{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_35470/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_35470","id":"gutenberg_35470","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35470","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Latter Day Saint churches","Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines","Latter Day Saints"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by the Mormon Texts Project,\nhttp://bencrowder.net/books/mtp. Volunteers: Benjamin\nBytheway, Hilton Campbell, Ben Crowder, Meridith Crowder,\nCameron Dixon, Tod Robbins, David Van Leeuwen.\n\n\n\n\n\nFrontispiece.\n\n  Fly--fly--these thoughts on the lightning car,\n  With the speed of light to the realms afar!\n  Mount--mount the car with the horse of fire;\n  Outstrip the wind, he will never tire,\n  Let the wild bird scream as he lags behind,\n  And the hurricane a champion find.\n  Search the darkest spot where mortals dwell:\n  With a voice of thunder the tidings tell,\n  Proclaim the dawn of a brighter day,\n  When the _King of kings_ shall his sceptre sway.\n  Bid pain, and anguish, and sorrow cease,\n  And open the way for the _Prince of Peace_.\n  He will conquer death, bid mourning flee,\n  And give to the nations a _Jubilee_.\n\n\n\n\nKEY\nTO THE\nSCIENCE OF THEOLOGY:\n\nDESIGNED AS\n\nAn Introduction\n\nTO THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY; RELIGION; LAW AND\nGOVERNMENT; AS DELIVERED BY THE ANCIENTS, AND AS RESTORED IN THIS AGE,\nFOR THE FINAL DEVELOPMENT OF UNIVERSAL PEACE, TRUTH AND KNOWLEDGE.\n\n\nBY PARLEY P. PRATT.\n\n\n    O Truth divine! what treasures unrevealed,\n    In thine exhaustless fountains are concealed!\n    Words multiplied; how powerless to tell,\n    The infinitude with which our bosoms swell.\n\n\nLiverpool:\nF. D. RICHARDS, 15, WILTON STREET.\n\nLondon:\nL.D SAINTS' BOOK DEPOT, 35, JEWIN ST., CITY,\nAND ALL BOOKSELLERS.\n\n\n1855.\n\n\n\n\nENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.\n\n\nJ. Sadler, Printer, 1, Moorfields, Liverpool.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nPreface\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n  Theology--its definition--historical illustrations\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n  Decline and loss of this science among the Jews\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n  Progress, decline and final loss of the science of Theology among\n  the Gentiles--foreshadowings of its restoration for the ushering in\n  of the Millennium\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n  Rise, progress, decline and loss of the science of Theology on the\n  Western Hemisphere, as brought to light by the late discovery of\n  Ancient American Records\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n  Keys of the mysteries of the Godhead\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n  Origin of the Universe\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n  Destiny of the Universe\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n  Key of Knowledge, Power and Government\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n  Revival, or restoration of the science of Theology, in the present\n  age\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\n  Keys of initiation in practical Theology\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\n  Philosophy of Miracles\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\n  Angels and Spirits\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\n  Dreams\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\n  The world of Spirits\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\n  Resurrection, its times and degrees--first, second and third\n  heavens; or, the Telestial, Terrestrial and Celestial kingdoms\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\n  Further remarks on man's physical and intellectual\n  progress--Philosophy of will, as originating, directing and\n  controlling all voluntary animal motion--astounding facts, in\n  relation to the speed, or velocity of motion, as attainable by\n  physical man--intercommunication of the inhabitants of different and\n  distant planets\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\n  Laws of marriage and procreation\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThe present is an age of progress, of change, of rapid advance, and of\nwonderful revolutions.\n\nThe very foundations of society--social, political, commercial, moral\nand religious, seem to be shaken as with a mighty earthquake, from\ncentre to circumference. All things tremble; creation groans; the\nworld is in travail, and pains to be delivered.\n\nA new era has dawned upon our planet, and is advancing with\naccelerated force--with giant strides.\n\nThe rail-roads and the steam-boats, with their progressive\nimprovements in speed, safety and convenience, are extending and\nmultiplying the means of travel, of trade, of association, and\nintercommunication between countries whose inhabitants have been\ncomparatively unknown to, or estranged from, each other.\n\nBut, as if even these means were too slow for the God-like\naspirations, the mighty throes of human thought, and its struggles for\nlight and expansion, man seizes the lightning, tames and subdues it,\nand makes it the bearer of his thoughts and despatches. While these\nthings are in progress by one portion of mankind, another learns to\nseize and control a sunbeam, in a manner subservient to the progress\nof the fine arts: and by which means a man performs in a minute, the\nwork which a short time since would have employed the most active\nyears of a lifetime.\n\nWhile every science, every art is being developed; while the mind is\nawakened to new thought; while the windows of heaven are opened, as it\nwere, and the profound depths of human intellect are stirred--moved\nfrom the foundation on all other subjects, religious knowledge seems\nat a stand still.\n\nThe _creeds_ of the Fathers seem to have been cast in the mould of\nother ages, to be adapted to a more narrow sphere of intellectual\ndevelopment, and to be composed of material too much resembling cast\niron; or, at least, not sufficiently elastic to expand with the\nexpansion of mind, to grow with the growth, and advance with the\nprogressive principles of the age.\n\nFor these reasons, perhaps more than any other, the master spirits of\nthe age are breaking loose from the old moorings, and withdrawing from\nestablished and venerated systems, by which means society is\ndistracted, divided, broken up, thrown, as it were, into a chaos of\nconfused, disorganized individualization, without a standard or\nrallying point, without a nucleus by which to concentrate or\nre-organise this chaotic mass, these atoms of thought.\n\nOne thing is certain--according to ancient prophecy, and agreeable to\nthe general expectation of this and other ages, the day approaches\nwhich will flood the earth with the pure principles of religious\nknowledge; a day when none will have to teach his neighbour, saying,\nKnow ye the Lord; for all persons shall know Him, from the least to\nthe greatest.\n\nIt should be a matter of serious thought and investigation--without\nrespect to party, sect, or creed, whether there should not, in the\nvery nature of present circumstances, and future Millennial hopes, be\nan entire remodelling, or re-organization of religious society, upon\nthe broad basis of revealed knowledge, tangible fact, and\nphilosophical, scientific and spiritual Truth--a universal\n\"_standard_,\" of immutable Truth, instead of numberless systems\nfounded on uncertainty, opinion, mere human impression, or conjecture.\n\nCan anything short of such a standard unite society, enlighten the\nworld, establish real peace, brotherhood and fellowship, and put a\nfinal end to all religious ignorance, superstition, jargon, or\ndiscord? Is not a difference of opinion, or a disagreement on any\ngiven subject, a proof positive of existing ignorance, or want of\nlight or information, on the part of the parties disagreeing? If so,\nthe present age is certainly in the dark, or, in a great measure,\nignorant on religious subjects. A knowledge of the Truth can alone\nbring the desired union, and bid discord cease. If the Scriptures be\ntrue, it is not religious _opinion_ which will cover the earth, and\nuniversally pervade every bosom, but it is, a KNOWLEDGE, \"The\nknowledge of God.\" \"_God is Truth_.\" To _know_ Him, is to know the\nTruth.\n\nThe present Volume aims to embody, in a concise and somewhat original\nmanner and style, a general view of the Science of Theology, as\ngathered from revelation, history, prophecy, reason and analogy.\n\nIf the Work proves an introductory key to some of the first principles\nof the divine science of which it treats; if it serves to open the\neyes of any of his fellowmen, on the facts of the past, the present,\nand the future; if it leads to investigation and inquiry, and calls\npublic attention to the greater and more particular truths which have\nbeen, or are about to be, revealed as a standard by which to unite the\npeople of all nations and of all religions upon the rock, the sure\nfoundation of divine, eternal, uncreated, infinite and exhaustless\nTruth, it will have accomplished the end aimed at by\n\n                                              THE AUTHOR.\n\n\n\n\nKey to Theology.\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHEOLOGY--ITS DEFINITION--HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\n   Eternal Science! who would fathom thee\n   Must launch his bark upon a shoreless sea.\n   Thy knowledge yet shall overwhelm the earth,\n   Thy truth to immortality to give birth;\n   Thy dawn shall kindle to eternal day,\n   And man, immortal, still shall own thy sway.\n\nFirst. THEOLOGY is the science of communication, or of correspondence,\nbetween God, angels, spirits, and men, by means of visions, dreams,\ninterpretations, conversations, inspirations, or the spirit of\nprophecy and revelation.\n\nSecond. It is the science by which worlds are organized, sustained,\nand directed, and the elements controlled.\n\nThird. It is the science of knowledge, and the key and power thereof,\nby which the heavens are opened, and lawful access is obtained to the\ntreasures of wisdom and intelligence--inexhaustible, infinite,\nembracing the past, the present, and the future.\n\nFourth. It is the science of life--endless and eternal, by which the\nliving are changed or translated, and the dead raised.\n\nFifth. It is the science of _faith_, reformation, and remission of\nsins, whereby a fallen race of mortals may be justified, cleansed, and\nrestored to the communion and fellowship of that Holy Spirit which is\nthe light of the world, and of every intelligence therein.\n\nSixth. It is the science of spiritual gifts, by which the blind see,\nthe deaf hear, the lame walk, the sick are healed, and demons are\nexpelled from the human system.\n\nSeventh. It is the science of all other sciences and useful arts,\nbeing in fact the very fountain from which they emanate. It includes\nphilosophy, astronomy, history, mathematics, geography, languages, the\nscience of letters; and blends the knowledge of all matters of fact,\nin every branch of art, or of research. It includes, also, all the\nscientific discoveries and inventions--agriculture, the mechanical\narts, architecture, shipbuilding, the properties and applications of\nthe mariner's compass, navigation, and music. All that is useful,\ngreat, and good; all that is calculated to sustain, comfort, instruct,\nedify, purify, refine, or exalt intelligences; originated by this\nscience, and this science alone, all other sciences being but branches\ngrowing out of _this--root_.\n\nSome of the facts stated in the foregoing, are beautifully illustrated\nin Theological history, of which the following is an imperfect\nsummary--\n\nGod spake, and the worlds were framed by His word.\n\nHe spake, darkness dispersed, and light prevailed.\n\nHe commanded, and the elements--water and earth, separated, and\nassumed their proper bounds.\n\nHe commanded, and the earth brought forth vegetable and animal life in\ncountless variety.\n\nHe commanded, and man, male and female, took upon them a tabernacle of\nflesh, and prepared to multiply and perpetuate their species in the\nnew creation.\n\n\"The Lord God planted a garden,\" and thus introduced agriculture.\n\n\"He made coats of skins,\" hence the tailor's art.\n\nThe Lord God commanded and gave pattern for Noah's Ark, thus\nintroducing the art of shipbuilding.\n\nHe revealed the patterns for the Tabernacle in the wilderness, with\nall its arrangements and furniture; and afterwards developed the\nentire plan and all the designs of that most stupendous of all works\nof art--the great Temple of Solomon, with all its furniture; thus\ndeveloping and improving the art of architecture.\n\nThe Lord God wrote with His own finger on the \"tables of stone,\" on\nMount Sinai; thus showing that the science of letters was cultivated\nand used by the highest Intelligence of the eternal heavens.\n\nThe Lord God has revealed by Ezekiel the Prophet, a plan for the\nsurvey and division of Palestine to the Twelve Tribes of Israel, on\ntheir return to the land of their fathers; also for laying out the new\ncity of Jerusalem, with its squares, blocks, public grounds, and\nsuburbs, and its temple.\n\nThus Theology includes the surveyor's art, and the planning of cities,\nas well as temples, and shows that these arts are cultivated in\nheaven, and that the very highest Intelligence of the Heaven of\nheavens, stoops, or condescends, to grace these arts by His own\nparticular attention and example.\n\nIn the Revelation of John the Apostle, on the Isle of Patmos, we have\na specimen, a masterpiece, a climax of all that is great and grand in\ndesign, and splendid and glorious in execution, in cities, thrones,\npalaces, streets, pavements, outgrounds, gates, walks, squares,\nfountains, rivulets, gardens, fruits, groves, specimens of dress,\npoetry, song, music, marriage, bridal dress, feasting, books,\nliterature, public worship, prophesying, prayer, and praise, as\nexisting in and around the palaces of the New Jerusalem, the capital\nof heaven, the seat of government of the Eternal King.\n\nThe very gates of the city are numbered and named, together with the\nparticular names of the precious stones forming the foundations\nthereof; the gold which composed the pavement of the streets--all are\nportrayed in the description.\n\nAnd what is still more marvellous, all this surpassing grandeur of\ndesign, and stupendous wisdom and display in execution, were explored,\ncomprehended, and described by a poor, illiterate fisherman, by the\naid of the science and arts of Theology.\n\nHaving reviewed some of the works of the great Head--the President or\nFirst Teacher in the school of Theology, we will still continue the\nhistoric illustrations of this wonderful science, as developed and\nexemplified by the most eminent students and professors of the same.\n\nBy this science Adam obtained from his Father, the promise of the\neternal dominion over the planet on which he was placed.\n\nBy this science Enoch overcame death, and ascended to a higher sphere\nof immortality and eternal life, without even being separated from his\nfleshly tabernacle.\n\nBy this science Noah foretold the flood, prepared to meet the event,\nand, with his family, survived the same, and became the greatest\nlanded proprietor since Adam.\n\nBy the perversion and unlawful use of this science king Nimrod built\nthe stupendous Tower of Babel, but was frustrated, and his works were\ndestroyed before their completion.\n\nBy this science various tongues and languages were instituted, and\ncolonies--the germs of nations, planted beyond the seas and in all the\nearth.\n\nBy this science Abraham escaped the idolatry and priestcraft of the\nEgyptians, and of the world around him; obtained a good land secured\nto him and his seed by an immutable oath, covenant, and an\neverlasting, unchangeable title.\n\nBy this science he conversed with angels, and was favoured with a\npersonal interview with the Great Head and Founder of the science, who\nbecame his guest, and, after eating and drinking with him, blessed him\nand his wife, promised them an heir in their old age, and finally, on\nparting, told him His design on Sodom and its neighbourhood.\n\nBy this science Lot escaped the flames of Sodom, the knowledge being\ncommunicated by two angels.\n\nBy this science Isaac and Jacob also obtained promises, and conversed\nwith angels.\n\nBy it Joseph was exalted from a dungeon to a palace, for the\nsalvation, from famine, of a nation and of his father's house.\n\nBy this science Moses performed his wonders in Egypt, in the Red Sea,\nand in the wilderness.\n\nBy the perversion and unlawful use of this science the magicians of\nEgypt withstood Moses for a time, and performed their enchantments.\n\nBy this science Joshua controlled the motions of the earth, and\nlengthened out the day by a simple command.\n\nBy this science the walls of Jericho were levelled with the earth, and\nthe city was taken.\n\nBy this science the Jordan river was divided, while a nation crossed\ndry shod, to take possession of the promised land.\n\nBy this science Elijah controlled the heavens, that it rained not for\nthree years and six months in Palestine. And by it he called forth and\nrestored rain.\n\nBy it he overthrew the priests of Baal, and the kingdom of Ahab; put\nan end to the royal family of this idolatrous king; and placed Jehu on\nthe throne.\n\nBy it he rose, like Enoch, to a higher sphere, without returning to\ndust.\n\nBy this science Samuel prophesied, raised up a mighty king and nation,\nand afterwards dethroned Saul, and exalted an obscure shepherd boy to\nthe throne of Israel.\n\nBy this science Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and others,\nforetold the fate of Babylon, Egypt, Tyre, Jerusalem, and other cities\nand nations; and the exact career and final doom of Nebuchadnezzar,\nBelteshazzar, Cyrus, and other great and important personages, who\nwere destined in turn to influence and decide the fate of nations.\n\nBy this science the furnace of fire was overcome, and the months of\nlions were closed, that no harm should befall the holy men of God.\n\nBy this science Zachariah, Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Simeon, Anna,\nJoseph, Mary, the wise men from the east, and the shepherds of Judea,\nenjoyed visions, communion with angels, and the spirit of prophecy, so\nas to understand and welcome with joy the events of the birth and\napproaching ministry of Jesus Christ, when, as yet, all those not\nversed in this science, were in darkness on the subject, and as liable\nto reject the Saviour as to receive him.\n\nDreams and visions, enjoyed by means of this science, led and\nprotected the Son of God in all his career of mortal life.\n\nFinally--By this same power a mighty angel descended, shook the earth,\nfrightened the Roman guards, rolled away the great stone, broke the\nseal of the tomb, and called to life the sleeping body of Jesus\nChrist.\n\nBy this power the risen Jesus, eating, drinking, and conversing with\nhis disciples, after his resurrection, commissioned and instructed\nthem in the same science, ordained them to act in the same, and to\nimpart its power to others, in all the world, with signs following\nthem that believed.\n\nBy this science he ascended to the Father, and lives for ever in the\nflesh, to shed forth the gifts and powers of the same science,\naccording to his own will, and the will of his Father, to reign\nhenceforth until he descends to the earth, conquers death in a last\ngreat conflict, and puts all enemies under his feet.\n\nBy this same power his Apostles, being clothed with the full powers of\nthe same on the day of Pentecost, ministered the powers and knowledge\nof this science to others, both Jew and Gentile, insomuch that the\nsick were healed, the blind saw, the dumb spake, the deaf heard, the\nlame walked, devils were cast out, and the dead were raised, while\neverywhere, dreams, visions, the ministering of angels, and the gift\nof prophecy were enjoyed.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nDECLINE AND LOSS OF THIS SCIENCE AMONG THE JEWS.\n\n\n    O horrid! awful! melancholy sight!\n    A nation, wont to soar 'mid realms of light,\n    Degraded, fallen, sunk in dark despair,\n    The hiss, the scorn, the bye-word everywhere;\n    No eye to pity, and no arm to save,\n    Till wearied nature finds an exile's grave.\n\nIt now becomes our painful task to trace the decline of the science of\nTheology and its powers among the nations, and to review the awful\nconsequences of such decline.\n\nWe will commence with the Jewish nation.\n\nThe science of Theology, as we have just reviewed, was enjoyed, and\nits powers were wonderfully developed, under the several dispensations\ncalled Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Jewish.\n\nThere had, however, been a great decline, a retrogression of the\npowers and knowledge of the same, previous to their restoration by\nJohn the Baptist and Jesus Christ.\n\nThis was owing to the general prevalence of sectarian principles,\ndivisions, precepts, commandments, and doctrines of men, by which the\nLaw and the Prophets were made void, and a veil was thrown over them,\nor over the hearts of men, by which means they were misunderstood, or\nrather, not understood at all.\n\nIt therefore became the duty of Jesus Christ and his Apostles and\nElders, as well as of his forerunner, to reprove those sects, denounce\ntheir doctrines and traditions, and restore that which was lost in\nthis great science.\n\nThis restoration was at first confined strictly to the nation of the\nJews. But seeing they turned from it, and judged themselves unworthy\nof eternal life, preferring their own powerless forms and doctrines,\nto the science of revelation, miracles, visions, and prophecy, which\nhad ever illuminated the pathway of their more ancient fathers, the\nApostles turned from them, by the commandment of the Lord, and\ntranslated this science, with its keys and legitimate powers, to the\nGentiles.\n\nThe nation had rejected and slain the Messiah, stoned the Prophets,\nand imprisoned and even murdered many of the Apostles and Elders; and\nJesus had already, in tears of anguish, announced their doom--\n\n\"_O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest\nthem which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy\nchildren together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her\nwings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.\nFor I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say,\nBlessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord_.\"\n\nAgain, on another occasion, the Messiah uttered his voice,\nsaying--\"_There shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon\nthis people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall\nbe led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden\ndown of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled_.\"\n\nAgain he spake, concerning the Temple, saying--\"_There shall net be\nleft here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down_.\"\n\nAll these things, foretold by the science of Theology, were fulfilled\nin that generation. And Jerusalem has been destroyed, trodden down by\nthe Gentiles, and the Jews have remained in captivity among the\nnations until now.\n\nOur readers will readily discern the entire loss of the science and\npowers of Theology among this nation; the time, circumstances, and\nreasons of its decline; and the time or circumstances which will\nrestore it unto them.\n\nThey lost it when, by the hand of the Apostles, it was taken from them\nand given to the Gentiles.\n\nThe result was, the destruction of their city and temple, and of their\nnational existence.\n\nTheir temple, priesthood, and offerings were no longer attended by\ndivine power. Its outward forms were, therefore, of no possible use.\n\nFrom that very time to the present--One thousand eight hundred and\nfifty-one of the Christian era, the voice of a Prophet has not been\nheard among the Jews.\n\nAngels have not ministered unto them.\n\nThere has been no vision from the Lord.\n\nNo dream or interpretation.\n\nNo answer by Urim or Thummim.\n\nNo Prophet.\n\nNo voice.\n\nNo sound.\n\nNo reproof.\n\nNo comforting whisper.\n\nAll is silence--stillness--solemn blackness of despair.\n\nAll is as the similitude and shadow of death.\n\nOh the weariness, the painful suspense, the watchings, the wanderings,\nthe anxieties, the pains and sorrows of eighteen centuries! Oh the\nmist of ages which has shrouded a nation as it were in the gloom of an\nendless night!\n\nWhen--O when, will their day dawn, and the day star of their ancient\nscience appear above the horizon, disperse the cloud, and usher in the\nmorning of a brighter day?\n\n_When the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled_.\n\nWhen they shall welcome a messenger in the name of the Lord.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nPROGRESS, DECLINE, AND FINAL LOSS OF THE SCIENCE OF THEOLOGY AMONG THE\nGENTILES--FORESHADOWINGS OF ITS RESTORATION FOR THE USHERING IN OF THE\nMILLENNIUM.\n\n\n    Oh Mystic Babel, long has been thy reign!\n    What direful evils follow in thy train!\n    The veil is rent--thy mystery revealed,\n    Angels cry wo! and God thy doom has sealed.\n    The nations, from thy long and dreary night,\n    Are waking now to everlasting light.\n\nReturning to the Gentile Church, we find the science of Theology, with\nall its miraculous powers of visions, dreams, angels, revelations,\nprophecy, healings, &c., everywhere enjoyed. It had abated none of its\npowers, in its transition from Jew to Gentile. The wild branches,\nbeing engrafted into the good old stock, immediately partook of the\nroot and fatness of the tame olive tree, and thus was produced the\nnatural fruit.\n\nBut Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, in his writings to the\nRomans, cautioned them to beware lest they should fall away after the\nsame example as the Jews had done before them.\n\nSaid he--\"_If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he\nalso spare not thee_.\"\n\nJohn the Apostle also predicted the rise and universal sway of a\ncertain mystical power, a Babel of spiritual or religious confusion,\nin short--\"_Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and\nabominations of the earth_.\"\n\nThis power should bear rule among all nations. The kings and rulers of\nthe earth should be drunken with the wine of her fornication. The\nmerchants of the earth should become rich through the abundance of her\ndelicacies.\n\nThis power should, according to the Prophet Daniel and the Apostle\nJohn, \"_wear out the Saints of the Most High_;\" \"_change times and\nlaws_;\" \"_be drunken with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood\nof the martyrs of Jesus_;\" \"_destroy the mighty and the holy people_;\"\n\"_make war with the Saints, and overcome them_\" until a set time.\n\nAll these predictions, and many others, foretell the doom of the\nGentile Church--its destruction from the earth, and the consequent\ndecline and cessation of the science of Theology, and of its powers\nand blessings in the Gentile world.\n\nConnected with these predictions, we have the most positive prophetic\ndeclarations of Holy Writ concerning the overthrow and entire\ndestruction of this same mystical power, which had made war with the\nSaints.\n\nIts judgments are set forth as far more terrible than those which\nbefell Jerusalem. Plague, pestilence, sword, earthquake, and the flame\nof devouring fire will cause her to cease to be.\n\nThen will usher in the kingdom of our God, and the power of His\nChrist. Then will the Saints of the Most High take the kingdom, and\nthe greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven.\n\nThus are to be revived the ancient powers and blessings, the knowledge\nand wisdom, of the science of Theology.\n\nIn the fulfilment of the foregoing predictions, the science of\nTheology declined, and passed away from among the Gentiles, just in\nproportion as the Church, or the Saints of the Most High, were warred\nagainst and overcome.\n\nFor years, centuries, ages, there has been no voice from heaven among\nthe Gentiles, any more than among the Jews. They have fallen \"_after\nthe same example of unbelief_,\" notwithstanding the caution of their\ngreat Apostle.\n\nNo Gentile Prophet has arisen and uttered his voice.\n\nNo kind angel has ministered to them.\n\nNo vision from the Lord.\n\nNo answer.\n\nNo inspired dream.\n\nNo voice.\n\nNo sound from the heavens.\n\nNo revelation has burst upon the silence of midnight darkness which\nhas brooded over the nations.\n\nOr, if such voice, such vision, such Prophet has occasionally burst\nforth with the testimony of Jesus, the spirit of prophecy, his\ntestimony has been unheeded by the mass of the people called\nChristians, his voice silenced in death, or himself and his followers\nhave been banished from society, to wander in the mountains, forests,\ncaves, or deserts of the earth; or, on the other hand, compelled to\ndrag out an existence in the solitude of the dungeon.\n\nAges, centuries have passed, and Oh! what suffering! what torture!\nwhat rivers of tears! what oceans of blood! what groanings! what\nstrong crying and tears on the earth! what prayers in heaven!\n\n\"How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our\nblood, on them that dwell on the earth?\"\n\nThe fire consumed.\n\nThe sword devoured.\n\nHell's artillery bellowed.\n\nDevils hugely grinned.\n\nWidows and orphans mourned.\n\nHeaven wept.\n\nSaints prayed.\n\nJustice stood aghast.\n\nMercy, retiring, dropped a tear of blood.\n\nAngels, starting, half-drew their glittering swords.\n\nAnd the Gods, in solemn council, decreed a just vengeance.