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Show 358 TEAVELS AND ADVENTUEES IN THE FAE WEST. Father of our spirits, and that when we go back into His presence, we shall know Him, as we have known our earthly parents. We are taught to approach Him as we would an earthly parent, to ask of Him such blessings as we need ; and He has said, " If a son ask bread of his father shall he give him a stone, or if he ask for fish, a scorpion ? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give His holy Spirit to them that ask Him." We have a Father, then, who is in heaven. He has placed us on this earth for some purpose. We found ourselves in posession of bodies, mental faculties, and reasoning powers. In a word, we found ourselves intelligent beings, with minds capable of recalling the past and launching into the unborn future with lightning speed ; and were it not for this earthly tabernacle, this tenement of clay, they would soar aloft and contemplate the unveiled purposes of Jehovah in the mansions of the redeemed. We found ourselves here with minds capable of all this and more. God, who has ordained all things from before the foundation of the world, is our Father. He placed us here to fulfill His wise and unerring counsels, that we might magnify our calling, honor our God, obtain an exaltation, and be placed in a more glorious, exalted and dignified position than it would have been possible for us to enjoy if we had never taken upon us these bodies. This is my faith ; it is the faith of this people. I have no complaints to make about our father Adam eating the forbidden fruit, as some have, for I do not know but any of us would have done the same. I find myself here in the midst of the creatures of God, and |