“President Smith read the 14th. chapter of Revelations and said, we have again the warning voice sounded in our midst which shows the uncertainty of human life; and in my leisure moments I have meditated upon the subject, and asked the question, Why it is that infants, innocent children are taken away from us? especially those that seem to be the most intelligent and interesting? and the strongest reasons that present themselves to my mind are these:— This world is a very wicked world; and it is a proverb that the “world grows weaker and wiser” if it is the case, the world grows more wicked and corrupt. In the early ages of the world, a righteous man, and a man of God, and of intelligence, had a better chance to do good, to be believed and received, than at the present day; but in these days such a man is much opposed and persecuted by most of the inhabitants of the Earth; and he has much sorrow to pass through here, the Lord takes many away even in infancy that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore if rightly considered instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again. What chance is there for infidelity when we are parting with our friends almost daily? None at all. The infidel will grasp at every straw for help until death stares him in the face, and then his infidelity takes its flight, for the realities of the Eternal world are resting upon him in mighty power; and when every earthly support and prop fails him, he [HC 4:553] then sensibly feels the eternal truths of the immortality of the soul. We should take warning and not wait for the death bed to repent, as we see the infant taken away by death, so may the youth and middle aged; as well as the infant be suddenly called into eternity. Let this then prove as a warning to all, not to procrastinate repentance, or wait till a death bed; for it is the will of God that man should [p. 1295]