{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_35360/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_35360","id":"gutenberg_35360","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35360","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - American","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Latter Day Saint churches -- Apologetic works","Latter Day Saints","Smith, Joseph, Jr., 1805-1844"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by the Mormon Texts Project,\nhttp://bencrowder.net/books/mtp. Volunteers: Ben Crowder,\nMeridith Crowder, Tod Robbins.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJOSEPH SMITH\n\nTHE\n\nPROPHET-TEACHER\n\n\nA DISCOURSE\n\nBY\n\nELDER B. H. ROBERTS\n\n\nTHE DESERET NEWS\n\nSALT LAKE CITY, UTAH\n\n1908\n\n\n\n\nCopyright, 1908.\nBy B. H. Roberts.\n\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS.\n\nI.\nA GREAT POSSIBILITY.\n\nII.\nHISTORICAL AMERICANS.\n\nIII.\nWHAT IS A PROPHET?\n\nIV.\nRELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL BELIEFS OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.\n\n    Revelation.\n    Ideas of Deity.\n    Of the Universe.\n    Of Man.\n    Man and His Salvation.\n    Of the Significance of Salvation and Damnation.\n\nV.\nTHE PROPHET'S CORRECTION OF SECTARIAN ERRORS.\n\n    The Doctrine of Revelation.\n    The Being and Kind of Being God Is.\n    Creation, the Law of Substance.\n    Of Man's Origin.\n    Election and Reprobation.\n\nVI.\nTHE PROPHET'S PHILOSOPHICAL DOCTRINES.\n\n    The Prophet's Definition of Truth.\n    As to Things--Existences.\n    The Reign of Law.\n    Change and Its Tendency.\n    The Existence of Good and Evil.\n    The Intelligent Entity.\n    The Relationship of Intelligences.\n    Man's Freedom.\n    Eternity of Relations.\n\nVII.\nTHE PROPHET'S GENERALIZATIONS.\n\nVIII.\nAN AMERICAN PROPHET.\n\n    America the Old World.\n    The Constitution of the United States Inspired of God.\n    America Fortified of God Against Other Nations.\n\n\n\n\nDEDICATION.\n\nTO MY MOTHER, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF HER EIGHTY-SECOND BIRTHDAY,\nDECEMBER 18, 1908.\n\nFor a long time, my Dear Mother, I have desired to couple remembrance\nof you with some of my works; and finally have chosen this Discourse\nupon our great Prophet-Teacher to carry with it that distinction. To\nall who read this Discourse, then, I desire to say that I love and\nhonor you; and that your love for me has ever been an inspiration to\nmy work.\n\n\n\n\nJOSEPH SMITH\nTHE\nPROPHET-TEACHER\n\nA Discourse[A]\n\n[Footnote A: This discourse was delivered at the Tabernacle, Salt Lake\nCity, on Sunday, December 22nd, 1907, at a Memorial Service held in\nhonor of the one hundred and second anniversary of the Prophet's\nbirth, 23rd December 1805.]\n\n---\n\nTomorrow will be the one hundred and second anniversary of the birth\nof Joseph Smith, whom most of you here present believe was a Prophet\nof God. I have been invited to say something about him on this\noccasion. It is not at all my intention to deal with the incidents of\nJoseph Smith's eventful life; these are familiar to you. If I could\nattain the full desire of my heart, I would like to set before you\nsomewhat the value of this man as a teacher of great truths. I desire\nto speak of him as a Prophet-Teacher, that is, as a Prophet acting in\nhis capacity of Teacher, a Prophet's highest and noblest office.\n\nAs an introduction to what I desire to say, I shall read a passage\nfrom a book quite famous for its literary merit--it has reached its\nninth edition; also it is famous for the character sketches of\nprominent Americans of the early decades of the nineteenth century.\nThe book, \"Figures of the Past,\" was written by Josiah Quincy of the\nfamous Quincy family of Massachusetts, a graduate of Harvard, 1821;\nmayor of Boston from 1845 to 1849. Mr. Quincy visited Nauvoo in May,\n1844, forty-three days previous to the martyrdom of the Prophet, and\nthough his \"Figures of the Past\" was not published until 1882, the\nyear of his death, yet his recollections of the Prophet and his\nimpressions of Nauvoo were drawn from his journal, written at the time\nof that visit, and numerous letters written to his friends about the\nsame period. Mr. Quincy places his pen-portrait of \"Joseph Smith at\nNauvoo\" with similar portraits of such eminent Americans as John\nAdams, Daniel Webster, John Randolph, Andrew Jackson, and the French\nsoldier and statesman, Lafayette. The passage I am going to read is\nthe opening paragraph of the chapter on \"Joseph Smith at Nauvoo.\"\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\nA GREAT POSSIBILITY.\n\n\n    \"It is by no means improbable that some future text-book, for the\n    use of generations yet unborn, will contain a question something\n    like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has\n    exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his\n    countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to\n    that interrogatory may be thus written: Joseph Smith, the Mormon\n    Prophet. And the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most men\n    now living, may be an obvious commonplace to their descendants.\n    History deals in surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as\n    this. The man who established a religion in this age of free\n    debate, who was and is today accepted by hundreds of thousands as\n    a direct emissary from the Most High--such a rare human being is\n    not to be disposed of by pelting his memory with unsavory\n    epithets.\"\n\nReading that passage a few days ago, I asked the question: Is this\nrather remarkable semi-prediction of Quincy's in the way of\nfulfillment? Tomorrow will be the one hundred and second anniversary\nof our Prophet's birth. It is more than one hundred years since he\ncame to earth, and sixty-three years since he departed from it. What\nevidence is there before the world that would lead any serious-minded\nperson to believe that this prediction I have read in your hearing may\nfind fulfillment? \"Certainly,\" men will begin to say, \"enough time has\nelapsed to develop the character of your Prophet's work; whether he\nbuilt of wood, hay, stubble, or of gold or precious stones. Is his\ninfluence to be merely transient and local or did he really deal with\nsome universal and permanent truths that must remain to influence\nmankind?\"\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\nHISTORICAL AMERICANS.\n\n\nAs introductory to these considerations, let us think about some of\nthese historical Americans whose influence upon their countrymen is to\nbe eclipsed, perhaps, by the \"Mormon Prophet.\" Among our patriots and\nstatesmen will be remembered Patrick Henry, with his doctrine of the\ninherent right of revolution against intolerable oppression;\nJefferson, and his \"Declaration of Independence\" and the \"Statute of\nVirginia for Religious Freedom,\" the principle of which finally found\nits way into our national and state Constitutions; Alexander Hamilton\nand his political interpretation of the constitutional powers of our\ngeneral government; Webster and his doctrine of the sacredness of the\nAmerican Union of States--the statesman of nationalism; Monroe, with\nthe doctrine which bears his name, politically segregating the\nAmerican continents from Europe, and dedicating the western world to\nfree institutions; Lincoln, with his doctrine of the rightfulness of\npersonal freedom for every man, woman and child of Adam's race--the\ndoctrine of the universal application of the self-evident principles\nof the Declaration of Independence--the right of men to live, to be\nfree, to pursue happiness--principles he invoked in behalf of the\nAfrican race in the United States. Among inventors will be remembered\nFulton, Whitney, Morse and Edison; among the philosophers, practical\nand speculative, Franklin, Emerson and John Fiske; among the poets,\nLongfellow, Poe, Whitman, and Lowell; among the preachers and\ntheologians, Jonathan Edwards and his cruel orthodoxy; Wm. E. Channing\nand his Unitarian liberalism; Henry Ward Beecher and his successor,\nLyman Abbott, with their efforts at reconciliation of Christianity and\nevolution.\n\nThis enumeration does not exhaust the list of historical Americans who\nhave powerfully influenced their countrymen, but it will not be\ndoubted that they represent the very chief of the respective groups\nthat have so influenced their countrymen.\n\nThinking of the achievements of these great Americans, and weighing\nthe influence of each upon his countrymen, do you not really think,\neven with Josiah Quincy on our side, it looks presumptuous in us to\nhold that Joseph Smith may yet exert a greater influence over his\ncountrymen than any one of these, his compatriots? That is the\nquestion I propose to put on trial here this afternoon.\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nWHAT IS A PROPHET?\n\n\nFirst of all, a word of definition: This term \"prophet\"--what do you\nmake of it? Generally, when you speak of a \"prophet,\" you have in mind\na predictor of future events, one who foretells things that are to\ncome to pass, and indeed that is, in part, the office of a prophet--in\npart what is expected of him. But really this is the very least of his\nduties. A prophet should be a \"forth-teller\" rather than a\nfore-teller. Primarily he must be a teacher of men, an expounder of\nthe things of God. The inspiration of the Almighty must give him\nunderstanding, and when given he must expound it to his people, to his\nage. He must be a Seer that can make others see. A Teacher sent of God\nto instruct a people--to enlighten an age. This is the primary office\nof a prophet. And now I want to show you how well and faithfully our\nProphet performed such duties.\n\nTo do this it is necessary that I say something about the ideas\nprevailing in the world at the Prophet's advent among men--I mean as\nto their religions and philosophies, the doctrines by which they were\ninfluenced. And this not only as to truth, but also as to error--and\nchiefly as to error, for, among other things, a prophet must correct\nthe errors of men. It is a capital method of teaching truth--this\ncorrecting of errors.\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nRELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL BELIEFS OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.\n\n\nREVELATION: At the commencement of the nineteenth century the general\nidea prevailed in Christendom that a great while ago a very definite\nrevelation from God had been given; angels had visited the earth and\nimparted divine knowledge to men; the Spirit of the Almighty had\nrested upon some and had given them understanding by which they were\nable to declare the mind of God and the will of God. These were\nprophets. Some prophets there were who even talked with God \"face to\nface, as a man speaketh unto his friend.\" So communed Moses with God\n(Ex. 33:11); so, too, Isaiah (Isa. 6:1-6). But while this belief as to\nrevelation in the past everywhere prevailed, orthodox Christendom was\nequally certain that no revelation was being given in their day; and\nnot only was no revelation then being given, but neither would there\nbe any revelation given in future time. \"The volume of revelation is\ncompleted and forever closed,\" was dogma in all Christendom. There\nwould be no future visitation of angels. No more would the heavens be\nopened, or man stand face to face with his God, or speak to his Lord\nas a man speaketh to his friend. All this was ended. The canon of\nscripture was completed, and forever closed. That canon consisted of\nthe Old and New Testaments; all other books were secular--this alone\nsacred. There was no other word of God.