Letter to Eliza Dana Gibbs, 22 June 1883
Salt Lake City, .
Sister E. Gibbs—Your letter of June 17 is before me, as is Brother Melville's.
I have stated to him my situation, away from home a great deal of the
time attending conferences, and having a heavy correspondence and being
full of business, so that I cannot do justice in answering so many critical
questions as you ask in your letter, but I will answer the best I can. I shall
also have to answer for Mrs. Woodruff, for she is not in a situation to write
letters as much at present, not being in very good health. You say that you
have a great desire to communicate with your daughter since her death,
and have prayed for it long and loud, and the request is not granted
you, and you feel sorely tried because it is not, and are almost ready
to turn infidel because the Lord does not grant your request. I wish to
say to you, Sister Gibbs, that you are asking something of the Lord that
it is not wisdom in him to bestow. As soon as the spirit leaves the
body and goes back to the Father who gave it, there are laws govern-
ing that spirit, so that it cannot return to its friends on earth, and
if it was granted to spirits it might cost them a great deal of sorrow.
I have known persons to make covenants together to return after death to visit a
husband, wife, or parents, but after death they never came back to fulfil their
pledges, for they found a law to forbid it. To answer all such questions,
I will say that the Lord never sends an angel to the earth to visit any body,
unless He has a message to be delivered or a work to be performed that can-
not be attended to otherwise; and the same with departed spirits, they
never return to communicate with the living on the earth, only by permission
