The great designs of God in relation to
the salvation of the human family, are very little understood by the
professedly wise and intelligent generation in which we live. Various
and conflicting are the opinions of men concerning the plan of
salvation, the requisitions of the Almighty, the necessary preparations
for heaven, the state and condition of departed spirits, and the
happiness or misery that is consequent upon the practice of
righteousness and iniquity according to their several notions of virtue
and vice.
But while one portion of the human race is judging
and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe
looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and
paternal regard; He views them as His offspring, and without any of
those contracted feelings that influence the children of man", causes
"His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and on the unjust." He holds the reins of judgment in His hands; He
is a wise Lawgiver, and will judge all men, not according to the
narrow, contracted notions of men, but, "according to the deeds done in
the body whether they be good or evil," or whether these deeds were done
in England, America, Spain, Turkey, or India. He will judge them, "not
according to what they have not, but according to what they have," those
who have lived without law, will be judged without law, and those who
have a law, will by judged by that law. We need not doubt the wisdom and
intelligence of the Great Jehovah; He will award judgment or mercy to
all nations according to their several deserts, their means of obtaining
intelligence, the laws by which they are governed, the facilities
afforded them of obtaining correct information, and His inscrutable
designs in relation to the human family; and when the designs of God
shall be made manifest, and the curtain of futurity be withdrawn, we
shall all of us eventually have to confess that the Judge of all the
earth has done right. (Joseph Smith: Times & Seasons editorial, Recorded in History of the Church 4, Chapter 35, p. 595)
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