\n\n\nIDEAS OF DEITY: In regard to deity, Christian men, at the beginning of\nthe nineteenth century, believed that God was an incorporeal,\nimmaterial being, without body--that is, not material, not matter;\nwithout parts; without passions. And yet, with gravest inconsistency,\nthey held that God was of love the essence; that He loved\nrighteousness, that He hated iniquity; that He so loved the world that\nHe gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should\nnot perish, but have everlasting life! Notwithstanding this \"love\" and\nthis \"hate\" God was without passions! He was, too, according to men's\ncreeds, without form. Notwithstanding Moses, one of the God-inspired\nteachers of men, said that \"God created man in His own image, in the\nimage of God created He him;\" and Jesus, by a prophet of the New\nTestament, was declared to be the express image of God's person\n(Hebrews i: 2, 3). Notwithstanding this, I say, men, in the early\ndecades of the nineteenth century, were possessed of a \"morbid terror\"\nof anthropomorphism--the ascription of human form, feeling or\nqualities to God--as if they could escape it and still hold belief in\nthe Bible revelation of God! Or, for matter of that, hold to any\ndoctrine of God taught either by religion or philosophy. At the very\nleast, if the God-idea survive at all, God must be held to possess\nconsciousness, both consciousness of self, and of other than\nself--self-consciousness, and other-consciousness; also He must be\nthought of as possessed of volition; and what are these but human\nqualities, which present God to our thought as anthropomorphic? Strip\nGod of these attributes and He is reduced to the atheists' \"force;\" to\nblind, purposeless force, that can sustain no possible personal\nrelationship whatsoever to men or other things in the universe. As one\nwriter in a great magazine recently said: \"If we are to know the\nSupreme Reality at all, it can only be through the attribution to Him\nof qualities analogous to, though infinitely transcending, the\nqualities which we recognize as highest in man, and consequently\n[highest] in the world as we know it.\"\n\nBut I must pass by these inconsistencies of the creeds of men. I shall\nhave no time to discuss them. Indeed, I must ask you to think with me\nin headlines, and to think fast. We have no time for argument. We\nshall barely have time to pass over the ground proposed, and must\ndepend upon the truth of our statements being self-evident, or\nconceded to be accurate statements of fact.\n\n\nOF THE UNIVERSE: Respecting the universe, Christendom, at the\nbeginning of the nineteenth century, believed that it was created of\nGod from nothing, and that no great while ago. \"Calling forth from\nnothing\" was held to be indeed the meaning of \"create.\" God\ntranscended the universe; was, in fact, outside of it; was what an\nAmerican philosopher (Fiske) some years afterwards called an \"Absentee\nGod.\" Absent, \"except for a little jog or poke here and there in the\nshape of a special providence.\"\n\n\"Down to a period almost within living memory,\" says Andrew Dixon\nWhite, in his great work, \"Warfare of Science with Theology,\" \"it was\nheld, virtually 'always, everywhere, and by all,' that the universe,\nas we now see it, was created literally and directly by the voice or\nhands of the Almighty, or by both--out of nothing--in an instant, or\nin six days, or in both--about four thousand years before the\nChristian era--and for the convenience of the dwellers upon the earth,\nwhich was at the base and foundation of the whole structure.\" Such\nwere the views of men concerning the universe during the period here\nconsidered.\n\n\nOF MAN: Respecting man, it was taught that while he was created of\nGod, his origin was purely an earthly one, his body made of the earth,\na spirit breathed into him when his body was made, and so man became a\nliving soul. All taught that he was a created thing, a creature.\n\n\nMAN AND HIS SALVATION: As to man's salvation, some of the creeds\ntaught that God, of His own volition, had foreordained that some men\nand angels were doomed to everlasting destruction, and others\npredestined to eternal life and glory. Not \"for any good or ill\" that\nthey had done or could do, but their fate was fixed by the volition of\nGod alone. These whom He would save, He would move by irresistible\ngrace to their salvation; those whom He had pre-determined should be\ndamned might not escape, struggle they never so persistently; no\nprayers could save them; no act of obedience might mitigate their\npunishment; no hungering and thirsting after righteousness, bring them\nto blessedness; they must perish, and that eternally! Those who perish\nin ignorance of Christ--the heathen races--were damned. \"The heathen\nin mass, with no single definite and unquestionable exception on\nrecord, are evidently strangers to God, and going down to death in an\nunsaved condition. The presumed possibility of being saved without a\nknowledge of Christ remains, after 1,800 years, a possibility\nillustrated by no example.\" So said those who expounded this creed.\nOthers, still, taught that infants dying in infancy without receiving\nChristian baptism were damned, and that everlastingly. By some,\nunbaptized infants were denied burial in sanctified ground. \"Hell's\nHalf Acre\" was a reality in some Christian graveyards.\n\n\nOF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SALVATION AND DAMNATION: Salvation and\ndamnation meant, as to the former, the attainment of heaven; as to the\nlatter, assignment to hell. The former, judging from the descriptions\nof it, a mysterious, indefinite state \"enjoyed\" somewhere \"beyond the\nbounds of time and space * * * the saints secure abode;\" the latter, a\nvery definite place, with very definite and very hot conditions, that\nhad power to endure and that everlastingly, to the eternal misery of\nthe damned. Time might come and time might go, but this torture,\nundiminished, went on forever. If one gained heaven, even by ever so\nsmall a margin, he entered upon a complete possession of all its\nunutterable joys, equally with the angels and the holiest of saints.\nIf he missed heaven, even by ever so narrow a margin, he was doomed to\neverlasting torment equally with the wickedest of men and vilest of\ndevils, and there was no deliverance for him.\n\nThese were some of the prevailing ideas, of the philosophy and the\nreligion of men at the birth of the Prophet. A philosophy inadequate\nfor any reasonable accounting for the universe. A religion that was\nderogatory to God and debasing to man--errors of both philosophy and\nreligion that it was, I believe, the mission of our Prophet to\ncorrect. Let us follow him as he proceeds with his corrections, his\nsetting over against every error above enumerated the truth received\nof God.\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\nTHE PROPHET'S CORRECTION OF SECTARIAN ERRORS.\n\n\nTHE DOCTRINE OF REVELATION: Against the sectarian dogma of the\ncessation of revelation, Joseph Smith proclaimed the reopening of the\nheavens. Against the doctrine that angels would no more visit the\nearth, he asserted the visitation of angels to him, revealing the\nexistence of the Book of Mormon, a new volume of Scripture. Other\nangels brought to the Prophet the keys of authority and power held by\nthem in former dispensations. So came John the Baptist with the keys\nof the Aaronic Priesthood; Peter, James and John, with the keys of the\nMelchisedek Priesthood; Moses, with the keys of the gathering of\nIsrael, and so following. Against the doctrine of a closed volume of\nScripture, Joseph Smith asserted the existence of, and the truth of\nthe American volume of Scripture, the Book of Mormon. Against this\nwhole narrow, bigoted idea of revelation held by the Christian world,\nhe proclaimed a larger view. Instead of holding that a few prophets\namong the Hebrews had been visited of God and received divine\ninspiration he represented God as saying:\n\n    \"Thou fool, that shall say, A Bible, a Bible, we have got a Bible,\n    and we need no more Bible! Have ye obtained a Bible, save it were\n    by the Jews? Know ye not that there are more nations than one;\n    know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and\n    that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that\n    I rule in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath; and I bring\n    forth my word unto the children of men; yea, even upon all the\n    nations of the earth? For I command all men, both in the east and\n    in the west * * * and in the islands of the sea, that they shall\n    write the words which I speak unto them. * * * Behold, I will\n    speak unto the Jews, and they shall write it; and I will also\n    speak unto the Nephites and they shall write it; and I will also\n    speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have\n    led away, and they shall write it; and I will also speak unto all\n    nations of the earth, and they shall write it.\"\n\nJoseph Smith also represents one of the Nephite prophets as saying:\n\n    \"Behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation\n    and tongue, to teach his word; yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth\n    fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth\n    counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.\"\n\nThis doctrine unites in one splendid brotherhood all the Seekers after\nGod, all those who received inspiration from the Most High and were\nsent forth from the Divine Presence to instruct their fellow men.\nJoseph Smith, I say, unites their hands in a splendid brotherhood of\nthe God-inspired men of this world. Not that all the prophets among\nthe various races of men were equally inspired; not that all came with\na fulness of truth; not that all had the gospel of Jesus Christ. But\nif they brought not with their message the effulgent brightness of an\nall-glorious day, they brought something of twilight which dispelled\nsome of the murkiness of the night in which the men of their\nrespective races had walked; and those who have groped in the density\nof darkness know how grateful is the twilight, how much better it is\nthan darkness. How noble is this view of God's hand-dealings with the\nchildren of men in respect of revelation, as compared with that\nnarrow, bigoted view prevailing at the beginning of the nineteenth\ncentury, which held that the Hebrew Scriptures contained all the word\nof God delivered to the inhabitants of the earth!\n\n\nTHE BEING AND KIND OF BEING GOD IS: Against the dogma that God was an\nincorporeal, immaterial, passionless being, the Prophet announced the\nsplendid doctrine of anthropomorphism--God in the human form, and\npossessed of human qualities, but sanctified and perfected. In the\nfirst great revelation which opened this last dispensation our Prophet\nbeheld Father and Son as separate persons, distinct from each other;\npersons in the form of men, but more glorious and more splendid, of\ncourse, than words could describe them to be. All through the\nrevelations received, and all through his discourses, the Prophet\nreaffirms the old doctrine of the Scriptures, the doctrine of all the\nprophets, asserting that man indeed was created in the image of God,\nand that God possessed human qualities, consciousness, will, love,\nmercy, justice; together with power and glory--in a word, a Man\n\"exalted and perfected.\"\n\n\nCREATION--THE LAW OF SUBSTANCE: In opposition to the doctrine that God\nhad created the universe of nothing, the Prophet asserted the doctrine\nof the eternity of substance and energy and law, and their infinite\nextension throughout all space; that creation is but the wisely\nwrought changes made in the modes of existences, which are\nthemselves--in their essence--eternal, the changes constantly tending\nto higher developments, from good to better, or else ministering to\nthat end.