How many of us are familiar with the names James Covill, Jesse Gause, and Merrill Buckley?

James Covill was the subject of two sections in Doctrine and Covenants.  He “covenanted with the Lord that he would obey any command that the Lord would give him through Joseph the Prophet.”  (Heading, D&C 39).  The Lord told him in Section 39 that “thine heart is now right before me at this time; and, behold, I have bestowed great blessings upon thy head;…the days of thy deliverance are come,…and you shall receive my Spirit, and a blessing so great as you never have known…I have prepared thee for a greater work.  Thou shalt preach the fullness of my gospel…And it shall come to pass that power shall rest upon thee; thou shalt have great faith, and I will be with thee and go before thy face.  Thou art called to labor in my vineyard…And…it shall come to pass that on as many as ye shall baptize with water, ye shall lay your hands, and they shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”  (D&C 39:8-23).

What a marvelous set of blessings; yet the very next section given just days later says, “Behold, verily I say unto you, that the heart of my servant James Covill was right before me, for he covenanted with me that he would obey my word.  And he received the word with gladness, but straightway Satan tempted him; and the fear of persecution and the cares of the world caused him to reject the word.  Wherefore he broke my covenant, and it remaineth with me to do with him as seemeth me good.”  (D&C 40:1-3).

What a tragedy.

Jesse Gause should be a name that every Latter-day Saint would recognize.  When the First Presidency was first organized in 1832 Jesse Gause was called to be a counselor to the prophet Joseph Smith along with SidneyRigdon.  That was in March.  He functioned in his calling through the spring and into the summer.  He left on a mission to which he was called, and walked right out of the Church and right out of history.  That was in August.  In December he was dropped from the Church.  No one knows where he went or what happened to him.  He, too, walked away from his blessings, his covenants, and his opportunities.

Merrill Buckley was a young man who was my friend in the military over 40 years ago.  I had the privilege of baptizing him.  He embraced the gospel with enthusiasm.  I went with him as he received his patriarchal blessing.  My memory of that event is that the blessing said that his name would be known throughout the Church.  Such a remarkable statement is not something that I could either make up or forget.  I watched to see how the prophecy would unfold.  I mourned when Merrill went to Vietnam, resumed smoking, dropped out of Church activity, and then dropped out of my life.  I lost contact with him for over twenty-five years.

One day he called me.  I was overjoyed to hear from him.  Contact was reestablished.  He made two trips to Oregon to see me.  He resumed attending church.  I told him that when he made himself ready, I’d fly back East and take him to the temple.  He tried, but couldn’t rekindle his old enthusiasm for the gospel.  His marriage and his health failed, and he passed away without making it back into full Church activity.

Who and what might Merrill have become—or Jesse Gause, or James Covill?  Jesus was approached by a rich young man who asked what he must do to have eternal life.  Jesus told him to give his riches to the poor, “and come and follow me.”  (Matt. 19:21).  “Come, follow me” are the same words of invitation that He gave to Peter, Andrew, James and John.  Had the rich young man accepted the Lord’s invitation we might know his name today.  Instead he is anonymous and forgotten.

Jesse Gause is an asterisk and a footnote to history.  James Covill is forgotten except to serve as a lesson and a reminder to the rest of us that those who walk away from their covenants walk away from their blessings and from eternal life.

How do these brethren feel now about their failure to be faithful?  They’ve each passed to the other side, and I must suppose that none of them qualified for paradise, but are instead in spirit prison where they’re subject to the buffetings of Satan.

If we fail to implement the Atonement in our lives, Jesus’ sacrifice has no effect upon us except to eventually bring us to resurrection.  (Mosiah 16:5, Alma 11:41, 12:18, 34:16, Moroni 7:38).  Such people will have to pay for their own sins.  Jesus says that their sufferings will be sore, “how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.”  (D&C 19:15-20).

Spirit prison and the buffetings of Satan are hell, and will be experienced by all who go there.  It will be a temporary layover—short or long—for all who will eventually find themselves inheriting the telestial kingdom.  The best description of hell (and deliverance there from) that I know of is the things Alma experienced during the three days that he spent in a comatose condition after his interview with the angel.  He says:

“And it came to pass that I fell to the earth; and it was for the space of three days and three nights that I could not open my mouth, neither had I the use of my limbs.

“And the angel spake more things unto me, which were heard by my brethren, but I did not hear them; for when I heard the words—If thou wilt be destroyed of thyself, seek no more to destroy the church of God—I was struck with such great fear and amazement lest perhaps I should be destroyed, that I fell to the earth, and I did hear no more.

“But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins.

“Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments.

“Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction; yea, and in fine so great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.

“Oh, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds.

“And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.

“And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.

“Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart:  O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.

“And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

“And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!”  (Alma 36:10-20).

Alma described his experience with the most superlative words he could find—words like racked, harrowed, torment, great fear, amazement, greatest degree, inexpressible horror, and exceeding.  He was lucky.  He got to experience these things on this side of the veil, and only for three days; and could conclude his account with another superlative statement:  “Yea, I say unto you…that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains.  Yea, and again I say unto you…that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.”  (Alma 36:21).

Now is the time to repent, and now is the time to keep our covenants.  Now is the time to take hold of our opportunities and to endure to the end.  I have no desire to experience what Alma experienced—even for just three days.

I suspect that the pains of hell are not going to be the pains we’d experience if we were standing in the midst of a never-ending fire; but rather, they’ll be a mental torment of equal magnitude caused by our knowledge of missed opportunity.

 

We’re in a telestial world now.  Conditions in the telestial kingdom will be much better than what we experience here; but how will we feel living “separately and singly, without exaltation, in (our) saved condition, to all eternity?”  (D&C 132:17).  How will we feel being without roots or branches (ancestors or posterity), as stated by Malachi?  (Malachi 4:1).  Nephi said that “their root shall be rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up as dust.”  (2 Nephi 15:24).  Doctrine and Covenants says, “Neither is their genealogy to be kept, or to be had where it may be found on any of the records or history of the church.  Their names shall not be found, neither the names of the fathers, nor the names of the children written in the book of the law of God, saith the Lord of Hosts.”  (D&C 85:4, 5).  This is hell.  This is missed opportunity.

 

—12 May 2012