im the sum total of the character he has formed up to that time.
Mortal death does not make a person better or worse; it simply adds to
him one more experience which, no doubt, has a teachable influence on
him. At death, no person is perfect, even though he is a Saint, and
passes into the Paradise of God. There he must continue the process of
eliminating the weaknesses which he did not wholly overcome in
earth-life. Death will not destroy the tendency to tell untruths, or
change the ungovernable temper to one which is under perfect control.
Such transformations are not of instant attainment, but are the result
of long, patient endeavor.

As there are gradations of righteousness and intelligences in the spirit
world, there must be a vast field of usefulness for preaching the
gospel, training the ignorant, and helping the weak. As in the world of
mortality, this work is carried on by those who have accepted the gospel
and who have conformed their lives to its principles; so in the spirit
world, the righteous find pleasant and profitable employment in working
for the salvation of souls.

And as they work they must needs talk of the glories of the great plan
of salvation, made perfect through the atonement of the Lord Jesus. That
which they look forward to most keenly, that about which they talk and
sing most fervently is the time when they also shall follow their Savior
through the door of the resurrection which He has opened for them,--when
their souls shall be perfectly redeemed, and they shall be clothed upon
with a body of the heavenly order, a tabernacle incorruptible and
immortal with which to go on into the celestial world.

Though the future is most glorious to these people, the past is also
bright. The hopes of the future are well grounded on the facts of the
past. An ever-present theme is that of Christ's first visit to the
spirit world, when, having died on the cross, He brought life and light
and immortality to the world of spirits, entering even into the prison
house where the disobedient had lain for a long time, and preached the
gospel to them.

And among these who gloried both in the past and in the future were
Rupert and Henrik. Often they conversed on themes near to their hearts:

"It must have been a place of darkness, of sad despairing hearts, that
prison house, before Christ's visit to it," said Rupert. "There, as in a
pit, dwelt those who in earth-life had rejected the truth, and who,
sinking low