\n\n\nOF MAN'S ORIGIN: Against the doctrine which ascribed a merely earthly\norigin for man, body and spirit; that taught that the intelligent\nentity in man--the mind--was a created thing--against this, I say, our\nProphet taught that \"Intelligence is not created or made, neither,\nindeed, can be.\" He taught that the intelligent entity in man, which\nmen call \"spirit\" and sometimes \"soul,\" is a self-existing entity,\nuncreated and eternal as God is, placed in the way by Higher\nIntelligences,--and guided by their love and counsels,--of increasing\nhis own intelligence and power and glory and joy. Such he represented\nman to be, and once more crowned him with the dignity belonging to his\nDivine and eternal nature.\n\n\nELECTION AND REPROBATION: In regard to that monstrous doctrine that\nGod, by the exercise of His sovereign will, had predestined some men\nand angels unto everlasting life, while others He ordained to\neverlasting death; and that, not because of the good or the evil they\nhad done or might do, but because he had so willed it by his sovereign\nwill; that \"the number of such men and angels thus predestined are so\npeculiarly and unchangeably known, and their number so certain and\ndefinite that it can not be either increased or diminished\"--against\nthis monstrous view of the doctrine of salvation for the race of men,\nour Prophet declared salvation to be free, and every soul of man\ncapable of participating therein, if happily he should seek salvation;\nand that man could be assured of the help and grace of God to aid him\nin the attainment of salvation. Commenting on a passage of Scripture\nsupposed to teach the sectarian doctrine of Election and Reprobation,\nthe Prophet said: \"Unconditional election of individuals to eternal\nlife was not taught by the Apostles. God did elect, or predestinate,\nthat all those who would be saved should be saved in Christ Jesus, and\nthrough obedience to the Gospel\"--other than this there was no\npredestination or election relating to the salvation of individuals.\n\nOn the subject of the fate of the uninstructed heathen, as also upon\nthe matter of children dying in infancy, or before arriving at the\nyears of accountability, the doctrine of Joseph Smith held that where\nno law is given men will be judged without law, but will stand within\nthe circle of the mercy of God, and there is hope, nay, assurance, of\nultimate salvation for the heathen. \"The heathen nations shall be\nredeemed, and they that knew no law shall have part in the first\nresurrection; and it shall be tolerable for them,\" are the words of\nthe Lord through the Prophet.\n\nAnd as for infants dying in infancy, or before arriving at years of\naccountability, the Prophet taught, the mercy of God claims them\nwholly. They are redeemed from the consequences of Adam's\ntransgression by the atonement of Christ, and being without sin\nthemselves, the law against sin has no claim upon them, and they are\nsaved to the uttermost without baptism or anything else whatsoever, by\nthe pure mercy and justice of God. \"Little children are alive in\nChrist, even from the foundation of the world,\" is a doctrine of the\nProphet's.\n\n\nTHE DOCTRINE OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENT: Against the dogma of the\nattainment of heaven or the assignment to hell, involving, as it did,\nthe equality of the glory in the one, and equal severity of punishment\nin the other, our Prophet reasserted the justice of God in providing a\ngraded state of existence for men in the future life, grades that\ncorrespond to the state of mental, moral and spiritual development of\nevery soul of man.\n\nUpon this subject Joseph Smith taught that there are many kingdoms of\nthe Father in which men may live, each in a sphere suitable to his\nnature, disposition and the degree of his development: moderns would\nsay, \"Suitable to the state of his evolution.\" He taught that as there\nis one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the\nstars, so in future men will exist in varying degrees of glory; that\nas the stars of heaven differ in infinite degrees of brightness, so\nalso will men in the future exist in places and states of infinite\nvariety, corresponding to the infinite variations of their\nintelligence, knowledge, tastes, acquirements, inclinations, and\naspirations. In other words, environment will correspond to nature,\nwith always the possibility present of improving both the environment\nand the nature, until a fulness of joy is attained by each intelligent\nentity--by each man.\n\nThus Joseph Smith promulgated a system of positive doctrine respecting\nthe future of man that is at once in harmony with the relative claims\nof justice and mercy; with human reason and divine law. He made known\nthe fact that\n\n    \"Eternal punishment is God's punishment.\"\n    \"Endless punishment is God's punishment.\"\n\nThat is to say, the punishment for sin-which is only another way of\nsaying the \"penalty\" for wrong-doing--takes the title of Him in whose\nname it is administered, that is, it is \"God's\" punishment, or\n\"Eternal's\" punishment, \"Endless' punishment.\" The punishment takes on\nit the name of Him in whose authority it is administered. Moreover,\npenalty will always follow violation of the law, in eternity as in\nwhat we call time. So long as law exists, penalties must also exist.\nThey are the necessary concomitants of law, without which laws are\nmere nullities. But because punishments, so-called, take on the name\nof Him in whose authority they are administered, and because law is\nnecessarily paralleled by penalty--therefore punishment will always\nexist for offenders against law; in other words is endless--it does\nnot follow that each transgressor of the law will suffer its penalties\neternally. Such a conception is revolting to reason and derogatory to\nthe justice and mercy of God. While one must needs believe that\npenalty follows violation of law, the violator only partakes of that\npenalty to the extent that is necessary to vindicate the law and\ncorrect the transgressor's own disposition: whereupon mercy has her\nclaims, that may not be denied: and the one time violator of law,\ninstructed by his experience in suffering, goes forth to walk, let us\nhope, in harmony with law, and hence in peace.\n\nThus, all down the line of religious error, as well as in the things\nhere pointed out, Joseph Smith asserted the truth of God, and\nmaintained it before the world. Had he done no more than this, if this\nhad been the sole achievement in the world's realm of thought by our\nProphet--he would stand in fair way of being regarded as the\nhistorical American who had exerted the most powerful influence upon\nthe destinies of his countrymen. But instead of this being the end of\nhis achievements it is merely the commencement of his life's work; a\nmere clearing of the ground for the new temple of religion and\nphilosophy to be erected; the dismissal of the absurdities of old\nsystems to make way for the incoming of the new system of thought\nwhich shall be in harmony with the new knowledge of a new and glorious\nage--the incoming millennium.\n\nI wonder if I may venture here to draw in outline the suggestion of\nthat system? By your leave, then: In the beginning it is necessary to\nsay to you that I shall use all ideas, doctrines, philosophies,\nscience principles, interpretations that I find brought to the\nknowledge of the world through Joseph Smith, directly or indirectly.\nFor while doctrines here used are found in the Book of Mormon and\nproperly should be referred to the prophets among ancient American\npeoples for their origin, still the world today owe their knowledge of\nthese things to the translation of the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith.\nSo also in relation to the Book of Moses and the Book of Abraham. So\nalso as to the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants; such\nphilosophy and religious principles as are there found are given of\nGod, but Joseph Smith received and published them, and for the\npurposes of what is here to be set forth shall stand as his doctrines\nand philosophy, as well also as those utterances that make up the\nsubject-matter of his discourses.\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nTHE PROPHET'S PHILOSOPHICAL DOCTRINES.\n\n\nTHE PROPHET'S DEFINITION OF TRUTH: Undoubtedly the quest of philosophy\nis Truth. And again, undoubtedly, Philosophy would be greatly helped\nin its search for Truth if it had but a clear conception of what it\nwas trying to find; hence the importance of a clear and accurate\ndefinition of Truth. It is at this point, however, that the greatest\ndifficulty arises for the human intellect. It is quite generally\nconceded that up to the early decades of the nineteenth century no\nsatisfactory definition of Truth had been found. When Jesus stood\nbound before Pilate's judgment seat, and testified that He was born\nto bear witness of the Truth, Pilate--whether in mockery or in earnest\ncuriosity we may not now know--asked the question: \"What is truth?\"\nBut the Divine Man made no answer. Most commentators say that, without\nwaiting for an answer the Roman procurator departed from the judgment\nhall to speak to the Jews clamoring on the outside; and all regret the\nopportunity that was there lost of receiving a divine answer to the\nquestion. One set of commentators, referring to Pilate's question, say\nto him: \"Thou stirrest the question of questions, which the thoughtful\nof every age have asked, but never man yet answered.\"\n\nA secular writer presents the same incident as follows: \"'What is\ntruth?' was the passionate demand of a Roman procurator, on one of the\nmost momentous occasions in history. And the Divine Person who stood\nbefore him, to whom the interrogation was addressed, made no\nreply--unless, indeed, silence contained the reply. Often and vainly\nhad that demand been made before--often and vainly has it been made\nsince. No one has yet given a satisfactory answer.\"\n\nThen, by way of historical illustration of this assertion, our author\nremarks the following:\n\n\"When, at the dawn of science in Greece, the ancient religion was\ndisappearing like a mist at sunrise, the pious and thoughtful men of\nthat country were thrown into a condition of intellectual despair.\nAnaxagoras plaintively exclaims, 'Nothing can be known, nothing can be\nlearned, nothing can be certain, sense is limited, intellect is weak,\nlife is short.' Xenophanes tells us that it is impossible for us to be\ncertain even when we utter the Truth. Parmenides declares that the\nvery constitution of man prevents him from ascertaining absolute\nTruth. Empedocles affirms that all philosophical and religious systems\nmust be unreliable, because we have no criterion by which to test\nthem. Democritus asserts that even things that are true cannot impart\ncertainty to us; that the final result of human inquiry is the\ndiscovery that man is incapable of absolute knowledge; that, even if\nthe truth be in his possession, he cannot be certain of it. Pyrrho\nbids us reflect on the necessity of suspending our judgment of things,\nsince we have no criterion of truth; so deep a distrust did he impart\nto his followers that they were in the habit of saying, 'We assert\nnothing; not even that we assert nothing.' Epicurus taught his\ndisciples that truth can never be determined by reason. Arcesilaus,\ndenying both intellectual and sensuous knowledge, publicly avowed that\nhe knew nothing, not even his own ignorance! The general conclusion to\nwhich Greek philosophy came was this: that, in view of the\ncontradiction of the evidence of the senses, we cannot distinguish the\ntrue from the false; and such is the imperfection of reason, that we\ncannot affirm the correctness of any philosophical deduction.