Passing on in the journal of Wilford Woodruff we find recorded the synopsis of a discourse by the Prophet Joseph on death, {161} the resurrection, and baptism. "We have," says the Prophet, "the warning voice again sounded in our midst, a voice which heralds the uncertainty of human life. In my leisure moments I have meditated and asked the question: Why is it that innocent children are taken away from us, especially those who seem to be the most intelligent? This world is a very wicked world, and it is a proverb that it grows weaker and wiser. If so it becomes more corrupt. In the early ages of the world the righteous man, the man of God and of intelligence had a better opportunity to do good, to be received and believed than at the present day. In these days such a man is opposed and persecuted by most of the inhabitants of the earth and has to pass through much sorrow, hence the Lord takes away many in infancy that they may escape the envy of man and escape the sorrows and evils of the world. They are too pure and too lovely to live on the earth; therefore, if rightly considered, we have reason to rejoice instead of mourning, as their death is their deliverance from evil and we shall soon have them again. "What chance is there for infidelity when we are parting daily with our friends? There is none at all. The infidel will grasp at every straw for help until death stares him in the face and then his infidelity takes flight; for the realities of the eternal world are resting in mighty power upon him. When every earthly support fails him, he sensibly feels the eternal truths of the immortality of the soul. "Respecting the doctrine of baptism, or sprinkling of children, in order that they may not be consigned to hell I wish to say, it is not true, nor is it supported by Holy Writ. It is not consistent with the character of God. The moment children leave this world they are taken into Abraham's bosom. The only difference between the old and young in death is that one lives longer in heaven and in eternal light and glory than the other and was freed a little earlier from this wicked world. Notwithstanding all this glory we for a moment lose sight of it and mourn our loss, but we mourn not as those without hope.