great and glorious purposes concerning His children. This is the Gospel of Christ as we understand it. Now contrast that, my dear friends, for a moment, with the religion that is commonly taught in the Christian world by people who say that we are illiberal. What do they tell us? "If you do not believe in Jesus Christ while you dwell in the flesh, when you die you will go to hell." What is hell? "It is a place of burning torment, where you will welter in misery so great that no tongue can tell it, forever and forever, and there will be no end to it." And some of them will tell you that God, before the foundations of the earth, in the very {75} beginning, chose a few out of the rubbish of nature to be saved and exalted to His divine glory, and the rest were doomed to everlasting condemnation and ceaseless misery in flames and torment with the devil and his angels. Which is the more liberal doctrine of the two? "Everlasting Punishment." But what about this "everlasting punishment?" Does not the Bible teach everlasting punishment? Yes. If I had time I would read something from Section 19 of this Book of Doctrine and Covenants in regard to that; but I will briefly allude to it. The Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that "eternal punishment is God's punishment," because God is eternal. The meaning of that is this: An eternal Being, having eternal laws, has also eternal penalties; and those who will not obey the laws must suffer the penalties. The penalty will abide forever, because it is eternal; but a man will not suffer it forever. Each individual will receive of that punishment that which eternal justice will mark out as his due. To illustrate it in a simple way: Here we have a penitentiary. Some men go in there for six months and when their time expires they come out; but the penitentiary still abides. It is there for all transgressors. Men go in there for a year, or two years, as the case may be, and when they have served their term they come out; but the penitentiary still remains. So with the judgments of our Eternal Father. He is endless, eternal; His laws are eternal. His punishment is eternal. But He is just, and He will give to all who disobey His laws just that meed of eternal punishment which they ought to have, and no more. They will be judged "according to their works." If they are worthy of but few stripes, they will not have many; if they are worthy of many, they will not get off with a few. If they ought to pay "the uttermost farthing" without being forgiven, they will have to pay it. If there are circumstances in their case which warrant forgiveness after a certain amount of punishment, the Lord will forgive them and deliver them. Work in the Spirit World.