\n\nProtest upon protest! reforms and re-reforms; revolutions, struggles,\nexertions of every kind, of mere human invention, have been tried, and\ntried in vain. The science of Theology, with all its keys and powers,\nonce lost, could never, consistent with the ancient Prophetic\ntestimony, be restored to either Jew or Gentile, until the full time\nshould arrive--\"_The times of restitution of all things, which God\nhath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world\nbegan_.\"\n\nThe time for _a mighty angel to fly in the midst of heaven, having the\neverlasting Gospel to preach to them who dwell on the earth; to every\nnation, kindred, tongue, and people_. (See John's revelation.)\n\nThe time of judgment for \"_Mystery Babylon_.\"\n\nThe times of \"_the fulness of the Gentiles_.\"\n\nThe times for the grafting in again of the Jews, and all the natural\nbranches of Israel.\n\nThen, and not till then, could the science, the keys, the powers of\nTheology, be restored to man.\n\nNo individual or combined human action could obtain or restore again\nthese keys--this science.\n\nA mighty angel held the keys of this science for the last days. A\nmighty angel was to restore the keys of the ancient Priesthood,\nApostleship, power and blessings. A voice from heaven was to reveal\nthe time, and send forth the cry--\"_Come out of her my people, that ye\nbe not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.\nFor her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her\niniquities_.\"\n\nAll the darkness of the middle ages; all the priestcraft or kingcraft\nof every age, since the slaughter of the Apostles; all the\noppressions, persecutions, or abuses of power; all the extravagancies\nand idleness on the one hand, and all the sufferings and miseries of\nthe toiling millions for want of the comforts of life, on the other;\nall the ignorance, superstitions, errors, divisions and contentions\nwhich have transpired in the name of \"_Christianity_\" down to the\npresent time; have been the results of the decline, and loss of the\nkeys and powers, of the science of Theology, or for want of attention\nto them when existing on the earth.\n\nNor will the \"_Christian_\" world ever attain to any considerable\ndegree of knowledge, power, or union in religious progress, until they\ndiscover their loss of this science, become sensible of the need of\nits restoration, and humble themselves as in the dust, and welcome a\nmessenger who comes in the name of the Lord, with a commission from\nheaven, and with keys committed by the Angels of God--a new Apostolic\ncommission, a restoration of the Kingdom and Church, and power and\ngifts of God; a new dispensation, universally proclaimed in all the\nworld, with power and signs following; and the whole consummated by\nthe glorious restoration of Israel and Judah to their own land and\nnationality, and to the true fold of God; together with the second\nadvent of Messiah and all his Saints with him, to overthrow \"Mystery\nBabylon,\" and reign on the earth.\n\nSuch are the events, such is the remedy for the past and present\nevils.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nRISE, PROGRESS, DECLINE, AND LOSS OF THE SCIENCE OF THEOLOGY ON THE\nWESTERN HEMISPHERE, AS BROUGHT TO LIGHT BY THE LATE DISCOVERY OF\nANCIENT AMERICAN RECORDS.\n\n\n    The spirit world is moved, the silence broken,\n    The ancient Seers from out the ground have spoken.\n    The appointed years on time's fleet wings have fled.\n    And voices whisper from the ancient dead.\n    Volumes of truth the sacred archives yield.\n    The past, the glorious future, stand revealed.\n\nWe are now, of necessity, carried back in our research to the cradle\nof nations, the Tower of Babel, in order to trace the history of this\nwonderful science, from the first emigration of a colony to the\nwestern hemisphere, till its final decline and overthrow, for the\nknowledge of which we are indebted to many ancient records, written by\nthe fathers, or ancient students and professors of this science, on\nthe western hemisphere.\n\nAmong these we will make honourable mention of the Prophets Jared,\nEther, Lehi, Nephi, Mosiah, Alma, Abinadi, Mormon, and Moroni, who\nwrote and prophesied in the western hemisphere, during the several\nages intervening between the time of the dispersion at Babel, and the\nfifth century of the Christian era.\n\nBy the science of Theology Jared and his brother led a colony from the\ngreat tower to the sea coast, conversing with the Lord, and walking by\nthe light of His revelations on the way.\n\nBy this science they were instructed in the building of eight barges\nsimilar to the ark of Noah.\n\nBy this science their leader saw God, face to face, and talked with\nHim in plain humility, as one man talks with another, thus obtaining a\nknowledge of His future coming and Kingdom, and of the great events of\nall ages and generations.\n\nBy this science they were preserved on the great waters three hundred\nand forty-four days, and were then landed, with their eight barges, in\nthe western hemisphere, together with their women, children, cattle,\nand seeds of every kind.\n\nBy this science they became a great nation, peopling the entire\ncontinent, and enjoying all the blessings of civilization and heavenly\nlight.\n\nBy the abuse and neglect of it they were at length exterminated, in\nthe days of their Prophet Ether, who lived about six hundred years\nbefore Christ came in the flesh.\n\nBy this science the Prophets Lehi and Nephi came out with a colony\nfrom Jerusalem, in the days of Jeremiah the Prophet, and after\nwandering for eight years in the wilderness of Arabia, came to the sea\ncoast, built a vessel, obtained from the Lord a compass to guide them\non the way, and finally landed in safety on the coast of what is now\ncalled Chili, in South America.\n\nBy this science they also became a great nation, enjoyed many visions,\nhad the ministering of angels, and of many Prophets, by which means\nthey knew of the coming, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and\nascension of Jesus Christ.\n\nBy this science they also enjoyed a personal visit of the risen\nRedeemer, who descended from heaven in their presence, taught them his\nGospel, chose and ordained twelve of their number as Apostles, and\nprophesied many things.\n\nBy this science these twelve and others established the Gospel,\nChurch, and ordinances of God throughout the entire western\nhemisphere.\n\nBy this science their sick were healed, demons were expelled, the lame\nwalked, the blind saw, the dumb spake, the deaf heard, and their dead\nwere raised.\n\nBy this science three of those Apostles, having a change wrought upon\nthem, tarried in the flesh upon the earth, ministered the Gospel and\nits blessings nearly four hundred years, and then withdrew from the\npeople because of their iniquity, took away the keys of Apostleship\nand of the Gospel, and its powers, sealed up the records, and caused\nthe work of healing, and of gifts and miracles, to cease from among\nthe people, because of iniquity, bloodshed, and persecution.\n\nBy this science they yet live in the flesh upon the earth, holding\nkeys of Apostleship and power upon the western hemisphere, being now\nabout one thousand eight hundred years old.\n\nBy this science (being held in reserve above the powers of mystery\nBabylon,) they will soon go forth, prophesying, preaching the Gospel,\nand doing mighty signs and wonders in the midst of all nations, in\norder to complete and mature the Gentile fulness, and restore the\ntribes of Israel. Nor is this all--John, the beloved disciple among\nthe Jews, is yet alive in the flesh, and is held in reserve, to\n\"_prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and\nkings_\" as it is written.\n\nBut to return to our history of the western hemisphere. After the\nscience of Theology had ceased to be cultivated and enjoyed among this\nbranch of Israel, terrible wars and bloodshed ensued. Governments and\ncivilization were broken up, cities and countries were overthrown, all\nrecords and vestiges of truth were diligently sought and destroyed, as\nfar as obtained.\n\nAnd, finally, the whole face of the country was soaked, as it were, in\nblood, and strewed with the dead and dying.\n\nThe wild beasts of the forest and fowls of heaven devoured their\nflesh, and their bones were left to moulder unburied.\n\nIn other instances bodies were heaped up, and covered with mounds of\nearth.\n\nAll government became extinct, and the countries overrun by tribes and\nbands of robbers at war with each other.\n\nIn this situation the records of Moroni leave them, in the fifth\ncentury of the Christian era, and much in the same situation, with\nsome exceptions, the Europeans found them after the lapse of another\nthousand years.\n\nOh! who can contemplate the disgusting deformity, the dark features,\nthe filthy habits, the idleness, the cruelty, the nakedness, the\npoverty, the misery, the sufferings, the ignorance of the descendants\nof this once favoured branch of the royal blood of Abraham and Joseph,\nand not weep for very anguish, while his bosom yearns, and the\nfountains--the depths of his inmost soul, are stirred and moved within\nhim!\n\nReader, _all these things have come upon them, on account of the\nabuses, the consequent decline, and final loss of the keys and powers,\nof the science of Theology_.\n\nBut comfort your heart, their redemption is at the door.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nKEYS OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE GODHEAD.\n\n\n    Eternal Father, Being without end!\n    Thy glorious fulness who can comprehend!\n    Thine own infinitude alone is fraught\n    With attributes to swell a human thought,\n    To grasp thy knowledge, or thy nature scan.\n    As Father of the endless race of man.\n\n\"_This is life eternal: to know the only true and living God, and\nJesus Christ whom he hath sent_.\"\n\nSince the decline of the science of Theology, a mystery, dark and\ndeep, has shrouded the human mind, in regard to the person and nature\nof the Eternal Father, and of Jesus Christ, His son.\n\nCouncils of the fathers, and wise men of Christendom, have assembled\nagain and again, in order to solve the mystery of Godliness, and fix\nsome standard or creed upon which all parties might rest and be\nagreed.\n\nThis, however, was not in their power. It is impossible for the world\nby its wisdom to find out God. \"_Neither knoweth any man the Father\nsave the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him_.\"\n\nThe key to the science of Theology, is the key of divine revelation.\nWithout this key, no man, no assemblage of men, ever did, or ever will\nknow the Eternal Father, or Jesus Christ.\n\nWhen the key of revelation was lost to man, the knowledge of God was\nlost. And as life eternal depended on the knowledge of God, of course\nthe key of eternal life was also lost.\n\nOh the mysteries, the absurdities, the contentions, the quarrels, the\nbloodshed, the infidelity, the senseless and conflicting theories,\nwhich have grown and multiplied among sectaries on this subject!\n\nAmong these theories, we will notice one, which is, perhaps, more\nextensively received by different sects than any other. The language\nruns thus--\"_There is one only living and true God, without body,\nparts, or passions; consisting of three persons--the Father, Son, and\nHoly Ghost_.\"\n\nIt is painful to the human mind to be compelled to admit, that such\nwonderful inconsistencies of language or ideas, have ever found place\nin any human creed. Yet, so it is.\n\nIt is but another way of saying, that there is a God who does not\nexist, a God who is composed of nonentity, who is the negative of all\nexistence, who occupies no space, who exists in no time, who is\ncomposed of no substance, known or unknown, and who has no powers or\nproperties in common with any thing or being known to exist, or which\ncan possibly be conceived of, as existing either in the heavens or on\nthe earth.\n\nSuch a God could never be seen, heard, or felt, by any being in the\nuniverse.\n\nThere never has been a visible idol worshipped among men, which was so\npowerless as this \"_God without body, parts, or passions_.\"\n\nThe god of Egypt, the crocodile, could destroy.\n\nThe images of different nations could be felt and seen.\n\nThe Peruvian god, the Sun, could diffuse its genial warmth, light, and\ninfluence.\n\nBut not so with the God without \"_body, parts, or passions_.\"\n\nThat which has no parts, has no whole.\n\nBeings which have no passions, have no soul.\n\nBefore we can introduce the keys and powers of practical Theology to\nthe understanding of men in this age, we must, of necessity, place\nwithin their comprehension some correct ideas of the true God.\n\nIt is written that, \"_without faith it is impossible to please Him_.\"\nThose who do not please Him, can never partake of the powers and gifts\nof the science of Theology, because the keys and powers of this\nscience emanate from Him as a free gift, but they are never given to\nthose with whom He is not well pleased. The individual who would\npartake of this power, must therefore have faith in Him. But how can\nhe believe in a being of whom he has no correct idea?\n\nSo vague, so foreign from the simple, plain truth, are the ideas of\nthe present age, so beclouded is the modern mind with mysticism,\nspiritual nonentity, or immateriality in nearly all of its ideas of\nthe person or persons of the Deity, that we are constrained to use the\nlanguage of an ancient Apostle, as addressed to the learned of\nAthens--\"_Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship. Him declare I unto\nyou_.\"\n\nAlthough there are facts in our own existence, which are beyond our\npresent comprehension or capacity, which is true, in a higher sense,\nin relation to the Godhead, still the limited knowledge we are able to\ncomprehend in relation to ourselves, may at least be rational, and be\nas clearly conveyed and understood as any other subject. So with our\nknowledge of Deity. Although there are facts beyond our reach in\nrelation to His existence, attributes, and power, yet that which we\nmay know and comprehend or express of Him, should be divested of all\nmystery, and should be as clearly conceived, expressed, and conveyed\nas any other item of truth or of science.\n\nJesus Christ, a little babe like all the rest of us have been, grew to\nbe a man, was filled with a divine substance or fluid, called the Holy\nSpirit, by which he comprehended and spake the truth in power and\nauthority; and by which he controlled the elements, and imparted\nhealth and life to those who were prepared to partake of the same.\n\nThis man died, being put to death by wicked men.\n\nHe arose from the dead the third day, and appeared to his disciples.\nThese disciples, on seeing him, supposed him to be a spirit only.\n\nThey may have possessed some of the vague ideas of men in more modern\ntimes, in regard to an immaterial existence beyond the grave: an\nexistence unconnected with any real or tangible matter, or substance.\n\nBut their risen Lord adopted the most simple means of dispersing their\n_mysticism_, their _spiritual vagaries_ or _immateriality_. He called\nupon them to handle him and see, \"_For_\" said he, \"_a spirit hath not\nflesh and bones, as ye see me have_.\"\n\nThey accordingly handled him, examined the prints of the nails in his\nhands and feet, and the mark of the spear in his side. But, as if this\nwas not enough in order to familiarize them still more with the facts\nof a material or tangible immortality, he ate and drank with\nthem--partaking of a broiled fish and an honey-comb.\n\nIn short, he was with them for forty days, in which he walked, talked,\nate, drank, taught, prophesied, commanded, commissioned, reasoned with\nand blessed them, thus familiarizing to them that immortality and\neternal life which he wished them to teach in all the world.\n\nHe then ascended up in their presence, toward that planet where dwelt\nhis Father and their Father, his God and their God.\n\nWhile he was yet in sight in the open firmament, and they stood gazing\nupward, behold! two men stood by them in white raiment, and said--\n\n\"_Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same\nJesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like\nmanner as ye have seen him go into heaven_.\"\n\nHere, then, we have a sample of an immortal God--a God who is often\ndeclared in the Scriptures to be like his father, \"_being the\nbrightness of his glory, and the express image of his person_,\" and\npossessing the same attributes as his Father, in all their fulness; a\nGod not only possessing body and parts, but flesh and bones, and\nsinews, and all the attributes, organs, senses, and affections of a\nperfect man.\n\nHe differs in nothing from his Father, except in age and authority,\nthe Father having the seniority, and, consequently, the right,\naccording to the Patriarchal laws of eternal Priesthood, to preside\nover him, and over all his dominions, for ever and ever.\n\nWhile on the one hand, this God claims affinity and equality, as it\nwere, with his Father, he claims, on the other hand, affinity and\nequality with his brethren, on the earth, with this difference,\nhowever, that his person is a specimen of Divine, eternal Humanity,\nimmortalized, and with attributes perfected; while his brethren who\ndwell in mortal flesh, although children of the same royal Parent in\nthe heavens, are not yet immortalized, as it regards their fleshly\ntabernacles, and are not perfected in their attributes; and although\njoint heirs, are younger, he being the first born among many brethren\nin the spiritual world. They are therefore subject to him.\n\nBut every man who is eventually made perfect--raised from the dead,\nand filled, or quickened, with a fulness of celestial glory, will\nbecome like them in every respect, physically, and in intellect,\nattributes or powers.\n\nThe very germs of these Godlike attributes, being engendered in man,\nthe offspring of Deity, only need cultivating, improving, developing,\nand advancing by means of a series of progressive changes, in order to\narrive at the fountain \"_Head_,\" the standard, the climax of Divine\nHumanity.\n\nThe difference between Jesus Christ and his Father is this--one is\nsubordinate to the other, does nothing of himself, independently of\nthe Father, but does all things in the name and by the authority of\nthe Father, being of the same mind in all things. The difference\nbetween Jesus Christ and another immortal and celestial man is\nthis--the man is subordinate to Jesus Christ, does nothing in and of\nhimself, but does all things in the name of Christ, and by his\nauthority, being of the same mind, and ascribing all the glory to him\nand his Father.\n\nOn account of the double relationship of Jesus Christ--with God the\nFather on one hand, and with man on the other, many have adopted the\ncreed, that \"_Two whole and perfect natures_\" were blended in the\nperson of Jesus Christ; that he was every way a God, and every way a\nman; as if God and man were two distinct species. This error came by\nreason of not knowing ourselves. For just in proportion as we\ncomprehend ourselves in our true light, and our relationships and\naffinities with the past, present and future, with time and eternity,\nwith Gods, angels, spirits and men, who have gone before us, and who\nwill come after us, so, in proportion, we may be able to benefit by\nthe keys of the mysteries of the Godhead, or, in other words, to know\nand comprehend Jesus Christ and his Father.\n\nGods, angels and men, are all of one species, one race, one great\nfamily widely diffused among the planetary systems, as colonies,\nkingdoms, nations, &c.\n\nThe great distinguishing difference between one portion of this race\nand another, consists in the varied grades of intelligence and purity,\nand also in the variety of spheres occupied by each, in the series of\nprogressive being.\n\nAn immortal man, possessing a perfect organization of spirit, flesh,\nand bones, and perfected in his attributes, in all the fulness of\ncelestial glory, is called _a God_.\n\nAn immortal man, in progress of perfection, or quickened with a lesser\ndegree of glory, is called _an angel_.\n\nAn immortal spirit of man, not united with a fleshly tabernacle, is\ncalled a spirit.\n\nAn immortal man, clothed with a mortal tabernacle, is called a man.\n\nIt may then consistently enough be said, that there are, in a\nsubordinate sense, a plurality of Gods, or rather of the sons of God;\nalthough there is one Supreme Head, who is over all, and through all,\nand in all His sons, by the power of His Spirit.\n\nJesus Christ and his Father are two persons, in the same sense as John\nand Peter are two persons. Each of them has an organized, individual\ntabernacle, embodied in material form, and composed of material\nsubstance, in the likeness of man, and possessing every organ, limb,\nand physical part that man possesses.\n\nThere is no more mystery connected with their oneness, than there is\nin the oneness of Enoch and Elijah, or of Paul and Silas.\n\nTheir oneness consists of a oneness of spirit, intelligence,\nattributes, knowledge, or power.\n\nIf Enoch, Elijah, Abraham, Peter, Paul, and millions of others ever\nattain to the immortal life, and their fleshly tabernacles be\nquickened by a fulness of celestial life and light, intelligence and\npower, then it can be said of them, _they are one, as the Father and\nSon are one_.\n\nIt could then be said of each of them, in him dwells all the fulness\nof the powers and attributes of the Eternal God, or, in other words,\nhe possesses endless life, together with all intelligence, knowledge,\nlight, and power. He therefore has the same mind as all the others--is\nin communication and in perfect union with each and all of them.\n\nAll these are Gods, or sons of God--they are the Kings, Princes,\nPriests, and Nobles of Eternity. But over them all there is a\nPresidency or Grand Head, who is the Father of all. And next unto him\nis Jesus Christ, the eldest born, and first heir of all the realms of\nlight.\n\nEvery person knows, by reflection, that intelligence may be imparted\nwithout diminishing the store possessed by the giver. Therefore it\nfollows, that millions of individual beings may each receive all the\nattributes of eternal life, and light, and power.\n\nAgain it follows, that in the use of this power, by consent and\nauthority of the head, any one of these Gods may create, organize,\npeople, govern, control, exalt, glorify and enjoy worlds on worlds,\nand the inhabitants thereof; or, in other words, each of them can find\nroom in the infinitude of space, and unoccupied chaotic elements in\nthe boundless storehouse of eternal riches, with which to erect for\nhimself thrones, principalities, and powers, over which to reign in\nstill increasing might, majesty and dominion, for ever and ever.\n\nAll these are kingdoms which, together with their Kings, are in\nsubordination to the great Head and Father of all, and to Jesus Christ\nthe first born, and first heir, among the sons of God.\n\nAll these kingdoms, with all their intelligences, are so many\nacquisitions to _His_ dominion who is Lord of lords, and King of\nkings, and of whom it is written, by the Prophet Isaiah, \"Of the\nincrease of his kingdom there shall be no end.\"\n\nAll these are so many colonies of our race, multiplied, extended,\ntransplanted, and existing for ever and ever, as occupants of the\nnumberless planetary systems which do now exist, or which will roll\ninto order, and be peopled by the operations of the Holy Spirit, in\nobedience to the mandates of the sons of God.\n\nThese kingdoms present every variety and degree in the progress of the\ngreat science of life, from the lowest degradation amid the realms of\ndeath, or the rudimental stages of elementary existence, upward\nthrough all the ascending scale, or all the degrees of progress in the\nscience of eternal life and light, until some of them in turn arise to\nthrones of eternal power.\n\nEach of these Gods, including Jesus Christ and his Father, being in\npossession of not merely an organized spirit, but a glorious immortal\nbody of flesh and bones, is subject to the laws which govern, of\nnecessity, even the most refined order of physical existence.\n\nAll physical element, however embodied, quickened, or refined, is\nsubject to the general laws necessary to all existence.\n\nSome of these laws are as follows--\n\nFirst. Each atom, or embodiment of atoms, necessarily occupies a\ncertain amount of space.\n\nSecond. No atom, or embodiment of atoms, can occupy the identical\nspace occupied by other atoms or bodies.\n\nThird. Each individual organized intelligence must possess the power\nof self motion to a greater or less degree.\n\nFourth. All voluntary motion implies an inherent will, to originate\nand direct such motion.\n\nFifth. Motion, of necessity, implies that a certain amount of time is\nnecessary, in passing from one portion of space to another.\n\nThese laws are absolute and unchangeable in their nature, and apply to\nall intelligent agencies which do or can exist.\n\nThey, therefore, apply with equal force to the great, supreme, eternal\nFather of the heavens and of the earth, and to His meanest subjects.\n\nIt is, therefore, an absolute impossibility for God the Father, or\nJesus Christ, to be everywhere personally present.\n\nThe omnipresence of God must therefore be understood in some other way\nthan of His bodily or personal presence.\n\nThis leads to the investigation of that substance called the Holy\nSpirit.\n\nAs the mind passes the boundaries of the visible world, and enters\nupon the confines of the more refined and subtle elements, it finds\nitself associated with certain substances in themselves invisible to\nour gross organs, but clearly manifested to our intellect by their\ntangible operations and effects.\n\nThe very air we breathe, although invisible to our sight, is clearly\nmanifested to our sense of feeling. Its component parts may be\nanalyzed. Nay more, the human system itself is an apparatus which\nperforms a chemical process upon that element. It is received into the\nsystem by the act of respiration, and there immediately undergoes the\nseparation of its component parts.\n\nThe one part, retained and incorporated in the animal system, diffuses\nlife and animation, by supplying the necessary animal heat, &c., while\nthe other part, not adapted to the system, is discharged from the\nlungs to mingle with its native element.\n\nThere are several of these subtle, invisible substances but little\nunderstood as yet by man, and their existence is only demonstrated by\ntheir effects. Some of them are recognized under the several terms,\nelectricity, galvanism, magnetism, animal magnetism, spiritual\nmagnetism, essence, spirit, &c.\n\nThe purest, most refined and subtle of all these substances, and the\none least understood, or even recognized, by the less informed among\nmankind, is that substance called the Holy Spirit.\n\nThis substance, like all others, is one of the elements of material or\nphysical existence, and therefore subject to the necessary laws which\ngovern all matter, as before enumerated.\n\nLike the other elements, its whole is composed of individual\nparticles. Like them, each particle occupies space, possesses the\npower of motion, requires time to move from one part of space to\nanother, and can in no wise occupy two spaces at once. In all these\nrespects it differs nothing from all other matter.\n\nThis substance is widely diffused among the elements of space. This\nHoly Spirit, under the control of the Great Eloheim, is the grand\nmoving cause of all intelligences, and by which they act.\n\nThis is the great, positive, controlling element of all other\nelements. It is omnipresent by reason of the infinitude of its\nparticles, and it comprehends all things.\n\nIt is the controlling agent or executive, which organizes and puts in\nmotion all worlds, and which, by the mandate of the Almighty, or of\nany of His commissioned agents, performs all the mighty wonders, signs\nand miracles, ever manifested in the name of the Lord--the turning of\nthe earth backward on its axis, the dividing of the sea, the removing\nof a mountain, the raising of the dead, or the healing of the sick.\n\nIt penetrates the pores of the most solid substances, pierces the\nhuman system to its most inward recesses, discerns the thoughts and\nintents of the heart. It has power to move through space with an\ninconceivable velocity, far exceeding the tardy motions of\nelectricity, or of physical light.\n\nIt comprehends the past, present, and future, in all their fulness.\nIts inherent properties embrace all the attributes of intelligence and\naffection.\n\nIt is endowed with knowledge, wisdom, truth, love, charity, justice,\nand mercy, in all their ramifications.\n\nIn short, it is the attributes of the eternal power and Godhead.\n\nThose beings who receive of its fulness are called sons of God,\nbecause they are perfected in all its attributes and powers, and being\nin communication with it, can, by its use, perform all things.\n\nThose beings who receive not a fulness, but a measure of it, can know\nand perform some things, but not all.\n\nThis is the true light, which in some measure illuminates all men. It\nis, in its less refined particles, the physical light which reflects\nfrom the sun, moon, and stars, and other substances; and by reflection\non the eye, makes visible the truths of the outward world.\n\nIt is, also, in its higher degrees, the intellectual light of our\ninward and spiritual organs, by which we reason, discern, judge,\ncompare, comprehend and remember the subjects within our reach.\n\nIts inspiration constitutes instinct in animal life, reason in man,\nvision in the Prophets, and is continually flowing from the Godhead\nthroughout all His creatures.\n\nSuch is the Godhead, as manifested in His words, and in His works. He\ndwells in His own eternal palaces of precious stones and gold, in the\nRoyal City of the heavenly Jerusalem.