By JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH
PUBLISHED BY THE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF UTAH
1920
THE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF UTAH.
Organized November 13, 1894.
Anthon H. Lund, President; Charles W. Penrose, Vice President; JosephFielding Smith, Secy. and Treas.; Joseph Christenson, Librarian;Lillian Cameron and Nephi Anderson, Assistant Librarians.
DIRECTORS: Anthon H. Lund, Charles W. Penrose, Joseph Christenson,Joseph Fielding Smith, Anthony W. Ivins, Hyrum G. Smith.
Life Membership, $10, with two years in which to pay. Annualmembership, $2 the first year, $1 yearly thereafter.
The Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine.
Published by the Genealogical Society of Utah.
QUARTERLY, $1.50 PER ANNUM
Anthon H. Lund, Editor; Nephi Anderson, Associate Editor
Subscription price to life and paid-up annual members of theGenealogical Society, $1.00 a year. Address all communications to
GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF UTAH
47 East South Temple Street, Salt LakeCity, Utah.
BY ELDER JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH
The greatest of all the gifts of God unto his children, is the gift ofsalvation.[A]
[Footnote A: Doc. & Cov. 6:13.]
The greatest of all his works, to bring to pass the immortality andeternal life of man, which constitutes his glory.[B]
[Footnote B: Book of Moses 1:39.]
For this grand and glorious purpose, worlds are created by him andpeopled with his children. He gives to them his commandments, grantingthe power to choose for themselves whether or not they will obey. Thosewho obey him in all things he has promised great blessings, they shallbe added upon in his celestial kingdom for ever and ever, and shall becrowned with the fullness of his glory. But to those who reject laws,and become a law unto themselves in unrighteousness, shall punishmentbe meted out according to their evil deeds.
The plan of salvation, or code of laws, which is known as the gospelof Jesus Christ, was adopted in the heavens, before the foundation ofthe world was laid. It was appointed there that Adam our father shouldcome to this earth and stand at the head of the whole human family. Itwas a part of this great plan, that he should partake of the forbiddenfruit and fall, thus bringing suffering and death into the world, evenfor the ultimate good of his children. By many he has been severelycriticized because of his fall, but Latter-day Saints, through modernrevelation, have learned that such was necessary in order that manshould have his agency and, through the various vicissitudes he has topass, receive a knowledge of both good and evil, without which it wouldbe impossible for him to gain the exaltation prepared for him.
It was also necessary because of Adam's transgression for the OnlyBegotten Son of the Father to come to redeem the world from Adam'sfall. This also was a part of the plan chosen before the earth wasmade, for Jesus is called the Lamb that was slain from the foundationof the world. He came and redeemed us from the fall—even all theinhabitants of the earth. Not only did he redeem us from Adam'stransgression, but he also redeemed us from our own sins, on conditionthat we obey the laws and ordinances of the gospel.[D]
[Footnote D: Heb. 5:9; Matt. 7:21; John 1:3-6.]
"And now, behold," said the Prophet Lehi to his son Jacob, "if Adam hadnot transgressed, he would not have fallen;