



Produced by Margaret Willden, Mormon Texts Project Intern
(http://mormontextsproject.org/)






TREASURES IN HEAVEN

  FIFTEENTH BOOK OF THE
  FAITH PROMOTING SERIES
  DESIGNED FOR THE INSTRUCTION
  AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF YOUNG
  LATTER-DAY SAINTS

  COMPILED AND PUBLISHED BY
  GEO. C. LAMBERT
  SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
  1914



OFFICIAL SANCTION

    April 8, 1914

    To the First Presidency, City.

    Dear Brethren:

    I have had a desire for a long time past to resume the publication
    of the Faith Promoting Series that I originated and published
    something like thirty-five years ago, but which has been suspended
    for almost thirty years.

    I received the sanction of the Church authorities when the
    publication of this series was commenced, and had ample evidence
    afterwards of the popularity of the volumes issued, and of the
    general benefit resulting therefrom. I now desire your sanction
    in what I may do in publishing additional volumes; and hope to
    subserve the interests of the Church and promote true faith only in
    what I publish.

    If you deem it necessary to appoint a committee to whom I may
    refer any matter concerning which there may be a question as to
    propriety, etc., I shall be glad to have you do so.

    I am prepared to assume all financial responsibility, and believe,
    with the experience I have had, I shall be able to do effective
    work in the selection and preparation of the matter.

    I intend to make the volumes about one hundred pages each, and hope
    to be able to sell them at twenty-five cents per volume.

    I have the matter partially prepared for two volumes, the first to
    relate to Temple work, and to be called "Treasures in Heaven," the
    second to contain a variety of incidents and experiences, and to be
    called "Choice Memories."

    A waiting your kind consideration and reply, and with kindest
    regards, I remain

    Your Brother,

    GEO. C. LAMBERT.


    April 30, 1914

    Elder George C. Lambert, City.

    Dear Brother:

    We learn by yours of the 28th inst. that you desire to resume the
    publication of the "Faith Promoting Series," discontinued some
    thirty years ago, and we take pleasure in informing you that you
    have our sanction to do this, and that we have appointed Elders
    George F. Richards, A. W. Ivins and Joseph F. Smith, Jr. as a
    committee to read the manuscript.

    With kind regards,

    Your Brethren,

    JOSEPH F. SMITH, ANTHON H. LUND, CHARLES W. PENROSE,

    First Presidency.



PREFACE

No lesson taught by the Savior during his ministry in mortality was
more frequently and thoroughly impressed than that of unselfish
service. Of those who labored solely for the things of this world,
or for praise or the honors that men can bestow, He had a habit of
saying: "They have their reward." If they obtained that which they
strove for they were already repaid: they were entitled to nothing
more. Of the rich He said, "Ye have received your consolation." It
was not sufficient that man should seek to benefit or bring happiness
alone to those they loved. Even that He evidently regarded as a species
of selfishness, as implied by the saying: "For if ye love them which
love you, what reward have ye?" "For sinners do even the same." His
exhortation was: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where
moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal;
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal."

All this was not intended to imply that wealth itself was intrinsically
bad, or that poverty had any essential virtue, except as a means to
an end. The rule was, as expressed by the great Teacher, that "where
the treasure is, there will the heart be also." A sublime test upon
this point was that made of the young man who applied to the Savior
upon one occasion to know what good thing he could do to gain eternal
life. Though he was able to say that he had kept all the commandments
from his youth up, it was apparent to the Master that his heart was
set upon the wealth he possessed, as evidence of which he turned away
sorrowfully when required by the Savior to surrender his possessions,
for the benefit of the poor, and follow Him.

The Gospel as revealed anew in our day has shed a flood of light
upon the subject of salvation, and the conditions upon which it is
predicated. The glorious principle of salvation for the dead, as
revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, has awakened a desire in the
hearts of thousands of earnest seekers after truth to do a vicarious
work for the benefit of their dead relatives and friends, that they may
share in all the blessings and privileges of the Gospel. In this work,
as well as in the preaching of the Gospel to the living, have avenues
been opened up for unselfish work, which, as it involves no earthly
reward, is clearly in the line of laying up