Footnotes 1. Key to Theology. Chapt. 14. 2. Gen. 2:4, 5. 3. Moses 3:5, 7. 4. D. & C. 88:15; Moses 3:9. 5. Hist. Ch. Vol. 6, p. 52. 6. Ib. Vol. 5, p. 425. 7. Luke 23:43. 8. Hist. Ch. Vol. 5, pp. 424, 425. 9. Rev. 20:12, 13. 10. D. & C. 76. 11. John 14:2, 3. 12. Alma 40:11-14. 13. 1 Peter 3:18-20. 14. Gospel Doctrine, pp. 596-601. 15. Compare 3 Nephi 15:21-24; D. & C. 76:112. ARTICLE THIRTY-EIGHT. Spirit Promptings Spirit Memories.--Writing one day upon the subject of spirit memories, and the influence exerted upon the affairs of this life by the awakened recollections of a former experience, I found myself indulging in the following reflections: Why are we drawn toward certain persons, and they toward us, independently of any known previous acquaintance? Is it a fact, or only a fancy, that we and they were mutually acquainted and mutually attracted in some earlier period of our eternal existence? Is there something, after all, in that much abused term "affinity," and is this the basis of its claim? More than once, after meeting someone whom I had never met before on earth, I have wondered why his or her face seemed so familiar. Many times, upon hearing a noble sentiment expressed, though unable to recall having heard it until then, I have been thrilled by it, and felt as if I had always known it. The same is true of music, some strains of which are like echoes from afar, sounds falling from celestial heights, notes struck from the vibrant harps of eternity. I do not assert pre-acquaintance in all such cases, but as one thought suggests another, these queries arise in the mind. The Shepherd's Voice.--When it comes to the Gospel, I feel more positive. Why did the Savior say: "My sheep know my voice?" Can a sheep know the voice of its shepherd, if it has never heard that voice before? They who love Truth, and to whom it appeals most powerfully, were they not its best friends in a previous state of existence? I think so. I believe that we knew the Gospel before we came here, and it is this knowledge, this acquaintance, that gives to it a familiar sound. Very much in the same vein, I once wrote to President Joseph F. Smith--he at the time in Utah, and I on a mission in Europe. Here is his reply: President Smith's View.--"I heartily endorse your sentiments respecting congeniality of spirits. Our knowledge of persons and things before we came here, combined with the divinity awakened within our souls through obedience to the gospel, powerfully affects, in my opinion, all our likes and dislikes, and guides our preferences in the course of this life, provided we give careful heed to the admonitions of the Spirit.