I have called attention to those passages to prove that there were some spirits who dwelt with God, so wicked and rebellious, that they had to be cast out of heaven, and became the devil and his angels; as well as some who had developed such nobility of character, that God had set them apart or ordained them to be his rulers. Between these two extremes of good and bad, obedient and rebellious were, I doubt not, all degrees of faithfulness and nobility of conduct; and I hazard the opinion that the amount and kind of development in that pre-existent state influences the character in this life, and brings within reach privileges and blessings commensurate with their faithfulness in the spirit world. Yet, I would not be understood as holding the opinion that those born to wealth and ease, whose lives appear to be an unbroken round of pleasure and happiness, must therefore have been spirits in their first estate that were very highly developed in refinement, and very valiant for God and his Christ. Regarding this present state of existence, where as a sphere man is sent to obtain an experience and further develop the intelligence within him, and obtain a knowledge of good and evil, from seeing them in contrast and contact with each other--I hold that that condition in life which is calculated to give the widest experience to man, is the one most to be desired, and he who obtains it is the most favored of God. One step more in this digression in order that I may state further that I believe it consistent with right reason to say that some of the lowliest walks in life, the paths which lead into the deepest valleys of sorrow and up the most rugged steeps of adversity, are the ones which, if a man travel in, will best accomplish the object of his existence in this world. The stream that leaps over cliffs of rocks, thence goes tumbling down through some canyon's rugged defile, then divides into babbling brooks, now coquetting with the sunbeams or dancing in the sheen of the moon, then stealing into the shade as it meanders through the meadows, and then quickening its speed makes a final rush down a rocky declivity into the ocean--keeps its waters pure; while the stagnant pool is overgrown with sedges; is a place for toads to knot and gender in; breeds miasmata and infests the air with disease germs; its water is impure and it is altogether unlovely and undesirable. So it is with the life of man. The conditions which place men where they may always walk on the unbroken plain of prosperity and seek for nothing but their own pleasure, are not the best within the gift of God. For in such circumstances men soon drop into a position analogous to the stagnant pool; while those who have to contend with difficulties, brave dangers, endure disappointments, struggle with sorrows, eat the bread of adversity and drink the water of affliction; develop a moral and spiritual strength, together with a purity of life