of Sidney Smith: "In order to do anything worth doing, we must not stand shivering on the bank and thinking of the cold and danger. Jump in and scramble through as well as you can." And also the following, by the same author: "Let every man be occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that he has done his best." Let us endeavor to discover the occupation for which we are best suited by the natural abilities which the Lord has given us, and then labor to improve upon these talents.

"For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receiveth not the gift? Behold he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift." (Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 88:33.

Being an only child, my mother reared me very carefully; indeed, I grew more or less on the principle of a hot-house plant, the growth of which is "long and lanky," but not substantial. I learned to sweep, and to wash and wipe dishes, but did little stone throwing, and little indulging in those sports which are interesting and attractive to boys, and which develop their physical frames; therefore, when I joined a base ball club, the boys of my own age, and a little older, played in the first nine, those younger than myself played in the second, and those still younger in the third and I played with them. One of the reasons for this was that I could not throw the ball from one base to the other; another reason was that I lacked physical strength to run or bat well. When I picked up a ball, the boys would generally shout, "Throw it here, sissy!" So much fun was engendered on my account by my youthful companions that I solemnly vowed that I would play base ball in the nine that would win the championship of the Territory of Utah.

My mother was keeping boarders at the time for a living, and I shined their boots until I saved a dollar, which I invested in a base ball. I spent hours and hours throwing the ball at a neighbor's barn, (Edwin D. Woolley's,) which caused him to refer to me as the laziest boy in the Thirteenth Ward. Often my arm would ache so that I could scarcely go to sleep at night. But I kept on practic. ing, and finally succeeded in getting into the second nine of our

club. Subsequently I joined a better club, and eventually played in the nine that won the championship of the Territory. Having thus made good my promise to myself, I retired from the base ball

arena.

I have never seen the day when I was not willing to do the meanest work, (if there is such a thing as mean work, which I doubt) rather than be idle. The Lord has said through his inspired Prophet Joseph Smith:

For behold it is not meet that I should command in all things, for he that is compelled in all things the same is a slothful and not a wise servant, wherefore he receiveth no reward.

Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteous

ness;

For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward. But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned. (Doctrine and Covenants Sec. 58: 26-29.)

I think this should apply also to boys, and when I think of the hours and days and weeks and months partially wasted by me, with the sole object of learning to be a baseball player, I am impressed with the thought that I was not anxiously engaged in a "good cause" neither following Sidney Smith's advice to be engaged in the highest employment of which my nature was capable. I am convinced of the deep obligation which rests upon all parents and officers in the Y. M. M. I. Associations to exert the best energy of our minds to direct aright the labors of the youth of Zion. There was one thing, owever, accomplished by my experience as ball player, namely, the fulfilling of a promise made to myself.

In my last article, I endeavored to impress upon the minds of the young men the necessity of being careful to fulfill all promises made to themselves so as to strengthen thereby, through the force of habit, the promises made to others. Every young man should do this, and also have an ambition to qualify himself for labor to the full extent of his ability, so that he will be able to accomplish all that is possible for him to do in planting the standard of truth firmly on the earth.

GOSPEL STUDIES.

V.

THE REALITY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF HEAVEN AND HELL.

BY PROFESSOR N. L. NELSON, OF THE BRIGHAM YOUNG
ACADEMY, PROVO.

[In studying the following article, the young reader is cautioned that Professor Nelson is presenting old truths in a new way, and that in so doing, he places great stress upon self-effort, seemingly to the neglect of the mercy of God, without which all our work is as nothing. Let it be remembered that the words of Christ are true: "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

That we are immediately rewarded or punished for our acts in this life, and that such reward or punishment is all that we will obtain throughout eternity, is an assertion that requires all the stress of modification that the author has placed upon it by employing the word "potentially." In the day of judgment, the righteous will undoubtedly awake to find to their credit many mercies that never were realized to them in this life-many blessings and glories that they had never dreamed of in this probation, while the wicked will, perhaps, discover that their evil actions have separated them further from the presence of God than they had ever comprehended in this world.

