12^th I Attended sister Rhodes Funeral The President Twelve
& a large congregation of people assembled And President Young
preached & said that the few remarks I have to make I will endeavor
to speak to the point my text is it is better to go to the house of mour-
ning than to the House of feasting for that is the end of all men & the living
will lay it to heart [Ecclesiastes 7:2]. When we are in a situation so that we cannot
know any thing ownly what we know by the natural senses it causes
us to mourn the loss of friends but if we could understand all
things it would often times be a source of Joy instead of morning
when a spirit enters a tabernacle here in this life it enters
into a state of sorrow yet if we understood things in their
tru light we should be satisfyed with it. When the spirit
enters the body it enters a dark sell and is left to sorrow &
to be tried in all things but when the spirit leaves the body if
a saint it enters into the brilliant light and glory of God like
taking a prisioner out of a dark sell whare He could see a
little glimmer of light through the grates & put him into the
blaze of the mid days sun. when we loose our Friends we mourn
but what is it that mourns is it that light, truth and intellige[nce]
of the Almighty that is in man that mourns No it is the grocer
part of our being that mourns let a person be unclothed and
we could see the spirit of our sister and all other friends & shake
hands with them & spirit be tangible to each other as our bodies
now are to each other when I am filled with the spirit of God
I can see men and what is in them and the more we are in
refined in spirit the more we can see the reason I cannot shake
hands with Sister Rhodes is becaus of this gross body. Women
were not made to die in child bed as Sister Rhodes has done
but what is the matter death is here it is death that has caused
it death is in the land around us it is here Children die before they
are born this because their is death around us we cannot

se it we have the Head ake we cannot se that (yet it exist) because we are
in the body but if we were out of the body we could se it we should advanc[e]
in the phylosophy of eternal things and learn as we live when
we go to the House of feasting we go to feast our bodies when we go to the
house of mourning we mourn as it were in spirit and our minds
are called to serious truths but what would really be a case of
mourning it would be to follow a person to the grave who had not
improved their day of salvation had an oppertunity of being saved
& ehxalted & had neglected it that would be a case of mourning but
a person that had done the best they could & improved their oppor-
tunities of salvation we have no cause to mourn for such I would
say to the children dont mourn for your mother I would to God you was
as sure of salvation as your mother is If I was to mourn for any thing
in this case it would be because we have not more power to
cast the devil out of the house and out of the Neighborhood. Can we
realize that sister Rhodes is not dead she lives now more
than she did before it is the sinner that will die not the righteous
when the spirit of this woman left the body it was ushered into
a flood of light but her body is as any other clay but her spirit
is in open day she saw a little light in the body so as not to put her eye
out when she came to the full light

I wish to give a little counsel to the children here Brother Snow will
take charge of the place I want the children to go to school And
want an inventory of things here taken for the benefit of
Brother Rhodes & brother Snow both I request the children to do
as well as your mother has done according to the light you have &
I will warrant you salvation & eternal life & I would say
the same to all who are here but upon no other principle
can I warrant anybody salvation exsept upon the principle
of doing good & obeying the Lord do good to your families & to
each other. I want to say to all present there is no blame to be
attached to any of the sisters who waited upon Sister Rhodes they
have all done as well as they could for I have enquired into
the whole affair & her time had come to die & so will [yours]
in its turn.