\"\n\nI make these quotations to show that no Teacher satisfactory\ndefinition of Truth, either in ancient or modern times, either in\nreligion or philosophy, has been given, and also to call attention to\nthe fact that if Joseph Smith has given a definition of Truth that\nappeals with irresistible force to the understanding of men, it must\nbe a strongly original utterance; a revelation of the utmost\nimportance. Such a definition, I believe, he has given. In 1833 he\nsaid:\n\n\"Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as\nthey are to come.\"\n\nThis I hold to be the completest definition of Truth found in human\nliterature. It deals with relative truth, absolute truth, and truth\nunfolding or becoming.\n\nIt may be objected that this definition is defective in that it\nappears to make Truth depend upon knowledge. \"Truth,\" says the\ndefinition, \"is knowledge of things as they are,\" etc. This part of\nthe definition deals with relative Truth merely. \"Truth as it appears\nto us,\" says S. Baring-Gould, \"can only be relative, because we are\nrelative creatures, have only a relative perception and judgment. We\nappreciate that which is true to ourselves, not that which is\nuniversally true.\"\n\nIn other words, and using the language of Herbert Spencer at this\npoint: \"Debarred as we are from everything beyond the relative, Truth,\nraised to its highest form, can be for us nothing more than perfect\nagreement throughout the whole range of our experience, between those\nrepresentations of things which we distinguish as ideal and those\npresentations of things which we distinguish as real.\" That is to say,\nto each individual, \"knowledge of things as they are and as they were\"\nwill be to him the Truth, and the fullness thereof, though not\nnecessarily all the Truth there is. There is Truth, however, which\ndoes not depend upon knowledge; existences beyond and independent of\nany human knowledge, at least.\n\nTo illustrate: America existed, though all Europe was without\nknowledge of it for ages; until, in fact, it was discovered by\nColumbus. The power of steam always existed, but men did not know it\nuntil modern times. So, also, with the mysterious force called\nelectricity, it always existed, but not until recent years did man\nknow it as a force that could be utilized; and so as to many other\nforces and truths in God's universe that are now existing, and have\nalways existed, but man, as yet, has no knowledge of them. The\nstorehouse of Truth is not yet exhausted by man's discoveries. There\nare more Truths in heaven and earth than are yet dreamed of in human\nphilosophies.\n\nAnd yet it may be that running parallel with those existences,\nsubstances and relations unknown to man, there exist intelligences\nthat cognize such existences and relations. To recur to one item in\nthe illustrations above: America existed though all Europe was without\nknowledge of it until discovered by Columbus; but America had\ninhabitants, intelligences of her own that knew of the existence of\nthese Western continents. And so it may be if one could be transported\nto Mars; while there is much that we do not know about Mars--has it an\natmosphere and oceans? Has it great continents and mountain ranges? Is\nit inhabited? If so, what is the status of its civilization? These all\nmay be existences, realities on Mars, but we do not know of them, but\nthere may be intelligent inhabitants on Mars who know all these things\nand a thousand more that are unknown to us, yet known to intelligences\ninhabiting Mars. And so as to the most distant planets and\nplanet-systems conceivable. Everywhere that things exist, they may be\nparalleled by Intelligences that cognize them. Then, again, there are\nvarying degrees of Intelligences. Where two Intelligences exist and\none is more intelligent than another, it leads to the thought that\nthere may be a third more intelligent than the first two; thence to a\nfourth or fifth more intelligent still; thence onward, rising one\nabove another, in superiority of intelligence until you stand in the\npresence of an infinity of Intelligences, or reach One more\nintelligent than them all! One who, directly or indirectly, in all\ncouncils presides; who guides all movements; who directs all\nundertakings; who controls all worlds and world-systems; who loves\nall; who comprehends all things, even the sum of existences--the\nTruth! And so in the last analysis of the matter, wheresoever there\nare existences to be known, even though they stretch to infinity,\nthere are also Intelligences that parallel such existences to cognize\nthem, control them, dominate them, and through them work out Their\nwill.\n\nThe phrase above--\"the sum of existence:\" we have more to do with\nthat. The phrase is used by a most faithful and earnest Christian man,\nthe late John Jacques. Instructed by the Prophet Joseph Smith, he sang\nin his hymn on Truth, the following:\n\n    Then say, what is Truth? 'Tis the last and the first,\n      For the limits of time it steps o'er;\n    Though the heavens depart and the earth's fountains burst,\n      _Truth_, the _sum of existence_, will weather the worst,\n    Eternal, unchanged, evermore.\n\nSurely that which is, that which has been, and that which is to come,\nmust be the sum of existence, or absolute Truth; and all that is, or\nhas been, or shall be, has been, is and shall be known by the\neverywhere existing Intelligences, who, with the rest of their\nknowledge, know themselves; who possess self-consciousness, as well as\nother-consciousness, that is, consciousness of other things than\nthemselves. Truth, indeed, from this view point, is knowledge of that\nwhich is, including self-knowledge of the knower. It may be said that\nthe absolute Truth, even as here set forth, is beyond the grasp of the\nfinite mind. I shall concede the claim; but because finite mind cannot\ncomprehend the sum of existence, or absolute Truth, it does not follow\nthat the definition we are discussing is at fault, or that it can be\ndisplaced by one meaning more or less. Reflection upon the definition\nhere presented will develop the fact that it contains a self-evident\nproposition of the same nature as the statement, \"duration is\neternal\"--without beginning, without end. Or, \"space is limitless\"--it\nhas no point beyond which it may not be conceived to extend, and\nbeyond which it does not extend. It is vain to say that the finite\nmind cannot comprehend the realities presented by these statements.\nThe thing is greater than any symbol we can fashion of it by word or\notherwise; but we cannot conceive the opposite of these statements,\ni.e., that space has boundaries; that duration has limits; that\nabsolute Truth is less than the sum of existence. In the definition\nherein set forth you have all that is; and if in any definition of\nTruth there is failure to include the sum of existences by so much\nwould the definition be defective and fail of its aim to define Truth.\nAs to relative Truth--every individual man's Truth--that is each\nindividual man's knowledge of so much of the sum of existences as he\ncan make his own, as already pointed out.\n\nOne other reflection on this definition. Note the words in it:\n\"Knowledge of things * * * as they are to come.\" This presents a view\nof Truth seldom if ever met with. It gives the idea of movement. Truth\nis not a stagnant pool, but a living fountain; not a Dead Sea without\ntides or currents; on the contrary it is an ocean, immeasurably great,\nvast, co-extensive with the Universe--it is the Universe--\nbright-heaving, boundless, endless and sublime! Moving in majestic\ncurrents, uplifted by tides in ceaseless ebb and flow; variant but\norderly; taking on new forms from ever-changing combinations; new\nadjustments; new relations--multiplying itself in ten thousand times\nten thousand ways; ever reflecting the intelligence of the Infinite;\nand declaring alike in its whispers and in its thunders, the hived\nwisdom of the ages--of God!\n\n\nAS TO THINGS--EXISTENCES: We are next to consider the universe in\nwhich men, angels, archangels and Gods--Intelligences all--live.\n\n\"There are many kingdoms * * * and there is no space in the which\nthere is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in the which there is no\nspace.\"\n\nThis was said by Joseph Smith in 1832. The context of the passage\nmakes it clear that \"kingdoms\" here are not groups of men or nations\nover which a monarch reigns; but substance, matter, worlds and systems\nof worlds, under the dominion of law, and Intelligences. It is the\ndoctrine of the eternal and everywhere existence of matter and space.\nIt is a description of the universe as far as it is describable. But\nlet us think of the passage a moment; for it requires thought to\nrightly apprehend it.\n\nThis \"space\"--what is meant by it? I ask you what is between the two\nwalls of this hall, and you would rightly answer space, extension. But\nwhat is on the outside of each wall--space; neither wall is the end of\nspace, then. Let us look higher. What is between us and the sun?\nSpace--extension. How much of it? Our astronomers say 92,000,000\nmiles. What is on the other side of the sun in a direct line from us?\nSpace. How much, 92,000,000 miles? Yes, and if 92,000,000 miles were\nmultiplied by 92,000,000 the product would not indicate all the space\nin a direct line from us on the opposite side of the sun. Beyond the\npoint so obtained space would still extend. But one wearies of these\nunits of measure; take a ray of light. In the single batting of a\nbird's wing light will pass eight times round the earth, that is it\nwill pass over a distance of 198,000 miles! There are fixed\nstars--suns--so distant from us, the astronomers say, that it requires\nhundreds of thousands and even millions of years for a ray of light to\nreach us from those distant suns! Take one of those distant suns and\nthink upon it in respect of space, just as we did a moment ago in\nregard to what is between our earth and the sun and beyond the sun, in\na direct line from us, and you get the same results. There is no means\nby which the limitless may be measured. Whatever the length of your\nmeasuring wand it is still inadequate. By no measurement, by no\nconception, may one reach the \"outside curtains\" beyond which space\ndoes not extend. And so as to time, duration. What was before today?\nYesterday. And what will be after today? Tomorrow. Take a century, or,\nbetter yet, a millennium, a period of 1,000 years--why not take\n1,000,000 years as a period with which to measure duration? It will\nanswer just as well as our \"day\" of a moment ago. What preceded our\npresent period of 1,000,000 years? A previous 1,000,000 of such years.\nAnd what will follow the present period of 1,000,000 years? Another\nsuch period. So you may continue, make your period of measurement what\nlength of years or centuries or millenniums you please, the result\nwill always be the same. It is again the attempt to measure the\nlimitless, to encompass that which is infinite. The sum of all our\nthought on this head is well stated by Ernest Haeckel in one of his\nlatest works, the very last but one, I believe, the publication of\nwhich falls within the present decade:\n\na. \"The extent of the universe is infinite and unbounded; it is empty\nin no part, but everywhere filled with substance.\"\n\nb. \"The duration of the world is equally infinite and unbounded; it\nhas no beginning and no end; it is eternity.\"\n\nSuch may be said to be the settled and universal conviction of science\nnow; but it was far from such conviction in 1832 when Joseph Smith\nsaid the same in the passage--\"There are many kingdoms; * * * and\nthere is no space in the which there is no kingdom; and there is no\nkingdom in the which there is no space.