rds, Be not absorbed in efforts to accumulate hoards of
gold and silver, and to get houses and lands, which will soon pass
away; but rather labor to acquire heavenly treasures, wisdom,
love, purity, and faith, which will never pass from your
possession nor cease from your enjoyment.

"I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where
I am there ye may be also." To understand this text, we must
carefully study the whole four chapters of the connection in which
it stands. They abound in bold symbols. An instance of this is
seen where Jesus, having washed his disciples' feet, says to them,
"Ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him.
Therefore said he, Ye are not all clean." The actual meaning of
the passage before us may be illustrated by a short paraphrase of
it with the context: "Let not your hearts be troubled by the
thought that I must die and be removed from you; for there are
other states of being besides this earthly life. When they crucify
me, as I have said to you before, I shall not perish, but shall
pass into a higher state of existence with my Father. Whither I go
ye know, and the way ye know: my Father is the end, and the truths
that I have declared point out the way. If ye loved me, ye would
rejoice because I say that I go to the Father. And if I go to him,
if, when they have put me to death, I pass into an unseen state of
blessedness and glory (as I prophesy unto you that I shall,) I
will reveal myself unto you again, and tell you. I go before you
as a pioneer, and will surely come back and confirm, with
irresistible evidence, the reality of what I have already told
you. Therefore, trouble not your hearts, but be of good cheer."

"There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
that repenteth." The sentiment of this Divine declaration simply
implies that all good beings sympathize with every triumph of
goodness; that the living chain of mutual interest runs through
the spiritual universe, making one family of those on earth and
those in the invisible state.

"Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." "Cling not
to me, detain me not, for I have not yet left the world forever,
to be in the spiritual state with my Father; and ere I do this I
must seek my disciples, to convince them of my resurrection and to
give them my parting commission and blessing." He used the common
lang