obedience, the same as if they had lived to maturity and received them on the earth. The Lord is just and will not deprive any person of a blessing, simply because he dies before that blessing can be received. It would be manifestly unfair to deprive a little child of the privilege of receiving all the blessings of exaltation in the world to come simply because it died in infancy. … Children who die in childhood will not be deprived of any blessing. When they grow, after the resurrection, to the full maturity of the spirit, they will be entitled to all the blessings which they would have been entitled to had they been privileged to tarry here and receive them.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:54.)

Will children be married and live in the family unit?

Certainly. There can be no question about this. If they gain salvation, which is eternal life, which is exaltation, it means that they are married and live in the family unit. President Joseph Fielding Smith has so stated in plain words, and it is something that must necessarily be so. (See Doctrines of Salvation, 2:49–57.)

Why do some children die and others live? Are those who die better off than those who remain in mortality?

We may rest assured that all things are controlled and governed by Him whose spirit children we are. He knows the end from the beginning, and he provides for each of us the testings and trials which he knows we need. President Joseph Fielding Smith once told me that we must assume that the Lord knows and arranges beforehand who shall be taken in infancy and who shall remain on earth to undergo whatever tests are needed in their cases. This accords with Joseph Smith’s statement: “The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth.” (Teachings, pp. 196–97.) It is implicit in the whole scheme of things that those of us who have arrived at the years of accountability need the tests and trials to which we are subject and that our problem is to overcome the world and attain that spotless and pure state which little children already possess.

How much do children know before their mortal birth about God and the plan of salvation?

Every person born into the world comes from the presence of God. We all saw him in that eternal world. We heard his voice. He taught us his laws. We learned about Christ and chose to follow him when he was chosen to be our Savior and Redeemer. We understood and knew the gospel plan and shouted for joy at the privilege of getting our mortal bodies as part of that great plan of salvation. Returning pure and spotless to their Maker, children—who in reality are adults—will again have that gospel knowledge which once was theirs.

Will children ever be tested?

Absolutely not! Any idea that they will be tested in paradise or during the millennium or after the millennium is pure fantasy. Why would a resurrected being, who has already come forth from the grave with a celestial body and whose salvation is guaranteed, be tested? Would the Lord test someone who cannot fail the test and whose exaltation is guaranteed? For that matter, all those billions of people who will be born during the millennium, when Satan is bound, “shall grow up without sin unto salvation” (D&C 45:58) and therefore will not be tested. “Satan cannot tempt little children in this life, nor in the spirit world, nor after their resurrection. Little children who die before reaching the years of accountability will not be tempted.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:56–57.) Such is the emphatic language of President Joseph Fielding Smith.

What is the age of accountability?

Accountability does not burst full-bloom upon a child at any given moment in his life. Children become accountable gradually, over a number of years. Becoming accountable is a process, not a goal to be attained when a specified number of years, days, and hours have elapsed. In our revelation the Lord says, “They cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me.” (D&C 29:47.) There comes a time, however, when accountability is real and actual and sin is attributed in the lives of those who develop normally. It is eight years of age, the age of baptism. (D&C 68:27.)

This principle of accountability has been twisted and perverted and even lost at various times. It was at the root of Mormon’s inquiry to the Lord about infant baptism. (See Moro. 8.) One of our most instructive passages on the point contains the words spoken by the Lord to Abraham. “My people have gone astray from my precepts, and have not kept mine ordinances, which I gave unto their fathers,” the Lord said.

“And they have not observed mine anointing, and the burial, or baptism wherewith I commanded them;

“But have turned from the commandment, and taken unto themselves the washing of children, and the blood of sprinkling.” (JST, Gen. 17:4–6.)

Infant baptism was practiced by some even in those early days. The reason? Men no longer understood the atonement. For, as the record continues, those ancient peoples “said that the blood of the righteous Abel was shed for sins; and have not known wherein they are accountable before me.” (JST, Gen. 17:7.)

Then the Lord made this promise to Abraham: “I will establish a covenant of circumcision with thee, and it shall be my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations; that thou mayest know for ever that children are not accountable before me until they are eight years old.” (JST, Gen. 17:11.)

What about the mentally deficient?

It is with them as it is with little children. They never arrive at the years of accountability and are considered as though they were little children. If because of some physical deficiency, or for some other reason unknown to us, they never mature in the spiritual and moral sense, then they never become accountable for sins. They need no baptism; they are alive in Christ; and they will receive, inherit, and possess in eternity on the same basis as do all children.

After revealing that little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through the atoning sacrifice of Him who died to save us all, and after specifying that Satan has no power to tempt little children until they begin to become accountable, the Lord applied the same principles to those who are mentally deficient: “And, again, I say unto you, that whoso having knowledge, have I not commanded to repent? And he that hath no understanding, it remaineth in me to do according as it is written.” (D&C 29:49–50.)

When and with what stature will children be resurrected?

Because they will receive a celestial inheritance, they will come forth in the first resurrection, President Joseph F. Smith said: “Joseph Smith taught the doctrine that the infant child that was laid away in death would come up in the resurrection as a child; and, pointing to the mother of a lifeless child, he said to her: ‘You will have the joy, the pleasure, and satisfaction of nurturing this child, after its resurrection, until it reaches the full stature of its spirit.’ There is restitution, there is growth, there is development, after the resurrection from death. I love this truth. It speaks volumes of happiness, of joy and gratitude to my soul. Thank the Lord he has revealed these principles to us.” (Gospel Doctrine, pp. 455–56.)

What is our responsibility to our children?

“Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” (Ps. 127:3.) Our children are our Father’s children. He has entrusted them to us for a time and a season. Our appointment is to bring them up in light and truth so they will qualify to return to his Eternal Presence.

Parents in Zion have an especial responsibility for the care and well-being of the souls entrusted to them. King Benjamin summarized it in these words: “Ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.

“But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.” (Mosiah 4:14–15; see also D&C 68:25–28.)

What, then, of this glorious doctrine concerning the salvation of children?

Truly it is one of the sweetest and most soul-satisfying doctrines of the gospel! It is also one of the great evidences of the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith. In his day the fiery evangelists of Christendom were thundering from their pulpits that the road to hell is paved with the skulls of infants not a span long because careless parents had neglected to have their offspring baptized. Joseph Smith’s statements, as recorded in the Book of Mormon and latter-day revelation, came as a refreshing breeze of pure truth: little children shall be saved. Thanks be to God for the revelations of his mind where these innocent and pure souls are concerned!

(From the Ensign April 1977)