\"\n\n\nTHE REIGN OF LAW: \"There are many kingdoms * * * and to every kingdom\nis given a law; and to every law there are certain bounds also, and\nconditions. All beings who abide not in those conditions (i. e., abide\nwithin the law) are not justified.\"\n\nThis was said in 1832. The passage proclaims the reign of law\nthroughout this infinite universe--through all space, through all\ntime; in all kingdoms; but implies the possibility of departure from\nlaw. But \"to every law there are certain bounds also and conditions!\"\nA bold conception this; especially three-quarters of a century ago;\nyet it is approved by man's experience. The power of ocean currents\nand the winds to carry with them objects in the direction of their\nmovement is overcome by another force or law--the power of steam; the\nforce of gravitation, by the levitating power of gas; the natural\ntendency of water to seek its level, by the levitating power of heat\nand the absorbing power of the atmosphere, are hurriedly chosen\nexamples. But this same idea of law itself having metes and bounds, or\n\"law itself being subject to law,\" Henry Drummond, one of the\nrecognized great thinkers of the nineteenth century, more than half a\ncentury after our Prophet, declared to be \"One of the most striking\ngeneralizations of recent science.\" And John Fiske said, \"In order to\nbe always sure that we are generalizing correctly, we must make the\ngeneralizing process itself a subject of generalization.\" Which is but\na recognition of Drummond's idea that \"laws have their law;\" and\nJoseph Smith's \"To every law there are certain bounds also and\nconditions.\" Already I have noted in the passage the implied\npossibility of the infraction of law; and the idea of law itself\nimplies the possibility of disorder, which must result from an\ninfraction, that is, a departure from, or violation of, law. But our\nProphet said: \"That which is governed by law is also preserved by law,\nand perfected and sanctified by the same. That which breaketh a law,\nand abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and\nwilleth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be\nsanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment.\" From all\nwhich one is to conclude that evil is subject to law as well as good,\nthat is, it cannot remain evil and yet produce the effects of good.\nOur Prophet teaches, then, that through all eternity the infinite\nuniverse has been, and is, and will be, subject to law; but that \"to\nevery law there are certain bounds also and conditions.\"\n\n\nCHANGE AND ITS TENDENCY: As to movement and change in this infinite\nuniverse, our Prophet represents God as saying:\n\n\"Worlds without number have I created. * * * Behold, there are many\nworlds that have passed away by the word of my power, and there are\nmany that now stand, and innumerable are they to man. * * * The\nheavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; * * *\nand as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof, even so\nshall another come, and there is no end to my works, neither to my\nwords.\"\n\nThis passage implies constant movement in this infinite universe. The\nstatement, \"As one earth shall pass away and the heavens thereof, even\nso shall another come,\" corresponds somewhat to the modern scientist's\nnotion of \"evolution and devolution.\" Also with his statement that\n\"Substance is everywhere and always in uninterrupted movement and\ntransformation; nowhere is there perfect repose and rigidity; yet the\ninfinite quantity of matter and of eternally changing force remains\nconstant.\" And now I must ask you to accept a somewhat hurriedly\nstated conclusion as to the effect of these changes going on in the\nuniverse, gathered, indeed, from the teaching of our Prophet, but\nwithout specific quotation, namely, that the tendency of this movement\nin the universe, the organization and then the disintegration of\nworlds and world-systems is in the direction of the development of,\nand for the increase of the power and glory of truly immortal\nIntelligences. This conclusion is required by the philosophy of Joseph\nSmith.\n\n\nTHE EXISTENCE OF GOOD AND EVIL: Respecting Good and Evil, our Prophet\ntaught: \"There must needs be an opposition in all things. If it were\nnot so, righteousness could not be brought to pass; nor wickedness,\nnor holiness, nor misery; neither good nor bad, therefore, all things\nmust needs be [in the absence of these opposite existences] a compound\nin one.\"\n\nIt will require but little reflection to establish the truth of this\ndoctrine. Good implies its opposite, evil. Law, which carries with it\nthe idea of order, implies disorder, and takes measures against it. We\nbecome conscious of the truth of the doctrine here announced at every\nturn. In the astronomic order it is seen in the centripetal and\ncentrifugal forces--the holding together and the flying apart forces.\nIn chemistry it is manifest in the composing and decomposing forces;\nin positive and negative electricity. It is seen in light and\ndarkness; heat, cold; movement, repose; joy, sorrow; pleasure, pain;\nand so following. Our Prophet's teaching on this line runs to the\nextent that existence itself is made to depend upon it, this antinomy\nof things. Listen:\n\n    \"And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is\n    no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there\n    is no righteousness. And if there is no righteousness there is no\n    happiness. And if there is no righteousness nor happiness, there\n    is no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not, there is\n    no God. And if there is no God, we are not, neither the earth; for\n    there could have been no creation of things; neither to act, nor\n    to be acted upon.\"\n\nHave you ever thought what a dreadful world this would be without this\nduality--the opposite existences here contended for? Imagine all\nthings in the world to be white! No contrasts in coloring! Universal\ninsanity must result. The \"dread of sinking into naught\" is matched by\nthe dread of having things resolved into a \"compound of one.\" The\nabsence of this necessary \"opposition in all things\" is well put, by a\nvery recent philosophical writer, in these terms:\n\n    \"Evil exists in the balance of natural forces. * * * It is also\n    the background of good, the incentive to good, and the trial of\n    good, without which good could not be. As the virtue of courage\n    could not exist without the evil of danger, and as the virtue of\n    sympathy could not exist without the evil of suffering, so no\n    other virtue could exist without its corresponding evil. In a\n    world without evil--if such a world be really conceivable, all men\n    would have perfect health, perfect intelligence, and perfect\n    morals. No one could gain or impart information, each one's cup of\n    knowledge being full. The temperature would stand forever at 70\n    degrees, both heat and cold [in excess] being evil. There could be\n    no progress, since progress is the overcoming of evil. A world\n    without evil would be as toil without exertion, as light without\n    darkness, as a battle with no antagonist. It would be a world\n    without meaning.\"\n\nThe German philosopher Kant put the same thought in beautiful form\nwhen he said, in substance: The dove, as she speeds her way through\nthe air, may marvel at the resistance to her flight by the atmosphere,\nbut we know that but for that resistance she could not fly at all. So\nfar Kant. Applied, the conclusion would be: As the resistance of the\nair to the flight of the dove, so is evil to the progress of\nIntelligences.\n\n[In the December number, 1908, of the \"Cosmopolitan Magazine,\" I find\nthe following reflections, by Mr. Ambrose Bierce, on the point here\ndiscussed; and while not accepting, without modification, every\nthought expressed, I consider the passage too pertinent, and too rich\nto be denied admittance into these pages:\n\n\"Let us for a moment suppose this country's reformers to have achieved\ntheir amiable purpose--their purposes, rather, for these are as the\nleaves of the forest, and no two alike. We have, then, a country in\nwhich are no poverty, no contention, no tyranny nor oppression, no\nperil to life or limb, no disease--and so forth. How delightful! What\na good and happy people! Alas, no! With poverty have vanished\nbenevolence, providence, and the foresight which, born of the fear of\nindividual want, stands guard at a thousand gates to defend the\ngeneral good. The charitable impulse is dead in every breast, and\ngratitude, atrophied by disuse, has no longer a place among human\nsentiments and emotions. With no more fighting among ourselves we have\nlost the power of resentment and resistance: a car-load of Mexicans or\na shipful of Japanese can invade our fool's paradise and enslave us,\nas the Spaniards overran Peru and the British subdued India. (Hailers\nof \"the dawn of the new era\" will, I trust, provide that it dawns\neverywhere at once or here last of all.) Having no oppression to\nresist and no perils to apprehend, we no longer need the courage to\ndefy, nor the fortitude to endure. Heroism is a failing memory and\nmagnanimity a dream of the past; for not only are the virtues known by\ncontrast with the vices, they spring from the same seed, grow in the\nsame soil, ripen in the same sunshine, and perish in the same frost. A\nfine race of mollycoddles we should be without our sins and\nsufferings! In a world without evils there would be one supreme\nevil--existence. We need not fear any such condition. Progress is\ninfected with the germs of reversion; on the grave of the civilization\nof today will squat the barbarian of tomorrow, \"with a glory in his\nbosom\" that will transfigure him the day after. The alternation is one\nthat we can neither hasten nor retard, for our success baffles us. If,\nfor example, we could abolish war, disease, and famine, the race would\nmultiply to the point of \"standing room only\"--a condition prophesying\nwar, disease, and famine. Wherefore the wisest prayer is this, \"O\nLord, make thy servant strong to fight and impotent to prevail.\"]\n\n\"Moral evil,\" then, is not a created thing. It is one of the eternal\nexistences, just as duration is and space. It is as old as law--old as\nTruth, old as this eternal universe. Intelligences must adjust\nthemselves to these eternal existences; this, the measure of their\nduty.\n\n\nTHE INTELLIGENT ENTITY: Of man's spirit, called often by other\nnames--\"mind,\" \"intelligence,\" \"ego,\" \"self;\" but by whatever name it\nis called, and all nice distinctions set aside, here I mean that\nconscious, self-determining entity, which thinks, reasons, wills,\nloves, aspires--I mean the real man. Let us in our discourse call him\nspirit. Of man, then, thus understood, our Prophet taught:\n\n    \"The soul--the mind of man--the immortal spirit--where did it come\n    from? All learned men and doctors of divinity say that God created\n    it in the beginning; but it is not so; the very idea lessens man\n    in my estimation. I do not believe the doctrine. I know better. *\n    * * We say that God himself is a self-existent Being. Who told you\n    so? It is correct enough, but how did it get into your heads? Who\n    told you that man did not exist in like manner, upon the same\n    principles? * * * Is it logical to say that the intelligence of\n    spirits is immortal, and yet that it had a beginning? The\n    intelligence of spirits had no beginning, neither will it have an\n    end. * * * There never was a time when there were not spirits; for\n    they are co-eternal with our Father in heaven. * * * The spirit of\n    man is not a created being; it existed from eternity, and will\n    exist to eternity.