The philosophers of the world, in accounting for character, have laid, I believe, too much stress upon the influence of parentage and of environment. There are those who believe that if you will only surround the child with the proper influence you may mould and fashion it to what you will. There are others who believe that if you only give to a child good parentage it will inherit all good qualities; not infrequently it is a solution to the difficulty of getting rid of vicious characters. For myself I believe that character primarily is based upon the nature of the spirit, the extent of its development, the amount of growth it had before it tabernacled in the flesh; and that parentage, instead of creating character, can only modify it. Hence, you sometimes see this strange thing, that in spite of vicious parentage, in spite of unfavorable environment, you see a character rising to its own native heights of nobility and grandeur, purely because the spirit before it came here had stamped upon it God’s own nobility, and no amount of influence coming from vicious parentage or from unfavorable environment could altogether crush out the native nobility of that spirit; but it sprung upward, took its place in the earth, and became a benefactor to the children of men. . . .

Now take a broader view of mankind, and this principle about which we have been singing—the pre-existence of man’s spirit—will explain many other things. We see individuals and families and races among mankind enjoying a variety of privileges. All seem not to be equal in our privileges in this life. Nations are not all equal in the privileges and blessings they enjoy. What is the cause of it? I lay it down as a primary principle that God is just. The Scriptures are replete with emphatic statements that He is no respecter of persons. That being true, how do you account for the diversity that exists among mankind in the matter of privileges and blessings—privileges and blessing, too, that come to them or are denied to them from nothing that we can point to that they have done in this life, and many speak of these matters as the result of the accident of birth? What I mean is this: There are some men who are born in circumstances and of a race to whom there is no limit of privileges in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They may repent of their sins, be baptized for the remission of them, have hands laid upon them for the reception of the Holy Ghost, receive the Priesthood, have access to the temples of God, receive washings, anointing, ordinations, and promises of exaltation and glory to which there is no limit. But you can turn your eyes to a race inhabiting Africa—the negro race. While it is true they are blessed with the privileges of the Gospel, you find them curtailed in the rights of the Holy Priesthood—they cannot receive it. Let us say that these two cases mark the two extremes. Between these two extremes there is an endless variety of opportunities and privileges. Why is the Priesthood granted to one race and denied to another? Why is there in the one case no limit to progress and exaltation, and in the other case there are limits placed? Remember, we must keep in view the fact that God is just, and no respecter of persons. Then how do you reconcile this fact I have pointed out with the justice of God? I reconcile it by the knowledge which comes to us through the doctrine of the pre-existence of man’s spirit, and I believe that conditions in this life are influenced and fixed by the degree of faithfulness, by the degree of development in the pre-existent state. Otherwise the diversified conditions in which men find themselves placed cannot be reconciled with the justice of God. Then how blessed, indeed, some one will exclaim, must they be who are born to riches, who were born to titles, to dukedoms, earldoms, and lordships! How faithful must they have been who inherit these privileges and blessings! whose life is one continual summer, whose existence is as a sea without a ripple! Nay, I pray you, take no such view of it as that. This class that I have described are not the most blessed among men. When you would point to those who are the favored sons of God, and who enjoy the best and highest privileges in this life, you must take into account the object for which man came here. That object is to gain an experience. Hence, those are the most blessed who live in the midst of conditions that give the widest experience. The favored sons of God are not those furthest removed from trial, from sorrow, from affliction. It is the fate, apparently, of those whom God most loves that they suffer most, that they might gain the experience for which men came into this world. It is not the smooth seas and the favorable winds that make your best sea-men. It is experience in stormy weather; it is the ocean lashed into a fury by the winds, until the fretted waves roll mountain high and make the “laboring bark climb hills of sea and duck again and again, as low as hell is from heaven.” It is when the lightning splits the clouds, when the masts are splintered, when the ropes are tangled, and all is confusion, that the sailor learns to control his fear and stand unmoved and calm in the midst of the threatening difficulties about him. Those are the experiences that make good sailors. And so the sorrows, the afflictions, the trials, the poverty, the imprisonment, the mobbings, the hatred of mankind, are experiences that furnish men an opportunity to prove whether or not the material is in them to outride the storms of life, prove their right and title to that exaltation and glory which God has in reserve for the faithful. You cannot fully comprehend this subject as to the past unless you contemplate it in the relationship it bears to the future. But before taking up that theme I want to call your attention to the proof for the statement I just made to the effect that God’s favored sons are called to pass through affliction. When the Prophet Joseph Smith was confined in Liberty jail, Clay County, Missouri, and the Church was driven in a body from the state, he himself and a number of his brethren having been betrayed into the hands of his enemies, and cast into prison—after lying in a dungeon for five weary months, while his people were being smitten and driven, scattered and robbed, very naturally he inquired after the Lord, in the midst of his sore trial, and the Lord in reply to him said:

If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or sea; If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother, and brethren, and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if he then shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb; And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all; art thou greater than He?

I take it that the life of Jesus Christ and these His words to the Prophet demonstrate the truth for which I was contending, that not those furthest removed from trials and afflictions are most blessed; but those who are called to pass through the thickest of afflictions are the most blessed; for the Son of Man hath passed through them all. O ye who are bowed down with sorrow, ye who are tried with adversity, torn perhaps from comfort and affluence to be plunged into perplexities and perchance into poverty, lift up your heads, I beseech you, and rejoice, for these things shall but minister to your experience! Do not regard them as judgments of God; they are not so in every case, I am sure; but look upon them as giving you an opportunity to develop your own nobility of character; as giving you an opportunity to stand the test, and prove yourselves worthy of the glory God intends to bestow upon the faithful.