Are husbands and wives to be separated, and the mutual claims of parents and children to be nullified by the grave? If so, then surely the sting of death and the victory of the grave are enduring verities; for the dead would be lost to us and we to them. Such a conception affords ample explanation of the prevalence of black at funerals. The sombre pall and sable trappings are all in place if bereavement on earth means everlasting separation. The dread assumption--let us not say belief, for who does not hope that a brighter destiny awaits us?--has been fostered by custom and ignorance, and even taught as doctrine by substituting the precepts of men for the word of God. It is embodied in the marriage ceremony, wherein the officiating minister, addressing the principals at the moment of their supreme concern, says: I join you in the bonds of matrimony until death does you part. How like the thud of clods upon the casket in an open grave! Must we tolerate the shadow of death as an intruding guest at every wedding? Verily so, if marriage be nothing more than an earthly contract, regulated by law solely as a human institution; for no legislature, congress, or parliament of men, no synod, church, council, or ecclesiastical hierarchy of human origination, can legislate or administer ordinances of other than earthly validity. To claim jurisdiction in post-mortal affairs on the basis of human assumption is both sacrilege and blasphemy. The current marriage ceremony, uniting the parties until death does them part, is framed in consistency and propriety. As an institution of men it is honorable and legally binding. And so are all the obligations and endowments resulting therefrom, including the exalting status of parenthood. But all such relationships are to end with death if validated only by man's authority. Can we consistently affirm that if the grave terminates the claim of parents upon each other it shall not likewise end the claim of parents upon children, and of children upon parents? But behold, there is hope! God has provided a way by which the family unit may survive the grave and endure throughout eternity. It is the Divine intent that marriage be an eternal union, and that the relationship between parents and offspring shall be made valid in the hereafter as here. We affirm that the Holy Priesthood has been restored to earth by direct dispensation from the heavens, and this in accordance with prophecy and Scripture, and that the authority of this Priesthood, when administered as God has directed, is effective both on earth and in heaven. (Compare Matt. 16:19; 18:18.)