\n\nHe sits enthroned in the midst of all His creations, and is filled and\nencircled with light unapproachable by those of the lower spheres.\n\nHe associates with myriads of His own begotten sons and daughters who,\nby translation or resurrection, have triumphed over death.\n\nHis ministers are sent forth from His presence to all parts of His\ndominions.\n\nHis Holy Spirit centres in His presence, and communicates with, and\nextends to the utmost verge of His dominions, comprehending and\ncontrolling all things under the immediate direction of His own will,\nand the will of all those in communication with Him, in worlds without\nend!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE.\n\n\n    Boundless infinitude of time, and space,\n    And elements eternal! Who can trace\n    Earth with its treasures, Heaven with its spheres,\n    Time's revolutions, eternity's years?\n    But what are all these, when measured by thee,\n    But marks on thy dial, or motes on thy sea!\n\nThe idea of a God without \"body, parts, or passions,\" is not more\nabsurd or inconsistent than that modern popular doctrine, that all\nthings were created from nonentity, or in other words, that something\noriginated from nothing.\n\nIt is a self-evident truth, which will not admit of argument, that\nnothing remains nothing. Nonentity is the negative of all existence.\nThis negative possesses no property or element upon which the energies\nof creative power can operate.\n\nThis mysticism must, therefore, share the fate of the other mysteries\nof false Theology and philosophy, which have for ages shrouded the\nworld in the sable curtains of a long and dreary night. It must\nevaporate and disappear as a mere creation of fancy, while, in its\nplace, are introduced the following self-evident and incontrovertible\nfacts--\n\nFirst. There has always existed a boundless infinitude of space.\n\nSecond. Intermingled with this space there exists all the varieties of\nthe elements, properties, or things of which intelligence takes\ncognizance; which elements or things taken altogether compose what is\ncalled the Universe.\n\nThird. The elements of all these properties or things are eternal,\nuncreated, self-existing. Not one particle can be added to them by\ncreative power. Neither can one particle be diminished or annihilated.\n\nFourth. These eternal, self-existing elements possess in themselves\ncertain inherent properties or attributes, in a greater or less\ndegree; or, in other words, they possess intelligence, adapted to\ntheir several spheres.\n\nThese elements have been separated, by philosophers, into two grand\ndivisions, viz.--\n\n                     \"PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL.\"\n\nTo a mind matured, or quickened with a fulness of intelligence, so as\nto be conversant with all the elements of nature, there is no use for\nthe distinction implied in such terms.\n\nTo speak more philosophically, all the elements are spiritual, all are\nphysical, all are material, tangible realities. Spirit is matter, and\nmatter is full of spirit. Because all things which do exist are\neternal realities, in their elementary existence.\n\nWho then can define the precise point, in the scale of elementary\nexistence, which divides between the physical and spiritual kingdoms?\nThere are eyes which can discern the most refined particles of\nelementary existence. There are hands and fingers to whose refined\ntouch all things are tangible.\n\nIn the capacity of mortals, however, some of the elements are\ntangible, or visible, and others invisible. Those which are tangible\nto our senses, we call physical; those which are more subtle and\nrefined, we call spiritual.\n\nSpirit is intelligence, or the light of truth, which filleth all\nthings.\n\nIts several emotions or affections, such as love, joy, &c., are but so\nmany actions or motions of these elements, as they operate in their\nseveral spheres.\n\nBy these actions or emotions the elements manifest their eternal\nenergies, attributes, or inherent powers.\n\nIn contemplating the works of creation, then, the student must not\nconceive the idea that space, or time, or element, or intelligence,\nwas originated, but rather, that these are eternal, and that they\nconstitute the energies which act, and the things acted upon,\nincluding the place and time of action.\n\nThe whole vast structure of universal organized existence, presents\nundeniable evidence of three facts, viz.--\n\nFirst. The eternal existence of the elements of which it is composed.\n\nSecond. The eternal existence of the attributes of intelligence, and\nwisdom to design.\n\nThird. The eternal existence of power, to operate upon and control\nthese eternal elements, so as to carry out the plans of the designer.\n\nIt will be recollected that the last chapter recognizes a family of\nGods, or, in other words, a species of beings, who have physical\ntabernacles of flesh and bones, in the form of man, but so constructed\nas to be capable of eternal life; that these tabernacles are\nquickened, or animated by a fulness of that holiest of all elements,\nwhich is called the Holy Spirit, which element or spirit, when\norganized, in individual form, and clothed upon with flesh and bones\nin the highest possible refinement, contains, in itself, a fulness of\nthe attributes of light, intelligence, wisdom, love, and power; also\nthat there are vast quantities of this spirit or element not organized\nin bodily forms, but widely diffused among the other elements of\nspace.\n\nA General Assembly, Quorum, or Grand Council of the Gods, with their\nPresident at their head, constitute the designing and creating power.\n\nThe motive power, which moves to action this grand creative power, is\nwisdom, which discovers a use for all these riches, and inspires the\ncarrying out of all the designs in an infinite variety of utility and\nadaptation.\n\nWisdom inspires the Gods to multiply their species and to lay the\nfoundation for all the forms of life, to increase in numbers, and for\neach to enjoy himself in the sphere to which he is adapted, and in the\npossession and use of that portion of the elements necessary to his\nexistence and happiness.\n\nIn order to multiply organized bodies, composed of spiritual element,\nworlds and mansions composed of spiritual element would be necessary\nas a home, adapted to their existence and enjoyment. As these\nspiritual bodies increased in numbers, other spiritual worlds would be\nnecessary, on which to transplant them.\n\nAgain. In order to enable these organized spirits to take upon them a\nfleshly tabernacle, physical worlds, with all their variety and\nfulness, would be necessary for their homes, food, clothing, &c., that\nthey might be begotten, sustained, and born, that they might live,\ndie, and rise again to receive their inheritances on their respective\nearths.\n\nHence the great work of regeneration of worlds, or the renovation and\nadaptation of the elements to the resurrection and eternal state of\nman, would also be endless, or eternally progressive.\n\nThrough every form of life, and birth, and change, and resurrection,\nand every form of progress in knowledge and experience, the candidates\nfor eternal life must look upon the elements as their home; hence the\nelements, upon the principle of adaptation, must keep pace with the\npossessors who use them, in all the degrees of progressive refinement.\n\nWhile room is found in infinite space:\n\nWhile there are particles of unorganized element in Nature's\nstorehouse:\n\nWhile the trees of Paradise yield their fruits, or the Fountain of\nLife its river:\n\nWhile the bosoms of the Gods glow with affection:\n\nWhile eternal charity endures, or eternity itself rolls its successive\nages, the heavens will multiply, and new worlds and more people be\nadded to the kingdoms of the Fathers.\n\nThus, in the progress of events, unnumbered millions of worlds, and of\nsystems of worlds, will necessarily be called into requisition, and be\nfilled by man, and beast, and fowl, and tree, and all the vast\nvarieties of beings, and things which ever budded and blossomed in\nEden, or thronged the hills and valleys of the celestial Paradise.\n\nWhen, in the endless progression of events, the full time had arrived\nfor infinite wisdom to organize and people this globe which we\ninhabit, the chaotic elements were arranged in order. It appears at\nthe commencement of this grand work, that the elements, which are now\nso beautifully arranged and adapted to vegetable and animal life, were\nfound in a state of chaos, entirely unadapted to the uses they now\nserve.\n\nThere was one vast mixture of elements. Earth, water, soil,\natmosphere--in short, the entire elements of which this mass was\ncomposed, seem to have been completely compounded, or mingled into one\nvast chaos, and the whole overwhelmed with a darkness so dense as to\nobscure the light of heaven.\n\nLet us turn from the contemplation of scenes so sublimely fearful.\nSuffice it to say, the mandate came, darkness fled, the veil was\nlifted, light pierced the gloom, and chaos was made visible. Oh what a\nscene! A world without landscape, without vegetation, without animal\nlife, without man, or animated beings. No sound broke on the\nstillness, save the voice of the moaning winds, and of dashing,\nfoaming waters. Again, a voice comes booming over the abyss, and\nechoing amid the wastes, the mass of matter hears and trembles, and\nlo! the sea retires, the muddy shapeless mass lifts its head above the\nwaters.\n\nMolehills to mountains grow. Huge islands next appear, and continents\nat length expand to view, with hill and vale, in one wide dreary\nwaste, unmeasured and untrodden.\n\nThe surface, warmed and dried by the cheering rays of the now\nresplendent sun, is prepared for the first seeds of vegetation.\n\nA Royal Planter now descends from yonder world of older date, and\nbearing in his hand the choice seeds of the older Paradise, he plants\nthem in the virgin soil of our new born earth. They grow and flourish\nthere, and, bearing seed, replant themselves, and thus clothe the\nnaked earth with scenes of beauty, and the air with fragrant incense.\nRipening fruits and herbs at length abound. When, lo! from yonder\nworld is transferred every species of animal life. Male and female,\nthey come, with blessings on their heads; and a voice is heard again,\n\"_Be fruitful and multiply_.\"\n\nEarth--its mineral, vegetable and animal wealth--its Paradise,\nprepared, down comes from yonder world on high, a son of God, with his\nbeloved spouse. And thus a colony from heaven, it may be from the sun,\nis transplanted on our soil. The blessings of their Father are upon\nthem, and the first great law of heaven and earth is again repeated,\n\"_Be fruitful and multiply_.\"\n\nHence, the nations which have swarmed our earth.\n\nIn after years, when Paradise was lost by sin; when man was driven\nfrom the face of his heavenly Father, to toil, and droop, and die;\nwhen heaven was veiled from view; and, with few exceptions, man was no\nlonger counted worthy to retain the knowledge of his heavenly origin;\nthen, darkness veiled the past and future from the heathen mind; man\nneither knew himself, from whence he came, nor whither he was bound.\nAt length a Moses came, who knew his God, and would fain have led\nmankind to know Him too, and see Him face to face. But they could not\nreceive His heavenly laws, or bide His presence.\n\nThus the holy man was forced again to veil the past in mystery, and,\nin the beginning of his history, assign to man an earthly origin.\n\nMan, moulded from the earth, as a brick!\n\nA Woman, manufactured from a rib!\n\nThus, parents still would fain conceal from budding manhood, the\nmysteries of procreation, or the sources of life's ever flowing river,\nby relating some childish tale of new born life, engendered in the\nhollow trunk of some old tree, or springing with spontaneous growth,\nlike mushrooms, from out the heaps of rubbish. O man! When wilt thou\ncease to be a child in knowledge?\n\nMan, as we have said, is the offspring of Deity. The entire mystery of\nthe past and future, with regard to his existence, is not yet solved\nby mortals.\n\nWe first recognise him, as an organized individual or intelligence,\ndwelling with his Father in the eternal mansions. This organized\nspirit we call a body, because, although composed of the spiritual\nelements, it possesses every organ after the pattern, and in the\nlikeness or similitude of the outward or fleshly tabernacle it is\ndestined eventually to inhabit. Its organs of thought, speech, sight,\nhearing, tasting, smelling, feeling, &c., all exist in their order, as\nin the physical body; the one being the exact similitude of the other.\n\nThis individual, spiritual body, was begotten by the heavenly Father,\nin His own likeness and image, and by the laws of procreation.\n\nIt was born and matured in the heavenly mansions, trained in the\nschool of love in the family circle, and amid the most tender embraces\nof parental and fraternal affection.\n\nIn this primeval probation, in its heavenly home, it lived and moved\nas a free and rational intelligence, acting upon its own agency, and,\nlike all intelligence, independent in its own sphere. It was placed\nunder certain laws, and was responsible to its great Patriarchal Head.\n\nThis has been called a \"First Estate.\" And it is intimated that, of\nthe spirits thus placed upon their agency, one-third failed to keep\ntheir first estate, and were thrust down, and reserved in chains of\ndarkness, for future judgment. As these are not permitted to multiply\ntheir species, or to move forward in the scale of progressive being,\nwhile in this state of bondage and condemnation, we will trace them no\nfurther, as their final destiny is not revealed to mortals.\n\nThe spirits which kept their first estate, were permitted to descend\nbelow, and to obtain a tabernacle of flesh in the rudimental existence\nin which we find them in our present world, and which we will call a\nsecond estate.\n\nIn passing the veil which separates between the first and second\nestates, man becomes unconscious, and, on awakening in his second\nestate, a veil is wisely thrown over all the past.\n\nIn his mortal tabernacle he remembers not the scenes, the endearing\nassociations, of his first, primeval childhood in the heavenly\nmansions. He therefore commences anew in the lessons of experience, in\norder to start on a level with the new born tabernacle, and to\nre-develope his intellectual faculties in a progressive series, which\nkeep pace with the development of the organs and faculties of the\noutward tabernacle.\n\nDuring his progress in the flesh, the Holy Spirit may gradually awaken\nhis faculties; and in a dream, or vision, or by the spirit of\nprophecy, reveal, or rather awaken the memory to, a partial vision, or\nto a dim and half defined recollection of the intelligence of the\npast. He sees in part, and he knows in part; but never while\ntabernacled in mortal flesh will he fully awake to the intelligence of\nhis former estate. It surpasses his comprehension, is unspeakable, and\neven unlawful to be uttered.\n\nHaving kept his second estate, and filled the measure of his\nresponsibilities in the flesh, he passes the veil of death, and enters\na third estate, or probationary sphere. This is called the world of\nspirits, and will be treated on more fully under its appropriate head.\n\nFilling the measure of his responsibilities in the world of spirits,\nhe passes, by means of the resurrection of the body, into his fourth\nestate, or sphere of human existence. In this sphere he finds himself\nclothed upon with an eternal body of flesh and bones, with every\nsense, and every organ, restored and adapted to their proper use.\n\nHe is thus prepared with organs and faculties adapted to the\npossession and enjoyment of every element of the physical or spiritual\nworlds, which can gratify the senses, or conduce to the happiness of\nintelligences. He associates, converses, loves, thinks, acts, moves,\nsees, hears, tastes, smells, eats, drinks and possesses.\n\nIn short, all the elements necessary to his happiness being purified,\nexalted, and adapted to the sphere in which he exists, are placed\nwithin his lawful reach, and made subservient to his use.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nDESTINY OF THE UNIVERSE.\n\n\n    The mystic future, with its depths profound,\n    For ages counted as forbidden ground,\n    Now lifts its veil, that man may penetrate\n    The secret springs, the mysteries of fate;\n    Know whence he is, and whither he is bound,\n    And why the spheres perform their ample round.\n\nThe Grand Council having developed the vast structure of the heavens\nand the earth, with all their fulness, with the evident design of\nutility and adaptation to certain definite uses, it well becomes us to\nwatch their progress, and to study with diligence their future and\nfinal destiny.\n\nFrom a general traditional belief in an immaterial hereafter, many\nhave concluded that the earth and all material things would be\nannihilated as mere temporary structures; that the material body, and\nthe planets it occupies, make no part of eternal life and being; in\nshort, that God, angels, and men, become at last so lost, dissolved,\nor merged in spirituality, or immateriality, as to lose all adaptation\nto the uses of the physical elements; that they will absolutely need\nno footstool, habitation, possession, mansion, home, furniture, food,\nor clothing; that the whole vast works and beautiful designs of the\nvisible creation are a kind of necessary evil or clog on the spiritual\nlife, and are of no possible use except to serve for the time being,\nfor the home and sustenance of beings in their grosser, or rudimental\nstate.\n\nWhat a doleful picture! With what gloom and melancholy must\nintelligences contemplate the vast structure, as viewed in this light!\n\nWhat a vastness of design!\n\nWhat a display of wisdom!\n\nWhat a field of labour in execution, do the works of creation present\nto the contemplative mind!\n\nYet all this wisdom of design, all this labour of execution, after\nserving a momentary purpose, to be thrown away as an incumbrance to\nreal existence and happiness.\n\nAll these \"spiritual,\" \"immaterial\" vagaries have no foundation in\ntruth.\n\nThe earth and other systems are to undergo a variety of changes, in\ntheir progress towards perfection. Water, fire, and other elements are\nthe agents of these changes. But it is an eternal, unchangeable fact,\na fixed law of nature, easily demonstrated and illustrated by chemical\nexperiment, that neither fire nor any other element can annihilate a\nparticle of matter, to say nothing of a whole globe.\n\n_A new heaven and a new earth_ are promised by the sacred writers. Or,\nin other words, the planetary systems are to be changed, purified,\nrefined, exalted and glorified, in the similitude of the resurrection,\nby which means all physical evil or imperfection will be done away.\n\nIn their present state they are adapted to the rudimental state of\nman. They are, as it were, the nurseries for man's physical embryo\nformation. Their elements afford the means of nourishing and\nsustaining the tabernacle, and of engendering and strengthening the\norgan of thought and mind, wherein are conceived and generated\nthoughts and affections which can only be matured and consummated in a\nhigher sphere--thoughts pregnant with eternal life and love.\n\nAs the mind enlarges, the aspirations of an eternal being, once\nennobled and honoured in the councils of heaven, among the sons of\nGod, reach forth too high, and broad, and deep, to be longer adapted\nto the narrow sphere of mortal life. His body is imprisoned, chained\nto the earth, while his mind would soar aloft, and grasp the\nintelligence, wisdom and riches of the boundless infinite.\n\nHis rudimental body must therefore pass away, and be changed, so as to\nbe adapted to a wider and more glorious sphere of locomotion,\nresearch, action and enjoyment.\n\nWhen the planet on which he dwells has conceived, brought forth, and\nnourished the number of tabernacles assigned to it in its rudimental\nstate, by infinite wisdom, it must needs be acted upon by a chemical\nprocess. The purifying elements; for instance, fire, must needs be\nemployed to bring it through an ordeal, a refinement, a purification,\na change commensurate with that which had before taken place in the\nphysical tabernacle of its inhabitants. Thus renovated, it is adapted\nto resurrected man.\n\nWhen man, and the planet on which he lives, with all its fulness,\nshall have completed all their series of progressive changes, so as to\nbe adapted to the highest glories of which their several characters\nand species are capable, then, the whole will be annexed to, or\nnumbered with the eternal heavens, and will there fulfil their eternal\nrounds, being another acquisition to the mansions, or eternally\nincreasing dominions of the great Creator and Redeemer.\n\nWorlds are mansions for the home of intelligences.\n\nIntelligences exist in order to enjoy.\n\nJoy, in its fulness, depends on certain principles, viz.--\n\nLife Eternal. Love Eternal. Peace Eternal. Wealth Eternal. &c.\n\nWithout the first, enjoyment lacks durability.\n\nWithout the second, it can hardly be said to exist.\n\nWithout the third, it would not be secure.\n\nWithout the fourth, it must be limited, &c.\n\nEternal life, in its fulness, implies a spiritual intelligence,\nembodied in the likeness of its own species and clothed upon with an\noutward tabernacle of eternal, incorruptible flesh and bones. This\nstate of existence can only be attained by the resurrection of the\nbody, and its eternal re-union with the spirit.\n\nEternal life thus attained, and endowed with the eternal attributes of\nintelligence and love, could never exercise, or derive enjoyment from\nthe affections of the latter, unless associated with other beings\nendowed with the same attributes.\n\nHence the object, or necessity of eternal kindred ties, associations,\nand affections, exercised as the attributes of that charity which\nnever ends.\n\nThe third proposition, viz.--\n\n_Eternal Peace_, could never be secured without the development of\nEternal Law and government, which would possess in itself the\nattributes of infinite truth, goodness and power.\n\nAny government short of this, could never guarantee _Eternal Peace_.\nIt would be liable to be overthrown, by the lack of truth to discern,\ndisposition to execute, or power to enforce, the measures necessary to\ninsure peace.\n\nThe fourth proposition, viz.--\n\n_Eternal Wealth_, must, of necessity, consist of an everlasting\ninheritance or title, defined and secured by this eternal government,\nto portions of the organized elements, in their pure, incorruptible\nand eternal state.\n\nIn order to be wealthy, eternal man must possess a certain portion of\nthe surface of some eternal planet, adapted to his order or sphere of\nexistence.\n\nThis inheritance, incorruptible, eternal in the heavens, must be\nsufficiently extensive for his accommodation, with all his family\ndependencies. It must also comprise a variety of elements, adapted to\nhis use and convenience. Eternal gold, silver, precious stones, and\nother precious materials would be useful in the erection and\nfurnishing of mansions, and of public and private dwellings or\nedifices.\n\nThese edifices combined, or arranged in wisdom, would constitute\neternal cities. Gardens, groves, walks, rivulets, fountains, flowers\nand fruits, would beautify and adorn the landscape, please the eye,\nthe taste, the smell; and thus contribute gladness to the heart of\nman.\n\nSilks, linens, or other suitable materials would be necessary to adorn\nhis person, and to furnish and beautify his mansions.\n\nIn short, eternal man, in possession of eternal worlds, in all their\nvariety and fulness, will eat, drink, think, converse, associate,\nassemble, disperse, go, come, possess, improve, love and enjoy. He\nwill increase in riches, knowledge, power, might, majesty and\ndominion, in worlds without end.\n\nEvery species of the animal creation ever organized by creative\ngoodness, or that ever felt the pangs of death, or uttered a groan\nwhile subject to the king of terrors, or exulted in the joys of life\nand sympathy, and longed for the redemption of the body, will have\npart in the resurrection, and will live for ever in their own spheres,\nin the possession of peace, and a fulness of joy, adapted to their\nseveral capacities.\n\n    O Child of earth, conceived in corruption!\n    Brought forth in pain and sorrow! sojourning\n    In a world of mourning, mid sighs and tears,\n    And groans, and awaiting in sadness thy home\n    In the gloomy grave, as food for worms;\n    Lift up thy head, cast thine eyes around thee,\n    Behold yon countless hosts of shining orbs,\n    Yon worlds of light and life. Then turn to earth,\n    Survey the solid globe, its mineral wealth,\n    Its gems, its precious stones, its gold, its springs;\n    Its gardens, forests, fruits, and flowers;\n    Its countless myriads of breathing life,\n    From _Mote to Man_, through all the varied scale\n    Of animated being.\n    Visit the gloomy caverns of the dead,\n    The ancient sepulchre, where e'en the worm\n    Of death himself, has died for want of food,\n    And bones disjointed are crumbled fine, and\n    Mingled with the dust.\n    Nay, deeper still, descend the fathomless\n    Abyss of souls condemned, in darkness chained,\n    Or thrust in gloomy dungeons of despair--\n    Where the very names of Mercy, of Hope,\n    And of death's conqueror remain unknown.\n    Observe with care the whole, indulge in tears,\n    But hope, believe, and clothed with charity\n    Which never fails, thine eyes enlightened,\n    Thy person clad in light ethereal.\n    Time fades, and opens on eternity.\n    Again review the scene beheld before.\n    You startle, seem surprised! confused! o'erwhelmed!\n    Death is conquered, corruption is no more,\n    All is _life_, and the word ETERNITY\n    Is inscribed in characters indelible,\n    On every particle and form of life.\n\nSocrates, Plato, Confucius, and many other philosophers and divines\nhave written largely on the immortality of the _soul_ or spirit of\nman.\n\nSome of these have suffered, with joy and cheerfulness, imprisonment,\ntorture, and even death, with only this limited view of eternal\nexistence.\n\nCould these martyrs to a portion of truth so limited, and yet so full\nof hope and consolation, have handled immortal flesh and bones in the\npersons of Enoch or Elijah translated, or of Jesus raised from the\ndead; could they have learned from their sacred lips, and realized the\nfull import of that joyful sentence--\n\n    \"_Behold! I make all things new_;\"\n\ncould they have contemplated eternal worlds, of matter in all its\nelements and forms of animal life, indissoluble and everlasting; could\nthey have beheld eternal man, moving in the majesty of a God, amid the\nplanetary systems, grasping the knowledge of universal nature, and\nwith an intellect enlightened by the experience and observations of\nthousands and even millions of years; could they have had a glimpse of\nall this, and heard the promise--\n\n    \"_There shall be no more death_,\"\n\nissuing from the fountain of truth, prompted by infinite benevolence\nand charity, re-echoing amid the starry worlds, reaching down to\nearth, vibrating, with a thrill of joy, all the myriads of animated\nnature, penetrating the gloomy vaults of death, and the prisons of the\nspirit world, with a ray of hope, and causing to spring afresh, the\nwell-springs of life, and joy, and love, even in the lonely dungeons\nof despair! O! how would their bosoms have reverberated with\nunutterable joy and triumph, in view of changing worlds.\n\nCould the rulers of this world have beheld, or even formed a\nconception of, such riches, such nobility, such an eternal and\nexceeding weight of glory, they would have accounted the wealth,\npleasures, honours, titles, dignities, glories, thrones,\nprincipalities and crowns of this world as mere toys--the play-things\nof a day, dross, not worth the strife and toil of acquiring, or the\ntrouble of maintaining, except as a duty, or troublesome\nresponsibility.\n\nWith this view of the subject, what man so base, so grovelling, so\nblind to his own interests, as to neglect those duties, self-denials,\nsacrifices, which are necessary in order to secure a part in the\n_first_ resurrection, and a far more exceeding and eternal weight of\nglory in that life which never ends?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nKEY OF KNOWLEDGE, POWER, AND GOVERNMENT.\n\n\n    Heaven's Nobility, whom worlds obey,\n    Clad in the brightness of eternal day,\n    Enthroned in majesty, as \"_Priests and Kings_,\"\n    To whom the universe its incense brings!\n    Angels, its ministers! Heaven is its throne!\n    The stores of infinitude are all its own!\n\nHaving given a general view of the powers, operations and effects of\nTheology, as developed amongst the nations of antiquity, the mysteries\nof the Godhead, the law of nature, and the origin and destiny of the\nuniverse, the subject next in order is the KEY of knowledge, power and\ngovernment, as developed in the heavens and on the earth, for the\norganization, order, peace, happiness, education, improvement, and\nexaltation of intelligences in the image of God--His sons and\ndaughters.\n\nThe great family of man, comprising the inhabitants of unnumbered\nmillions of worlds, in every variety and degree of progress, consists\nof five principal spheres, or grand divisions, in the scale of\nprogressive being, viz.--\n\nFirst. _The Gods_, composed of embodied spirits, who inhabit\ntabernacles of immortal flesh and bones in their most refined state,\nand who are perfected in all the attributes of intelligence and power.