found. In the Pearl of Great Price, are found the writings of Moses and of Abraham, which the world has not received.

What is the duty of all Latter-day Saints in regard to records? Is it necessary for each one individually to keep a daily detailed journal of every trivial event? Certainly not. But it is necessary to keep records of families and to record accurately the dates of births, marriages and deaths, and ordinances and everything that is vital. Moreover every important event in the lives of the Saints should be placed in a record kept by each individually. It would be foolish to record such items as: "Got up in the morning, made the beds, washed the dishes, went to the picture show, came home, went to bed." That would mean nothing. But if an individual has accomplished something worth while during the day it should be journalized at once, it may be of infinite use to posterity. If all the pioneers had only done this it would have been a great help to us today in gathering the records of our dead.

Adam kept genealogy. How glad were the people of Nephi when they received the records of their fathers. Because of that, hundreds of years after Lehi came to the Promised Land, men could rise up and say, “I am a descendant of Nephi, or Jacob, or Zoram."

What is meant by vital records? Vital statistics are the records which contain the dates of births, marriages, and deaths, these being the three great life events of the individual. Other vital statistics in the life of the members of the Church are the dates of blessing, baptism, ordinations and all such matters as pertain to the welfare and benefit of posterity.

Church Vital Records.

Birth into this Church is nearly as vital as birth into this world, and yet small attention is given to it. People come to the Temple to do work who know not when they were baptized and have to guess about it. The records of the Church should not be depended on too

much, for some records may be lost, some may accidently be destroyed.

When the Saints crossed the Mississippi River coming to this land under distressing circumstances, some of the branch records were lost. That is one of the reasons why, when the people came here, President Young instituted re-baptism because people claimed that they were members of the Church and had no records to show for it; yet of course, that was not the only reason. It is the duty of the Church to keep an accurate record of the members of the Church, individually with the statistics of birth, blessing as a child, baptism, ordinations and so on. This obligation upon the Church, however, does not mean that the personal and family records may be neglected. It is equally binding upon individuals to record personal history, both statistical and biographical. Such information may be required at any time and the records of the Church may not be available.

The most important history in the world is the history of our Church and it is the most accurate history in the world. It must be so. It is the most important because that history contains the hand dealings of God, direct to his people through revelation as it has come in the Doctrine and Covenants, in the Book of Mormon and in any revelation that comes through the servants of the Lord for the guidance of the Church. The time is coming when we are going to be judged out of the books that are written. Therefore all should make these records accurate and should be sure of the steps taken. We are going to be judged out of the things written in books, out of the revelations of God, out of the temple records. If we happen to make mistakes there will be that record in Heaven which is a perfect record. In our history, if mistakes occur, we can say as did Moroni in the Book of Mormon, “They are the mistakes of men.”

CHAPTER 21

FAMILY RECORD, INCLUDING FAMILY

HISTORY-JOURNAL

Do You Keep a Journal?

There is no believer in divine revelation but who feels a lively interest in the history of the ancient Apostles and Elders in the Christian church; and as it is through their writings, and the histories of their lives and travels that we become acquainted with the church in the days of Christ; and through the writings of the Prophets that we learn of the things of God, and the movements of his children in times before the Apostles, it has been enjoined on the Elders and officers in the Church of Christ in these last days, to keep a record of their proceedings, or write a history of their travels and labors, so that all the passing events of moment may be gathered in from time to time, so that the generations to come may learn of our doings, and of the work of God in our day, as we have learned concerning those who have gone before us.

We have lived to see the commencement of the dispensation of the fulness of times; the dispensation in which all things shall be gathered in one; the dispensation in which all things, which have been spoken by the mouths of all the holy Prophets since the world began, will be fulfilled, and the secrets of all hearts shall be made manifest; the Lord Jesus be revealed from heaven, with all the host thereof; and the judgments of the Most High desolate the nations, while Zion and Jerusalem shall again flourish upon the mountains; consequently, we have abundant reason to believe that a history of our day, of the dispensation in which we live, will be one of the most interesting that ever was, or ever will be penned. In this, the latest generations may learn of the fulfilment of the prophecies of the ancient Prophets, even as we learn of their prophecies by their histories; and if the

prophecy itself be glorious how much more the fulfillment thereof?

No one need suppose that after the work is completed, the dispensation ended, (if it were possible to have an end), that God will give a special revelation and history of what has passed, to some particular one of his many servants; so that all may remain idle in this matter, and thus leave all the work to God, for this is not his method of doing business; but God gives special revelations to man, by which he makes known to us those things which we otherwise have not the means of knowing; and he will no more give a special revelation of those things which are daily passing before us, and which we can write at our leisure, than he will cause the corn of that sluggard to grow who is too lazy to plant it. How, then, shall our posterity procure our history?

Let all the Elders remember the preface to Luke's gospel, and inasmuch as they also have a "perfect understanding" of those things which are daily occurring in their midst, let them write them as he did, and then bye and bye, when the Lord wills, there will be very little difficulty in collecting the histories of the different Elders, and of compiling them in one, thus forming a more full and explicit history of the Church in the last days than we have of the days of Christ and the Apostles. The gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the histories of their lives, and of the things which they saw and heard, and of events which they were familiar with in their day; also, the Acts of the Apostles is a history of the Apostles; and this is the kind of history that we desire should be preparing concerning the servants and the work of God, at the present time.

We are aware there are many now in England, who find little time to write, and for this reason, we have enjoined it upon them from time to time, as we have had opportunity, to keep a journal, or daily write a word or two, by which they may refresh their memories, until the Holy Ghost shall bring all things to their remembrance, or they may find leisure to pen their histories in full;

and of such we would inquire, do you keep a Journal? If so, well-and you will have your reward; and if not, we would again enjoin it upon you, and upon all who have not before heard the admonition, to commence forthwith to keep a Journal, or write a history; and see to it that what you write is strictly true and unexaggerated; so that in the end, all may know of all things concerning this last work, and all knowledge may flow together from the four quarters of the earth, when the Lord shall make his appearing, and we all may be ready to give a full account of our mission, our ministry and stewardship, and receive the welcome tidings, "Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Editorial, Millennial Star, Vol. I, Page 159, 1841.

The idea has frequently crossed my mind, that were the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ in this age to keep a journal of their travels and ministry, and record all the healings and miracles they had witnessed from time to time, that should their separate journals be afterwards collected together and published in a volume, I am inclined to believe that a far greater number of manifest displays of the power of God would be therein recorded than is found in the journals of the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ in the early ages, at least so far as they are faithfully handed down to us in the New Testament Scriptures. Documentary History of the Church, page 186, Vol. 6.

When the Prophet Joseph organized the Quorum of the Twelve he counseled them to keep a history of their lives, and gave his reasons why they should do so. From Wilford Woodruff's Journal (1872).

Family History-Journal.

From the above it is plain that it is the duty of every Latter-day Saint to keep an accurate account of the important events in his life's history, and when we become parents in Zion it is a sacred obligation imposed upon us by the Lord to see that these events are faithfully