were yet in ignorance of Christ, of His plan of salvation, and the work
that had been done for them. These would have to be taught and given a
chance to accept or reject what had been done.
"You enjoy a happiness that does not come to me," said a brother to
Henrik, "in that you receive the love and joyous greetings of those for
whom you did work in mortality."
"Had you no opportunity to do such work?" asked Henrik.
"Yes; but I had no names of ancestry, and the truth is, I did not try to
get any."
"You did not do all in your power?"
"No; I was careless in the matter."
"If you had only tried, the way would have been opened. That is a true
principle. We do not know what regions of usefulness lie before us if we
do no exploring."
Signe and Rachel were closely associated, and they performed missions
together to their less enlightened sisters whose condition was not so
favorable. These were of the frivolous and foolish women who had been
taken captive by earthly things. All their treasures had been of earth,
so on earth they had to be left, for none could be taken into the spirit
world; these, therefore, were poor indeed. They had nothing with which
to occupy themselves: in earth-life, wealth, fashion, the gratification
of depraved appetites and passions, and the pampering of worldly
vanities had been their chief concern; and now that earthly things were
no more, these women were as if lost in a strange world, having no sure
footing, groping about in semi-darkness, hungering and thirsting, but
finding no means by which they might be satisfied. They laughed and
appeared to make merry because it was their nature so to do, but their
laugh was empty, and their merriment rang hollow and untrue.
"I am more than ever thankful," said Signe to Rachel when they had
labored long with a group of frivolous women, "that the gospel reached
us in earth-life."
"And that we accepted it," added Rachel.
"Yes; many of these sisters of ours are not evil; they are just
weak,--empty of good. Their earthly training was at fault. And then some
of them have told me that they were very much surprised to find that
death had not worked a transformation in them: they have still the same
feelings, desires and thoughts as before."
"Some foolish things were taught in earth-life," said Rachel, "one of
them being deathbed repentance. Common sense, if not reason, ought to
have told us that a change of heart coming when a person is in ful
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