\"\n\nMan, then, in the Prophet's philosophy, is not a created, but a\nself-existent entity, one of the eternal things; not created, really\nuncreatable, as also indestructible. Not of earth origin, but existing\nin heavens without number, brother to all Intelligences--brother to\nthe Christ with the rest. \"I was in the beginning with the Father,\"\nour Prophet represents the Christ as saying--\"I was in the beginning\nwith the Father. * * * Ye [the brethren present when the revelation\nwas given] were also in the beginning with the Father, that which is\nspirit. * * * Man [the race] was also in the beginning with God.\nIntelligence was not created or made, neither indeed can be.\"\n\nBut while these spirits or intelligent entities may be equal as to\ntheir eternity, they differ in the degree of intelligence--so our\nProphet teaches: Where two things exist, one higher than another,\nthere may be another thing higher yet. Where two things exist, one\nsuperior to another, there may be another still superior, and so on.\nSo where two spirits exist, one being more intelligent than the other,\nthere may be another more intelligent than the first. Yet,\nnotwithstanding this difference in degree of intelligence, they are\nequal as to their eternity. \"They existed before,\" said our Prophet,\n\"they shall have no end; they shall exist after, for they are\n_gnolaum_, or eternal.\" It is this difference in Intelligences that\nleads to order in this universe of ours. The more advanced\nIntelligences governing, controlling, devising, organizing, forming\nsocieties, making governments--all which shall tend to increase the\nglory and power and joy of Intelligences; to this end bringing into\nexistence what we call worlds, world-systems, guiding them through\nimmense cycles of time, and through processes that lead from chaos to\ncosmos, from telestial to celestial, and when attaining a point beyond\nwhich they may not be exalted in their present forms, breaking those\nforms, disintegrating them, throwing them back--these baser material\nthings, not Intelligences--back to chaos, to be brought forth again to\nreach a grander cosmos--worlds without number have thus passed away,\nby the word of God's power, and many now stand, innumerable unto man;\nand as one earth and its heavens shall pass away, so shall another\ncome, and there is no end to these works, this evolution and this\ndevolution. And so the eternal drama proceeds. Intelligences meanwhile\nstanding unhurt amidst this organization and disorganization of\nworlds; these integrating and disintegrating elements, this movement\nfrom lower to higher forms, from little to greater excellences; yet\nthis without attaining to \"highest\" or \"perfect,\" because advancing in\nthe infinite, which knows no ultimates. Meanwhile Intelligences, amid\nthese changes, under the law of eternal progress, are ever-increasing\nin power, glory, might, dominion, love, benevolence, charity, justice,\nand all else that can make for the increase of their power and glory.\nIn which strivings and achievements eternal evil is present; makes\nnecessary and possible, in fact, the very strivings and achievements;\nand is the \"foil on which good produces itself, and becomes known.\"\n\n\nTHE RELATIONSHIP OF INTELLIGENCES: It is seen that our Prophet taught\nthe eternity of Intelligences; and that they are not only not created,\nbut uncreatable; that though they differ in degree of intelligence, of\nknowledge, of love, hence differ also in power, in influence, in\nglory--in all that comes from soul power. The presiding Intelligence\nto that order of things and beings to which we belong, is represented\nas standing among the Intelligences destined to our earth, \"and among\nthese there were many of the noble and great ones.\" And the Presiding\nIntelligence said: \"These I will make my Rulers; for He stood among\nthose that were spirits, and He saw that they were good.\" \"The noble\nand great ones\" are made Rulers; and doubtless the principle here\noperating in respect of those Intelligences destined to our earth,\noperates in all worlds and world systems. Some of the \"Noble and Great\nOnes\" stand at the head of worlds and groups of worlds, forming Grand\nPresidencies, in order and gradation based upon their power and\nappointment. All which is dependent upon their intelligence, their\ncharacter, their nobility and greatness--measured by their capacity to\nserve. Each one of such \"Rulers\"--and each Intelligence, in\nfact--independent in the sphere in which he is appointed to act, yet\nacting in harmony, through attainment of the knowledge of Truth, with\nall other exalted and sanctified souls--these are Gods, or the Rulers\nin this Universe. These make up David's \"congregation of the Mighty,\"\nin which God, \"More intelligent than them all,\" standeth and judgeth\n\"among the Gods.\" (Psalms 82: 1.) And to these, in their several\nstations, other Intelligences owe loyalty, submission--call it worship\nif you like; at any rate it must be unshaken loyalty, in order to\nattain the ends proposed in all \"plans of salvation,\" \"gospels,\"\n\"societies,\" \"kingdoms of God,\" and the like, in which \"plans,\"\n\"gospels\" and the rest, each spirit agreed and covenanted to accept,\nas also to obey and honor those appointed to direct and bring to pass\nthat which was ordained in the councils of Divine Intelligences. \"At\nthe first organization in heaven,\" said the Prophet, speaking with\nreference to matters pertaining to our earth, and the probation of\nspirits upon it in earth-life--\"at the first organization in heaven we\nwere all present, and saw the Savior chosen and appointed, and the\nplan of salvation made, and we sanctioned it.\" This the meaning of\n\"man [the race] was also in the beginning with God.\" And as to the\n\"Rulers,\" \"Presidencies\"--they are not \"Rulers\" in the worldly sense\nof those words. \"Government\" here, \"office\" in the \"kingdom of God,\"\nmeans opportunity for service, not of mastery. \"Ye know that the\nprinces of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are\ngreat exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you.\nBut whosoever would be great among you, let him be your minister; and\nwhosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as\nthe Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to\ngive His life a ransom for many.\" So Joseph Smith: \"The powers of\nheaven can only be controlled upon the principles of righteousness.\nWhen men undertake to cover their sins or to gratify their pride or\nvain ambition or exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the\nsouls of the children of men in any degree of unrighteousness, the\nheavens withdraw themselves, the spirit of the Lord is grieved, and\nwhen it is withdrawn, amen to the authority of that man. No power or\ninfluence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the Priesthood,\nonly by persuasion, by long suffering, by gentleness, and meekness,\nand by love unfeigned; by kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall\ngreatly enlarge the soul, without hypocrisy, and without guile.\"\n\nThis, the principle of heavenly rule.\n\n\nMAN'S FREEDOM: Through all that is here set forth as Joseph Smith's\ndoctrines, it will be seen that the free moral agency of man is\nregarded as a reality. First, the recognition of man, as a spirit,\nbeing a self-existent entity--not a created thing; \"man [i.e., all\nmen, the race] was in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the\nlight of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.\" Then\nsecond, \"All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has\nplaced it, to act for itself, as all Intelligence also, otherwise\nthere is no existence. Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is\nthe condemnation of man, because that which was from the beginning is\nplainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light. And every\nman, whose spirit receiveth not the light, is under condemnation, for\nman is spirit.\"\n\nThe fact of free moral agency runs through all the Prophet's\nrevelations in similar spirit. Indeed, in one scripture he represents\nthe chief sin of Lucifer as being an attempt to \"destroy the agency of\nman;\" and for which he was driven forth from heaven. The effect of\nthese two doctrines, the recognition of the spirit of man as an\neternal being, and his being a free moral agent, is tremendous in\naccounting for things. Elsewhere, contrasting this view of things with\nsome modern Christian views, I have said: \"As matters now stand, the\nusually accepted Christian doctrine on the matter of man's origin is\nthat God of His free-will created men. That they are as He would have\nthem, since in His act of creation He could have had them different if\nHe had so minded. Then why should He--being infinitely wise and\ninfinitely powerful, and infinitely good--for so the creeds represent\nHim--why should He create by mere act of volition, beings such as men\nare, not only capable of, but prone to, moral Evil? Which, in the last\nanalysis of things, in spite of all special pleadings to the contrary,\nleaves responsibility for moral Evil with God? God's creative acts\nculminating thus, the next pertinent questions are: Then what of the\ndecreed purpose of God to punish moral Evil? And what of the\nmuch-vaunted justice of God in that punishment? Wherein lies the just\nresponsibility of man if he was so created as to love Evil and to\nfollow it?\" It is revolting to reason, as it is shocking to piety, to\nthink that God, of His own free will, created some men, not only\ninclined to wickedness, but desperately so inclined; while others He,\nof His own volition, created with dispositions naturally inclined\ntoward goodness. In like manner stands it with man in relation to his\ninclination to faith, and to unbelief; and yet, under the orthodox\nbelief all are included under one law for judgment!\n\nOn the other hand, under the conception of the existence of\nindependent, uncreated, self-existent Intelligences, who by the\ninherent nature of them are of various degrees of intelligence,\ndoubtless differing from each other in many ways, yet alike in their\neternity and their freedom; with God standing in the midst of them,\n\"more intelligent than them all,\" and proposing the betterment of\ntheir condition--progress to higher levels of being, and power through\nchange--under this conception of things, how stand matters? Why, ever\npresent through all changes, through all the processes of betterment,\nis the self-existent entity of the \"Intelligence\" with the tremendous\nfact of his consciousness and his moral freedom, and his\nindestructibility--he has his choice of moving upward or downward in\nevery estate he occupies; often defeating, for a time, at least, even\nthe benevolent purposes of God respecting him, through his own\nperverseness; he passes through dire experiences, suffers terribly,\nyet learns by what he suffers, so that his very suffering becomes a\nmeans to his improvement; he learns swiftly or slowly, according to\nthe inherent nature of him, obedience to law; he learns that \"that\nwhich is governed by law is also preserved by law, and perfected and\nsanctified by the same; and that which breaketh the law and abideth\nnot by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to\nabide in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice\nnor judgment. Therefore they must remain filthy still.