Premature Death

Spencer W. Kimball

Just as Ecclesiastes (3:2) says, I am confident that there is a time to die, but I believe also that many people die before “their time” because they are careless, abuse their bodies, take unnecessary chances, or expose themselves to hazards, accidents, and sickness.

Of the antediluvians, we read: “Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood.” (Job 22:15-16.)In Ecclesiastes 7:17 we find this statement: “Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?” I believe we may die prematurely but seldom exceed our time very much. . . . . God controls our lives, guides and blesses us, but gives us our agency. We may live our lives in accordance with his plan for us or we may foolishly shorten or terminate them. (Faith Precedes the Miracle, 104; emphasis added)

Joseph Smith

The Speaker read the 14ch Revelations. And sayes "we have again the warning voice sounded in our midst which shows the uncertainty of human life. And in my leasure moments I have meditated upon the subject, & asked the question Why is it that infants innocent children are taken away from us esspecially those that seem to be most intelligent beings" Answer "This world is a vary wicked world & it is a proverb that the world grows weaker & wiser; but if it is the case the world grows more wicked & corrupt. In the early ages of the world A ritheous man & a man of God & intelligence had a better chance to do good to be received & believed than at the present day. but in these days such a man is much opposed & persecuted by most of the inhabitants of the earth & he has much sorrow to pass through, hence the Lord takes many away even in infancy that they may escape the envy of man. The sorrows & evils of this present world & they were two pure & to lovly to live on Earth, Therefore if rightly considered wo have, instead of morning we have reason to rejoice, as they are deliverd from evil & we shall soon have them again. (The Words of Joseph Smith, 106 (20 March 1842, Wilford Woodruff Journal) emphasis added)