\n\nSecond. _The Angels_, who are also composed of spirits and immortal\nflesh and bones, less refined, and endowed with vast intelligence and\npower, but not a fulness.\n\nThird. _Embodied Spirits_, without a tabernacle of flesh and bones.\nThese are they who hate passed the veil of death, and are awaiting a\nresurrection.\n\nFourth. _Embodied Spirits_, with mortal tabernacles, as in the present\nworld.\n\nFifth. _Embodied Spirits_, who have not yet descended to be clothed\nupon with mortality, but who are candidates for the same.\n\nThere is also a sixth division, but of those we need not speak, as\nthey are not, as yet, included in the scale of progressive being, not\nhaving kept their first estate.\n\nThe spirits of all men in their primeval states, were intelligent. But\namong these intelligences some were more noble, that is to say, more\nintelligent than others.\n\n_And God said, these will I make rulers in my kingdoms_.[A] Upon this\nprinciple was manifested the election, before the foundation of the\nworld, of certain individuals to certain offices, as written in the\nScriptures.\n\n[Footnote A: See Book of Abraham, translated from Papyrus, lately\ntaken from the Catacombs of Thebes in Egypt.]\n\nIn other words, certain individuals, more intelligent than the others,\nwere chosen by the Head, to teach, instruct, edify, improve, govern,\nand minister truth and salvation to others; and to hold the delegated\npowers or keys of government, in the several spheres of progressive\nbeing.\n\nThese were not only chosen, but set apart, by a holy ordinance in the\neternal worlds, as Embassadors, Foreign Ministers, Priests, Kings,\nApostles, &c., to fill the various stations in the vast empire of the\nSovereign of all.\n\nJesus Christ, being the first Apostle thus commissioned, and the\nPresident of all the powers thus delegated, is Lord of lords, and King\nof kings, in the heavens and on the earth. Hence this Priesthood is\ncalled the Priesthood after the order of the Son of God. It holds the\nkeys of all the true principles of government in all worlds, being\nwithout beginning of days or end of life. It was held by Adam, Seth,\nEnoch, Noah, Shem, Melchisedec, and others. Abraham obtained this\nPriesthood, and an election of the same in his seed after him to all\ngenerations. The decree went forth in an everlasting covenant, that in\nAbraham and his seed, all the nations and kindreds of the earth should\nbe blessed.\n\nOf this lineage according to the flesh were the Prophets, John the\nBaptist, Jesus Christ, and the Jewish Apostles. Since the covenant and\nelection thus manifested, the keys of revelation, government and\nmiraculous powers on earth have been held exclusively by the literal\ndescendants of this noble and royal house.\n\nThe Gentiles could partake of a portion of the same blessings, but\nthis could only be done through their ministry, and by adoption into\nthe same family.\n\nThis election or covenant with the house of Israel will continue for\never. In the great restoration of all things, this lineage will hold\nthe keys of Priesthood, salvation and government, for all nations. As\nsaith the Prophet Isaiah--\"_The nation and kingdom that will not serve\nthee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted_.\"\n\nAnd again--\"_Ye shall be the priests of the Lord; men shall call you\nthe ministers of our God: but strangers shall build your walls, and\nthe sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your vine\ndressers_.\"\n\nThis Priesthood, including that of the Aaronic, holds the keys of\nrevelation of the oracles of God to man upon the earth; the power and\nright to give laws and commandments to individuals, churches, rulers,\nnations and the world; to appoint, ordain, and establish constitutions\nand kingdoms; to appoint kings, presidents, governors or judges, and\nto ordain or anoint them to their several holy callings, also to\ninstruct, warn, or reprove them by the word of the Lord.\n\nIt also holds the keys of the administration of ordinances for the\nremission of sins, and for the gift of the Holy Spirit; to heal the\nsick, cast out demons, or work miracles in the name of the Lord; in\nfine, to bind or loose on earth and in heaven. For the exercise of all\nwhich powers the student of Theology will find abundant precedents in\nthe sacred Scriptures.\n\nMan holding the keys of the Priesthood and Apostleship after the order\nof the Son of God, are his representatives, or embassadors, to\nmankind. To receive them, to obey their instructions, to feed, clothe,\nor aid them, is counted the same, in the final judgment, as if all had\nbeen done to the Son of God in person. On the other hand, to reject\nthem, or their testimony or message, or the word of God through them,\nin any matter, is counted the same as if done to Jesus Christ, in his\nown person. Indeed, such embassadors will be the final judges of the\npersons, rulers, cities or nations to whom they are sent.\n\nAlthough the chosen instruments to hold the keys of this Priesthood\nmust be the literal lineage of Israel, yet that lineage are not all\nthus commissioned, nor indeed are any of them Priests merely because\nthey are of the chosen seed. Such an instrument must be revealed, and\nhis ordination which he had before the world began, be renewed and\nconfirmed upon his fleshly tabernacle, or he cannot be a Priest on\nearth.\n\nOne who already holds the authority, or keys of Priesthood, can\nreveal, by the word of the Lord, and ordain and anoint others to\nsimilar callings, and through these ordinances fill them with the Holy\nSpirit, as a qualification for their holy calling. By this means\nJoshua succeeded Moses, Elisha succeeded Elijah, &c. And by this means\nthe great Apostle of the Father chose and ordained the Twelve Apostles\nof the Jews, and gave the keys or presidency of the kingdom to Peter.\n\nThere have, however, been times when, by a general martyrdom or\napostacy, the keys of this power have been taken from the earth, (see\nchapters 2, 3, 4.) In such case there would be no longer visions,\nrevelations or miraculous gifts from the Lord, manifested among men,\nbecause the Priesthood is the channel, and the ordinances are the\nmeans, through which such blessings are enjoyed by man. In the absence\nof these offices and powers, darkness, ignorance, superstition,\npriestcraft and kingcraft, idolatry, and every species of abuse, would\nfill the earth, and usurp the place of the true government of the\nkingdom of God.\n\nThe most remarkable and long continued instance of this kind, which\nperhaps ever transpired in our world, commenced with the destruction\nof the Apostles and Saints who immediately succeeded the Lord Jesus\nChrist, and continued until the present century, producing in its\nconsequences all the human butcheries, wars, oppressions, misrule,\nignorance, superstitions, kingcraft, priestcraft, and misery, which\nhave visited the world in the false name of Christianity.\n\nOn the Western Hemisphere, the Apostleship, oracles, miracles, and\ngifts of the Spirit, ceased from among the people in the fourth\ncentury.\n\nThe precise time of the discontinuance of these powers on the eastern\ncontinents, or in the Roman world, is not known. Suffice it to say,\nthe last of the Twelve Apostles predicted, in his vision on the Isle\nof Patmos, the reign of a certain power which should make war with the\nSaints, overcome them, be drunken with their blood, and hear rule over\nall nations. \"And by thy sorceries,\" said he, \"were all nations\ndeceived.\" If these predictions have had their fulfilment, then it is\nthe height of inconsistency for any one to contend, that Rome or any\nnation has perpetuated the Priesthood, Apostleship, or Church. This\nwould be the same as to say, the Saints were destroyed, and yet\nperpetuated; all nations were deceived, and yet had the truth.\n\nCould a universal or catholic power at once destroy the Saints, and\nperpetuate them? Could the same power, at the same time, be the\nconservator and promulgator of a system of universal salvation, and of\nuniversal deception?\n\nBut leaving the prediction, and the reasoning on this subject, what\nare the facts which present themselves for our own inspection, clearly\nvisible to all men?\n\nDo we not find the world, for many ages, and up to the present time,\ndestitute of those manifestations, visions, powers, and keys of\nknowledge and government, which would enlighten, purify and exalt the\nrace, and establish permanent righteousness and peace? In short, have\nthe powers of the eternal Priesthood, as described and exemplified in\nthe Holy Scriptures, and in this work, been manifested for the\ngovernment of the Catholic, or Protestant world, or any nation\nthereof, since the destruction of the ancient Saints and Apostles?\n\nIf we answer this last question in the negative, then, we verify the\ntruth of the prediction by the last of the Twelve; if in the\naffirmative, we deny both the truth of the prediction, and the facts\nwhich clearly present themselves in the past history and present\ncircumstances of the world called \"_Christian_.\"\n\nWhen there is no longer a commissioned Priesthood perpetuated on the\nearth, it becomes necessary, in order to restore the government of\nGod, for the man or men last holding the keys of such power, to return\nto the earth as ministering angels, and to select, by the word of the\nLord, and ordain, certain individuals of the royal lineage of Israel,\nto hold the keys of such Priesthood, and to ordain others, and thus\nrestore and re-organize the government of God, or His kingdom upon the\nearth.\n\nAfter the destruction of the Apostles and Saints, who succeeded Jesus\nChrist, there is but one dispensation or restoration predicted by the\nProphets.\n\nThat dispensation will fulfil the times of the Gentiles, complete\ntheir fulness, restore the kingdom to Israel, gather home their twelve\ntribes, organize them into a theocratic government, that is, a\ngovernment founded and guided by Prophets, Priesthood, visions and\nrevelations. It will, in fact, not only restore to them the\nministration of angels, but receive its final consummation, by the\nresurrection of the ancient Saints, and their return to the earth,\naccompanied by the Son of God, in his own proper person. To this\ndispensation, all nations must submit.\n\nAll merely human religious or political institutions, all republics,\nstates, kingdoms, empires, must be dissolved, the dross of ignorance\nand falsehood be separated, and the golden principles of unalloyed\ntruth be preserved, and blended for ever in the one consolidated,\nuniversal, eternal government of the Saints of the Most High, and all\nnations shall serve and obey Him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nREVIVAL OR RESTORATION OF THE SCIENCE OF THEOLOGY IS THE PRESENT AGE.\n\n\n    A modern Prophet! Yes, a mighty Seer!\n    From Israel's royal line, must next appear;\n    Clad in the spirit of Elijah's power,\n    To prune the vineyard in th' eleventh hour;\n    To light the dawn of that effulgent day,\n    When King Messiah shall his sceptre sway.\n\nThe nineteenth century opened upon the world with far more favourable\nauspices than any other age since the destruction of the people of the\nSaints, and the reign of universal mystery. That spirit of freedom,\nand independence of thought, of speech, and of action, which a few\ncenturies before had germinated in Europe, and which, after a stunted\ngrowth amid the thorns and thistles of kingcraft, the tares of\npriestcraft, and the weeds of superstition, in the old world,\ntransplanted itself, and obtained a more vigorous growth in the new\nworld, had now grown to a degree of maturity, and become consolidated,\nopening resources for all nations, under the inestimable guarantee of\nconstitutional liberty.\n\nTo this standard the most enterprising, intelligent, and thinking of\nevery nation in Europe, had commenced to gather like a flowing stream.\nHere, far separated from the practical influence, the false glare, the\nempty show, or even the senseless name and titles of a self-styled or\nimaginary nobility, their minds enlarged, their energies had full\nscope, and their intellectual faculties, unfettered and free, and\nsurrounded with inexhaustible stores of unoccupied elementary riches,\nsoon opened and developed new channels of thought, of action, of\nenterprise and improvement, the results of which have revolutionized\nthe world in regard to geographical knowledge, commerce,\nintercommunication, transportation, travel, transmission of news, and\nmutual acquaintance and interchange of thought.\n\nThe triumphs of steam over earth and sea, the extension of railroads,\nand, above all, the lightning powers of the telegraph, are already,\ngradually but rapidly, developing, concentrating and consolidating the\nenergies and interests of all nations, preparatory to the universal\ndevelopment of knowledge, neighbourly kindness, and mutual\nbrotherhood.\n\nPhysically speaking, there seems to need but the consummation of two\ngreat enterprises more, in order to complete the preparations\nnecessary for the fulfilment of Isaiah and other Prophets, in regard\nto the restoration of Israel to Palestine, from the four quarters of\nthe earth, and the annual re-union of all nations to the new\nstandards, holy shrines and temples of Zion and Jerusalem, under the\nauspices of that great, universal and permanent theocracy which is to\nsucceed the long reign of mystery.\n\nOne of these is the Great Eastern Railway from Europe to India and\nChina, with its branches, and accompanying telegraphic wires,\ncentering at Jerusalem.\n\nThe other is the Great Western Railway, with its branches and\naccompanying telegraphic lines, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.\n\nPolitically speaking, some barriers yet remain to be removed, and some\nconquests to be achieved, such as the subjugation of Japan, and the\ntriumph of constitutional liberty among certain nations where mind,\nand thought, and religion are still prescribed by law.\n\nThese things achieved, even the most incredulous in regard to the\ntruth of Scripture Prophecy will be constrained to acknowledge, that,\nphysically and politically speaking, there is nothing impossible, or\neven improbable, in the belief, that the twelve tribes of Israel will\nbe concentrated from all nations in their own land, that Jerusalem\nwill become the capitol of political government, the seat of\nknowledge, and the shrine of worship, for the yearly resort of all the\nnations and countries included in the world known to the Prophets of\nold; while the Western Hemisphere, separated as it is, by two great\noceans, from the Old World, will naturally form its own central\ncapitol, its Zion, or New Jerusalem, to which all its tribes and\nnations may perform their annual visits for instruction, devotion, and\nmutual interchange of thought, of fellowship and affection.\n\nCan the student of prophecy contemplate all these preparations,\nclearly predicted thousands of years ago, and now bursting upon the\nworld with seemingly preconcerted connexion and exactness,\nrevolutionizing all things in a single age, and not be struck with the\nreflection, that the hand of God must be in all this, and that moral\nenergy and spiritual light must be forthcoming from the heavens\ncommensurate with the physical and political preparations for a new\n_Era_?\n\nThe same Prophets who have contemplated and described the development\nof national freedom, universal intercourse, mutual peace, knowledge,\nunion of worship, reunion of the tribes of Israel; that have described\nhighways, trains of cars flying as it were with a cloud, ocean\nsteamers, ships, litters and swift beasts, as the instruments of\nrestoration, have also predicted that, in connexion with all these\npreparations, a new dispensation should be manifested, a new covenant\nestablished, \"A Standard\" for the nation, \"An Ensign\" for the people.\nIn short, \"Swift Messengers,\" \"Teachers,\" Prophets would be\ncommissioned, revelations be manifested, and a new organization be\ndeveloped, fitted to the times, and with principles and laws adapted\nto the reorganization, order, and government of a renovated world.\n\nWhere and when should we look for the \"grain of mustard seed,\" the\ngerm, the nucleus of such organization? Of course in a land of free\ninstitutions, where such organization could be legally developed, and\nclaim constitutional protection, until sufficiently matured to defend\nitself against the convulsions, the death struggles, the agonizing\nthroes, which precede the dissolution of the long reign of mystic\ntyranny; and at a time when modern freedom had been consolidated,\nnationalized, and its standard recognized among the nations.\n\nSuch an organization should also be looked for, in its first\ndevelopment, as cotemporary with the first dawn or development of the\nphysical and political means provided for the same result.\n\nThe beginning of the present century gave birth to those chosen\ninstruments who were destined to hold the keys of restoration for the\nrenovation of the world.\n\nThe United States of America was the favoured nation raised up, with\ninstitutions adapted to the protection and free development of the\nnecessary truths, and their practical results. And that Great Prophet,\nApostle, and Martyr--\n\n                          JOSEPH SMITH,\n\nwas the Elias, the Restorer, the presiding Messenger, holding the keys\nof the \"_Dispensation of the fulness of times_.\"\n\nYes, that extraordinary man, whose innocent blood is now dripping\nfresh, as it were, from the hands of assassins and their accessories,\nin the United States, was the chosen vessel honoured of God, and\nordained by angels, to ordain other Apostles and Elders, to restore\nthe Church and kingdom of God, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and to be\na messenger in the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare the way of\nthe Lord. \"For, behold, he will suddenly come to his temple!\"\n\nLike John, who filled a similar mission preparatory to the first\nadvent of the Son of God, he baptized with water unto repentance, for\nthe remission of sins; like him, he was imprisoned; and like him, his\nlife was taken from the earth; and finally, like all other true\nmessengers, his message is being demonstrated by its progressive\nfulfilment--the powers, gifts, and signs following the administration\nof his message in all the world, and every minute particular of his\npredictions fulfilling in the order of events, as the wheels of time\nbring them due.\n\nBut in one important point his message differs from all former\nmessages. The science of Theology revived by him will never decline,\nnor its keys be taken from the earth. They are committed to man for\nthe last time. Their consummation will restore the tribes of Israel\nand Judah; overthrow all corrupt institutions; usher in the reign of\nuniversal peace and knowledge; introduce to the earth her lawful and\neternal King, the crucified Nazarene, the resurrected Messiah; banish\ndarkness and death, sorrow, mourning and tears, from the face of our\nglobe; and crown our race with the laurels of victory and eternal\nlife.\n\nAges yet unborn will rise up and call him blessed. A thousand\ngenerations of countless myriads will laud his praise and recount his\ndeeds, while unnumbered nations bask in the light and enjoy the\nbenefits of the institution founded by his instrumentality.\n\nHis kindred, the nation that gave him birth, and exulted at his death,\nnay, his very murderers and their posterity, will yet come bending\nunto him, and seek his forgiveness, and the benefits of his labours.\n\nBut, Oh! the pain! the dark despair! the torments of a guilty\nconscience! the blackness of darkness, in the lower hell, which the\nguilty wretches will experience before that happy day of deliverance!\n\nOh! the countless myriads of the offspring of innocent and honourable\nmen who will walk the earth, tread on the ashes, or plow and reap over\nthe bones and dust of those miserable murderers and their accomplices\nwho have consented to the shedding of innocent blood! ere the final\ntrump shall sound, which calls up their sleeping dust from its long\nslumbers in the tomb, and their spirits from the prison of the damned.\n\nAnd even when this, to them almost interminable, period has rolled\naway, and they rise from the dead, instead of a welcome exaltation to\nthe presence and society of the sons of God, an eternal banishment\nawaits them. They never can come where God and Christ dwell, but will\nbe servants in the dominions of the Saints, their former victims.\n\nThis extraordinary personage was born in Sharon, Windsor County,\nVermont, United States, December 23rd, 1805.\n\nHe removed with his father, during childhood, and settled near\nPalmyra, in Wayne County, New York. Amid these forest wilds he was\nreared a farmer, and inured to all the hardships, toils, and\nprivations of a newly settled country. His education was therefore\nvery limited. When about seventeen years of age, he had several open\nvisions, in which a holy angel ministered to him, admonished him for\nhis sins, taught him repentance, and faith in the crucified and risen\nMessiah, opened to him the Scriptures of the Prophets, unfolding the\nfield of prophecy pertaining to the latter-day glory, and the\ndoctrines of Christ and his ancient Apostles.\n\nOn the 22nd Sept., 1827, the angel directed him to a hill a few miles\ndistant, called anciently Cumorah. Around this hill, in the fifth\ncentury of the Christian era, had rallied the last remnant of a once\npowerful and highly polished nation called the Nephites.\n\nHere, two hundred and thirty thousand men, women and children,\nmarshalled themselves for a last defence, in legions of ten thousand\neach, under their respective commanders, at whose head was the\nrenowned Mormon, the General of a hundred battles. And here they\nreceived the enemy in untold numbers, and melted away before them,\ntill none remained except a few that fled to the southward, and a few\nthat fell wounded, and were left by the enemy among the unburied dead.\n\nAmong these latter were General Mormon, and his son, and second in\ncommand--General Moroni.\n\nThese were the last Prophets of a nation, now no more. They held the\nsacred records, compiled and transmitted from their fathers, from the\nremotest antiquity. They held the Urim and Thummim, and the compass of\nLehi, which had been prepared by Providence, to guide a colony from\nJerusalem to America.\n\nIn the hill Cumorah, they deposited all these things. Here they lay\nconcealed for fourteen hundred years. And here did the angel Moroni\ndirect the young Joseph to behold these sacred things, in their sacred\ndeposit, and to receive, from these long-silent and gloomy archives,\nan abridged record of the whole, and with it the Urim and Thummim.\n\nThe abridged record, thus obtained, was engraved in Egyptian\ncharacters, on gold plates, by the hands of the two Prophets and\nGenerals--Mormon and Moroni. By the instructions of the angel, and the\nuse of the Urim and Thummim, the youthful Joseph, now a Prophet and\nSeer, was enabled to translate the abridgment, or rather the unsealed\nportion which was destined for the present age.\n\nThis done, the angel of the Lord appeared to three other persons,\ncalled Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer; showed them\nthe golden plates, and the engravings thereon; bore testimony of their\ncorrect translation by the Prophet Joseph, and commanded them to bear\na faithful testimony of the same. Two of these were respectable\nfarmers, and the other was a school-master.\n\nEarly in 1830, this translation with the accompanying testimony, was\npublished in English, in the United States, under the title of the\nBook Of Mormon.\n\nIt is now, 1853, translated and published in nearly all European\nlanguages.\n\nThis book more deeply interests the world, and every intelligent,\naccountable being therein, than any other book, save the Jewish\nScriptures, which is now extant. Its history penetrates the otherwise\ndark oblivion of the past, as it regards America, through the remote\nages of antiquity; follows up the stream of the generations of man,\ntill arriving at the great fountain, the distributor of nations,\ntribes and tongues--the Tower of Babel, it ceases, or is lost in, and\nsweetly blended with, that one great undivided Adamic river, whose\nsource is in Paradise, the cradle of man; whose springs issue from\nbeneath the throne of the Eternal; and whose secret fountains comprise\nthe infinite expanse, the boundless ocean of intellect, fact, and\nhistoric truth, as recorded in the archives of eternity. Its prophetic\nvision opens the events of unborn time. The fate of nations; the\nrestoration of Judah and Israel; the downfall of corrupt churches and\ninstitutions; the end of superstition and misrule; the universal\nprevalence of peace, truth, light and knowledge; the awful wars which\nprecede those happy times; the glorious coming of Jesus Christ as\nKing; the resurrection of the Saints, to reign upon the earth; the\ngreat, grand rest of a thousand years; the jubilee of universal nature\nupon our planet, are all predicted in that book. The time and means of\ntheir fulfilment are pointed out with clearness, showing the present\nage more pregnant with events than all the ages of Adam's race which\nhave gone before it. Its doctrines are developed in such plainness and\nsimplicity, and with such clearness and precision, that no man can\nmistake them. They are there as they flowed from the mouth of a risen\nRedeemer, in the liquid eloquence of love, mingled with immortal tears\nof joy and compassion, and were written by men whose tears of\noverwhelming affection and gratitude bathed his immortal feet.\n\nIt was ascertained by revelation, by means of the Urim and\nThummim, that the youthful Prophet Joseph was of the house of Israel,\nof the tribe of Joseph.\n\nHe continued to receive visions, revelations, and the ministry of\nangels, by whom he was at length ordained to the Apostleship, or High\nPriesthood after the order of Melchizedec, to hold the keys of the\nkingdom of God, the dispensation of the fulness of times.\n\nThus qualified, he proceeded, on the 6th of April, A.D. 1830, to\norganize the Church of the Saints, which then consisted of six\nmembers. The gifts of healing, of prophecy, of visions and miracles,\nbegan to be manifested among the believers, thus confirming his\ntestimony with signs following.\n\nIn this same year, the principles restored by him were proclaimed, and\nBranches of the Church were organized in various parts of his own\nState, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and elsewhere; and the number of his\ndisciples increased from six members, to upwards of one thousand.\n\nDuring the three following years, hundreds of ministers, ordained by\nhim, were sent out in all directions through the country, and Branches\nof the Church were organized in most of the States of the American\nUnion.\n\nIn eighteen hundred and thirty five, he ordained by commandment of the\nLord, a quorum of Twelve Apostles, and several quorums of seventy, as\na traveling ministry.\n\nIn 'thirty-six, a temple was completed and dedicated, in Kirtland,\nOhio; in which these quorums, and the Priesthood in general were\nassembled in a school of the Prophets, and were instructed, and\nanointed to their holy calling. In this same year, some of the\nApostles visited Upper Canada, and spread the fulness of the Gospel in\nToronto and all the region round, gathering several Branches of the\nChurch.\n\nIn 'thirty-seven, a mission was sent to England, which was attended\nwith the same powers, and with remarkable success.\n\nIn 'thirty-eight, the State of Missouri undertook the extermination of\nthe Church from its borders, murdered many men, women and children,\nand finally succeeded in the forcible expulsion of about ten thousand\npeople, and the seizure of their lands and property.\n\nIn eighteen hundred and forty, the quorum of the Twelve Apostles\nvisited England, gathered great numbers into the Church, and published\nthe Book of Mormon, and several other works, among which was a\nperiodical called the _Millennial Star_, which now, in 1853, has a\ncirculation of nearly eighteen thousand copies weekly.\n\nBetween the years 'forty, and 'forty-four, our youthful Prophet\ngathered about him many thousands of his disciples; erected the great\ncity of Nauvoo, on the banks of the Mississippi; commenced the\nerection of one of the most splendid temples in the world; and\norganized a legion of citizen soldiers for its defence. This legion\ncomprised nearly six thousand men, and was commanded by the young\nProphet Joseph, who held a government commission, as\nLieutenant-General.\n\nFrom this centre of science and heavenly light, there emanated rays,\nby the aid of a foreign ministry, penetrating afar, and lighting up\nthe dawn of that effulgent day which is destined to break over all the\nearth, and shine for ever.\n\nApostles, High Priests, Elders, Counsellors and Ministers of every\ndegree, here thronged our youthful Prophet and hero, and were taught\nin this great school of Theology and spiritual philosophy; while a\nhundred thousand disciples in the nation and beyond the seas, looked\nto this centre for light and instruction.\n\nSuch was the progress of the science of Theology, revived in the\npresent age; such the result of fourteen years of the ministry of an\nunlettered youth, crying in the wilderness the proclamation of\nrepentance, baptizing for the remission of sins, and holding the keys\nof this divine, eternal power.\n\nHis unparalleled success, and still increasing influence, now alarmed\nhis former persecutors, and raised their jealousy and envy to the\nhighest pitch of frenzy and madness.\n\nSeveral counties of Illinois combined with the former enemies, who had\nrobbed and destroyed the Saints in Missouri, and, calling public\nmeetings, passed resolutions to destroy the city of Nauvoo, and to\nforce the Saints, once more, to abandon their homes and farms to the\npossession of the land pirates. They also entered into covenant, to\ntake the life of the young Joseph.