\" This\nconception of things relieves God of the responsibility for the nature\nand status of intelligences in all stages of their development; their\ninherent nature and their volition makes them primarily what they are,\nand this nature they may change, slowly, perhaps, yet change it they\nmay. God has put them in the way of changing it, by enlarging their\nintelligence through change of environment, through experiences; the\nonly way God effects these self-existent beings is favorably; He\ncreates not their inherent nature; He is not responsible for the use\nthey make of their freedom; nor is He the author of their sufferings\nwhen they fall into sin: that arises out of the violations of law, to\nwhich the \"Intelligence\" subscribed, and must be endured until the\nlessons of obedience to law are learned.\n\nThis conception of the order of things, as to the existence of\n\"Intelligences\" and in the moral government of the world, discovers a\nharmony in that government which at once challenges our admiration,\nand bears evidence of its truth.\n\n\nETERNITY OF RELATIONSHIPS: Matching these eternal things, an eternal\nuniverse, eternal spirit entities, eternal good, with its background\nof eternal evil,--eternal law, agency and the like, is the Prophet's\ndoctrine of eternal relations. Intelligences are begotten spirits;\nspirits are begotten men and women; these become resurrected and\nexalted personages, spirit and element in them being eternally united,\nwhence proceeds the fulness of joy, and glory, and power. The Prophet\ntaught that these relations, under which such begettings proceed in\ncelestial worlds, are themselves eternal. The marriage covenant which\nunited immortal beings is eternal, hence the eternity of the marriage\ncovenant which Joseph Smith introduced in our dispensation, called the\n\"New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage,\" by which marriages, under\nthe law of God, are made in our sacred places for time and eternity.\nThus the relationships of exalted Intelligences is also a thing\nregulated and sanctified by law; and from these relations come the\nfamily, a permanent, eternal institution; whence spring, also, all\nother relationships existing among the exalted Intelligences of all\nworlds and world-systems; until, indeed, all are bound and united\ntogether in bonds of relationships founded on mutual covenants and\nagreements, and sanctified by love and sympathy.\n\nWe may not persue this division of our subject further now. I merely\ncall your attention to these doctrines of the Prophet, without making\nany attempt to weave them into a system of philosophy of things, or of\nsentient existences; but I am persuaded that these doctrines set forth\nby the Prophet-Teacher of our dispensation, not indeed as the result\nof his own, human meditation, but based upon knowledge which God\nrevealed to him--therefore, coming with divine sanction--I am\npersuaded, I say, that these doctrines contain the elements of a\nphysical, moral and spiritual philosophy that will be the accepted\nphilosophy of the New Age now dawning upon our world; a philosophy\nthat will supersede all other philosophies and remain steadfast in\nboth the beliefs and affections of mankind. The elements, I say, are\nhere in these doctrines; they await only some future Spencer to weave\nthem into synthetic completeness, that shall be as beautiful as it\nwill be true, to make that philosophy acceptable to the higher\nintellects of our age.\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nTHE PROPHET'S GENERALIZATIONS.\n\n\nA word in relation to the manner of the Prophet's teaching. It was\nunique in its way. He may scarcely be said to have made any attempt at\ncreating a system of philosophy however much may be said for his\nsystem of religion and of ecclesiastical government. His philosophical\nprinciples were flung off in utterances without reference to any\narrangement or orderly sequence; and in the main were taught in\nindependent aphorisms, which is a remarkably effective way of\nteaching, for an aphorism resembles the proverb, and is a form in\nwhich Truth is bound to live. It is the American philosopher Emerson,\nI think, who describes a proverb to be the language of absolute\nTruth--the statement of Truth without qualification. It is the\nliterature of power. Fortunate, indeed, is the man who gives a people\nor nation a proverb; and so, too, is the nation or people fortunate\nwho receive it. Like mercy, it is twice blessed, it blesseth him that\ngives and him that takes. Usually proverbs are produced by a race's\nexperience. Proverbs come up out of the tribulations of a people. They\nare produced slowly and represent the hived wisdom of the ages. Books\nof proverbs are not written by men, to whom they are sometimes\nascribed, they represent a collection slowly produced through\ncenturies. Such are the proverbs of our Bible; proverbs of the Chinese\nclassics; and the proverbs of the Hindoo literature. Joseph Smith gave\nto his age many of these generalized truths, more, I think, than has\nfallen to the lot of any other teacher, save Jesus, the Christ. I can\nbut repeat a few of these as examples:\n\n    \"The glory of God is intelligence.\"\n\n    \"It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.\"\n\n    \"A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge.\"\n\n    \"Knowledge saves a man, and in the world of spirits no man can be\n    exalted but by knowledge.\"\n\n    \"Whatsoever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life\n    will rise with us in the resurrection.\"\n\n    \"If one man, by his diligence, obtains more knowledge than\n    another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.\"\n\n    \"There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven before the\n    foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are\n    predicated; and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by\n    obedience to that law on which it is predicated.\"\n\n    \"Adam fell that man might be, and men are that they might have\n    joy.\"\n\n    \"This is the glory of God--to bring to pass the immortality and\n    the eternal life of man.\"\n\n    \"The elements are eternal, yea, the elements are the tabernacle of\n    God. Man is the tabernacle of God, even temples.\"\n\n    \"The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably\n    united, receive a fulness of joy  [Hence the importance of man's\n    earth life in which spirit is united to earthly elements.]\n\n    \"If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not\n    comprehend themselves.\"\n\n    \"God Himself was once as we are now; and is an exalted Man; for\n    Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God.\"\n\n    \"The spirit of man is not a created being; it existed from\n    eternity, and will exist to eternity. Anything created cannot be\n    eternal.\"\n\n    \"The spirit and the body is the soul of man; and the resurrection\n    from the dead is the redemption of the soul.\"\n\n    \"It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty\n    the character of God, and to know that we may converse with Him as\n    one man converses with another.\"\n\n    \"Jesus was in the beginning with the Father. * * * Man was also in\n    the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was\n    not created or made, neither indeed can be.\"\n\n    \"Jesus treads in the footsteps of His Father, and inherits what\n    God did before; and God is thus glorified and exalted in the\n    salvation and exaltation of all His children.\"\n\n    \"The things of God are of deep import; and time and experience and\n    careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out.\n    Thy mind, O man, if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must\n    stretch as high as the utmost heavens and search into and\n    contemplate the darkest abyss and the broad expanse of\n    eternity--_thou must commune with God_!\"\n\nThe Prophet represents God as saying: \"I give unto men weaknesses that\nthey might be humble, and my grace is sufficient for all those who\nhumble themselves before me.\"\n\nTo one who inquired how he governed men so well, he said: \"I do not\ngovern them: I teach men correct principles, and they govern\nthemselves.\"\n\nThese sayings, with many others of like character, in the future\nliterature of America, philosophical and religious, will make its\npages blaze with glory. They are destined to become generally accepted\nprinciples of truth. They will become household aphorisms. They are\nwords spoken by inspiration of God. They come from what Carlyle calls,\n\"the inner Fact of things.\" They will live to influence the future\ngenerations of America, and of men everywhere.\n\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\nAN AMERICAN PROPHET.\n\n\nAMERICA THE \"OLD WORLD:\" There is one more thought I would like to\npresent to you respecting this Prophet, Joseph Smith. He is\npre-eminently the American Prophet. He is not the \"boy prophet;\" I\ndislike that term. He is not the \"Prophet of Palmyra;\" he is the\nProphet of the dispensation of the fulness of times; if localized at\nall he must be known as the \"American Prophet.\"\n\nNever was greater mistake made than to suppose that the disciples of\nJoseph Smith could be unpatriotic Americans. They must be ardently\npatriotic Americans. That this is true, let me a little show it. A\nline in one of our hymns runs:\n\n    \"For in Adam-ondi-Ahman,\n    Zion rose where Eden was.\"\n\nWhat is the meaning of this? It means that the Prophet taught that the\nAmerican continents are not the New World, but the Old; Teacher that\nEden was here in America. Adam-ondi-Ahman, the place where Adam dwelt\nafter being driven from Eden, the Prophet declared to be in Missouri,\nin the valley of the Grand River. He represents a gathering together\nthere of the patriarchs of the antediluvian age: and tells how they\nblessed Adam, or \"Michael,\" the \"Ancient of Days;\" and Adam rose among\nthem and blessed the patriarchs, his posterity, and told what should\nbefall them to their latest generations.\n\nAmong the Patriarchs Enoch was pre-eminent for righteousness. He, in\nthis western hemisphere, founded a city, sanctified it, and called it\n\"Zion,\" the abode of the pure in heart; \"for this is Zion\"--wherein\nthat word relates to a people--\"the pure in heart.\" Hence \"Zion rose\nwhere Eden was,\" here in America. But in the course of time \"Enoch\nwalked with God: and he was not; for God took him.\" That is, according\nto Paul, God translated him, that he should not see death (Gen. v;\nHeb. xi); and according to Joseph Smith, this happened to his city\nalso; hence the saying, \"Zion's fled.\"\n\nThen after the Flood, the Lord led to these Western continents the\nJaredite colony from the Euphrates valley; and sixteen centuries later\nthe Nephite colony from Jerusalem. In each case the Lord declared to\nthe peoples so led to the Western world that it was \"a choice land\nabove all other lands.\" The Savior, in the most glorious manner, after\nHis resurrection from the dead, visited these blessed Western\nContinents and declared that here should be built a Holy City by the\nunited efforts of the house of Israel, chiefly the descendants of the\nPatriarch Joseph, of Egyptian fame, and the Gentile races who have\nright to an inheritance in the land; and the City should be called\n\"Zion,\" a \"New Jerusalem.\" The \"Zion\" from which \"the law should go\nforth,\" as the word of the Lord should go forth from Old Jerusalem.\nBecause of the future establishment of this city, of Zion, upon these\nwestern continents, as also on account of Enoch's Zion, they are\ncalled the \"Land of Zion.\"\n\n\nTHE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES INSPIRED OF GOD: Joseph Smith\nalso taught that the Constitution of the United States was a\nGod-inspired instrument. \"It is not right,\" he represents the Lord as\nsaying, \"that one man should be in bondage to another;\" and hence the\nConstitution should be maintained for the preservation of the rights,\nand the protection of all flesh, \"according to just and holy\nprinciples, that every man may act in doctrine and principle,\npertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I [the\nLord] have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his\nown sins in the day of judgment. And for this purpose have I\nestablished the Constitution of this land by the hands of wise men\nwhom I raised up unto this very purpose.