The farmer who sows is not immediately rewarded, yet that act is the cause of his future harvest; he could not reap without sowing. By that act he is potentially-i. e. not positively but in possibility

rewarded; but what that reward shall be, great or small, depends much upon how he shall further comply with the laws of nature in cultivating his crop, and undoubtedly, in a greater degree upon the God of harvests who in tempering the earth and the elements, giveth the increase. So all our acts in this life are as the seed and the labor of the husbandman; but in the end, the reward is realized through the mercy and justice of Him who judgeth all men righteously according to the deeds done in the body.-Editors.]

My next proposition is trite through constant repetition, and seems so much like a truism that my only reason for introducing it is that it needs enforcing. It is this:

Every thought, word, and act of our lives immediately raises us toward Heaven or lowers us toward Hell.

This is true not only of Heaven and Hell when considered as states of the soul, but also when considered as places or associations; for there are large external beginnings of both Heaven and Hell right here in earth-life.

Take two typical cases. Let the first be that of a man whom the Gospel has rescued from the depths of sin. What, we may ask, had taken place within him on the day he entered the waters of baptism? He will tell you he was a changed man. A new ideal of righteousness, crude and indistinct perhaps, had been created within him. This was the inner kingdom of God of which Christ speaks in Luke (17: 20-21). In other words it is the beginning of Heaven as a state of the soul. True to the law discussed in a previous article, he finds no more pleasure in old associations. He is seeking environments that shall correspond with the new state of his soul. Baptism is the first real step toward them. Communion with men and women of like ideals gives him ecstatic joy. Day by day as his knowledge increases, his ideal becomes clearer, and he seeks to make his life conform thereto. Soon he begins to long for Zion as a place more completely realizing outwardly his spiritual state. Let us suppose that thus, precept upon precept, he grows in the conception as well as in the outward realization of Heaven until the highest associations of righteousness on earth are his to enjoy.

What have been the rounds in the ladder of his ascent? Paul answers the question. The righteousness of God (i. e., the harmony

of the universe) has been made known to him from faith to faith. Ideals successively more perfect were given by the Spirit of Truth, just as each in turn was wrought out in conduct and association. Each step was accompanied by joy above and pain and unrest beneath: joy in the new-found inner Heaven; unrest till its corresponding outer associations were formed. Such is the history of a little part of the road to Heaven; the rest of the way, even to the highest glory, does not differ in kind-only in degree. Consider next an opposite case-that of Sidney Rigdon will do. Here was a man resembling in many respects the previous example in the degree of the Heaven-spirit and Heaven-association to which he attained. But when his day of trial came he fell. How far he fell, and whether at this day he is falling or rising, the Father of all knows. Sufficient for my purpose that a man who had the glories of the Celestial Kingdom opened to his vision, who conversed with heavenly beings, and who saw and heard things unutterable and unlawful to utter-sufficient for my purpose that such a man fell.

What is the inner history of his fall? Just as in the first example light entered the mind creating successively a more perfect ideal, so now with Elder Rigdon's first sin, darkness entered, obscuring his ideal and lowering the tone of his soul's Heaven. For what is sin but treason to our ideals; i. e., a refusal to conform in conduct to the righteousness of God which has been revealed to us?* In the first case there was joy above and unrest below. In the second, these feelings are reversed. The moment our inner Heaven becomes lower than our outer, we feel an unrest above. Our environments bore us. We can't stand to be so "good." We distrust our associates, or sneer at them as hypocrites; which latter judgment is a reflex from our own hearts: we should be hypocrites did we act as we lately acted and as our associates are acting. There is no remaining in such a state; we must either

*The reader will see, by a little thought, that this definition is merely a new statement of the expression; "Sin is the transgression of the law." The "righteousness of God"—what is it but "law"? "Transgression"-but proving traitor to the heavenly ideal revealed to us?