\n\nTo resist this overwhelming storm, our hero and Prophet marshalled his\nlegion of six thousand men, in his beloved city of Nauvoo, prepared\nfor the most vigorous defence, and awaited the onset. The cowardly\nenemy soon discovered the impropriety of an open attack, and resolved\non stratagem. They caused a magistrate of their own number to issue a\nwrit; and sent a constable to bring the person of Joseph into the\nmidst of those who had sworn to kill him. To yield to this mockery\nwould be to lose his life. To resist it would be construed into\ntreason and would bring on him the whole forces of the State. This\nstratagem succeeded--Nauvoo, its legion and its general, were declared\nin rebellion. His Excellency, Thomas Ford, Governor of the State of\nIllinois, mustered an army, marched to the scene of conflict, took\nsides with the enemy, and in fact incorporated their entire forces\nwith his own troops.\n\nWith this formidable force he marched to Carthage, a small town\neighteen miles from Nauvoo. He then sent a captain, named Singleton,\nto take command of the Nauvoo legion, and demanded its\nLieutenant-General to repair to Carthage, and place himself in the\nhands of those who had publicly combined to take his life. Sooner than\nhave submitted to these insults and humiliating demands, the legion\nwould have joyfully marched to Carthage, and cut to pieces this\ncowardly band of rebels against American institutions and all the\nrights of man.\n\nBut the Saints were located between two powerful States, who were now\ncombined against the laws, constitutions and liberties of their\ncountry. To destroy one army, or even resist its most extravagant\ndemands, would be to draw upon themselves and families, the\noverwhelming forces of the ferocious, ignorant, and worse than savage\nbeings, who had long thirsted for their plunder and their blood.\n\nThe young Prophet had no confidence in the Governor's pledge to\nprotect his person. He felt the hour had come, when his own blood\nalone could appease the enemy, and preserve the lives of his flock. He\nrestrained the ardour of the legion; called upon them, by the love\nthey had ever borne to him as a Prophet and Apostle; and conjured\nthem, by the respect and confidence they had shown him as their\nGeneral, to submit to the extravagant demands of his Excellency, and\nleave the event with God. He now took an affectionate leave of his\nbeloved legion, who were dissolved in tears; tore himself from the\nembraces of his aged and widowed mother, and frantic wife and\nchildren, and repaired to Carthage. He was accompanied by his brother\nHyrum, and the two of the Twelve, that were not abroad on foreign\nmissions, who would not forsake him. On the way he was cheerful but\nsolemn. He spoke little, but observed to those about him, _\"I am going\nlike a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer's morning; I\nhave a conscience void of offence towards God, and towards all men. I\nshall die innocent: and it shall yet be said of me--He was murdered in\ncold blood_.\"\n\nArriving at Carthage, he delivered himself to his enemies; answered to\nthe charge in the original writ, to enforce which all the Governor's\nforces had been mustered, and was then committed to prison to answer\nthe charge of treason.\n\nIn this dungeon he was still accompanied by the two Apostles and his\nbrother Hyrum, who were determined to die with him.\n\nHere as the four friends sat in the upper room, singing hymns, on the\nafternoon of the 27th day of June, 1844, the prison was suddenly\nsurrounded with demons in the flesh, armed with muskets and bayonets,\nand their faces as black as Cain--the original murderer. These\ncommenced firing through the doors and windows of the prison, while a\nportion assaulted and broke open the door. Hyrum suddenly fell, and\ndied without a groan, being pierced with four balls. Taylor fled,\nwounded and bleeding, to the window, and was about to throw himself\nout, when a ball aimed at his heart, hit his watch in his vest pocket,\nand threw him back into the room. The other Apostle, Willard Richards,\nstood and parried the guns with his hand staff, receiving slight\ninjury.\n\nIn the midst of all this scene, the Prophet's presence of mind did not\nforsake him. He saw his brother Hyrum fall, stiffen and die. He then\nexclaimed, in the anguish of his soul--\"O my brother!\" and sprang for\nthe window, amid showers of ball as thick as hail. He instantly threw\nhimself from the upper story into the midst of the bristling bayonets\nof the enemy, and, on alighting, was pierced with a shower of balls,\nand instantly died without a struggle or a groan.\n\nHis presence of mind, and prompt action, in thus throwing himself\namong the enemy, drew them from the prison in time to save the lives\nof the two Apostles, which was, no doubt, the object of this, the last\nglorious act of his life.\n\nThus ended the mortal career of a youth who had revealed the ancient\nhistory of a continent; restored to man the keys and powers of the\ndivine science of Theology; organized the Church and kingdom of God,\nand revealed, and re-established those principles, which will\neventually prevail, and govern the sons of earth, in countless ages\nyet unborn. \"The good shepherd,\" said Jesus, \"layeth down his life for\nthe sheep.\"\n\nWhen the news of this horrid tragedy spread abroad, the fear of\nvengeance from the Nauvoo legion seized the Governor, his troops, and\nthe whole gang of pirates; all fled, and even the inhabitants of the\nguilty villages in the vicinity, vacated their habitations, and fled\nin terror and dismay.\n\nAs the news reached Nauvoo, a thrill of horror and of anguish\nunutterable ran, as with electricity, through every pulse. The legion\nsprang to arms, and would have desolated the whole rebel counties, now\nleft unprotected, had not their judgments balanced the burning\nattribute of justice which swelled their bosoms.\n\nAs it was, they smothered their resentment, and prepared for the\nburial of the illustrious dead. The bodies of the two martyrs were\nborne to the city; being met by the entire populace, bowed with\nsorrow, bathed in tears, and their bosoms upheaved with a sense of\nsorrow and outraged humanity, such as, perhaps, an entire populace at\nonce never felt, since man was doomed to mourn.\n\nThe Twelve, who were abroad, soon returned, soothed and comforted the\nsheep, and exhorted them to union and perseverance. The work on the\ntemple was resumed, and finally completed, at an expense of many\nhundred thousand dollars. In this holy edifice, after its dedication\nto the Lord, a portion of the Priesthood received those holy washings,\nanointings, keys, ordinances, oracles and instructions, which were yet\nwanting to perfect them in the fulness of the Priesthood.\n\nIn the autumn of 1845, the enemy again rallied, and commenced to\ndesolate the borders of the Nauvoo settlements by fire and sword.\n\nWearied with long continued vexation and persecution, the council of\nthe Apostles now determined to seek peace for the Saints, amid the\nfar-off and almost unexplored deserts and mountains of the interior.\nIn February, 1846, this emigration was commenced, headed by the\nApostles and their families.\n\nOn the 24th of July, 1847, the first pioneers of this vast emigration,\nheaded by the President of the whole Church, Brigham Young, entered\nthe Valley of Great Salt Lake.\n\nIn the meantime, the beautiful Nauvoo, and its surrounding farms and\nvillas fell a prey to the enemy, after a vigorous defence. Its temple,\nthe pride and glory of America, was laid in ashes. Its last remnant\nplundered, robbed of their all, sick, destitute, wounded, bleeding,\ndying, at length disappeared beyond the horizon of the illimitable\nplains of the west, and, for a moment, the curtain of oblivion closed\nover this strange drama, and the kingdom of God seemed lost to mortal\nview.\n\nAgain it rises, and what do we behold!\n\nThe banner of freedom unfurled a thousand miles from the frontiers of\nthe persecuting foe; its waving folds, amid the snow-clad peaks of the\nRocky mountains, inviting to liberty and light, the oppressed of every\nclime; and a free and sovereign State rising, in majesty and smiling\nsplendour, amid the fastnesses of nature's eternal ramparts; while the\nexhaustless treasures of the golden mountains of California, revealed\nby the providence-guiding keys of modern Theology, are poured like a\nflowing stream into the treasury of the Lord, to aid in the gathering\nand subsistence of the Saints.\n\nCan the student of Theology contemplate all these grand events and\ntheir results, all verging to one focus, all combining to prepare the\nway for the consummation of the entire volume of unfulfilled prophecy,\nand still be so much at a loss as to query, like one of old, \"Art thou\nhe that should come; or, look we for another?\" If so, we can only\nrecommend, to one so slow of heart, to search the Scriptures, and all\ngood books extant on the subject. And, while he searches, let him turn\nfrom his sins, and live in newness of life, and call upon God, the\nFather of all, in the name of Messiah, that his understanding may be\nenlightened, and his stubborn heart subdued, and constrained to yield\nto the force of Truth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nKEYS OF INITIATION IN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.\n\n\n    Is't possible! A sinful man like me,\n    A candidate for heaven's mystery!\n    May I approach the gate and enter in,\n    Be wash'd and cleans'd from all my former sin,\n    Renew'd in spirit, and partake the power\n    Of bless'd Theology from this good hour.\n\nThe student of this deeply interesting science, who has traced, with\nus, the thrilling incidents of its history on earth, till he finds it\nrestored in all its beauties, and its powers taking root in the earth,\nto bear eternal fruit, will, doubtless, feel a desire to be instructed\nin the first principles--the ordinances or means by which he may\npersonally partake of its benefits, and exercise its gifts.\n\nThere are certain qualifications, or personal preparations\nindispensably necessary, without which, no person can be a proper\ncandidate for blessings so divine.\n\nFirst. He must believe in Jesus Christ, and in the testimony of the\nApostle, or commissioned officer, to whom he looks for the\nadministration of these blessings.\n\nSecondly. He must forsake a sinful course of life; must deny himself\nof every impure or unlawful indulgence; must do right with his fellow\ncreatures, and determine to keep the commandments of Jesus Christ.\n\nWith these qualifications he comes to the Apostle, Elder, or Priest of\nthe Church of the Saints, who, after a covenant on the part of the\ncandidate to forsake his sins, and keep the commandments of Jesus\nChrist, goes down into the water with him, and there buries him, in\nthe name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for remission of sins,\nand then raises him from his watery grave.\n\nThis ordinance is to represent the death, burial and resurrection of\nJesus Christ, and is called Baptism.\n\nHaving passed through this ordinance, the hands of some one, or more,\nof the authorised Priesthood, are next laid upon the head of the\ncandidate, in the same sacred names, and the gift of the Holy Spirit\nis confirmed upon him. This baptism of water and of the Spirit is\ncalled a new birth; and it is in reality a repetition of the natural\nbirth, or entrance into the elements of a new existence.\n\nTo realise this, the student must be indoctrinated in the philosophy\nof his natural birth, which involves three principles; viz.--\"_The\nspirit, the water and the blood_.\"\n\nThe embryo formation of the human body, is commenced and sustained by\nblood and spirit, in the womb of nature, where, until the period of\nbirth, it floats in the element of water. At birth, then, it is\nliterally born of water, that is, it emerges from that element in\nwhich it has been so long immersed, into a different element, called\nthe atmosphere, which then becomes a necessary element of existence.\n\nTo be born again, then, is to enter into the same element, suspend the\nbreath in the watery womb, and emerge from that element into the\natmosphere, and again gasp the first breath in the new creation;\nwhile, at the same time, the blood of Atonement is applied to the\nindividual, for remission of sins, and is followed by the outpouring\nof the Holy Spirit of promise. As it is written--\"_There are three\nthat bear record on the earth; the spirit, the water, and the blood_.\"\n\nThe things of this visible creation, are the patterns of things in the\ninvisible world; and are so arranged as to exactly correspond--the one\nanswering to the other, as face to face in a mirror.\n\nThe immersion in water, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy\nSpirit, for remission of sins; and the baptism of the Holy Spirit,\nwhich follows according to promise, by the laying on of the hands of\nthe holy Priesthood; were instituted from before the foundation of the\nworld, as a pattern of the birth, death, resurrection and new life of\nman.\n\nThe candidate is now initiated into the first principles of the\nscience of Divine Theology. His mind is quickened, his intellectual\nfaculties are aroused to intense activity. He is, as it were,\nilluminated. He learns more of divine truth in a few days, than he\ncould have learned in a life time in the best merely human\ninstitutions in the world.\n\nHis affections are also purified, exalted, and increased in\nproportion. He loves his heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ, with a\nperfect love. He also loves the members of the Church, or the body of\nChrist, as he loves his own soul; while his bosom swells with the\ntenderest sympathies, and emotions of good will and benevolence, for\nall mankind. He would make any sacrifice which might be expedient, to\ndo good. He would lay down his life most cheerfully, without one\nmoment's hesitation, or regret, if required of him by the cause of\ntruth.\n\nHe also feels the spirit of prayer and watchfulness continually, and\npours out his soul in the same, and finds he is answered in all things\nwhich are expedient. He is now in a fit capacity to exercise some one\nor more of the spiritual gifts.\n\nHe may perhaps speak in power, in the word of wisdom, in the word of\nknowledge, in prophecy, or in other tongues. He may see a vision,\ndream an inspired dream, or possess the gift to be healed, or to heal\nothers, by the laying on of hands in the name of Jesus Christ.\n\nTo impart a portion of the Holy Spirit by the touch, or by the laying\non of hands; or to impart a portion of the element of life, from one\nanimal body to another, by an authorized agent who acts in the name of\nGod, and who is filled therewith, is as much in accordance with the\nlaws of nature, as for water to seek its own level; air, its\nequilibrium; or heat, and electricity, their own mediums of\nconveyance.\n\nThis law of spiritual fluid, its communicative properties, and the\nchannel by which it is imparted from one person to another, bear some\nresemblance, or analogy, to the laws and operations of electricity.\nLike electricity, it is imparted by the contact of two bodies, through\nthe channel of the nerves.\n\nBut the two fluids differ very widely. The one is a property nearly\nallied to the grosser elements of matter; not extensively endowed with\nthe attributes of intelligence, wisdom, affection, or moral\ndiscrimination. It can therefore be imparted from one animal body to\nanother, irrespective of the intellectual or moral qualities of the\nsubject or recipient. The other is a substance endowed with the\nattributes of intelligence, affection, moral discrimination, love,\ncharity, and benevolence pure as the emotions which swell the bosom,\nthrill the nerves, or vibrate the pulse of the Father of all.\n\nAn agent filled with this heavenly fluid cannot impart of the same to\nanother, unless that other is justified, washed, cleansed from all his\nimpurities of heart, affections, habits or practices, by the blood of\natonement, which is generally applied in connexion with the baptism of\nremission.\n\nA man who continues in his sins, and who has no living faith in the\nSon of God, cannot receive the gift of the Holy Spirit through the\nministration of any agent, however holy he may be. The impure spirit\nof such a one will repulse the pure element, upon the natural laws of\nsympathetic affinity, or of attraction and repulsion.\n\nAn intelligent being, in the image of God, possesses every organ,\nattribute, sense, sympathy, affection, of will, wisdom, love, power\nand gift, which is possessed by God Himself.\n\nBut these are possessed by man, in his rudimental state, in a\nsubordinate sense of the word. Or, in other words, these attributes\nare in embryo; and are to be gradually developed. They resemble a\nbud--a germ, which gradually developes into bloom, and then, by\nprogress, produces the mature fruit, after its own kind.\n\nThe gift of the Holy Spirit adapts itself to all these organs or\nattributes. It quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases,\nenlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and\naffections; and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful\nuse. It inspires, developes, cultivates and matures all the fine toned\nsympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings and affections of our\nnature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness\nand charity. It developes beauty of person, form and features. It\ntends to health, vigour, animation and social feeling. It developes\nand invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual\nman. It strengthens, invigorates, and gives tone to the nerves. In\nshort, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light\nto the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being.\n\nIn the presence of such persons, one feels to enjoy the light of their\ncountenances, as the genial rays of a sunbeam. Their very atmosphere\ndiffuses a thrill, a warm glow of pure gladness and sympathy, to the\nheart and nerves of others who have kindred feelings, er sympathy of\nspirit. No matter if the parties are strangers, entirely unknown to\neach other in person or character; no matter if they have never spoken\nto each other, each will be apt to remark in his own mind, and perhaps\nexclaim, when referring to the interview--\"O what an atmosphere\nencircles that stranger! How my heart thrilled with pure and holy\nfeelings in his presence! What confidence and sympathy he inspired!\nHis countenance and spirit gave me more assurance, than a thousand\nwritten recommendations, or introductory letters.\" Such is the gift of\nthe Holy Spirit, and such are its operations, when received through\nthe lawful channel--the divine, eternal Priesthood.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nPHILOSOPHY OF MIRACLES.\n\n\n    Trembling with awe and fear, the mind inquires--\n    \"What master spirit, now, the bard inspires;\n    What bold philosophy shall dare assign\n    A law to govern miracles divine--\n    Tell how effects transpire without a cause,\n    And how kind nature breaks kind nature's laws?\"\n\nAmong the popular errors of modern times, an opinion prevails that\nmiracles are events which transpire contrary to the laws of nature,\nthat they are effects without a cause.\n\nIf such is the fact, then, there never has been a miracle, and there\nnever will be one. The laws of nature are the laws of _truth_. Truth\nis unchangeable, and independent in its own sphere. A law of nature\nnever has been broken. And it is an absolute impossibility that such\nlaw ever should be broken.\n\nThat which, at first sight, appears to be contrary to the known laws\nof nature, will always be found, on investigation, to be in perfect\naccordance with those laws. For instance, had a sailor of the last\ncentury been running before the wind, and met with a vessel running at\na good rate of speed, directly in opposition to the wind and current,\nthis sight would have presented, to his understanding, a miracle in\nthe highest possible sense of the term, that is, an event entirely\ncontrary to the laws of nature, as known to him. Or if a train of\ncars, loaded with hundreds of passengers, or scores of tons of\nfreight, had been seen passing over the surface of the earth, at the\nrate of sixty miles per hour, and propelled, seemingly, by its own\ninherent powers of locomotion, our fathers would have beheld a\nmiracle--an event which would have appeared, to them, to break those\nvery laws of nature with which they were the most familiar.\n\nIf the last generation had witnessed the conveyance of news from\nLondon to Paris, in an instant, while they knew nothing of the late\ninvention of the electric telegraph, they would have testified, in all\ncandour, and with the utmost assurance, that a miracle had been\nperformed, in open violation of the well known laws of nature, and\ncontrary to all human knowledge of cause and effect.\n\nBut, once familiar with the arts of the living age, all those miracles\ncease to be such, and the laws of nature, and of cause and effect, are\nfound to be still moving, unimpaired, in all the harmony of primeval\nexistence and operation.\n\nThe same views will apply, with equal force, to all the spiritual\nphenomena of the universe.\n\nThe terms _miracle_ and _mystery_ must become obsolete, and finally\ndisappear from the vocabulary of intelligences, as they advance in the\nhigher spheres of intellectual consistency. Even now they should be\nused only in a relative or limited sense, as applicable to those\nthings which are not yet within reach of our powers, or means of\ncomprehension.\n\nWe will here remind the student of two principles, or laws of\nexistence, developed in a former chapter of this work, which will\naccount for all the miraculous powers of the universe--all the mighty\nworks ever manifested by God, or by His servants.\n\nFirst. All the elements of the material universe are eternal.\n\nSecond. There is a divine substance, fluid or essence, called Spirit,\nwidely diffused among these eternal elements.\n\nThis spiritual substance is the most refined, subtle, and powerful\nelement in the universe. It is endowed with all wisdom, all knowledge,\nall intelligence and power. In short, it is the light, life, power and\nprinciple of all things, by which they move; and of all intelligences,\nby which they think.\n\nThis divine element, or Spirit, is the immediate, active, or\ncontrolling agent, in all holy, miraculous powers.\n\nAngels, and all holy men, perform all their miracles, simply, to use a\nmodern magnetic term, by being in \"_communication_\" with this divine\nsubstance. Two beings, or two millions--any number thus placed in\n\"_communication_\"--all possess one mind. The mind of the one is the\nmind of the other, the will of the one is the will of the other, the\nword of the one is the word of the other. And the holy fluid, or\nSpirit, being in communication with them all, goes forth to control\nthe elements, and to execute all their mandates which are legally\nissued, and in accordance with the mind and wisdom of the Great\nEloheim.\n\nGod the Father is the Head. The mandates of Jesus Christ must be in\nthe name of the Father.\n\nThe mandates of angels, or of holy men, in order to be legal, or of\ndue force and power, must be issued in the name of Jesus Christ, or of\nthe three who compose the Head Council; and must be in accordance with\ntheir united mind and will. The Holy Spirit then goes forth and\nexecutes their mandates. This agency being _invisible_, and the effect\n_visible_, the act performed appears to those who are unacquainted\nwith spiritual agency, as a miracle, or an _effect_ without a _cause_.\n\nWhen Jesus Christ was clothed upon with a mortal tabernacle, he had\nnot the fulness of this divine substance at the first, but grew and\nincreased in the same, till, being raised from the dead, he received a\nfulness and, therefore, had all power, in heaven and on earth.\n\nHis Apostles received a portion of this Spirit, but not a fulness,\nwhile they were mortal; therefore, they could know and perform some\nthings, but not all.\n\nThe members of the Church also partook of this Spirit, through the\nministry of the Apostles, by which miraculous gifts were imparted unto\nthem, some to one, and some to another: some to speak in tongues; some\nto interpret, or translate from one language into another; some to\nprophesy, see visions, or converse with angels; and others to control,\nor cast out devils, or heal the sick; and others, again, to teach and\nedify the Church, or the world, by the word of wisdom, and by the word\nof knowledge.\n\nAll these gifts and miracles were the workings of that one, and the\nself same Spirit given to the members of the Church of the Saints,\nwhile the world did not partake of a sufficient measure of the Spirit\nto possess these gifts. The reason of this is, that they did not\nrepent, and believe in Jesus Christ, and be baptized in his name, and\nreceive the gift of the Holy Spirit, by the laying on of the hands of\nthe Priesthood--these duties and ordinances, being the legal or\nappointed channel by which the gift of the Holy Spirit was imparted.\nThe reason why these gifts of the Spirit have not been enjoyed in all\nages of the so called \"_Christian Church_\" is because it is not the\ntrue Church; nor, is the true ministry or Apostleship to be found\namong the Church, or Churches, where these gifts are denied. Every\nminister and member of such institutions have need to repent, and be\nbaptized, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins; and to\nreceive the gift of the Holy Spirit, by the laying on of hands of\nthose who have authority, in order to enter into the kingdom of God.\n\nThese ordinances, ministered by a legal Priesthood, being divinely\nappointed, are the only legitimate means by which man may receive and\nexercise these divine powers; or, in other words, they are the means\nordained of God, by which one being may communicate or impart a\nportion of this divine substance to another, so as to place that other\nin communication with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and with\nangels, and the spirits of just men in the world of spirits, and with\nthe members of the true Church on the earth.\n\nTo heal a person by the touch, or by the laying on of hands in the\nname of Jesus Christ, or to impart the Holy Spirit by the laying on of\nhands, is as much in accordance with the laws of nature, as for water\nto seek its own level, an apple to fall to the ground when loosened\nfrom the tree where it grew, quicksilver to attract its own\naffinities, or the magnet to obey its own laws.\n\nAs the electric fluid obeys its own laws upon the wire, so, also, does\nthe spiritual or holy fluid convey itself, through certain channels,\nfrom one body to another, in accordance with certain legitimate laws.\n\nThe usual channel for all spiritual fluids, whether holy or impure, in\ntheir operations upon the human system, or in their passage from one\nanimal body to another, is the nerves.\n\nA person commissioned of Jesus Christ, and filled with this spiritual\nsubstance, can impart of the same to another, provided there is a\npreparation of heart, and faith on the part of the receiver. Or if, as\nin cases of healing, casting out devils, &c., it happens that the\nreceiver has no command of his own mind--as in cases of little\nchildren, persons swooned, fainted, deranged, or dead, then the faith\nof the administrator alone, or in connexion with other friends and\nagents, in his behalf, is sufficient, in many cases, to perform the\nwork.\n\nHowever, the touch, or laying on of hands, is not the only means of\ncommunicating the gift of healing. A word spoken, a mandate issued, or\neven a handkerchief, apron, or other garment, worn or touched by a\nperson full of this Spirit, and conveyed to another, has, according to\nsacred history, and also the experience of the present age, proved\nsufficient to communicate the spiritual fluid, between minds of strong\nand mutual faith. So well acquainted was the Prophet Elisha with this\nprinciple, that he sent his servant to lay his staff upon a dead\nchild, in order to raise it from the dead; but, in this instance, the\nundertaking failed. The Prophet could only resuscitate the child by\nplacing face on face, eye to eye, mouth to mouth, hand to hand, &c.,\nso as to give the greatest possible effect to the imparting of the\nspirit of life.\n\nFor the holy and divine fluid, or spiritual element, to control all\nother elements, agreeable to its own will, and the will of others, who\nare in communication or in perfect unison with itself, is just as\nnatural as for the greater to control the less, or the strong the\nweak. It is upon the same principle that a higher intelligence is able\nto comprehend, circumscribe, and instruct that which is less.\n\nHence, when the worlds were framed, God spake, and this divine fluid\nwent forth and executed the mandate, by controlling the elements, in\naccordance with the will, pattern, or design, formed in the mind of\nHim that spake, and it that executed. Wisdom pondered the pattern of\nall created things, weighed their properties, attributes and uses in\nthe balance of mature intellect. Every minute portion and member of\nthe several departments of life and being, every adaptation to their\nnatural use, was clearly conceived, formed in the mind, and matured,\nere the mandate was issued. And the whole was executed in exact\naccordance with the pattern matured in the Divine Mind.