Tomorrow morning I will be speaking at the funeral of the daughter of some good friends of mine whom I have known for many years.  She passed away in her early forties.  These are sobering moments...sometimes very difficult but without a doubt...sobering....meaning they make us think and re-evaluate and consider what we believe and what is important to us.  We consider our our mortal condition and whether we feel at all "prepared" for the next step which awaits us beyond the momentous occasion which we call death.  With that in mind I would like to share a few thoughts...........

Sir Walter Scott once wrote... "Is death the last sleep?  No---it is the last and final awakening."

Brigham Young, second President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said... "There is no period known to them (the dead) in which they experience so much joy as when they pass through the portals of death, and enter upon the glorious change of the spirit world."

Benjamin Franklin wrote his own epitaph....
"The body of Benjamin Franklin (like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and stript of its lettering and gilding) lies here....Yet the work itself shall not be lost, for it will appear once more, in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author."

And Victor Hugo.... "The nearer I approach the end, the clearer I hear around me the immortal symphonies of the worlds which invite me.  It is marvelous yet simple.  For half a century I have been writing my thoughts in prose, verse, history, drama, romance, tradition, satire, ode and song---I have tried all; but I feel that I have not said a thousandth part of that which is in me.  When I go down to the grave I fan say like many others, 'I have finished my day's work..but I cannot say I have finished my life's work' ; my day's work will begin the next morning.  The tomb is not a blind alley.  It is an open thoroughfare.  It closes in the twilight to open in the dawn. My work is only beginning; my work is hardly above its foundation. I would gladly see it mounting forever.  The thirst for the infinite proves infinity."

"Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.
And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow."
Alma 40: 11-12

DEATH IS REALLY BIRTH...ONE DOOR CLOSES..ANOTHER OPENS.

From the New Testament... "And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
But they were terrified and affrighted, ans supposed that they had seen a spirit.
And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled?  And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have....
Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day."  Luke 24: 36-40, 46

So, tomorrow during the funeral services of my young friend... I hope to be able to communicate some of the light and understanding of these teachings which help us comprehend that our eternal journey goes far beyond the number of years we live on this earth.  Jim