\"\n\nSo Joseph Smith's disciples hold the Constitution of the United States\nto be inspired of God. I think sometimes, however, that we do not\nrealize all that this truth means. We are apt to think of things in\nmass, and do not take the time to analyze them. What does it mean to\nsay that the Constitution of the United States is an inspired\ninstrument? Undoubtedly, it means primarily that God recognizes the\nright of the people, in their political capacity, to govern\nthemselves. It expresses the divine belief, so to speak, in the\ncapacity of man for self-government. It means that the people in their\npolitical affairs are sovereign; for this is the chief thing which\ndistinguishes the American government from other political systems of\ngovernment. We are not always happy in our forms of expression. We do\nnot make our terminology always meet our ideas. In spite of the fact\njust alluded to--viz., the people are sovereign, we talk of, and pray\nfor, \"those who rule over us,\" meaning presidents, cabinets, senators,\ngovernors, and the like; but these are not \"rulers,\" they are the\npeople's servants, elected for a limited time to administer government\naccording to law, under the provisions of our Constitution; but they\nserve, they do not rule. The people are sovereign, and the people\nalone are rulers, and they appoint or elect their servants. Moreover,\nthis Constitution provides for the freedom of the press; for freedom\nof speech; for freedom and independence of the individual. It\nguarantees religious liberty, hence a free church, as well as a free\nstate, each independent of and separate from the other. The government\nis an indestructible Union, composed of indestructible States. To hold\nthat the Constitution which provides for these things, is inspired of\nGod, is to hold that each of these separate things, as well as the\nthing in mass, is ordained of God by the hands of wise men whom He\nraised up to establish this system of government; and to deny to the\npeople the enjoyment of these several rights, to undertake, by any\nmeans whatsoever, to thwart the realization of government by the\npeople, to attempt to defeat the expression of their will, or make it\nresult different from what their untrammeled judgment would have it,\nis to make an infraction upon the things that have been ordained of\nGod.\n\nIn the above quotation concerning the system of Government established\nby the Constitution of the United States being inspired of God, we may\ndiscern the purpose of God in the establishment of such a government.\nThat purpose is that every man may become directly and personally\nresponsible to God for his actions in matters relating to civil\ngovernment--\"that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the\nday of judgment.\" The principle is, however, more fully developed in\nthe Book of Mormon than in the quotation here considered. The\nincident which develops the principle occurs in the reign of the first\nMosiah, and at a period that corresponds with the latter half of the\nsecond century B.C. The old king proposed to his people a revolution\nin the form of government by which monarchy should be abandoned and a\nrepublican form of government established in its place. In urging this\nrevolutionary measure the good king said:\n\n    \"It is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything\n    contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser\n    part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore\n    this shall ye observe, and make it your law, to do your business\n    by the voice of the people. And if the time comes that the voice\n    of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the\n    judgments of God will come upon you, yea, then is the time He will\n    visit you with great destruction, even as He has hitherto visited\n    this land. * * * And I command you to do these things in the fear\n    of the Lord; and I command you to do these things, and that ye\n    have no king; that if these people commit sins and iniquities,\n    they shall be answered upon their own heads. For behold, I say\n    unto you, the sins of many people have been caused by the\n    iniquities of their kings; therefore their iniquities are answered\n    upon the heads of their kings. And now I desire that this\n    inequality should be no more in this land, especially among this\n    my people; but I desire that this be a land of liberty, that every\n    man may enjoy his rights and privileges alike, so long as the Lord\n    sees fit that we may live and inherit the land; yea, even as long\n    as any of our posterity remains upon the face of the land.\"\n\nBut in order that this element of moral responsibility may be brought\ninto civil government, it stands to reason that every individual must\nbe free and untrammeled in the exercise of his political duties,\nincluding the casting of his vote. Each individual must have an equal\nvoice in the government. Every man must be a sovereign in the civil\ninstitution, and his vote must represent the voice and judgment of a\nfree man. A vote unawed by influence, and uncoerced by any power\nwhatsoever. Less than this would convert the whole scheme of\ngovernment by the voice of the people into mockery. Under a system of\ngovernment by the people, in order to retain the element of moral\nresponsibility of the people in civil affairs, there must be no appeal\nbut to the intelligent judgment of the individual. Each man's act must\nbe the act of a free man; and those who would corrupt the electorate\nof a government where the people rule, or sway it by any other force\nthan by an appeal to reason, would destroy this element of personal,\nmoral responsibility in civil government, and in the case of those of\nus who accept this book from which I am quoting--if we would appeal to\nany other force than to that of reason or resort to any species of\ncoercion, _we would be setting ourselves against an order of things\nthat God has ordained_.\n\nAdherence to these principles is pure Americanism. This is\nconstitutional morality. This is both the principle and the policy\nthat will most inure to the perpetuation of our free institutions.\nThis is the sheet-anchor of our safety as a nation--our surest\nguarantee of God's favor. The man who promulgated this doctrine of\nindividual, personal responsibility to God in the affairs of civil\ngovernment, where the people rule, is worthy to be numbered among the\ngreatest of American statesmen, American teachers, American prophets!\n\nIt means a great deal, this idea that the Constitution of the United\nStates is inspired of God!\n\n\nAMERICA FORTIFIED OF GOD AGAINST OTHER NATIONS: Not only did the\nProphet teach the doctrine that the United States Constitution was\ninspired of God, but he tells us through the Book of Mormon that God\nhas fortified this land against all other nations. I will read you the\npassage. The Lord said to Lehi:\n\n    \"Behold, this land shall be the land of thine inheritance, and the\n    Gentiles shall be blessed upon the land. This land shall be a land\n    of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon the\n    land who shall raise up unto the Gentiles. And I will fortify this\n    land against all other nations, and he that fighteth against Zion\n    [these continents of the western world] shall perish, saith God;\n    for he that raiseth up a king against me shall perish, for I, the\n    Lord, the King of Heaven, will be their King, and I will be a\n    light unto them forever that hear my words.\"\n\nThis guarantee, however, this fortifying this land against all other\nnations, is upon a certain condition: the condition that the \"God of\nthe land, who is Jesus Christ,\" shall be honored by them. On this head\nI want to read to you a passage from a certain American statesman,\nthat I can easily believe was one of the God-inspired men appointed to\nassist in the maintenance of true constitutional principles, as others\nwere inspired to found the Constitution. I refer to the great\nstatesman of nationalism, Daniel Webster, who, before the New York\nHistorical society, in 1852, in his last public address, said:\n\n    \"Unborn ages and visions of glory crowd upon my soul, the\n    realization of all which, however, is in the hands and good\n    pleasure of Almighty God; but, under His divine blessing, it will\n    be dependent on the character and the virtues of ourselves, and of\n    our posterity. If classical history has been found to be, is now,\n    and shall continue to be, the concomitant of free institutions,\n    and of popular eloquence, what a field is opening to us for\n    another Herodotus, another Thucydides, and another Livy!\n\n    \"And let me say, gentlemen, that if we and our posterity shall be\n    true to the Christian religion--if we and they shall live always\n    in the fear of God, and shall respect His commandments--if we and\n    they shall maintain just, moral sentiments, and such conscientious\n    convictions of duty as shall control the heart and life--we may\n    have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country, and\n    if we maintain those institutions of government and that political\n    union, exceeding all praise as much as it exceeds all former\n    examples of political associations, we may be sure of one\n    thing--that, while our country furnishes materials for a thousand\n    masters of the historic art, it will afford no topic for a Gibbon.\n    It will have no decline and fall. It will go on prospering and to\n    prosper.\n\n    \"But if we and our posterity reject religious instruction and\n    authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the\n    injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political\n    Constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a\n    catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in\n    profound obscurity. Should that catastrophe happen, let it have no\n    history! Let the horrible narrative never be written! Let its fate\n    be like that of the lost books of Livy, which no human eye shall\n    ever read; or the missing Pleiad, of which no man can ever know\n    more, than that it is lost, and lost forever!\"\n\nSuch were the sentiments of this patriotic statesman; but the\nbeautiful and flowing periods in which he expresses his thought, are\nin no respects better or stronger, or more patriotic than the rugged\nutterances of Joseph Smith, in whose utterances throughout our sacred\nbooks, there is a wealth of pure American sentiment that is the basis\nof a patriotism that shall yet exceed all praise.\n\nIn view of all that is here set forth, I submit that Joseph Smith was\npre-eminently the American Prophet.\n\nStanding in the midst of these ideas to which we have ascended in\nthought about this man and his life's work, all which tend to\nestablish his claims as a Prophet--\"a Teacher sent of God\"--how\nunworthy indeed seem the attempts of men to stay his work, or defame\nhis character by their silly misrepresentations! We hear a babel of\nconfused voices coming up from the past, \"pelting his memory with\ntheir unsavory epithets,\" but all is vain; he may not be disposed of\nin such manner.\n\nMeanwhile, the truths he taught will live to instruct mankind, and of\nJoseph Smith it will yet be said--as Josiah Quincy half predicted\nsixty-three years ago--He influenced his countrymen more than any\nother historical American of his time.","title":"Joseph Smith the Prophet-Teacher: A Discourse","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":15572}