\n\nBy this divine Spirit all things were designed and formed. By this\ndivine Substance all things live, move, and have a being. By this\nagency Moses controlled the sea; Joshua, the motions of the earth;\nDaniel, the mouths of the lions; and his brethren, the flames. By\nthis, the heavens were opened, and were shut; the rain or the dearth\nprevailed; armies were subdued; the sick healed, or the dead raised;\nand all in accordance with the laws of nature, it being perfectly\nnatural for the subordinate elements to obey the supreme, all\ncontrolling, all pervading element, which contains in itself the\ninnate, and inalienable, controlling power.\n\nThe modern world, called \"_Christian_\" claims to have perpetuated the\nsystem called \"Christianity,\" while, at the same time, it declares,\nthat the miraculous gifts of the Spirit have ceased.\n\nWith as much propriety it might be contended, that the magnet had been\nperpetuated, but had lost its magnetic properties; that water was\nperpetuated with all its virtues, but had lost its power to quench\nthirst, or seek its own level; that fire was still fire, but had lost\nits heat.\n\nHow, we inquire, can Christianity have been perpetuated, while its\nvirtues, its legitimate powers, its distinguishing features, its very\nlife and essence have ceased from among men? Or, of what possible use\nis it if it does exist? Is a compass of use when its needle has lost\nits magnetic attraction? Is water of use when it no longer seeks its\nlevel, or quenches thirst? Is fire of use when it loses its heat? Is a\nsun dial of use in a dark and cloudy day; or, a watch without a\nmainspring?\n\nOr, are the mere forms and ceremonies of any system of use, when the\ndivine, or legitimate powers, for which such forms were instituted,\nare withdrawn?\n\nO man! be no longer deceived by solemn mockeries of things sacred, or\nby great and holy names applied to corrupt and degenerate systems.\n\nWhen the miracles and gifts of the divine Spirit ceased from among\nmen, Christianity ceased, the Christian ministry ceased, the Church of\nChrist ceased.\n\nThat ministry which sets aside modern inspiration, revelation,\nprophecy, angels, visions, healings, &c., is not ordained of God; but\nis Anti-Christian in spirit. In short, it is that spirit of\npriestcraft and kingcraft, by which the world, for many ages, has been\nruled as with a rod of iron.\n\nThe sooner the present generation lose all reverence and respect for\nmodern \"_Christianity_,\" with all its powerless forms and solemn\nmockeries, the sooner they will be prepared to receive the kingdom of\nGod. The sooner the treasuries of nations, and the purses of\nindividuals, are relieved from the support of priestcraft and\nsuperstitions, so much sooner will they be able and willing to devote\ntheir means and influence to print and publish the glad tidings of the\nfulness of the Gospel, restored in this age, to assist in the\ngathering of the house of Israel, and in the building of the cities\nand temples of Zion and Jerusalem.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nANGELS AND SPIRITS.\n\n\n    Boast not your lightning wires to bear the news,\n    Such tardy means the Saints would never choose;\n    Too slow your fluid, and too short your wires\n    For heavenly converse, such as love inspires.\n    If man would fain commune with worlds above,\n    Angels transport the news on wings of love.\n\n    \"_Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for\n    them who shall be heirs of salvation?_\" Heb. i. 14.\n\nAngels are of the same race as men. They are, in fact, men who have\npassed from the rudimental state to the higher spheres of progressive\nbeing. They have died and risen again to life, and are consequently\npossessed of a divine, human body of flesh and bones, immortal and\neternal. They eat, drink, sing and converse like other men. Some of\nthem hold the keys of Apostleship and Priesthood, by which they teach,\ninstruct, bless, and perform miracles and many mighty works.\nTranslated men, like Enoch, Elijah, John the Apostle, and three of the\nApostles of the Western Hemisphere, are also like the angels.\n\nAngels are ministers, both to men upon the earth, and to the world of\nspirits. They pass from one world to another with more ease, and in\nless time than we pass from one city to another. They have not a\nsingle attribute which man has not. But their attributes are more\nmatured, or more developed, than the attributes of men in this present\nsphere of existence.\n\nWhenever the keys of Priesthood, or, in other words, the keys of the\nscience of Theology, are enjoyed by man on the earth, the people thus\nprivileged, are entitled to the ministering of angels, whose business\nwith men on the earth, is to restore the keys of the Apostleship, when\nlost; to ordain men to the Apostleship, when there has been no\nApostolic succession; to commit the keys of a new dispensation; to\nreveal the mysteries of history; the facts of present or past times;\nand to unfold the events of a future time. They are, sometimes,\ncommissioned also to execute judgments upon individuals, cities or\nnations. They can be present in their glory, or, they can come in the\nform and appearance of other men. They can also be present without\nbeing visible to mortals.\n\nWhen they come as other men, they will perhaps eat and drink, and wash\ntheir feet; and lodge with their friends. Hence, it is written--\"_Be\nnot forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have\nentertained angels unawares_.\"\n\nTheir business is, also, to comfort and instruct individual members of\nthe Church of the Saints; to heal them by the laying on of hands in\nthe name of Jesus Christ, or to tell them what means to use in order\nto get well; to teach them good things, to sing them a good song, to\nwarn them of approaching danger, or, to deliver them from prison, or\nfrom death.\n\nThese blessings have always been enjoyed by the people, or Church of\nthe Saints, whenever such Church has existed on our planet. They are\nnot peculiar to one dispensation more than another.\n\nThey were busy in the Patriarchal dispensation, in the Mosaic, and in\nthe Gospel dispensations. They delivered Lot and destroyed Sodom.\n\nThey were busy with Moses and the Prophets. They foretold to Zechariah\nthe birth of John. They predicted to Mary her conception, and the\nbirth of Jesus Christ. They informed Joseph, her husband, of her\nsituation. They announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds of\nJudea, and sang an anthem of peace on earth and good will to man, to\nhail him welcome. They attended on his footsteps, in all his sojourn\non the earth. In fact, an angel was the instrument to open the gloomy\nprison of the sepulchre, and to call forth the sleeping body of the\nMessiah, the first to exclaim, \"He is not here, but is risen.\" Two\nangels in white raiment, were the first to announce his second advent,\nwhile he ascended up in the presence of his disciples. Thus, being\ndelivered from the personal attendance on their Master on the earth,\nthey turned their attention to the Apostles, opened the way for their\nministry among Jew and Gentile, delivering them from prison and from\ndanger, and revealing the mysteries which God saw fit to make known to\nthe Saints of that age. And when all the other Apostles had fallen\nasleep, and the Apostle John had been banished, to dig in the coal\nmines of the lone isle of Patmos, they still were faithful to their\ncharge. They followed him there, and there unfolded to him the events\nof all ages and generations.\n\nThe darkness of the middle ages; the corruptions of Anti-Christ, under\nthe name of Christianity; the rivers of blood, and the oceans of\ntears, which would flow during eighteen centuries of error; the mighty\nangel who should again commit the Gospel to the earth, for every\nnation, kindred, tongue, and people; the judgments of God, in the\ndownfall of error and mystery; the restitution or restoration of the\nChurch of the Saints; their final triumph and dominion over the earth;\nthe descent of Jesus Christ to reign over all kingdoms; the\nresurrection of the Saints, and their reign over the earth; the end of\ndeath, and sorrow, and tears, and weeping; were all, _all_ foretold by\nthe angel to the last of the Twelve.\n\nAgain, in the present age, have angels restored the Gospel. Again have\nthey committed the keys of Apostleship. Again have they opened some of\nthe events of the past, present, and future.\n\nAgain have they attended upon the footsteps of Apostles, Prophets, and\nholy Martyrs, from the cradle to the grave. Again have they aided in\nthe ministry, and assisted to deliver from prisons, and from\npersecutions and death, the Saints of the Most High. And again are\nthey about to execute vengeance on great and notable cities and\nnations of the earth.\n\nO what an unspeakable blessing is the ministry of angels to mortal\nman! What a pleasing thought, that many who minister to us, and watch\nover us, are our near kindred--our fathers who have died and risen\nagain in former ages, and who watch over their descendants with all\nthe parental care and solicitude which characterize affectionate\nfathers and mothers on the earth.\n\nThrice happy are they who have lawful claim on their guardianship, and\nwhose conduct does not grieve them, and constrain them to depart from\ntheir precious charge.\n\nSPIRITS are those who have departed this life, and have not yet been\nraised from the dead.\n\nThese are of two kinds, viz.--Good and evil.\n\nThese two kinds also include many grades of good and evil.\n\nThe good spirits, in the superlative sense of the word, are they who,\nin this life, partook of the Holy Priesthood, and of the fulness of\nthe Gospel.\n\nThis class of spirits minister to the heirs of salvation, both in this\nworld and in the world of spirits. They can appear unto men, when\npermitted; but not having a fleshly tabernacle, they cannot hide their\nglory. Hence, an unembodied spirit, if it be a holy personage, will be\nsurrounded with a halo of resplendent glory, or brightness, above the\nbrightness of the sun.\n\nWhereas, spirits not worthy to be glorified will appear without this\nbrilliant halo; and, although they often attempt to pass as angels of\nlight, there is more or less of darkness about them.\n\nMany spirits of the departed, who are unhappy, linger in lonely\nwretchedness about the earth, and in the air, and especially about\ntheir ancient homesteads, and the places rendered dear to them by the\nmemory of former scenes. The more wicked of these are the kind spoken\nof in Scripture, as \"_foul spirits_,\" \"_unclean spirits_,\" spirits who\nafflict persons in the flesh, and engender various diseases in the\nhuman system. They will sometimes enter human bodies, and will\ndistract them, throw them into fits, cast them into the water, into\nthe fire, &c. They will trouble them with dreams, nightmare,\nhysterics, fever, &c. They will also deform them in body and in\nfeatures, by convulsions, cramps, contortions, &c., and will sometimes\ncompel them to utter blasphemies, horrible curses, and even words of\nother languages. If permitted, they will often cause death. Some of\nthese spirits are adulterous, and suggest to the mind all manner of\nlasciviousness, all kinds of evil thoughts and temptations.\n\nA person, on looking another in the eye, who is possessed of an evil\nspirit, will feel a shock--a nervous feeling, which will, as it were,\nmake his hair stand on end; in short, a shock resembling that produced\nin a nervous system by the sight of a serpent.\n\nSome of these foul spirits, when possessing a person, will cause a\ndisagreeable smell about the person thus possessed, which will be\nplainly manifest to the senses of those about him, even though the\nperson thus afflicted should be washed and change his clothes every\nfew minutes.\n\nThere are, in fact, most awful instances of the spirit of lust, and of\nbawdy and abominable words and actions, inspired and uttered by\npersons possessed of such spirits, even though the persons were\nvirtuous and modest so long as they possessed their own agency.\n\nSome of these spirits cause deafness, others dumbness, &c.\n\nWe can suggest no remedy for these multiplied evils, to which poor\nhuman nature is subject, except a good life, while we are in\npossession of our faculties, prayers and fastings of good and holy\nmen, and the ministry of those who have power given them to rebuke\nevil spirits, and cast out devils, in the name of Jesus Christ.\n\nAmong the diversified spirits abroad in the world here are many\nreligious spirits, which are not of God, but which deceive those who\nhave not the keys of Apostleship and Priesthood, or, in other words,\nthe keys of the science of Theology to guide them. Some of these\nspirits are manifested in the camp-meetings of certain sects, and in\nnearly all the excitements and confusions in religious meetings\nfalsely called \"_revivals_.\" All the strange extacies, swoonings,\nscreamings, shoutings, dancings, jumpings, and a thousand other\nridiculous and unseemly manifestations, which neither edify nor\ninstruct, are the fruits of these deceptive spirits.\n\nWe must, however, pity, rather than ridicule, or despise, the subjects\nor advocates of these deceptions. Many of them are honest, but they\nhave no Apostles, nor other officers, nor gifts to detect evil, or to\nkeep them from being led by every delusive spirit.\n\nReal visions, or inspirations which _would_ edify and instruct, they\nare taught to deny. Should Peter or Paul, or an angel from heaven,\ncome among them, they would denounce him as an impostor, with the\nassertion that Apostles and angels were no longer needed.\n\nThere is still another class of unholy spirits at work in the\nworld--spirits diverse from all these, far more intelligent, and, if\npossible, still more dangerous. These are, the spirit of divination,\nvision, foretelling, familiar spirits, \"Animal Magnetism,\"\n\"Mesmerism,\" &c., which reveal many and great truths mixed with the\ngreatest errors, and also display much intelligence, but have not the\nkeys of the science of Theology--the Holy Priesthood.\n\nThese spirits, generally, deny the divinity of Christ, and the great\ntruths of the atonement, and of the resurrection of the body. Of such\nare the Shakers of the United States, and their revelations. They deny\nthe resurrection of the body. From this source are the revelations of\nEmmanuel Swedenborg, which also deny the resurrection. From this\nsource, also, are the revelations of Andrew Jackson Davis, of\nPoughkeepsie, New York, which deny the resurrection and the atonement.\nFrom this source are all the revelations which deny the ordinances of\nthe Gospel, and the keys and gifts of the Holy Apostleship.\n\nLast of all, these are they who climb up in some other way, besides\nthe door, into the sheepfold; and who prophesy or work in their own\nname, and not in the name of Jesus Christ.\n\nNo man can do a miracle in the name and by the authority of Jesus\nChrist, except he be a good man, and authorized by him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nDREAMS.\n\n\n    Mysterious power, whence hope ethereal springs!\n    Sweet heavenly relic of eternal things!\n    Inspiring oft deep thoughts of things divine:\n    The past, the present, and the future thine.\n    Thy reminiscences transport the soul\n    To memory's Paradise--its future goal.\n\n    \"_For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it\n    not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep\n    falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed: then he\n    openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction_.\" Job\n    xxxiii. 14, 15, 16.\n\nIn all ages and dispensations God has revealed many important\ninstructions and warnings to men by means of dreams.\n\nWhen the outward organs of thought and perception are released from\ntheir activity, the nerves unstrung, and the whole of mortal humanity\nlies hushed in quiet slumbers, in order to renew its strength and\nvigour, it is then that the spiritual organs are at liberty, in a\ncertain degree, to assume their wonted functions, to recall some faint\noutlines, some confused and half defined recollections, of that\nheavenly world, and those endearing scenes of their former estate,\nfrom which they have descended in order to obtain and mature a\ntabernacle of flesh. Their kindred spirits, their guardian angels then\nhover about them with the fondest affection, the most anxious\nsolicitude. Spirit communes with spirit, thought meets thought, soul\nblends with soul, in all the raptures of mutual, pure, and eternal\nlove.\n\nIn this situation, the spiritual organs are susceptible of converse\nwith Deity, or of communion with angels, and the spirits of just men\nmade perfect.\n\nIn this situation, we frequently hold communication with our departed\nfather, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter; or with the former\nhusband or wife of our bosom, whose affection for us, being rooted and\ngrounded in the eternal elements, or issuing from under the sanctuary\nof Love's eternal fountain, can never be lessened or diminished by\ndeath, distance of space, or length of years.\n\nWe may, perhaps, have had a friend of the other sex, whose pulse beat\nin unison with our own; whose every thought was big with the\naspirations, the hopes of a bright future in union with our own; whose\nhappiness in time or in eternity, would never be fully consummated\nwithout that union. Such a one, snatched from time in the very bloom of\nyouth, lives in the other sphere, with the same bright hope, watching\nour every footstep, in our meanderings through the rugged path of\nlife, with longing desires for our eternal happiness, and eager for\nour safe arrival in the same sphere.\n\nWith what tenderness of love, with what solicitude of affection will\nthey watch over our slumbers, hang about our pillow, and seek, by\nmeans of the spiritual fluid, to communicate with our spirits, to warn\nus of dangers or temptation, to comfort and soothe our sorrow, or to\nward off the ills which might befall us, or perchance to give us some\nkind token of remembrance or undying love!\n\nIt is the pure in heart, the lovers of truth and virtue, that will\nappreciate these remarks, for they know, by at least a small degree of\nexperience, that these things are so.\n\nThose who are habitually given to vice, immorality and abomination;\nthose who walk in the daily indulgence of unlawful lust; those who\nneither believe in Jesus Christ, nor seek to pray to him, and keep his\ncommandments; those who do not cultivate the pure, refined and holy\njoys of innocent and heavenly affection, but who would sacrifice every\nfiner feeling at the shrine of lawless pleasure and brutal\ndesires--those persons will not understand and appreciate these views,\nbecause their good angels, their kindred spirits have long since\ndeparted, and ceased to attend them, being grieved and disgusted with\ntheir conduct.\n\nThe Spirit of the Lord has also been grieved, and has left them to\nthemselves, to struggle alone amid the dangers and sorrows of life; or\nto be the associates of demons and impure spirits. Such persons dream\nof adultery, gluttony, debauchery, and crimes of every kind. Such\npersons have the foreshadowings of a doleful death, and of darkness,\nand the buffetings of fiends and malicious spirits.\n\nBut, blessed are they who forfeit not their claims to the watchful\ncare and protection of, and communion with, the heavenly powers, and\npure and lovely spirits.\n\nWe can only advise the other classes of mankind, and entreat them, by\nthe joys of love, by all the desires of life, by all the dread of\ndeath, darkness, and a dreary hereafter, yea, by the blood of Him who\ndied, by the victory of him who rose in triumph from the grave, by\ntheir regard for those kindred spirits which would gladly love them in\nworlds without end, to turn from their sinful course of life, to obey\nthe ordinances and commandments of Jesus Christ, that the Spirit of\nGod may return to them, and their good angels and spirits again return\nto their sacred charge.\n\nO what a comfort it is, in this dreary world, to be loved and cared\nfor by all-powerful, warm-hearted, and lovely friends!\n\n_A Dream!_\n\nWhat have not dreams accomplished?\n\nDreams and their interpretation brought the beloved son of Jacob from\nhis dungeon, made him prime minister of Egypt, and the saviour of a\nnation, and of his father's house.\n\nDreams, and the interpretation of dreams, raised a Daniel from slavery\nor degrading captivity in Babylon, to wear a royal chain of gold, and\nto teach royalty how to rule, whilst himself presided over the\ngovernors and presidents of more than a hundred provinces.\n\nDreams, and the interpretation of dreams, have opened the future,\npointed out the course of empire through all the troublous times of\nsuccessive ages, till Saints alone shall rule, and immortality alone\nendure.\n\nOh, what a doleful situation was Saul the king of Israel placed in,\nwhen the army of the Philistines stood in battle array against him,\nand the Lord answered him not, either by dream, by Prophet, by vision,\nor by Urim and Thummim!\n\nHe sought the unlawful gift of familiar spirits, or \"Magnetism.\" He\nthere learned his doom, and rushed to battle with the desperation of\nhopeless despair.\n\nHimself, his sons, and the hosts of Israel, fell in battle in that\nawful day; while David, to whom these gifts had been transferred by\nthe ordination and holy anointing of Samuel, arose by their use to the\nthrone of Israel.\n\nA dream announced to Joseph that his virgin wife should have a son. A\ndream forewarned him to flee into Egypt with the young child and his\nmother. A dream announced to him in Egypt the death of Herod, and\nwarned him to return to his native land.\n\nA dream warned the wise men from the east to return home another way,\nand not return to Herod to betray the young child.\n\nDreams and visions warned Paul, and the Apostles, and the Saints of\nhis day, of various dangers, shipwrecks, persecutions and deaths, and\npointed out the means of escape.\n\nDreams and visions attended and guided them, more or less, in their\nwhole ministry and sojourn on the earth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nTHE WORLD OF SPIRITS.\n\n\n    Ye worlds of light and life, beyond our sphere;\n    Mysterious country! let your light appear.\n    Ye angels, lift the vail, the truth unfold,\n    And give our Seers a glimpse of that bright world;\n    Tell where ye live, and what are your employ,\n    Your present blessing, and your future joy.\n    Say, have you learn'd the name, and tun'd the lyre,\n    And hymn'd the praise of him--the great Messiah?\n    Have love's emotions kindl'd in your breast,\n    And hope enraptur'd seiz'd the promis'd rest?\n    Or wait ye still the resurrection day,\n    That higher promise of Millennial sway?\n    When Saints and angels come to earth again,\n    And in the Mesh with King Messiah reign?\n    The spirits answer'd as they soar'd away--\n    \"We're happy now, but wait a greater day,\n    When sin and death, and hell, shall conquer'd be,\n    And _earth_, with heaven, enjoy the victory.\"\n\nThe spirit of man consists of an organization, or embodiment of the\nelements of spiritual matter, in the likeness and after the pattern of\nthe fleshly tabernacle. It possesses, in fact, all the organs and\nparts exactly corresponding to the outward tabernacle.\n\nThe entrance of this spirit into its embryo tabernacle of flesh, is\ncalled quickening. The infallible evidence of its presence is\nvoluntary motion, which implies a degree of independent agency, or\ninherent will, which individual identity alone possesses.\n\nWhen this spirit departs, the outward tabernacle is said to be dead,\nthat is, the individual who quickened and imparted voluntary motion to\nthe said tabernacle is no longer there. This individual, on departing\nfrom its earthly house, repasses the dark vale of forgetfulness, and\nawakes in the spirit world.\n\nThe spirit world is not the heaven where Jesus Christ, his Father, and\nother beings dwell, who have, by resurrection or translation, ascended\nto eternal mansions, and been crowned and seated on thrones of power;\nbut it is an intermediate state, a probation, a place of preparation,\nimprovement, instruction, or education, where spirits are chastened\nand improved, and where, if found worthy, they may be taught a\nknowledge of the Gospel. In short, it is a place where the Gospel is\npreached, and where faith, repentance, hope and charity may be\nexercised; a place of waiting for the resurrection or redemption of\nthe body; while, to those who deserve it, it is a place of punishment,\na purgatory or hell, where spirits are buffetted till the day of\nredemption.\n\nAs to its location, it is here on the very planet where we were born;\nor, in other words, the earth and other planets of a like sphere, have\ntheir inward or spiritual spheres, as well as their outward, or\ntemporal. The one is peopled by temporal tabernacles, and the other by\nspirits. A vail is drawn between the one sphere and the other, whereby\nall the objects in the spiritual sphere are rendered invisible to\nthose in the temporal.\n\nTo discern beings or things in the spirit world, a person in the flesh\nmust be quickened by spiritual element, the vail must be withdrawn, or\nthe organs of sight, or of hearing, must be transformed, so as to be\nadapted to the spiritual sphere. This state is called vision, trance,\nsecond sight, clairvoyance, &c.\n\nThe elements and beings in the spirit world are as real and tangible\nto spiritual organs, as things and beings of the temporal world are to\nbeings of a temporal state.\n\nIn this spirit world there are all the varieties and grades of\nintellectual being, which exist in the present world. For instance,\nJesus Christ and the thief on the cross, both went to the same place,\nand found themselves associated in the spirit world.\n\nBut the one was there in all the intelligence, happiness, benevolence,\nand charity, which characterized a teacher, a messenger, anointed to\npreach glad tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to\ncomfort those who mourned, to preach deliverance to the captive, and\nopen the prison to those who were bound; or, in other words, _To\npreach the Gospel to the spirits in prison, that they might he judged\naccording to men in the flesh_; while the other was there as a thief,\nwho had expired on the cross for crime, and who was guilty, ignorant,\nuncultivated, and unprepared for resurrection, having need of\nremission of sins, and to be instructed in the science of salvation.\n\nThe former bid farewell to the world of spirits on the third day, and\nreturned to his tabernacle of flesh, in which he ascended to thrones,\nprincipalities, and powers, while the latter is, no doubt, improving\nin the spirit world, and waiting, believing, hoping for the redemption\nof the body.\n\nIn the world of spirits there are Apostles, Prophets, Elders, and\nmembers of the Church of the Saints, holding keys of Priesthood, and\npower to teach, comfort, instruct, and proclaim the Gospel to, their\nfellow-spirits, after the pattern of Jesus Christ.\n\nIn the same world there are also the spirits of Catholics, and\nProtestants of every sect, who have all need to be taught, and to come\nto the knowledge of the true, unchangeable Gospel, in its fulness and\nsimplicity, that they may be judged the same as if they had been\nprivileged with the same in the flesh.\n\nThere is also the Jew, the Mahometan, the infidel, who did not believe\nin Christ while in the flesh. All these must be taught, must come to\nthe knowledge of the crucified and risen Redeemer, and hear the glad\ntidings of the Gospel.\n\nThere are also all the varieties of the heathen spirits; the noble and\nrefined philosopher, poet, patriot, or statesman of Rome or Greece;\nthe enlightened Socrates, Plato, and their like; together with every\ngrade of spirits, down to the most uncultivated of the savage world.\n\nAll these must be taught, enlightened, and must bow the knee to the\neternal king, for the decree hath gone forth, that unto him every knee\nshall bow and every tongue confess.\n\nO what a field of labour, of benevolence, of missionary enterprise now\nopens to the Apostles and Elders of the Church of the Saints! As this\nfield opens they will begin to realize more fully the extent of their\ndivine mission, and the meaning of the great command to \"_Preach the\nGospel to every creature_.\"\n\nIn this vast field of labour, the Priesthood are, in a great measure,\noccupied, during their sojourn in the world of spirits while awaiting\nthe resurrection of the body; and at the same time they themselves are\nedified, improved, and greatly advanced and matured in the science of\ndivine Theology.\n\nIn the use of the keys of this science, by them administered, and in\nconnexion with the ministration of certain ordinances, by the\nPriesthood in this mortal life, for, and in behalf of, those who are\ndead, the doors of the prisons of the spirit world are opened, and\ntheir gloomy dungeons made radiant with light. Hope then springs\nafresh. Joy and gladness swell the bosom accustomed to anguish, and\nsmiles assume the place of tears, while songs of triumph, and the\nvoice of melody and thanksgiving occupy the hearts, and flow from the\nlips, of those who have long dwelt in darkness, and in the region and\nshadow of death.\n\nThe times of sojourn of a spirit in the world of spirits, and also its\nprivileges and degrees of enjoyment, or of suffering, while there,\ndepend much on its preparations while in the flesh.\n\nFor instance, the people swept off by the flood of Noah, were\nimprisoned in the world of spirits, in a kind of hell; without\njustification, without Priesthood or Gospel, without the true\nknowledge of God, or a hope of resurrection, during those long ages\nwhich intervened between the flood and the death of Christ. It was\nonly by the personal ministry of the spirit of Jesus Christ, during\nhis sojourn in the spirit world, that they were at length privileged\nto hear the Gospel, and to act upon their own agency, the same as men\nin the flesh; whereas, if they had repented at the preaching of Noah,\nthey might have been justified, and filled with the hope and knowledge\nof the resurrection while in the flesh.\n\nWhen Jesus Christ had returned from his mission in the spirit world,\nhad triumphed over the grave, and re-entered his fleshly tabernacle,\nthen the Saints who had obeyed the Gospel while in the flesh, and had\nslept in death, or finished their sojourn in the spirit world, were\ncalled forth to re-enter their bodies, and to ascend with him to\nmansions and thrones of eternal power, while the residue of the\nspirits remained in the world of spirits to await another call.\n\nThose who obeyed the Gospel on the earth, after this first\nresurrection, will also be called from their sojourn in the spirit\nworld, and re-united with their tabernacles of flesh, at the sounding\nof the next trump, and will reign on the earth in the flesh, one\nthousand years, while those who rejected the Gospel will remain in the\nspirit world without a resurrection, till after the thousand years.\n\nAgain, those who obey the Gospel in the present age will rise from the\nspirit world, and from the grave, and reign on the earth during the\ngreat thousand years; while those who reject it will remain in\ncondemnation in the spirit world, without a resurrection, till the\nlast trump shall sound, and death and hell deliver up their dead.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nRESURRECTION, ITS TIMES AND DEGREES--FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD HEAVENS,\nOR THE TELESTIAL, TERRESTRIAL AND CELESTIAL KINGDOMS.\n\n\n    The grave and death and hell no more retain\n    Their lawful captives. Earth yields its slain.\n    The raging ocean, from its lowly bed,\n    At Michael's call, delivers up its dead.\n    Then comes the judgment, and the final doom\n    Of man--his destiny beyond the tomb.\n\nThere are three general resurrections revealed to man on the earth;\none of these is past, and the other two are future.\n\nThe first general resurrection took place in connexion with the\nresurrection of Jesus Christ. This included the Saints and Prophets of\nboth hemispheres, from Adam down to John the Baptist; or, in other\nwords, all those who died in Christ before his resurrection.\n\nThe second will take place in a few years from the present time, and\nwill be immediately succeeded by the coming of Jesus Christ, in power\nand great glory, with all his Saints and Angels. This resurrection\nwill include the Former and Latter-day Saints--all those who have\nreceived the Gospel since the former resurrection.\n\nThe third and last resurrection will take place more than a thousand\nyears afterwards, and will embrace all the human family not included\nin the former resurrections or translations.\n\nAfter man is raised from the dead he will be judged according to his\nworks, and will receive the reward, and be consigned to the sphere,\nexactly corresponding to his former deeds, and the preparations or\nqualifications which he possesses.\n\nIn the former resurrection, those raised left the earth and ascended,\nor, were transplanted far on high, with the risen Jesus, to the\nglorified mansions of his Father, or to some planetary system already\nredeemed and glorified. The reasons for thus leaving the earth are\nobvious. Our planet was still in its rudimental state, and therefore\nsubject to the rule of sin and death. It was necessary that it should\ncontinue thus, until the full time of redemption should arrive; it\nwas, therefore, entirely unfitted for the residence of immortal man.\n\nBut in the resurrection which now approaches, and in connexion with\nthe glorious coming of Jesus Christ, the earth will undergo a change\nin its physical features, climate, soil, productions; and in its\npolitical, moral, and spiritual government.\n\nIts mountains will be levelled, its valleys exalted, its swamps and\nsickly places will be drained and become healthy, while its burning\ndeserts, and its frigid polar regions, will be redeemed and become\ntemperate and fruitful.\n\nKingcraft and priestcraft, tyranny, oppression and idolatry will be at\nan end, darkness and ignorance will pass away, war will cease, and the\nrule of sin, and sorrow, and death will give place to the reign of\npeace, and truth, and righteousness.\n\nFor this reason, and to fulfil certain promises made to the Fathers,\nthe Former and Latter-day Saints included in the two resurrections,\nand all those translated, will then receive an inheritance on the\nearth, and will build upon and improve the same for a thousand years.\n\nThe heathen nations, also, will then be redeemed, and will be exalted\nto the privilege of serving the Saints of the Most High. They will be\nthe ploughmen, the vine-dressers, the gardeners, builders, etc. But\nthe Saints will be the owners of the soil, the proprietors of all real\nestate, and other precious things; and the kings, governors, and\njudges of the earth.\n\nAs the children of man multiply in those peaceful times, a careful and\nwise system of agriculture will be rapidly developed, and extended\nover the face of the whole earth; its entire surface will at length\nbecome like the garden of Eden, the trees of life being cultivated,\nand their fruits enjoyed.\n\nScience, and the useful and ornamental arts, will also be greatly\nextended and cultivated. The fine toned instrument of many strings,\nthe melodious organs of the human voice, will then be tuned to poetry\nand sentiments equally pure and refined, and will pour forth melodies\nand strains of holy joy, calculated to purify and melt every heart in\nlove, and fill every soul with mutual sympathy and extasy of heavenly\nunion.\n\nGeographical knowledge, history, astronomy, mathematics and\nnavigation, will be greatly extended and matured. Railroads and\ntelegraphic lines of communication, will be universally extended, and\nthe powers of steam, or other means of locomotion brought to the\nhighest state of perfection.\n\nThus all nations will be associated in one great brotherhood. A\nuniversal Theocracy will cement the whole body politic. One king will\nrule. One holy city will compose the capitol. One temple will be the\ncentre of worship. In short, there will be one Lord, one Faith, one\nBaptism, and one Spirit.\n\nOne equable, just and useful commercial interest, founded on the\nnecessity and convenience of mutual exchange of products, will also\nform another important bond of union.\n\nMineralogy will also be greatly improved, and its knowledge extended.\nIts hidden treasures will be developed, and gold, silver and the most\nprecious and beautiful stones will be the building materials in most\ncommon use, and will compose the utensils and furniture of the\nhabitations of man.\n\nThe earth and man thus restored and exalted, will not yet be perfect\nin the celestial sense of the word, but will be considered, in the\nlight of eternity, as occupying an intermediate and still progressive\nposition amid the varieties of nature.\n\nThe flesh, bones, sinews, nerves--all the organs--all the particles of\nthe celestial body, must be quickened, filled, surrounded with that\ndivine and holy element, which is purer, more intelligent, more\nrefined and active, fuller of light and life, than any other substance\nin the universe.\n\nEvery organ must be restored, and adapted to its natural and perfect\nuse in the celestial body.\n\n    The Greek Philosopher's immortal mind,\n    Again with flesh and bone and nerve combined;\n    Immortal brain and heart--immortal whole,\n    Will make, as at the first, a living soul.\n\nMan, thus adapted to all the enjoyments of life and love, will possess\nthe means of gratifying his organs of sight, hearing, taste, &c., and\nwill possess, improve and enjoy the riches of the eternal elements.\nThe palace, the city, the garden, the vineyard, the fruits of the\nearth, the gold, the silver, the precious stones, the servants, the\nchariots, horses and horsemen are for his use; also thrones and\ndominions, principalities and powers, might, majesty, and an eternal\nincrease of riches, honours, immortality and eternal life are his. He\nis, in a subordinate sense, a god; or, in other words, one of the sons\nof God. All things are his, and he is Christ's, and Christ is God's.\n\nSuch is the great Millennium.\n\nAnd such is _celestial_ man, in his progress towards perfection.\n\nBesides the peculiar glory of the _celestial_, there are in the\nresurrection and final reward of man, many subordinate spheres, many\ndegrees of reward adapted to an almost infinite variety of\ncircumstances, conditions, degrees of improvement, knowledge,\naccountability and conduct.\n\nThe final state of man, though varying in almost infinite gradations\nand rewards, adapted to his qualifications and deserts, and meted out\nin the scale of exact justice and mercy, may be conceived or expressed\nunder three grand heads, or principal spheres, viz.--\n\nFirst. The Telestial, or least heaven, typified by the stars of the\nfirmament.\n\nSecondly. The Terrestrial, or intermediate heaven, typified by the\nmoon.\n\nThirdly. The Celestial, or third heaven, of which the sun of the\nfirmament is typical.\n\nThe qualifications which fit and prepare intelligences, for these\ndifferent spheres or rewards, are an all important consideration, and\nwell worthy of the sincere attention of all people.\n\nThese several kingdoms or degrees, and their comparative happiness,\nand what characters are candidates for each degree, are revealed in a\nmost concise, clear, lucid and beautiful manner, in one of the visions\nof our great Prophet and founder. We will therefore complete this\nchapter by the insertion of said\n\n                            \"VISION.\n\n\"Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, and rejoice, ye\ninhabitants thereof, for the Lord is God, and beside him there is no\nSaviour: great is His wisdom, marvellous are His ways, and the extent\nof His doings none can find out; His purposes fail not, neither are\nthere any who can stay His hand; from eternity to eternity He is the\nsame, and His years never fail.\n\n\"For thus saith the Lord, I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto\nthose who fear me, and delight to honour those who serve me in\nrighteousness and in truth unto the end. Great shall be their reward\nand eternal shall be their glory; and to them will I reveal all\nmysteries, yea, all the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of\nold, and for ages to come will I make known unto them the good\npleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom;\nyea, even the wonders of eternity shall they know, and things to come\nwill I show them, even the things of many generations; and their\nwisdom shall be great, and their understanding reach to heaven: and\nbefore them the wisdom of the wise shall perish, and the understanding\nof the prudent shall come to naught, for by my Spirit will I enlighten\nthem, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my\nwill; yea, even those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard,\nnor yet entered into the heart of man.\n\n\"We, Joseph Smith, jun., and Sidney Rigdon, being in the Spirit on the\nsixteenth of February, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight\nhundred and thirty-two, by the power of the Spirit our eyes were\nopened and our understandings were enlightened, so as to see and\nunderstand the things of God--even those things which were from the\nbeginning, before the world was, which were ordained of the Father,\nthrough His only begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father,\neven from the beginning, of whom we bear record, and the record which\nwe bear is the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the Son,\nwhom we saw and with whom we conversed in the heavenly vision; for\nwhile we were doing the work of translation, which the Lord had\nappointed unto us, we came to the twenty-ninth verse of the fifth\nchapter of John, which was given unto us as follows. Speaking of the\nresurrection of the dead, concerning those who shall hear the voice of\nthe Son of man, and shall come forth; they who have done good in the\nresurrection of the just, and they who have done evil in the\nresurrection of the unjust. Now this caused us to marvel, for it was\ngiven unto us of the Spirit; and while we meditated upon these things,\nthe Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened,\nand the glory of the Lord shone round about; and we beheld the glory\nof the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his\nfulness; and saw the holy angels, and they who are sanctified before\nHis throne, worshipping God and the Lamb, who worship Him for ever and\never. And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of\nhim, this is the testimony last of all, which we give of him, that he\nlives; for we saw him, even on the right hand of God, and we heard the\nvoice bearing record that he is the only begotten of the Father--that\nby him and through him, and of him the worlds are and were created,\nand the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.\nAnd this we saw also, and bear record, that an angel of God who was in\nauthority in the presence of God, who rebelled against the only\nbegotten Son, whom the Father loved, and who was in the bosom of the\nFather, was thrust down from the presence of God and the Son, and was\ncalled Perdition, for the heavens wept over him--he was Lucifer, a son\nof the morning. And we beheld, and lo, he is fallen! is fallen! even a\nson of the morning. And while we were yet in the Spirit, the Lord\ncommanded us that we should write the vision, for we beheld Satan,\nthat old serpent--even the devil, who rebelled against God, and sought\nto take the kingdom of our God, and His Christ, wherefore he maketh\nwar with the Saints of God, and encompasses them round about. And we\nsaw a vision of the sufferings of those with whom he made war and\novercame, for thus came the voice of the Lord unto us.\n\n\"Thus saith the Lord, concerning all those who know my power, and have\nbeen made partakers thereof, and suffered themselves, through the\npower of the devil, to be overcome, and to deny the truth and defy my\npower--they are they who are the sons of perdition, of whom I say that\nit had been better for them never to have been born, for they are\nvessels of wrath, doomed to suffer the wrath of God, with the devil\nand his angels in eternity; concerning whom I have said there is no\nforgiveness in this world nor in the world to come, having denied the\nHoly Spirit after having received it, and having denied the only\nbegotten Son of the Father--having crucified him unto themselves, and\nput him to an open shame. These are they who shall go away into the\nlake of fire and brimstone, with the devil and his angels, and the\nonly ones on whom the second death shall have any power; yea, verily,\nthe only ones who shall not be redeemed in the due time of the Lord,\nafter the sufferings of his wrath; for all the rest shall be brought\nforth by the resurrection of the dead, through the triumph and the\nglory of the Lamb, who was slain, who was in the bosom of the Father\nbefore the worlds were made. And this is the Gospel, the glad tidings\nwhich the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us, that he came\ninto the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear\nthe sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it\nfrom all unrighteousness; that through him all might be saved whom the\nFather had put into his power and made by him, who glorifies the\nFather, and saves all the works of his hands, except those sons of\nperdition, who deny the Son after the Father has revealed him;\nwherefore, he saves all except them; they shall go away into\neverlasting punishment, which is endless punishment, which is eternal\npunishment, to reign with the devil and his angels in eternity, where\ntheir worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, which is their\ntorment; and the end thereof, neither the place thereof, nor their\ntorment, no man knows, neither was it revealed, neither is, neither\nwill be revealed unto man, except to them who are made partakers\nthereof: nevertheless I, the Lord, show it by vision unto many, but\nstraightway shut it up again; wherefore the end, the width, the\nheight, the depth, and the misery thereof, they understand not,\nneither any man except them who are ordained unto this condemnation.\nAnd we heard the voice, saying, Write the vision, for lo! this is the\nend of the vision of the sufferings of the ungodly!\n\n\"And again we bear record, for we saw and heard, and this is the\ntestimony of the Gospel of Christ, concerning them who come forth in\nthe resurrection of the just; they are they who received the testimony\nof Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner\nof his burial, being buried in the water in his name, and this\naccording to the commandment, which he has given, that by keeping the\ncommandments they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins,\nand receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who\nis ordained and sealed unto this power, and who overcome by faith, and\nare sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth\nupon all those who are just and true. They are they who are the Church\nof the first born. They are they into whose hands the Father has given\nall things. They are they who are priests and kings, who have received\nof His fulness, and of His glory, and are priests of the Most High,\nafter the order of Melchisedek, which was after the order of Enoch,\nwhich was after the order of the only begotten Son; wherefore, as it\nis written, they are gods, even the sons of God; wherefore all things\nare theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to\ncome, all are theirs and they are Christ's and Christ is God's; and\nthey shall overcome all things; wherefore let no man glory in man, but\nrather let him glory in God, who shall subdue all enemies under His\nfeet--these shall dwell in the presence of God and His Christ for ever\nand ever. These are they whom he shall bring with him, when he shall\ncome in the clouds of heaven, to reign on the earth over his people.\nThese are they who shall have part in the first resurrection. These\nare they who shall come forth in the resurrection of the just. These\nare they who are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living\nGod, the heavenly place, the holiest of all. These are they who have\ncome to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and\nChurch of Enoch, and of the first born. These are they whose names are\nwritten in heaven, where God and Christ are the judge of all. These\nare they who are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of\nthe new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the\nshedding of his own blood. These are they whose bodies are celestial\nwhose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God, the highest of\nall, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being\ntypical.\n\n\"And again, we saw the terrestrial world, and behold and lo, these are\nthey who are of the terrestrial, whose glory differs from that of the\nChurch of the first-born, who have received the fulness of the Father,\neven as that of the moon differs from the sun in the firmament--\nbehold, these are they who died without law, and also they who are the\nspirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached the\nGospel unto, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh,\nwho received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards\nreceived it. These are they who are honourable men of the earth, who\nwere blinded by the craftiness of men. These are they who receive of\nhis glory, but not of his fulness. These are they who receive of the\npresence of the Son, but not of the fulness of the Father; wherefore,\nthey are bodies terrestrial, and not bodies celestial, and differ in\nglory as the moon differs from the sun. These are they who are not\nvaliant in the testimony of Jesus; wherefore they obtained not the\ncrown over the kingdom of our God. And now this is the end of the\nvision which we saw of the terrestrial, that the Lord commanded us to\nwrite while we were yet in the Spirit.\n\n\"And again, we saw the glory of the telestial, which glory is that of\nthe lesser, even as the glory of the stars differs from that of the\nmoon in the firmament. These are they who received not the Gospel of\nChrist, neither the testimony of Jesus. These are they who deny not\nthe Holy Spirit. These are they who are thrust down to hell. These are\nthey who shall not be redeemed from the devil, until the last\nresurrection, until the Lord, even Christ the Lamb, shall have\nfinished his work. These are they who receive not of his fulness in\nthe eternal world, but of the Holy Spirit, through the ministration of\nthe terrestrial; and the terrestrial through the ministration of the\ncelestial; and also the telestial receive it of the administering of\nangels who are appointed to minister for them, or who are appointed to\nbe ministering spirits for them, for they shall be heirs of salvation.\nAnd thus we saw in the heavenly vision, the glory of the telestial,\nwhich surpasses all understanding, and no man knows it except him to\nwhom God has revealed it. And thus we saw the glory of the\nterrestrial, which excels in all things the glory of the telestial,\neven in glory, and in power, and in might, and in dominion. And thus\nwe saw the glory of the celestial which excels in all things--where\nGod, even the Father, reigns upon His throne for ever and ever; before\nwhose throne all things bow in humble reverence and give Him glory for\never and ever. They who dwell in His presence are the Church of the\nfirst-born, and they see as they are seen, and know as they are known,\nhaving received of His fulness and of His grace; and He makes them\nequal in power, and in might, and in dominion. And the glory of the\ncelestial is one, even as the glory of the sun is one. And the glory\nof the terrestrial is one, even as the glory of the moon is one. And\nthe glory of the telestial is one, even as the glory of the stars is\none, for as one star differs from another star in glory, even so\ndiffers one from another in glory in the telestial world; for these\nare they who are of Paul, and of Apollos, and of Cephas. These are\nthey who say they are some of one and some of another--some of Christ,\nand some of John, and some of Moses, and some of Elias, and some of\nEsaias, and some of Isaiah, and some of Enoch; but received not the\nGospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the Prophets, neither\nthe Everlasting Covenant. Last of all, these all are they who will not\nbe gathered with the Saints, to be caught up unto the Church of the\nfirstborn, and received into the cloud. These are they who are liars,\nand sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves\nand makes a lie. These are they who suffer the wrath of God on the\nearth. These are they who suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. These\nare they who are cast down to hell and suffer the wrath of Almighty\nGod, until the fulness of times when Christ shall have subdued all\nenemies under his feet, and shall have perfected his work, when he\nshall deliver up the Kingdom, and present it unto the Father spotless,\nsaying--I have overcome and have trodden the wine-press alone, even\nthe wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. Then\nshall he be crowned with the crown of His glory, to sit on the throne\nof his power to reign for ever and ever. But behold, and lo, we saw\nthe glory and the inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were\nas innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand\nupon the sea shore, and heard the voice of the Lord saying--these all\nshall bow the knee, and every tongue shall confess to him who sits\nupon the throne for ever and ever; for they shall be judged according\nto their works, and every man shall receive according to his own\nworks, his own dominion, in the mansions which are prepared, and they\nshall be servants of the Most High, but where God and Christ dwell\nthey cannot come, worlds without end. This is the end of the vision\nwhich we saw, which we were commanded to write while we were yet in\nthe Spirit.\n\n\"But great and marvellous are the works of the Lord, and the mysteries\nof His kingdom which He showed unto us, which surpasses all\nunderstanding in glory, and in might, and in dominion, which He\ncommanded us we should not write while we were yet in the Spirit, and\nare not lawful for man to utter; neither is man capable to make them\nknown, for they are only to be seen and understood by the power of the\nHoly Spirit, which God bestows on those who love Him, and purify\nthemselves before Him; to whom He grants this privilege of seeing and\nknowing for themselves; that through the power and manifestation of\nthe Spirit, while in the flesh, they may be able to bear His presence\nin the world of glory. And to God and the Lamb be glory, and honour,\nand dominion for ever and ever. Amen.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nFURTHER REMARKS ON MAN'S PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL\nPROGRESS--PHILOSOPHY OF WILL, AS ORIGINATING, DIRECTING, AND\nCONTROLLING ALL VOLUNTARY ANIMAL MOTION--ASTOUNDING FACTS IN RELATION\nTO THE SPEED, OR VELOCITY OF MOTION, AS ATTAINABLE BY PHYSICAL\nMAN--INTERCOMMUNICATION OF THE INHABITANTS OF DIFFERENT AND DISTANT\nPLANETS.\n\n\n    Wide, and more wide, the kindling bosom swells,\n    As love inspires, and truth its wonders tells.\n    The soul enraptured tunes the sacred lyre.\n    And bids a worm of earth to heaven aspire,\n    Mid solar systems numberless, to soar,\n    The depths of love and science to explore.\n\nAs I have before remarked, man is a candidate for a series of\nprogressive changes, all tending to develop his intellectual and\nphysical faculties, to expand his mind, and to enlarge his sphere of\naction, and consequent usefulness and happiness.\n\nHe begins his physical, or rudimental, fleshly career by descending\nbelow all things. He has at his birth less power of locomotion, or\neven instinct, than other animals.\n\nHis powers of motion are so very limited, that for several months he\nis entirely unable to change his locality. Wherever he is placed,\nthere he must remain until removed by the agency of others. He can\nhardly be said to have a will, or, at least, it is so undeveloped, as\nscarcely to manifest itself by any effort beyond the movement of some\nportion of his members. While he remains in this state of mental\ninability and physical helplessness, a casual observer, entirely\nunacquainted with his progress and destiny, might very naturally\nconclude that this was the climax of his maturity, the natural sphere\nof his eternal existence.\n\nA few months, however, develop a marked change--he begins to learn the\nuse, and put forth the powers of his will. The body, developed in a\ncommensurate degree, is able to obey that will. Thus commences\nlocomotion. The child crawls or creeps about the floor; explores the\nlittle world--that is to say, the room where he resides, or the\nadjoining apartment--becomes familiar with its dimensions, bearings\nand contents, and recognizes his associates or fellow citizens of the\nsame little world. Then he becomes familiar with the science of\ngeography and of history, if I may so call it, in his little world.\n\nPrompted by curiosity, he may, perhaps, cast an occasional glance\nbeyond the limits of his own abode. He may contemplate a building or\nlandscape on the other side of the street or field, but with much of\nthe same feeling as a man, more matured, casts his eyes to the distant\nplanets. He concludes that these distant objects are entirely beyond\nthe reach of his powers of locomotion.\n\nIn a short time, however, his faculties, still expanding, develop new\nand increasing energies. He conceives \"_big thoughts_.\" He even thinks\nof dispensing with his plodding, creeping manner of locomotion, and of\ntrying to stand upright, and even make a first step towards walking.\nIt is a great undertaking. He hesitates, doubts, fears, hopes, till\nfinally, being cheered onward in his career by his parents or his\nnurse, he makes the attempt. After several falls, failures, and\ndisappointments, he at length succeeds in walking two or three steps.\nO what a triumph in his powers of locomotion! He is cheered, embraced,\noverwhelmed, by those who have been watching his progress and\nencouraging him, until, overcome and carried away by an extasy of\ntransport, he falls, blushing, smiling and exulting into the arms held\nout for his reception. He dreams not of a higher attainment. He is\nnow, in his own estimation, at the very highest pinnacle of human\ndevelopment.\n\nImproving in his new mode of locomotion, he soon runs about the yard,\nalong the street, through the field, makes new discoveries, sees new\nhabitations, enlarges his geographical knowledge, and begins to\nconceive the probability that his views have been too narrow, and that\nthere may be a bigger world, more people, and more buildings than were\ndreamed of in his philosophy.\n\nIn a few years he may become familiar with the geography and history\nof the island or continent on which he lives. He may even begin to\naspire after the knowledge of other climes, and to conceive or\nconjecture that beyond the limits of the almost infinite expanse of\nwaters, things and beings may exist after the similitude of his own\nsphere. He longs to overcome the physical barriers, which confine him\nin so limited a sphere, and thus enlarge his acquaintance, his social\nfeelings, his friendship, his affections and his scientific knowledge.\n\nSo boundless and varied is the field, so complicated are the obstacles\nto be surmounted, so vast the preparations, improvements and\ninventions to be brought into requisition, that, after ages and\ngenerations have exhausted their energies, much is still left to be\ndone--much which can only be done by the progress and extension of\nthose modern triumphs of art, by which the elements--the fire, the\nwind, the water, the lightning, submit to the control of man, and\nbecome his chariot, his bearer of despatches. By these means the globe\nwe occupy will soon be explored, the limits, boundaries and resources\nof every dark corner be clearly defined and understood.\n\nMan already moves over the surface of the earth at the rate of fifty,\nsixty, and even ninety miles per hour, and still he aspires. He\ncontemplates making the air his chariot, and wafting himself through\nthe open firmament at the rate of, perhaps, a thousand miles per hour.\nSuppose he attains to this, what then? Will the great, the infinite\nprinciple within him be satisfied? No. He lifts his eyes to the\ncontemplation of those myriads of shining orbs on high. He knows by\nactual admeasurement that some of them are much larger than the planet\nhe occupies. He also knows by analogy that eternal riches are there;\nthat a boundless store of element and resources is there; that they\nare treasured there for the use, comfort, convenience, and enjoyment,\nof intellectual and physical beings--beings, for aught he knows, of\nhis own species, and connected with him by kindred ties, or by the law\nof universal sympathy and affection. He has reason to believe that\nthere is gold and silver, that there are precious stones, and houses,\nand cities, and gardens. That there are walks of pleasure, and\nfountains, forests, brooks, and rivers of delight; that there are\nbosoms fraught with life and joy, and swelling with all the tender\nsensibilities of a pure, holy and never-ending affection.\n\nWhy, then, should his aspirations not reach forth, his mind expand,\nhis bosom swell with love, and his heart beat with the boundless,\nfathomless infinitude of thought, of feeling, and of love? Why not be\nnoble and boundless in charity, like the God whom he calls his father?\nWhy does he not rise from his groveling sphere in this small island,\nwhich floats in the ocean of space, as a small black speck, amid the\nnumberless shining orbs? The reason is obvious; it is not for the want\nof noble aspirations; it is not for the want of grand conceptions; it\nis not for the lack of will. It is because the body is chained,\nimprisoned, confined here, by the operation or attraction of\nsurrounding elements, which man has not yet discovered the means to\ncontrol. It may be said that the powers of earth enslave him, and\nchain him down, beyond the possibility or hope of escape.\n\nReader, in order to illustrate this subject try an experiment on your\nown physical and mental powers. For instance; _will_ your arm to move,\nand it will instantly obey you. _Will_ your body to go three miles,\nand it will obey you as fast as it can; perhaps in one hour it will\nhave accomplished the journey assigned to it by your will.\n\nBut tie your hand behind you, and then _will_ it to move up and down,\nforward and backward, and it will make the effort to obey you, but\ncannot, because it is confined. Chain your body in a dungeon, bolt and\nbar the door, and will it to go to a certain place, and it will not\nobey you, because it is physically incapable.\n\nUnchain this body, provide the means of conveyance at the rate of a\nmile per minute, the body, at the bidding of the _will_, will then go\nthe three miles in three minutes.\n\nNow, if it were possible to overcome the resisting elements, so as to\nincrease the speed of conveyance for your body--that is, if there were\nno resisting element to be overcome, your will might dictate, and your\nbody would move through actual space with the speed of light, or\nelectricity. There is no apparent limit to the speed attainable by the\nbody when unchained, set free from the elements which now enslave it,\nand dictated by the will.\n\n    \"The lightning on its wiry way would lag behind.\n    The sun-ray drag its slow length along.\"\n\nThis immense velocity of locomotion, as applied to a body of flesh and\nbones, or of material elements, may at first thought, strike the mind\nas being contrary to the known laws of physical motion.\n\nBut let it be recollected that the vast earth on which we dwell, with\nall its weight and bulk, its cities, animals and intelligences, moves\nthrough actual space, at the astonishing velocity of eighteen miles\nper second, one thousand and eighty miles per minute, or sixty-four\nthousand eight hundred miles per hour.\n\nIf so vast a bulk of gross, and in a great measure inanimate matter,\ncan move through space, at a rate of speed so inconceivably great, how\neasily we can conceive the probability of vastly increased powers of\nlocomotion on the part of animate bodies released from their earthly\nprison, quickened by superior and celestial element, dictated by an\nindependent, inherent principle called the will, and urged onward by\nthe promptings of the eternal, infinite mind and affections, in their\naspirations for knowledge and enjoyment.\n\nA corporeal, human body, raised from the dead, and quickened by\nelements so refined, so full of life and motion, so pure, and so free\nfrom the influences control, or attractions of more gross elements,\nwill, like the risen Jesus, ascend and descend at will, and with a\nspeed nearly instantaneous.\n\nLet us pause, and contemplate, for a moment, such a being taking leave\nof the confines of the earth, and sea, and clouds, and air, with all\ntheir dark and gloomy shadows. Behold him as he speeds his way on the\nupper deep, and launches forth in the clear and boundless expanse\nbespangled with millions of resplendent orbs.\n\nHe calculates his distance, and regulates his course by observing the\nrelative position of those most familiar to him, and soaring upwards\nstill, his bosom swells with an unutterable and overwhelming sensation\nof the infinitude of his own eternal being, and of all around, above,\nbelow him, till unable to contain his gratitude, and joy, and\nexultation, he breaks forth in the language of a celebrated British\npoet, and sings as he flies--\n\n    \"Heavens broad day hath o'er me broken,\n    Far above earth's span of sky!\n    Am I dead? Nay, by this token,\n    Know that I have ceased to die!\"\n\nPlanets will be visited, messages communicated, acquaintances and\nfriendships formed, and the sciences vastly extended and cultivated.\n\nThe science of geography will then be extended to millions of worlds,\nand will embrace a knowledge of their physical features and\nboundaries, their resources, mineral and vegetable; their rivers,\nlakes, seas, continents and islands; the attainments of their\ninhabitants in the science of government; their progress in revealed\nreligion; their employments, dress, manners, customs, &c. The science\nof astronomy will also be enlarged in proportion to the means of\nknowledge. System after system will rise to view in the vast field of\nresearch and exploration! Vast systems of suns and their attendant\nworlds, on which the eyes of Adam's race, in their rudimental sphere,\nhave never gazed, will then be contemplated, circumscribed, weighed in\nthe balance of human thought, their circumference and diameter be\nascertained, their relative distances understood. Their motions and\nrevolutions, their times and laws, their hours, days, weeks, sabbaths,\nmonths, years, jubilees, centuries, millenniums and eternities, will\nall be told in the volumes of science.\n\nThe science of history will embrace the vast \"univercoelum\" of the\npast and present. It will in its vast compilations, embrace and\ninclude all nations, all ages, and all generations; all the planetary\nsystems in all their varied progress and changes, in all their\nproductions and attributes.\n\nIt will trace our race in all its successive emigrations, colonies,\nstates, kingdoms and empires; from their first existence on the great,\ncentral, governing planet, or sun, called Kolob, until they are\nincreased without number, and widely dispersed and transplanted from\none planet to another, until, occupying the very confines of\ninfinitude, the mind of immortal, eternal man, is absorbed,\noverwhelmed, wearied with the vastness, the boundless expanse of\nhistoric fact, and compelled to return and retire within itself for\nrefreshment, rest and renewed vigour.\n\nNext in order, will be the field of prophetic science. The spirit of\nprophecy will be poured upon the immortal mind, till, from seeing in\npart, and knowing in part, man will be able to gaze upon a boundless\nprospective, a future of still increasing glory, knowledge, light,\nlove, might, majesty, power and dominion, in which the sons of God-the\nkings and priests of heaven and earth, and of the heaven of heavens,\nand all their retinue of kingdoms and subjects, will find ample room\nfor boundless increase and improvement, worlds without end. Amen.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nLAWS OF MARRIAGE AND PROCREATION.\n\n\n    Ye kindred spirits, filled with mutual love,\n    Pure as the dews descending from above,\n    All hail! for you the sacred Keys are given,\n    To make you one on earth, and one in heaven.\n    Be fruitful then, and let your race extend;\n    Fill Earth, the stars, and worlds that never end.\n\nThe great science of life consists in the knowledge of ourselves, the\nlaws of our existence, the relations we sustain to each other, to\nthings and beings around us, to our ancestry, to our posterity, to\ntime, to eternity, to our heavenly Father, and to the universe.\n\nTo understand these laws, and regulate our actions by them, is the\nwhole duty of intelligences. It should therefore comprise our whole\nstudy.\n\nThis science comprises the fountain of wisdom, the well-springs of\nlife, the boundless ocean of knowledge, the infinitude of light, and\ntruth, and love. It penetrates the depths, soars to the heights, and\ncircumscribes the broad expanse of eternity.\n\nIts pursuit leads to exaltation, glory, immortality, and to an\neternity of life, light, purity, and unity of fellowship with kindred\nspirits.\n\nTo contemplate man in his true light, we must, as it were, forget that\ndeath is in his path; we must look upon him as an eternal, ever living\nbeing, possessing spirit, flesh and bones, with all the mental and\nphysical organs, and all the affections and sympathies which\ncharacterise him in this world. Or rather, all his natural affections\nand sympathies will be purified, exalted, and immeasurably increased.\n\nLet the candidate for celestial glory forget, for a moment, the\ngroveling sphere of his present existence, and make the effort to\ncontemplate himself in the light of eternity, in the higher spheres of\nhis progressive existence, beyond the grave--a pure spirit, free from\nsin and guile, enlightened in the school of heaven, by observation and\nexperience, and association with the highest order of intelligences,\nfor thousands of years; and clothed with immortal flesh, in all the\nvigour, freshness and beauty of eternal youth; alike free from pain,\ndisease, death, and the corroding effects of time; looking back\nthrough the vista of far distant years, and contemplating his former\nsojourn amid the sorrows and pains of mortal life, his passage through\nthe dark valley of death, and his sojourn in the spirit world, as we\nnow contemplate a transient dream, or a night of sleep, from which we\nhave awakened, renewed and refreshed, to enter again upon the\nrealities of life.\n\nLet us contemplate, for a moment, such a being, clothed in the finest\nrobes of linen, pure and white, adorned with precious stones and gold;\na countenance radiant with the effulgence of light, intelligence and\nlove; a bosom glowing with all the confidence of conscious innocence\ndwelling in palaces of precious stones and gold; bathing in the\ncrystal waters of life; promenading or sitting 'neath the evergreen\nbowers and trees of Eden; inhaling the healthful breezes, perfumed\nwith odours, wafted from the roses and pinks of paradise, or assembled\nwith the countless myriads of heaven's nobility, to join in songs of\npraise and adoration to the Great Parent of every good, to tune the\nimmortal lyre in strains celestial; or move with grace immortal to the\nsoul-inspiring measure of music flowing from a thousand instruments,\nblending, in harmonious numbers, with celestial voices, in heavenly\nsong, or mingling in graceful circles with joyous thousands, immersed\nin the same spirit, and moving in unison and harmony of motion, as if\none heart, one pulse, one thrill of heavenly melody inspired the\nwhole.\n\nO candidates for celestial glory! Would your joys be full in the\ncountless years of eternity without forming the connexions, the\nrelationship, the kindred ties which concentrate in the domestic\ncircle, and branch forth, and bud and blossom, and bear the fruits of\neternal increase?\n\nWould that eternal emotion of charity and benevolence which swells\nyour bosoms be satisfied to enjoy in, \"single blessedness,\" without an\nincrease of posterity, those exhaustless stores of never-ending riches\nand enjoyments? Or, would you, like your heavenly Father, prompted by\neternal benevolence and charity, wish to fill countless millions of\nworlds, with your begotten sons and daughters, and to bring them\nthrough all the gradations of progressive being, to inherit immortal\nbodies, and eternal mansions in your several dominions?\n\nIf such be your aspirations, remember that this present probation is\nthe world of preparation for joys eternal. This is the place where\nfamily organization is first formed for eternity; and where the\nkindred sympathies, relationships, and affections take root, spring\nforth, shoot upward, bud, blossom, and bear fruit to ripen and mature\nin eternal ages.\n\n_Here_, in the holy temples and sanctuaries of our God, must the\neverlasting covenants be revealed, ratified, sealed, bound and\nrecorded in the holy records, and guarded and preserved in the\narchives of God's kingdom, by those who hold the keys of eternal\nApostleship, who have power to bind on earth that which shall be bound\nin heaven, and to record on earth that which shall be recorded in the\narchives of heaven, in the Lamb's book of life.\n\n_Here_, in the holy sanctuary, must be revealed, ordained and anointed\nthe kings and queens of eternity.\n\nAll vows, covenants, contracts, marriages, of unions, not formed by\nrevelation, and sealed for time and all eternity, and recorded in the\nholy archives of earth and heaven, by the ministration of the holy and\neternal Priesthood, will be dissolved by death, and will not be\nrecognised by the eternal authorities, after the parties have entered\nthrough the vail into the eternal world.\n\nThis is heaven's eternal law, as revealed to the ancients of all ages,\nwho held the keys of eternal priesthood, after the order of the Son of\nGod; and, as restored with the priesthood of the Saints of this age.\n\nAgain, it was a law of the ancient Priesthood, and is again restored,\nthat a man who is faithful in all things, may, by the word of the\nLord, through the administration of one holding the keys to bind on\nearth and heaven, receive and secure to himself, for time and all\neternity, MORE THAN ONE WIFE.\n\nThus did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Patriarchs and Prophets of\nold.\n\nThe principal object contemplated by this law, is the multiplication\nof the children of good and worthy fathers, who will teach them the\ntruth, and train them in the holy principles of salvation. This is far\npreferable to sending them into the world in the lineage of an\nunworthy or ignorant parentage, to be educated in error, folly,\nignorance and crime.\n\nThe peculiar characteristics of the blessings included in the\nEverlasting Covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their\nlineage, was the multiplicity of their seed; and the perpetuity of the\nroyal, priestly and kingly power in their lineage.\n\nTo assist in carrying out and fulfilling this covenant, good and\nvirtuous women were given to their faithful Prophets, rulers, and wise\nand virtuous men; and, as it was said of the four wives of Jacob,\n\"_These did build the house of Israel_.\"\n\nWhile peculiar blessings and encouragements were given to a good and\nfaithful man, and to his wives and children; while they were honoured\nof God, and respected by all who knew them; while the father of a\nhundred children was had in greater honour than the hero of a hundred\nbattles, adultery, fornication, and all unlawful intercourse was\nstrictly prohibited, and even punished by the strictest laws--the\npenalty of which was death.\n\nA daughter of Israel, who, by prostitution, was rendered unworthy, or\nunqualified for the duties of a virtuous wife and mother, was\nconsidered unfit to live. While the male who would thus trifle with\nthe fountain of life, and contribute to render a female unworthy to\nanswer the end of her creation, was also condemned to death.\n\nStrict laws were also given and diligently taught to both sexes,\nregulating the intercourse between husband and wife. All intercourse\npeculiar to the sexes was strictly prohibited at certain seasons which\nwere untimely. Nor were the bonds of wedlock and shield from\ncondemnation, where the parties, by untimely union, excess, or\nvoluntary act, prevented propagation, or injured the life or health of\nthemselves or their offspring.\n\nThe object of the union of the sexes is the propagation of their\nspecies, or procreation; also for mutual affection, and the\ncultivation of those eternal principles of never-ending charity and\nbenevolence, which are inspired by the Eternal Spirit; also for mutual\ncomfort and assistance in this world of toil and sorrow, and for\nmutual duties towards their offspring.\n\nMarriage, and its duties, are therefore, not a mere matter of choice,\nor of convenience, or of pleasure to the parties; but to marry and\nmultiply is a positive command of Almighty God, binding on all persons\nof both sexes, who are circumstanced and conditioned to fulfil the\nsame. To marry, propagate our species, do our duty to them, and to\neducate them in the light of truth, are among the chief objects of our\nexistence on the earth. To neglect these duties, is to fail to answer\nthe end of our creation, and is a a very great sin.\n\nWhile to pervert our natures, and to prostitute ourselves, and our\nstrength to mere pleasures, or to unlawful communion of the sexes, is\nalike subversive of health, of pure, holy and lasting affection; of\nmoral and social order; and of the laws of God and nature.\n\nIf we except murder, there is scarcely a more damning sin on the earth\nthan the prostitution of female virtue or chastity at the shrine of\npleasure, or brutal lust; or that promiscuous and lawless intercourse\nwhich chills and corrodes the heart, perverts and destroys the pure\naffections, cankers and destroys, as it were, the well-springs, the\nfountains, or issues of life.\n\nA man who obeys the ordinances of God, and is without blemish or\ndeformity, who has sound health and mature age, and enjoys liberty and\naccess to the elements of life; is designed to be the head of a woman,\na father, and a guide of the weaker sex, and of those of tender age,\nto mansions of eternal life and salvation.\n\nA woman, under similar circumstances, is designed to be the glory of\nsome man in the Lord; to be led and governed by him, as her head in\nall things, even as Christ is the head of the man; to honour, obey,\nlove, serve, comfort and help him in all things; to be a happy wife,\nand if blessed with offspring, a faithful and affectionate mother,\ndevoting her life to the joys, cares and duties of her domestic\nsphere.\n\nIt frequently happens, in the course of human events, that there is,\nin a community, a majority of females. In such cases, human laws have\nno right to interfere with the divine eternal laws of nature, or of\nnature's God, by suffering females to be prostituted to minister to\nthe wanton pleasures of the lawless, to become the unlawful,\ndishonoured mistress, the illegitimate mother, or the wretched outcast\nof shame, disease and crime. Nor yet, on the other hand, have human\nlaws the right to doom a portion of heaven's fair daughters, to single\nwretchedness, loneliness and gloom, without the lawful privilege of\nbecoming honoured wives and mothers.\n\nA wise legislation, or the law of God, would punish, with just\nseverity, the crimes of adultery or fornication, and would not suffer\nthe idiot, the confirmed, irreclaimable drunkard, the man of\nhereditary disease, or of vicious habits, to possess or retain a wife;\nwhile, at the same time, it would provide for a good and capable\nman, to honourably receive and maintain more wives than one. Indeed, it\nshould be the privilege of every virtuous female, who has the\nrequisite capacity and qualifications for matrimony; to demand either\nof individuals or government, the privilege of becoming an honoured\nand legal wife and mother; even if it were necessary for her to be\nmarried to a man who has several wives; or, as Jesus said in the\nparable, to take the one talent from the place where it remains\nneglected or unimproved, and give it to him who has ten talents.\n\nThe false and corrupt institutions, and still more corrupt practices\nof \"_Christendom_\" have had a downward tendency in the generations of\nman for many centuries. Our physical organization, health, vigour,\nstrength of body, intellectual faculties, inclinations, &c., are\ninfluenced very much by parentage. Hereditary disease, idiocy,\nweakness of mind, or of constitution, deformity, tendency to violent\nand ungovernable passions, vicious appetites and desires, are\nengendered by parents; and are bequeathed as a heritage from\ngeneration to generation. Man becomes a murderer, a thief, an\nadulterer, a drunkard, a lover of tobacco, opium, or other nauseous or\npoisonous drugs, by means of the predisposition, and inclinations\nengendered by parentage.\n\nThe people before the flood, and also the Sodomites and Canaanites,\nhad carried these corruptions and degeneracies so far, that God, in\nmercy, destroyed them, and thus put an end to the procreation of races\nso degenerate and abominable; while Noah, Abraham, Melchesidech, and\nothers, who were taught in the true laws of procreation, \"_were\nperfect in their generation_,\" and trained their children in the same\nlaws.\n\nThe overthrow of those ancient degenerate races is a type of that\nwhich now awaits the nations called \"_Christian_,\" or in other words,\n_The great whore of all the earth, for her sins have reached unto\nheaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities_.\n\nWhere is the nation called \"_Christian_,\" that does not uphold or\npermit prostitution, fornication and adultery with all their debasing,\ndemoralizing, degenerating and corroding effects, with all their\ntendencies to disease and crime, to operate unchecked, and to leaven\nand corrode all classes of society?\n\nWhere is the \"_Christian nation_\" that does not prohibit the law of\nGod, as given to Abraham and the ancients in relation to marriage?\n\nWhere is the \"_Christian nation_\" that punishes the crime of adultery\nand fornication with death, or other heavy penalties?\n\nWhere are the institutions which prohibit the marriage of all persons\ndisqualified by nature, or by vicious habits and practices, to answer\nthe ends of an institution so holy and pure?\n\nWhere are the institutions which would protect, encourage, and honour\nthe patriarch Jacob, with his four wives and their children?\n\nWhere is the community who would feel themselves honoured in\nassociating with such a family--although, all corrupt practices would\nbe frowned down, and all persons discountenanced, who, under the name\nof gentility, nobility, or royalty, glory in their conquests and\nvictories over the principles and practices of virtue and innocence?\n\nEcho answers, Where?--unless we look to the far off mountains and\ndistant vales of Deseret, a land peopled by the Latter-day Saints, and\ngoverned by the law of God, the keys of the eternal Priesthood, and\norganized in the New and Everlasting Covenant.\n\nAmid these eternal mountains shall be reared the holy temple of our\nGod, and all nations shall flow unto it, in order to be taught in His\nways, and to walk in His paths, for out of Zion has gone forth the\nlaw, as predicted by the Prophet Isaiah.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: See the law of God on Marriage, revealed for the\ngovernment of the Saints. First published at Great Salt City, Deseret,\n1852.]\n\nBy this law those distant communities live. There the patriarch of a\nhundred children is had in reverence and honour. His virtuous and\nhonourable wives are considered as mothers in Israel, the daughters of\nAbraham and Sarah, and worthy to be numbered with the holy women of\nold. And there the daughters of Israel are not prostituted with\nimpunity. There, the crimes of adultery and fornication are seldom\nmentioned, or known to exist. There, no virtuous female is doomed by\nlaw, or custom, to drag out a useless life in the loneliness of the\ncloister; the monotonous and sinful pleasures of the Harem; the haunts\nof vice and crime; or in the lonely and heartrending gloom and\nsolitude of a single life.\n\nThere, in the holy chambers of the sanctuary, are revealed and\nministered those sacred ordinances, covenants, and sealings, which lay\nthe foundation of kindred sympathies, associations, and family ties,\nindissoluble and eternal. Ties which are stronger than death, more\ndurable than the ramparts of their snow-clad mountains, and which will\nnever be dissolved--\n\n    \"While life, or thought, or being lasts;\n    Or immortality endures.\"\n\nThe restoration of these pure laws and practices has commenced to\nimprove or regenerate a race. A holy and temperate life; pure morals\nand manners; faith, hope, charity; cheerfulness, gentleness,\nintegrity; intellectual development, pure truth, and knowledge; and\nabove all, the operations of the Divine Spirit, will produce a race\nmore beautiful in form and features, stronger, and more vigorous in\nconstitution, happier in temperament and disposition, more\nintellectual, less vicious, and better prepared for long life and good\ndays in their mortal sojourn.\n\nEach succeeding generation, governed by the same principles, will\nstill improve, till male and female may live and multiply for a\nhundred years upon the earth---\n\n    \"And after death in distant spheres,\n    The union still renew.\"\n\nThe eternal union of the sexes, in and after the resurrection, is\nmainly for the purpose of renewing and continuing the work of\nprocreation. In our present or rudimental state, our offspring are in\nour own image, and partake of our natures, in which are the seeds of\ndeath. In like manner, will the offspring of immortal and celestial\nbeings, be in the likeness and partake of the nature of their divine\nparentage. Hence, such offspring will be pure, holy, incorruptible and\neternal. They will in no wise be subject unto death, except by\ndescending to partake of the grosser elements, in which are the\ninherent properties of dissolution or death.\n\nTo descend thus, and to be made subject to sorrow, pain and death, is\nthe only road to the resurrection, and to the higher degrees of\nimmortality and eternal life. It is by contrast that intelligences\nappreciate and enjoy. How shall the sweet be known without the bitter?\nHow shall joy be appreciated without sorrow? Or, how shall life be\nvalued, or its eternal duration appreciated without a contact with its\nmortal antagonist--death?\n\nHence, the highest degrees of eternal felicity are approached by the\nstraight gate, and the narrow path which leads through the dark valley\nof death, to eternal mansions in the realms of endless life. This path\nhas been trodden by the eternal Father, by His son Jesus Christ,--and\nby all the sons and daughters of God, who are exalted to a fulness of\njoys celestial.\n\nAs has been before remarked, the union of the sexes, in the eternal\nworld, in the holy covenant of celestial matrimony, is peculiar to the\nordinances and ministrations of the Apostleship, or Priesthood after\nthe order of the Son of God, or after the order of Melchisedec. The\nAaronic Priesthood, or the institutions peculiar to the law of Moses,\nseemed to have recognized no such ordinances or eternal covenants,\nhence, the Jewish ordinances of matrimony come to end by death.\n\nNor did the sects of the Pharisees, Sadducees, or others of that\nnation, conceive of anything more lasting than this life, in the\ncovenants of matrimony. Hence, the Son of God, in answer to the\nSadducees, referred to the order of the angels, in the resurrection,\ninstead of the order of the gods.\n\nBut, the Apostles, holding the keys of the eternal mysteries of God's\nkingdom, to seal both on earth and in heaven, understood and\ntestified, that, \"The man is not without the woman, nor the woman\nwithout the man in the Lord.\"\n\nAll persons who attain to the resurrection, and to salvation, without\nthese eternal ordinances, or sealing covenants, will remain in a\n_single state_, in their saved condition, to all eternity, without the\njoys of eternal union with the other sex, and consequently without a\ncrown, without a kingdom, without the power to increase.\n\nHence, they are angels, and are not gods; and are ministering spirits,\nor servants, in the employ and under the direction of THE ROYAL FAMILY\nOF HEAVEN--THE PRINCES, KINGS, AND PRIESTS OF ETERNITY.\n\n\n\n\nERRATA.\n\nPage 13, first line, _for_ \"One thousand eight hundred and fifty one,\"\n_read_ One thousand eight hundred and fifty three.\n\n \"  116, last line, _for_ \"here,\" _read_ there.","title":"Key to the Science of Theology","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":39646}